Tag Archives: crash out

Wednesday 27th July 2016 – WELL, I HAD …

… a pretty miserable night last night. Not as bad as some, I must admit, but I was still awake at 02:00, again at 04:00 and yet again at 06:00. And from there I dozed off into a beautiful, deep and comfortable sleep only to be awoken by the nursing staff at about 07:30. That was just so depressing

After breakfast, Doctor Hermione came to see me. The blood test that I had this morning shows that my blood count has gone down again. Not by a great deal apparently, but I really did think that I was starting to leave all of these problems behind me.

On top of that, the proteins are off again and my urine is jam-packed with them. No wonder my legs have started swelling again. It seems that they are starting to become concerned about this and they will in early course be involving the kidney department.

The infection that I have seems to be going down slowly although you wouldn’t think so given how I’m coughing and how my head is streaming.

All in all, the news is not so good and I’m becoming rather depressed by all of this. It’s not working out at all how I was hoping that it might.

To cheer myself up, I had a shower this morning. That made me feel a little (but not much) better. And then I went for my hour out of my room to the CAT scan, having been pumped up with about a litre of some kind of disgusting drink that is a “contrast” fluid to highlight what’s going on inside me for the benefit of the people interpreting the photos. They had a “Toshiba” scanner and I asked the man in charge. He told me that it was rubbish and they had only bought it on the insistence of a doctor there. If he had anything to do with anything, he would dump it and buy a Siemens – the hospital is big on Siemens stuff. We talked about the equipment of General Electric, one of my former employers, and he agreed that they were pretty good too.

One thing of note is that I explained that I didn’t speak Flemish too well. He replied “no problem” and pressed a switch on the dashboard that changed the automatic instructions to English. Could you imagine that in an British hospital – changing the default language to a foreign language to suit the patient. Britain First and the rest of its racist mates would have apoplexy, but it just goes to show how insular and narrow-minded most British people are.

So having had a nice little hour or so out, and a good chat, I came back here for lunch. And to my surprise, I managed to eat a good lunch too. Rice with string beans, spinach and leeks. First time that I’ve had a decent hot meal for well over a week.

This afternoon, I crashed out good and proper which is no surprise. What was a surprise is how hard the girl from Social Services found it to awaken me. It seems that Hermione the Doctor has been asking her about my living arrangements and so she came to interrogate me. I know that they are far from ideal but I really don’t have too many other options. I’m as dissatisfied as anyone else about them.

It’s still quite early at the moment but I don’t care. The bad night last night hasn’t done me much good at all and so I’m going to try to have an early night. I bet that I’ll drop off into a beautiful, deep sleep only to be awoken by some nurse wanting to take my temperature or something.

That’s not as bad as what happened to me when I was in hospital in 2003, where a nurse awoke me to make me take my sleeping pill.

I’m still trying to work that one out.

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Tuesday 26th July 2016 – “OHHH MR HALL!”

“It’s so difficult to treat you. First it’s one thing, and then it’s something else!”.

Inspiring words from Hermione the Doctor this morning when she came to see me. And it’s no surprise because after being in here something like half a day, my feet and legs have swollen up again. We had a very lengthy chat about how I was feeling and I told her everything that I thought she might like to know. The result of this is that I’m going to be in here for a bit, I reckon, while they try to work out what to do next.

“Next” is definitely a CAT scan. That’s organised for tomorrow apparently, and they are going to give my chest and lungs a right going-over. But as I have said before, this kind of thing is just a peripheral issue. Mind you, with my blood count having stabilised over the last 5 or 6 weeks, I suppose that there are grounds for cautious optimism.

I eventually drifted off to a real sleep at about 02:00 this morning. There were no church bells, no alarms, no nothing at all and so consequently I awoke at 07:00 precisely. Dunno if I went anywhere but if I did I certainly remember nothing about it.

I managed some breakfast too. I didn’t enjoy it all that much but I do have to eat whenever I can. This intravenous drip stuff is not the answer to everything. And later on, after Hermione had been and gone, the dietician put in an appearance and we had a good chat again about my diet.

Lunch was disgusting. Well, I suppose that it wasn’t but I was in no mood for it. The vegetable soup tasted of nothing but salt and I couldn’t even stomach the thought of the mashed potatoes and chili beans. That was a washout.

