And Just like that I was going to Belgium on the next day… I didn’t know where by then… Or how I was getting there… OK… I know I was driving and taking the ferry from Dover… but after that… niet… zit… nothing… caput… But just so you know… that’s how we roll… We likes the adventure that comes with life! 
Yup… that’ll be a loooong one. But with loads of pretty pictures so bare with me…
If you know me then you know that I will go to extreme lengths for a friend. And if you were asking yourself what the heck I was doing there, well… that tells it all. Christophe’s mum is dying… and that could be the last chance he could have to see her. So of course I offered myself to drive him there. Even if it involves getting up way before the crack of dawn to get ready to go (having gone for a last minute shop trip to Halford’s the night before to get a few essentials…)
Dad’s been visiting from Brasil since the end of last week so he came along (would NEVER lose to opportunity to add another country to his belt of visited countries… hehehe… yup… I take after him…LOL).
4:30 am – Waky waky time… well… getting up time since I really didn’t sleep much the night before… and funnily enough I was feeling fine… Like I just had a whole night of sleep (the same can’t be said after my 8th hour driving… but that’s beside the point).
I’d booked the tickets the night before for 8am so all we needed to do is to be there in time… for that we’d need to leave at 5:30am, and avoid traffic. Well… we left at about 5:50am… And we missed our boat… so we had 2 hours to kill in Dover before the next one at 10am. Not complaining… it gave me a some time to take some pretty pictures… It also gave dad the chance to try proper British self service machine hot chocolate (made with water… which in Brazilian tradition is a real travesty! Hot chocolates should always be made with full fat milk!)
We finally boarded the ferry on our way to Dunkirk and dad was quite impressed with the thing… you see… the concept we have of ferries in Brazil is that of basic and practical boats that transport people from one piece of land mass to the next. Compared to the ones we use there the Norfolk Line ones feel like luxury cruise ships with their 7 decks, soft play area for the the kiddos, restaurant, bars and duty-free shop and VIP lounge.
Having arrived there 2 hours late we had little time to waste so we hit the road but not before being “blessed by a seagull” (Christophe later told us that being shat by the bird can be considered as an omen of good luck… right…). I donlt know if we hit the road hard or the road hit us harder with it’s fearsome wind gushes and craters that could fit the whole RAV4 in it, but we were on our way to the land of “the best Potato Fries in the world” via Tournai and from there St Amand Les Oeaux.
Unfortunately we got there a tiny bit after lunch time and none of the chiperies were open and the ones that were refused to serve us chips… meaning the “best papas fritas” in the world will have to wait till next time. We ended up having lunch in Le Cabaret in Tournai, and the food we had there was GREAT (plus the owners, VERY nice people said we could have all the chips we could eat because of the whole chiperie fiasco… THAT ALONE brought my previous concept of the city up a notch).
We did some filming there and I’ll post the video later. I was revising the tape yesterday and I am REALLY sad to say that I could not find anywhere the bit where a group of girls were flashing their boobs to the camera… 
well… though luck I guess…
Having refuelled (both the stomach and the car) we went on for the next leg of the journey to St Amand Les Oeaux. While Christophe went in on the clinic to see his mum me and dad stayed behind and went on to record a couple of takes for a Video Clip we’re getting ready for his upcoming album (the 1st in nearly 10 years… he’s planing a comeback using as much as he can of the New Media and I am doing my bit by re-mixing a track and producing a Video Clip for him… cool stuff so far.
Christophe came back feeling a lot brighter and he actually looked somehow lighter, happier. He said his mum had recognized him (she has got a condition that messes up with her memory within other things) and with that we took our way back home. Yup… The wife (the boss) said I could go just for the day… so I had to obey…
Our guide and sponsif for this trip (Mr. Place himself) said he knew all the roads like the palm of his hands and with that decided that we should take a little detour so that we would still have time to go shopping before boarding the ferry back to Dover at 8pm. Remember we wasted 2 hours by missing the ferry on the way to Dunkirk, so it was GREAT news that we could still go shopping after all… Dad wanted a few electronics and I was on the market for sweets (TB asked for Croisant… lol) and why now.. booze… The one thing we didn’t count with is that we’d get lost.
Yup.. our guide was so busy yap yapping or snoozing from the back seat that he kept forgetting to tell me to turn off the motorway or what turns I should take to get us to the hypermarket and then to the boat… Ah… BTW… did I tell you we missed our boat back to Dover?!?!?!
Never mind… we got the next one… which brings me to the trip back where we had to go through waves that were washing over the top of the passenger’s deck. It would have been quite a fun ride wasn’t for dad going green and purple and green again and threatening to throw up in the car instead of the boat…. All considered he was better by the time we got back to Dover… so well indeed that we had fish and chips for dinner at 1am somewhere on the M20 (he loved it… and even more after he had the proper stuff back in London from our local chip shop.
About 12 hours in total behind the wheel, a couple of times where I nearly lost my temper and a hell of a cold (man flu according to the wife) but all in all it was great fun!!!
Would I do the trip again??? Hell yeah… as long as we have time for some tourist stuff and for some fun!
That and a guide a little less… eloquent…
Talking of crazy trips… what’s the craziest out of the bluest, impulsivest, or spontaniousest thing you’ve done lately?????
zya!
PS: I’ve just noticed that the pics heve been posted kinda in reverse order or in no order at all… but I can;t be bothered to change all of them around now… hehehe… enjoy them anyways…
PS2: Ah!!! and if you click on the thumbnails you can see the whole thing instead of just the tiny squares.
PS3: OKAY… now am gonna shut up and go to bed… heheheh nite nite
