SMILEY SATURDAY - The lost battery

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Just before Christmas Eve on the 23rd December I lost the battery of my camera ! I had put it in the charger and when it was charged my intention was to put it back in the camera. But I didn't. The thing had disappeared. Now it happens quite often that I misplace my glasses or my keys, but a battery ? Mr. Gattino whom I informed about my loss, wasn't so surprised as I had already lost my slippers and he had found them in the fridge, but that was years ago.

I tried to remember exactly what I had done, but my memories always stopped when I had taken out the battery of the charger and held it in my hand. It was in the house, that was sure but where ?? I am a quite distracted person especially when my mind is busy with preparing posts or pictures to take and publish. We looked everywhere, Mr. Gattino even emptied the bin and checked (with Italian swears) the content piece by piece. I looked under the furniture, the carpets and turned my bed around. Nothing ! He even checked the litter box of the cats !

Finally we gave up. It would show up one day in a place where nobody had thought of. Deeply sighing about his terrible life with such a distracted person who shared his life for 40 years, he took his jacket and went away buying a new battery, badly needed for Christmas Eve. 4 shops later (no batteries anymore) and near a nervous breakdown he finally returned home with a new one and a bill of 59 € ! What an expensive battery !!

Yesterday looking for a mouse in the little bag with which I carry our "Baby Computer" what did he find ? the long lost battery !! I had put it in there together with the accessoires of the little computer ! That was really a place I had never thought of ! Now I am proud owner of two batteries, which is always good if ever I forget to charge one !



in this bag he found it !



Just to show you the size of the battery.

SHOW & TELL - New Years Eve

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For the first Show & Tell this new year, I show you the different things we should have eaten the whole evening while awaiting midnight.

When the plates were prepared I put them on the table to make a picture. Rosie (in the background) tried to sniff if there was something interesting for her.





I had bought sushis, that's easy to prepare and shrimps. The bread is something special it's called oister bread and is made with oisters. It tastes very good !






the little white balls are goat cheese and on the plate behind there are rolls filled with goat cheese and wrapped in thin salmon slices. In the middle are "meat" balls but the meat was replaced with salmon to be dipped in a special sauce. Rosie was intrigued.




She attacked Mr. Gattino when he told her to leave the table !

But then our so nicely prepared New Year's eve didn't take place ! Mr. Gattino suddenly felt sick and went to bed, he had gotten a flew shot in the afternoon ! That was at 8.30 pm ! I tried to stay up until midnight and nibbled at some of the stuff, but at 10.30 I noticed that I was falling asleep all 5 min while watching a movie on TV. I decided to join the rest of the world who had already celebrated midnight, like my Australian friends, and went to bed at 11 !

That was the first time in my life that I missed midnight on a New Year's Eve ! I also hope it was the last time !

THURSDAY THIRTEEN - NEWS

13 Facts I heard in the News !

1. The former Prime Minister (= a president) of Belgium wanted to enter his office, but the code had already changed for the new one. He had to use the main door as everybody.

2. Train derailed 56 people injured, 7 badly wounded. Five year old boy had put a stone on the rails

3. 36 years old man raped 28 women because he wanted to be a father

5. In Brussels a 32 year old man raped 6 women in different hospitals, they all were over 80 ! (what complex is that ?)

6. 2 gangsters wanted to kidnap a 16 year old daughter of a very rich banker, but she had just hanged herself ! However they could save her in time to ask her family for ransom. They were arrested when they took out the money of a bin.

7. Again a priest got married, after having already 3 children and his wife expecting the 4th. Pope Benedict sits in his Vatican and is scandalized !

8. An 80 year old man discovered the corpse of a stabbed woman while walking his dog in a parc and died of a heart attack.

9. Women killed husband with with the alarm clock because he was snoring too much !

10. People spent about two weeks of their lives at traffic lights !

11. A prisoner who was allowed to leave over the weekend, returned the same day because it was too cold outside.

12. During a discussion with a man for a driving delict a policemen asked to use the bathroom. When he couldn't get the toilet to flush, he took off the tank cover to see what the problem was. That's when he found a gun !

13. an 88-year-old woman fended off a naked intruder by grabbing the man's crotch and squeezing. The man got into the house through a sliding door. He backed the woman into her living room and pushed her face down onto a chair.That's when the woman reached behind and squeezed. The man tore free and fled.

