Tag Archives: falafel

Thursday 2nd March 2017 – AS YOU MIGHT EXPECT …

… having had a decent, long walk or two during the day yesterday was that I was in no fit state this morning.

It took me a while to go off to sleep, and I was flat out until the alarm went off.

I’d been on my travels too during the night. Firstly, I was the adviser to a Politician who bore a most remarkable resemblance to a certain new Transatlantic Politician. I was dismayed with his plans and decided to resign my position, but I felt that many of the plans had been designed with that aim in view. Nevertheless, I wasn’t going to hang around.
A little later, I was back on the buses – working for a coach company that was based in a town that bore more than just a passing resemblance to Middlewich. Two of our coaches, carrying football supporters who had been to watch Northwich Victoria, and they pulled into our yard. By the time that I had caught up with them, they had been parked in a really difficult position in an alcove and I was amazed at how the drivers had managed to park them there. Only one coach was able to go on to drop off everyone so some folk had to be left behind, and this led to all kinds of confusion and anguish in the depot amongst the passengers.

Two families were ahead of me at breakfast, and one of them was sitting in my place right in the window. I had to sit somewhere else.

Back up here, I had the opportunity to go to meet Sean in Gent but I wasn’t up to it and was obliged to decline. instead, I had a good relax on my bed for a while.

After all, the weather wasn’t fit for anyone to be outside. The wind was whipping up quite a storm and there was no-one on the promenade.

You can see exactly what I mean by looking at how the waves are pounding away on this ship as it was trying to negotiate its way into the harbour. And there weren’t any other ships around in the vicinity as there usually are.

It really was rough out there.

But I couldn’t stay in my stinking little pit all day – I had things to do. And it was on my travels that I saw the aforementioned ship, the Bellini coming into port.

She’s another Luxembourg-registered ship, and stands much more chance of sailing up the Moselle River because she displaces just over 2000 tonnes. She’s a chemical tanker and was built in 2000.

But I can’t understand how it is that just recently Luxembourg has now acquired a merchant marine.

It is rather reminiscent of the story about when Austria joined NATO and was introducing its officials to the other members. One of the officials was described as “our Minister of Marine”.
“Don’t be silly” said Solana, the NATO President. “Austria is a landlocked country. How come it has a Minister of Marine?”
“Well,” replied the Austrian President. “Bulgaria has a Minister of Culture, Belgium has a Minister of Justice, so we are going to have a Minster of Marine”

I had a look around the other hotels here to see what the prices might be like, but there was nothing that might give me much of a better deal, and I ended up at the Delhaize to buy lunch. Grapes were on special offer, two punnets for the price of one and that was cheap too, so I stocked up.

On the way back I went for a prowl around the shops to look for a new bag to replace the suitcase on which the handle broke on the way here.

I ended up in a shop called Kruidvat, and this all caught my eye. Weigh-your-own sweets, but with allergy labels. When did you ever see that? I had to buy 100 grams as a gesture of solidarity.

They also had a suitable tote bag thing with wheels. The cheapest that I had seen, and it looked it too, all at €12:99. But needs must when the devil drives so I liberated an example. If it does me until I return home (where I have a choice of several) it will be fine.

Back here, I was dismayed to discover that they hadn’t cleaned my room. but not to worry – I made myself some butties seeing as it was lunchtime. Baguette, tomato and vegan cheese followed by a bunch of grapes.And then I … errr … closed my eyes for a couple of minutes.

At 15:30 a banging on my door awoke me. The cleaners wanted to do the room. I went out for a coffee – to that good place where I was yesterday, and watched the people on the promenade (because the wind had eased) being blown all around.

After that, I had a good walk and was back here for 17:00 in my nice clean room.

This is my restaurant from last night, the La Margarita where I had my good Italian penne last night.

But I’d noticed the one next to it. This certainly wasn’t here last November, so today I went to check it out. And sure enough, it’s a Syrian restaurant called the Damas and advertises falafel.

As a result of this exploration, I decided that this would be my port of call for tonight.

And wasn’t that a good decision? Here’s my falafelschotel and this little lot cost me all of a mere €8:50 and if there is better value for this anywhere in Oostende, I’d love to be able to find it.

The people who run it are Syrian refugees from Aleppo, and it nails the lie that these people are coming to Western Europe to sponge off the State.

Hard-working people who can cook meals like this should be welcomed anywhere and everywhere.

So there’s no-one on line to chat to tonight, so I’m off to bed for an early night. My hectic weekend starts tomorrow at about 12:30 so I want to be on form.

Tuesday 28th February 2017 – COLD, GREY, WET, MISERABLE AND WINDY.

But that’s enough about me. Let’s talk about Oostende, because that’s where I am right now. And this is the train that brought me here from Leuven – a nice comfortable modern and clean express train. And we didn’t have a derailment either.

Having been liberated from the hospital for the next 6 weeks, and having things to do around Belgium this coming weekend, there’s no point in going home. I may as well go and find the seaside for a few days.

