FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

The week started with the repair of our radiator in the living room. It had been two months since I asked to fix it, but the guy who showed up said everything was fine after having checked the heater and confirmed that the radiator was cold. On top of it he was rude too. 

Now I got angry and I wrote an email to our landlord with photos of the thermostat's temperatures and how the guy had left the radiator. Fortunately most of the time it was not very cold.  On Monday then a very friendly young man arrived, checked the radiator from head to toe and finally found what was wrong! One pipe was completely congested and a black liquid squirted out from the pipe when he removed the screw. Dreadful ! It went everywhere ! On the parquet on Rosie's armchair etc.  Two buckets of black water came out! The pipe was completely congested and therefore the radiator did not work. In fact an easy job if you know where to look. The young man was happy that he had found what was wrong apparently it doesn't happen very often. I was happy too and he was so nice that he cleaned up the room and left me with a warm radiator and a clean living room !

It was now 6 weeks that our young hairdresser girl had come, and it was time to cut our hairs again !

Due to the lockdown the hairdressers are still closed and everybody tries to find hairdressers who comes as a friend to your home. Ours only works in people's homes and has no private saloon. Even when there is no lockdown. She came and now I look again normal if ever that is possible, and not like a mop. She cut Mr. G's hedghog hairdo into a nice short cut, and now we could even go out, if only it was allowed, but restaurants and festivals where we could show our new heads are all closed or cancelled.

On Wednesday it was again Lockdown babble meeting day and this time it was here ! Mr. G. didn't feel well, he had problems with his balance and his head was spinning. The best for him was to lay down that's what he did, while we experts discussed how we could change everything to make a better world !

It was so interesting that Nicole fell asleep for a short moment, but it was because she had just finished her chimeo and despite this hard  treatment she insists to attend our babble club, it does her good she says, and we don't care if she falls asleep, we are content that she is with us. 

As I don't like to go into shops to buy a cloth I go shopping virtually in the Internet shops ! At least there I don't have to line up until a place is free, because one customer needs 10 m2 space ! I have always been bad in calculations and I don't want to wear a crown with 10 m  long spikes to assure my health. I found a shop with very special sweaters, cardigans, dresses, etc and I liked two pullovers very much and also a coat for spring.

As the prices were so cheap I jumped in the cold water and ordered two pullovers and the coat. They arrived today and I am really happy ! The size was OK (which you never know) the fabric was a little less thick as I had thought, but that doesn't matter, I keep them for spring. It was the first time that I ordered clothes on Internet and fortunately I was really lucky.

As Mr. G. was still not feeling well I called his kiné who is specialized for balance disturbance and he told me that probably it's due to the last exercises he has done with him and that he should rest. Anyway he hardly can walk and I always fear that he will fall. 

Therefore I had to do the shopping in this awful rainy weather and I bought as much as I could as stock (not toilet paper) so that I don't have to go out again so quickly.

The only one who has no worries and enjoys her lockdown is miss Rosie !

 

 

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

HODGEPODGE JANUARY 28

1. Have you done more binge watching this past year than in 'normal' years? Any plans to break that habit in 2021? Tell us one or two shows you binged last year that you really liked. 

 If I think it over I don't "binge watching" more than in normal times, if this expression means TV watching. I have no time ! My life is regulated like a watch or a train schedule ! Mornings blogging, then lunch, just a sandwich, then I little crime story on TV, not a bloody one, and then I go out ! or shopping or to a friend or they come here. We call it our "Lockdown Babble Club" and meet on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. There is nothing else to do but walking eventually, because everything else is closed ! After supper, in the evening we Mr. G. and I watch a movie and then usually he goes to bed to read a book and I surf a bit Internet and then I also go to bed to read a little bit Facebook, because it is so funny. 

2. January 26th is Australia Day. Have you ever visited or lived in Australia? Have you ever tasted Vegemite, and if so what did you think? Is a trip down under on your bucket list? We answered a question about travel three months ago (the October 21st Hodgepodge), but let's revisit now...where are you when it comes to planning or even imagining travel this year? 

