FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

Sometimes I think I just should copy and paste week after week. Because there is a certain routine in my days, at least in the mornings because, I am not at all a morning girl since my retirement. 

Usually I get up around 9 am and my breakfast stands on the table, sometimes I have to heat up the coffee a little, because they fill in the thermos very early and is served early too. A lot of residents still think they have to work and get up at 6 am or even earlier and get nervous because they have to wait until 8 ! 

We started the week with playing golf and as it rained (again)

The nurses making a cigarette pause 
 

 Therefore we played inside with a great creativity !

It looks easy but was quite difficult ! Mother of two golfers I made 0 holes ! 

The next day of course it was again sunny and unfortunately I didn't have any fruits in my fridge. I had to go shopping. At the same time I also went to the pharmacy and then got stuck in the traffic. I don't know what happens in the moment but the whole city is congested !

I just returned in time for coffee time. I hadn't missed an interesting game Darts ! I am a real zero in that game I am always out of the target and become dangerous for the other players. A few went to mass which is held each Thursday, but for the moment they have no priests, there are less and less and a woman (oh shame) replaced him. But she was only allowed to read some prayers. Belgium is a catholic land through and through. 

Sometimes real life calls me back and I have to leave my cozy castle

and had to go to the bank. I wanted to change an account to get a bit more interests. My bank is the only one here where real people are talking to you and speak to you directly and you don't have to go through a menu with 9 push ! We had a coffee together and when I got out I was a bit smarter.

We also had the visit from Darvin the "nurse" dog who took care of the most damaged people, the others got a friendly tail wave and at the end he collected a treat from everybody. It was so cute to see these often so motionless people trying to smile and suddenly move ! 
 

I had to buy food for Princess Rosie and Jeanine wanted to come with me I told her to wait at the delivery entrance, I would be there in 10 min. Of course she was not there, so I returned to the main entrance, nobody there. I drove back to the delivery entrance and went on to see the terrace. The whole staff sat in the park for the lunch pause and they laughed to see me driving back and forth and told me later that Jeanine did the same, so we were following each other but didn't meet. Finally I had enough and did my shopping for Rosie alone.

 

 

When I came back everybody was laughing, because they had seen both of us running one behind the other, for them it was a nice spectacle !

 

 

 

 

 

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

HODGEPODGE SEPTEMBER 18

 1.  Are you more life of the party or more party pooper? If your answer is somewhere in the middle which side of the middle do you lean towards more? 

I was called a real party girl, even after my marriage, because then we were both a party couple, we loved to dance and loved life, there was no middle !

Above was a New Year party and below a ball

Now I am a widow and not a party girl anymore, but I am not a  party pooper either !

Birthday party, beach party, cocktail party, dinner party, charity fundraiser, surprise party, costume party, garden party, Christmas party, reunion...what's your favorite kind of party? 

All, we took each opportunity ! We also loved costume parties ! That was fun. When Rick met my (very stiff) parents, he had a wig with long blond hairs and a T-shirt with red stripes, he was a pirate ! Not to forget the eyepatch. My mother made a face as if she had swallowed a glass of vinegar, and said with an ice cold voice : "I hope to see you when you are normal".  

2. Cheese, wine, and balsamic vinegar all improve with age. What would you personally add to the list? 

Not really add but rather continue .... Champagne ! 

3. How do you feel about your birthday? How do you want to be celebrated? Or don't you? 

I never had a problem with my birthdays, the date was in my passport and that was it. We always celebrated and had fun. But that ended when I turned 80 and had lost my hubby just 2 month before. 80 what a number, I suddenly felt very very old. I even didn't want to celebrate my birthday. Now it's getting better I have accepted that I am 82 now, what is important is that my head is still working ! And thanks to years of Yoga, my body too. I (only) have this chronic lung disease. 

4. What remarkable feat, interesting piece of trivia, or historical event occurred on your birth day and month? Not necessarily your same birth year, just the same date/month.  

On July 8, 1918, Ernest Hemingway, an 18-year-old ambulance driver for the American Red Cross, is struck by a mortar shell while serving on the Italian front, along the Piave delta, in Worldwar I

5. Share two good things about your life right now.

First I don't have to worry about nothing anymore, paying only one bill per month, no cleaning, no washing no cooking. Second, I live my life as I want, I go to the theater and to the cinema and friends, I still drive my car and I can come and go as I want.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Sometimes I think that I started my adult life the same way, as I am now on the way to end it.

With 22 I had my own  apartment, which was only slightly larger than my room now. The only thing missing is the kitchen, and I really don't miss it. 

My  mother and me in my apartment, just before I was going out.

It was very rare for such a young girl to have her own apartment, but I worked as a translator, especially in German and English, because these languages ​​were rare at that time, in 1964

In Belgium, only French and Flemish (Dutch) were spoken. I earned good money and was even able to buy a (used) car. That was my freedom !

Piccola with me 

I lived there with my cat, Piccola, who choose my (boy) friends. The winner was Rick. ::::

 My room today

63 years later, I'm sitting alone again in a similar apartment, which is just a large room without a kitchen. In between lies a wonderful life with a very loving husband and the birth of a son. These thoughts came to me last night as I lay in bed, and I thought, actually, I'm lying here in almost the same bed with similar furniture, just a "little" older.

 

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

 

more participants here, and Image-in-ing 

 

Autumn is slowly approaching, and while out for a walk, I saw these strange mushrooms. I used to look for mushrooms with my grandfather, and in the evenings, my grandmother would prepare them. They tasted absolutely delicious. 

Unfortunately, I've never seen again the mushrooms my grandfather found. I would not just look at them myself I don't know much about mushrooms, so I'd rather buy them. The last picture has nothing to do with mushrooms, but at least there are autumn leaves around it.