SATURDAY FUN STORY

From Saturday to Saturday there are less and less participants for "Weekend Funnies"



That's why I think it is time to celebrate its funerals



in all honors !

From next Saturday on I'll write something funny at least I hope so out of my daily life.

This week for example Mr. G. fell out of his bed because he had dreamed that he was jumping behind a bush to avoid a train. And while falling down, he took with him the bedside table, the lamp which stood on it and the radio alarm clock. Fortunately he landed in cat Pookie's basket which was not big enough for him of course. Now the basket is broken on one side, the lamp and radio out of work. The bedside table lay upside down on the floor and in the middle sat Mr. G.

I called this a "Still Life", but had no time to paint him.

But he has nothing.



If you too have some funny stories to tell, join me here.

Saturday Fun Stories :

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

1. This had been a quiet nice week.



I had been with my acqua gym group to an Asiatic restaurant, were greeted by this enormous buddha who also watched over us at table. We were celebrating the 50 (!) birthday of our trainer, the second from left. Of course we had a lot of fun and I am quiet sure that the other guests must have thought that we had escaped from a mad house and were not the decent ladies from an Acqua gym group.

2. I did some Christmas decoration shopping for the flower pots outside, but when I tried to pull out the fake flowers I had put in as a sort of bridge between the seasons, I was unable to do so, the flowers were frozen in the pots and impossible to pull out.

3. So I finished my inside Christmas decoration



This is my "season" basket sitting in the entrance and now ready for Christmas

4. The highlight of the whole week was a concert with Elton John in Brussels, it was absolutely great !



what an artist ! I will write more about the concert on Sunday.

5. and then we got the snow and the cold from the UK ! This was my view this morning when I opened the stores ! It had been freezing cold during the night - 10 °C (14 F) and then during the day - 6° (21 F)



The whole traffic had broken down there were lots of accidents, so what did, I stayed home and tried to create a nice Christmas card to be sent per email. Since ages we don't write Christmas cards anymore, those who don't have a computer just call.



I had put a Christmas hat on my grandchild little Toby, thanks to internet I get the newest pictures from my son, and I just added the hat. This is only his picture, the composition of the card with other things took me quiet some time and then when I was fed up I went over to Dominique for a cup of tea and a little chat.

JOSEPH IS MISSING !

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

letter J

To our Christmas decorations belongs a Christmas crib, very important for Mr. G. as he always had a crib and not a Christmas tree in Italy when he was a child. Italians love huge nativity scenes and Christmas trees were only introduced later.(Italian Christmas cribs)

The big one Mr.G. has gotten when he was two years old sits in the attic since a few years because we always celebrate Christmas in our son's home.

But we have a small one, a cute little substitute with everything Mr. G. needs to be happy. When I had put up the whole crèche with the cow, the donkey, some sheeps and some cute little angels, and had put Mary together with baby Jesus in his crip I noticed with horror that Joseph was missing !

Now a Mary without Joseph sitting alone in front of her baby was a religious afront and a scandal ! I unwrapped the 3 kings in the hope to find Joseph with them, but unfortunately he wasn't with them either. I looked through all boxes and bags no Joseph. It was terrible ! How could I explain to Mr. G that Joseph apparently has escaped and is now a fugitive. There are already some doubts about Mary's virginity and now my crèche has a fatherless mother !

Finally I called Mr. G. for help ! I told him that Joseph is missing and that Mary is sitting alone in the stable. First he was really upset, a crèche without Joseph impossible, but then he had a closer look and picked up one of the three kings. Here, he said is your Joseph ! I looked at the little figure saw no difference between a king and a Joseph (I am not a crèche expert) took Joseph and put him with wife and child and everything went back to a harmonious normal. Except that now a king is missing ! But that is not so important right now we have until January 6 to find him, when they arrive at the stable to offer their presents.



Our crèche, now one king still missing !



The very big one we have is a whole village with houses, farmers, camels etc. a little like this one, I couldn't find a more similar one on Internet.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

More participants here







Wheelchairs to lend in a hospital in Amsterdam. They are chained up and available for 1 €. Probably the management thinks that once you had used the wheelchair you would run away and leave it somewhere.

PS. Can somebody tell me what happens to Wordless Wednesday's official site ?

