Gonna have Fun!

Today is my day off.
And I'm off!
I mean, I'm off to Gent, to the festival.
They call it the Gent Festivities,
a week full of entertainment, music, street acts ...
you name it, it's all there, in the streets of Gent.
I am meeting two blog friends, and I think it 'll be fun.
I haven't been to the festival in at least twenty years.

Now, according to my daughter,
when I talked about the festival the last couple of years
I would sound like this ....





I can't remember ever having said anything like that!
On the contrary,
I think it's going to be fun!
See you!!!

PS: I am taking my camera with me!!!

Wordless Wednesday Mirror Mirror ...

( Click to enlarge)

A hatstand at the market of Saint Rémy.
I like the funny reflection in the mirror,
it was not intended, but it's a good capture for
a Wordless Wednesday I think!

Visit more Wordless Wednesday players here ....

It's a Men's World ...

This is a typically French game, called petanque
or "jeu de boules" in French.
I would not really know how to play it, it's really a men's game,
there are usually no women allowed!

Still, if you want to find out more about the game,
click this link.


Every village has a petanque court.



But in the village Saignon, it has a rather weird location ....
It's right next to the cemetery!

Wordless Wednesday/ Project Blue #4

For a Wordless, you need a picture that tells a story, I think.
For Project Blue, you need blue.
I have both in this picture here.
It has been waiting in my archives
for almost a year now!
Oh well, better late than never ...




The only word I want to add here is "lost".


(In case you're wondering, they're street actors, they were not really lost!)

Visit more Wordless Wednesday players here.
For more Project Blue, click here.

Photohunt " Shoes"

This week's theme for Photohunt is "shoes".
Now why on earth do I come up with a building?


The truth is, I don't.
Honest, I have shoes here!
Look closer, look ...

Can you see that second window on the top of this building?
Can you see the black dot?

If you click to enlarge this picture, you'll see what I mean.

I've got shoes here, see?
These pictures were taken in a monastery,
and one of the monks living there
must have had smelly boots!


Don't forget to visit the other Photohunt players!

ABC in pictures .... I is for Ice Cream

I is for ice cream and innocent tourists
who were being ripped off in London ...




Remember how I took a trip to London with my sisters?
My youngest sister and I were having this instant craving
for ice cream when we saw the ice cream car.
We ordered two medium ones because, you know ...
... small ones were just not big enough!
Our greediness got punished, because we had to pay FIVE pounds for them.
We were of course being ripped off as tourists,
five pounds is a lot of money for ice cream isn't it?
My sister Lena told us we'd better enjoy them,
as they must have been made out of liquid gold!
But when I turned around I saw this....

The Tower of London!

This is when I said " but of course sis,
it is a lot of money, but after all,
it IS an ice cream with a view, don't you think?
You have to pay for the view as well, don't you ?


Look?
I snapped a picture of it with the Tower behind it.
Yeah, I know I take pictures of everything, but still ...

We almost wet our pants giggling over this!
At least I got the picture!

The last two pictures were taken by my other sister Lena,
I guess she wanted some evidence of our sillyness?


I know I have told this story before.
It was in the early days of Nablopomo,
but I thought it would be a nice story for I.
I dug it out of the archives,
dusted and polished it a little re-edited it ...
here it is, the most expensieve ice cream ever!


Go over to Quilly's blog
and find out what the other players have posted!

Wordless Wednesday, Absolutely Wordless!

No words needed ...

Well, that's what I thought in the first place,
but reading the comments I think
this does need a little bit of explanation after all!

Trouville is the name of the town where this picture was taken.
It's a town on the Côte Fleurie, Normandy,in the North of France.
I looked up and I saw exactly the same bird on top of that "cartoon".
I thought this was funny, am I the only one?

Don't forget to visit the other Wordless Wednesday players!

Wordless Wednesday Smelly Boots?

Anything unusual here?
No?

How about that second window?
It's open.
Open windows always make me very curious.

Let's zoom in a little ...

Can you see what they are?
These pictures were taken in an abbey.
My guess is one of the monks living there just could not stand
.... the smell of his boots anymore?
I love it when I can capture something like that!

Have a great (Wordless) Wednesday,
and don't forget to visit the other players!


Location: The abbey of Tongerlo at Westerlo, Belgium.

Wordless Wednesday Easter Bunnies in the snow

It's that day of the week again, a day without words...
Wordless Wednesday!

I guess I'll still have to use some.



