RESTAURANTS IN CORONAVIRUS TIMES

What bothers the most the Belgians is that the restaurants are still closed. The lockdown is not yet finished. The Belgian is a gourmet and doesn't bother to spend a fortune for a meal and usually also spends hours at table.

The restaurants suffer terribly because of the lockdown and probably quite a lot of them are near bankrupcy.

Some restaurant owners however let play their creativity and try to adapt their rooms leaving enough space for the chairs at the tables to respect the rules. As it is impossible to eat with a mask unless you do it like the Arabian women and lift the mask and quickly shuffle the food in your mouth let the mask down again and eat !

As the people have to sit  alone and it is not very nice if you can't see each other, a Dutch restaurant had a good idea and created these glasshouses, where their gourmets can eat in peace and see each other. It then looks almost normal.



at two in one house and a Plexiglas between them. No way for the naughty virus to disturb the dinner ! And it even looks quite cosy.



Another restaurant or café had another nice idea, the guests sit in the middle of a tyre on a chair and with this system the distance is guaranteed !



An other one looks more classical the chairs are placed in the right distance and the places are for two people also devided by a Plexiglas.

I think the Plexiglas producers make their fortune with the Coronavirus and the masks and gloves and steril coats producers too !

What is luck for one is misery for the other !

phase 2

Linking to Linda G. Hills SOCS - ch

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

Today we start the 70th day of lockdown ! Sounds long when you read it !

Since Monday we are allowed to go to the hairdresser ! I had taken an appointment 2 weeks before to be sure to get two for me and Mr. G.  It was a real adventure ! We arrived a bit earlier and there were seats outside the salon. Then we were called inside, with mask and had to disinfect our hands got a white paper coat or something similar which was thrown away when we left.



My hairdresser wore a visor over her mask. The seats were disinfected too before we sat down. One chair was empty between two to keep distance. We had a lot of fun, as nobody had ever experienced such an adventure. The poor girls had a lot of work and some hairdressers had already opened at midnight !! Now whole Belgium has clean and nicely cut hair !!



As our house is nearly sold I don't do anything in the garden anymore, with the result that everything blooms !!

We had our Corona meeting at Nicole's it's still very warm. We talked about the curtains I had to buy for the new apartment, and as I don't understand anything about mesurements and curtains, M. promised me to come with me and measure the windows, while N, will measure the terrace, I want to put fake grass on it.



Once again Isis was hungry and walked her servant to her dining room !



The view was so nice that we enjoyed our sunbath very much.

Yesterday we went to a big fabric shop together with my two friends. I choose this color because the walls are light grey and dark grey (like everywhere now) only that I don't like grey. I'll try to put as much as possible of colors into the rooms.



This color will fit perfectly with our black leather sofa and seats.  I found it very complicated to calculate how much fabric you need and you have to be careful to give the right measurements, because once they are sewed it's too late. The last time I had bought fabric was maybe 30 years ago and had no idea of the prices. It has become terribly expensive although my friends told me that these are a very good price. Anyway they have to last until I last ! I was happy that this was done and decided that I will take them.



And as usual in the evening Miss Rosie watched TV with me.

70 days

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

MAGIC WOULD BE .....

When our house was ready freshly new built and we finally could move in it was in 1975. We were just starting our thirties, had a 2 1/2 year old little boy, worked the whole day and  moved with a friend's little truck on an April 2nd and it snowed !

We had no steps to get in the house, somehow I had forgotten that they were not included in the price so Mr. G. had put some wooden boxes together and we lifted our guests into the house.  We had no garden, it was just the earth they had shuffled out to make the basement. This summer it was very hot and I had put an old carpet in front of the living window so that we had a patio ! Some peopled called us "posh" because we had a carpet in our garden. At least our little boy could play.

Time flew by and exactly 45 years later we thought it was about time to leave our house. It had all become too much for us. Steps and garden made us troubles, Mr. G. wanted to stay, I was fed up and wanted to leave. I am not attached to bricks or a house my memories I have in my heart. Finally he also agreed because it became more and more difficult for him to walk up and down the steps and no way to do anything in the garden.

The first apartment I saw I fell in love with and thanks to the Coronavirus we got it. It had been empty on April 1 and the lockdown had started and visits were suspended. As soon as estate agents were allowed to work again, we signed the contract.

Today two moving company's agents came to make an estimate for the move

And now it would be magic if I could close my eyes fall asleep in our house and wake up in our new apartment, with everything in place, enjoying our first cup of coffee there in the morning !


From here

to here

And when the lockdown is lifted we hopefully can enjoy the beautiful view !



Linking to Linda G. Hills One liner Wednesday Magic

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Fountains at Peterhof Palace St. Petersburg/Russia




more participants here,
and Image-in-ing

HUIZINGEN DOMAIN - BRUSSELS

I still have to dig in my memories to find something from "my" world  for "Our World" as the whole world is still locked down or partly locked down and I am not yet allowed to travel or to leave my city.

I found again a nice park near Brussels, where I have been in May a few years ago. The park probably hasn't changed except that there are rules to follow if ever you want to walk around. The restaurant for example is still closed and the playgrounds too, but it looks still the same and even the weather today is exactly like it was.

The Huizingen Domain is a former chateau and grounds with rowing pond, playgrounds, outdoor swimming pool, large forest, unique rock garden, zoo and sports pitches. This domain is just a few kilometres south of Brussels.



The castle where once "poor" nobles lived




beautiful flowers all around



The guardians house



a fountain just in front of the castle






These strange things are roots from trees which doesn't exist anymore







for children to play





and the way out.

phase 2

more participants here

AWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND MAY 16

Pairi Daiza animal park in Belgium



Linking to AWWW MONDAYS


WEEKEND MAY 16

It's difficult to tell you what I have done this weeked as every day I do the same thing !

On Saturday the weather was cold but very sunny and in the morning Mr. G. sorted out a whole collection of Tintin comics and some others, and brought them to a second hand shop and was happy that they bought them for quite a good price.

I wait until I have seen the apartment again and taken all measurements to see where I put the things we keep and the others which we leave in the house.

In the afternoon Nicole called me and proposed to sit on her terrace where it was so warm  that I had to take off my pullover and sat there in a little T-shirt.



The view from her terrace is always beautiful and we laughed about Isis who instead of looking down on the lawn right or left from the flower pot always stuck her head in the middle.

Sunday it was the same, and as it was cold on my terrace which is more north, I returnd again in the afternoon  to take a sunbath with Nicole. Mr. G. doesn't like to sit outside or be outside. When our son was little he had to come with us, or play outside with him, but now he doesn't have to make an effort to come with me.

We chatted about our new apartment and Nicole said she really has to fight with herself, because now she wants to find one like mine and if possible in the same building. That would be nice if all we old girls would be in the same building ! Mr. G. has friends from his Whist club living there too. If everything goes well we will be in the new apartment in a month !

The next step of the deconfinment will start on Monday, schools are partly open but lots of parents refuse to let their children go to school until September. Grandparents are allowed to see or even keep one grandchild but what is a bit stupid is, that the grandparents must be under 65 !! There are not many. Museums and hairdressers open too, as well as animal parks. But we are still not allowed to go to the sea !! And of course restaurants and cafes remain closed !

Phase 2 deconfinement