Number 326

This is post 326 on this blog.
If I add the Nablompomo posts I blogged on Ning last year,
this would mean that I have already published over 365 posts.

It's been a wonderful journey.
I've met all kinds of different people who shared slices of their lives.
There are all kinds of stories with one thing in common ... we're all humans.
We all have our happy moments and our worries.
So many things happen in a year, it's not just the change of seasons.
I've seen Father Christmas in a swimsuit, now that's an unusual idea for a European.
I've seen the damage of an ice storm, I had never heard of that before.
I've walked the streets of New York and minutes later I was in Waikiki Beach.
People moved from one place to another, building new lives in different homes.
Young mothers getting pregnant, others hoping to.
Their mothers becoming grandmothers, it's all part of life.
Some of my friends have overcome major health issues,
while others lost a family member or even a partner.
There is kid's stuff and the wonders of nature.
Well, aren't they both ... wonders of nature, I mean?
Cats and dogs, squirrels and deer.
Amazing skies .... or even caterpillars.


Blogging has made me look at myself and my own life sometimes.
It had me thinking "I'm so lucky".
And every now and again I think others are the lucky ones.
Anyhow.
I still don't want to miss it ....

One Year ago ...

One year ago, tomorrow to be exact,
I published my very first blog post on Nablopomo.
Yeah, I know, Nablopomo is supposed to happen in November,
but I couldn't wait! I was rather anxious to find out
if I would be able to pull it off. After all,
writing in a different language was a huge adventure to me.
Whether it was going to be a lonely journey,
or if maybe I'd find friends along the way
was still an unanswered question for me that day.
But I'm very, very happy to see
that friends I met in those early days are still my friends today.
And I've met many, many more since then.

So this is what I wrote a year ago ...



Well,
hi, or ... hello maybe?
I don't know where this adventure will take me,
but hey, does any adventurer know?
I doubt it, it just wouldn't be an adventure, wouldn't it?
If anybody reads this, please please please forgive me
my poor vocabulary or any mistakes you
(most likely) will find here.
English is not my every day language,
but I hope I will learn a lot this way...
You know, living in Europe,
born in Bruges and living near Antwerp,
I have a background, different from you all.
I'll try to tell you some stories,
or even paint you some scenes from my everyday life,
or things I have lived or seen ...




So yes, this is me.
Well, yeah, quite a long time ago ... but hey?

One day a stranger came up to my mothers house,
I took him to the garden,
looked at him with great confidence, and he took my picture....
My mother was inside the house,
probably cleaning, or preparing the next meal.
You know, the things mothers do,

.... when their daughter is out in the garden posing for a picture?

Thoughts and Reflections Bridge the Gap

The gap.
"Mind the gap", is a warning that can be heard
thousands of times a day in the London Subway.
That tired, toneless computer voice, warning you about "the gap"...

The gap.
You'll meet gaps whenever you try to step from one level to another.
A void, an empty space or a river between
where you are now, and where you want to go.
Whether you want to take a train in the subway
or try to board a boat or a plane, there is always that gap you need to overcome.
That's why people invented bridges.
So that we can cross that gap without getting hurt.


And I guess that's just how it is in real life.
Building bridges, and crossing gaps.
When I first started blogging, I started out on Ning
you know, the Nablopomo challenge.
Nablopomo was the bridge over the gap for me.
I was just a blogger from Belgium, where the hell is Belgium anyway?
But pretty soon I met my first visitors who became regular readers later on.
To this very day I value their friendship,
missing them whenever they're not around.
And every day I get to meet new ones, all of them fabulous people ...
All of them have a special place in my heart.
Blogging bridges gaps between people from all over the world.

But I also feel blogging opens doors ...
And I would like to open the door
to a new photo challenge, I want to host starting next week ...
You can post a picture, but you can also write about it, or both ...
Be creative? I'm really looking forward to this?
I have this "thing" with doors, don't ask me why.
They make me wonder what goes on behind them, the stories they tell.
I never can resist them.
So if you are interested to join this new challenge, just leave me a comment ...



This bridge is in Le Thor, in Provence in France.
I love that warm light of the sunset on the bridge and it's reflection in the water.
If you cross it, you step into the sun, I guess that's why I like it so much ...


Oh and don't forget to visit the others at Alice's place, will you?

Meme time!!

I was tagged with this meme by Andie ....
Here we go!

This is the internet space at the hotel in Morocco


What is your blogging name?