As seems to be the custom these days, one really good night is followed by one that is really bad. And last night was no exception.

By the time that I’d finished everything that I had to do, it was almost midnight, so I didn’t listen to the radio at all but simply switched off the laptop and settled down for the night. I’m not sure whether I dozed off at any time, but I do know that at 05:00 I was up and going for a stroll down the corridor – and hasn’t it been ages since I’ve had to do that?

I must have gone to sleep after that because the alarm awoke me at 07:00 as usual. I just about made it to breakfast where I was joined by my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder friend up to his usual antics, and my Dutch/Russian friend who wanted a long chat – but he must be joking.

This appetite thing is getting to me too because I decided that rather than throw most of my breakfast into the rubbish bin as I seem to have been doing these last few days, I’d just have a slice of toast. And if I’m off my food you know that something is really wrong;

After a relax, I packed up my stuff, said goodbye to the aforementioned Dutch/Russian guy and hit the streets, in the direction of the railway station.

And once there, I had a choice of two trains for me, the 10:19 changing at Gent St Pieters on the stopping train, or else the 10:34 direct to Oostende. Only 15 minutes difference so I chose the latter, which is just as well because at that moment my suitcase fell apart. Rather, the dragging handle broke off and that rather defeats the purpose of bringing it instead of the big shoulder bag that I usually take with me. I knew that there was a reason why this lives in the back of Caliburn – now I remember why, that it’s not up to all that much. I have a couple of others at home but I’m clearly going to have to buy another one before I go much farther.

This time I’d come prepared, with the big Nikon handy. On the way out of the station we took the same track as the other day close to the carriage sidings and I could take a much better photograph of the front bit of that ancient multiple unit that’s parked up here.

And it looks even worse at a higher resolution, the poor thing. It really does need a good home

That’s not all that there was that was exciting over there.

There’s some kind of ancient carriage parked up there too. With a rear platform like that it looks something like out of the wild west that we encountered in New Mexico when we were on our travels over there in 2002.

I don’t recall seeing photos of anything like this on Belgian rails, but you never know

We took the high ground out of Leuven and passed above where the railway derailment had been on the 18th of February. You can see quite a bit of debris still by the side of the line, and the new ballast where the track has been relaid.

When I passed by here the other day on my way to Lokeren I hadn’t been quick enough to photograph it – but today I was ready with the Nikon and so I could add it in.

The weather was really confusing today. When we arrived at the railway station it was cold and wet, with a gale blowing that threatened to whip off my cap.

But then the clouds blew away, the sun came out and although the wind didn’t drop, it wasn’t too unpleasant. And then the clouds came back, and brought the rain with them again.

And round and round we went.

We were not the only things that were going round and round either. There’s a wind farm just offshore here at Oostende and the weather was such that they were going round and round too – like the clappers in fact.

As regular readers of this rubbish will recall, I’m a big fam of wind turbines and I’m really surprised that, with all of this wind energy freely available, that other countries don’t take advantage of it.

I can count on on hand the number of commercial wind turbines in New Brunswick and Labrador – all of this free energy going completely to waste.

How long is it since we have had a Ship of the Day? You must have noticed the big one out near the wind farm, and so I cropped a part out of the photograph and blew it up. I can do this kind of thing despite modern terrorism legislation.

I’ve no idea what kind of ship it is, but the flattish front makes me think that it might be some kind of ro-ro freighter, and the load that it’s carrying is suggestive of railway wagons.

However I don’t know of any rail-freighter operating around here since the closure of Dover Western Docks.

We can have another Ship of the Day while we are at it.

As you know from our previous visits to Oostende, fishing is the big thing here since the ending of the Oostende Ferries. We’ve visited the big fishmarket and seen the outdoor stalls. The fish is mostly fresh out of the sea, due to the fishing fleet that’s based here in the port.

Here’s one of the aforementioned on its way out to sea. It’ll be back here in the small hours and its catch will be on the market shortly afterwards

While you admire the rear of the Casino, having seen the front last time I was here, I headed off to my hotel.

It’s the same one as last time, the excellent and impressive Hotel Imperial, and I have the same coach-driver’s room that I had last time, stuck down in the corner. Last time that I was here it was a dark red – today it’s a light blue with yellow and green stripes

It was about 12:30 when I arrived and the receptionist, efficient, polite and as curt as ever, told me that check-in time was 15:00 and if I would like to leave my bags in the luggage store in the basement and come back then, she’d register me in.

And so I went off for a butty and then had a good walk along the seafront in the biting wind and watery sunshine to find a café. A nice hot mug of coffee was definitely on the cards.

Having dealt with the food and coffee issues, I went to continue my walk along the promenade. I ended up at the Villa Maritza – one of the last vestiges of the Belle Epoch along the seafront here in Oostende.

Originally known as the Villa rosenda, it dates from 1885 and was the home of the manager of the casino at the turn of the 20th Century.

