France - Spain Tour

I'm off this afternoon. I'll be touring Europe for the next 10 days and will be back on the 1st of April. I'm not taking my laptop so I don't think I'll be able to get to the internet until I get back. Speak to you then! Laters.

A star is born!

Around 3pm, I decided to head to the river to see what was happening. I read on the internet that high tide would be happening around 4.40pm so I had plenty of time to see the water rising. As I was preparing myself for some serious flooding, I decided to put my red English (country side) wellies on. This way I would be able to stand in the water taking pictures, when the other people would have to stand on the other side of the wall. Armed with my camera, I got on my bike.

The first thing I had to do was climb over the wall to get closer to the edge of the river. Police had warned people not to do so, but it looked like half of Antwerp had had selective hearing. I don't think I've ever seen the river flow that fast in my life. Boats going up the tide had serious issues and birds didn't even attempt a lift off. The water started rising slowly at first, but after a while you could literally see it move up every minute.

Apart from all the people present, the media was also well presented. Quite a few fancy photo cameras indicated journalists from the press. And two big fat tv cameras were filming the scene and rising water... until they noticed my wellies! They decided there was nothing more hilarious than a girl wearing red wellies, so they interviewed me!!!! I actually made the local and national evening news!!!

This is the link to my interview on ATV, I make my appearance after a minute and a half and this is the link to the national news (click on Dinsdag 20/03, 19u herbekijk uitzending) where you can see me standing on the edge of the river, around the 12th minute of the evening news. (looking very red). In the end, and this is also what I said in my miniature-interview, I was somewhat disappointed as the water didn't go over the edge and therefore my wellies didn't serve their purpose... But getting on tv was pretty cool so I guess that made up for it!

The fire that wasn't a fire

So Stu and I are going to bed last night around 12 and all of a sudden I see these massive clouds of smoke in the distance. The clouds were firey red and you could see the reflection of the flames dancing on the clouds. This was big. I run to the tv but nothing on there, I check the internet but nothing on there either. This must just be happening. Stu, who had been winging for hours he was tired and wanted to go to bed, jumped on his bike and decided he would go and have a look up close. I told him he was being a ramptoerist, which lead us to the conclusion the English don't have a word for this... It freely translates as a disaster tourist and when looked up in the dictionary, it defines as (Stu indeed) : morbidly curious sightseer at the scene of a disaster.

Obviously I had to jump on my bike as well (and sneak my camera into my bag - you never know how much a newspaper would give for my pictures if I was there first?!)... We had no idea where we were going, we were just following the red smoke. I was getting suspicious of the fact that nobody else was on the streets wondering where this was coming from (unless the nuclear power station down the road had exploded and we'd just done the one thing they advise you not to do!). I couldn't hear any fire engines, the city of Antwerp was asleep... We biked all the way to the edge of the river and realised what the fuss had been about when we finally saw what was causing the fire. They were burning off excess gas in the harbour... duh. I thought it was still very spectacular, even though the rest of Antwerp thought it was the most normal thing in the world.

Dreadful weather

Last week I sat outside in the sunshine getting a tan. We were actually complimented by the waiter from our favourite Sunday afternoon brunch place for being the first people to eat dinner outside on the terrace this year! This week it's freezing, it has actually just snowed and they have shut the water gates to prevent Antwerp from flooding. They are expecting the river to rise above the edge and flood all the car parks near the edge because of the spring tide tomorrow. I'll be going out in the afternoon, camera in hand and red wellies on to do some photo shooting. It doesn't happen often that the water gates are being shut... Results will be posted!

