Category: Discoveries

Christmas Trip to Glasgow

On 2025-12-29

In Daily Life, Discoveries, Food, Memories, Scotland, Travel, Vegan

It has been some time since I have been to Glasgow. The last time was a single day (plus or minus a few hours at an airport) in 2018. Went out to see the Sister-in-Law (A) and her husband (D) and to celebrate their wedding. I was officiating said ceremony. It never made it to the old Dickens-of-a-Blog because it would have been in the down years. Had it been in up years, it would have been one of the Posts All Time, no doubt.

I have no photos of my time in Glasgow at that time, for some reason. Perhaps I did not want to seem too touristy. We took the train in, ate at a vegan restaurant that was a poster child bespoke gentrification [that seems to no longer exist in 2025] and then had to take a stupidly hot bus back because the day was so hot it stopped the trains from running in the afternoon.

Here’s a photo I took walking to the train to take into Glasgow Central:

I will say it is not indicative of the actual nice quality graffiti you can see around the city. This one just made me chuckle the most.

I did take more photos this time, including this one showing off much higher quality wall art near St. Enoch:

Now, as to who exactly that is? I have no idea. My one working theory is that had the Christmas Market (Winter Wonderland, I think it was called) not been there, it possibly lined up with something in the distance. My second working theory is that there had once been something in the upper left corner of that wall for him to be holding up. This is above the Hootenanny. I probably should have just asked.

That is near the front of Adagio Aparthotel. Where we stayed this Christmas trip. It was nice. I am not one to get too hyped for any sort of hotel but I will say I would stay there again. Great location. Lots of shops. The Winter Wonderland (at least, for a couple of weeks a year). Glasgow Central station in walking distance. Several bus stops. Pharmacy and grocery stores. Waterstones. You can spend a week barely breaching a square kilometer and have a full experience.

Turn right and cross the road to see the river and you can visit some more higher quality graffiti. Cats seem to be a theme. Some QR codes. It perhaps is corporate, I have no idea.

The only two negatives were a) my brain spent a lot of time reading it as “Apartheid Hotel” (as opposed to “Apartment Hotel”) and b) there was a fire alarm test on Tuesday that I had failed to note which meant I had to make my way down multiple stories just to realize the note about it was in the elevator (aka, lift, aka the thing you do not take in the case of fire).

We took the train in. It is virtually impossible to make train rides proper exciting (on par with reviewing hotels). Passing through the Chunnel is a bit fascinating because it is so relatively dark that it makes the windows of the train look like a long row of mirrors. And it makes your ears pop.

We also took the train back which was just about as pleasantly boring. Except I tried, and failed, to snap a photo of the Angel of the North. Every time the shutter would do its shutter-type thing, a building or tree would intervene.

This was post-holiday travel which meant folks were a bit more tired, grumpy, and sick. Added some spice. Some. Never a lot.

In between was Christmas with the extended family, some shopping, and far too much eating. I also got to spend my first Boxing Day in Britain. Pull my first Christmas cracker.

Of all the too-much-food we too-much-fooded, Buck’s Bar probably wins for most memorable. American style chicken restaurant with some strong vegan options. Went to the Mount Florida location and had a Nashville Hot Vegan (aka, the Vegan Hot Cock) with extra pickles. B made out with a huge vegan not-milkshake + Oreos. Right amount of spicy. Mine, not hers.

Also in the Mount Florida // Cathcart Road area we hit up Three of Cups (astounding vegan treats and good tea) and Mount Florida Books which, as a huge book nerd with all sorts of interests in queer and odd books, I can highly recommend.

Seriously, if you find yourself in Glasgow then trip out to that section of town and look around. Worth it.

There is, in the way of things, a hundred more things I can say (and five or so more eateries and shops I could shout out) or I could have cut out half of it.

I’ll leave with this for now, though. The first three or so days, there, through Christmas, Glasgow had been on its best behavior. Then, on Boxing Day, walking back from St. Enochs I saw two guys fighting with police intervention. Only the police left to see to a wreck and the guys were going their separate ways.

Right as I was walking up, guy #1 turned around and went back to guy #2 and all I heard was… “You want my name? Here’s my first name: Fuckoff!”

Ah, hungover Glasgow was healing.

A Day in the Life 17722: Duolingo Fun, Bandcamp Friday, Still Recovering

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-12-05

In Belgium, Daily Life, Discoveries, Humor, Music

First off, and last in the title, I am still recovering from the two-fer. The cold feels in retreat but we’ll see. The ankle is still a problem. Here’s hoping tomorrow continues to improve both.

Second in the title, and second in the post, today (2025-12-05, een vrijdag), is a Bandcamp Friday. Those are days where (at least supposedly) 100% of the proceeds go directly to the artist. They are nice moments and another reason I like Bandcamp as my central hub for acquiring music. Some musicians time releases to show up on them, or have other promotions.

