CATCHING FLIES - Fun Saturday

In my painting group we discuss about a lot of things. This time it concerned a "young" girl of 80, who is in very good shape, but now she has troubles with her teeth. The dentist told her she needs a denture ! Big drama, because she thought that she had to take it out during the night and put it in a glass like her mother had done. We reassured her that today nobody does this anymore and she could keep her false teeth and only take them out for cleaning.

This reminded me the false teeth of my grandpa. Each time he made a little nap in his armchair after lunch, he took his teeth out and put them besides him on a little table. Of course as a little girl I found it wonderful that he could take his teeth out and I not. I thought it would be perfect to catch flies with a denture  and  the false teeth could eat them. One day a little friend came over and we both looked at the false teeth laying there.

First we hesitated a little being afraid that grandpa would wake up, but as he snored like a chainsaw, we thought there was no danger. So I took one part and my friend the other and then we looked for flies to catch. Indeed we had a lot of fun, unfortunately the flies were too quick, but still we could clap the two parts together which made a nice noise.


Unfortunately my grandma came into the room and saw us playing with the false teeth. Of course she had to be angry, took the denture from us, chased us outside and probably washed it before putting it back. Later she told me that she had laughed for hours about my creativity to catch flies with a denture ! I don't know if my grandpa ever knew about that.

Apparently that wasn't the only funny event she had with me when I was a little girl.

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.


1. We had a terrible thunderstorm which left lots of people around Waterloo and other areas in Belgium without electricity, TV and Internet, but the worst were the streets and basements which were inundated and full of mud once the water went back. Luckily in our area we only had the terrible sound of the thunder and lightning it poured of course, but didn't cause any damages. Two of my acqua gym friends couldn't come and had to stay home while their basement was pumped out.

2. The joints between the tiles of our patio were nearly all broken, and needed to be repaired. This started on Tuesday and two men were cutting off the old cement which caused such a lot of dust it was terrible. The grass, flowers and windows were grey. On top of that I had this awful noise the whole day. It was as cosy as sitting on a dentist chair !





3. If somebody saw me yesterday in the yard he must have thought that I just had escaped a madhouse, because with a little duster I cleaned the leaves and flowers of the plants. The men had finished taking off the old joints, so at least it was quiet again. I very much appreciated my yoga in the afternoon. I was feeling like a fully charged battery ! Mr. G. still tired despite the noise slept the whole afternoon. Sometimes it's an advantage when you have hearing problems.

4. In Belgium, when a car is 4 years old you have to put the car in for service, which was my case, it was the first time.  I asked Mr. G. to have the car checked first before going there. What he did. Only he took his car instead of mine and when he arrived he realized that he had taken the wrong car. He had to come back take mine and go back again.  I wished I had seen the faces of the repairmen .

5. The sunny and very warm weather (suddenly) continued but today it is very sticky and we have 29°C (84 F) the grass had grown and I had to mow the lawn ! It was like in a Sauna !

Sitting on the patio chatting with a friend and the lawn is mowed ! I have a dream ....

More and more I am dreaming of a robot mower ! Mr. G can't do it anymore due to arthritis in his hands. Fortunately we only have the size of a handkerchief to mow, so this year it's still OK for me, but it is certainly not my hobby, and rather hard on a hot day.




Maybe that is the solution !

EAT APPLES

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

Each day I eat 4 to 6 appels. I started with that, because over winter my belly became more round, not as my cats with fur, but with a padding. I also had noticed that my jeans had shrinked, it was a little difficult to close the button. As I love appels I thought I would replace everything I nibble when I watch my murders on the TV screen with appels. I peel them cut them in handy little cubes and put piece after piece with relish into my mouth, while Inspector Barnaby or Lewis, find new corpses. I avoid the CSI series, because I don't like to see dead people's stomac content even if it contains an eaten apple, while I nibble my little pieces.

I wanted to know a little more about this fruit and looked up in Wikipedia. The information was very useful, because I learned that an apple comes from an apple tree. "The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree". I also learned that the appels from an apple tree (not from a pear tree ) have their origin in Turkey where Alexander the Great is credited with finding dwarfed apples in Kazakhstan in Asia in 328 BCE and apparently let them grow in his country. From there the appel reached the whole world and was brought to North America with colonists in the 17th century.