After lunch, I crashed out a couple of times – once while I was riding the porcelain horse and the second time lying on the bed, when I promptly fell off.

There was a nice surprise this afternoon. Alison was here in the hospital, and she came for a chat when she had finished whatever she was doing. And here we conjured up a cunning plan. Alison volunteered to go down into town and my little room to bring me a pile of stuff that I might need if I’m staying for a while.

Alison didn’t just bring me my stuff, she also came with a packet of soya dessert and a supply of fruit. Consequently, as you might expect, for my tea tonight the hospital supplied me with soya dessert and fruit salad.

The nurse took my temperature on several occasions during the day and that slowly went down with the passage of time. We started off with 37.7°C and by evening it was 36.9°C.

I’m now going to have an early night if I can. My room-mate likes his television (so Alison fetched the headphones for my laptop) and while he’s not the worst room-mate that I’ve had from a snoring point of view, he’s not the best either. But then I can’t expect too much.

But it was really nice of Alison to fetch my stuff for me. I appreciated that very much.

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Sunday 24th July 2016 – BLASTED CHURCH BELLS!

Yes, there I was, or rather, there I wasn’t. I was miles away, deep in the arms of Morpheus, when we had the 07:00 cacophony. On a flaming Sunday too, in a church that hasn’t been used for worship since 1968.

I was absolutely drenched in sweat too, rather like the Bohemian monk of the old story, and I’d been so far away on my travels that maybe it was a good idea that the church bells had rung because I couldn’t see how I would have been able to come back. I’d started off with the famous victory of Morton yesterday over Kilmarnock. Having released over half a team and signed no-one to replace them, they were playing away, with a team packed full of youth players, against a team from the Scottish Premier League and to everyone’s surprise, won 2-0 and at something of a canter too apparently. Of course, the after-match celebrations played a big part in whatever was going on through the night, and from there I went for a walk up the hill near to wherever I was living to look at the old fortifications and industrial buildings that were there.My route then took me into the village at the top of the hill where they were advertising the village fête. I had a wander around the village, looking for a couple of girls whom I knew because I was hoping to organise some kind of vehicle rally. However I couldn’t find these girls – it looked as if they were otherwise engaged and I was going to end up doing all of the work myself.

But despite the early start, I was in no hurry to leave my stinking pit. Breakfast these days isn’t until 10:00 and so I just lay vegetating in bed for quite a while, relaxing. So much so in fact that I ended up being … errr … rather later than 10:00 when I went for breakfast and so in order to avoid any complication, I fetched my breakfast down here and ate it in my room.

But I’ve had another miserable day. Coughing and spluttering all day, with a streaming head cold that just won’t subside and I’m feeling like death. So much so that by 17:00 I was back in bed crashing out. I just didn’t know what else to do.

Later on, I managed to stagger out for a pizza. Not that I was particularly hungry and I didn’t enjoy it either but I had a feeling that if I didn’t make it out tonight and eat something, I wouldn’t make it out of the door tomorrow and of course it’s hospital day tomorrow.

So now, even though it’s early, I’m going back to bed where I intend to sleep for ever and I don’t care at all even if I do.

I am just thoroughly fed up, thoroughly washed out, and thoroughly depressed. Apart from recovering from my operation at the end of January I don’t think that I’ve ever felt so bad as this.

I just want to die.

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Thursday 21st July 2016 – SO HAVING CRASHED OUT …

… in mid-afternoon yesterday, the next thing that I remember was it being 08:00 the following morning. That’s a night’s sleep of … errr … 16 hours and it definitely goes to show you that things aren’t right at all around here at the moment.

I managed to have breakfast – with the heaving throngs in the dining room. It looks as if we are quite full again at the moment. But all the noise was doing my head in, that’s for sure.

For the rest of the morning I didn’t do very much – just sat around here and vegetated. I missed out on lunch too, but I wasn’t too bothered about that. I’m definitely not in the mood for eating right now.

It’s a Bank Holiday in Belgium today and so Alison and I had agreed to go for a little walk. We met up in the Botanical Gardens just down the road from here and had a good chat.

