HODGEPODGE

1. Does anybody really know what day it is? Last week we skipped the Hodgepodge and I just assumed this week would find us in December, but nope. Still November. Do you wear a watch? Use a paper calendar or strictly electronic? What's your favorite hour of the day? Why? 

I always wear a watch couldn't live without, I would feel naked. I have to look on my smartphone or computer to know which day we are, since I am retired the days are all the same ! I only use electronic, on everything I don't like paper !

2. Tell us something about how you celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday.

My ancestors didn't have to escape to America, so there is no reason to celebrate something. Our turkeys were very happy, only it's a bit delayed they have to go over the rainbow, as the tradition requires a turkey in poorer times it was a chicken at Christmas !

3. What's a sound you hate to hear? 

When someone scratches on a blackboard with chalk, I get goose pimples

4. Where do you not mind waiting?

in a restaurant or café but not outside on the street !

5. I really wish my health would improve, I was very seldom sick, but since the death of my husband, my lung disease (COPD) has gotten worse and after a few steps I'm breathless.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I think how lucky I was to have found this senior residence in a castle with a wonderful park around. With my furniture and my cat and a very friendly personnel I am really happy.

 

HODGEPODGE MARCH 17

 

1. It's March 15th and as the saying goes-"Beware the Ides of March". Have you read or studied much Shakespeare? Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play? How do you feel about a Caesar salad? 

Of course I have studied  Shakespeare centuries ago at school and even in German ! I have seen Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello, and that was more then enough.  I saw the balcony of Juliet in Verona and must have a picture of me standing on the balcony !

For years I had forgotten Mr. Shakespeare until I made a tour around the UK and ended up in  Stratford-on-Avon where he was born in 1564, apparently he was quite precocious, because he had to marry Anne Hathaway, who was  8 years older and pregnant at 26 ! All this I learned when we visited his birth house and the house where he lived later. He was an actor in London, which I didn't know. I couldn't find out what the "Ides" are, because in all languages it's Ides. The sentence was said by a Roman to warn Cesar that he would be killed on March 15. 

Now I don't know what Shakespeare has to do with Ceasar salad, I doubt that he has ever eaten it, but I like it. It doesn't sound like an English plate in the 16th century it's too healthy !

2. Have you ever been to Rome? If so what do you love about the city? If not, any desire to go? 

It's a shame I have been visiting Italy from top to bottom even before I married an Italian, but I never had time enough to visit Rome  because I thought I needed a few days for that. Maybe I will find some time some day, but it is not really attracting me, that's the downside of having travelled a lot at the end all these old cities look the same.

3. What's your favorite place to 'roam'? 

In a wood or a park or along the sea

4. Do you like pizza? Thick or thin crust? Red sauce-white sauce-other? Your favorite toppings? How do you feel about pineapple on a pizza? 

Pizza is an emergency plate, almost in the whole world you can order a Pizza when you get unexpected guests. Yes I don't mind to eat a good pizza rather with a thick crust. I sometimes eat one with pineapples, anyway you can put every left over in your kitchen on a Pizza dough !  The origin of Pizzas was in Sicily when at the end of a few days all rests were put on a dough and cooked in an oven heated with wood. In fact it was the food of the poors. There are 687 types of Pizza in the World !!

5. 'Rome wasn't built in a day'...tell us how this expression applies to something in your home-life-job currently (or recently)? 

My moving from our house into an apartment ! After two years I still have things which are hidden somewhere in the basement but my lack of energy made that I tell myself each day I will do it tomorrow ! Rome is a good example !

6.  Insert your own random thought here. 

Now we have unmasked faces and could see our smiles, but everybody or nearly have still sour faces because of the economical crists,  the petrol prices are so high that some companies can't deliver their goods. I am fed up of Putine's killing innocent people just for playing war ! There is nothing positive to think about for me with on top my very ill husband !  

 

 

HODGEPODGE

1. It's Mickey Mouse's birthday (November 18)...happy birthday Mickey! He reads here, right? Have you ever been to Disney, any of the parks at all? Are you a Disney superfan or something less than that? They're open right now so tell us, would you go if you had the time/money/a free trip. 

