well well well

to be continued :)

As seen on TV

Monkey on Belgium television :))
Not at a beauty contest, not at the wheel of fortune, but at the evening news. Oh, and not to talk about the beautiful flowers we make.
This Sunday it was the day without cars in Brussels, but Petru, the he-monkey, had to take his mother to the Charleroi Airport, early in the morning. He was hoping to get back in time to enter the city until it closed for the cars. But he didn't. And this was big piece of news :)). Inside story, the journalists were very disappointed that he wasn't an angry driver, that he had a good reason to take the car and that he was a big fan of car-free day. It all ended with a 8 km walk in the evening to take the car back from where he left it in the morning.

Watch a few seconds of the lovely monkey here:

Lame me

Today, at the 10th trip to ikea this week, we finally remembered to buy some paint for a table. I put it in my bag, as I do with all the things I buy - my wonder bag carried in its life eggs, milk, cheese, meat or other groceries, scissors, scotch tape, shampoo and what else you can imagine.
The bag is (was) big and it was the safe carrier of our valuables: car papers, gps, mobile phones, note book, bills, cigarette tools - as I roll my own cigarettes etc etc.
And you already suspect what happened. The paint has spilled all throughout the bag.
But that's not the point. The point is that when trying to save things from the paint, I was mostly concerned about my cigarette tools. And I was only thinking where to go to buy new rolling paper. Or that I could look into the garbage from some cigarette butts. Lame, isn'it it?

First night

in the new apartment ended at 6.30 in the morning, much much earlier than I usually wake up. Because we are the proud owners of a flight corridor above our heads. And it's not just an ordinary corridor, it's that special part where airplanes prepare to land or take off.
Aren't airplanes just fantastic? They never cease to amaze me. And I am so happy, as I will be lucky to be amazed every morning, night and day for the next 3 years.

I will even create a new tag, 'airplane', as I'm sure I will come back on this topic.

p.s. wondering how I have Internet? Well we made a new subscription from another company and we'll try to end the other contract. Life in Belgium is sometimes so exciting!

Address changed

If you want to write me a postcard or a letter, you'll have to ask for the new address. Cause starting with today the monkeys are living in a brand new apartment. Busy week coming, as we have to buy everything, furniture and stuff. And no internet as our internet provider needs 3 weeks to make the transfer. Great, isn't it?
Well, wake me up when september ends.

je ne sais quoi

is the first thing that pops into my mind when wanting to describe france and our holiday there. because i don't think that any of our 900 touristy photos has captured the feeling of being there. so i won't get into details, just go if you are into breathtaking landscapes of all kinds, good bread, old stone villages, lavender and... je ne sais quoi :)


i'd have more things to share, but why spoil this mood?

expect the unexpected

I take a deep breath after this cliche title, reminiscence of the advertising era which now seems like stone age, and i will explain what i wanted to say.
what i like about my life now is that you never know what every day can bring you. today, for example, we went to a hospital to make a 82 year old lady feel remembered and she was very happy. then we saw another old lady, this time dead (poor her) and we left her some flowers that she doesn't need anymore. the latter happened in chimay, in southern belgium, where the trappist monks brew the so famous beer. after that we had a picnic near a lake, we visited the beautiful and oh so quiet chimay abbey and we even saw a monk :)
we're exhausted, but not bad for a working day

Violently happy

Violently also because my noble behind is very hurt, after the 20 km bicycle ride today. And I am expecting some muscle pains tomorrow.
It all happened in Zeeland, Netherlands and it was a really nice week-end. With camping, sun, sea, bicycles. No photos unfortunately cause I had my hands busy.
Some facts:
- if you arrive in the wrong camping, a night can cost you 50 euros. Common, I bring my own bed! We paid 15 in a so called mini camping. The mini campings are the ones owned by farmers on their lands. Very decent and clean.
- cycling in Netherlands is a bliss. Cycling routes are everywhere: near the road, in the middle of the crop fields, in the forest, near the sea. So it was worth the pain I feel now.
- being a Romanian can make people suspicious. The camping lady said an "oops" when hearing our nationality and then gave us not a very good camping spot. The guy renting the bikes was very concerned whether we'll bring back the bikes and he expressed his relief and surprise when we returned: "Wow, you're back". Then he became very friendly. It is unpleasant to see these kind of reactions, but what a hell, maybe we'll change their opinion. One by one.