But I couldn’t even do that either. Half a lap around the garden and I was whacked. I had to sit down for 10 minutes to catch my breath and even that didn’t seem to help matters very much. So less than one hour after leaving my little room to go out, I was back and on the bed again.

And there I stayed, yet again.

I didn’t crash out, but I was certainly in no fit condition to move. So there I lay for the rest of the day and that was that.

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Saturday 16th July 2016 – WELL THAT WAS A WASTE …

… of effort. OH Leuven had a match advertised tonight, playing at home against St Truiden. And even though I wasn’t feeling up to it, I decided to go anyway because it would do me good to get out and about for a while.

And so I set off and had a pleasant walk through the warm early evening down to the ground, only to find it locked up. The people in the fritkot on the car park knew absolutely nothing about it, which surprised me.

I had a walk around the stadium to see if I could see anything, or anyone who could tell me anything else but there seemed to be nothing happening. but at least I had an opportunity to look at some ruins that I had noticed last time that I was here.

The ring road around the city, in common with many ring roads around European cities, seems to be sited upon the line of the ancient fortifications of the city and I’m sure that I had noticed something that might have once been part of a water gate or even a mill over the river Dilje at one time.

The walk down to the football stadium wasn’t too bad but I struggled on the way back. I ended up having to sit for 20 minutes by the side of the river and relax, trying to recover some force but it didn’t really work.

In the end, I staggered back here and went off for an early night, totally played out.

And yes, the match had taken place, and OH Leuven had won 4-1. Kick-off was indeed at 19:30 and OH Leuven were definitely listed as the home team. So what happened there, I really do not know.

That wasn’t the only time that I had been out either. Round about lunchtime I’d gone into the town centre to buy some stuff for lunch. Not that I was feeling hungry right then, but there was always a possibility that I might do later in the day.

As it happens, I didn’t, but it wasn’t a wasted trip as I bumped into Melanie, one of my co-cottiers from the last place. We had quite a chat, which was very nice, and exchanged e-mail addresses.

Apart from that, I’d had a better sleep somewhat, and was awake reasonably early. At abut 10:00 I went to make some dry toast and orange juice because even when I’m being ill, I have to try my best to keep up some kind of calorie intake. Yes, you can tell when I’m ill when I’m off my food, and I’ve not had a coffee for a few days either.

One thing that has got on my wick, and quite seriously too, is that I’ve had not one person but two people come bursting into my room. I rather lost my temper with the second person who came in but it didn’t half annoy me. Good job I wasn’t dressing and adjusting my undercarriage like the time that I was burst in upon a day or two after I arrived here.

Liz was on the internet so we had a good chat too. She feels guilty about making me go running off to the Auvergne earlier in the week, but while it’s true that the trip down there didn’t help matters, it was something that had to be done and anyway I’m not going to abandon all of my life just because of this illness thing. I have to keep on going.

So having crashed out earlier, I drifted back awake a couple of times, the last time being someone who is intent upon entertaining his lady friend. As soon as they finish, we can all go back to sleep.

I mean – I did try to give them a round of applause, but you can’t clap with just one hand, can you?

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Friday 15th July 2016 – I WOKE UP THIS MORNING …

… feeling a little more like it. For a change, I’d managed to have something of a reasonable sleep too, although I put that down to the nice comfortable bed.

I wasn’t up to much, though, and I spent most of the morning loitering around doing not very much at all. I should have gone for a coffee with Hans Field who was on his way through the area, but I was obliged to decline. I’m not up to that kind of thing quite yet.

At about 10:00 I went up to the kitchen and made myself some dry toast and had some orange juice. That’s the kind of thing that will help settle my stomach, and it does need some settling after yesterday.

Round about lunchtime I went out – yes, actually set foot out of the building. I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry but I was sure that sooner or later during the course of the day I would be, and so I picked up a baguette and a tomato from the little supermarket on the corner.

A little later on, I made myself a cheese butty with some of the vegan cheese that I had around here. And to give you an idea of just how I’m feeling right now, I couldn’t eat all of it. Even going back for a nibble here and there later on, there was still quite a bit that I didn’t eat. yes, you can tell that I’m ill when I’m off my food.

