Shake that thing miss Annabella

After realising that 2010 has come and gone, and I have not updated our blog, I thought it was time to publish the highlights (and lowlights) - if not for anyone else, for us for future reference...

The first of our wine trips with the gays - We went to the Aars region in Germany (great Riesling and white wine) at the end of winter and did quite a bit of hiking through sludgy snow. Regrettably the cafe at the top of the mountains was coincidentally closed on the day we were trekking which didn't keep us in good spirits, but we stocked up on the wine while we were there...



May 2010 - with Tom's father quite sick, and Bie working quite a lot with little time off, I decided to go with Maarten to Croatia (Dubrovnik - staying in Cavtat). One of the most beautiful countries - dirt cheap, not yet in the EU, and slightly ruined. Am not entirely sure why, but I have the feeling that the war may have something to do with it. Maarten and I rented scooters for a day and just went where the wind blew us. We ended up crossing the border into Montenegro (back into the Eurozone), but were more impressed with the landscape Croatia had to offer.

Suzi and Glenn visited us in April 2010, so we took them on a bike ride through Antwerp, then a boat trip through Brugge as newly engaged sweethearts. Am bummed to have missed the wedding last weekend, but was quite happy to get to spend time with them while they were here...
Once again, in April 2010, I ran 5km, this time recruiting a couple of colleagues and a dear friend, Sabien. This time breaking the half hour barrier (well, 29:29 is only just, but good enough!!)

I gave up a free ticket to Rock Werchter to see the flash of lightning known as the Tour De France fly through Kontich. The ambiance was fantastic despite only seeing the cyclists for a second...

My parents came over again for a visit (seeing more of Europe than I ever will) but between all of their travelling, they decided to visit us. Mum went home early, and dad stayed on, so we decided to do a road trip through Germany and up to Denmark. This first picture was on the afsluitsdijk in northern Holland - the largest Dyke in the world (and the bloody windiest!). Which one is dad??


Once we arrived in Rige (on Jutland/Jylland - the mainland part of Denmark) and marvelled at its beauty (the oldest city in Denmark), we considered legoland until discovering it wasn't opening until the following weekend (I should have researched this a little better...). Then Dad decided to call the family farm he and mum worked on in 1971, and to his amazement, they remembered him and invited us up! We had a fantastic time there, and they even found this old photo of him with a few of the kids of the other workers!

After leaving Farso in north Jutland, we drove south, and briefly saw the Island of Funen (Fyn) before crossing the most enormous (not to mention expensive!) bridge across to Zealand (Sjaelland). We met up with Dad's cousin Bente at her beach house in Kalundborg (being november in Scandinavia, I wasn't really up for a dip), and met her new boyfriend. I have never seen such an in-love 70 year old!


We then drove on to Copenhagen and it reminded me quite a lot of most European cities, but the Danes were fantastic and friendly people! Funnily enough, we went on a bus tour, and the most famous icon of Denmark (the little mermaid) was on holiday in china. So, after missing Lego land, this was a bit of a bum! I did learn a little about the hippy part of Copenhagen (Kristiana) which was eye-opening...


The inevitable trip to tram-3 (as they put it in Flemish) was planned for 5 dec 2010, but I decided to have a combined party with Philippe to celebrate in november. Kym and Benj even decided to haul their 30-31 year old bodies over the channel to see us once again!

More highlights to come...!

Shouting lager lager lager lager

Now that a busy week of concerts is 'achter de rug', I am sure Tom and myself will be suffering some sort of dip!

The week began on the 10th of November, taking me to see Natalia (very poppy - not my style of music, but good company) with a group of colleagues, allowing us to shake our bums around a little and try some unique style of dancing. This was a lot of fun, and an ok show. Thankfully, tuesday was a public holiday(rememberence day gets an entire day in europe... not just one minute at 11am!).

Saturday, after  a little midday nap, and a shot of Guarana at 8pm, Tom and I found ourselves in Gent, meeting up with Benj and a whole wod of others (we had a group of 9 in total) for one of the biggest dance festivals in Europe: I love techno. FINALLY I had my chance to see Underworld live, and they definitely lived up to my expectations! We started off the evening in the 'blue room' with Hot Chip, LA Riots and Digitalism, before having a quick break in the chill-out lounge with our free water (a great initiative if you ask me!), before making it over to the red room (lucky we got in for the headlining act). The only regret was that we missed out on seeing Justice in the orange room (the room had a limit of 5000 and was full before Underworld had finished) But after a full 8 hours of dancing, I think we were all completely satisfied with what we experienced!