I didn't grow up with Mickey Mouse or anything from Walt Disney, I was an after war child in Germany and we didn't have or my father didn't want that I read cartoons.

I discovered all this with my son and in the 80th we have been to Disney World and Disney land it was very funny ! The closest park in Europe is near Paris, but I have never been there, and now I have no intention to go there ! Anyway it's closed  because of the Coronavirus, which has probably caught Mickey too !

2. Your favorite place to go when you want to be quiet as a church mouse? Would those who know you well describe you as more churchmouse or perhaps more like mighty mouse? 

I have never been a church mouse ! Even when I wanted to and stay alone in a corner ! I don't know why but after 5 min I always was surrounded by people. Even at school, it was always me who attracted attention even if I hadn't said a word ! I think I belong  to the mighty mouse, also I don't feel mighty at all ! It must be my looks and demeanour.

3. The day before Mickey's birthday happens to be National Homemade Bread Day. Did/will you celebrate? Do you bake your own bread? Last time you had hot out-of-the-oven homemade bread? What's your favorite kind of bread? 

It was also my grandson's birthday, I will tell him that it also was a Homemade Bread Day ! I have never heard of it but I bake the bread myself, I have a machine for that. I love the smell which goes through the whole house when it's nearly ready. I always take mixed flour for half dark bread with different grains, like sunflower grains or others. 

 

Toby loves my bread ! but here he is with a sandwich

4. What's something you might say is 'the greatest thing since sliced bread'?

A scone with sour cream and bluberry jam

5. Let's keep the gratitude theme we started last week rolling on through November. Share with us five little things you're grateful for today. Small blessings. One catch-they all must start with the letter T. Gotta keep us thinking, right?

- The sun which is shining through our big window door

- Today just started and I enjoy a cup of strong black coffee with suger to wake me up !

- There was no invoice in the mail, which is the only mail we still get !

- The Christmas decoration I found on Internet as all our shops are closed and we are under the       second   lockdown !!

-  Time for watchingt a little movie

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I didn't mind the first lockdown, maybe because the weather was nice and you could sit outside. Now I feel locked in, all the shops are closed, only foodstores are open. Restaurants and cafes are also closed. What should you do in the bad weather ? Watch TV, read and get bored. Fortunately the virus doesn't bother me personally but there are people who are really hysterical, get depressed and yesterday we had the first suicide of a young hairdresser, her saloon went bankrupt ! 
 

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - WEDNESDAY HODGEPODGE

Between window and shutter, new sleeping place


more participants here

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1. What's something in your house you'd like to get rid of but can't?



My garden (yard) ! I have no green thumb and it gets harder and harder to entertain it when you hate garden work ! I had made it at easy as possible but still !

2. When is the last time you experienced a sense of nostalgia? Elaborate.


Eastbourne

Each time I think of Eastbourne and London, which I used to visit each year in August. This will be the first time since 2008 I am not going. I will do the tour around the Northern Countries.

3. You're only allowed three apps on your smart phone or tablet...which three do you keep?

I would keep the mobile phone app, my calendar, and internet of course ! 

4. July 11th is National Blueberry Muffin Day. Who knew? Do you like blueberry muffins? If you were going to have a muffin would blueberry be your choice? What's the last thing you baked?

My mouth is watering only when I think of Blueberry muffins ! Unfortunately they are completely unknown in Belgium and I can only find them in an English shop. Each time I go to the UK I never miss to eat a blueberry muffin !!

5. What's the biggest way you've changed since you were a child? In what way are you still the same?

That's a difficult question ! I think I was quite ugly when I was a child and that changed once I became a teenager. I also changed my life motto to "Live and let live" and only give advices when I am asked for. Otherwise I am still the same. (I think)

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I thought going shopping this afternoon, but I better stay home. Tonight at 8 pm is the football (soccer) World Cup transmission on huge screens in the city center and as there will be thousands of people coming, they start already arriving in the afternoon to visit Waterloo and to find a good place. The city will be packed, I better stay home ! 



Belgium (chips or "French fries") against France (Eiffel tower)

From this side of the pond