I gave out round about 16:00 and went to bed. I tried to watch a couple of films on the laptop and although I only missed a little of the first, I had long gone before the second one finished.

Waking up at odd times during the evening didn’t help matters much but I’ll be trying to have another decent sleep tonight if I can. It’s a shame to have this nice comfortable bed and then miss out on it.

And so I wonder how I will be feeling tomorrow then?

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Thursday 15th July 2016 – WHO WAS IT …

… who was crowing yesterday about how well he was feeling and how the crisis might be behind him?

Yes, we’ve had a relapse today, haven’t we?

After lunch I was sitting down here in my room doing nothing very much by the way of anything, and suddenly I came over all tired. And not a simple “tired” where you yawn and go to sleep, but a huge physical “tired” that totally wiped me out. It was as if the batteries had gone completely flat.

It wasn’t just a simple case of lying down on the bed either – I was under the covers totally flat-out and I didn’t have the strength to move even a finger. And that was that.

First thing that happened when I awoke at about 17:00 was that I was violently sick. Having anticipated this (because I’ve been here before and more than once too) I’d brought the waste bin (which was lined with a bin liner) to the side of the bed. Thus we were able to avoid a catastrophe.

I also had to struggle (and it was a struggle too) to the bathroom a couple of times during the evening.

All in all, not a very successful second half of the day at all. I’m feeling quite miserable and depressed about this, just when I thought that I was doing so well.

I had a reasonable (well, for these days) sleep last night but not the mega-sleep that I was expecting after my exertions of the last couple of days. An early breakfast, followed by a shower, and then to tidy up downstairs because it’s moving day.

My new room, the one where I’ll be staying for the rest of my time here, is small and tired. But the bed is extremely comfortable, for which I am very grateful and there’s a sink. It looks out over the rear of the premises, which might be good in some respects but it’s also the point nearest the church and the flaming bells.

Still, you can’t have everything, I suppose.

Dodging the impressive rainstorms, I nipped into town for my baguette for lunch – and then it all started to go wrong for me.

Well, I suppose that I should have expected something like this. It’s a long, hard road that will take me to the end of my treatment and it isn’t going to be easy.

Well, never mind.

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Sunday 10th July 2016 – I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT I’VE JUST DONE THIS!

Well, actually, yes I can because, believe me, this is par for the course as you all know.

I’m on the move tomorrow and so I need my passport which is in Caliburn up at the hospital. And so this evening at about 18:30 I set off in the early evening heat (because it was hot) up to the hospital to undertake this simple task.

It didn’t take me too long to arrive there, and I passed through the hospital to the back door to the Car Park where Caliburn is parked. And this was where I discovered that the door was locked.

From here, I must have spent about an hour or so walking through the bowels of the hospital looking for another way out (and what was quite interesting was that I spent all of this time in a “restricted” area and I wasn’t accosted once) and eventually, after much binding in the marsh, to find a way out. This involved something of an escalade, but never mind. I had (eventually) arrived.

First job was to start up Caliburn and take him for a little run around so that he doesn’t seize up. And then I tidied him up somewhat, found a tote bag that I need to go with me tomorrow, threw a pile of tinned food and other stuff into the tote bag, and eventually set off home.

On the way back I stopped off at the pizza place for a pizza (I had the sliced vegan cheese with me) and took it back to my new little room where I sat and ate it. And this was where I realised that I had forgotten the passport, which is still in Calburn!

D’ohhh!

And so tomorrow, instead of having a lie-in to gather my wits (not that there are so many that it takes me very long) I’ll be having an early breakfast and then staggering back to the hospital for the passport.

I hope that the back door will be open!

Yes – new little room. i’m back at the ranch again.

Last night in yonder house by the station I had a night that was not so good. It’s true that the kids were quite noisy for a while but the bad night was more to do with me than anything else. No breakfast of course, and so I had a (beautiful) shower and then set out to walk back to my place. I’d been on my travels too during the night but I’ve no idea where or who with.

It was a lovely morning and I discovered bits of Leuven that I didn’t know existed. I was also impressed by the total absence of littler on the streets, especially considering that the music festival is taking place. I stopped off at the boulangerie to buy a baguette for lunch and then finally arrived chez moi where I helped myself to breakfast. I consider that i’m entitled to it.

