* * * TILT * * *

I'm joining up with Kenzi today for TILT (Things I Love Thursday)




  So in no particular order, I love:

there is a style of every occasion and mood & they never ever make you feel fat

Coffee .... especially a vanilla latte

Cup Cakes ..... small & sweet and pretty, what's not to love?

 What about you, what do you love? Grab the button and link up!

Questions from everywhere … WWTK #60

This week Mamarazzi & Crazymama were kind enough to let their readers ask the questions. How nice are they not! 

So if you are linking up, and please do, remember to add the link to the blogs for each question.

{one} Scriptor wants  to know:

Hmm, I’d love to know how many tattoos our readers/bloggers have and if they don’t, do they want one and of what?

Not a single one … and most people who know me find this surprising. It’s not that I have anything against them; on the contrary I think they are awesome. 

So why don’t I have any? Because I don’t have anything significant that I want to tattoo … for me a tattoo should have meaning. Also, the mr has double standards; he does not want me to get one (despite his several).

Both my kids love watching LA Ink and NY Ink etc … so Cat once asked me if I didn’t love them, cause if I loved them I would have their faces tattooed on my back.  She also told me that as soon as she’s old enough she is going to get a full sleeve done with butterflies and flowers and hearts and her dad’s face.

Tiger said he’ll get a tattoo that says ‘I love my mom’

{two} Jenn wants to know:

What is the best present you ever received?

Oh good question and a hard one cause Himself is super good when it comes to giving presents!

Honestly, I have gotten so many great things and every time he comes back from a business trips he brings back something. My most recent big present which was fantastic was a string of pearls (12^th wedding anniversary) …

Yes, I am aware of how lucky I am!

{three} Chelsea wants to know:

 Tall dark and handsome or pretty boys?

Without a doubt, tall dark and handsome!  I like men who look like men and muscles big muscles:

I have had a 'thing' for Bruce Willis for a very long time

Dwayne Johnson, my nr. 1 ... this man is SO SEXY!!

O so sad that Mickey Rourke no longer looks like this!

One word: SUPER-SEXY

{four} Jo @ http://willthekidsturnoutok.blogspot.com wants to know:

How did you meet your significant other?

Hey, this was my question.  Ok let’s see if I can remember this far back.

I heard about Himself when I was about 10 years old. I was on a church camp with some kids who went to school with him and his aunt and her husband were councilors.

We finally met when I was 13. I was in boarding school & he came to visit his best friend whose dad was a teacher at my school.

I very clearly remember not liking him.  I thought he was full of himself!  Still is …

We saw quite a bit of each other over the next 5 years. He would either come visit his friend, or I would go with my best friend to visit his parents (her parents and his parents were very good friends). So we spent a lot of time hanging out.

When I left to go au pair in Germany in 1997 he came to say good bye at the airport, my aunt said to my mom ‘ Wish Jo could date a nice boy like him’.

Fast forward 6 months … I got back to South Africa, he had broken up with his long term girlfriend. Heard from my brother that I was back in the country, phoned to say ‘Hello’ and …. we were married on the 21^st of March 2000. At our wedding his uncle made a toast and said that when he met me at that camp way back, he thought we would be a good match.

{five} Mamarazzi and Crazymama want to know:

OK..YOUR turn, what question would you like to see featured on a future WWTK? 

Okay, lets see what else would I like to find out about you … mmmh

If someone offered to help you re-invent yourself (like a grown up version of MTV’s Made) what/or who would you like to become?

Randomness

We were sitting at dinner the other night when Cat asks her dad:

‘Can you arrange for Al and I to go to the Paris fashion week?’

******************************************************

Tiger was really cross with me for saying no to something (I can’t even remember what it was) and shouts: ‘You annoy me so much; you’re not even my mother’ 

Do you think he can question who his mother is?

******************************************************

Seeing beggars around Brussels is not rare. Seeing beggars with one or a couple of dogs is not rare either. But, at the North station there now is a beggar who has a pet rabbit.

*******************************************************

The lady who we buy our wine from is moving back to South Africa … very sad about this cause she had the best wine ever. Need to find a new and reliable wine supplier.

Needless to say I put in a last big order with her.

*******************************************************

The kids are so excited about their trip to South Africa. Cat packed their bags on Sunday night. And when I say packed I mean packed. 4 huge bags for the two of them with pillows and blankets and I have no idea what else. Cause they sure don’t have enough clothes to fill 4 bags.

*******************************************************

It is actually warm and dry enough to have had a quick lunch outside today! Also, I think I’m becoming very Belgian … I talk about the weather all the time.

