My current alarm is 'International', also by Chase and Status. At first, it was the most heart-attack inducing wake-up call I could ever have imagined, but me being the heavy sleeper I am, I'm almost managing to sleep through this too. I'm only just aware it's playing these days and I don't want to put it quite at full volume for the sake of my poor housemate.
Unfortunately, if that eventually fails to work, I have no idea what will...
Moving on... During the two-week half-term break, it was my 21st Birthday. Spending such a milestone birthday abroad was a drawback to taking a language degree when I was choosing which courses I wanted to do. I had previously (quite genuinely) envisaged spending my 21st in a shack in the middle of nowhere, eating ratatouille out of a tin with only a stray cat for company. Thankfully, I have a lovely house with other people in it-- there are even cats, and, til only a few weeks ago, kittens too! Having said that, my housemates left to spend the holidays with family and friends and then to start a 4 week-long work experience and my assistant friends had gone back home for the holidays-- one has recently moved out, too. Really I could have lived out the tinned-ratatouille-and-cat image, but thankfully my parents came out to see me! Needless to say, there was much shopping, coffee-ing and cake-ing and cocktail-ing-- even champagne-ing! In fact, I went to my favourite cocktail bar with my Dad on my actual birthday and since they know me there (...) when they found out it was my birthday one of the barmen sent over a free aperitif of chocolate brownies and fruit soaked in liqueurs. Nawwh.
Not bad, I say.
Brussels
On the last Saturday of the holidays, I thought I'd take myself out for the day to somewhere new, so I booked a day out in Brussels. The train from Lille only takes half an hour, which is great because I got a full day out. It was the first time I'd traveled alone, but it was actually great. I'm an only child, so I'm pretty used to being alone and, in fact, I need to be alone at some point every day for reasons I can't quite explain, other than to say it's an only child thing... In any case, with no housemates and, for the time being, no friends, I was quite used to it. Besides, the great thing about being alone is that you can do exactly what you want and you can do things as fast or as slowly as you want, too.
The first place I went to was La Grande Place, which is pretty impressive:
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| La Vieille Bourse (Old Stock Exchange) |
There is a museum opposite La Vieille Bourse with a rather random collection of things, but the most bizarre of all was probably the collection of costumes adorned by the even more bizarre peeing statue...
There were hundreds of these replicas wearing one of the costumes worn by this statue. I have absolutely no idea who thought of making a water feature out of a small boy answering nature's call, but there you have it. I don't know what his current costume was supposed to be, but here's a picture so you can see for yourself. If you can make out what's written on his jumper, please tell me!
Of course, I bought some Belgian chocolate, and I had to have a waffle (after my exhausting day of visiting all sorts of museums and generally being all over the place):
It was nothing short of wonderful.
Of the many museums and art galleries I visited, I think Le Musée des Instruments de Musique (Museum of Musical Instruments) was the most unique. There are different floors with instruments from various different countries and eras; as you go in, you are given an audio guide which is activated when you walk up to each exhibition. Instead of verbal information, a piece of music played by the instruments you are looking at is played-- awesome idea. Here are some of my favourites:
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| I love Eastern music (actually, just music really) in general. |
I have no idea what the 'creature' is, but he's quite amusing:
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| I'm not sure what this is meant to be-- maybe a very primitive harp?-- but it must be so old! |
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| I think wind instruments made to look like snakes should still be around-- these are amazing. |
And, finally, my favourite instrument, and the most elaborate foot-pedals I have ever seen:
I was completely worn out once I came home, but it was a brilliant day, and I want to go back to see the Chocolate Factory and the Ancient History Museum-- not necessarily in that order.
A Little Bêtise to Leave You With
A blog post from me would not be complete without an example of my random acts of idiocy, so I hope you're sitting comfortably!
I was making myself a sandwich, but I'd forgotten to take the butter out of the fridge earlier for it to soften, so I thought 'I'll just put it in the microwave for a few seconds'. Of course, I was forgetting that the paper it is wrapped in isn't just grease proof paper, it also contains metal. After a few seconds, I caught a rather alarming flash of light in the corner of my eye, and I rushed over to turn the microwave off. There was smoke and fire and flames and everything-- flames I tell you! Thankfully, it wasn't too bad, although the plastic cover in the microwave is now burned... oops. I just put the flames out in sink and prayed the microwave wouldn't blow up next time I used it. (It hasn't.)
À bienôt!
