Yes, humanity could be better, but at this moment in my life, I am happy and would like to relish in it before I start doubting this again.
This has been a long (super long) weekend for many a Belgian (myself included) as tomorrow (Tuesday) is Labour day and I chose to 'make the bridge' between the weekend and tuesday and 'profiteer'! The humans have begun turning their televisions off and stepping outside of their little houses since the sun has returned to this small part of the world, hence an excuse to catch up with all the friends/family (while the time permits). Saturday we ate until we were sick at a barbecue, yesterday we ate until we were sick at a restaurant with the family (including Pepe and Rosa), today I updated my wardrobe (despite the constant nagging thought that I actually didnt NEED any of the pretty clothes made in over-filled asian sweatshops probably sewn by toddlers) and tomorrow we are heading to an amusement park (Holland's equivalent to Disneyland but on a much smaller scale!).
Most importantly about today is that I had a wonderful time with a friend I have made on my own. Sad as it is, the older I am, the more difficult I have found to make friends. I am so grateful for my friends from highschool, university (namely those with the one-syllable names!) and working life in Australia - but 3 years into being in Belgium I have met a fellow 'dag/Belgian Inge' and feel so lucky!
Monday, April 30, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Small word problems...
Just a short one to mention the latest language problem I have been dealt with....
For fun, I call colleagues by (what I thought were) endearing names - for example - mama martine (self explanatory), or
schatti-lou (cutie-lou) for Nathalie, Beffy for stefanie and Befke for Jeff (notice how the last two are almost the same...) - Imaging my shock when I found out that the word 'Beff' (or Beffen to be more precise) is the verb in dutch for 'the act of a female being gone down on' or cunnalingis! (Notice how polite I write this - I could use a more descriptive definition, but wish to convince my parents that I am not completely marginal!) Once again, I have used this incredibly inappropriately, and it wasnt until someone else laughed at my familiarity with a male colleague (which I thought was harmless...) that I picked up on it.
They should be smarter like the english speakers and choose a word for this 'action' which doesnt rhyme with a relatively common name...
Dunno if it beats the use of the verb vingeren (fingering) to my boss by accident when I meant to use the plural for fingers... (many plurals end in 'en').
For fun, I call colleagues by (what I thought were) endearing names - for example - mama martine (self explanatory), or
schatti-lou (cutie-lou) for Nathalie, Beffy for stefanie and Befke for Jeff (notice how the last two are almost the same...) - Imaging my shock when I found out that the word 'Beff' (or Beffen to be more precise) is the verb in dutch for 'the act of a female being gone down on' or cunnalingis! (Notice how polite I write this - I could use a more descriptive definition, but wish to convince my parents that I am not completely marginal!) Once again, I have used this incredibly inappropriately, and it wasnt until someone else laughed at my familiarity with a male colleague (which I thought was harmless...) that I picked up on it.
They should be smarter like the english speakers and choose a word for this 'action' which doesnt rhyme with a relatively common name...
Dunno if it beats the use of the verb vingeren (fingering) to my boss by accident when I meant to use the plural for fingers... (many plurals end in 'en').
Monday, April 23, 2007
You think that I could muster up a little soft-shoe devil sway?
Another blog - so new photos to post!
Had another jam-packed weekend - home for about 2,5hours in total (just enough time to skype and get changed!). But before I mention anything else, I want to say that it was so wonderful to chat to 'miss piggy' again! I had almost forgotten how fantastic you are to chat to, and am so grateful that I have a friend like you! Cant wait to see you again when I am in town!
Moving on... Saturday I volunteerd to help the De Meyere children with a trash and treasure type market at their primary school. They made a grand total of €22,75 which was pretty good considering most of their old toys had a price tag of around 10c! I have just enclosed some pickies of the 'baby' from when I first started babysitting (actually, she was a little older than 1 in the first photo) and one from the weekend. She is growing way too quickly, but has turned into a little madame (my favourite is the frequent use of the word 'zot!' - meaning 'are you crazy?!)
