Tag Archives: http://www.erichall.eu

Sunday 6th November 2016 – HOW MANY …

… Epichalls do you see in this photograph?

The lift here in the hotel is lined with mirrors and you can make some quite interesting images using all of the reflections if you feel like it. I mean, I’m always feeling like it and so I went to take a photo as I was going out for a walk.

I went out early for a loaf of bread. There is a boulanger in the vicinity but as you might expect, it’s closed for the holidays. But the Spar supermarket in the town centre is open and I could buy a baguette in there.

I’d had a really good night’s sleep last night. I had to leave the bed just once and how I wished that I didn’t have to leave it at all. I’d had some exciting travels too but just like all the time recently, everything disappeared as soon as the alarm went off.

I had a lie-in too. The alarm was set for 07:00 and a repeat at 07:15 as usual, but I set the snooze function for an extra 10 minutes. I was still first downstairs for breakfast too, and excellent it was yet again.

I said that I was out for a walk this morning, but it wasn’t a walk that I had, but some exercise. Get it out of the way early. A brief 50-yard dash down the promenade after my cap which had blown off in the gale-force winds. It was wicked out there today.

You can probably tell that, not only from the waves out there but also for the lack of people on the promenade. It was deserted this morning.

The sun came out while I was out there in the wind, and so I ended up going for a walk on the beach. Hardly a soul about as you can see, but there was something exciting going on out there offshore.

I’ve no idea what it was, but there was an orange rescue launch out there together with some kind of tug or similar boat that was spraying water everywhere. Maybe it was some kind of fire-fighting exercise, I dunno. But the camera on the phone is no good for this kind of thing in this kind of weather.

I carried on along the beach which was deserted despite the sunshine. The kiosks were locked up, as you might expect.

But just there further down on the left are the Royal Galleries. They were built at the turn of the 20th Century on the orders of King Leopold II during the Golden Years of the Belgian state and was intended to be part of a royal palace. Nowadays though, the complex is a luxury hotel, a room in which is well out of the pocket of people such as you and me.

Ther’s also the huge skyscraper block of apartments down there, and how I would love to have a studio right at the top of it.

I’ve had a busy, and successful day on the website today. And now, there are five extra pages loaded, one, two, three, four and five, all about the final 40 kilometres of Highway 138 on the border between the Province of Quebec and the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was quite an amount of work.

It’s a fairly controversial stretch of road, but nothing like as controversial as the 300 or so kilometres that the Quebec Government hasn’t built. You need to read what I’ve written to find out what is going on. It’s certainly a rather sad story.

I went back out later in the late afternoon for a coffee. Braving the howling gales and driving rain. It was definitely wicked out there this evening.

And to finish off the day, it’s Sunday so it’s pizza night. I found a tiny backstreet pizza place and I had a few slices of vegan cheese left. The pizza was delicious but once again, no-one in Belgium knows how to make a proper pizza base.

So now it’s early-night time. Only three more sleeps here and then it’s back to Leuven. And who knows where I’ll be after that.

Saturday 5th November 2016 – AND SO, WHAT WAS THE VERDICT?

While you admire the Kursaal Casino across the roads and the UFOs that are circling around it, I’l fill you in about the breakfast.

i was actually the first down this morning and they weren’t quite ready for me. But once it was organised, I ended up with muesli and fruit salad followed by fresh baguette, bread rolls and apricot jam. It goes without saying that there was as much coffee and orange juice as I cared to drink.

While you likewise admire the sea, which is 50 yards down there past the Ambassador hotel, I’ll reassure you about the breakfast, to say that what I had was just a small sample of what was on offer. The tables really were groaning under the weight of it all.

If it weren’t for this restrictive diet that I’m on, I wouldn’t need to eat for a week after all of what I could in theory have for breakfast.

All in all, here’s once very happy and contented bunny writing out his blog.

I had an excellent sleep last night once I’d dozed off. I had to leave the bed once and that’s all, and then I was wide awake at 06:40. I’d been on some exciting travels too but, true to force, the memory of them didn’t last all that long once I was awake.

By the tile the second alarm went off, I was in the shower having a good scrub – and then first down to the breakfast.

I went out and about somewhere round by 11:00. On shopping duty.

There’s a huge pedestrian street that runs right through the centre of the town and this is where you find all of the shops. I mentioned that this week is Toussaint, school half-term, and there are kids everywhere. It goes without saying that we have a fair here in the square. It brightens up the place, even though it isn’t a patch on the old Traction Engine Rallies at Bishop’s Castle.

The pedestrian centre was cut in two with diversions signposted apparently (I couldn’t see them). There’s some demolition going on, and this huge piledriver is here ready to do its stuff.