In this case, it wasn’t one of those I was interested in, but I had been eying Fabo Music for a minute and saving it up for one. Lots of albums which are unofficial soundtracks to Dungeons & Dragons adventures and the like. Kind of stuff I like to play while engaged in solo roleplay. One slight wrinkle is that Fabo Music often includes one-hour loops of their songs which makes sense in the context of playing as background music for RPG scenes. The downside being that it makes the zip files of the albums bigger so it is taking some time.

While fiber ever approaches (at least is showing up on the streets near us), we are still under the auspices of the older Belgisch internet. These downloads will possibly be an all morning task. I even gave up on my usual Snag-the-FLAC habit because some of them were in the 6gig range. AAC, only, for now.

And now to first part of the title. I have been using Duolingo to help learn Dutch, though it has been the, well, Netherland flavor of Nederlands. Last night, something happened where not only did my Duolingo lessons jump several degrees of difficulty but also started including more stuff about Brussels, Bruges, Leuven. Etc.

I think in technical terms I got added to some AB testing or whatnot. Who knows? It is kind of fun, though. The speaking and listening exercises are now less “De eend draagt geen schoenen” (the duck is not wearing shoes) and more, well…

This means they are less about listening and saying words and phrases I know and more about parsing sentences I do not know. The kind of thing where you jump straight from “Mijn naam is Doug” to “Je speelde als een poffertje zonder suiker!” I am very rapidly learning a lot of edge cases of the Dutch language.

At the same time, I have no idea if these are anything like actual phrases but I like them. “There’s no polder without a leevee.” “I am playing like a poffertje without sugar.” The third one is from some sort of Amsterdam noir.

“It was a quarter to eight and I was waiting at the canal…”

This means the practice rounds went from taking me around a minute to taking me more like 8-10 minutes each, but so it goes.

In the middle of this I have learned some things. Like how to say “the boys wear dresses” and “no pants, please” in Dutch. My favorite so far is: Vanwege het weer hebben wij een bakje troost nodig.

Because of the weather, we need a cup of comfort.

Look at this Shin Godzilla Tape Dispenser!

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-11-20

In Discoveries

Ok, Space Pilgrims, in no way shape or form do I need (nor, precisely, want) this Shin Godzilla branded tape dispenser [LGT: godzilla.com¹].

I’m mostly just impressed it exists.

The Ultimate Being, indeed.

Note, despite the =wyrmis.com stapled on the end, this is not an affiliate link. It’s a long standing tradition of mine to annoy the data gatherers. ↩︎

The Pillow Washing Incident

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-11-05

In Daily Life, Discoveries, Home Care

I have a little bit of a backlog of stuff going down so will do some catch up, starting with this: The Pillow Washing Incident.

I have used the same pillow for years. I don’t know if twenty is the right number, but it feels right. To be safe, we’ll lean towards fifteen-years since I started using the pillow.

The kind of pillow that is neither the same color nor shape that it once was. The original structure has been consumed by time and replaced by a strange new realm.

And it slept perfectly.

But like all such things that once were pillows, you have to wash them to keep the gods-of-nightmares away and it has been some time since I have washed it. How long? Well…

It has been a time.

I figured last Friday was a good time to wash it up and threw the vaguely orange tesseract into the vortex of a Hygiene+ wash cycle. It went perfectly fine for the first 95% of the process. Then, right at the end, when it should have just been bringing the ray of light to Doug’s sleep-land, something occurred.

The stitches on the corners of the pillow-esque thing popped out in the final spin cycle and two-decade-old (give or take) fluff, albeit clean and once again white, exploded into the washer and as it went to drain out the water, the water-saturated fluff got sucked into the works.

How many works, you ask?

The drum had fluff in and around it. The drain hose was clogged. The filter was clogged. Water was spewing out of the system. There was the extra spice that it was Halloween when this occurred and Kaz and B were off doing some Halloween-themed things. Which meant it had to wait until we could teamwork it.

I had a washer half full of water, half full of a poem entitled “The Deconstruction of What Was Once a Pillow,” and half full of despair. It was a 150% situation. I did what you do: I watched Blacula and Trick ‘R Treat.

The next day (November 1), Kaz and I had to work on clearing it out and getting some of the water and still-water-saturated fluff out of it. Thanks to some YouTube videos and finding an English-language version of the manual, we got the drain hose out and slowly got the excess water out and then was able to get the filter clear.

I did not take any photos of the process, which is a shame, but you can roughly replicate it by just staring at Hieronymus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights,” especially the right-hand piece.

Then we had a few cleaning washes to get the rest of the fluff out.

As of right now, the system is working as intended and, thanks to some sunny weather, we are getting some speed drying done to make up for the backlog.

