BELGIUM NATIONAL DAY

"Tiny" pictures are here

Today is national day in Belgium. A kind of independence day too. Wikipedia says :

The 1830 Belgian Revolution led to the establishment of an independent, Catholic and neutral Belgium under a provisional government and a national congress. Since the installation of Leopold I as king in 1831, Belgium has been a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy.

So people are hanging flags at their windows, not very much apparently flags are not so liked. A big parade takes place in front of our king, together with the queen (not THE QUEEN) and the whole family. Of course the government is also represented. The city park is prepared to receive people afterwards with shows and games and in the evening fireworks are taking place in the whole country.

Politicians make a lot of (bla,bla) speaches which nobody listens to. But yesterday evening out of the TV screen spoke our king Albert II.

As you can see he didn't wear a crown and royal outfit as THE QUEEN uses to do but only a (not so) nicely cutted suit. He smiled fatherly to us and first thanked the doctors and nurses who had taken care of him when he had broken his hip and the whole medical staff in his country.

Then he told us to learn each others language to better understand the other's culture, referring to the constant quarrels between french and flemish speaking people. I was a little doubtful about the culture since I had travelled with this flemish group, but you should never generalize.

He gave some other fatherly advices and ended his speach with good wishes for a happy national day also in behalf of the queen (not THE QUEEN) and his whole family. Then appeared the castle where he lives and the usual head of the speaker replaced him on the screen.

Today the big parade takes place in front of the king, and his family and of course the governement. And as on each 21 July it will rain. The belgians call it affectionately "the national shower". It doesn't happen very often that it doesn't rain this day.

So we all can watch wet soldiers, wet firemen, wet horses, in short a wet parade.

But nevertheless people enjoy that day and very important : it's a day off !

A TAG (sigh*) & FRIDAY FEAST

Pookie doesn't like to be tagged

Jackie from "Call Me When You Get There" honored me with the tag "8 THINGS ABOUT YOU"
so here they are :

1. To my big surprise I am living with the same man since 38 years, but I am married

2. Nobody asks me ever what I like (I have a cat collection of more then 350 cats and cats all around).

3. If there would be a chat chart I would be amongst the first 3 places

4. I love painting of course mostly cats

5. Since I've got writer cramps I now use a keyboard

6. I love to sit in a pub not for drinking but drawing

7. I don't like rain because I am living in a country where it always rains and I am afraid to get flippers

8. Usually I am friendly and kind unless somebody steps on my feet

I can't list 8 other victims, because I have done it already, but if you like please consider yourself as tagged !

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest) how much do enjoy watching sports on television?

not even 1 I don't enjoy watching sports, I switch to the next crime story and enjoy my serial killer.

Soup
If you could completely memorize any one work of fiction, which one would you pick?

None, I only like my own fictions.

Salad
What is your favorite breakfast food?

I don't eat breakfast, sometimes on holidays some cheese and fruits. At home I only have coffee and a cigarette (for those who want to tell me that smoking is bad for the health)

Main Course
Name something fun you can do for less than $10.00.

Watching kitten Rosie play or babysitting a three year old who has a lot of questions such as : why do boys stand up when they pee ?

Dessert
How long does it usually take you to fall asleep?

I don't know, I never look at my watch because I am sleeping

13 CHILDREN QUOTES

Pookie listens now what kitten Rosie has to say

I found these quotes on a german blog, where a mum had collected a lot of quotes from children and found them so funny that I picked out 13 and translated them for you :

1. I don't need any caugh sirop, I can caugh without

2. A peach is like an apple covered with a carpet

3. When I drink a soda I always have farts in my mouth

4. For potatoe salad the potatoes have to be naked

5. Chinese eat with fish sticks

6. My little brother's dirty diapers are worse than liver

7. Mum always puts cream on her belly, so that the baby inside doesn't get stripes

8. Do mums have to eat grass so that they get milk in their breasts ?

9. If you sweat, your skin becomes leaky and water gets out

10. What do men become if all women in heaven are angels ?

11. If you want children you have to marry or have sex.

12. I have curls, dad has curls only mum has hairs

13.Every time I complain to my mom that I'm bored, she tells me to go clean my room.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Pookie has her toilet here

Your choice please !

