Tag Archives: mandy_m

Tuesday 14th February 2017 – YOU CAN TELL …

… that the guy who runs the “weigh-it-yourself” olives shop isn’t a Bekgian. Seeing as how I had run out, I went for a beautiful walk in the sunshine down there to buy a pile.
€1:03, the price was.
“So just give me €1:00” aid the cashier.

Yes, Definitely not Belgian.

And then tonight, I made myself a kidney bean whatsit with fresh carrots and tomato sauce as planned, and promptly forgot to add the olives that I had bought earlier. You couldn’t make that up, could you?

Another difficult night where it took ages to go off to sleep, but once gone I was gone for good. Just the odd bit of awakening but nothing exciting.

They really had forgotten to bring breakfast round, so we were on rather short commons yet again this morning. But back down here afterwards (in the light too – the nights are getting shorter) I had a bit of a doze for an hour or two.

Apart from some tidying up this morning, I went round to the bank. I’d found one of my bank cards but it needed activating. However, I couldn’t do it over the phone, hence my walk. Unfortunately, I’ve waited too long so the activation window has expired. I need to head off to my branch in Brussels one of these days.

And that gave me ideas.

Sorting out my medical expenses is something of a nightmare, so I sent an e-mail off to the Pensions Service of my former employers. They weren’t much help last time I was there, but this is what they are there for. I’ll blag my way into an appointment with them, and then I can go to the bank while I’m there.

For lunch I didn’t eat all of my baguette. I’m not that hungry, and if we are having no breakfast tomorrow either (and checking at 21:15, it looks very much like it) I’ll toast the rest that remains and that will do me fine.

This afternoon, as well as chatting to The One That Got Away, I sorted out another huge pile of papers. That was an enormous task and although I finished the most important stuff, I haven’t quite done all that is needed. But I ran out of enthusiasm – something that is happening far too frequently these days.

As well as the kidney bean whatsit, I had ice-cream for pudding. That was nice. And now I’ll try another early night.

It’ll do me good.

Friday 3rd February 2017 – THAT WAS ANOTHER …

… nice tea tonight.

There were some potato croquettes and a couple of vegan sausages left over from last week, and a tin of baked beans was hanging around from a long time ago. And followed by my last soya dessert, it was all delicious. And it’s shopping day tomorrow so I can recharge the stocks of frozen croquettes.

Yes, I’ll eat that tea again!

And so last night was almost the same as the other recent nights, except that it was one of those nights where I sat bolt upright awake at about 05:30 for no good reason. I couldn’t go back to sleep either and wherever I was on my travels (and I was certainly somewhere) it evaporated immediately.

Nothing happened at all during the day. Going out for my baguette was one thing, and having a long chat with The One That Got Away was another. No free pop at the supermarket (and if you were wanting to know, it tastes … errr … different and not unpleasant. Not my favourite if I had to pay for it but it was free).

And then we had tea, where I took one of my housemates by surprise, and now it’s an early night with the internet radio. And that’s my lot!

But my researches are going apace. I’ve come across another book. It’s called The Voyages of the Northmen to America and it was written by a certain William Hovgaard in 1914. He was a Danish naval technician and he was mentioned in one of the other books that I’ve recently downloaded.

He uses his naval skill to comment on the Norse voyages and makes a few pertinent comments as to where the Norse settlements in North America might have been, based on his experience and studies in Norse navigation. He favours Sandwich Bay as being the site of the Norse settlements and as you know, I’m writing a pile of stuff on Sandwich Bay even as we speak.

Not only that, I’ve identified a beach that corresponds with what I know that resembles the Furdustrandir, the famous beach that the Norse voyagers mention, that is right at the mouth of Sandwich Bay. And of course, while I acknowledge the existence of the Norse remains at L’Anse aux Meadows, I’m far from convinced that it corresponds with what we know about the description of Vinland.

Whatever L’Anse aux Meadows might be, I’m not convinced that it’s Vinland, and Vinland may well be somewhere else.

So that’s your lot for tonight. I’ll see you all tomorrow.

