My own people...

one of my friends / colleagues just came back from holiday, he spent a month in Thailand and came back with some souvenirs and a load of information. Appearantly there is a people in the mountains called "Karen". And he bought me a souvenir doll / keychain.

To find out more about the Karen people, click here.

Citytrip

The end of the year is approching rapidly and we are ready for yet another city trip, so we've been looking at places to go to, seeing some prices etc. and probably we'll end up in London again :D yeey!!! I love that city! I thought we'd not go there for quite some time, but appearantly we're going back this year!! Hoorrah!!!

Reading about food

OK, I admit I love talking about food, but this morning someone gave me a brochure featuring about 30 to 40 books about food (not cook books), how much can one read about food!? and how much weight will I gain afterwards? Because I have the strong impression that reading about food will only make me hungry and hunger usually makes me eat etc.
Ok, that solves the coat problem, but still...

Fashion

I'll never quite understand fashion, I have known a long time, and I am aware of the fact that I might never understand it. But really... during summer period the 7/8 pants were the thing to wear. And now, in autumn, whilst it's getting colder, windier, rainier, it's the hippest thing to wear extremely short pants! What's up with that!?

Give me a warm cuddly sweater, preferably in wool with a nice warm collar, a pair of pants that at least covers my knees and shoes that will fit up to about that.

which brings me to my new mission: finding a new winter coat, because I am wearing my old one now, and it fits another Karen in it, aaaaaah, the advantages of losing weight. But to me it's not really one of the advantages though because I'm not too fond of shopping for new clothes. The most embarrasing things happen to me whilst shopping...
Either there is someone snapping things from my hand, either I trip and pull down a load of clothes, or there is a kid that thinks his mum is in the fitting room where I'm in (mostly just in my undies... jeej)

New hobby

I've got a new hobby, you'll laugh your arses off, but well hey, I have got to keep myself out of trouble ;) My new hobby is crochet, regular crochet and amigurumi, which is making crocheted toys and stuff. :) I'll post some pics of my creatures soon.



However, I already have a picture of Yaesseen and Ilyas wearing a snake scarf I made, only Ilyas' scarf is really visible though... ;) If anyone of you should feel like making a similar one, the pattern can be found here.

My soul

You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all... But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life. Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

the colour of my heart

Your Heart Is Green

Love completes you, but that doesn't mean you seek it out. When love comes your way, you integrate it peacefully into the rest of you life. Your flirting style: Laid back Your lucky first date: Walking around aimlessly and talking Your dream lover: Is both enthusiastic and calm What you bring to relationships: Balance

What Color Heart Do You Have?

Rudolf

You Are Rudolph

Sweet and shy, you tend to be happiest when you're making someone else happy. Why You're Naughty: You sometimes stick that nose where it doesn't belong Why You're Nice: Christmas would be a sad affair without you!

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Because El Shorty asked me to...

ok, so I haven't been updating my blog regularly lately... there is an explanation for, but I won't bore you with the details ;)

But I'm back again

*moehahaha*

now hoping that more people then El Shorty will be reading it and posting comments ;)

For Lowèn

An angel in the book of life,

wrote down an infant's birth

and mentioned as he closed the book

... too beautiful for earth.

Today...

it has been a while since I update you all on the e-mails editor Bob keeps sending me. Well, today I got another e-mail. And you'll never guess what day it is (it's my Uncle's b-day) ... it's "Tell a joke day", quite ironic since today is the first in the entire week that I do not feel like telling jokes...

And since it's already half past ten in the evening I doubt I'll get in the mood ;) but hey, maybe I get a cracking idea, if I do, I'll surely let you all know! :D

Good thing Editor Bob also included a joke, however, I don't think it's really amusing though. The joke didn't even make me smile.

But there's another thing going on today... today is also "True love forever day", but I think that's another one of his jokes ;) however, the thought of love forever seems quite appealing to me, but it kind of makes me wonder too. Why the hell would you create a day for something to happen eternally, would every day therefore not be true love forever day? or is only August 16th suitable for the matter?

Hmm he included something rather worrying in his e-mail, starting on Sunday is Friendships week... NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
that means I will be spammed with the mail messages of Winnie The Pooh, Me to You etc. and they will keep coming for eternity. ;)

Ok, maybe today was not such a good day to update my blog... ;)

at the playground :)

Meet the neighbours

Is it not odd how you can live next to people for years and not know them!? I realise that it's a shame that I never really knew the neighbours I have lived next to for the 21st years of my life. Now we are living in Lier for something over two years and we know most of our neighbours and I like it. The guy who lives in the downstairs flat across the street, Erik, we met him because his cat Noa ran away, and now we have a really nice bond with him. I always enjoy chatting to him. The Pakistan family who lives in the same building on the first floor are possibly the friendliest neighbours you can have, Wahid and Tahira and their daughter, whose name accidently slipped my mind. But Wahid will always come and greet us, he'll always try to help us, even if it would mean carrying our shopping whilst he's got somewhere to be. (Of course I don't let him, I'm too proud to ask for his help, but still the fact that he offers means a great deal to me.) And so we know most of the people who live quite close to us and we usually try to have a wee talk to them, to hear how things are going with them, the children, the grandchildren and stuff. And it is nice. I suggest you try that too. ;)

Because I promised

adopt your own virtual pet!

