Tag Archives: vincent price

Tuesday 30th October 2018 – IT WASN’T …

… the early night for which I was hoping last night.

Just as I was planning to go off to bed, onto the radio came one of the “Saint” radio programmes. Not the 1950s Vincent Price offerings, but the much-more-modern hour-long Paul Rhys offerings.

Apart from the fact that the scripts are much more exciting and much more realistic than the TV series and the Vincent Price programmes, the voice of Paul Rhys is quite hypnotic and he has a marvellous way of building up the tension. I can’t go to bed when he starts up. I have to stay until the end.

No idea if the body-clock worked last night. It might have done but I was in no mood to look at the time anywhere. I’d switched off the telephone and was intending to sleep until I awoke. I reckoned that I needed it.

It was about 08:50 when I awoke. And even then, I just stayed flat-out until about 11:00. There’s nothing like having a nice breakfast at something like 11:30 is there?

By now though it was raining and so I had a rather damp walk down to the bus station. And here I found that I have forgotten my bus tickets too so I had to buy another 10-trip ticket. I’ll have quite a collection of these before I finish.

no chips on belgian buses belgium october octobre 2018I didn’t have to wait too long for the bus – in fact, a matter of seconds. It took me longer to remember where I had put the bus ticket that I had just purchased.

And here’s a sticker that signifies the end of the western world, at least as far as Belgium is concerned. From now on, you are no longer allowed to bring your fritjes on board Belgian buses.

It’s another nail in the coffin of the traditional Belgian lifestyle. No longer do fritjes overcome everything.

There are roadworks in Everberg so the bus went a different way than usual. As a consequence I missed my stop and had a rather wet walk through the Flemish countryside to the English Shop.

The bad news here is that they are no longer stocking the cheap Waitrose Christmas produces, like mince pies and Christmas pudding. All that they are carrying this year is the more expensive stuff with all kinds of stuff that I can’t eat. Even the “Free From” mince pies have egg in them. So that’s ruled all of that out then, hasn’t it?

They only had two tubs of gravy browning too and that’s not really helpful either. I’ll get through those in no time flat.

It was something of a wet, weary trudge to the bus stop with all of the roadworks. And although I was on time, the bus wasn’t and I had to wait 10 minutes in the pouring rain.

Back at Leuven I nipped into the supermarket at the back of the station for a baguette and a tomato to take back to my room for a rather late lunch. I had some salad left from yesterday and some vegan cheese from The Loving Hut, as well as some fruit left over from my travels.

And then, shame as it is to say it, I crashed out yet again on the bed.

greenway restaurant parijsstraat belgium october octobre 2018Later on, I was back out again to meet Alison.

We went to the Greenway Thai Restaurant in Parijsstraat where we both had a very nice coconut curry, although apparently not as nice as the one that Alison had had last time that we were there.

There was no hurry this evening so we stayed around for quite some time and had a good chat about this and that.

We followed that with a coffee by the fire in the bar at the Kloosters Hotel around the corner and then she drove me home.

With having an early start tomorrow, I did a quick lap round the room and did some of the packing, and now I’m off to bed. There’s a long way to go tomorrow and I can’t afford to hang around.

So I’ll leave you with a few photos of the evening just to show that the Nikon 1 can do it when it really wants to. Unfortunately, it’s not usually when I want it to or when it needs to.

tiensestraat leuven belgium october octobre 2018
The Tiensestraat in Leuven

muntstraat leuven belgium october octobre 2018
The Muntstraat in Leuven

tiensestraat leuven belgium october octobre 2018
The Tiensestraat in Leuven again

the fourth hotel grote markt leuven belgium october octobre 2018
The Grote Markt in Leuven with the Fourth Hotel in the background.

town hall grote markt leuven belgium october octobre 2018The Grote Markt in Leuven with the Town Hall in the background


Martelarenplein leuven belgium october octobre 2018The Martelarenplein in Leuven


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Wednesday 21st December 2016 – HAPPY SOLSTICE EVERYONE

It’s hard to believe that after today, the nights start to become shorter. We’re at this time of the year already. Hasn’t the second half of the year gone by so quickly?

It’s also the first day of winter, so the least said about that, the better.

I was in Central Scotland with someone whom I knew back in my University days. We were attending college lectures and so seeing that I was with him, I followed him off to the public library for some books. He found everything that he needed, including a couple of books that I thought were largely irrelevant, but I took copies nevertheless. However for one course, I couldn’t find a suitable book, so I told him and some of hi friends, that I would share with him when it came to it.

That wasn’t all that I did during the night, but we had the early morning performance again, 06:15 this time, and much of the stuff melted away immediately.

And I didn’t have my early night either.

Well, I did, but just as I was settling down under the covers, “The Saint” came on the radio.

We all know Roger Moore and Ian Ogilvy from the television. And we all know Vincent Price and Tom Conway from the radio. But how many of you know Paul Rhys?

In the mid-1990s the BBC commissioned three 55-minutes radio plays of The Saint, starring Paul Rhys in the title role. And firstly, whoever wrote the scripts for the broadcasts deserves a medal because they really are excellent. And secondly, the voice of Paul Rhys has a hypnotic quality and I could even listen all night to him reading something quite banal, like the telephone directory perhaps.

And as I said, one of these programmes came onto the radio just as I was settling down.

I’ve no idea why the BBC didn’t extend the series because just three of these programmes is nothing like enough the explore the full range that the scriptwriter and the actors could offer.

I had another early breakfast and then did some stuff on the internet for quite a while, totally carried away with what I was doing. So much so that it was midday when I stopped. The weather had brightened up by then so I nipped down the road to Caliburn and came back with more stuff, including some clothes. I need a change of outfit and I’m running short of undies too.

Seeing as I had a free hand, I brought back His Nibs and now he’s ensconced on a corner of the bed where he’ll stay for a while.

After lunch I carried on with what I had been doing, but crashed out for an hour or so later on. I’m definitely getting old, aren’t I?

For tea tonight I had the second of my two pies with potatoes, carrots, leeks and gravy. And it was just as nice as last night. Now that I’m using the small table-top oven, it’s cooking quite nicely and i’ll have another go with a pizza in due course.

I’ll try again for another early night. But it doesn’t make much difference. I don’t seem to be able to last the pace these days.

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