Tag Archives: cold

Thursday 10th May 2018 – I’M BACK HOME

Yes, with Alison being busy I haven’t hung around in Leuven this time. I came straight back on the train today.

But let’s start at the very beginning – a very good place to start, as Julie Andrews tells us.

As for last night’s sleep, that was one of the best yet.

With having had a hard day yesterday I was struggling to keep awake even while I was writing last night’s blog and once I’d finished and had lain down on the bed, that really was that, even though it wasn’t quite 22:00.

And for that reason, when someone knocked on my neighbour’s door at 05:00 to awaken him for work, I didn’t mind at all. For that was the first noise that I had heard all night.

First real noise, that is, because there had been plenty of others during my nocturnal voyages. We started off doing something that involved someone – an accountant from Vancouver – from where I used to work. What was interesting about this was not the voyage itself, but the fact that I awoke from it (although I didn’t) and thought that I had better write it down. And so I did – in a kind of spidery hand that when I looked at it after I had read it, I couldn’t make out a word. But of course I didn’t write it down at all. It’s quite amazing where these nocturnal voyages can take me.
A little later I was with Nerina again. She was in bed and she protested that I had hit her. I explained that there was some animal chasing a squirrel- a squirrel that was covered in fleas and maggots and the like – and the squirrel was trying to take refuge in the bed with her, and so I was preventing it from doing so. But of course you would never convince her of that.

But anyway, I was up with the alarm at 06:20 and went through the usual morning ritual, followed by a nice hot shower. Need to be fresh for my journey back home.

Having nipped out for a baguette, I made my butties for the trip and then made ready to leave. And then having to go back for the hat that I had forgotten.

While I was in the office and seeing as I know my plans (or, rather, Alison’s plans) for the next month, I booked my room. Appointment is on the Thursday so I’ll be arriving on the Wednesday, staying Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night (I’m determined to get to see the railway museum in Schaerbeek) and then back home on the Saturday.

At the station I bought my ticket for Brussels and stepped out of the ticket office to find a Brussels train already at the platform. And so I leapt aboard. And wasn’t that a mistake?

It’s a Bank Holiday in Belgium today and so many people are bridging the gap over to the weekend and having four days by the seaside on the Costa Stella. And the train that I had leapt aboard was the express to Blankenberge. So standing room only, I’m afraid.

But at least I was in Brussels with plenty of time (like two hours) to spare before my train; And the time would have dragged had I not found an abandoned Sudoku book with a couple of games still uncompleted.

tgv gare du midi bruxelles belgiqueUp on the platform I took my … errr … station where the noticeboard indicated that my carriage would stop, but the blasted thing shot past me without stopping and I had to run halfway down one of the longest platforms in Belgium.

It seems that instead of a 16-car unit, it was only an 8-car unit today – the bit that comes down from Amsterdam and Antwerp.

And packed too. It took ages to find my seat and then there was a regular change of companion until we finally settled on a young Dutch girl with a 7-month old baby. That kind of thing does my self-esteem a pile of good, I’ll tell you.

Across Paris with little or no effort at all, and then joining the crowds of people waiting at the Gare Montparnasse, where I ate my butties.

SNCF multiple unit gare de granville manche normandy franceThe train to Granville was heaving too and I had a fit of confusion, taking four attempts to find my seat, disturbing a couple of piles of people in the process.

But eventually I found the correct seat and settled down for the uneventful journey home. So uneventful in fact that I slept for much of the journey home, despite having the headphones on and listening to stuff on the laptop.

All of this travel is clearly getting to me

The walk back up here was likewise uneventful which suited me fine and it didn’t take too long to be back. And I seem to have brought a streaming headcold with me yet again.

And remind me not to travel on a Bank Holiday ever again.

0

Thursday 8th September 2016 – THAT WASN’T VERY GOOD

Not very long at all after I went to bed last night, I was off into the Land of Nod. But I didn’t stay there too long. About half an hour later I was awake again and that’s how I stayed for most of the night – to such an extent that I actually spent most of the night working on the laptop.

There are probably a few reasons why I had trouble sleeping, but one of them is that I have once more picked up a heavy cold and streaming nose and this is just so uncomfortable for me. It’s really pretty dismal just how easily I can catch this stuff.

Rachel and I had breakfast together and that gave us the opportunity to have a really good chat about this and that. So much so in fact that she ended up being late for work.

As for me, I stayed on here. After all of my exertions these last few days I wasn’t feeling up to all that much, particularly meeting people, and anyway I had had a bad night as you know. I had plenty of stuff to do too.

It took me all morning to catch up with what needed to be done (I wasn’t in much of a rush) and then it was a question of organising lunch. I had some vegan cheese in Strider and so I went down to look for it. I found it, but I also found something else that didn’t make me very happy – namely that a mouse had found its way into my living quarters in the back.

And so that’s tomorrow’s job, isn’t it? Emptying out the rear of Strider and clearing up the mess. I’m not looking forward to that one little bit.

One thing that I didn’t manage to find – and for ages too no matter how hard I looked for it – was the coffee. It wasn’t until late afternoon that I managed to track that down.

But in the meantime, I’d been chatting with Rhys on the phone. He’s passed his school bus driving test in South Carolina today, which is excellent news, and is now off for his Commercial Driving Licence next. So well-done to Rhys.

It goes without saying that I couldn’t keep this up all day. By mid-afternoon I was stark out – and properly out too because when Darren came home from work he popped in to see how I was doing, and I didn’t notice a thing – and that’s not like me at all.

I wasn’t alone either. I had Cujo the Killer Cat to keep me company. She was curled up on the bed right next to me when I awoke – clearly I’m warmer than the windowsill in the living room.

