Halloweeeeeeeeen

Happy All Hallows' Eve. Or not.
Make it as scary as you like. But don't forget to have comfort food ready. I recommend  thick pumpkin soup,fried proteins and lots of warm milk, hot tea and biscuits.

a week off

I really should have planned ahead. I know. But faced with nothing to do, I'm a disaster. I had hoped to go on a short trip, or visit some friends who live out of town. I have announced going to the very North of Europe I can't even manage getting out of bed to take the train for a half-day trip to our own coastal region.

tssk tssk

The Indefinite Delay

I don' really feel like telling the whole story AGAIN, as I have been whining on about it too long already. But it seems that the plans I so eagerly made in December and January are twarted and twarted and twarted. I will work my last day, Friday next, nearly a month later than I initially anticipated. Since this benefits me with an extra month of pay, I would hardly dare complain about this out loud.

One vulcanic ash-cloud, several delays in the official documents-department and a little panic around the health of my bank account later... I conclude that I might not leave until early June. Which leaves me plenty of time to find a temporary employment and clean my room- two projects my parents and housemates are strongly in favour off and which I, as you might guess, know to be neccesary yet do not look forward to all too exitingly.

Merry Christmas

I fear that may have reached the age at which all festive activities become obligatory circus acts predictable from beginning to the end. From this not necessarily follows that the occasion is an unpleasant one, merely that I could think of activities as pleasant with the added bonus of being cost-and frustrationless.

Have I become to critical of family traditions? Or am I just grumpy for the lack of snow? Or am I longing for a childhood when christmas was something magical? I'll deny any charges whenever they are launched at me and take this opportunity to wish everyone a pleasant Yule-Tide.

Saint-Nicolas

Off late it seems that evert religious holidya anywhere in the world has to be turned into an opportunity to lavish children in sweets and gifts. I find this disgusting and remember from my childhood the one magial evening, the one holiday for children only, the anticipation, the putting out shoes, the waking up early, ...

I sincerely feel that I appreciated it more than children nowadays do, and certainly that I wouldn't not-mind waking up early if there was a pile of presents waiting for me every other month.

But this was actually not the whole point of my narrative. I just wanted to say thank you to the kind soul who left candy on my desk at work, thus I presume showing his/her appreciation of the work I do.

... and a new writing utensil.

Since I got a lot more for my birthday than I wanted or dreamed of getting, I'm inclined to aim high. Beside it's almost true.

National Holiday

179 years ago Belgium became an independent country. Had I had the opportunity I might have burst out into song, by preference our natinal anthem.




Or as Yves Leterme would have it;

Breaking the habit.

It is mid-easter holiday, a two-year tradition dictates that I should be utterly drunk, angry at the entirety of mankind, sad, humiliated, heart-broken, drooling and above all redecorating bathrooms with vomit.

It can't be denied I had my share of alcohol this weekend but nonetheless I am almost sober now, with no intention of being sick and every intention to enjoy a few hours of sleep and whirl through my working day tomorrow.

In elaborate conference with those friends that shared most of the day and it's sunshine with me I have decided to start a new tradition; Picknick in the Park, with maybe some dinner and a movie afterwards.

editors note: a picture may or may not follow

An Alternative Easter Bunny

Happy Easter everyone!

Gift Basket

A little present from Mom and Paps. Includes:

Gift Certificate for my most hated bookshop chain.
Bottle of Home Brew Port
Bottle of Home Brew Coffee Schnapps
Bottle of Home Brew Mint liqueur
Home Made Chocolate Spread
Home Made Jam in the flavours: melon, pear-lemon, pumpkin, apple.
Pot of Honey flavoured with walnuts.

Editorial note: Simply because I now have a bottle of port doesn't mean you have to be at mu doorstep around 8pm for a drink and after dinner chat, but should you be so you'd be welcome.

Happy 2008!

Today is my last chance to bring this month's score in blogposts up to scratch, though unless you expect divine intervention it should not be counted on. Right now might be a good time to make my new year's resolutions known, but since I've never been able to hold on to even one, I might as well not bother this year or any of the next. Have a happy 2008, everyone! I probably won't but if two people can be happy for the unhappiness of just person that's a very fair balance.

A sign of the times

And grave they may be.


Either I or the world must have gone mad, if the least blogative of my friends manage a higher post-per-week score than me. But what have I to say?

There are of course the occasional sex fantasies starring alternatingly Mr. Gorgeous and Fishstick and sometimes both.
My younger sister has landed herself a new boyfriend, who though not my type may find little resistance in getting my approval for the match; he looks decent, he looks forward to meeting us (a sure sign of madness, which I cannot but like) and will soon enter the army (read: will soon be a man in uniform).
And last but not least it's the holiday season, if nothing else I should be wishing every single reader joy and uhm merriness.

