We decided to empty our bank accounts this weekend, by indulging ourselves on a relaxation/massage/sauna retreat. Yes, it sounds a bit girly, but there were just as many men there as women, making the most of the facilities.
The day began with Tom's mother being mad at us because it was her birthday and we hadn't arranged anything, so he was in a fouly when he borrowed the car, but then after an hour of driving (and being lost in the Limberg) we found our way to Wellen, and stepped out of the car into peace (something lacking in Belgium!).
It began with us changing into our swimsuits (which didnt remain on for long) and big long bathrobes. Luckily (at the risk of sounding yucky) I had prepared my body the day before hand to be seen again in public in a bikini...! So, then we were taken into the 'pakking' room, where we were covered in some sort of clay mud (nude) and wrapped up in a plastic bag for half an hour. At first, I had a shocking feeling of claustrophia, desperately looking for the panic button while trying to calm myself listening to italian relaxation music. But by the time the girl came back, I was off with the sandman, with a nice trail of dribble pushing its way through the mud!
After we were washed off, we had full body massages - this time it was toms turn to take a nap! He didnt have the chance during the mud-pack as his bladder was pulsing too hard.
Then we proceded to the aqua-palace - 10 different types of saunas/steam baths - a real experience for me. Im not one who was really into saunas, but they had saunas for beginners, and gradually I progressed on to the Turkish steam bath (my personal favourate) and the Finish Sauna (90-100°C. Shockingly warm and a little hard to breathe at first, but managed well in the end.
The only bad part about the day was the traffic jam on the way back. This country has so many freeways, and they are always chockas full of cars, even on a Sunday. We were hoping to see a nasty looking accident, but it just ended up being a couple of cars with light damage, and their owners arguing over the 4 closed lanes.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
It's so clear now that you are all that I have
First things first - have been so slack for not blogging, and in actual fact, am tipsy now and wouldnt blog otherwise! Tom is sleeping in the room next to me and I am still buzzing, so thought I would blog and tell about our last uneventful week!
By the way, am drinking wine from the bottle, so that must be saying something about the evening (or that all our glasses are in the dishwasher...)
Have done absolutely nothing unusual in the last week, and starting to feel a bit sad/lazy. I know it will be this way, probably a lot for the rest of my life, but am not used to it yet. However, had a nice evening tonight. Invited an aussie mate around (someone I met at language school from Geelong) for dinner, him and his Belgian fiancée ended up staying until 1pm, and we had a nice time chatting about the cultural differences. Pity they leave in February... seems to be the story of my life. Oh well, will get used to it, Im sure! Time to take anonther swig at the bottle... Tom has been working like a dog (dunno where that saying comes from - must apply to border collies on a farm, cos I dont really believe the average household labrador works 60+ hours a week and is too buggered to do anything when he comes home...) but he is really keen to begin uni... me too actually...
Apart from the working, nothing much else has happened! We are off to spend a day in a massage/therapy centre tomorrow (to prepare the boy for school, and to pamper the old maid he lives with) so am hoping to feel a bit refreshed afterwards. Now, I am going to brush my teeth and go to bed.
Hope everyone at home (and the friends of mine who aren't...) is happy and well
:)
By the way, am drinking wine from the bottle, so that must be saying something about the evening (or that all our glasses are in the dishwasher...)
Have done absolutely nothing unusual in the last week, and starting to feel a bit sad/lazy. I know it will be this way, probably a lot for the rest of my life, but am not used to it yet. However, had a nice evening tonight. Invited an aussie mate around (someone I met at language school from Geelong) for dinner, him and his Belgian fiancée ended up staying until 1pm, and we had a nice time chatting about the cultural differences. Pity they leave in February... seems to be the story of my life. Oh well, will get used to it, Im sure! Time to take anonther swig at the bottle... Tom has been working like a dog (dunno where that saying comes from - must apply to border collies on a farm, cos I dont really believe the average household labrador works 60+ hours a week and is too buggered to do anything when he comes home...) but he is really keen to begin uni... me too actually...
Apart from the working, nothing much else has happened! We are off to spend a day in a massage/therapy centre tomorrow (to prepare the boy for school, and to pamper the old maid he lives with) so am hoping to feel a bit refreshed afterwards. Now, I am going to brush my teeth and go to bed.
Hope everyone at home (and the friends of mine who aren't...) is happy and well
:)
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Another Ingeism
Well, as you can gather by the title, I pulled another beauty today...
Depending on how well you know me (or even if you dont know me well at all), you may or may not be surprised by the following... Some of you may know, that a few years ago, I had a pterygium scraped off my right eye (dont ask - sun inflicted bonus of coming from CQ), leaving my right eye with slightly less clarity of vision than my left. Over time, I have compensated, adjusting the microscope lenses accordingly, reading with a book close to me etc.