The diversion took me past the Hotel Cardiff, and I seem to recall having stayed here at one time about 30 years ago. Back in those days it was something of a dive but that was a long time ago. Judging by the reviews, it’s undergone a huge programme of renovation and it seems to be a popular place with loads of good reviews.

My ramble took me down to the harbour and through the market. And then I crossed the marina to the other side and the Delhaize supermarket.

From there, there’s a good view of the Onze Lieve Vrouwe College, the College of Our Beloved Lady. This would appear to be a High School of some description and judging by its name, is atached in some way to the Catholic Church in a similar way to the Sacré Coeur schools

I stocked up with salad stuff and a baguette for lunch, as well as a bag of really delicious red grapes, and then wandered around to the top end of the marina near the swing bridge to take a photograph of the scene.

But you can see the weather that we are having today. There are a pile of heavy grey clouds over there to the left of the photo. Even so, the view really is quite attractive

I walked back along the water front. It’s famous for the seafood market – you can’t move without tripping over a pile of fish and other items of edible sea stuff. I have no idea at all what wulloks are, and having stuck my head into the pot, I don’t really think that I want to know. I do know that I won’t be eating any.

But there have been loads of changes along here since I last visited. My favourite hotel has disappeared and been replaced by a block of flats. But I did check out a few other hotels instead just in case I ever need one in a hurry.

Round the corner from the canal onto the seafront. And almost immediately I was blown backwards by the wind. It really was wicked.

It’s hardly surprising that there weren’t so many people out there today, and those who were were having something of a struggle to walk along the front.

Cycling was difficult too, even for those who are eight to a machine like the people over there on the right of the photo.

By now, adding insult to injury, it started raining too. That was me thoroughly fed upso I headed back to my hotel, which you can see just down there.

They hadn’t made up my room, which was annoying, and so I decided to make my butties, having bought a knife while I was out. As soon as I had whipped out my baguette the cleaners turned up so I had to repair to the foyer, where the sofa was one of the nicest upon which I’ve sat.

But half an hour later my room was ready so I could go back and eat my butty. And to carry on with my web pages about the end of Highway 138 in Quebec. And the good news is that they are nearly finished.

At 17:00 I knocked off for the day and went onto the promenade to a cafe for a coffee. And the wind by now was violent and it was raining quite heavily. I was worried that the cafe might blow away.

One thing that annoyed me about it was that although it offered free wi-fi, it only applied for half an hour, which was a bit miserable.

And oooh!They joys of predictive text. I sent a message to Liz saying that I was “having a coffee in a cafe on the sea …” – and the predictive text suggested “… floor”. I know that the weather was bad, but not that bad.

On the way back, I was blown down the hill by the wind and found myself staring at the Kursaal Casino again. This time it’s all lit up and it looks rather nice from the outside. Not that I have any intention of going to see the inside.

Later on, I went out for tea to a falafel place that I had seen earlier when I was wandering around. The meal wasn’t too bad either and it wasn’t too expensive. And that makes a change.

Now I’m going to have another early night, and see if I can be first down at the breakfast again in the morning.

Friday 4th November 2016 – OOOH LOOK!

I’m at the station at Leuven again aren’t I? And I’m about to hit the rails.

I didn’t have to stagger very far from my hotel – just down the steps and into the tunnel. There’s a ticket machine there, and it wasn’t working so I had to go to the booking office and make my reservation. And then a quick dash round to my platform where the train for Kortrijk was just pulling in.

Mind you, I wasn’t going to Kortrijk – not at all.

I had something of a restless night again last night – woke up with the bedclothes all over the floor at one point. But a nice hot shower soon put me right.

A glance out of the window wasn’t all that promising. The weather looked rather miserable but never mind. No sense in hanging around. And so I made my excuses and left. Mind you, I do have to say that at €49:00 the Ibis Budget did all that it said that it would. The rooms are small and pokey of course but they are scrupulously clean and tidy and everything works like it should.

I have no complaints whatever and would happily stay there again

Here’s another train and it has ANTWERPEN CENTRAAL displayed in the headboard. But I’m not going to Antwerp either.

I alighted from my Kortrijk train at Ghent St Pieters station, crossed over to the next platform and stepped into the train that was waiting there, having just come in from Antwerp. And now here I am, taking a photograph of my train after we arrived at … Oostende.

I walked through the streets of Oostende to find my hotel, which is out by the Kursaal Casino.

And don’t you think that people are taking this craze of photographing and filming even the most banal and uneventful moments of their private lives to post on the internet is going far too far? And this craze for miniaturisation – can things go any smaller?

And personally, the way that the world is going, I’m surprised that it’s closed.

While you admire the beautiful sunny weather that we are having here in Oostende, let me tell you a little about my hotel.

