As the title of this entry says, my dog died today. He was 12 years old (would have been 13 on 13th August) and looked young for his age. 

He was ill earlier this week, suddenly becoming slow and lethargic, not wanting to drink and staring at his food when it was put down for him.  But he seemd to recover.

This morning he went for his walk as normal and enjoyed his dinner.  But just after 11am he had a severe fit.  He didn't move for 45 minutes, and then he came into the lounge, collapsed and had another fit.  He never got up again.  His reflexes had gone and we called the vet.  She said it was probably a brain tumour, as he was an old dog to suddenly develop epilepsy.  Although she could have given him a steroid injection it would only have helped him for a few weeks at most.  The kindest thing was to have him put to sleep there and then.

I didn't want to stay and see him die, so I removed his things and waited until I saw the vet and the nurse leaving the building carrying a checked blanket. 

The place seems weird without him pestering the cat, or bouncing around waiting for his supper to be put down, or waiting to go for his walk, without him just being here.

Our sole consolation is that he did not suffer at all, it was all very quick and painless.

The last photo ever taken of Dexter.

Over the next few days I shall be updating my website, basically improving the photos.  The reason for this is that digital photos do not reduce as well as the scanned ones have done and so will need editing and replacing until they can look good instead of fuzzy at the edges.  Please be patient because the website will look better when the work is completed.

Here in the block where I live, we have a neighbour who could put the Serengeti animal stampede to shame!  As I write this, she is stampeding round in the flat above mine, her footfalls are so heavy that our walls, ceiling and floor vibrate under the stress!  Her favourite trick is to go out until late on a weekend, then come back in at turned 11pm, stampede round her flat and wake everyone up, and then put on her video until 12:30am!

Now we have started giving her a wake up call every Saturday and Sunday morning - so each time we are subjected to her stampeding and late night/early morning TV, she gets loud pop music played directly under her bedroom  And she does not like that!!! As soon as the music goes on, she turns to her number one talent of atempting to bring down our ceiling with her feet, but to no avail because we turn the music up and she has to grin and bear it!!!

We've endured her selfish racket and habits for more than two years, now we get our revenge.  A few months ago she went on holiday and had her TV on at just after 3am so early morning noise did not bother her that day!

Seeing as she will be going out tonight, and no doubt stampeding when she returns home, we look forward to wakening her up with our music tomorrow!

This is the report of the first of the holiday flights. Although we were flying on 5th September, we headed down from Scarborough to Birmingham on Sunday morning, leaving on the 09:23 train from Scarborough.

The Class 158 in Scarborough before we boarded it.

The train from York to Birmingham was operated by Virgin Trains, having the service number VT3551. Normally we would get tickets to Birmingham International and have the train straight through from York to International, but this time we had to change to a bus in Birmingham New Street. We had reserved seats in the Quiet Zone of the Virgin Voyager to avoid the hassle of constantly hearing mobile phones and their silly irritating ringtones and their equally silly owners yelling into them.

Our Virgin Voyager waits for us in York.

The ride down was OK until the air conditioning on coach B broke down and all the passenegrs piled into the quiet coach We were glad to leave the train and then we had the hassle of catching the bus to the airport. Once at the airport we checked into the on-site Novotel.
We had a room on the top floor, which gave us a limited view of part of the parking area.

The view from our Novotel room shows a Flybe BAe 146.

BHX is a superb airport, and we spent several hours spotting.

BHX.

On the morning of 5th September, it was foggy (as it usually is when we fly from BHX!) We made our way across to the airport to check in for around 8am. We had to queue in the BA check in area of Eurohub, but we were lucky enough to get good seats - 8A and 8C. It was great to see the BRU label going on those cases again!!

After check in we went into the departure lounge to see what we could through the fog. Another SNBA aircraft was parked at the gate, this was operating flight SN2038, due to depart at 08:50. This was the first time I've been in a British airport, seen an SNBA aircraft at the gate, heard the boarding call, and not been on the flight!!

BHX departure lounge is a nightmare for viewing, there is one area which is OK, but that is all.

Eastern waits at the gate.

Continental 757 heads for Newark. That is one airline you are almost guaranteed to see at BHX.

