Tag Archives: caliburn

Friday 1st July 2016 – I’M WHACKED!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And I can’t wait.

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Monday20th June 2016 – I SUPPOSE THAT YOU ARE ALL WONDERING …

… what the outcome of my visit to the hospital today was.

Firstly, no danger of my being late for the appointment, for I was wide-awake at 05:30 this morning and surfing the internet, for want of anything special to do. I had a leisurely breakfast and then, making an executive decision, I set off to the hospital in plenty of time without my rain jacket, seeing as how the day looked as if it might just be promising. And how I regretted that decision on the way home, when I had to brave a rainstorm to return to my tiny garret.

First person that I saw after registering was my doctor. She told me that the bone-marrow sample showed no trace of any illness having spread into there and so they too were making an executive decision – which was to definitively stop the chemotherapy. That’s good news as far as I am concerned. Instead, they are going to try another type of treatment and see what effect that has, as well as giving me a medicament that will stimulate the red blood cells.

The nurse then came and dragged me into a little cubicle where she took my blood pressure and pulse, and fitted me with a drain to my chemotherapy port. Once that had been done, she took a blood sample.

An hour or two later I was led to a little private ward where they coupled up three perfusions to me. One was the aforementioned stimulant, the second was a steroid and the third one was some kind of medication. They were all connected to me via a metering machine and I had to ring them every half hour so that they would come and increase the speed.

10 minutes later the doctor came to find me, to tell me what they were going to do to me, but she told me that she wouldn’t bother, seeing that they were already doing it. But the good news is that my blood count, a good week after the last transfusion, is at 9.3 and it’s a long time since it’s been this high. And so no blood transfusion this week.

It was round about 18:00 that I was thrown out of the hospital so I went to check on Caliburn, give him a couple of laps around the car park to warm him up, and park him in a different place so that it looks as if he’s doing something. Plenty of space on the car park at that time, so I reckon that if I decide to move him, I’ll have to keep him out all day until the evening when I can take him back.

I’m running short of socks and undies here so I fetched some more down, and I also meant to bring some more foodstuffs, but I forgot. And how I wish that I had remembered, as I have no small tins of mushrooms or vegetables to pack out the remains of Saturday’s Indian meal. I had to use plain rice and a stock cube instead.

So with my next appointment now in two weeks’ time, I can relax for a while and not worry too much. But I’ll be intrigued to see what my blood count will be when I go back.

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Tuesday 14th June 2016 – SO HOW WAS MY FIRST NIGHT IN MY NEW DIGS THEN?

The answer was “not very comfortable”.

What with one thing and another, it was long after midnight before I ended up going to bed. And once I was in, I had a little listen to the radio but it wasn’t long before I switched everything off and settled down for the night.

But the mattress, which I have put on the floor, as I have no intention of climbing up to the eaves of the room, is really uncomfortable. It’s a very cheap mattress to start with and it sags just about everywhere. But it wasn’t long before I’d dropped off to sleep, and that was how things stood until all of … errr … 05:30. I’m not used to the big city and all of the traffic and the like.

It goes without saying that I didn’t actually leave the stinking pit at that time, and when I finally did, I had plenty to do up here. Breakfast was therefore at 09:00 where I made the acquaintance of one of my co-cottiers. I had to run up and down the stairs twice as well – the first time wasn’t too bad but I was on my knees for the second. This is clearly not going to be sustainable.

The walk up to the hospital was quite pleasant even though it was all uphill. I called at the boulangerie that I had discovered yesterday. and of course, it’s closed on Tuesdays. But there’s an Asian supermarket across the road and they sold baguettes, so that’s that problem resolved.

The parking problem for Caliburn is semi-resolved too. I picked up a document from the hospital yesterday setting out my visits to date, and with this I was able to apply for a parking card for a free car park in the vicinity. This was duly granted.

But having the pass is one thing – finding a free space there is quite something else. I ended up making an ad-hoc space for myself at first, and then going back out at lunchtime to pounce on a liberated space. And that took quite a wait. By the end of the afternoon though, there were a few free spaces so if I do decide to go anywhere in Caliburn it will have to be in the late afternoon that I come back.

