Easter was to be spent together in Belgium, resting and having fun together and so on. Full recollection ahead!
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I flew to Belgium on the 27th on an uneventful flight. We ate garlic bread and a slice of pizza at the Brussels Airport PizzaHut since we both were hungry, and then we headed home so I could take over Jan’s rooms again and make them our rooms. Later that evening we went to our favourite chinese, China Garden, to have a quiet dinner.
On the 28th, we had a quiet day. We did some grocery shopping for the weekend that we would spend at a rental house in Ghent. We also baked Letter Cookies in vanilla and cocoa flavours as a present for An.
On the 29th we packet our suitcase (and forgot some things!) and headed to Ghent to install ourselves in the Galerie Appartement where Etienne Dewulf showed us our lodgings and welcomed us heartily. We also visited his Art Gallery and saw his pottery. We had our first go at the gas oven and made some veggie lasagna, and maccaroni in cheese sauce with ham for dinner. It was hard to find how it worked, and so we had to go in search for help to light the oven. We also let the place a bit smoky. Afterwards we just idled about.
On the 30th, we woke up very late, and had brunch with toasts (made in a pan, with butter), and espresso coffee. We also managed to get the fire alarm to go off while making toast, which scared us to no point, since we didn’t know we actually had a fire alarm on the kitchen’s ceiling. Then we went to do the groceries for the rest of the weekend, and buy all the ingredients for our New Years Eve dinner. Afterwards, we went in search of a cookie tin for those cookies we baked the 28th, and decided to have some snack in one of the cafes in Ghent. We ordered pancakes with sugar, a capuccino and a banana milkshake. When it arrived to our table, we got struck by how huge the portions were, and so, we skipped dinner altogether. Then we picked up the couple of things we forgot at our place, like the cookies, and checked online the news, since we heard about the bombings in Madrid Airport on the radio. Finally, around 8 pm, we headed to An’s place, tin full of cookies in hand, for a session of board games. Apart from us, there were An, Patrick and Joost, and we played Killer Bunnies and Vegas Showdown, where you have to build your casino and hotel. We left around 1.30 am, trying to find a fry shop open, since we had a craving for fries. We drove all around Aalst, finding all the frituurs already closed, and ended in the only open one in Ghent (for those that are fry-inclined, it’s near St. Jacobs church). We got back to our temporary home around 3 am and headed to sleep.
The 31st was bound to be a quiet day, with everything closed, and us in our cozy house. We had late brunch again: Toasted croissants, butter, jams, steamy coffee… We idled most of the afternoon until it was time to make our New Years dinner and set a nice table with candles. We made Mint and Cottage Cheese Samosas (substituted ricotta cheese since we couldn’t find cottage cheese, and used puff pastry) served with Mango Chutney and Red Lentil Dal (where I used green lentils that I had in hand) and served it with Jasmine Sticky Rice. We downed it with a couple of glasses of white wine from Yecla. For dessert we had assorted chocolates and clementines. We exchanged pressents and watched the fireworks and some tv (Varekai - a Cirque du Soleil show and a Madonna concert) before heading to bed.
The 1st of January was a very quiet day, woke up very late, had brunch and idled about again, watching movies and series and tv. For dinner we baked some french bread, that we ate with butter, ricotta cheese, salt and pepper, and made pasta with mixed mushroom sauce and parmesan cheese. We finished the bottle of wine and watched some more tv. Loooove the idling on vacation, don’t you?
The 2nd was the day to leave, so we packed everything in the car and said our goodbies to the owner. We also left some writing on their visitors book. Headed home and put a whole load of laundry while Jan went to work, poor him. I did some work on an uni paper and helped around the house. We had a dinner with the family, and watched some Fawlty Towers.
The 3rd Jan had to work as well, and left early and left me sleeping. And I overslept, badly. When I got up, I did some more work on the paper for uni, and then prepared lunch: cheese filled pasta with tomato sauce. We went to Ikea to buy some stuff we needed (some individual mantelpieces, and a bit more fabric for covering the back of a closet) and back home I sewed a cover for my spinning wheel out of Ikea cotton fabric (Ditte in beige) while Jan updated his Cisco C827 router. Then we cooked miso soup with yellow noodles, mushroom balls (from Quorn), onion and red bell pepper for dinner. We continued watching Fawlty Towers before going to sleep.