The red carpet arrival with Claudia, Tom, Valerie, myself, Benj and Johnno

Somewhere around HotChip with Benj, Tim, myself, Tom and a few randoms

The end of the Underworld Show. The born slippy .nuxx climax was just superb! I don't know how those guys find all that energy after nearly 30 years of performing (yes, probably something synthetic in the shape of a small circle is involved!)

The end of the evening. Completely buggered and chugging down the water!

Sunday saw a relaxing sleep-in, followed by a trip to Brussels to see one of the most spectacular groups I have ever seen live: Sigur Ros. They seem to have created their own genre of music, and play such an eclectic repetoir, that I for one was never bored and longing for more!

On the family front, Emme is now in Salamanca, attending language classes for a couple of weeks, to develop a basic knowledge of spanish, and mum will be here in 4 weeks. Looking forward to seeing them both!

This is our decision, to live fast and die young.

November appears to be the month of concerts...

While I am a mad MGMT fan, we werent quite on time to get tickets for them, but this is hopefully for the best due to the timing of their show...

Emme arrives on wednesday (22 Oct), and Tom and I will be at the airport with bells on awaiting her arrival! A week later, I will be living a decadent life-long dream witnessing the artistic work displayed by the cirque du soleil. However, November is appearing to be the ball-breaker for this little Aussie: Firstly, I will be heading to the sportpaleis in Antwerpen to see Natalia (very famous Kylie Minogue Belgian equivalent) with the colleagues on teh 10th of November. Fortunately enough, the 11th is a holiday here... The 15th brings a huge party in Gent (with some of our friends in the UK driving over for it) also known as I love techno. However, the 16th November has been long booked with our faves: Sigur Ros. Don't know how our poor bodies will handle this, but fortunately, we couldn't make it to MGMT on the 14th of Nov, otherwise Sigur Ros would be an absolute disaster.

AM so excited for the following weeks... Such a social agenda again, before I start studying again...! No complaining this end however!

x

Sæglópur, á lífi

With incredibly poor attempts trying  to squeeze in a little study, August has proven to be a great month so far (though wet and full of electrical storms!). We had another date with Anna (as Sabien has been frolicking around the pyrenees) and went  to a free show from a South American Theatre company (we think... - Spanish speaking in any case) to see Tony Travolta. Basically a sort operetta/musical (very little spoken text - mostly singing) but Tom and I were entertained the whole way through (despite little pitter patters of rain). Anna was a little more critical, but she has far more theatre experience than us, so she was probably right!
Sunday brought us some Aussie visitors, at the beginning of their European tour: Nicky and Liz. Such lovely guests and open to new Belgian specialties in the way of beer, waffles and schnapps. We made the most of "Zomerbar" (also with Anna) and the free movies playing on the Schelde (river passing through Antwerp). The movie showing for us on Sunday was "Road to Guantanamo" so not a nice happy flick for the new visitors, but the location was fantastic (sand hills built in an old hangar with a screen and projector) but sand can be quite hard on your bum after a few hours... Am going back on Sunday to see Little Miss sunshine again, and on Wednesday for No Country for Old Men (have become a late starter in the Coen Brothers cult followers).
Just thought I would include another from Tony Travolto - was very impressed!

Ik wil je, blijf bij me, hou van me, ga nooit meer weg

Constant festivals here in the summer... on the last day of July we went to the Casablanca festival in Hemiksem (not far from where we live) which was completely free and full of music (and of course good company!). Bloody hot mind you, so when the rain started around midnight, we didn't mind the cold shower for the walk back to the car!

Nita and Natalie came along for a while (although I think Natalie was more interested in the jumping castle than the music - lucky for her, her mum is short enough to go on with her!)
It took place in a large field near an old abby, so the view was quite spectacular. As the sun went down, the entire abby was lit up - where the monks get their money from, I don't know (they don't brew the beer anymore...) I was quite happy too since they sold Ricard at this festival!
We spent most of the night with the Van den Broeck family (Martine is a colleague of mine and a good festival attender). So, Tom couldn't resist putting another child on his shoulders to get a good view, while the rest of us just gasbagged our way through the evening.

