BLOGOVERSARY AND BACK TO BRUSSELS

Update : I arrived without any problem on time after a boring trip ! Not even one strange or funky person crossed my way. My compartment in the Eurostar was packed with young belgian students who returned from a youth exchange in London.

Mr. Gattino picked me up at the station and apparently he had very well survived and the cats too. Little Rosie was so happy that she snuggled around my neck the whole night and washed my nose from time to time. Now I have to download all my pictures and prepare a trip for a Cyber Cruise with our capitain Mrs. Lifecruiser for next sunday the 19.

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One year ago exactly I decided to split my blog Travels and Paintings into three and created "Writer Cramps". In this blog I wanted to publish every day (or almost) something of which I was just thinking about. Then I subscribed to WW, TT and Friday Feast. Thanks to these groups I met a lot of new friends.

Now I invite you to celebrate with me and have a glass of champagne !


Pookie my helpful assistant and inspiration

my holiday home





This afternoon I will take the train in Eastbourne and then the Eurostar back to Brussels. So from this evening on I will be home again.

I will miss this beautiful place where I spent a marvolous week. I will also miss the screams of the seagulls waking me up in the mornings. They are very cheeky ! Yesterday I saw one diving very quickly and taking a sandwich away while the poor guest had turned his head to speak to another person on the beach !

Tomorrow I will tell you about my trip back.

FRIDAY FEAST

Appetizer
What is your favorite kind of pie?

I am not so keen for pies, but love hot apple pie, otherwise I prefer to have my fingers in every pie.

Soup
Name something that made you smile this week.

That is impossible to tell ! If I would smile only for some things in a week I only could pity myself ! I would have the character of a tax inspector ! There are a lot of things making me smile or laugh during a week. Unfortunately I never write them down.

Salad
What do you do to cool off when the weather is hot and humid?

I don't move, sit in my chair and complain about the hot weather. That way I don't have to cool off because I am not getting hot. But this year I didn't even have to do that, it was cold and rainy the whole summer. You should have asked me what I do to keep myself warm !

Main Course
You receive $1,000 in the mail with a letter that says you can only use the money to redecorate one room in your home. Which room do you pick, and what do you buy to spruce it up?

First I would change the $ into € and then book a nice trip to Greece because I just spruced up all rooms 2 years ago and they are in a perfect state.



Dessert
Fill in the blank: My creativity to annoy stupid people says yes, but my education says no (with some exceptions)

THURSDAY THIRTEEN

Pookie is shocked about my TT

13 things you should never say when having sex

1. Finished ? I have a meeting

2. You look much better in the dark

3. You are just like your sister

4. Oh Jane oh Jane ! hrrrm Mary !

5. Can you wake me up when you are finished ?

6. Would you mind if I leave my rubber boots on ?

7. What do we eat for breakfast ?

8. What was your name ?

9. Be careful when you undress, my bulldog is shortsighted and he loves sausages

10. Have you already heard about Viagra ?

11. I thought it would be worse

12. Did I mention that my grandma died in this bed ?

13. What ? that's all ?

WW AND SOME HOLIDAY NEWS

Another wonderful day and we went to Eastbourne center. We had also to pick up cat Pepsi at the vet, the poor thing had her teeth pulled out. Eastbourne is a very beautiful sea city with old victorian houses, shopping streets, restaurants and Pubs for the people on holidays here who are mostly from London and surroundings. I will report more of course for our Cyber Cruise which is organized by our capitain Mrs. Lifecruiser who has just reported about her stay in London.

We also went in a "One Pound" (1.50 Euro, 2 $) shop and I bought a nice photoframe, cat collars and toys and 5 toothbrushes ! Now I think I have enough for some time. We then had a cup of tea (a must) and scones. The seagulls were busy to dive and steal everything eatable from the tables. All cafes and Pubs were full, the people enjoying the sun sitting outside and you could see the blue sea in a distance.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

COMPILED NEWS

These nice birds are waking me up every morning !

Even on holidays I am reading the news on internet and was informed that 60 % of the british population (mostly women) do not want that Camilla, Prince Charles now wife
attends the memorial service which will be held for Diana's 10 year death. Now I wouldn't like either that my husband "moarns" me together with his former mistress. Anyway THE QUEEN and little Philip will be probably more bored and upset then sad.

That was all for royal news. I am disappointed. But ! Film star Eddie Murphy has for the first time publicly acknowledged he fathered a child with Spice Girl Mel B. That at least will lighten my day !

The actress Cybil Shepheard says that Bruce Willis kisses like an old camel. I wonder how she knows, I couldn't say that because so far I never kissed a camel.

My friend the french prime minister Nicolas Sarkosy who is staying at a luxury villa in New Hampshire (he really likes luxury which doesn't fit at all with his official political thinking) shouted at two American news photographers and jumped onto their boat during his holiday in the US. It's not said if he felt in the water due to his short legs.

