Tag Archives: early night

Sunday 28th August 2016 – THAT WAS A BETTER …

… night last night. While I didn’t drop off particularly early, I was well-away all the same and I only had to make one trip down the corridor during the night.

But by 06:28 I was wide awake again, and by 06:29 the cooling fan was running – and as an aside, it’s never stopped at all during the day. I was trying to settle down again to drop off back to sleep despite the 07:00 cacophony, but Bane of Britain once more forgot to switch off the alarms and that was that.

However, I was in no rush to leave the bed and it was as late as 09:00 before I heaved myself out of bed. First stop was the boulangerie where I bought one of the last four baguettes. And it was only then that I went for breakfast, where I was joined by another resident. again, I didn’t eat much but the coffee was beautiful. Had it not been so hot (the weather, not the coffee) I would have had a second mug.

Today was one of those days where I didn’t do too much at all. I simply took it easy. And quite right too – it is Sunday after all. I did go out for an hour though. I walked down to Caliburn, made sure that he started and then we went for a good run out. Nowhere specific – just far enough to warm him up thoroughly and make sure he is okay. But still no bank details from the owner of the parking space. and so I rang him up to tell him that even with the best will in the world I can’t pay him if I don’t have his bank details.

Many of the streets in Leuven were cordoned off today. It looks as if there’s one of these car-free days in the city centre. This is a feature, once a year, of life in Belgian cities. I wondered about going for a walk into town but decided against it.

For tea I made some garlic bread and went to buy a pizza. A half-hour wait (it was actually 38 minutes) in the pizza place tonight. It’s getting longer and longer.

The landlord was here tonight too, checking things over. We had quite a chat, especially when I caught him trying to file away my saucepan. Not his fault of course – it can’t be every tenant who brings his own saucepan with him. But the fact that there are only two on the premises I can’t keep one of those in my room, despite my health issues.

So tonight it’s another early night. And my last day of freedom tomorrow. I’m meeting Alison for tea tomorrow night so I’ll need to look my best. A good beauty sleep would do me the world of good, but I need much longer than 21 hours to do any good.

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Saturday 27th August 2016 – I AM NOT ALONE!

There I was this morning, having another major coughing fit, when there was a knock on the door. it was one of my co-residents, asking me if I was OK or if I needed any help or anything. I explained the situation to her and she went away, but it really was nice that there are people who are concerned about me and my health.

But that was merely summing up my night last night, where I had difficulty sleeping due to my incessant coughing fits. But I went on one of my nocturnal rambles – something concerning the Dragnet radio programmes which I’ve been listening to since I downloaded the entire 7 years-worth of programmes from Archive.org along with a pile of other stuff.

The alarm woke me up this morning, which was a surprise, meaning that I must have slept through the 07:00 cacophony. And I struggled to eat breakfast too – so I’m definitely sickening for something. It was disappointing too because we had another loaf of that excellent bread. What a shame to miss out on it.

The heat was oppressive today – probably the hottest day of the year. After my nice relaxing morning doing not very much, I went up into town for shopping. Apart from the baguette and the lettuce from Delhaize, I pushed on to Wibra, near the railway station.

That’s something of an upmarket Dollar Store or Pound Shop, and when I was in there the other day I noticed that they had an excellent line of plastic containers and very democratic prices. I picked up a few – two large ones for my rice and pasta, and a smaller pouring container for the boulghour. And i’ll be back there for half a dozen others too because the ones that I have at home have seen better days.

I struck it lucky too while I was out. There are several of these ice-cream stalls in the city and one of them sells dairy-free sorbets. And so I was really in my element here. It’s high time that I treated myself.

After lunch, I crashed out for quite a while. It was far too hot to do anything else. And once it cooled down I washed and dried the containers and then sorted out the food in here. The place looks quite tidy now, which is a surprise for anyone who knows me.

Tea was rice with a tinned vegetable curry and garlic bread. The supermarket here sells these half-cooked half-baguettes at just €0:39 for two and while they don’t come out as nicely as the more expensive ones, it was still delicious. The smell was enough to entice one of my co-habitants into the kitchen.