What are you waiting for!?

You know how I love and adore good links, well, here are two great ones; you really ought to go and see (one of them you should be visiting again, since I already linked a couple of times to this site ;p)
1. This one's great
2. This one's the next step after the first one.

I'm sorry about the cryptic description, but this time I won't introduce the site anymore, you should just go and see for yourselves, really, there is no better site then the first one! :D

The hype

Remember my post on El Shorty's shirt?? Well, last weekend we had a party, it was a birthday party for Icky, Tom and Jon. During the preparation Tom was wearing a shirt I had never seen before, and it looked like this;

I guess it's becoming a true hype... having your nickname on your back with 69 underneath... hmm, let's all go and get one ;) LOL

how your computer mouse works

I received a brilliant e-mail in my mailbox, and I feel like I need to share it with you guys. So here goes;
Have you ever wondered how the arrow on your screen moves around each time you move your mouse? Well, the Japanese will now reveal their secret. Through an enlarged image of your screen they will show it. Click on this link and move your mouse slowly over the grey circle to see how the wonder truly works.

Don't buy these mints

... unless you like your mints chewy on the outside, rubbery halfway and fluid in the centre... the minty taste is good though, the structure is not all that good ...

Friday 13th

As you all may well know, last Friday was Friday 13th, I am not really supersticious and I never ever worry about things like that.

Until now... my friend Phasma said last Friday morning to one of our colleagues that it would be a lucky day. And now he regrets saying so, because it turned out to be a really bad day for him. However, I must say that his bad luck shows off pretty cool. He's had an accident at home with an aggressive ornament that attacked him, but now he's looking really sexy and all the women are drewling over him. ;)

explanation for the testresults

I am currently at work, with only male colleagues and the Tour de France is on, so I have to enterain myself, since it was extremely busy this morning, but the line appears dead this afternoon, and since my dear male colleagues are distracted by stuff I don't care about (who likes to see men in short pants sweating) I have to entertain myself... ;)

60% weird, not too bad, I expected worse... ;p

You Are 60% Weird

You're so weird, you think you're *totally* normal. Right? But you wig out even the biggest of circus freaks!

How Weird Are You?

again, right on top ;)

You Are an Afternoon Person

You can find energy any time of the day ... or night! You prefer to be out and about when most other people are. Very early mornings or very late nights aren't really your thing. You're practically solar powered, and the afternoon is when do best.

Are You a Morning Person or Night Person?

weird, this outcome is really true ;)

Your 80s Hunk Is

John Stamos

Who's Your 80s Hunk?

I've always known this ;)

You Belong in London

A little old fashioned, and a little modern. A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock. A unique soul like you needs a city that offers everything. No wonder you and London will get along so well.

What City Do You Belong In?

73% chance that I'll live to be 100...

Chance You'll Live to 100: 73%

100 is looking pretty likely for you right now. You've made your health a priority. So kick back, keep doing what you're doing, and enjoy the great life you've made for yourself. And you might get to see what the world is like 70, 80, or even 90 years from now.

Will You Live to 100?

You Would Be a Pet Bird

You're intelligent and witty, yet surprisingly low maintenance. You charm people easily, and they usually love you a lot more than you love them. You resent anyone who tries to own or control you. You refuse to be fenced in. Why you would make a great pet: You're very smart and entertaining Why you would make a bad pet: You're not interested in being anyone's pet! What you would love about being a bird: Flying, obviously What you would hate about being a bird: Being caged

What Kind of Pet Would You Be?

I luuuuuurve these tests :D

What Your Hands Say About You

You are logical, analytical, and rational. You have good verbal skills. Bold and daring, you're not afraid to change your life if you think it needs an overhaul. Practical and down to earth, you're a doer not a dreamer. You rather get something done than think about it all day. Your emotions tend to be nervous and potent. Your energy - both positive and negative - deeply impacts your life.

What Do Your Hands Say About You?

Hamorhage

Hamorhage update his website, and I think you all should take a look at it; click here to go there and when you're at it, add it to your favourites, because I'm quite sure you'd like to go there more then once.

Just wondering...

Two weeks ago I was invited to a bachelerette party. Usually I don't like these gatherings, but I went anyway. But that day things didn't really go the way they were planned. I had been feeling rather ill for over a week, and didn't feel a lot better on that Saturday. Icky suggested I'd take an afternoon nap, which I did, and it really helped me, but when I woke up I needed to change my clothes and get ready. When I tried to go upstairs Soufyan and Yaesseen tried to convince me to play a bit with them and they were blocking the door, so I tried to quickly get through the door to get upstairs. Bad idea. I was not really paying a lot of attention to what I was doing and where my feet were and I pulled the door onto my toe, and it hurt like hell. Then I forgot the trains were going by the weekend hours, so I ended up missing my train. The train I ended up taking, took a wrong turn and we arrived in a wrong station, where the driver got out and had to walk to the other side of the train to get back. To make a long story short... I was late and to make it even worse, I was the only one who was late and there was one chair too short on the table, so everyone saw me standing there waiting for a chair because I was late. After all the night was quite fun, but I left early because I needed to catch my last train home. And it was not in the station, it actually didn't depart from the central station, since there was a problem with the electricity (the driver didn't take a wrong turn earlier, but there was an actual problem, dammit), so I ended up running downstairs to catch a train to take me to the other station.

