The first answer is “noisy”. The room that I’m in for the first 10 days is right next to the bathroom, the head of the stairs, the lounge and the kitchen. And furthermore, the outlet for the sink and the dishwasher (yes, we have a dishwasher) is behind a wall right at the head of the bed. Consequently, you can hear everything.
And there’s a rock concert on this weekend down the road at Werchter and there are quite a few people staying here who are visiting it. And when they come back the whole building knows about it.
It’s tired too, and so is the decor and furniture, and the tenants don’t do very much to help keep it clean and tidy – neither do they wash up after themselves in the main. As a result, the place might be clean at 10:00 but by 10:30 it isn’t, and it goes downhill from there.
But as for the breakfast, you just go in when you please and help yourself to as much as you want – I’m on the muesli, toast, jam, coffee and orange juice and plenty of it – and everything is topped up ready for the next day. The bathroom is clean and tidy and well-appointed, and my little sofa is really nice. While the mattress in my room here might have likewise seen better days, it’s a huge advance on the last place and once everyone had settled down for the night, I was well away and it was lovely.
And I was well-away too. I had a green car – it might have been an early Ford Cortina mark 111 estate – and my brother was thinking of painting it, helped by my father. I told them to not even imagine doing it if the masking off was anything less than perfect, but at that moment I had a huge load of concrete delivered and I needed to deal with it. First shovel stuck in it and I broke the handle in two – that led to me storming off in a sulk and that was that.
But it goes to show you what a decent bed can do.
But going back to my place, you really can’t believe this, that I’ve done it again. In North America I usually end up camping by a railway line and have sirens and hooters going off all over the place because I’ve forgotten to check the surroundings. Here in Europe, it’s churches. And there’s a church just across the road of which bells start up at 07:00 – so that was that for a lie-in.
But all in all, it’s less than €26 per night and I’m well-pleased with everything at that price.
What was even more exciting was that I had someone coming bursting into my room this morning by mistake – she’s in the same room as this but downstairs. I wouldn’t have minded so much except that I was just putting on my underpants and … errr … adjusting my dress.
After breakfast I tidied up in here and got everything shipshape as if I intend to be here a while – start as you mean to finish and that’s not like me, is it?
I Went into town (not that it’s very far) at 12:00 to buy the food for lunch for the next few days and to pick up some olives from the market. And I was halfway down the road when the heavens opened and I got the lot. To make matters worse, when I was at the olive stall, the assistant decided to shake the roof to clear off the water that was collecting on the top. And you can guess where the water went, can’t you? I got the lot.
This afternoon I’ve been on the blog again – it’s a slow procedure right now – and then went out to buy my curry. I’m not sure what I had now because I can’t remember but it had chick peas in it and it nearly blew my wig off.
Now, I’m going to have a quiet evening and then have an early night in my comfortable bed. I started to watch a film last night and fell asleep halfway through it. I’ll try to watch the rest tonight.
