Friday!

Thanks so much for putting up with me during my pity party and for all your kind comments.

I'm feeling much better!

How can I not?

Sun is shining, sky is blue (for the first time in ages!)

Himself is back from South Africa, with lots of nice presents for us.......

ultra mel, biltong and droë wors

What might that be?

Well, biltong and droë wors is like jerky but 1 million times better!

Sorry but it's true, I've had jerky and it's just not the same.

This is bilton, it's made in big pieces and then you can cut it into bite size pieces yourself or have it cut that way for you.

This is what droëwors looks like

The biggest difference is that biltong is dry cured, not cooked. This means that it has a soft chewy texture. The other big difference is the spices. Real biltong is made with 22 different spices.

Droë wors is basically the same but it's more like a thin dried sausage.

If you live in the States and would like to try it I see you can now order it online from biltongusa

Let me know what you think, I bet you never eat jerky again!

mmmh!!

To be honest it's nothing other than ready made custard, but it is o sooo good!

It's just sweet enough and just runny enough and is perfect on it's own. Needless to say it also makes everything better.

Jello and ultramel, pie and ultramel, vanilla ice cream and ultramel the list can go on and on....

When I had my tonsils removed as a kid (like many, many other kids) I lived on ultramel.

Same, when I had my wisdom teeth removed. Nothing quite like it to make you feel better.

I also got a lovely pair of antique earrings, and I'm sure you know a girl can never have too much bling!

Speaking of too much bling... the Oscar nominations (did you make that connection too? Not? Oscars ... red carpet .... stunning gowns ... even more stunning bling on show! Never mind! )

The nominations included Bullhead for Best foreign language films.

Bullhead is a Belgian movie and it's not everyday that we make the news, well for things other than the fact that we were without a government for 541 days or Tennis/Kim Clijsters. So we are very proud of the nomination.

No I haven't seen it, but I've heard that it's a really good movie so if you don't mind the subtitles you should go and watch it. I'm planning on watching it and I'll need the subtitles as well since they speak in the local dialect that only people form Limburg understand.

Now go on and enjoy your weekend, I'm going to!

Weekend round-up

Monday, again!

The puppies left on Friday. Needless to say both kids want to know why we couldn't keep them. I considered telling them that if we kept all 5 of the remaining puppies it would bring the total number of dogs up to 8. Having 8 dogs would mean that mommy would leave.

Don't worry I only considered telling them that, I didn't actually do it. I just told them that it was time for the puppies to go to their own wonderful new homes. Because if everyone kept their puppies then we never would have gotten Lulu & Duke. And as much as the puppies are all cute and cuddly I have to admit that I will not miss their mess.

The kids slept over at my mother's on Friday night so Himself & I went out for dinner with some friends. Good food & good company, no kids ... what is not to enjoy. No, really as much as I love our kids it was nice to have a grown-up's night out. It's been ages since we both went out together.

On a very frustrating note we finally found out on Saturday morning that we would only be getting our home internet connection fixed some time during the day on the 10th of October. Don't know how we are going to survive another month without internet at home but I guess we just don't have a choice.

On Saturday night we went to Duffel. Yes, it's the home of the Duffel coat. Friends of ours live there and their eldest daughter took part in the 'Ballonnekensstoet' . Traditionally everyone would have carried hollowed out pumpkins or beets with a light inside. (But it has nothing to do with Halloween). Today however it a parade in which all the schools & sports associations have children riding on beautifully decorated & lit floats.

The 4 brothers riding the horse - this is only done where there is a family in the town who has 4 boys.

School kids on one of the floats

At the end of the parade there is a fireworks display but the girls were too tired to hang around & wait for it so we started walking home. We did managed to see most of it from the bridge (½ way home).

Tiger who had opted to go home with the dad's was very put out when he heard that the girls had had ice-cream so Himself promised to stop at MacDonalds on the way home. I think Tiger had about 3 bites of his ice-cream before falling asleep.

The best part of the weekend was the weather. We had such good weather this weekend it felt like it was summer. In fact it was better than most of the past summer. And, when the weather is that good there is only one thing to do. BBQ! So the friends came round & we ate & drank and laughed and sat outside till after 10 last night, it was bliss.