Yesterday I was talking with my friend Phasma who told me that two of his gay friends are getting married and are having bachelors parties. Which prompted the question: "how do they do that!?" I mean there is no bride who can go out with her girlfriends, there are only two brooms with mostly the same friends. Maybe they have it together, but then it's not a real bachelor's party, is it!?

What the hell happened to my women's weekly!? It has changed... it now has a section for men (probably because they've caught you guys sneakingly reading your girlfriends'/ wife's women's weekly on the toilet ;p), and in this section they have a "my body and me" page, with the picture of a naked man. OK guys, correct me if I'm wrong here, but do you like watching pictures of naked men in a magazine!? Especially since it's not a porn mag, well, it never used to be pornographic, but now I have my doubts, especially since they printed an article on vaginal correction this week. This is mainly the reason why I started about the naked man, because I don't like to see all this. My women's weekly is meant for entertainment, some gossip, some brainless articles, but a magazine I can just leave lying around the house without feeling worried that one of the boys might pick it up and go through it. Quite frankly I don't feel like giving an explanation on those pics.

So I guess that was it for my and my women's weekly... we'll be saying goodbye, I'll end my contract, I'll find myself another women's weekly, one that is less porn, and more what you'd expect of it...

Yesterday I downloaded a new song to my mobile "kvraagetaan" by Fixkes. It's a song in Flemmish about how easy life used to be. It's a song filled with nostalgia. ' 'k vraag et aan' is what we used to say when we were young and wanted a boy to be our boyfriend (or girlfriend), or we even sent out one of our friends to go ask the boy instead of going yourself.

Ironically, I ran into the boy who was my boyfriend when I was fourteen years old, about ten minutes after I downloaded the song. I didn't know what to say though, so I said hi and that was about it.... :D

How to talk to a widower

I've just finished a brilliant book, by Jonathan Tropper, which left me longing for more. Normally I take a new book and start reading it after I finished one. Not this time though, well, I tried, three times, but I cannot continue reading, because it just doesn't meet up to "How to talk to a widower".

I won't bother giving you a bookreview, but if you want one... go to the library or the bookstore and get yourself a copy, there is no better bookreview then actually reading it yourself. But I can tell you I wanted to call in sick to read the book in one go.

nostalgia

I found some of the games we used to play when I was still a child, but now on the internet... which is brilliant, yet addictive... remember these?

Yahtzee
Hangman
OXO

The multimedia thing is going out of their borders, on Wednesday night I had to click on a button to become friends with Tom, whom I have known since kindergarten. He accepted the friendship right away, but now I have this schedule; Tom and I are friends since June 27th 2007, now our children won't believe it if I tell them we met when we were about 3 years old. same thing happened with Lies en Jon....tsssssssss

careful

This is the pic of a coffee cup (yep, I am an addict, I admit to it), stating that it's hot....unfortunately "careful" is not translated as "opegpast" ;) OPEG stands for something else if I am not mistaken... ;) But I thought it was cute ;) So I took a subtle picture of it, pretending to be sending a text message, only forgetting that if I don't turn the sound off, the mobile makes a clicking sound, so long for my subtlety ;)

Growing pains

I am finally growing up, well and truly...

I have come to a point where I realise I should really start to make decisions which will need to last through for well... euhm... about the rest of my life.

I know I have talked about the matter that I did not know what I want to be when I grow up... well... I am getting there. Thing is that we have been looking for ways to make our life that tiny bit easier... We have been keeping options open, we have been thinking a lot of things through, like one of us looking for a job closer to home, without the shifts, because they are weighing through a lot now. Better hours, maybe one of us even parttime...

What's most important is that I want one of us to be here when the boys are older and are coming home from school with homework to do, that they can do it with one of us nearby to help them out, to watch them doing what needs to be done, as well as making sure we can eat at more regular times. Nowadays, we often prepare food with Soufyan and Yaesseen knock out on the sofa, then waking them up and sitting at the table with a whining four-year-old and a cranky and whining three-year-old. When they'll be a few years older, this won't be an option though... because it'll be too much for them to do their homework after they are knackered from school and pre- and afterschool care.

Add to that the fact that even though I still enjoy what I do and have the feeling I am good at what I am doing, I really don't see me doing this until my retirement... And the clock is ticking and I have a family depending on these decisions, I don't have a lot of time to mess around, trying to find a job I like better, with the risk of getting unemployed at a certain period and not earn enough to look after them (which is one of my biggest fears, therefore holding me back to take a risk and apply for another job). But with the government that is now coming up (they still haven't made a real new government after the elections yet, but they have an idea), we haven't heard a lot of positive things for our company in the news, which is a bit frightening. I know that I am in a safe spot where I am right now, because they will always need operators on the line to make sure that problems will be fixed, they are more important then sales operators, but still... I am afraid of losing the benefits that are keeping me there in the first place.

That's one of the reasons I called to one of our bosses today, well it's actually the man who organises our work force, asking for my options on working parttime, the shifts, the organisational options (five days a week, working four hours a day, or two days one week, three days the other, working eight hours a day, the weekends, the shifts... etc.). I also informed on the payment, the benefits the union will give me on top of that payment. And that is one of the reasons I have this site open.

