In that there old and purrdy "the Bruges" I also got myself some black and ver cool looking ciggies. Good posing value ya see.

They smell faintly sweet and of toffee.

They taste very nice.

I am going outside for one now.

Ahh the rewards of foreign travel......

the chance to hang around outside your office smelling like you have lit up a Mars Bar and look like a pillock.

Blog.uk have given us this new “groups” option where we can set up or join a group of like-minded bloggers and chat about whatever the group in question covers. Now I know this has been mentioned by another blogger on my friends list but I just wanted to stick my 2p in.

Today I have posted some pictures in the Photography group. Basically because they were a little more than the normal “point and click” scenery shots and “lookit da beer and me being stooopid” shots in my normal blog.

I have posted a picture of a guitar I want in Phoenix82’s “Perchance to dream” group because I was just sitting here daydreaming about it. Yeah I’m odd – sue me.

I have posted the weird nonsensical poems that bob up in my brain from time to time, and some other nonsense about the way I think the world is in “the Jasper Club”

And as yet I have posted bugger all in the “archaeology blog” because I am not very confident about remembering all the stuff I have learnt and studied in that area.

But the thing is, is this going to make my regular blog just a place where I go “look at what stupid things I did this weekend” “Guess who I saw outside” “I just saw the most fantastic woman/guitar/car/food item/mad bastid” type blog.

Is it going to narrow the scope of my main blog?

I mean full marks to Blog.co.uk for giving us all the bells and whistles and options but will it make the blogs of those of us that join these groups less varied?

As I said above, I know this has been covered before but as I was musing on this on the way back to the office I thought I’d just bung it up here.

Got to put something up, feed the addiction and all that.

:P

We are in the Euro star station in Brussels having just got off the train from Bruges and we have some time to kill. We wander round the tramp infested and dingy looking station to various shops and make various purchases. We have a fine collection of bags by the end of this. Some contain beer, some contain chocolate and one contains my cheap ciggies.

We go into the Euro star lounge bit as this seems to be totally tramp free and sit ourselves down. Soon the gates will open and we can go through passport control. Now I am very very tired at this point. But I am intending to sleep on the train so stay awake with effort.

The gates open and we gather up all our bags and go through the gate. Then we go to passport control. Then we walk up to the machines that go bing and the x-ray scanners. We put our stuff through and walk under the magic binging archway.

Then we have to go through passport control again – this time it’s British passport control, because obviously Johnny Foreigner can’t check a passport and stare at you to a standard that would satisfy Mr Broons government. Then we get to sit down.

As I go off to the toilet I am stopped in my tracks by a panicked cry from Mrs F

“NICK! – where is the bag with your cigarettes in?!”

Oh fuck. I have no idea. I thought we had everything but I am so tired I must have left them somewhere. I am not tired now – I am full of adrenalin and anger at myself for loosing 1200 cheap cigarettes! I am shaking with it!

I go to our passport control and ask to go back and they say, “go through and ask security” I ask security and they say “Go ask Belgian passport control” I ask them and they say go to the front desk, I explain to them and they let me back into the lounge.

Nothing. Gone. Not a site. I mentally call myself a total fuckwitted cunt and rush out into the station to back track every stop from the last time I remember having them. Again nothing. I have just kissed goodbye to a load of money. The thought that some stinking tramp somewhere is now cigarette rich drives me mental.

I go back in to the lounge and up to the desk. The very nice girl there phones someone at the other end, laughs and smiles at me, “we have found your cigarettes, a passenger handed them in”

I am happy. I almost do a happy dance. I thank her, the man that brings them to me, and I make my way back through passport control (thanking them as well) and am just about to get to security and British passport control when a man walks up to me and shows me his police badge, “Could I have a word with you sir, through here?”

Not really a question but I am happy and say “certainly” and we step into a side room. At this point I am so happy to have my cigarettes back that if he had pulled out the rubber glove and asked me to bend over, I would have done it with a smile on my face. But thankfully he just asks me where I got the cigarettes and has a good sniff of the packets, checks the contents of my pockets and gives me a VERY thorough pat down search. Including the groin area. Oh yes.

But he was very polite and totally reasonable – I didn’t mind because he was just doing his job.

So with another new best friend made, I was allowed to re join Shipscook and Mrs F.

And that damn bag was not out of my site for one second after all that drama!

I is having coffees I is.

And a nice ickle pair of Choccy boobies for the nibbles on.

I am happy wiv dat.

I has booby choccy nibble happiness - I HAS IT!

Now I told you of my joy at finding a place to smoke and drink inside this weekend. Well it just got better.

You can smoke in all the bars! So how good was it to find this place..

A pub that you can smoke in AND has a selection of 300 differnt beers! They give you a menu that runs into about 20 or so pages to make a choice from!

I liked this one, look at the strenght of it!

But it was very tasty as well as being very strong. Yummy to the max.

Speaking of the max, Shipscook had one of these.

The walls inside this bar were covered in old adverts for beer from times past, but they still seemed to be serving most of them. I did take some pictures but forgot to load them into my media, so you are safe from piccies till at least tomorrow night, as they are all on the pc at S&F's.

I would recomend visiting Brugges, not just for the bars and chocolate, but for the fact that it is a very pretty place and you could have a very romantic time there. Or a very drunken time there. Its' up to you.

This is Jerries Cigar bar.

It is a bar at the back and sells cigars and cigarettes at the front.

Which means........

you can SMOKE AND DRINK INSIDE! Do I look happy?

I made a new little friend in Jerries.

Mrs F is convinced the male owner of this dog wanted my body, but she says that about all dog owners that ask me to send them the photo of their dog and give me their email address..........

And below is the little "Cafe" that was opposite our hotel where we had brekkie on Saturday and the gorgeous girl made an omlette especially for Mrs F.

Not your average brekkie bar eh? And not overly expensive.

There will be a few more pictures later.

Sorry.

Below is the Church of the Holy Blood, in which Mrs F and I got told of for being "disrespectful" which basically means we were wispering to each other. I dunno, give em a phial of Chirsts Blood and they think they blumin well own the place.

My lap is all warmed up and ready for you to park your "fluffy Canadian Ass" on for a birthday treat!

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