Tag Archives: ladeuzeplein

Tuesday 25th December 2018 – A MERRY CHRISTMAS …

… to all my readers. And I’ll refuse to make any comment about Crewe Bus Station toilets, because regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I make the same remark almost every year.

night hogeschoolplein leuven louvain belgiumWhile you admire a photo of the buildings of the Hogeschoolplein, taken during my evening stroll tonight, let me tell you about my Christmas Day.

Or, rather, starting off with yesterday night’s affairs.

t wasn’t that much of an early night – being in bed at something like 01:00. But I had no intention whatsoever of leaving my bed when I awoke at 04:30. Nor at 07:00 either.

night  town hall stadhuis christmas lights leuven louvain belgiumWhile you admire the Town Hall, or Stadhuis, last night I was on a crowded railway station waiting for a train called the something-or-other express. At the time it was due to arrive, a train pulled in, but this was called by a different name, so I didn’t go for it. And neither did a few other people. Our train didn’t appear so after a while I went to find someone to ask about it. They told me that the train that I had mentioned – that was our train but it was now known by a different name. Eventually I tracked down one of the station supervisors and told him of what had happened. There was a similar train due in in three hours time so I asked him to make sure that the other name of the train would be called too so that there would be no confusion. He replied that he couldn’t arrange for an unexpected train to stop in the station regardless of the circumstances – and was then called away to attend to someone else. I eventually caught up with him and explained that he had misunderstood the situation. The train wasn’t unexpected at all – it was simply a question of the name. Anyway, the train did stop, the name was called and we all climbed aboard. It was a double-decker so I went upstairs, and we set off. By now our train had transformed into a bus coming from Southwest London near where I lived once upon a time in Wandsworth. We went around a square something like Trafalgar Square and the bus was swaying dramatically about and everyone was gasping. It turned out that there had been a heavy snowfall, the ploughs had shifted the snow into banks at the side of the road and our bus was driving up and down over these snowbanks.

night  town hall stadhuis christmas lights grote markt leuven louvain belgium09:00 was a much more realistic time to come to my senses (such as they are these days) and from then on the rest of the day was spent in gentle leisure. I didn’t do anything.

Lunch was nibbling on bits and pieces here and there, and straight after lunch I started to make tea.

I fried some onions and garlic, added the tempeh cubes that I had bought, and when they were fried, put them in some water with a stock cube and some frozen veg. They were then left to simmer for an hour.

night  town hall stadhuis christmas lights leuven louvain belgiumI had a shower too and washed my clothes to date. I need to keep up-to-date with my clothes.

Following that, in accordance with usual procedures just recently, I ended up having a crash out on the bed.

Later on, the lazy day continued, with a pause for tea (and there’s plenty left for tomorrow) followed by half of the Christmas pudding in a creamy soya sauce.

night  town hall stadhuis christmas lights leuven louvain belgiumRound about 22:30 I went for an evening walk into town.

To admire the Christmas lights, see if there was anything going on and to stretch my legs. There were a few more people around than yesterday but still not the crowds that you might expect.

By midnight I was back here loitering around again and by 01:00 I was in bed. One of the quietest Christmas Days that I’ve had.

But I don’t care. It does me good to relax every now and again.

night  town hall stadhuis christmas lights grote markt leuven louvain belgium
night town hall stadhuis christmas lights grote markt leuven louvain belgium

night  town hall stadhuis christmas lights leuven louvain belgium
night town hall stadhuis christmas lights grote markt leuven louvain belgium

night  town hall stadhuis christmas lights leuven louvain belgium
night town hall stadhuis christmas lights grote markt leuven louvain belgium

night  town hall stadhuis christmas lights leuven louvain belgium
night town hall stadhuis christmas lights grote markt leuven louvain belgium

night christmas lights bondgenotenlaan leuven louvain belgium
night christmas lights bondgenotenlaan leuven louvain belgium

night monseigneur ladeuzeplein library leuven louvain belgium
night monseigneur ladeuzeplein library leuven louvain belgium

night monseigneur ladeuzeplein library leuven louvain belgium
night monseigneur ladeuzeplein library leuven louvain belgium

