FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

Monday after having done some paperwork, made appointments and then after lunch and a movie I started with making a folder of our white cat who shared our life for almost 20 years and left us two years ago. 

I picked out of all albums the most comical photos of Arthur who had been a very special cat, he was like a dog only he acted like a cat, that means when I called him he took the message was thinking it over and came when he wanted  ! A dog would have come immediately.

These are only a few pictures picked out, there are hundreds left. He was the most photographed cat as he had a lot of adventures which I wrote in my cat blog. I want to summarize his adventures into a book. I just need my brain for that in case I can't walk well anymore ! Of course I hope this won't happen too early at least I have plans for the future. I too am approaching the 2 x 40 !

I really needed to do something for my health, against this constant stress I am living with. So I went to a beauty salon and for two hours had a face cleaning and an anti stress massage and I have to say when I came out and arrived home I was extremely tired which was a good sign. I slept like a baby and felt much better the next day. I think I should do this more often.

When I visited Rick he was sleeping and his room was tidy, I quickly put the water, orange juice and yogurts in the fridge and when he woke up I was sitting peacefully in a chair by his bed. For about 10 min he was a bit clear and we could speak together, but then he was tired and didn't find his words anymore so I let him sleep and went home.

The next day I felt very tired and had symptoms of the flu ! Not the Covid. But then I remembered that I felt the same way when I had the last massage, it was probably all the stress that came out! Anyway, I took a pain and fever killer, and rested all day. 

Rosie had her 15th birthday but didn't want any treats. She only eats her croquettes. And here she is with me and in the collage you see her as a baby with her mum and then in my bread basket because she was so tiny! She still looks like a young cat because she stayed small. 

 

After the bread basket came a bigger one

Tomorrow I'm going on a day trip by bus to Ghent to see the flower show and I'm looking forward to getting out !

 

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

HODGEPODGE May 5

1. May Day! May Day!...last time you shouted for help? Or maybe just asked? 

I think I never shouted for help, I have never been in such a situation and I won't shout for help to connect my computer to the printer or if I have other domestic troubles.

2. What's something you may do this month? 

Find a new Aqua Gym club, the one I have been for about 10 years became a disaster and dirty since the lockdown.  I will also do a few one day excursions to visit interesting things.

3. 'April showers bring May flowers'...is this true where you live? What's blooming? What's your favorite springtime blossom? 

Lilly of the Valley are blooming, and daffodils, cherry trees and violet little flowers. Unfortunately I don't know the names besides Roses and Tulips ! I don't have a special springtime flower, I love spring bouquets !

a park in Brussels in spring

4. What's something you learned at your mother's knee? 

I can't remember anything what my mother teached me when sitting on her lap. I was far too tall to sit on her lap when I started to live with my parents. I sat more on my grandma's lap, she taught me a lot not necessarily when I was sitting on her knees !

Grandma and me in 1945

5. Share a thought about motherhood. 

When you listen to mostly men, in each woman is a future mother hidden, which is absolutely not true. Some women just are not made to be mothers and have no interest at all in being one. The poor Queen Victoria had 9 children whom she hated all. She hated babies and made the life of her children miserable. As a Queen she could do what she wanted at least at that time. I worked in the model job and there were many girls who didn't want to be pregnant because it made their body ugly ! And if a woman doesn't want a child but has to, what happens ? It's the child who pays the bill, unwanted, mistreated, pushed from family to family or ends up in an orphanage.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I have the impression to sit between two benches, I am not myself, I feel like the "old lady with the cat"and mentioning cat, realize that Rosie the cat has her birthday today 15 years !

 

Rosie with her mum, at home with us, she just fitted in my bread basket and now with me in the appartment.

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Castles and Fortresses in Belgium

Royal Palace in Brussels

 

more participants here, and Image-in-ing here

MIRAMAR SEA - TURKEY

I have been to Turkey several times. It is a very interesting country and so full of historical sites, very well entertained. The found it practical and funny, that in Istambul I could take the tram to go from Europe to Asia for at that time 1 €. The Sea of Marmara, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. This time you take the ferry and go from Europe to Asia or the other way around !

It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, separating the country's European and Asian part and also separates Istanbul's European and Asian side.

 This map shows you where the sea of Miramar is located

The entrance

and exit

the ferry

AWWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND APRIL 30

My sculpture
 

Small talk

Thinking

A strange guest ....

Linking to : AWWWW MONDAY

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To feel better and it also was about time, I had taken an appointment at the hairdresser for Adeline and myself, I always take her with me as she has no car. The two girls who work already a very long time there and I was client since years too, they knew immediately who we are because they call us the funny neighbors, politely they don't mention (old)  As usual we had a lot of fun with the two girls. We both were happy with the result and had a coffee and a muffin when we had finished. 

 

In the afternoon as usual I visited Rick. He was sleeping and I was happy so I could quickly tidy up the mess he had made again. Apparently he had worked very hard, as the phone was not working he had again pulled out the cable and the bell over his bed was not hanging there anymore and I couldn't find it. Finally I called a nurse because I had several questions and she told me that he had been again very agitated and they had to give him a calming shot. There was also now a barrier at his bed because he always gets up and "works". He also had hallucinations and saw me with his sister in the room. 

 

I had bought three trousers for him which just arrived in time, but he wasn't interested at all, but I was allowed to put it on him to see if they would fit and they did. All the other jogging trousers had become far too large and despite the string they fell down.  I also found laundry which didn't belong to him, and things of him still missing. His friend who sometimes brings him things from her late husband hadn't brought them, anyway I gave them back at the reception. She told me that he was fine on Thursday, I don't know or she thinks so because she doesn't realize, or she is lying or she is blind. He never remembers if she had come or not when I asked him and didn't even know whom I meant. We drank a juice together and he ate a waffle and then he fell asleep and  I returned home. My son too had tried to call him but Rick can't reach the phone sometimes, or he answers and just put the receiver aside the phone or drops it. So it's useless to call him on top he hates it. I wonder if he hasn't thrown it against a wall. Wouldn't surprise me at all. I hadn't noticed the new phone, his friend had noticed,  I was too busy to look if he wasn't hurt because he had again fallen out of the bed. 

 

I really have a lot of compassion with the nurses, they have an unbelievable patience with the women who lost their mind and who are sometimes very aggressive I saw an old lady slapping a nurse in the face and calling her with all kind of very elegant words, usually used by men working in the docks !

 

Sunday I was quite breathless again with my sophisticated disease COPD which means "Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" Of course I have a powder to be inhaled and once a year I have to make check up. There are days or even months I have nothing and now it happens very often.

 

As it is the first of May, families visit each other and bring a little bouquet of lily of the valley. Apparently it's only the use in France and Belgium. As my two neighbors expected family or at least one with the bouquet, we drank our coffee together in the morning and chatted about the grandchildren, diseases, the bad air, and other things. Suddenly it was already 1 pm and we returned into our apartments. 

 

I have gotten a lot of virtual Lilly of the valley, per email, messenger, or Whatsapp ! Only from Belgian and French friends of course. 

 

The day went by so quickly that suddenly it was evening ! 

 

 The first of May brings happiness

 

That's what I wish to all of you !