Tag Archives: shower

Monday 2nd January 2017 – THE FIRST SNOWS OF WINTER …

… has covered our land during the night.

It might not be much by Canadian standards, or by German standards or even by Auvergnat standards, but it’s the first snows all the came and at least it made me smile. I was wondering whether I might miss out this year, but here we are.

I thought that it was cold last night.

And I had another bit of a bad night too. It took me ages to drop off to sleep and then we had party-time again for an hour or so round about 01:00.

During the night I’d been on my travels too. I’d been fixing a van (but not Calibuen – a big white Iveco-type) and I’d gone out for a test drive in it, even though it only had three wheels and the fourth corner was propped up on a trolley jack. When the van came back to the garage the trolley jack was still there under the van but in a different place. There was a girl featuring in this dream too but I’ve no idea who she was. But she was quite familiar.

The alarm went off at 07:00 and I was quickly upstairs for breakfast. And I wasn’t alone either – there was a middle-aged couple breakfasting there and I didn’t recognise them at all.

But there will not be too much of any of this tonight though, because unless I’m very much mistaken I’m here on my own tonight. It’s 22:20 and there’s not one other person in the building. The noisy neighbours have definitely gone (the cleaner was doing heir room this afternoon), but they don’t seem to have informed the boy who comes to see them because he was knocking on their door just now.

After breakfast I had a shower and then walked up to the hospital. And I felt sorry for the wildlife as their lake is all frozen over and the poor birds don’t know what to do. Yes, it was that cold.

I was early-ish in the reception, and quickly dealt with. They soon packed me off downstairs to the waiting room.

And wait I did, because they forgot me, and it was not until 11:15 – 45 minutes after my appointment time – that I was seen.

And the long and the short of it is that I don’t have to come back for, would you believe, four weeks. My protein count is up slightly to 2.04 but my blood count has rocketed up to 11.7, all on its own and after the low figures for the last couple of visits, that figure can’t be right. But they think it is, and hence the attempt to try me for four weeks without a visit.

I’m not going to go home though, even though I would like too. It costs me €400-odd at least to make a trip home and back, and then there’s the fatigue and the inconvenience in the middle of winter. I’ve paid to stay here until the end of February and it’s warm-ish in here, there’s breakfast provided and it’s convenient. I don’t need to go very far from here.

All in all, it’s a good idea to stay and so here I’ll sit. It’s a shame but there we are. No sense in throwing good money after bad.

For tea tonight I had the leftover vegetables with a tin of couscous vegetables and a bit of tomato sauce. Followed by Christmas pudding and custard. Now I’m ready for an early night.

if I do end up on my own tonight, i’ll hope to have a good night’s sleep. And then I need to think of a cunning plan for the next few weeks.

Saturday 24th December 2016 – WHILE YOU ADMIRE …

… the city of Leuven and its Christmas illuminations, I’ll tell you about the day that I’ve had today.

Most importantly, I went out for a walk this evening. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been for a stroll out at night – probably since I was in Montreal in October, and seeing as it’s Christmas Eve tonight, it seemed to be a good-enough opportunity.

One thing that I haven’t done since I’ve been in Leuven to show you where I’m staying.

It’s in the Brusselsestraat, which used to be the main way out of the city before the Motorway link road was built, and on the corner of the Kruisstraat. And that’s the building just down there on the left, on the corner after the third street light.

My room is on the first floor, on the left hand corner at the rear, with a window at the rear overlooking the garden.

And so as for last night – a total disaster.

Someone in here was “entertaining” and the beds creak like nobody’s business, as I might have mentioned before. I was all for giving them a round of applause but of course it’s impossible to clap with just one hand as you know.

And then we had the party.

About 02:00 they started, and it wasn’t until about 04:00 that they finished.

I’d been asleep, having had an early night until they started, and I gave up any idea of going back there once they had started. By 02:30 I was working on the laptop. I may as well make the most of all of my discomfort. No point in missing out on the time that I had unexpectedly been given

I went back to sleep shortly afterwards and that was that until the alarm went off. And rather petulantly, I didn’t turn off the alarm for quite a while. And likewise with the reminder. I let it ring for a few minutes

After breakfast I went and had a shower. I didn’t wait until everyone was awake like I usually do – I went straight in regardless of the noise that the shower makes in the bathroom.

I was in something of a bad mood, wasn’t I?

For much of the morning I was researching stuff again for my stuff on Labrador. And I came across some work by a certain Rudy Mauro, someone who had gone out (in a helicopter) to the site of where Leonidas Hubbard, about whom we’ve talked on many occasions, had died during his ridiculous “exploration” of Labrador’s interior where he had starved to death after being “out” for only a few weeks.

