Tag Archives: belgium

Thursday 28th July 2011 – MAYBE IT WAS …

… the shock of being up and out of bed by 08:00 this morning that did it – I dunno – but I didn’t last long this evening, that’s for sure.

And I don’t know why I was up before the alarm went off but anyway, so I was.

The morning I spent working on my website and in the afternoon I went on the internet and did a huge pile of housekeeping, getting all kinds of stuff ready for my trip to Canada, sending out piles of reminders and the like. But the most important part was actually closing down my electricity account in Brussels. On the phone, as you might expect with it being Belgium, no-one was interested. “Can’t be bothered” is the phrase. But eventually I worked out how to do it on the internet and after much steam and heat, it’s now concluded. Mind you, there is a delay of 6 weeks in bringing things up to date, so I’m told. Only to be expected, I suppose.

But there is something quite sinister about something else. There’s a site on line where you can obtain phone numbers in different countries and have all the calls transferred to another number of your choice. And so I registered a really good Halifax, Nova Scotia, number with them.

And then I had an e-mail ….
Due to some discrepancies on your account 418767, our automated alerting system has placed it on hold. I am very sorry for any inconvenience this interruption in calls may cause. Customer Service will review your account soon, but you can act now and speed up this process.

For fastest return to active service, please email us a high quality image of both the front and back of the credit card used on this account and your government issued ID. Please also email an high quality image of the government issued ID of the credit card holder if the credit card holder is different than the account holder.

… and do you know – I suppose they even get people who do this too. Anyway it’s an American company and the FBI have a decent cybercrime unit and so I made a report to them.

I was still working in the evening too. I’ve bought a big, well, enormous chest of drawers in the IKEA sale the other day and now that’s up here, built, installed and filled with clothes.

It’s no wonder that I crashed out early on.

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Tuesday 26th July 2011 – NEXT MORNING …

… saw me in IKEA where they had sold out of everything interesting and so instead I went to Marianne’s.

After lunch we took a pile of my old stuff down to the Charity Shops and then we went to Brico to buy a pile of cable to rewire all of her internet connections, and that took me most of the afternoon.

At 19:20 precisely I left Brussels, maybe for the last time as I now have no reason to be back there, and headed off home.

And I was glad to leave, I can tell you. Charity shops refusing goods, and refusing them with a sneer and an offensive remark, large vans deliberately turning into your path when they can see you coming, and the final straw was the brand-new Range Rover that tried to run me down on a zebra crossing. Yes, by that time I had really had enough and now I’m wondering how that Range Rover driver will be explaining the large size 9-sized dent in his rear wing.

Yes, I was in a bad mood when I left.

The journey home was exciting. The Lady Who Lives In The Satnav predicted that I would arrive home at 03:51, and I was home at … errr …. 03:50 precisely.

And that was quite a surprise, and for several reasons.

  1. She took me down a completely different route – the Mons by-pass, then the N2 via Soissons to the Francilienne, and then round via Melun, Fontainebleu and the RN7. She also wanted to send me via Nevers and Moulins but I took the short cut via Bourges.
  2. old cars panhard levassor franceI made a few unscheduled stops along the way. One of the stops, not too far beyond Mons but in France was this absolutely gorgeous thing that I saw.

    It’s been absolutely ages since I’ve featured any nice and interesting old cars in my postings, so it’s high time that we showed you another one. This is an original Panhard-Levassor and I think that it might be a CS model from the early 1930s – not that I know too much about it. But whatever it is, it is beautiful – it really is

  3. Another unscheduled stop was at Melun where at the ELF garage there – the cheapest in France, diesel was at 129.9. That called for a major fuel-up.
  4. and then we had the road works. The way out of Brussels was full of them, as was the Francilienne. I calculated that I lost about 15 minutes at least in that lot. And there were also road works on the roads between Gien and Bourges and that slowed me down quite a lot as well. In fact, along that stretch of road I started to fall asleep. It had been a long day

But apart from that, I didn’t stop at all – not even for food or coffee (luckily at Marianne’s I had made a big mug of coffee in my thermal mug). I was in a hurry to return home.

