Light

Just over a week ago, early on Friday morning Mr C learned that one of his closest friends had passed away suddenly the previous evening. It was difficult to take in the reality as the friend was only 51 and always so full of life. This left us both a little sombre over the weekend.

Lord Leycester Hospital

On Saturday we ordered curtain material to replace the living room curtains to co-inside with the fitting of a new curtain track. On Sunday Mr C was celebrating his birthday so we went out Warwick where we visited the Lord Leycester Hospital which houses The Queen’s Royal Hussars museum and the Warwickshire Yeomanry museum. Mr C had planned on visiting Warwick Castle but I was not so keen on the idea. Whilst it is still a castle it has been turned into a theme park.  Theme parks are not at all my thing! We did make our way to the castle shop to see if it had a good book selection related to the historical period of the castle. It did not, so I waited outside in the courtyard watching some of Britain’s finest wandering around.

Kitchen

I had to go back to work on Monday but Mr C had the day off and had volunteered to cook a roast lamb dinner. I was relaxing in the living room whilst Mr C was popping backward and forward to the kitchen attending to the meal. Mr C poured two glasses of sherry and brought me one and returned to the kitchen. As he did so there was a loud bang, a small exclamation followed by silence…

The cooker had shot out a large blue flame and had unsurprisingly stopped working taking out the cooker circuit with it. Luckily the rest of the house electrics were working fine. But what were we to do with a half cooked dinner? The gas part of the appliance was still working although obviously we had to resort to matches to light the rings so the veg were cooked on the stove top and the roast lamb and potatoes were taken around the corner to a family member for them to complete that part of the meal in their oven. The neighbours must have wondered what Mr C was up to ferrying a roasting tin to and fro in his car!

After a previous accident when the grill in the top oven was left on with the glass door shut we decided it would be more sensible to have a new one rather than repair the old one. Whilst all this was going on a replacement cooker was ordered for delivery on Friday.

The cooker arrived yesterday but unfortunately it couldn’t be fitted by the company who delivered it because the electrician had not yet been to check out the electric circuit. The reason for this was the cooker was unexpectedly delivered at 7.30 in the morning!! The electrician turned up, checked the circuit and everything was fine. A gas fitter was booked for 9.30 this morning. He arrived on time and connected the gas supply to the cooker and started to test it out. When it came to turning on the main oven it made a horrendous racket. There is something wrong with the fan. After several phone calls between the supplier and manufacture the best arrangement they could come to was that a repair agent would come out next Friday to see if it could be repaired or if it needed replacing. Another seven days without a cooker!!

Whilst all this was going the curtain fitter turned up early to fit the curtain track. The fitting mostly ran smoothly although he had forgotten that the track was being attached directly to the ceiling and not to wooden batons, which were to be removed. That was soon sorted out and it looks very nice. Now we just have to wait for the curtain material which was supposed have arrived this week but is nowhere to be seen…

12 Comments CherryPie on Aug 22nd 2015

Flotsam and Jetsam

8 Comments CherryPie on Aug 21st 2015

Bicycles Galore

21 Comments CherryPie on Aug 20th 2015

Martyr's Square

Situated in Martyr’s Square next to Levuen railway station is the Peace Monument which was  constructed in 1925 in remembrance of the victims of WWI.

Peace Monument

In Remembrance

In August 1914 the German troops burned down a large part of the old city centre, including the university library and the roof of the Saint Peter’s Church. Besides that, the Germans also executed a lot of civilians. This massacre was world news.

To remember this and all the people that died during the war this Peace Monument (Vredesmonument) was constructed in 1925 and renovated in 2004 after the renovation of the entire square. In the top of the pillar there are red little windows that are lit at night, as a link to the fire that devastated the centre.

Leuven Station

Leuven also suffered greatly during WWII.  Levuen station was bombed heavily during the period of the war. The effects of this can still be seen today, earlier this year the station and the surrounding area were evacuated when an unexploded  WWII bomb was exposed during excavation works.

After the discovery of an unexploded Second World War bomb yesterday during excavation works  along the Eenmeilaan in Kessel-Lo, Leuven’s train station and station square were evacuated, report Belgian rail infrastructure manager Infrabel, the Leuven police and Belgian rail company SNCB.

From 14:30, the Leuven station and Martelarenplein in front of it were fully evacuated and all train traffic was brought to a halt in order to allow for the Demining Service of the Belgian Defence (Dovo) to dismantle the bomb.

Leuven police also carried out the evacuation of homes within an 800-metre radius around the site of the find. The dismantling of the bomb – a British thousand-pounder (453.6kg) – started yesterday at 15.00.

8 Comments CherryPie on Aug 19th 2015

St-Pieterskerk

The building of St-Pieterskerk (St Peter’s Church) commenced in the 1420s and continued for 200 years.

The nave and aisles were completed first, but when the twin towers of the western facade were finally added in 1507, the foundations proved inadequate and it soon began to sink. With money in short supply, it was decided to remove the top sections of the towers – hence the truncated versions of today.

Inside the church, the sweeping lines of the nave are intercepted by an impressive 1499 rood screen and Baroque wooden pulpit depicting the conversion of St Norbert. Norbert was a wealthy but irreligious German noble, who was hit by lightening while riding. His horse died, but he was unhurt and this led him to devote himself to the church.*

St-Pieterskerk

The church was severely damaged in both world wars. In 1914 the roof was burned off and in 1944 the north transept was bombed.  The church is currently undergoing repair work and part of it shrouded in scaffolding and inaccessible.

St-Pieterskerk

St-Pieterskerk

St-Pieterskerk

St-Pieterskerk

*From the Eyewitness Travel Guide to Belgium and Luxembourg

6 Comments CherryPie on Aug 18th 2015

These  statues were placed around the water garden in Leuven Botanical Gardens.

Contemplation

Peace and Quiet

A Boy and His Bear

6 Comments CherryPie on Aug 17th 2015

Do not let your peace depend on the hearts of others; whatever they say about you, good or bad, you are not because of it another, for as you are, you are.

Thomas A Kempis

The Boathouse Dudmaston

10 Comments CherryPie on Aug 16th 2015

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