13February1996

My dear folks,

I’m off to work in 30 minutes and I still have to shower. So this is just a hello. It’s Tuesday night, I think. The days get a little mixed up with the nights. They dawn so grey that some confusion is allowable regardless. We’re hoping the weather will be a little brighter tomorrow afternoon when we catch the Eurostar to Brussels. The train leaves at 12.30 & we shall have to take the underground about an hour earlier. So I’m not planning to get my head down when I get back from work tomorrow. We’re planning to travel light again, backpacks only. No doubt I’ll get my fair share of sleep on the train. Jones says she’ll wake me up when we get to the Chunnel and I shall not mind that.

We’ve bought a book on Belgium to guide our steps. It took Jones three visits to the bookshop to actually make the purchase. The first was to examine the books available and report back. The second was to discover that only one copy of the book she wanted was left, and it was ever so slightly shop soiled. (She likes her books pristine.) The third (after visits to an alternative bookshop had proved fruitless) was to secure it. She has been swotting up the possibilities which is a good thing as I haven’t. We are considering a day in Antwerp but we haven’t made any rules.

Today Jones took a surveyor around to a flat which needs new bedroom furniture installed and she walked halfway across London to return two bottles of fizzy to friends from whom we’d borrowed some. I slept. Tonight our screens are full of Northern Ireland as they were yesterday and will be tomorrow.

Good night.

Blessings ever
T