COMPILED NEWS

That's what Pookie does with "News"

Not much about the royals this week, only that "The Queen" with Phil came to Belgium to honor the battle field of Ypres. Our queen and her son plus wife kept her company because the King can't walk on a battle field with his crutches. As "The Queen" always wears a hat and feels naked without, our queen wore one too. I always admire the phantasy of the hat creators.



The pope declared that catholic church is the only christian one and all other religions are no religions ! I wonder if Jesus was catholic ??? To my knowledge he was jew.

In Melbourne a catholic church refused to accept the inscription for a boy named "Hell" because it wouldn't fit with the religion. Father Hell protested of course and the director suggested him to change the name "Hell" to Walbridge, the maiden name of the mother. Mr. Hell refused and subscribed his son in another school. With this old pope in the catholic church, it's no wonder that some catholics are getting crazy !

In Indonesia a baby boy was born with a grey beard of 3 cm ! Must be strange for the mother to feed, change nappies and shave his beard I don't think he is able to do it alone.

In Utah a woman was molested and arrested by an eager policeman who found that she hadn't watered her front yard correctly. When the woman refused to give her name he had pushed her on the ground ! I wonder how the front yard of the policeman looks like, must be "little Versailles".

Ah ! Good news ! In Rome 15 models were excluded from fashion show because they were too skinny. I hope they will do it more because these walking skeletons are really not nice to see !

In Paris a homeless woman was conducted to the Social Service Offices. When the employees checked her belongings all together in shopping carts, they found to their big surprise 70.000 € (!) in coins and paper which she had collected during the 12 years she lived on the street. I am really thinking about living on the streets too, at least in summer times !

The desperate housewife Eva Longoria is not allowed to get pregnant because it's not forseen in the futur scenario. Now she has to take the pill ! Poor girl.

MANIC MONDAY - MARBLES

LINK

Pookie with a marble imitation statue !

When I saw the word "marble" for Manic Monday I first thought to find somebody who has lost all his marbles. Then the so well known game with glass marbles which each child in the world has played came into my mind and all the marble collectors who are in real competition with each other.

But then I thought about the real marble which is a metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone and that this one is very much used in sculpture.

The most famous sculpture is probably the Venus de Milo, which is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris.The statue dates to about 130–90 BC. The statue has no arms anymore but two fragments of a left arm and a left hand with an apple were found near the statue in the same niche and are thought to be remnants of its arms. After the statue was found, numerous attempts were made to reconstruct its pose, though it was never restored. The statue was discovered in 1820 inside a buried niche within the ancient city ruins of Milos in Greece.

The roman Venus is the same godess as Aphrodite in the greek mythology. Apparently she had no childhood: in every image and each reference she is born adult, nubile, and very beautiful. Even though she was a godess, she had a quite "normal" life. She was one of the few gods who was actually married and was frequently unfaithful to her husband. But in roman times it was probably normal too. For some women even today. In many of the late anecdotal myths she was described as vain, ill-tempered and easily offended.

Even today this marble sculpture is considered as the most beautiful woman body ever represented despite the fact that today skeleton like models are in fashion. For sculptors it is very good, it is much cheaper and goes quicker because they don't need to use much marble and have less work with the curves.

MENTAL CRUELTY

Pookie too is very much scandalized about this special (cruel) treatment !

I am sitting here with 10 tissues (wet) around me because I just read an article about this poor girl Paris Hilton ! Can you imagine how badly she was treated in jail ? She was given a mobile phone while other inmates had to queue for pay phones. Isn't that cruel ? She had a phone all for herself instead of sharing the sweet company of other inmates and chat together when they were queuing up. This was isolation !!

And then she was given a new jail uniform instead of a recycled one ! A crime against her thousands of dollars treated skin because everybody knows that new uniforms are stiff and soo raspy to wear ! Not to talk about her mail ! She had her mail delivered by a captain. Most mail is delivered by inmates. How could this poor girl ever get integrated if she was kept apart in a new comfy cell ? This is mental cruelty and torture !

No wonder that she had panic attacks and nightmares that someone would break into her cell and do harm to her, and that her small cell had exacerbated her claustrophobia !

And the worst is now that bad people claim that Paris Hilton had special treatment in jail which has to be examined by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Can you imagine ?

And I suppose that the costs of all this inhuman treatment is supported by the tax payer as in every country of the world. But as we are all generous people we pay.

PS. This is again a proof that there are two justices, one for the rich and one for the poor or better said for "normal" people.