July 17, 2003 : sickness in summer
After having a cold on the hottest day of the year thus far (yesterday) today I figured my cold would die down a bit. (forecast of rain/drizzle/cool temperatures) We got up early enough to drop by Marcs house to lend him a cd and ended up sitting around on his terrace drinking coffee and listening to Annie Lenox's Bare album.
This morning the cold seemed more like a lead helmet. I actually have felt pretty decent the whole time, it's just the nagging "I'm sick" feeling that I can't seem to shake. After the coffee, we were originally headed home, but as the day wasn't yet rainy, but simply overcast and cool, we decided we should make the most of it.
First we headed to Lidl (one step up from Aldi) and did some random cheap-eats shopping and then we headed home. Actually I had convinced both Eva and myself that perhaps one viandel would do me some good, so we stopped at a frituur I've been meaning to go to for about two months, and I had my pick-me-up treat. Needless to say it didn't pick-me-up very much at all, but enough to make me want to surprise Eva with a trip to Ikea. She had casually mentioned it earlier, but my wanting to go home left her thinking that we were going home.
After a wrong turn which put us on the road to Brussels (!) we exited, got our bearings, and finally were Ikea bound.
What a madhouse it was! You'd think that Ikea on a normal ol' Thursday wouldn't be heaving, but it appeared that half of Antwerp was there! Perhaps it had been so warm yesterday that some people hadn't dared made the trip so it doubled today's amount. We just came for their cafe and sales.
One thing I like about going to Ikea is that Eva and I are able to spend all of 7 Euro and come out of the store completely thrilled. (actually more Eva than I) This makes it cheaper than a movie and one actually gets "something" for your time. Of course there are instances where I have to coax Eva off some crazy idea about buying something we don't need (occasionally she has to do the same to me) but usually we are very content with our random sale items.
The Ikea cafe is also a treat. I had a children's Swedish meatball plate and Eva had a very undercooked steak. (blood, blood!) Mine was all of 2.50 and came complete with a free ice-cream for desert. (we consequently didn't eat the ice-cream, but have saved the voucher for a future trip) Of course another thing we like about the cafe is the free refills. Eva's original soda choice "Pepsi Max" was really flat and my choice (sparkling water) was really carbonated...perfect for burps later on and shocking swallows of half-air. (But then again, I'm really into sparkling water at the moment...)
By this point in the day I was getting a bit road-weary, and ready for a nap. I came home and went straight to bed, and accompanying me for part of my nap was Eva.
We have had so much fun over the past few days/weeks with her being in-between jobs. We'd been so stressed the past month or so, I don't know if we even really knew if we would like to spend so much time with each other! However, we really do like/love each other and have been spending hours upon hours in each other's company without tiring out or running out of things to say! (I think this means we're pretty good for each other!)
Later on in the afternoon I prepared myself for yet another phone-interview with a university back in the states. Since our apartment doesn't lend itself to much privacy, Eva, for a second day in a row headed to the abandoned apartment of her brothers' while I had my conversation. When it was through, I called her and told her to hurry home before the sky split over Isabelilei/Marialei, as she was umbrella-less.
She came home, we each fixed ourselves some sort of dinner (leftovers and the cheap-eats from Lidl) and settled in for the rest of our day/night. This was scheduled to be a very in-house productive day, but as we spent most of the day outdoors and napping, we were left with only a few hours to work. Mid-work I got extremely sick-feeling but it soon subsided with ample water and more work. I became so involved in my work that I didn't realize it was almost 3 in the morning. (Eva was quite aware of the time) Since we are planning on going to Luxembourg tomorrow to collect the things out of little Debbie's trunk, and perhaps go camping, we promptly went to bed, killed some very aggressive mosquitoes. (I consequently slept with earplugs as to not hear their bzzzzzzzzzzz in my ear.)
IN THE NEWS:
A former US marine who ran off with a 12-year-old British girl denied having had sex with her and said that he would not fight his extradition to Britain, a court official said. They discovered in a newspaper that police were searching for them, Studabaker said he then took Shevaun to Stuttgart, where she took a return flight back to Britain. He then called the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States for advice on what to do next.