Tomorrow am off to another free concert, and Sunday brings some australian guests! Dunno what I am going to show them, but will do my best to flaunt Antwerp

Everything.... in its right place

As does every other year, July brings Tom's birthday. But as the summer is always full of events, we had to squeeze in a small gathering on Sunday last week (after most of us had been to a barbecue the night before). So I managed to bake a cake and little blueberry muffins, and decorate the house with kiddy decorations (you may see a sign of bumba and balloons) and lit 27 candles (litereally) for the big child. I think he was quite happy, and luckily for us, the sun shone on and off, so we even had the opportunity to sit outside!

Natalie was the only guest under 27, but certainally was dressed to look sophisticated enough, and with my sunglasses on, was quite a little number!

Tom opening his box of goodies received from Philippe, Jan, Geert and Dave.

This weekend, the men are deep in the Ardennes (close to Luik/Liege) for Tom's adventure bucks weekend. Have heard all sorts of rumours from his friends as to what they have planned for him, but will be sure to hear about it tomorrow evening. In the meanwhile I am a lady of leisure this weekend, enjoying the 30°C sunshine. I hope he brings back some photos - will be sure to post them!

No no, no no no no, no no no no, no no there's no limit

The weekend is not quite over, but here are some shots of our long awaited trip up to visit the Vellinga-Chan mixed-race household in Oegstgeest (Leiden), Holland. We had recently discovered that their eldest son (Kaemon) had a fascination with the word tractor, so didn't have to think too hard for a gift he would like. However, considering that everything is tractor (including his baby brother, Nelson), I am not sure if it was the tractor or the gift which made him happy...!
We were treated to some delicious indian (made by the hostess) and then took a drive to Noordwijk (the beach - much nicer than the belgian variety!). Since Nelson is only a month old, he had the special treatment of coming with us (while Kaemon was safely tucked in bed). Here is a nice shot of Kelly and Nelson while waiting to meet up with Douwe.

Douwe with Kaemon (and tractors)

Saturday lunch brought us to Den Haag to enjoy some very authentic Dim Sum (equipped with very kitch interior and tacky karaoke - the only way to eat your Dim Sum). VERY tasty!

Student Parties at the VUB...

The goup - predeparture

Tom and Louis trying some new moves

Enjoying Nirvana Nevermind with Louis

Happy couple at the end of the evening

The theme: 70s, 80s and 90s. The crowd: students from the VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Tom's uni). The venue - a tent in the carpark of the campus in Etterbeek. So Tom and I took a trip down memory lane - me with my BYO bottle of smirnoff and a carton of OJ to get myself in the mood before we made it to the party. This didn't take too long considering my tolerance to hard liquor not really being tested in the last years. But it still tasted quite good! We started off with a group of psych/criminology and engineering students, but the latter group quickly wrote themselves off (yes, engineers are the same EVERYWHERE!) and the rest of us enjoyed a bit of boogying to the sounds of ABBA, BeeGees, Nirvana, Eurythmics and the rest is a big blur of beats and light. Got home around 4 (quite early I guess for a student party!) but I was prepared in advance with taking the day off today!

We have purchased all the stationary required for the invitations, so hopefully they will be signed sealed and delivered quite soon (to the belgian folk in any case!)

Four to Go

It is now official in e-mail print - Tom has satisfactorily made it through his first year - with flying colours!

From my point of view, it has been a long and quite tough year (less socialising, tighter strings on the food budget) but with that said, I wouldnt change anything about it. I am living with a very happy guy, who thrives at university and is constantly excited with what he has learnt. Giving up some slight luxuries really doesnt matter at all when we can still survive luxuriously (we have a roof over our heads; warm, clean water; food never runs out) so let me say to the next 4 years - Bring it on!

Onto London... we took our first trip underneath the channel (previously we have just flown to heathrow in transit to somewhere else) on the Eurostar (comes highly recommended) taking us roughly 2,5 hours to reach Waterloo station. We were some of the last passengers to travel to waterloo - from November on, the Eurostar will be travelling to and from St Pancras (I think...).

We were in all of our Autumn (for tom, Winter) glory, and greeted by a stunningly summery Kym (won't forget that lovely Cretan dress!) and a suited up Benj in a 35°C tube station. Poor Tom was being chivalrous to carry the backpack and wear his winter woolies standing up in an overcrowded tube at 11pm! BUT despite sounding negative, this was a great start to a lovely weekend because we knew that it was at least slightly warmer in London than in Belgium!!