I have never been to Australia myself, but our son has made a whole tour by plane, rented car and had seen everything what had to be seen. He liked it so much that he wanted to stay there, but then he thought it over, and reason won he had and still has an extremely good job in the Publicity industry and it would have been stupid to stay there. Today he is happy about his decision he is still in the same big company. So I saw Australia through his eyes and the tons of photos he had brought along. I also have a few blogfriends from Australia so that I have the impression to have been there ! I have read that there were protests concerning the Australia day. The only travel plan I have for this year is going in November to Egypt to warm up my old bones, it's now the second year I haven't been there. And I missed it very much. Since 10 years it became my winter home.

3. Something that zaps your energy? Something that energizes you?  

 The lockdown makes me lazy, tired and unmotivated for everything and I even don't have the energy to pick up a crumb. 

 4. On a scale of 1-10 what are your eating habits like these days? (1=all junk food all the time and 10= juicing every green thing in the frig) Healthiest meal you've eaten in the last week or so? 

Short answer 10/10 nothing has changed in our eating habits, we don't eat more sweets or more chocolate, we just continue as we always have. 

 5. What's your most often 'Back in my day....' thing to say? 

I  hate this sentence which is the same as "To my time we .... ! I am still alive, my time is not over and what people regret is not the past but their youth which was in the past. I prefer to look into the future !

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I think nothing anymore, I just wait that the lockdown is lifted and that I get back my life as it was before or even better. I want to go out, travel, and be free ! 

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

 

 

 

Every two years Wellington's soldiers met in Waterloo for the reconstitution of the battle.Of course this year it won't happen and last year neither ! What a pity it had always been so funny. Now we have to watch old videos on our TV screens ! 

 

more participants here, and Image-in-ing

 

ABBAYE D'ORVAL

What I miss the most are the one day excursion organized by our city for the seniors. We visited a lot of interesting places in Belgium. One destination was a very old Abby near Namur, called "Abbaye d'Orval"

It was founded in the 10century by  a Benedictine priory, became an Augustinian building in 1110, a Cistercian abby in 1131 and finally in 1926 a Trappist abbey. Of course I won't bother you with the whole history of this Abbey because it's very long. Now in the old Abby a brewery was installed where the monks produce the famous Orval beer, which of course you can taste and also buy.  

Our bus took us to Orval where we visited the Abbey and I show you some pictures of this beautiful and romantic place.

 

You can read more about the Abbey on my Travel Blog Countries & Cities

 

 

 

more participants here

AWWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND JANUARY 23

After the lockdown everybody back to normal chatting !

Publicity for jam

 Look an Euro !!

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS

 

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I had a birthday weekend ! Myriam celebrated her 71 or 17 birthday two times, due to lockdown rules ! It was very nice because I had to honor twice to be invited. Therefore the weekend was not that boring.

We had offered  her a new case for her smartphone, a beautiful one in  turquoise with pink flowers, not the boring black one ! and an invitation to a nice restaurant as soon as they are open again ! I hope she has not to wait for another year !!

 The birthday cake and table

It was a nice afternoon and we were all happy to be together and chat about other things than this Coronavirus ! He was not invited !

Sunday morning I read in a Newspaper on my computer and saw this picture

The world is really small ! I saw this man on the above picture and thought I have already seen this face and then suddenly I remembered ! It is the SIL of my blogfriend Diane  from Brisbane in Australia ! I knew his face from family pictures on her Blog ! How he ended up here in a  French Newspaper in my Smartphone remains a mistery to me ! He is an actor and that's probably why. I couldn't read the article  because the link stopped there.

Thanks to the lockdown I had learned to use YouTube and started to watch a movie, but it seemed boring to me so I stopped, got dressed and went to the second Birthday celebration of Myriam. We were again  4. We talked about our youth and the poor kids or teenagers now, who have to spend their days in front of a computer or TV because besides running in the woods or bycicle there is nothing else to do. The worst is that they can't meet with their friends as it would be normal. 

Outside it had snowed a bit 

View this morning from my room

 and the view from our living room