Monday 30th January 2017 – WHAT A WONDERFUL …

… meal that was.

Pizza with fresh vegetables with garlic bread, followed by pineapple rings with lemon sorbet. There’s no doubt that having defrosted the freezer cabinets in the fridges here the other week has certainly expanded my culinary whatsits, and I can’t wait to have a decent little kitchen with small freezer. I shall be well away, that’s for sure.

Last night I forgot to watch a film, so I dozed on and off for hours before dropping asleep. And I was disturbed during the night by a noise that awoke me at some point, although I did manage to go back to sleep until the alarm went off.

But never mind that for a moment, I was away with the fairies during the night. I was having some kind of issues about plants and I’d had to pick up some packs of compost – three sacks I wanted. I couldn’t find any to buy so I had to order it for delivery. The girl at reception wrote down the phone number for me on her note pad so that I could phone it and order what I needed. Outside, I was discussing push-bikes with someone and we made the point that up until about 10 years ago, the average age of pushbikes on the street was probably about 30 years old, but recently of course, buying new bikes seems to be the thing, and this would have brought the average age of bikes down to a much-more reasonable figure.
Meanwhile, my sacks of compost hadn’t come and I needed to remind the company. I was driving past the offices of this place and could have called in to pick them up but I was driving a school bus with kids and it wasn’t quite the right thing to do. I couldn’t find the secretary who had given me the phone number, and I couldn’t see it on her notepad so I wondered what she had done with it. This was getting confusing.
A little later, I’d gone for a manicure of my finger and toe nails. Who should be doing the manicure but “The One That Got Away”. As an aside, I have to say that just recently in real life I’ve been taking better care of my finger and toe-nails and this came through in the dream. Although they were cut very short and irregular, it was clear that I’d been taking care of them, and she was impressed. She said that she liked a man who took good care of himself. Then I made a comment about how warm it was in there, to which she replied that warmth always made her more amorous, and she gave me a big smile.

It would be at that moment that the alarm went off – had I known that I was ensconced in a tiny studio on the verge of a close encounter with her, I would have had a lie-in.

They had forgotten us yet again at breakfast and it was a struggle to find stuff to eat. And drink too because the juice supply was exhausted. When this afternoon I saw the guy who does the stocks, I had a good moan at him about that.

And then we had the hospital.

Walking that distance to the hospital hardly affected me at all – I was feeling quite cheerful on my way up there despite the light drizzle. And then we had the good news. Blood count stable at 11.8 and protein loss at 1.97 – still far too high but stable.

They offered me a six-week absence before the next visit, but I insisted on four weeks. That takes me up nicely to the end of my rental period here and if it’s still stable then, I can negotiate a six-week absence and disappear off to wherever it is that I’m going.

This afternoon was quite relaxing. I didn’t do too much. And now it’s bed-time yet again. A quiet day is called for tomorrow and then I’ll have to start to make plans.

Sunday 22nd January 2017 – WHAT A SURPRISE!

Indeed! And I’d only nipped out for half an hour too!

Last night was another awful night and once more I’m not sure why. I should have fallen asleep like a baby but it wasn’t at all like that. I kept on falling asleep and waking up right the way through.

However I had managed to go off on my travels too. I had to go for a drink with someone and I’d made an appointment to meet him in a bar. But I couldn’t really remember what he looked like. And then I remembered that I had an appointment with someone else – at the same bar half an hour earlier. And the person I was seeing first was waiting outside so he went in to buy me half a pint of beer and as I walked in I saw someone who resembled the person I was to meet second, but I wasn’t sure. But anyway I smiled at him and said hello, then went to look for the person I was to meet first. But before I could meet up with him I met a third person, a young girl whom I had been hoping to see for a while. She was there too, and we started to chat. And not only that, there was this tiny girl with black curly hair who was extremely attractive and I wouldn’t have minded meeting her on another occasion. But eventually I could disentangle myself from all of these other engagements and go to meet the guy – it was indeed him and he had saved a space for me on a seat, but sitting on it was the girl with black curly hair. He asked if I didn’t mind and so I replied that it didn’t bother me. If she didn’t budge up, she could sit on my knee.

