Sunday, 27 December 2009
Namibia - Girl
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
K+D's wedding and Rwandan guest - boy
Bit late for this entry and a long time seems to have passed now. Back then the
In the run up to our brief sejour Cassie had a colleague over from
We watched Pelham 123 (not the most exciting remake) and he mentioned that when watching films like these he thought that the places portrayed in them, like New York or London were essentially fake, just mock-ups, where in reality these cities didn't have (or couldn't have) the quantity of roads, pavements, the metro system, buildings and general infrastructure that they showed on film. Well, I thought it was interesting anyway.
That pretty much set the scene for the whole stay; great wine and fantastic food (and a portion of guilt since most of the tastiest food came from Geese, Ducks or Calves having a truly unpleasant time for our pleasure).
The
The wedding party was the night before and was the main event, where speeches were held, recitations were delivered and vows expressed in an emotional manner. The Chateau where the celebrations were held took 50 years to refurbish. It housed a zealous guide, who incidentally was the son of the owner, a painter that covered every inch of chateau space with every crayon drawing he did in his life, most of which appeared to be nudity expressed as an obsession. He also painted, over the past 50 years, many of the chateau walls and ceilings with painstakingly detailed pictures, as close to the original as possible so we’re told, with original dyes and egg whites, or something like that - I might have glazed over at that point. Oh, and it took approximately 50 years, his son managed to point out to us on our guided tour. I had the pleasure of this man's presence at the dinner table but with previous conversations being "50 ans monsieur!" et "pas de boisson ici monsieur!" I felt I held back with the informal chit chat. He seemed a bit moody and humourless but perked up a bit when Cass toasted “Death to the Queen”.
The wedding party was followed by some sleepy drinking into the early hours of the morning. Always nice when that happens.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Puycelsi - girl
Rwandan visitor - girl
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Bro-law wedding - boy
The Belgian wedding was a very pleasant affair, wedding Leo (Cassie's brother, my brother in law) to Sarah (and vice versa of course).
On Friday after work we had a relatively painless Eurostar and SNCB journey to
We didn't get to experience much of
There was some shuttling around
At the town hall there was the customary queuing of the couple and guests. I think there were a couple of weddings in front of us and one behind (the one behind had a huge white limo too, urgh, very tacky, who gets a limo for their wedding? probably the sort of people who get married in Vegas). Once in the ceremony room there was some distinct traces of Belgian humour in the clerks choice of music, but the chap who officiated did well to recite what must be tired lines in a non-mechanical way and the clerks to his left and right did some admirable smiling, nodding and general paper shuffling. Friends and family cried, Leo and Sarah beamed.
The main ceremony (the one that really mattered) took place on the farm where both sets of parents spoke and Leo and Sarah made their vows. Not being a very emotional person I feel a little under qualified to comment, but I could tell from the faltering tones and expressions that it was a sincere moment of positive reflections.
And the rest of the evening, well what wedding wouldn’t be complete without great food and wine, more speeches (this time from the siblings and best people), good company, pots of melted cheese, a ton of dessert, an especially nice blonde beer and lots of dancing. As well as the obligatory wondering around the village in the dead of night, peering at house numbers and trying keys in random doors to find our night's abode.
A superb breakfast (which I suspect we still haven't paid for - need to sort that out) and afternoon BBQ finished off the festivities perfectly. All in all, a fun weekend.
Saturday, 5 September 2009
Brother's wedding - girl
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Dentist - girl
Saturday, 22 August 2009
dentist - boy
Sinus communication. Oral fistula. These are words I don't expect to hear when I have a tooth pulled. However, as I understand it now, it does happen from time to time (the tooth's root uncovers a passageway into my sinus and out my nose) and it means blowing my nose, sneezing with my mouth closed, using a straw or any other activity which shoves air from my nose to mouth or vice versa is a bad idea for 2-3 weeks (shit).
I would have liked to have been prepared.
I have to write notes everywhere I go since most of these actions I do without thinking. I was unaware previously how frequently I equalise the pressure in my ears, which now only makes me whistle and blow gum blood into my nose.
Sunday, 16 August 2009
boy
Before 7am our general plan before 2010 was for Cassie to find work in an African country (though not a failed or kleptocratic state, which already reduces our options significantly) and then we would stop work and go. After 8am we’ve included an interim period of travel in the mix and a definite date for our mutual end of work.
This is all positive since I’ve wanted to do a longish trip for a while and I assumed the logistics of finding a development job in Cassie’s world was too tough after a break such as this.
So it’s,
Just flat stuff and storage to be sorted, but that’s just details.