Help me sort out St Peter's!: DMZ.

Thursday 13 August 2015

DMZ.

I've been getting depressed recently - I used to relish a good battle and as each one came along I just used to say "Bring it on!".

I'm getting less able to deal with stuff.

Last week I discovered that you can get free tickets to go to the top of the 'Walky Talky', it's an absurd skyscraper in The City of London. It was built with a requirement that there was some public space preserved - so they built a viewing platform.

I sorted out dates, went through the lengthy procedure only to find at the end that you have to show photo ID - and the Home Office has seized Robyn's passport while we appeal for a visa extension.

Obviously, we'd like a holiday abroad - I'd liked to have done something while I still can - no passport.

This week I tried to book a day trip to Guernsey - it's an island off the coast of France but it's a UK dependency....so no passport needed?

Err no, actually. They need photo ID so that didn't happen either.

Then last night was the peak of the Perseid Meteor shower. I've watched it every year and last year me and Robyn took chairs out and sat with bottles of lager watching the amazing shower of shooting stars.

It was very special.

This year there was no moon (last year was a big full moon) so it would have been ideal.

Of course it was cloudy.

So I've been pretty down in the dumps.

Nowadays when you hit me I don't get up so quickly.

So, to cheer myself up, I burnt my boots;

Actually, I burnt some old stuff which felt good, and these aren't actually boots, they are shoes.

Here they go;

I didn't feel I could just put them in the bin.

Back in 2005 everything went wrong - I'd hoped to have 'the holiday of a lifetime' and that all fell through as usual and I ended up going to Amsterdam at the last minute, which I hadn't really wanted to do.

It was nice but not really what I'd hoped for. Anyway, when I got off the plane they'd lost my luggage.

They didn't lose anyone else's - how did you manage that BMA?

So I wandered around the city, travelling light as they say.

I'd planned to go shopping but ended up at Waterlooplein - the flea market. I bought a tee shirt and a pair of pretty much new Doc Marten's shoes for 10 Euro's (that was £6). I went to a chemists and bought a new toothbrush.

And then I decided that the rest was going to have to wait till morning and I ended up at The Café Belgique sampling their extensive variety of Belgian beers.

I can strongly recommend 'Kwak' and some years later I found a 'Kwak' glass in a charity shop for a pound (they are really expensive to buy). Here it is;

The glass was designed for coachmen to hang on a fixing on their carriage as they didn't have anywhere to put a glass down.

Now all I need is some 'Kwak'!

Nearly gone now;