In the 1980s it was abandoned and threatened with demolition, but was bought by the local council. They used the upper floor as offices while a restaurant occupied the ground floor. Now it’s undergoing a process of renovation.

I made it to the beach too, but didn’t stay out there too long what with the wind. It really was savage. But finally it was time for me to head back to the Imperial and book myself in.

What I didn’t like was the booking clerk looking at me. “You’ve been here before, haven’t you?”. No wonder that there was no silverware on display and there were no young and nubile serving wenches loitering in the vicinity. Anyway, I headed up to my room

First thing that I did was to unpack my stuff.
Second thing that I did was to have a beautiful hot shower and to wash my clothes – and of course I had some clean ones from the launderette on Sunday.
Third thing that I did was to lie down on the bed and to close my eyes for five minutes. My eyelids were terribly heavy.

A couple of hours I was out for, and a good couple of house it was too. It mush have been a good walk that I had had, that’s all I can say.

Both Liz and Alison were on line so I had a good chat with both of them to pass the time of day in pleasant company, and this tookme nicely up to tea time. There’s a nice little fritkot across town and that’s where I decided to aim for.

That wasn’t as easy as it might have been, seeing as by now the rain was absolutely streaming down. I had the usual joke with the night porter about
“How can you tell when it’s summer in Belgium?”
“Well, the rain is usually much warmer”.

Of course, having gone all of that way, I discovered that the place was closed tonight. That was rather odds-on wasn’t it?

Instead, I walked back to the fritkot down the road from here and had a falafel butty for tea instead. Wasn’t quite the same but this really wasn’t the weather to go about exploring.

Instead, I found my way back to my hotel room and called it an early night. I was pretty well exhausted after my long day out and the distances that I had travelled.

And it’s not looking good for the weekend when I need to be on my best behaviour, is it?

Saturday 12th February 2017 – THEY’VE DONE IT AGAIN!

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that 5 weeks ago we went off to Lier to watch Lommel United play. And despite how well Lommel played, they conceded five really extraordinary and unlucky goals.

Today, OH Leuven were at home, and playing Lommel United. This is a real bottom-of-the-table clash which was a really important match for OH Leuven to win if they are to put any distance between themselves and the bottom of the table.

And it all started to go wrong for OH Leuven on the tenth minute. A corner put high into the OH Leuven penalty area, a Lommel United player falls to the floor, and the referee blows for a penalty. It was down at the far end of the field through the gloom and the mist of the evening (it was quite foggy again) and I couldn’t see what happened so I’ve no idea whether or not I agreed with the decision. Not that it made any difference because the decision was made, and a goal was scored.

So OH leuven had fallen behind in this important match, but it didn’t matter because sure enough, Lommel United’s self-destruct button went off again. On the attack down the centre of the field about 25 yards out, the OH Leuven n°31 Storm had a shot on goal. It was covered by the goalkeeper but the ball hit one of his own players on the back, looped up into the air, and dropped right into the opposite corner of the net.

If this wasn’t bad enough, 10 minutes later was even worse. With the Lommel United defence in something of a panic, the OH Leuven right winger broke down to the touch-line and drove a hard cross low into the penalty area. A Lommel United player stuck out a foot to stop the ball, and diverted it straight into his own net.

And that was that!

Last night was the worst night yet. I was still wide awake at 03:30, totally unable to go off to sleep. At some point I did manage to drop off to sleep, and struggled upstairs to breakfast at 07:00. I didn’t eat much of it. One of my two rounds of toast and more than half of my muesli ended up in the bin, and that’s a rare event isn’t it?

Back down here afterwards, I set the alarm for 11:00 and went back to bed and sleep. However, by 09:30 I was back awake again and I can get on and do stuff.

Not for long though. Alison sent me a text message, to say that she was in a café in town. Would I like to join her?

It was just as well that I’d had a good wash earlier this morning so it didn’t take me long to be on my way. Given the snow and the freezing cold outside, I put on two pairs of trousers. You remember that I have an over-size pair that I brought back from Canada. I couldn’t remember why I had this pair, but it all became clear the other week when I went off to Lier in minus 4°C or whatever it was.

Alison and I had a good chat over coffee, and then went round the corner to the fritkot for lunch. I had a falafel wrap which was more than enough, despite the fact that I hadn’t eaten very much at all for breakfast.

We went for a walk around the shops afterwards, and then back to another café to warm ourselves after the walk because it really was freezing outside. Alison then went off for her bus, and I took a walk down the Naamsestraat towards the football ground.

I was waylaid on several occasions down the street

There was an archway kind of thing on the right-hand side of the street that led into a courtyard. I hadn’t noticed this place before and seeing as there was no-one about and no “private property” notice, I went in there for a butcher’s.

Down at the far end of the courtyard was a low wall and so I nipped down there to peer over the top to see what I could see. The Naamsestraat up to this point was something of a climb, and the street then descended towards the football ground.

