Tag Archives: Goldmember

Saturday 17th December 2016 – WHILE YOU ADMIRE …

christmas decoration leuven town centre belgium december decembre 2016 … the centre of Leuven all decorated up for Christmas, let me tell you a little about what I have been up to today.

It’s Saturday and as you might expect, I’ve been out and about late this morning, doing my shopping ready for the weekend.

And I took the opportunity to go for a walk up into the centre of town to see what was going on.

In fact, there was a good purpose for going up there.

christmas decoration leuven town centre belgium december decembre 2016 I wanted some vegan cheese and some spray-on vegan cream from the Vegan shop ready for Christmas. But although the door was open and there were people there, the shop wasn’t open for customers yet.

I can’t believe how much money Belgian shops turn away with some of the silly ideas that they have. After all, I wasn’t going to hang around for another hour.

christmas decoration leuven town centre belgium december decembre 2016But I can’t believe how empty the town centre was today. I was expecting the place to be teeming with people seeing as how close we are the Christmas, but it was more like an early Sunday morning up there rather than a late Saturday afternoon.

It wasn’t all that cold either. It doesn’t seem at all like Christmas right now and I’m clearly missing something somewhere

christmas decoration leuven town centre belgium december decembre 2016The decorations in the city are rather half-hearted and that doesn’t add too much to the festive atmosphere. I was expecting much more than this here in Leuven, to be honest.

All in all, I wasn’t out all that long. A quick lap around the Delhaize (where they had some grapes alredy bagged up on special offer) and my wasted trip to the Vegan shop, and that was that.

chrstmas carol sung in english flemish accent leuven town centre belgium december decembre 2016But there is one thing that I do have to say – and that concerns the barrel organist whom you might have seen in a previous photo.

I don’t care what anyone says, Christmas carols sung in English with a Flemish accent sound far too much like Goldmember for my liking. I was trying my best not to burst out laughing as I listened.

So my early night last night must have done some good somewhere for despite having to go off down the corridor at one point, I ended up being awake, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (well, sort-of) and out of bed at all of 06:02 this morning.

I’d been on my travels too – something to with kids in the snow in Northern Labrador (i seem to be stuck here right now, don’t I?), but sometime later, it was a morning of really heavy snow and I was on my way to work. It was to a new job in a new office. And I was admiring the snowmen that people had built in their gardens. It was Shavington, on the corner or Rope Lane and Main Road by the Co-op where I arrived next, and here I fell in with two people who were to be my new colleagues. One of them I recognised immediately – he was someone with whom I’d worked in an office previously. We started to chat and he told me a little about my new place, and that he was getting married – to someone that I knew – that morning so we would have the day off anyway. But he was already making plans for a subsequent marriage, and it all sounded rather weird to me.

After breakfast I did some stuff on the website and then went off into town to buy what I need. And that took me nicely up to lunch.

This afternoon I went for a coffee and a really good chat, and that took a good few hours, we had so much to talk about.

I had a crash out when I returned, and then I had a little treat. The Welsh Premier League matches broadcast on Sgorio aren’t accessible to people living outside the UK, but someone “shared” it on his social networking site and by this method I was able to see the game.

The first this season, I reckon.

I missed tea tonight – I couldn’t summon up the energy to make it. Instead I’ve had a relax and now I’m going to have yet another early night.

Tomorrow afternoon, I’m going off on my travels, I reckon.

Monday 18th July 2016 – I WENT TO THE HOSPITAL …

… this morning, and just for a change, seeing as how I’m not too well, I went up on the bus. I definitely can’t be feeling up to it if I’m having to travel by bus and spend €1:40.

Just for a change I’d had the best night’s sleep that I’d had for ages. Apart from one trip down the corridor, I was out like a light until the alarm went off at 07:00, and then promptly went back to sleep until the alarm went off again at 07:15.

I’d been on my travels too. Back driving a coach tour along the North Cornwall coast. The holiday had come to an end and we were ready to go home. The advertised way was down across the county to Exeter and then up the M5, but the prettier way, even if it was a longer way, was along the coast and so I asked the passengers if they would like to go that way. Many of the passengers had been with me last year when we had gone along the coast too. They were having a discussion about that and so I decided to move the coach off to a safer spot. However I had a hell of a time getting the coach to start and when it finally did start there were clouds of white smoke everywhere and the coach wouldn’t accelerate. This was a bad start to the final day’s holiday and I was hoping that the passengers hadn’t noticed.

I had another go at having a decent breakfast ready for my long day, but I ended up leaving half of it. I’m still not up to it, I reckon. And it was scorching outside, even at 08:00. I’m glad that I had decided to take the bus.

At the check-in at the day care centre I was taken by surprise. I was sent straight to a little room instead of having to go through all of the preliminaries downstairs. That didn’t sound too good. And I had a nurse who had exactly the same accent as Goldmember. That was worrying too. She fitted me with a drain and took a blood sample. And I have to give a urine sample too and that’s taking the p155.