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Monday 25th July 2011 – AND THAT WAS THAT!

Yes, Expo has gone. All signed, sealed and delivered.

At 14:30 I walked into the lawyer’s office and at 15:00 I walked out again minus one apartment.

Well, almost – the new owners asked me to accompany them back to the premises to show them where everything was and how it all worked and so I duly obliged.

But already the money is melting a hole in my pocket. This morning I went to my travel agent and she booked me a flight to Canada on 31st August, with a return on 25th September. Not only that, she does a good deal on airport hotels – much cheaper than I can get them, and so I have a hotel reserved at each end of my journey – Paris the night before I go and Paris the night I get back. That is just as well.

I’ve also reserved a car for when I’m over there – well, not quite a car. What with accommodation issues and you can’t really expect anyone to do this kind of thing for you as they are never sure what it is that you actually want, so what I’ve done is to hire a minivan – a 7-seater MPV thing. Most of the seats fold flat in those and with half an hour’s work I can make a neat little caravanette.

I know it’s not a motel or a B&B but it worked out at just about $27 per night extra over the basic car hire, and you can’t get a motel for anything like that. While I’m there I’ll try to sort out a caravan or something. That’s the usual trick.

I’ve also spent quite a packet in IKEA. They were having a sale and there was quite a bit of cheap stuff that would go nicely to improve the comforts of my little room. Cheap stiff indeed but by the time you add it all up, it’s not so cheap then. But all the same, it will improve things quite a bit up there.

And I’ve had my chips too!. Along with a large plate of falafel and now I’m in the back of Caliburn on the lorry park with the unsecured internet connection. Tomorrow I’ll be helping Marianne and then I’ll be heading for home tomorrow night.

rue de la loi brussels belgium july juillet 2011But on my way back to the lorry park where I spent the night, I found myself going round the Schuman roundabout at the top pf the rue de la Loi.

You’ll recall that we were there the other day too and I remember saying how struck I was by how beautiful it was all looking with its new streetlights and all f the traffic passing by. So much so that I couldn’t resist parking Caliburn up and spending another half an hour there taking different photos.

cinquantenaire rue de la loi brussels belgium july juillet 2011And it’s a good job that I did because while I was gazing up the hill past the roundabout at the Parc de la Cinquantenaire and how nicely illuminated that was in the distance, I intercepted a Danish car that was heading the wrong way down the street.

Looking for a hotel, they were apparently, but they weren’t looking at the one-way signs in the street. Anyway so after a brief discussion I packed them off to the Marriott and I leapt into Caliburn and went on my weary way to the lorry park for the night.

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Sunday 24th July 2011 – THINGS TO DO …

… places to go, people to see. So I had better get a wiggle on as i don’t have much time.

This morning, I started off by emptying the garage downstairs and packing the contents into Caliburn. And it was all swept it out , done and (quite literally) dusted within 10 minutes. I didn’t hang about.

I finished off by having my final shower on the premises – I don’t want to dirty the place up any more than I have to. And then I cleared off and that was that.

marianne orban brussels belgium july juillet 2011I’d been invited for lunch round at Marianne’s, which was very nice of her. She cooks some really nice food and it’s a pleasure to go round there.

And after lunch we went for our usual walk around the lake in the Bois de la Cambre followed by a coffee at one of the cafés here. It wasn’t really a sunny summer bary, despite it being towards the end of July.

And it’s hard to believe that this is probably going to be the last time that I shall spend a pleasant, relaxing Sunday afternoon quite like this one.

Later that evening I cleared off and now I’m parked up on the lorry park behind the RTBF tower at Schaerbeek. The irony of this is that it was here that I spent the night the day before I signed to buy Expo. What a strange thought to remember.

Anyway, let’s see what happens tomorrow.

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Saturday 23rd July 2011 – I’M NOT HERE

Or, at least, I won’t be by the time that many of you read this – although most of you have been saying that I haven’t been all here for quite a long time.