It’s called the Hotel Imperial, quite an upmarket three-star hotel just 50 metres from the seafront. It’s quite an expensive place normally, and it looks it too, but it does have a few rooms usually reserved for coach parties (as I remember from my coach-driving days with Shearings) up in the garret – tiny but well-appointed and I negotiated a good deal – €300 for five nights, breakfast included.

The walk-in price for the room would have been … gulp … €160 per night.

and I’m lucky that there even was a room free too. It’s Toussaint, the Belgian schools’ half-term holidays and the town is pretty crowded, as you can tell by looking at the promenade here.

The hotel where I was hoping to stay, right on the edge of the docks, is fully-booked, as are many of the other places too.

But I’ll tell you much more about what the Hotel Imperial is like when I’ve had a good go at the breakfast tomorrow. The first breakfast is always a key moment in anyone’s holiday.

I went to grab a bag of chips and to join the crowds on the promenade for a walk in order to inhale the ozone. But the weather was quite nasty as you can see. There was a wind, a misty haze and light drizzle. I didn’t stick it out for long, as the old ecclesiastical gentleman once said to the thespian. I came back to my room.

I did some work on my website, fell asleep, chatted to a friend and all that kind of thing, and then went for tea. Food is much more expensive in Oostende rather than Leuven, and it’s nothing like as well prepared. I had a disappointing vegetarian durum tonight, and I’ll have to do much better than that tomorrow. I do recall complaining about the food last time that I was here.

So now it’s an early night in my comfortable bed. I’m looking forward to a good sleep and a first-class breakfast.

I’ll tell you tomorrow if I received it.

Thursday 3rd November 2016 – GRRRR!

Yes, you’ve guessed it. It’s not good news.

Last night was quite a disturbed night and I even sweated a great deal. Dunno whether it was concern about what today might bring me, but there we are. It was quite a struggle to leave the bed after the alarm went off and head off to breakfast, but there I was all the same. And by 07:30 I was out and on the road to the hospital.

The morning was a misty, foggy cold morning and so I walked briskly up to the hospital. By 07:50 I was at the registration desk and by 08:00 I was in the waiting room.

The wait was longer than it ought to have been but eventually I was seen and the blood pressure and blood samples were taken. and then I had another long wait until about 11:00 until the doctor saw me. He asked me all of the usual questions and I had the usual thorough examination, and then I had to wait again.

Lunch was the usual soup and bread, which didn’t take me too long to wolf down; And then I had to wait again.

The nephrologist saw me at 14:30. She said that the protein loss was slowly increasing, and they needed to make yet further tests. I had to go for another set of x-rays. And then I had to wait again.

By 17:30 I was fed up of waiting and so I asked what was going on. It appears that some nurse had told the nephrologist that I’d gone home. And so nothing had happened. The nephrologist told me eventually that she wanted me to come back in on … errr … Wednesday next week. So not even a week before my next appointment. How I’m fed up with all of this.

And my blood count? It’s down to 9.7. I’m pretty fed up of that as well.

I was fed up of all of the waiting too, but at least I was able to do tons of stuff on the web pages that I’m writing.

But it was far too late to do anything else so I booked a room at the Ibis Budget and went there via Caliburn to pick up some spare clothes. I had a good deal too at the Ibis.

After a shower, a shave and a change of clothes, Alison turned up and we went to the fritkot, for a meal and a good chin-wag.

Now I’m having an early night. For I have a cunning plan in the morning. Whatever it might be, you’ll have to wait and see.

Wednesday 2nd November 2016 – I’M MOVING ON …

… tomorrow, so I must organise myself quite rapidly today.

I had a bit of a bad night again last night and had something of a struggle to make it up to breakfast at 07:15. I was joined by the usual crowd of students who popped in, made some butties and then popped out again, and then I was back down here.

I had an hour or so working on the website again – the missing bit of Highway 138 in Quebec – and then I headed off to Kessel-Lo.

As luck would have it, and in a complete surprise, the Fortis Bank had my bank card ready and once they had reactivated it, it worked fine too. That’s even more of a surprise.

At Bio-Planet I picked up a baguette and then drove back. I prepared an envelope for the insurance claim form, picked some stuff for tea from the collection in the back of Caliburn, and then came back here. And here, I cracked on with the web-site.

after lunch, I phoned up the hospital to find out the time of my appointment. And I know that I had hoped for an early appointment but this is ridiculous. They want me there at 08:10 and it doesn’t come much earlier than this. I’ll have to change all of the alarms.

After lunch I went off to the Post Office and posted the claim form. That’s another job done. Then I came back and crashed out for a while.

I found the time to carry out an amendment to the website – I’m trying to update at least one page per day, although today’s amendment wasn’t anything considerable.