He also had amongst his papers some notes by Dillon Wallace, he who accompanied Hubbard and who went back to complete his work, and which were previously unpublished.

Later on I went out to the shops and to the market. I bought everything that I had written down on my list, but something that I had subsequently remembered that I needed, I even more subsequently forgot.

And worse was yet to come, because the vegan shop had sold out of the spray-on vegan cream. It means that I’m going to have to eat my mince pies “dry” and that’s a tragedy. I was rather looking forward to my special little treat.

I carried on working this afternoon, as well as having a little doze too (which I reckoned that I needed), as well as keeping up-to-date with Morton’s game with Queen of the South.

That all took me up to tea time when i finished off the last of my curry. But it was rather difficult making my tea tonight as my current lot of housemates don’t seem to understand the necessity of cleaning up and washing up after them.

The sooner I can find a place of my own the better.

But then I went off for my walk up town in the evening.

What surprised me was that there was no-one about. Well – that’s not necessarily true. What I mean was that in most other cities the centre would be heaving and there woud be all kinds of things going on – and that was what I was hoping – carol singers and all of that.

But as you can see from a photo of the Grote Markt – there are very few people wandering around here and nothing in the way of entertainment. It was all rather disappointing.

And so instead I came back home.

It’s now Christmas Day and I’m celebrating with a can of alcohol-free raspberry beer that I bought from Noz in Montlucon the other week.

And now I’m off to bed, if my housemates will let me, and I’ll show you the rest of my photos tomorrow.

Tuesday 20th December 2016 – I MADE SURE …

… that I dropped off early to sleep last night.

What I did was to do something that I hadn’t done for quite a while, and that was that I got into bed and started to watch a film on the laptop. Sure enough, after only about 10 minutes or so, I was off.

But if I ever lay my hands on whoever it was who left the building at 02:40 this morning, slamming the door behind them, they they will know about it. Because I didn’t go back to sleep afterwards.

And it was just as well because the girl in the room next door was up and about at 06:00 and she wasn’t exactly quiet either. But then you can’t pick your housemates, can you?

Anyway, I was in at breakfast at 07:00 and out by 07:30 and back down here at work.

Meanwhile, I forgot to tell you about a couple of things that happened to me at the hospital yesterday.

For the benefit of those who don’t speak French, the sign on the back of the Fiat van says “Please don’t park within 3 metres …” of the rear doors, to allow the rear doors to open to admit a wheelchair.

And so the car behind is parked within 1 metre of it – right outside the entrance to a hospital.

I went up to the driver and asked him if a sign has to be written in both official languages (French and Flemish) to be legal, but as you might expect, my comment went clear over his head.

As Alfred Hitchcock once said to Kenneth Williams “it’s a waste of time telling jokes to foreigners”, and reminds me of the spoof Open University course on “Understanding Irony”, which actually received several applicants.

But it’s a sad reflection of the selfish attitude of many Belgians, isn’t it?

But the second thing was even more unnerving.

I walked up to the reception desk and the woman looked at me and said “ahh, Mr Hall …” Yes, I’m even being recognised by the clerical staff in the hospital now. This is uncomfortable, isn’t it?

Another thing that I have forgotten to do is to post the photo of the stuff that I bought on Sunday at the English shop.

Working clockwise around, we have Linda McCartney vegan pies, a vegan Christmas pudding, Bisto vegan gravy browning, a bottle of ginger beer, a bottle of dandelion and burdock, a bag of Bombay mix, some custard powder and, pride of place, two boxes of vegan mince pies.

Now I’m all set up for Christmas.

Later this morning I went down to Caliburn to sort out some stuff to bring up here and then went down to the Carrefour. I came back with a baguette and some tomatoes, some seitan slices (for Christmas dinner), some potatoes, some carrots and some leeks as well as a couple of pots of fresh spices.

That was because, for tea, I had boiled potatoes with fresh mint, carrots with fresh rosemary, leeks and Linda McCartney vegan pie covered in thick Bisto gravy. It made such a change from my usual fare and it was absolutely delicious. It all worked out fine too, much better than my pizza did. I shall be doing more of this, as well as looking at the possibility of baked potatoes in the microwave here.

High time that I was organised.

This afternoon I crashed out for a while and also did some work on my web pages.

Another thing that I did was to walk into the (unlocked) bathroom just as my nubile next-door neighbour was wrapping herself in a towel after her shower. Serves her right for not closing the door!

So now we’ll have another go at an early night. And I’ll hope for better luck too.

Friday 16th December 2016 – TODAY WAS A LITTLE …

… more exciting than yesterday.