Our hosts had all the drinks and nibblies waiting for us in their apartment in Wapping, along with the necessary oyster card (for the tube)! So while we didnt go out on the Friday evening, we still managed to drink a bottle of champagne and too much wine sitting on their terrace. The following day was to lead me to a long lost cousin - Ingelise (see any difficulties in this family with two people going by the name of Inge?!) and her hubby, Peter at the burrough markets (near the London Bridge tube stop). With that said, I dont even know which one of the bridges is london bridge! The only interesting looking structure going over the Thames was the millenium bridge (for padestrians only as far as I could tell). So we all enjoyed a nice brunch overlooking the market followed by a nice leisurely stroll along the Thames. This walk included:
-a pirate ship (they seem to be everywhere!),
-the Tate Modern art museum
-the Globe theatre (for Shakespear enthusiasts),
-2 Dali exhibits
-the London Eye
-View of Big Ben
and probably more which I have already forgotten. We crossed the bridge alonside Big Ben which found ourselves in Westminster. This is where ALL of the monopoly names were! Peter even mentioned that they run a Monopoly Pub Crawl in London, and he made it all the way to Leicester Square. I knew that if I went, I am sure I would have been flat on my face somewhere around Pall Mall...

That evening we dolled ourselves up and had a yummy Indian dinner in Soho followed by our engagement present from Kym and Benj - tickets to the theatre to see Avenue Q. (more for my benefit, but Tom had a blast!). I thought it was a great - slightly naughty - show! This followed by a stroll to Leicester Square to catch up with a really old friend, Evan proved to be an amazing day.

Risking long blog territory... Sunday was to be the Aussie BBQ day (calling in a few expat friends in London, some currently living in Sweden, others we all knew from uni days). Everything was running to schedule - beautiful salads, piles of meat, a fresh gas canister, an unused barbecue.... when we discovered, on sunday that the gas canister didn't fit with the Barbecue fittings... a moment of panic for us all... should we go to the pub? What the hell do we do with all of this food? So while Kym and I downed a bottle of Vodka, we let the night sort itself out, and it turned out beautifully. Somehow, the sane and sober people took charge of cooking lovely little tapas style nibblies, the boys did their token trips down to the off license to keep the beer supply plentiful and the rest of us ate and socialised!

By Monday, I was completely buggered - 10 points to Kym and Benj who had to get up and work... we did some more touristy things before heading to the train station. Both tired, cranky and disappointed that we somehow lost the Tate (how, dont ask) and when we finally found it, we realised that the Dali exhibition had closed the day before. BUM. Had a good look around at the rest and was nicely impressed. Caught train back that evening, needed to take Tuesday off due to copious amounds of virally created defence mechanisms clogging up my head, only to pass it along to Tom, 2 days later.

Weekend with Aussies

Another visit from Kym and Benj - and once again all over far too quickly. I have to admit, that I do feel so lucky that I have some of my most wonderful, genuine friends, only a couple of hours away (while I dearly miss those who are not so nearby).




We took Gust for a day trip to Ieper (Ypres) to visit one of the most horrific battlegrounds of WWI (a subject I am embarrassed to say, I still know relatively little about, except that the ANZACs went to Gallipoli. Sadly, just as much devasation occurred in other parts of the world). Of the millions who perished in WWI, 500,000 were killed in battles in and around Ieper - so after visiting the Flanders fields museum, we took a small drive around the village, to see that mass graves surrounded the countryside (most of which belonged to unknown soldiers). The white graves were those of soldiers from the Commonwealth (mostly from the UK, with some from Canada) while the others simply marked a mass grave of 44,000 German Soldiers - 20,000 in one mass grave).


I am not one who likes to glorify the war, nor dwell on it. I am not a firm Bruce Ruxton fan, but I was overwhelmed at the amount of death which took place in a seemingly small area.



Sunday, we rode our bikes into Antwerp (after a minor delay with an exploding tyre on my ever painful bike) to watch an awesome street performer followed by Japanese for dinner.

Am looking forward to finally heading over to London (to see more than just Heathrow airport next time!)

One night to be confused, one night to speed up truth

Just when I decide to write about the weekend - I realise that it is already half way through the week... why does time just continue to fall into a continuüm where I feel like I'm constantly behind? Don't worry - it isn't one of those complaining type messages... just a touch on philosophy while I get on with it...

We started out the weekend with cooking a dinner for Annemie and Hans (since we have eaten enough of their food in the past...) - thanks once again Kelly for your recipe for squidgy chocolate cake - we can never keep it more than 24 hours! Soooo absolutely delicious! So, I had a good cooking effort, followed by a shocking clean-up - but all was worth it. Am getting into the board-game atmosphere too...(instead of the good ol' days of going for a good boogie)!

