Embracing my Scottish Roots *Attempts best Scottish Accent possible*

Hey... The eager readers amongst you (like my Mum and Dad) will have noticed that I'm a day or two late with this post. I apologise for being a bit out of time but it's through no fault of my own as blogger has either been down or barely working in these past days but now it's functioning once more as per. So, without further a do, let's get this post re-started.

It's actually quite fortunate that I'm writing this now. Had I wrote this post earlier in the week then it would of been very angsty and fed up and that's probably not the kind of thing you want to read when most news items are fairly miserable these days. In short, making progress with the kids in English is proving to be a bit slower than I originally expected which at times can be quite frustrating and demoralising. They've proved to be quite different kids to those in my Mallorcan family who I instantly hit it off with as soon as I arrived and it seems like it's taking longer to build a rapport between us, something that I consider quite important when someone's teaching you a language. However, little by little, things are improving hence why I'm now writing this post in a happier mood. Much of my time these days is centred around getting the most out of the 4/5 hours a day I spend with them yet I have found time for some amusement.

Last weekend (which feels like an absolute age ago), was a fairly active one. On Saturday afternoon I went on a bike ride with Marie-France and the kids to the nearby Bruxelles-Charleroi Canal taking in some of the 'nicer' parts of Brussels' outskirts including various bits of Industrial Estate, Ring road (which included cycling past a man dressed in a full Lion suit trying to tempt the various cars to his mattress shop) and  a stop at a Fish & Chips shop for lunch but when we did arrive at the canal it was indeed quite pleasant. That evening, I joined Marie-France and a group of French friends for a night walk. It seemed like quite a ridiculous idea when we were stumbling through muddy fields in the cold and pitch black darkness and it's not something I would really recommend but it was nice to see the moon isolated in the clear dark sky. The tea, biscuits and salted crickets after that weren't too bad either!

Belgian sausage for lunch

On the canal

Guy Garvey look-a-like taking his barge through a lock

The lion trying to sell mattresses at the ring road junction

Nutella Ice Cream post-cycle!

La Lune on the night walk

A house in the style of a castle

eating crickets, very crunchy

Sunday was mine and Renaud's second run with the Brussels Manneken Pis Hash (If that means nothing to you then I suggest you read the previous post) which took place in the Foret de Soignes, an endless wonderland of pine trees and hills that all look exactly the same, very confusing. Being the closest available sunday, this run was inspired by the impending Burns Day so there was a bit of a Scottish theme which involved various runners wearing kilts and other typically Scottish garbs. Two beer stops were had on trail (more like Irn Bru, Whisky and Ale stops) before the customary post-run circle then a traditional Scottish dinner in the evening of Haggis, Mash, Carrots, Scottish Cheese, Oatcakes and some carrot cake thing for dessert. It pains me to say this as someone born with a Scottish name but this was actually my first time eating Haggis and I must admit that when you first see it altogether it looks pretty horrific but in actual fact it tastes INCREDIBLE. Why have I avoided it for so long? So after what was a particularly dizzying run and an excellent Scottish feast, we left with full stomachs and tired limbs. I'm quite tempted to celebrate Burns Night every year, maybe buy a Fraser Tartan Kilt. Who needs the January Dryathlon anyway???

Burns Day Run-The Hares

Group Hash Photo

On trail in the Foret de Soignes

Irn Bru drinking at the Beer stop

Circle time

Drinking from an umbrella

A Scottish dinner

FOOD OF THE WEEK: Haggis. So so good

Scottish cheese and oatcakes

Not much happened of note during the week until my regular Thursday of sightseeing and I imagine this will be a regular pattern in most of my posts from Brussels. This week, I travelled into the city centre and spent a few hours wandering around, really putting the walking miles down. I meandered through the Marolles area in the south of the city passing a Flea Market on the way before climbing upto the Palais de la Justice (which is mahoosive by the way) for a panoramic view of the grey Brussels skyline. I then returned to the European quarter where I'd been the previous week so I could visit the Cinquantenaire, a huge monument built to celebrate 50 years of Belgian independence in the 19th Century,and the surrounding gardens. The Cinquantenaire houses the Royal Museum of the Army and Military History and considering it was free I spent a good 45 minutes or so nosying around. They're still refurbishing a lot of the exhibitions there but there is still plenty to see and it is quite interesting if you like Military/Political History with many full size Army vehicles including a British Spitfire that looms over the main exhibition hall. Afterwards, I then returned to the EU Parliament to look around the Parliamentarium, an interactive Museum all about the EU-it's free before you ask. The exhibition helps you understand all the things the EU does, how it works, why it was formed and how it has changed over time whilst showcasing some of the many things that Europe is recognised for. It's worth a look even if you don't like Politics just so you can find BNP leader Nick Griffin's face on the photo wall of MEPs and flick your middle finger at him... which I did, guilty.

Flee Market in Les Marolles

War Memorial

View over Brussels, pretty grim day

Le Palais de la Justice

The Cinquantenaire

War Museum

This selfie was harder to take than it looks

Stalin

In the Parliamentarium

All the MEPs

UKIP leader Nigel Farage

Interactive map of Europe

I left a message behind, feel free to quote me

I'm in the middle of what has already been quite a good weekend which I will tell you about probably mid-week time cos that is when our long weekend in Alsace begins. We will be in the North East of France from Wednesday till Sunday and I'm sure it should make for quite an exciting post.

For now,  à bientôt!

Take that Nick Griffin

#FraserOnTour

FP