O my, I nearly forgot to tell you .... I nearly died on Friday!

So I just walked through the door when my phone rings. It's Himself, wanting to know where I am. Just walked in the door. Well he's sitting outside of Antwerp and it's grid lock. There is no way he's going to make it to the school on time to pick up the kids. Therefore, I need to cycle to the school to get the kids before 6. Why? Because for every minute after 6 you pay 1Euro per child. Ok then, it's only about 8.7 km (5.4 miles).

Well I thought I was going to die! It's uphill most of the way (something you never really notice when you fly by in the car. Not to mention the fact that I'm am SUPER unfit.

What a sight I must have been when I got there I don't even want to imagine.

If I looked this good I would have felt so much better. On the other hand it's a very good thing that nobody was taking pictures of me cause I think their camera might just have broke

But what counts is the fact that I got there, with time to spare!

Weekend happenings

So the weekend started off quietly enough. After feeding the family on Friday evening I decided to make the most of the weather and sit outside and read. It’s not often that I get the time to read at home.

The next thing I know Tiger is waking me up, that’s right I managed to dose off in my chair outside. Needless to say I went straight to bed and slept like I haven’t slept in ages.

My friend Kay phoned at some point and Himself decide to wake me up so I could tell her in person that I was asleep and not in the mood/capable of going out (cause he was not able to relay the message?). I went straight back to sleep.

The kids were great on Saturday as well & I managed to get to bed early on Saturday night as well (this never happens). Himself was out with a friend so I didn’t even have to worry about sorting him out either.

Then Sunday happened……

But first let me give you a bit of background.  

We own 3 dogs. It started off with 1. Himself got the kids a boxer puppy for Christmas 2008. Only Lulu got really lonely during the day and when someone offered us a little male puppy (also a pure bred boxer) for free, we added Duke to the mix. Tiger just loves these dogs, they sleep with him every night and according to him they can do no wrong, even if they have just chewed one of his toys. He told me this weekend that he thinks he loves me and the dogs the same.

Then, as it happens, our 2 dogs became 9 dogs when Lulu had a litter. And, yeah we just had to keep one you know, there was no way we could sell all of her puppies. (this is what I was told over and over again). Which is how we came to own 3 dogs, Lulu, Duke & Gus.

Duke, however, has become very aggressive towards other (strange) dogs. Because of where we live (on the edge of a little wooded area) we have people walking their dogs past our house every day. Duke does not like this. The strange thing though is that he is not like that toward every dog walking past our house only some.  

Unfortunately on Sunday morning, one of these dogs walked pass our house and that’s when it happened. He jumped the fence and well let’s put it mildly, went to town on this other poor dog.

I feel dreadful for the poor people, it must have been really bad for them to have their poor dog bitten. Now I don’t have anything to say in Duke’s defence. It was an awful thing that he did and he’s been locked in the house since then.

A couple of hours later I was in the kitchen cleaning when Cat comes running in, in a total panic. The police are outside and looking for me, I can’t say I was surprised.

Cat by this stage had convinced herself that I’m about to get locked up by the policy never to return home ever again. Took some time for me to talk her into staying in the house with her brother while I dealt with it. (poor child I know she only wants to help but I’m not quite sure what she thought she could have done).

Two officers were waiting for me. They proceed to ask me if it’s true that my dog bit another dog, yes I say. Yes the dog is locked up at the moment. Yes I’ll make sure to keep the dog locked up. No it’s not dangerous to people. They agreed since they saw that we had kids and the dog has never bitten anyone.

At the same time my friend Jay called to check what they could bring along for the BBQ. Cat of course answered the phone and told me that the policy were outside talking to me. He put down the phone told his wife (who was busy getting dressed) to grab her stuff and get in the car they had to urgently get to our house.

Once the police leave I found out from Cat that Jay had called and was on his way to our house. So I rang them to say please not to worry I’ve dealt with it and no one is getting locked up but they were already around the corner from our house.

So now we have a 200 euro vet bill to pay not to mention the need to put up some Duke proof fencing. But at least I know that we have friends who will arrive at our house ½ dressed if we should need them in a hurry.

Wonder what the rest of the week is going to be like?



Tiger & the culprit aka Duke