My window garden

One by one, small pots have appeared on my window sill: mint, basil, persil, orange, tomato. They were mostly bought to be freshly used for cooking. But after using them they continued growing new leaves, so apparentely they liked it here. The basil has nice smelly white flowers, the orange has oranges, the mint has become wild and the tomato is three times taller than when I bought it. Jack and his beanstalk can be really jealous. And the tomato has recently made flowers and small fruits. Soon I will be able to make a window grown tomato and basil salad.
It's not bad to have a garden, even if it's only on your window.

Belgian separatism

We've been hearing all these rumours about being very hard to adapt in Flemish areas if you don't speak the language. So we asked a Flemish guy about this and his answer came bluntly "As long as you don't speak French, it's ok".
Thanks God our French is lousy :)

Dreamology

Strange dreams lately
The weirdest was with me just having given birth to a baby. I was very relaxed, so I put the baby in the bed and went for a walk. After a few hours of walking I started to panic as I realised I left a one day old baby alone in a bed. And that I don't know what to do with it. And that I didn't buy anything, no preparations at all, no diapers, no clothes, nothing. And panic panic panic. And I woke up.
Another one was with, again, a baby. His body with my head on it, it looked very weird.
And another one was with some yellow peppers. So the very next day I went to the market and bought some peppers, as I was really craving.
Now, let's not analyse anything.

I made it on the cover :)

If you are in Brussels, don't miss this month's The Bulletin, because we're in it :D We were invited to represent Romania in this issue dedicated to Europe. And the results are in these badly taken pictures, so you'll have to guess a lot.
Who finds the other monkey on the cover gets a juicy prize!
Enjoy!

wondering

What did people do in the evenings when TV and computers didn't exist?
I remember my parents (as when they were young the TV program lasted for only a few hours) meeting a lot with their friends. They were talking and playing cards. Sometimes they were even dancing.
Now we are coming at home and the first thing to do is turn on the TV. In our case, it's the computer, each his/hers.
We'll all die strangled by cables.

33

almost a record for belgium and indeed a very hot day, especially when you are driving around all day long.
as you can see, I love weather reports :)

1 year ago

I was wearing a white dress, said yes in a church and started a life where 'us' is the new 'I'. I was surrounded by family and closest friends and had a strange party to celebrate.
It's been a year in which a lot of things happened, with ups and down, with shit and flowers (literally :)), but it was the best year of my life.

I am looking forward for the next ones :)

Introspective mood

and this was inspirational
http://www.ted.com/talks/srikumar_rao_plug_into_your_hard_wired_happiness.html

Post for the husband, the other monkey

Dear husband,

Thank you for adding me to your precious google reader. Finally you are reading my humble blog. You didn't miss anything special, some bla blas about weather, flowers and brussels, nothing you wouldn't know as we spend most of our time together.

But I promise I won't disappoint you. I will try to write more and sometimes maybe more interesting things.

Your loving wife,
monkey cip

My flower gifts

2 hours before leaving to Romania I realised that I don't have gifts for the girls there. So I fastly made these brooches which, because of the long trip, arrived to destination in a wilted condition. So I don't think they were that appreciated, but in the end, the intention counts :)

Oh, my famous friends :)

washing the dishes

washing the dishes
washing the dishes
washing the dishes
washing the dishes
washing the dishes
....
washing the dishes
washing the dishes
....

this neverending job. just when you thought it's over, another dirty plate comes back to the sink laughing in your face. is this my OCD?
it would be interesting to find out every woman's (cause men are out of this discussion by default) system when washing the dishes. prepare the big washing by soaking them immediately after they got to the sink like I do? wash them one by one or putting detergent on more items and afterwards rinsing them together? hm, long discussion.
don't laugh about my insignificant topic. look in your sink.