Some christmas gift

Yesterday, I had a little celebration with my housemates. Among a lot of other things I got a three part gift with some good advice*, some friendly testimonials and a tease. Though it did little to make me feel good about myself, it brought a smile to my face, in fact, if I remember correctly it even made me laugh.

Were it not very early in the christmas season yet and had I not been given a disco-light rubber ducky it might have qualified as the bestestest present ever.

* known publically as The sunscreen Speech

The Job - II

Loot
- 1, 24 €
- silver earring
- 1 can of Pringles 'Hot&Spicy'
- 1 chicklit ' Temptation in the air'
- 2 pencils
- 3 pairs of sunglasses
- white hat
- can of orange juice
- can of Red Bull light
- 2 keys
- 2 glossy magazines
- multitool
- map of Brussels
- 1 pacifier
- 11 ballpoints
- 1 fountainpen
- 2 umbrellas
- lighter
- giant box of marshmellows

It goes without saying that I gave away a lot of this stuff.

Medical File
- 2 torn fingernails
- aching back
- blocked nose

Paycheck
Around 2000€, probably somewhat less, but I ain't complaining.

The Job

So I've started a holiday jod, the toughest so far has been getting up in time. My biorythm is now after a mere three days so seriously fucked up that I find myself awake about an hour in advance, so I get on-line as I failed to make a connection to the internet yesterday evening when I actually planned this post.

My fellow job students:

Liflaf: The sum of his every feature should make him the handsomest, nicest, most likable man I have yet set eyes on, but from the fact that I could even consider Liflaf as a nickname you will learn that one plus one does not always equal two. He's nice enough though.

Wush: Not even worth pondering about. Plain and boring. Resigned after a mere day of less than hard work.

Cut: Looks, young and energetic but fell ill on his second day. Seems OK but I haven't really had a chance to talk to him.

The work:

In one short sentence, I clean trains. And I can tell you this, people are a messy lot. The dust and the occasional candy wrapper one can live with but I've seen dirt these few days to make your stomach turn.

The loot:
- 10 cent piece
- silver earring
- an unopened can of Hot&Spicy Pringles
- a novel with the title ' Seduction in the air'

I probably won't be that rich after just this one month.

V&A: a review

It was in the easter holiday of 1992, on a trip to Vienna with my parents that I first fell in love with a museum. Not surprisingly, as I was then around eight years old it was the natural history museum housing a gigantic dinosaur skeleton that I fancied so much. However with my age my wisdom and taste must evolve also and my newest love is the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington, London. (Click here to be taken to their site.)

The building itself is beautiful, the collections of art and historical artefacts are gargantuesque, the displays are elegant, not too sober, the information interesting and often interactionally educational, the staff kind and well-informed and then I haven't even told you about the video's and sound fragments. It's too much to tell you, if you go to London skip Mdme Tussaud's and Big Ben V&A is where you need to be.

Hectic Days

I have returned from London. In one piece but somewhat sad after the loss of my beloved Nicholas. I have managed to paint one wall of my room in time for the scheduled installing of shelves only to be informed hours later that the shelves-installer won't show up. I have cooked a delicious Couscous (dixit the eaters) and helped to cook an even better lasagne with mascarpone the day after. I reported for duty at my holiday job, lived through the medical check and met my colleagues. I have barely eaten today and I am exhausted by the heath.


Come back some other day for a review of London musea, a detailed description of my colleagues, an analysis of my emotional state and whatever more you fancy reading.

London calling

I could be mistaken. But I doubt it and unless I'm mistaken you won't read anything new on this blog until I return home from my favourite country in the world ( as I have never been fysically out of this world I would not venture on opinions on country that might or might not be found there.) Should you wonder what I seek abroad. I'm going to see some of these for myself.

Regional holiday

11th of July so in Flanders we celebrate havinf defeated an army of Franch knights. I' d rather not bother you with the contradictory details of how Flemish this day is and how I am (not) proud of my flemish identity. Suffice it to say I'll be busy today and it is rather unlikely that I'll be busy celebrating.

Envy

Think what you will, I am not envious of people who have the opportunity to go abroad, who bathe in the sun and practise their language skills with locals instead of badly translated B-rated films. But I am jealous of anyone who has stood before the Sagrada Familia, who has witnessed in his/her own eyes the genius of Gaudí, who has cassually walked through Park Guëll and drank overpriced beer at Las Ramblas.

Everybody who fails to bring me pictures or a postcard shall feels my wrath, the fact that I have been seriously and serially ignoring/ insutling you for the past few months, plotting your untimely death or worse and thinking of unfriendly words to say at your funeral is not an excuse.