BLUE AS MODERN ART ?

Hoping for an easy word to knit around a nice story, I read that the prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “blue.” and the worst : Talk about the first blue object you see when you sit down to write your post. Blue is an easy word, but not in my case !

I am sitting on my chair and look around me and there is absolutely NO blue around me ! Not a single spot, nothing I have yellow, orange, red, violet, wood colour, black and beige but no blue !

In fact I don't like blue as a decoration color, I love blue skies and blue oceans or blue lakes, but not blue sofas or chairs or anything else.

Therefore I looked in my photo file : "miscellaneous" in which I had filed all pictures I didn't know where I had taken them or what they were. The worst were these two :






The only thing I know is that they were taken in March, but I have no idea what it could be ! Besides blue water and a blue handle I recognize nothing. Have you any idea ??

I think if nobody finds out I will create a new file "Modern Art" !

Linking to SOCS-Blue

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

It was Mireilles turn to feed 3 hungry girls after scrabble with delicious Belgian  cake and coffee. I was third on 4 always better then the last one !

I have 6 aqua gym classes to catch up, because I went on holidays when everybody was there. I thought I would go Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Which I did. The class where I was only guest, was not as nice as ours, all sour looking women and not a smile. The animator was a girl from the Philippines and she was very nice as last !

Sir Arthur (or also rebaptized Brexit, because he never knows if he wants to stay inside or go out) was really not in a good shape, he had lost a lot of weight and didn't eat very well on top he had his eyes watering. Strangely he didn't protest too much when I pushed him in the carrier and took him to my good old vet who I have now for over 25 years. We could take him out of the cage without getting killed, and she stated that he had bad teeth and also needed an antibiotic shot. As all old cats (he will be 18) he has kidney troubles. I told her to do what is necessary but not more, that's what she did and when I picked him up, he was still a bit asleep and wiggle waggled in this corner where he had never slept so far !



Poor Arthur in the car, and then at home recovering.

Fortunately the vet has done a good job because now he eats again and gets slowly back to his own self. We love our Arthur so much that we were very worried.

I had to renew my passport, had applied in July for an appointment and got it for September ! I had all my papers ready and made a photocopy of everything in case they needed more then one.

I knew this borough where the embassy was,  very well when my father worked for the EU, and the embassies of several countries are now there. It took me an hour to get there because of "normal" traffic, it was only 16 km. I didn't recognize anything, didn't even know where I was ! Of course since 60 years everything has changed. All the old beautiful houses were gone and were replaced as everywhere by the standard boxes.  Fortunately my GPS guided me.

I was lucky and found a parking space close to the embassy.



Just  in front of an abandonned new built with graffitis written on the walls against the National extremists and the French President Macron. Also something with dear Donald.



Here was the German embassy, the Morrocan and the Swedish



Some clever person had opened a restaurant/snack here for the people working around.

Everything went very smooth, the employee was very friendly, I left my fingerprints, signed the papers, said good by and left. Now it will take from 5 to 6 weeks until I get my new passport back.

Miss GPS showed me another way to drive home, much shorter and quicker. Suddenly my phone rang, I stopped the car and answered. It was the embassy's employee who asked if I could come back because I had signed with my family name and not with my maiden name !! I really got angry since 50 years I have always signed like that on all papers and documents and even on my old passport, and now suddenly I should learn a new signature ! Crazy ! But as law is law, and rules are rules and everybody is narrow minded, I have to go back tomorrow and sign with a new signature !! Between us I have the whole night to exercise a new one !!

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

THE SMALL BED OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON

As you may know, I live in the historical town Waterloo, where the Duke of Wellington an Anglo-Irish military commander and British politician signed the defeat of Napoleon and ended the battle of Waterloo in this house, which today is the Wellington museum.

The oldest inhabitants of Waterloo, when they were young boys, remember the times when the house was just open  and not yet a museum and they played inside and faked to sleep in Wellingtons bed !

Today it is protected behind the red cord and of course you have to pay an entrance fee. 



The bed seemed very small to me and I thought the boys who "slept" in there must have been not taller then a 10 year old or measure 1.50 m certainly not more.. Everybody looking at this bed laughed and said that such an important man was so small, but it is also true that people were smaller in the past and that's why the bed looks as if it was for a child.

