FRIDAYS FAVE FIVE

On Monday I quickly went to Mr. G. I had forgotten the dirty laundry but I didn't stay long. It seemed to me that slowly the personal returns from holidays, there were nurses I had never seen before and also the female manager was back.  I didn't do anything special, I just was resting ! I wonder why we are all so tired and without energy, we don't do any hard work, maybe it comes from doing nothing.

We only were 3 for our Scrabble, one was in Morocco and Nicole had her eye surgery. But the weather was for once warm and we could play on the terrace. We didn't count the points but I was sure that I lost (again) !

 Delicious cake served on different plates and cups, a new fashion !

I finally bought my new Smartphone which I should have gotten for my birthday in July. I choose the Samsung A 41 which was not only in promotion but had all the functions I needed. At the same time a I had ordered on Internet the matching case which arrived the next day ! A miracle because it was sent by normal snail mail !

 I found the butterflies so cheerful I can't find this in a shop here and then it costs the double. 

Now I am busy to put in  my things  the most important I have done already.

For the first time since March Mr. G. agreed to come  to our home to see cat Rosie. So far he always had refused telling me that he didn't feel well enough. I think he was a little anxious how he would feel and behave after such a long time. I feared that he wanted to stay and it would be very sad. So I was quite stressed but I had asked my friend and nurse to come with me for the first time.

Nothing what I had feared happened. He stepped inside right away to Rosie's basket talking to her and she recognized him immediately even after such a long time and later settled down on his lap !

This done he asked where his books were, he didn't know where his room was. Isabelle went with him while I made coffee. Finally he left the books here, but took all kind of decoration with him for "his" room, little Ferraris, and accessories. After the coffee and bisquits he looked at his watch and said he had to go home. I told him that it was only 4 pm, so he stayed another 15 min but then he insisted he wanted to return home. Isabel drove him back, as I was half dead and told me later that he brought the two bags to his room and then joined the others to tell them about his afternoon ! Was I happy, now I can take him home for an hour or so as I know that he now feels like a guest here and his home is in the retirement home. A big stone fell from my heart.

Miss Rosie was happy to see her male servant again !

 

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

HODGEPODGE AUGUST 26

1. Is school back in session where you live? Is everyone in person or does your system still offer a virtual option? Are kids wearing masks? 

School holidays are finished next week and life gets back to normal ! It's about time because the whole little country of 11.500 000 million inhabitants does school holidays too ! TV programs are changed (for the kids on the Belgian channels) most of the administration services are in summer sleep or absent the mail is even slower as usual in short the country is in snail speed ! Now we are almost back to normal. Kids wear masks from 12 years on, but only in the classroom. We can gather again without any limit and festivities take place as ususal.

2. Something you still do 'old school'? 

I don't know what old school is, because I never followed school rules, but yes I still eat with knife and fork and put my shoes on when I go out. But it can happen that I go shopping in slippers and only realie it when I come home and want to put on my slippers.

3. One lesson you've learned in the 'school of life'? 

Yes, never do what you are told, first think it over and check if it is right or wrong. Even the best teacher can make a mistake. And the teachers we had just after war were not at all like teachers today ! They were robots ! No wonder because when I started primary school we were 80 in one class and had to sit at 3 on old wooden school benches made for two ! There were not enough schools all bombed out.

4. When you were in school did you pack a lunch or buy a lunch? Your favorite thing to see on the lunch menu or inside your lunchbox back in the day? 

As I went to school in Germany school was from 8 to 1 pm and then finished. We all returned home where the mothers waited with a hot meal. Very few women worked at that time because there were no daycares and not everybody could afford a nanny. So all mothers I knew from my school friends stayed home. I am talking end 1940 beginning 1950. Today school hours are still the same, but there are daycares, not much but it is a beginning and what is very much in fashion now is who has the biggest salary works and the other stays home, therefore there are more and more housemen ! This solution is cheaper then paying for a daycare. Quite a lot of men appriciate to stay home and take care of the household.