I'm back

I know it's been a while but I've probably had the most stressful week of my life. I had to do my Russian presentation this week about the Trans Siberian Express. Twenty minute text, all written myself, delivered in front of class, all by heart, in Russian. You would not believe how stressed I was. Only managed to sleep 5 hours the night before, was physically sick all morning, went to the loo about 35 times in 4 hours and was a nervous wreck. I managed to put together a rather nice Power Point Presentation with some beautiful pictures of the train's journey etc. It wasn't going to be my command of the Russian language I was going to impress my lecturer with was it?! Obviously I was so nervous, I forgot half when I started but the more I talked, the more I relaxed so the better it went. I guess all in all, it wasn't all that bad. But it definitely wasn't worth the extra grey hair and developing stomach ulcer.

Reading up on the Trans Siberian again, it's really itching again... I've decided that if I pass first go - but lets face it, chances are slim - I'm going in July. Fly into St. Petersburg, 3 nights in St. Pete, overnight train to Moscow, 2 more days in Moscow, 7 days on the Trans Mongolian Train, through Mongolia, arriving in Beijing, week in Beijing (if budget allows it, travel a bit more through China) and fly back to London. Stu can't come with me as he's busy with work so there's a vacancy for a travel companion!

Looking forward leaving on Thursday for the South of France. I hope the weather will be sunnier than up here and that we get the chance to visit some cities. Danny is flying to Courtney in Nice next week and they are coming to the concert on Monday! I really need some holiday, but I fear these 10 days away are going to be far from a holiday feeling. (still need to learn all the lyrics of the songs!)

Stu will be going back to England next week when I'm away as we've discovered that the (new) gear box is doing something dodgy if you go back into third gear doing more than 30 mph. Mastered driving around without using third gear...

Summary of events

1. Went to the notary and got all our deposit back from the loft. Jeepie. That's now all done and dusted, and we are sad and relieved at the same time.
2. Scored a dramatic 5/20 on my Russian test last week. Oops.
3. Resulting in another episode of deciding to stop doing Russian - which I realised the next morning after lots of anger, throwing things around, kicking table legs, tears and hankies full of snot wasn't one of my brightest ideas as I only have 9 more weeks to go before my final exams.
4. Damn, only 9 more weeks before my final exams.
5. Shit, I still have a thesis to write.
6. Played a new game at Bram and Tessa's this weekend, called Jungle Speed. Extremely fun but also highly dangerous (and sometimes even bloody!) game. It all involves trying to snatch a wooden stick on the middle of the time first.
7. Choir rehearsal in preparation for several concerts with the Philharmonic Orchestra in a few weeks.
8. Choir rehearsal for Proms. Still lots to memories before I go on tour next week!
9. Went to Hobby Fair with mum. She wanted to look at patchwork, I went for the scrapbook making materials. Courtney and Carrie were right, the average age of people who are into scrapbooking is indeed 65...
10. Courtney, Mich is finally diagnosed with his brain tumor! (I bet this is pretty weird for people who have no idea what I'm talking about)
11. Sarah has decided to go to Moscow for 5 months in September which means I'll be visiting her in the snow towards the end of the year.
12. As a result of my Russian failure, I've put myself on a very strict 'study' schedule - setting out what I'm doing each hour of the day to ensure I'm getting the maximum out of my days... (It's needed!)
13. Made a Madeira cake tonight - realised after my 'you can knock someone dead with this cake'-fiasco last week, that a Madeira cake also needs 4 eggs...
14. The weather is lovely at the moment which makes me want to sit on terraskes all day; need to make sure I plan this into my schedule for next week.

It's all Chinese to me

I have been behaving like the nerd of all nerds, the geek of all geeks and, rightly so, the loser of all losers. I decided to not take on any work for 5 days in order to fully concentrate on my other work, namely homework, tasks, papers, assignments and presentations.

I am drained, exhausted and feel even more stupid than before I started this exercise. I tied myself to the sofa on Saturday, surrounded by lots of Russian dictionaries, and told myself I wasn't allowed to get up until all my work was finished. At 2AM (!) I was done and very relieved I was able to go to the loo...

The entire weekend (aside from a Proms rehearsal Sunday evening) I studied Russian like a geek. I just feel I have spent so much time and effort into something of which the outcome is so tiny, shitty and little. It's just not worth it. Really.