For tea I had a tin of vegetables with chick peas, tomato sauce and rice, to finish off a few bit that were lying around. And when the washing-up was done, I took everything down to Caliburn except for what I can take tomorrow to the hospital. And finally I had a shower.

Now I’m having an early night again, ready for tomorrow. And then we’ll see what happens. There are three choices – they could keep me in hospital. Or if I’m released for at least two weeks, I’ll be off home. But if it’s only for a week or so, I’m off to the seaside.

I can do with a holiday after all of this.

Tuesday 1st November 2016 – NOTHING OF ANY IMPORTANCE …

… went wrong today. But that’s quite probably because I didn’t really do anything.

All that you can point a finger at was when I went to the supermarket on the corner for my baguette this morning and there was a black plastic storage box in the rubbish pile by the waste bins. I went out tonight to recover it but it had gone, along with all of the rubbish. I can’t have been quick enough. The bin-men must have passed by and removed it all, something that surprised me seeing me as it’s a Bank Holiday in Belgium today.

I was up a couple of times during the night, first time that that has happened for a while, and I’d breakfasted and was back down here by 07:40. And apart from going out for my baguette at about 08:45, I’ve not done too much at all.

I spoke to Liz on the internet and also to a friend of mine for a while, and I’ve been working on my web-site too,. I’ve started on the pages for the Highway 138 extension from Blanc Sablon down to Old Fort right out at the far end of Quebec at the border with Labrador. I’d driven most of Highway 138 as far as possible during my voyages of 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, but this part of the road, cut off from the rest by 300 kilometres of Anglophone community, had escaped me until 2014.

Mind you, my heart hasn’t been in it all that much today. I’ve been drifting in and out of sleep (and I’m not sure why) and had a few distractions. And so I’ve not made the progress for which I was hoping. And I have a lot on for the next couple of days so I won’t be doing much then either.

I finished the second half of my curry tonight and had the disappointment about the plastic storage box. Now I’m taking things easy and I’ll be having an early night a little bit later.

Have to keep fighting fit, you know.

Monday 31st October 2016 – “SURELY NOTHING ELSE …

… can go wrong” I hear you say.

And I say they can. And it doesn’t just relate to Terry not having a socket to fit the wheel nuts on the trailer either. Ohhh no!

Instead, I drove all the way out to Kessel-Lo this morning to the Fortis Bank retrieve my bank card, only to be told that they don’t open the safe until Wednesday morning. So that was a total waste of time, wasn’t it? But at least the baguettes and free coffee in the Bio-Planet are worth having.

And getting back into my parking place here wasn’t easy either. They are doing building work in there and one of the builders had parked his vehicle across my parking space. I had to wait a while until he moved it.

Other bad news was that I had to pay for my week’s stay here. That’s left a hole in my pocket and no mistake. But at least they have a photocopier there, so I could photocopy my accident report form. I’ll send that off tomorrow.

And so what else (as if that isn’t enough)?

The good news, I suppose is that having gone to bed comparatively early last night, I actually managed to sleep right the way through until about 10 minutes before the alarm went off. It’s been quite a while since I had a decent sleep anything like that.

I’d been on my travels toolast night and they were rather vivid too. I’d been given several tasks to do and one of those was to go off any pay a bill to the Tax Office. When I finally arrived there it was someone whom I knew at the cash desk. I’d paid over the cheque, and so she asked me about the £2:2:0 administration fee for the cheque. I explained that the Government certainly insisted on its pound of flesh, didn’t it? She told me not to worry – seeing that she knew me she would pay it in on my behalf. And as well as that, she gave me some notes that had been rejected by the Tax Office – some Lei notes. Lei is of course the currency of Romania but during the night it was Czech money and these notes were of different size (which I knew to be a possibility) but they had been endorsed “wrong size” which I knew was quite probably wrong.
My next port of call was tomorrow at 15:00. I’d been asked by some friends whom I had known when I lived in Chester in the early-70s to appear in court on behalf of someone detained overnight who owed a sum of money and my task was to pay it so that he could be released. But I had suddenly acquired an urgent appointment of my own for that time which meant that I couldn’t go on behalf of this other person. I reckoned that I could go off to the court and pay the money in advance but that was across the town (I was in Macclesfield, but not a Macclesfield that I would ever know) so I walked down through the main street which had been pedestrianised and where there were some important buildings being built – but then I remembered that I had an appointment of my own at 15:00 this afternoon and if I attended it, I would be too late to go to the Court and pay this money. But if I went to the court and paid in the money I would be hours late for my appointment. And so with all of this confusion, what would I do?

But waking up solved that problem for me. I went off for an early breakfast instead.