Yes sirs, I am thinking about becoming a teacher, I would like to start my studies September 2008, so that I will finish by the time I'll turn 32 and then start a new carreer, by that time Soufyan will be 10, but it also means my parttime work will have started before he starts primary school, so it should work out the way I want. I am still unsure though. I have talked about it with Icky.

However, today I kind of dropped the matter to Soufyan and Yaesseen, who thought it was a joke! :D Soufyan thought I meant going to school with him, and he doesn't want me in his class, he says I am too big for his class, and if I want to do so, I should first be a baby again. I wish it was just as simple as that... I'd love to be a baby again, however today I'd rather not be our baby, since he is really ill, but still, I'd like to do that again, but skip puberty... :D

But in a way it's all exciting, me getting to the point to where I have an idea on what I want to be when I grow up, but it's scary as hell, because there is a lot more to it then just a lot of holidays :D And the fact that I cannot screw up this time is even more scarier. I will be a lot older then most other students, I will probably be the only one with three toddlers in the house, I will be the only one not drinking and not skipping classes, because I had my time doing so, and it didn't work out back then. And I will not allow myself making the same mistake.

I am already getting cold feet and I only started making real plans around all this yesterday, the thought of going back to school has been up for a while, but I am scared, which is good, because I remember me having cold feet when I left for Scotland and look how that turned out (however, I'd like to get out of this experience without turning pregnant ;))

Traffic signs in Belgium

just for the record:

"pijpen" = blow job

"kont" = butt

"aars" = arse

"reet" = butt

yep... welcome to Belgium... ;)

The last day of the schoolyear

Friday school will finish early and the afterschool care is closed... so I ended up taking the day off. But I cannot believe how fast that year has gone by... it was already Soufyan's second year at school, and if I think about how little Yaesseen was when I dropped him off for his first day in November 2006, I cannot believe how much he has grown, and I do not mean that in a physical way. But Soufyan has gone even further, it's unbelievable, two of my babies are growing into actual boys...

Tomorrow I have to pass by the school at noon to go talk to their teacher, because I had to work the late shift when there was a teacher-parent meeting thingy on Tuesday, the teacher asked me to drop by to have a talk about our two eldest.
Which will bring me to the following: they have this amazing teacher, called juf Wendy. She is about my age, has a daughter who is only a month younger then Ilyas and what she has done for our boys is well and truly amazing. Last year it didn't go all that well on school for Soufyan, he had a lot of problems with his teacher who couldn't really deal with him. Which ended up in him stepping out of the classroom, slamming the door during his second week at school, aged 2 and a half... But this year he really learned a lot and this teacher really got to him and dealt with him the way he needed. Hats off for her, since she did not only have Soufyan, but Yaesseen as well in her class, as well as 25 other toddlers, I couldn't do it... give me an angry customer any time a day, but don't ask me to quiet down 27 toddlers... I'd be the one stepping out of the classroom, slamming the door and cry... ;)

But yet another schoolyear has flown by, I don't remember them doing so when I was still at school. But it will do our boys a lot of good, because they really need some time off, however two months might be a month too many, but still...

So now they are all going on a summer holiday... but I get the feeling we already had the summer in March, April and May... hopefully there will still be some sun, so they can go outside to play :D

(Nine years from now I will be nagging you about my boys in puberty... yes... reality kicks in... ;) )

Boombal

There is a new upcoming trend, and it's everywhere these days... and by everywhere, I mean all over Flanders, or it might just be all over Antwerp. Anyway, it's called "boombal", you could literary translate it as "treedance", but that would be wrong as boom in this case stands for the name of a suburb of Antwerp. (I was mistaken by the fact when I was first invited to go to one of them, asking "what the hell do they do on a boombal, do they dance around trees", which was absolutely not true... so again I embarrassed myself within five minutes, I seem to do that a lot :D) (Good thing it was a really loyal friend of mine (Jonathan) who invited me, and who has known me for 11 or 12 years now (damn, time is flying by) and he has seen me at my best and at my worst, so he's not holding it against me)

What it really is... a dance in two parts. The first part takes up to an hour where you get a dance initiation, covering the most common dancesteps. Afterwards folkmusicians will get the audience to dance. It has the image of a regular party with the exception that young as well as old people will dance together on live folk music.

Today I got a flier in the mailbox inviting us all to a real authentic Boombal, here in Lier, in the open air, on Zimmerplein, which is only a four minute walk from our home, on July 11th at 8p.m.. I won't drop a word to Jonathan though, otherwise we'll all have to go there and I don't think we'll be any good, dancing in the open air, in front of all the pubs... ;)

Thanks for your comment Dave! :D

Thanks Dave for saying I am not naive, but I took another test, which again told me otherwise LOL :D

Today I took the test Which Pixar Character Are You?

and here's the result:

You are Dory. You are naive and gullible. Wait, that's a good thing. Your ability to trust any stranger is a trait not many people have, but be more cautious next time a stranger offers to buy you lunch or you might find yourself in a fishy situation.