It seems that they had forgotten us for breakfast. Stale bread from yesterday, no orange juice – it was that that greeted me this morning and that dismayed me. But I suppose that it happens. Back down here I had a shower and a shave and a change of clothes, and then attacked yesterday’s blog. You may remember that I crashed out yesterday as soon as I returned home, before I have even had time to start it. 2362 words later (I had had a busy day, remember!) it was finished, and it was lunchtime too.

I’d had a good chat on the internet with “The One That Got Away” – that was pleasant too.

And then I went out for half an hour. There’s a guy who used to live here and he’s asked me about doing a furniture job with Caliburn, and should we go for a coffee?

Sounded like a good plan for me, and so we did. That was at 14:00 and I finally made it back at about 20:30. We’d had a few coffees and so on, a really good chat, and then it turned out that he was a big fan of Indian food and knew where there was a good Indian restaurant.

Of course, I’m always game for an Indian and finding anywhere half-decent in mainland Europe is extremely difficult. Consequently, off we went and there we were. And I’ve tasted much worse Indian meals than this.

That’s why I’ve only just returned, from my half-hour coffee break.

As you know, I’m not very sociable, so going out like this is a strange thing. but anyway, there I was, and here I am now, back home

I’ve had an excellent, busy weekend and quite right too. High time I did things like this and after all, everyone is always telling me that I ought to get out more often.

Tuesday 17th January 2017 – THIS REALLY WAS …

… delicious tonight – and if the improvement overnight is anything to go by, it’s going to be magnificent by the time that I get to the last portion.

On a plate too – not out of a saucepan either. And because it looked so nice and the presentation was so good, I took a photo of it. Just imagine it with some fennel and coriander leaves sprinkled over the top.

And I wasn’t alone in the kitchen either. I have been invaded by a pile of Eastern European workmen. There are at least five of them and they were eating away in the kitchen when I went up there. They seem friendly enough inasmuch as we could understand each other, but I wonder how noisy they are going to be.

That’s quite a good point on which to ponder too, because for once, last night, I had my best sleep for ages. In bed early, crashed out quickly enough, awoke to switch off the laptop and then I remember nothing at all until the alarm clock went off.

Well, that’s not quite correct either because I’d been on a mega-ramble during the night. And a mega-ramble it was too. I was with the girl who has been described in these pages as “The One That Got Away”. We’d gone to buy a caravan from some kind of second-hand car sales place. We’d turned up as soon as the place opened, explained what we wanted, and were told to wait. And wait we did, for five hours at least until we lost patience. We then went off in search of a salesman but ended up with the female secretary again, the one whom we had seen as we arrived. She wouldn’t put us in touch with a salesman instead but came out with a variety of reasons why we couldn’t see one – all kinds of silly statements such as “if we moved he caravan what is going to happen about the bare, worn patch where the caravan is sitting?”. Despite the silliness of the questions and the ease with which we could answer the questions and solve the problem, she just came up with even more silly problems and we weren’t getting anywhere with this.

A little later I was with the father of Zero, a girl who sometimes accompanies me on my travels although she wasn’t out there tonight. We were driving somewhere in Canada at the back of Montreal.The road that we were taking was a road that I didn’t know but at a T-junction where we hit a main road, I suddenly recognised the road and where we were – we had just come a different way round. We were very low on fuel but it didn’t really matter because I knew that along this road was a big “Shell” service station where we could stop.

We haven’t finished yet either. I was back at school, and it was here that I had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. It was just a case of getting on as best as I could – the same for a few other people who were having similar problems. One boy in particular was having a hard time coming to terms with his illness and I had to keep on telling him to pull himself together. But then he put in another appearance, moping around, and although I could only see him from behind I was convinced that it was him, so I snapped at him to “pull himself together”. He turned round and it wasn’t him but a good friend of mine whose wife was ill, and I immediately regretted having said what I had said. We ended up having a chat about our various problems but it wasn’t doing anyone any good.