What probably made a difference was that I was on my travels during the night. And not just upstairs to the bathroom either (I knew that I would have to do that, didn’t I?).

I was driving down the M1 to London in an E-type Jaguar and the range wasn’t enough to reach there so I had to pull off somewhere round by Luton or Dunstable to fuel up. I knew just the place but when I arrived, it was abandoned and all of the pumps were broken. I enquired of a yokel where there might be a fuel station, and he pointed me in the direction of the Motorway service station. But later on I had to go for food and this involved walking down a long corridor past various hatches to receive various items of the menu. Part of the route took us downstairs to a hatch and there I noticed that some people also had mugs of pea soup. I fancied a mug of that and so I made enquiries – to be told that the pea soup was at a hatch a few positions further back so if I wanted pea soup I would have to retrace my steps.

It was difficult to crawl out of bed this morning, but even so, I was all done and dusted and back down here before 08:00.

We had yet more excitement in the Kruisstraat this morning after the police trap the other day.

It’s a police barrage, this time with the aim of issuing alcotests to the drivers. They can do random breath tests here in Belgium. And they caught a couple too.

They also caught a couple of motorists trying to drive the wrong way up the one-way street too

A little later I went outside. They are doing some work in the building opposite and this really caught my eye.

It’s a little mini-tractor like my Kubota B1220 and you can see how they are moving the breeze blocks – on a pallet being used as a skid hoisted up at one end on the tri-point lift. I’ll have to try this one day.

I went down the the bank around the corner and drew out the next month’s supply of money, and then down to Caliburn where I brought another pile of stuff back up here. Food mostly, but some clothes too.

Fetching the baguette was next, and then a coffee. I deserved it.

I was disturbed later by someone who wanted to check the plumbing again. But at least the shower room is now finished and we can use that again. Saves me staggering up the stairs at silly hours in the morning.

This afternoon I spent some time on the website again – and I’m still stuck in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. I hope that I can move on some day soon.

Tea tonight finished off the last of the kidney bean stuff that I made the other day, and now I’m going to try yet again for another early night. I had a little crash-out this afternoon but I’mstill quite tired.

Tomorrow it’s market day so I may well go for a little stroll up town.

Thursday 15th December 2016 – JUST LIKE THE MATHEMATICIAN …

… called Hall, I’ve done three-fifths of five-eights of … err … nothing today.

I awoke yet again in the middle of the night to go off down the corridor, and was still asleep when the alarm went off this morning. But I was first up for breakfast and first back downstairs again. And then apart from a trip to the corner for my baguette, that was that.

We’ve had the builders in today. There’s been a leaky tap in the shower that’s been filtering into the bedroom at the side of it and today they came to sort it out.

They had to chisel off some of the tiles in the shower in order to access the leak, and they’ve repaired that. And then they chiselled off the damp plaster and put some tongue-and-grooving over it – with me giving some technical advice seeing that I’ve done rather a lot of this just recently.

But the plaster isn’t dry in the shower so we can’t use it and so that bathroom is closed off – which means that we have to go upstairs. That will be interesting at 03:00, that’s for sure.

I had a phone call today too – from the hospital. My appointment is on Monday at 11:10.

And i’m not looking forward to it.

Sunday 11th December 2016 – SEE IF YOU CAN GUESS …

… where I am right now.

In fact, if I walked forward a dozen or so spaces and stood on that slab just there in between the rails, I’d be on the very spot where the Armistice was signed between the Allied powers and Germany on 11th November 1918.

And it’s also the place where the armistice was signed between France and the German Reich on 22nd June 1940 and which brought to an end the Battle of France.

And despite what you might hear, this is not the railway carriage in which the armistice was signed, even though it dies carry the same fleet number.

After the signing of the 1940 Armistice, the original carriage was taken to Germany where it was displayed for a while in Berlin. But as the noose closed in around the city, the carriage was one of the artefacts evacuated.

It was taken to relative safety to near Ohrdruf in Thuringia, but was burnt by the Germans in late April 1945 to stop it falling back into Allied hands.

This carriage here is one of the original carriage’s younger sisters, but is fitted with many of the fittings and accessories of the original carriage, which were discovered in Berlin after the end of the War.

There are quite a few other bits and pieces on display here too.

This is a Renault FT light tank of 1918, and despite being built less than 2 years after the first appearance of the tank on the battlefield, it really is a modern vehicle, well in advance of anything else that any army had to offer at the time and is the basis of almost every subsequent tank built even today.

In fact the design was so advanced that dozens of them went to war in World War II with several different armies. The one here actually did see action in the latter stages of World War I.