At this point, possibly the highest point in the street, there seems to be something of a scarp slope down to the River Dijle, and you can see right across the valley to the block of flats that are in the distance, at the end of the Kapucijnenvoer.

or, at least, you could, if the weather had been better

Had I been some kind of Lord or nobleman during the Iron Age or the early Medieval period, this is just the kind of place where I would have wanted to erect my fortress.

These natural defences (the scarp slope and the ascents up the main street in both directions) would be very useful and save me a lot of work when it came to building my fortifications. It’s very hard for a marauding army to charge uphill and even a few simple defences could bring it to a halt.

The presence of some kind of stately mansion such as this (I wasn’t able to find out what it might have been) is some kind of indication that an important family has lived here for a while.

Even if it was formerly some kind of religious institution, the land would inevitable have been donated by someone important. And it’s quite a usual procedure, as we have mentioned many times in the past, for a small chapel attached to an early fortress to eventually increase in size and importance and over-grow the medieval defences as the need for religion increased and the need for defence diminished.

That’s why it’s quite common to find large churches built on what look like some very impressive castle mounds

The gardens of the big building were landscaped and looked really nice, but there was no indication as to whether this was a public park or not.

Had the weather been nice and had I not been in something of a rush, I might have been tempted to go for a wander around. But the football was beckoning and so I didn’t want to hang about too long.

Besides, I was freezing to death standing here and it wasn’t very pleasant to hand around and take photos. I’ll end up with frostbite or something

There’s a music shop close by, so I went for an explore. Unfortunately, although there was a reasonable stock on display, it was all mainstream equipment with nothing particular that caught my eye.

Now this is how to enjoy yourself at a football match. Here they are, munching on a huge hamburger and clutching a tray of six beer glasses. It doesn’t get any better than this, does it?

When I took up my seat at the ground, there was almost nobody in the stadium. But as the two teams ran out onto the pitch, the masses swarmed out of the beer tent and took their places in the stands. We ended up with 2,300-odd people in the crowd.

And despite all of the empty spaces in the ground, some old goat had a good moan about how I was sitting in his seat.

I found that quite amusing, but not as amusing as many years ago when I was in Southport one Saturday afternoon and to pass the time, had gone along to Haig Avenue where Southport Reserves were playing. 30 people in the ground, and I was leaning on a crash barrier, one of about only 10 people standing on the “popular side”, when some other old goat came along and said “that’s my space there where you are standing”.
.

I’ve told you about the highlights of the match, but that kind of thing doesn’t explain everything that went on.

Kostovski, the big Macedonian centre-forward, was in the thick of the action, bulldozing his way through the defence. But after the penalty award, he went down like a sack of bricks under a challenge in the Lommel United penalty area. The referee waved at him to get to his feet, and my opinion was that Kostovski was lucky that he didn’t receive a yellow card. But while he was beating his fists on the ground in frustration, he was caught offside as OH Leuven regained possession of the ball. This kind of thing makes me despair of footballers.

However, round about 25 minutes or so, he was taken off the field with a foot injury. His replacement was a player called Loemba, who was a winger. This left Casagolda up front on his own, and this rather blunted the OH Leuven attack. Not only that, Loemba was not having a good day at the office.

If that wasn’t enough, after about 80 minutes or so, The OH Leuven manager took off Casagolda, and brought on yet another winger, the n°10 who had played so well against AFC Tubize a few weeks ago. And so now we were treated to some really rapid OH Leuven breakaways down the field and down the wings, but with not a soul up in the penalty area to receive the ball and take on the Lommel United keeper. On several occasions, the OH Leuven wingers were just run to earth in the corner by the Lommel United full-backs.

On the way back, I went to the Carrefour to do my weekend’s shopping. I remembered to buy my bread but I forgot my olives. I also bought some more of that vegan lemon sorbet and a few fresh-fruit packs seeing as they were reduced in price.

Back here, I wasn’t all that hungry so I had a couple of rounds of cheese on toast.

Liz was on line when I switched on the laptop so we had a good chat. But I couldn’t last out. I’d not had my sleep this afternoon and I’d had a bad night too. I was out of it, and curled up and went off to sleep quite early.

Wednesday 23rd November 2016 continued – BOUILLON

Rather than amend what I had written last night before going to bed, I reckoned that I would break with tradition and just quickly dash off a new page about Bouillon, for your entertainment and education.

You won’t see much in the photos because it was rather dark when I arrived and went darker still before I’d finished. But never mind.

Bouillon has a major claim to fame in that there is a huge castle, dating from the 10th Century with subsequent improvements, here in the town, up there behind those houses.

And I was so dismayed to see that the castle wasn’t illuminated. I would have expected to see it all brightly lit up, given its fame, especially as they have managed to illuminate those houses, But no such luck.

The castle is perched on a tall, prominent rock situated in a very tight meander of the River Semois and to reach it is quite a climb. It’s not for the faint-hearted and was an ideal defensive spot.