Yes, with a night like that, I can do with another half-dozen

I was alone at breakfast, and then came back down here to carry on with my work. I’m still on the notes of that Finnish expedition and we are discussing vegetation right now. I’m up to page 424 and that’s about half-way. I can’t wait to get onto the history and anthropology bits, but whenever that might be, I really have no idea.

What is interesting though is that they haven’t actually gone into the interior – I suppose that in 1937-39 the interior of Labrador is pretty much unexplored. They are making interpretations of the interior based on other people’s published voyages and I note that the works of Mina Hubbard and Dillon Wallace are referred to quite often, as well as the notes of an explorer by the name of AP Low who went into the interior in the late 19th century in a canoe.

As an aside, it was Low’s badly-drawn maps that led Leonidas Hubbard up a creek without a paddle on his ill-fated voyage of 1903. Low only recorded one river at the end of Grand Lake when there are in fact three, the Beaver, the Susan and the Naskaupi, and Hubbard could only find one – but the wrong one.

I’ve had a play around with my 3D program too, as well as a good crash-out after lunch. So soon after lunch that I hadn’t even drunk my lunchtime coffee.

And I made it to the supermarket for my baguette today. There were also a couple of black plastic storage boxes in the rubbish, so I’ve liberated those too. I really do need to take some down to Caliburn as my room is filling up. At the last count there’s 11 of them in here.

Now here’s a thing.

Parked in the Kruisstraat this morning was an almost-new BMW saloon. And a short while after it pulled up and the owner disappeared, another car pulled up.

The driver was extremely interested in the vehicle and stopped, took out a camera, and snapped it about a dozen times from all angles, including a close-up of the rear number-plate and of the wheels.

And then he got back into his car and drove off.

Of course, I’m making no suggestion or allegation whatever. In fact, regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I’m quite often pulling up at the side of the road to take photos of vehicles parked in the street or in people’s driveway.

But not of brand-new BMWs though, and it did look rather weird to me. But without any doubt he had a good reason for doing it.

So now, I’m going to try to have an early night again. Despite all of the new arrivals, I hope that my sleep will be as good as last night’s!

Tuesday 27th December 2016 – I’VE HAD A BAD …

… day today.

And I’ll tell you how bad my day was if I just mention that today I was invited to go for a good walk around the Ardennes with a quite attractive Canadian lady from Montreal- and I was obliged to decline the opportunity.

With having no neighbours, once I managed to drop off to sleep (which was not very easy) I was asleep until the alarm went off.

I’d been on my travels too – to the border country between England and Wales where I was to meet a businessman whom I know, but instead I fell in with his wife. We discussed all kinds of things that related to her husband’s business and I could easily identify an opening for my wife. After all, she had worked for the Tax office and the DHSS (which of course she hasn’t) and this opportunity was made for her. In fact, another opportunity raised its ugly head during the discussion which would have been ideal for a friend of mine – the one whom is often described on these pages as “The One That Got Away”. As a result, Nerina and I were on a bus heading into the centre of Oswestry and I pointed out to her where to alight – at the Adecco Employment Agency. The only slight problem with that though is that whoever I was wasn’t Nerina, and neither was it “The One That Got Away” either. No idea who it was, actually.

So after breakfast and my chat with my neighbour, I sat down with the new laptop and had a play with my 3D program. And I’m pleased to say that the speed and capacity of the new laptop mean that I can do so much more, and do it more quickly too, and that’s why I bought it in the first place.

I did make it out too – but only just to the supermarket on the corner for some bread for lunch. And now I’ve run out of lunchtime stuff (except the lettuce) so it’s a big shop tomorrow.

This afternoon I worked on my website and crashed out for well over an hour too. I was right out of it for about half an hour too when I awoke. i’m clearly not too well.

But by the time I went to make tea I was feeling much better. And we had a huge chick pea and potato curry. It was absolutely delicious and there’s enough for another three nights too. I followed it up with Christmas pudding and custard and that’s delicious too.

Now I’m going to have another early night – I hope that it’s yet another good one.