One dry day ...

We had one dry day this weekend! Luckily it was on Saturday since my friend Noreen had planned her annual summer BBQ for that day.

The rest of the weekend we were busy with birthday parties and cleaning and just boring stuff in general.

Anyway instead of boring you with all the details here are a couple of pictures.

Al & Cat ... or the cosmic twins as they like to call themselves

Fi

 

The big boys

The little boys

The chef & some ladies keeping him company

The men, doing what Flemish & Irish & German men do best, drinking

The babies

The meat

Sangria mmmmh

3 on Thursday - The name says it all

O my I can not tell you how much I LOVE the questions this week.  I have a slight obsession with names.  In fact, I’m busy doing research into what people name their kids and why.

I would love it if you could help me with my research. If you would like to help out could you please send me an email answering the following questions:

1. Boy or Girl
2. Full names (no surnames please)
3. Did you name them after anyone? If yes, who and why
4. If you didn’t name them after anyone why did you pick the name(s)
5. Who picked the name(s)? Mom or Dad or both of you or someone else?
6. The year they were born

Thank you so much!

Ok, back to the questions of this weeks: 

Names you would or absolutely would NOT name a future child.

I would have to say, at the moment if I had to have another boy I would choose from the following names:

1. Callan – It means rock
2. Smith – I like Smith cause it’s unusual as a first name but not something no-one has ever heard of before
3. Eoghan (pronounced Owen)

Names that I would not pick for a boy (please note this is my own person al choice)

1. Phil

2. Bruce

3. Barry

If I had to name another girl I would choose from the following names:

1. Keeva (Caoimbe) – No reason other than the fact that I like it
2. Fynn – slightly different from the usual spelling Finn
3. Quinn – No reason other than the fact that I like it

Names that I would not pick for a boy (please note this is my own person al choice)

1. Brandy – or any other drink related name

2. Gladess or Eunice or similar names

3. Paris – funny story years ago when I was expecting my husband really like the name (this was before someone made the name infamous) so glad we didn’t choose it.

I can’t wait to read all the other lists.  So please, link up!

Fun in the sun - WWTK # 59

So after a well deserved break they are back! Of course you know that I'm talking about Mamarazzi & Crazymama

Mamarazzi sent the following out:

Hey everyone...We Want to Know Q&A is BACK! We are so thankful for the little bit of time off but we hope you missed WWTK enough to come back and play with us.

This week Crazymama is asking the questions and here is what she sent me:

Let's talk summer. Ours is in full swing and the temps are rising (we got up to 114 on a few days already) So this weeks questions are about keeping cool and other summer delights.

I can't wait to hear if i'm the only one living in hades and the only fat girl swimming. 

Don't you just love her? I know I do and I cannot wait to see everyone's answers and catch up with y'all. 

Q&A

(1) What is the usual summer high temperature where you live?

If there is one thing I really miss about living in South Africa it’s the summers. Belgian summers are notoriously bad. Last year was a total wash and so far it looks like this summer is going the same way.  We can have the odd warm day of say 27ºC/80°F but it’s rare.

This is what it normally looks like ... sad hey!

(2) How do you keep cool? Do you have central air?

No need for that here. There is central heating everywhere but since it never gets warm enough there is no need for air con, unless you are at work, offices and shops have it.

(3) Do you swim? If you get in the water do you get your hair and make-up wet?

I swim and I get my hair wet …. I don’t have a lot of airs about me. A lot of the tomboy in me survived into adulthood.  If I’m at the coast it’s pointless trying to do my hair as it gets 10 times more curly than when I’m in-land and when my hair is short like now I really don’t give a toss.

(4) What is your favorite summer look? As far as outfit , shoe choice and  hairstyle? (Pics are rad or just describe it.) Do you wear less make-up in the summer?

Not much different style wise is what I wear in winter.

option 1 ->Jeans, t-shirt, and I’ll either wear it with flip flops or a nice pair of wedges.

option 2 -> Shorts, t-shirt, again either with flip flops or a nice pair of wedges.

option 3 -> Maxi-dress with flip flops or flat sandals.

Never go without my sun glasses and a light scarf or jacket … the weather here is fickle!

As far as make-up goes …. I don’t wear a lot in any case so I’ll do my face if we go out for dinner but if we are just hanging out at the pool or on the beach, no, there is no point.

(5) What is your favorite summer meal to make or eat, either way? (Score extra cool points for a recipe.)