Now I’m off for another cold shower and then I’m off to bed. Not that it will do much good in this heat.

and I’ve had no news yet about the studio.

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Thursday 25th August 2016 – I HAD ANOTHER BAD NIGHT …

… where it took me hours to drop off to sleep. Mind you, the heat had something to do with that, I reckon. It really was stifling in here with the window closed.

And when I did drop off, it wasn’t for long and I kept on waking up all through the night with terrible coughing fits and I was feeling so uncomfortable. But I was definitely asleep when the 07:00 cacophony went off because that awoke me bolt upright. Mind you, waking up is one thing – leaving the bed was quite another.

When I eventually finished my breakfast, I came back up here and had a relaxing morning, which I deserved after my efforts of the other day. But I was out of the place at 11:00 tracking down some more accommodation. One estate agent was closed and another one didn’t have anything for me (and wasn’t all that interested either).

However, I did finally find the office of that student accommodation place – the one that was closed on Saturday – and when I explained my circumstances to them they didn’t throw me out but were content to have a listen to my story. They took my e-mail address anyway, and I suppose that this is something.

The Carrefour supermarket on the ring road by the football ground was next and on the way back home afterwards I found a few more places. One of them will consider me as a tenant and so I have to go to see the place tomorrow at 11:00. This is another one nearer the hospital so I hope that it comes up good.

After lunch I tried to take it easy but the cleaner came around to do the room – after a two-week absence. Now I have clean sheets and I’ll be taking a shower later so that I can have a nice clean me too.

Tea tonight was pasta, kidney beans and veg cooked with garlic fried in soya margarine and with boulghour and spicy tomato sauce added too. It was delicious too, and there’s enough for tomorrow too!

And so I’ll have an early night but I don’t imagine that I’ll be getting much sleep in this heat. But I shouldn’t be complaining – we haven’t had much weather like this so far this year.

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Monday 22nd August 2016 – AND WASN’T THAT A WASTE OF TIME?

I managed to arrange two appointments this afternoon for visiting apartments. The first one was at 14:30 down the Kapicijnenvoer and I was there on time. The guy turned up, took one look at me and asked “are you a student?”
“Not at all” I replied
“I only let to students” he replied, returning to his car.
And yet nowhere on his advert was this mentioned and so I had “a few words” with him about him wasting my time.

At 16:00 I had an appointment with an estate agent at a studio not too far from here. And I was on time there too. 10 minutes later I had a ‘phone call. “I’m sorry, Mr X has had something urgent come up. Can he arrange another appointment with you?”
And so I had a few words with them too about wasting my time.

Mind you, it’s true that there’s not a lot of money to be earned from the letting of a studio. There’s much more money to be earned from letting or selling a house, so it’s not surprising that I’ve fallen to the bottom of the queue. But you can see what I mean about Belgium.

I was in a bad humour too. I was still awake last night at 01:35. And for no good reason either – it wasn’t as if my new co-habitant disturbed me any. I just couldn’t drop off.

But when I did finally drop off, I did set off on a few travels. First thing was something to do with a court case and I was cross-examining witnesses. Some barrister came up to me afterwards and offered me a place in his chambers – an offer that was quite interesting (and which rings a bell from an event that took place 25 years ago) but not one that I could take up properly due to the financial constraints that it called for during the period of training. A little later there was a scene where I was with a woman and we were doing something for a young boy who had come off the rails somehow.

The 07:00 cacophony awoke me, and it was quite an impressive one this morning. Once I’d gathered my wits (which doesn’t take long these days) I went off for breakfast. And as I was parting, I was joined by my neighbour. I exchanged a few words of greeting – he said nothing at all – and then I came back down here for a little doze.

The owner of the property came round this morning and we had a few words about this and that. And now the internet is back working again (but for how long I really have no idea) and a couple of essential repairs have been done to the property too. But as for this thing about cleaning – it’s been 11 days since I’ve seen the cleaner and my bedding is starting to smell as badly as I do.

