18 Dec 2020

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

 On Monday I recovered from the weekend where I had done nothing. I am in lockdown. It's crazy how tiring it is when you can do nothing else but household work, cooking (restaurants are closed) or call for take aways. I filed my photos and watched TV. Outside it rained the wind was whistling and it was rather cool. Still too warm for the season, but I don't care.

The next day I went shopping. I really had to kick myself in an for a lady unspeakable place to get out of the house ! I did it for cat Rosie because I had to buy cat food and there is no take away for cats ! 

And as I was already outside, I thought I will look for a bathrobe or something to wear inside until I decide I would go out or not. Finally I could stay the whole day in my pyjama or a dressing gown as ladies did before they got dressed for breakfast ! I had already looked on Internet but hadn't found anything what I saw looked all like pyjamas !

Fortunately I don't need hours to decide what I want to buy, because with our lockdown rules I am allowed to shop alone (I alway shop alone) and 30 min. If I like something it doesn't even take me 30 min


 It's in fleece and nice and warm ! Now I can receive the mailman ! But he is not allowed to come in, only in the hall with the letter boxes. Corona keeps out everybody !

The living room is now ready for our Corona Christmas celebration, but we light the candles anyway each evening. No tree this year.

                                                                       The advent wreath

 
 

Our window decoration ! (the only one in the street) 

We had our confinement meeting again the only difference was that we thought why should we dress ? And as I had bought my new "dressing gown" the others came with theirs too ! This was already fun and Mr. G. shook his head and thought probably that we are crazy. Maybe next time we will meet in pyjamas !

Now my view has changed, the trees had lost all their leaves and suddenly I see a lot of houses. My friends were also surprised !


The front, I have a friend from my painting group who lives in one of these buildings !



Fortunately we don't hear the traffic, with the triple glassed windows and there are not many cars,  just in the morning when people leave for work and then when they are coming back in the evening.

And so another week went by !





Scenes from lockdown life


more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

17 Dec 2020

HODGEPODGE DECEMBER 17

1. What's something about Christmas that most people like, but you don't? Elaborate.

This year we will celebrate a Corona Christmas, that means the two of us probably with our computers on the table and looking on the screens in Amsterdam where Son, Grandson and DIL will show us their tree, the gifts and what they had prepared for supper ! I hope that will be the first and last time in my life, or maybe I will get used to it.
 

2. Tell us about one cherished tradition from your childhood and if y

While most of the people in the world open their Christmas gifts on Christmas day, in Germany they open the gifts on Christmas Eve usually before a nice Christmas supper. Before we open the gifts we sang (at least it was like that in my childhood) Silent Night or another Christmas Carol. 

Twice in my life I celebrated like the rest of the world, on Christmas morning ! It was awful first I am not a morning person and then sitting around in pajamas or bathrobes, with a cup of coffee I had to prepare myself, because the others waited for breakfastt this put me always in a bad mood and I avoided to think about all the Christmas Eve as a child, a young wife, a mother and as grandmother. My son celebrated once at Christmas morning and I found it a catastrophe. Grandson had got a kitchen to be assembled, the two men tried to put it together, the little one wanted to play and cried and we women were hanging around !

2.Tell us about one cherished tradition from your childhood and if you'll make it happen this year?

I would have liked to do it since I became a mother, but living in Belgium it was impossible. In some regions of Germany there is no Father Christmas but it is the baby Christ (little Jesus) who brings the gifts on Christmas Eve. I had to stay outside the room and to wait until a little bell rang, then the door went open and I ran inside immediately to the open window and looked outside to see the little Jesus flying away ! Unfortunately I always was too late and have never seen him ! 

 But in Belgium it's Father Christmas and I couldn't maintain a use which was not existing here. Also because of the school, the shops etc. Poor little boy would have been completely confused ! 

3. In 1941 FDR declared December 15th Bill of Rights Day. Citizens were encouraged to fly the flag and gather for prayers and other ceremonies as appropriate. Did you know this? Will you fly a flag? Can you name all the rights and protections guaranteed in the first ten amendments of the US Constitution? Of the ten, which two do you value most? If you need a list you'll find one here. 

I didn't know that FDR meant F. Roosevelt, therefore I had to google. Maybe a few here would fly flags for an important person and maybe hold a mass but certainly not gather for prayers. The US Constitution I don't know, I am happy with ours, freedom and human rights are respected and death penality forbidden. 

4. Do you know someone named Bill? Tell us something about him? Is there a famous 'Bill' you'd like to meet? 

The only Bill I know is from the cartoons Boule and Bill which are very famous in France and Belgium. As Bill is an abreviation of William which would be Guillaume in French, the abreviation is "Guy". The only Guy I knew, was the husband of a collegue, nothing special to report except that he liked a slice of bread with Gorgonzola cheese and chocolate sauce !

5. A step in the right direction, on the right track, bragging rights, be in the right place at the right time, get off on the right foot, right as rain, right side up, give your right arm for, have one's heart in the right place...choose a 'right' that applies to your life in some way in recent days and tell us how it's so. 