This is my Easter bunny ...

But my sister's backyard looked like this!


I am sure all of you folks upthere in certain parts of the States or Canada
might think there is nothing wrong with that last picture.
Let me tell you, to us this is very weird!

We have not had any snow all winter. None. At. All.
We had one "white day", but that was not real snow.
But instead of a white Christmas, we are having a white Easter!
That last picture was sent to me by my little sister,
they had a white carpet of snow, and the Easter Bunnies
had to hide the chocolate goodies inside people's houses!


Belgian weather, it's crazy!


Don't forget to visit the other players!
Or join us if you feel like it, it's fun!

The Bells of Rome and the Easter Bunnies

When I was a little girl, we were made to believe that the Easter eggs
were being delivered by huge bells.
Not just any bells, they came all the way from Rome ...
Imagine this ...





I believed that those Roman bells escaped from their towers in Rome
and travelled all the way to Belgium, to my grandmothers back yard.
I even saw them flying over the garden at my grandmother's house once.
A friend of mine had seen a big flock of them actually dropping
the chocolate goodies over at her mother's place.
The huger the bells, the huger the eggs they carried with them.
I got to see them only once though.
From then on, I could only hear them.
I could not see them any more, but I knew they were there ...
... because I heard them, I really did ...
As I grew a little bit older it kind of made me worry a little
that the eggs could get broken
or that they might drop them on somebody's head.
But nobody mentioned any accidents that had happened
so I just assumed those bells knew what they were doing.

Growing up, I learned that some kids had never heard of
the story of the Bells of Rome.
Their Easter eggs were being delivered by Easter Bunnies.
I never gave it much thought.
One day I was old enough to hear the real truth,
and it was my first real dissapointment in life.

A lot has changed since then.
The Bells of Rome and the Easter Bunnies both play
their part in the modern Easter stories ...


My little nephew did have a couple of questions though...
But he has it all figured out ...

Here comes his theory on " who-does-what-and-when"

The Bells still travel all the way to Belgium,
but they drop money instead of eggs.
As soon as the money is dropped,
the Easter Bunnies come out and they collect it.
With that money the Easter Bunnies go out shopping.
( I wish I was a Easter Bunny right now!)
Anyway, they buy toys at the local toy shop,
and then they buy the chocolate eggs at Neuhaus , Leonidas
(or any other good quality Belgian chocolatier.
My nephew insists on good quality, who can blame him?

Okay, when they are done with their shopping the Bunnies
send a message to the Bells of Rome.
The Bells are now hiding somewhere in a secret clocktower in Belgium.
(They probably use their cell phones to send the message,
or they could send an e mail, it's the 21st century after all ... )

Then the bells come back and they sort of beam the eggs up.
( beam me up Scottie?!!!)
They keep them refrigerated in their huge bellies until Easter.
On Easter day they fly over and gently drop the eggs in people's gardens .
That's when the Bunnies come out again.
They are the ones hiding the eggs in the end.


And then the children come out to search them ...
Complicated?
Yes, but it does makes sense, now doesn't it?


Update:
To proove to you that the Bells of Rome really did hide in Belgium until Easter,
I found this picture in my old photoalbum.
It must have been one of the first pictures I ever took in my life.
It was on a shool trip in the Ardennes.

Fridge Friday ... I did it my way...

Dear Fridge Friday people

(and other nosy befriended bloggers and lurkers out there)

After spending the whole night browsing through
You Tube's fridge related video's I have had it!
No really, I mean it.
I have seen it all!
You name it, I've seen it!
Kids, cats and even grown ups hiding in them!
I've seen other people sharing what's in their fridge.
I can see that every week if I want to.
But on video? Really!!
Anyway...

I even saw what happened to Lucy when she got stuck in the freezer.
And then I saw what happened to the hamburger and the fries
from Mc Donalds after more than ten weeks in a glass jar!
You would not want to know, would you?
All right, if you insist go watch that video,
but I'm not putting it on my blog!
Ewww, you know, seeing that made me think ...
It's not the mold that is the most disgusting,
but when even after ten weeks it still has none,
that's when you should worry!

Anyway, what I'm trying to say here
is that this will be our last Fridge Friday.
In case you're a new reader here, they are all here.
You'll understand better if you read them all!
I can't possibly do any better than I did last week.
Just in case you've missed that one, it's here.
It was hilarious, I know.
But that's the whole tragedy of it I think.
One should always know when to stop,
and it's better to do that on a high!
So as from next week I'll have to figure out something else.
It was fun while it lasted ...