night monseigneur ladeuzeplein library leuven louvain belgium
night monseigneur ladeuzeplein library leuven louvain belgium

night  town hall stadhuis christmas lights leuven louvain belgium
night town hall stadhuis christmas lights leuven louvain belgium

night christmas lights mechelsestraat leuven louvain belgium
night christmas lights mechelsestraat leuven louvain belgium

night hogeschoolplein leuven louvain belgium
night hogeschoolplein leuven louvain belgium

night hogeschoolplein leuven louvain belgium
night hogeschoolplein leuven louvain belgium

night quo vadis muntstraat leuven louvain belgium
night quo vadis muntstraat leuven louvain belgium

Friday 16th March 2018 – AND SO, AFTER …

… all of my exertions, I was awake quite early this morning.

And although last night was still a tossy-turny affair, it wasn’t as bad as the previous one. And I was on my travels too – heading for home on the bus (the n°11 as it happened) from stoke on Trent, so work that one out. And I was going home to “sort out” a few things and a few people over my taxi business. There had been some considerable discussion about how inconvenient the buses were, but i’d insisted that they were more convenient than people think. As the bus turned from Ruskin Road into Gainsborough Road (good, these buses, aren’t they?) I saw TOTGA standing on the corner. I made a gesture indicating that I wanted her to follow on down, but she gave a blank look. Suddenly, it turned into a flash of recognition. The bus stopped right outside my front door (I’d explained to the driver where I had lived but he knew anyway) and the whole house was in darkness. That was weird for 19:30 on a Wednesday evening when we had the taxis and I’d certainly have words about this. But even with dropping me off at my front door I had a long walk home and it was a weary, tiring trudge, what with my illness, all down along Coppenhall Land towards The Playing Fields I was on the track through the woods and there hanging in the trees was a towel that looked very much like my old blue one, and as I followed the path I had to cross onto the road but someone had planted a hedge in the way and I had to climb over it. It took me two attempts too. But I was so tired and weary that I realised that I couldn’t go on and my business would have to go.

after the usual morning performance, I had a little … errr … relax on the armchair. I’m really not doing this, am I?

And it took me quite a while to come round as well. I must have been out. In fact it took me until about 11:00 before I was in any kind of state to leave the room.

Halfway down the road I realised that I had forgotten my prescriptions – so that meant that I would have to come out again this afternoon.

liptons iced tea ladeuzeplein leuven belgium mars march 2018My perambulations took me down and across the Ladeuzeplein, where my progress was arrested by these goings-on.

I’m not sure what it was that they were trying to do – except building a wall to presumably keep out illegal Mexicans, but they are using piles of crates that belong to that well-known manufacturer of iced tea, all of which had been brought to the Square by a large fleet of lorries.

So shrugging my shoulders, I continued on my way.

First stop was at Kruidvat, for a pile of gelatine-free sweets, and then to Wibra. I’d seen some good microwave steamers last time that I was here. Not very substantial and probably won’t last all that long. But that’s not going to be much of an issue because I probably won’t either.

But star of the show was in the FNAC. As you know, I’ve been having mobile phone issues since December and I ended up with a cheap Chinese import. And cheap was the appropriate word too. It does work but it was only ever going to be a stop-gap until I could find something better.

And so when they had some Samsung J3s on sale for a price less than I could have had one with a renewed contract, and when I negotiated another €20 off it too, I’ve now ended up with that. and the exciting thing about it is that with me having saved my settings on the old Samsung phone, this new phone simply downloaded everything as soon as I logged in, and it’s just like my old phone now.

Back here with a baguette and a tomato and some vegan cheese, I made myself some lunch. And then back out again.

And I was halfway down the road when I realised that I had forgotten my prescription yet again. I did a little wander around though, bought a tin of spicy beans from Delhaize for tea and then came back here.

Rounding up the prescription, I went back out and rounded up the medicaments.

Tea was baked spuds and spicy beans, and then I went for a little walk. And the temperature which had really been so nice today, had now plummeted. Snow is forecasted, but I might miss it.

Now it’s an early night. I have a train to catch back home in the morning.