Ha ha :)

in a shitty day, smth funny

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 :)