THE STALKER AND OTHER STORIES LOST IN THE VAULT

Ok dear reader, I totally owe you. I got you all excited about my stalker post and then...nothing...for along time. Ok, now I'm coming clean. The thing is, my first week in Brussels was full of "fun".

Monday: Transport strike on my first day of work. I got in ok. But geeze, what a way to say welcome.

Tuesday: Gemma and I come into work together and are followed by a strange man wearing a grey hat, a black bomber jacket and a bright orange backpack. At first it was spooky for Gemma when this man was staring at her on the tram. She jumped off and he quickly lept into action to follow her to the train station. This is when Gemma and I met up. Mind you I was also shell shocked at the moment from sheer humiliation when I waved at a blonde girl who I thought was Gemma. "Hi!" I said waving and staring across the street as this blonde got off the 94 tram to Stade. The tram passed in front of her and I realised my mistake, but too late. This woman had already seen me and was looking confused. Others were around. Had they noticed? I don't know. Feck it, I went across the street pretending that my now "mystery" friend had gone into the park and not noticed me. I waved into the park pretending to try and catch the attention of one of the various people ignoring me. I simply looked defeated and tried to play off that my "friend" had not noticed me. Right o. So as Gemma made her way off the tram, I'll be damned if I was going to be caught with that little trick again. I saw someone I was sure was Gemma, but she passed me by without looking. Little did I know she was trying to avoid her stalker. I chased after her once I realised it was her... she seemed startled and I would later find out she thought I was the stalker coming in for the kill. However, she kept quiet until we reached the train station together where she informed me someone was following us. She went to the loo to try and avoid him but he waited. He then followed us to our train platform and stood within striking distance. We kept moving, he kept following. We tried running in circles around the station to no avail. He got on our train with us and sat in the same carriage. We must have lost him along the way as we didn't see him again, but we felt a bit freaked out. Gemma stayed at my place for a few nights until we were sure her scent trail had dissipated. We thought it was over until....

Wednesday: Went to the cool Chatalain market, we were too late. We went to Le Bar anyhow and had some Kriek (fruit beer). Yum.

Thursday: Always the scenester, I led the pack to Place du Luxembourg. Nice bars and the chance to meet someone from the European commission. We ended up making friends with half the place including a diplomat from Guatemala, people travelling to Africa the next day and indeed some of our colleagues. We went home in someones car, who turned out not to be a cabbie. How this happened, I'm not entirely sure. I felt bad and invited him and my male co-worker for some Nutella and toast with juice. I ended up stealing the guy's hat on accident and have not seen him or heard from him since.

Sunday: Sitting outside McSweeney's having a pint and who walks in but THE STALKER. Was this a message to me that he knew where I was? Was he THIS good? The bartender surmised that he was a town idiot and as simple as a kindergartner and that maybe we were wearing something shinny that attracted his attention on our first meeting. Gemma concluded "Guess its just the magpie in all of us." Indeed...