Ježíšek umřel a pak přišel Santa

"Ale ty to nevis?
Jezisek uz davno neexistuje!
Vsechny deti ve skole to rikaly a i Juffrouw! On existoval, ale hroozne davno.
Kdyz lidi jeste bydleli v tech malejch chaloupkach, no v takovejch tech domeckach, nebo v jeskynkach, tak pak existoval.
Jezisek, ten se dokonce narodil v takovej barn, ehmmm... a jo, stodola! Taky tam byla maminka a tata a stali tam ovecka, krava a osel, ty tam stali!
A maminka a tata, ty meli neco zluteho na hlave. A vsichni lidi se sli podivat na Jeziska...

Lidi Jeziska postavili na krizek a pockali az von umrel a pak ho dali pod kameny.
A pak takhle umreli ty páni a pak Jezisek taky umrel a pak prisel Santa.
Nejdriv byl malej a pak si ucil a ucil, az kdyz byl dospelej Santa. Ten ma takovy ty srnky a ty umi litat.
Akorat by me zajimalo, jak se dostane dovnitr. Mozna, ze von jde taky skrz komin..."

Po Mikuláši

Sice uz jsme meli nekolik dychanku na rozloucenou, ale vypada to, ze tu budeme strasit jeste o vanocich. Takze bohuzel. Nic naplat.
Ani nemam chut se o tom dal rozepisovat...

Jeste ze se Mikulas postaral o prijemne rozptyleni. A vubec musime byt vdecni, ze mame takove stastne dite. Vsechno je pro nej fajn, at uz je to v Belgii nebo v Africe. Mikulasovi vysvetlil, jak uz se nemuze dockat, jak ho budou v Africe provazet ze skoly opicky, bude se s nima houpat na stromech, bude jezdit na zebrach, na mori bude chytat zraloky a se Skautikama zachranovat malinke zelvicky na plazi.
Mikulas i Cerni Petri udelali opet velky dojem, i kdyz se Maarten pozastavil nad tim, jak to ze Mikulas na hudebce, ve skole i na podnikove oslave mel pokazde uplne jinou knihu hrichu a jinou berlu! Hmmm...

Dneska rano, kdyz Maarten odesel do skoly, zbyl tady po nem cerstvy obrazek vanocniho stromku.
Je to tak, uz se zase pro zmenu tesime na Jeeežíška.

15 kufru

Maarten, jako vsechny deti v Nizozemi, zije ted hlavne Mikulasem. Ten prijel lodi v sobotu 12. listopadu rovnou ze Spanelska a nadeluje, jen se z nej kouri.

A my uz balime! Na nase nalehani nam konecne navezli krabice, abysme mohli trochu zacit pripravovat. Takze parada! Je tu sileny blazinec, tj. musime vsechno roztridit na
- co se vezme s sebou do kufru
- co se necha stehovat lodi (tj. co muze byt 6-8 mesicu na ceste)
- a co nechame v Belgii ve skladu.

K tomu samozrejme vsechna ta celni omezeni, co se prepravovat smi a co ne a taky a hlavne, abysme se vesli...

Moc "fajn"! Je to celkem organizacne narocne vymyslet vsechno tak akorat na ty 3 roky. Mame cele seznamy, nakoupili jsme extra kufry. Muzeme si jich naplnit celkem 15!!! coz me celou tu zalezitost vubec neulehcilo, vzhledem k tomu, ze jsem doufala, ze pojedu s jednim kufrikem obleceni.
Ale zkuseni cizinci, jiz pobyvajici v Angole, nabadaji teto moznosti plne vyuzit vzhledem k nedostatkum a hlavne astronomickym tamnim cenam.
Takze kufry zrejme dostatecne naplnime, ale jestli jich bude 15 o tom silne pochybuju.

Shrnuto, mam pocit, ze nas presun je opravdu konecne na spadnuti.
Moje a Maartenickovy papiry uz jsou vyrizene a ted jeste cekame na preklady nezbytne pro pracovni viza.
A pak "to" pry snad trva maximalne 3 tydny!

