FUN MONDAY - Brand Names which make life easy !

Mariposa is trying to reanimate Fun Monday, so please go to her blog and participate. There you will also find all topics for August.

Honnestly I don't care about a brand name. I noticed that today brand names are no guarantee anymore for a good quality, only they are more expensive. Your pay for the name, that's all.

That's why when I buy something which should make my life easy I first look at the price and if it has everything I want. Then only I look at the brand name by pure curiosity

The things which make my life easy are

- the washing machine (Zanussi)
- the dishwasher (Bosch)
- the micro wave (Whirlpool)
- the fridge (Whirlpool) (pure coincidence !)
- the vacuum cleaner is an AEG

and they are all good.

My car is a Opel Corsa (Vauxhall in the UK) because it was a special offer but it could have been any other brand too. Comfort and easy driving is important.

Things make my life easy not the brand names. I couldn't even name a single one as my favorite !

FUN MONDAY - My all time favorite SHOES.

Mariposa is trying to reanimate Fun Monday, so please go to her blog and participate. There you will also find all topics for August.

Thom asked as for Fun Monday in May about our Shoes and what we are thinking about them. I then was shocked when I saw the number of shoes I have, which I had completely forgotten.

I don't have all time favorite shoes, they are all my favorites, because the first thing which matters to me is that they are as comfortable as my bed !



Then of course it depends on the season. These are for spring and summer, although the red once I also wear as slippers in the house.



and these are the once for when it is very warm.

FUN MONDAY

The good Melli saved Fun Monday in extremis, and asks :

Show me (or tell me about) that ONE item in your house that you would just LOVE to put in the next neighborhood yard sale - or take to the dump - but that for SOME reason you just "can't"... and share the reason too!

Now that is not very easy for me, because when I don't like something I just throw or give it away. I am not a person who hangs on special objects or things in general. If tomorrow my house would burn with all its content, I would start to built a new one, with a new cat collection. That's what I think theoretically, fortunately practically it hasn't happened. But it's true I don't really keep on old things.

But there are two items which I always wanted to get rid of and they are still in a plastic bag in the basement. They take not much room but still, why do I keep them ?





They are two of my very first dolls from my childhood, very damaged by my son when he was 2 years old and my mother had given him my dolls what I didn't know. When I realized it, it was too late. I should have let him break them completely ! Now I am sitting here with the ruins and don't want to throw them away.

That's why they are still there. It's probably up to my son to finish the work he had begun when I am in heaven or hell.

FUN MONDAY - Wallet

I have the pleasure to be your host (again). I just came back from a round trip through Morocco where I had to pay in Dirhams which gave me the idea to ask you to show your wallet and a picture of the banknotes and coins you use in your countries.



Mr. Arthur has the (sleeping) honor to present you my rather boring black wallet. I had a nice red one but a pickpocket had liked it too and stole it from my purse while I was in a packed up train.



Here it is open (Arthur doesn't care). On the top right a pictures of my different darlings and below the pink thing is the Belgian driver licence, which is still very old fashioned. I wonder when we will get it in form of a credit card !



I only had 55 € cash, which was already a lot, because usually I pay everything with my bank card. That's why I had to google for Euro banknote and coins pictures.

The Euro is very new to the poor citizens of Europe, they had to forget their local money since 1 January 2002 when new coins and banknotes entered circulation. Belgian Francs, Deutsche Mark, French Francs, Italian Lira etc, disappeared from one day to the other. Lots of mostly elderly people still calculate in their local currency. It's not so easy to give up what you have known all your life.

For tourists of course visiting Europe is very easy now, because they don't have to change into X different currencies ! Only the UK keeps on his pounds and a few Scandinavian countries to their local currency, don't ask me why, because it's far easier if we all have the same money. And anyway everything is expensive, if you pay now in $, or whatever currency.

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Who wants to host Fun Monday next week ?

FUN MONDAY

Sayre our host this week wants us show and tell about how we spend our summer days.

As I am retired I have summer the whole year concerning holidays and therefore I prefer travelling when there are no school holidays.



One part of my summer days I have already behind me, I did a 8 day round trip through Morocco and 5 days rest in a beautiful hotel in Marrakech.