Friday 11th November 2016 – I’VE ONLY BEEN …

… out of the building twice today.

Once was to the supermarket for my baguette this morning, and the second time was to go back out to the supermarket tonight for a black plastic storage crate that I saw in the rubbish. Unfortunately I’d forgotten about it so it was rather too late when I went out there, and it had already disappeared.

Ahhh well!

And it’s Wapenstilstand – Armistice day today so most of the shops were closed. Even though it was only 08:45 when I went for my baguette, there were only three left. That was pretty good timing, I reckon.

Apart from that, I’ve been talking to friends on the laptop, spent some time working on my web pages about the Coasts of Labrador, and … errr … had a little doze too.

Tea was the rest of last night’s kidney bean whatsit with pasta followed by one of these soya-based coconut dessert things.

Last night though I had something of a disturbed night, although my bed is quite comfortable and I’m reasonably-well installed here. And I was on my own for breakfast which makes a nice change. But it’s quite noisy now as a group of people has just arrived.

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

Thursday 10th November2016 – I HAD RATHER A …

… restless night last night. It took me ages to drop off to sleep. And then I was awake long before the alarm went off.

Nevertheless, I hadn’t had to leave my bed during the night and no only that, I’d had a busy night being away on my travels. And, as usual these days, the whole lot disappeared the moment I awoke.

I was on my own at first for breakfast but I was soon joined by some others. I wasn’t that much alone. And back here afterwards, I couldn’t find the motivation to start on my website. Concentration and motivation seem to be lacking right now and I don’t know why after my successes just recently.

By the time 11:00 came round, I went off to Caliburn to sort out some of the stuff that i’ll need here for the next week, and then down to the Carrefour by the football ground to pick up some sandwich stuff.

On the way back here I went via Caliburn to pick up the stuff that I had sorted out, and found later on when I was making my tea that I had forgotten a storage container for the other half of tea for tomorrow.

After lunch I had a good chat with two or three people and I also crashed out for a while. And not only that, I did manage to do some kind of work on my website.I also went down to the bistro to pay for my lodgings but once more, there was no-one there.

For tea I made pasta, kidney beans, veg and tomato sauce thickened with boulghour. And there’s half left for tomorrow which I had to leave in the saucepan as I didn’t have anywhere else to leave it.

I also had a chat with the landlord of this place about my ongoing health problems. He might be able to work out a good deal for me if I stay here. And I might just accept it too because I don’t really know where else to go for the next three or four months that I might have to stay here.

I’ll have to think long and hard about this.

Saturday 29th October 2016 – IT NEVER RAINS …

… but it pours, doesn’t it?

I decided that in order to changer mes idées, as the French so aptly put it, I’d go out of town this lunchtime and do my shopping out at Kessel-LO, to give me a good opportunity to have a wander around.

And the net result of my external perambulations?

The Fortis Bank there has swallowed my bank card.

That’s all that I need, isn’t it? Lurching from one disaster to another while I’m here this last two or three weeks. I’m getting totally fed up of this. It’s about time that something went right with me for a change.

But at least I’d managed to go to Bio-Planet and buy some more vegan cheese and a beautiful baguette, as well as helping myself to the free samples and the complementary coffee. I bought some stuff (but nothing exciting) in Carrefour that I need to tide me over until Thursday when (hopefully) I’ll leave here and I had a good look around in Krefel to see what they had in the way of electrical appliances. But there was nothing that particularly excited me.

Last night, it didn’t take me long to go to sleep. And once I was asleep, I stayed asleep (except for one trip down the corridor). I awoke about 5 minutes before the alarm, and for once, I was washed and breakfasted and back in my room by 07:45.

My voyage last night was something of a strange parallel to real life. I was somewhere in north-west England, Lancaster or the like, and I had a few days spare. I was torn between going back home to Crewe for a short while or finding somewhere to stay up there. The idea of going to Silloth appealed to me, but I had a look at the map, which was in a holder up above my head in Caliburn and found the town of Oxenhope right on the coast not too far from where I was (and Oxenhope is of course miles away from the sea in real life) I could see that it was fairly large with a port and harbour, with a main street running along the front and so I reckoned that I would go there. But I couldn’t get Caliburn to start – and that was painful. We also had two children – rather like two kids that I know in real life – and they appeared on my voyages for some reason or other.