Therefore I was quite surprised when I read that in fact, "Wellington was of “middle height, being about 1.79 m  (5.9 ft), but his shoulders were broad, his arms long, and his whole frame firmly knit, and capable of fatigue in an extraordinary degree"

I think the size is not so small for this time, Napoleon was 10 cm smaller only 1.69 m. (5.5ft)



His cape is also exposed



a bust of him



and a wax figure when he signed. Of course there are many other things to see.

It's still a mistery to me how Wellington could sleep in this small bed ? Did he sleep sitting as many people did because of the wiggs, but he never wore one, or did he fold himself and slept on one side ? Nobody not even Google could give me the answer. But he must have slept well in his small bed because he was 83 when he died !

If you are an Iron Duke enthusiast, you can drink in 53 pubs called the Duke of Wellington, as well as 37 that go by an unadorned "Wellington". And that’s just in England. The Duke of Wellington is the oldest licenced pub in Melbourne, and now serves a variety of gastropub food. And then of course there are the countless pubs called simply The Duke. Just don't feel the need to get a pint in each one !!


Linking to Linda Hills One Liner Wednesday

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

You have the choice .....



to cut off your head



or your right hand (in case you stole something)

Seen in the Citadel of Dinant


more participants here,

and Image-in-ing

DINANT - BELGIUM

With my friends I had booked a day trip to Dinant.

Its story is one of many battles. First of all, Dinant has been there a long time. The first mention dates from the 7th century! Isn’t that amazing? The Citadel of Dinant is a fortress located in the Walloon city of Dinant in the province of Namur, Belgium. The current fort was built in 1815 on a site which was originally fortified in 1051 when the region was ruled by the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.



to be continued here

more participants here

AWWW - WEEKEND AUGUST 7

The contortionist



Did you call me ??


Linking to AWWW MONDAYS

*****

We have a very nice Bus company here in Waterloo, which does day trips for very reasonable prices. Myriam, Chantal and I had booked for Saturday a trip to Dinant. It is a beautiful little town in Belgium near the French border.



We took the Bus in Waterloo and were driven to Dinant directly to the  Citadel of Dinant overlooking whole Dinant and the river Meuse.



High on the rocks sits the citadel (with the flag) and just underneath are these beautiful houses which are mostly bars or restaurants today. The view from there is just beautiful.

After visiting the Citadelle we went down by cable car which was very funny as some women screamed because it shook a bit !

From there we walked along the river Meuse to catch our boat to make a cruise on the Meuse with a wonderful dinner ! 



First we got a glass of Kir, and with the meal was served red and white wine and at the end a coffee.

The starter (above right) was "Foie Gras"  (duck liver paté) the main course stuffed turkey breast, vegetables and a special kind of a potato ball. We ate and looked at the landscape outside.

After the dinner we went on the upper deck and sat in the sunshine looking at the beautiful houses with boats anchored in front of them on the water. We crossed other boats and everybody was waving. Then they put music on and the ambiance became even more cheerful !

3 hours later we arrived again in Dinant, took the cable car up to the Citadel where the bus waited for us to take us down. It had been a wonderful day and we were very lucky, it had rained in the morning but it had stopped while we were visiting the Citadel and even  sunny when we were on the boat.

Sunday was a lazy day, I couldn't go out of the bed it was so cold and then I thought of all things I had to do. Honestly it wasn't much, I had to write this post and another one for my Cat blog.

But the worst was to fill in a new Passport formula for the German Embassy who wanted to know everything about me online no way to get a human being on the phone for some information.
 
I had to go to the city hall to get a residence certificate, a copy of my birth certificate (as if I would need a passport when I am dead) the marriage certificate two photos where you look like the worst serial killer  because you are not allowed to smile and I hope this is all. Of course all in double and the photocopies are for you. Next time I will commit a terrorist attack, and in not 2 minutes they will find all these papers, especially that I am born ! Lazy people they must have a file for each resident !

So I spent my afternoon swearing and filling out this pdf thing and then I had to print it out. My appointment for which I had asked in June was now in mid September and then I have to wait 8 weeks (!!) to get the new passport. The passports for German residents living abroad have to be made in Berlin !

I can travel by bus or car through whole Europe, except with the Eurostar to England because there they ask for a passport especially now with their in and out Brexit circus.