My baguette for lunch was excellent even though it came from the supermarket on the corner and then in between making unsuccessful visits to various properties I’ve been catching up on a few things here and there.

That tinned curry that I bought the other night – it was certainly different but absolutely excellent and I enjoyed my tea. Not being particularly hungry, I didn’t make any garlic bread so I’ll have to attack that in very early course. I wonder what I can eat it with tomorrow. A tin of ratatouille maybe?

But in other bad news, this cold has now developed into a streaming head cold and the cough has now settled properly on my chest. This is not the news that I wanted to hear, remembering my unexpected 10-day incarceration in the hospital last time this happened when I was only supposed to be in there for a couple of hours.How I’m getting fed up of all of this.

So tomorrow, I’m back house-hunting again. I’m getting fed up of all of this too!

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Sunday 21st August 2016 – GUESS WHO …

… forgot to switch off the alarm this morning?

And so, despite it being Sunday and despite having managed to sleep through the 07:00 cacophony, there was no possibility of Bane of Britain going back to sleep. Instead, I ended up having another early breakfast.

And in other news, I seem to have come down with yet another heavy cold. And in news that will delight everyone who reads this rubbish, I’ve also lost my voice. And seeing how, starting on Monday, I have about 100 phone calls to make, that is what I call perfect timing. But then again, this is going to be a permanent feature of my life from now on so the sooner I adapt to it the better.

Last night was slightly better. I was only up three times, which makes quite a change from the other night when I seemed to spend more time out of bed than in it. And we had flooded kitchen issues to deal with this morning. Someone had left open the Velux roof light, and we were having a torrential rainstorm. That’s not going to look too nice on the floor when it dries. But by the time I went down the road for my baguette the rain was starting to die down.

With it being Sunday, I had a leisurely start to things, having a second mug of coffee and vegetating around in the room for a while. It was long after 10:00 when I went off to the launderette for the internet. Liz was on line so we had a really good chat for a while and I also caught up with a few things that I had let slide just recently.

My butty for lunch was excellent – there’s no doubt that the bread in the boulangerie round the corner is the best that I have found so far. It’s a shame that it’s also the most expensive too. and this all led to a quiet, relaxing afternoon doing not very much except to listening to radio programmes that I have downloaded from ARCHIVE.ORG and having a mess around with my 3D program, while listening to a new neighbour moving in. I hope that he (or she) is quieter once he (or she) has settled in.

Braving the torrential rainstorm I went back to the launderette for an hour or so to see what was going on in the world (the answer is “not very much at all”) and then came back here to put into action a new procedure. Before going out to buy my Sunday eveing pizza (now that I have some more vegan cheese) I prepared some garlic bread. I’d bought a couple of these half-cooked baguettes and I mixed up some gaarlic butter, using the soya margarine that I had bought the other week, slit the baguette in about 10 places, filled the slits with the garlic butter, and then stuck it in the little oven that I had been warming up.

While the bread was cooking, I went to pick up my pizza and when I returned, the bread was cooked to perfection. And you have no idea just how delicious it was too, washed down with a can of ginger beer that will also, hopefully, become part of my Sunday evening ritual while I’m living here, now that I’ve found a place here in Leuven where I can buy it.

Now I’m going to have an early night to prepare for tomorrow. I have so much to do and not very much time to do it. I shall have to put my skates on.

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Friday 19th August 2016 – I’M FED UP OF THIS!

I managed to doze off quite early last night, but I wasn’t asleep for long. My co-habitants came back shortly afterwards and we had the usual round of “good-nights” that awoke everyone in the building, and probably in the next street too. From then on, it was a tale of regular up-and-downs during the night. Three or four times, I can’t remember now.

I was also on the espionage trail at various times during the night. This place here featured in my nocturnal voyages at one time, as did one or two members of my family. However, I can’t remember much in the way of detail now.

