The trouble with Brussels

Actually, I don't know what the trouble with Brussels is. Have you ever met someone who you thought you'd like but you don't? Someone liked by lots of people, and who you fully expect to like as well. There's nothing at all wrong with the person, they have lots of good qualities and no visible bad ones, but you just can't warm to them?

That's me with Brussels.


Seven years ago, we didn't hit it off, but I thought maybe it was just that it didn't stand up well against Bruges. This time, I was hoping that by going with Mario, he'd like it and I'd be able to experience it through his eyes and see somethign I hadn't seen last time.

I was also looking forward to meeting up with 2 online sewing friends for coffee and some fabric shopping. After you buy fabric in a place you can never feel neutral about it. And then the trains went on strike.

So Brussels suffered because by the time we got there were were tired, frazzled and cranky from sitting on buses for hours. I was cranky because I'd missed my fabric shopping expedition (though at least the iPhone earned its keep by allowing me to email the ladies and let them know) and Mario was cranky because he'd planned on going to the comics museum without noticing that it was closed on Mondays.

So we walked around and did some sightseeing instead, and he did get to see some great wall cartoons and hit an apparently world-reknowned comic book store, and we visited a few chocolate shops and had another good dinner, but I still feel like Brussels and I just keep missing each other.

We left early on Tuesday morning, got home mid-afternoon here, and collapsed. From there it was back to work, back to house fun - the roofer came again about the leak in the dining room, and also repairs to my front porch roof - and I had to take 20 pounds of Archie cat to the vet on Saturday because he has a head cold so bad he sounds like a vacuum cleaner.

Situation normal.