No-one is sure when the rock was first fortified, but a castle is definitely referred to in a letter in 988AD. It was slighted by Henry 111, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1045 but rebuilt shortly afterwards.

In 1082 it was inherited by its most famous owner, Godefroi de Bouillon.

However he sold it to the Prince-Bishops of Liège in 1095 for a sum believed to be 3 marks of gold and 1300 marks of silver in order that he would have funds to go off on the First Crusade.

And as we all know, went on to be the first ruler of the newly-conquered Jerusalem.

The castle, and the town which had grown up at its foot changed hands from then on, on occasions too numerous to list.

Its strategic position at the “entrance to the Ardennes” and “the gateway to France” had made it a key position on the ever-changing frontier in north-west Europe and it was never left in peace as marauding armies swarmed all over it.

It even fell into the hands of the La Tour d’Auvergne family from my neck of the woods on several occasions, but was almost always eventually restored to the Price-Bishops of Liège until their lands were definitely extinguished in 1795.

It was then absorbed by France, handed to the Netherlands by the Treaty of Paris of 1815 that ended the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, and became part of Belgium in the partition of 1830.

Its most famous modern inhabitant would be Leon Degrelle, a prominent and unrepentant Nazi collaborator who led a large body of Wallon Nazi collaborators and front-line SS troops during World War II and fled to Spain after the War.

It’s another one of these places that must have been absolutely magnificent 50 years ago, but cheap foreign travel has killed off much of the town like many other places in Northern Europe. There are several empty, abandoned hotels, shops and restaurants, and the good times have definitely gone.

But there’s still some kind of wealth here in the town with a few expensive hotels and restaurants that are way out of my reach.

But it did have a fritkot or three, one of which served falafel, so I was ok.

Wednesday 23rd November 2016 – PHEW! I’M WHACKED!

Yes, today was the day that I had to go to the hospital at Leuven.

And how difficult was it to haul myself out of bed at 07:00 to hit the road? You have no idea.

No breakfast of course, but what with having to wash and make myself pretty, it was 07:30 when I finally hit the road. Through the fog, the hanging cloud, the darkness and the drizzle to the motorway and then an uneventful drive all the way to Leuven. uneventful, of course, except for the tractor-trap in the suburbs of the city that slowed everyone up. It took me less than 2 hours all told.

Caliburn went into his hidey-hole and I walked up to the hospital to organise some breakfast. All done and dusted, checked in and in the waiting room long before the due time of 10:50.

I was out by 14:30 too. The highlight, or actually the lowlight of the day was the fact that they have stopped serving bread with the soup. That’s no good.

But apart from that, my blood has gone back up to 10.6 all on its own (although it doesn’t feel like it) and while my water retention has eased, my protein loss has accelerated. So – back in a week.

And as the professor is only there in the morning next week, it means that I have to postpone my eye test too.It’s a good job that I’m going back to stay in the hostel.

The drive back was even more uneventful.

There’s a Carrefour in Leuven as you know so I called there for bread and stuff but I was having a “fruit” moment so I bought a “reduced” fresh fruit salad thingy and a litre of 100% pineapple juice, and scoffed the lot on the car park. And there are grapes for tomorrow.

My route brought me back to Bouillon, which is a soup-er … "ohh, well-done" – ed … place and stopped to take a pile of photos in the dark, falling over the edge of the pavement and badly cutting my right knee.

There’s a falafel place in Bouillon so I had a decent tea as well.

And now I’m back here and seeing how tired I am, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see the photos of Bouillon.

I’m doing nothing more!

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.

Thursday 13th October 2016 – WELL, YOU MIGHT HAVE GUESSED.

Blood count is down. And protein loss is up. The result of all of that is that I have to go back in just two weeks.

This is a bitter blow to me of course. I need to move on and do things, and I was hoping for six months – or even three months would have done me. But not two weeks.

But I’m not surprised, because I had a horrible night.

I wasn’t in bed all that early, and even so I just couldn’t drop off at all. I gave up trying to sleep at 05:45 and started to read a book – and that had the desired effect, albeit 6 hours too late. It really was a struggle to crawl out of bed at 07:15.

And despite the small amount of sleep, I’m managed to go a-wandering. I was in a car driving down a lane and ended up crossing two railway lines, about 40 yards apart. I’d always believed that they were simply each track of a double-track line built by someone with a sense of humour, but the book that I bought on Sunday in Montreal convinced me that these were just another set of “parallel lines” laid by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian Northern Railway during the Canadian Great Railway Wars.

It’s funny how, even when I was asleep, I was able to think along logical lines like this, because it’s perfectly true. If you think that the Railway Wars between companies in the UK was savage, vicious and extremely wasteful, you haven’t seen anything until you read about what took place between the Canadian Pacific, the Canadian Nothern and the Grand Trunk Railroad. The useless infighting and unnecessary duplication of routes cost Canada millions of dollars and bankrupted a couple of the companies for no good purpose.