Marathon week-end

No, I am not talking about the 20km running marathon that also took place in Brussels this week-end. But about another one that involved beers and music. The Brussels Jazz Marathon took us out of the house despite the shitty weather (how else, it's Belgium!).
Very nice bar hopping, finding all kinds of bands singing jazz or what they say it's jazz, not that I'm an expert or something. From 20s jazz, to acid, to rock to whatever. Live music is just the best, it can even be shitty and you still like it somehow.
So hope to go to as many concerts this summer. And also hope that summer will mean wearing my bloody sandals and dresses, not the same old woolen hoody that I've worn out since we came here.

Where home is

After our first 7 months here in Brussels, with only some short recreational trips, we decided to close the shop, pack our bags and go back to the roots to see some dear faces. So we spent last week in Romania, a very compressed week with a lot of things to do. I also had to squeeze in my 10 years highschool reunion.
It was very nice to see everybody and catch up a little, now missing them even more. It was also very interesting to see where we left from with an objective eye - and I won't get into that right now :)
I was a bit afraid of this moment, as I was thinking that once I go back to Romania, I won't want to come back. But to my surprise I realised that I missed our little apartment here in Belgium, our everyday life as it is right now, so I can say that I have a new home, which is here. That doesn't mean I won't feel like home when I go to Bucharest or Resita, my hometown. Can't I have more homes? Of course I can.

Tulips, tulips, tulips

After working with flowers day by day you don't expect to be impressed anymore. But the tulips at Keukenhof, Netherlands are a real spectacle for the eye. And exhaustion also, as after 2 hours of watching thousands of tulips, the eye got tired of so much beauty and color and was desperately searching for green to rest on.
Keukenhof is a big park where tulips show off every spring. Thousands of tulips of different colors and shapes were competing to make it in the top of our preferences. Really impressing.
But even more impressing are the real tulip fields outside the park, where tulips come out every spring. It's very nice to drive and from time to time to spot some colorful stripes on the fields.
And as this tulip wonderland is very close to Amsterdam, we ended this wonderful day with a short walk in the never resting city.

948 BPC

This is our car's new Belgian identity. At least now the gypsies washing the windows at the traffic lights (yes, they're here too) we'll no longer come and talk to us.
As we didn't choose our number plates, now I have to find a meaning for BPC. Beware People we Come?

Honey, pack the carpet and let's go for a picnic

Wonderful Sunday, finally showed my arms to the sun. A lot of people in the park having picnics or just sitting or just smoking or whatever. We were the ones sunbathing and reading. And as I'm a voyeur by definition, I couldn't help not watching (staring at) the people around me. Worth mentioning are two extremes. A guy who came with his living room carpet to sit on (and we were embarrased we took our sleeping bags).
And a very precious couple who brought the whole kitchen. They were drinking wine from glass glasses (ok, that could be romantic). But they also had porcelain plates, salad bowl and all the tableware needed: forks, knives, even salad spoon. Not to mention the bottles of olive oil and vinegar. Honey, shall you give me the pleasure of passing me the salt? It's near your noble behind.

Dubbed radio

Yes, it's possible in Brussels. First I thought it's a special moment or something. Then I thought it's a joke. But no...
It happens usually with new entries. The song starts. A woman's voice starts reciting some lyrics like a poem, in English. Then a men's voice quickly translates them into French, in a serious pathetic note. And if you are lucky you can also hear the real lyrics. Only at Pure FM (which actually has ok-ish music and had a nice advertising campaign).

Frappes moi bébé une fois de plus :))

Wooden toys

We love flowers, but we also love toys. So we did something about it, that is a new online shop, selling wooden toys. Wooden toys are just great, we fell in love with them immediately. They are safer for the child (did you know that plastic can be toxic?), they are longer lasting and really educational - develop imagination, creativity, dexterity, motricity, all kinds of skills.
My favorites are of course the doll house miniatures. I wish I had these when I was a child.

