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We made another change to our cavies’ cage: we put it on a table (so we see them better and they see us better):

And here are some pics of our little (well, not so little anymore…) critters:

Diana’s been here since the 27th of july, and we’ve been busy bees sofar ! Ofcourse the necessary amount of relaxing and just enjoying the time, too :)

We’ve replaced one of the closets with a new Ikea Billy closet, and are still looking to find a magnetic whiteboard that has been very elusive at best ;) every time the website says they have it, we go and it’s no longer there. Pout!

We also went to play catch-up with our movies: we’ve seen Pirates Of The Carribean: At World’s End (good), Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix (good), Ratatouille (hilarious), Shrek the Third (could have skipped it), The Simpsons Movie (good) and Transformers (good but definitely not for kids).
(thank you Kinepolis and your cheap 100-days card!)

Diana’s cooked loads of lovely meals and also vegan cupcakes (weird ones (pic, pic) but oh so gooooooood)

We also bought three lovely cacti, which are currently flowering!

We’ve also made a short trip to Germany, to visit friends.

Diana had to go back to Spain, unfortunately, though …

Easter was to be spent together in Belgium, resting and having fun together and so on. Full recollection ahead!
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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 flew over to Belgium last Saturday the 3rd and on landing there and after picking up my suitcase, Jan and I went to do some shopping at Ikea. We bought a small dining table, two chairs, a low table for in front of the couches, and some nice boxes for our ‘little’ living room. Then we had fun putting all the stuff together and decorating the room. For dinner we had mum2’s chilli sin carne and rice with the family.

On Sunday we woke up late and had brunch at home, and then idled before meeting up with Chris, Joke, their Benjamin, and Joke’s sister at the irish pub in Ghent. We had some drinks and ate something while chatting over different things and hiding Ben’s playing car. After that, we went home and rested a bit, and called our favourite chinese for a take-away dinner, and passed by Jan’s sis’ to pick up chopsticks for eating our meal. We enjoyed duck with veggies, thing noodles with chicken, and fried rice, with some white wine and while watching some Red Dwarf (season VII).

Monday was time for more Ikea shopping (we had to exchange a book-case, wrong colour!) and bought some more boxes and the book cases, and dishes (only for two) and munchies (chocolate, vanilla cookies and marzipan). We put together all the stuff and had pizza dinner (with extra cheese). And more Red Dwarf *giggle*

Tuesday we went to Brugge for seeing the Ice Palace, a show of ice sculptures that was very cold and nice. There was even a bar to have drinks while seating on cold skins, and a barista with a frozen ass (his hands were kept warm thanks to the thermo filled with hot cocoa). We saw the Christmas (food and drink) Market and bought some chocolate from our favourite shop. And ate a real Brussels Waffle too (suikerwafel) warm, big and mjummy! After getting back home, we called the vegetarian restaurant Panda for booking a table, and had to rush down to Ghent again cause they close earlier that we thought. They had a fix menu (at a very affordable price) with orange lentil soup, a dish of seitan with various veggies and rice, and dessert (choco cake for the chocoholic, yogurt with fresh fruit for Jan).

On Wednesday, Chris was supposed to be at ‘our’ place around 10 for driving to Maasmechelen Village and meeting Dave there. He only got here one hour later though (bad Chris!). Once at Maasmechelen, we took a quick walk around the shops (nothing interesting *pout*) and drove off to Maastricht to eat there, take a walk around the (again food & drinks) Christmas Market and do some shopping at Media Markt. After that we dropped Dave at his place, and drove back home - don’t ask me how was the drive, cause I fell asleep pretty soon after leaving David and only woke up when we got to Brussels, and then fell asleep again! We showed Chris our living room before he left and prepared some veggie lasagna for dinner.

Thursday shopping after brunch! We went to a family run clothes shop (SKM) that was hideously expensive, and after 15 minutes or so we drove off scared to death. We stopped by Ghent and bought a pair of jeans at H&M and a laptop backpack at Fnacs. SKM was so depressing I really needed retail therapy! We went to have dinner at K.Roes.L, a nice restaurant that serves giant pancakes and oversized salads at a nice price, and then we headed off to the cinema to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Since we got there too early, we played some free videogames (Soulkalibur III I think it was, on the PS II). I kick ass! (literally) The movie was great, go see it if you haven’t yet :-)

On Friday we went to Brussels to see an exhibition about Asterix. And then drove to Grote Markt to see the huge Christmas Market there. It is spread over several streets and squares in Brussels, with a couple of hundreds of chalets that sell different things, including food and drinks, and with nice carrousels with old looking mechanical parts. I bought some glass figurines (christmas decoration) and before heading home we had pankaces and hot cocoa at a pub. Mum2 had prepared a vegetarian rice for dinner that we had with lots of soy sauce. Afterwards, we prepared some salty microwave popcorn, chilled white wine (and cookies and chocolate) and watched more Red Dwarf season VI before heading to bed.

Saturday the 10th was the come back day. We had quiet breakfast and packed, talked a while with mum2 and relaxed a bit before going to the airport and taking the plane back home. It was a quiet flight, except for my headache - caused by me hitting my nose the previous night. And then I am back home and missing Jan so much…