Takze tridime a balime a tridime a balime a tridime...

To non-Czechs

The past couple of months I have been extremely busy trying hard to drum the Portuguese language into my head, not to mention all the preparations for our move to Angola!
That’s why it’s kind of difficult keeping up with my blog lately. Not that I’m going to stop writing but will continue in my native language as that seems to be less time consuming at the moment.
If still interested in our adventures willing to read my ingenious notes, I would kindly ask all non-Czech speaking folks to use the Google Translator (top right corner) plus a lot of imagination.

Thanks!

Eifel 31/10 - 4/11

Doufala jsem, ze se tyto podzimni prazdniny podivam konecne na Sumavu. Bohuzel ale nase vyhlidnute bydleni bylo zavrene pro udrzbu a odjet na tyden do Cech by asi taky nebylo nejchytrejsi, vzhledem k tomu, ze se kazdym dnem muze “neco” dit.
Takze jsme vyhoveli Maartenickovu prani pobyt v jeho oblibenem “punthuisje” (doslova “spicaty domek”) v Nemeckem Eifelu.
Pocasi bylo perfektni, I kdyz teploty kolem 18 stupnu malo odpovidaji tomuto obdobi, ale je fakt, ze bylo prijemne.

Halloween

Podzim je moje nejoblibenejsi obdobi a samozrejme ze od dob naseho pobytu v Kalifornii slavime kazdorocne Halloween.
Bohuzel o poradnem pumpkin patch nebo o bludisti v kukurici si tady jenom muzeme nechat zdat.

Maarten primo sili s vyzdobou, nad posteli mu visi pavuciny s pavouky ve vsech barvach (krome tech zivych teda), tradicne s tatou vyrezali Jack-o'-lantern, ktery to letos, asi kvuli vysokym teplotam, bohuzel moc dlouho nevydrzel.
Dynova polevka, teda pochutnani pro carodejnice a strasidla zahustene syrovymi pavucinami se tesi velkemu uspechu v nasi rodine, takze uz jsme ji spolu s Maartenickem vycarovali uz nekolikrat.

Tzv. "kijkdoos" (krabice, do ktere se kouka) mela letos u nas premieru. Maarten vyrobil hned dve, nacez se pak v noci bal a mila carodejnice musela z krabice nadobro pryc.

Podzimní vysvědčení

Monolog nad Ptákem Loskutákem (díky Ivet!)

Ten ptacek kouka tak smutne.
Vzdyt ma dirky, vidis, ty zizaly ho prokousaly.
On je spapal a ony mu vykousaly to brisko, ma dirky, aby on svitil.
Dokonce ma diru I v zadku od ty zizaly!

Me se ten ptacek nelibi, protoze kouka tak smutne.
Kdyby tak nekoukal, tak bysem ho mel rad.
Vzdyt ma vlasy a ptacci nemaji vlasy!
A nozky ma obracene, krivy!
A ocicka ma na sobe a kouka jako rimpuch!
?
Rimpuch je jako nakej tukan.
Papal prvni zizalu a ona mu ukousala brisko.
Tuten taky vypada jako nakej monstrik!
A on jeste sedi a on neumi sedet, jenom stat!
Ptacky nemuzou sedet! Jenom s nohama dovnitr a ne s nohama venku, jako my sedime na zidli!
A jeste nema dokonce kridla!
A ma nakej hloupej ocasek, protoze ocasek ma jako nase vlasky a je to jako naka kytka.
To jo, jen se podivej!
Dokonce ma velikansky oci!
Ten ptacek je, aby moh’ vyhanet zlodeje, protoze je tak strasidelnej a to by zadnej zlodej u me neprisel.

Dienen vogel daar van mama is dom! Zo dom als een puntje.

~ Maarteníček Nejlepší

Plzeň 20-23/11

I kdyz me tradicne pred odjezdem chytla panika, (navic umocnena lamentovanim nasi mami, co vsechno se me po ceste muze stat, a zrovna ted!) stalo to vic nez za to!

