… after many vicissitudes.
The first issue was going to the tip to dump the rubbish. Much to everyone’s surprise the tip was open today but the guy took one look at the stuff that we had and told us that we couldn’t tip it there. He sent us on somewhere else instead – not too far away, and that was a commercial dumping facility where we had to pay a … errr … significant amount to use their facilities. even more depressing, it was open from 06:00 until 17:30 and so had we been told about it yesterday we could have done it then and there without messing around this morning.
Next port of call was to my solicitor’s where I gave him the deeds to this apartment so that I won’t lose or mislay them – after all, anything is possible around here – and then I needed to go to the bank for a new bank card – regular followers of this drivel will recall the cash machine in Labrador City swallowing the old one back in October.
Hunting for tiles was the next major issue and that didn’t work out. The big place where they have all the ends of range tiles had nothing suitable at a price that we could afford to pay and we ran out of time to go anywhere else. And so to IKEA where we lunched and did some shopping.
Brico turned up a nice floor for the third bedroom but Terry and Liz didn’t take much notice. They are still recovering from the shock of seeing a tub of Dulux ceiling paint on sale for €115. I did warn them about the cost of living in Brussels but that kind of price is verging on the ludicrous, never mind the ridiculous.
On the way home, picking our way through the traffic and travelling down the back streets we came across a Moroccan tile warehouse with a very amiable proprietor who had plenty of time to spare for us, which makes a pleasant change here in Brussels. We only really went in to shelter from the rush-hour traffic and yet we came away with all of the tiles for the bathroom and the balcony, and at a most reasonable price to boot (although at this stage we haven’t yet examined them closely so our opinion might change yet about this). And so tomorrow we’ll carry on working and see how far we can progress.
Sunday is of course a day of rest.
