AWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND SEPTEMBER 28

purr purrrrr


Linking to AWWW MONDAYS


WEEKEND

Saturday morning when I opened the shutters I wanted to close them again immediately and hide myself under the blanket ! The sky was dark, wind was blowing and it rained ! It was exactly what I call a "graveyard weather" ! So cheerful ! I wanted to stay in bed, but on the other hand I had to get up, there were things to do ! I wrote my cat blog post, and then I looked for a TV furniture on Internet, because in all stores I have been, I didn't like any. Then I talked half an hour with my friend Nicole, and some other people and suddenly it was noon and the morning was over.

Sometimes I was interrupted by always hungry cat Arthur and as a well trained servant I filled in his bowl. He is so old that he earns to be spoilt !

Mr. G. had his formula 1 and was in Russia, sitting on the sofa stuck on the screen. We had to be silent like in a church. Fortunately the cats slept, I was excluded and went for some shopping, but changed my mind because of the wind and rain and went to Myriam and together we checked if we had everything for our exhibition next weekend.  Nothing was missing even a beautiful turquoise table cloth with fitting champagne glasses (plastic, Greta will send her to hell) and napkins, chips, and other salty stuff and a few biscuits. We had sent out most of the invitations on Facebook and she had been to several hairdressers to leave our flyers.



To my surprise I found my pouring painting on Pinterest. I don't know how it arrived there ! I discovered that I am a member but don't remember when I subscribed ! Must be at least 10 years ago ! I don't even know how it works and for what it is.  But it was nice to see. And then the Saturday was over !

Sunday it was even worse ! A storm blow the rain fell in buckets from heaven it was really awful ! A weather to stay home and don't look out of the window !

Mr. G was the only one who was happy, he was again in Russia for his Formula one. The rest of the family which means two cats and myself where banned from the TV. I watched paint pouring techniques on YouTube and prepared my post for "Our World" on Tuesday. One post more and I have done my whole tour around the Eastern countries ! There is still Vienna left.



Fortunately we had our Facebook meeting from our group "Vivre à Waterloo" (Living in Waterloo) this time in a very fancy Mexican restaurant ! This was the outside, it must be nice to sit here in summer !



Inside too it was really fancy, we had tapas and a singer sang Mexican songs. I was there with Nicole (above) and 2 others and the girl on the picture was one of the group. We had a lot of fun and some also were dancing. It's so nice to meet people life and not always hidden behind a picture on Facebook ! It was a real cheerful evening and it was decided that we will come back !

Now it's dark of course when I drove home, the days are getting shorter and shorter at 9 pm it's already dark ! In a few weeks it will be at 5 pm !

WEEKEND FEBRUARY 23

On Saturday evening we had our Waterloo Facebook meeting. Our administrator had booked a whole corsican restaurant for us and we were about 60 people ! It was so nice to see each other life, some I knew from previous meetings but others I had only seen on their profiles.



There was a well known Belgian blind singer, who entertained us the whole evening. We danced and sang with him and the ambiance was phantastic ! We got a lot of Corsican food 5 plates in total !  It lasted until midnight and everybody enjoyed it.

Sunday was a spring day, warm and sunny and I noticed that the grass had grown and asked Mr. G. to put Oscar the lawn mower robot on charge. After half an hour he appeared telling me that Oscar had disappeared ! I told him that he must have 2 potatoes on his eyes because it is not small thing. Finally I went to the basement too and suddenly I remembered I had put Oscar in an old suitcase and had forgotten to tell Mr. G. Now Oscar is ready for tomorrow because on Sundays it is not allowed to mow the lawn.



Arthur took the first sunbath of this year and was a happy cat.



I was busy with my posts and photos and the weekend is already over !

WEEKEND SEPTEMBER 29

This weekend was very nice. Besides the household scores during the day and some shopping, in the evening I went out to our monthly Facebook meeting. 

Indeed Facebook can be something else then for insulting people, writing love messages, post stupid jokes etc. of course always virtual and never life.

