It's really hard to summarize oneself for the general public. I mean, really, what does the public want to know about me? Am I married? Yes. Do I have children. Yes, three, and they're all grown thank God. (By that I mean parenting is HARD. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, but I'm really glad our offspring have all reached adulthood.) Do I have pets? Yup. Two dogs. Since the kids are all grown, you'll read more about my dogs than my kids. Because that's what happens when you get old like me. I have three grand kids, too, so you'll read about them as well. But the dogs live with me and, when I am desperate for blog topics, they usually help me out.
Our last visit to Belgium really was spent hanging around our friends’ house for a week or so. They’d just moved in five days before we arrived. They needed time to unpack/get organized, and we said we could help while we were there. I volunteered to serve as personal chef for the week and Mike agreed to be the extra handyman.
Their house was not newly built. It’s a building they bought, gutted completely inside and out, then re-did the way they wanted. It was a brave, expensive, and time-consuming undertaking. It’s still a work in progress, but their vision is coming-together nicely.
While we were there, one of the things that kept drawing my attention was this big hole in the wall between their kitchen and living room. I know that it is meant to house a fireplace one day, but I also know that fireplaces are expensive, so it may be a while before they actually get one. Based on our experience building the WV place, I know that space will end up being a storage spot for miscellaneous boxes and other junk until it is properly filled.
Unsightly Hole in the Wall
Who wants to look at that all the time? So, I suggested that Annelies and I do a craft project and make something to hang over the hole as temporary camouflage. She’s not usually one who would go for that idea, claiming she can’t draw and isn’t very artistic. I offered to draw the thing so all she’d have to do was add paint. She agreed.
We bought some inexpensive canvases, paint, and brushes. I found some examples of cat art we’d seen on a previous trip, which I used as inspiration. I drew a cat for each of us, then we got creative.
Here I am, painting my cat.
Annelies painting her cat.
She had more fun than she thought she would.
Cats in progress.
Things got quite colorful.
Colorful cats.
Voila! Two artful cats.
Perfect to hide the junk.
All it took was about 30 Euros(?), a little time, and some creativity. No more unsightly junk-collection spot.
Cute cafe at Knokke-Strand on the North Sea in Belgium.
I freely admit that I am easy to entertain. It doesn’t take much to make me laugh. Hubby pretends to be above silliness most of the time, but, lately, he’s been enjoying googly eyes, though, and he sometimes does other stuff, like happily make goofy faces for pictures, that convinces me his inner silly-boy is struggling to be set free.
During our last trip to Belgium, when we went specifically to see Annelies and Yves’ new house and “just” visit with them, as opposed to gallivanting together to some other destination(s) as we had on previous vacations, we took a little day-trip to give our friends a break from unpacking/organizing. They’d only officially moved in about five days before we arrived.
A classic goofy-face pic.
One of the things I’d always wanted to do was see a Belgian beach town. I know that beach towns in the UK are nothing like American beach towns. Annelies told me that their beach towns are not really very picturesque, But I wanted to see for myself. So we went to Knokke Beach.
It was early Thursday, October 5. The latitude of Knokke Beach is 51.35′, which is pretty far north. In North America, the rough equivalent to that latitude on the Atlantic side would put us around the northern tip of Newfoundland Island. On the Pacific side, that would put us well north of Vancouver Island. So it was cold. Windy, too, unfortunately.
After strolling around a bit, we were all freezing and hungry, so we ducked into that cute cafe for lunch. I left the table to find the toilet, leaving my phone behind. Later, I discovered that husband of mine had taken a couple of pictures while I was away, enlisting the help of our friends in his shenanigans.
Those pics made me giggle, so I decided to share them with you.
Mike (the ringleader)Annelies (prankster #1)Yves (Prankster #2)
Funny, right? Our friends have their own silly side!
I am, and have always been, the picture-taker. Annelies takes a lot of pictures, too, but I’m usually the one that makes people pose next to interesting stuff or in certain spots for pictures. And it’s always me who has the selfie-stick, if I remember it, and long arms if I don’t.
