it runs in the family ...

good and bad news for this week. after my excursion to paris i went to the doctors and got the good news that everything is fine and that i will be without crutches in about 4 to 5 weeks. i can start putting pressure on the leg . in the first week he said no more than 10 kilo's and than increase till you can support your full body weight. my god i hope that he does not have in mind 10 kilo's more a week, this would mean a freakin x weeks ... :-) ... so far the good news

the bad news: it runs in the family. Riens my son was at the boy scouts this sunday, building a huge raft for the complete group, about 20 of them. you can imagine that a raft of that size needs to be rather big ... well he managed to get his leg under it when they were putting it to water : result: 3 rather big and deep cuts in his lower leg. because it happened at the bank of a river that was full of stones and rocks, combined with the deepnes of the cuts he had to go under narcosis so they could mend everything perfectly ... i felt so much pain when i saw him and before he left for the operation room ...

but he's back now and doing fine, a bit dizzy of the operation (i will now know how he looks when he is drunk the first time), but for the rest all ok ... so now the men of the family are cripple ... we will hold each other up rigth since for me it is my right leg, for him it is his left ...

what a family , anyhow: happy travels

Toon

A typical day in a train

What a morning. I finally got myself convinced that going for a one day meeting in Paris was not such a bad idea, till this morning. First of all it is getting out of your bed so much eelier than usual, lately I do have tendency to get out of bed by 7.45 instead of this morning 6.15.

Also it became very apparent that getting ready "quickly" is something that I need to redefine in my mind, together with an even better sense of co-ordination and planning. Meaning not forgetting the belt upstairs or having to go back up and down the stairs for the damn phone that is still there.

Nevertheless we managed to get ourselves with the help of a friend to the train station, where the first part of my journey started: Mechelen - Brussels South. The wonderful delights of peak hour train visit. First obstacle: damn the automatic escalators are not functioning and no elevator ... completely out of breath I finally arrive on the platform just in time to see the train roll in with the door just in front of me, but too far away. A horde of wolves jumped in front of me almost making me lose my balance.

Ok, I can understand, see that you are the one missing the last seat, in my mind nothing to worry because my train of thought was more like: I’m handicapped for the moment; one person will help me and offer his seat without a problem. But I guess the fact the train was arriving at the platform furthest away from the entrance, the broken escalator, all bad omens I guess.

Getting on the train was already a problem with a bunch of freaking zombies just watching me instead of handing a hand. When I finally managed to get on board the little hall had 4 seats:

seat 1: long haired alternativo; seat 2: Moroccan young lady with loud music; seat 3: public servant I guess, neatly dressed with moustache and his briefcase; seat 4:youngster with Adidas blue - yellow trainers listening to hip hop

situation: me on crutches not resting my foot trying to stay upright whilst the trains starts to move, next to me 3 other people standing (one of them smelled really really nice ) and 4 sitting down. overall feeling: an uncomfortable silence with nobody even daring to watch me or to look in my direction.

I felt the urge coming in me to start shouting on the ones sitting down. The alternativo I imagine was still yesterday signing a petition against racism and discrimination and believes that Tibet should be liberated; but handing of his seat: no way. The Moroccan girl always feeling so bad about being discrimated but being in a position to hand over a seat as a gesture: no way. The youngster in adidas yellow bleu trainers complaining that the world today is an evil place and that he is always misunderstood did not understand in his small brain that standing on crutches on one leg in a moving train is not really easy. And the public servant who kissed his wife goodbye at breakfast this morning wondering why people are so rude to him at the office cannot even find the decency to do something nice himself.

And I’m even not talking about the other 3 who could have said something or at least helped a bit. Conclusion: you are on your own buster, sweat it out because it is not my problem you are a bit less mobile.

Well I could go on and on about my frustration this morning, especially when also the automatic escalators where not functioning in Brussels and I arrived at the complete opposite part of the station as of where I needed to catch the train to Paris in which I’m writing this now. But I need to stop and regain my smile and look at it as an experience I will never forget :-)

 

Happy travels

 

Toon

 

summer is here

well indeed, although i'm not that mobile i can still enjoy the sun in the week-end. And this week-end was just wonderful, we even made a campfire.

it brought out my skills as a boy scout and helped the kids to get the fire going. But we started the afternoon a bit colder . The kids were challenged to a dare to stay in cold rain water from the well for at least 1 minute.

you can see on Lauran her face that she was a bit surprised on how cold the rainwater from my mum's well.

guess we are going back next week-end to do a little campaing i guess.

happy travels

 

T.

Father and son ...

know that feeling: the first sun is out and it is very nice and warm. You can go out with a t-shirt and not feel a cold breeze or having to take with you a sweater just in case of .... The mere fact of leaving the sweater behind is like a huge burden falling of people's shoulders, shaling of the winter and the gloom and opening up for a more relaxed way of life ...

we crawled up our chairs on the terracce of our favorit place De Cirque and started reading in our books. Riens finally took up reading a bit so and i'm on roll, now with " Motorcycle Diaries" from Che Guevarra, another freedom fighter :-) ...

afterwards a lovely Italian dinner with friends in their garden, la dolce vita does really exist, it is just a matter of expanding it out of the week-ends into the weeks, but that is somethign else.

The leg is coming along rather ok, although i must admit i'm not that confident for the moment on a full recuperation. Although the doctor said it would take time to heal one always thinks he can beat the clock. Let's wait and see on Friday the 16th when a new verdict will be given to me on the doctors visit :-)

for now as usual: happy travels

Toon