Horsi byla osobni konfrontace s misty z casu minulych, kam jsem mela prilezitost se konecne podivat. Do mistnich lesu, kam jsem kdysi utikala pred denni realitou.
Musim priznat, ze to bylo celkem bolestive a zrovna kdyz se me hlavou honily ne zrovna prijemne vzpominky, ozval se nade mnou datel. Zkousela jsem ho vyfotografovat, kdyz nahle zazvonil telefon: “Mami, kde jsi a co tam delas?”
I kdyz datlik byl samozrejme ty tam, byla jsem tomu hlasku z telefonu vdecna, ze me vratil zpet do reality dnesni, mnohem prijemnejsi.

Achtmaal

Sea pearls, sea hearts or nickernuts

As some of you might know I’m not a big fan of shopping in general but I do love junk shopping! Not for the bargain but for the thrill of the hunt! And I also like the idea that there is a story behind every item.

The other day I came across this necklace.


At first I thought it was made out of some special kind of buckeyes, probably originating in Africa. This assumption turned out to be completely wrong. After doing some research on the internet I discovered that I should be looking in a different part of the world, particularly in the Caribbean and Florida Keys.

Even though they usually look like large seeds or nuts and they are often called nickernuts, they are from the bean family and are not nuts at all.
They come in many sizes, shapes and colors.

Their life begins in a tropical rain forest where they fall into a stream or river and are then carried out to sea where they may float great distances before washing up onto a beach. Then the beachcombers collect them and make them into jewelry such as my necklace.
What a journey!

Ptáčíčí

S podzimem se tlaci priroda dovnitr naseho obydli. Kdo nas navstivil, vi, ze to vzhledem k stavu tohoto staveni neni zase nijak prekvapive.
Po vsech tech svinkach, uchavcich a zabach byl tenhle ptáčíčí docela vitana zmena. Nakonec se schoval za radiator a nikdo uz ho nenasel, takze jsme radeji par dni netopili.

Brugge, Ghent, Bredene-aan-Zee

How sick can people be?
I try to understand that they don’t like the idea of moving to Angola themselves and I do respect their opinion, and OK, they may keep telling me daily how awful, that they would never go, what an horrible idea to do so.
Foist guilt upon me for taking Maarten into such a dangerous country, but please leave him out of your lament!
Why would you even kneel down to him and ask questions such as “Do you enjoy moving to different countries all the time the same way as your mom and dad do? What about your friends you leave behind? Don’t you like your current school?”
Speaking about school, Maarten loves his new teacher! He could use a little more challenge as he used to have back in California. Those two years here in the Flemish preschool were rather a step back as they only started reading and writing again this school year. That’s the difference between the American and Belgian school system and, ooh well, of course because Maarten was attending our amazing Montessori preschool in Dublin.
It's not surprising that he is again enjoying his school work so much. He is eager to read and write all the time instead of playing! Honestly, I didn’t expect him to be that brave at school considering his reckless and fidgety character but again his teacher seems to be very happy to have him in the class.
Luckily, she is joking with Maarten about his moving to Angola all the time; she would lock him in the closet to avoid his departure to protect him from being eaten by the crocodiles. Needless to say, that Maarten and the whole class enjoy the game tremendously.
Maarten, naturally, has a solution for the future. He is going to make a plane out of cardboard boxes and juf Nele and all his school friends will simply come over to visit him in Africa.


Anyway, we are obviously saying good bye to Belgium.
We had such a beautiful warm weather last week, unbelievable how lucky we were particularly because Rob could finally take some days off.
Same way like in California we are trying to catch up visiting places we still haven’t during our Flemish stay. So after 14 years we went back to Bruges and discovered again for us new hidden picturesque and romantic places and ancient streets. Even though it is only 10 minutes drive untill last Thursday we haven’t visited the beautiful historic downtown of Ghent! Shame!


Luckily Maarten had a day off from school on Friday so we could head for the beach. Right, Maarten would swim no matter the temperature but I wish I brought my swimsuit as well! It was so hot! Even the sea water was very agreeable.

