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.