But pride of place from my point of view in the absence of any contemporary aeroplane, has to be this piece of artillery

This is the French Army’s 75mm rapid-fire cannon, much better known as the soixante-quinze. And when I say “rapid fire”, I really do mean “rapid fire”. The official firing rate of one of these is 7 shells per minute, but fully-trained crews have been times as firing 24 and even more rounds per minute under pressure.

This was certainly the most astonishing piece of artillery of World War I and its rapid rate of fire with a trained crew saved many a battle.

You could always tell when they were at the front because instead of going off with a dull thud or a bang like most artillery pieces, they had a very distinctive whine that anyone who has ever seen a World War I film featuring the French Army will immediately recognise. It sends a similar shiver up my spine as does the hooter of a North American diesel engine.

Apart from that, the one trouble with going to bed early is that you awaken early. And after a long while of tossing and turning, I finally rose up from my (very comfortable) stinking pit to find that it was … errr … 04:26

But never mind. That gave me an opportunity to back up all of the files on the laptop and to do a few other things too.

And have a shower. And a shave. And not just clean clothes but brand spanking new socks and undies. I bought a pile of those last year just before I was taken ill, and I hadn’t even unwrapped them. Anyway, I’ve brought them with me.

Breakfast could have been a little better, but apart from that, I enjoyed my stay at the Akena Hotel here at Claye-Souilly and I’ll remember this place for again, that’s for sure. Add it to the list if I can’t make one of my other two stops. It was a good find.

By 11:00 I was back on the road and after fuelling up with diesel on the N2, headed off for the clearing at Compiègne. This was another one of the places on my list that I can now cross off.

The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful and even after my sight-seeing, I was back here in my little room by 17:00 with a couple of bags full of stuff.

I had a good rest, a pizza from round the corner, and now I’m off to bed. I’ve had a busy last few days and I need to catch up with my beauty sleep.

Saturday 3rd December 2016 – AND IF YOU THINK …

… that the last couple of nights were bad, you ain’t seen nuffink yet. Because there I was, it was 06:30, and I was still wide-awake. I just couldn’t drop off at all, and I’ve no idea why.

But I must have done shortly after that. And I heard the alarm go off at 07:00, and the next one at 07:15, but that was nothing like enough to make me leave my bed. Instead, I breakfasted at something like … errr … 10:30.

I was up in town a little later to buy some stuff for my butties. And here I had a big surprise.

There was a new van on there and it seemed to be advertising home bakery products, including bio, lactose-free, gluten-free and vegan products.

I had quite a chat with the owner and he pointed out to me the products that he had which were vegan. There were two varieties of cake that you buy by the slice and some biscuits too. That was so exciting.

He’s here every Saturday so I shall be frequenting him when I come back.

After lunch, I had a shower and a clean up ready for Alison coming round. We went down the road to the café for a coffee and a good chat about this and that, all that’s happened to us for the last couple of weeks.

Alison ran me down to the railway station afterwards where I bought my ticket.

OH Leuven are playing away tonight against AFC Tubize. Tubize is a town that I have never visted and of course I’ve certainly never seen the football club play. Apart from that, as I said to Alison, I ought to get out more often and connect with the real word every now and again, and going to the football is one way of doing it.

The ground is a good 20 minute stroll south of the railway station and, would you believe it, there’s no fritkot between the town centre and the ground that I could see. That meant that I had to do without my tea. But isn’t that astonishing?

The ground is a modern two-sided wonder with a couple of concrete stands with basic seat forms put on there. Underneath the stand where I’m sitting is a long hall with a pie hut inside and the players’ changing rooms and the like. It’s all very basic.

It cst me €15 for a seat which wasn’t so bad, but actually finding my place was something else. The security guards clearly didn’t know the stadium all that well and I was sent from pillar to post before I found the correct entrance.

I suppose that a good number of other people had difficulty finding the ground too, because I don’t think that I’ve ever seen such an empty stadium at this level of football. At a rough estimate of what I could see, there can’t have been 1500 people in the ground for this match. 100 away supporters if they were lucky.

The Kop for the home fans is a little standing area on the far side -capacity about 500 I suppose and maybe 120 people in it. They made a bit of noise I suppose, but it wasn’t anything to be worked up about.

There’s another small stand behind the goal, out of shot to the left. That maybe has room for 700 people I suppose but it was empty and closed off.

It’s not quite a one-sided wonder that you might find in Scottish lower-league football but it’s not far off. One of those places where they set out with the best intentions and then ran out of money.

As for the match itself, the first half was pretty uneventful. Both sides had their chances, including a shot from an AFC Tubize player that hit the post, rolled along the goal-line and back into play, with Gillekens in the Leuven goal totally flat-footed.

