It's warm!

I'm melting!!!

It's fizzy, it's ginger, it's phenomenal!

Ginger genius! And we wonder why Irn-Bru out sells coca-cola et al.

Guess who's back! *big grin*

Lesson learned

Unfortunately, and, as always, the hard way. In March this year I had a business trip to Taiwan. It was a heavy week, so on the last night in Taipei I went out for a relaxing meal with some of my clients. Said relaxing meal turned into the heaviest night of the week. I have one word - kampai!

The next day, yours truly had to travel from Taipei to the south of the island. Believe me when I say that I should have been in bed the whole day. Hangovers and Taiwanese public transport don't mix - please see pic below of toilet in Taipei train station.Not the most accomodating if you have to be sick.

The brown/grey section is cement btw.

Luckily I managed to find a disabled toilet to call on dear uncle Hughie. The plan after this part of the journey, was to travel by car to a seaside resort to chillax. Or so I was hoping. We finally arrive, 5 hours later, I officially have no stomach lining, only to be greeted by a ride on this

Someone was out to get me that day. If the hangover didn't kill me, the banana boat would.

Phone home, I doubt it!

Just bought a new phone.

Instruction manual 1 - Dutch. Instruction manual 2 - French.

This will be interesting...

Clepto cleaner

Now, I could be losing it a bit here, but I'm sure I left a lasagne in the fridge yesterday before I went to work. When I came home last night I noticed it wasn't there. To be fair, there is still one in the freezer so I could've made a mistake.

Call me suspicious, but this led me to check the contents of the bin. What did I find? An orange peel, a wrapper from previously moaned about fruit and nut chocolate - my last one! And a empty pot of yoghurt. What do these things have in common? They all belong to me.

I need to check the contents of the cleaning contract because I don't recall saying help yourself to my food when I'm not here!

Cleaner uperer

I was relieved to see that the cleaning lady had been today and she's done a fanstatic job and... nothing has been broken this time. She was meant to come last week but didn't. This was frustrating because I'd gone to the effort of writing a very long note in Dutch for no one to read it.

Today she's had a cup of water but left the cup unwashed by the sink. Contradiction or what?

Not that I begrudge her this. I just think that if she's gone to all the effort of tidying the apartment, that she could do the honours of washing her cup instead of me having to wash it! Kind of defeats the whole purpose of having help!

Desperate times call for desperate measures

You know that times are hard when your last resort for satiating the sweetie fix involves chocolate with fruit and nut. It's just not the same. Sarah did buy me emergency chocolate but I've eaten it already :(

I'm also down to my last 4 frozen meals that Sarah 'prepared earlier.' I'm wondering who I can visit to pad out the last few dinners before she arrives on Sunday.

Oh how I look forward to Sunday!

Haud yer wheesht!*

I went home on Friday for Dad's bday. The above sign greeted me as I arrived at the airport. Only Scotland could have such a slogan and, I think, get away with it. In the words of my native tongue, 'ah hink it's gallus!' But perhaps this is only appealing to Scots abroad because it's caused quite a bit of an uproar back haeme. Some would argue that it's 'pure dead embarrassing' and lacks class. But let's face it, the majority of Prestwick flights are Ryanair and I don't think 'class' is on the top of their passengers' agenda.

I for one will try to avoid Cryanair in the future. Every time I take one of these flights I feel like I'm on a school trip or club 18-30. What is it with mob rule and this demographic each time the plane hits a wee bit of turbulence? I think you'll find the reason Ryanair is so strict with their luggage policy is because their flights are always crammed with baw bags!

End rant.

*Scottish for - 'please be quiet.'

Belgian Belters

As much as I mock the songs on Belgian radio, it is by no means a reflection of my love for the local transmission. I stand proud when I say - Ik hou van Belg radio. I love the random mix of tunes, *cough,* continentals definitely have a different taste in music from the Brits - the tunes are all encompassing. I love the fact that the Proclaimers get air play here! I love that every time I get into my car, it's like travelling back in time (quite literally with the state of some of the roads around here, but that's another story).

What never ceases to surprise me though is the fact that Belgian djs will, very candidly, swear on the radio. And it's broadcast. There's no Mary Whitehouse over here folks. It shocked me at first but my British sensibility is getting use to it. I'm thankful actually, because it means that I get to hear the unedited version of that very catchy song by Ms Allen - 'Fuck you very much.' There's no way this would get airplay back on Old Blighty.