Our Facebook group "Vivre à Waterloo" (living in Waterloo) is different ! We also meet life ! The one who had created the page had organized together with his wife a wonderful evening with country music and dancers and an excellent buffet with barbecue ! We really had a lot of fun as you can see




I was with Chantal, Monique, Nicole and Myriam (bottom left)



I sneaked in the room where the buffet was dressed up. Outside men were busy with the barbecue. We were 52 people ! The food was excellent, nobody complained.



The restaurant too is a very nice one we sometimes go there for lunch. The evening was really perfect  I even danced !!

On Sunday morning I got a phone call from my grandson Toby. It was the first time that he called "alone" without his Dad, but I saw him hiding in the background ! Still that's a beginning, now he is able to call of his own.



He had been at the hairdresser and chosen his own haircut. I didn't say anything, but thought he looks like a hedgehog, anyway it won't stay up like that all the time. Instead of being horrified, I told him that it looks very nice (sometimes you have to lie !) Fashion starts early ! In November he will be 8 !

On Sunday afternoon we went to the next suburb of Brussels because there was a huge flea market and second hand stands. I had never seen so many people on a flea market. The cars were parked on the sidewalks, the roundabouts, and it started kms far. Some people had parked their car and took a bike to arrive on the market, which was all over the town in the streets.



Nicole found a blouse for 0.50 cents and Myriam a pair of shoes for 2 Euros ! I found nothing.



These little once sold sweets for one Euro, future business men !



Here you have a little overlook on the crowd.

We walked around and then had a coffee after nearly 3 hours we had enough and were tired and returned home. It had been a very nice afternoon ! So many things to look at !

WEEKEND JUNE 9

I don't know why, but this year it seems to me that time flies by so quickly ! Now we are already beginning June ! Soon the school Summer Holidays will start and we probably will have a lot of tourists.

Meanwhile we had our monthly Facebook "Vivre à Waterloo" meeting and as usual it was very nice.





This time again the Café de Paris was chosen and I have to say they have real good food.



As it was quite warm we ordered a plate of Carpaccio which was excellent !



And here we are on the left Monique, Nicole, me and Bunny my little group of best friends. There were about 30 people maybe more, and we chatted and laughed the whole evening. Around 9 - 10 pm we all left.

That was about the only thing I did on Saturday, besides household stuff.

On Sunday I went to our market nearby and bought some tomatoes, potatoes and pieces of chicken, I want to make a salad for tonight.

I spent the whole afternoon outside, watching birds and cats and also a movie, it was quiet hot and there were dark clouds in the sky announcing again a thunderstorm.




It had never happened that since a couple of weeks there were thunderstorms in different parts of Belgium nearly every day. Above you see hail in a size of a marble, spectacular lightening, flooded streets and streets full of mud. Some people had just cleaned their house when the next storm arrived.
! We were really very lucky, besides some hail we had nothing in our part of Waterloo, but on the other end streets were flooded too !

Really unhappy are the insurance companies ! Now they have to pay !

Responsible of the insurance company

WEEKEND REVIEW MARCH 10 - MACRO MONDAY

more participants here

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This weekend we had our monthly Facebook meeting "Vivre à Waterloo" and as usual it was very nice to see people life.



Meanwhile this group has more than 4000 members, who of course weren't all there, we were about 30 the others had probably the flu ! This time our "president" besides the "Carlsberg" sign had booked in the "Café de Paris".



It has been completely renovated and is now a restaurant too. You can eat the best steaks there, according to Nicole who is rather difficult when it comes to steaks.



Monique, Nicole and I had a beef Carpaccio, very thin slices of raw beef.  The beef is served with lemon, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese. It was absolutely delicious and I had never seen such a big portion in my whole life not even in Italy where it comes from.

The next day we went for breakfast to "La Brioche" for me it was not worthwhile because I am not hungry early mornings. So I just had a coffee and a croissant, while the two others had, scrambled eggs, cheese, ham, sausages, croissants, jam different sorts of bread etc. If you eat it all you are full for the whole day !