**Grammy and I waving goodbye**
Bye!

TheTrinny and Susannah shopping experience

Gosh! I did it!
I finally managed to get my husband into a store to buy some new clothes!
He absolutely loathes shopping for clothes,
it's always the last thing on his things to do list!
The excuses he uses range from " I don't really need anything"
or " I don't have time to go shopping" " Um ... maybe next month"?
It drives me crazy to see his dresser crammed with all this stuff,
but he really has nothing decent to wear!
I have to secretly get rid of some of those dinausaures that live in there.
The last purchase he had made on his own was horrible!
He just grabbed something, no need to even try it on!
It was cheap and that's all he cared to think of!
It was just awful!

And then one day, I ran out of patience.
I dragged him to the store at the end of our street.
No more protesting, I'm the one in charge here!
We were allone in the store, and there was still a lot to choose from,
even though the sales had already been going on for more than a week.
First thing I saw was a nice beige pair of trousers,
a very good basic. It fitted perfectly.
The lady of the store and I got to work.
Trinny and Susannah could not have done it any better.



I found a trendy jacket but my sweet hubby thought it was a little bit too trendy.
Hmmmm, no ... okay?!
"Oh look" he said " what a lovely sweater, I like that one!"
Mmmm, okay ... not bad ... but very beige though?
Different jacket, a couple of matching shirts ...
"Come on, try them on!"
(By then that was a command, no longer a request!)
While Trinny and Susannah kept searching other things
he dissapeared into the fitting room.
That guy was suffering I'll tell you!
We heard him sigh , mumble and murmur ...
But we didn't give in, and we kept searching.
"How about this?"
Not bad, maybe this too?
Oh and this?
I had spotted a different sweater, well in fact the same one
like the beige one, but this one is blue.
VERY blue ...

The curtain opened.
Oh my God, is that really him?
Look at him, my new man!
Gosh!
He saw the blue sweater
(I had already presented it to him ten minutes ago)
and mumbles, not "that blue thing" again!!!
Trinny looks at Susannah, and then we both look at him ...
"I want you to put it on!" I urged him.
Allright he sighs, knowing that he can not disobbey
two determined women.
If it was up to him, half his wardrobe would be navyblue,
grey or beige or brown.
Time for a change!
It looked great.
But he still was not sure.
He kept looking around in the shop, wearing the new outfit.
Another lady and her son walked into the store.
My mister grumpy still mutters ...
"I'm really not sure of that colour.
It does not quite feel right you know!"

I'm getting desperate, he looks great in it!
The lady understands the situation in no time.
She's with me on this one.
And then she says, "the blue sweater is just gorgeous.
The beige one makes you look like a granddad,
but this one is really great!!"
He turns around, looks at me and says ...
" Do you two know each other or what?"
We had never seen each other before in our lives!
Sold! I said!

He dissapears into the fitting room again.
And then I hear his last helpless whisper ...
"All right, okay ... you win.
A haven't got a darn thing to say about it anyway ..."

Two shirts, two sweaters ( yes, the blue one too!)
one trendy jacket and a pair of trousers later ...
I released the hostage ...





But it looks great on him!

Fridge Friday .... The Full Monty!

Okay, I promised you all the Full Monty.
But before we move on to that Monty stuff,
let's do a little bit of explaining, shall we?
I found the following explanation on the origin of that expression:

"It drives Brits nuts when people think ‘The Full Monty’ means stripping, because to a Brit it was a term used for decades and decades before as a catch phrase meaning to ‘go all the way;’ coined by General Montgomery’s cook as the military man always insisted on a full English breakfast before battle."

Breakfast ... fridge ... Okay, makes sense to me ...
Let's go ...




What?
Still not satisfied?
What did you say? It's not what you were looking for?
Well, at least it had a fridge?
Oh you want the REAL STUFF?
Okay, okay, here we go then ...
There ...




Still not right?
OK, let's try this then shall we?
(Click on the radio button to get the complete experience!
I have picked a different version of that same song)

I promised?
Whahahahahaha!

Marché de Provence at Velleron.

Velleron, France. Ten to six in the evening.
The people outside the gate of the municipal parking are waiting patiently.
Some of them have even found a place to sit down
and share some town gossip with a befriended neighbour while they wait.
They all carry huge shopping bags.