Salads – any kind really. Some of my favorites are:

Chicken caesar salad

Nicoise salad

Kelly’s watermelon and red onion salad

for this you need:

-          a small watermelon

-          2 big red onions

-          3-4 limes

-          fresh flat parsley

-          2 blocks of feta cheese

-          some black olives

-          ground black pepper

-          olive oil

Prep:

-          slice red onions into rings, put in a bowl and squeeze the lime juice over it – set aside to rest

-          cube watermelon – it’s up to you if you want to de-seed it

-          cube the feta cheese – or crumble it, it really is up to you

-          chop parsley as fine is you want

-          mix  it all together in a bowl and sprinkle with a bit of olive oil and some black pepper

Enjoy!

Ok, that’s it from me …. link up and join the fun!

Follow me!

Hey there!  I'm super excited to be doing my first ever guest post! Yay!

I'm so glad to have met Amber, and was very honored when she asked me to do a guest blog for her while she is off enjoying some time with her family.

So come and check out her blog: Binkertation

Keys

So before I tell you about our weekend I have to tell you what happened to me on Friday.

One stop away from where I have to get off the train I open my bag to get my car key. It’s not there.  I unpack the entire bag, nothing.  I’m starting to get worried but then I decide that I probably left the key in the door.

All the way to the car I’m mumbling to myself: please let it be there, please let it be there, please let it be there …… it’s not there!

So I unpack my bag again, still not in my bag.

I have a spare key in the glove compartment. Why? Because I don’t usually drive the van the builders do but they didn’t want to loose one of the keys so they put it in the glove compartment.

I decide that I have to try and break a window.  As I’m walking around the van rattling doors and banging on windows a guy walks past. He stops and asks if he can help me.  Thanks, but unless you have a key that would open this car I don’t think so.

‘Don’t you have a spare key at home?’

‘I have a spare key but it’s in the car’.

‘Don’t you have a service that you can call to come and open the car?’

‘uh no, have you taken a look at this van, it’s got a pink toilet in it, it’s clearly used by builder boys and I’m only driving it out of sheer desperation’ (I couldn’t get the toilet out so I just left it there for the builders).

After about 10 min he realizes that he really would not be able to help, whishes me good luck and walks off.

Out of sheer frustration I bang one of the windows again and boom! it pops out of the frame.

The guy heard it and runs back, ‘what happened?’ ‘are you ok?’

‘Just perfect! The window popped so now I can get into the van’

Then he asks me ‘How?’ ‘What do you mean how’ I’m going to climb in the window and unlock the car from the inside.’

Only the window is too high and I’m too short so I have to ask him to hold the window open for me. I stand on the wheel of the car parked next to me and climb in the window.  Not the most elegant thing to do. Good thing I was wearing a pair of jeans!

et Voila! I’m in the van, unlock it and get the spare key out the glove compartment (cubby hole).  O and I managed to push the window back into it’s frame. Don’t think it’s the most secure window but hey, at least I didn’t have to break it.

Now I just have to get Himself to get a new key before I loose this key as well.

Book Club!

It’s Friday, at last!  Honestly, I can’t tell you how glad I am that in about an hours time I’ll be able to get out of the office.

Also, Friday means Book club, yay!

I’m not quite finished with my book yet but I’m enjoying it so much that I just had to tell you about it.  Now, I know it’s an old book so you might have read it or you might have seen the movie. I just realized that they turned the book into a movie.

Whatever, my book is:

credit



In short:

With the ransom note as the single scrap of evidence, Special Agent Margaret Lukas calls upon Parker Kincaid, a retired FBI agent and the top forensic document examiner in the country. Somehow, by midnight, they must find the Digger — before he finds them

It’s good! … and now that I’m nearing the end I thought that I had it all figured out, not!

I can’t wait to get on the train this afternoon and finish it.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Old age

I'm hooking up with Cole & Andrea today for:

I don't like talking about my age ... really so their question today is a sensitive subject for me.

Things I like/dislike about being .......34

Ok, the dislike is the easiest:

1. being 34 .... I really don't want to be 34 I don't feel 34 I feel 25!  Turning 30 was a huge thing for me and even now I hate admitting my age.

2. mmmmh

Wow look at that I could only think of one thing I dislike about being 34

Things I like about being 34 .....

1. I've learnt to feel less guilty for doing what I want and wanting what I want out of life. Like having bright pink hair

2. I might be 34 but I don't look it. I am mistaken for the kids older sister all the time (to their horror!)

How about you? Go on ....link up

‘nough said …..

Take a deep breath & count to 10

Divorce? No …. Murder … o it’s crossed my mind!

