MY WEEKEND OF JAN 1ST, 2015

My friend Claudie from the South of France came for a short visit over the weekend. Her daughter will study in Brussels for 3 months, and she wanted to see the room she had rented for her and get the keys. Unfortunately we didn't have the best weather, it was cold and windy, hard for a girl from the South !



Nevertheless we went to the Brussels Anderlecht market which she had never seen and strolled through the stands. Part of it is located in a huge hall where once the cattle had been sold, and at least we were "under cover" !

In the afternoon we drove to Brussels to pick up the keys !



The street looked quiet and the old houses too big now to house one family without servants are mostly rented to students. They each have a room the kitchen is in common and also the living room.



Claudie had already brought some of her daughter's stuff and tried desperately to open the suitcase ! She had forgotten the numbers to open the safety lock and had to call her husband to get the right one. Finally we got the suitcase open ! It turned out that the room had a well equipped kitchen corner and her daughter doesn't have to share the common kitchen. Everything necessary was there.



Then we inspected the bunk bed with a desk underneath. I didn't even try to climb up, it was too high for my vintage age !



A table and the kitchen and then we went to see the common living room. It all looked a little empty, as all students were on holidays, but still quite nice. We turned the heating on and satisfied returned home.



For supper we had a cheese fondue with Broccolis, the ideal food to warm you up when it is cold outside !



The next morning, while Claudie was still sleeping I was suddenly so fed up with the Christmas decoration, that I took off everything and Mr. G. packed the whole decoration in a box and carried it to the basement for the next year ! I enjoyed the look of my now normal looking living room ! Usually I wait until the 6th of January, but this time I couldn't wait ! It depressed me. Christmas is not anymore as it used to be.

It was an awful day, it rained cats and dogs and it was very cold. We wanted to visit the Brussels' Christmas market, but with this weather it was really impossible.

Winter sales had started in whole Belgium so instead of walking through the rain



we went inside the Waterloo Galleries to have a look at the "Sales" ! Despite the so said "Sales" the prices were too expensive for our wallets, that we just walked around and sat in a café watching people loaded with shopping bags.

Time went by so quickly and the day of her departure arrived only too soon ! We took the bus together to the Brussels Midi station, where I went with her into the station and we said good bye. On my way back the sun came out ! What a shame, we could have visited the Christmas market, but she had to leave.

The rest of the day I just did nothing but watching TV and sat at my computer, I couldn't even do the laundry because there is a pipe blocked in the kitchen and water doesn't run through anymore. Very annoying when you have to use the sink ! Tomorrow somebody is coming to repair it, hopefully it's nothing serious.