Around everything else that I’ve been doing today, I’ve been working on my website. And by the time that I knocked off for tea tonight I’d organised all of the photos and text in Upper Quebec and Labrador that relate to the trans-Labrador Highway. They are all in the correct place now. And that wasn’t easy either because I must have had a bad day or two out there last year because I forgot in many instances to record the mileages of the photos that I’d taken. Not only that, where I had recorded the mileages, I had to convert the trip readings on two vehicles – the Dodge from 2014 and Strider the Ranger from 2015 to correspond with the mileages on the road.

later on though, I managed to put two revised pages on line – this one and this one. I ought to me making more of an effort to bring some of my earlier entries up-to-date with things that I have subsequently learnt.

And I managed not to crash out this afternoon either. That’s a rare occurrence these days, isn’t it?

Tea tonight was a chick pea curry with vegetables, rice and boulghour. The crowning ingredient of the curry was the stock cube of course. That makes a world of difference.

Nad now I’m planning on another early night once I’ve washed the dishes. I’ll see where I end up tonight.

Sunday 30th October 2016 – IT GOES FROM BAD …

… to worse.

Luckily, it’s something that hasn’t happened to me (except only indirectly) but I’m involved in this as much as anyone else.

Terry needed to move the mini-digger and asked me ages ago if he could borrow my Indespension plant trailer to do the job, to which I agreed. Then a day or two ago he told me that he would be round at my place this morning, but the penny didn’t drop.

Later this afternoon, I had a phone call. There’s a puncture on the trailer. Well, I had no idea that he was planning to move it today. And where is the puncture? Why, it’s about 200 miles away from home. I had no idea that he was going to go that far.

Of course, there’s no spare wheel. That was one of the things that I had intended to resolve over the winter, as well as fitting all of the rear lights that I had bought for it so that I could bin the trailer-board on the back, but as you know, I was otherwise occupied with my serious health issues and I’ve never been home since.

If you have insurance on your trailer you can call for assistance, but that’s another thing that never entered my mind seeing as how I am in no position to move it anywhere right now.

And of course, it’s Sunday, so now Terry is stranded. But luckily there’s a hotel near to where he is.

Tomorrow he needs to take the wheel off the trailer and take it to be repaired or replaced, but to do that, he needs to take the digger off the trailer. But there’s no diesel in the digger so he’ll have to go off and organise that first thing tomorrow. Except that he doesn’t have a fuel can.

As you can see, it’s another thing that has come to try us just now. When is all of this going to end?

I was asleep really early last night but my neighbours awoke me when they came in and they had the television on – not loud, I hasten to add, but I could hear it vaguely in the background. And once I did drop off, I had to go off twice down the corridor.

I’d been on my travels too, but I don’t have a clue about where I went or what I did. It all evaporated the moment that I awoke.

And wasn’t I organised today? Breakfasted, down to the boulangerie for my baguette and back here, all befor 07:45. that’s something of a new world record. But I spent most of the day drifting in and out of sleep. I had a good chat with Liz and Rosemary today and I’ve also been attacking the website. You remember that I travelled along the Trans-Labrador Highway when it was completed in 2010 and my account of that journey has been on line for a few years.

But as you recall, if you are a regular reader of this rubbish, that I’ve done the journey twice since, once in 2014 and again in 2015 – both time is the opposite direction from east to west. There have been so many changes to the route that I’m going to write another book about it. And so I’ve started to merge all of the reports and photos into one.

That’s going to take me a good while, I reckon. Not the work of five minutes, that’s for sure, so don’t expect to see daily updates on line. .

It’s Sunday and so for tea tonight I had a pizza. Spinach and mushrooms and it was delicious. Best that I’ve had.

But now, I’m going to try for an early night. My body clock will be up the spout because of the change of hour, so I hope that I’m not disturbed.

Saturday 29th October 2016 – IT NEVER RAINS …

… but it pours, doesn’t it?

I decided that in order to changer mes idées, as the French so aptly put it, I’d go out of town this lunchtime and do my shopping out at Kessel-LO, to give me a good opportunity to have a wander around.

And the net result of my external perambulations?

The Fortis Bank there has swallowed my bank card.

That’s all that I need, isn’t it? Lurching from one disaster to another while I’m here this last two or three weeks. I’m getting totally fed up of this. It’s about time that something went right with me for a change.

But at least I’d managed to go to Bio-Planet and buy some more vegan cheese and a beautiful baguette, as well as helping myself to the free samples and the complementary coffee. I bought some stuff (but nothing exciting) in Carrefour that I need to tide me over until Thursday when (hopefully) I’ll leave here and I had a good look around in Krefel to see what they had in the way of electrical appliances. But there was nothing that particularly excited me.

Last night, it didn’t take me long to go to sleep. And once I was asleep, I stayed asleep (except for one trip down the corridor). I awoke about 5 minutes before the alarm, and for once, I was washed and breakfasted and back in my room by 07:45.

