A series of unfortunate events. Cancelled trains, flat car batteries and Danbury Hill...

Let me say, first of all, that despite everything I am about to tell you we had a really good weekend, just a few hiccups along the way shall we say?

Bad thing number 1: On Friday afternoon I get a phone call from Katy My train has been cancelled...luckily this was followed by an explanation of her plans for alternative trains via here there and everywhere it seemed, but she arrived with us, all be it about an hour and a half later than she should've done.

Satuday afternoon after lunch we headed off to London, we went in the car so that we could leave any bags from our retail therapy at Westfield Stratford in the car whilst we were at the 02 Arena seeing Olly Murs.  Good idea you'd think?  I bet you think you know what is coming next don't you?  I bet it's not what you think, well...not immediately anyway!  We headed back to the car before the show to drop off the one bag we had managed to acquire (disappointing shopping trip!) and [Bad thing number 2 coming up...]the boot wouldn't open.  This wouldn't have been too much of a worry at that moment in time if we could've got into the rest of the car, but the remote was having no effect at all.  After my genius suggestion of trying to get into the car the old fashioned way and actually using the key we were in, but now came the task of working out what was going on, was it just the remote? One quick glance at the dash and it's flashing lights told us that wasn't the case, it looked like the alarm had been going off. I hopped out of the car to take a look to see if there was any damage to the car, but there was nothing.  Meanwhile Mum had attempted to start up the car and all that did set off the alarm again, and you could only stop it by keeping your foot on the brake...Brilliant!  Time to call the AA out now then?  Whilst Mum was on the phone to the AA the realisation hit her of what had happened, she'd left the headlights on for the last 3 hours and the battery had run flat...(On hearing this news my Dads first reaction was didn't you hear the beeping?...) We were very lucky though, after first being told that the AA were very busy in the area and it could take up to two hours the man arrived with us within 20 minutes, telling us that the roads were dead and there was nothing going on- interesting!  So after sitting in the car running it for a while we headed back into the 02.

We had a great time, Olly even came right out into the audience and walked right past the row in front of where we were sitting (I have a video but it's really not worth posting it!).  At about 10.30 we headed out of the arena into a good few inches of snow... fantastic. Bad thing number 3, not too helpful when you've come in the car I'm sure you'd agree.  Thankfully when we got back to the car it unlocked and started up fine so there was no issue there.  The thing is the M11, M25 and A12 didn't appear to have seen any grit, despite the overhead signs that were telling us other wise "Salt Spreading" they said, but bearing in mind the road was totally covered I really fail to see how we were meant to believe that one!  There were cars slipping and sliding everywhere, and as usual the idiots who over take you thinking they can do better and then are inevitably the ones that cause you problems up ahead.  The real issue comes when you want to get back to Maldon, given the choice between the back roads or going through Danbury you're not really left with a suitable option!  In hindsight we'd have gone for the back roads though I think!  After already having been stuck and pushed once near the start of the hill we had to slow down after the car in front got stuck, predictably leaving us stuck too.  We struggled for quite some time, but we eventually saved by a lovely couple that live in one of the houses on the hill.  They had been going out for the past 2 hours helping people and we were just one of the cars they'd helped on their way that night.  With 4 of us pushing the car we eventually made it to the top and were on the way home once more.  It wasn't until we were turning into our own road that we got stuck again, but we dug ourselves out with the shovel Dad had sent us off with earlier on and got Dad to come and give us a hand and we eventually made it home.  From all the news reports we were the lucky ones, there were people stuck on the M25 for 6 or 7 hours that night, and people stuck in the 02 overnight because the underground had ground to a halt.  The extra hats, gloves, scarves and socks I'd taken with us don't seem so silly now, we may have needed them!

On Sunday Katy headed to Witham with her brother, she was meant to be seeing all of her family, but the roads were just too bad for them to be able to head down from Norfolk.  Once she'd gone we had a lovely walk down to the Prom in the snow and I think now our series of unfortunate events is over.  They do say things come in threes don't they?

Scarily enough this time next week I'll be in Granada!  Mum is coming with me for the first few days whilst I get settled in, but by Thursday I'll be on my own again and truly starting the second half of my year abroad.  I'll be out there until the end of June, and unlike when I was in Brussels and could easily hop on the plane or the Eurostar I don't plan to come home, it would take too long for it to be worth it bearing in mind I'd have to leave on a Friday and be back for classes on Monday morning.  I've already got plenty of weekend plans though so the time should fly, I've hopefully got a friend coming out to visit in March, and then I'm planning on going to Gibraltar, after that I've got a holiday booked in Majorca with some of the girls from Uni, following that 2 trips to Cordoba and Seville before my parents and my Nana come out for the week that covers my Mums birthday and my 21st!  After that it's just something like 6 weeks to go and I know at least 1 or 2 more people that want to visit Granada as well as having exams to do.  I've not even gone anywhere yet and I have planned out most of my time right up until the end!

