Tag Archives: lie in

Monday 19th September 2016 – YEEUUUCCCHHH!

That was how I felt when I awoke this morning. One look through the window to the heavy grey sky outside was quite enough for me.

But my night wasn’t as bad as I expected. I was out pretty quickly but soon awoke. But not for all that long. And once I’d gone, I’d gone and that was how I stayed until 05:10. And having been for a walk on the parapet I was out once more until the alarm went off at 06:00

I’d been on my travels too – back to my days in Brussels. I was living with someone, but I can’t remember who the girl was and we were sharing a room with one of my former colleagues from those days as well as someone who used to hang around Pionsat football club. And who should turn up to see us but Anne-Marie, one of the girls with whom I worked and with whom I was quite friendly. This was followed by being back in Crewe and I had bumped into a couple whom I know who live on the Wirral but the husband comes originally from Crewe. They were living down at the end of a very tight cul-de-sac in Crewe that was crowded with cars. We were talking about house repairs and they were having to dig a trench six feet deep at the side of their house to shore up the foundations. I mentioned that I had a digger that they could borrow and although they said that they had already borrowed one, I could see the woman’s eyes light up when I mentioned it. They asked where it was because when they had been around to my house it wasn’t there. It suddenly flashed into my mind that Terry had borrowed it to take to Normandy, but that was not what I was worrying about. What was concerning me was how I was going to pull the trailer and digger through the maze of cars that were parked so tightly in the cul-de-sac.

There was no point in being in too much of a rush to be out of bed, and so I wasn’t. It was another bit of a lie-in. But when I did finally leave the comfort and safety of my stinking pit and had breakfast, I just sat on the comfy sofa and that was that.

About 10:00 the weather showed no sign of improvement and so I decided to go for a drive. Moncton and its shops were beckoning me and I may as well go this morning instead of on the way home. Who knows? The weather might be different by the time I come back.

It was an uneventful drive down there. The Salvation Army c&me up with a couple of books, for which I received a 10% pensioners’ discount. I must be looking my age. Value Village came up with a few more (but it’s not Pensioners’ Day there until tomorrow), and Princess Autos supplied a few more toys to take back home with me.

But at Home Depot, Ryobi came up trumps. They have a new design of portable Ryobi Plus One portable air compressor and I can find some use for that back home. That will suit me.

vegan chicken burgers sobeys shediac new brunswick canada september septembre 2016On the way back home, I called at Sobeys for some more shopping. It costs a fortune to do your shopping here.

But I did have some good luck there – they had some vegan burgers (complete with bread) that tasted like chicken. Not that the taste meant anything to me, but it was a change from my usual diet and it just goes to show the range of vegan food now on offer here in Canada.

I was right about the weather too. It had changed, just as I predicted, but changed for the worse. It was now absolutely streaming down. I had my butties right here in my room.

It might have looked better a little later and so after I’d had a bit of a crash-out, I went to the beach and sat under my shelter there, where I ended up chatting to a fellow traveller from the Motel. But I wasn’t out long. The weather opened up again and even under my shelter I started to become even more wet than I usually am.And so back to the hotel I headed.

I tried these new burgers with my beans and chips, and they weren’t too bad at all. I’ve had much worse than this.

So now let’s see what tomorrow brings me. That’s my last day because on Wednesday morning I have to leave. I have a choice of places to go, a choice of directions to take.

I just hope that I have another decent night tonight.

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Friday 2nd September 2016 – WHAT A NICE DAY!

A few days ago I heard that my friend Esyllt, with whom I studied at University, was coming to Brussels from Cardiff for the weekend. We had a quick exchange of e-mails and instead of coming this evening, she came over at lunchtime instead and made her way out to Leuven. That was really nice of her.

We met at the station and went to the fritkot for lunch, followed by a coffee, and then a mega-ramble all around the city. It took us hours to do the full circuit, and we had a really good chat to catch up with old times. Eventually we ended up back at the station and Esyllt took the train back to Brussels early in the evening.

It was nice to catch up with her – we haven’t seen each other for three years – and see where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing in the intervening period. It certainly beats packing boxes and suitcases, and there’s always tomorrow.

On the way to the railway station, I organised the monthly payments for Caliburn’s parking, booked my hotel here (I’m going to have a bit of luxury for a change) for when I come back and then went to the railway station for my rail tickets for the first part of my journey at the weekend. Now I’m up-to-date and everything (except for one night in a hotel because I’ve made a miscalculation about one of the things that I need to do) is organised.

I had a bad night too – still awake at 02:40, but I slept all of the way through the 07:00 and 08:00 cacophony and it was 08:18 when I awoke. I must remember to set the alarm for tomorrow.