AWOL

I've just eaten a partially cooked meal. My body knows that Sarah isn't here lol.

Of course she's taken good care of me by preparing meals, recording TED seminars on cds, ordering me books, and leaving me lots of little notes scattered around the apartment.

But that doesn't take away from the fact that when Sarah's travelling, so too does our razor and my tweezers!

Sweetheart - is this what you want to come back to?

The result of not fully understanding directions in Dutch...

On my Tod

Sarah left for Boston on Friday. She'll be there for the next 2 weeks to study at MIT. Top blag! To help me to *cope* with her not being here for the next couple of weeks, my girrel very kindly and lovingly prepared no less than 10 home cooked meals, of which 7 are in the freezer. Included with each dish is an ingredient list and full cooking instructions lol. Unlike me, she doesn't appreciate toast as a good meal.

And, I just received 2 books from Amazon that she'd ordered so that my brain didn't dry out whilst she was away. I am vay lucky *big grin*

Talking of drying out though, the *only* thing she's asked me to do it to water the plants. I just hope they're still alive when she returns ;)

Belgian Belters

On the way home tonight in the car, I got to boogy to this...

The 80's are alive and well in Belgium. Oh the irony.

I'm off now to hunt out my leggings and huge can of hair spray ;)

To do or not...

I have been on my own this weekend. So I had a long list of things I *wanted* to get done. I managed to get some thing scored off, but they took a lot of energy getting them finished. The main thing that I'd been delaying was house hold chores. Normally we have someone come once a week to clean and iron, unfortunately for me they didn't come last week. It was my turn to step up to the mantle.

I spent 5 hours ironing on Friday night. Not fun. I don't mind ironing, just so long as it doesn't take a large chunk of my life away. Admittedly all of the shirts were mine apart from 2 of Sarah's. The saving grace, and ironically the reason it took me so long was because I found the starch spray. I was obsessed with having clean sharp lines on my sleeves. It's very satisfying seeing them hang in my wardrobe like carboard cut outs (so long as I don't think about the time it took).

I found an unopened box of Kellogs 'Just Right' in the cupboard, so of course that delayed my trip to the supermarket. After 2 days of eating cereal and toast I managed to find the motivation to go to Delhaize. Oh how I miss Tesco's home delivery service!

Sarah will be home in 4-6 hours. I think that should be enough time to put the *finishing* (and the starting) touches on the flat. I don't mean this in a 'oh shit the folks are coming home better get the place sorted.' At the risk of sounding just a wee bit cheesey, it's more her coming home gives me the inspiration that I need to get off my arse and take action. It makes sense to do it for her.

Ok, so now I must ...I think Nike know the pains of procrastinators...that's for another blog...

In de buurt

We have 2 video stores where we live. That's 2 locations where I can buy Ben n Jerry's ice cream. Sweet!

What I don't understand is, that both stores always have people smoking and drinking in them. That's what pubs are for surely? Is this a Belgie thing or is it just my special town???

I don't like people smoking in my local video store!

Friday flight

Things have been a tad busy over the last few months to say the least and now it's time for some perspective. We're off to Berlin for a long weekend and I'm going to lose myself in the mellifluous tones of Anthony and the Johnsons There will be lots of shopping, glow-stick waving, banksy tours, copious cups of coffee and lots of other little surprises.

The power of uninention

I always start out with the best intentions when I head home. After a very relaxing late lunch, I left work and headed straight to the DIY store. You see, the other week I bought a power drill. Upon arriving home I opened the box in eager anticipation to find that there will no drill bits included in the box - gutted!

Today I bought the drill bits. I started preparing things to put up the last curtain only to discover we don't have any more screws and that we returned Sarah's mum's ladders.

It's warm, my enthusiasm is waning, so I think I'll spend the rest of the evening chilling on the terras.

You know you live in a small town when...

You're fervently excited that Espirit has moved into larger premises down town.

I'm about to fall asleep

Our bartenders tonight were called Corky and Papi...
It's been snowing...
I've almost lost my voice...
We're off to the 'Mall of America' on Monday lol...
I'm off to bed ;)

Today's temperature

Sarah sent me out with a list of meds, on this list was a thermometer. Not just any thermometer, but an electronic thermometer. She's a physicist you know.