It is the only place in Waterloo where you can have breakfast from 6 am on. Otherwise you have to wait until 10 when the shops open, except the supermarkets which open at 9 ! Poor tourists who don't know and arrive hungry early morning in Waterloo to see the battle field ! I knew this place from afternoon teas, but had never been there in the morning. Useless to say that it was full.



It started to snow again and the temperature dropped more than a half during the night. With that a nice strong wind, I am freezing ! Even the cats didn't want to go out ! I wonder if this  winter will ever end or if we enter a new ice age !

MACRO MONDAY - WEEKEND JANUARY 21

more participants here

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Plus the rain and wind it's true ! Fortunately I had some nice activities over the weekend.



We had our very first Facebook meeting of our group "Living in Waterloo" (vivre à Waterloo) and even our mayor was present (on the first picture above left, the handsome blond girl in the middle). It was great fun to see each other life and we talked about everything going on in Waterloo.

During the day there was not much to do as the usual things in the household.

The next day the city had organized a "Gospel" concert. We were all very keen to go and finally we were 5.



The concert was a catastrophe we were expecting a group of black singers as it should be, but it was a white group who moved like brooms and had not the special voice of a real gospel singer.

The leader of the choir started with explaining the origin of Gospel and I don't know from where he got this story, but most of it was absolutely wrong. 

Besides there were not all gospel songs or only one or two. Amongst Jazz songs,  they even sang "Amazing Grace" in a "Gospel concert", which  has nothing to do with Gospel. Most of the people didn't know what it was, as they hardly know their own country's anthem. Fortunately in a few songs was a black female singer, and she was absolutely great, she killed the whole choir with her powerful voice. Nicole fell asleep, didn't even wake up when I took the picture with a flash, only when the black singer started she woke up ! Of course we all laughed. We were happy when the concert was over !

To recover we went in our newly discovered Tea room (see post below) and I ordered cream tea. I was so curious how they would present it as you can't find clotted cream here. When my friends saw what I got, they wanted to try they had never eaten a scone so we all had cream tea.

Despite that the cream was not clotted the scone was freshly baked and still a bit warm, the blueberry jam was homemade and both delicious and to replace the clotted cream the cook had added a bit of lemon juice to the whipped cream and it really tasted very good. Now they all decided that we would always have our cream tea when we are going there.


me, Mireille (half blind) Nicole         Monique         Myriam

My friend Monique  had sent me these photos taken in the tea room and had added :

"I bet if we had been on stage " as the 5 Angels" There would have been more ambiance"

And she is absolutely right !

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE - FIVE ON FRIDAY

1. After having decided not to blog every day and make a break, because I had ran out of writer's cramps, now suddenly they came back !

I got very sad news to start the week, my friend Ilona's mother aged 93 after having celebrated mother's day with champagne, got a stroke during the night and on her wish was euthanized surrounded by the whole family 4 days later because she would have stayed completely paralayzed. She had made a will years ago to put an end to her life if ever this would happened despite the fact that she was very religious.  She was an amazing women still lived in her apartment, did her shopping and everything alone and at the age of 85 went to Israel, Jordan and Egypt !! She had nothing at all and walked like a young girl. She was my example how to age nicely.



Here I am with Ilona and her mother on her 90th birthday ! She had never been sick in her whole life which began in a very poor family and she had to work very hard from 13 years on !

Euthanasia is allowed in Belgium if you are very ill and there is nothing to do anymore and you have filled in a special demand. That's what she had done

2. Our Facebook "Vivre à Waterloo" (living in Waterloo) had its monthly meeting in the Jollywood restaurant.



Nicole and another friend came with me. We were about 40 the man right below in the striped shirt is the founder of the group which meanwhile counts about 3000 members. We not only had a drink but we also had a little supper there. It's so nice to know people life and not only virtually.

3. The most unwelcome visitor in Belgian history unfortunately dared to visit the hell hole Brussels ! We all admired that he was so "courageous" and play with his life ! Unfortunately he survived at least so far.





To the anger of all people the streets were he drove through were closed, it was a traffic mess in Brussels and it was good that he was so protected that you couldn't even throw rotten tomatoes at him. Protesters against his visit were on the streets, what a difference to when Obama came to Brussels !