My voyage last night was something of a strange parallel to real life. I was somewhere in north-west England, Lancaster or the like, and I had a few days spare. I was torn between going back home to Crewe for a short while or finding somewhere to stay up there. The idea of going to Silloth appealed to me, but I had a look at the map, which was in a holder up above my head in Caliburn and found the town of Oxenhope right on the coast not too far from where I was (and Oxenhope is of course miles away from the sea in real life) I could see that it was fairly large with a port and harbour, with a main street running along the front and so I reckoned that I would go there. But I couldn’t get Caliburn to start – and that was painful. We also had two children – rather like two kids that I know in real life – and they appeared on my voyages for some reason or other.

After breakfast, I had a little doze and did a few bits and pieces and round about 11:30 I wandered off down to Caliburn and out to Kessel-Lo.

Back here, it ended up being a late lunch and then I attacked the web site again. I’ve been working on it again and I’ve amended three web pages, this one, this one and this one. Stuff from my 2015 voyage needed to be added into the first two pages, and that led to adjustments on the third page.

I had a good chat with Liz and another one of my friends on the internet too. It’s certainly been a marvellous invention, hasn’t it?

Tonight, I finished off my curry from yesterday and now I’m planning on yet another early night. i’ll hopefully make the most of it because the clocks go back tonight. Back 100 years for those of you who voted for the Brexit.

But for me, it means that I might have an extra hour in bed asleep.

But I’ve heard all of that before.

Friday 28th October 2016 – I’VE HAD A BAD DAY TODAY

In fact, I’ve spent most of it asleep.

It all probably stems from last night. I told you that I was going to have an early night, and indeed I did. And I wasn’t awake long either. Soon away with the fairies.

The trouble was that it didn’t last long. I was awake after about an hour and with people coming and going throughout the house and talking in raised voices, I couldn’t go back to sleep again. I ended up working on two pages of my website, adding some stuff from 2015 – this one and this one.

I was eventually able to go off to sleep and I slept right through until the alarm went off. It was something of a stagger up to breakfast, and then back down here I lay on the bed and dozed.

I missed my little window to go and pay for my room, as I was fast asleep during the bistro’s lunchtime opening hours. But I did manage to make it to the supermarket on the corner to buy some stuff for lunch. So much for the mega-shop that I had planned, and so much for my trip to the footy ground to buy my ticket for tomorrow night (it’s an all-ticket match). I’ve missed the football for this weekend then.

I spoke a little to Liz this afternoon, and worked on another page of my website. This is astonishing, isn’t it? I dunno where this motivation is coming from.

But apart from that, I was back asleep for most of the afternoon. Until I had a rude awakening from the cleaner that is. Now I have clean bedding and a reasonably clean room.

The bistro was closed this evening when I went past – I went to Caliburn to pick up some food. For tea I had a mushroom curry with rice and it was so delicious. And there’s enough for tomorrow too. And tonight I had another doze too.

But now I’m off to bed. There are hordes of new arrivals this weekend so I hope that they all behave themselves.

Wednesday 26th October 2016 – SO HERE I AM …

… my last night in Leuven.

For a while, I hope. But even if it’s only for two or three weeks, I’m leaving for home anyway as soon as I an discharged from the hospital. I have stuff that I need to do back there and I can’t leave it any longer. And now that I’ve had Caliburn’s wheel bearing fixed, there’s no reason for me to stay.

After last night’s perturbations it took me ages to go off to sleep. And I had to leave the bed twice for a trip down the corridor. Not only that, I’ve no idea if I went off on a ramble. I can’t recall a thing.

It was a struggle to leave the bed, as you might expect. And after breakfast I had one of these eye-closing sessions. I wasn’t away with the fairies, but it was near enough.

Once I’d had another coffee to wake me up, I started work on my website again. And now we have this page and this page on line. And if I don’t fall asleep before bedtime, there might be another page on line before the end of the day today.

I had a good chat on line with a couple of people while I was working, and I also crashed out for half an hour this afternoon. And that was really nice too. The sun is lower in the sky and now shines underneath the top of the window. It was gloriously sunny and warm, and the rays of sunshine were shining right on me. It was beautiful.

I’d had some good luck today when I was out buying my baguette. The supermarket had thrown a couple more plastic food-trays into the skip. I went out later in the evening after tea to have a look at them and apart from being rather dirty, they were in good condition – not damaged at all.

Anyway, they have now been added to the stock and I might even have enough for the little project that I have in mind that includes a visit to IKEA and the purchase of a pile of cardboard boxes.

All of this depends upon what the hospital has to tell me tomorrow. If I’m still on two-weekly visits I’ll be well-and-truly sunk without a doubt. But I’m hoping that it’ll be much better news than this.