On the day we drove to Knokke (pronounced like kuh-no-kuh), we also stopped in the town of Sluis (pronounced like slew), which is in the Netherlands, just so we could say we’d gone to the Netherlands, too. We’d only driven through that country previously, and had once briefly visited the spot where Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany meet.
I was delighted to see they had a cow statue.
Me and Annelies with a cow.
In Sluis, there was also a windmill. Nothing says “we visited the Netherlands” like a photo with a windmill, right? That cow photo could have been taken anywhere.
The conversation probably went something like this…
“Oooh, look. A windmill! We HAVE to get a group photo with the windmill!” I probably said.
The group would have groaned collectively and Annelies would’ve said something like, “A windmill? Really? Why?”
“What do you mean why? Everyone knows windmills are synonymous with the Dutch!” I probably said, by “Dutch” meaning inhabitants of the Netherlands or the country itself, not speakers of the Dutch language.
“Should we all buy clogs, too?” she may or may not have asked, sarcastically.
I would have already been seeking the perfect spot by that point while they chatted amongst themselves, good naturedly (I think) bitching about this weird photo thing I always subject them to, cracking jokes about the number of pictures I take, Mike again remarking how much money we saved when we switched from film to digital images, etc.
“Okay, here’s a good spot,” I would have said, pretending to ignore their complaining. “Annelies, stand there. Mike, get next to her. Yves, beside Mike or in the rear.”
“Where will you stand?” Yves would have said, pretending to be concerned about getting me in the frame while secretly plotting the optimal spot for him to stand while making photo-bomb faces, or doing something else unusual.
Here are some of the lovely images we ended up with that day…
Mike photo-bombed the practice shot.
Annelies always tries to be serious, to get it over with quickly.
All but Yves smiled normally.
Yves really likes these photo antics.
Finally, Yves smiles normally so Annelies had to act-up.
We never did end up with one where we are all smiling normally, but that’s okay. Images like this have become “classic” group photos, marking the various holidays we’ve enjoyed together.
Here are a few of the others…
First, from Capitol Reef National Park in Utah, taken in September 2011.
The closest we got to “normal.”Not quite synchronized, but close.Altogether goofy.
There’s usually a story behind the pics, too, but I won’t bore you with those details. It’s just significant to the four of us, and seeing these images instantly brings it all back.
Here are a few more of my personal favorites, from Kutna Hora, Czech Republic in September 2016.
It’s almost like Yves was gasping for air.
Perhaps his open-mouthed look is just a newer creation?
Of Yves’ many silly faces, this one always makes me laugh the hardest.
There are MANY more. It would take me hours to find them all.
I’ll end this post with an image that still holds the record for Annelies’ best photo-bomb ever!
I was trying for a signature selfie with one of David Cerny’s Crawling Babies in Prague when she interrupted.
Posing for photos may sometimes seem tedious, but I have found that it’s almost always worth it in the end. For me, anyway.
If our most-recent trip had to have a theme, it would definitely be “same, but different.” For many reasons. It’s fun comparing cultures.
1. A Different Sort of Trip
We’ve been to Belgium four times now. But this time we stayed in that one country for 10 days. And we didn’t do much touristy stuff at all, like visit areas where most people speak English fairly well (shopkeepers, restaurant staff, and such) and food and beverage establishments offer menus in English.
Belgium is a small country (roughly the size of Maryland), yet there are three official languages spoken: Dutch, French, and German. Your geographic location within the country determines the language that will primarily be used. Because Annelies and Yves both speak English fluently, we’ve never made an effort to learn Dutch, their primary language. Normally, that wouldn’t matter. This time, because we weren’t in touristy areas, it did. We survived, but we all agree it’s time Mike and I learned some Dutch.
Of course, there are apps like Google Translate that can help you get by, but the translations you get tend to be very literal. Take this fun sign on the front of a store as an example.
“Come in and your mouth falls open,” says the stork.
The literal translation can usually get you in the neighborhood of the proper meaning, but people don’t talk like that. It probably means something like, “You’ll be amazed at the wide selection or quality of stuff we have.”
We talk about these language differences, usually when we are discussing the fact that we still do not know Dutch. Annelies gave us a great example during our last trip. You know how we say people are anal, meaning they are nit-picky or very obsessed with details? There’s no specific word or term for that in Dutch, no way to translate it literally. The way they describe someone as being anal is to say they are “mier neuken.” Literally translated, that means an ant fucker. Again, people don’t talk like that.
