Bereft

I'm bereft of things to write about at the moment.  I'm mentally tired from church council and congregation worries and matters these past weeks. Feel as though I'm being manipulated into actions by others, who aren't standing up to be counted. This to will pass, I'm sure, and I'll be able to roll back to boring normality.

Wandering

On Sunday 28th April last year, we spent the day wandering around the Brussels Grand Place, other points of interest, and a local park close to the hotel. A local tour guide walked the group round for a couple of hours or more in the morning, and then the rest of the day was our own.

The Royal Galleries were beautiful, but busy.

 

I always like to see the local working vehicles doing their tasks. 

Beautiful shops and shop windows everywhere.

We were back at the Gallery De La Reine by lunchtime, and enjoyed our meal upstairs at the Le Pain Quotidian Bakery and Restaurant. 

By the evening we were pretty exhausted with all our walking hither and thither, but a few of us joined the tour leader at a local restaurant for the traditional Belgium meal of mussels with a side of fries. Yum! Messy but yum!

Not Much News

All quiet here; not much going on. It's supposed to be hot on Saturday, so I hope to get one of the wool underblankets washed and dried; maybe a couple of pillows as well. 

I ducked out to Harris Scarfe this afternoon, to finally buy 2 new saucepans. The old ones were well past their use-by-date. Wobbly and scoured so there wasn't too much non-stick left!  

Quick Post

Yes, we travelled well, over to Adelaide and back again. We had a terrific day yesterday - first at the playground, and then at the birthday party. The weather was kind to everyone after Adelaide's 40degree plus days earlier in the week.

Finn's class obviously had to do a message about love - on Friday - for Valentines Day - but it was about how he loved his cousin's dog, and not about his mother...

 

Plums

 

Yay! It's plum season. I'm loving cold, tart plums for lunch each day!

Yay! On Friday we're driving to Adelaide for a 15th birthday party.

Yay! The books I ordered from the library on Sunday, were ready for pick-up yesterday. 

 

Mentally Tired

We've just got the second big meeting in the church successfully completed this afternoon. No bullets to dodge this time, but still pleasing to know everything went forward in good order. The nomination committee left me stranded, with no paperwork regarding which names were coming up for roles, but Pastor and I managed to bluff our way through it. I was having trouble with the microphone, because it takes up my field of view if it's really close, but I had to have it really close to get the projection out of it. And because of my hearing aids, my voice sounds as though it's booming, yet no one else can hear it.

Now, I'll do something totally unrelated to church stuff, and order some books in from the library, or to download on my Kindle. I've got a couple of new books on the shelf waiting to be read.  A Jeffrey Archer novel, but I'll have to be in the mood to tackle that one, and a Victoria Thompson novel, but I'll hold that one over until we're traveling next weekend.

I finished publishing the Guild Year Books yesterday, and they've been well received by the women; that's another task off my desk.

   

Of Narrow Alleys and Interesting Doors

We left what we thought was the street of the Begijinof  and meandered back to the city centre, past the cathedral towards the plaza where the Saturday market was packing up. 

 

We could have stopped for lunch at the market but there was no where to sit down out of the cold, so we wandered down the main mall towards the railway station, we hoped. Came across a little cosy cafe and  ordered what was becoming a staple for us - Monsieur Croque. Ham and cheese sandwich, or ham and cheese toastie, or ham and cheese on toast. There were various iterations with various sides - salad or chips or tomatoes. 

Then it was back across the river, past the tortured trees and to the station. 

Our final trip on a European train. We dawdled at the Brussels Central Station, listening to a wonderful pianist, and then it was back to the hotel for a rest, before meeting our fellow travellers in the evening. 

Mechelen - a Small City out of Brussels. 

This was our last adventure on our own; we were joining the tour group in the evening for a welcome dinner. By now I had the Belgium Train travel app on my phone, and by now I was an expert at buying tickets. I don't think tickets were checked on any of our journeys...

If we had our time over again, I'd swap an extra day in Strasbourg for one less day of Belgium travel, but we took it easy and had another good day. We'd acquired a local walking map of 45 things to see, but ended up only seeing the one thing - what we thought was the Begijinhof named on the map. We couldn't be sure; it's where the phone took us, but there wasn't a helpful plaque on the building.

More photos of archways leading to secret places and courtyards.  A recurring theme of mine. 

We managed to find a river cruise on a small open boat, which took us along the local River Dyle, but the day was grey and damp, so it wasn't too pleasant. 

There were beautiful buildings to be seen. 

 

First AGM

We've just got through our first AGM; there was a little spot of bother, but a secret ballot soon fixed that up. And we're off shortly to call in at the Woolsthorpe Pub for tea, about half an hour's drive away. Jim's annual  birthday meal!