WEEKEND FUNNIES

Just make a funny post, something which makes us laugh that's the most important.

And of course there also is


here
at Me & My Memes

This week I thought I show you the last inventions which should improve your quality of life !



easy to install, the newspaper reader for the toilet


or if you don't want to read play golf



Love the World Cup? Bring the pitch to the loo with Wee-Goals, which fits perfectly in the bottom of a urinal. Have fun !



your husband is unhappy about his hairs, here is the solution



If you have difficulties with lining your lips this great invention helps you ! Even if you suffer Parkinson



Some problems with eye drops ?



You catched a cold ? Hygienic and easy solution



and why not offer this mask to your dentist, at least he would make you smile



Don't forget your goldfish, he too likes a walk through the city

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

1. I had quiet a lot to do with all the photos I had taken during my holidays and make some order in all my files. This besides the usual hoursehold routine took quiet some time.

2. My poor friend Dominique who lives alone next door, got a terrible gastritis and was so weak from running the whole night to the restroom that I cooked some rice with carrots for her with a piece of roasted chicken and looked after her the next days. For once I didn't pet sitting but human sitting.

3. Mr. G's friend Jacky payed us a visit, we hadn't seen him for at least 2 months. He brought Mr. G a rim from a Ferrari. It was made especially for him ! He is a Ferrari freak and also has real one, and on top he is a little crazy, because after 2 months of complete silence he brought this gift ! It costs a fortune, I wish I could sell it on Ebay !



My cat collection is cheaper than this Ferrari stuff, that's for sure.

4. I went to my acqua gym for the first time after my holidays and now that we know each other better and by name we form a real nice group. We are 6 and after the gym we have a cup of tea together. There are always a lot of subjects to talk about, last time we discussed families, we all had only a very small family except Dominique who has a family of 64 persons when they all get together twice a year for Christmas and her mother's birthday. Only brothers, sisters plus SIL's and DIL's and FIL's and the children ! We made fun of her saying that her parents had made the whole population of Belgium !

5. We had an awful weather today, it was stormy and the firemen were on alert ! the wind whistled around the house and I thought we would be blown away. I had to go over to Dominique and was pushed on the sidewalk. We watched a video from our holidays in Egypt together which let us forget the storm outside. 100 km/h wind is not bad, in the news I heard that some serious damages had already occured. Hopefully it will calm down.

PS. and as usual when weathermen announce the worst, there was no wind anymore !

HOW I LEARNED HAGGLING

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

H is for "haggling"

If you go shopping in Egypt you have to haggle ! For everything even in drugstores, where I saw a young father haggling for a price for nappies for his baby ! He got them for almost half of the requested price. Haggling is worthwhile !

Lots of people don't like to haggle because they are not used to it. I have learned it quiet early, in fact when I went with Mr G. for the first time to Italy. In 1968 everybody haggled it was just part of the folklore ! In the shops and on the markets you had to haggle to get a reasonable price. There were no lables at all !

The first time I went with him to the Garda Lake, he had haggled for the price for our hotel room and as the wife of the owner was one of his ex girlfriends, he got a good price.We also we were allowed to share one room, which at that time wasn't allowed in Italy without a marriage certificate ! Being unmarried and sharing a double room was a big sin. A very profitable law for Hotel owners, who could therefore rent two rooms !

He also bought me jewelry, for that he had another ex girlfriend who had a jewelry shop. They both haggled for the price of a ring and I was standing there with eyes like saucers but I got my ring for very cheap.

Slowly slowly I started too ! I never agreed to a price. At that time we bought quiet a lot of decoration stuff for our new appartment and I always was very proud when after a long haggling I only payed half of the requested price.

So the fact that I had to haggle again in Egypt brought back nice souvenirs and of course I tried and checked if I was still good at it ! and in all modesty I am ! Egyptians have a lot of humor and haggling is a sport. Actually they are quiet disappointed if you pay the full price right away. (Not with the Russian speaking people, they get the double price because they are so unfriendly to the locals !)

Now when I want to buy something I go under half of the price and then slowly go up with lots of discussions and laughter til we meet in the middle and both of us are happy. I then add : "What you lost with me you can add on the price of the next Russian woman" ! I am weird !

Once I wanted to buy a bracelet. It costed let's say 10 €. I said that's far too much I only can pay 4 ! He answered I would ruin him and his family, took out a hanky and dried some invisible tears. I said : and I will get in trouble with my husband, took out a tissue and rubbed my eyes. With sobbing and discussing and meanwhile surrounded by tourists and lots of locals we finally came to an agreement ! I would get my bracelet for 5 € ! That was OK for me.