It’s the news we’ve been waiting for!

I wanted to write about a yummy pumpkin soup but there is some bigger news to share. Really excited to say that we got our medical clearance today!

That also means that we finally can start packing up some necessary possessions we may need during our Angolan stay and getting ready for the move.

Some interesting pictures

Just received some interesting pictures from Rob's Angolan colleagues.
It seems they really want us to be ready for the adventure.

A large snake was hiding under the car hood. It must have taken some effort to get him out.

Naarden

Pre-assignment visit to Luanda (28-31/8)

If paying a pretty penny for the flight, one would expect a good quality instead of a broken seat. This wasn’t the best start of our Angola trip.

We landed in Luanda at 6:20 p.m. and, compared to Europe, it was already dark! Someone mentioned it was better that way since the airport surroundings are not that appealing.

Glad we finally made it to the hotel not sure what was going to happen next. It was Sunday night and after the dinner we were looking forward to a good and long night sleep. After all, our first appointment was not until Monday afternoon.
Well, early the next morning Rob’s cell phone was ringing.
“Where are you?! You should have already been here!”
The driver was stuck in the morning traffic and after some spectacular drive through the city he safely got us on the pre-assignment rollercoaster.
I would not list all the activities, meetings, dinners, presentations… I’m still busy sorting my head out. An endurance test?

We met many nice and welcoming people. I was shocked to see the abundance of choices at the local supermarkets. The high prices didn’t surprise me as I was already warned.
The Medical Clinic provides quality standard procedures, however we hope to need their services as little as possible.


Maarten’s future school was above expectations. Naturaly I love its international character. Every child in the classroom is from a different country! And his teacher is so friendly. She also has worked in Czech Republic for some time!

During one night I experienced some bizarre dreams.
In a drenched hotel room I was fighting huge immortal mosquitoes and chopping heads off of aggressive zombies.

Should I blame Malarone or my head had some difficulties to come to terms with the Luanda’s daily scenes, images as seen through the window glass of a chauffeur driven air-conditioned car; commuting between luxury hotels and restaurants, Western-like shopping centre’s and offices, passing never-ending townships, staring at the endless traffic jams, street sellers and people hazardously crossing streets, trying to forget the lifeless body in a puddle of blood in the middle of the street causing even more chaos...

Like two parallel existing worlds.

There and back to Czech (22-25/8)

Traditionally we spent a night in Plzeň had dinner together at the old town’s U Salzmannů that we both enjoyed. Here Maarten told me about his wish to live in Czech Republic permanently. He said he loves hearing people speaking Czech, he wants attend a Czech school and that he actually dislikes the Dutch language! Well, I’m sure that his wish to live close to his favorite babi is of a great influence, but still, he always finds a way how to surprise me.
Walking back to the hotel we had to cross the old square and I took him to the outer altar of the St. Bartholomews church to touch the head of an angel that is supposed to bring good luck.
Without doubt to him this was a truly magical moment.


Next day we finally arrived to babi’s and Maarten got all answers to his never-ending questions such as “what are the doggies going to say, when they see me?”




They were all happy to see each other again so I left the next day for Plzeň to meet up with my past school friends. Unfortunately I got stuck in an awful traffic jam just outside of Prague and because the tropical heats afflicted Central Europe those days, without an air-conditioning it must have been at least 45 °C in the car!

Luckily chilling out at the many terraces of downtown Plzeň with my friends made all well again.

I was afraid the Plzeň's football fans will keep me up that night as there was an important match between Plzen en Copenhagen. But heavy showers, hail, lightning, thunder and strong wind chased almost all the fans away from the square where thousands were watching the match on a giant screen. What a storm!

Even though I was happy for my hometown to beat the Danes I didn’t get much sleep that night, but somehow, miraculously I got safe home the day after not even feeling tired.

Fingers crossed!

What we feared has now become a reality as we are having a hard time getting our medical clearance for living in Angola.