After breakfast, I didn’t feel up to much and sat around vegetating for a while. About an hour in fact, and I was well away with the fairies too for a short while. I must really have needed it. but by about 09:15 I was down at the launderette again.

Apart from the usual stuff, I spent quite a while tracking down accommodation. I have quite a few addresses that I’ve discovered, and already sent out a few enquiries. And by the time that I was back in the launderette I’d already had a few responses. One invitation to visit, that I’ll be following up of course, and several requests for further information. Already, I’ve had more responses that I’d had earlier in the summer. Nothing concrete though, unfortunately, but while there’s life, there’s hope.

After lunch, I went for a walk. Down to the Aldi to see what was going on, and the short answer was “nothing”. I pushed on to the Carrefour near the Stade Den Dreef – the football ground – and picked up one or two things that I might need.

On the way back, I stopped off to check on Caliburn and ran his engine for a good few minutes. I sorted out a few things that I needed (but forgot my hair clippers) and then had a nice walk back.

It will be no surprise to anyone to learn that once I arrived back here, I crashed out for a good hour. Well away too. But a coffee soon revived me and then I did some work. I discovered some notes that I had made of a journey that I had made through France in May 2014 so I made up a web page and started to link the photos in with the text. That will keep me out of mischief for quite a while once I can set up a reliable internet connection, which doesn’t look as if it is going to be any time soon. The manager has been in here this evening, and done nothing about fixing it so that looks as if it is that.

For tea tonight I had pasta, a tin of ratatouille, green flageolet beans and garlic fried in soya margarine. That’s filled me up quite nicely and now I’m ready for anything.

Tomorrow I might go out for a drive. It’s been ages since I’ve set foot out into the suburbs so it looks as if a mega-shopping visit is on the cards for tomorrow.

And I’m sure that regular readers of this rubbish will agree. I really ought to get out more.

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Thursday 18th August 2016 – THAT WAS A LITTLE BETTER …

… last night.

In bed and falling asleep during the film, I was awoken by a party of my co-residents returning from an evening out, but I was soon back to sleep. I had a couple of trips down the corridor but not so much that they awoke me too much, and it wasn’t until 06:20 that I awoke properly.

Even so, I managed to drop off back to sleep again until the alarm went off at 07:15.

I’d been on my travels too. I was delivering parts for competition cars to outlying addresses in the Wrexham area and at one place the delivery was not all that simple because the road signs were confusing. It involved turning off to the right at a road junction and then left to a housing estate on the edge of a small town, where the town (the postal address) was to the left on the main road, and this caused a few complications. We had a discussion about the repairs to the car, and I said that the driving age for this vehicle was 18 whereas the owner said it was 15 and his girl of that age was driving it. In the end we agreed that 18 was the age for driving on the road whereas 15 was the age for driving in off-road competition. We also ended up talking about a famous Welsh pizza which involved buying the base, travelling around the country picking up the individual ingredients for the toppings from each of the farms that grew or produced them, and then returning home to cook and eat it.

It didn’t take me too long to eat breakfast, and once I’d organised myself (such as only I can do), I went off to the launderette and the internet access. having done the usual, I then started to contact all of the addresses that I had been collecting for accommodation. And it didn’t take me too long to do it either, with each enquiry producing the same result – “if you aren’t a bona-fide student, we aren’t interested”. I’ve been here before, haven’t I?

I even took to the streets and the estate agents, but that produced similar results. One place, which had three in the window, said that they had all been booked already (so why leave them in the window?) and another place was completely and utterly disinterested. I can see that I’m going to have to plan a new line of attack.

While I was out I took the opportunity to do a quick shop at the Delhaize in town and then had lunch. Afterwards, I crashed out for an hour (despite my reasonable night).

Apart from that, I’ve not done too much else. I’ve been to the launderette this evening and had tea – the stuff that was left over from last night together with some fresh rice. It might be early but I don’t care – I’m going to have an early night with a good film.

