ABOUT THE TOWN WHERE I LIVE

Today, I show you some pictures of Waterloo where I live now since 38 years. It is an historical place because of the bloody battle of Waterloo in 1815. I combine this post with the Photo Hunting theme : the city where I live. Read more here ....

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

1. Nothing very exciting happened during the week, I only put my nose outside once to do some shopping to avoid starving. The sales had started but I really had no motivation to go bargain hunting in this humid and cold weather ! My friends this week were busy with family visits or repairs in their homes, as the whole normal life had broken down for two weeks ! No workers available ! Mr. G. apparently has decided to retire into a winter sleep and his favorite place is his bed, much to the joy of our cats, who keep him company !

2. After having taken out the last traces of Christmas decoration, I dusted my cats (not the real once) and put them back in place where they had been replaced by several Father Christmases and angels.



My cleaning lady had brought me for Christmas this cute silvery cat from Poland

Then I continued my daily routine, which means sitting in front of the TV or computer, with the light switched on as outside it's a funeral weather and I sulk ! Nothing is going on for the moment not even inside, like nice expositions or other inside activities. What a dull month !

3.

a glimpse of my slippers and the sleepy cats !

It's said that with the time as a result of living together your animals look more and more like you or behave like you. As cats never do what they are supposed to do, it's me who looks and behaves like a cat, I hang around and just do nothing except my computer work which fortunately takes me quiet some time, as now I have the opportunity to sort out my pictures, and clean the computer and all kind of things I usually don't have the time for.


4.


On Christmas I have got a digital picture frame, which is just wonderful. It allows me to see my favorite pictures as a slide show, or I can fix just one picture and if I want I can change it every day ! I picked out all my favorite photos, put them in a folder and on a USB stick and now I can see each day another picture and not always the same in a frame. I don't like to put family picture frames all over the house or hang them on the wall ! It also allows me to see blue skies and palm trees and all the nice places I have been. So for now, I don't have to look out of the window I watch my frame to cheer me up !

5. Our painting class had started, and it was a lot of fun to meet again. One "girl" had brought two special cakes to celebrate epiphany.


The cake looked like on this picture

In the cakes an almond was hidden and the one who got the piece of cake with the almond got the crown on her head. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, because we laughed too much ! She almost lost a tooth when she bit on the almond.

HELL ! WHERE IS THE HELL ?

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday
  

The last Judgement, Hell, circa 1413 by Fra Angelico


When I was a little girl, with all I had heard about the hell at school or read in my children books, I imagined the hell as a hot place full with pots where people where cooked because they had been bad on earth.



That's the only picture of the hell I found on modern Internet how I imagined hell. Of course the devils didn't look so friendly.

I don't know why I suddenly thought about hell, probably because lately I am sending more and more people to hell without knowing exactly where that is. In French you don't send people to hell but to the station, the meaning is the same, but obviously not the destination. I have nothing against the fact to be sent to the station, which I know at least, but the hell is rather unknown to me.

As I had no Google help when I was little, I thought I could learn more about the hell today, it's never to late to learn something.

And that's what I found out : Hell appears in several mythologies and religions. It is commonly inhabited by demons and the souls of dead people. Now it's quiet difficult for me to imagine a soul which doesn't sit in a body. How does a soul looks like ?

Punishment in Hell typically corresponds to sins committed during life. Sometimes these distinctions are specific, with damned souls suffering for each sin committed, but sometimes they are general, with condemned sinners relegated to one or more chamber of Hell or to a level of suffering.

That makes me think what is a sin ? Living together as an unmarried couple and having 10 kids is not a sin anymore at least in the eyes of the law. Lots of previously considered sins have changed in modern times. It's not a sin anymore not to eat fish on Fridays for example. Conclusion, there must be more people going to heaven wherever that is then going to hell. For people in the Middle Age it was easier to know. Heaven was above us in the sky and hell under our feet deep in the earth. Now we have sattelites flying where the heaven should be which guides our GPS and helps us to communicate from one continent to the other. Heaven must have moved.

The hell's location still remains a mistery people drilled as deep as they could but besides finding sometimes some oil the hell was never found at least to my knowledge.

In many religious cultures, including Christianity and Islam, Hell is traditionally depicted as fiery and painful, inflicting guilt and suffering. Despite these common depictions of Hell as a place of fire, some other traditions portray Hell as cold. Buddhist - and particularly Tibetan Buddhist - descriptions of hell feature an equal number of hot and cold hells. 

That makes it even more difficult if you are a Buddhist, you can be sent to a cold or a hot hell ! I wonder if you have the choice or if it depends on your committed sins.

Anyway wherever the hell is, I prefer a warm place. Meanwhile I continue to send people to hell when they bother me in English and if they bother me in French I send them to the station.











Now remember go easy on those bonuses !

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

more participants here

ON MY WAY TO MARSEILLE's AIRPORT

When my friend Claudie living in the South of France, drove me to the airport in Marseille I took the opportunity to take pictures out of the car, just to remember how beautiful this area is !



Rocks and mountains



against the blue sky



Driving on the highway



A glimpse of Marseille's suburbs





an industrial area



From far I could see Marseille's habor which dates from 600 BC, when Greek settlers landed Lacydon, a rocky Mediterranean cove, now the site of the Old Port of Marseille. In 1854 the Old Port had a capacity of between 1,000 and 1,200 ships. The 6 metre depth of the harbour, however, proved problematic for steamships later in the century; much deeper docks had to be constructed at La Joliette which I saw here. 







almost arrived at the airport



Last glimpse of the mediterian trees



and off I went to a completely different clima in a distance of only  1000 km (621 miles) !

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND ?

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of January 5. If you participate please put the little logo on the top of your post and leave your link.

My too short visit in the South of France was finished and with a heavy heard I returned from the blue sky and sunshine





to the grey cold and rainy weather in Belgium.

My mood had the same color as the weather outside and I had just the energy to do nothing !



But I managed to take off part of the Christmas decoration which was on tables and furniture, because just the view of all this stuff suddenly got on my nerves !

I also had enough of my Christmas headers and I made new once and took them off. This and all the emails to be answered took quiet a lot of time and I spent part of the day with "creating" !

In the afternoon I went over to Dominique as she lives just in the house besides ours and we exchanged our New Year's eves stories, and I showed her the photos I had taken during my holidays.

Mr. G. had catched a cold and caughed like an old dog the whole day, which he mostly spent in bed because he didn't feel well at all. And on purpose, he had taken caugh syrop but instead of taking one spoon, he had measured the quantity only by drinking a sip from the bottle, and when I saw the bottle I noticed that the "spoon" must have been a soup laddle, he had swallowed far too much ! Of course he slept the whole afternoon ! Men are sometimes worse then babies !

On Sunday it wasn't better, still a cold grey funeral weather. With the consequently bad mood I attacked the Christmas tree !



Arthur who had never shown any interest in the creche had suddenly to check the tree and the crèche !
Mr. G. swore with his whole heart while taking off the light garlands, they were all mingled together.
Finally everything was ready to be packed into the corresponding boxes.



Arthur had to try out if the box was strong enough for all the Father Christmas', angles and the rest and finally it was all done !

Mr. G. carried groaning all the stuff down to the basement and put it away for next year !

Relieved we fell on the sofas and took a rest !

The rest lasted the whole afternoon, only I continued with my last header and my emails.

So ended this year's Christmas time and the whole living room looks normal again !