I made use of the hospital’s internet to check up on things and to send off another pile of e-mails. I’ve already had two replies from this load of messages, but they were both refusals.

Walking back here was pleasant too in the early evening sun and I encountered the landlord in the building, changing a few light-bulbs including the one that doesn’t work in my room. I also had an encounter with a couple of the girls here, sorting out a place for me in the fridge.

Tea tonight was pasta, kidney beans, veg and tomato sauce followed by slices of spicy cake and soya dessert. Loads of proteins in all of that. And now, having almost fallen asleep a couple of times at the hospital, I’m off for an early night.

I hope that I can have a good night’s sleep tonight.

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Sunday 12th June 2016 – I’M GLAD …

… that I’ll only be in this new place for two and a half weeks. It’s nothing at all like the kind of place that I would like to be and, even worse in my opinion, I’m up in the attic three and a half floors up and I was having something of a struggle to find my way up there. If I do manage to meet a nubile nymphette and invite her upstairs to see my etchings, I’ll be in no fit state to do anything about it.

But I’m not going into too much detail about the place. It’s just outside the centre of Leuven, not too far away from the hospital that I visit, and it’s €10:95 per night, everything included. That’s all that you need to know about it. The cheapest hotel in Leuven is €37:00, to give you some idea of what is involved.

I had something of a mixed night last night and was up and about long before the alarm went off, having had breakfast and a chat with someone whom I knew who was on the internet this morning. And then I went off to that boulangerie that I discovered the other day. Half of Belgium was in there in front of me, but I was seen eventually and picked up my baguette. And it was nice too – well-worth the wait.

This afternoon I’ve been tidying up in here and everything has gone down to the new place, except for the stuff that will fit in my backpack. I’ll take that to the hospital with me, leave Caliburn on the car park, and then walk down to the new place from there, and see if I can find a boulangerie in the neighbourhood. I had a quick drive around and couldn’t see one, and I need to put my priorities in the correct order.

On the way back, I stopped off for a pizza – after all, it is a Sunday. I sat on the car park of the Carrefour at Korbeek-Lo and ate it, and pretty good it was too. Then I came back here for pudding.

I’ll have an early night tonight and see what tomorrow brings. It’s the day that I have my hospital results and so I’m not much looking forward to it. I shudder to think what they might have found.

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Saturday 11th June 2016 – YESTERDAY AFTERNOON …

… I sat down and sent off a whole ruck of e-mails about accommodation, asking for appointments to view for this weekend. And how many replies do you think that I’ve received?

Krys guessed right (good old Krys!). She said “none”. As I have said many times before … "and you’ll say many times again" – ed … there is no such thing as a recession. There is just a whole load of people who are letting all kinds of income-generating opportunities melt away before their very eyes. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall dozens of similar occurrences – solar panel suppliers in March 2009, caravan suppliers in July 2015 – two examples that spring readily to mind.

And not forgetting two suppliers of slide-in camper units for Strider whom I visited, one in New Hampshire and the other one in Quebec – and asked them to send me quotes for the Spring so that I could order one ready for the summer. That’s an order worth over $12,500, would you believe, but it’s too much trouble for any of the sales staff to reply to me.

Anyway, enough of my ranting. I have better things to do.

Like waking up at 07:00, long before the alarm, finding out that two of my friends are on line already, and having a chat that went on to … errr … 13:00, with me missing breakfast. And then just as I was about to nip off, Liz came on-line for a chat and so I was here for another 90 minutes.

Not that I am complaining, of course. Far from it. It’s nice to see friends and chat aimlessly for ages. I’d much rather chat to a friend than eat breakfast. That’s much more important.

And so I eventually made it out to buy a baguette for lunch. Dunno if I mentioned that yesterday I finally discovered a boulangerie so I went there first. But by that time they had long-since sold out. I ended up at the Bio-Planet where I bought a lovely artisanal baguette, sampled a pile of delights and had two free cups of coffee. You have your money’s worth in the Bio-Planet.

Back here in my room it was stifling, but I’ve managed at long last to force the window so that now I can open it, and listen to the arrival of a serious rainstorm as the weather has broken.