Jientje. I explained why in one of my first posts on this blog.
It's a diminuative for Jane, sort of. You can think of me as Jeany, but call me Jientje?

My little sister Bientje and me, in the study at my appartement.

When did you start blogging, exact date?

I started blogging on Christmas day 2006. (On my Skynet Belgian blog that is.)
I don't think I was one of many that day!
I needed my sister's assistance to get me started, and that was not easy because we do not live across the street from each other anymore. A few minutes before midnight on Christmas day I wrote my very first post! Less than a year later I started my Heaveninbelgium blog on Blogspot.
It was towards the end of Nablopomo that I felt that I did not want to leave my English speaking friends! I used the Nablopomo platform to guide them to my new blog! And they followed me!
I'm very happy for that!

What was your first title?
My first title on that blog was " het kon niet uitblijven" wich means something like " It could not be stopped!"
On this blog it was "I finally did it ... now what?"

Which posting do you feel is the best post so far?
Now that we've found love what are we gonna do with it?
I wrote it when I had just joined 365. I think it's one of the most hilarious posts I have ever written! And everybody admitted it ... every word is true!
Most read according to the stats is "How to make lace".
And I like the meme with the J's too ...

My mom and dad, writing a new entry together.

Who is the source of inspiration for you to blog?
My little sister inspired me to start blogging, I had never heard of a blog before!

My little sister and me, at the hotel lobby in London.

When do you usually post entries ?
I usually write something in the evening the previous day, and edit / post them in the morning.

The hotel lobby in London again, my other sister Lena and me.

Where would you prefer to be when you are blogging?
On my couch with my cat purring next to me.

Have you met other bloggers? Who?
Not in this blogosphere. On my Skynet blog in Belgium I've met several friends already.
The tour at the cathedral I did recently was guided by one of my blogging friends.

My Belgian blogging friend Nana, the first blogger I met in real life.

How many entries you made in a month?
I have posted every day in 2007 on my Skynetblog, I did Nablopomo on the side.
And now I have this blog AND my Skynetblog. I post every day of the year, on both of them!
Yeah!!!! I know!

Would you reveal your face or your family in your blog?
I don't see why not?

This is where I blog.

Would you promote your friends to blog? Why?
No. It's not because I like to blog that everybody has to start blogging!
I prefer meeting new friends, in real life OR in the blogosphere.

Would you feel restless / guilty conscious, incomplete if you didn’t blog for a month?
Oh yes, I would! Although sometimes it's a little bit stressy to produce something entertaining or worth reading every day, it's also very stimulating, so...

Define blogging!
Writing a letter to all of your friends, every day.
Looking forward to read their letters, and receiving their comments.
Meeting new friends along the way...

I'm skipping the tagging bit today, but if anybody is interested, feel free to do one!
Let me know, I'll come and visit!

Tagged ..... again!!!!!!!!!!

I got tagged with a meme again!
I know, I still owe the one Korie tagged me with, at the beginning of Nablopomo!
Shhhhhhhh, I know, Nablopomo was in November, you're so right!!!!
But I didn't even know what a meme was back then!
I had never heard of them before and I already got tagged!
Perhaps I should not have brought this one up any more, but hey ...
I'm always much too honest, I know!
And then there's still the one Andie tagged me with, "seven things I approve of".
She said it would be easy, but it isn't, well at least I don't think it is.
(But I've found the right solution for that one, I think! I am going to tag myself with the one she has published today! It looks so much easier! I hope she approves??

The other one does not inspire me at all, I don't know where to start?
Seven things I approve of?
I looked it up ... the dictionary says, things that I consider good, fair, or right! Sigh!
I am a Libra!!! There is always something good, but then again, there might be some downside to it as well, and I do not approve of everything just like that, you know???
Any Libra's in the audience that can relate to that? How do I solve this? Can anyone help me?
... Sigh!!!
Anyway ...
Christine tagged me yesterday, and I decided to do this one RIGHT AWAY!
If you don't do them at once, you'll find your drawers stuffed with them!

Here’s how it works: Use the first letter of your name to answer each question. Must be places or names…Nothing made up. Can’t use your own name for boy/girl’s name question. If you can’t answer, skip to next one.

1. Famous Singer: That would be a John, or a Jim, or a Joan! Okay, I'll choose Joe ...
Joe Cocker!
I love his raw voice and his spastic moves.
Plus ... he's a real gentleman, you can always leave your hat on!

