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.