My room wasn’t ready so I sat outside on a chair and read a book for the rest of the morning, and ate my lunchtime butty while I was at it. 14:00 more-or-less was when my room was finished and so I nipped inside and closed the door.

It’s right on the ground floor right next to the door so I imagine that I’ll be awoken every five minutes by people coming and going, but it’s en-suite with the weirdest bathroom that I have ever seen. But on the whole, it’s not too bad. I even crashed out for an hour or so – the armchair there is extremely comfortable.

And then we had the performance with the passport, or lack thereof.

Now, I’m fed and watered (the pizza was lovely) and I’m off to be. I have a lot to do tomorrow and so I need to be at my best.

Not to mention this early start.

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Thursday 7th July 2016 – IT WAS 06:20 ..

… when I was awoken this morning, but that’s being just a little economical with the truth as I had quite a bad night last night. I hadn’t been feeling so good for much of the day – probably a delayed reaction to my medical treatment – and last night I was having the most excruciating stomach cramps. I found it very hard to drop off to sleep, and when I did, I was awoken with a horrible stabbing pain. And that’s how I’ve been for much of the morning too, although it did ease off round about lunchtime.

Nothing however had prevented me from going on another nocturnal ramble. This time though, we’ll turn our attention back to the late 1920s. Not many people know this of course but Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret had a younger brother. However he was something like Prince John, kept out of public life because of his behaviour (although this is, I admit, being rather unkind to Prince John in real life) and young ladies, mainly of the serving classes, were sent to “entertain” him. And I was the “product” of one of these irregular unions. This gave me unrivalled power on the back stairs of Court and I was regularly being approached by The Powers That Be to handle situations that required delicacy and discretion but with which the official Royal Family did not wish to become involved. Yes, it certainly was quite exciting, that’s for sure.

I had an early breakfast – finished long before the alarm went off, and then I tried to do a few things here and there but ended up crashing out for an hour or so. I managed a walk to the shops too and stocked up with lunch items, seeing as how I’ve run right out.

This afternoon I haven’t done too much because I’m still not feeling 100% right now. Although I had a lengthy chat with Liz this afternoon, as well as crashing out yet again. But I managed a shower, a shave, clean clothes and the like as well as doing some tidying up, for I’ve been out gallivanting with Alison tonight and we put the world to rights for hours.

Now I’m back home, feeling a little better than I did last night, and I won’t be awake for long. I’m off to bed.

But in other news, the B Liar says that the World is a better place because of the Iraq War. You try telling that to the hundreds of thousands of civilians who have been massacred this last few years, including the hundreds who have been killed this last couple of days. How can anyone believe anything that this monster is telling us? If he has anything to say, he should save it for his War Crimes trial, although the way the British Establishment is, he’ll never make it to the Hague.

And in yet more news, hats off to Connahs Quay Nomads of the Welsh Premier League, who beat Stabaek tonight in Norway in order to progress to the Second Round of the Europa League.

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Wednesday 6th July 2016 – THAT WASN’T SO GOOD.

We’ve been having a couple of late nights just recently – and also quite a few early mornings. But it all goes wrong when you have a late night – like 01:40 and you are still sitting up – and someone comes along to use the kitchen at 05:40.

I think that I was up and about once, and I don’t remember being on any travels either. But at least, by 07:30 I’d already breakfasted and was working away on the laptop.

Most of the morning was spent doing updates to the blog, and I’d done quite a few by the time lunchtime came round. I’d been to the boulangerie just down the road for my baguette which saved me a good half-hour.

This afternoon I meant to carry on with the blog but Liz came on line and we had quite a lengthy chat. And then, I crashed out here on the sofa for a couple of hours. I must have needed it.

Anderlecht stadion den dreef oud heverlee OH Leuven BelgiumThis evening in the beautiful sunnyweather I went for a stroll to the edge of the town by the inner ring. This is where the Stadion den Dreef, the home football ground of Oud Heverlee Leuven might be found.

Anderlecht from Brussels are in training ready for their European football matches and tonight they had arranged a friendly against OH Leuven and so I went for a wander down to see what was going on.