Good thing there is a picture next to it, because quite frankly I have no bloody clue who Dory is, but it turns out it is a fish, of all creatures I could have been, I am a fish. I wanted to be an ogre. ;p

water at work :)

Heroes and other tests

I was addicted to the first season of Heroes, as I stated on an earlier date on this blog. Now BrainFall has got a test to check which character you are.

So, of course I took the test, and it turned out I am Claire (the 16-year-old cheerleader they all needed to save to save the world), and this is the explanation I got for it:
You are Claire. You're naive and still getting used to your abilities. Some more experience and assertiveness would be good for you.
hmm, I would have chosen someone else, but well, will have to do with this. If you'd like to take the test, you can do so here.

Whilst at it, I took another test, to check which Disney Princess I am, just for the fun of it, it's not like I have anything better to do, so here is the result of that test:

It's a tie!
You are part Jasmine. You are loyal and would visit the ends of the earth for what you believe. You would never let obstacles stand in the way of true love.
You are part Pocahontas. You defy convention and sometimes do what is considered taboo. Unfortunately, others do not always appreciate your differences, so it's good that you are so strong-willed. You are loyal and you believe in fate. Your true love will find you one day.

And another test ... this one was called "What Should You Have Done After High School?" The results were slightly more interesting then the others...
You should have gone to a state school after high school. You're a realist. You're not expecting a lifetime in academia, you just want to compete for a decent job and your piece of the pie. Besides, you know that a state school will prepare you to survive in the real world. When you graduate, you won't need someone holding your hand as you cross the street into the working world.

what a way to start the day,

or even the week...

We woke up at 5 a.m. this morning, Icky left for work at 6, I left the house with the kids at 6.30, took the bus to Ilyas' childminder at 6.45, left there at 7.10, took another bus at 7.20, then changed bus at the Grote Markt at 7.26, arrived at the afterschool care at 7.37, took another bus to the station, on the bus I was doubting to be lazy and take it directly to Antwerp, since I had enough time for doing so, but I told myself not to be lazy and take the train and have a walk. Damn, did I regret that choice... The station was absolute chaos, there had been an accident and all the trains were either delayed or cancelled, so I ended up taking a bus after all, but half an hour after I got off the bus in the first place.
two hours and a half after I left home, I arrived at work, I could have made it to Paris or London in that time...
Good thing the elevator decided to work for a few hours
when I wanted to take coffee, the machine was broken, which was the worst thing...

Normally things like these don't happen to me on Mondays, Monday is usually one of the best days of the week for me...

Support Denmark

Whilst leaving the office, I bumped into this note, right in front of the exit of our office building.

It states: "help the Danish fight for our freedom, support Denmark"... If anyone can tell me what this is about, please feel free to do so, because I have absolutely no idea :d

The turtle ... some explanation

So, I adopted a virtual turtle, unfortunately the website did not have any landturtles, but still...

You can feed him if you click on more!

The turtle

adopt your own virtual pet!

my life is one big pop quiz

but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a price to win.

Some examples:

at work:

"Goodday, belgacom helpcenter, this is Karen speaking, how may I help you?"
- "can you tell me if I dialed the right number?"
"euhm, it depends..."
- "what is the right number then?"
"that depends, which department are you trying to contact?"
- "the one that can help me"
"and what is the problem"
- "you tell me, because I don't know"

"Goodday, belgacom helpcenter, this is Karen speaking, how may I help you?"
- "my tv is not working"
"I see, but you do not have a contract with Belgacom for your tv"
- "no, I don't"
"then you'd better contact the company who owns your contract"
- "who is that?"
"we do not have that kind of information"
- "but why is it not working?"
"we can only check our contracts, I am sorry, you'd better call your provider and they will be able to help you"
- "what's their number?"
"I don't know, who is your provider?"
- "I don't know, why can't you tell me?"

It's been like that the entire day today...
I've spoken twice to the TV-lady and she has spoken to three other operators today, all telling her we cannot solve her problem

But in my private life it's not different...
"mum, who is that?"
-"euhm, sorry boy, I don't know all the people in the world"
"why is she wearing a green coat?"
-"euhm, I don't know"

"what's that?"
- "what?"
"that"
- "what? where?"
"the thing on the thing"

e-cards

Don't you just love e-cards?? they are a cheap way of telling people you care! I quite enjoy cards overall, maybe I prefer the handwritten ones since I like to see people's handwriting, since these days you hardly get to read something handwritten.

But e-cards are amusing, mostly the ones on this website.

However, I have not yet had the guts to send someone a card from this site... ;) But will do, once I find the appropiate card for the right person, I'll care enough to hit send...

suggestion of the day...

not sure what to eat today? we face that issue on a daily basis...
Like today, we are both at work and had no clue what we to get for lunch, then I had the bright idea of going to the market and get some vietnamese loempias, man, were they good!!

So, should you be wondering what to eat, I suggest you have vietnamese loempias today! :D
Enjoy your meal

Grace Kelly

I am addicted to the song "Grace Kelly" by Mika, really, it's one of the absolute best songs I've heard in the past few years. Mostly because it is something new, because lately I have the feeling I have heard most of it.

But hats off for Mika!

should you like to see the clip and hear the song, click here. I listen to it a few times a day, mostly because I downloaded it on my mobile's mp3-player.