Thursday the 4th we cleaned our little critters cage. We got tired of their attic floor stinking and went to the DIY shop, Brico, to buy them a new floor, stairs and walls made out of PVC glass. We got the floor and stairs, 5mm thick, cut at the shop, and we had fun cutting the walls (0.8mm thick) with scissors and drilling holes with a Dremel.
When our critters were all set in their new attic, we found out they actually couldn’t see it, because it was transparent, and decided to paint it the next day. We made pizza (including the dough) for dinner. Toppings? Four cheese mix, tuna, and feta stuffed olives over mjummy tomato sauce. After dinner, we watched even more Fawlty towers.
Friday, we painted the new floor and stairs for the critters cage in a fancy white shade and let it dry till saturday. We went to the movies, to watch The Holiday. What a fun great movie. We laughed a lot, and I’m still amazed at how Belgians don’t laugh at the movies(!). We then went to have a fancy dinner at Faim de Toi. What a lovely dinner, good music, fancy place, nice waiters. However the barwoman couldn’t make a Caipirinha to save her life (she used white sugar, crushed ice, and lemon instead of lime and shaked in instead of stirring it… and, worst of all, she added aliens to it, there were redcurrants floating about), that was the only disappointment of the night. We finished the night by watching even more Fawly Towers.
Saturday we got up lateish, and installed the now dry painted floor in the critters’ cage. In the afternoon, we went to visit Godmum and give her a way late Christmas present. We had a fun time talking a bit and then we left for more Ikea shopping. We got two dish warmers, a couple of ceramic pots, a new rolling pin, and a Happy Hippo. We had to visit two Ikeas to find all, but we got it in the end.
We had chinese take-away for dinner from a new place in town, and watched even more Fawlty Towers.
Sunday the 7th my flight was leaving at 14:35. I packed my suitcase again, and we headed off to the airport. Somehow, Virgin failed to give my details to SN, and so my check-in took 20 minutes instead of the 3 it usually takes. We had a last coffee together, before I crossed the police check to board the plane that took me back to reality.
After those lovely forty five days with Jan, I’m back home to take exams, do paperwork, and go back to uni for yet another year ™. What have we done this summer, you ask? Well, 45 days seems long, but it definitively wasn’t long enough for us.
We had joined a group trip to Scotland, but for several reasons, it didn’t work out. We traveled for about 30 hours over two days, slept some three hours during three days, and ended crashing back home. That was my first week there, and instead we just had a quiet time at home, since Jan had the days off anyway. We don’t think we’ll be doing any tour-like trip any more. We agreed that our next trip to Scotland will include nice hotels picked up by ours trully, a rented (stick, continental) car, a good guide and some maps, for the two of us to enjoy!
We fancied a boat trip, and so we went to Overmere Donk, rented a slow boat, and had fun around. We also walked in the park by the lake, so pretty. Pitty the triathlon was so noisy and taking most of the routes! I think we should go sometime again, hopefuly when there is no sports competition dirtying and trashing the park and taking half of the road.
We went to a friend’s wedding, that consisted of a civil ceremony with plenty of people I didn’t know and didn’t know me, and where I understood nothing, and a medieval party, which we had to skip (will link to pics whenever, if ever, they are up).
We went to Germany: Dusserldorf (and pics en route), where we met up with Susann and her husband, then from there to Greifswald (with more pics of the drive), where we met up with Laura, had lots of fun, went bowling and playing darts, and discovered the Spetzi (half cola, half orange fanta), and then we drove to Münster. And finally drove back home.
And we also went to Brugge, to buy chocolate at our favourite shop, The Chocolate Line, which you will know already if you read this blog often. I can’t praise this shop enough. All the chocolate is hand made in situ, and you can see the Meester Chocolatier at work through the window at the back of the shop. And visited the Sand Sculptures Exhibition. Lots of work involved in them, and all will be destroyed in a couple of weeks.