2. Four Letter Word: Jeez!!!!!

3. Street: Jezusstraat. It's in Antwerp.
One of the first streets I learned to find when I moved there.

4. Colour: Jaune de Joucas. Jaune de Joucas looks like this ...
It's a very special yellow-ish kind of colour.

LOL!!! It's not, I just made that up, but I lost so much time browsing through paint colour collections! Boss, Dulux ... you name them, I've seen them!
Even Martha Stewart's site!

None of their poetic colour names started with a J, so ... I had to use my own imagination.
I know it's against the rules, but I had to come up with something didn't I?
Of course I could also just have said Jade, but that's not nearly as interesting as Jaune de Joucas. Right? Right!

5. Gifts/Present: Just another cookbook!
(Hehehe, I'm getting the hang of this! Whoeahahaha!)

6. Vehicle: This one's easy. A Jeep. I guess if you have to cross a desert to get to work, or a battlefield for that matter, they can be very useful. But since we have none of the above in Belgium, a car like that looks ridiculous to me here.

7. Things in Souvenir Shop: Junk? Or ... "soon to be" junk?
I worked in a souvenir shop once in Bruges! We sold
Manneken Piss corkscrews and all that kind of stuff ...
FYI ... Manneken Piss is very famous in Belgium.
Maybe I should tell you a bit more about him someday ...

8. Boy Name: Jantje. It's like John, only a smaller, Belgian version.

9. Girl Name: Jientje!! Hehehe, I already explained that one earlier!
Shit!! That does not count huh? ( I just read the rules.. a little bit late huh?)
Okay ...
Ahhhmmm, Julie. Julie, we have Julie's over here too!
Julie and her mom shop at the cheese shop where I work every Wednesday afternoon.
Julie it is!

10. Movie title: Jaws. In fact, there are lots of movies named Jaws!
Jaws 1, Jaws 2, Jaws 3, Jaws 3D ... Need I go on?

11.Drink: Judas, it's a Belgian beer.

12. OCCUPATION: Jailor. My father was one. I looked it up...

• The work can be stressful and hazardous.
• Most correctional officers are employed in State and local government prisons and jails.
• Job opportunities are expected to be excellent.
  

13. Celebrity: John Mc Enroe. I used to love to see him get into an argument about the ball!

14. Magazine: Journal de la cuisine. French cuisine.

15. City: Juan les Pins. It's in France, at the côte d' azur. They have an very special event coming up, in the month of february, Pain... Amour et Chocolat.
Translated in English it just does not have that same "zing"! Bread, love and chocolate.

16. Sports: Jumping. I think that it's the only sport I can bare to watch for more than half an hour.

17. Fruit: Junior Pineapple. It's bigger than a baby pineapple, and smaller than a regular one!
Hehehe, clever huh?

18. Reason for Being Late to work: Just as I was leaving the appartment I remembered I still had to feed the cat!

19. Something that you throw away: Junk you bought in a souvenir shop in Belgium
Those Manneken Piss corkscrews perhaps?

20. Something you shout: Jeeeeeeeeeezus!! I did it!!! It's finished!!!


I am tagging .... Julie?
She is the one who gave me those beautiful flowers last week!
I want to take the opportunity to give them to Christine, Sandy and Eve as well!!
Thanks, you're such great friends!!

I'm so excited!

I am a blogger.
I was a blogger in Belgium way before I started blogging here.
I blogged in Dutch there, I still do as a matter of fact!

One day I read a comment in English on a Dutch blog, very unusual, so I followed the link.
It was Kories blog, Lilac specs in my blogroll.
At first I was just lurking, then I became one of her regular readers.
It fascinated me. I started to give some comments.
And then one day, she had a post on Nablopomo.
And I followed that link too. Yes, I know, I'm sooooo nosy!

And then I took the Nablopomo challenge and here I am!! Like it or not!
(Although I think you like it, or you would not be visiting here, right?)
Squishing my grey cells EVERY day, until they produce something worth publishing!
Did I ever think it would be easy? Nooooooooooooooo!
No, I didn't, but I thought it would be fun, and it is!

The atmosphere here is very different to what I'm used to in Belgium.
I don't know if I can ever begin to explain.
I have been exploring this blogosphere now for ... what? Three months?
And it feels like I'm making a cruise around the world.
But not from a tourist's perspective, oh no!
Visiting real people, you know ... people like you and me, in their every day way of living.
I share their sorrows and their pains sometimes, and we make fun together.