But I’m fed up of this accommodation issue. Flats, studios, rooms, all kinds of stuff. The city is crawling with them and with “to let” signs. But can I rent one? This is just totally crazy.

I shall have to see about enrolling myself as a student.

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Tuesday 16th August 2016 – I HAD A BETTER …

… sleep last night. I was off with the fairies fairly early and although I had to leave the bed once during the night, I was pretty much asleep for most of it until I awoke – bolt-upright – at 06:10. And you won’t be interested in hearing where I’d been during the night either, because you are probably eating your breakfast or some such.

I had breakfast early too – at 06:30 I was up in the kitchen.And we had the muesli back as well, much to my delight. And afterwards I packed my things ready for the hospital, as well as having a little crash-out for about 10 minutes.

It was such a pleasant morning that I had no doubts whatever about walking up to the hospital, even though I had my larger, heavy bag with lots of stuff in it. But not, as I was to discover later, my slippers. And not my vegan cheese either. This was bad planning!

They weren’t expecting me at the hospital this morning. It transpired that they were full and so I’d been sent to a different ward – one where the people aren’t quite so nice and friendly (I’ve been here before). Waste of time me prettying myself up in case I were to encounter Tara, the cute little nurse, wasn’t it?

They installed me in a room and because I was first I could choose my bed. And so I’m next to the bathroom (ease of access) and away from the window (far too hot in summer).

It looked as if it was all going to be super-efficient. I was quickly rigged up with my catheter (didn’t feel a thing) and given the antidotes and so on. And then I waited

And waited

And waited.

16:30 or so when they came around with the Mapthera. Wasn’t that a waste of a day? but at least I’d had a lunch and it was something that I could vaguely eat too. Tea was a bit miserable though, especially without the vegan cheese, but luckily I’d brought one of the big packets of crisps that Alison had bought for me the other day. Good old Alison!

So now that I’ve been disconnected from the drip, I’m going to settle down for an early night and watch a film. I hope that my room-mate doesn’t snore or anything like that. He likes his TV so it’s a shame that he doesn’t have any ear plugs. I on the other hand have comfortable headphones, as long-term readers of this rubbish will remember.

I do hope that I’ll have a good night’s sleep.

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Monday 15th August 2016 – THIS TIME LAST YEAR …

… I was on my way from Lyon Airport to Zurich in Switzerland ready to board my flight which would eventually take me off to Montreal, Canada. And how I wish that I could be doing exactly the same this year. But what with the health issues that I’m having, it’s not possible, and if I can’t organise my health issues properly in the future, I might not be going again. If I need to have a health check every week or two, it’s clearly going to be impossible. And the way that things are going, I’ve no idea what is going to be the future – and neither, does it seems, does anyone else, even in the hospital.

So last night I was in bed quite early and after watching a film on the laptop, I was asleep quite early. But not for long because we have some new neighbours who seem not to have grasped the concept of corporate silence in communal lodgings.

It took me ages, and a couple of trips down the corridor, to go back to sleep after that. I definitely remember 01:30. But back to sleep I must have gone because the next thing that I remember was the alarm going off at 07:30. I’d even managed to sleep through the 07:00 cacophony.

To say that I remember nothing is not quite true. I’d been on my travels too. Part of it involved another footballing session in Bangor, North Wales, and another part of it I shan’t recount as you are probably eating your breakfast or something right now.

I had company at the breakfast table too. The late arrivals last night were already there when I arrived, and after they left I was joined by the family who had joined me yesterday. That knocked me out of my stride as you know. I don’t do socialising and I much prefer to be on my own.

The internet is still out too this morning. As a consequence I set off to the launderette again and took advantage of the wi-fi there. I had a good two and a half hours in there doing all of the things that I needed to do, and then I came back here. I passed by the supermarket where I picked up another black plastic food tray – did I tell you about the one that I picked up the other day. Again, thrown away in the rubbish pile but now it’s had a really good wash and all of my food is nice and properly stacked tidily – and about time two.