No – I’m on my way to Brussels for what may well be, if it comes off, the defining moment in all of my efforts.

If you have been following my exploits you will know that I own what was formerly a pretty derelict apartment there, one that I bought as an investment and in which I lived in a form of camping-out style for a while.

Over the winter, as you know, my friends Liz and Terry helped me work finish the work (or they might well say that what actually happened was that I got in the way of them finishing off the work) and it was put up for sale. A buyer was quickly found, and the sale is planned to be completed on Monday.

That means that all of my hard work and effort over all of these past 32 years has finally borne fruit. While most of my friends were out living the high life, I was investing my cash in property with just this moment in mind, and I know in whose shoes I would rather be today.

But that is or course always assuming that it does in fact sell – never be sure of the bird on your plate until you have your fork stuck in it.

Mind you, assuming that it does, I can cancel piles of Standing Orders at the bank and that will free up another pile of cash each month and then I need to book my air ticket to Canada because Strawberry Moose and I are going to have a holiday.

You might remember that I bought some land over there, and we are going to buy a mobile home to put on it and we are going to install ourselves there for a month. And why not? We deserve it.

Having recorded our outstanding radio programme yesterday (that was really all that I did) everything else has been done.

We had another excellent drive and I was here in Brussels after just 8 hours and 30 minutes on the road – and that includes stopping to eat a pizza and to fuel up. That’s pretty impressive too, coming the “old way” via Auxerre, Troyes and CHalons-en-Champagne which, no matter what they call it these days, will always be knwwn by me as Chalons-sur-Marne.

rainbow varzy franceAnd I wasn’t alone either during the route – and I’m not referring to Strawberry Moose. Somewhere on the road between Nevers and Varzy this absolutely beautiful rainbow suddenly appeared.

It’s the kind of thing that makes you pull over to the side of the road and take a photograph – that is, if you weren’t in a hurry. And even if you are in a hurry you can take a photograph anyway, especially when there’s no-one else about.

It’s not very often that you can see them so clearly and distinctly, and it’s even rarer that they come out well in a photograph.

And they weren’t the only stops that I made either.

Along the route between Chalons-sur-Marne and Charleville-Mezieres my path takes me over an escarpment that was the scene of very bitter fighting during World-War I and the area is littered with old remains and the vestiges of abandoned trenches and the like.

ossuare de navarin marne battlefield france And we go past the Ossuary of Navarin. This is a memorial to the French soldiers who died in the various Battles of the Marne which took place around here and is where they keep the bones of soldiers discovered in more recent times.

Designed by Maxime Real del Sarte, it’s also a memorial to Quentin Roosevelt, son of the President Theodore Roosevelt (he of the “teddy bear” fame) who was killed in the vicinity. Last night was the first time that I had ever seen it illuminated and so it had to be worth a photograph.

As an aside, it’s also where the body of General Henri Joseph Eugène Gouraud lies. He led the soldiers here during the later period of the Battle of the Marne, having already lost an arm in the Dardanelles. When his weill was read, it was found that he had eschewed the traditional tomb in the Invalides Cemetery given to all heroes of the French Army, and expressed a wish to be buried in the Ossuary “alongside all of my soldiers who were more like friends to me”.

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Wednesday 20th July 2011 – NOTHING MUCH HAPPENED …

… today. But that still doesn’t stop me being totally exhausted.

Apart from the usual computing in the morning, I spent the afternoon finishing off the unloading of Caliburn.

And it took all afternoon too. I had to move the trailer and then move a few things around in the barn, but everything is in there now and all tidy too, including the tiles that we never used on the bathroom back at Expo. And they were a weight to go slinging around – that I promise you.

What didn’t help was the torrential rain that we had. Marianne – my friend from Brussels – had seen the weather forecast and decided not to come down. And a wise decision that was too.

I finished off the afternoon by tidying the barn a little where I had been working the other day – and I still can’t find my missing data head. Ahh well. It’ll turn up sooner or later, I suppose, just like everything else that I have lost always does.

Usually about 3 days after I’ve bought its replacement.

