Up so early, feel so bright....

...didn't get much sleep last night

Actually, I did, but a few times last week, I was a little behind in the 40 winks. Last Wednesday, Dave, Maarten Tom and myself headed off to the newly opened Lotto Arena in Antwerp (oh so far away...!) to see Kele Okereke and the rest of Bloc Party. I was quite impressed with the venue - typical U shaped concert hall, but we could choose to sit or stand (being over the age of 25, with all of us out on a 'work-night' we opted for the sitting option. But this didn't stop Maarten and myself from sprinting down the 3 flights of stairs when the dancy numbers started.

Lowlight of the night: FUCKING FREEZING outside; strange sounding supporting group (very monotonous, repetitive, musically unchallenging songs)

Highlights of the night: 2 encores, with Kele re-appearing in the mascot outfit for the Antwerp Giants basketball team (see clip I have attached from some lucky bird who must have been in the front row); plus the audience involvement - 2 girls even went so far as to show their boobies to the unsuspecting group. This brings me back to the big day out, 1999... I never saw so many boobies as when Blink 182 took stage...


Then, on the weekend, we first babysat Natalie, then had to quickly finish organising the surprise 50th birthday party for my other mum - Loreine or Moe (east Flemish word for mum - pronounced moo (yes, like a cow...!)).

Tom and I were on bar duty - skulling the cokes (so buggered after babysitting) but luckily, we had help from Philippe, Jan and Maarten. Thank god!! So, thank you guys - many grumpy 50 year olds would have gone thirst if it werent for you!

We were busy there until a little after 3am, then came home and crashed. It was a fun night, but don't recommend the bar work at a party to anyone!

Sweet seduction from a magazine

Not entirely too much to say today, but it is a public holiday here and with Tom studying for most of the day, I will amuse myself with non-costly exercises like reading, speaking to my gorgeous sister on skype and eating!

It seems that there are always public holidays here in Belgium, but I think this must be because they are nicely dispersed throughout the year. We have 2 in november, so this little Gen X-Yer will not be working her bum off too much this month.


Anyway... this week, Tom went to see the Cold War Kids with Maarten in Leuven. We bought the CD while we were in Australia and Tom took an immediate liking to them (with me being absolutley sick of hearing the line 'I promise to my wife and children...'). So on 29 October, they played here and according to Tom, while they were technically fantastic and have great music, the concert lacked any sort of atmosphere and they ended on a wierd instrumental number. Apparently, this is the first concert tom has been to where the supporting act outshone the main. So, Tom is now a fan of Patrick Watson and will be following him until the next craze comes along!

Next week we will see Bloc Party (once again) - probably not as cozy this time, but I have a thing for Kele and think he will entertain regardless!

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!

All the freaky people make the beauty of the world

Last night, was our first concert this week... and we saw Michael Franti with Spearhead. (We are going to Muse on Tuesday night, but there will be another installment after that).

It was one of the nicest concerts I have seen. In my favourite hall in Belgium (Ancienne Belgique) which holds around 2000 people (unlike when we saw Robbie Williams - that one holds a good 20,000 or more...) so it was nice and cozy. He is such an inspirational peace-maker and his music oozes positivity. You can't help but smile and dance along - even to the numbers which haven't been released yet. And he played non-stop for 2,5 hours, and I didnt realise it until it was over.

So, we went with Maarten (Tom's travelling-to-Australia partner) and Maarten's brother Jurgen (another Flemish name I have troubles pronouncing). After the concert, we decided to take a little stroll to the Grande Plaza of Brussels, considering the effort they put into everything at chrismas time, and it was quite lovely (despite being packed with people at midnight...)

