HODGEPODGE AUGUST 6

1. What's something on your August calendar you're looking forward to? Or dreading if that's easier to answer. 

If my COPD allows it and I can breath and walk normally, I want to to spent a day at the sea 

2. August 5th is National Oyster Day...do you partake? How do you feel about pearls?

Certainly not ! I loved to eat oysters the more the better until one day I got an oyster poisoning and spent three days in the bathroom, it was awful. Since then, I can't even look at an oyster without thinking of that terrible week!

I tried to make it with AI but the ​​clasp is not quite right.
 

Pearls are a different story; I have a very beautiful necklace with a ruby ​​clasp that I inherited later from my mother. Here I was wearing it when I was with the dancers of Maurice Béjart I also have another one—a very long one—but that’s just costume jewelry. 

3. Tell us about a time when you felt like 'the world was your oyster'. 

That was mostly as a young woman, when I had a responsible job, was dependent on no one, and the world was at my feet (or my oyster)

Here I am 22 years old with my first car, bought with my own money !

4. Trip Advisor lists seven islands in the US that require no passport (for US citizens). If you're answering today from outside the US you'll still need to produce yours. An-y-way, have you been to any of the seven? Let's pretend you get an all expense paid trip to one this month...which one do you choose and why? 

Catalina Island California~Martha's Vineyard Massachusetts~Mackinac Island Michigan~Key West Florida~South Padre Island Texas~or Kauai Hawaii

No, I have been in California, in Michigan, Florida and Texas, but I don't know these places and I have never been to Hawaii. But I always had to travel with my German passport, because although I live now since 1959 in Belgium, I have never asked for the Belgian citizenship. I have the same rights as a Belgian so I don't see why, the only difference is as Belgian I would have to vote, voting is mandatory, and if you don't vote, you get fined. I don't like to be forced. 

5. Sylvia Plath is credited with the following- 

"August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time."

Agree or disagree? In other words, how do you feel about this month? 

I very much agree ! August leads us to autumn which I hate. It already smells like end of summer beginning autumn ! In the past it had often been the hottest month here, but with the climate change there are no rules anymore. 

Lago di Garda, (Garda Lake, Italy) in August. Rick's home,  the lake is very famous for Windsurf.
 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

The last three days have been terrible for me. I could hardly dress myself and if I made 5 steps I was breathless, it is always better when I have taken my medication, but unfortunately it doesn't last in this heat until the evening. I hope it will get better the next days and that the temperature falls under 30°C and that the air is not so humid anymore ! We are not used to these temperatures and have to change our habits.