The people inside the gate are waiting too.
All of their goods are very neatly displayed on the improvised counters.

The gate is locked.
So the customers outside are locked out ...
and the farmers who come here to sell their produce
... are locked in!
Although I don't think any of them would want to escape?

The guy with the blue trousers holds the key.
He looks at his watch ...
no hurry ...


heads towards the gate.
There used to be a police officer blowing a whistle at exactly 6 PM,
but now he is the one responsible.

He opens the gate at the exact time, and he has to brace himself ...

as the crowd rushes in!
They all want to get in first and be the first one to pick the best products...
There is more than enough to go around
and it's the best quality you'll ever see.
People in the Provence are sometimes very strange.
They never ever rush ...
exept when it comes to food ...

Fridge Friday ... Magic fridge

Grammy sends you all of her love.
Unfortunately, she is feeling a little bit "stuffed" this week,
( my little sister is coming over )
so I have searched a colleague of hers to replace her!





There!
Maybe maybe come back?
Maybe next week?
Hehehehe!

Against all odds?

There's a 12% Chance You've Been Abducted ByAliens

There's virtually no chance you've been abducted by aliens. But there's always hope for the future!

What Are the Chances that You've Been Abducted by Aliens?

I guess I already should have known.
I don't think those Aliens would ever want me.
After all, I have no unexpected nosebleeds, and I don't see any strange flashes of light either!
My mouth tastes perfectly normal, thank you!
I do not dream I'm being operated on,
nor that those wild animals are feasting on my delicious flesh.
That's why it's perfectly normal that I sleep very well at night.
I don't wake up in the middle of the night crying for no reason.
Of course, if I was dreaming about being eaten by wild animals,
I would not be surprised to wake up crying either!
There is no "lost time" in my life that I cannot account for,
exept for the fact that there just are not enough hours in my day...

See?
I'm a perfectly normal human being.

Oh well, I guess I can live with that.
I'll just have to find something else to blog about!

Fridge Friday!!! The make over

How fast time flies huh, Friday again!
Where's the rest of the week gone to?
Fridge Friday, although I think I might be the only one this week?
Where is everybody?
Anyway, I was alone last night, and I had a long conversation with Grammy!
Grammy?
Yes! Grammy!
Oh yes, you've already met her I guess, but you didn't know her name?




Say hi to Grammy, because she's a very shy fridge you know!
She's a European fridge and that means she's very sensitive ...
oh, and just a teeny weeny bit old fashioned too!
Of course, at her age, she's allowed to be the kind of ... per.... fridge that she is!
She's done a terrific job! She has been with us for quite a number of years now.
And she's still not thinking of retirement, why would she?

She's just not up to that photoshooting business, she told me!
In fact it almost freezes her to think I would show her insides on the internet like that?
She's had some issues on that one before,
I don't think I'd want to scare her any more than I have to!
She complained that she looked very messy, so I gave her a good clean last night.
I know I know, it was Valentine's day but my husband had to work,
and what is a girl supposed to do on Valentine's night when she's all alone in the house?
Talk to the fridge, clean ... oh and blog of course!
Right!
Exiting huh?
Anyway ...
I have removed all of the expired stuff that was bothering her!
I even took a picture of it! Look ...

A note from the pharmacy telling me they are going to be closed
.... until the fifth of january!
Yikes!!!
Disgusting isn't it!
And a pizza hut coupon expired 3/12/07!!!
Gross! Yuck!

Anyway, I gave her a complete make-over!
She now looks like this, great huh?

Okay, okay, now you'll all want to know what is up there?
Take a closer look...


From left to right:
I love magnets, and I collect them, but using them on the fridge is not always such a great idea, as some of them tend to drop off and break sometimes!
So I'm mostly trying to use the unbreakable ones.
The red one with the cat has a cute quote: it says "Nine lives and I had to choose this one!"
The other one says " People who do not like cats were probably mice in their previous life!"
They were gifts by a friend of mine who takes care of my cat sometimes!
Since it was Valentine, I decided to put the Valentine cards up too.
The red card says "I love you so much", and the one next to it is the one my husband gave me.
And of course it has the same message!