So now I’ve had tea – I was going to buy something for tea but I reckoned instead that I would liquidate some of the stocks instead. Less to carry to the van tomorrow. And I’m going to have an early night too. I’m tired and my legs are aching after my mega-ramble (and it does say something that I can go on a mega-ramble like this these days – it’s been a good while) so it will do me good. And then I’m off on the road tomorrow afternoon.

As Gandalf famously said, “It’s a dangerous business going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to”.

And for me, that’s part of the pleasure of travelling.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More about this tomorrow.

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Sunday 7th August 2016 – AND SO LAST NIGHT …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

… like it ought to have done, did it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Friday 5th August 2016 – WELL, THAT DIDN’T WORK OUT …

… quite as planned.

Despite going to bed early last night, it was long after 01:30 when I finally went to sleep. I’m not quite sure why, unless it was something to do with the way that I crashed out yesterday afternoon.

But when I did go off to sleep, I was gone completely. I remember the 07:00 cacophony but did I care? Did I heck. It was 09:30 when I finally crawled out of my stinking pit and staggered off upstairs for breakfast.

Not only that, I’d been on my travels too. It concerned National Service and, even at 11 years old, we were being tested as to our various aptitudes to see where we would fit in when we were called up to do our 6 months’ service at 18 years of age. I seemed to be doing okay with the engineering and mechanical aspects, which was highly unlikely when I really was 11 years old all those years ago.

And so this morning, I managed to make it to the Asiatic supermarket on the corner for my baguette. No point in going any farther seeing as how I didn’t need anything else, and to be on the safe side I took just enough money with me for the bread and nothing else. I need to watch my spending.

And so apart from making my butty, I did nothing else at all today. This morning I had a good relax and this afternoon I had a play around with my 3D program seeing as how I haven’t done anything with it for several weeks.

I know that I should have gone off to the hospital to rescue the food but I wanted to take it easy today and have a day without crashing out. And it worked too – I managed to go the whole day without falling asleep and that’s something to celebrate.

Now, I’m going to have my tea. I have some of the kidney bean stuff left over from yesterday and that will be polished off. Then, I’m planning on having another early night. But will I have one? We’ll have to see about that.

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Thursday 4th August 2016 – BACK IN MY LITTLE ROOM …

… I had a reasonably comfortable day.

I managed without any tea when I returned last night although I polished off a packet of Alison’s crisps. And then I was in bed reasonably early afterwards.

And comfortable the bed is too. I only had to leave it once, and I was well away for most of the night. 06:50 was when I eventually saw the light of day – which makes a change not to be awoken by the cacophony of bells across the road. It really was a pleasant, comfortable sleep.

There was no rush for breakfast. It was about 08:00 when I finally made it into the kitchen, having had a nice relaxing lie-in. And then you can guess what I did for the rest of the morning. That’s right – absolutely badger all. I didn’t do a tap and quite right too. I made the most of my comfortable chair here and that was that.

At about 13:00 I nudged myself into action and headed into town seeing as how there’s not a lot of food in
the place, and nothing whatever for lunch. I spent about €11:00 in the Delhaize stocking up and then €14:00 in the newsagents because my bus ticket is running out. Here in Leuven you can buy a 10-trip ticket for €14:00 – each ticket gives you up to one hours worth of travel on the De Lijn buses with as many connections as you care to make. It’s really good value.

After lunch, I had a chat with Liz and with someone else and then I … errr … went off with the fairies for a couple of hours. I’d had quite a brisk walk into town and back, the first time that I’ve been anywhere quite like that for a few weeks and it took it right out of me. I was absolutely stark out too, and for a couple of hours – you could have had an earthquake or something and nothing would have awoken me. I went off on my travels too during this particular period but you are probably eating your meal or something and I don’t want to put you off.

Despite my little sleep, I still wasn’t feeling up to much after I awoke, but I forced myself to go and make tea. Kidney beans, olives, mixed veg and boulghour, with pasta and tomato sauce. And there’s enough for tomorrow too. It’s the best that I could do without making too much effort. And it was then that I realised that I’d left behind in the hospital fridge the food that Alison had bought me. I’ll have to nip back for that tomorrow before someone else liberates it.

So now I’m going to have an early night and watch a film. I deserve a good relax tonight. And even though this place isn’t ideal by any means, it’s nice to be back. I missed my little room.

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Tuesday 2nd August 2016 – I’VE HAD …

… my mapthera this morning.

But never mind that for a moment – it’ll come as no surprise for you to learn that I had the usual night last night – awake and down the corridor every two hours or so, including disturbing my room-mate in the bathroom at 06:00.