We hope we'll make children and parents happy with these toys and we won't stop here.
We have the toys, now we need the children? :)

Easter

Don't criticize the colored eggs, these are the first I ever made. Not bad I would say, not perfect either. Anyway, I couldn't help not using some flowers...

the one with the weather

I have been called the 'weather girl' (I made an euphemistical translation from the romanian meteorologul de serviciu) by some years ago by my friends. I don't know why, maybe because of my desperately annoying daily questions (how's the weather? is it cold? what should I wear?), or maybe because of my lousy pickup lines that often had some meteorological phenomenon involved (I won't give examples here) etc
And here I am now, dedicating an entire post to the weather.
When we came here everybody said well, get prepared for a very depressing weather, hope you'll survive. I wouldn't call it depressing though, but crazy.
At least this week, every day was full of suprises. Morning, clear sunshine. Then heavy grey clouds with cold rain. Sunshine again, as if nothing happened. Then suddenly, hail! Drops of ice and snow heavily falling on our car. Then sun again. And so on. All these seasoned with a wind that could move the car.
The weather here is schizophrenic, wild, unpredictable. Clouds are moving very fast. When it's sunny, it's really beautiful, with that nordic crisp shiny light, which I admired so much in the nordic advertising commercials (I thought it was just a good DOP). And when it rains it really rains.

And as I'm a meteo-sensitive person, I think this weather suits me very well. I have found my soul weather :)

Spring tra la bla yada yada

Don't know exactly what to write, I knew I'm not the blogger type :) And anyway nobody's reading, so I could write anything.
Like bla bla yada yada tra la la.

Spring in Bruxelles is not bad at all, 2 more weeks and everything will be completely green. This means longer walks in the parks and of course, a lot of good vibe.
Spring always makes me a bit lazy and dreamy, but I manage somehow to focus and get things done. We have a new project that I'll share later on, flowers are blooming and being delivered, so there is a lot of work, not complaining here.
Plus all the administrative stuff: end of trimestre calculations, changing the car plates into belgian ones, clean the house, eat, laundry etc etc. And also leave some time for the beers hanging out chatting nonsense part. Which is my favorite.

It's spring and boy, we're so busy!

max and mary are very very cute

Who broke into our car?

I heard that it's a common thing in bruxelles to have your car broken into, but you never think it could happen to you too. Our car doesn't stand out in the crowd, we never leave anything in it, so...
And yet it happened last night, we discovered it in the morning, when we were just preparing to make a nice Sunday trip. Passenger seat window missing, glass all over the car, not very nice. Hope we'll fix it tomorrow.

long time no mood or another random one

but I have a guilty conscience. so here it is briefly.
- we're oficially belgian residents for 5 years - which is a lot, we could have easily received only 1 year. an engineer's degree (obviously not mine) opens many doors here. so it was very ok. we didn't need most of the papers we so desperately prepared before coming to belgium, but you never know. and of course, the photo on my new id is awful.
- my laptop broke down, so I had to buy a new one. it was not the best time to spend so much, but hell, when is it? at least i like it very much (yes, there are also good PCs) although the french keyboard gives me headaches - what i wrote so far took me at least 10 minutes, so my next post will be when me and the new keyboard will be friends.
- my cooking improved a little, at least i'm not afraid of it anymore. and my new york cheesecake was very good. i should make another one these days.

that's it for now. au revoir!

Leftovers2

red's so gone...

What to do on a Tuesday

Go to SPA! The town, the water, the indulgence. Very very relaxing. And I would also say well deserved, after the crazy St Valentine's week.
They say that in the town of SPA the concept of health and beauty spas originated. That justifies the name, of course. And they have been doing this since 14th century.
It's not as I've never seen something like this before, all the ski resorts in Austria have something similar. But it was a very good time for a real treat. That includes also some beers. Well, they explain the bad writing at least. Whatever.

Dear PMS

What the hell is wrong with you? Why can't you be like others, come to visit 1 or 2 days before, make me a little bit grumpy and that's it?
But no, you want to be special. You come one week and even 2 weeks before! and you transform me into a bitch. Is it funny for you?
Anyway, dear PMS, I'm breaking up with you. For good. Go haunt another woman, change your job into something else - I heard there are vacancies for headaches - or whatever. I don't care.
It hasn't been a pleasure.
Good bye.