Started reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov which so far is excellent. (book was written in English - by no means will I attempt to read a Russian one!) I would probably grasp even more of the literary meanings and demeanors, if I would have an English dictionary next to me. Therefore I intend to go to bed tonight with Lolita and a dictionary. The words this man produces are simply incredible. Some of them you know the meaning of, but not in the context he puts them in! I don't know where he found them (must have had an excellent thesaurus), but some of them are simply unpronounceable...

Poltroon, perfunctorily, ignominiously, rickety, squalid, receptacle, volubility, lichen, drumlins, delectable, rampart, conflagaration, etc. SEE!

Medical Party

Went over to Mark and Didier's last night as we hadn't seen each other for quite some time. We ate kebab for dinner (as Stu pointed out, I can't see those two eating kebab!) with fork and knife. Mark has now come to the end of his medical studies and will be a proper doctor in June. As yesterday was 'Chrysostomos' - the last 100 days of your final academic year - my two lovely gay best friends were going to drag me to a Medical Party to celebrate this fact accordingly. Mark also is 1 of 3 people in the whole of Belgium who are chosen every 3 to 4 years to start an internship as Brain Surgeon!! I'm actually going to have a friend who's a brain surgeon, how spectacular is that?!

The party took place in an old army bunker used during the war. The bar had a rather well suited name 'A&E / ER' . The party was hilarious as they hadn't failed to invite half of the Antwerp gay society as well, so half of the party were doctors (disappointingly bad looking ones!), the other half gay. I kept on being introduced to everybody by Mark and Didier as "this is Lotte, we're going to be the godfathers of her first child, Annabel Channel" - which made people look at my non-existing pregnant belly but found me holding a beer instead. I must have looked like a right loony...

Btw, their new plan for Annabel Channel (sooooo not going to happen!) was for us to put little Annabel on a plane to Antwerp - having a godchild abroad is far more hip darling - with her Vuitton nappy bag and they'd fill it up with Gucci, Armani and Dior baby clothes. (see the already ordered baby shoes on the left costing €250!) My daughter is going to be such a little shit when she gets back from a holiday at Mark and Didier's. Can you imagine? "Why am I not getting champers in my bottle before I go to bed mummy? You know I can't go to sleep without it!"

The artist within me

I've just been asked by Jamie's mum if I can do the photography at Laura's (Jamie's twin sister) wedding this summer. After doing Andrew & Carrie's I got totally inspired and enjoyed myself so much - so tiring but so much fun though. And on top of things, it was so nice to be able to give them those pictures so they can remember that wonderful day for the rest of their lives... I'm starting to get emotional. Gheee.

But it gets even better!!

Jamie's next door neighbour (many fields and land divide them though) is Mr. Royce - as in Mr. Rolls Royce - and he has a plane or two parked in his garage. Jamie has asked him for a favour to fly over the farm (the wedding is at the farm - marque on the horse's sand school!) to take pictures of the wedding from the air and guess who's been asked to be the photographer???!!! Jeeehaaaaa. My wedding portfolio all of a sudden got even better!

Exam results

Got most of my exam results today and am quite pleased with myself! Apart from the awful Russian exam, which I'm not expecting anything above a 9/20 for, everything's all funky dory. I guess I could blame my Russian failure on too little time, too much work, or too ill, but who am I kidding... it's plain old refusal, disgust and inability to learn the damn language. Who cares, the end is nearly there?!

Got back into a good mood again after hearing my exam results:

English Culture (the course I wrote the paper for on swearing): 14

Translation Studies (the exam I wasn't sure about as it hadn't gone entirely as I wanted it to go): 14

Terminology (the exam I did shitloads for and actually quite enjoyed): 16

So there we go, I'm still in the running for passing first go this year!! (have you noticed how there aren't any Russian results in there yet?) So far so good.