So apparently my bank account was invaded, how, I am not at all sure, as I thought I have kept my wallet and bankcards close to my vest, though I don't have a vest. But apparently there are all kinds of clever villains working the Internet, and somebody in Tuscaloosa, where I have never been and now will certainly never go, tapped into me online for $22,000. Don't send money, I'm okay. But it is scary.
Still, I am happy to be in Bruges, where everything is gloriously old and you can't find your way back to anyplace even though it's small as it's all twisty-curvey and nobody who lives here knows where anything is either. Recent great events took place here but I can't tell you exactly what they were as that's when the bank called with details and I had to leave the tour and the very handsome white-haired guide who is probably long married, not that I'm really that interested, but it would be nice to get inspiration for a story.
It isn't easy finding anything here-- not only an idea or the right street. I was covered with wonder at the streets being so clean, albeit cobbled and hard on the sole-- better than the soul-- with all the horse-drawn carriages that work the place, when I finally saw the leather slings attached to the horse's rears, which accounts for the manure having a place to go that isn't the street. Going to dinner now where I will have a fine wine to celebrate not having been wiped out financially so will just do it physically. Met a beautiful white-haired couple from Shropshire on the tour, the husband actually coming back to make sure I was all right when I dropped out to talk to the bank. Maybe I should move to Shropshire.
Then at the dinner I met a lovely Aussie couple here celebrating their 50th. Sweet as they can be, as almost everyone from Australia always seems to be, including my daughter-in-law. I am still relieved at having been saved from being wiped out, and am genuinely impressed with the bank for having spotted it and flagged me down before the villain flagged me out.
But I am tired now. It is borderline exhausting almost being bankrupted. And it still saddens me for the world that there are villains in it. Especially from Tuscaloosa.