And so i’m going to have an early night and see what tomorrow will bring me.

Tuesday 25th October 2016 – I WENT TO RESCUE CALIBURN …

… from the garage today. And I had to lie down in a darkened room to recover from the shock.

Mind you, I knew that it would be expensive so in the end I was prepared, I suppose. And it wasn’t just a case of the new bearing either but with it being a front-wheel drive, the disc is cast into the bearing housing so that needed to be replaced too, and that meant new brake pads as well.

Not only that, discs and brake pads are only sold in pairs and so I had to end up having the parts for the other side too, so they will go into store for the next occasion.

Finally, there were some bushes that were worn on the anti-roll bar which I’ve been meaning to do. But seeing as how they had Caliburn up on a hoist, I set them on the task. It may as well be done sooner rather than later and they have all the facilities.

I’d had a late night but a reasonable sleep, but even so I wasn’t all that happy about crawling out of bed. I’d been on my travels too during the night but as seems to be the norm these days, all memory of what I had been doing disappeared immediately.

After breakfast, I legged it out to the railway station with a nice brisk walk and as luck would have it, I walked into the station just as an Inter-City train to Brussels pulled in. And as I alighted at Bruxelles-Nord, a train to Namur, stopping at Bruxelles-Schuman, pulled in. Things like that don’t usually happen to me. Having left here at 08:00, I was sitting in Caliburn at 09:45.

Having fuelled up with diesel, I went off to IKEA to see what they had to offer. I have a cunning plan, as I mentioned yesterday, and IKEA plays a role in this. I’ve made quite a few notes about what I’ll be needing, but I also did a little shopping too. They had some cheap white-china plates and bowls – €0:49 each, a medium-sized saucepan of decent quality – €4:99, and a nice pyrex oven dish – €1:99.

As well as that, I bought a few cardboard boxes because I’ll be needing them in a couple of weeks time when I go back to France.

Best news though was at the restaurant. I had a bowl of chips, a plate of salad and a coffee, all of which would have entitled me to a decent discount had I had an IKEA family card. I have one, but I’d left it in Caliburn I wasn’t all that bothered by it. But when the cashier asked me if I had a card, and I told her my story, she gave me the discount anyway. That was nice of her.

This afternoon in between bouts of somnolence I did some more work on the web pages that I mentioned yesterday. They aren’t ready yet to go on line – there’s plenty more work to do, but progress is progress after all.

I had a beautiful tea tonight. Kidney beans, boulghour and vegetables, tomato sauce and chili powder with pasta. Just for a change, I had the chili powder just about right and it was delicious. And once the argument in the building dies down (another one of the tenants has been too close to the barmaid’s apron) I’ll be having an early night again.

It’s (hopefully) my last full day here tomorrow. Thursday I’m back in the hospital and then we’ll see what happens. I’m heading back to France regardless as soon as I’m released (now that I’ve had Caliburn’s wheel bearing fixed) but for how long, I’ve no idea.

Monday 24th October 2016 – DESPITE WHAT I SAID …

… last night, I didn’t go to bed all that early. In fact, I carried on with what I was doing on my website. And by the time that I had finished – which was at 00:15, I’d transformed the page on which Iw as working into two pages – this one and this one.

In fact, I ought really to have divided it up into three pages given the size of the pages that were produced, but there wasn’t a clear join or convenient break-point anywhere so it will have to do.

I went to sleep after that and without any interruption at all, I was stark out until the alarm went off. I’d been on my travels too, although I don’t remember all that much about it now. All that I do remember was that it featured the girl who on these pages has been known in the past as “The One That Got Away” and her daughter, and we were on a cruise or voyage somewhere with a pile of other people.

When the alarm went off, I was awake instantly. Straight into breakfast where I was joined by a couple of other housemates, and then back here long before 08:00.

I’ve spent most of the day attacking the website with further amendments and by late afternoon two more revised pages were on line – this one and this one.

And as if that isn’t enough, I’ve been working on two completely new ones. I spent two days a-wandering around Godbout just after I arrived there. And each one of my daily rambles will have its own page.

However, that won’t be finished tonight as I’m pretty tired, and it won’t be finished tomorrow either because Caliburn is ready and I can go to pick him up tomorrow morning. Assuming that I don’t have any other contretemps on my way out of the city, I’ll go to pay a visit to IKEA. I have been having a long-term plan that has rapidly passed through the mid-term stage and is now a short-term objective, and IKEA plays a part in that.

Apart from that, what else?

We’ve had the odd crash-out as you might expect, and I had to go to the Fortis bank round the corner to pay my web-hosting fees for 2017. They are due at the end of November. And I finished the rest of the curry that I had made last Thursday.