Making friends around the world like that is precious to me.
And then to discover that there are actually people out there who like to read my scribblings
is even more amazing to me!
But yesterday I got this award from Sandy...


And the following morning Christine gave me one too!
An award!!!! Two of them!
I have never been awarded before in my life!
Well, needless to say, that did make my day, I don't think you can believe how much this means to me!

Awwww!! I'm so excited!



If you want to know what that sounds like, just click on the radio!
Great huh?
I love it, I'm over the moon!
Thanks!

Now the rules are that I have to pass this on to ten more blogs that make my day.
That's a though one for me, I havn't been around all that long ...
My sign is Libra, can any of you imagine how difficult this is for me?
I'm the girl with the scales here, trying to do the right thing,
and not dissapoint anyone along the way, you know?
My first award is for Korie, after all, if it was not for her, I would never have started blogging in English, so there, she definetely made my day! I like reading her blog too, because she recently moved to Belgium and it's fun to read her view on my home country!
The second is for Alida, she was one of my very first friends on Nablopomo, and we have been keeping in touch ever since.
The third one I give to Astrid. She was also a friend from Nablopomo.
She lost her father in the month of December, that must have been so terrible.
That man was far too young, ... so sad ...
Big hug from me Astrid!
She started blogging again only yesterday, or the day before that, and I'm very glad she's back!
Number four is for the Belgian librarian Chando I also met on Nablopomo! A great blog!
Five, okay ... Kim, in my blogroll as Kim from Tasmania!
I just love the way the frogs rock in her pond overthere, and her "cheers" makes my day ... so,
Cheers Kim!
Six is for Chanpeng. She is an American living in Laos, she has great pictures and wonderful stories from a very different eastern culture.
I think she gets way too little comments for a blog as interesting as this one!
Seven is for another friend from Nablopomo, Andie Summerkiss!
She tagged me, but she still gets one! Keep going Andie!
Eight is for Julie. I find her amazing, she has lived all over the world as far as I can see.
She's currently living in Arizona, she will be moving to Alaska this summer, and she lived near Belgium too once, in Holland! It can't be easy, I admire her courage!
Nine is for Frances. She makes the most amazing pictures around her neighbourhood in ...
New York! She has like three or four blogs, I don't know how she does that, she's a blogjem!
And number ten is for all of you!! Yes, all of you who are my friends, all of you who come to visit me, every day, or just once, it does not matter! I love all of my readers, without all of you there just would not be ... a heaven in Belgium!

I would have given it to Christine, Sandy, and Eve too, but they already have one!
There is Melissa and Smiler, also very good friends of mine, but they are so popular that they will probably get about two dozen of those!
Anyway, like I said ... I love you all!

I love Lucy! ... And I loved your comments!

Oh, I'm having the time of my life here doing 365, meeting new people
and old friends from Nablopomo visiting my blog, and commenting on my posts!
You know, this is what keeps me going, and this is what encourages me the most
... the comments!
Now I would like to comment on .... some of the comments I got recently!
I had so much fun reading them I want to share it with all of you!

Remember the post with the picture of the bread in the oven?
I am aware of the fact, and yeah okay, I'll admit to it.
I was fishing for compliments when I posted this one,
so thanks to all of you sweet people telling me that
I am indeed a domestic godess,
... humbly bowing the head and all that, great!!!
Hmmmm, but the dust bunnies in my house are growing bigger too,
so now I am getting second thoughts on that first part of the title,
the domestic part ... !
Anyway, I loved it! Thanks!
And then Alida's comment brought back a very distant memory to me.
The I love Lucy shows, yes I remember those!
I got curious, went looking on You Tube, and I have found just the right one!
Great!!
So I have posted it here, now you can all enjoy it, it is hilarious!



The last comment was certainly the best one,
.... asking me if I had a BUN IN THE OVEN? Hehehehe, LOL!

Let me tell you ... you know at my age that would not be such a great idea!
I have celebrated my fiftieth birthday last October!
But perhaps you wanted to tell me I still look good huh?
Ewwww, thank you so much for that compliment, hehehehe!!!

Now that we've found love, what are we going to do, with it?

Okay, now we can all start whining :
" OMG, what have I done",
"I wasn't thinking straight", or even
"I did not want to join I just wanted to check it out!"

.... patatee, patatàààà !!

The truth of the matter is, we were all so tempted right from the very minute that e-mail hit our mailbox!
We have given it at least ...
* some
* a little
*a lot
* or some serious THOUGHT,
* maybe lost some sleep over it ( I did!)
before we hit that sign up button!
But the bottom line is, we joined 365, huh?
Okay, okay, I did... I'll speak for myself!