Yesterday morning I get a call from Himself.  I think, o how sweet he’s calling me to say goodbye just as he is getting on the plane.

NOT!

Himself:  So I forgot to extend the car rental contract. They’ve reported the car as stolen so you might get arrested for driving a stolen vehicle. Try to extend the contract or take the car back.

Me: What?

Himself: Look I’m sorry I’m about to board the plane there is nothing I can do now. Call Tom see if you can use his car for the week if you can’t extend the contract. Bye!

Me: What??   WTF??  à Right at this moment I felt like murdering him.

Ok, so to understand it better here is a bit of background. We own a van but this van is being used by the construction crew who works for Himself. We were in the process of buying a new car but the guy turned out to be a bit of a cowboy. So while we are waiting to buy a new car we have been renting a car.  

Right, back to yesterday. 

I emailed the car rental company …. no reply.  I rush home from work because I have to pick the kids up before 6 (else I have to pay a late penalty of  50c per child per minute.  

Once I have the kids we go home, I sort out homework, and dinner. Call our friend Tom to hear if I could use his car for the week.

No luck, his car is in the shop …  ‘FUDGE!!!!’

I call my friend Kim. Her husband is in Norway for the week. Meaning she is probably using his car which means that I could possibly borrow her car.

No luck, he took the car with him to the army base. FUDGE!!!!

I’m starting to get really stressed out!  Poor kids are being shouted at for asking me questions. Man I was feeling so bad about that but at the same time it was like I could not stop myself.

With nothing else to do I call the guy who drives the van.  I explain the issue with him. He agrees to meet me at the airport so I can return the rental car.  I put the kids to bed with strict instructions to go to bed, and not open the door for anyone.

(yes, I left my two kids home alone. …. not the best thing to do but I had no other choice. They needed to get to sleep and taking them along and keeping them awake was not an option). We also live in a very quiet area and have 3 big dogs in the house.

Long story short I manage to return the car. Drop Griff off at his house after working out how to get the car to him in the morning as quickly as possible.

Home.

This morning we had to leave the house at close to 7 as possible. Usually this is not a problem.  This morning it was. Tiger had jumped into water puddles and his shoes were sopping wet. Every other pair of shoes I gave him were ‘too small’.  

I finally found a shoe that was good but only one …. while turning the house upside down to find the other shoe I found a lot of things that I’ve been looking for which the kids have ‘packed away’ …. mmh going to need to do a thorough cleaning upstairs (not excited about that!).

We managed to leave the house at 7:30! Meaning that Griff got the van ½ hour late! 

And it’s raining again!, and I can’t fit into my jeans and I don’t think it is because they shrunk in the dryer! All of which is making me want to eat cake! Which means soon I will not even be able to fit into my fat jeans!

This week better start getting better !

Just another normal weekend

This weekend was just another normal weekend. You know, you run around trying to do all the things you never get around to doing.  However, I finally managed to go apply for my new passport.

The commune (town council where you do all these administrative things) is only open between 9:30 and 15:00 week days. Meaning that if you work, you have to go there in the 3 hour slot they are open for on the weekend.  As you can imagine there was quite the queue.

I was a little bit worried that they might have an issue with my new photo. No matter how hard I tried to get my hair flat it just would not lie down (did you now that all of your hair had to be in the photo?).  Luckily she didn’t say anything and I can pick my new passport up in 2 weeks.

I had lots of other errands to run the kids and I rushed around town for the rest of the day, not even getting time to stop for lunch.

But I did manage to get everything done in time to watch the rugby. The Springboks (South African national team) played against England.  They have a new coach and 3 new players so I was a bit worried. I needn’t have been, we won! 22/17 … it’s not by much and it’s really sad cause we were leading 22/12 until England scored a try in the final minute. But hey, a win is a win.

Morne Steyn scoring the first try - yay!

Tiger was cheering along with me, he’s really getting into it. Asking me about rules and if this or that is legal. Cat was miserable; she did not want to be there. Luckily, there were quite a few other kids in the pub so she made friends.  By the time Himself turned up and we left to go for dinner she even wanted to know if we could come watch the rugby next weekend again. And, do I think Emma & Max will be there again.

Cat had a birthday part at 10 on Sunday morning! Madness I say!  O and it was Fathers day here so the kids gave Himself the gifts they made at school. That is about the extent to which we celebrate.

The rest of Sunday was spent doing laundry and homework with the kids. Himself left for Mexico this morning so I had to make sure his bag was packed and ready.

3 more weeks to go before the holiday … I can’t wait!