But now at least Caliburn is ready to do the return trip to Brussels on Saturday evening. Whether or not I am is another matter completely.

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Sunday 17th July 2011 – NEXT MORNING …

… after a good lie-in (well, it IS Sunday!) and a leisurely breakfast, I drove round to Marianne’s for lunch, which was very nice of her to invite me.

bois de la cambre belgium july juillet 2011It was heavily overcast today just by way of a change, but it was reasonably warm and so in the afternoon after lunch we went for a walk in the Bois de la Cambre down the road.

It’s been a couple of years at least since I have been for a good perambulation in the park and there have been some considerable changes here in that time. They seem to have been spending their money quite considerably.

But the most important change is over here.

chateau robinson bois de la cambre belgium july juillet 2011The old pie hut on the island that burnt down a while ago has now been completely rebuild and is now a magnificent chalet – the Chateau Robinson – doubtless named for Robinson Crusoe.

Access out there is by a boat, which you can see mooed up to the quay just to the right of centre. It costs €1:00 to take the boat out there, and the return trip is free, which is just as well given the price of the coffee out there.

prince laurent chateau robinson bois de la cambre belgium july juillet 2011I would very much like to say that I took my coffee this afternoon with Price Laurent of the Belgians, and I bet that you are thinking that I’m joking too.

But far from it in fact.

Although he wasn’t acually sitting at my table, he was close enough – and he wasn’t surrounded by armed policemen and crowds of bodyguards either. Just out en famille for his Sunday afternoon cuppa.

Mind you, I bet that the two or three people at nearby tables who stood up discreetly to leave just as he was leaving “had some interest” in the matter.

Then Marianne came back with me to the flat, I dismantled the bed in Caliburn and Marianne helped me load the heavy stuff that was remaining.

We had a really long chat and what with it being Sunday we went out for pizza, seeing as how she had given me a useful hand. However we were sidetracked by a new restaurant advertising, would you believe, a Vegan section. And I had the most magnificent penne al arabiatta that I have ever eaten.

rue de la loi brussels belgium july juillet 2011Dropping her off, I was back on the road. The plan was to head home as rapidly as I could and go as far as I could before stopping for the night somewhere, but I was rather side-tracked.

I’d noticed once or twice over the course of the years that the Rue de la Loi in Brussels looks magnificent at night with all of the street lights and vehicles that flood the street.

One of the things that I had wanted to do was to take a few photos of the place before I left. So off I went, and took about half a dozen. Here’s one of them to titivate your palette

Having done that, Caliburn and I bounced happily all the way to near Auxerre where I crashed out for the night at some silly time of the early morning.

And wasn’t that uncomfortable? It seems that Bane of Britain had forgotten that he’d left his sleeping bag and pillow back at the apartment.

GRRRRRRRR!

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Saturday 16th July 2011 – HAVING SPENT THE NIGHT …

… parked up on the Motorway Service Area at Drogenbos, a good (for once) sleep led to a major shopping expedition and I have finally found a new whistling kettle – I’ve been hunting one for ages.

And then after lunch it was round to the apartment.

You might recall that back in the winter we tried everything that we could to undo the lock on the cellar to empty it. And nothing we tried would make it work. This time, I took a couple of enormous extensions and a drill and angle grinder. And of course, trying to unlock the door just one more time “for old time’s sake”, it came undone with no issues whatever!

Just like Sam Gamgee’s rope in Lord of the Rings in fact.

And so that was emptied and the racking dismantled in no time flat and all loaded up into Caliburn. I don’t know how people can function without vans, I really don’t.

And so with plenty of time to spare, another shopping trip, this time to IKEA where I discovered a few exciting items in the sale.

Having called at the Simonis Fritkot for my assiette falafel, I headed off to my motorway service area for a kip. But in fact I spent quite a while fixing a car for a British guy returning from holiday with his family and whose electrical charging circuit had broken down.

No peace for the wicked, is there?

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Sunday 3rd April 2011 – ONE OF THE THINGS …

… about staying in a hotel, especially a cheapo hotel like this one, is that when everyone else is up, then so are you.