MY WORLD - Brussels North Station

more participants here

25 years ago I used to take the train every day from Waterloo to Brussels North. I knew the North station very well. Behind the station was the red zone with the girls sitting in the windows mostly knitting and when I saw the chair empty with the knitting needles and the wool I knew that they had a client.

So I was more than surprised when I went by train to Brussels North Station and didn't recognize anything ! The whole district had completely changed and I even had to ask for the most famous street for shopping the "Rue Neuve" which I couldn't find. There were buildings like glass boxes which had grown a little everywhere.

Bruxelles-Nord (Brussels North) is one of the three major railway stations in Brussels; the other two are Brussels Central and Brussels South.

Every regular domestic and international train (except Thalys and the weekdays IC-B to Amsterdam) passing here also has a planned stop.

The station is now in the middle of the Northern Quarter business district, with several corporation headquarters, government offices and Flemish ministries which hadn't existed before, all the old beautiful buildings had been torn down and only a few are left.



From the North Station only the tower hadn't changed. It was still the same than 53 years ago



but the station had been enlarged and modernized. Nothing was left from the good old North Station



That's how it looks today



Buildings



and buildings



one more uglier than the other



But they also had built new appartment houses



and finally my old street hadn't changed



The rue Neuve early mornings usually there are so many people shopping here that you hardly can walk.





The old Galery where I used to eat an ice cream with my girl friends was still there




But the movie theatre had become a store







Quiet disappointed I returned home.

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND ?

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of November 27. 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.

For the first time this year it had snowed a little but the snow didn't last, and there was no problems on the roads. I wanted to do my Advent decoration as Sunday was the first advent and decided to do the Christmas decoration at the same time. This was my main occupation on Saturday. First I went shopping with Dominique she needed some new decorations and I thought I would maybe need something too. But finally I only bought a few candles.



Last year I had packed everything in an old suitcase which we don't use anymore so I had everything easily on hand. It took me the whole afternoon to do my decoration for this year.



I haven't finished yet, but here are already some results. Even my lost vase (see post below) is now decorated for Christmas.

On Sunday we had a wonderful weather, it was very cold but the sun was shining and it was dry and not windy. I took the train to Brussels, until suddenly it stopped, apparently there were works going on the rail and we were transferred into a bus which brought us to the Midi Station. That was quiet funny, I can't remember when I took the bus to Brussels last time it must have been at least 30 years ago or more.

There were lots of people on the market and I found some nice warm gloves and a warm cap.
The afternoon I spent at my computer to make new headers as you can see above, and also for my other blogs.



For the cat blog I first had to put Santa hats on my cats, of course I had to do it with special program because my cats would never agree to wear a hat ! I wouldn't survive !



The rest of the day I spent in front of the TV, watching an "Inspector Barnaby" investigating Midsummer Murders, with only 2 murders instead of an average of 4. Always very psychological and not easy to solve the case. The wood in the open fire was burning and making a cosy heat. Tomorrow I will finish my decoration and then of course invite some friends !

THE MYSTERY OF A VASE - A memeless Sunday

I am constantly in war with my keys and my glasses because although I put them always on the same place, the place apparently changes and I have to search in the whole house to find them.

This time it was not my glasses or the car keys, this time it was a vase ! A big vase half of my leg (not to mesure in cm and inches) in which I had put four bamboo sticks but then had changed with another vase out of transparent glass. With the time the glass became green and the vase looked dirty. Therefore I was looking for the other vase again.

After checking all cupboards, wardrobes, rooms and even under the beds, I finally called Mr. G. for help. Of course before he started his scientific researches he held a long speech about order and putting things away. Then he turned the whole house upside down, even the basement and the garage and asked me if I hadn't given the vase to somebody. Impossible. Finally I gave up and told him that we would find the vase one day and probably in a place we had never thought of.

And that was exactly what happened ! A few days later I was standing with a friend in our entrance, saying good bye when suddenly I exclaimed : the vase ! My friend looked a little startled not understanding what I meant, I pointed on the vase sitting there in the entrance containing sunflowers and all the time we had turned the house upside down had been standing there "under our nose" ! Mr. G. only shaked his had and returned in his office.



the vase we were looking for standing in the entrance



the vase which became green !