… last night was one of the best night’s sleeps that I have ever had and I’ve no idea why.

It was actually light when I awoke, which was no surprise seeing as it was already 08:40.

From my window here on the fifth floor I can see the railway station down below and there was an AM 80 multiple unit just pulling into one of the platforms.

In the background is another multiple unit covered in some awful and appalling graffiti. I can’t see what type of multiple unit it is and I really don’t understand why some people think that it’s clever to g round making a mess like this.

Anyway, I had my medication and then turned my attention to the dictaphone to see where I’d been visiting during the night.

While you admire a photo of the local bus station, a dreadful modern insult to the fine old Flemish architecture across the road, I was flying to Repulse Bay to join a trip with Adventure Canada so I set out to walk. I ended up having a huge walk around the countryside in the winter snow and at one point standing on a hill somewhere I could see right across through into the mountains, the Alps. I assumed that it was the alps because it looked so spectacular covered in snow, everything like that. As I walked on towards home there was a row of terraced houses. My friend and his sister who had been appearing in my voyages just recently lived in one of them. As I was walking past, he came out, got into his car with his girlfriend and drove away. I was quite happily singing to myself and out of the corner of my eye I could see a face peering around the corner of the upstairs curtain to have a look down. I thought that it would be just a momentary glance but I noticed that the face was watching me all the way up to my front door and into the house so there was no doubt that she knew exactly who I was.
Later on I was in northern France or Flanders somewhere with Caliburn. I’d been visiting some people and ended up puttign a new rear axle into Caliburn. I had to go to see Hans but it had taken me so long to do this axle that by now it was starting to go dark. I set off and as I came to a bridge or junction a group of motorcyclists made a few gestures to me and I suddenly realised that there was a police trap at the road junction. I put my seat belt on and went there. They had a good look around Caliburn, even making sure that all of the air popes for pollution were correct. He didn’t like one of the windscreen wipers but I explained that the controle technique was due soon and the guy who gave it a service would say something about it. In the end they checked my papers as usual and waved me on my way. By now Caliburn had transformed himself into a scooter and I was pushing myself along with my foot. This was making my back ache and ache and I thought that at this rate I would never get to Hans’s place, never mind come back with a back like I was getting with all of this work on this scooter.
Sometime even later I’d been in Belgium visiting people and trailing a few interesting things about wartime. I’d ended up in this village and one of the guys there was telling me a story about how there had been some hero in some local village who had led a group of resistance and saboteurs against the Germans. He’d been shot for his pains and these other people who were there. We were trying to find out more about this guy, where he’d been buried and so on. I was explaining to these other people that if they were going to make a film of this guy it would be interesting and they should join in the hunt for his grave. But they weren’t all that keen and drove away. I ended up chatting to I dunno the mayor of this village who in the end told me where his grave was and how to get there. I had one or two things to do first, that meant going out of the village. Coming back I ended up on the wrong side of the river and had to walk along the river bank. I came to a cemetery that was right on the water’s edge and I thought that I bet there was going to be bodies washed out of here by the river so I had to ford the river which was cold and there were shoes everywhere in the river. I walked back down the hill – it was pitch dark by this time and ended up back in the centre of this village where there were all these children dressed up in religious clothing carrying banners. It was quite dark now and it looked as if there was going to be some religious torchlit parade so I thought that this grave will have to wait for daylight now. I was going to loiter around and photograph this parade.

Having dealt with all of that, you can look at a few more modern monstrosities and I’ll make a start on choosing the music for the next four radio programmes.

With me being stuck here in Leuven without anything going on and not being in any condition these days to go and find it, I’m making the most of my time here by doing some work on my radio shows.

With four shows, I have to choose four lots of ten songs. It’s not as easy as it sounds because I have to make surehat I’m not playing the same artists too frequently, and that the total length of the 10 songs is no more than about 49 minutes.

The speech that I do runs out to about 7.5 minutes and the remainder of the one-hour programme is taken up by the final song that closes the programme.

Once the music has been selected, I then have to remix it and set the volume levels so that they are all equal.

By the time that I was ready make my butties and leave for the hospital I’d almost completed two of them

Down in the Bondgenotenlaan I walked past the building where Wibra used to be.

That shop had moved elsewhere quite a few years ago now and the building had been gutted. Since then, in typical Belgian fashion, work has continued along at a pace that would have embarrassed a family of snails.

This of course isn’t the usual way that I go to the hospital so I was keeping an eye open for other things of any importance, but there was nothing that I could see that was unusual or noteworthy.

And so instead I carried on down towards the city centre

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that recently there has been some kind of fitness centre in the square – a couple of stationary bicycles.

They seem to have been moved now, and instead we have some kind of display featuring diversity.

Diversity is of course a wonderful thing but it’s not really the kind of exhibition to display opposite the old town hall to which access to the main entrance is only gained by going up two flights of about 25 steps.

And with all of these very ephemeral exhibitions springing up in the Grote Markt, I wonder what we’ll be seeing the next time that we come here.

From the Grote Martk I pushed on down the hill towards the bridge over the River Dijle.

A few months ago we saw them working on the piece of ground that was on the corner of the Brusselsestraat, the Amerikalaan and the Franz Thielemanslaan.

The work now is actually finished, which is quite a surprise, and it looks quite nice too, although I would have preferred to have seen some other centrepiece than a waste paper bin.