Since 2pm this anoon, I've been getting hourly readings since she got her new toy. Luckily she hasn't gone above 37 degrees yet.

Vertically challenged

You know you're in another country when shops don't stock jeans with a leg length less than 32"

She's a wee bit peely-wally

Sarah is sick. :(

It's contagious.

*meep*

Whilst I'm nursing her to the best of my capabilities. I'm really, really praying that I don't get it. I have 2 presentations to do next week in the States so I will be devastated if I catch it.

To avoid contamination, I've separated out the towels, toilet paper, poor Sarah's sleeping on the sofa - her suggestion so that I can sleep btw, and she's trying not to touch communal surfaces lol. Again, the last one was her suggestion just before she muttered something '...leper...'

I feel like I'm on the 'school run' (in a nice way ;))this weekend, taking care of Sarah and the house. It's like she's secretly preparing me for little Sarahs...Normally she does the cooking you see. She's adamant that she enjoys it and it helps her wind down. Even if I'm home first she calls me with the instructions to not even so much as look at a kitchen utensil. I'm happy with that set up because I'm not one to spend time in the kitchen unless it involves toast, chocolate, coffee or beer. So what's on the menu tonight? A taste of Scotland, packed full of iron and vitamins, and a great comfort food for this time of year - porridge.

I just googled porridge and found this excerpt - '...used traditionally in many cultures to nurse the sick back to health.' Guess what Sarah's having for the next 5 days?!

Faff

The joy of being a procrastinator is that I sometimes find my inspiration for things a bit late. Like feeling motivated to work when I should sleep. On the opposite side, it's a total struggle sometimes to pull myself out of bed in the morning. I delay getting up to the last nano second before I can get ready for work. Why is that? Am I such a control freak? There's also an edge of risk taking to it as well. Like driving a car until it's in the red and not wanting to fill up the diesel till the very last moment.

On the other hand, procastination does have its upsides. I enjoyed folding the dry clothes the other evening because I knew it was delaying the more daunting and arduous task of cleaning the kitchen. If it wasn't for my procrastination, I would've done all of my Christmas shopping in Belgium and lost out on the good exchange rate!

I'm going to get back to what I should be doing ;)

I made it through the wilderness...

This weekend was pretty monumental in our household. I finally got rid of this -

...and in it's place something a wee bit more Belgie. It's my first haircut since I moved, which is almost 12 months. Considering I used to get my hair cut every 6 weeks I'm amazed I lasted this long. Needless to say that the kapper did a good job despite the pressure.

AND, we acquired 2 tix for the Madonna gig in Belgium...somewhere. I have told Sarah that my life is pretty much complete now. Almost *hint* ;)

Sarah was a star, she doesn't even like Madonna as much as I do, but she got up early on Saturday morning and had her finger stuck to redial like her life depended on it. Unfortunately for me it was on speaker phone so I didn't get much of lie in ;)

The came, and they collected ;)

Refuse collection?

Sarah and I have every right to stand proud today. We have, for the second week in a row, actually managed to put out our rubbish bin. Not only that, we've put out the right colour too. Tomorrow is groenten day, otherwise known as kitchen waste - read as small green box that's too heavy to carry cos it doesn't come with wheels. Said green box is also a delightful, dredgy, sluicey hot bed for *gag* fruit flies and maggots *dry balk*

You see, when we first moved to Geel, we made an elementary mistake with the green bin. It was early one morning when Sarah was taking the bin out before work. I was in the bedroom when I heard Sarah cough very loudly with a dry, back of the throat sound to it. I cheekily shouted back 'hen, you better cut back on the hamlets!' No response came back, so I ventured out to see if she was ok only to discover my poor schat avoiding the dry heave with the offending green box nearby. The bin was on the terras, in the heat, and we'd put in some meat from a couple of days before. When schatje lifted up the bin lid she was horrified when she was greeted by leery big chunky maggots! Yuck! I'll spare you the pictures. Part of me is thinking I've written this story before...bear with me if I'm repeating myself lol.

