A weekend back home

Last weekend was really nice, exhausting also because I had a lot to do, but I had a great time. After a month in London, I went to Belgium basically to get some more stuff over here to get through the year (and the winter!)

And at the same time I saw a lot of friends, really heartwarming to see you all turn up. Brussels really feels a bit like home after two years there. I just spent one day there and I already ran into several people by accident. Incredible! I just got off the Eurostar and I ran into Ruben. The next day I met Inge in the city with her two weeks old baby and afterwards in cafe Fontainas I Lore and Kristof suddenly came in (one of the things we talked on was this very good new tv series 'Lost', of course I had never heard about it, I'll get back to it later). How nice to see them all.

And then of course all the people that came to have dinner and drinks afterwards in the Monk and the Beurscafe; Joke, Soen, Maria, Nico, Delphine, Piet, Yin. There I also saw Ines, Dorien and a couple of others. It was nice to see you all back, although I've only been gone for 1 month.

Saturday I went to Hasselt to see my parents, brother and Indy (the cat). My father spoiled me by preparing delicious 'mosselen friet' for dinner!

At night I went for a drink with Pieter and Nele in Hasselt, and we were joined by the newly weds Marijke and Huub, and Saartje, Marijke's sister. It was very nice to go for a drink in good old Hasselt with it's nice cafe's and cosy nightlife.

The night still had a very nice surprise for me. I was talking to Huub about playing saxophone. I knew he also plays and told him that, as I am in London now, I can't rent a sax anymore in the music academy in Brussels. I've been looking around if I could buy a cheap or second hand one but all I found was far out of my budget or bad quality. So I just wanted to talk that over with a fellow sax player and suddenly he offers to lend his sax for a year! He had not been playing for over 3 years and the next year he'd would not have the time because of the works in his new house. And besides it's better for the sax to be played. I really couldn't believe it and was a bit hesitent as well, you know, the responsability over someone else's sax. So we agreed to both sleep over it and that I'd just come by the next day to see.

So Sunday I went there and we agreed on it! So I took Huub's terrific and beautiful Selmer tenor saxophone with me to London. It's a very nice sax with an incredible sound.
Huub, echt bedankt, ik zal goed zorg dragen voor "je kindje", hij is al veilig en wel in Londen aangekomen en ik heb er daarstraks al een uurtje op gespeeld, mmmmh.

As Huub and Marijke live just around the corner of Andres and Isa I taught I'd just try if they were home, and yes they were, so I went in for a nice coffee and to admire Andres' new dark room for printing his own photos at home.

Then I still had to go through my stuff to get everything I wanted to bring to London and pack it, it got a bit stressy as I still had to catch the train back to Brussels that evening. Heavily loaded with a backpack, two bags and a sax I took off. Thanks to the help of some nice people along the way I managed...

And then the next morning at a very undecent hour I took the Eurostar again. I was a bit afraid they wouldn't let me take so much luggage, but luckily they didn't say anything. In the train I checked out what my brother Peejay had been doing with my laptop all weekend. I came with almost nothing on the HD and I went back with 40 Gb worth of films and music. Wow! Thanks bro! Now at last I have some music in my room in London.
And then I saw he put almost the whole first season of 'lost' on it. So I started watching this series' Lore and Kristof were so full off in cafe Fontainas. Damn, once I started I couldn't stop anymore, I just HAD to know what happened in the next episode. So I saw them all in 2 days only to discover that the season was not complete on my laptop. Horrible!! It stops after episode 10 with an enourmous cliffhanger, damn, I really want to know what happens next ;)

Okay, enough typing, I've still got some studying to do today...