A distant view of another old favourite - the Balkan Holidays Tu154.

Soon we saw our aircraft arrive. Today, flight SN2040, departure time 10:20, was to be operated by ARJ85 OO-DJO.

We waited impatiently for the call to board. At 10:05 our wait was rewarded and we were called to board through door J, gate 2. On boarding we were greeted by the female purser and another stewardess stood at the back. We had a seat with a back engine view. Next to our aircraft, we saw little Tartan Tail being prepared for a flight somewhere. This aircraft really is small compared to the ARJ and 737 as far as height goes, the top of its tail is barely visible when you see it pass a 737 fuselage.

Little Tartan Tail as we saw it from OO-DJO.

The Connect magazine was handed out in good time.

The magazine.

Our back engine view.

At 10:19 we were pushed back. We were told the flight would last one hour, and there would be some light turbulence on the way. We taxied to the right hand runway and took off at 10:32, behind an ARJ of British Airways. The flight was code shared with British Airways, Finnair and SWISS ( )

Just after take off from BHX.

We climbed through the cloud, the initial climb was smooth, but as we climbed higher we began to hit turbulence, and there was even more turbulence at altitude. The seat belt signs lit up again.

Inside flight SN2040, the woman is the purser. I didn't get the crew's names, but they were a good crew.

Eventually we came to blue sky and scattered cloud. Then the snacks were handed out. It was a fruit crumble with a carton of water, and I had orange juice to drink.

The snack.

When the chocolate was handed round, I took a yellow label one.

The Belgian coast.

Some views of Belgium taken as we descended to Brussels.

Not too far from landing here.

We approached past the familiar water tower, and saw the spotters standing near the end of 25L. At 12:26, the gear was lowered, and at 12:29, we touched down in Beautiful Brussels!!

Touchdown!

We had a smooth landing, and taxied to the terminal. I just love to hear the crew say "Welcome to Brussels", and we had had a brilliant flight with a very efficient and professional crew, much better than the pathetic shower we had to put up with on our flights in March.

We left via the airbridge and went to collect our luggage. We had only to wait a very short time before our two cases and one flight bag appeared on the carousel. And when we got the cases back we noticed that the padlocks had been removed from BOTH of them, presumably in Birmingham as there had been no time for anyone at the Belgian end to tamper with them. We were not happy about this, as it means that someone could slip something into your luggage without your knowledge when you have checked in, or steal something from your case. We had to buy replacement padlocks, and so we sent the bill for the new padlocks to the Managing Director of Birmingham International Airport.

While I was in college today, I finally got my site updated!  Taking advantage of the college's broadband internet, I got four pages completed - Dinant, Tournai, Kortrijk and Hasselt.  Visit the website http://belgiumphotos.tripod.com to see them!  I am hoping to get more work done on my website as I sit here bored out of my mind with no coursework to do, I hope to get Ieper online in the near future and hope to add some more photos to the Gent selection, as we visited the place again a few weeks ago, enjoyed better weather and so saw more of it and also had a ride along the canal!  Ieper reminded us very much of Tournai, and you will see from the photos that there are similarities.

This is De Zandloper in Brugge, an absolute insult to the term "bar" or "pub".  This was a regular drinking place of ours, without incident, until 15th September 2004.  On this occasion we went into this "bar" and ordered a Kwak and a Malheur.  The dozy excuse for a barmaid, who was ignorant and ill-mannered, served the beers in the wrong glasses - the Kwak was in the Malheur glass and the Malheur in the Kwak glass.  We know our beers and that they were trying it on, so their little cheating con trick did not work on us!!  They had to provide, at no extra cost to ourselves, the beers in the correct glasses.  Thankfully we are people who know Belgian beers, but the unwary tourist beware of the cheats and con tricks carried out in De Zandloper, and take your money and custom elsewhere.

This tale is true.  It concerns events which took place on 12th September 2004 and which we learned more about in September 2005.

We were most of the way through our annual holiday in Belgium, this time staying in Brugge.  On the morning of Sunday 12th September 2004, we were getting up early to go and meet some fellow aviation enthusiasts for a day of watching the aircraft at Brussels.  We had an early start, and in the bathroom I noticed a tabby cat staring through the window.  We knew the hotel had a cat, and, as we had not yet seen the cat, we assumed it must be the tabby.

