Battle of the Belge...

Ah tis a sad thing. The pack was underweight when I left the UK, and the Penny was...not.
Enough of a fright to kickstart renewed interest in fat content and exercise levels - and it turned out to be a false alarm from pessimistic scales so all is well. Had a lovely and hilarious time with the Annie type Blinman and Joan on Saturday morning involving a full breakfast, castles, and jelly dinosaurs. I have good friends.

So, here I am in the land of Tintin, Poirot, Bruegel, chocolate and beer. Friend Joan lives at the top of 33 rickety wooden stairs in a cute wee apartment near the centre of Nivelles. (Actually, everything is near the centre of Nivelle because it is so wee and cute). We wandered round Brussels for a while looking at things and avoiding chocolateries (no mean feat) before going to eat roasted chestnuts at someone's house and going to a big old Anglican church full of smaller, younger Anglicans all gloriously speaking English. Incidentally, there was a juggling semi-festival in the Grand Plas. Foolish Penny was so distracted she forgot to video any of it. The photo is of a museum in the Grand Plas (which is quite grand actually).

Had my first taste of language regret yesterday, when a chatty lady let rip with a torrent of French in the supermarket. I said, "I'm sorry, I don't speak French", and I truly was. Today, slightly better educated, I sallied forth armed with (forgive the spelling, Emily), "Desolet, je ne parle pas le francais," but sadly had no chance to show my ignorance so eruditely.

It is conveniently a national holiday tomorrow so Joan and I and a Canadian friend of hers are off somewhere, possibly Ypres (pronounced ' Eep' I think) where there is a lot of WW1 sadness, or maybe I'm hoping, a working monastery or two. It is GREAT to see Joan and we are having a lot of fun even though she has to work and I have been a little under the weather.

Right, better stop before I get accused of falsely advertising brief blog entries. Later!