The greenery is looking quite strange. Not that I know anything about greenery and vegetation of course but this doesn’t look particularly well-maintained.

Down the street I continued until I reached the site where the Sint Pieter’s Hospital used to be

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that at the rear of where they have installed the velodrome, they were erecting some kind of hardstanding.

Today, as I was walking past, they were erecting a marquee and some kind of wooden framework that had strings of lights attached. It looks as if there is going to be some kind of event going on here over the course of the next few days.

But the potted palms that we had seen last time that we were here are still in place. And so this event has the air of being something tropical, but they could have chosen some better surroundings for it.

But at least I now know where the stationary cycles have now been installed. They are here at the velodrome.

Last time, I mentioned that there is going to be some kind of cycling race taking place in Leuven. Apparently, it’s this weekend, and that will explain why I wasn’t able to find a room to let at my usual accommodation, with all of these cyclists being here.

There’s also some kind of world record attempt taking place, although I’ve no idea what that might be.

So this weekend there is going to be total chaos in and around the city, and so I’m glad that I’m going home early on Saturday morning.

Elsewhere on the site, there are some signs that the ground improvements are slowly advancing.

By the looks of things, several lorry-loads of earth have turned up quite recently, presumably ready for them to start the earthworks and redevelopments in early course.

In the background, the demolition work of the old building there doesn’t seem to have advanced all that much. I’m not sure how much of that buildig is actually going to be removed but they need to get a move on if they want to progress.

In the middle ground, the old medieval tower still has its scaffolding and roof, but it now seems to have grown a green nylon netting around it to protect it from damage.

Further on and down the street I went around the corner into the Kruisstraat.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall the installation of the new cycle racks outside the rather derelict Sint Jakobs Church, and I expressed surprise that that would be installing them there because I didn’t reckon that they would have much use.

And it seems that I was right too, because even now that the racks have been there for several months, you can see just how much demand there is for cycle racks at that particular situation.

The walk up to the hospital was another nightmare in the searing heat that we were having this afternoon. I had to stop a total of four times to catch my breath and I was in agony by the time that I arrived at the hospital.

The nurse who stuck my catheter in my shoulder was formerly a midwife and if she delivered babies the same way that she put the catheter in, I’m surprised that there are so many healthy babies in Belgium

We went through all of the procedures as usual and my blood count is down yet again – to 9.0 this time. And this is despite 5 injections of Aranesp. This is causing them some concern because the Aranesp is the treatment of the last resort and should normally give some improvement.

And that explains why I’m feeling so lousy these days.

Anyway, next time that I’m back they are going to give me “further tests” – assuming that I’ll still be here next time.

While I was there waiting for the perfusion to finish, which seemed to be for ages this time, I finished off choosing and editing all of the music for the next few programmes

On the way home I went down to the bottom of the hill to have a look at the building site in the Kapucijnenvoer.

There’s quite a large surface area for them to cover on that site but even so, they seem to be moving along fairly rapidly with the subterranearn part of the work. There’s been quite some progress since the last time that we looked.

But judging by the thickness of the outer walls and the substantial nature of the construction, it’s going to be quite a large, tall building although from what I can see, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of car parking facilities for a building the size that I am expecting to see.

There’s another building site that is under construction in the Kapucijnenvoer, closer down to the Brusselsestraat.

This work here has been progressing quite rapidly and now they are up to three floors, and it doesn’t look as if they are going to go any higher with the construction.

Presumably they are going to be cladding the building with something. Brickwork would look quite nice but these days, they don’t seem to go in that direction and choose something cheaper instead, no matter how sad it might look in 10 years time.

And I feel sorry, as I have said before, for the people living in that beautiful little house in the Zongang who have now ended up with this building right outside their front door.

The walk through the town was quite depressing too. The walk out to the hospital had worn me out and the perfusion that I had has tired me out even more. And the heat is pretty unbearable as well, that makes life even more difficult.

The quickest way home is down the Diestsestraat past all of the cheaper shops in the lower end of town.

There has been some building work going on down there as well and when I walked past I could see that the work hasn’t advanced all that much despite all of the time that they have been doing it.

It’s not as if this kind of building work takes a long time. These large brick blocks can be thrown together quite quickly and the roof trusses come prefabricated these days so it’s more of an assembly job than a construction job.

A little further on I came across another set of building works

This small block of flats is being renovated and it looks as if they are going to be installing new windows in it Next door but one, there has been a building demolished and they are presumably going to to be building a new building on the site

The building next to it looks rather precarious and it’s being held up by a form of metal bracing to stop it falling over

Just down the road is one of these multiple-store pizza chains and it was advertising a vegan pizza. I wanted to have something for tea and so that sounded like a good plan

So while I had the setting sun shining through my hotel window, I sat and ate my pizza, which was delicious, although rather overpriced.

By the time that I’d finished it I was totally and completely exhausted. It was only about 20:45 but I’ve done 123% of my day’s activity in this heat and I’m too tired to care. I went to bed really early.

It’ll do me good to have a really decent night’s sleep, especially if tonight’s sleep will be as good as last night’s.

Tomorrow I don’t have much to do except to write up my notes. And in the evening I’m off for an evening out with Alison. Another decent night’s sleep after that and I’ll be ready for my early start on Saturday to go back home.