MY WEEKEND OF JANUARY 25

Photo hunting becomes a real hunting, the only difference is that you don't wait for animals to kill, but for the sun showing up to have some decent light, at least for half a day. Which happened this weekend.



When I saw the sunny weather in the morning, I jumped in my clothes, then in my car, and drove to Brussels, got stuck in the tunnel leading to the city center for 45 min, blessed my car which drove in electric mode, and didn't consume any petrol, found a parking space which was a real miracle and went off to the see the Skyliner !

It is a steel tower, 85 meters (279 ft) high, which gives you a full panorama of Brussels. The glass cabin with a capacity of up to 60 persons, turns very slowly around its axis. It was beautiful and I really enjoyed it. For the first time I saw the Royal Palace from above !



On Saturday evening we had our monthly theater play and as usual our supper before in the the Theater's restaurant. We had a lot of fun, especially with the play ! There was only one actress playing a housewife who had sacrificed her whole life to husband and children and then decided to follow the invitation of a freshly divorced friend to spend 2 weeks in Greece. It was hilarious and so true ! She always spoke to the wall in her kitchen, which she called "the wall" as if it was a person and while she cooked, she emptied a whole bottle of wine !



On Sunday morning we got a Skype call from Toby, of course with the help of his Dad. He was in a very good mood and showed us some of his toys and spoke like a waterfall. I probably repeat myself, but it is a great invention, even if you live far away you can follow the development of your grandchild.

Three weeks were over and I took the bus to the Midi Market in Brussels. At least it wasn't raining. I bought fruits and then waited for my cigarette supplier in the usual café. Suddenly 4 policemen came in and sat at the table besides me. Not really the ideal place to buy tax free cigarettes ! I went outside and looked for him and after a while he showed up. I told him that there are a lot of police around despite the not so nice weather, but he told me that it doesn't matter, he has no problems with them, he knows them well and they don't bother him at all. You should have seen my face, because he laughed ! I got my cigarettes and I gave him the money and we shook hands saying good bye.

I bought a nice warm shirt for Mr. G. and some Spiderman socks for Toby and then returned home.
At least I had taken some fresh air, because it rained again the whole afternoon. I checked the paws of my cats, they still have no flippers growing.

WHAT DID I DO THIS WEEKEND

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of March 9. If you participate please put the little logo on the top of your post and leave your link.



Toby has come back from his holidays in Spain and for the first time after almost 3 weeks we had a little chat together. Now he starts to be more attentive to what I am showing to him.

It was raining the whole day, fortunately I had a theatre play in the evening. Waterloo city has a theater in the city hall and organizes from time to time plays for the seniors.  It was such a hilarious play and the theater was packed !



We saw Madame sans Gêne who has a legendary history in France. It is based on the life of Cathérine Hübscher, born in Goldbach-Altenbach (Haut-Rhin) in 1753. She started off as a laundress who used to wash and iron Napoleon's clothes when he was a common corporal. She married François Joseph Lefebvre, an Army sergeant who became Marshal of France and was later elevated by Napoleon I to the rank of Duke of Dantzig. She was known by the nickname of Madame Sans-Gêne, (literally Mrs No Embarrassment) because of her behaviour, free speech and lack of proper manners at court. The play became very famous through the movie with Sophia Loren and Robert Hossein.

We still laughed when we came out, and returned home in the rain of course. 



On Sunday morning when I opened the shutters, I almost got a nervous breakdown !

It had snowed again ! I was so much into spring already, as we could sit outside, and of course my new toy the lawn mower robot remains unemployed ! I put it in an Ikea bag and wait for better days !

The afternoon I spent with Ilona, in front of her stove, had a cup of tea and a piece of cake and watched the flames in the stove. Outside it continued to snow and the daffodils, tulips and snowdrops which had started to bloom, probably tried to survive.

After having whined enough about the bad weather, men, friends and family,  we were both in a cheerful mood and I went home for supper, listened to the News which as usual were full of crimes, fights, tragedies, and the bad world in general and then we watched a movie on TV of course a crime story. Finally thanks to all these bad news the film industry never runs out of ideas !

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND ?

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of January 19. If you participate please put the little logo on the top of your post and leave your link.



Saturday morning started with a little "Skype" chat with grandson Toby.



With Daddy's help he calls us every weekend ! This time he was very busy with playing with his little train, so after having given me a big smile he returned playing and then kissed the screen to say good bye !

As Ilona has now Skype installed, we went together to buy a webcam, because without it didn't work of course.



on the way back we stopped at Nicole's for a cup of tea and say hello to Charlie, who was happy to see us, and then he returned to the deck to watch the snow. We warmed ourselves up in front of the open fire and chatted as usual of course !

I also went to Dominique to install Skype (I will become a specialist) but she too needs a webcam.




We have icicles hanging from the roof and for our region it is very cold - 7°C (21F) !



On Sunday morning it started snowing and that's what I saw first ! Unfortunately I couldn't catch the snowflakes which swirled around ! Poor Rosie wasn't very happy about this white landscape.

