FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

1. On Monday I went to my aqua gym classes, we have a new teacher and she is very tough ! So after lunch while watching TV I fell asleep !

Mr. G. had a strong cold and sneezed and coughed non stop, our poor cats nearly jumped to the ceiling before they got used to this noise. Elephant trumpets were nothing against him !

2. Generous as he is he offered me his microbes and the next day we coughed and sneezed in concert. Tissue boxes were used up in no time and from that day on



I spent my days like this, I crept from sofa to bed, with some interruptions at my computer !



The view from my desk was also not very comforting, it rained and stormed the whole week long.

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HOW A VINTAGE LADY LEARNED TO USE INTERNET !

Letter : I



In 2005 I discovered Internet. Mr. G had a computer since ages they were his work utensils, but to me it was an annoying thing, on which he spent hours and was only there to collect dust. He had shown me how to write letters on this thing and print them out but that was it. I didn't even know what an email was. The last company I worked for in 1995, didn't have computers yet.

When I came back from holidays in Egypt this year, I wanted to know more about Egyptian cats and their history and I asked Mr. G. what I have to do to find some documentation on Internet. Meanwhile I had heard that you can use it to find things. This was the beginning of my battle with a computer ! First I had to understand how to use it ! He tried to explain me file and folders and then the whole Internet stuff, I didn't know why I had to use a browser to have access to Internet, I only knew the verb "to browse" and I didn't know through which cupboard I should browse to find a cup, in short I was a blockhead. Google was somebody living in England or in the States maybe was an actor or a millionaire, I didn't know.

Websites, never heard. Webs I knew from spiders, and sites from historic places, but what has a spider to do in sites ? making webs ? A homepage ! what a word, I have a home and I have pages in my books for example, but what should I call a homepage in my house ?

While looking and learning slowly to very slow, I suddenly discovered Forums. I understood rather quickly that this had nothing to do with the old Romans or with justice. I used my new knowledge to invent a username, after having found out what that was,  using  Google for the first time and a choose an easy password and logged myself into all forums which I thought were interesting for my cat history researches. But I didn't know where to write, answered to the wrong people and mixed up everything. For a cat owner I would have given the following tip, "if he barks during your absence, put the TV on".

When I stumbled over the word "Blog" nobody amongst people around me didn't know what it was and even Mr. G. who knows everything, this time didn't know.

And there I really discovered Internet and its advantages ! For the second time I asked my new friend  Google who gave me an explanation which even I could understand. I found this idea not bad at all and logged in once more, this time into Yahoo, there I got a blog ! I was very proud and without knowing anything I made up my profile and started to write. Without success, nobody found me, nobody read me and I didn't know at all what to do to get some visitors.

I gave up and after a while I found Blogger and very helpful people who explained me what to do.  Once I read in blogs where especially elderly people asked themselves what would happen to their blog if they died and if they could include it in their testaments ! Never have thought of that ! I would leave 4 Blogger Blog cadavers behind me plus the Yahoo one, who is floating somewhere in the Internet sphere.

Today I couldn't live without Internet and whatever browser ! I have a question I google and get the answer ! I can call and see my little Grandson with the help of Skype ! I can even watch movies when there is nothing on TV ! And I can do shopping, online banking, Hotel and flight bookings and all that without leaving the house !

How the heck did I live before ???

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WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

House Number


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BRUSSELS, ST. GILLES

Jan 13, 2015

I have written about St. Gilles already in 2010 here. I have never thought at that moment that I would return to this Brussels municipality 4 years later to help my friend Claudie from the South of France, when she looked for a student room for her daughter in Brussels.

St. Gilles is above all one of the few municipalities in Brussels to have preserved the old historical buildings of various architectural styles but it also, one with not less than 130 different nationalities living peacefully here together. Lots of the old buildings have been transformed to flats or rooms for students, as this area has very good transportation links to various Universities and Academies and Colleges.

So when I went to the street where her room is located to bring some bedlinen and covers before her arrival, I took the opportunity to drive and walk around a little in this area.




I found a  food shop



A bakery



and even a little Pizzeria, all in walking distance.






All houses have these beautiful cast iron balconies







Strolling along the houses I noticed that besides each door was a kind of hole with an iron bar. That made me really curious. Fortunately I saw an elderly lady and asked her why these old houses have these holes besides the doors.



and she explained to me, that when in the past the streets were still full of mud or horse "left overs" the visitors cleaned their shoes on these iron bars, before they entered the house !

I had learned something new !

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MY WEEKEND OF JANUARY 10

We had a very stormy and rainy day on Saturday, not even my usually so adventurous cat Arthur put his paws outside !


Before this happened
I spent the afternoon at Ilona's escaping a Mr. G who was fighting with his tablet he got on Christmas ! For a computer expert it's hard to learn to use it, it is simply too easy ! He looks for complications when there are none.

On Sunday I drove to St. Gilles a municipality of Brussels, to put some bedlinnen, covers, etc for my friend Claudie's daughter in her student room. She will arrive in Brussels on Tuesday for 3 months.



I took the opportunity to walk a little around the area, which I didn't know at all and discovered that at the end of her street there was a food shop, a bakery and even a Pizzeria.

Then I drove around to discover a little more.



Meanwhile in Brussels more than 20 thousand people of all races and religions walked for peace and freedom of speech through Brussels Boulevards from the North Station to the South Station, to protest against the terrorist attacks in Paris.

An old friend of mine who is married with an Indian wrote : With a Catholic father, a Calvinist mother, a Hindu husband, an Anglican son and the other atheist, one catholic daughter in law and the other Protestant, I wonder what will the spouses of my grandchildren be : Buddhist? Jew? Muslim? It doesn't matter, provided that they tolerate the religion of each other.


Relgion is indeed not an excuse to kill innocent people !