And so at 07:15 I crawled out of bed, at 07:30 I crawled out of the shower (so much for thinking that it would do me some good) and by 07:45 I was crammed like a sardine along with about 500 other people into an articulated bus, having grabbed a coffee on the way. I was decanted out at St Rafael so that I could go down to Caliburn to drop off the stuff that I had bought yesterday.

Having left all of my vegan cheese behind (that’s bad planning if they had decided to keep me in) I then boarded the wrong bus that led off in a completely different direction. I ended up having rather a long walk.

At the hospital, I had my blood test and a chat with the doctor. 2 hours later, the doctor came to see me. “It’s about yuor blood test …” she began. That sounded ominous, and no mistake. But she carried on to say that the blood testing machine had broken down and I would have to hang around for the results. Clogged up with root beer and maple syrup, I reckon.

Kaatje the Social Services girl came for a chat and I had to fill in a form. And having spent most of the morning reading Lord of the Rings I promptly wrote out “13th Orcober”. Yes, it’s getting to me, isn’t it, all of this?

Anyway, I managed just about to keep awake during the afternoon and about 16:30 they came back with the bad news.

With that ringing around in my ears, I went downstairs for a coffee and to make a phone call. And so here I am – back in the hostel where I stayed during the summer. There was a room available – not at the same good price that I was offered last time unfortunately – and so I took it. It’s cheaper that going back home and coming straight back and far less stressful. Stress – or the elimination of it – is quite important.

I set off for the hostel but within 20 minutes I was back in the Day Centre. Bane of Britain has, once again, gone off with his catheter still plugged in. You couldn’t make this up, could you?

And it’s good to be back on familiar territory with no pain at all. And I can have my old room back on Monday too. In the meantime, this one will do. I settled down for a while and then a bit later nipped down the road for a falafel butty for tea. I’ll rescue all of my supplies from Caliburn tomorrow.

Having organised that, I’m off to bed. Nice and early. Remember that I had a bad night last night.

Saturday 8th October 2016 – AND SO AFTER ALL …

… of the shenanigans of last night, the Orleans Express bus from the Gaspé Peninsula turned up bang on time and we were all ready and waiting. It set off on time too, which was nice to know, and I settled down for the long drive to Montreal. Those hot cross buns that I had bought in Woodstock were really nice – I’ll tell you that.

For the first part of the journey I didn’t drop off to sleep at all. Probably far too wound up after the drive up from Florenceville. Instead, I curled up on my seat and carried on reading my book. At Sainte-Foy there were no toilets opened and the one on the bus was occupied so I curled up on my seat again and this time I managed to drift in and out of sleep all the way into Montreal.

At the bus station I had a really good half-hour power nap in the usual little hidey-hole. And then I was ready for anything. Unless you’ve tried it, you’ve no idea just how comfortable you can become when you ride astride the porcelain horse.

“Anything” was the bus station café. A huge cup of coffee and a couple of bagels were just the job for breakfast but I didn’t stay there for long. The internet connection was rubbish and I was keen to see how Rachel was doing (she finally arrived home at 04:30). And so I went to track down the 747 bus to the airport.

It doesn’t stop in the coach station any more. According to my friendly neighbourhood bus driver, they’ve upped the standing fees in the bus station and the STM – Societe de Transports de Montreal – is refusing to pay them. Instead, the bus leaves from down the road outside the Berri-UQAM metro station. There’s no ticket machine in the bus station either now, so you have to go to the machine at the metro station. I bought a 3-day ticket ($18:00) because it’s cheaper than two one-day passed (2x$10:00).And it was pouring down with rain outside. Whatever happened to the Indian Summer we had been having.

I found a comfy bench at the airport, with yet another flaky internet connection. Nevertheless, I was able to catch up with a few things there, despite being interrupted by a vocal local yokel who wanted to discuss Facebook with me. There’s a “Subway” in the airport too and so seeing as I was thirsty I went and had a giant sized root beer and I ordered a sandwich to take away. The Comfort Inn is rather out on a limb and there isn’t anything available to eat in the vicinity.

Having organised all of that, I phoned for my shuttle, and that brought me here to the hotel. It’s fully-booked and so there wasn’t a room available at that moment. Still, there’s a comfy chair, a good internet connection, a power point and a free coffee pot in the foyer. What else do you need when you are waiting for your room?

I didn’t have to wait long for my room, and the first thing that I did was to have a stinking hot shower and to wash my clothes – I’m running out. But it must have been Eskimos … "Inuit" – ed … who had this room before me. The heat was off but the fan was on blowing cold air around and it was about 10°C in here.I whacked the heating up and resolved not to move until the temperature reached 25°C.

I had my butty, chatted to Liz and one or two other people for a while, and spent the rest of the afternoon dozing in and out of sleep. it’s been a hard day so far.