Anderlecht stadion den dreef oud heverlee OH Leuven BelgiumIt’s only a small ground and it seems to be undergoing a process of renovation. On the north side of the ground there’s a new stand that looks as if it’s just been built and in the process of being kitted out.

Because I didn’t have a membership card I had to go and sit in the “away” end with the Anderlecht fans which annoyed me because they are far from being my favourite club, but at €15:00 for a ticket I can’t complain too much.

Anderlecht stadion den dreef oud heverlee OH Leuven BelgiumIt was a pretty miserable game, the first half anyway. Anderlecht were poor but OH Leuven were thoroughly clueless.

The first 10 minutes of the game were spent in the OH Leuven penalty area laying siege to the goal. Anderlecht had one decent break through on goal, saved by the keeper’s foot, but apart from that, Anderlecht never looked as if they were seriously going to threaten the OH Leuven keeper.

Anderlecht stadion den dreef oud heverlee OH Leuven penalty BelgiumWe were treated at half time to the astonishing event of OH Leuven going in for the half-time cuppa in front one-nil. They had had just one shot at goal during the first half, which was well-saved onto the post by the Anderlecht keeper, but they won a rather soft penalty a couple of minutes before half-time.

The keeper nearly got to it too and had he done so, no-one could have complained. It would have been justice.

Anderlecht stadion den dreef oud heverlee OH Leuven BelgiumI’m not sure what the Anderlecht trainer put in the half-time cuppa but I could do with having some of it, that’s for sure. Within 10 minutes of the restart Anderlecht had scored three goals, and they went on to score a fourth near the end of the game.

It was still very much a huffing, puffing performance and they didn’t look all that impressive. Playing like this, they aren’t going to make too much of a mark in Europe. But it’s going to be a long, hard season for OH Leuven in the Second tier of the Belgian Football League.

I had a nice walk back here and picked up some chips on the way. I have clean bedding tonight and I’m going to make the most of it. I hope that I don’t have the 05:45 starters tomorrow morning.

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Friday 1st July 2016 – I’M WHACKED!

I’ve had a really busy day and I’m exhausted.

What didn’t help was that I was awake this morning at 05:30 despite having already had a couple of trips down the corridor. And I couldn’t go back to sleep. I was up early for breakfast too so that was all done and dusted by 08:30.

Check-in at my new place wasn’t until after midday so I had a little relax for a couple of hours and then I filled my backpack and suitcase with stuff to move, and all of the dirty clothes and bedding into an IKEA bag. Once I’d done that, I set off for my new digs.

The place isn’t so bad here. I’ve a big double bed plus a single couch-type of bed. As well as that, there’s a comfortable two-seater divan and small desk and chair. Not only that – there’s a TV and combined DVD/Video player. Shame that I didn’t bring any DVDs.

The kitchen is adequate, complete with dishwasher, and the bathroom that I share with a couple of other rooms is nice and clean. There’s a sitting room too and also a roof terrace. It’s closer to the hospital and the town centre and the street outside is fairly busy, but I have double glazing.

It’s tired, and seen better days, but it looks quite good value for the money that I’m spending. I could be quite comfortable here, I reckon.

Having had a rest, I went up to the hospital. I took the bedding back to Caliburn and brought some more stuff down, confirmed my appointment on Monday (it’s at 09:10) and picked up a bottle that I needed as they want to see my … err … output of Sunday.

On the way back, I picked up some chips from the fritkot and sat on the roof terrace here to eat it.

Once I’d done that, it was back up to the old place to pack up the rest of the stuff and to clean my room there and to wash the floor. That was a struggle getting up the stairs with the washing stuff and my suitcase, and coming down was even more difficult. I had to make two trips with the stuff, it was that awkward to move.

It was also a struggle coming up here with the stuff, and I was glad to sit down. I had a chat with Liz and then crashed out for three quarters of an hour. I can’t say that I was surprised. Mind you, I made sure that I had a coffee when I came round. And wasn’t that nice too?

Making tea was pretty straightforward and I do have to say that the kitchen is cleaner than back at the other place, which is good news. Having a cleaner about the place is always a good idea.

Now, I’m going to go to bed and have an early night. I have curtains at the windows, which is progress, and I’m dying to get to grips with this comfortable bed. It’s not as comfortable as some that I’ve slept on but considering how I’ve been sleeping this last 17 nights it’s going to be luxury.