After breakfast, I had a little doze and did a few bits and pieces and round about 11:30 I wandered off down to Caliburn and out to Kessel-Lo.

Back here, it ended up being a late lunch and then I attacked the web site again. I’ve been working on it again and I’ve amended three web pages, this one, this one and this one. Stuff from my 2015 voyage needed to be added into the first two pages, and that led to adjustments on the third page.

I had a good chat with Liz and another one of my friends on the internet too. It’s certainly been a marvellous invention, hasn’t it?

Tonight, I finished off my curry from yesterday and now I’m planning on yet another early night. i’ll hopefully make the most of it because the clocks go back tonight. Back 100 years for those of you who voted for the Brexit.

But for me, it means that I might have an extra hour in bed asleep.

But I’ve heard all of that before.

Wednesday 26th October 2016 – SO HERE I AM …

… my last night in Leuven.

For a while, I hope. But even if it’s only for two or three weeks, I’m leaving for home anyway as soon as I an discharged from the hospital. I have stuff that I need to do back there and I can’t leave it any longer. And now that I’ve had Caliburn’s wheel bearing fixed, there’s no reason for me to stay.

After last night’s perturbations it took me ages to go off to sleep. And I had to leave the bed twice for a trip down the corridor. Not only that, I’ve no idea if I went off on a ramble. I can’t recall a thing.

It was a struggle to leave the bed, as you might expect. And after breakfast I had one of these eye-closing sessions. I wasn’t away with the fairies, but it was near enough.

Once I’d had another coffee to wake me up, I started work on my website again. And now we have this page and this page on line. And if I don’t fall asleep before bedtime, there might be another page on line before the end of the day today.

I had a good chat on line with a couple of people while I was working, and I also crashed out for half an hour this afternoon. And that was really nice too. The sun is lower in the sky and now shines underneath the top of the window. It was gloriously sunny and warm, and the rays of sunshine were shining right on me. It was beautiful.

I’d had some good luck today when I was out buying my baguette. The supermarket had thrown a couple more plastic food-trays into the skip. I went out later in the evening after tea to have a look at them and apart from being rather dirty, they were in good condition – not damaged at all.

Anyway, they have now been added to the stock and I might even have enough for the little project that I have in mind that includes a visit to IKEA and the purchase of a pile of cardboard boxes.

All of this depends upon what the hospital has to tell me tomorrow. If I’m still on two-weekly visits I’ll be well-and-truly sunk without a doubt. But I’m hoping that it’ll be much better news than this.

And so i’m going to have an early night and see what tomorrow will bring me.

Monday 24th October 2016 – DESPITE WHAT I SAID …

… last night, I didn’t go to bed all that early. In fact, I carried on with what I was doing on my website. And by the time that I had finished – which was at 00:15, I’d transformed the page on which Iw as working into two pages – this one and this one.

In fact, I ought really to have divided it up into three pages given the size of the pages that were produced, but there wasn’t a clear join or convenient break-point anywhere so it will have to do.

I went to sleep after that and without any interruption at all, I was stark out until the alarm went off. I’d been on my travels too, although I don’t remember all that much about it now. All that I do remember was that it featured the girl who on these pages has been known in the past as “The One That Got Away” and her daughter, and we were on a cruise or voyage somewhere with a pile of other people.

When the alarm went off, I was awake instantly. Straight into breakfast where I was joined by a couple of other housemates, and then back here long before 08:00.

I’ve spent most of the day attacking the website with further amendments and by late afternoon two more revised pages were on line – this one and this one.

And as if that isn’t enough, I’ve been working on two completely new ones. I spent two days a-wandering around Godbout just after I arrived there. And each one of my daily rambles will have its own page.