But after that, I was stark out and the nurse had to jump through all kinds of hoops to wake me for a blood test at 08:40. It was quite a job for her. And then after that, I had breakfast.

The plan after breakfast was to crash out yet again, but it didn’t quite work out like that. Just as I was settling down, they came round with the initial perfusion and a pile of pills for an antidote or whatever they are for. Once I was hooked up to that lot, I tried to settle down a second time, but then the doctor came round for a chat.

She told me that the blood test had shown that I could take the mapthera (which I had already worked out for myself) but that I’d have to stay in until at least tomorrow while they check up for side-effects. And so I’m stuck in here for yet another day now and that’s really getting on my wick now. I want to go home.

But something that the doctor said has dismayed me more than just a little.

“It must be dreadful for you living in this hospital with an environment like you’re in and with none of your personal possessions around you”.
“It does rather, but it’s impractical for me to commute back and to to France as things stand” I replied
“So have you considered moving to Belgium?”

And so it looks as if they think that I’ll be here for quite a while needing regular attention and follow-ups. This is the worst news possible as far as I’m concerned. I really didn’t want to hear this.

They fetched me the wrong meal for lunch and tea today but I still managed to eat a healthy meal both times. But my appetite seems to be back as I’m starving right now and I’ve been nibbling away at all kinds of stuff that I’ve had stored here and my room-mate is starting to look quite appetising.

And so apart from crashing out for an hour this afternoon, I’ve not done anything very much. This mapthera takes it out of me a bit but I don’t seem to have any side effects right now except dying to go to the bathroom – but then they did give me something for that this morning to try to reduce the water on my legs.

But I do hope that I can leave here tomorrow. I’m fed up.

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Friday 22nd July 2016 – HAVING HAD THAT GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP …

… the other night, I paid for it last night, that’s for sure.

I was lying there all through the night and I remember every minute of it. It was the most uncomfortable night that I’ve had for quite a while. And when I finally stepped out of bed and had a good look in the mirror, I looked about 90 (instead of my usual 85). What a horrible sight.

Mind you, I must have dropped off at some point during the night because I was up on the Arctic Highway along the Mackenzie River in northern Canada, driving a top-of-the-range 4×4 vehicle heading north, with the odd car or two coming back the other way. But I wasn’t alone for there was a woman and her young daughter aged about 8 or 9 with me. The daughter was wearing a black shell suit with twin white stripes and a petrol blue tee-shirt. She had to change her tee shirt to a pink one and couldn’t manage to do it and so I had to help her, even though I was driving this expensive vehicle along some of these dreadful mud-and-gravel roads.

I had a late breakfast, and that was really the highlight of my day. I didn’t set foot for a minute outside the door of the building. In fact, as the afternoon wore on I started to feel worse and worse and this wasn’t helped by learning that someone whom I vaguely know and who is suffering from lymphoma died yesterday, quite suddenly, of unforeseen complications and another friend of mine lost his wife quite suddenly and unexpectedly. It’s as if the Hand of Death is slowly enveloping me and it’s a very uncomfortable feeling.

I was in bed by 17:00 and although I couldn’t really sleep it’s still the best way to deal with my issues right now and I’m glad that I’m in my own room where I can stay like this in a semi-vegetative state.

At midnight exactly we had the most astonishing thunderstorm followed by a torrential downpour. That woke me up and I couldn’t go back to sleep afterwards. For a good couple of hours I was wide awake and feeling a little better – to such an extent that I went into the bathroom at one point and washed some of my undies. Can’t have me going about all smelly now, can we … "well, it’s never bothered you before" – ed.

Yes, I am feeling a little better now so I hope that I can have a really good night’s sleep for what is left of the night. I deserve it.

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Tuesday 12th July 2016 – I NEEDN’T HAVE BOTHERED …

… to go to all of this effort and worry about this morning.

I breezed into the bank, checked my accounts, and then gave the bank cashier the kind of instructions that would normally have caused a considerable amount of upset and confusion, and probably have led to the involvement of the bank’s Head Office. And I was prepared for quite an argument too.

But to my total surprise, and in an attitude that is going to change the way that I think about banking in the depths of darkest rural France, the bank clerk carried out my instructions to the letter without even batting an eyelid and, even more astonishingly given everything that was involved, without even asking to see any identification.

We were in there, out and gone in less than two minutes and that must be something of a record.

I had a reasonable night’s sleep in the nice comfy bed at Liz and Terry’s. So reasonable in fact that I only left it twice, and when the alarm went off at 07:00, I promptly turned over and went straight back to sleep. It’s been a good while since I’ve done that, hasn’t it?