We opened the window, which led onto a flat roof, and the cat jumped into the room.  It was a friendly cat, and rubbed round our legs and tried to sit on our knees.  But we had to get ready for our trip, and so we caught the cat and put it back through the window onto the flat roof.

Very shortly after, I heard the cat scratching the bedroom door to be let back in!  This was weird, as the cat would have to climb down from the roof, get into the hotel, up the stairs and to the right door to the room it had just been in.  There was not enough time passed for the cat to make its way down in this way.

We had an early breakfast, and the cat followed us to the breakfast room.  No one else was around. The cat walked along the tables and the mantelpiece, and licked out the empty butter cartons.  When we left to go for our trip, the cat was standing up at the glass door watching us go.  That was the last we saw of the cat on that holiday.

In September 2005, we returned to the same hotel.  On one evening, we saw a black and white cat, and asked the hotel owner if they had a new cat as well as the tabby.  He then told us there was no tabby, there never had been a tabby in the hotel and the only tabby he knew of was the existing cat's brother, which was dead!  It was weird that a cat which had did not live in the hotel, had never been seen at the hotel before or since, knew its way round the place so precisely.

As an afterthought, we acquired our own cat in December 2004.  One of the first things I thought about this cat was how it reminded me of the one we saw that murky morning at the hotel and when we went back to the hotel I would take a photo of the tabby to compare them  both.  Now I know why I couldn't!

 

 

 

 

Maybe we won't get to wonderful Brugge next year!  Worst news I've had in years

Here is more about me:

Current occupation - IT student who has taken only two weeks to work through a three month course and is currently bored out of her mind at college

Pets - Labrador X Curly Coat Retreiver called Dexter, moggy cat called Brussels, white male zebra finch, yellow Gloster canary, red headed Gouldian finch.

Interests - computers, aviation, photography, making videos, animals, eating out, travel, beer (especially Belgian!), listening to music, helping in a museum in summer.

Favourite music - pop music (not Coldplay or anyone called Bedingfield!)

Favourite song - The Boxer

Favourite beers - Sloeber, Rochefort 10, Ename, Rochefort 8 and too many others to mention!

Favourite food - chicken, fish, sausages anything which does not contain beans and lentils!

And that is all I can think of for the moment

Three visits to Belgium for me in 2005  I have already had two - one on the 8th-10th March which was our shop for summer beers and our main holiday of the year between 5th-15th September.  The next one is 15th-17th November and is, you've guessed it - a beer shopping trip!

The first visit of the year included flights from Manchester (flight SN2178 out and SN2177 back) and a night in the Manchester airport hotel, perfect for an aviation nut like me!  I managed to get some decent photos of planes I had not seen before and some good after take off shots for the first time.  The flight out was late afternoon, so it was getting dark when we reached Brussels, which was a pity.  There had been loads of snow before and the Pennine hills near the airport at Manchester were still covered with it.  The weather in Brussels on that occasion was cold and dull at times, but it's nice to visit the old place.  The planes we went on were OO-DJK (SN217 ARJ85 and OO-DJG (SN2177) BAe 146.

The recent holiday was from Birmingham, with a night in the airport hotel and some chance for photgraphy and video making, though not as much as I'd hoped for because the trains to the airport were replaced by a bus.  As usual when we fly to or from Birmingham (BHX) the weather was foggy out and rainy and turbulent on the return.  Outward flight was SN2040 operated by OO-DJO ARJ85, and return flight was SN2043 operated by A319 OO-SSK, our old friend from two flights last year.

The weather in Belgium was, most of the time, hot and sunny, with fog and cloud on three of the days.  We had to take loads of bottled water when we went out, more like the Med than the North Sea  Of course, I tried some of my beloved Belgian beers, some new ones being Romy Pils and Black Hole, from my beloved Roman brewery.  Sloeber of course figured in the drinking and we had a trip to Oudenaarde for the Romy, Sloeber and also to buy the Black Hole.

I have many more photos of Belgium and I will try and get this site updated, but at the moment I am in college five days a week and a little short of time...