In Christian tradition it was an apple that Eve coaxed Adam to share with her. Lucky man. As a result, in the story of Adam and Eve, the apple became a symbol of the fall of man into sin, and sin itself, probably because in Latin, the words for "apple" and for "evil" are similar : mālum "an apple", mălum "an evil". This may also have influenced the apple becoming interpreted as the biblical "forbidden fruit". The apple as symbol of sexual seduction has been used to imply sexuality between humans, possibly in an ironic sense. I swear this is not the reason why I love appels.

Somebody has told me that you can eat as many appels as you wish they don't have any calories which would encourage your belly to expand, and there is also the proverb "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" !

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

more participants here

OUR WORLD - Kid's Factory

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Part of our world are also places reserved for children only. When I was a little girl, I had the chance to live with my grandparents on the countryside and played in the garden, on fields or with the farmer's children and animals and not in ruins like the city children in Germany in 1945. We built hey houses and invented toys with twigs and paper and grandpa made other toys out of wood.

It was almost the same when our son was a little boy, he could also play in the fields, on the street and in the garden. There were already lots of toys on the market mostly in plastic because this was very in fashion in the 70th. Wooden toys were not appreciated and considered as old fashioned. Today wooden toys are "in" again.

Today to amuse the little once you can take them to the "Kid's factory" where they can play without any danger while mum or dad or another family member can read a book or even work on their laptops because "Kid's factory" also has Wifi. The only hic is that it's once again for privileged children. While on one side of the world children have no toys or have to play in trash mountains, or ruins, the children of the western world when the parents dispose of enough money are lucky to go here :

Entrance fee for one child is 8 € (10 $) for an unlimited time. Of course if you have 5 children to take there it becomes quiet expensive.

But you get quiet a lot for your money and especially, you can stay there in peace, no way that your precious child could be hurt, unless there is a fight between them.




an overlook




Instead of going to the "Hard Rock café" you go to the "Hard Kid's café"



We were there when they had just opened at 10 am so the café was not yet ready.



I don't know what this was exactly,




it looked like a castle or maybe a ship






For those who want to climb up soft tree trunks and once on top sliding down



or for the elder once this "Air Boy"




The place reserved to the 1 - 2 years old was tested by grandson Toby



who appreciated it very much





 things to climb, to turn around laying in a colorful ball mountain and also punching balls for very agitated o aggressive children, nothing was missing.



hard exercise for an 18 months old !



a jumping castle



and last but not least a very tired car !

This "Kid factory" is in Waterloo, where I live and the good thing is that as Waterloo has a lot of English, American, Scandinavian and French families living here, the playground becomes quiet international, language difficulties don't exist amongs children.

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND - Visit of Toby

Helps you to remember what you have done on weekend May 19, 2012.



This weekend was very busy I and am sure we have to recuperate for a couple of days. Our son came for the first time with grandson Toby, alone, to see his Waterloo friends, and also to allow mummy to rest a bit.

Fortunately the weatherman had forseen very bad weather, rain for Saturday and Sunday and that's why the sun was shining and we even could eat on the patio and Toby could play in the garden.



First thing when he arrived he had to discover the new toys. This kept him busy for a while




Then he went outside to meet Arthur, who is the only cat who doesn't care about mini humans. Toby was very sweet and careful with him, only once he did something which made Arthur hiss, but then they were friends again. Arthur was also the vacuum cleaner and ate everything what Toby throw on the floor !




In the afternoon we went to my son's best friend who also has a little boy and they played together and watched a little movie. It was so cute to see them like a Benetton publicity !




Sitting in the big bath tube was fun and after the bath he took his last drink on Nonno's (Grandpa in Italian) lap, before he went to sleep.



Our son had taken all his old toys down from the attic, so for us it was so nice to see Toby on his Dad's little chair and donkey. But he prefered his Dad as donkey.




On Sunday we went to the "Kid's factory" a very nice inside playground for kids of all ages. Toby of course was in the corner reserved for the little once until 2.




But then he also wanted to discover the place reserved for 2 years and older, learned to climb up the steps and played in all these colorful balls. Of course sitting in a sportscar was very interesting too.

This event made him so tired that he slept for two hours, before we had lunch.





and while Daddy packed we two watched a cute little video series, called Trotro. I find it very nice and educative. Trotro is very famous in France. So it's also good for Toby to learn French as his mum speaks dutch with him.




and this is Trotro as books. Very cute.

The time went by so quickly, and they both waved good bye to Nonno and Nonna and drove back home to Amsterdam.

We two collapsed on the Sofas and took a rest !

OUT OF SERVICE

My son and grandson are visiting us for the weekend, so I am busy with grandma duties and realize that Maxine is right !

Soon

No time for blogging.