STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS - Novel

It is the first time I will participate in "Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt". To start with, I read that this weeks word was "Novel" and then I read the rules. What a novel was I knew more or less and I thought maybe I can write here a crime novel where somebody is murdered with 25 knife stitches describing the scene with a lot of dripping blood from the knife and over the whole body. But then I changed my mind, because for a first time I wouldn't leave a got impression here, when I start writing with bloody novels.

As English is not my mothertongue I googled what else "Novel" could mean and I learned a lot ! First I learned that it stems from the Italian word "novella". In the 14th century, Italian writers began writing collections of short tales, each of which they called a novella. Unfortunately my Italian husband is not a writer, he even lets me write all the correspondence because it is something he hates !
But a novel is not only a book or a text it can also be something new !

If someone tells you that you've come up with a novel idea or a novel interpretation of something, it's probably a compliment: not everyone is capable of original thinking. But not everything new is terribly worthwhile, a novelty, for example, is often a cute (or maybe just silly) little object that you might put on a display shelf in your house, and that fits perfectly on me ! I collect cats ! and they sit on shelves, tables, and windowsills. But they can also be very useful as I have mugs with cats, table sets with cats, tea cups and plates etc. Mr. G. had once counted them a couple of years ago and arrived at 450. Apart from that I consider myself as normal.

Now I don't know if I respected the rules of this to me new meme in case I have not, please let me know ! 

Link here

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE - FIVE ON FRIDAY

1. I don' know what happens this year, but we still have wonderful warm  weather always around 17° or more and it's difficult to dress ! In the mornings it's freezing and in the afternoon a T-shirt is sufficient ! So the weather was ideal for many to make a long weekend, as All Saint's day is a holiday in Belgium. That's the day where everybody who has a relative buried somewhere (in a graveyard of course) hurries from one graveyard to the other all over the country to bring mostly mums. The whole year nobody cares. That's the use.
 



Everywhere I looked the flower shops or stalls on the street were selling mostly mums in all colours !
Btw, I had Google translated an English text into French and "mums" was translated into "mothers", which gave a very funny text, as mothers were carried around or sat on the graves !



In the evening the door bell rang and a skeleton and a pumpkin were standing there, asking for treats ! Fortunately I had bought some sweets, because I knew that my young neighbor would come with her two children. But that was all this year nobody else showed up ! Halloween starts to move into Belgium only slowly.

2. I took the opportunity and went to the oldest cemetary of Waterloo (I wrote about it here) to take pictures. It is not in use anymore.



Important old Waterloo families are buried here and I recognized quite a lot because streets are named after them. There are also soldier graves from the first and second worldwar and also graves from soldiers of the Commonwealth. City employees were cleaning, for this special day, normally the graveyards are all very neglected, because the city has no money for that. Not only our city but in whole Belgium. Except the graves from American and English soldiers, they are always well taken care of and gardeners are fully employed the whole year long but it is paid by the American and British government !

3.



As All Saint's Day was on a Tuesday, lots of people had taken one day off to have little holidays. It had been a very long time I hadn't been to Brussels' Grand Place, usually I only go there when I have visitors. Because of the spring weather the place was full of tourists, despite the fact that Brussels is still a "very dangerous" city with terrorist alert level 3 (on 4) !



I took this picture of Manneken Pis, just to see if it will be censured again by Google. At the very beginning of my blogging in 2006 or 2007, it had been taken out because it was X-rated ! Poor Manneken Pis is only the symbol of Brussels ! There must be a lack of general knowledge amongst the Google people I hope it has improved meanwhile. Here he is used as publicity and stands in front of a waffel shop

4. We covered up the garden furniture too early, we couldn't know that such a warm weather would come, because according to the weatherman it should rain and the temperatures cold.



We could still sit on the bench which stood in front of the house.



And these 5 bags contain weeds and branches from our garden. Mr. G. had forgotten that Tuesday was a holiday and had put them out to be picked up by the "Green" bin men ! Fortunately it hadn't rained so far, otherwise they would have holes by now ! They will be picked up next week !

5. The weatherman must be happy because finally the rain he had announced since 4 days has arrived !
A reason for me to stay inside and think over what to do. First I had to got dressed and while I was looking for an adequate pullover, I felt that I should tidy up the wardrobe a bit and suddenly 4 pullovers and 2 cardigans were out and ready to be given away. My wardrobe looked empty ! Dangerous sign !