However, that won’t be finished tonight as I’m pretty tired, and it won’t be finished tomorrow either because Caliburn is ready and I can go to pick him up tomorrow morning. Assuming that I don’t have any other contretemps on my way out of the city, I’ll go to pay a visit to IKEA. I have been having a long-term plan that has rapidly passed through the mid-term stage and is now a short-term objective, and IKEA plays a part in that.

Apart from that, what else?

We’ve had the odd crash-out as you might expect, and I had to go to the Fortis bank round the corner to pay my web-hosting fees for 2017. They are due at the end of November. And I finished the rest of the curry that I had made last Thursday.

But web-hosting – that reminds me.

It costs me a lot of money to put my web-pages and this blog on line, and I’m sure that you have all benefited at one time or another from what I’ve been saying.

You can help me by making your next purchase from Amazon via the links on the right-hand side of this blog. You pay no extra by doing this, but I receive a small commission from the company, and this helps me pay the web-hosting.

Please help me keep my postings alive.

Saturday 22nd October 2016 – I’VE BROKEN MY DUCK TODAY.

Yes, for the first time since I’ve been going to watch OH Leuven, I’ve actually seen them manage to struggle to a win

And aren’t the fans happy? It’s not every day – or every match – that they manage to win a game and as I’ve said, it’s the first time that I’ve seen it, so good luck to them all. The final score was 2-0 and they could easily have had two or three more than that.

It took me hours to go to sleep last night after my evening out with Alison and , more probably, the coffee that I had had ans some silly time of the evening, but when I did go to sleep I was away. Miles away until the alarm clock went off without any interruption at all.

And I’d been on my travels too, although I’ve absolutely no idea where I’d been. All idea that I might have had disappeared completely as soon as I awoke.

After breakfast I had a little doze for an hour or so. I wasn’t asleep but just relaxing quietly, and then I attacked my website again. We had an interruption though because with it being Saturday, I headed off on foot to the Delhaize in the town for the shopping. I’m running out of sandwich stuff. The grapes were good value too, and the 650 grams that I bought didn’t last very long at all.

After I’d eaten my butty, I spent the afternoon in my room doing three things. Firstly, I was talking on the laptop to Liz and another friend of mine for quite a while.Secondly, I must admit that I did close my eyes for an hour or so and this time it was … errr … rather more than just relaxing quietly.

As for the third thing though, I’ve finished off what I started yetserday. Now, one page of my 2012 journey between Baie Comeau and Gofbout has now been expanded to four pages by the inclusion of whatever it was that I was up to when I was around there the other week. And now we have this page, this page, this page and this page.

I don’t know where my motivation has come from these last couple of days.

All of that took me quite nicely up to leaving time – I hit the road for the Stadion Den Dreef. Surprisingly, most of the fritkots on the way are closed on a Saturday night although I did eventually track one down. And with a bag of chips I carried on down to the ground.

The “crowd”, said he using the term rather loosely, was rather disappointing. There can’t have been 3,000 people in the ground, although the popular end behind the goals was packed and they certainly made enough noise.

And there was something going on in the way of sponsorship there too. Everyone was handed a flag (although I declined) and the sponsors had people throwing bags of sweets into the ground. I didn’t know about this until I was hit in the face by a flying bag of sweets.

2-0, I said the score was, and I also said that it could have been more. The Cercle Brugge goalkeeper made two magnificent reflex saves and OH Leuven had a stone-wall penalty appeal turned down. In fact, there were a couple of bizarre refereeing decisions tonight.

But one refereeing decision was excellent. Although I would have awarded a foul against OH Leuven earlier in the move, a OH Leuven player was badly tackled but the referee waved for the advantage as the ball broke to another OH Leuven forward who raced off down the field and scored a magnificent solo goal, right on the stroke of half-time.

That was the second goal – the first one was another breakaway down the field with a one-on-one with the Cercle Brugge goalkeeper.

Unfortunately, most of the action was down at the other end to where I was standing – especially after OH Leuven had a defender sent off after 70 minutes, after which Cercle Brugge came more into the game.

