Weekend without plans, loads of free time! Yeah, right.

So, after having worked really hard to prepare for our party last weekend, we thought to have a well-deserved duty and DIY-free weekend. Not. Since our house still needed some cleening-up from the party, Saturday morning was over before we knew it. Then Eise went over to Percy's to help him prepare for his birthday/cd presentation party later that day and I went to buy a grappa for Karlo (which is quite a challenge if you don't know a thing about grappa). Made a quick stop at Karlo's birthday party to congratulate him (on his 38th and his personally designed & crafted roof terrace lounge couch) to be picked up by Menw to rush to Percy's party as well. Quite a fun party, lots of music (two bands, two more singers, Percy and his partner presenting their new cd) and an exited horse.



Today we decided to go hiking, which finally enabled me to test my new backpack (which I bought quite a while ago already but never tried). We drove to Mechelen and made a 14 km. hike along the river Geul and through the woods of Epen. Nice area, lots of people walking along the Geul though. And great ice cream with fresh strawberries and raspberries!


And then a sad message when we got home. The little kitten Menw was supposed to take home in a few weeks (the sister of our kitten) died this afternoon. Apparently, she was hit by a car and her injuries were too bad to survive... We will pick up Haroen next Tuesday already, which means we will have to take some precautions to carefully guide the first encouter between Haroen and Babet...

Party post

Pfiew, we've survived our houswarming / birthdays party! Last Sunday, we had about 55 people (plus a load of kids) in our house. Fortunately, we had great weather, so we could sit in the garden all day. I'm not sure how we would have fitted all those people in our house, to be honest. Usually, we never really celebrate our birthdays so I think all of our friends and family took advantage of this opportunity to come down south. It might have helped that lots of them hadn't actually seen our house as well.

Nothing to tell really, except for the fact that we had a great time and as I understood our guests did so too. We were loaded with gifts (some highlights include a Solar Buddha, an olive tree and a feng shui home decorating guide :-s), thanks for that! And last but not least some experience-based tips for throwing a party with slightly too many people at your home: 1) invite batches of guests at different starting times, 2) buy at least 6 vlaaien for 50 guests and 3) if you want to keep your cake wax-free, don't blow 70 candles at once.

Plates plates plates

Wow, I never got so many plates in one week! Everyone seems to know that I'm assembling an eclectic set of tableware consisting of mismatching plates, bowls, etc. (I simply see too many nice sets while I need only one... by buying one piece of each set I can collect them anyway). The plated week started on Wednesday when I got a beautiful Iitala plate for my birthday (a Taika one) of Anita and Ellen, which I had been drooling about fo ages). On Thursday I had my farewell drink, and all of my colleagues bought me a plate as well! Loveley, my collection is almost complete at once! To top it off, I got four nice chocolaty plates from Martine yesterday, also for my birthday. So nice when people know you well! Thanks you all!

Another picture, especially for my colleagues: it does help to put your tea mug in the dish washer every once in a while...

Surprise!

Look at this, what a little com- plaining about a lack of surprises on your birthday can do... Am enjoying a delicious blueberry muffin WITH a creatively improvised candle on it. Obviously, only women can think of this..., Diana & Sophie, thanks!