Next will probably be a visit to a cousin who still lives in Schlüchtern (Germany) where I lived for a big part of my childhood with my Grandparents



For sure is that I will spend my yearly week at the English South East coast in Eastbourne with my friends Anne and Doug, like I do since 3 years in August, combined with a few days in London



Next will be end October where I go as usual for 2 weeks to the Red Sea in Egypt, to prepare myself for the winter and also for becoming a grandma end November !



In between when the weather is nice I'll do some excursions with friends here around or a weekend in Amsterdam where my son and DIL live.

Now you know everything about my summer holiday schedule !

Please note that I host Fun Monday on Monday 14, I'll put up my topic on Wednesday, I first have to concoct something !

FUN MONDAY - Shoes

Thom our host this week had the wonderful idea to come up with shoes ! He says :

Imelda Marcos apparently loved them. I despise them. We all have to use them. Shoes. What would we do without them? So please tell us about your shoes and pictures are encouraged.

Quiet the opposite to my mother, who was a mini Imelda and left over 60 pairs of shoes when she died, I never cared about shoes. I wear them because otherwise my feet would hurt or get cold. In short they are a necessity. I never pay attention to other people's shoes either, and you could easily live besides me in slippers for 20 years and I wouldn't even notice it.

When I worked and went out or earlier when I went to parties I had a few high heel shoes, but since I am retired I don't even think about them. Lots of people also shrink with the age and I don't want to be a giant in public with my 1.72 m (5.64 feet) plus heels !

Below you can see that I keep my shoes with a lot of affection and care (for those who don't understand, this is black humor) in the basement on shelves.




When I took these pictures I was very surprised that I have a lot of shoes ! I thought I had maybe 2 or 3 for every season, but apparently I have more. The trouble is that I throw them on the shelves forget them and then think I need new once for a special occasion and buy a new pair, always to reasonable prices, I don't invest money in shoes !

On the left above of the picture, are my boots and winter shoes when I have to be "dressed" besides are the spring and summer shoes for the same reason and below shoes for every day and every occasion. As you can see I wear a lot of baskets (or sneakers) or whatever they are called, with a preference for Nike.

For me the most important thing is that I feel well in my shoes !

PS. The view on the cobwebs around the shoes is free

FUN MONDAY - Toys

Joangee at Musing an Waffle, our host this week asks :

Toys, games and pass-times. If like me you have pets, and/or children which are their favourite toys?

I don't have children anymore playing here around, but I have four cats. Two of them think they are too old to play and they prefer to lay around and sleep. One only plays with real "toys" that means birds and mice. The only once who play in this house is little cat Rosie with her toy mice collection and Mr. G. who plays with the cats.



Here is Rosie with one of her mouse toys




She not only plays with them, but she also collects them during the night wherever she had lost them during the day and puts them neatly around the food bowls



and she loves it to have one inside while she is eating.



one has also to be in the water bowl



Each morning I have this view



Unfortunately it can happen that I find a real one !

I don't know why she is doing this, I have never heard about a cat with such a funny behavor !

FUN MONDAY - Our pets

Sayre our host this week wants to see our pet(s) up close and personal.

Now that's exactly a theme for me ! With my four cats I have enough pet noses and faces. My big pet Mr. G. didn't want to participate. The others had no choice and here they are



Pookie, sweet, adorable and mostly inside living cat



Kim a beauty, but a little strange. She prefers all critters, dogs, mice and birds included to humans



Arthur the crooner, the charmer and the most funniest cat I ever met



and sweet little Rosie, loves mouse hunting and has the biggest eyes I have ever seen.

These four are sharing our life and we have a lot of fun with them.

FUN MONDAY - My coffee mug

Ever since mugs moved into Belgium in the 80th, I banned all coffee cups for our daily use and replaced them by mugs which are more practical and they are also so nice, can be personalized or funny.

Last months my favorite cup, an orange one with a cute cat on it (of course) fell on the tiles and broke. For a couple of weeks I was looking for one to replace it, but as it is always, when you are looking for something special you don't find it and when you don't look at all it's suddenly there. And that happened to me last week and gave me the idea for this Fun Monday.

I found two similar mugs, one with a red and one with a blue handle. The red one is now for coffee and the blue one for tea.






and here is my coffee mug, the other one for tea hangs together with different mugs on a holder.