And this : At least 6 cups of coffee per day are good for women memory ! This was discovered by a french research center. Why for heavens sake I don't have a memory like an elephant, misplace things, don't remember names, don't recognize people ? There must be something wrong with the research, because I drink a lot of coffee and certainly more then 6 cups !

A good thing happened too, a cuba mafia godfather died ! That's one less, better then nothing.

A big title jumped into my eyes ! "Pencil removed from German's head" A woman in Germany who has spent 55 years with part of a pencil inside her head has finally had it removed. Poor girl she will miss it, but how did she manage to get it in ??

In a restaurant in Beijing a BBC reporter was served : Donkey and Russian dog penis and testicles (good for the skin), sliced and pickled ox penis, Snakes (they have two penises each !) I didn't know that ! See you learn every day. And with that you can drink a Deer-blood cocktail with Sheep, horse, ox, and seal penises - which should be excellent for the circulation. The restaurant owner claims himself a nutritionist. Unfortunately it's not said if the reporter now can make happy a considerable amount of women and enjoys a very good blood circulation. Have a nice meal anyway !

TRIP TO ENGLAND

I would lie if I would say that I wasn't worried a bit about my trip in the Eurostar because the day before it got stuck in the tunnel ! Now can you imagine sitting in a huge tube with tons of water, ships and ferry boats above you and that for 6 h !! I think it must have been awful. But my trip went very smooth and I arrived safely and in time to take my train to Eastbourne.

The train was fully packed I just could get a seat but people were standing everywhere. It was quite surprising. And then I noticed that most of them were dressed in a funny way. A lot of punks with hedgehog like hairdoes in red, pink or green, safety needles in some noses, I thought I would be on another planet ! In front of me sat a middle aged man with a 14 month pregnant belly, green hairs and rings on every finger. His ears were full of earings and in his nose he had a ring. After a while I got used to his outfit, but he was sleeping with his mouth wide open so that I could admire all the holes he had in his teeth and almost look through him and out of the other end. I listened to the conversations and finally found out that there was a Gay parade in Brighton and that's why so many funky and funny people were on the train. They all were in a very good mood, laughed and sung and it was very loud in the train.

In Eastbourne I got out and looked for my friends. Nobody there ! What should I do now ? I couldn't get my friend on the phone because I had saved a wrong number. I didn't even know their address ! I called Mr. Gattino, who went mad because it seems that events like this are typical for me. I told him to stop his nice comments and better call my friend and tell them that I am outside the station. That's what he did. And finally they showed up, they had been waiting at the other end of the station. Mr. Gattino worried about his little wife called again to see if they had found me and if I hadn't been kidnapped. He also complained that running to pick up the phone he had fallen over a rug and hurt his back. That was the start of my holidays.

The afternoon was then very nice they took me to a garden party where I admired a huge buffet with enough food for a whole army. We had a lot of fun there and some men even more after a while they had red faces and talked and laughed more and more. The beer and wine was sooo refreshing !

On sunday we did some sightseeing and had lunch in a very old Pub, just overlooking the blue sea.

I feel very much home with them, I have 4 cats to my disposal and the computer is just in my room ! The only thing which I can complain about is the english keyboard with which I am fighting, because I am used to a french one.

WITH EUROSTAR TO THE UK

Later today I will take the Eurostar from Brussels to Ashford. It will take me about one hour and a half. Then I have to change the train and take one from Ashford to Eastbourne where my friends are picking me up.

The Eurostar (read history here) exists since November 14, 1994 when our King and Queen inaugurated it. (THE QUEEN too of course)!

Two weeks later I also used it for the first time to visit my son in London. Of course everybody told me that I was crazy and it would be dangerous to go through a tunnel which was built under the sea and I should think of all the water and ships above me. I have to admit it was quite a strange idea travelling under water ! But it was a wonderful and smooth trip without any problems. Since then I have taken it many times.

You are only 20 min in this huge tube which is the tunnel and you don't see anything of course but the walls on each side and so close that if you could have opened the window and stretched out your arm you could have touched them.

This train allows up to 300 km/h (186 miles), but you don't feel anything only that the landscape runs by very fast and you can hardly see the cows (Belgium) and on the other side sheeps (UK).

Of course the train has become a big competitor to ferry boats and airplanes wich were needed to go to the UK. But now it's so easy, from Brussels to London it only takes about 2 1/2 h and you have to be at the station half an hour before departure and not 2 or 3h like for the airplane nowadays. For me it's even shorter to Ashford it will only be 1h 1/2. The train only stoppes in Lille (France) and in Ashford before arriving at its final destination London.

If I have time on sunday I can certainly tell more about my trip. Considering that I have to change train I never know (with my wonderful orientation sense) in which city I will finally arrive ! Maybe I can write you from Manchester or Glasgow ??