Above the badge with Gram's name ( we changed it to Grammy later!)
is a sad little magnet that misses a piece, illustrating why I prefer to use unbreakable ones!
A little bag of basil seeds, to be sown when summer comes,
is a present from my Dutch blogging friend.
A garbage callendar, that's the red and green one.
This one has to stay up there for the rest of the year! Ewww!
Left of it is there's a drawing by my nephew, whose birthday it is today!
Forgot to send a birthday card again, I'm always late with them!
The cook's hat magnet is one his sister Paulien made for me. It's very unique, I love it!
The green ones are from the flower shop, reminding you to buy flowers on a Friday!
Flower Friday, oh I kind of like that!
Underneath the hand magnet it are some recipes I plan to make in the near future .
And the little furry bear on top I bought in Spain, he's cute!
It's not a bear, it's a lion actually but I didn't notice it when I bought it!
There! What do you think?
Any more questions?

Fridge Friday!!! Ain't she .... cute?

Okay, it's Friday, and on Fridays one is supposed to show the inside of his/her fridge!
I'm trying to give in to all of you, constantly begging to me to "please,
... please please open that fridge!"
But sadly, you haven't begged me enough yet, so this week you're only getting
this very old picture of my cat robbing the fridge!
It was more than a decade ago, unfortunately she's no longer with us...
She was our first and our favourite cat.

She was an exellent fridge burglar.
She opened it and stole whatever was inside that could tempt the delicate palate
of a Siamese Blue Point "cat"!



I caught her redhan ... no, this is not right.
Redfooted? Redpawed?
How should I describe this?
Anyway, this is my Fridge Friday for this week!
Cute huh?

An off day on your day off ....

Having an off day on your day off , disgusting isn't it?
There are a million things I planned to do.
I was really looking forward to today.
Clean a little.
Maybe step outside, take a walk or something.
Go to the bank.
Maybe do some shopping.
Write a blogpost or two.
At the end of the day I ended up with a list of things I didn't do. Duh!
Didn't make up the bed, didn't iron those shirts ...
So I just started to write this post ...
Trying to count my blessings for today...

Well, I did some vacuuming. Ok, that counts as cleaning, doesn't it?
I struggled all morning to do the Fun Monday assignment.
Finally managed to get it up, and then wrote a post for my other blog.
Okay, that's two right?
Right.
I am writing this one now, so that would be number three for today, OK.
You know what, I'm feeling better all the time, writing this ...
So I did take a bath this afternoon ... lazy, lazy...
So I did take a nap?
So what, it was my day off wasn't it?
I watched some television. Lazy, lazy ...


Didn't get out, and didn't get to go to the bank.
So what?
I cooked dinner?
Maybe I could manage to put those dishes in the dishwasher now?
Think I can do that. In fact, I'll go do it right away ...

****

I'm back!
The cat has puked.
On the plaid on the couch! Yuck!
Can't leave it like that either.
I bet she did that just to make me feel better huh?
Okay, okay ... Sigh!


Back again! The plaid is clean, I even vacuumed it to get rid of the hair!
Maybe I'll give the floor a quick rinse with that soapy water?
And iron those two shirts while I'm at it?

*Two hours later*
There! I'm back again!
Did the shirts, the living room AND the kitchen floors, and cleaned the bath on my way out.
Cleared up the kitchen, programmed the dishwasher ...
Warmed some soup for my husband.

As it turns out, I'm very happy with my day after all!
Ahhhh, those little joys in the life of a housewife!


( This post was written yesterday evening, between seven and nine PM.)

Fun Monday A bucket full of dreams?

Well, it's Monday again, and it's supposed to be ...
Fun Monday ...

But here I am wrestling with thoughts and words, all morning!
So here's the assignment...
Today's host is Tiggerlane. Go visit some of the other players there as well and make sure to leave them a comment!

Have you heard of The Bucket List? Well, that's what I want from you! Make a list of things you want to do before you die. It must be at least five items - and you can make it as long as you desire. Photos are optional. And let's hear about some of the wackiest, most bizarre to-do's on your Bucket List!

I'm really not in the mood for some heavy philosofical stuff.
You know, the way I look at it is like that famous Forrest Gump one-liner:
" Life is like box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"

What's the point of filling a bucket full of dreams?
Feeling unhappy if you never get to achieve them?

I am happy the way I am.

I prefer living life one day at a time.
One step at the time.
Smile.
Breathe.
Laugh.
Cry maybe?
The only thing I hope for is that I'll allways be able to cope.
Whatever happens.
And still find something to laugh or smile about, each day ...
A day you haven't laughed, is a day you haven't lived ...

Just remember life isn't always easy.
Wrapping those chocolates wasn't all that easy either!