After the game, I had a slow walk home in the cold, because winter really is drawing in now. And now, I’m rather too wound up to sleep.

It’s going to be one of “those” nights again tonight.

Saturday 15th October 2016 – I HAD ANOTHER …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Tuesday 20th September 2016 – BLASTED SEAGULL!

There I was today, at the supermarket buying the baguette for lunch, and when I came out, I noticed that Strider had had a visit. A passing seagull had scored a direct hit, and all over the windscreen too with an accuracy that would put Bomber Command to shame. It was certainly an impressive strike.

Talking of Bomber Command, I do recall my erstwhile neighbour back in Crewe, “Blaster” Bates, telling me that he once witnessed the RAF bombing an oil slick with thermal bombs in order to try to set it alight and disperse the pollution, and deciding that on the basis of what he had seen, if the RAF ever decided to bomb anywhere else at any time, he would flee for safety not into an air-raid shelter but into the epicentre of the target. That was where he considered the safest place to be during an RAF bombing raid.

We had the usual night, as it seems to be developing these days. Straight to sleep almost as soon as I went to bed, awake after thirty minutes or so, back to sleep until about 02:00, a restless half-hour or so and then flat out until the alarm went off at 06:00.

We had been on our travels again too – this time to Derby although it was nothing like the Derby that I know. I had to find an address (the name of the street I have now forgotten although I did know it during the night) and my wanderings took me to a street on the south side of the centre of the city where there were some really big and impressive sandstone houses of the rich Victorian period, all now used as offices. But this wasn’t at all the place where I wanted to be. I eventually found a street map and found that where I wanted to be – right across to the north-east side of the city. My route took me through the central railway station past the taxi rank, and there was an old white Hillman Imp being used as a taxi, passing up the outside of the queue. It had been stripped out inside s if it was planning to be used for the transport of luggage. Where I had to be was a street halfway up the castle mound and I had to pass under a railway line out of the station and onto a footpath that had formerly been the trackbed of an old railway line that had circled the city. The view of this particular area reminded me of the view from the Oak Street car park across to the Mill Street Bridge in Crewe.

And this was where I was when I awoke. I had a light breakfast and then came in here for a relax and ended up chatting to a friend for a few hours. When she went off to do other things, I headed off to the supermarket and my appointment with a seagull.

I made my butties and then headed for the beach. It was grey and miserable when I set off but astonishingly, as I unfurled my chair on the beach the sky dramatically cleared and we had some blue sky. That was totally unexpected.

Right down at the end of the beach somewhere near Beaubassin and Cap Pele was an object that in the distance looked as if a cargo ship had run aground on the beach. As I couldn’t identify it properly I took a photo of it so that I could enlarge it at a later date.

And here it is. It’s not a ship at all but some kind of building on the shore and one day I might have a wander down there to see exactly what it is. But it won’t be today – or tomorrow either.

I wasn’t out there for all that long. The sun went in, the sky clouded over again and the wind got up. I went back to Strider and took myself down to the quayside at Pointe du Chene.

I wasn’t alone there though. We had a coach pull up to disgorge a pile of tourists and they flocked on board the sightseeing boat.

I didn’t mention it before but there is a pleasure boat that does a regular tour around the bay – one of these “three times round the lighthouse for five bob” things, and while that kind of thing doesn’t really interest me all that much, it’s certainly popular with the tourists as you can tell.

And to think that it’s out-of-season here too.

We had loads of fishermen here today as well and I did actually see two of them catch a fish each. That was something!

And there might have been more but I was … errr … having a little rest during part of the afternoon with my eyes closed to protect them from the clouds.

Back here I had a shower and then washed all of my clothes and the towels and everything. I’m supposed to wash the towels before I leave (which is tomorrow) and so I took the opportunity to stick everything else in there too.

I also attacked the food and managed to reduce all of that to manageable proportions. I’m not sure where I’ll be tomorrow and whether there will be a freezer or a fridge there.

And now I’m off to bed. An early night yet again, for tomorrow I’m hitting the road.

I’ve no idea at all where I’ll be tomorrow.

EPIC HALL

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