Japan

One of our colleagues is on a trip in Japan, where she ran into this picture, apparantly those pictures are all over the place, to make sure the telephone lines won't get cut. Which would make our job a lot easier if they'd put these signs up in Belgium as well... however, it might be interesting if they'd print the text in a comprehensional language for us though ;) I quite like this pic. If you'd like to see some more pics of Maaike's trip to Japan, you can click here.

what can ruin my good mood

Don't you just hate the people who nearly kill you to make sure they can wait a bit longer in front of the red traffic light!? Or the ones who nearly drive you off your socks, so that they can block the pedestrians crossing, whilst waiting in the autoqueue?
Fun, isn't it, when they speed up in a 30kmh zone, whilst you are walking on the sidewalk and they suddenly realise they've passed the point they needed to be and just drive onto the sidewalk and park in front of you, not even caring the fact that you have to walk on the street with your three children since they are fully blocking the sidewalk....

No wonder agression in trafic is growing on a daily basis...

Yoghurt overload

It's probably the same all over the world, so you'll probably all have noticed yet, but nowadays you can solve every physical problem you have, just by eating a yoghurt!?

So, one Activia a day helps your congestion,
one Actimel a day helps strengthen your natural defences,
one Yakult a day for your instetinal health,
one Essensis a day for the health of your skin,
one Danone Nutri Day for the nutritions of the day,
one Benecol for your cholestorol
and one whatsitcalled (something with a CA and PO in the name) to strengthen your bones, should make your physical health a lot better overall, however, I doubt anyone could hang on to eating that much yoghurt on a daily basis without getting sick of it. Furthermore, those bloody things are rather expensive, we usually stick to the normal ones, which are less pricy, ok, they probably won't do our health any good, but still, they do the trick (when one feels like eating a yoghurt)

Flickr

I really enjoy Lars' photoset on Flickr, and have been doubting to create my own for a while, but today I decided it was a good day to make my own...

So I signed up, but needed a yahoo login, however, I have not used my yahoo login for years, I think the last time I used it was when I was still at IBM and it was before the roof went off. So I needed to create a new one, which means another e-mail account to add to my collection, because I am starting to collect quite a few... my work e-mail, my e-mail at home, hotmail, magictaxi mail, so I chose for an Australian account, since I do not yet own an Australian e-mail account! :D
This account brought me to the Australian Yahoo site (where else!?) where I noticed something on All Saints, now I have to admit that I am quite an All Saints addict, and I could take a sneak preview on next episode of this season (in Australia, so I considered it good news that there was still a season going on over there), but it was not what I expected to see :'( some of the actors whom are in the series I am watching now aren't in the new season anymore... bummer... but still, I might have grown out of my All Saints addiction by the time the current season in Australia will be on in Belgium...
Good thing about it all is that I discovered we are on the same level in Prison Break and next week we get to see the final episode of Heroes here in Belgium and in Australia they are only watching the 17th episode...
(so, we Belgians aren't doing as bad when it comes down to television series as I thought, that's a relief)

After that I started to look for pictures to upload on my photoset, because what's the use of being a proud owner of an online photoset if it does not contain any pictures!? So I found a CD full of pics of the period around Ilyas' birth, what has he grown the past year!? meanwhile he was throwing stuff at me, laughing at me when I shouted "AAAAAAAAAAA" after he tried if I was still human enough to feel pain when he bites me (and yes, it still hurts, so none of you needs to try that one out ;) ), Yaesseen has lost his babyface in the past year and Soufyan has become more of a boy than the toddler he then was... aaaah, love nostalgia! :D

However, most of the pictures I have are of our children... so I urgently need to get out and photograph the world :D Which reminds me of the pictures I still have to take to the photographer to develop, I'll do that when Ilyas wakes up, so maybe I can upload some pictures taken on our trip to London (which was before Christmas, shame on me for not having them developped yet) over the weekend...

So, well, if you'd like to take a look at them, you can do that here, but I'll upload many more pics in the time to come... so, be warned!

Bonny

as a reaction to Dave's comment on the Turtle's post, here's a pic of Bonny, when we got him, we were told it was a dwarf rabbit, well, let me tell you: he isn't, he's larger than a cat, he's perfectly house trained, when he's playing in the garden he'll run inside to go to his toilet, he chases cats, birds, whatever that comes into his garden and should not be there. He only goes into his cage to have a bite to eat, he sleeps on a mat in front of a heater, or outside, whatever he pleases, he has a life filled with luxury, and some chocolate, because I spoil him to bits everytime I see him ;)

His favourite food: plants, flowers, witloof, cucumber, doritos, cookies, chocolate, potatoes, salade, basically anything that does not contain meat ;)

He has been nutered though, because he was jumping on the leg of every woman he ran into, mostly my mum or me, which was quite annoying, it's like a dog, but since he's been nutered, he has not done that anymore, which is absolutely brilliant.