I can only confirm that my coffee tastes much better in my new mug !

Please note that our next Fun Monday host on May 5th is Sayre

I also wanted to suggest that Fun Monday topics should be simple, funny and easy as the name says. A lot of people hesitated to participate because the topics became too complicated and therefore Fun Monday nearly died.

FUN MONDAY - Worst gift

Eastcoastlife asks us following question :

When it comes to gift-giving and receiving, men and women differ on many things. Are men easier to please? Show us the best and worst gift(s) you have ever received from your spouse/partner/lover?

That's far from being an easy question ! I don't know if man are easier to please than women. A gift is a gift and some people are never happy regardless the sex.

Unfortunately I don't remember any gift which was worse than a Christmas gift I got from my mother ! She had asked me what I wanted and I had told her that I needed a new toaster which would fit in my white/red kitchen.

She agreed and I got the toaster ! When I had unwrapped the package, there was a new green toaster in it with pink roses ! A horror ! Imagine that in my red kitchen !



Amongst the thousand toaster pictures on Google I couldn't find one who looked nearly as ugly as the one I got. My mother loved green and she thought everybody should love green ! No matter the colors of your house. Of course I gave this toaster to somebody who loved green and I bought a white one.

FUN MONDAY - Laundry

Our host of this week Janice proposes following topic :

Everyone has laundry. Where do you do yours? Show us your Laundry room, or where you go to get those clothes clean! Photos, please.

I don't have a special laundry room, never had. The washing machine is in the kitchen and the dryer in the basement. Anyway now that we are only the two of us and are not working anymore, I don't have a lot of laundry to do. Most of the time it's all three weeks.

It's not a big deal either, I push on the button and then I continue my blogging !





and this is the place where I do the laundry, there is just one basket ready to be washed.

FUN MONDAY -umbrellas

Once again it was raining and when I looked out of the window I saw my neighbour with an hidious looking black umbrella going to her mail box. This event gave me the idea for Fun Monday. But I didn't count with myself. When I looked for umbrellas to make pictures I only found two !





They were standing in the garage, full of dust, and when I opened them I had some cobwebs in my face and a dead spider falling to the floor. I don't remember when I used these enormous things the last time.



This one I use in summer when I "work" on the terrace to make a screen against the light. Rosie likes it as tent. But all the others, I am sure I had at least 3 had disappeared. I am permanently in war with umbrellas. I always buy small once you can fold and put in your purse.



like this one. Only I would never spend 30 € for an umbrella. I must have forgotten them somewhere as usual. That's why I buy cheap once for 3 € because I never know how long they will be in my possession. Usually I don't take an umbrella, I always try to buy a coat or a jacket with a hood, or I wear my berets.



I remember that in my youth we girls loved to use these transparent umbrellas, they were very in fashion !

Note : Next week's host is Janice from the Prytz family

Don't forget to leave your link here, so that the others know that you posted

FUN MONDAY - SPRING

Janice wrote "this weeks challenge is all about Spring. Here is what I want you to do.....Take a photo of whatever represents Spring to You....and tell us why".

Spring has always been the best season for me ! I feel it like a rebirth after having been dead from October since now. Years ago I had deep seasonal depressions which started at autumn and finished in spring ! It was a desease which wasn't very well known and most of the people couldn't understand. Now I don't have it anymore but I am careful. Each year I go to Egypt into the warm sun and light that makes me support better the short grey and cold days. I also try to keep myself busy and do inside things. As soon as the sun is shining I am out to fill my tank with light.

In spring I feel full of energy ! I could pull out trees and feel just good. The air has a special smell because mother nature wakes up and trees, plants and flowers start to grow and bloom again and fill the air with this special spring parfume ! I love to go out on our patio early mornings (when it doesn't rain) and breeze deeply ! It smells far better than the most expensive parfume !



I love the first little, timid spring signs, like daisies in our grass, the first bushes blooming and the cats happily playing in the sunshine. That's when I feel like a newborn baby, although I am sure a newborn doesn't feel very happy after birth !



This is what I hate, naked trees, everything looking grey, even if there is some color when the sun is shining. I hate snow and therefore also black and white photos, they are depressing.

In autumn and winter I always want to move into a country which doesn't have any seasons, but in spring and summer I love to be here.