Sorry for the long post and that some of it may have bored you to death!  But to be honest...lets think about what sparked you to read this in the first place?  Is it your boundless interest for what I'm up to or just mindless procrastination any way?!

"Attention all passengers, there are meercats in this station"

This weekend, as many of you know, was my last weekend in Brussels before I go back to England for Christmas (2 more sleeps!).  I could've spent it making the last minute finishing touches to my coursework or doing some proper work on my essay for Lancaster but instead I got to be a tourist again for the weekend showing Henry everything that Brussels has to offer.  On Thursday I wasn't even sure he was going to make it with the snow in the UK and the meltdown it seemed to be causing at Manchester airport, as per usual!  Luckily, seeing as I had to make the epic journey out to Charleroi airport armed with magazine, kindle, tea and cereal bars- the flight only came in a little later than it was due to.

This weekend the snow arrived in Brussels too, it wasn't that impressive but I wanted to have proof of it.  Apologies for the awful photo but there is only so long you can keep the window open for- it was freezing!

On Saturday we went to the Atomium, tip: don't bother going to Mini Europe when you can just see the whole thing from the Atomium! 

I'm not sure if I wrote about the Atomium the last time I went so for those of you that don't know it was built in 1958 for the world Expo, so that basically makes it Belgiums answer to the Eiffel tower.

I don't know the area around there very well but we decided to have a wander, we were just looking for somewhere to stop for a coffee but actually what we found were the following:

 I don't even know what this is I'm afraid...

The Chinese pavillion, and opposite this.....

The Japanese tower.  Not the sort of thing you'd usually expect to stumble across in Belgium.

Saturday also brought with it a bit of a navigational fail.  We headed to Place Saint Catherine for the Christmas Market and were very disappointed when we got there and just found a few stalls, a creepy looking carousel and a little band playing.  We were sure we were in the right place though, after all there was a sign that said Place Saint Catherine...  Jenny then told us later that if we'd have just carried on walking we'd have made it to the real market which I must say was significantly more impressive than what we'd seen!

We were going have a look around but there was a service going on at the time, I can't believe I've not actually been in there yet!

Usually when you stumble across some road blocks and a significant police presence including helicopters, a water canon and riot shields your first reaction probably wouldn't be to investigate would it? Well we did, on the basis that curiosity only killed the cat so we should be pretty safe.(For any worried parents/family members reading this, don't worry!  We wouldn't have been stupid enough to get into the thick of it, we just wanted to know what was happening...)  From what we could tell there wasn't much going on, just a small group of protesters so the police reaction seemed to be a little OTT.  I asked a man if he knew what was going on, annoyingly he did tell me in English after having asked in French... but he told me something that roughly adds up to this.  Clearly there was a lot more going on than we had seen.  As I write this I have seen a lot more police around again today and more road blocks and things so it must still be going on.  On our wander we stopped for a chat with the king...

We went and watched the light show on the Grand Place, we were going to hang around and see a woman dressed as a butterfly do something but it was wet and cold, I'm not sure we missed out on much anyway.

On Sunday we went to the Christmas Market (the right one...) in the afternoon.  I totally forgot to take any photos, I think I was somewhat distracted by the huge hot dog I was eating.  We got to see some people showing off on the ice rink and look at all the stalls.  Before we headed there we went to a museum, I've already been but if we hadn't gone Luke probably wouldn't have spoken to Henry for about a week so we had to really.  I will happily admit that I didn't enjoy it when I went on my own, but I now realise that was just because I had no clue what I was looking it, when someone else is telling you what it is you're looking at it makes it a lot more interesting.  Can't promise I've retained much of it though, other than something about why the edge of some guys hat was folded up...

Yesterday we went to see the Palais de Justice, considerably more impressive than the equivalent in the UK.    

This photo was just taken outside, the inside is worth looking at too.  It's a shame that I'm not going to get to see it without scaffolding though. 

Seriously, how hard is it to find somewhere to eat in Brussels that isn't a tourist trap?  Very, I'm telling you.  Vietnamese food however = good (although I could've had the exact same thing in a Chinese...)

That basically brings us to the end of my last long weekend in Brussels for 2011.  It's been a bit of an epic blog today but I thought including the photos rather than just telling you to look on flickr was kind of me.  I really am on countdown now though, I have my suitcase here ready to pack, I've been cleaning the flat and doing the washing- I just want to go home!  Wish me luck I have a presentation tomorrow, or at least should do... fun times! 

[Oh yeah, and about the meercats (and lets face it the only reason a number of you are bothering to read this), it was just a simple case of misunderstanding on Henrys part when there was an announcement at Midi station warning about pickpockets.  Have to say the meercats would be a lot more fun though!]