After this, I had around half an hour to get changed into my sexiest naughty clothes (which turns out not to exist in my wardrobe - mental note to self to do some more shopping!) for a girls night out with Jake, Anatronic and the rest of the scissor sisters. Nathalie (one of my colleagues) discovered a pile of incredibly disco-style sunnies, so we decided to accessorise with these (as though we didnt look silly enough). After some miscommunication with busses, we walked 45 mins to the hall, danced for 2 hours, then attempted 45 minutes back to Hasselt. By this stage, my feet were in pure agony, so I took off my delicious FM boots, and walked to the city in my glowing-white sport socks (quite a look - thank god I was holding onto the camera!).
Crashed in bed somewhere before the time of the flatulating sparrow, and woke up on Sunday preparing for the 10miles of Antwerp. No, I had no motivation to run, but we cycled a good 30km yesterday and today my calves are killing me (not sure if this is a result of the heels/walking bare foot/cycling). In any case, I did some good calory burning, alongside Tom's dad who did run in the race (tom not, much to his huge disappointment - still probs with his knee...).
Next weekend is brunch with the Pepe... Time to replace all of the calories I burned this weekend!
Had another jam-packed weekend - home for about 2,5hours in total (just enough time to skype and get changed!). But before I mention anything else, I want to say that it was so wonderful to chat to 'miss piggy' again! I had almost forgotten how fantastic you are to chat to, and am so grateful that I have a friend like you! Cant wait to see you again when I am in town!
Moving on... Saturday I volunteerd to help the De Meyere children with a trash and treasure type market at their primary school. They made a grand total of €22,75 which was pretty good considering most of their old toys had a price tag of around 10c! I have just enclosed some pickies of the 'baby' from when I first started babysitting (actually, she was a little older than 1 in the first photo) and one from the weekend. She is growing way too quickly, but has turned into a little madame (my favourite is the frequent use of the word 'zot!' - meaning 'are you crazy?!)
After this, I had around half an hour to get changed into my sexiest naughty clothes (which turns out not to exist in my wardrobe - mental note to self to do some more shopping!) for a girls night out with Jake, Anatronic and the rest of the scissor sisters. Nathalie (one of my colleagues) discovered a pile of incredibly disco-style sunnies, so we decided to accessorise with these (as though we didnt look silly enough). After some miscommunication with busses, we walked 45 mins to the hall, danced for 2 hours, then attempted 45 minutes back to Hasselt. By this stage, my feet were in pure agony, so I took off my delicious FM boots, and walked to the city in my glowing-white sport socks (quite a look - thank god I was holding onto the camera!).
Crashed in bed somewhere before the time of the flatulating sparrow, and woke up on Sunday preparing for the 10miles of Antwerp. No, I had no motivation to run, but we cycled a good 30km yesterday and today my calves are killing me (not sure if this is a result of the heels/walking bare foot/cycling). In any case, I did some good calory burning, alongside Tom's dad who did run in the race (tom not, much to his huge disappointment - still probs with his knee...).
Next weekend is brunch with the Pepe... Time to replace all of the calories I burned this weekend!
Sunday, April 15, 2007
In the summertime, when the weather is
After a notable absence, I have decided to update the blog with what has been happening here since the weather decided to take a turn for the better! Now, we are having 20°C+ days (yes, that may seem like winter in australia, but here it is the return of the white leg and time to put on that one pair of sandals...)
So, we have been, once again, enjoying food, wine and lots of bike riding!
To mark the beginning of the summer, I decided to cook whole fish for Tom and myself - which to a girl who grew up on the coast, was no biggy - you learn how to scale and clean a fish, stuff it (if necessary) and most importantly, eat it so that the backbone remains intact. Poor tommy hadn't yet learnt these principles, and was a little frustrated with enduring the gag reflex every few bites. But, at least he enjoyed the veges...!