But not before I went out to make my tea. The chick peas left over from Thursday had gone off already and so I ended up with pasta, tinned vegetables with chick-peas already mixed in, and tinned mushrooms followed by the usual pudding.

Tomorrow will be an exciting day for me as I’m taking all of my possessions to my new digs in Leuven. I hope that they are okay but for the money that I’m paying to stay there, I’m not expecting too much. It’s all a question of money’s worth, as you all know already. I’ll put up with inconvenience if I’m not paying very much – I’m on the economy package.

So i’ll clear off now and listen to the rain. It sounds lovely outside.

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Thursday 9th June 2016 – I WAS RIGHT …

… about my return to my bad old sleeping habits. I was awake for hours after I’d finished watching a film, and then I was passing in and out of sleep for the rest of the night. I’d been on my travels too but once I’d finally awoken (at 07:07 for those of you who are interested), I couldn’t remember a single thing.

We’ve had a day of nothing in the way of excitement. I went out to the Delhaize for my baguette and salad, noticing that, once more, the patisserie is still closed.

Apart from that, I’ve been working on the blog, doing some more updating of the older parts of it, and having a little crash out as well, which is hardly any surprise because once the sunshine came round into my room, it was beautiful.

For tea tonight, I had pasta, mixed vegetable and chick peas mixed up with more of the spicy tomato sauce (loads of protein in that) followed by the usual pudding of spicy cake, soya vanilla custard substitute and some mixed fruit in syrup.

Tomorrow, I’ll be off to the big Carrefour for a pile of shopping. I think that I have found a place to stay until the end of the month and so I need to lay a few supplies in. I’ll be having to leave Caliburn parked up while I’m staying there so I’ll need to do a major shop beforehand to make sure that I have everything that I need.

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Wednesday 8th June 2016 – YOU MISSED …

… all of the excitement here this morning. A lorry was delivering to the front of the hospital across the park from here, and because it’s all so tight for manoeuvring, the only way that he could leave was to drive 20 metres the wrong way up the drive, reverse back around a corner, and then go back the right way.

That’s exactly how I would have done it and this was indeed what he was trying to do, but some old woman in a car coming up the drive had deliberately blocked him in, refused to move, and told him to go out of the hospital via the exit – totally oblivious to the fact that it’s too tight for him to turn his lorry around the corner.

And there she sat, and there the lorry driver sat (not that he had much choice in the matter) until Yours Truly and someone else intervened . And then, instead of reversing 20 metres backwards, she pulled forward and blocked off the turning down which he needed to reverse. And we were back once again in the impasse.

I tell you – you can’t make up stories like this in Belgium, can you?

But we’re back with our old sleeping habits, so it seems.

Not exactly 100% though, because I did manage to stay awake to watch the whole of a Boris Karloff “Mr Wong” film. And then I couldn’t drop off to sleep straight away – must be my guilty conscience I reckon.

But then I awoke sometime during the night to go for a ride on the porcelain horse, and the 05:00 dawn chorus finally managed to arouse me from my slumber and that, I reckon, was that.

I did manage to drop off to sleep again at some point because I was on my travels with Nerina. We were at some place down the east coast of the USA and I’d arrived at the hotel which I had booked (in advance, not like me) to stay the night, and I was parked up at the side of the road on rather a wide verge waiting for Nerina to appear. She came along eventually, via the golf course, where she was playing a round of golf. Not that I know anything about golf, but this golf course was weird. There weren’t greens as such, but what would normally be the “green” was gravelled over with tiny loose chippings and the “hole” was a small, narrow trench that conducted the ball to where the hole would be. But Nerina was clearly enjoying herself. Away in the distance on the skyline was another complex, of buildings, hotels and a huge amusement park and this was where I had arranged to stay for the following night (none of this sounds like me, does it?) which pleased Nerina even more.

I’d switched the mobile phone off yesterday and had forgotten to switch it back on before going to bed, so that accounts for the reason that I didn’t finally awaken until 08:45, and it was a grey, miserable, overcast day that greeted me this morning. Nothing like the last two days that we have had.

