ON HOLIDAYS

When you read this I will be on a roundtrip through Tunesia, and come back on Wednesday June 27.
It depends on Internet connection during my trip, and if there is, I will write a diary of my trip whenever I can. I won't have time to participate in memes.






This gives you an idea of our tour.


My friends Dominique and Nicole (not Charly the dog) will come with me.



and these are the places we will visit.

VISIT TO LONDON - Friday's Fave Five

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

The highlight of this week was my trip to London to meet with  Jo my blogfriend since 2008 from South Africa. Actually she is living in Tanzania and was with her husband on holidays in the UK. We had decided to meet in London to see each other for the first time "life".



From Brussels to London we took the Eurostar train which goes under the see and it takes only 2 h to get there.

My friend Dominique came with me as she hadn't been in London since 20 years and we wanted to combine our stay with a Musical. So we took a package Hotel/Musical.

When we arrived in London it poured ! and it didn't stop the whole day ! It was awful. But we decided to make the best out of our 2 days stay.



The hotel was very nice in a square near Paddington station, so we could go easily wherever we wanted to. It was located in a square with a little park and no traffic at all. A very calm and quiet hotel which offered everything for a short stay.





As it rained and rained we decided to take a Sightseeing tour at least we didn't get wet and during nearly 3 hours took us to all interesting places in London. We even got these nice raincoats.




We returned  to the hotel at 6 pm rested a bit before taking the tube to Piccadilly Circus to watch the Musical Ghost. It was really wonderful ! The decoration was not made out of paper or carton, but was projected with slides so that you got the impression you were in the middle of the show. It even rained in the Musical ! For a Monday evening there were a lot of people and the theatre was nearly full. We enjoyed it really very much.



The next morning was the big day, meeting with Jo in a Pub near our hotels. The funniest thing was that she and her husband had booked a hotel just 3 min from ours which we didn't know before ! It was so nice to see each other and she was exactly the same person like in her blog and we spent two wonderful hours together, talking about our lives which we knew already from our blogs. She knew Dominique also from my Blog. She had brought for each of us a beautiful big scarf from Africa.

Then we seperated regretfully, they went on a sightseeing tour and Dominique and I went to discover Soho.



of course we visited the Liberty store which is such a beautifulold building. I took this picture of us in a mirror and Dominique couldn't resist to buy a gorgeous fabric to make a blouse.



We then took the tube to Covent garden where we walked around, at least it didn't rain there. We had a coffee  listening to a group of young music students who played violin. A little pigeon tried to pick out some sweets !



I also introduced Dominique to "Fish & Chips" which she had never eaten before and she loved it. I knew from experience that you can eat very well in the cosy Pubs. Which we did. The next day I recommended her Jacket (or baked) potato. I had it with cheddar cheese, she choose shrimps.

At 7 pm we took our Eurostar train back to Brussels, where we arrived happily but exhausted ! Mr. G. picked us up at 10.30 and by 11 pm we were home. What a nice stay we had !

DRUGSTORE ?

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday


When I set my feet for the first time on American ground, it was in 1971 and my English wasn't that good. My mother's sister who married an American in 1951 and lived in Madison /Wisconsin had invited us to show us a little bit of the American lifestyle and of course also the country.

Besides the very long trip from Madison to South Dakota, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone Park, Las Vegas, etc. I was very much intrigued by the shops and stores. The fact that you could do your shopping in shorts and curlers even at midnight seemed so unreal to me. Our stores close at 9 pm at the latest and of course unthinkable to go shopping in curlers. Of course I wanted to try that out, just to know how it felt like. Mr. G. laughed his head of but he was the only one, all other shoppers didn't even notice me.

Then I was really very surprised that there were Drugstores everywhere. I thought in this shops you could get drugs without any problems. As in 1971 nobody cared about canabis or cocain or heroin or whatever (there were no laws yet)  I am not a specialist, I thought these shops were made for drug users, and was a little surprised by the kind of clients. Old and elderly ladies and men, went in there, where I thought it would be rather full of youngsters.

Of course I wanted to go inside and see what they had to sell, and to my surprise I didn't see any bags with hashish, or white powder in little cellophane bags, nothing suspicous but aspirine, and other medication. My aunt lifted the mistery. She explained that a drugstore doesn't mean a shop which sells drugs, but it is  a pharmacy. I learned a new word !

Fortunately I didn't ask for a bag of hashish !

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

more participants here




In the Eurostar from Brussels to London

OUR WORLD - Waterloo Artists in the Street

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It's like a new fashion more and more street expositions are taking place in Waterloo. This time it was in a certain Sint Gertrude Street. It was in a very old part of Waterloo, where I had never been since the 37 years I live here !



The St Gertrude street was very old  and narrow going up a hill. I wonder how people are getting there when it snows !



The houses were also old and very nice. The artists had displayed their paintings or sculptures in the gardens.



Fortunately the sun was shining in the afternoon



all kind of paintings and sculptures



along the street





This man showed how he worked with a chainsaw



Little clay figurines



and a book which I really liked



There was also handmade jewelry



and I met my ceramic teacher, who sold some of her work too



The International Rotary Club was also there



and some artists had baked delicious cakes.

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND ?

This meme helps you to remember what you did on the weekend of 9 June

Just before I left for a visit of an exhibition of paintings and sculptures in a street, houses and garden, organized by local artists, I met my neighbor Vivi together with her two daughters and grandaughter  who had just come back from John's funerals. She was in a terrible state.

John had asked not to be incinerated but his daughter didn't care, living far away in Canada, she just wanted to get rid of him and sell the house to have the money. A notary had organized the funerals, and there was just another neighbor with his wife and Vivi with her family. She hadn't told me anything otherwise I would have gone too. She was so upset about all this that she had just forgotten to tell me. 

The street exhibition was very nice, I will write more about it next week.

On Sunday morning Mr. G. found an agenda and business cards and other items just in front of our house. I looked in the agenda to find out to whom it belongs and it was one of our neighbors who had parked his car just besides our mailbox, and apparently somebody broke in to it, and as there was nothing special he threw everything in the street ! It was my neigbor's fault he forgot to lock his car ! But still I never thought that somebody would steel in our quiet little street. 

Late afternoon, after I had planted the last flowers in our garden, (for once it didn't rain) Dominique came over and we checked our booking papers for our trip to London. After that I prepared my little suitcase.



We had booked a package Hotel/Musical and have chosen "Ghost". On Tuesday we will meet Jo and her husband who are also in London on a holiday coming from Tanzania, were they live for the moment. Jo and Grant are from South Africa. We are blogfriends since a long time, but have never met "life". That certainly will be a lot of fun.

So when you read this I am probably sitting in the Eurostar train which takes us from Brussels to London in not even 2 hours ! I'll take my little notebook along so if I have time I can post a little diary of our trip.

ANIMAL DREAMS

Have a nice Sunday !