Then, last night, Tom's mother was getting itchy feet to go out somewhere in the city, so we all decided on 'Restaurant Fez' and enjoyed a full Maroccan experience! Little did we know that our very own belly dancer would come out and give us a semi-private show. The only problem was that she was so close, and I actually didnt know where to put my eyes! But I suppose, she had a fantastic body, and knew how to move it, so we all just watched!!
After nearly 3 years, am still not yet accustomed to the temperature difference between day and night. Here, the entire day + night has a range of around 5°C. So, when I dress up in the evening, I tend to overdo it, expecting that it will be colder when the sun goes down. Mental Note - Sweat marks are not a fashion statement in the evening!
On top of this, my lovely bike, Lulu is back in action, and I am enjoying every moment of it! After many a wasted hour, we changed her rear inner tyre last Friday, went for a ride, and had a fresh new puncture! So, we went to the bike store, bought some new patches, and attempted to fix this ourselves. Stupid man at the store didnt feel that it was necessary to tell us that you needed glue as well! So, I zoomed off to the hardware (in Gust - no way I was going to ride a bike with a flat tyre again!) and found the glue, and after 2 hours of trying, we finally mended the hole! So since the beginning of April, I have been riding around 20km a day - this also includes one wrong turn somewhere along a highway and ending up on a BMX track - ok for tom's bike, but on a granny bike like mine, not entirely so practical! All that sand is just nasty!
So, we have been, once again, enjoying food, wine and lots of bike riding!
To mark the beginning of the summer, I decided to cook whole fish for Tom and myself - which to a girl who grew up on the coast, was no biggy - you learn how to scale and clean a fish, stuff it (if necessary) and most importantly, eat it so that the backbone remains intact. Poor tommy hadn't yet learnt these principles, and was a little frustrated with enduring the gag reflex every few bites. But, at least he enjoyed the veges...!
Then, last night, Tom's mother was getting itchy feet to go out somewhere in the city, so we all decided on 'Restaurant Fez' and enjoyed a full Maroccan experience! Little did we know that our very own belly dancer would come out and give us a semi-private show. The only problem was that she was so close, and I actually didnt know where to put my eyes! But I suppose, she had a fantastic body, and knew how to move it, so we all just watched!!
After nearly 3 years, am still not yet accustomed to the temperature difference between day and night. Here, the entire day + night has a range of around 5°C. So, when I dress up in the evening, I tend to overdo it, expecting that it will be colder when the sun goes down. Mental Note - Sweat marks are not a fashion statement in the evening!
On top of this, my lovely bike, Lulu is back in action, and I am enjoying every moment of it! After many a wasted hour, we changed her rear inner tyre last Friday, went for a ride, and had a fresh new puncture! So, we went to the bike store, bought some new patches, and attempted to fix this ourselves. Stupid man at the store didnt feel that it was necessary to tell us that you needed glue as well! So, I zoomed off to the hardware (in Gust - no way I was going to ride a bike with a flat tyre again!) and found the glue, and after 2 hours of trying, we finally mended the hole! So since the beginning of April, I have been riding around 20km a day - this also includes one wrong turn somewhere along a highway and ending up on a BMX track - ok for tom's bike, but on a granny bike like mine, not entirely so practical! All that sand is just nasty!
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Weekend in Durbuy
The weekend is almost over, and we are back home just relaxing inside (which is absolutely stupid due to the fantastic weather outside...).
We took a drive to Durbuy (around an hour and a half from here) and attempted the ropes course - all 4 levels with some success! Although, at the end of the 4th level, we were struggling a little! Have included some pickies (and hopefully my video upload worked) and realise how deceptive they appear! We were actually 10 metres+ up in the trees...
After this, we made our way to Ciney and stayed in a restored farm house. We ended up eating a 4 course dinner, drinking ourselves silly (thanks to the locals) and crashing at quite an early hour! My only regret is that we cant do something like this every weekend.
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