That patisserie that I mentioned yesterday – it was closed today too so I reckon that we can rule that place out for the rest of my stay. I ended up at the Delhaize further on for my baguette. And I’ll have to go back there tomorrow too because my shredded lettuce mixture stuff has gone off and I need to buy some more. A small pack is only €0:51 in there.

After lunch, the weather brightened up considerably and it was a lovely, warm summer’s afternoon while I was in here working (with windows that don’t open either). But tonight I went out to Caliburn and cooked the second part of my meal. And with it being so nice, I sat outside in the evening sunshine and ate it.

Exactly the same meal as last night, in fact, and it tasted just as beautiful. But tomorrow, I’ll have to try something else. Maybe a ratatouille with tinned mushrooms, or chick-peas perhaps. That sounds like a plan.

It’s a gorgeous evening, with the late, low suns streaming into my little room. I’m going to settle down now and watch a film or something, and see where I end up tonight.

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Tuesday 7th June 2016 – I WAS STILL WIDE-AWAKE …

… at 02:00 this morning, having been for a walk (as I said that I would) and having been reading a book for ages too. None of this is a surprise of course, after having crashed out for so long yesterday evening.

But once I’d dropped off to sleep, then I really was away. And a long way away too. And here’s an interesting story of a young couple (neither of whom was me, for a change) of which the female of the party had been diagnosed with a major life-threatening illness. Which would cost thousands to treat and which would bankrupt them completely. Sitting on the roof of their house (they could do that by climbing out through the skylight) they were discussing various options of raising the money and a chance glance at a piece of formed metalwork drilled with holes gave them the first part of the idea – which was to go around and drill huge holes in the roofs of a couple of cars belonging to people who had annoyed them. They had an old Maxi that they could adapt for the purpose. The second part was much more interesting and they discussed it with a female friend who was sitting on the roof with them but she was totally opposed to the idea, a fact which made no difference whatever to their plans. And so off they went, each performing his or her own little bit, and all went according to plan. The roof-drilling bit worked like a charm and the female’s idea, of dressing in a really extravagant outfit of the kind that you would find in a Noel Coward performance of the 1920s or 30s and doing a striptease as she walked out of this pub and down the steps to the main road, was stunning. Of course, they were both arrested and charged with various offences, but the fines were minimal. However, the ensuing publicity caused the money to come rolling in and they managed to clear all of their debts in respect of this hospital treatment.

It’s not very often that there’s an evening’s entertainment and I don’t appear in it, is there?

The noise in here (because the place echoes like a drum) awoke me at about 07:30 this morning and I felt so much better after my sleep.

After breakfast I spent a couple of hours on the internet and then went off to look for a baguette. Having tried going east from here last time I stayed, and driving about 100 miles to find one, I decided to head west this time. And I needn’t have bothered because it was even farther to the nearest baguette in that direction. I did however encounter a patisserie but it was closed. Maybe having a day off, I dunno, so I’ll go to check it out tomorrow. But I can’t say that I’m too impressed with the (lack of a) boulangerie around here.

After lunch I started on my quest for accommodation for the next three or four months. And I have found the ideal place – a small room in the attic of a very modern house, right on the outskirts of Leuven within sight of the hospital, and with off-street parking too. It’s clean and tidy with a friendly young landlord, all mod cons (shared with two others), and another good advantage is that there is a beautiful garden with seats and the like so I can sit in the sun.

It’s a mere €325 per month and so I’m determined to take it until mid-September (when the students return) but the downside is that it’s not free until July 1st. I’m okay here until 13th June and so I need to find a place for two and a half weeks. I shall have to get on with that and look to see what are the possibilities. I have a few ideas already.

This evening, the beautiful weather that we have been having for the last two days broke – and broke with a vengeance too. I could feel it brewing this afternoon, but when it let go, it really did let go and we had a terrific thunderstorm and downpour. I was soaked going out to Caliburn to make my tea, but my tea really was nice. I had pasta, mixed veg and lentils, all mixed up with some spicy tomato sauce. And that was followed by fruit salad and slices of spiced cake with soya vanilla dessert custard. Fit for a King.

And so now I think that I’ve done enough for today so I’ll have an early night. Tomorrow I’ll get on with tracking down some more accommodation.