I  think I did a step in the right direction. The idea came slowly into my mind when Mr. G. fell out of his bed and broke his hip. The hip healed well but he had to learn to walk again correctly and sometimes had balance troubles. In our house was only one staircase leading to the basement and garage and that was one too much. The garden which was rather small suddenly seemed to me like an enormous park with shrubs all around, and a lot of work to do. One day I talked with a girl from our painting class and she told me that she had sold her house and moved into an apartment and that she is very happy now. She has no worries with tax declarions, insurances, reparations, gardeners, etc etc, once a month she pays a rent and everything is done by the owner. I talked to Mr. G. first he was reluctant, he is a man who loves his habits and routine,  while I am the opposite. 

But the good sense won and  we moved. And now looking back I think I did a step in the right direction because now, we are both very happy in our new home. 


 

 

16 Dec 2020

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

When life is normal and not hit by a vicious virus which looks in the whole  world, each year we have a very nice fest on the grounds of the farm "Mont St. Jean"

On 18 June 1815, the Duke of Wellington used Mont-Saint-Jean Farm as a field hospital in the very centre of the battlefield of Waterloo. Fortunately people usually only know the farm and not necessaryly its history.

Here are a few pictures from the yearly festivities. 

Fashion

handmade chess game

fur sale

Beer mugs made out of horn

Beer barrel
 
a godess on a horse









more participants here, and Image-in-ing

15 Dec 2020

BRUSSELS - CINQUANTENAIRE

The Parc du Cinquantenaire ("Park of the Fiftieth Anniversary") is a large public, urban park of 30 ha (74 acres) in the easternmost part of the European Quarter in Brussels.

Most buildings of the U-shaped complex which dominate the park were commissioned by the Belgian government under the patronage of King Leopold II for the 1880 National Exhibition commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Belgian independence. 

During successive exhibitions in the same area, more structures were added. The centrepiece triumphal arch was erected in 1905. 

On sunny  days lunch breakers stream into the park to claim their prime picnic spot on the stretched out lawns. And while shade is provided by a u-shaped pillared building with beautiful finishes in iron and glass.

The park is very beautiful and the Cinquantenaire impressive ! I have been there several times, but these pictures I took a few years ago. Nothing has changed. 


View over the whole site


built by King Leopold II for the 50th anniversary of Belgium



Beautiful sculptures

On top of the arch is  another impressive sculpture





The ceiling when you go through one of the gates



The view from the Cinquantenaire towards Tervueren where is the African Museum



more participants here

14 Dec 2020

AWWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND DECEMBER 12

 

Breakfast


 

Twin sisters !


 

 

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS 

 

On a Saturday I avoid to go shopping because there are always a lot of people. I prepared my post ordered 2 pullovers on Internet and in the afternoon we had the visit of Mr. G's friend. I had asked him to come over and help me to choose a Samsung smartphone, because mine is now 5 years old and Mr. G. finally accepted to take mine. 

So far he was completely against smartphones and pretended that he didn't need one and still used antique  mobile. But now when he saw how I could communicate with grandson Toby and his Dad and even with Mr. G's niece, he finally recognized that he needed one too and that he couldn't stay forever in the middle age !

We found the ideal smartphone for me exactly what I needed and then he did some work for us which Mr. G. can't do anymore and I have two left hands (for certain things)  ! We know J.C at least 15 years or even more and he is only two years older then our son. So I call him always my adopted son. The smartphone will be my Christmas gift and Mr. G. gets a new electric shaver.

On Sunday we got up quite late, this grey and humid weather plus the lockdown doesn't inspire you very much to leave your warm bed.

Mr. G. had his F1 and I escaped to Myriam.  

On my way I saw a burgler, 


He looked quite real but at a closer look it was a blown up Father Christmas. Myriam was as lazy as I am, we have no energy at all. We wanted to go to Brussels and look at the two big Christmas trees one on the Grand'Place and the other in front of the Royal Palace, but it was cold and it was so warm and cozy in her house, that we settled down on the sofa and chatted.

She also had no big tree but a lot of little Christmas decoration. 4

Christmas decoration


On my way home I stopped to take a picture of this Christmas tree on a place in Waterloo, which to my taste is the most beautiful !

Another 10 days to go and we will have our Christmas Eve, the two of us and as guest we invited Rosie, as we are allowed to invite one person ! 



13 Dec 2020

SUNDAY SELECTIONS - INDIAN SHOP

I travelled to India to do some shopping ! In reality I went to the Indian shop in Waterloo ! Once you went through the door you are really in another world !There is soft Indian music playing and in a corner is a little table with cushions where you can get a cup of tea.

They sell everything, jewelery, clothes, furniture, decorations, spices and Indian food in cans. You can spend hours in this shop and imagine that you excaped the lockdown and you are in India right now.

From time to time I go there, look around admire the new items which had arrived and had the feeling that I had interrupted my daily routine !











More participants here SUNDAY SELECTION