I suppose it’s almost inevitable when you think about it. We’ve traveled several thousand miles via Planes, Trains and Automobiles over the past 7 days and have come into close contact with thousands of other individuals. I woke up on Friday morning with a scratchy throat and a bit of congestion. This later turned into a full-blown sore throat and as I’m writing this 24 hours later (it’s Saturday morning in Antwerp), I’ve moved into the full congestion mode and it’s not fun. While a summer cold isn’t as bad as the winter flu, I think they are somewhat similar in how they impact you. Most winter flu events don’t have me on vacation trying to visit family, friends and the sights of Antwerp. But I’ll do my best and just suck it up and move forward. What doesn’t kill you…..right?
Apollo 11
Unless you have your head under a rock, I’m sure you’ve been hearing about and seeing footage from the Apollo 11 mission which placed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon 50 years ago this week. While I don’t have any memories of Apollo 11 (I would have been turning 3 in October), but I do remember watching other Apollo missions and of course grew up with the Shuttle program. I remember getting up really early or staying up really late to watch the space shuttle blast off or land. Sometime in the early 80’s my parents purchased a VCR and that made life a little easier once we figured out how to set the clock. LOL
Euro/UK Pharmacy Concept
This is mainly directed to my US readers who may not be familiar with how pharmacies work in the UK and in most places in Europe. The experience hasn’t been all good, but it also hasn’t been all bad either. Earlier last week my wife needed some Pepto-Bismol, this is something which is on every US store shelf and available to purchase just as easily as Coca-Cola. But in the UK, you must first speak to a pharmacist before they will sell it to you.
The flip-side, the UK/Euro Pharmacists have the ability to dispense medications which would normally require a Doctor’s prescription (after a dr. visit of course). With my wife translating, she was able to explain to the pharmacist exactly what my symptoms were and we were sold a few items which would help ease the symptoms. I must say the medicines we were sold were much more powerful than what we might take for similar issues (Dayquil). So either the meds really worked, or perhaps this a mild cold. Time will tell!
Steak Medium Please
We had an interesting experience in the hotel restaurant. I’d like to think it was a “lost in translation” moment, but I fear something much different. I’ve been enjoying steak (ribeye is my favorite cut of meat) for as long as I can remember. My father and my grandfather taught me everything I know and I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a steak snob. I’ve also enjoyed many steaks all over the world and until recently I had never experienced cause to send one back to the kitchen. Well…until this trip to Antwerp.
On Thursday evening, my wife and I decided to eat in the hotel restaurant. We placed our order and when the waiter asked my wife how I wanted my steak, she said “Medium”. I’m pretty sure you can order a steak anywhere on this planet and request it to be cooked “medium” and it will be done so with almost precision. The steak temperatures are pretty universal between Rare, Medium Rare, Medium, Medium Well and finally Well Done. Anyway…
The steak arrived at the table and from the exterior all appeared as it should be. I proceeded to grab my steak knife and fork and carve the first slice. My mouth had already begun to water in anticipation….(insert the sound of screeching tires)…OMG…not only is this slice of beef still alive, it’s Mooing back at me. We quickly called the waiter over and showed him. He asked me, “How did you want your steak”? I stated “Medium”, he then said which medium? I promptly answered back saying, there was only one medium and this isn’t it.
After arguing back and forth (which I should add he should have never done), we managed to get a manager over to the table. The manager picked up the steak to send it back. A few minutes later, it arrived once again and I’m really not sure what they did to it…but it still wasn’t cooked to medium.
The manager returned and offered to cook me another steak. I agreed, but only if we could agree on the temperature scale. After all, I’ve already played my cards as a steak snob. I’m honestly not sure what the manager said to the chef, but the new steak arrived cooked to perfection and was one of the best Belgian steaks I’ve had.
Back to England
Tomorrow we head back to England via the Eurostar. It’s been a long few days for many reasons (some of which I haven’t discussed here). Once back in England we’ll regroup and plan our next few days. We leave next Saturday to fly back to Denver, so the next few days will appear to speed by. But I’m a firm believer having a few good pipes will help to sloooooowwww things down. Wish me luck!
Until next time…
Happy Piping!
Jerry
