19 November 2007
Quote:
"Every
slot was full, Jesus was busy. So I went over to Virgin Mary and she had some
space."
Kenneth
On Saturday I had the pleasure to use the brand new St Pancras International train terminal in its very first week of existence. Not all is "revealed" yet, and the inauguration party was still ongoing. They had brass bands positioned at every corner, which was quite surreal. The train ride was uneventful, and I honestly did not notice the tunnel. I kept looking out for it, but I just couldn't see it. Of course it was dark outside, but there were always lights visible far in the distance, so unless it's a very wide tunnel with street lights at the edges I am now slightly suspicious it even exists! Otherwise the notion of going under the sea and arriving in Europe so fast is exciting! It's like Star Trek, like a wormhole!
It was amazingly cold in Brussels. It felt at least 10 degrees colder than in London where it was raining. I was shocked - I had forgotten what cold actually felt like, and what one is to do with it. I could freeze to death! On my way to the hotel I already spotted walls full of posters announcing Sunday's event. Another surprise!
A strange ailment has befallen me. My left upper thigh hurts when I walk, especially when I go up stairs. It started Friday just out of the blue. Actually it started just after I nipped out to buy the Daily Mail with the new concert dates. Instant karma - Haha! I looked it up on the internet and have come to the conclusion that it's Trochanteric Bursitis, and inflammation of some thing in the hip joint. As all I can remember doing is Yoga, I guess it should go away soon, but it is kind of dishabilitating. I am taking Ibuprofen because anti-inflammatory medication is supposed to help, and I am trying to avoid stairs, but that's all I can do, really. I can't not walk around.
On Sunday I slept reasonably long, had breakfast in the hotel and went to the museum. It was a beautiful bright day - cold, but very sunny. It was surprisingly quiet for a big city like Brussels, and most shops were closed. It was very peaceful. I skipped the Rubens exhibition and just went to the collections which were entertaining, especially the Bosch and Brueghel. I wasn't in a rush as I had the whole day to kill and because I couldn't really walk that fast. There were loads of stairs in the museum as well which I had to drag myself up with my bad hip. However it felt slightly better than the day before however.
I nipped by the club, which I found after looking for quite a while. It was inside a shopping mall, and they had no posters up yet. I walked back and went into a internet cafe near my hotel. It was actually the first one I had seen all day. I didn't want to use the outrageously-priced wireless in the hotel and I believed nothing exciting could have happened in the past 10 hours anyway. However, Kenneth who had re-scheduled his flight to arrive in the morning instead late at night had decided to meet me in my hotel at 12:00, and it was almost 3 by the time I read his e-mail! So I raced back to find him nodding off in the hotel lounge, the poor thing! He hadn't slept much the night before because he had had to leave Milan at 3 AM that morning.
We went to my room and heckled through everybody we knew and updated each others on the latest he-said-she-saids. Around 6 we went to a restaurant for dinner and stole 3 large posters from a nearby wall on our way back. We got ready and walked to the club where we had planned to arrive at 10:30 when it opened. We were too early and there was no queue. Actually, the glass doors to the shopping centre weren't even open, but we slipped in anyway when somebody walked out and let us in. We waited around and opened the door two more times for club staff coming for work and eventually for Sven and his friends. Kenneth and I were joking that we were hiding in the mall because we were not supposed to be there, and we were getting worried at the same time because nobody turned up and the glass doors were still closed.
More club staff arrived, and with them two policemen. Kenneth decided they were security guys, but I said that they were actually the real police and that I did not like the sight of them. We calmed ourselves down with the conclusion that it was probably Belgian law to have the club "signed off" by the police before opening.
Finally we approached the entrance and were all let in without problems and friendly smiles. There were at least 30 staff in the club, a handful of locals, and we. Not many more people were coming in, and I was joking that they had probably forgotten to open those glass doors and all punters were waiting outside in vain.
George arrive at around 2 AM. When he saw us he started saying something, but then he saw Sven, hugged him and looked really happy to see him, as we had expected. He went straight to work, and started playing a very danceable set. The few people in the club were dancing, and so were we. We went straight into the middle of the dancefloor and climbed up on the steps that were intended for gogo dancers or whatever, because it just felt like we should create some action to make the place look less empty. We danced for 2 hours or so, and George seemed happy, laughing with people and chucking back lots of glasses of champagne. It turned out that my hip problem did only slightly impact on my dancing, so I just went on with it.
After the gig, George lingered at bit, took photos with people, and briefly talked to us. Kenneth reminded him of the Hong Kong gig next Saturday and it looks like he and Craig are going on Friday morning. Kenneth and I walked out with them to the car and waved George off. Then we jumped straight into a taxi to take us back to the hotel because it had started to rain. We only realised inside the taxi that we had neglected to say goodbye to Sven and his mates! We are some nasty bitches! Sorry!! (The trick is to never check your coat to be able to just storm off after the gig ends.)
It turned out that the club was never officially open that night and that the glass doors had indeed been kept closed to prevent people from getting in because the police had tried to shut the night down. We had no idea why the club had let us in without any fuss or explanation though, and Kenneth and I realised that we would probably have been thrown out had they seen us "hide" inside the mall earlier on. And Sven, his mates and a couple of other people were only able to get in because Kenneth and I had opened the doors for them from the inside! The reason for the police order never became quite clear. Apparently the club had been raided for drugs and closed a couple of weeks before, and they had they great "clean" opening night that day. But the police presumably expected George to cause "trouble". It was all very bizarre. When George arrived, the club gave him the choice to not do the gig because there were only about 100 people in the club. He decided to just have a drink and piss off again. He must have changed his mind when he saw as, bless him.
Back at the hotel, I removed my face, packed, and then we went straight to the station where Kenneth took his shuttle bus to the airport and I boarded my train back to London. By the way: it's not possible for midgets like me to sleep on the Eurostar train because the headrests are far too high. London was bloody freezing and raining. With the temperature so low it should have been snowing. Or maybe I was just tired. I still had a 2 hour wait until my train to Sheffield left, but sleeping at the station is sadly not a possibility. I was back in the office at 1PM, worked for four hours and will now soon go to bed... after Star Trek.
We are on our way of turning into a bunch of religious freaks. We have found that everybody - independently from each other - has started to light candles on a regular basis. And they work! Kenneth went to the Duomo in Milan the other day, I just light them in whatever church I pass, Kav of course is sending prayers to Lourdes, I know of a couple others who light them, and even Sven admitted that they have a special lamp in their house for times of worry. I asked him if he keeps it constantly lit nowadays. Kenneth suggested he'll light the whole bloody church the next time because surely that would be even more effective.