My weight has gone down by 3kgs, which is probably normal seeing as how little I’ve been eating just recently.

The Doctor came to see me – not Hermione unfortunately – but the other one and we had a good time discussing everything that has been going on with me just recently. She’ll know more when she has the results of the blood test later today but to her it sounds as if I have caught an infection and it will soon pass through. I hope that she’s right.

She did however send me to have my chest x-rayed. Done on the spot!

Strangely enough, in between the blood test and the visit of the doctor, I’d suddenly started to feel so much better. How is that for an irony? I managed the soup and bread for lunch, as well as a large packet of crisps that Alison had bought me and which I’d taken along for emergencies.

The perfusion was ready quite quickly and didn’t take long. By about 14:45 it was all finished. The doctor came back with a prescription for the medication that I had finished off, and told me some good news. My blood count is 10.0 – exactly the same as it was 2 weeks ago. And given all that I’ve done and all that I’ve been through this last 2 weeks, that’s quite impressive. I’m very pleased with that.

And when was the last time that I have had a blood transfusion?

She told me that I do have an infection too. She’s not too worried about it and it’s one of the things to which I’ll have to become accustomed giving the loss of my spleen, but she wants me back next week (instead of in two weeks time) to see what is happening.

She did offer me the chance to stay at the hospital. Had I been living anywhere else that I had during the last three months, I might well have taken her up on it. But I’m comparatively comfortable here so I decided to come back home. I must be feeling better.

Having paid the odd account or two, I set off home – on foot too – and ended up in town at the supermarket buying a few bits and pieces. I’ve even eaten tonight – nothing special or exotic but proper food. And three good meals too.

And not only that – it’s now 23:45 and I’m still awake and not in the least but tired despite my full, exhausting day.

Things are looking up.

Ans we’ve had more excitement in Parliament today. During the debate on the new Trident replacement, the new Prime Minister, Theresa May, attacked Green MP Caroline Lucas for speaking against the proposals, saying that Lucas was “defending the UK’s enemies”.

Now have a close look at this speech – “Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

Did you notice the bit about “denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger” which has clearly influenced Theresa May’s speech? The speech that I quoted just now was one given by none other than Hermann Goering.

Having had the B Liar paraphrasing the Nazi speeches during his period in office, it looks now as if we’ve got yet more Nazi clones in charge in Drowning Street.

That’s a frightening thought now, isn’t it? Or were we all expecting it?

Saturday 19th September 2009 – WELL, THAT’S ME SPENT UP!

540 euros in Brico Depot and not an awful lot to show for it.

Running through the list there’s

  • a pile of insulation – 20mm stuff because they had run out of 40mm and so I’ll just double up the thickness
  • some filler for the cracks in the plasterboard
  • some plasterboard tape
  • some fibreglass wallpaper
  • some fibreglass wallpaper glue
  • some blue wall paint (I forgot the gloss for the woodwork)
  • piles of tools for puttying and wallpapering
  • some floor tiles to build a plinth for the woodstove
  • all of the cement and grouting
  • some light switches
  • a telephone socket (and, yes, I forgot the telephone cable)

That was the first load. The second load was

  • 38 metres of tongue-and grooving – not the rubbishy stuff at 3.37 euros that I use for building or the better stuff at 4.95 euros (they had run out of that too – GRRRRR) but some other stuff at 6.17 euros
  • some wood battens for the tongue-and-grooving
  • some varnish
  • some nails
  • some underfelt for the laminate floor

And no woodstove either.

The cheapest on offer is 190 euros but I don’t much like it. As Krys suggests, Machine Mart is the place to be and Terry sent me a link to their site. And Simon is still in the UK. How can I contact him?

It’s a lot of money but realistically all that I now need for the attic is a couple of sheets of bare plasterboard for around the head of the stairs, and a supply of skirting board. And two panes of glass but I’ll explain that in due course (and no, I haven’t broken a window). I have everything else.

Outside in the car park I was doorstepped by a couple of Dutch people who wanted to talk to me about solar energy. It takes Dutch folk completely by surprise when I talk to them in Dutch (well, Flemish but it’s near enough).

But it’s a sign of the times that the Dutch want to become involved in solar energy. There is no word in Dutch for “cheap”. The word that they use is “goedkoep” which literally means “a good buy” – implying that if you do see something cheap you immediately have to purchase it.

The Dutch were the original settlers of New York, which is why I’m absolutely astonished that the USA is known as “The Land of The Free”. The problem with the Dutch is that they have no word for “gratis”.

Having said that, however, I sympathise with Michael Caine, who famously said in Goldmember “There’s only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures – and the Dutch”.

Only one footy match tomorrow – in the Cup and at Briffon, a village in the foothills of the Mont Dore about 100 years away from here. I’ll need a native guide and a pile of native bearers to get there I expect.

By the way, for those of you who have been following the discussion and debate in the “comments” to some of the entries on my blog (and you can always join in), you will be delighted to know that the verb “to sand” in French is “poncer”.

I will be doing a lot of poncing next week.