Rachel cooked a lovely tea this evening – a big dish of mixed vegetables soaked in olive oil and done in the microwave for 15 minutes. It was totally delicious. I’ll have to remember this.

I didn’t stay up for long after tea. My bad night was catching me up and so I came down here to my little room and went to bed. This streaming nose is still getting me down in more ways than one.

But i hope that I can have a better night tonight.

0

Monday 22nd August 2016 – AND WASN’T THAT A WASTE OF TIME?

I managed to arrange two appointments this afternoon for visiting apartments. The first one was at 14:30 down the Kapicijnenvoer and I was there on time. The guy turned up, took one look at me and asked “are you a student?”
“Not at all” I replied
“I only let to students” he replied, returning to his car.
And yet nowhere on his advert was this mentioned and so I had “a few words” with him about him wasting my time.

At 16:00 I had an appointment with an estate agent at a studio not too far from here. And I was on time there too. 10 minutes later I had a ‘phone call. “I’m sorry, Mr X has had something urgent come up. Can he arrange another appointment with you?”
And so I had a few words with them too about wasting my time.

Mind you, it’s true that there’s not a lot of money to be earned from the letting of a studio. There’s much more money to be earned from letting or selling a house, so it’s not surprising that I’ve fallen to the bottom of the queue. But you can see what I mean about Belgium.

I was in a bad humour too. I was still awake last night at 01:35. And for no good reason either – it wasn’t as if my new co-habitant disturbed me any. I just couldn’t drop off.

But when I did finally drop off, I did set off on a few travels. First thing was something to do with a court case and I was cross-examining witnesses. Some barrister came up to me afterwards and offered me a place in his chambers – an offer that was quite interesting (and which rings a bell from an event that took place 25 years ago) but not one that I could take up properly due to the financial constraints that it called for during the period of training. A little later there was a scene where I was with a woman and we were doing something for a young boy who had come off the rails somehow.

The 07:00 cacophony awoke me, and it was quite an impressive one this morning. Once I’d gathered my wits (which doesn’t take long these days) I went off for breakfast. And as I was parting, I was joined by my neighbour. I exchanged a few words of greeting – he said nothing at all – and then I came back down here for a little doze.

The owner of the property came round this morning and we had a few words about this and that. And now the internet is back working again (but for how long I really have no idea) and a couple of essential repairs have been done to the property too. But as for this thing about cleaning – it’s been 11 days since I’ve seen the cleaner and my bedding is starting to smell as badly as I do.

My baguette for lunch was excellent even though it came from the supermarket on the corner and then in between making unsuccessful visits to various properties I’ve been catching up on a few things here and there.

That tinned curry that I bought the other night – it was certainly different but absolutely excellent and I enjoyed my tea. Not being particularly hungry, I didn’t make any garlic bread so I’ll have to attack that in very early course. I wonder what I can eat it with tomorrow. A tin of ratatouille maybe?

But in other bad news, this cold has now developed into a streaming head cold and the cough has now settled properly on my chest. This is not the news that I wanted to hear, remembering my unexpected 10-day incarceration in the hospital last time this happened when I was only supposed to be in there for a couple of hours.How I’m getting fed up of all of this.

So tomorrow, I’m back house-hunting again. I’m getting fed up of all of this too!

0

Sunday 21st August 2016 – GUESS WHO …

… forgot to switch off the alarm this morning?

And so, despite it being Sunday and despite having managed to sleep through the 07:00 cacophony, there was no possibility of Bane of Britain going back to sleep. Instead, I ended up having another early breakfast.

And in other news, I seem to have come down with yet another heavy cold. And in news that will delight everyone who reads this rubbish, I’ve also lost my voice. And seeing how, starting on Monday, I have about 100 phone calls to make, that is what I call perfect timing. But then again, this is going to be a permanent feature of my life from now on so the sooner I adapt to it the better.

Last night was slightly better. I was only up three times, which makes quite a change from the other night when I seemed to spend more time out of bed than in it. And we had flooded kitchen issues to deal with this morning. Someone had left open the Velux roof light, and we were having a torrential rainstorm. That’s not going to look too nice on the floor when it dries. But by the time I went down the road for my baguette the rain was starting to die down.

With it being Sunday, I had a leisurely start to things, having a second mug of coffee and vegetating around in the room for a while. It was long after 10:00 when I went off to the launderette for the internet. Liz was on line so we had a really good chat for a while and I also caught up with a few things that I had let slide just recently.

My butty for lunch was excellent – there’s no doubt that the bread in the boulangerie round the corner is the best that I have found so far. It’s a shame that it’s also the most expensive too. and this all led to a quiet, relaxing afternoon doing not very much except to listening to radio programmes that I have downloaded from ARCHIVE.ORG and having a mess around with my 3D program, while listening to a new neighbour moving in. I hope that he (or she) is quieter once he (or she) has settled in.

Braving the torrential rainstorm I went back to the launderette for an hour or so to see what was going on in the world (the answer is “not very much at all”) and then came back here to put into action a new procedure. Before going out to buy my Sunday eveing pizza (now that I have some more vegan cheese) I prepared some garlic bread. I’d bought a couple of these half-cooked baguettes and I mixed up some gaarlic butter, using the soya margarine that I had bought the other week, slit the baguette in about 10 places, filled the slits with the garlic butter, and then stuck it in the little oven that I had been warming up.

While the bread was cooking, I went to pick up my pizza and when I returned, the bread was cooked to perfection. And you have no idea just how delicious it was too, washed down with a can of ginger beer that will also, hopefully, become part of my Sunday evening ritual while I’m living here, now that I’ve found a place here in Leuven where I can buy it.

Now I’m going to have an early night to prepare for tomorrow. I have so much to do and not very much time to do it. I shall have to put my skates on.

0