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Friday 3rd June 2016 – I’M BACK …

… in Soissons again – at the Hotel Premiere Classe of course and I suppose that you are all wondering why I don’t move in here.

But the reasons why I’m back are twofold – firstly, I’ve come to recover my mobile phone (which I now have in my sweaty little mitt until I leave it somewhere else) and secondly, and more importantly, I’ve been let out of hospital today.

The doctor came along this morning and told me that nothing now is likely to be done to me until they receive the results of my samplings back from the laboratory, so if I were to stay in the hospital, I’d be just kicking my heels until then. And so I decided to take my wracked and ragged body off for a change of scenery, and they’ve given me an appointment for Monday 13th (yes, the thirteenth – good job it’s not a Friday!) of June. That’s when we’ll (hopefully) find out where everyone has been going wrong with my diagnosis.

I spoke to the girl at Social Services and after an inordinately long wait, she confirmed that they would have me back at Pellenberg from Monday until the day that I go for my results. That gives me a week to track down a room in a house and now that I have my phone back, I hope that I can do that.

But the result of having to wait around so long was that it was 15:30, instead of 14:00 when I left the hospital. And after another session where I jammed the exit at the car park, I was of course decanted straight into the traffic. Not quite as bad as the last time, but bad enough all the same. I stopped off to pick up some fuel at Mont St Jean, given the excitement that’s going on in France at the moment.

The drive down was uneventful although I did pick a new route – down the péage and then onto the motorway for Reims and Lyon, leaving somewhere short of Coucy. And luckily, there was a guard on duty at the tollbooth who recognised Caliburn as a van and not a lorry and I paid just €4:40 for the tolls and not four times that. I hate these automatic tolls.

The road into Soissons is a road that I know well from the old days, bringing me past the walled city of Coucy-le-Chateau (which readers from way back will recall us doing the touristy visit early one morning in midwinter many years ago on our way back from an Open University Students Association meeting) and straight into the town, and now I’m holed up in the Premiere Classe where I’ll be staying until tomorrow.

And I hope that I have as good a sleep as I had last night. Not the best, it has to be said, but my room-mate didn’t snore at all as far as I could tell and once I’d finally managed to go to sleep, I just had the odd awakening here and there and was dead to the world when the nurse awoke me. I’d been on a voyage too, but don’t ask me where because I’ve no idea now.

Still, tonight I’ve asked for the quietest room in the house and judging by this and that, I might actually have it too. Let’s see how I’m feeling after a good rest and a good breakfast tomorrow, hey?

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Tuesday 24th May 2016 – AND WE’RE BACK …

… and the same old hospital routine – the same one that we’ve experienced dozens of times before. Although it wasn’t an especially early night, by 03:30 I was awake again and that was how I stayed for much of the morning. I don’t remember going back to sleep at all. But luckily, my room-mate doesn’t seem to snore, which is a good thing.

We’re back on the hospital diet too and the smell of the food is putting me right off once more. I managed a banana for breakfast, some tomato soup and an apple for lunch, and for tea I had cheese butties and a soya yoghurt.

Yes, cheese butties. When my overnight drip-feed stuff ran out, I nipped down to Caliburn for my suitcase and this time I brought a few supplies with me too – biscuits and cheese and the like – so now I’m prepared for anything.

The dietician came to see me too and we managed to talk about my eating arrangements. I mentioned that I was having these kinds of dietary issues and she promised to do her best to see that I had stuff that I could actually eat.

Another visitor was the girl from the Social Services. She came to see how I was and to chat about my future accommodation, but that was rather pointless at the moment because I don’t know how long I’ll be staying here, so it’s clearly not possible for me right now to arrange appointments to see anyone.

We had the medical staff too, and the doctor gave me a good going-over. And it seems that some kind of decision about my treatment. The general consensus is that the chemotherapy that I’ve been having is too violent for my body, delicate little flower that I am, and they might have to think about giving me another form.

That will be the subject of discussion amongst the medical staff during the week, so it looks as if I’ll be staying here now until the next lot of treatment – due to start on Friday but may be postponed – is complete.