I truly wish that keeping a positive attitude makes a difference and has a real impact on what shall happen.
But for now, it's kind of hard for me.

Please, keep your fingers crossed for good news!

About daydreamers and injuries

After weeks spent behind the PC trying to arrange all necessary documents for the Angolan visa, we were excited to go out on the hills of Wallonia again. As soon as we left the village of Grand Monchau and took the grassy path between fields Rob suddenly fell down moaning in pain.
This was the end of our long desired family outing!

Rob severely twisted his ankle and later at the emergency room the X-ray showed a ligament injury as well as a small bone chip.

So, there goes our hiking trip to Slovak mountains!

Rob's got the below-knee cast to wear for at least two weeks. Even though he is moving around well with the crutches we hope his ankle is healing on schedule so he can progress to walking boot by the end of this week.

As I’m not such a good nurse, luckily, there was no blood this time and I can manage handing crutches, ice packs or coffee quite easily.


Other issue is to keep Maarten in safe distance from Rob’s ankle.
Maarten is such a fantasy-rich child and I love to watch him build houses for hedgehogs and squirrels in our backyard and gnome dwellings in the woods.
He can weave never-ending stories about his future life on an island catching sharks and riding dolphins.

But sometimes his fantasy filled imagination is kind of dangerous. Like Friday afternoon while biking together he decided he doesn’t need his eyes. At first I thought he is not serious but before I could even warn him not to do anything such stupid he crashed into me at full speed. I flew over the handlebars and landed on my face. I realized Maarten is somewhere under the two bikes but incredibly, he didn’t have a scratch! I noticed a car that stopped right in front of us. My right calf bone was killing me as well as the right ankle. In an awful pain and furious I managed to get Maarten’s handlebars out of my front wheel and got us off the road.

I’d rather spare you the juicy details for now as I'm off to garden enjoying lunch with my special company.

Enrollment at LIS and Cultural orientation

This blog is a mess. I’m back to English. Can’t help it, but searching for translation specific terms into Czech takes even more time and effort than writing some sentences in English, even though in bad English.
Yesterday we got confirmation that Maarten's application is complete and he is finally enrolled to the Luanda International School. At last we can leave that sorrow behind. It wasn’t as easy as it might look. Luckily our company has priority entry because, like the other schools in the area, also this school has a waiting list as long as two years.

Last night we had a virtual cultural orientation with Anita (coincidentally an American Dutch we met once back in San Ramon) from Intercultural Group and an Angolan national. Even though I already did a huge research on the internet and also contact with friends who spent years living in Luanda are a great source of information, Seteko gave us an interesting introduction to working with Angolans and to the cultural issues we will need to be aware of.

Zdravotní prohlídka

Dneska je nejaky tezky vzduch. Ani svou oblibenou denni prochazku jsem si moc neuzila. Mozna proto, ze se po mesici konecne trochu oteplilo a nebo proto, ze napjeti kolem zadosti o viza vrcholi.
Zitra mame povinnou zdravotni prohlidku, o ktere, nevim proc, mam silne negativni pocit.
Take musim rict, ze jsem si to psani Cesky predstavovala mnohem jednoduseji. Ted se zastavuju u vyrazu typu "medical check", "medical clearance", "abdominal breathing"...

Hezky česky!

