FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

On Monday I had to drive Mr. G. to his Whist, it's not anymore in the Tennis Club which is closed due to the lockdown, but they play at 4 together and meet at one of their friends who has a very spacious living room. Unfortunately it is only once a week, because Mr. G. starts to suffer lockdown symptoms and has to go now to a kinesitherapeut to learn walking again and strengthens his muscles. That happens to stubborn people who don't listen to their doctors !

I dropped him off and went shopping ! That's a real show ! From far I saw already people lined up with masks on their faces waiting for a caddie. Only one person is allowed to shop and no couples ! 

Anyway that doesn't bother me I prefer to shop alone anyway. Then I had to desinfect my hands and got an desinfected  caddie. I pushed the thing around and got my stuff and then I had to line up at the cashier. On the floor were yellow stripes where each person had to stand ! I wanted to put my purchases on the carpet as soon as there was space, but I was told that I had to wait until the person in front of me had finished and paid! 

It will soon take a whole day to buy a button because the procedure is the same! I was exhausted when I got home! Usually Mr. G. does the shopping! He doesn't even think about it and buys what's on the shopping list. I spent the rest of the day on the computer and on TV, as always. 

Fortunately the next day we played Scrabble ! It was the first time since the lockdown end October !! We just had decided that it was enough, anyway we all have spacious living rooms and don't sit one on the other and then we were only 5 and washed our hands before we started to celebrate "La chandeleur" which I didn't know before moving to Belgium. On the second of February is this celebration and the use is to make or buy pancakes !  In fact it is a pancake day. Everybody makes pancakes or tries to do so and it can happen that when you turn them over they glue on the ceiling.

 

We ate 14 (!) with jam, honey or only brown sugar. Usually you drink cider with the pancakes, but we had coffee. It was such a nice afternoon, that we nearly forgot the lockdown !

Nothing special happened the other days, only this morning, Mr. G. had decided to walk now every day. Of course instead of walking a little distance for a start, he thought he was Superman and walked to the next store which is at least 3 or 4 km far. When he returned, he suddenly had to stop and couldn't walk anymore. I didn't know all that, I was busy when the door bell rang and two young man stood there holding Mr. G under the arms .. and put him in the living room in the armchair. 

Besides his legs he was in a good mood and proud that he had made such a long  walk. Both men told him to start slowly and each day a little more (that's what I had said a thousand times). The one was working on the opposite side of our street and had seen him struggeling, and the other one was a young man who just came out from the doctor who lives in the next building !

I thanked them and we chatted a bit and then they went away. I thought that not all people are bad, there are probably more which are good !  

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

HODGEPODGE FEBRUARY 3

1. Feb 2nd is Groundhog Day in the US of A. Tell us about one day you wouldn't mind living over again, and why you chose that day. 

I had never heard of a Groundhog Day although it stems from German origin. Never mind I read the story and if I understand well if he sees the shadow of his head the winter will be 6 weeks longer ! Therefore I prefer by far that he stays in his hole as long as possible because I hate winter and if I could I would only come out of my cavern like the bears do in spring ! I have no special day I want to live again I would have many ! 

Go back in your hole !

2. Something you know beyond a 'shadow of a doubt'? 

Without a shadow of a doubt I know that I can't do my trip around the Eastern Countries this year, thanks to Coronavirus, and I can only hope that it is finished by November so that I can regenerate in Egypt !

3. Give us an example of history repeating itself in some way, in your own life or the lives of your children. 

In my own life my aunt married an American and moved to the USA, I was "exported" by my father to Belgium because he started to work there, my son got an offer from an American publicity company located in London and moved to London when he was 22 to work there. 

4. Snowed under, snow job, not a snowball's chance, snowbird, on thin ice, snug as a bug in a rug, tip of the iceberg, snowball effect, run hot and cold....choose a wintry idiom and tell us how it best applies to your life right now.

From last year 2 or 3 days of some snowflakes !

Not a single snowflake here but I could sing "The Rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" except that I am not living in Spain, but in a Belgian plain. And if it continues like that we will have no snow at all. 

5. Your favorite sign of spring ? 

When the first green leaves show up on the trees, the first flowers come out, the birds chirp in the morning and the air has a special spring parfum ! The days are longer and are getting warmer too. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I wonder when the Coronavirus is definitively killed (even by a terrorist) and we can have our normal life back ! February is the month of carnival and there are a lot of events, all cancelled of course, and March doesn't look better ! The only thing to do to cheer me up is meeting with my friends or read interesting blogs to comfort me that in other countries it's not better ! Which is not very nice of me.

You can't even go out, the weather is disgusting, it's cold and it rains ! and nowhere a place to sit down and drink a coffee and warm you up ! Everything is closed.

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

I visited Turkey 4 times,  by bus each time another region. It is a beautiful country. Here we visited a carpet factory.
 

more participants here, and Image-in-ing

MARMARIS TURKEY

I am not happy at all ! This lockdown lasts too long and we don't get enough or no information at all, it's just decided without asking the people ! I feel like in a communist country. 

Fortunately dreaming is allowed and so a dig in my memories and picked out some pictures of my travel to Marmaris in Turkey. Marmaris is a Mediterranean resort town along the Turkish Riviera (also known as the Turquoise Coast) I had seen quite a lot of Turkey and we were taking 10 days of real holidays in a beautiful hotel but also  did some excursions : 

 We went by boat along the coast to an area which was famous for mud bath !

It looked so funny on others, but I didn't take a mud bath, I had no clothes to change and I didn't know that we would go into mud !! Apparently it's very healthy and lots of tourists go there for their health !

our boat

it was a beautiful trip along the shores of the river

We stopped in the hope to see the giant turtles, but I was not very lucky I just caught one photo, they are enormous !

 

We arrived at the sea with a beautiful white sand. It was in May and not so many tourists yet.

You can read more about this region in my blog COUNTRIES & CITIES

 

 

 

 

 

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AWWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND JANUARY 30

Mummy's little helper

This is my roll !

I am sooo tired !
 

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS

 

 

WEEKEND

Except that my cleaning lady came on Saturday and put the apartment upside down, nothing special happened, poor Mr. G. stayed in bed until his room had to be cleaned and poor cat Rosie, hid as soon as she appeared ! Both were happy when she was gone.

The afternoon it rained and rained and it was cold, not very encouraging to go out. What did we do ? We watched TV and from time to time we answered the phone. Mr. G. was busy to learn the use of his new mobile, which made him angry because he didn't understand immediately. Never good to explain something to a close person !!

Sunday this beautiful weather continued and when I called Myriam she told me that she was emptying her swimming pool a bit because there was too much water in it ! I hadn't even relealized that it had rained during night and looked outside in Rosie's bowl and said, ah yes it rains, then we both had to laugh it seems that we have the first symptoms of crazyness due to the lockdown, to compare the tiny little bowl with a swimming pool just to see if it rained or not !

 Scientific comparison, does it rain or not ?  

Nicole's cousin had again baked a cake for her with cherries and whipped cream, and she took it along to Myriam where we had our "Lockdown babble meeting". The cake was delicious. After that we had a lot to chat and the afternoon was quickly over. When I returned it rained again cats and dogs. 

SUNDAY SELECTION

For today I found some pictures which I had put in a folder with the label "Failed photos" ! They are all from different years and I had kept them because some of them look like modern art ! If I had wanted to shoot photos like this, I probably would never had this result ! Don't ask me what is represented, I really don't remember,  in some I saw fishes !

 

more participants here at Sunday Selection