I have to sing in french, don't I?

at least to wash away the gummy bears :))

Why not make children

42,402,137 views!!!

and i love gummy bears. so ironic.

The one with the GPS

Did I have the chance to tell you about the fuck Garmin episode? I take the fuck back now, we're friends again.
So here we are on a very early Saturday morning in our car, with some addresses we had to get to. And our Garmin friend apparently hates morning, so it has just shut down. Completely. Nada. Ok, we weren't born with a GPS, we can read a normal map. So we got to one address by our own, but the next one was not on our map (it left out a part of the southern Brussels). And we had to get there by 10 and it was in the other part of the city.
You can't imagine how Rue Neuve (the biggest shopping street in Brussels) looks at 8 in the morning. So freakishly empty. And yes, the shops only open at 10, so no new GPS for us. Last resort: wake up Diana and Lucian and borrow their GPS.
Anyway, now that I tell the story it sounds boring, but the GPS really made our morning miserable.
Around noon, when he have already finished everything, he decided to wake up. Did you know they have a reset button? We didn't.

Piss off!

No, I'm not learning new swearing words (as if I hadn't known enough). I just wanted to say a few words about Manneken Pis, the oh so famous Brussels attraction, as I've been wanting to for a long time. Some have an Eiffel Tower, others a Big Ben, not to mention the skylines if you leave the continent. Not to mention.
And Brussels has a statue of a little boy (believe me, he's very small) peeing. But why why why, you ask yourself. Why do so many tourists gather everyday and take photos of the little boy? Why? What's his secret?

Search google, wikipedia and here it is. Apparently there are more legends around the boy with an early prostate problem. The oldest is from 1142, where some troops hung the infant (so he was an infant) in a tree for encouragement (I have to make kids, apparently they bring good luck). And not only did the boy had good vibe, but he even started fighting in the battle. With his only weapon: his penis. Because he peed on the heads of enemy troops and made them lose the battle. His pee was acid or what?

The next legend goes in the 14th century where the boy saved the city from explosion. How? Of course, he peed on the explosive charges some evil men put around the city. He must have drunk a lot of beers.

The last one is my favorite cause it happens in modern times. Apparently a woman was shopping with her boy (and she was sales brainwashed). (While getting out of H&M loaded with cheap but useful clothes) she realized she lost something: her boy. Bla bla panic and the child was found. Of course, he was just peeing on the corner of a small street. Look what the shortage of public toilets in Brussels does (really, it's hard to find a peeing place).

I forgot, there are 2 others, one similar to the modern one, with a merchant losing his boy and finding him peeing in a garden (is it safe for a little boy to pee alone in a garden in Belgium?). And one in which the boy put out a fire saving an entire castle from burning down!! No further comment.

Anyway, I won't even start with Manneken Piss' costumes, as he wears all kind of costumes according to the occasion. He has 600 costumes!!

Well, if you come to Brussels, you know what not to miss.

p.s. there are 2 things I appreciate about the statue:
- he offers a great deal of opportunity for sarcasm
- it is a peeing proof that you can make your city interesting if you want to. even if you don't have much to show. there is no tourist who has been in Belgium who hasn't heard of Manneken Piss, there is no shop in the center not selling a souvenir with the boy.
- ok, 3 things. 258,000 search results on google (that is if you manage to spell it right)

sometimes it's shitty

and now I sounded like a teenager

before and after

in 2006

in 2009


any changes?

Leftovers

one of the advantages of working with flowers - sometimes there are some left, so perfect to put around the house.

F...CK ICECREAM

made by me myself and moi.
sewing has never been my thing, but I really enjoyed the process which took place at Diana's, with her materials, so I owe her a real ice cream. anyway not bad for a beginner. And for an ex-copywriter :)

p.s. I like ice cream, so no offense.