Downside is that he looses a lot of hair, more than a cat or dog, which is not good for people with allergies, but besides that... rabbits make the perfect pets! :D

the trick with the flying toilet paper

everywhere he goes, Soufyan wants to bring a visit to the restrooms, we have no idea why he wants to see them, but he does. So he wanted to see every toilet of every restaurant, bar, pub, whatever we went to in Paris. Same thing on the Thalys, and unfortunately those toilets are rather amusing for a four-year-old boy, because you need to step on this button to flush the shiny silvery toilet and it flushes with dark blue water... so you can imagine he wanted to go there a lot. Until he did the trick with the toilet paper. On the thalys they have these pink toilet paper readily cut in nice squares, and they are in a box next to the hand dryer. First he pulled the papers loose and then he tried out the button on the hand dryer which made the papers fly around the really small toilet box. I thought it was hilarious, good thing it scared Soufyan though... he didn't want to go to the toilet for the rest of the trip...

I still find it rather amusing, it was like we were caught in a snow globe, but then with toilet paper flying around :D

Yaesseen and Ilyas in the playground

Some pics from our citytrip to Paris

Father and son

Birthday

Today would have been Hergé's 100rd birthday, which is a great event in Belgium, because he's one of the great cartoon artists here.

Belgacom Family Fun Day

On Sunday we went to the Belgacom Family Fun Day, every year Belgacom rents out an amusements park where you can go to for free, which is absolutely great, since it costs a lot to go there by yourself. And it was quite fun... here are some pics, taken with my mobile, they are not as good as the ones we took with the camera, but they'll have to do

Bruges

So, Icky and I went to Bruges on Wednesday, we got a discount from the women's weekly I'm subscribed to, we only had to pay €30 pp, which was a real bargain if you consider the hotel normally rates over €100 pp a night.

We didn't really think it through and took a small travelers backpack we use for similar trips, which looked kind of ridiculous in the classy hotel...

Nonetheless it was a brilliant escape from normal life, we were quite knackered and fell asleep before nine, but we woke up really early and enjoyed the life in the nice yet touristic city! I'd advise it to anyone!! :D

La vie en rose

What's the deal with pink these days!? It's like the bloody colour is turning up everywhere, is it not enough that it is the chosen colour for little girls and women who believe they are little girls... nooooooooooo, they started using it for men's clothes as well, probably because they believe it gives the men who wear it this image of the "new man".

Pink shoes, pink shirts, pink caps, pink coats, pink sweatshirts... aaaaaaaaaaaarrrggghhhh

Now they have a brand new line: pink laptops, pink nintendo DS lites, pink mobile phones, pink toaster, pink fridge, pink oven, pink water boiler, pink senseo

Do we really want to live in a Barbie world!?

personally I don't....

Bruges, here we come! :)

Tomorrow, Icky and I will be playing hooky for a day and night, we planned a night in a hotel in Bruges, and the kids will stay with my mum. I think it'll do us some good to get away for a night again, like it did us a world of good going to London. :)

The only downpart is that we are both working the late shift tonight and that we are already extremely tired, so my guess is that we'll sleep through our stay there, good thing we are going there with a gigantic discount! :D

Shoes at work II

Here's an update on the post I once published about shoes at work... the blue ones everyone loved have been replaced by the black and white ones in the first pic. Maybe you can all start bidding on the blue ones... I'll ask the owner to sign them to make them worth millions of euros in a few years time, when he's rich and famous ;)

Clouds... :D

I kind of love clouds, because they give an extra dimension to life, well, in my opinion that is. I really enjoy to see some sunlight through the clouds, like on the picture I took when (again) waiting for the bus with Ilyas.

Clouds can be anything you want them to be...

I was as glad as a toddler getting a candy when I was able to take this picture, it is not of a-class quality, since I took the picture with my mobile phone, but still I was quite pleased with the result.

Boredom...

It has been a while since I have been as bored as I am right now, before my lunch at 12.45 I took 32 calls, it is now 17.19 and I have taken 36 calls, that means that I took 4 calls in the last four hours, whilst I've taken 32 calls in something under 3 hours this morning...

but now I am bored bored bored...

just wanted to share this with all of you ;)

that's not funny...

I'm currently at work haha, funny isn't it!?

Personally I don't see the joke, but apparently one of the customers did. It's a rather busy Sunday, and there are just two of us here, there are some colleagues in Kortrijk as well, but you don't see them, so you forget about them and feel like you have to take the entire queue with only two people. So I answered the man's call as I always do and he then said: "you are working on a Sunday!!??"
K: "yes, we work on Sundays"
customer: "hahaha, that's amusing, isn't it?"
K: "euhm..."

He actually had no real reason to call us, he just wanted to check if we were working, since his sister had a problem with her telephone and could not reach her operator, and he found it rather amusing that he could reach us...
I really appreciated him laughing in my face for me having to work

New mission...

Yesterday I finished early, and had some time before I had to pick up Soufyan and Yaesseen, so I was strolling around the shops in Lier. And there is this shop called "Gekko Reptiles", which caught my attention a while ago, but I never went in, until yesterday... and maybe I shouldn't have... they had this absolutely cute landturtles and of course now I set my mind to owning a turtle, or maybe even two, if it's not too much to ask.

say for yourself, aren't they cute???!!!

Normality rules

My life is normal again... which suits me just fine! :D the weather changed from extremely hot and summery to normal Belgian spring; wind, rain, clouds, which suits me even better!