Now what?
Well I know I'm not alone, for starters.

We will pray to God that our computers do not break down.
Maybe in due time we will pray for a temporary lapse of ... internet!
We will swear yeah, we might even curse, if anything does go wrong.
Maybe we will even worship other Gods, begging for inspiration.
By the end of March, we may even post pictures of the content of our refrigerator
( I've seen them do it), or huge piles of laundry!
Right Sandy?
Right!

We will march like Roman gladiators.
We will tag each other to death with meme's and hoopla's or whatever we can think of!
We will whine if we loose our inspiration.
But that's okay, whining is content too!
We will do Wordless Wednesdays and maybe even create **Breathless Fridays, why not?
We will persue our toddlers, grandchildren and even our cats or dogs with our digital camera!
But I guess we already do that huh?
By the end of the year, our fingers will be strangely deformed.
By then our eyesight will have become very poor too!
As long as the men in white coats don't fetch us, we'll be just fine, right?
Right!

Of course we might have to blog in hotel lobby's!
Yeah well, that's not new, I already did that anyway!



We might hate ourselves for signing up for this, but at the same time ...
... we will enjoy it !
Yep!


** Don't steal my title, I might want to do something with it,
I like the sound of that one! I hope it does not exist yet?

All right, who else is up there?

I got this e-mail today :
"Hey, NaBlo members! Anyone interested in an even bigger challenge than posting every day for a month is invited to head over to the Blog365 group, where members will be trying to post every day in 2008."
My God, I never would have imagined it would be so tempting!
I saw Sandy there, went back an hour or two later and saw that Melissa had already joined in on the fun too! I'm sure Smiler and Storyteller will do the same before the night is over!
And I must be going insane even considering it, but I am!
Does anyone have a strategy on this?
I post every day on my other blog, but that's in written Dutch.
That wouldn't count, ... or would it? Does anyone know?
What do you think?
Should I join?

Ssssshhhh!!! Listen.... ???

Shhhhhhh ....!
Listen ....
I think I just heard an enourmous sigh!
Nablopomo 2007 is over, and we've made it!
Not quite yet, I still have to post this, but still!
It was fun doing, I am soooo glad I joined!
I really had no idea where this was going to take me ,
felt like Chistopher Colombus, when it all started!
Or Napoleon, he was from Belgium? I think?
Hahahaha, no he wasn't Belgium did not even exist!
I'm sure he had something to do with it, though?!
Yes well, .... maybe his son then??? ( Just kidding!)

I can see there are some people leaving over there?
Oh nononono, don't worry,
I don't intend to bore any you with the history of my country!
Anyway, like I said, I had a great time,
and I will be counting the days till next November!
I was never in it for the prizes, yet I feel I have already collected mine.
Practising my writing and evolving
from a very self- consious to a reasonably confident little me
in only one month!
Gosh!
Getting a comment like this one : "Keep writing, you seem to have grown some in your english writing, since Nov first. :) "
was also very, very precious to me!
My most beautiful prize is this brandnew blog I have created,
but especially having met some friends who visit it!
I am still working on the blogroll,
so if you're not in it yet, don't worry, I am working on it!
It would not last a week if I had nobody visiting it,
so I am very thankful for that too!

So I will keep in touch with you,
and I hope you'll visit me every once and again on this blog!
I'll try to make it worth your while!
I'll be back with some more pictures on Sunday
for my Weekly Winners entry of the week!

And if you'll excuse me now, I really have to talk to my a cat a little now!
Bye!

I finally did it .... Now what?

Here I am.
I have been thinking about this for days.
Worrying about it , hesitating.... ,
what if I do, and what if I don't?
I started blogging in English on the Nablopomopage.
It started out as a challenge, trying to find out if I could blog in another language than my own.
Post something every day, and meeting new friends who would read it, and maybe leave a comment or two.
I have met some very interesting people there, and now, at the end of November I am afraid I am going to miss them.
I want to keep in touch, post some pictures, and keep practising my writing.
Blogging is like writing a letter to your friends every day.
I'm not sure I am going to be able to post something every day like I did on Nablopomo, but I'll try to add something at least three times a week.
I am still going to add my pictures of the week in the Weekly Winners on sundays, and try to come up with something worth reading at least two or maybe three times a week. There is still a lot I need to figure out to make this an attractive page, but I'm working on it!