AWWWW MONDAY

 This is Sheena, the beagle of friends, very funny dog

 

 

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

 

Another week went by and in a few days we will be in July ! So far at least until Thursday the weather was very nice and we could sit outside and play our games. 

This week little pupils from various schools were practicing singing and dancing for the Flower Festivalin our town and one or two classes came here to practice in our large park. Of course, almost all of the grandmas were watching, including me, but only from my window. I had washed my hair and looked like a witch.

After the rehearsal they were free to run around in our park and had a lot of fun ! In the background you see a round ring, workers are busy to clean and restore this nice mini golf, which hat been neglected the last years.  

 

  Here they are running around and playing

I went with one of my roommates, with whom I'd become friends, buying a fan for her and then we treated ourselves to some delicious ice cream before driving home. I still have my car and feel safe driving, I am not sitting stressed behind the steering wheel !

We have played ping pong outside and it was a catastrophe, because nobody caught the ball, it flew around into the flowers and shrubs, and even into the back of a nurse. After all, we had a lot to laugh about and made more noise than an entire school class.

The only one who wasn't happy was Mimi, once Belgium's best ping-pong player, who had won many matches. She didn't understand that her arm no longer worked as well as it used to and that she was now in a wheelchair. She scolded herself and ended up throwing the racket. Luckily, it missed a head and landed in a flowerpot.

 

 

Little Rosie had celebrated her 19th birthday and nearly the whole staff came to wish a happy birthday. Here she sleeps as usual the whole day and when I sleep in the night, she plays !

 

This morning I saw again 6 bottles of red wine, which my neighbors, a couple who remain in their room except for the meals and are fighting all the time. There are 6 bottles of very strong beer missing, which usually stand also there in the morning. And of course they also drink wine in the restaurant. Nobody says anything, because at their age it's better to die happy then sad. 

On the other side of my room lives Gen who told everybody that she is alcoholic since her husband died and cheerfully drinks I don't know how many liters of wine per day and sometimes she comes to me to open a bottle of Champagne at 9 am, because she has not enough strength in her hands. But she is a nice 86 year old girl, very friendly, helpful and also cheerful. 

I also visited an ancient friend, her cat had 3 kitten, and I absolutely had to see them before they move into other homes.  

 

 

 

Rosie perfectly fits in this home she is over 90 ! (19 yrs)

 

 

 

 

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

HODGEPODGE JUNE 26

 1. What does adventure mean to you? 

To travel through countries I don't know. I have already seen a lot but not enough to my taste ! 

Petra (Jordan) 

2.  What are your thoughts on tipping? What businesses or service providers do you regularly tip? Do you resent being asked if you'd like to add a tip? What about when a suggested amount is presented?

In most of the European countries the tip is included in the VAT (TVA). So you pay what is written on the invoice. If you give a tip that's your own decision. I only give a tip when I am in countries where the tip is not included in the price. 

3. I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream...do we? Is ice cream a favorite treat at your house? What's your favorite flavor? Regular, soft serve, gelato, sherbet, or some sort of non-dairy version of ice cream...what's your pleasure? 

The last weeks I was looking an ice cream but the places I knew were closed or didn't exist anymore. Probably all victims of the Corona lock down. But meanwhile I found what I wanted. I love Straciatella, Dame Blanche, but also a simple ice cream or a sorbet.  

4. What's your 'back in my day, we____________________ ' story or saying? 

That's impossible to answer because I am still living and my days are not over yet. The expression "back in my day" exists in all languages I know and it's wrong in my opinion, because it should say "when I was young". Then indeed I did other things then today. 

Back in our days, my grandma and myself when we were 20

5. Somehow this is our last Hodgepodge in the month of June. Next week's Hodgepodge lands in July. Wow. Sum up your June using three adjectives.

cold, hot, rainy, cold hot rainy, cold hot rainy etc 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Since at least two months I didn't have serious troubles with my breathing problems and I thought maybe my illness is gone, but today I realized that it is still there so I was a bit depressed, fortunately we played ping pong in the park, not me, because too much physical efforts, but  I had fun and laughed a lot because no one could return a single ball. 

Mimi had been Belgium's table tennis queen and had won many prizes. Now she is angry with herself because the balls flew everywhere but over the net. Mimi is already in her late 80s and always makes us laugh.

 

 

Mimi once Belgian champion of table tennis ! 

 and two who had never played in their lives !

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

When the weather is nice and warm we are always outside on the terrace of "our" castle. We planted flowers and we learn games we didn't play in our childhood. Our minds and our agility are encouraged.

One of the castle cats think that we are too loud

 

We do Yoga exercises and have our coffee and cake on the grass and we feel like being on holidays 

Our staff too take their lunch break on the picnic tables in the park.

 

 

more participants here,

THE FROG

Yesterday, eight of us sat around a round table on the terrace and had our coffee chat. The new resident with the nice name Marie Therese, told us that she had been an Aikido teacher for 20 years in the school she herself had created. Unfortunately an early stage of Alzheimer's had been diagnosed and it became to dangerous to live alone. Now she is happy here, and she fits well into our group. 

Like me we still can enjoy our castle and the beautiful park. It was a wonderful day. André, the widower, asked me for the hundredth time where I was born, but this time I didn't answer his questions because I had heard a frog croak.

 

no water here 

There is no water in our park and I thought the poor thing got lost and now is looking for water. I asked the others if they also heard the frog and we all listened and yes, we all heard it very clearly.