And my mobile phone has been located. Liz very kindly rang up the Premiere Classe Hotel in Soissons and asked them about it. Apparently they found it underneath the pillow in the bedroom. They’ll hang on to it until I’m released from hospital when I’ll go down and pick it up again. That’s not what I had planned to do, but it can’t be helped. Without an address, there’s no other way of receiving it any quicker.

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Saturday – 21st May 2016 – I’M BACK …

… on the road again and even as I type, I’m sitting in a little room in a Première Classe Hotel on the outskirts of Soissons (I’ve managed to find it today).

I managed my lie-in this morning – until all of, would you believe, 08:10 – even though I’d been on my travels during the night. Driving a lorry as it happens somewhere around the UK and a rough, horrible thing it was to drive as well and I was determined to have it taken off the road for major repair when I returned to the depot. But what surprised me was that it had only just passed its MoT a short while ago and I thought that that couldn’t be right. So I parked it up in the yard and the next lorry to come in was driven by my brother and he parked his lorry right next to mine blocking the through-way across the yard. Anyway, we left the yard and were immediately caught up in a scenario that involved the police on the motorway blocking off a car that was coming down the road. It was carrying antiques of some kind of dubious nature and the owner as telling us sometime later in this church hall where we all assembled that he’d been taught a manoeuvre to carry out whenever the police tried to stop him but as he drew a diagram to explain it, I couldn’t see how it would possibly help in such a circumstance.

It didn’t take too long to load up Caliburn and tidy up after me back at Liz and Terry’s, even though I managed to forget to bring back the fresh fruit that I’d put on one side. Mind you, I didn’t rush with doing it because I’m not up to that kind of thing just now. It was about 11:30 when I finally hit the road.

My next stop was back at my house where I dropped off a pile of my washing and collected some more stuff that I had forgotten the last time I was there.But I can’t for the moment find the big back with all of my single bed stuff. I wonder where all of that has gone. I know that I have it because I can remember sorting it all out after I’d finished the wardrobe last year.

It was a beautiful day when I set off but the farther north I drove, the weather deteriorated and when I left the motorway we were having a grey, overcast day. The drive itself was totally uneventful at first but at Nemours we had an incident where a wedding party decided to stop and block off a roundabout in order to take some wedding photographs and this provoked quite a bit of “reaction” from the other motorists.

Not only that, I’d noticed that there were some substantial queues at various petrol stations along the route, and my usual one at Melun was closed. When I eventually found a petrol station (on the N2 just before Villers-Cotterets) where there was quite a queue, I made enquiries and they revealed that some local television has announced that there is going to be a fuel shortage – something that has taken the garage proprietor totally by surprise.

So now, here I am -it’s 19:15 and I’m installed in my little room, and that is that. I’ll see you all in the morning.

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Thursday 19th May 2016 -I WAS OFF …

… on my travels again today.

I started off at the Doctor’s this morning at &0:00, only to find that my doctor is on holiday and it was a locum in attendance. That means that most of what I wanted to discuss was pretty pointless but I handed over a few letters from the hospital and had a form signed, as well as a quick check-up. My heart-beat is high but apart from that, things seem to be quite normal for now.

Montlucon was the next port of call. I had to pay a bill at the laboratory that does my blood tests and then another bill at the tax office for all of the documents that the hospital gave me before I went off to Leuven. There’s nothing else outstanding that I cans ee for the moment, although I have a couple of bills to pay at Leuven when I return.

Once that was out of the way I went back home for an hour, most of which was spent chatting to Nicolette whom I encountered in the lane. She seemed to be quite concerned about my health, which is nice of her.

Caliburn had his controle technique at 15:OO and the garage had forgotten that I was coming. But they squeezed us in and of course Caliburn passed with flying colours. And then we nipped off to the other side of St Gervais d’Auvergne for his service. So he’s all done and dusted now and ready for the road.

Back here, I crashed out for an hour and then made tea. Microwaved potatoes and mushroom and lentil curry was on the menu followed by some of Liz’s home-made vegan ice-cream. And now I’m off to bed. I’m feeling even worse than yesterday and to make matters worse, my “upset stomach” has returned.