But there were a few strange decisions out there. The OH Leuven n°10 was being kicked, pushed, dragged and swatted off the ball by the defenders and never a foul was awarded despite how much protesting he did; It totally astonished me.

And when he was booked for complaining too much, I really did feel for him.

At half-time, I went down for a hot drink. I dunno what they flavoured my hot water with, but at €2:00 it was flaming expensive

The second half was a little more lively at first, and OH Leuven took the lead. They have a centre-forward called Casagolda who somehow has always flattered to deceive. But today, he had a really good game, living up to his promise. as a Tubize player dallied on the ball à la Pionsat defence, ha was harried out of it and Casagolda whacked it into the net.

The game them came alive and we had about 25 minutes of exciting football and it was a shame that the match couldn’t have been played like this all the time.

OH Leuven scored a second with about 15 minutes to go, and they hit the bar and had another cleared off the line too. As it finished, they thoroughly deserved the victory.

I walked back into town looking for a fritkot. I photo-bombed a group photo and so was invited to be formally included in it, which was good fun, and then carried on my search.

I walked past the really beautiful Church of St Gertrude and eventually came across a fritkot on the way out of town. a big bag of chips and garlic sauce was beautiful and as I sauntered back to the railway station I noticed that if I had come out of the station building via the second door, I would have been right by a fritkot.

GRRRRR!

The train brought me to Brussels-Midi and then we had more excitement as our train to Leuven via the Airport arrived at the wrong platform and we all had to run for it.

By 0045, freezing cold, I was back in my little room in my hostel. I’d had a lovely day out with good company, and now I’ll have a good night’s sleep ready for my trip tomorrow.

Tuesday 29th November 2016 – I’M BACK …

… in Leuven now after my two weeks in the hills.

I’m in a different room than usual, one that I’ve never slept in before and it’s cold in here. Flaming well freezing in fact. The heating only comes on at certain times of the day and of course that isn’t when I want it to be.

Mind you, it was cold this morning in the Ardennes. Minus 3.3°C and that was at about 10:30 when I went out to Caliburn ready to leave, and I had to scrape the windscreen. Winter is definitely here.

I had a good sleep for a change, awake quite early before the alarm, and first down the breakfast too. Before the staff again. I’d even had time for a shower and a shave and clean clothes.

After breakfast I paid up, did a few things here and there and then hit the road. The drive up here was uneventful except that I had to stop for fuel at Weilin and that was shockingly expensive, and I did some shopping in a Colruyt- the first time for probably 20 years. And I was impressed by how cheap everything was.

Caliburn is now in his little hidey-hole and I’m now back here, with a few things that I grabbed to bring with me. There’s much more that needs to come but I’ll do that bit by bit.

Lunch didn’t take long to fix and after that it was like Euston station in here with a couple of people bursting in. I had a bit of a doze and a snooze after my drive up here – I’m not as fit as I used to be as we all know.

For tea I made a curry with lentils and garlic and mixed veg, with enough for tomorrow. And now I’m having an early night here in Ice Station Zebra.

It’s hospital tomorrow.

Sunday 20th November 2016 – I’VE HAD …

… a better day today.

Mind you, having been deep in the depths of despair yesterday, almost anything would have been a better day.

What helped matters greatly was that I had a really good sleep. In bed early and straight to sleep too. With a brief awakening to switch off the radio, I slept right through until 06:30 without a single interruption at all.

I managed a shower of sorts too, getting half of the water all over the floor as you might expect, and I washed some undies too. Don’t want to run out of them.

Breakfast starts at 08:00 and I was down there at 07:55 . But the place was locked up and they didn’t open it until 08:05. I was first in too, and first in by a long way too. That’s not like me, is it?

I was also first out too, and I went back upstairs and cracked on with the stuff that I’m writing about Labrador.

By about 10:30 I needed to change tack and start to attack Paradise River in Labrador. I’d found tons of stuff about that before, but it all went when I had that hard drive crash in May 2015 and so I had to start again.

Luckily, the internet was working and, furthermore, it kept on going for almost all of the day. The noxious brat seemed to have been confined to quarters and most people have left too, so I was pretty quiet in the lounge. I accomplished a pile of work and found tons of interesting stuff on the internet too.

I’d seen a football ground in the village of Sugny when I’d been on my travels the other day. It is the home of RCS Sugny and looked well-maintained and up-to-date so braving the wind and the driving rain I went out this afternoon to see if there was a match on.

If there’s any football played, it would be played this afternoon, I reckoned. But the ground was closed up and there was no-one about which was a shame, so I turned round and came back the pretty way.

With no-one else about, I carried on working on my Paradise River stuff and that kept me out of mischief.