Well, today, just to make my life a little more interesting, I was eating my lunch in the cafeteria (as, funnily enough, I manage every day without a hitch...), and while wiping my mouth with a seemingly innocent serviette, the corner of it decided to infiltrate my open left eye. Considering this is not the first time this has occurred (c'mon, everyone has had a foreign object in their eye at one time or another), I let it go. After lunch, I decided to wash my eye out a few times with physiological water, just to be sure it was cleanish, and proceded to work with 2 blurry eyes. 4 hours later, the irritating sand-paper like 'pain' (for want of a better, less harsh-sounding word) I decided to take a trip to spoed (accident and emergencies - the benefit of working right next to a hospital), and after half an hour of waiting in the 'emergency' (ha!), the optho looked at it, and discovered that I managed to tear my cornea, directly over the pupil, causing slight pain and also blurry vision. Another kook is that a colleague of mine was required to escort me, and she even had the benefit of seeing my tear with the remark 'it looks like a sperm cell'. So, either, a) I am artistic at tearing my cornea, or b) the serviettes in the cafeteria are of the multi-purpose variety...
Ultimately, I have crappy vision in both eyes now, but thankfully the eye is one of those organs which manages to heal itself in 24 hours. Have antibiotics just in case of any other beasts have decided to fly in without my knowing...
Depending on how well you know me (or even if you dont know me well at all), you may or may not be surprised by the following... Some of you may know, that a few years ago, I had a pterygium scraped off my right eye (dont ask - sun inflicted bonus of coming from CQ), leaving my right eye with slightly less clarity of vision than my left. Over time, I have compensated, adjusting the microscope lenses accordingly, reading with a book close to me etc.
Well, today, just to make my life a little more interesting, I was eating my lunch in the cafeteria (as, funnily enough, I manage every day without a hitch...), and while wiping my mouth with a seemingly innocent serviette, the corner of it decided to infiltrate my open left eye. Considering this is not the first time this has occurred (c'mon, everyone has had a foreign object in their eye at one time or another), I let it go. After lunch, I decided to wash my eye out a few times with physiological water, just to be sure it was cleanish, and proceded to work with 2 blurry eyes. 4 hours later, the irritating sand-paper like 'pain' (for want of a better, less harsh-sounding word) I decided to take a trip to spoed (accident and emergencies - the benefit of working right next to a hospital), and after half an hour of waiting in the 'emergency' (ha!), the optho looked at it, and discovered that I managed to tear my cornea, directly over the pupil, causing slight pain and also blurry vision. Another kook is that a colleague of mine was required to escort me, and she even had the benefit of seeing my tear with the remark 'it looks like a sperm cell'. So, either, a) I am artistic at tearing my cornea, or b) the serviettes in the cafeteria are of the multi-purpose variety...
Ultimately, I have crappy vision in both eyes now, but thankfully the eye is one of those organs which manages to heal itself in 24 hours. Have antibiotics just in case of any other beasts have decided to fly in without my knowing...
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Mushy Blog...
Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol
We'll do it all
Everything
On our own
We don't need
Anything
Or anyone
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel
Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life
Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads
I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life
All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see
I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Just thought it may be worth it to mention, Snow Patrol played at Pukkelpop this year (2 weeks ago) and were of the many who suffered the Heathrow luggage crisis. So, while both guys managed to make it to belgium, they arrived with no clothes, and most importantly, no instruments. Now while I'm not the hugest fan of Snow Patrol, I just have to appreciate what the guys did. Instead of going back home, they were leant a couple of guitars, and played their entire set accousticly with nothing but their voices. Have seen it on the TV since and am so amazed. In front of so many people, and in a country where even the smallest groups have great light and sound shows, the two guys looked so tiny on such a big stage in front of 80000 people. Really wished I could have witnessed it. I only wish that they werent always advertised as the 'Favourite Group of Bono'. That doesnt sell it for me...
We'll do it all
Everything
On our own
We don't need
Anything
Or anyone
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel
Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life
Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads
I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life
All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see
I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Just thought it may be worth it to mention, Snow Patrol played at Pukkelpop this year (2 weeks ago) and were of the many who suffered the Heathrow luggage crisis. So, while both guys managed to make it to belgium, they arrived with no clothes, and most importantly, no instruments. Now while I'm not the hugest fan of Snow Patrol, I just have to appreciate what the guys did. Instead of going back home, they were leant a couple of guitars, and played their entire set accousticly with nothing but their voices. Have seen it on the TV since and am so amazed. In front of so many people, and in a country where even the smallest groups have great light and sound shows, the two guys looked so tiny on such a big stage in front of 80000 people. Really wished I could have witnessed it. I only wish that they werent always advertised as the 'Favourite Group of Bono'. That doesnt sell it for me...
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