… all nice and safe and sound back in Brussels yet again.
The morning was spent organising Caliburn and making a flask of coffee for the road. Caliburn runs on diesel as you know, but my intake of coffee must rival his fuel consumption.
And after lunch, I headed into Pionsat where I needed to arrange a few things before leaving. And then it was Damien’s funeral.
The first thing that stuck in my mind about it was “never mind standing room only, there were people standing outside”.
Packed to the rafters was the church, such was his popularity. And after the service, which took quite a while, the crowd heaved its way up to the cemetery. I’ve never been to a French funeral before and so it was all a new experience to me, but anyway once the crowd had gathered we all filed past the coffin one after another to pay our final respects. The more religious people made a sign of the cross and sprinkled holy water over the coffin while the laity such as Yours Truly simply made their peace with him. Then everyone left the cemetery except for the family and close friends who stayed behind for the interment.
It was at 17:22 when I left Pionsat and at 02:22, exactly to the minute 9 hours of driving, I was in Brussels. And that includes a fuel stop and stopping for some chips and salad. I averaged 83kph for the whole journey which was quite impressive seeing the roads that I use.
And you can tell that after much time and plenty of trial and tribulation, I have found out how to work the statistics function of the SatNav. And aren’t I in my element now?