I’ll see if I can pick up where I left off last night because I was off on a few travels too. The first part involved my being somewhere on the continent – it may have been in Occupied Europe or a neutral country during the war but it was a big tower-block kind of building. I was talking to a woman there who was expressing her surprise that the top floor was occupied by the British Royal Air Force Bomber Command which was using the premises to direct the bombing attacks against Germany, whereas just a couple of floors down, the German Luftwaffe had offices used to direct fighter control against the British bombers. I replied that that wasn’t the only thing that was unusual – out in the grounds was a military hospital where half the staff was British and half was German and they were dealing with wounded soldiers of both armies.
From there, I found myself in Crewe in a huge traffic queue trying to go over Edleston Road bridge. I was in a driverless car – a while Volkswagen Karmann Ghia – and so I left the car to see how it would do. And it advanced quite nicely in the traffic, except that it was going too fast for me to walk after and with my illness I wasn’t able to run after it – and this really had be worried. I remember that on the bridge was an end-terraced house with the door round the side (which actually fronted onto Edleston Road) and it was actually my house. I was reminiscing about how many of these houses used to be built on the bridges in Crewe.
We haven’t finished yet, because there was a football match taking place between one of Pionsat’s teams and a team that consisted mainly of females and which only had 10 players. Pionsat were however struggling to get on top in this game and on one occasion they broke clean though the defence and the player had a shot but a defender stuck out a foot and diverted it out onto the post and out for a corner. From the corner the ball came in and the keeper missed it but a Pionsat player headed the ball in off the post for a goal. There were three Pionsat players in an offside position but they weren’t interfering with play so there was no reason why the goal should be disallowed but one of the defenders, a young man, argued so much with the referee that in the end he was sent off the field, which tilted the game even further into Pionsat’s favour.

I’ll see if I can pick it up from there.

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Wednesday 18th May 2016 – I WAS UP …

… and breakfasting long before the alarm went off this morning. 07:10 if my memory serves me well.

Mind you, I’d been up (and down) on several occasions during the night – I blame the drink that I had drunk while I was making my tea but who knows? And I was struggling on several occasions with the cramp again. It looks as if that has come back too.

I was off on my travels during the night. I was living in North America playing in a rock group and the other members of the group had seen a map of Europe and were intrigued by some of the literal (and not very correct) translations of European place-names and so we were keen to go and tour them. This involved registering with the European police in order to obtain a permit to travel, and in the end there were six groups registered, who could either tour individually, in pairs or all six together. So off we set and our first port of call was at an open-air music festival. We’d arrived during the night and set up camp in a big tent, all four of us sleeping in a large double bed. But next morning we awoke and went for a prowl around. Our attention was drawn to a huge “bigfoot” type of vehicle, so tall that two other vehicles were parked underneath it. It had a huge canopy over the right-hand side too, for sheltering passengers climbing up into the vehicle. We thought that it was a Duesenberg at first but closer examination revealed that it had the Chevrolet “bow tie” insignia on the front radiator grille.

But after breakfast, I’ve not done very much at all. I’ve not even been out of the house. I’ve spent some time catching up with the blog and that’s really about all. I’m still feeling the effects of the cork that I did yesterday and I’ve crashed out twice – once this morning and once this afternoon. And I’ve been cold too. I’ve not been warm since I’ve been back, but today was even worse.

And so I’m off to bed very shortly. I’m having a day out tomorrow and I need to be on form so I’ll call it a day and go to listen to the radio programmes. As I said before, I just can’t keep it up these days, can I?

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Tuesday 17th May 2016 – I’VE BEEN OUT AND ABOUT TODAY

So having gone to bed quite early last night, I ended up chatting to Alison and Liz on the internet. And then, having dozed in and out of sleep for hours, it was midnight when I switched off the radio and finally settled down for the night.

I had quite a few trips down the corridor, what with one thing and another, but was wide awake by about 06:30, having been off to Stoke on Trent during the night. I’d bought a Land Rover chassis-cab with a crane or winch on the back. It was in good condition but a little scabby but down in the scrapyard we discovered two perfect doors (although of a slightly different colour) so we bought them and fitted them. The next task, as my friend explained to me, was the rear valance and he sorted out his angle grinder and wire brush to de-rust it so that we could paint it over. Zero came over for a chat too, which was very nice because it’s been a good few weeks since she’s appeared in one of my nocturnal rambles.