Last week we caught the rota virus, which is not advisory to have... from time to time I'm still fighting nausea... anyway, it'll be over soon, good thing is that I've lost some weight, so I won't complain too much about it ;)

For the rest everything is quite ok! :D

Last Wednesday Soufyan and Yaesseen had a performance at school, which was absolutely hilarious! Yaesseen had to do ballet and he was really good at it ;)
In the afternoon one of Icky's brothers who was in Europe for a visit came around with his wife and three daughters. This was absolutely nice! I was extremely nervous to meet them, but it turned out great!

By the way, the visit from my friend I mentioned in my earlier post was great. It turned out she grew up as well :D so I needn't have worried! :D

Not sure what to say...

Tomorrow I am meeting up with an old friend, from secondary school, we were really good mates back then. But I haven't seen her in years, and I am looking forward to seeing her tomorrow, but I am a bit anxious as well.

As I always am when I'm seeing people I haven't seen in ages, because I'm always worried about what they'll think of me... They mostly knew me as a party girl, and quite frankly, I am not that girl anymore. And I always wonder if we'll have anything to talk about. OK, it's been years, but I can summon up those years in just a few minutes;
moved to Scotland, got pregnant, gave birth, moved back to Belgium, got pregnant, got a job as an operator expert for Belgacom customers operations (which is always a trick to tell anyone, cause mostly people then ask me what I actually do, and when I tell them, there usually is one adsl, telephone, or other problem they're struggling with), moved to Lier, got pregnant again, gave birth again, got married. And yes, I moved houses quite a few times during that period. And no, we are not planning on getting a fourth child. And I think that's about it.

Sometimes it all goes well and we talk about more then just that, but I've experienced quite a few times when I could not say anything more then that. So I hope everything will be going great tomorrow, since she was a really good friend in the old days, and we shared a lot of tears together, sometimes of sadness, sometimes because we were laughing that hard... and in a way I want most people to continue to have that image of me and not of the boring old lady I have become...

Schoondochter gezocht

I'll update you guys on yet another reality TV program. It's finished now, the last episode was last Wednesday. It's called "schoondochter gezocht" which means as much as 'the search for a daughter-in-law' and I guess the title kind of gives it away. It was about four sets of parents looking for a partner for their son, who was and is still living at home. Personally I would never let my parents look for a fit partner for me, let alone let them do so on television, but hey, who am I anyway!?

One of those families did everything together, and I do mean everything, their thirty something old son found himself a match amongst the girls and the parents liked her too, and already imagined her living with them. However the girl kind of liked some freedom and some air to breathe and was kind of put off by the complexity of the family. The mother of the man then stated that it was not done to do stuff without them... so, well, I guess there is not a chance in hell it'll turn out ok.

How sick is it anyway to expect the partner of your kid to move in with you and actually enjoy all the stuff you do, why not brainwash her!? It's a free world, good thing our ancestors fought for a democracy and for women's rights and for freedom of speech and mind... why try to move forward if going back is an option too...

Last week I was waiting for the bus with Ilyas and saw this:

I'm not sure if it's really clear, but it's a traffic sign in a bin... I thought it kind of looked cool, so I took my mobile to take a pic, but it made a noise and the woman next to me looked oddly at me, and then my bus came around the corner! LOL thank heavens for that! ;)

Today...

I had to skip going to work today since Soufyan was ill this morning. I really regret not going to work, since today is probably the last working day for one of my work mates, and I didn't want to miss it, but he was really too bad to send to school. So I phoned in this morning for a day of social leave. And now I am obliged to listen to a song by a pig and the pig doesn't do a lot but farting in the song... jeej... :D

But I do hope that Soufyan will feel a lot better later on, since we're heading a long weekend (four days) and I'd like to enjoy the weather and do stuff with them, but if he's ill, it won't be on... ah well, we'll see!

My new buddy

So me and my not-so-new-anymore mobilephone are getting to know each other, and I must admit that I am quite fond of him! :)

I found a really nice way to modify pics on it, cfr:

In case you're wondering, yes, it's me!!! :D

So, along with the games, the MP3 player, the camera and some other applications I can also modify pictures, which is the absolute most amusing thing!

But it takes over the best of you, since everytime I am talking to someone, I already start thinking about what I could do with their picture. Enlarge a nose, pull a mouth in another edge etc.

So, you are warned, if you catch me with my mobile, I might be taking pics and modify your face when you're not looking!! hehe

fairytale party in afterschool care

Nope, nothing on tele

so I'm back to annoy you guys, I just noticed I forgot to change my blog settings to summer time, so I adjusted that...

Well, they are still asleep, they have been since a quarter to seven, which is the first time I put them to bed and did not have to go back up to tuck one of them in... yiha! :D

I have an addition to one of my earlier posts of the day, I was going through the main shopping street today and there was a ladder standing in the gutter, leaning against a house, leaving enough space (the entire sidewalk) to pass. It's funny how superstition still lives amongst us... I just walked underneath it, but a lot of people refused to and walked around it, apparently thinking it'll bring more luck to get hit by a car than walking underneath a ladder... what's the worst that can happen!? If there's a painter or a windowcleaner on the ladder, I won't go underneath it, mostly because I don't like getting paint or water on me, but if there is no one on the ladder and there is enough space to go underneath it, why wouldn't you??!!

This being said, I must admit something... I am superstitious too... I refuse to open an umbrella indoors... and I hate other people doing so...

Little rascals II

Little rascals