More participants here ??? the link has changed and leads to a "Go Daddy Go" Website also called Thursday Thirteen, which sells domains ? Has anybody an explanation to this ?

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

To all of you !

THANK YOU !

You must think that I am very ungrateful, but I have an excuse. I was quite sick with a heavy bronchitis and just managed to publish my daily posts. I am very sorry to be so late.

A very big thank you to have thought of me to :



Hootin Anni


Hootin Anni and Maryt the Teach



Kitty Limericks



and Jana from "Sweet Memories" who honored me with these two awards.

MY WORLD - Waterloo station

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Usually when people hear "Waterloo" they think of the Abba song or the place where the famous battle took place, the Lion and Napoleon.

But Waterloo is also a little town, very much appreciated by Americans, Britts and Scandinavians, because we have an American and a Scandinavian school here. The reason why we moved to Waterloo like so many people living in Brussels, was that Waterloo still had something of a country side with farmers and cows and is so near to Brussels. Of course the town has changed especially since the city did a lot of publicity to attract tourists to visit the battle field. People living here are mostly working in Brussels and quite a few take the train !

In front of the station is a huge parking space where you can leave your car for the day, take the train, have no worries with traffic jams and 20 min later you are in the city center of Brussels.





The front



and the back of the station






If it's raining you can wait here






for the train



and this is the "rue de la Station", the "Station road" which leads from the center to the station and hasn't changed very much over the years, neither did the station itself.

FUN MONDAY - CHRISTMAS FUN

Odd Shots and Macro Monday are here



This week Sayre is our host where you can find more participants.

Her Assignment: What was the most touching, wonderful part of Christmas for you this yer AND What was the craziest, stupidest, funniest part this year?

Although we had a wonderful Christmas nothing particularly touching or crazy happened. But I swear it wasn't boring !

We always celebrate on the 24th and like last year we went to Amsterdam (Holland) for Christmas Eve to spent it together with our son, his girlfriend and her parents. On the posts below you can see some pictures.

The only thing which really touched me was that our son had invited for the 25th Christmas day, 14 of his American and English friends and collegues, who were far away from their families to celebrate Christmas together so that they wouldn't be alone.

The amusing part was that as I was the first up, I had to go out with Jersey the dog who also spent Christmas with us, while his owner was in England. Jersey is a very good dog and as it was quite cold he did his businesses quickly and then wanted to go home. And there was the problem. I had forgotten the house nr and all houses looked the same. To make it even more difficult each entrance had at least 10 very narrow steps to lead to the first floor. Of course I had nothing with me especially no mobile. I decided to count on Jersey and asked him to lead me home. I followed him, he followed me and together we climbed up 3 times the steps in a different entrance, but each time it was the wrong one. He looked at me I looked at him and we found ourselves on the street again. I started to get nervous, how could I find the right house if the dog was as intelligent (?) as I ? Finally in the 4th house and at least 40 steps later I found the right flat and Jersey too, because he waggled with his tail !

What I learned out of this : never go away without your mobile, not even to the mailbox !




Jersey tired from this adventure

WEEKLY WINNERS - Christmas Eve

More participants here at Sarcastic Mom Weekly winners

Of course the winner of this week was our Christmas Eve celebration in Amsterdam together with our son, his girlfriend and her parents.



A beautiful Christmas tree was standing in a corner



and underneath a lot of gifts !



The cook was our son, here preparing a delicious meal



the table was set and if you count the number of glasses you can be sure that we are not a group from the AA ! There was for white wine, red wine and water of course.



The first one who unwrapped his gift was Jersey the dog who spent Christmas with us as his owner went back home to the UK. I think he was the happiest dog in the world with his bone !



Mr. Gattino didn't get a bone, but an Italian sausage



and a portable DVD player so that he can watch his "bang, bang" action movies in his bed !



Amongst other gifts our son got this very practical apron, with a lot of pockets. It is devided in two parts so that you can hold a pot with your hands without being burnt.



Jersey helped checking the parfum, apparently it smelled good !



and then he thought he should watch over the gifts



This was the starter. Scallops with an avocado mousse. It was so delicious that I forgot to take a picture of the main course which was grilled thuna steaks with wild rice and green asparagus.



The cook !



There were several of these big chocolates, with little Santas or other figures.