There were also a couple of small, solid wooden orange boxes. I liberated those too, and they will be on their way to Caliburn to replace the cardboard boxes in there.

Me? Organised? Whatever next?

Despite my reasonable sleep, I crashed out for a really good 90 minutes this afternoon. Properly away with the fairies I was. It’s starting to become rather silly, this one. And it’s also becoming a habit, which I don’t like at all

Back in the launderette this evening to see what the world has been up to, and then back here for tea. And what a tea it was! While the pasta was cooking, I fried some garlic in some of the soya margarine, and then added a small tin of mushrooms and the rest of the vegetables left over from Saturday. A pile of boulghour and the rest of the jar of tomato sauce, with the pasta all mixed in and it was totally delicious.

A shower and a shave this evening – must make myself clean and tidy for the hospital tomorrow. After all, the cute little Tara might be there to look after me so I need to look my best. Yes – I can still chase after the women, even if I can’t remember why.

And now a film and an early night – hoping that I won’t be disturbed as I was last night. That really annoyed me, that did.

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Sunday 14th August 2016 – IT WAS ANOTHER …

… unsettled night last night. I was in bed early enough and even watched a film on the laptop from start to finish, but eben though I was quite tired I had trouble dozing off to sleep.

And not only that, I had to leave the comfort and security of my stinking pit on more than one occasion too, for reasons that I don’t really understand as I had been very careful not to drink anything as the evening wore on last night.

The final time – round about 04:20 – and I couldn’t go back off to sleep and just lay here ruminating until the crowds started to emerge at about 06.50. And no chance of going back to sleep once they were up and about, no matter how tired I was feeling.

I’d been on my travels during the night though. I’d taken Zero, together with her mother (although the woman in the dream wasn’t actually her real mother) to one of these adventure parks somewhere. She’s met a girl of about 13 or 14 and they were hanging out together going on the rides and so on and I was keeping an eye on them, making sure that they didn’t get into any mischief.

There was no internet again this morning, which is rather miserable, I reckon. Dunno what’s happening here and the office is closed all day today so that won’t be sorted out for a while. I shall have to do something in real life instead. Meanwhile, after breakfast, which I took in company with another couple or three of my housemates, I headed off to the laundry around the corner in the Ridderstraat to take advantage of their wi-fi connection. I can see this becoming something of a habit.

I’d picked up a baguette from the boulangerie on the corner for lunch. With the hummus, tomatoes, olives and salad mix, it was very delicious too.

This afternoon I had a play around with my 3D program and then had a shower and a shave and a change of clothes. I’m dining out with Alison tonight so I need to look my best. I’d also found a plastic crate that had been abandoned, so I washed and cleaned that in the shower too and sorted out all of my tins of food to make the place look prettier and, more importantly, so that I know what I have. Tidying up, me? If I’m not careful, I’ll be sorting myself out before I’m too much older, and that will never do.

When Alison came round, we went off into town to hunt down some more flats and studios, and then Alison took me to a small restaurant that she had discovered – a Thai restaurant where my vegetable curry was outstanding. We had a coffee or two in the square, watching the world go by, and then had a slow walk back here. And Alison had a surprise for me too – she’s been to the English shop and had bought me a couple of packets of vegan hummus-flavoured crisps. Just the thing to smuggle into the hospital on Tuesday.

So now I’m back home. Still no internet so I’ll be having another early night with a couple of films on the laptop. And it looks as if I’ll be off to the launderette tomorrow if this internet situation isn’t sorted out.

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Saturday 13th August 2016 – THAT’S A BIT MORE LIKE IT!

After the football last night, it was quite late when I went to bed. And I didn’t even bother to watch a film either – I settled down straight away.

And despite having to leave my stinking pit on one occasion during the night, I remember nothing whatever until the 07:00 cacophony this morning. It’s a long time since I’ve had a night like that, isn’t it? The walk out and back to the footy yesterday evening clearly did me some good.

I was off on my travels too during the night, although I don’t remember too much about it. It was something to do with different football clubs, and I was with a woman too although I can’t remember now just who she was. It can’t have been all that important.

