WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

 This is  our park where we can walk, sit on the benches or in the grass (if you can get up alone) 

Somebody has built cat houses, we have 6 castle cats, which live happily in the park, are fed by a volunteer and checked once per year by a vet.

Here is one just walking through the park !

There is also a Madonna in the Park, as a convent is annexed to the castle where once nuns lived.

Through the cat's house window I saw two who were not happy to see me, but I saw baskets, blankets, cushions etc and at the door is a is a sign that says: Caution, cats live here

 and that is their house, I could live in there too 

This is the monastery that has also been converted into a retirement home and is connected to the castle.

 

 

And if your guests want to have a picnic, there are tables with benches.

more participants here,

EXCURSION A VILLERS LA VILLE

Some of my roommates went on an excursion to the ruins of an old monastery in Villers la Ville. (If you want to read the story in more detail,here is the link.) 

My first girlfriend here is a 94-year-old Jewish woman from Rhodes, where she was born. Just before the persecution of Jews began, her father and the entire family moved to the Belgian Congo in Africa, and she didn't notice anything of the Jew drama. 

Despite the big age difference, we get along great. Now she absolutely wanted to go on the excursion. I know the place very well because I have been there quite often, at least for the first time 30 years ago, when it really was falling into ruins and you didn't have to pay an entrance. Then a clever mayor decided to restore what was possible, had it made to a very interesting Tourist site. Therefore I stayed home.

It's very big and not at all made for elderly people from 80 years on until 98 ! Our young animator didn't think of it. I told Pauline to stay here that it was far to dangerous to go with them, but she insisted. So I insisted that the family should decide because I was sure that she would return half dead. And indeed she was very angry that her family had not stopped her and at least I had tried, but she hasn't listened to me ! 

When you are 30 and have difficulties to imagine how a 90 year old will act, you should try to learn it. It was not the first time that he proposed something which was not at all for old people. 

Some parents had not known what excursion that was and had given their agreement, and now they are angry ! 

I went for my shopping, but there was no electricity, it had broken down. The store was dark, and of course the cash registers weren't working. So I gave up and sat on the terrace of a restaurant and treated myself to a large portion of ice cream and a cup of coffee.and watched people walking by. Just as I did in my life before.

It's very interesting, but you have to have strong legs !! 

 

 

 

AWWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND JUNE 14

 

A happy camel

 

stuck in the tree trunk, we had to pull him out by his tail

 

good for the teeth

 

 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

 The always hungry Arthur

 

 

 

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS

 

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WEELKEND 

On Saturday our two ergotherapists (I call them animator) had the day off. That annoyed me, and the others too, but they were too afraid to say anything. I mean, they both have a right to their days off if they work on public holidays, of course, but why both on the same day?

The weather was beautiful again, and the agenda included a coffee clatch. I had suggested it so everyone wouldn't stay in their rooms. I simply fetched them; the kitchen provided coffee and cake, and so there were seven of us working to make the world a better place. 

A newcomer who knew quite a bit and had traveled a lot told us his opinion about Trump. He analysed and dissected him, already knew what he would do in the future, and declared him bipolar. Then André chimed in and confused the Israel War with the First World War, which also made us laugh.

Many dug up their childhood memories, where they had to pluck chickens (only after they were slaughtered, of course), and the girls had to learn to sew and cook, while the brothers could continue to go to school. It was quite interesting. 

I didn't have eight or more siblings; I was an only child, and my parents weren't farmers, so our childhoods were quite different. The fact that almost everyone was hard of hearing and some had forgotten their hearing aids made it even more amusing, as they usually understood something completely different.

Our Italian Mamma, Rina, was happy that she could pamper a rather young woman, who is very beautiful and had been a model. She suffers from Alzheimer doesn't speak and her Madonna face looks always the same, on some days she gives me a smile, but her eyes are like two black knobs. Rina fed her and gave her to drink, and was really in her "mamma" role. She is already 94 but still very fit. Her head just doesn't quite work anymore. Every afternoon at 4:00 p.m. she wants to pay for her room and asks if she can be taken home so that she can cook for her five children. The children are now grandparents, too! But there is no point in explaining anything to her; after 4, she lives in a different world. 

 

On Sunday it had cooled down and we had to play inside. I don't know who is in charge of the air condition, but when I came into the restaurant it was very cold. I checked it and somebody had left the device on very cool because outside we had 33 °.. But now we had 20°C and it was windy. I asked one of the cleaners to switch off that thing because we were freezing, but he didn't have the remote Control ! Finally another one came tried to switch it off, but made it even cooler. Finally 3 boys managed to turn off the air condition. Of course they don't know that and I explained them that this thing works like a heating only the other way around. Now my intelligence is definitively confirmed.

We played a funny game, to find out professions which don't exist anymore, like the one who had to light each evening the petrol lamps on the street. It was amazing what profession existed !