Consequently, at 8:30 (on a Sunday?) I was up and at work, finishing off the work that I needed to do on my book about the Trans-Labrador Highway, which I posted to the internet, if you would like to read it.

And so back to Brussels where I fetched Marianne and we went off to the apartment and spent a pleasant hour or two stuffing some of the contents into Caliburn until it was full to the gunwhales. At 16:30 the daughter of the owner of the garage that I rented came round and inspected it and I returned the key to her, so that was that and I’n now €49:97 per month richer.

Spend, spend, spend, hey?

Off to pick up the trailer and the Minerva next and we towed that back to Brussels. And then while we were eating tea (Sunday is pizza day of course) we worked out a programme for Marianne to come down and see the Auvergne during the Easter school break.

Armed with a big flask of coffee I then set out for home again and it all went fine with no problems at all until leaving Auxerre when there was a mighty crash from the back. One of the restraining straps (luckily the one that stops the load shifting forwards) had broken and the Minerva had rolled forward into the headboard of the trailer. This had the effect of slackening off the strap on the front which had then become detached and there was nothing then to stop the Minerva sliding backwards (and then off the trailer into the roadway).

And so for a couple of hours I had to free off the handbrake so that it would work, mess about with the gearbox to lock it in gear, and then hunt down some more straps (not easy when you have a van full of rubbish) and then fasten it down.

While all of this was going on, a tin of paint and a container of oil became dislodged during the struggle and so that’s another mess I’ll have to clean up when I’ve emptied Caliburn.

Finally, to the chirping of the early dawn chorus I had the Minerva strapped down properly, locked in place, and by some judicious manoeuvring of straps and fasteners I could get the tailboard of the trailer in position as well – so that the Minerva won’t fall off again.

caliburn ford transit ifor williams trailer belgian land rover minerva les guis virlet puy de dome franceThis is an excellent trailer and well-worth every penny that we spent on it, but it’s not a proper car transporter and its high centre of gravity makes for interesting cornering on mountain roads when you have a high-sided vehicle like a Minerva and there’s a cross-wind.

On a couple of occasions the trailer wanted to go in a different direction than I did and when you aren’t expecting it to happen it’s guaranteed to get the adrenalin flowing. If I’m going to be moving the Minerva – and other vehicles – about on a frequent basis (and that is the plan) I need a proper low-loader trailer.

The sooner that I have one, the better.

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Saturday 2nd April 2011 – BACK IN BELGIUM

After my vicissitudes on the road yesterday, I finally came to rest on the service area at Nivelles at about 03:00 – a 19-hour day (teachers, please take note).

At least it gave me the opportunity to have one of the best nights’ sleeps that I’ve had on the road for quite some time so next morning I was up and about and ready for anything.

loading belgian land rover minerva onto ifor williams trailer brussels belgiumNext morning I went round to Bernards to load up the Minerva. It’s not that heavy and we managed to push it onto the trailer without even the hint of a winch – really!

I’ve left the trailer parked up at Bernard’s house now waiting for me to go back to pick it up tomorrow late afternoon. I have plenty to do (like shopping and the like) and I don’t want to drag all of this around behind me through the streets of Brussels and anywhere else.

After spending 2 hours discussing solar panels with 2 guys from the Congo (it’s better than Nigeria I suppose) whom I met outside Carrefour, I did some shopping and then went to the flat where I half-loaded the van.

But you all missed the excitement there as well – and Terry would have loved this.

  1. A van pulls into the private parking space of someone while it unloads some stuff
  2. the owner of the private parking space pulls up behind and blocks them in – and then walks away
  3. the owner of the van goes to fetch the President of the Conseil de Gerance
  4. the President of the Conseil de Gerance accuses me of parking my van there (it’s a small white Volkswagen we are talking about here by the way) so we have “a frank exchange of views” about this and he won’t be coming to talk to me again.
  5. the owner of the car says that he is going to leave his car parked blocking this van in – and obstructing the passageway – all night
  6. The President tells the owner of the car “yes, you do that – it’ll serve these bastards in this van right”
  7. The President and the car driver wander off arm-in-arm more or less, to the accompaniment of some ribald commentary from Yours Truly.
  8. The woman from the next garage can’t get her car into her garage
  9. The man in the previous garage can’t get his car out of his garage
  10. The police are called.
  11. Having stirred the pot by coming out with my usual round of … errr … helpful comments, I wander away.