With having some vegan cheese left, I went off into Vresse sur Semois and organised a pizza at the hotel down there. And quite good it was too. The staff there was very friendly and the customers were quite sociable too. I had quite a good evening down there.

And now back here, and the internet has gone again. Or, rather, it’s there, but there’s a “hidden network” that keeps on appearing, and when that appears, it keeps on pinching all of the limited bandwidth.

That’s a shame, because I was much more like it today and I’ve done tons of stuff quite comfortably on the big sofa in the lounge.

Fix the internet and keep the noxious brat under control and I’d be much happier here.

Tuesday 15th November 2016 – YOU MISSED …

… all of the excitement last night.

I was just about getting ready to go to bed when my bedroom door burst open and someone came in dragging a big suitcase behind him.

It turned out that due to a transcription error he had received an e-mail telling him to go to room 1302 instead of 1202. We soon sorted that problem out, but it wasn’t half exciting while it lasted. I keep on meaning to lock the door to my room when I’m in here and one day I’ll remember to do it.

During the night I went on my travels, both down the corridor and out on my travels. I ended up on the Coasts of Labrador again but why and who with I really have no idea now.

There were the usual crowds at breakfast and I shan’t be sorry to leave here tomorrow for some peace and quiet – always assuming that I can in fact leave. I really hope that I can and they don’t want me back in a week. That’s going to be pretty impossible. Even going home for two weeks only leaves me a week or so down there to sort myself out and I need much more than that.

After breakfast, I found to my dismay that the internet it down. I don’t know why but everyone came to me to complain. They must think that I own the place or something. It seems that, according to the message that I saw on the communal computer, that the bill hadn’t been paid for a while. The landlord needs to deal with that problem pretty quickly.

It gave me a good opportunity to crack on with my web pages about the Trans Labrador Highway. As a result, I have now finished my pages about the Coasts of Labrador and now I’m starting to climb up onto the Eagle Plateau. If I keep on like this, I’ll be finished before too long, and then I’ll have to find something else to do.

I had my baguette for lunch in the company of another new arrival. He’s the first foreign person whom I’ve ever met who approves of the Brexit, but then again he was rather weird. He complained at great length that he had been expelled from Belgium and had lost absolutely everything. Now he had moved out to Occupied Palestine and was living in one of these unlawful settlements. The irony of his position had gone right over his head.

In contrast to the last couple of days I’ve been out on several occasions today. Apart from the baguette, I went down to Caliburn twice. The first time was to take down there everything that I don’t need this evening or tomorrow at the hospital. And I went through all of the clothes in Caliburn and brought back all of the dirty clothes, as well asa change of clean clothes.

And when I returned I had a really good shower and shave and a change of clothes. Once I’d organised myself properly (which takes for ever of course) I went off to the launderette and washed all of the clothes and now everything is all ready for my next voyage.

There was a very nice girl in there doing a big load of washing too. Under normal circumstances I would have engaged her in conversation to see what happens, but then again any girl who can’t afford a washing machine isn’t likely to be able to keep me in the luxury to which I would like to be accustomed.

After tea, in which I wasn’t alone yet again, I went back to Caliburn to take back the now-clean clothes and everything else that I don’t need. All that remains here now is what I’ll need for the hospital tomorrow.

So now it’s an early night for me. Whatever will tomorrow bring?

I hope that it’s good news. I need it, I reckon.

Wednesday 9th November 2016- AT LEAST THE WEATHER …

… didn’t let me down today.

I was expecting the sun to be out and that we would have brilliant weather today seeing as I was leaving Oostende today. But instead, it was pouring down and windy just like the rest of the time that I had spent here.

As soon as the alarm went off I was up and about, even before the reminder. And I’d had a really good night’s sleep too, with nothing to disturb me whatever. A long time since I’d had such a deep and satisfying sleep, even though there was only six and a half hours of it.

after a quick shower and a change of clothes, I was downstairs for breakfast. First yet again although I was soon joined by others. And once I’d finished, I was back upstairs, packed and out of the door by 08:40.

I had plenty of time to wait for my train at the station, although it was cold there in the temporary waiting room. I wasn’t half pleased to be on the train. It was bang on time too and really comfortable, so much so that I cracked on with the work that I’ve been doing on my website.

It was still pouring down when I arrived in Leuven, and after gathering my wits I went off to Caliburn to drop off the stuff that I don’t need, and that was a long walk in the rain. And one thing that I did was to find the fleece lining for my rain jacket. I’d been freezing in Oostende.

Bang on time at the hospital, and I was quickly organised. They plugged a catheter in and took a blood sample. And my blood count is stable, as is my protein loss. That’s a surprise. I only wish that the blood was stable at 12.2, not 9.7.