Later, Maarten was due to pick up Bie (his girlfriend) from her work christmas party, so we drove off to one of the classiest hotels in Brussels (in our jeans and warm coats) and arrived at her party, which just happened to have a glamour hollywood theme. So, we kinda stood out a little, but lucky for us, it was already way past midnight, and most of her colleagues (and herself included) were past the proverbial point of no return, and welcomed us with open arms! It was a little odd at first, but after we noticed the free wine, we were quickly in spirit. I also managed to stumble across a relatively still full dessert bar, so after 2 chocolate mousse's, and 3 wines, we were also quickly in the spirit. Pity the DJ was someone who clearly went to Yeppoon High in the early 90s. I swear that was the last time I heard 'Cotton Eyed Joe' and a dancing function. And he spat out all of the wrong numbers, and I clearly wasn't drunk enough to appreciate the humour. But, we boogied our bums off for an hour or so, before heading home.

So it was overall a night which we had not expected, but definitely enjoyed!!


Tom, Jurgen, Bie and Maarten

I've got too much life, running through my veins, going to waste

Robbie Williams has finally been witnessed in person by me! What an exciting evening... We departed nice and early to ensure a parking place and a quick bite before the concert. So, we pulled up, stepped out (34°C) and there were millions of Fries stalls with the choice of either steaming hot fries or hamburgers (here this means the offle stuff which caused the mad-cow problem a few years back on a bit of bread with ketchup). so I opted for the fries with tartare sauce option. We all wolfed these down (we being Tom, Inge, Mother in law and myself - quite a lovely little family affair), and then plodded along to King Boudewijn stadium. This was originally built as a football stadium which holds 55000 people, but deemed unsafe for football - but for some reason it's ok to hold a music concert there (which holds more when the middle is full...). We rocked up (ha, pun) just in time for the end of the opening program (cant remember the name of the group, but quite good), and waited for the middle program (yes, robbie appears to be so big that he has a before, and middle program...) The middle program was Basement Jaxx - which was really exciting! Two huge black women who can sing the arse of most people (with boobs bigger than my head by the way) but they provided a fantastic warm-up!

After another half hour break, Robbie finally entered after a display of fire-works and fire-balls being thrown into the sky. I have to admit, I dont really like any of his new music - but I just wanted to see the show, and hear some of the old music. He even did a tacky old Take That number, and I dagily sung along! Nice that he also mingled with the crowd, inviting any boobs to be shown. Mine stayed snug in my shirt, but, if i happened to be in the front row, Im not sure they would have stayed there (hi dad!!).

Anyway, show ended, we strolled back to the car - around 11pm. Expected a traffic jam for around an hour, so that was no surprise exiting the carpark. However, didnt expect the extra traffic jam around the Brussels ring, nor the road blockage between Brussels and Antwerp after midnight. So, all four tired, hungry and cranky of us had a lovely ride home hearing the midnight news, the 1am news, the 2am news, and Tom and I were even blessed enough to hear the 3am news after we dropped the other 2 off. So our trip home was approx 4 hours. Kinda enough to ruin a night! BUT, the show was great!

Gonna get home to pack - off on vacation soon, and we have to put our entire appartment in boxes asap!

You lived inside my world so softly, protected only by the kindness of your nature

So after all the action during the week, we were pretty tired. Unfortunately I once promised to go to the theatre with Maarten and his girlfriend. We kind of looked forward to catching up and talking but theatre, not really.

But the play was really good. It was the story of Don Quichot. The funny thing was that the cast existed of normal actors and then actors with the Down syndrome. The actors weren’t there to feel sorry for or to have sympathy. No, they were used as equal persons and some of them actually made the play work. It was amazing to see a show like this. I don’t go often to the theatre (hardly ever) but this was definitely worth watching.

The most wonderful part was not the play but the theatre itself. We went to the Bourla, it is a theatre close to our place. Just try to imagine the big theatres where Mozart and Beethoven played when they still lived off course. It was marvellous. The whole ceiling was decorated with beautiful paintings. The balcony’s were kept intact. And even the chairs were still covered with red silk. The moment we stepped into the hall we felt in Austria in 1553. The funny things is that we had one the cheapest seats. The most expensive seats were in front of the stage downstairs, we had to sit on the first floor in our own box. We felt like kings an queens in those days. We loved it. So all in all it was a perfect night. People who wanna have a look, go to: www.toneelhuis.be. Then click on locaties (like the word says it, it means locations) We were in the Bourla-theatre.