Off to Pionsat and the bank, and then round to my house to sort out my mail and pick up a few things that I might need. And what a mess my place is in. Brambles, weeds and long grass everywhere. It’s just so depressing. I’ve asked Terry if he’ll attack it with a strimmer if he has five minutes, then I’ll be able to find the front door.

We went shopping for food, and I bought a baguette to make some butties for tomorrow seeing as I’m back on my travels to Leuven after all of this. I didn’t get to stay for very long, did I?

Nothing happened in the afternoon – I stayed in and did some work on the blog to bring it up-to-date – and then tonight after tea we had the laugh of our lives.

Celtic, Scottish football champions, were playing Lincoln Red Imps, Champions of that major and important footballing nation … errr … Gibraltar, in a Champions League match which could not unreasonably have ended up with a cricket score. And the final result? Lincoln Red Imps 1, those giants of Scottish football … errr … 0. I’ve never laughed so much in all my life.

So another early night, because it’s a 06:00 start. I need to be on the road by 07:00 as it’s a long way to Lyon and the Part-Dieu station for my train. But at least once I’m on it, it’s direct to Brussels with just three stops and no messing about in Paris.

Over 800kms in well under four hours. That’s the beauty of the TGV

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Sunday 26th June 2016 – I’M DISAPPOINTED …

… with that pizza place that I’ve been using. I had an under-cooked pizza a couple of weeks ago, I seem to remember, and tonight’s was even worse. What was even more depressing about it was that while a few weeks ago he might have had a valid excuse, seeing as how the place was packed out, but tonight I was the only customer in there at the time that I ordered.

And so I shan’t be going to that place again – not that it’s a big deal because there’s another pizza place just round the corner from where my new place is and I’ll give that a try. I still have plenty of my sliced vegan cheese left.

Talking of vegan cheese, I had a cheese butty today. There wasn’t enough hummus left for a decent butty, especially as with it being Sunday it was a big baguette from the boulangerie down the road. But with a good supply of vegan cheese, a big tomato and a pile of salad (and a couple of olives) it was delicious.

Mind you, I’ll have to do a big “shop” tomorrow as I’ve now run out of lunchtime stuff.

Last night was a slightly better night as far as I was concerned. I was late dropping off to sleep – long after midnight – and awake early – 05:20 in fact – despite having been up once or twice during the night. But after the 05:20 trip downstairs, I went back to bed, back to sleep and it was 08:20 when I awoke.

I’d been on my travels during the night too – with the mother of a girl who has featured a couple of times in these pages. We were in Marcillat en Combraille and I had to take her home, which involved going into the town square and back out the other side. However she told me of a shorter way through the town that missed out going round the square. It was puzzling to me how come I didn’t know this particular way.

Straight after breakfast, which did include my two bread rolls, I went down to the boulangerie. Although the bad news is that the jam had gone off. I managed to salvage some of it but the rest went into the bin. It’s already been salvaged once so it’s no big deal. I’ll have to buy some more if there’s none supplied in this new place.

Sunday was shower day too, so now I’m nice and clean. But it was touch and go because the water wasn’t very hot. I don’t know what has happened there. I had to make the most of the cool water. It wasn’t very pleasant but still …

As far as the blog goes, I’ve now finished the month of June. Tomorrow, I’ll be starting on July if I have the opportunity. I want to see how my water retention issues go because if there is no improvement I’m going to try to blag my way back into the hospital.

Not that I want to of course, but I can’t go on like this.

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Sunday 19th June 2016 – NOW THAT’S MORE LIKE IT!

I had to leave the comfort of my stinking pit once during the night, but I was soon back in it and fast asleep. And the next thing that I remember were the bells of the local church summoning the faithful. I tried to count the peals of the bells but was easily defeated by the crazy campanologist so I had to look at my phone to find out the time.

Ohh yes, 09:47. That’s what I call a lie-in. When was the last time that I had a decent sleep like that?

I’d been on my travels too, driving a sports car in some kind of rally. as far as field positions had gone, we had finished down the field but bearing in mind the individual start times, we were well out in front in the classifications and I was expecting, with all kinds of confidence, to leave the field behind me the next day. But on setting off, the tractor-digger that I was towing behind me suffered a collapsed digger arm and that seriously delayed me as it wouldn’t raise back up. Of course, the idea of switching on the engine to start up the hydraulic pump never ever occurred to me.