And then – they forgot me yet again. And after reminding them, they finally got back to me at 17:45. It seems, in what can only be really bad news, they need to take two-weekly controls of my urine and kidneys for the next … errr … three months at least. And that’s before we start talking about the blood situation – for which I have an appointment next week.

You’ve no idea just how dismayed I am by all of this.

At least there’s a room free at the hostel and so I’m now back there for a week. And who knows? I might even be able to go home again after my appointment next week if there’s a fortnightly pause. But I want a place of my own. I can’t go on like this living out of a suitcase in a hostel room.

Alison came round later and we went out for a meal and a coffee. And a guided tour of Leuven as a new one-way system that’s been installed led us everywhere except where we wanted to go.

Now I’m off to bed. Thoroughly depressed, thoroughly fed up.

and if my next blog is from Mars or Uranus or somewhere like that, don’t be surprised. What is happening in the western world has filled me full of dismay for the last twenty years and the news this morning has made me want to emigrate to another planet somewhere.

Whatever is the world coming to?

Monday 7th November 2016 – I WASN’T …

… the first down at breakfast this morning.

Just for a change, I had a good sleep with just one trip down the corridor, and was still asleep when the alarm went off. I’d been a-travelling too, but once again, don’t ask me where I went to because once again, it all disappeared immediately after I awoke.

Plenty of time for a quick shower and shave and then downstairs for breakfast bang on 07:30, to find that while I was the only person in there, several of the tables,including my favourite, were littered with dirty crockery and cutlery. I had to sit somewhere else

At about 10:30 I went out into town for my daily baguette. And as I came to the pedestrian zone, this sign caught my eye. It lists everything that you are not allowed to do in the city, as far as local by-laws go, and the penalties that you can incur.

So “use of alcohol in a public place”, “leaving litter”, “urinating” and “letting your dog foul the street” can cost you between €59 to €250.

“Being drunk in public”, “Being under the influence of drugs”, “fighting” and “the bearing of arms” will result in a court appearance.

And so you have been warned.

Americans like to brag that they invented the shopping mall – undercover shopping galleries – but that’s far from the truth.

The first undercover shopping gallery dates from the Middle Ages and is in Brussels – we’ve visited it on several occasions during the past. And here’s another Belgian shopping gallery, in Oostende. You never saw an American shopping mall looking as nice as this.

And why is shopping in North America so boring? Well, when you’ve seen one bunch of shops you’ve seen a mall.

I walked all the way down the pedestrian street to the docks to see what was happening down here. But never mind that for a moment – have you noticed the sky? We have a pile of blue sky there and not a cloud in the sky.

And do you remember that pile-driver that we saw in the pedestrian street on Saturday? Going past it this morning, I noticed that it had grown a little higher and there were a few extra bits attached. It’s now a crane.

Crossing over the road, I took a photo of the docks looking the other way. The sea is down there.

Also down there is the station building, although the trains don’t stop there now. They pull up about 50 yards short – you can see the modern roof of the train shed on the right-hand edge of the photo.

The building was also the interchange for the cross-channel boats. Oostende was formerly a very important cross-channel ferry port and in the period 1846-1997 all of the passengers passed through the 1913 building there or through a previous building on the site.

Having been to the Delhaize to buy a baguette and some grapes, I went for a walk along the promenade again.

When I was here in 2014 there was a great deal of building work being undertaken hereon the beach. And now, they seem to have finished it. They have erected a huge new sea wall here as you can see on the left of the photo. There was a walkway along it and so I reckoned that I would go for a walk down to the end.

From halfway down the walkway on top of the new sea wall, there was a really good view of the sea front.

I first came to Oostende in the mid-1970s and anyone who hasn’t been here since those days won’t recognise it at all. It’s changed quite considerably since the 1980s when I spent several happy weeks here with Nerina and again when I was driving coaches for Shearings. Almost all of the places that I knew have been swept away.

The port of Oostende had declined considerably over the last 20 years. The port down there used to be heaving with ships and there was always something going on.

However ferries no longer leave here for the UK since Transmanche Ferries went into liquidation in 2013 and the port installations are slowly declining. There’s just the odd cruise ship that calls here now – we saw one of those in 2014 – and there’s the odd ship laid up in there every now and again.

This is really all that you can hope to see today unless you are very lucky. It looks as if it’s a fishing boat, heading out of the port on its way to the North Sea.

Fishing is quite an important part of the way of life of Oostende and a great deal of fish are landed here. I talked about the fishmarket here when we went for a walk around the town on Saturday. It’s one of the major attractions of the town.