Isn’t life exciting in Brussels?

And now just for a change, I’m in a small hoted in Ghent. I’ve been for a walk around and I’ve had some chips and a vegetable kebab and I’m okay. Here I’ll be staying until the morning.

It’s a departure from the usual procedure, I know, but I just fancied doing something a little different. And why not?

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Friday 1st April 2011 – I’M OFF YET AGAIN

Today was the day when I had to go back to Brussels to rescue the Minerva.

This meant sorting out Terry’s trailer and then checking over Caliburn to make sure that he’s ready for the road. Once that was organised, I needed to check myself out to make sure that I was ready too, and then make a flask of coffee and a pile of butties for the route.

What with this and that as well, it turned out to be a full day’s work and I needed to clean myself up yet again before I was ready.

As a result, it was later than usual when I set off to drive the 700-odd kms to Brussels in Caliburn, and I couldn’t go as fast as usual either towing the big trailer behind me. There’s a speed restriction for vehicles towing trailers, although you would never ever guess it from the way that they move about here.

And didn’t I have an exciting time too?

Actually the drive was quite uneventful and nothing much happened until I crossed the Belgian border at Couvin, apart from stopping for fuel, a pizza and some coffee from the flask at Auxerre.

But at Couvin in the town itself there was probably a dozen or so officers from the “Flying Customs” having a meeting – in the middle of the road just round a sharp bend. And it was just like 10-pin bowling as they scattered all over the place as Caliburn and I came steaming around the corner. It’s a long time since I’ve had such a laugh.

The chief of the Customs told me what he thought of me, and seeing as it was late and I was tired and my patience deteriorates the more tired that I am, I told him what I thought of him and his persons as well and we had a “frank exchange of views”. 

Anyway so he p155ed off as I suggested that he did, and I drove to Charleroi where I fell into a police barrage. Everyone was being stopped and their papers checked and the like. I was asked if I had had an alcoholic drink and would I mind blowing into this bag (random checks are permissible here). I replied that if he found anything in my breath I would give him €5 and of course my money is perfectly safe.

I made it as far as the motorway services at Nivelles and here is where I’ll be bedding myself down until the morning. I hope that I have a good sleep because I’m absolutely whacked.

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Thursday 31st March 2011 – I’m making loads of progress …

in the garden right now. Today the first task was to tidy the greenhouse seeing as I can’t even get in there, let alone find anything. A load of plastic pots and yogurt container thingies went into the bin – and that’s another thing – I now have 4 bins. One for plastics, one for metal, one for glass and one for rubbish (the paper of course is used as fire-lighters). That was something else that I did too.

And so with a tidy greenhouse I made myself some potting soil – 4 parts garden soil, 3 parts sand, 2 parts LIDL compost and one part wood ash. And when it was all mixed I planted some seed in pots – 2 types of tomato, aubergine, peppers. cucumber and leeks. I colour-code my pots as you know and I’m lucky in that my soya desserts come in so many varieties with different shapes and colours of pots. I keep the same plants together in the same colour pots.

“But isn’t drainage a problem with plastic yoghurt-type pots?” I hear you ask.
The answer is “not at all” because if you put 10 or so together one inside another and then heat up a baked potato skewer until it’s quite hot, it will go through the bottoms of 10 pots three or four times with ease 

And so now I have my March seeds sown, this afternoon I tackled a few more raised beds. I’ve cleaned a few more out and there’s only 3.5 to go. Mind you, there’s not much hurry for those just now.

Tomorrow evening I’m going back to Brussels to rescue the Minerva and bring it back. And when I return I’ll be making a start on building the new greenhouse and the garden shed. High time I organised that as well.