Other things accomplished during the summer: knitting (not much), spinning (two whole bobbins, still to be plied, next time I go to Belgium) - no pics of either, stash enhancement (four skeins, enough for a pair of socks and a skinny scarf, pics coming, sometime), cooking a few recipes from our database, visiting family, going out, going five(!) times to the movies (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Over the Hedge, Miami Vice, She’s the Man & Monster House), picking up and installing Jan’s new desktop (fancy machine, it is), general happy living together, adopting our two little critters, going out with a bunch of friends for bowling and dinner, discovering a couple new restaurants (‘t Gents Fonduehuisje in Ghent, and Pizza Milano in Aalst), happy couple living decorating furthermore our livingroom and much more. Oh yes, studying too.
And lets not forget, we went together with Jan’s mum to see Le Cirque du Soleil, in Brussels, near Tour & Taxis. We saw the Alegría show. It was an amazing mix of handbalanzing, power track, manipulation, contortion, fire dance, aerial high bar, clowns, syncronized trapeze, flying man, russian bars, live music and singing. Well worth the price! We had a lovely evening.
Leaving was hard, again, very hard. And I so want to go back very soon. Plans right now are me spending my “winter break” in early December and New Years in Belgium. Meanwhile, Jan will be coming over some time in October and November!
For those of you who care about my flight back, it was okay, if it weren’t for the more than three hours of a detour. The story is, we left Brussels airport on time without problems, the flight was good and we got to Madrid at the scheduled time, but there was a huge storm with lighting that kept more than fifteen planes waiting to land. That meant we had to wait over fourty minutes to land, but we didn’t have enough fuel and detoured to Valencia to fuel there. Once the storm was over, all the detoured planes wanted to leave for Madrid at once, and we got a slot for 10pm (that’s 2.5 hours after we were supposed to land in Madrid). We finally made it to our destination at nearly 11pm, then wait for my suitcase, which luckily was one of the firsts to get out, and get a cab to go home. I got home at midnight, a whooping three hours and a half after I thought I’d be! Luckily for me, I bought the last sandwich on board, and that was all my dinner.
Saturday, 8th
On saturday, I went to pick up Diana, and we drove straight on to Ikea in Zaventem, to look for some general stuff and to check out their couch department. We decided on the Lund Valla couch (the red one), which comes in a handy do-it-yourself package :D It’s very comfy, you do need the pillows tho. Otherwise the back is a bit hard.
We also bought all kinds of stuff for the dyeing of the fabrics for the midieval clothing - a spoon, pincers, and a big plastic trashcan.
After Ikea shopping we went to the local Delhaize, bought some foodstuffs (for dinner and for Diana over the days I have to work), and we prepared dinner consisting of mushrooms, onion, coconut milk, and seitan fillet. Verrrrry good!
At night we watched the first part of Chicken Little, Diana fell nearly asleep halfway :)
Sunday, 9th
On sunday we went to visit Chris and Joke in their new house in some obscure place called Zedelgem, where we finally got after getting detoured plenty. It’s a nice place, which needs some work still tho. Mostly painting, putting in floors and so.
Unfortunately, Diana had a rather nasty allergical reaction to the cat :/ we got the local doctor, who gave her some injections, and she was better after that… bad cat! Bad bat cat! Come here so I can spank you!
After she was better we went home, made our choice for the take-away chinese, I went to pick it up, we ate and watched the second part of Chicken Little.
Monday, 10th
I had to work the early shift (from 7am until 3pm), afterwards we dragged down the old couches (being three: a one-seat, a two-seater and a corner piece), and got rid of them. After this (sweaty) labour, we drove off to Ikea to get our new couch! We got the last one (lucky us :p) and some more stuff for the dyeing (glass pot, really :p).
When we went to ask for home delivery - but it was helluva expensive! (almost 1/3rd of the price of the couch!). They told us about the option to rent a car from them and transport it home that way - which we did, it saved us 75e! Diana had to sit in the back tho (in the ‘trunk’ of the van) since the couch had to be folded to fit the packages, but we got it home!
After getting home, we put the veggy lasagna in the oven (to unfreeze/cook) and assembled our couch (yes, it comes with assembly instructions, and a nearly impossible-to-fit fabric), and then tested it while watching the extras of Chicken Little.
