Safe at "Home"

For those who insisted on a picture of me. In the Winter Palace.
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I kept telling REB that once we got to Belgium, we could get a good rest. That's exactly what we're doing. How wonderful it felt to see Ralph and Ria again. Even though it's been 25 years since I last saw them, it was like yesterday and my European "home away from home" in Mechelen is still a reality. For those of you who don't know (or haven't heard me talk about them for hours), Ralph and Ria Eeckman are a couple Andrea and I met the first time we came to Europe in 1973. We've been good friends since then. They visited me in the US and I came back here in 1980. These are some of the best people I've ever known and we are being well cared for here.

REB across the street from our St Petersburg homestay. We were on the third floor.
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Since I have time to write here, I'm going to tell some of the stories I haven't been able to relay until now. Like when REB's nebulator exploded in London. That's the little machine he uses to get medicine to his lungs. We went to a lot of trouble to get enough medication for both of us to cover the four months we'd be gone. But we did it and packed the nebulizer in his suitcase and had the Oxygen Concentrator on a rolling cart. We were set.

REB's nebulator exploded in London

REB and the Gulf of Finland
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The first day in London, REB set out the nebulizer, loaded it with medicine and dutifully plugged into the outlet using the electrical adapter for Britain. About ten seconds later it started to smoke, then there was a loud POP and it burst into flames. He pulled it away from the outlet and hopped over my suitcase into the bathroom (it was a really small room) and set the nebulizer into the sink and turned on the water. Thankfully, the  fire went out and there was no smoke alarm in the room. We couldn't open the windows so we fanned the doorway into the hall until we could see each other again.

We kept putting it in the trash but the staff would take it out and set it on the floor. Finally, we used it for a doorstop to the bathroom and left it there when we checked out.

That's all for now. We had a nice quiet day going downtown to pick up a few supplies. Pictures from Mechelen the next time.

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