Saturday we went bowling and had all-you-can-eat. Stuffed ourselves and by ther end of the night, only 7 o’clock we all went home and sat in front of tele because we were all too big on food.

One more thing for the music–lovers under us. I bought the album of Anthony and the Johnsons: I am a bird now as a present for Ingrid (last words were just to emphasise to everybody that I am the nice one in the relationship!). I bought it way too late. The album is wonderful. For those who don’t know: Anthony is actually a transvestite. But the music is really good. So really recommend it.

Okay from now on, it’s counting down. First Barca-Chelsea tomorrow which will be the way my week goes: terrible or in 7th heaven. We got a dinner party on Wednesday and then on Friday: ROME!!! By the way Tim: we have got a really good present for you, hoper you’re gonna like it.

dEUS came, won and conquered Belgium. We knew the concert was going to be good because the were playing on home-turf. But it was the best concert we have ever seen, music-wise that is.

Driving there we got lost again in Brussels, for the second time in two days. So we have got a perfect record so far. So it took us a lot longer to get there due to bad navigating (according to Tom), bad driving (according to Ingrid). Luckily at Vorst we got a secret parking place that never lets us down. Vorst is becoming a second home considering all the concerts we've seen there last year. We have got it time that well that we exactly know how long the traffic jam will take going to the concert.

Then just got in, in time for the concert. Elbow was the opening act. Didn't see them though so can't give any remarks. dEUS was amazing. We knew there were a really eclectic band but they have got so many qualities in one band. Tom Barman is, apart from being a really good lead-singer, also from Antwerp and lives not far from us. Ingrid almost fainted when she saw him once. Reminded me of 16-year old girls when the Backstreet Boys walk on by. The musician of the year is their lead-guitarist (Mr. Mauro Pawlowski). Apart from that the violinist, drummer and bass-player are all talented musicians.

They found the perfect balance of old songs mixed with their classics. Off course the crowd was ecstatic, knowing every line from every song. For you aussies who are interested: dEUS is Belgium's biggest rock band. If you want to look up some of their songs: 'Suds and Soda', 'Fell of the floor, man', 'Little Arithmetics' and favorite and one of the highlights of the night 'Hotel lounge (be the death of me)'. So we had a great night and the best concert.

We are both worn out now after our 2day music-tour and tonight is the night for TV, bumming around and maybe playing some guitar.

My little Hitler forced me to mention her following remark 'next to the speakers, the bass coming through was enough to rattle the phlegm out of the worst emphysema patient'

So looking forward to the next one: Sophia in April. I think we're on about 30 concerts a year. I truly don't think I am over exaggerating.

I wish you'd stop ignoring me coz you're bringing me to despair

Good morning all - last night was the first of 2 nights of concerts - this one was from Arctic Monkeys. I dont know if they are so huge in Australia yet (perhaps on the Js), but their biggest hit is 'I bet that you look good on the dancefoor'. It was a really cosy concert - a few hundred people, no security, and a very tight set. But the concert isnt really what this blog is about... We arrived around 8pm in the middle of Brussels (not the ideal city to be driving in on the best of days), and by 11pm, a good 10cm of snow had fallen. Despite being incredibly gorgeous over such an ugly city, we were then stuck with the 40km drive home while the snow was still coming down heavily. After giggling about how ridiculous the notion was, we plucked up the courage and headed off with an average speed of 10kph. It was really eery as every street looked like a ski piste - especially the wide-main roads. We got lost, due to all the signs being covered, and everything looked the same - white. Saw around 10-20 accidents on one road (all minor pings - it's hard to do much damage at 10kph) and we had to do a few handbrakies, slid sideways absolutely everywhere, but I give it to tom, despite the stress he pulled through well. We finally made it onto the main road after around an hour, which thankfully was salted, but still kept to 50 all the way home. The funniest thing actually was an ambulance in Brussels, sirens blaring etc, shooting past us at the grand speed of 15kph. A bit surreal!! All in all a good night, but hopefully a bit less slippery for dEUS tonight.