Po takove odmlce je vzdycky tezke zacit psat znova, aspon pro me. Nevim, kde zacit.
Kazdy den se deje tolik, o cem by se melo psat.
Samozrejme se nase denni aktivity ted toci hlavne kolem zarizovani visa do Angoly.
Nechci tady vypisovat cele seznamy vsech dokumentu a papirovani. Nema to smysl, navic bych musela hledat, jak se tem dokumentum vlastne spravne rika v Cestine.
Aha, pisu ted Cesky, teda aspon se snazim,i kdyz samozrejme bez diakritiky. Kdysi jsem zacla psat kdysi tento blog v Anglictine. Zili jsme tenkrat v Kalifornii, takze jsem to brala hlavne jako trenink v cizim jazyce. Taky krome toho, ze jsem to povazovala za takovy neutralni jazyk, kterym mluvi vetsina mych kamaradu, a psat trojjazycne jsem ani tenkrat nestihala.
Musim rict, ze mam celkem problem psat ted Cesky. Ne, ze bych zapomela svoji materstinu, ale v podstate ji pouzivam hlavne v komunikaci s Maartenickem, takze zadne bohate povidani. Takze ted zase po letech budu vyuzivat svuj blog nejenom k zapisovani svych zazitku, ale taky k znovuobjevovani sve krasne materstiny.
Takze tady ted kostrbate placam nesmysli na rozehrati, misto abych vubec napsala, co je noveho.
Taky je celkem mozne, ze slovosled nebezi tak jak ma. Bohuzel, to je vysledek 15 let "mezi cizaky".
Jeste bych mela poznamenat, ze diky nasemu eventuelnimu stehovani do Angoly se budu muset ucit dalsi jazyk, Portugalstinu! A to navzdory tomu, ze jsem se zarekla, ze v tomhle zivote uz se zadne dalsi jazyky ucit nebudu. Bohuzel, bez aspon zakladni znalosti Portugalstiny se v pry v Angole tezko preziva. Takze doufam, ze co nejdriv muzu zacit.
Tim jsem vlastne chtela rict, ze to je taky jeden z duvodu, proc ted budu psat Cesky. Kolikrat se me z tech jazyku uz pekne mota pusa. Salvatore?
Jsem moc rada, ze Maarten zatim ty jeho tri jazyky zvlada vyborne, i kdyz Anglictina samozrejme trochu upadla, a z Holandstiny je Vlamstina, nebo spis Gentsky dialekt.
Ale dulezite je, ze ty jazyky nijak nemota dohromady a vsema se dobre domluvi. A ani se z toho nezblaznil, jak kdysi mnozi sugerovali.

Ted nam k tomu tedy jeste pribyde ta Portugalstina. Jeste nevim, jak to budou resit ve skole, myslim, ze jsem pochopila, ze si muzou vybrat mezi Portugalstinou a Spanelstinou, nebo snad i Francouzstinou? Francouztina by byla asi nejlepsi volba, vzhledem k tomu, ze i tady ve Flandrech ma Francouztinu 3 krat tydne ve skole.

Nas Maartenicek Nejlepsi, (jak se on sam uz nekolik let nazyva, nemam tuseni, jak na to prisel)si sice uziva prazdnin naplno, ale i on se stale pta, kdy prijde leto.
Ja se bojim, ze uz neprijde. Tady v Belgii uz je urcite mesic pocasi jako nekdy koncem rijna. Me osobne to nijak nevadi, i kdyz o trochu tepleji by byt mohlo.
Maarten jde z tabora do tabora, silene si to uziva, i kdyz porad vedou Bobrici. Tam se mu libi nejvic. Myslim, ze to je jedna z mala veci v Belgii, po ktere se nam bude v Angole styskat.
Taky bych ho uz konecne chtela odvezt na Moravu, na jeho vysneny pobyt u babi, ale diky tomu nekonecnemu zarizovani se to proste porad nehodi. Ale uz ted vime, ze driv nez koncem srpna visa na predbeznou navstevu do Angoly nedostaneme, tudiz zrejme nas skolak zameska zacatek jeho prvni tridy. To me silene mrzi, ale co delat, kdyz ho s sebou vzit nesmime a tady se nam o nej nikdo nepostara. To radeji nebudu dal komentovat, abych se nemusela zbytecne rozcilovat.

Bylo fajn, ze minuly tyden babi navstivila Zdenku v Naardenu, takze jsme se jim do vseho jeste prichomejtli my s Maartenickem a bylo moc veselo. Kluci radili, dokonce i nejmladsi Rubinek vi, jak na to.

Nejak si myslim, ze to na rozehrati staci, ted jeste najit odvahu to publikovat. Na to je nejlepsi to po sobe uz necist a rovnou zmacknout oranzovy knoflik. Tak!

