AWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND FEBRUARY 12

 It rained outside !

 

 

 

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS

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WEEKEND

I felt a little bit better, at least I could breathe normally again. So I decided not to go out yet, but to lie on the sofa in front of the TV or work on the computer. I even managed to go to my neighbor to ask if there was any mail. 

Otherwise, a few people called me and I called my ex-neighbor, with whom I actually had little or no contact when we lived in our house. But I had heard that her husband had also died shortly before Christmas.  Shared suffering binds  together. So we decided to meet, when I come back from France (if I can go).  Shared sorrow is better to endure. 

So the day went by and I started to be optimistic to go on my trip, Even if I have to stay in the hotel or in a café it's still better then staying here and getting crazy !   

I have to distract myself otherwise I think too much about the good times of the past.

On Sunday the day was identical, I managed to put the laundry in the wardrobes, and left out what I would need for my travel to France, which I put directly in my suitcase. I don't need very much as I am only 4 days away.

Rosie was happy that I sat always on the same place so she could do her 23 sleeping hours marathon without or only two interruptions.

 

On Sundays a French channel has a show on TV that shows wild animals and then various animal shelters where you can adopt dogs and cats or rabbits and guinea pigs. And this time there was a little pig too ! That would be something for me! It behaved better than some dogs and was very intelligent. 

When the young girl went with the pig, into a restaurant hwearing a beautiful coat, the restaurants couldn't say anything, since it wasn't a dog! But the little pig behaved better than some people.

This was my weekend. Please wish me luck that I can go to France, to the city of Metz, where my mother was born in 1918 when Lorringen was still German, and my grandfather worked there as station master. I will try to find the station !!

 

The station of Metz in 1918

SUNDAY SELECTION - THE MARCINELLE (Belgium) MINING DISASTER

 

 Today it is a museum

In June 1946, Italy and Belgium signed "the men for coal" agreement: as Europe struggled to recover from the impact of the second world war, Italy agreed to send its surplus manpower to the mines of southern Belgium, in return for 2-3 million tonnes of coal a year at preferential rates. 

Between 1946 and 1949, 77,000 Italians reached Belgium in convoys, far exceeding the manpower target. On arrival, they were dispatched to various parts of the country, where they were housed in corrugated iron hangars or barrack-blocks—some built by the Nazi occupiers to house Russian prisoners of war. They were indeed more like concentration camps. 

All but 12 of the 274 miners in the Bois du Cazier perished on 8 August, 1956 in the southern town of Marcinelle, after a mining wagon, incorrectly placed in an elevator cage, struck an oil pipe and electrical cables, triggering a deadly fire. The victims had 12 different nationalities. The largest number - 136 - were Italians who had emigrated to Belgium to work in the coal industry. Therefore, a rapid description of the policy framework which affected them can help to better understand the changes produced afterwards by European integration. You can read the whole horrible story HERE

 

 

 

Linking to SUNDAY SELECTIONS