Saturday took us to Michael and Annelies' - my Australian comrad here (one of the only countries we haven't taken over in droves...) who is now returning with his fiancée to Melbourne. So we went to see them before they head off - I really hope to see you both again once we finally head back! Then Tom will have a Belgian comrad (something I think he missed a little in oz).

Then, Sunday took us on 'baby-bezoek' (baby visit) to Stef and Koen (and Willemtje of course!) - so while Tom nursed Willem for most of the morning, I was able to inform Stef on all gossip, and everything went harmoniusly (for once...). Poor Gust was suffering though... on those fast roads, with a split in the muffler, everyone in Belgium could hear us coming! Nevertheless, we reached our destination, without too much smoke.

Yesterday, I visited another colleague who had just given birth (baby named Mette - quite nice and unique...) - so counting Annemie, that is 3 colleagues with babies (even if one is still incubating). If I count Kelly Chan, that is 4... Something is definitely in this european water - good thing I drink wine instead eh?!

PS Gust has officially left our lives - we expect to hold a ceremony for him once the insurance money comes through. So - goodbye lovely old man. Pretty soon though, Gust twee comes into our lives... stay tuned!

PPS - just a link below for what has happened on this side of the world today...

Belgian News of the Day (English)

Belgisch Nieuws van the Dag (Nederlands)

Yes, more snow

I know there have already been some photos of snow on the blog, but this is the most I have seen here in Belgium since I arrived 2,5 years ago. We had enough beautiful white powder to even allow the local children to drag their parents' old sleighs out of the their attics and drag eachother down the street! I was just happy to be home on 'study-leave' so I could lay in my bed and marvel at a form of weather which I am afraid will no longer exist when my children are my age (well at least in this part of the world).

News this week... a very dear friend of mine (Kelly Chan) gave birth to a healthy little boy - Kaemon - on Monday. So I look forward to taking the trip back up to Nijmegen in the very near future and visiting their new little bundle! I have seen so many photos already, and believe that if only this feeling of pure elation and ecstasy could be extended and felt by everyone, then there really would be less reason for anger, jealousy, bitterness and pure hatred. How I read this from baby photos, I don't know...

And, I have finally finshished my advanced Netherlands course at university... still awaiting results though. But overall am pretty chuffed that I have a second language - almost fluently (there is ALWAYS room for a great deal of improvement!).

No particularly entertaining stories this week! Until next time, my loyal readers xxx

Celebration

Yay - one semester down, 9 to go! So, we all decided to go for dinner and a drinky in Brussels on Wednesday night! What a lovely evening!


Tom, Louis, Stephanie, Tom and Mieke all go to uni together, and us girlfriends came along to celebrate with them... so after a few beers, we were all great mates. I ended up spending a lot of time chatting to Louis' girlfriend, Daphne with only one slight problem - no language in common! She is a native French speaker, so we struck up a deal that she would speak french to me and I would speak englsh to her (to help eachother learn) - problem was that her english was far better than my french, and we ended up speaking a mix of both language (wih a touch of Dutch)! There is ALWAYS a way to communicate with someone!

Thanks heaps to Louis (pronounced in that saucey French way - also the same way as Donald Ducks' Nephew...) for the great photos. I think Tom has met someone at uni who will definitely keep him on his toes!

Our whole lives drinking strawberry wine together

Back at work again... quite an uneventful week with one (not so exciting) exception...
I have decided to continue studying enrolling in a postgrad course in Human Ecology. Dunno how we will manage having 2 mature aged students here, but the opportunity couldn't be passed up when the course fees are so affordable.

Also, the tickets are booked for our return trip to Australia, with QANTAS (with lots of yummy frequent flyer points, I hope), so we are officially heading back for a month between 11th July and 11th August (ish) - yes, in time for winter! Not that I feel too daunted by this! The only thing worrying Tom is our trip to Tassy - apparently it is cold there, and considering his BMI is somewhere around 18, he has nothing to keep his internal organs warm unless he walks around with a doona. Don't know how he grew up in western Europe...



I have enclosed a picky of my uni class. We had a little christmas party in December - and everyone attempted to bring something from their own country - I had to turn up with just crackers - no vegemite at that stage. But my Slovakian friend rolled up with about 20 cans of 14% beer, so she was the winner that day!