I guess I didn't hate January.

The never-ending saga of my moving house has finally come to an end. This also means I've achieved probably my only really serious New Year's resolution: to stop putting up with things that annoy me. Which unfortunately meant my landlady had to go. Or rather I had to go. Because she owns where I was.

I'm failing spectacularly with the other ones by the way, although I am now mentally berating myself for forgetting my glasses every time I leave the house, so that's something.

This victory didn't seem so sweet on Tuesday however; because cleaning nine flights of stairs rarely screams 'I've won!'. Being told to clean the last flight again even less so. And no, I'm not the sort of person who cleans stairs just because someone tells them to, but this woman has my money, and without a common fluent language between us, argument is just too tiring.

That doesn't mean I wasn't angry, and it certainly doesn't mean that I didn't vent to everyone I know. I mean the stairs, why do the stairs have to be so clean? Also why is it such a surprise that they don't look that great even after I've cleaned them? They're covered in years old linoleum and 5 people walk up and down them every day, how nice are they ever going to look. They're not even covered in the same linoleum all the way up. And the bottom flight are just badly painted. I'm not an interior decorator, and unless you're planning on using the stairs to eat from then I'm pretty sure they're fine.

But my new place is so nice I don't really care. It still doesn't have an oven though. Why do I never live anywhere with an oven? It's near an Aldi too, so maybe I'll be able to afford to eat all 5 food groups now.

Claire, I wouldn't eat meat from Aldi, you'll get ill.

Yeah well I've already had food poisoning since I've been here and I haven't cooked red meat in about 4 months. So quite frankly, Aldi can come at me.

I also have a double bed for the first time in my life, so I can now sleep alone in more space than someone of my size could ever need. Hurray.

This is all sounding a little bit too good isn't it? Probably a good time to mention that the walls have that 'distressed' look about them which makes it look ever so slightly like the house from The Blair Witch Project.

But I've got my own sink so, you know, whatever.

January didn't just mark the end of everyone listening to me complain about my landlady though, it involved planning things to look forward to, some really good films, some really great nights out, a lot of The Sopranos and it shouldn't be forgotten that I spent the first week of it at home with a lot of the people I love.

Oh and Justin Timberlake released a new single. So you know, it was a pretty good month actually.

Happy February everyone.

xx

There were going to be more photos but...

it rained. The it rained some more, and my measly completely-made-of-paper notebook took the brunt of the bad weather, so now it's just some paper stapled together rather than an actual book because the cover came off. Yes, this was made worse by the fact that I got lost, and yes, this is the same place I got lost finding last week, but finally I've realised where I've been going wrong, something I could have done much earlier by paying more attention when I walked home...

But it's good to know that the weather is just as bad at home at least, although I am still missing things from home:

• A hairdryer - So I don't get temporary pneumonia every time I wash my hair.


• An oven - Which I didn't realise we didn't have until I got here, and even though I barely cooked in the oven at uni due to its inability to cook anything evenly, I've just been continuously craving oven pizza for the past 3 weeks.


• My running shoes - So. Many. Carbs. Even with the lack of pizza I've been eating terribly and to be honest, I need to do some sort of exercise when the office is only 5 minutes away.


• Central heating - That's not a Belgian thing, we just can't turn the heating on until November in the house, which I assumed would be fine, until I had to start wearing more clothes in the house than outside of it.


• The time - Or rather not converting it for no reason in my head every time I look at a clock, even though it's just an hour I can't get out of the habit of knowing what time it would be if I was in Britain.


• Not living with my landlady - it's only for another couple of weeks now, and I'm not exactly untidy...but it's a bit like having your lecturer or boss follow you home to make sure you're doing enough work, it's just a bit weird. So I've taken to hiding things I haven't had time to wash up yet in my room, like being a student, but in secret.

Also a fun fact: If you get your bike stolen from the street in Brussels, you'll probably find it at the bike market at Gare du Midi on a Sunday, where about 90% of stolen bikes turn up.

Just one photo from something we visited at the weekend, it's Porte de Hal, a city gate from the second set of Brussels city walls.

À la prochaine :)

xx