After breakfast I started to organise myself. I sorted out all of the washing into piles that will either go back home or come with me to Belgium, and then I sorted out the paperwork. I made an appointment with my doctor as I have some paperwork that she needs to see and I need a form signing. That’s for Thursday morning.

Once I’d organised that, I went off out and about.

first stop was the garage. It’s time for Caliburn’s Controle Technique on Thursday afternoon, so I’ve booked him in for a service and a visual check to make sure that there’s nothing about to drop off on the road.

The bank was next. There’s an important bill to pay and if I don’t pay it soon I’ll be transported for life or something so that was urgent. And then I went to the Intermarché for a bit of shopping.

Finally, I ended up back at my house where I dropped off a pile of stuff, stripped out the back of Caliburn and gave him a good brushing out, and now I’ve installed my temporary bed in there for when I go back to Belgium. I couldn’t find the OSB that I use and ended up having to use a sheet of plywood as a bed base. It’s not very satisfactory, bending and creaking in the middle, but it will have to do for now until I can think of something better.

But I’ll tell you something – and that is that I’m clearly not well. Two hours of working on Caliburn, and it wasn’t very hard labour that I was doing, and I was done for. I’ve no idea how I’m going to cope in the future if I can’t summon up the energy for this.

Instead of hanging out there to do more work, I ended up coming back here where I crashed out for three hours – really gone, I was. I’ll have to catch up back at home some other time.

Now that I’ve been to the shops and bought some garlic, I made one of my mega-curries tonight with mushrooms and lentils. But there’s plenty left for the next few days because I couldn’t summon up the appetite.

Now I’m off to bed again and to listen to the radio programmes for a while. I’m ready for a good sleep, even though I’ve already had a good sleep just now.

I can’t keep it up like I used to.

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Monday 16th May 2016 – NOW, THAT’S MORE LIKE IT!

I crawled off to bed at something silly last night like 20:45 or thereabouts. I know that it was still light but I didn’t really care too much because all that I was intending to do was to listen to the radio programmes that I’ve downloaded onto my laptop.

Sometime shortly afterwards, I drifted off and apart from a couple of trips down the corridor during the night, I remember almost nothing until the alarm went off at 07:45. And I could have turned right over and gone back to sleep too. But that’s just the kind of sleep that I’ve been hoping to have for quite a while.

During the night, I was flying off to Canada too. A big wide-bodied jet and I was sitting in one of the seats in the middle,and next to me was quite an attractive lady with black hair and a black dress. She got up to use the facilities and a couple of minutes later, this big black dog (on an aeroplane!) came and sat on the empty seat next to me. I gave it a stroke but I was really hoping that it would go so that the woman would come back but the dog stayed and stayed, and that was that. On arrival in Canada we docked at gate 37, the very farthest gate away from the terminal, but we all ran to the immigration desk and found that we were the first people there. There were three desks, two of which had about 12 people each and the third which had just two or three. I was wondering about this – suppose that I went to the one with the fewest people there and found that it was reserved for something special and was turned away, I’d lose the benefit of having been one of the first to have arrived at the immigration desks.

I had a good day today too. It started off (and finished) by me cracking on with the blog. All of March 2011 is done, as is the bits of April 2011 that I seem to have missed at some time or other, and I’m well into May 2011. I’ll really be catching myself up soon at this rate.

I’ve also had a good go at Caliburn. The back has been emptied, tidied, a load of stuff consigned to the bin and then I’ve sorted out the stuff that I’m leaving behind and the stuff that I’m taking back. You might be wondering why I didn’t take the leaving stuff up to my house, but the answer to that is that it’s a Bank Holiday and there are other tasks that I need to perform that depend upon places being open so I’m combining all of the trips tomorrow.

But the amount of stuff that I’ve taken out of Caliburn means that he’ll go a good 5kph faster on the way back to Belgium on Saturday.

Another thing of note for recent times is that I managed not to crash out this afternoon. Despite the odd wave of fatigue I kept going for the whole day and so now I’m ready for a really early night. I’ll be listening to the radio again in bed until I fall asleep and then I’ll see where I end up tonight.

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