Sun at last!

both weather related and metaphorically. the first one you know how it is...in fact if you live in Belgium you might sometimes forget. we were in Antwerp when the miracle happened and it made our day.
the second sun refers to our bank account, which starts having pluses, not only minuses. yes, we started delivering (more than we expected) and it feels great. and not only because of the money, but also because people act very happily when receiving flowers and their happiness comes back to us.

Happy birthday

to me
na na na
na na
na na
happy birthday to me
na na na
na na

It's not on the moon, it's at the seaside

Random - warning! long post*

over 2 months since we moved here. it starts feeling familiar. very much enjoyed the visit from mother and sister, it was hard to see them go back to Ro. I liked showing them around, too bad the weather was not very suited for sightseeing, but we managed to find the shops :) in Brussels you can hardly see snow, I was told. Myth. It was snowing like Canada. Now it got back to normal: gray, rainy. I can't wait for spring. Brussels is very nice in spring, I was also told. We'll see if myth or not.
Nice Xmas and NY celebrations. First with extended family, second with core family :). Nothing much, but exactly how they should have been. Xmas: dinner, small xmas tree, making fun of xmas spirit, mother not enjoying it :)), practical presents, watching xmas movies. Togetherness. NYE: fireworks, a lot of people, drinking a beer in a bar, then too much champagne and stuff, getting sick, throwing up, going to bed. the usual. Missed some friends from far away though.
We received the date for the appointment at the commune (for resident ID) - it's in February! Wow things are slow here.
Our kitchen sink is broken. Hope to fix it soon.
2010 already. Big hopes for it. We're starting the business, some small details left to fix, but in mid January we'll be operational. Can't wait to see which flowers will be sold first. I have my bets...
It's very exciting. It feels like we can do anything. It's great to have control of your life. But I have to bring more discipline in it - wake up earlier, exercise more, take some French lessons at least three times a week, making things happen, having new ideas. And then have fun, of course.
A lot of trips scheduled for this year. The surroundings: Berlin, London, Paris (and other parts of France in summer), Antwerp, Amsterdam again and so on and so on. The big one: Thailand at end of year.
And explore Brussels more. The touristic part has been covered. There is a lot of hidden Brussels, I'm sure. What I like about Brussels: the narrow streets, the short buildings (most of them are 3-5 floors tall - so used to them already that I had a shock when seeing a tall block of flats), the nice shops and shop windows, the very good smelling boulangeries, the feeling that you're not a stranger (so many nationalities, that nobody cares anymore), Diana's food, Mama Roma (best pizza ever), H&M :)), the parks, the beer, the bars with happy happy bartenders, the smile on people's faces on the streets, their relaxation (sometimes too much of it), our apartment, the toy shop in Sablon, the chocolate shops, the frites, the churches (there are a lot of them, very big and impressive), the goat cheese, the getaway trips to anywhere (in 2 hours you can get to london, paris, amsterdam and in much less to bruges, antwerp, seaside), the sky and the clouds when it's sunnyt. What I don't like: the garbage on the streets (it's a dirty city), some very Arab neighborhoods where everything looks fallen apart - poverty? culture?, the parking spaces (very small, hard to find), their socialism, the fact that they don't clean the streets after it snowed, the lack of dancing spots (or not easy to find), the schizo weather.
That's it for now. I'll come back more organized. And in French :)


*and boring

2009 - a good year for wines

At least it'd better be, as for me it worked out very well.
I usually hate this kind of retrospectives, as it's good to look forward and not back, but 2009 is worth mentioning. So let's review:

1. The best thing: I got married and I'm very happy.

2. I went to China, an amazing trip, which just opened my appetite to explore Asia more. Thailand, here we come! (just wait a few more months, please)

3. I started a whole new life - by moving to Belgium, by quitting my job, by choosing a different one, by drinking more beer...the usual stuff


So I'll drink for 2009 and I hope it was a good year for wines as it was for me.
Looking forward to what's next. Hooray.

p.s. and I also hate those people who brag on their blogs about how good their life is (and myabe it's awful), but just look above - can you blame me for writing this post?