THE END OF THE WORLD .... RECALCULATING

The world was supposed to end yesterday ! I thought I have to dress myself very elegantly, not to arrive in heaven or hell without adequate clothes ! But I forgot and I woke up in my pajama. The house was still standing and my street too. Even Internet worked and I realized with great relief that Australia which should explode first,  and which was supposed to be floating into million pieces in the space right now, was still there ... with Internet !

My cats had shown no sign of a special event, as they usually do when a thunderstorm comes up. The neighbors' dogs didn't show any sign of excitement either. Only some people went mad !

In the small Turkish village of Sirince, which was supposed to survive the Apocalypse because of a "positive fluid" hundreds of people were looking for a place to survive,  outnumbered the population of 570 inhabitants. But apart from the bustle of media and some 500 policemen deployed as a precaution, the town was calm and the old Greek houses tastefully renovated remained untouched !


Also a village in France, Bugarach, was supposed to escape the final destruction. The authorities expelled Thursday a handful of people trying to get to the peak.  Access to the peak and its caves were barred and the access to the village was filtered, hunting and fly over the mountain was forebidden,  hundreds of policemen were mobilized ! And nothing happened !

So our good old mother earth is still turning around the sun although in some places like mine, the sun doesn't show it's nose since a couple of weeks and is not floating in million pieces in the space ! 

Are remaining some hystericals hidden in their bunkers with tons of food for the next 10 years, while I go only shopping today ! I didn't want to waste money if the world would disappear on Friday !



The place to be for the next time !

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.



1. The city of Bastogne, paid a special tribute to the victims of Tuesday's shooting  in Newtown. It was an initiative of the mayor of the municipality as Bastogne maintains close relations with the United States since World War II, because so many American and Canadian soldiers died there.

26 oak trees on behalf of the 26 victims of the massacre were planted by school children of different schools in the "Bois de la Paix". The place was made in Bastogne for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. It was so sad to see the children who planted the 26 oak trees and who manifested their sadness about the little American children..

2.  Mr. G. was not lucky his car battery gave up it's soul and he just charged it a little with the help of my car to be able to go to the Opel garage, where he got a new battery. Nice Christmas gift and a hole in the wallet !



3. Since my return from Egypt I badly needed to go to the hairdresser, because I looked like a witch without broom.



the beauty salon was nicely decorated and while my hair was washed I had a nice view on the angels and the moose !

4.  Each year Waterloo city invites the senior citizens for a Christmas party in the city hall. This time a Russian group would give a concert with Russian christmas songs. I went there with my neighbor, thinking that Russian Christmas songs are certainly very nice.



We were greated by the major and other "important" people, I prefered to pose with Father Christmas ! He looked the best !



The concert was very disappointing, there were three guys playing Russian instruments (besides the accordion). The bariton singer had a beautiful voice but sang all kinds of songs which had nothing to do with Christmas, like the "Figaro" etc. The only Christmas song he sang was the German version of "Silent Night" !



After the concert we all were invited for a glass of "Champagne" and cookies and as Christmas gift we got a very dry brioche with a little marzipan Jesus, and two Belgian chocolates. I don't know if they had a contract with the dentist, or if the brioches were from last year, they were not eatable unless you want to loose your teeth. Sign of the economical crisis ... start to save money with the seniors.

5. Much better was the Christmas party of our painting class ! One "girl" had prepared herself this wonderful filled bread. We call it "pain surprise" which means "bread with surprise".



The brave girl had got up at 6 am emptied the bread and made little sandwiches of all kinds, cheese, salami, ham, smoked salmon etc. It was delicious



We all enjoyed the sandwiches and the Champagne which was served with it. The always present doggie Shania, was hoping for sandwiches too, but prefered water to the champagne !

THE REMOVABLE EYE

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday
 

When I was a little girl of about 10 in 1953,   I was invited by a friend to stay over night in her home, what little girls always love to do. During the night I had to go to the bathroom. I switched on the light and the first thing I saw was an eye laying in a glass filled with water and starring at me. After the first shock I approached and took a closer look. It was of a grey blue. Of course I had never seen an eye alone in a glass but only in faces. I wondered if I could take out my eye too, but that didn't work. It was a fake eye made of glass. The eye made me more and more curious and I decided to take it out to have a closer look.



It was round like a marble and on the other side completely white. I found it funny. I took the eye and put it besides mine just to compare. Besides my brown green eye I had now a blue one. Then I put the eye between mine and the mirror showed me that I looked like a monster of the greek mythology. I rolled the eye in my hands and let it drop from one hand the other. I liked this eye it seemed to smile at me.