Nevertheless, I made it out for the bus 202. I missed the first one so went back in. But I was out for the next – in fact just in time to step straight onto the bus as it was going past. As you might expect, I ended up at the Cote des Neiges, and here I had a terrible shock. It’s all been gentrified and many of the smaller businesses have been cleared away and replaced with trendy boutiques. It took me a while to track down an assiete falafel, but when I did, it was well worth it because it was one of the best that I have had in North America.

So that was me fixed.

On the way back, Rhys ‘phoned me up and we had a really good chat until the battery on my phone went dead. I spent the next hour or two having a huge melancholy nostalgia fit listening to music. Leaving Canada always makes me feel maudlin.

So now I’m off to bed. My last night in Canada and I’m inconsolable. If my health continues to deteriorate at the rate it seems to be deteriorating, I shan’t ever be back again.

That’s enough to make anyone feel maudlin, never mind me.

Monday 29th August 2016 – BLIMEY! WHAT A STORM!

I can’t remember when it was that we last had a terrific rainstorm. But the one that we had this morning was a corker!

At about 06:30, when I awoke this morning, it was quite grey and overcast. And also quite a lot cooler which made a pleasant change. And although it was an early start, it wasn’t that early when I went up for breakfast. I seem to be becoming quite lazy in my old age.

Yet another leisurely morning (just by way of a change) and round about 10:00, just when I was thinking that I ought to go out and buy my baguette, the heavens opened in a dramatic fashion and that was that. And so instead of going for my baguette I went upstairs for a coffee instead – to find another group of residents whom I hadn’t noticed before.

The rainstorm eased off round about midday but I couldn’t really care less because I was doing something else – but I can’t remember what it was now. It was round about 14:00 when I finally remembered that it was lunchtime, so I nipped down to the supermarket on the corner for the baguette. With no hummus I used vegan cheese with my tomato, olives and lettuce and it was of course just as nice.

The weather improved this afternoon but I missed some of it because I crashed out (yet again!) for an hour or so – something that is becoming too much of a habit these days. But I managed to drag myself into the bathroom for a shower, a scrub and a shave. Add to all of that a change of clothes and I was then ready for anything, especially for meeting Alison.

Going down to the car park I took with me a bottle of the Raak Campagne Pils that I had bought in the Netherlands in March. I’d mentioned root beer to Alison the last time that we had met, and Alison had never tasted it. I mentioned ages ago that this Raak was the nearest thing to root beer that I had ever found in Europe and so I donated a bottle to the cause.

We went into town for a plate of falafel with salad and chips and a good long chat and then off to a nice café in the city centre for a coffee. It was such a pleasant evening that we went for a walk afterwards and I took her to see this studio that I had been shown in the city centre last week and then we ended up back at our end of the city.

Now I’m off to bed. Tomorrow I’m off to hospital for what I hope will be my final course of treatment.

Wednesday 10th August 2016 – I HAD A QUIET DAY TODAY

And that’s no surprise either. I had another bad night – still being awake at 02:00 this morning, and then having to make a couple of trips down the corridor during the night.

The alarm went off at 07:30, and it was something of an effort to crawl out of bed, but it had to be done. And then I staggered off upstairs for breakfast.

We seem to have run out of muesli and no-one has replenished the container. So it was cornflakes for breakfast with my toast, coffee and orange juice and somehow it’s not the same. I hope that they will refill the container sometime soon although when I was up there making tea it was still empty.

This morning I haven’t done too much at all, but at lunchtime I went for a walk. I checked on Caliburn in his new home and he seems to be fine. And then I went off to spy out the ALDI down the road from there. They don’t sell baguettes unfortunately but they so have some cheap stuff including the soya desserts and soya milk, as well as having a small range of vegan food like burgers and falafel. I’ll check this out when I find a proper place to stay. But it just goes to show you how far France is behind the times when it comes to this.

This afternoon, I crashed out for an hour or so – and quite right too for I was feeling pretty miserable what with having a bad night. But I wasn’t as miserable as the weather, which had rained when I was out and about on my travels at lunchtime although it did clear up later.

For tea, I cooked some of the vegan pastries that Alison had bought me, together with potatoes and mixed vegetables cooked in butter and with garlic. That was a very good tea, and there’s enough left over for tomorrow. The little oven here isn’t very powerful but it managed to do the job, and I need to look out for a small, cheap baking tray. Looks like a trip to IKEA is on the cards, especially as now I can access Caliburn without any effort. Renting this parking place looks as if it’s a good move.

So now, I’m going to try again to have an early night. And quite right too because my appointment at the hospital is for 09:10 tomorrow so I have to be early. I’ll pack some stuff in case I have to stay the night but if I don’t, I’ll be on the phone afterwards trying to sort out some accommodation. I have a few ideas, and a few phone numbers, up my sleeve.

But all of this assumes that they can tell me how long I have to stay here. I need to have some kind of idea so that I can make further plans.

Saturday 9th July 2016 – WHAT A LOVELY SURPRISE!

