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...