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Wednesday 30th March 2011 – You can see …

… my apartment in Brussels on the internet if you like. But you’ll have to hurry. Someone has made me an offer already, and negotiations are proceeding.

That was quite a pleasant surprise at lunchtime, and it quite disrupted my flow of thought. What with crashing out yesterday late afternoon when I should have been catching up on my correspondence, I had to sped the morning doing just that. Until I was rudely interrupted, that was.

So while waiting for the Post Office to open I dug over another raised bed, and returning from my trip into Pionsat I planted my shallots and garlic. Well, not all of the garlic because I seem to have far too much. But I do know someone who can make use of it. But once that was out of the way I did some more digging over and I now have some sprouts, some carrots and some coriander in.

Tomorrow I shall have to make a start on making up some seed trays because there are a few things that need planting even though it’s too early to put them outside.

And then back up here and I crashed out again – it’s getting to me, all of this work.

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Friday 19th March 2011 – I didn’t get my early night last night after all.

I was just on the point of going to bed when someone who I hadn’t spoken to for a while came on line. We had quite a bit to talk about and what with one thing and another it was almost 04:00 when I went to bed.

And so I crawled out of my pit at 08:00 feeling like death, and went to Montlucon. It was a big mistake to get my windows fron Lapeyre. I need an empty van for when I go back to Brussels, and while we got these windows in, getting them out on my own without breaking them – that will be something else.

It was gardening day at LIDL and so I have 6 more fruit trees for the Liz Ayers Memorial Orchard, a pile of seeds, and some onion sets, seed potatoes and seed shallots. I shan’t abandon the garden entirely this year. At Noz I spent a fortune, mostly on DVDs and I now have 5 or the 6 Don Camillo films, starring Fernandel. I really enjoyed the books when I was at school and I saw one of the films once and that was just as good.

At Brico Depot I set a new world record by buying nothing at all, but I was in tears nevertheless. Door Strips in Brico in Belgium €10.73 – same one in Brico Depot here €3:49. White Spirit there €3:89 – here €2:09. And it was all like that. I don’t know how they can get away with it in Belgium, I really don’t.

But I’ve made a conscious decision that now that I’m a little more financially sound, first thing that I’m going to be doing is to improve my diet. And to that end I bought a few things that I wouldn’t normally buy such as half a kilo of grapes (which I munched on the way home) and a little packet of sugar-free sweets.

I didn’t go swimming – I was too early and in any case I was whacked. So back here to crash out for a couple of hours. And it was a mistake to eat the grapes and the sugar-free sweets so quickly as I was in … errr … some discomfort for a while.

I went to the footy too this evening. Pionsat’s 3rd XI playing the league leaders so you would normally expect a hammering, but the 2nd XI have no game tomorrow and so there were several … errr … discrete changes to the team line-up, And although they had yet another makeshift goalkeeper (who did really well and I was surprised by that) they had a 2nd XI centre-half playing and it was amazing how much it stiffened the defence.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire bromont lamothe puy de dome ligue football league francePionsat actually won 2-1, with two disputed goals. One was scored by three players cantering off down the pitch while everyone else was waiting for the offside flag. I was in no position to judge but one of their spectators thought that the ref got it right.

I’ve been saying all along that there isn’t much wrong with Pionsat’s 3rd XI that a real goalie and a couple of decent players in key positions can’t put right, and it was proved right tonight.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire bromont lamothe puy de dome ligue football league francep>Pionsat’s second goal was a penalty – a clear foul, no mistake about that, but as to whether it was in the area, all I can say is that I was almost level with the area and the Bromont players had some of my sympathy. After that, the match became a little naughty and we had a running feud down each touchline for a while.

Still Bromont should have buried the game and they only have themselves to blame for losing it. Clean through on goal three or four times and one shot round the post, one off the bar, and two straight at Stephane (and didn’t he do well to hang on to them with forwards charging in and he’s never played a real match in goal before?)

But now I’ve had a doze this afternoon, it’s 04:00 and I can’t sleep at all. Crazy. 

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