The point is, if we want to spend more time exploring Belgium off-the-beaten-path, we should learn some Dutch. We’ll see how that goes. I seem to remember having said that before. More than once, actually. But, language laziness is a very American trait.
2. Interesting Kiddie Entertainment
A Giraffe Hovercraft!
In the US, we typically see ride-on toys in front of supermarkets and maybe even big-box stores, but I’d never seen one like THIS. The ones we have in the US are stationary. The giraffe this little boy is riding is a hovercraft that moves through the mall. How cool is that?
Of course, I rarely go to shopping malls. Maybe we do have them in the US and I just haven’t seen them? If you’ve seen one here in the States, do tell.
3. The Widest Variety of Doors
The architecture in other places intrigues me. I was going to say “in other countries,” but even among various regions of the US, things can be very different.
I’ve often said the brickwork in Belgium delights and intrigues me, but have I ever mentioned the doors? They have the coolest doors. Really. Here are some images I captured to illustrate that point.
Art-deco(ish) Door
Doors of neighboring houses are rarely alike. (Click for larger image.)
Doorknob in the middle!
Big wooden door.
That wooden door is actually on a restaurant where we had a delicious dinner one evening. Not only is the door unique, check out the roof. It’s a thatched roof.
Check out the Thatched Roof.
One of my favorite doors.
Fancy brickwork around the door plus an embedded statue.
Notice the large size of the doors, too?
Another art-decoish door. Check out that handle.
Another row of houses, all with very distinctive door designs.
See the coverings on the lower-floor windows in the picture immediately above? Those are very common. They’re roll-down shutters (not sure if that’s the right word). Often, they’re electric, and can be opened and closed at the touch of a button.
Even the relatively plain houses have unique doors.
Brick front, clapboard-like side, and a clay tile roof.
Interesting mix of architectural style.
I should mention that this is not a collection of photos from a fancy, touristy area, historical district, etc. These are just regular, everyday, ordinary houses I saw while walking around Grembergen, our friends’ town in central Belgium, which is located in the municipality of Dendermonde, in the province of East Flanders.
Here are some more pics, not so door-focused.
Coolest fence ever.
A barber pole!
See the bicycle lane? It’s between the parked cars and the sidewalk. That’s MUCH safer for cyclists.
The electric shutters on this house are very large.
Plain yet not plain, right?
AN Old house with wooden shutters. I’m guessing they’re not electronically operated.
Another example of shutters.
How much do you love the architectural details on this one? I do!
I really loved the green-ceramic brick and purplish trim on that old house. Come to find out, it’s historically or culturally significant for some reason.
Emblem of the Hague Convention of 1954 with text “Beschermd Monument”, used to mark protected buildings and other structures.
This house was in a different town, near our friends’ music school.
Busier street, so there’s a wider bicycle path.
I really like that there are distinct bicycle paths. Even in the more suburban areas, lots of people ride their bicycles as a form of transportation, not just for exercise or fun. The red path in the above image is for bikes.
The bike path is narrower on our friends’ smaller street.
This sight tickled me. Three boys bicycling to the skateboard park?
This one made me chuckle.
I really liked this dog mural on the side of a local pub.
And for the final image of this post that got WAY longer than expected…
A Harley Davidson pick-up truck!
Vehicles in Europe are typically much smaller than vehicles in the US, and pick-up trucks aren’t exactly common. So we were really surprised to see this HD-branded extra-large pick-up truck.
I hope y’all enjoyed the pics. Can you understand why I enjoyed walking around, just looking? It’s a glimpse of everyday life in Belgium. Travel doesn’t always have to be to exotic, well-known places to be interesting.
The good news about being out of work in June and into July is that I am free to watch as many FIFA World Cup games as I want. Unfortunately, the US men failed to even qualify for this tournament, but Belgium’s team is playing, so that’s who we are behind. Mike and I both sort of feel a close connection to that country since we have close friends there and have visited several times recently. Plus, I really have come to like that little country.