What lessons did we learn, Space Pilgrims?

LESSON THE FIRST, wash your pillows more often.

LESSON THE SECOND, either tie off the pillow case or get some sort of laundry bag that zips up, just in case.

LESSON THE THIRD, every screw up is a good time to learn some new valuable life skills. In this case, how to drain and repair and gunked up washing machine.

We have yet to figure out LESSON THE FOURTH, which is where in the heck do I buy a new pillow in Brussels? I suppose at some point in time, I’m going to figure out what the IKEA is like.

In better news, here’s a blurry photo I took last night before bed to show off how bright the full moon was. My phone camera is not the best at night photography, but I appreciate the mood.

Photo: Absolute Unit of a Slug

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-10-21

In Belgium, Discoveries, Photos

After this morning’s rainy walk, there was a lot of waiting out the rain to finish. Got in my work out. Showered. Ate “second breakfast” [read: a banana]. Drank tea. Did some online errands.

Finally, got a slight break before what looks like round 4 or 5 hits, and so went outside to pick up a couple of things that had gotten blown around a bit like the bucket we use to our restafval¹ and just checking the outside plants. Remember, one of the previous storms took out our granny statue.

Anyhow, while knocking water out of buckets and such, I saw this absolute unit of a slug:

I would guess around 10-12cm. Not the chubbiest I have seen but still an impressive chad.

Translation: residual waste. In Grimbergen, we divide our waste up into various types. PMD [Plastic, Metal, Drink Cartons]; P&K [Paper and Paper Cartons]; GFT & SH [Food Waste and Clippings (groenteafval, fruitafval, tuinafval, en snoeihout, to explain the acronym); Glass [not including beer/beverage bottles, which we return to stores]; Bulky items [grofvuil]; and Small Hazardous Items [klein gevaarlijk afval]. Restafval is essentially everything else. ↩︎

Still Getting Used to Dark Mornings

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-10-20

In Belgium, Daily Life, Discoveries, Expat Stuff, Memories

I know it’s a common features of expat blogs, of which this tangentially one, to focus on “10 things which shocked me!” type content but while there have been two dozen stacks of things to which I have had to adjust, I am not sure if many are really “shocking.” There’s a few I might share because of humor and anthropological studies type reasons, but overall I am pretty boring in that regard. Stuff is kind of the same but definitely not the same the world over.

There is one thing of which I was previously aware intellectually but in everyday practice has taken a bit of adjustment: the later morning sunrises.

That was taken at something like 07:08 this morning [2025-10-20]. My phone camera slightly lightened it. The sky was more true black at that angle though the light pollution of Brussels was pushing through a bit to the south.

I think you should at least get the idea. Squint a little while looking at it.

I appreciate this is a reality for millions of people and not really a big deal. It is fairly new to me, though.

I grew up in southern [aka Lower] Alabama in the United States. For most of my life, there was a rough idea of sunrise and sunset being similar throughout the year (there’s a four hour swing but Daylight Savings Time imbalances this to the evening side). 7am was pretty definitely post-dawn. 4pm was pre-Dusk. It got fuzzier after that.

Up until my 30s, all of my travel was across the American Southeast region. Alabama, Florida, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana. Probably in that order, though maybe more LA than GA. I think the furthest north I had ever been was Norfolk, VA. The furthest west was near-ish New Orleans, LA.

Occasionally I would read books like Dickens’ Pickwick Papers and it would talk about the sunlight fading at 11pm [aka, 23:00 in here terms] and I would be confused. I was aware of stuff like the so-called “midnight sun” but it took me a long time to really appreciate the difference. Even when I traveled to places like Boston, it never quite stuck.

My trip to Scotland, near Glasgow, in 2018 was probably the first time where I had that all important realization of proper first-hand experience. Around midsummer, the days were delightfully long which was probably terrible for jet lag but it was nice having a practicum.

It was similar to student-era me figuring out that integrating a curve = acceleration & area under curve = total distance traveled by an accelerating body. The kind of thing I could rationalize but actually using the math to predict real life objects and extrapolating that into new formulae was a big deal for me in my astrophysics days. Or when I began to work out multidimensional math and how frames of reference could be shifted and calculated in high school.

All that said, moving from a place with something like an 4-hour swing to a place with an 8-hour swing has been kind of neat. The ultimate practicum. I’m sure I’ll be fussy around mid-winter but we’ll see.

Visiting the Museum of Illusions

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-10-11

In Belgium, Brussels, Discoveries, Expat Stuff, Photos, Places

I’m going to be absolutely real: I suck as a tourist.

In this context, I am not a tourist right now but I am a currently a long-term visitor in a strange land — and I feel like Belgium counts as a strange, if delightful, land — who at least generally should be engaging in a bit in the culture.