Then I was looking for a book and realized that there were far too many, I took a plastic bag, threw them all in and carried them to the basement, also to be given away. And amongst the books I found two photo albums.



One from 1930 showing my father during his military service with his parents and siblings on Christmas, all the others showed friends of him which I had never seen.

I have no photos at all from my grandma or grandpa from my fathers side and nothing of his sister and brother neither. He had quarreled about heritage stuff with them and they hadn't talked together since years and then they all died.



I even found a picture from my great great grandma ! I have no idea what her name was.  I took these pictures out and put the albums in the basement. Now I have more room again. Time flew by and suddenly it was already evening.

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

more participants here at FIVE ON FRIDAY

THURSDAY's FILL INS

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Feeling observed

WATERLOO CEMETARY

Once a year at all Saint's day it is the use in Belgium to go to the graveyards and bring mums to put on the graves of their relatives.  So once a year the cemetaries look nicely and colorful with all these mums while the whole year long the graves look dull and grey and the whole graveyard too.

I went to the oldest cemetary in Waterloo, which is not in use anymore I think the last people who had been burried here were in the 90th and also only because there was a husband, a wife or a family grave.



The entrance



with this sign



From far you see the mums in all colors.



Most of these graves belong to the wealthy bourgeoisie, some of the names I recognized because streets are named after them.



Here are some which are still  visited. Most of the descendants are dead too





Some of the graves are in a pitiful state







The nuns of the "Sacré Coeur" (Holy heart) are burried here.



This one looked like my grandpa on my father's side



an overlook



A probably beautiful statue, but it is so dirty that it's difficult to see





a quite big monument



soldiers graves



Dedicated to fallen soldiers



dedicated to those who were deported



Here are laying soldiers from the first and second world war









This grave was the most beautiful one in terms of flower decoration. I saw a man working on it and I saw him crying. I thought he probably lost his wife not very long ago, but when he had left and I looked at the date it was from 1995 !!

more participants here

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WEEKEND REVIEW October 29

This morning when I woke up and looked on my alarm clock it was a quarter past eight. I thought that's a bit early I stay in bed until 9, but it was impossible so I got up. It turned out that it was 8 am and not 9, because I had changed the hour on all clocks and watches etc in my room except the alarm clock !! 

Now that the garden is cleaned up, the flower pots look awfully empty !



Although Arthur tries to decorate, the view of these empty pots were depressing !



There was only one solution, fake flowers ! I bought some and put them in the pots and now at least the front yard looks cheerful and I don't mind what people say, even if there is snow on the flowers ! It's a miracle of nature I would say ! On top the fake flowers are so well made today, that Mr. G. even watered them when I was away ! This took me a part of the afternoon.



When I went shopping, I saw all flower shops with an enormous choice of mums in all colours. The  use in Belgium is to rush once a year at All Saints day to the cemetaries clean and flower the graves and then they are in peace for another year. This rush is so terrible, that there are scheduled visit hours because otherwise there would be too many people at once and at some cemetaries the police has to watch over the circulation !  I personally don't like this use at all, I think you can go to a cemetary also during the whole year. Maybe some do. My neighbor has 5 cemetaries to visit and take care of, all over Belgium (fortunately it is a very small country) and she is already underway since two days. There is the husband, the parents, the uncles and aunts etc.

At the same time there is Halloween, but not celebrated officially. It moved into schools and some children participate.



Driving direction center I saw an open garage door with some Halloween decoration, probably for a party. That's all I saw.



I had put a little decoration at our front door, in case children come and ask for trick & treats ! As there are some Americans living nearby it is possible !

We have spring weather ! In the afternoon 17°C !! Imagine end of November !

Cafés had taken in the chairs and tables which stood outside, but due to this warm weather they had to put them out again ! Many people were sitting on the terraces, enjoying the sunshine !

Sunday morning I went to the market in the next little town, Waterloo market has Waterloo prices and  everything is more expensive. There were a lot of people, and a lot of mums, and they all had the arms full of these flowers. It was a beautiful sunny day to go to the cemetary, usually it always rains.

I found a nice blouse for my forthcoming holidays in Egypt, and it was a nice feeling to buy a summer blouse in November !

Nicole and I met later to go to the movies and see the last film "Bridget Jones Baby".  I had been told that it was very funny, so we decided to go. I was a little reluctant, often when the first film is good the second is less and the third mostly pulled by the tail together. But this time I wasn't disappointed at all, the film was absolutely great and we laughed from the very beginning until the end. I have to say that the actors are also all excellent.