Yesterday’s match was amazing. Japan, ranked something like #61 in the world, played like they were super-human. It really looked like they were going to win 2-0. Then something finally clicked with BE’s Red Devils and they came back to win 3-2.
Happy Ending
While watching the game, I wondered how the team communicates amongst themselves. Belgium, which is roughly the same size as Maryland, has three official languages, Dutch, French, and German, plus there are other languages or dialects of the official languages spoken in some small areas. Crazy, right?
Are any of you soccer fans? I actually played soccer recreationally for about 10 years. I didn’t start playing until I was in my 30s. I played indoor and outdoor soccer, on both all-female and coed teams. I miss it.
Have you heard about this new concept of a “risky” playground? If not, check out this video.
I find it both interesting and sad at the same time. Interesting because it seems people are finally starting to wake up and realize the quality of life in our society has been declining in more ways than one. Things that seem relatively minor in the whole scheme of things, such as overprotecting, constantly entertaining, and thinking for our children, are bad. Parents are supposed to provide a solid foundation for their children, not hand-feed and guide them every single little step of the way into young adulthood.
We learn through failure. If kids aren’t allowed to fail, they’ll never grow into well-rounded adults. People may scoff at so-called “free range” parents, but I would rather see parents easing their children into independence than hovering and over-protecting them. It’s really ironic that it’s the helicopter parents who also let their kids run amuck, doing what they want, when they want, with little or any consequences.
I’ll get off the soapbox now. Maybe this “new” concept of allowing kids to learn for themselves is a sign of hope for society? Perhaps. I know one thing, I’m glad I’m not raising young kids in this day and age.
L-R, Eric, Amy, and Shannon
Thankfully, our children are all grown. Getting them all together is a rare treat. I think we did a pretty good job raising them. They all turned into pretty nice, interesting, independent people. They get along well, too, on the rare occasions that they’re all together.
Speaking of getting along, or not… I have been meaning to share this picture with y’all for AGES. It took me forever to actually stop and take the picture, then it sort of got lost amidst the other clutter on my phone.
It’s not terribly far west of us in what I think is Culpeper County. We refer to it as the house with the “spite wall.”
Spite Wall
You can only see one of the houses in that photo. The other is on the right-hand side of the wall, not far at all from that unsightly divider. The wall looks like it’s been there for quite some time. I imagine there’s an interesting story or two behind THAT one.
One thing I’ve always enjoyed about having a blog is being able to look back and see what happened, when it happened, etc. But I posted so infrequently over the past year that I can’t even do that! It’s sad, really. Not sad as in “OMG, I’m bawling my eyes out,” more like “damn, now I have to look back through old pics, e-mails, and/or calendar entries…” Gasp!
I am still unemployed. All the “spare time” I thought I might have has been nonexistent. I’ve been “working” full days looking for a job instead. I seriously want to find the perfect job for me, not just accept the first job that comes along out of desperation. I’m a big girl, I learn from past mistakes as well as previous positive experiences.
All “work” and no play makes for an unhappy ToadMama, though, so I’ll have to look for something interesting to post about.
In the meantime, here’s some visual interestingness for you.
The Chair
Believe it or not, I don’t walk around looking at stuff, thinking, “OMG, I absolutely HAVE to take a picture. I have to share it with my gazillion fans. I must, I MUST! I have to get this online!” Stuff just catches my eye.
What can I say? I’m a visual person.
That’s probably why I so enjoyed my time in San Diego last year. All I had to do was work, take care of one small dog, and take care of myself. I stuck to my Eastern Standard Time schedule, so I had lots of free time most afternoons. The dog got walked a lot and I got to amble around looking at stuff, searching for SD’s best street tacos, sampling a wide variety of local craft beer, enjoying various beaches, etc. It was awesome.
Below are a few images that captured my eye. I have lots more, including a series of shots of the coolest “ART” sculpture(?) ever! That ART thing needs its own post.
Street Art Paint
The Devil Made Me Do It
Artelexia, a super-cool store in North Park.
Silly Cacti Selfie
Mural on Local Brewery
Literary Octopus
Artful Octopus
San Diego is a really colorful place. I hope I get to explore in a similar fashion again!
