Le Charme Discret de rue Vanderlinden

Heading back to the UK after nearly a week savouring the discrete charm of Bruxelles. Would love to stay longer, but unfortunately I have to head home next Friday. The weather over the past few days hasn't been that great, which is a shame as I was hoping that the warm, sunny weather would continue. It hasn't been raining all the time, but it's often been quite overcast and because of the wind quite cold.

Philip and Denis' new place in Schaerbeek, just north of the centre, is quite something, although it's going to need a lot of work. The rooms on the first two floors are massive and have really high ceilings and I'm sure the place will look really impressive once it's finished. They only moved in just over a week ago, so a lot of their stuff is still in boxes! I always seem to come when they're in the process of moving or doing something to the house!

Yesterday I met up with Anneke in Antwerpen. Originally the idea was I'd visit her in Den Bosch, where she's living, but getting to Den Bosch by train from Bruxelles takes nearly 2 1/2 hours and renting a car was going to be too expensive. So, in the end we decided to meet in Antwerpen, which although closer to Bruxelles, is only an hour by car from Den Bosch. I always find going to Flanders strange because of the language. Here in Bruxelles I have no problems, but as soon as I cross into Flanders I can hardly understand anything, even though it's the same country.

I'm picking up a rental car when I get back to London and on the way to the North-East am picking up Jiří in Manchester as I've invited him to spend the weekend with me. I've never been to Manchester before, so hopefully it won't be too difficult trying to find the place where Jiří's staying. Am looking forward to seeing him again and seeing my Grandma.

My Mum was in hospital again last week as she'd developed an infection in her other lung. She was discharged on Tuesday, so is now back at home, but when we spoke to her the other day she looked really worn and tired. While she was in hospital she had lots of tests and unfortunately the tests indicated that she has ovarian cancer. Because she's just been in hospital she can't have the operation to remove them at the moment, so she's starting a course of chemotherapy next week and will have the operation in 3 months time. It's all been very worrying - particuarly for my Dad. Hopefully the cancer has been detected early enough that she can make a complete recovery.