Finally I had enough played with the eye and put it back in the glass and returned to my bed. The next morning when I went to the bathroom the eye had disappeared. At the breakfast table I looked at my friends dad's eyes, yes it was exactly the same color ! It must be his ! But how did he put it in his face ? That was a mistery to me. I had tried to wear the eye but it hadn't worked ! I must have starred at the poor man because suddenly he asked me if I had seen his eye in the bathroom. I was quite embarrassed but said yes and then he told me that it was a prosthesis because he had lost one eye during WW II (and not only that, but also part of an arm and all fingers on the other hand).

As at this time there were so many men with something missing like an arm a leg or both I found that completely normal. I found it even funny, that my friend's Dad could take his out, that was really special ! The fact that he couldn't see with this eye, came never into my mind.  My father had his two eyes and he couldn't take them out. I was almost jalous.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

more participants here







My hotel room in Egypt one evening

THE DISMANTLED CHRISTMAS MARKET

Each year, Waterloo city builds a huge tent which hosts the Christmas market and also a place for ice skating.


Christmas market 2011

There are many local artisants who sell their products in various little stalls. And each year I go there to see if I can get a handmade something. This year I completely forgot, because on Sunday we did our Christmas decoration, and also the weather was very bad it rained cats and dogs.

Being an optimist, I thought maybe I still can take some pictures of when they dismantle the whole thing.
Unfortunately I had been too late, the stalls were gone and they had nearly finished with dismantling !








Together with a grey and rainy day it looked rather sad. But I wasn't too disappointed, I had realized already last year, it's always the same, and people told me that I hadn't missed anything as it was even worse then last year. At least I have seen how a Christmas market is dismantled !

But I certainly will not miss the Brussels' Christmas market which is quite famous with its 250 stalls.

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of December 15. If you participate please put the little logo on the top of your post and leave your link.


On Saturday Dominique and I went to meet at Nicole's to look at our holiday pictures together. The city center was packed with cars so I took little side streets with less traffic. Arriving at a roundabout, I missed a street and as I thought nobody was behind me I drove backwards and "boomm" a car behind me banged into mine ! We got all out of the cars and looked at the damages, but fortunately the cars were solid and nothing was damaged. But the poor young girl who had bumbed into my car, was so excited that she started to cry although there was nothing, with the result that Dominique took her into her arms patted her back and comforted her !

Then we got back into our cars, I drove again around the roundabout and took the right street. Suddenly I saw the car before mine driving backwards I tried to horn, but "boomm" again and this time into the front of my car. Got out a middle aged man, we checked our cars, and again we were lucky there was  really nothing ! But he insisted to fill in the insurance formular, because he had a full covered car insurance and as he had some little damages from a previous accident he wanted his insurance to pay ! I didn't agree, because I had nothing and Dominique always practically, wetted her fingers and cleaned off two  scratches ! When the guy realized that I didn't want to get involved into a insurance fraud, he gave up, smiled and drove away ! No wonder that car insurances become more and more expensive !

With half an hour late, we finally arrived at Nicole's and as the first shock was gone, we all bursted out in laughter !



Her flat was already nicely decorated for Christmas and looked very festive. I put the USB stick into her computer and we lived our holidays again with a lot of fun, a good cake and coffee !
What an adventure !

On Sunday morning I told Mr. G that we could quickly do our Christmas tree and the decoration. The "quickly" started at 11 am and was almost finished at 5 pm, when I really had enough !

First he draged groaning cartons and a suitcase from the basement to the living room, where I stated that I had Christmas decoration to fill in a shop !



Firs we put the 3 parts of the tree together and unfolded the branches, Arthur slept, he likes when people work. Then I looked into the cartons and the suitcase and took out balls, angels, nativity scenes etc and scattered them all over the floor. Mr. G. took the opportunity to stumble over angels and Father Christmases and balls and was not at all happy about it.  Meanwhile the tree was up and we started with the lights. If you want to learn swearing in Italian, this was the moment ! When the lights were nicely put around the tree I added the balls and other decorations. When I hang up one single red ball, the whole tree fell on the sofa and Mr. G. enlarged his vocabulary. Then he fixed the tree again in the hope it won't fall down if you look at it too severely.



Finally it was ready, I hang the lametta around the balls and put the nativity scene and some angels under the tree ! Meanwhile it was 4 pm !



Then came the rest of the decoration, the mantle piece, the table and the cupboard. There was a lot of things left and we put everything back into the suitcase, which Mr. G. groaning again, carried down to the basement.


Arthur was exhausted from watching us !

Then we fell both in the sofas, and decided that for today it was enough ! The evening we spent with Inspector Barnaby and helped him solve the crime of four murders. Christmas time has started in our house !