Impossible to go outside, the streets were covered with snow and not yet cleaned. I hope that this year they won't run out of salt !

I don't know why but with this snow weather I always feel cold, although the temperature in the house is  the same as usual !



I put on a T-shirt with long sleeves, a woolen pullover, warm tights, thick socks, and over all that a sweat suit in thick velvet ! I look rather fat !  Here I am with my three layers and a pillow filled with cherry stones, which I had put in the microwave to heat it up and this keeps my feet warm ! I should rather sit in an igloo !

And in summer with the same temperature I just wear jeans and a T-shirt ! Isn't that strange ?

I also watched the Belgian Royal news, the crown princess Mathilde celebrated her 40th birthday today and of course there was a whole reportage about her ! 



She  has four children with the future King Philippe, and is quiet a pretty woman. She speaks fluently French, Flemish and English and also some Italian. She had studied psychology and was speech therapist. She also belongs to the hereditary nobility, the perfect women for the rather shy crown prince, but to my taste she is a little too perfect and I find her boring. There is some charisma missing. That's maybe why she is less well known like the other Crown Princesses.  Princess Mathilde is the Honorary President of Unicef Belgium. She also serves as the World Health Organisation’s Special Representative for Immunization. There were no special celebrations, but she got her face on a special post stamp for her 40th birthday.

After this romantic interruption I returned to my photos and my blog and looked at the still falling snow outside.

Dominique came over in the evening to watch with us our favorite Inspector Barnaby. We still have not seen all of the movies. Unfortunately this time Mr. G's calculations of the murdered people didn't reach the average of three, there were only two !

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND ?

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of December 22. If you participate please put the little logo on the top of your post and leave your link.

Saturday it rained cats and dogs the whole day ! It was just awful, we had to keep on the light as it was so dark outside. No way to do anything in the garden where I wanted to put some Christmas decorations. It had been raining since my return from holidays, so I waited for the last day in the hope the rain would stop !

I decided to not put my nose outside and switched my plans. I cleaned and prepared our guestroom for our son and family. And then I did some Blogwork. I thought the Photohunter themes are more or less always the same words and need some changements to make it more interesting for those who love to photograph. I googled for inspiration and questions, which you should answer with a picture. Finally I had the list for the whole year 2013. If you are interested have a look here "Themes in phrases" on my Keyhole Picture Blog.

Fortunately in the evening we had our monthly theatre this time the play was "Scrooge" from Charles Dickens. First I was a little suspicious about the play when I saw only a desk on a carpet on the stage. Indeed there was only one actor ! But he was great !



He told the story of the sour and stingy Scrooge a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness. His emotional transformation was the result of supernatural visits from Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.The play (also a film)  has become a defining tale of  Christmas. It was so well performed that I could see the cold and icy streets of London, the people in rags and hungry and Scrooge himself in his bed when Marley and the ghosts visited him. It was a real pleasure for your phantasy.

Sunday morning I had my little chat with grandson Toby via Skype



He was in a very good mood and apparently learned somthing new .... unless it is a pure coincidence, to stick out his tongue to his Nonna !



This is not Father Christmas without beard and only half dressed,  but Mr. G. who after a bath crossed the street to feed Chouchou the neighbor's cat, because they went away over Christmas and New Year. Fortunately in our street you can do that without being taken for a psychotic, just escaped from a madhouse.

We finally managed to hang our Christmas garland in the hedge between two showers, and only noticed then that most of the little bulbs didn't work anymore. We have to buy a new one next year.



With the bad weather I hadn't been able to take the fake flowers out of the pots which I had put in in October, but ever since it rained or I had no time to do that, so we will have a front yard with blooming flowers, a Father Christmas and Christmas lights. Why not, in some countries it's normal.

To all of you !

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND ?

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of October 6. If you participate please put the little logo on the top of your post and leave your link.

On Saturday we had an awful weather ! It was raining the whole day, together with a strong wind and it made you feel cold. When I opened the stores, I wanted to close them immediately and rather switch on the light ! It was disgusting outside !



A little chat with grandson Toby cheered me up a bit, seeing each other on the screen makes me feel as if I was sitting with him at the table having breakfast ! Am I happy to be a modern Grandma who knows how to handle a computer ! All the others don't know what they miss !

Dominique who was in the same mood as I called and invited me for coffee together with Nicole. We had decided to take a season ticket for a cute little theatre not very far from Waterloo in a little country town.



They mostly play commedies and the actors are all very good. So once a months we will go there.



On Sunday morning when I opened the stores, the rain had stopped and the sun came out. The election poster of our mayor, which my neighbor had put up hadn't survived the rain and his face was washed away. I hope he has better luck with the elections !

In the afternoon and I went to Ilona and we did a long walk through the countryside close to her house but still in Brussels.



The fields were very wet and the little river still nearly filled up til the top, apparently it had gone out of its bed. Fortunately I had put on boots because there was quiet a lot of mud.

A good cup of hot tea warmed us up, because despite the sunshine it was rather cool.