Tag Archives: maison communale

Sunday 18th August 2013 – WE HAD ANOTHER …

… afternoon out today. Or, rather, a late afternoon out because Cécile and her mum crashed out for an hour or so this afternoon.

First stop was to the cemetery to pay our respects to Marianne. Cécile and her mum had bought a pot of flowers and so we planted the contents on her grave. I hope that she will notice them.

From there I took everyone on a guided tour of the top end of the city and we visited the Square Montgomery, the Joyeuse Entrée, the Berlaymont, the Sacré Coeur de Schaerbeek, the Schaerbeek maison communale and a thousand other places until we arrived at the Atomium.cécile demarest fabienne desmarest atomium brussels Here, everyone alighted from Cécile’s car and we went for a walk around. After all, you can’t go to brussels and not visit the Atomium, can you?

Back in the car we came home via the Chinese Pavilion and the Japanese Tower, on the edge of the Royal Palace Gardens. 19:30 when we arrived home – that’s some going.

But Cécile’s mum is certainly having her money’s worth, visiting the town like this.

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Wednesday 29th May 2013 – When was the last time that you saw …

Autobianchi Bianchi Chaussee de Charleroi Brussels… one of these? I couldn’t work out what it was at first. Either a Gogomobil or a Frisky was what was going through my head at first, but it is in fact an Autobianchi, a microcar from Italy and so rare that I haven’t even seen one in Italy. But here it was, sitting by the side of the road in the Chaussee de Charleroi in Brussels.

Anyway, after my lost day yesterday where I spent some of it in bed and the rest of it wishing that I was back in bed, I went out and about. And wasn’t that a waste of time?

Firstly to the Maison Communale for a copy of Marianne’s death certificate, and after much ado about nothing I eventually found the correct person. €8:50 they wanted – per copy – and after picking myself up off the floor and asking for two copies, I was told that I couldn’t have them as Marianne and I weren’t married. A notaire needs to apply, so it seems.

Not to be out-done, I went to the undertaker’s. Now I don’t know what he spends his extortionate fees on, but it’s not on his premises, I’ll tell you that. Art-deco 1920s is my guess and it hasn’t been cleaned since then. The kind of place where, if you give the curtains a good shake, a couple of bats would come flying out.

It seems that I’ve paid (well, I haven’t, but I’ve been booked down to pay for) 3 copies of the death certificate. So the secretary asked me “haven’t you had them yet?”, which elicited the obvious response of “why else would I be here if I had?”. anyway, she rang up the commune to enquire and she was told, and I heard it clearly from where I was sitting “but you never asked for them”. So someone else trying to stick me for dosh on false pretences. Anyway, after a lengthy discussion and “frank exchange of views”, I can go to pick them up tomorrow.

From there I went to have lunch and had the estate agents on the phone. They are extremely worried that I’m trying to deal them out of their commission and are thus keeping close tabs on me. But two can play at that game as well – I was not really in the mood for conciliation today.

After lunch I went for a good walk and found a CD sale. I’m €46 lighter but my CD collection is now considerably heavier and it’s all good stuff too. High time I took more care of myself and my well-being. As long as I can still hear the music I’m okay.

But apart from getting myself soaking wet, that was that. Highlight was, of course, the music. And also the Autobianchi.

 

 

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Wednesday 9th February 2011 – We had a bit of good luck today …

…which is just as well, because regular readers of my rubbish will know that it’s been a long time since I’ve had any.

At the maison communale, there was just one person in front of me so I was in and out in a matter of minutes. After that of course I attended to the matter of getting myself deregistered and that didn’t take long either. we even had a friendly and helpful fonctionnaire, and that’s a first in Brussels, I can tell you.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Terry got on with grouting the floor of the bathroom and while he was finishing it off. Liz and I took all of the rubble downstairs and put it in the trailer, having first removed everything that everyone else has put in it. And I reckoned that we took out more than we put in.

Once that lot was emptied it was off to IKEA for lunch and a quick shopping expedition. We bought a housing to fit the dishwasher into the kitchen, a toilet seat (we are going for all kinds of luxury here, you know) and a few other bits and bobs. Next door at Brico we acquired a shower screen to fit at the side of the bath, and a new shower head with hose

From there it was back into the city and to this electrical shop that I had discovered the other day. A two-gang box and a handful of circuit-breakers and he asked for €109. Having been asked for €145 just for the box at Brico, I expected him to then ask for the money for the circuit breakers too but no – that was his all-in price and he even threw in a pile of cable connectors. This was a good deal by any standards.

At the tile shop, we picked up a few sacks of tile cement to do the terrace here, and Liz’s beady eyes spotted some tiles that were exactly the same colour as the basic colour scheme of the toilet. Of course it’s a shame to spoil the ship for a ha’porth of tar and so that’s something else we’ll be having to do. Not that I’m complaining – I want this place to be a credit to us all when it comes to be sold.

In other news, there’s a bookshop in Scottsdale Arizona that wants to pick a fight with me. And as you all know, I’m never one to fail to rise to a challenge and it’s been a while since I’ve mixed it in a good old argy-bargy. It’s also been a long time (8.5 years in fact) since I’ve been to Arizona and I’m itching to go for another holiday.

So watch this space..

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Tuesday 8th February 2011 – Well that was a waste of a couple of hours.

Apparently an identity card is INDISPENSIBLE (in capital letters) when asking for forms relating to property. So with my Belgian ID card having expired in March last year, and me still being on the demographics list for Jette (because I didn’t realise that you needed to do that – d’oh!) a piece of identity would not suffice.

Tomorrow I need to go to the Maison Communale to get myself taken off the list and instead, obtain an attestation that I own the property. Ahh well.

And while I was out, Terry cut all the tiles for the bathroom floor and Liz set to out on the balconies, moving all of the rubbish that has accummulated these last ever-so-many years and uprooted the trees that were growing.

This afternoon Terry tiled the floor in the bathroom and it’s looking excellent in there. Those tiles that I bought for the bathroom years ago, they are a perfect match for the ones we bought the other day and set it off beautifully Tomorrow he’s hoping to grout it.

Liz and I completely emptied the terraces and then we ripped up all of the tiles on half of the front balcony. It didn’t take much doing, that I can tell you, but shovelling up the sand that the gerry-builders had laid down instead of concrete took quite some time.

For a little treat I pushed the boat out and took Liz and Terry for a slap-up nosh at the … errrr … Simonis fritkot. Huge portions of food at … errr … economic prices. Still, they both deserved it and quite right too. we are working hard in this apartment.

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