Which I totally do. I talk to magpies and crows and hang out with cats while just enjoying nature and some old streets.

I finally decided to correct my first statement with a visit to Brussels’ Museum of Illusions with Barbara and Kaz. It is a smaller collection of full-sized illusions, mirror tricks, and puzzles. Kind of place you could spend an hour or two. It is quite nice and absolutely surrounded by all kinds of shops and destinations if you wanted to make a day of it.

If nothing else, take these two points to heart:

It is well worth a visit and has some cool trinkets in its gift shop.
My photo skills inside sucked more normal so I do not have a lot of photos to show it off, alas.

The Museum at a Glance

Once you get up the escalator/elevator there is a bit of confusion about where to go because it is a highly visual place. You come up about 1/3 the way into the exhibits. My natural tendency to curve right almost lead me to enter into the place without paying. Barbara had been there before — as had Kaz, who was joining us very slightly later — and helped point out the desk to pay for entry. I would have spotted it eventually, no doubt. It is not hidden, just also not super obvious compared to some of the kooky fun on display.

Once paid — €17.50 for adults, €14.50 for children of Barbara’s age — you then have the option to get a lock and key to put your stuff into a locker, which nice, and the guy behind the counter double checked that we did not have balance issues — I am a fall risk, after all — or epilepsy — I am just light sensitive enough that one of the attractions (The Vortex) was pushing it for me.

There a few dozen features. They are numbered but the precise count escapes my memory. Maybe half of those are fairly quick images or wall-mounted illusions. The kind of thing where one line looks longer than another. They did a good job of curating some of the more interesting ones and several have been redesigned to have some interactive elements.

Then there are several larger, more interactive pieces. The aforementioned Vortex is the larger carnival classic of walking through a dark, swirling tunnel of lights. That was my one mistake. I should probably have skipped it.

Besides that you have rooms with angled floors and carefully designed wallpaper so that a person on one side looks a lot larger than the other or looks like they are leaning.

My favorites tended to be the pair of rooms playing with lights and the handful of exhibits based on mirrors. The above image show the top of my head is a fun little item where angled mirrors allow you to see yourself and the room from multiple angles. That’s a single photo showing more or less every angle of myself.

There’s an “infinite room” where you can throw your own rave party with hundreds of yourselves. An upside down room where you can your best “clinging to the ceiling.” A hatch that looks like an infinite spot into darkness where you can take “falling” photos.

Then there are a trio of large scale puzzles. A pair of several kaleidoscopes that make for some trippy pictures. A forced perspective chair.

In general, the place is pretty heavy with photo opportunities and your enjoyment will be based on (a) how many fun photos and videos you want take; and (b) how carefully you pay attention to the balance-or-epilepsy warnings. Those wanting a more hands-on variation of learning about light and optics tricks can get some good learning done.

The staff and the other attendees were all perfectly chill and it was a heavily positive experience. It is not necessarily a regular outing type of place but I imagine we’ll go back a few times while in the country.

Ghost and The King: Dreamin’

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-10-02

In Discoveries, Music, Music Video

Here we go. Here’s a decent “first real post” besides the classic “hello, world” type posts with with which blogs are stricken.

Every once in a while, I get into a mood for new music. It tends to be the kind of thing where I am beholden to The Algorithm™ to actually find anything. Bandcamp. Youtube. Maybe Google searches. A few other places.

One trick is to find a song/musician I liked. Search that/them. Look for other stuff recommended or discussed around them. Dip toes in. Keep going. Follow the trails. “Truffle hunting,” we sometimes called it while working at the library. Find a resource, see what it linked and cited, follow those and keep digging until you have a better scope.

Except, you know… The Algorithm™.

At any rate, one of those songs that I drummed up earlier this year while cruising through a mix of Durry’s build up to This Movie Sucked, trying to find new Japanese pop music, and trying to find new Belgian/French music (prior to the move) was Ghost and the King’s “Dreamin'” off their 2024 self-titled album.

I quite enjoyed it. Pleasant tune. Fair lyrics. I liked the set up of the video [including some very low budget Legend of Zelda cosplay]. I miss that personal vibe for Youtube. It feels like a passion project.

A handful of times since then I’d go back and listen to it. I even bought the album. I consider the album as a whole fair. “Dreamin'” is my still favorite song, but you can sample tracks “Don’t Often Sing the Blues,” “Nightingale,” and “Give a Damn” if you want to get a vibe for the rest.

With my most recent rewatch, I saw that only had 250 views (on Youtube, not sure about Spotify since I don’t really hang out in the latter anymore unless someone insists it upon me). Which seems low. I wanted to go ahead and give a shout out. Left a comment. All in all just trying to poke The Algorithm™.

It is currently the last video they posted and I don’t much else about it or them. Their online presence seems to be mostly social media. I’ll leave that to others to share.