Tuesday, 11th
On tuesday I had to work the late shift (11am until 7pm). At home we ate bread and so, and then we watched Wallace & Gromit and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit! Very fun movie!
“Cheese, Gromit!” :p
Wednesday, 12th
I had to work until 3pm, and then we had a lovely lunch prepared by Diana at home :) A mix of broccoli, beans, onion, carrot, garlic, spicy tofu and yellow noodles, with a tofu - coconut milk sauce. Gotta love the inventions. (which I do. Very much even. Mjummmmmmm! :D :D)
We prepared the dye in the airtight glass pot (from Ikea), and let it rest for dyeing tomorrow. (for more on the dyeing, see Diana’s Blog)
In the evening we went to the Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, a really fun movie! I do pity Scrat… He was so close!
We had some nachos with cheese (Gromit!) sauce and jalapeños (spicy hot) there too.
Afterwards we drove off to the Chinese to pick some takeaway, and had it at home while watching the extra’s from Wallace and Gromit.
Thursday, 13rd
We slept in this day, and after brunch started dyeing the first part of the fabric (which will later become my tunic).
In the afternoon we went to get some shopping done. Diana finally hit the sales (50% off!) and the summer season “preview”. Retail therapy ;) I also got me some hard-needed new pants, and a new belt. The old one is getting a bit… old :p
We spend the evening at home, watching Red Dwarf - Season VIII.
Friday, 14th
On friday we got up a bit earlier, and dyed Diana’s fabric - which was originally a bit brownish (bottom one in the picture), into a green/blue colour. Looks very nice :)
After doing that, we drove off to Brussels to go to the Albert Einstein Expo in Tour & Taxis, a fun and very informative expo about Albert Einstein’s life and his connections with Belgium. Lets not forget it was interactive. Buttons to play with things and look and touch and experiments! Buttons!!! Buuuutooooooons!!! Pushedy push!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! </kiddy>
After this we got ourself some lunch at the Green Kitchen snackbar close to work (and ergo close to Tour & Taxis), and then drove off to the Atomium, which has been renovated and is now again open to the public. There was a _huge_ queue, but we got in in the end. Unfortunately it’s a bit expensive for what it is - you only get in about 4 balls, and there wasn’t that much to see… Maybe it’ll get better when it’s completely finished, they were still doing some works around it.
In the evening we went to Bankok City, a local Thai restaurant were we’ve been before - and had a lovely dinner there, and back home we watched the first episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th century. Which is fun, but looks oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooold :p
Saturday, 15th
This day we didn’t do much… just pack everything up, cuddle, and then in the evening off to the airport to see Diana off…
I went, had fun, came back (unfortunately)… It’s all on Diana’s blog!
Oh, she’ll be here sooooooooooooooooooooon! The beginning of december!
Last week I went back to Spain to visit my girl - it was an overall quiet and relaxed stay, we didn’t really do much - except making american style pancakes (thick ones) *mjumm* and we went to an Indian restaurant, the Taj where we tried the Chicken Vindaloo (Red Dwarf anyone?).
Sad to go, but I’m going back! Wheeeeeeeeeeee! On the 8th of november!
Last thursday, the 30th of June to be precise, Diana landed back in belgium :) After going through hell traffic we got home, spent a quiet evening there. We watched The Tuxedo) and went to sleep.
Friday the 1st, our anniversary day :p we moved out to Ghent for some relaxing days in the Ghent River Hotel, a nice ‘old-style-ish’ hotel near the River in Ghent (as you probably would have guessed by the name ;p). We did some impromptu walking about in the city, and then moved off to Brussels to go to the vegeterian restaurant L’Element Terre, one of the really cute real vegetarian restaurants in Belgium. We got lost going there tho, driving off on the wrong side on the ring around Brussels.. *shame* but we got there in the end.
On saturday we got out of bed late, had a small meal (Diana had poffertjes! and I had an omelette), and we went to Wellnesscentre Bijtebier in Drongen, where we spent a lovely 4 hours in different sauna’s, turkish steambath, swimming pool, jacuzzi, bubblebath, and a good backmassage too :)
Totally relaxed we went to the veggy eathouse Panda in Ghent, and afterwards met up with Chris and his girlfriend for Sin City, a weird black/white/red/yellow movie ;p take your pick of the color you like best ;p
Afterwards we went for a drink on the Friday market, where we basically closed the only ‘decent’ pub that was still open (djeez, everything closed at 1am…), going to bed around 3am.
