RESUME OF MY WORLD IN 2013

As I love to travel and visit countries and cities as much as I can, I started beginning 2013 with a visit to my friend Claudie, who lives at the French Riviera.



I spent New Year with her and her family

End May, my friend Ilona and I decided to make a tour around the UK.



Before we started the tour, I showed her a bit of London. Next day early morning we took the Bus and started our tour. We were 10 different nationalities on board !




First stop was in Cambridge where we visited the town on the River cam with a punt boat.



York was a beautiful town and we visited the Roman bath.



We saw Hadrian's wall and the beautiful landscape until we arrived at the Scottish border.



We loved Edinburgh very much and stayed there for two days.



The next day we drove to Loch Ness and were so lucky because we had wonderful sunny weather



The drive through the Highlands was just breathtaking



And then we followed the traces of the Beatles in Liverpool



visited Stratford upon Avon



and arrived the next day in Bath. Where we literally took a bath, it poured and we didn't see very much of the city.



Stonehenge too, was rather wet, fortunately I had seen it the year before when the sun was shining.



After we had returned to London we spent another day there and met Marie from After 60.

Beginning August I went as I do each year, to my friends in Eastbourne at the English South East coast.



It's a beautiful place and I always discover new things to see.

On my way back to Brussels, I stopped again in London for the day,



until I took the Eurostar (train) back to Brussels in the evening.

Normally in October or November I spent 12 days in Egypt at the Red Sea. But this time I couldn't due to the political troubles there.

Instead I followed the invitation of my friend Claudie and went again to the South of France end October,



to collect some sunshine, and enjoy the exceptionally warm weather. This usually helps me to go through the dark, cold and short winter days.

Now 2013 is over and I wish you all a happy New Year ! 

MY WEEKEND OF DECEMBER 28

Friday evening I suddenly had enough of the "merry" Christmas stuff, took it all off and put it behind the sofa and on the dining table where it was out of my view. Mr. G. hadn't even noticed that I had put the Christmas decoration away. He watched TV.



Our Living room looked then like this on Saturday morning.

I suddenly realized that we didn't have anything to eat anymore because of all this Christmas food shopping, so I did my food shopping for the week. Now the fridge is filled and Mr. G can sleep in peace.

In the afternoon I went with Dominique to Ilona, for a little chat and to exchange our Christmas gifts. She was busy with a meter and measured all her furniture, she wanted to change them to other places. So the 3 of us where thinking how we could make an old living new. We all had different ideas and had a lot of fun.

On Sunday morning Mr. G got our two old suitcases, which once had served for long distance travels. Even empty they are quiet heavy. In one I put the advents wreath and the advent decoration and in the other the Christmas stuff.



Then he carried both downstairs again and put them away, grumbling something about Christmas celebrations.

When this was done, I met Nicole on the Braine l'Alleud market, where we walked around and finally bought something to wear for New Year. Otherwise we would have had to celebrate in a Eve costume ! Of course we both had nothing to wear ! We had a cup of coffee together and she told me about her Christmas adventures. Being fed up with buying gifts for her son, daughter and very spoiled grown up grandchildren, which anyway they didn't like, she had prepared envelopes with banknotes inside. Then she had perforated the envelopes, put a ribbon in the holes and hang them on the tree. Itself a very nice idea. Unfortunately when the first one opened his envelope and took the banknote out there was a nice hole in it too ! Of course they all burst out in laughter with their perforated banknotes and told her that it could only be her to do something like that. I doubt it, it could happen to me too !