Well, that's unexpected

Since January I have been enjoying the throbbing sound of my very own heart in my right ear and not just occasionally but 24/7. I’ve been to the doctor several times and I’ve taken antibiotics, ear drops, diuretics, you name it, nothing helped so over to plan B which was seeing a specialist.

After waiting six weeks for my appointment, I started off the day with several auditory tests that measured the pressure in my ears and the classic “put on some headphones and raise your hand if you hear a squeak” one. So far so good and it turns out I have perfect hearing although many people and the pumpkin in particular, would dispute that.

I then had to wait another 75 minutes before the doctor could see me. Luckily I had Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand with me by Helen Simonson and I have to say, I’m really enjoying this book. It’s a good old fashioned love story starring two widowers in a quaint English village. I can just picture the BBC adaptation in my head already while I read.

Anyway, once I finally got to the doctor, the diagnosis was unexpected to say the least. My ears are perfectly fine and the problem seems to be from a cardio-vascular nature. “Don’t be alarmed, he said, but I suspect it’s a calcification of the artery in your neck.” All of a sudden I felt a bit faint. I’m only 29! Don’t these things normally happen to old people? Needless to say I'm a little scared now.

To assess the damage to my arteries I now have to endure a series of tests on Friday: ultrasound of my neck, scan of my head and lots of blood work. Best case scenario, I have to take meds for the rest of my life, worst case scenario I drop dead from an aneurysm before my check up. Quite unexpected indeed. Then again I shouldn’t be surprised seeing as I wasn’t exactly bred by quality live stock. Cancer, depression, cardio-vascular disease, gastro-intestinal issues, osteoporosis, bad lungs (that’s just me), you name, we’ve got!

Tomorrow's another day

The last few days I finally got to do some things I've been dying to do for weeks now: catch up with some friends, do lots of cooking, watch TV all day and not feel guilty, read and make a Penguin Classics collage for the study.

I've been trying out several recipes from Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights which a friend lend me as well as the BBC adaptation of Dickens' Bleak House which kept me company on a dreary Friday. Both the book and the series are excellent. Thank you Liesje!

I also finished The Echo Maker which was off to a promising start but then went on and on and left me feeling frustrated and unfulfilled after 600 pages of endless psychobabble. If Powers only had cut out 200 pages it would have been an interesting and moderately engaging novel but now, this story about a man who no longer recognizes his sister after being in a car crash just got on my nerves. If books that babble like brooks and ultimately end up nowhere are your thing, by all means delve in. Luckily, I wasn't the only one in today's book club who felt like this.

Now, I'd like to end my week of domestic bliss with some light and preferably short reading, any suggestions?

Thursday's trailer

Due to a lack of decent indie trailers, I've decided to start including the booming genre of the book trailer in the Thursday's Trailer segment. I particularly love this one almost as much as the book itself. It's a Book by Lane Smith ingeniously transforms our contemporary technologically advanced literary reality into a cute story that tells youngsters why books are so great and that will transform an instant smile on the face of every book lover. It still gets me every time.

Endings and Beginnings

Last night after four years of arduous duty, Pink Pod aka my IPod died on me. She was a pretty and feisty little thing who gave me hours of auditory delights, may she rest in peace. What troubles me the most however, isn’t the loss of my loyal little friend but the loss of many songs that I obtained over the years from several computers that are sadly also no longer with us and neither are the original audio files making the extinction of my precious even greater.

I am now contemplating getting a new one, temporarily using the Pumpkin’s old one or using my multi-functional phone like the Pumpkin suggests. I’ve had my Nokia E71 for over a year now and 80% of its functions are still a mystery to me. Ok, I call, text, take pictures and go online occasionally but that’s about it. The organizer, GPS, MP3 player, QuickOffice, eReader, dictionary, MP4 maker and dictaphone remain virginal or mostly celibate. For some reason the thought of using one device for all these things makes me very nervous because when one breaks down, you lose them all, temporarily at least. Plus I also love cute gadgets and the fact that they’d all be replaced by one tiny screen makes me quiver and not in a good way. I don’t know really, maybe I should take the Pumpkin’s advice and just play with it, my phone that is. It’s a shame that she might never live up to her true potential really.