Here’s another shot of the sea front here at Oostende. Again, it’s all totally different from 20 years ago.

There’s a monument there – a huge one of a sailor looking out to sea and is a memorial to all of those who set out to sea and never came back. As for what are hidden by the orange covers, I really have no idea. I imagine that I’ll have to come back in the summer for a better look.

But you can see what Oostende is so popular with holidaymakers and tourists. The beaches really are magnificent.

The new sea wall, upon which i’m standing, will shelter this beach, hopefully from the wind and definitely from the rough waves, and this will encourage more tourists to visit here.

By the way, the entrance to the port is just there to the left, with the harbour entrance light on the end.

Here’s the new harbour entrance, with the new sea wall just here where I’m standing and on the other side of the entrance is a nice, new harbour entrance light that looks as if it’s made of concrete.

The entrance looks rather narrow to me and I suppose that it’s a good job that ferries and large ships no longer sail into the port. It doesn’t make for comfortable manoeuvring

So here I am, right down at the end of the harbour. I can’t go any farther than here and so i’ll have tu turn back.

But you’ve noticed in one of the earlier photos we had a beautiful-ish blue sky, and you will also notice that the further around we have walked, the more the weather has closed in.

As I was out here at the end of the sea wall, the weather finally broke and it started to rain heavily. That put an end to my walk and I headed back to the hotel. I’d been out for two hours, which is pretty good going just recently.

By the time I returned to the hotel I was soaked and thoroughly fed up. I’m not having the best of the weather. I made my butty and then attacked the next stage of my website – to write up what happened on my trips around the Trans-Labrador Highway in 2014 and 2015 – and hoping that I might be able to make another trip in 2017 if I can to see what further changes have been made since my previous visit.

But that wasn’t all I did – or didn’t, as the case may be. I ended up crashing out for half an hour too, as well as having a chat with Liz on the internet.

I went out for coffee at 17:00 but do you know – not a single cafe on the front in the vicinity of the hotel was open. Well – one was open but the barman said that it was closed. I had a coffee in the lounge in here instead.

For tea, I went to a falafel place that I had discovered while I was on my travels. It was pretty good too although, like everywhere else in Oostende, it’s more expensive than in Leuven.

So now, I’ll have an early night. Tomorrow is my last full day here and I have things to do.

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 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.

Saturday 15th October 2016 – I HAD ANOTHER …

…bad night last night. It took ages and ages for me to go off to sleep. In fact, round about 00:30 I gave up the effort and there I was, working on the laptop. That’s how much I was awake.

And I was there for ages working away, trying to drop off to sleep.

But sleep I must have done because I was off on my travels again. I can’t remember too much about it but I was somewhere up in the far North of Canada with some dog teams and a couple of groups of people.

The alarm went off at 07:00 and again at 07:15, and by 07:30 I was in the kitchen having breakfast. And following that, I went and had a shower. Alison was coming into town and we had arranged to go off for a coffee.

So once I’d cleaned myself up, changed my clothes and had a shave, I came back in here with another mug of coffee and carried on with some work that I had been doing during the night. And when Alison came round here, she awoke me and we hit the town.

First stop was the Wibra – I wanted some more of the plastic storage boxes that I had bought before leaving. But Wibra has moved into smaller premises while their main shop is being serviced. The new place isn’t big enough for all of the stock to be displayed and the boxes that I wanted were not on display.

We went then to Zeeman, which is a similar establishment and although they didn’t have exactly the type that I wanted. But there were some that were suitable and so I bought a packet of three.

Alison wanted to go to the new Charity Shop near the railway station to see if there was a television table. Nothing was suitable and there weren’t any CDs that interested me either. We went back into town, I bought a baguette for lunch and some boulghour because I forgot that the other day at the shops, and then we had a pleasant couple of hours in the cafe down the road from here, having a chat and drinking coffee.

After Alison had gone home I came back here for lunch and then to carry on with what I’d been trying to do a little earlier. After having had a good chat with Liz and another good friend of mine, I went back to work on the laptop and awoke an hour or so later.

Trying to decide what to have for tea, I worked out that pasta and ratatouille would be good enough. That called for garlic bread and so having bought some garlic and some vegan margarine, I nipped to the shop on the corner and bought some half-baked half-baguettes, as well as something to drink (because I’d forgotten that earlier) and and some soya milk for my breakfast.

Tea really was gorgeous too, although I maybe put a bit too much chili in with it. The soya caramel dessert that I had for pudding was even better. All in all I ate well tonight.

So now I’m going to have yet another early night. There’s an opportunity for me to go out on my travels tomorrow so I want to be at my best.

EPIC HALL

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