POOR MEN !

Men also can be inventive if it's necessary !

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

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1. On Monday morning the temperature had suddenly raised over night and the snow started to melt. The streets were quiet slippery because the earth was deeply frozen.



I couldn't use the parking in front of the Acqua Gym house, if I didn't want to stay there for the rest of the day. It was foggy and humid, so we really enjoyed the warm water of the swimming pool and the hot tea afterwards.

2. After our Yoga class, (Mondays and Tuesdays are my "sport" days) I went with Dominique to our Travel agency and booked our roundtrip through Turkey. It will last 8 days.



We added 4 more days in this beautiful hotel in Sousse which is a very old town of 11th century B.C.

I had spent a couple of hours to find out everything about the hotel, because it's always better to have another opinion or pictures as those in the travel brochure ! Now we have something to dream of until our departure mid June. With early bookings you get a good reduction on the price.

3. Besides shopping and household scores nothing special happened, only that we had buckets of water falling from the sky accompanied by a very strong wind.



it looked rather awful outside !

4. Dear cat Arthur had stolen a whole Chipolata, it could only be him, because the girls don't steal !



and then he sat there digesting. Apparently it hadn't been good for him because the next morning when I got out of my bed I stepped with my bare foot in vomit. What a nice wake up ! I hobbled on one foot to the bathroom to clean it, and then discovered that he had done the same on 3 different places in the living room and of course not on the tiles but on the rugs ! I can't say that this belonged to my favorite fives !

5. We had a new student in our painting class today, who of course became immediately the sweetheart of the whole group ! It was Charly the dog of Nicole, who is allowed to assist us in our lessons.



He made friendship with Shania another dog, who is already member of the group since a long time. They immediately were friends. Nobody was disturbed and at least the dogs had company and didn't have to stay home alone.

MAPS AND I

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

According to Wikipedia a map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes. Which doesn't bring me any further to understand how to read a map !

It also says that road maps are perhaps the most widely used maps today, and form a subset of navigational maps, which also include aeronautical and nautical charts, railroad network maps, and hiking and bicycling maps. Fortunately I am not a pilot, because instead of landing at the South Pole I would certainly fly you to the Northpole if I follow the map. I am not a captain either although there are captains who are like me, they can't read a map, because otherwise the disaster of the Costa Concordia wouldn't have happened. Fortunately I don't need hiking maps, I am too lazy for that and to sit on a bike I have forgotten.

It's a disaster for the driver (Mr. G.) when I sit beside him with a map on my lap, which he had given me explaining exactly where we are and where we have to go. So I sat there and looked at this network of different colored lines and curves and still didn't know where I was. He insisted and pointed his finger on the spot where we were supposed to be and then on the spot where we had to go. But it didn't work, because we were in the wrong direction, the place where we had to go according to the map was behind us. I found this not logical at all and said I have to turn around the map because it shows the wrong direction. Full of good will I did, but then I couldn't read the names of the streets or towns because they were upside down and I started to feel sick. I can't read for long in a car.

At the beginning of our life together he got very angry because he thought I did it on purpose, but I swore I didn't I just don't know where I am on a map not to speak where South, North, East or West is. For me on a map it's "up, down, left, right". Before the arrival of the GPS, the poor man had to stop, take the map and read where we had to go and then we arrived for sure.

But when I had to go somewhere alone with a map, it was a catastrophe ! Once I wanted to go to a town located in the North of the Country, but of course took the wrong way to the South, had to ask X times for my way and was exhausted when I arrived.

Although I know Brussels and Waterloo by heart, I still manage to take the wrong way, following my instinct. There was nothing to do, my instinct and the maps weren't on the same line. To my excuse I can say that I am a little dyslexic, and that's probably why.

When we were in London to visit our son, Mr. G. prepared the tube map for me :



at least I found my way without any problems.

Since 3 years I am the happy owner of a GPS, and since I got used to not only listen to the voice but also have a look on the map, I am like a blind who became owner of a dog.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

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WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND ?

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of February 11, 2012.

Mostly staying inside we still have temperatures down to - 15 (2F) ! On Saturday Mr. G had difficulties to get is car started so he brought it to a garage to be repaired and we had to share my car for 3 days ! And as it is so often, if at normal times we don't need our cars at the same moment, when we only have one, then suddenly we absolutely have to go at the same time to another place.

I went visiting together with a classmate from my painting group a friend who had just been informed that she has lung and spinal column cancer ! She is only 54 and such a nice and friendly person. She is always there when somebody needs help. We went there to cheer her up and make her laugh, with cat stories, she has herself 4 cats and is a cat lover and she was so happy to have some company who didn't pity her, because she hates it. We only talked about the cancer when she started to mention it, and I thought it's always the same, the bad persons live 100 years and the good once leave far too early. And she had just become a grandma for the second time. Hopefully the chimeo therapy will help.



Dominique and I have planned to make a roundtrip through Tunesia beginning of June, so I had picked up a brochure at my travel agency and we selected the one who takes us all around Tunesia during 8 days, and then we want to add 3 days in a good hotel to rest from the trip. We spent a nice afternoon choosing hotels and dates and it was so nice to already dream of holidays !



The sun had disappeared Sunday late afternoon, and I think there is snow in the air. It hadn't snowed since 10 days. After supper with the burning open fire we watched a German speaking Inspector Barnaby !



The cats were sleeping everywhere in the house, with this cold, they don't like to go out either.



Coming back from shopping I took this picture of a freezing Napoleon !

NOT YET FROZEN BUT COMING SOON

I heard in the News tonight that we have the coldest winter since 70 years in Belgium, - 15 °C or less (2 F) and in some parts even worse. According to the weatherman there is still no global warming in view ! Apparently this phenomenon belongs to the past.

Usually I am a rather positive person, but now I start to think that in a few days or weeks we may look like these ice sculptures I had seen 2 years ago in Bruges.



This is me, I had put on some winter fat before I froze






two of my cats froze while asking for treats,



Mr. G froze while drinking a beer



our bar froze too, except the bottles



and our chairs look now like this. Very refreshing when you sit on them.

So if in the next days you don't hear from me then I am frozen.