Despite there being a few people in here at the moment, I was on my own yet again at breakfast. Not that I’m complaining of course – I much prefer it like that as you probably know. And still no muesli either. That’s rather depressing. I’m not such a fan of cornflakes, although I can’t complain too much – at least it’s all free (or, to be more precise, included in the price).

The morning was quite relaxing. A had a couple of chats with people on line, including Rosemary who has invited me for a few days in the UK when I’m feeling better, which is very nice of her. But it meant that I couldn’t get out to Caliburn and the big Carrefour supermarket on the edge of town, having run out of time and I was starving too. I had to go to the Delhaize supermarket in town instead and that wasn’t part of the plan.

However, they do sell tins of curried beans so I’ve bought a tin, and they had some cheap garlic too so with the soya margarine that I bought the other day, I’ll make some garlic butter because I’ve bought a half-baguette too as well as the normal one. The intention is to make my own Saturday night curry with garlic bread. It should be lovely.

Later on in the afternoon, I crashed out for 90 minutes. A proper crash-out too. Not quite sure why because it’s not as if I’ve had a hectic day, and I did have a decent-ish sleep too. I must be getting old.

So now there’s no internet access this evening (the system has gone down) I’m going to have an early night. I’ll watch a film maybe too, seeing as I have plenty of time.

And while the curried beans were nothing special, the garlic bread was beautiful and I shall be making this again.

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Friday 12th August 2016 – I MUST BE THE KISS OF DEATH.

This evening, I went out just for a change. To the Den Dreef Stadion here in Leuven as OH Leuven were at home to Union St Gilloise in the Belgian Second division tonight. I managed to find the home fans’ entrance too and had a grandstand seat right behind the goal.

OH Leuven played really well up and down the park and totally monopolised the first half. It was really good, exciting football for what it was, but it all fell apart in front of the goal. As for St Gilles, they weren’t able to leave their own half for the first 35 minutes, and then, as you might expect, in their first attack they roared up the field and scored the most unlikely of goals.

The second half started as the first half finished – with OH Leuven laying siege to the Union St Gilloise goal, and so after 5 minutes, St Gilles roared off up the other end and scored a second goal. That was their second attack.

After that, the heads of the OH Leuven players went down and even bringing on three substitutes couldn’t stimulate the team. The St Gilles players grew in stature – the two centre-halves were very impressive – and a third goal, which had been on the cards for 20 minutes, came with just 5 minutes to go.

From such a bright and energetic start, OH Leuven were a rather sorry group of players by the final whistle.

The walk out there, armed with a bag of chips from the fritkot, was very pleasant, and the walk back, in the cool evening air, was very relaxing. And I managed it all there and back at a brisk pace without any problems. I must be feeling better.

I had another bad night too. Although I was in bed reasonably early watching a film (and dozing off in the middle of it) I was wide awake again at 01:15. And I don’t remember going back to sleep after that, and it was so light by 06:15 that I went off and had breakfast.

The cleaner came round to do the room later on and that disturbed me. I went and had another coffee before going off to the supermarket on the corner for my baguette. My lunchtime butty was beautiful, and then I crashed out good and proper for about an hour and a half.

This evening I went off to watch the footy and collected a couple of phone numbers on the way. I’ll have to give them a ring this weekend to see if I can sort something out.

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Monday 8th August 2016 – THIS HAS GONE BEYOND A JOKE

So there I was, in bed at a reasonably early time and settled down for the night.

And I lay there mulling things over in my mind and not doing too much – then gradually the dawn chorus began, and it began to become light outside. When the 07:00 cacophony cracked off, I went upstairs and demolished about a pint of orange juice. I would have had breakfast too, but I wasn’t particularly hungry.

After that, I came back down here and went back to bed. I reckon that it was somewhere round about 09:00 when I finally went off to sleep – but it wasn’t for very long because I didn’t realise that there’s quite something of an impressive cacophony from the church bells at midday too – I hadn’t noticed that before.