And I can’t wait.

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Wednesday 22nd June 2016 – I WAS OUT GALLIVANTING …

… at lunchtime. June and her husband were travelling back to Germany today and as we know, the motorway passes just a couple of miles from here. In fact, I’ve had more visitors here than I’ve ever had when I’ve been living in France, haven’t i?

But we started off as we meant to go on this morning. I was awake by 05:45, downstairs breakfasting by 07:15 and working on the laptop updating the blog by 08:30. That kept me out of mischief for a couple of hours.

I had a shower, a shave and a change of clothes (such are the highlights of my life these days that I record rubbish like this) so that I could look pretty, and then I hit the streets.

June and her husband appeared bang on time and we wandered off to the fritkot in the centre of town for lunch. The food was, as you might expect, very good there and there were no complaints from anyone, not that there ought to have been. And then we moved down into the main square for coffee and a really good chat. It was a beautiful morning for once, but soon clouded over as the afternoon wore on.

They left the town at about 14:30 and I wandered back to my little room, where a strange thing happened. Yes – I crashed out completely and not just for ten minutes or half an hour but for over 3 hours, which is quite astonishing. I was well-gone.

There’s been something of an upheaval here too. We had two people who left at the weekend, as you know, but someone who had been away came back this afternoon. There had been some confusion in the fridge when I arrived and when I went down to make my evening meal everything in there had been turned around. But now it’s all properly organised and as it should be, which makes a nice change.

For tea, I had boulghour, kidney beans and vegetables with rice and tomato sauce and very nice it was too. Loads of protein in all of that and as you know, I need to be on a high protein diet these days. I followed up with more of the spicy cake and soya custard substitute.

Liz was on the internet tonight so we had a long chat, and now I’m off for an early night. Despite the three hours or so of crashing out, I’m still exhausted and a good sleep will do me good.

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Wednesday 15th June 2016 – I FELT SORRY …

… for my landlord. He came all the way here with a new flourescent tube for my little room, and I didn’t use it.

I was in bed listening to radio programmes on the laptop, long before it went dark. And I must have crashed out completely because I remember nothing until waking up to switch off the laptop round about midnight. And that was about that until 06:33 when I awoke. And I did feel much better after that.

But here’s the most exciting news of today, and that is that I may well have found somewhere else to stay for the 11 weeks that I need a place. I had a reply from a kind-of tourist hostel and so I went off to have a look at it. It’s right by the Sint Jacobsplein where the famous fritkot is situated, which is extremely handy and very well-situated for the hospital. It’s a big house which, admittedly, has seen better days, but nevertheless, it’s still quite acceptable.

I’m having a single room all to myself, with a shared bathroom and kitchen. Everything is provided – wi-fi, bed-linen, cleaning and so on, and there’s a breakfast included in the price – and it’s going to cost me about €26 per night. It’s more than I wanted to pay, of course, but it’s here and it’s now, and a lot less that I would have to pay in a hotel. And, of course, once I’m in, I’m in and if I need to extend my stay for any reason, I can do that from the comfort of within rather than from out in the street in some kind of desperation.

As well as that, the included breakfast will save me some money. The presence of a kitchen will help me in this respect too – I can live on tinned food and so won’t have to pay for meals out in the evening. I reckon that if I’m careful, I can keep within my means but there won’t be a lot spare.

Anyway, it’s all now reserved and I’ve paid a (substantial) deposit. Just watch the place burn down now.

Apart from that, we have the internet working. The college’s intranet runs on an underlying public access internet network and one of the students here let me have the access code for the public access part of it, which was quite nice of her. So now it’s all systems go.

We had a torrential rainstorm at lunchtime too about half an hour after I went out to the shops for my lunch stuff, and so I was rather caught out in it and was soaked to the skin. It’s a long time since I’ve been out in a rainstorm quite like that and my baguette was all soggy in places.

Tonight for tea, I finished off the kidney beans and mixed veg from last night, along with some pasta and tomato sauce. And, of course, the spicy cake and soya dessert for pudding.

Now, I’m going to have an early night and a good sleep. I’m off gallivanting tomorrow.

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