Off to summer camp

Last Monday Maarten left for summer camp, all happy and hugely excited. It’s always hard to say good bye for me, but hopefully Maarten have never noticed that.

Today I got caught in the rain on my “daily” jog. I got wet in 5 seconds, totally soaked! And it’s still raining cats and dogs.


Maarten’s camp is located on a beautiful meadow adjacent to the shallow Lesse river, a lovely setting. But with this heavy rain I truly wish their tents won’t be washed away.

End of the school year festivities

Frasnes-lez-Anvaing: Le Sentier enchanté

It's happening!

We are filling in forms and the mandatory pre-assignment trip to our possible future home is about to be scheduled.
As Angola is a so-called hardship location we have the possibility to visit in advance to reduce culture shock and better understand what it is like to live and work in Luanda and Soyo.
Ooh yes, we can still refuse it. But honestly, I hope that won’t be necessary!

Getting vaccinations and arranging visa is probably going to be a next week’s challenge and we also need to arrange a caregiver for Maarten during our travel. This pre-assignment visit is seemingly offered to the employees and spouses only.

To be continued.

Bever zijn is fijn!

It's fun to be a Beaver!



But getting the dry dough out of hair just takes more effort than expected.
Even a good, sudsy soak and a lot of conditioner won't remove the hard tiny dumplings even after multiple washes!

Happy 10th anniversary!

After the exhausting birthday party yesterday afternoon Maarten woke up in warrior mood. His shell still hasn’t produced pearl from the little stone he put in it; therefore in anger he destroyed several of his best drawings displayed on a bulletin board in the kitchen.

Then we got totally soaked by a heavy rain on our way to school and our cellar is flooded.

What’s next?

Awaiting a job offer.

As I've mentioned before something has started to happen already during our ski vacation in March.

Rob's boss and the boss of his called several times to confirm our interest in possible overseas relocation.
I spent several sleepless nights mulling over all the details while taking a decision between Perth and Houston.

Not necessarily, since a few days later Rob got recommended for a totally different position. This should be more suitable and accordingly more challenging and in a totally different part of the world, indeed!

Couple of weeks later an interview followed and couple of months later we finally got to know that they are actually busy with an official job offer.

Creatures of the Night

Procházka městem Gent

S babi na pláži (La plage de Zuydcoote)

Konečně přijela babi!

Thank you!

Today I got my first 40th birthday card from my beloved almost family and it brought me to tears.
So nice!

A social misfit?

Just back from school.
Maarten’s teacher wanted to discuss his school readiness.
I wasn’t worried because I know how well he can read or write letters, count to “million”, how creative he is and usually very well behaved, especially at school.
But there is something the teacher pointed out, something what’s not really new to me; his social and emotional development.
The CLB lady, who took the school readiness test last week, suggested checking him with the use of a brain scan.
We know our son is special but does he need to be "stamped"?
No, we are not going to follow her advice.
Not yet.

"Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life." (William Congreve)

Since March 17! every day I live in a hope ‘today I will hear more’.
Awful, awful, awful!

They say 'No news is good news'.
How long until we know?!
This uncertainty is killing me.

Happy birthday, dear Robby!

60 jaar ATCC

Opendeur @ Gavere

Broken clock

It’s nothing new that Maarten likes to get up way too early. Therefore, he is told he can’t get out of bed until he sees his clock says “7”.

Even we’ve changed the battery the clock continues running ahead every morning.

Guess why?!

You've got to speak Flemish!

Can a preschool teacher forbid two children playing only because they speak English together?
Seemingly that's the case here in Flanders.
So glad she "allowed" them to meet up for a playdate outside of school!


Avonturen in de achtertuin
Helaas was er vandaag geen muziekschool. Maar gelukkig kwam Ramiz op bezoek bij Maarten.
Een tuin met geheime plekjes waar niemand je kan vinden. Met dikke boomstammen en struiken met reusachtige bladeren. Een tuin waar je avonturen kan beleven en nog dromen.
Groetjes van piraat Filou.
(door Rob)

Happy mom's day out