MY WEEKEND OF APRIL 12

OUR WORLD IS here


Our peaceful routine life as a retired couple was interrupted this weekend ! We had our son and grandson Toby over ! Carpets were rolled up and toys taken out and when they arrived 3 of our 4 cats disappeared and were not seen only when we were alone.



Except our cat Arthur who loves company and children. Fortunately the weather was nice !



Mr. G. has celebrated his birthday probably not like he had imagined, because he was taken to the zoo together with a friend of our son and his two children.



The zoo was very big and we walked a lot to see all the animals, which was impossible it was far too big and after 4 hours we were all tired. Mr. G. had walked more then in a whole year. He looked rather funny carrying Toby's little Elephant backpack. We had lunch in the zoo and while the daddies were busy with cleaning the kids, Mr. G. took this photo. We went to Asia, Africa and saw a little of America. The zoo was divided into countries with their specific animals. Toby after a while was so tired that he sat on daddy's shoulders from  where he had an excellent view. 



My feet were burning and after supper we watched a little bit TV, of course a cartoon for kids. Daddy took the opportunity to go out with his friends and we babysitted Toby. Everything went well except that at 1.30 am, I was woken up by a crying Toby who had fallen from the large mattress into a little space between the wall and the mattress and lay on the tiled floor. I asked him to climb on the mattress again, but or he was asleep or he didn't want to, in short, I had to pull and push him from the floor on the mattress like a stiff corpse, goodness me, was he heavy ! Finally I managed and lay a while besides him until I was sure that he was deeply asleep. It is a double bed and he shared it with his dad as mummy was not there. Then I returned into my bed and the rest of the night I didn't hear him anymore.

On Sunday, our son wanted to take an "official" photo of his parents. For that he had brought with him a professional photograph equipment.



It was hard work to set up the background !



Toby played golf on our lawn and then took the background as goal.



Mr. G. had put on his marriage/funeral costume and a white shirt, while our sun fixed the last things for a good reflection.



Meanwhile Toby tried out the chair where his nonno should sit.



Then everything was fixed and ready and I took a picture of the impressive camera, while Mr. G. sat down and followed the instructions how to pose. He looks like a member of "The Godfather's" Don Corleone's family.



Then began the official photo shooting. I don't know how many photos were taken, but I asked my son to take some pictures with my camera and this was the result. Now I am curious to see our official photo for the eternity !

When it was over, Mr. G. hurried to get rid of his costume and took his garbage look again, I mean compared to the former elegance. Then arrived the friend again with his two children, to take photos of them with the same background, while I chatted with his wife.

They had brought a cheese cake which disappeared quickly and then we packed and loaded the car and the two went back to Amsterdam. We unrolled the carpets, put the toys away and collapsed on the sofas and the cats showed up again. We had a lot of fun, but realized that we are not getting younger ! 

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE - RANDOM 5 FRIDAY

1. The week started rather bad ! I was in war with my new Window XP installation in French, the original was in English and the one who had translated these technical terms must have had some whiskies too much !



You really need a lot of phantasy to understand the translations ! Fortunately I know where the places are otherwise with a dictionary I would never have found out. "Settings" for example was translated by "parameter" ! On top of that Picasa went mad and exported my pictures to an unknown place called "Images of the administrator " (in French) instead to "My Pictures" and I had to call Mr. G. for help as he knows all these technical terms in French, which ended up in arguing again, because men and women have a different logic !

2. Our water softener had its yearly check up and the guy should come Tuesday afternoon, which meant that I was stuck home, because I didn't know when he would come ! And if you are not home you have to take another appointment which can be at a time in the blue moon ! Tuesday is also the only day in the week where Mr. G. doesn't stay home with his cats, but goes out to play "Whist" (a card game ) with a group of retirees. So I continued with my French Window XP and found other things which didn't work, I just could pull out all my hair, but the fact that my head is not made to be bald it's not round enough, I refrained. Finally the guy arrived at 4 pm, cleaned and worked on it for an hour, assisted by cat Arthur who loves mechanics. He sneaked around, put his nose in the utensil bag to check what was in there. Fortunately the guy loved cats and we had a long chat about cats !


Arthur sitting on my car and supervising the work !

3.Our son announced his visit with Toby, my grandson, for this weekend, and had suggested that I buy some Easter stuff, as we won't see them on Easter. As Easter is only at the end of the month I hadn't thought about that at all. I went shopping. I was in 3 shops and none had not even a Easter bunny or little baskets, there was nothing left anymore or not yet there ! I hope I still have some things in the basement as most of the Easter stuff I had brought to Amsterdam 2 years ago when we had celebrated Easter together. I found some little things to hide and I think that is the most important thing for a 3 year old kid. The poor thing is very allergic to nuts and all little chocolate eggs I found contained nuts or "may contain nuts"  ! My eyes burnt from reading all the labels ! Next time I take a magnifier glass with me.

4. I was invited by a friend whom I hadn't seen since at least 7 years, somehow we had lost contact. She had remembered me because she needed some support for her oldest cat who is now 19 years old.



Mother and son, the little one is the mother, the son is 18 !

When I arrived I saw a little cat very skinny and she weighs only 2 kgs ! She also has troubles to walk. I think it's only a question of days or maybe two weeks, with cats you never know, and it will be the end. She won't let her suffer and ask the vet to put her asleep when it is time. Then we had to catch up on what happened during all these years and how it was possible that we lost contact. We decided that this would never happen again and will see each other from now on regularly. She is Belgian and her husband is German and was delighted to speak German for once !

5.



Rain was announced for the whole day, and as usual when it should rain, the sun was shining as if payed for ! It had been quite cool and we arrived at Nicole's with thick pullovers ! But on her terrace it was so warm that we had to striptease off one layer after the other and Nicole had to give us sunhats ! We enjoyed a cool drink and had this beautiful view. Her neighbor beneath is a 82 year old lady who mows her rather big lawn alone she was just busy ! I was already tired when I only saw her !

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