Immediately he stopped crying, put his hanky in his pocket and started to laugh ! He said "you are such a good business woman, here take the bracelet it's a gift from me "! First I didn't want to accept but I had to, he insisted so much, so I gave him my little calculator on which he had layed an eye since the beginning ! (business is business !)

And then we all had a cup of tea together ! Egyptians are called the Italians of North Africa, always ready for fun and joke !



Learning to haggle in 1968

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

more participants here





How to create work

MY WORLD - FALL

more participants here



This was my world not even two weeks ago, looking out of the window



Now my world looks like this when I look through the window.



Our garden has gotten some colors during the time I was away,



and the neighborhood too



Ever since it has also rained at least once a day and I had to dig out my winter clothes !

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND ?

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of November 6. You never know if you need an alibi ! If you participate please put the little logo on the top of your post and leave your link.

I had to buy a new outside lamp which I put in front of the door, because it's getting dark now very soon and I thought it could be dangerous for visitors because the steps were difficult to see. When I had done that, and being outside anyway, I looked at the tiles of our terrace and found them green instead of white, moss had invaded my tiles and had declared war ! Fortunately there is a nice long lasting (cheap) remedy, just a jerrican of chlorid ! That's so efficient that even my black trousers became white spots and I had to throw them away !



Of course the cats had to check and Arthur behaved like a druggie with the chlorid smell, he couldn't sniff enough !

After that I didn't want to move anymore, so comments writing came on purpose until it was time for supper.



Watching a crime story on TV together with Rosie ended this day.



Sunday morning it was cold but the sun showed its nose so I took the train to "my" midi market in Brussels. Through the train window, which was surprisingly clean for once, I saw the red Thalys (above left) which takes you from Brussels to Paris in 1.22 h instead of 4 h, and the blue Eurostar (left) which goes to London also in less than 2 h. Before you had to take a ferry boat to go to the UK. I stayed in Brussels and made my Sunday walk through the market. As always it's very cosmopolitan and you hear all sorts of languages ! From Indian over Arabic to Polish etc.

When I arrived home it started to rain so the rest of the day I spent on my computer, and TV. A very quiet and rather boring weekend !

MEMELESS SUNDAY - EAST MEETS WEST

My 2 weeks holidays in Hurghada/Egypt, were not only good for my health but also very interesting because we were a very international mixture of people in our Hotel.

For the first time in my rather long life I heard languages from countries I only knew from the map, but never had the opportunity to go to these countries and meet these people who all came from the Eastern bloc. Since the cold war is over they are now free to travel and East and West suddenly find themselves nose to nose in the same hotel.

I had never met Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Estonians and of course never had heard these languages either. To me they all sounded Russian because these were the first Eastern people I had met in Egypt. I shouldn't say Russians because all people in the ex Soviet Union speak Russian, but Russia is now a rather small country. The Soviet Union has split into so many little countries that I am lost with the names ! I really should update my geography.

In my hotel were mostly Russians (from Russia and not from the Ukraine, which is a big difference in education and behaving) and also from Poland and the above mentioned countries.

Very very few people spoke another language than their own, of course nobody spoke English except the younger generation. English was banned from schools because of the cold war. Americans spoke English and they were the worst ennemies.

So it was quiet funny to see how people tried (or not) to communicate. Especially in the elevator. Mostly we had a silent agreement and said "Good Morning", or "Hello" but some of them said these words in their language (I suppose, unless they said a bad word, anyway nobody from the Western people understood) and some others just said nothing and admired their feet.

Probably due to this communication difficulties there were two camps : East and West. The Germans, Dutchs and English spoke all English of course with the personel, the others tried to communicate in Russian. Egyptians are really very talented for languages, they have learned in a very short time to speak Russian !

The funniest thing was that all Western countries payed in Euros, but the Eastern countries all in Dollars ! Big wads of Dollar notes were especially used by the Russian speaking people ! (no roubles !) They carried all the cash proudly in their pockets and were surprised when it was stolen ! (Which of course happened in the streets, pick pockets are clever !) In a way I can understand them. They were locked in for generations and now suddenly are free to travel and spend money ! They will learn too.

The Egyptians are happy, money doesn't stink, and they don't care if the tourists are from East or West money is badly needed ! On top of that the Eastern people pay all prices, while the Western once had learned to haggle !

But in the evening when the shows were going on, we didn't need languages to laugh and have fun all together !



East and West all together for the Show !