Sunday ‘morning’ (more around noon) we left the hotel and went for pasta brunch on the friday market (goooood paaaasta ;p too much tho). We walked about a bit in the city and then went home to felicitate my sister for her birthday, and hand over presents.. and eat pancakes! Mjummy mjummy pancakes ;p and lots of them *g*
In the evening we went to Pinocchio, a true traditional Italian pizzeria, with veeery good handmade pizza’s (watch the chef while you wait), good wine, deliceous desserts.. *daydreaming* that was so good :)
Afterwards, trip back to the hotel and a relaxing night :)
On monday we signed out of the hotel, stuffed our stuff in the car, went home, and had a quiet day really. We went out to Aalst to buy some fresh veggies and other assorted stuff, and Diana cooked a great dinner at home :)
We did get some rather bad burns from ze evil polenta, but well, one’s gotta pay for good food…
Tuesday I had to go to work, and after getting home we walked around the rustique environment of Erembodegem (looking at the house-styles too, some ppl make weiiiiird buildings). We watched part of Princess Mononoke, a sort of classic anime, and went to sleep.
Wednesday we went first to my work’s offices in Capelle aan de Ijssel in the Netherlands to pick up a shipment, and went through to Rotterdam. Damn weird city, weird streets and too many roadsigns! We did some impromptu shopping at Albert Hein, went home and Diana cooked a lovely dinner for us both (I did help a little bit ;p)
On thursday I had to work again, and in the eve we went off to the cinema to go watch Madagascar! Great ‘kiddy’ movie! I like to move-it move-it!
Friday we met up with Kim (a good friend) in Ghent, and went to the Quetzal Chocolate-bar in Ghent and had a veeery good Chocolate fondue there. After that we walked around Ghent a bit more (shopping streets!), bought some general stuff (including a Belgian mobile + prepaid card for Diana ;p), had an icecream and went home again.
On saturday we had a big family meeting, lots of people (14 in total!), with cake, cheese, bread, … which basically took nearly all day.
And finally on sunday Diana had to go home again.. It’s been short, yet felt long, but too short all the time. Sad to see her go again.. but she’s back in August :D :D
Jan
This fateful day we met up with an old friend of mine (actually, ex-gf *panic*) in Ghent, were we had lunch at a cute little bar, then walked over to a deliceous Chocolate Bar (mjummy choco milkshakes… *melt*). And the two girls had lots of fun (I wonder what they’re planning against me… *runs away in terror* *g*)
In the eve we ate ate the Faim Fatale restaurant (came recommended in the Belgium Guide); a small but inventive eating place where we had “Open Lasagna”, which is basically a lasagna but not ‘prepared’ in layers as per usual, but more like two layers of pasta with all the ingredients in between. Very mjummy!
For dessert Diana had a Chocolate Mousse (which was close to - if not _the_ best chocomousse I’ve ever tasted… so succulent and melting and …mmmmmmmmmm…..), I had a Dame Blanche (which is vanilla icecream with hot molten chocolate)
After picking Diana up from the airport, we went to Ikea in Zaventem to pick up some stuff we’d need for home still (living with two requires organizing). After that we went to Brussels (you know, capital city of our pocketsized country called Belgium ;p) which unfortunately was crowded due to a general strike by the labour unions with the oncoming TOP-meeting of the EU in brussels. I must say it seemed more like a carnaval fair than a protestmarch, with the drinking stands and a live concert, but I guess that’s just me.
A quick stop at FNAC’s for a book (Lonely Planet’s Belgium & Luxembourgh travel guide. Full of handy tips and everything ;) We also made some little shopping at Ikea for some stuff I still needed to take over Jan’s room :D
We had a quiet eve otherwise, spent some time unpacking, and then we had dinner at a lovely spicy Thai restaurant called Bankok city. Damn hot food! Very sweet in the beginning, but how it burnt in the end… My tongue went numb :~
Brussels
5°
Madrid
3°