After this we stored the bin in the garage instead of in the exposed heat of the terras, du-uh. The maggots persisted until one evening I gassed them with some cancer-inducing fly spray. This didn't kill them. Nothing short of a nuclear explosion would get rid of these things. So I spent the rest of that evening trawling the web for the best solution. Turns out that stomping on them is the best thing. Super-dyke Jo to the rescue with wellie boots an all. Fun. I have to say that squashing them gave me the same fulfilling feeling as popping bubble wrap.

Anyways, back to the point. Tomorrow we've done something a wee bit different. We've used a biodegradeable bag to put inside the green box, how exciting. We're now placing bets to see if the bin men will take it...

Height of ignorance

I like to think that Sarah knows me better than anyone. She can easily pick up on my moods, or thoughts that perhaps I'd rather keep to myself. She knows when I'm battling not to take that last piece of chocolate or one more slither of Speculoos from the jar. I like to think that my girrel knows me well!

Well, you'd think.

Today we had my health insurance form returned. Why I hear you ask? Because Sarah had put yours truly down with a height of 1 metre! 1 METRE!!! I'm 5 ft 2 and a 1/4 in my socks. I know she has this thing that she's taller than me -only just, by the way- but 1 metre! Really. And to think that she has a Phd that involves taking measurements ;p

Our daily bread

We're just back from a weekend in London toasting congratulations to some friends who have just gotten married...more on that later.

On our way back from the train station to home, we decided that we needed some bread. Now, in Belgium, unlike the UK, no shops are open on a Sunday and we don't do 24 hr super-uber-town-consuming markets either (thank god!). The only shop that's open on a Sunday is the bakerij which can be seen full of Belgian's popping out to get the Sunday bread, chocolade broodjes and other lekker goodies. I love it! I love the fact that Belgian's are crazy about their Sunday bread!

All the pastires aside, we got home at 8pm which meant that the bakerij was closed. But fear ye not! Any self-respecting Belgian street corner has...no, not that...

The Belgian brood automaat.

With the thought of toast with butter and a cup of Errrol Grrrey, this humble vendor made me feel happy about living in Belgium .

Return of the Mac

My writings have been rather sparse of late. It's not through lack of wanting to blog, it's through lack of time to sit down and clear my head to make space for a few words. I've sat down many times over the last couple of months only to produce 'drafts.' There's something about an un-final product that appeals to procrastinators ;)

Anyway, I digress, the last couple of months have been busy with a new role at work, going back home for Christmas, Sarah officially moving in -yay!- and me adjusting to living in this foreign land.

Here are some pics from the last couple of months...

Being entertained whilst Christmas shopping Glasgow style.

Whilst on a business trip to China, we visited a local restaurant. Imagine the demi-vegetarian's response when she realised where the strange smell was coming from...let's just say that I learned to manage my gag reflex and swallow without chewing!

Sarah having the bright idea to take all 10 boxes of lego back from her mum's (where they were perfectly happy I might add) and wash in our appartment. Thank goodness we don't have carpets!...gotta love her ;)

Some more pics from China. When I saw the writing below, at first all I could see was 'work!' Which made me feel uncomfortable with these workers, all industrious and working most hours of the day with this command barking down at them. I was very much relieved when I creaked my neck further to discover the 'Team!'

Ik hou van de sneeuw

I woke up unusually early this morning to a soft, thick muffled blanket of snow. *GRIN* There's something so utterly enjoyable about the smell and the sound of a snow filled street. Especially when it's still dark in the morning, and you're all wrapped up and have yer wellies on. It's dark, but yet the snow manages to reflect some light, giving a contradictory warm glow.

If it's still here tomorrow, I'm going to get creative on the terras...watch this space ;)

P for procrastination

Why is it I always feel compelled to blog when ever I have tonnes of stuff to do?! This has left me with an array of unpublished ramblings...which may explain my blank postings of late. So, herein is my effort for today ;)

I'm a fan of Drifters

This morning I received a parcel from a client with 3 Drifter bars inside - bliss! I've hunted high and low for these when I go back to the UK but to no avail. Well chuffed!

It's been a wee while since my last blog. Things have been very busy and my mood has been up and down over the past couple of weeks. I've sat down countless times at my laptop to write a blog but been unwilling to battle through all the different thoughts in my head, unable to clear a path for my thoughts to make their way unhindered onto the screen before me. So like any good procrastinator, I've simply not written.