Yes, there I was, at 10:30 busily packing up everything ready to move and the phone rang. “Eric – fancy a coffee in about an hour?”

Hans is on his way back to the UK and because of the enormous roadworks on the Autobahn, he had set out at something of a silly time of night. And as a consequence of this, he had fahrn’d fahrn’d fahrn’d up the Autobahn without a single interruption at all and was about three hours ahead of schedule.

As a result, we went and had a coffee and then went off for an Indian meal at that little place that I know. You know – the one where the curry comes in three strengths viz “hot”, “bloody hell!” and “Jesus Christ!”.

Yes, what an unexpected pleasure to meet up with an old friend like that. I was only saying to Alison the other night that I had lived in France since 2006, and here in Leuven since the end of March, and I’ve had more visits in Leuven than I ever had in France!

Last night was a messy night. I could hardly sleep with this head-cold and I made endless trips down the corridor. But the upshot of that was that this morning, my legs were nothing like as swollen as during the previous couple of weeks.

I had been on my travels too – that I do know – but I’ve no idea where it was that I went to.

It was at about 06:20 when I was finally awake, and I had finished breakfast long before the alarm went off. Then I had a leisurely tidy up in my room. That is all packed up and in the storeroom there except for my overnight bag which I have with me.

The taxi that was booked at 13:30 turned up at … errr … 14:15 and so off I went to the new digs. It turns out that it’s a room in someone else’s house and she has a couple of noisy kids so I’m not too sure about this. But the room is beautiful, with a lovely en-suite bathroom and I have a little terrace outside, so all in all, I’m not complaining.

Once I’d installed myself, I set off for the railway station and purchased my rail ticket to Chateauroux for Monday. I’ve only passed through the town before and I’m not going to be there for long so i’ve no idea what to expect.

Seeing as how it was a beautiful afternoon (the first one that we’ve had) I went for a walk around the station area. There are a few student-type eateries around here too including a falafel outlet. For tea tonight, they served up a falafel and salad butty with chips for all of €4:00 and who can complain at that?

So now I’m going to have an early night and try out my new bed for comfort. I hope that it’s as nice as it looks. But the downside of being here is that breakfast is not included in the price. So that means an early start and a hike across town to the hotel. I’ll be staying there from now on anyway and so I feel entitled to claim my breakfast there.

Monday 13th June 2016 – IT’S NOT VERY GOOD NEWS!

No, I had the results of the two samples that were taken from me the other week.

The first bit concerns the bone marrow. Whilst it’s true to say that the lymphona hasn’t spread into my bone marrow, the fact is that the bone marrow itself is quite fragile and as a result they won’t be giving me any more chemotherapy. This is because the marrow is quite fragile and they fear that the chemotherapy may damage it.

The second thing is, if anything, even worse. And that is that my illness has spread to my kidneys and that is what is the matter with them.

I don’t know if the situation is dangerous or not – I didn’t ask. What I do know is that they are going to have a meeting on Wednesday to discuss a course of treatment and I have been summoned for next Monday to a meeting to find out what will be the plan. All that I can say is that I don’t like the sound of this at all.

I had a difficult night’s sleep again, awake quite early and having a trip or two down the corridor. When the alarm went off at 07:15 I was awake but it still took me a good few minutes to leave the comfort and safety of my nice warm bed. After breakfast I packed everything away and even found time for a shower, then paid up for my stay and hit the road.

It was pelting down with rain this morning and traffic queues everywhere. However I made an executive decision (an executive decision being, for the benefit of new readers of this rubbish, a decision that if it happens to go wrong, the person making the decision is executed) to follow the signs for the motorway once I reached Korbeek-Lo and that was a much better idea. There was heavy traffic on that road but it was all turning off to the various business parks down there and it didn’t take long to hit the motorway. And once on the motorway it took me a mere 10 minutes to reach the hospital by going right round the city and onto the campus from the rear. I was there half an hour early.

A couple of doctors, one of whom was the girl whom I normally see and the second one was the urologist – she who gave me the bad news – came to see me. That wasn’t all that she gave me either because she ordered an injection for me – one that would help purge me of excess water. And I’ll tell you what – that worked in spades and made me feel so much better.

The Social Welfare girl came to see me too. We discussed my accommodation situation and she’s going to make further enquiries for me. Mind you, although she’s given me a great deal of moral support she hasn’t really gome up with too much in the way of practical help. But then again, I don’t suppose she encounters too many people who have my kind of problems.

They gave me a blood test too, and my blood has dropped down to 7.6. That of course meant a blood transfusion and I had two pochettes of blood. What with all of that, it was nearly 19:00 when I left the hospital. I had a walk down into town and stopped off at a fritkot for a falafel butty and chips for tea – all for €5:50.

And then it was back here to my new home for my first night.

There’s no internet (there’s a student.net site but of course I don’t have a password for it) and there’s a leak around rthe edge of the roof light.

As I said yesterday, I’m glad that I’m only spending a couple of weeks here.

EPIC HALL

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