30 May 2026

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

Today marks four years since there is no longer a 'we' but only ' I '. Time flies so fast, I can hardly believe it, but unfortunately it's true.

1941 - 2022 

"When a husband dies, it's no longer us. It's just me. Not even death can steal the love I feel for you."

 *******

This week it was very hot, over 30°C, which we're not used to at all. It was also Pentecost, a long weekend. Half of Belgium went to the seaside, and despite the train strike, they ran 30 extra trains so everyone could get there. Naturally, the motorway was completely jammed.

We sat comfortably in our lovely park under a huge tree that must be over 200 years old, chatted and had drinks. We were not many outside, a lot stayed inside the cool Restaurant with air condition. 

 

The next day was exactly the same, but in the morning I went to Amandine (our manager) to tell her that chairs were broken and we didn't have enough, same with a table and  that we badly needed bins in the park. The visitors and children are sometimes not very well educated. 

 

To our surprise there was no activity at all the whole week except today. This game was funny ! I was given five plastic balls and had to throw them into an umbrella, one after the other. Inside the umbrella, points were written on a slip of paper, and depending on where the ball landed, you got 10 to 50 points. You couldn't really aim because you couldn't see the points. So I just threw my balls aimlessly into the umbrella, and the first time, four landed in the 50-point range! The other times, I got zero! Anyway, I came in second!

This is the last survivor ! I wonder how long it will last. 

We all had for the first time a meeting with our new manager ! I felt really sorry for her. Instead of admitting that she didn't really know yet how things worked here, she acted like she understood everything, but I didn't believe her. I had the feeling she was swimming in unknown waters, but she will learn.

We have a new couple. Honestly, they are getting on my nerves. He is constantly making jokes that no one understands except him, and then he laughs loudly and heartily! His wife looks like a 14-year-old little girl and must have been very pretty once. She's always smiling or laughing, and as soon as she sees a man, she runs up to him, hugs him, and tries to kiss him. As soon as our men see a man, who's quite tall, they know the little girl is clinging to his arm, and they "run" away or try to hide behind a table. She does the same thing with women. I only just managed to dodge her at the last minute,  otherwise, she would have "attacked" me too. But I jumped aside (it's still possible), and her husband caught her again. I don't know what they're suffering from, but neither of them is normal.

The rest of the time I worked on my pictures to make old once new and they really look now as if I had taken the picture yesterday. 

  

We are the couple of the right side together with my American uncle in 1971


and this is in the Yellowstone Park


more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.
 
 
 
 
 
 

27 May 2026

HODGEPODGE MAY 28

 1. Do you like your name? Are you named after someone (grandparent, etc)? If you have children how did you choose their names? 

When I went to school in Germany I didn't like my name, because there were so many Ingrid s I think we were 6 in our class. This was probably due to the fact that Mr. Hitler loved everything which came from Northern countries like Ingrid Bergman.

But when I moved with my parents to Belgium Ingrid was a very rare name. I often had to repeat it or even spell it out. That's when I started to like my first name. With our son, it was a bit complicated. I wanted a name that couldn't be translated into another language. Besides, it had to be short because the last name was so long. Finally, we settled on "Dario," which can't be translated. We added the names of his two grandfathers, Paul and Gorgio. Rick initially wanted to name him Gorgio after his father, but in French, that's George, and it sounds awful! He finally agreed to that, he didn't like George either. .

2.  A piece of red velvet cake, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a slice of blueberry pie? You can only have one...which will you choose? If you could pick any red, white, or blue dessert other than those listed here, what would you choose? 

If it's hot I would choose an ice cream, but otherwise I prefer blueberry pie ! I would choose Strawberry cake. But on both I would add whipped cream !! 

3.  What's a job you'd like to try for just one day? 

Working in a zoo 

4. Any patriotic decor in your home currently or coming up this summer? 

Patriotic ? We are 4 nationalities in our family ! Italian, German, German/Italian, Dutch, Dutch/German. Therefore the answer is No 

5. It's the end of May, so let's exercise our brains. Sum up your month with an acrostic using the word MAY. We can do it!! 

Many flowers start to bloom
After a lot of rain
You finally can enjoy spring   

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Besides the hot weather, the moody Trump, the dangerous Putin I only hear about AI in the News. As there is no age to be curious I started to put my nose into AI. first with pictures, my wedding in new, my 2 m long son as a little Baby etc. Then I wanted to try if it is really possible that AI is able to write my last will, which I don't need, but it did !  

Very good indeed. How wonderful that AI can write such impeccable letters for authorities administration etc. 

But for personal things, like writing a book or my blog I would prefer to use OI for that, because I doubt AI can be romantic. You are probably wondering what OI is. I have discovered that besides AI (English), there is IA (French and Italian) and also KI (German), and they explain and answer in those languages.

That's really great, of course; you don't need a psychiatrist or psychologist anymore, just ask AI, IA, or KI. Personally, for private things, such as my blog or letters, I use OI, which stands for OWN INTELLIGENCE. I don't need Psy or Psy yet ! 

 

From this Side of the Pond

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY






My car was really dirty, so I drove through the car wash. While I was sitting in my car, I thought I could take some "modern art" photos, because what I saw was very abstract. I took the following pictures and found them rather"special."


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