But web-hosting – that reminds me.

It costs me a lot of money to put my web-pages and this blog on line, and I’m sure that you have all benefited at one time or another from what I’ve been saying.

You can help me by making your next purchase from Amazon via the links on the right-hand side of this blog. You pay no extra by doing this, but I receive a small commission from the company, and this helps me pay the web-hosting.

Please help me keep my postings alive.

Sunday 23rd October 2016 – IT’S SUNDAY!

And so in consequence I have had a day where I have done badger all of any importance.

Despite the lateness of the night and the fact that I had to leave my comfortable bed once during the night, I had a really good, deep sleep. I’d been on my travels too but as soon as I awoke, everything was wiped immediately from my mind and I remember nothing of it.

And I’ll tell you just how organised I was today – the alarms went off at 07:00 and 07:15 as usual, I was in the kitchen having breakfast by 07:30 and by 08:15 I was back in my room, having during that 45-minute window been out to the boulangerie for my Sunday baguette.

I’ve been sort-of-ish working on my website today. Nothing like as intensely as during the last few days. Following my visit to the north shore of the St Lawrence estuary a few weeks ago, I’ve been updating some of the pages as you know. This page is the one on which I’m working right now, and it will be expanded to two or three pages just as the one that I was working on the last couple of days (and which I mentioned yesterday) was expanded.

But as I say, I’ve not put my heart in it today. I had a little doze, had a chat to Liz, read some stuff on the internet and generally wasted some time.

But it’s not as if I’m worried. It’s Sunday, and I’m allowed to have a day off. I did manage to make it to the pizza place around the corner – after all, Sunday night is pizza night isn’t it?

So tomorrow, if I don’t have a phone call from the people who are doing Caliburn’s wheel bearing, I’ll carry on with the web pages.

Friday 21st October 2016 – I DON’T LIKE THIS VERY MUCH EITHER

I went round the corner to the supermarket to buy my baguette for lunchtime. And the small woman who usually works on the till was stacking shelves round the back.

“Ohh hello!” she saud. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since the summer!” and then started to have a good long chat with me.

One thing that I’ve been trying to do while in Belgium is to passer inaperçu as the French say, to pass by unnoticed. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall all of the issues that I seem to have with Belgian authority as I pass by on my way, so I don’t need to be recognised by anyone while I’m here. But to be recognised – and missed – by someone with whom I haven’t exchanged any more than half a dozen banal words in the past is rather disconcerting.

But to go back to the start of our story, then last night, despite being early in bed, it took ages for me to go off to sleep. Long after midnight, I reckon. But apart from one trip down the corridor I had a really good sleep until the alarm went off.

During the night, I was on my travels with Percy Penguin – someone whom I haven’t see now for 4 years and who at the time didn’t feature in my ramblings anything like as often as she deserved – and we arrived at a boarding house in South Wales near the English border. Here, very much to my surprise we encountered my brother and a lady who was his wife (but who isn’t in real life) and a couple from the Wirral whom I know. We ended up having quite a chat that evening and next morning, when we met up for breakfast, we agreed to meet up at another boarding house further round the South Wales coast that night. Percy Penguin and I had things to do so off we went, but it took absolutely ages to do what needed to be done, and it was 23:00 by the time that we finished. This was far too late to meet up with the others and I was terribly disappointed by that.

Despite the influx of new people yesterday evening, I was on my own at breakfast , so I didn’t hang around. I was soon back in my little room.

And apart from going out for my baguette at lunchtime, what else have I done?

Most of the day, I’ve been working on my website. From somewhere, and I’ve no idea where, I’ve summoned up some motivation and I had a good day working on a page about the lighthouse at the Pointe des Monts in Quebec, Canada. And the page became so long that I’ve been obliged to split it into two – this one and this one.

Not only that, I’ve been working hard on another page too and although there is no amendment as yet to this page, when it’s finished it will need to be split into four because there are loads more stuff currently being added to it.

It’s all about the stuff that I did while I was around here in late September and early October, so you can imagine how this is all going to turn out when it’s finished.

I had a shower and a shave too, as well as a change of clothes. Alison was in Leuven so she came round and we went for a meal in the kebab house down the road and then a coffee round the corner. She turned up at about 19:45 and we spent so much time chatting that is was about 23:35 when she left. It’s good to have a long, healthy chat with friends.

When I was at the supermarket earlier today, I noticed that they had heaved a plastic lettuce box into the waste bin. It looked in good condition too so on the way back I went to have a look and
1) it was still there
2) it was in good condition
so I rescued it from the waste bin and it’s here in my room with the other two that I have rescued.

Now I need to go to bed but coffee late at night is never a good idea.

I’ll be here for hours, I reckon.

EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality