Oh No!!!!!

It was an early get up then off to the train. The train was empty. Am I on the right train? I looked at the sign on the door and overhead and it was the right train. I took a handicapped seat, because it has a power outlet. Now I can work on my journal for RedR UK.

After we left Mulhouse I unpacked and set to work. I noticed that the IPod was low on charge so I plugged it into the laptop and then I got the power supply for the laptop out. Then I went oh OH NO... The cord for the laptop has an American three prong plug. There was a white adapter on that plug to plug it into the Swiss extension cord. The Swiss plug has three round pins. On the French train there is a place to plug in the two prong French/German style plug. So I can only work as long as the battery will last.


The train stopped in Brussels Luxembourg station, then Schuman station. I wondered if Schuman would be closer to the bank than the North Station but I stayed on the train until the Brussels North Station. I went to look for the bus line. I stopped to ask at a ticket booth and two men from the tram and bus service pulled out a map to show me were to go. They had a faster and shorter route than I had obtained from the internet.

I went to the lower level and hopped on Tram 25 for five stops, then to the number 66 bus for eight stops and I was at the bank. Great!

At the bank I picked up my new credit card that will expire in 2013 and a new electronic ID for PC banking. I said that I did not want the battery in the old electronic ID to run out while I was in Cambodia so the lady gave me three of the new electronic IDs just in case. Then back on the bus to the tram. When I got off the bus, I looked around and on the corner was a barbershop.

I wonder what a hair cut will cost there. I walked in and looked at the price list, €9 for a haircut. That's great. The last haircut I had in Brussels was €25 and the last one in Switzerland was CHF 40. I asked the guy if he spoke English and he said "medium", "short" and "what's your name". I told him moyen in French and he went to work.

He snipped and snipped as the locks of light brown and gray fell on to the Towel. He trimmed my eyebrows and mustache. I thought he was about done. He reached into his tray of tools and pulled out a huge old brown que tip. I thought me must be going to use that to oil his clipper. He squirted some liquid on the to que tip and then he reached for a lighter and lit it. There was a flame about three inches high. NOW WHAT? He placed his flat hand between my eye and ear and flicked the flame at my ear singeing off any hair that he had missed, then to the other side. I have had many haircuts but never this treatment. He had told me he is Turkish; this may be a specific Turkish treatment. Not a bad cut for €9.

I walked up to a crowd of people at the tram stop. Come to find out they were all going my way. A few people got off the tram but it was packed. I had my back pack and the computer. I waited and boarded last. I set my computer bag on top of my backpack and reached back into the crush of people to stamp my ticket. As I pushed my ticket down into the machine, the tram lurched forward, then backward. Forward was not a problem but when it went backward, my computer fell off of the backpack and crashed to the floor. OH NO. I sure hope it is OK. Nothing I can do now I will wait and check it out in Antwerp. I worried all the way to Antwerp. Would it still work?! Back in the North station, I purchased a plug adaptor and wondered if I have just put a bad spell on the computer, purchasing the adapter. As soon as I got to my room in the hostel, I carefully plugged the computer in and check it out. It WORKS!!