4.


There was a flea market in Waterloo and I had a look if there was something interesting to buy, but besides this cute dog who wasn't for sale I found nothing met nobody and finally went home.

5. So far I had always refused to buy a smartphone and was with my traditional little old Samsung mobile. But then it became more and more evident that sooner or later I had to buy one, because now they started also that you can pay with your smartphone and a lot of other things. I did a market study on internet and finally bought the Samsung Galaxy J5 and ever since am busy to install all what I need. It's only the second day I have it and with some functions I am still in war !

Fast Blog

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

WEEKEND REVIEW September 24

We had our monthly Facebook meeting of our group "Vivre à Waterloo" (living in Waterloo) this time in a bigger Tavern. There are more than 2000 members in this group, but of course they are not all coming. Usually we are between 20 and 40, this time we were probably around 20. This was my 3rd time and I start to know the people I only new on the "wall" !



The Tavern from out and inside, Nicole is member now too and came with me. We had a lot of fun and spent a nice time together. Around 9 pm everybody left.

We still have summer weather and I purr ! There was a autumn festival in a little very cute town near Waterloo called Ittre. It still has all the old stone houses and cobbled narrow streets.



Around the church was a flea market and the wall was decorated with chicken (picture below right)



There were also little theatre plays and apparently one with angels and God, who had a beer here !



As usual Charlie is always the star, even if there are other cute and friendly dogs. He has a special charisma ! As soon as we arrived Nicole was followed by kids During our walk around the town, we were stopped and asked about Charlie, so finally we had a very dry mouth and went to the place with the church and had a nice cool beer there. Of course Charlie was thirsty too and the waiter brought him a big bowl of water. There too two ladies started to talk with us because they also had Golden Retrievers and then others joined in the conversation. It was a real nice sunny afternoon.

Sunday was the last sun day ! We had always wanted to see the city in the city which had been built
in Waterloo on the 15 hectares surface of a formerly Farm school.

I have passed by the entrance of this school a thousand times and  had never realized that its surface was so huge, that so many houses, a retirement home, a medical center, a swimming pool, a restaurant etc could be built !



I didn't like it. It seemed to me like a posh ghetto without soul. The house and apartment prices are horrendous, and there are still a lot of houses and apartments for sale. No wonder.

The only thing we liked was the restaurant called Mamy Louise, that seemed very nice and next time we go out for lunch we will go there.

WEEKEND REVIEW May 21

I could take a little sunbath to prepare myself to the upcoming holidays in Turkey. Fortunately it was not too hot.



I had put the new cat in our garden and it looked nice



While Arthur played hide and seek with Rosie, who is under the bushes. Then I went inside, and dressed up for a special evening.

Since a few months I had subscribed to a Facebook group called "Vivre à Waterloo" which means "Living in Waterloo". I learned a lot about upcoming new buildings, break ins and other things which are not in our local Newspaper. Through this group I also found the young man who helped me to fix the garden.

They have a nice use. Once a month there is a meeting in the Brasserie "Orangerie du Prince" and for the first time I went there with a friend who is also member.



And here we are, of course not all, apparently there are over 1000 members, but still we were maybe 30 or 40. It was very nice to see the people life and we had a lot of fun.



Mr. G. had run out of cigarettes, so as a devoted wife without telling him that smoking kills, I went to the abattoir of Anderlecht which houses now a huge market on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The cigarettes there cost half of the official price, which is of course very interesting for your budget.
I also bought a watermelon and grapes, all fruits and vegetables look so fresh. Here you still get real organic things and not like in Supermarkets where in my opinion only the prices are organic.



The weather had changed again into rain, and not to sit inside the whole afternoon, Nicole and I went to the Mont St. Jean farm to have a coffee there. When we arrived the rain had stopped and I saw that cows were standing on the fields behind the farm. I wanted to take some pictures, Charlie followed me and started to inspect the cows ! He sniffed at them and they were not afraid, they even followed him or were just standing there looking at him. We laughed our heads off !