After breakfast, I went for a pleasant stroll down to the boulangerie down the street – the one that I looked in the other day – for my baguette. I’ve run out of hummus so it’s vegan cheese, tomato and olives today for lunch. For a change, it was quite nice weather outside but it soon clouded over. The weather is really miserable right now and no-one would ever believe that it’s flaming June.

vegan deli vegan cheese carrefour belgiumAnd while we’re on the subject of vegan cheese, I forgot to post a photo of my exciting discovery from several days ago. So now’s the chance to catch up with the outstanding issue.

As you can see, it’s the same brand of vegan cheese that I discovered a month or so ago, but this time it’s a Cheddar cheese substitute. THis is quite an exciting discovery and will definitely make my cheese butties taste much better.

This afternoon, I’ve been on at the Titanic public enquiry again – the American version. Today, I’ve been reading a great deal of nonsense from some of the passengers – the most important part of the disaster according to one woman was a sailor sitting next to her in a lifeboat lighting up his pipe, and another passenger regretting that sailors were put in the lifeboats to row and that their places should have been given to some of the “gallant and heroic First-Class male passengers who gave their lives so that those wretches could escape”.

But I have said before that I have no time for Senator Alden Smith who chaired the enquiry, but this nonsense about “what is an iceberg made of” has finally been put to bed.

You remember that we said the other day that the American Press of the day ridiculed him for asking the question – on the basis that “everyone knows that icebergs are made of ice, which is water”. But we had an Arctic expert giving evidence today who stated that icebergs are full of rocks, and it’s those rocks that could easily split the iron sides of a ship and cause the damage that led to the sinking of the ship. So Senator Alden Smith had the last laugh after all, although you would never expect the American Press to apologise.

hercules motorcycle leuven belgiumIt was such a nice evening that I went for a walk into town. And I’m glad that I did because I encountered a motorbike that I didn’t recognise, so I went for a closer look.

This is a Hercules, a German make of motorcycle – a company that was famous for producing a Wankel rotary engined bike and which ceased production in 1996. There was nothing to indicate anything more about this bike, but it’s a single-cylinder four-stroke of about 125cc, something like that.

We don’t have a classification for old motorcycles so I’ll file it under “old cars”.

leuven town hall belgiumThe Town Hall in the city centre looked absolutely splendid in the late evening sun and was well-worth a photograph. It does make you wonder just how splendid the city must have been before the Germans burnt it to the ground in 1914 and blew it to bits in 1940.

Now that I have my vegan cheese I could go for a pizza, after all, it is Sunday. And I had a beautiful vegetarian pizza that went down well. And a lovely walk back home where I polished off the rest of the cake with some soya custard-substitute.

Now, I’m going to have an early night. I have a busy day tomorrow at the hospital.

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Saturday 18th June 2016 – WHAT A NICE EVENING …

… that was!

Tonight was the night that we had our little farewell party. The student exams are coming to a close and two of the students are leaving on Monday morning. And so they decided to have a little party, with each person contributing a course of the meal, and I was invited.

I went to the Asian fast food place and bought a biryani, and also a bottle of wine. Everyone else made something, much of which was vegan, so there was plenty to eat. We sat around the table chatting away for quite some time too and it was after midnight that I came up to my room. The people here are very nice indeed, very friendly, and I’m glad that some good has come from staying here.

But here’s a thing. I had a couple of trips down the corridor during the night but they didn’t inconvenience me too much, and went back to sleep each time. When the alarm went off, I simply turned over and dozed off again, and it was almost 08:30 when I finally awoke. That makes a pleasant change too, a little lie-in.

I was back on the Titanic public enquiry this morning, with Senator Alden Smith still stuck in this monomania that he had about the two wireless operators, Cottam and Bride, selling their stories to the Press. I can’t see an issue with it – after all, it’s their own personal story and they waited until they were on dry land before making contact with the Press, and yet to date, 12 days into the enquiry, Alden Smith has devoted about a third of the time into interviewing everyone from the Marconi company, wasting everyone’s time and even summoning Marconi himself not once but twice to a meeting in the USA to interrogate people over the issue as he thinks that it’s “improper practice”.

As I said, I don’t see an issue with it. It’s their own personal story and has nothing whatever to do with an issue involving Marconi, the White Star Line, the American public and Senator Alden Smith.

At lunchtime I braved the showers to go to do some shopping and passed by the market for some olives where I bumped into Melanie, one of the students here who was also doing some shopping. I’ve finished off my hummus so tomorrow I’ll be having cheese and tomato butties. I don’t want to buy anything perishable yet because on Monday I’m not here – in the hospital in fact, and out gallivanting on Tuesday lunchtime.

Back on the Titanic this afternoon and then off to the shops for the food for the party – and now I’m back here. I’ll have a nice lie-in tomorrow (I hope) with no alarm. High time that I had a good rest.

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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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