At the next table was a man sitting with his wife severely handicapped. She lay in a special wheelchair, couldn't speak and eat alone and what was awful was her look she always had her mouth wide open and two teeth were missing. At the beginning I really was afraid and disgusted when I saw her and admired her husband who came each afternoon to look after her. 

As with everything, now I am not afraid anymore and am used to her look. He just went by to pick up a glass of water for her and I asked him if he also heard the frog. He listened, and then he  burst out in a loud laughter. We all looked at him, confused, but then he stopped laughing and said with a broad grin on his face... "No, that's not a frog, that's my wife grinding her teeth." Now we had to laugh, even though it wasn't really funny. But he found the "frog" story so hilarious. 

 

 

 

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AWWW MONDAY

 Now you can say awwww

 

 

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

On Monday 9 of us went to the Abbey of Villers la Ville. I thought it was an opportunity to make a little tour with my car and eat an ice cream a very nice one somewhere. I left after lunch, stopped in a shop to buy some Nail polish.The moment I arrived, the store went dark; the power had gone out. No one knew how long it would last, and since the cash registers weren't working either, I just kept driving and drove through Waterloo Center in search of ice cream.

The ones I know, didn't exist anymore there was another shop in it. Probably a result from the Covid time. With another one it was the same, and finally I found ice in the "Lunch Garden" of the Carrefour supermarket. It was not at all what I was looking for as, 

Impossible to sit outside street works are going on in the center. I wanted to sit outside on the terrace looking at people and  and enjoy my ice cream. Instead, I sat inside and hurried home and sat on the terrace. The weather was too nice to stay inside. 

When I arrived a few were sitting there, hanging in their chairs, sleeping or stared into space. One sat in a corner and cried. I tried to cheer them up which fortunately went well, I just told them about my hunt for ice cream and the changes in Waterloo. I asked the poor crying girl why she was so sad, but she didn't know it herself. I asked her to sit with the others, which she did, and we talked about all sorts of things. Then it was time for dinner.

The next day we had a meeting with the management. Everyone was supposed to say what they had to complain about and what needed to be improved. We all sat around the round tables, and the manager asked if we had anything to complain. Nobody moved everyone just looked at me. So I took the microphone for the hard of hearing and said what needed to be improved. I personally had not much to complain, but the others ! I had made a list, because the poor manager couldn't know all these details if nobody says something. 

Most of these old ladies believe that they are in a sort of boarding school and don't dare to complain. Nobody had anything to say about the staff, they are all very friendly and very helpful, but as it is everywhere they only have two hands and there is a lack of personal. 

It continued to be very warm and as the monthly birthdays were celebrated, we decided to escape and buy a fan for Jeanine. The birthday celebrations were nice last year, because we had little shows. The first birthday I saw was with a group of country music dancers and that was very nice. Then we also had a magician and other things and then suddenly singers appeared who scratched on a guitar or banged on a badly tuned piano and sang ancient songs that would have been more suited to our grandmothers. Somehow the person who organizes the birthdays forgot that we came from the generation of Elvis Presley, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Tom Jones etc. I managed to make it through a birthday party twice but not anymore. Lots of people feel the same way. When we got back from our shopping, I asked the others "How was it ?" and got the answer "terrible" most people were asleep! Not exactly a compliment for the poor singer.

We instead, after having bought the fan were looking again for ice cream we longed for but Waterloo had changed so much, the shops had changed, impossible to find ice cream. Finally  we ended up at the Mont St. Jean Farm, which had been a military hospital for English soldiers during Napoleon's time. There we finally ate our ice cream a Dame Blanche that tasted excellent. We felt like we were on vacation. Jeanine was happy to be going out for the first time since her husband died!

It had changed very much, not the outside but the inside and was now also a lot bigger. 

 Here Jeanine enjoyed her "Dame Blanche".  We spent an excellent day.

The next day I woke up and thought I was dreaming, I heard kid's laughter and they were quite noisy. I was wondering what they were doing here in our park, but then I saw them dancing and most of our residents were sitting around them and watched. After the dances, they were running in the park. 

Around noon they lined up and went away. We were two parties, one loved the children's screaming and developed their grandmother feelings while the others had enough of children's noise and went back to their rooms and closed the windows.

When the children were gone, we sat on the terrace and waited for our lunch. I stood on Pauline's balcony and took this picture.

Hopefully the nice summer weather continues also next week ! 

 

 

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

HODGEPODGE JUNE

 

1. Summer officially begins this week (in the northern hemisphere)...what was your favorite thing to do in the summer when you were a kid? What do you like most about summer now? 

When I was a child I played outside with my friends or we went swimming in the Rhine, one of the longest rivers in Europe. At that time we could as the water was clean. Now it's not allowed to swim anymore. As an adult I still love swimming in the sea or a swimming pool and lay under an umbrella in the sun. 

2.  Something you'll celebrate this summer?

Yes, my birthday in July 😒 and in August the birthday of my son 

 

3. Summer tastes like? Smells like? Sounds like? 

Ice cream, a mixture of mowed lawn and blooming flowers, and the sound of frogs. 

4. June 18th is National Splurge Day...what's the last thing you splurged on? What might you splurge on today? 

Splurging is not really my cup of tea, and if it happens then I am depressed or in a bad mood. The last thing I splurged on was a Straciatella ice with whipped cream, and a cup of Italian coffee 

5. Share a favorite summer quote, saying, song lyric, or meme. 

“I’m glad it’s finally hot enough to complain about how hot it is.” 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I am too lazy to think ! It's hot, I hide under a beautiful tree with big leaves and an unspeakable name and just enjoy a peaceful moment and an empty head.