It took me until about 15:30 before I felt up to very much, and then I went to the supermarket on the corner for a bit of bread and a tomato. That, together with some of my vegan cheese, gave me something to eat.

Liz was on line later and we had a bit of a chat – then I crashed out for an hour or so. I cant’t say that I’m surprised.

Tonight, I made a chick pea curry, with mixed veg and boulghour. I had half of that for tea with rice, and the other half will do for tea tomorrow.

But I’m thoroughly fed up with these sleeping issues. I wish that I could drop off at 23:00 and wake up at 07:30. I just don’t know what is the matter with me these days that I can’t seem to sleep.

But I have to have a good sleep tonight, because I have an appointment at 10:00 tomorrow. It’s not with a medical institution either but it’s quite important, so I can’t pass it up.

More about this tomorrow.

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Sunday 7th August 2016 – AND SO LAST NIGHT …

… I was in bed by 21:45. And by 22:00 I was well away in the arms of Morpheus. And at 23:00 I was back wide awake again, and that was how I stayed until long after 02:00. I’m becoming thoroughly fed up by my sleep issues right now. I just can’t seem to go off to sleep.

I imagine that we had the usual 07:00 cacophony from the church bells across the road but I knew absolutely nothing whatever about that. It was 09:00 when I surfaced, which, you have to admit, is not too bad for a Sunday. But going to sleep at 22:00 and staying asleep would have been so much nicer.

A little later I made it to the boulangerie down the road and bought my baguette for lunchtime. It seems as if my appetite is back, which is always a very good thing.

This evening, I went for a walk. I’d seen some furnished studio apartments to let on the way down to the football ground. Although the rooms are for students only, they are in a nice, clean modern building and are a reasonable price, so I’d like to be able to talk my way into there if I can. I needed the phone number so that I can contact the agents tomorrow.

It was a lovely walk in the cool evening breeze, and on the way back I stopped off for my Sunday pizza. And that reminds me- I’ll need to sort out some more vegan cheese sometime in the near future.

Apart from that I’ve not done too much else. I’m still recovering from my spell in hospital so I need to take it easy. But tomorrow I’ll have to sort myself out and start working again. I can’t keep on wasting time like this, even if I don’t quite feel up to doing anything much.

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Saturday 6th August 2016 – WELL, THAT DIDN’T TURN OUT …

… like it ought to have done, did it?

Despite planning on an early night, it was after 04:00 this morning and I was still awake, despite having had a full day awake yesterday. I really didn’t understand that at all.

The 07:00 cacophony woke me up of course but only for a couple of seconds and I was back in the arms of Morpheus quite quickly. It was 10:30 when I finally crawled out of bed, and just made it into the kitchen before the 11:00 cut-off time for breakfast.

What was interesting about last night was that I hadn’t had to leave the bed at any time either – quite a rare event these days – and I’d been on my travels too. It concerns three stick insects that I owned and which I was keeping in a plastic bag in the fridge. But then I found a plastic jar of some description and was busily enticing them into there. I had no idea how I was going to feed them or keep them sheltered, but that hadn’t bothered me for a minute.

I’ve had a relaxing day again, doing effectively nothing at all. I had a play with the 3D program that I used and I was following a couple of football results on the internet. I’d also (quite late on as it happened) been to the supermarket on the corner but instead of a baguette, I bought a ciabatta just to be different and that made a pleasant change for my butties.

It’s Saturday night too, so I went out at about 20:00 and bought myself a proper chick pea curry from the Asian take-away – and nice it was too. I quite look forward to this as much as I do for my pizza on Sundays.

But my splendid isolation is changing. For the last couple of days, it looked as if I was the only person staying here and it was nice and quiet. But today a few people have moved in and I can hear the television going off next door. That’s annoying but it can’t be helped. I reckon that I’ve just been lucky this last few days or so.

Anyway, in a minute, I’ll go off and do the washing up. Then I’ll see about an early night. I might be able to manage one today.

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