5. August is National Family Fun Month. Tell me something fun you’ve done this month. 

I had a fun week with my friend who visited me for a short week, as we do since 2008  ! The last 3 years it was not possible because she lives in the South of France and I couldn't get an airplane due strikes and bankrupcy and then 2 years of Covid prison. She was happy to be in the cold and I am always happy to warm up my old bones when I stay a week with her. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

When I think that I have met Claudie on a blog ! We were blogfriends and then she invited me in 2008 and came to us the same year. From the very first moment we became friends, she was exactly like in her blog and it was always a pleasure to be together. On top our husbands are very similar so I was not lost at all when I stayed at her home. It's near the Italian border and the people have almost the same way of life only that they speak French.  

 

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

 Dinosaur nest

Photos taken in the Musée de la Science in Brussels

more participants here, and Image-in-ing

AFRICAN MUSEUM TERVUEREN/BRUSSELS

It is an ideal weather when it's cold and rainy to visit a museum. That's what we decided to do. I know the museum since 1959 when I had been moved to Belgium by my parents. The German school was not so far so we often went there and were sitting in this boat which was just exposed at the entrance and had a lot of fun with the masks and the statues. Nobody had told us the history of the museum and we didn't think any further.

 

Leopold II the second King of Belgium had bought the Congo for himself  and when he died he gave  it to the Belgian State. The museum was built with the intention to show the white Belgian people the animals, people, masks etc. He died before the works were completed, and it was King Albert I who inaugurated the museum on 30 April 1910. At that time nobody went on holidays to Africa and had no idea of what was living there. The Museum was called Museum of the Belgian Congo.

After it's renovation which lasted 5 years it became the "African Museum". It is not concentrated on the Congo anymore and lots of artifacts which had been stolen were returned to the Congo. You can read the whole history of this museum here

  This is the museum I have always known, without the modern annexes

Claudie and I with our pet

These statues were made out of spoons !

on the right side the old museum and on the left the new annexed modern building

all animals are stuffed, very well preserved and very old as I have seen them when I was a teenager ! Many of them were taken away, as you can see them alive in animal parks.

The skulls on the left above are from monkeys

There were quite a lot of masks exposed with the inscription "unknown origin" which is an elegant word for "stolen" by the colonists.

There also were a lot of strange music instruments, here is a huge xylophone

The poor pangolin was suspected to have brought us the Corona Virus. In Africa it is an appreciated food

musical instruments

A view through the window on the beautiful park

The stuffed animals must be very old as they were there already at the inauguration by King Albert I

The last pictures were taken in the ancient building as you can see at the decorated ceiling and the tiles.

more participants here

AWWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND AUGUST 21

 

Rosie my cat

and 14 years ago with her mum

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS

 

 

WEEKEND

On Saturday finally it was a nice summer day, at least until 5 pm where we were honored with a thunderstorm ! We wanted to go to Brussels and see the flower decoration all over the city center, but finally decided to go to the Waterloo Lion which Claudie knew but didn't remember the new version after the 200 anniversary of the battle. Of course she was shocked that it looked so empty and asked me why they have demolished all the old houses. Unfortunately I couldn't answer her.

But I noticed that already in 1815 the Covid was already present, because I saw a masked soldier  !

So maybe the new version which we have right now will also last 200 years. Fortunately I won't be there to check it !

We then went to the Mont St. Jean farm, which once had been Wellington's hospital, where the wounded soldiers were taken care of. Today it is also a restaurant and the brewery where the Waterloo beer is produced. It's a very nice place and you have a wonderful view over the fields.

Before returning home we visited Mr.G in his residence and had a glas  with him, he was not too well so we didn't stay long. 

We just had time to sit a bit on my balcony and watch the birds and cats and chat, when suddenly dark clouds covered the blue sky and we had to go inside. 

The next morning at 8 am I drove Claudie to the station and she took the train to return home at the French Riviera where the temperature was not 15°C like here but 32° !!

I made a lazy day, just a bit of sorting out photos, write my post and slept in front of the TV. It's a bit strange to be alone again when you had such a good company !

 

Rosie slept the whole day !