A cure for calmness

The Matrix was right, the future is not user friendly. Blogger and the Internet in general are being mean to me, not letting me put photos on my blog either from Mozilla or IE. This means I have to publish this blog with no photos which is fine except for those with short attention spans who think 5 lines of text without a picture is too much. I mean who am I kidding, most of you have probably stopped reading already. For those that haven't, here 'tis.

One of the things I like best about travelling in Europe is visiting cities where there are no cars, Venice and Sienna in Italy for example. One of the best things about living in a city like Leuven is there is no need for a car. You can walk everywhere, which is good for the environment, good for your health and good for your hip pocket, who can ask for more?

Being back in Melbourne however, that is not an option. Melbourne city is not that big but the urban sprawl surrounding it means that walking anywhere other than the corner store is asking for sore feet at the very least.

So after months of not driving, I've had to unpack the old Toyota from storage, fill the tyres up with air, spend the GDP of a small African nation on a tank of petrol and head out onto the roads once more. All that serenity, that calmness, that sense of impending nirvana is thrown out the window, along with all sorts of insults and finger gestures as I become just another road user.

Some people love their cars, for me though I could probably happily never drive again. I support public transport, especially if it will get some of the idiots who are in my way of the bloody road. The Dalai Lama doesn't drive, that's why he's so peaceful. The Pope gets driven around and has the roads barricaded for him, that's why he can preach love to all men. The rest of us however are stuck trying to contend with Sally Suburban sitting in her 4WD with her netball skirt on and 2.3 kids in the back. Either that or Johnny revhead who thinks that because he has had his license for three weeks then he can push ahead of everyone in the race to be first at the next red light.

Do I sound bitter? It's possible, but the worst thing of all is the fact that I let myself get suckered into the world of the honkers and the pushers and the cutters in and that's when you know that you're officially back in the Rat Race.

Apart from that, things are about normal here in chilly and occasionally rainy Melbourne. Catching up with friends and family is always a treat, looking for work is a pride swallowing up at dawn siege, that I will never fully tell you about. (*Can you name the film that is from? Leave comments below.)

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

After three and a half months living here in Leuven, or Leuven la Vida Loca as the wildly unpopular saying goes, I am heading home to Melbourne. That's right, as the weather starts to turn nice, oops I mean noice - have to get used to saying that again - I'm heading home to the cold Melbourne winter as well as exorbitant petrol prices (they're bad here too but I don't drive here), water shortages, shocking public transport, newspapers and magazines I can read, TV in English (which won't actually be any better than here), looking for work (oh joy) and of course seeing family and friends again.

I decided before I go that I would give you all a rundown on what I've been doing since I've been here, so here goes:

Written 74,000 words toward my first novel.






Written 14 blogs.








Spent too much time watching videos on you tube that were put there by idiots, and were full of sound and fury but signified nothing. (See that, Shakespeare!)





Consumed Belgian Waffles, Belgian chocolate, Belgian Fries and Belgian Ice cream (no Belgians though thankfully).













Made 600 hot dinners, washed 1200 plates, done 18 loads of washing and carried 300 kilograms of groceries so Jai Faim could concentrate on her studies (also ironed twice).









Have been entertained and informed by numerous Authors, including the following: Neil Gaiman, Kate Grenville, Murray Bail (Not Footrot Flats, that's Murray Ball), Jeanette Winterson, Jim Lynch and Ahdaf Soueif (not an FHM or Ralph amongst them.), thank God for the local library.







Watched the entire series one of Friends. (whatever will happen with Rachel and Ross? Whatever happened to all of those actors?))








Watched numerous DVDs which, due to my sketchy "home entertainment system", all had Nederlands ondertitling. I don't think it affected me though so geen probleem.








Saw two actual movies at the cinema. (Spiderman 3 [3 stars] and Pirates 3 [2.5 stars])








Taught myself two lame card-tricks from the Internet.








Wandered the streets and alleyways of the Historical city of Leuven and enjoyed getting lost and discovering new places.










Visited the following Places: Brussels, Antwerp, Gent in Belgium; Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Cologne, Germany; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Bari, Bergamo, Milan, Genoa, Cinque Terre in Italy; Cairo, Egypt; and Paris, France. (if you think I'm putting a picture for all of them, you're sorely mistaken.)









So that's about it for my little adventure, soon I will be shoehorned into an economy seat for God knows how many hours until I land in Melbourne at 4.45 am, oh lucky person who gets to pick me up. See you all soon.

Greets,
J