On I more environmental friendly note, I finally started cultivating my (herb) garden. The kitchen is now filled with several buckets of dirt that will hopefully sprout mint, basil, parsley, chili peppers, tomatoes and strawberries. Seeing as our apartment is basically one giant greenhouse, the tomatoes and peppers usually grow like weeds and basil and parsley were a huge success several years ago. Mint however, is this year’s newcomer and the strawberries are an annual experiment that traditionally fails but as long as there’s dirt, there’s hope I say.

Working up an appetite

Day two of my “time off to get some more work done” was more of the same really, luckily all trains were on time or just about so I had no stress whatsoever on my long and sunny voyage to Flanders Today HQ in Groot-Bijgaarden. It takes me a little over two hours to get there so I’m really grateful I don’t have to do that on a daily basis but it did give me the opportunity to get a lot of reading done. I finally started our next book club book (cutting it short as usual) and I already got through the first 200 pages of The Echo Maker. Richard Powers’ novel is off to a promising start so I should be able to finish the following 400 pages in the next 4 days.

Another vacation resolution was to spend some more time in my kitchen, my favorite room of the house which has been severely neglected the past few weeks. I can honestly say that I haven’t done a lot of cooking lately and even less baking but this week I have already made a zesty lemon cake, a loaf of whole wheat bread, very tasty (if I do say so myself) vegetarian meatballs in a creamy tomato and basil sauce with celery and fluffy mashed potatoes, a gorgeous meat free lasagna with a fennel-saffron sauce and my rum raisin cupcakes are begging to be eaten as we speak. Maybe there’s still hope after all?

Brussels and Beyond

Today was the first day of my vacation and I had to get up at 6am, what’s wrong with this picture? That’s nearly a whopping two hours earlier then when I have to go to work!

I went to Brussels this morning to interview VRT anchorwoman Annelies Beck about her debut novel Over het Kanaal. I only ended up being a little late seeing as Belgian trains never tend to be on time when you have an appointment. When you go to Brussels to do some shopping, there’s an abundance but when you really need to get there on time, you have about a snowball’s chance in hell.

Anyway, we had a cozy little chat about journalism, literature and the novel of course which was just about the time my tape recorder broke down and I cursed for the 18th time that morning.

Over het Kanaal was based on her great grandfather’s voyage to Glasgow before the First World War started. It’s based on actual events and features a wide array of characters that were also based on real people he came into contact with at the time. The main character however, is a girl called Marie and not Beck’s elusive great grandfather. It’s basically a coming of age story set in troubled times and featuring an eclectic mix of characters. Although not my regular fodder, it wasn’t that bad and a remarkable first attempt at fiction. And more importantly, the second Dutch book I’ve read this year! Progress if I do say so myself.

After Beck, I had spot of lunch with Helen Grant, YA author and friend, who I’m trying to get to the store to educate us Belgians on the blossoming genre that is YA. Followed by the necessary stops at Sterling Books and Waterstones without which no trip to Brussels is complete.

Tomorrow I’ll be heading back to Brussels to spend some time at the mother ship, Ackroyd Publications. And if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to squeeze in some reading and relaxing on the train thus accomplishing my initial holiday goals.

Taking a breather

In the midst of all chaos, I'm going to try and blog a little. This weekend I'll be spending most of my time at Mind The Book, an "intellectual meeting of minds" full of lectures, debates, book fairs and lots of authors at the Singel in Antwerp. Yesterday we built a cushy 100m² booth and piled on the books, it was a backbreaking ordeal to say the least. Now, besides MTB I've also got an interview with painter Marc Kennes planned who has a new show opening tonight, some much needed pilates, a little mandatory writing and let's not forget World Book Night tonight aka loads of book related shows on the BBC (after the art show of course) so the pumpkin will be pleased when I forcefeed him a little more literature. Tomorrow night the booth, which we spent a whole day assembling, has to be torn down again so joy. I'm actually counting down the days until my much deserved holiday. I've got some serious writing, relaxing and blogging to do!

In the meantime let me leave you with some awesome useful bookmarks by the BookDepository. I want them, all of them...