Cat Wake Up Call

This one is for Ronaye - Happy New Year Girl! I hope youare still enjoying -25 degrees and snow in Medicine Hat, and I am sure you are missing your cat wake up call.

Cat Wake Up Call

Our next holiday

We just decided, since we were were going to celebrate a momentus event in March next year that we would do it in an unusual way ... we want to see the Northern Lights so we googled it and came up with a Husky Safari ...

Gwenie

On boxing day we went to see Marcel and Family - the breeders (the fockers - te he he) where we got Frodo and Forrest from. They had some puppies 9 weeks ago, from Forrest's mother, and all but one had gone to homes. Gwenie, was the last one left and she was adorable. It reminded me of when we first got our boys. It was difficult to go home with only two...

New Years Eve Eve

Well it is almost a whole week since we last wrote. Sickness hath decended upon the Vennik household of Eizer; doubled with Christmas, this has resulted in st*ff all blogging.

But we are back into it, mainly because Sue got sick first (on Christmas day, I might add!!!) and now she is back on board Mike has fallen to the lurgi! F & F are comforting him on the couch as we speak.


Despite the sickness, we had a nice Christmas day. We thought we were going to be on our own for the first time, but some Venniks from Holland came for the day, Eric, Marija, Niels and Judith came for Christmas dinner and we spent a nice afternoon eating, playing and dog walking - except during the dog walking Sue had a wee snooze on the couch.

Father Christmas didn't come though. We thought he may have gotten a bit confused. Firstly, becuase he does not normally visit Belgium - only for a few poms and American kiddies... plus we were in NZ the year before and in Switzerland the year before that, we think we have been written off the Christmas present list because he could not keep up with us. So we decided we would go to the northpole in March and sort the b*$$er out and get back on the Christmas present list.

Christmas Eve

Here is a photo of our boys being good!

MERRY CHRISTMAS / PRETTIGE KERTSMAS / JOYEUX NOEL

from us!!!!

Can you tell we are pretty excited by the cold!!!!!

-4.4 @ 2110

-3.6 @ 17.20hrs

Sqeeze me please!

We have a minus 3.5 @ 1711 ...

Today it got above zero

It did get above zero today, it got to 0.1 dregrees. We were impressed!!!! We noticed it, we are now taking bets... and now it is minus 2.8 degrees, do I have taker for minus 3 ... yes minus 3 degrees it is ... yes!!!! do I ave taker for minus 3.2 .... YES!!!!

NOW - 3.2!!! Tis only 5.30 pm - 1730 for those on 24 hour clock!!!

Le Grande Chille

Minus 9 degrees

This morning we woke up at 0800 and it was minus 8.8 degrees.

Here is a few views of what we saw on our walk...

Living in a Winter Wonderland

This was the scene this morning just before I left for work at 0845. I went outside to fire up the engine of the Audi so it could defrost and this was what I saw. I decided you might like to see what minus 7 degrees looks like!

Druivenveldrit

Today, we woke up and it was -5 degrees and we went down into Overijse and watched the Cyclocross, this one known as the Vlaamse Druivenveldrit Overijse. This is where they ride round hilly muddy fields with a little pave in between to make it interesting. They do it on normal road bikes though, not mountain bikes... brave men and women! See http://www.druivencross.be/.

It didn't get over 0.5 degrees today, brrrr!!! Nothing a bit of Duvel and Gluhwein can't fix though!

Merry Christmas

Yesterday, we went up to Jezus Eik and bought the Christmas tree, so now it is finally Christmas.

Weekend in the Ardennes

We're back!!!

Wow it has been a wirldwind of a couple of weeks and there hasn't much time left for bloggy things, but now we are back.

We spent last weekend in the Ardennes. It was cold and wonderfull, no snow though. The forecast was for sh*##y and more Sh*##y, so we left the bikes at home. Krisa made a wild boar stew and we arrived on Friday night about 6pm and promptly polished off the stew and a few bottles of vino, followed by a Ngatawara Stables Red, kindly bought by Ronaye, via Glenn (the NZ boyfriend) last time he stayed. Needless to say the next day was somewhat fuzzy and we just hung out, went for a walk in La Roche and then enjoyed another evening in front of the fire, playing games and reading books.

Then on the Monday Sue had to fly to Portugal for work, back on Wednesday and then into a Christmas Party in Friday, and then dinner with the N&N the mad brits on Saturday ... quite frankly - we're bu$$@&d!!!!

Living in the dream

I am he, as you are he, as you are me and we are we dude

Riding on the wave man
If the sun don’t come man
You get a tan from the Belgian rain.

Liv’n in a dream girl,
wait’n at the window,
wearing a face like the Belgian rain

I’m writ’n a sermon,
no one will hear me
but no one comes near he

Why do we care, no one came, no none was saved

We're Back!!!

Just in case you had missed us here is a feast!

Can you tell Mik is working away?

Elton led me to Billy and then Billy led me to These Dudes ... Hey Jude

Billy Joel - Piano Man

Elton was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight

The young Reginald Dwight started playing the piano at the age of 3, and at 4, his mother was astonished to hear him picking out Winifred Atwell’s “The Skater’s Waltz” by ear. Soon he was performing at parties and family gatherings. He began taking piano lessons at the age of 7.

At 11, he won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. One of his instructors reports when he entered the Academy, she played a four-page piece by Handel, which he promptly played back like a “gramophone record.”

Got a Text from Jo Today

Got a text from my sister today telling me she was enjoying an Elton John concert at the bowl in NZ

It probably looked like this ...

NOICE ONE!!! I am at work - just a little bit jealous and been a little homesick lately.

At the very least I can now say that in company without tears welling up in my eyes.

Weekend in Barcelona

Well, it has been a while ... because we went to Barcelona last weekend and straight back into work, a bit of travelling too, so no news on our front for a while.


Well, we had a wonderful time in Barcelona and some wonderful weather. Apparently unusual for this time of year. It is supposed to rain for three weeks in Nov/Dec and that is when they get all their water, but alas no water this year!


Here are some fotes for you to check out ... it was an architectural symphony!

Sagrada Familia

Sue & Mik in front of Sagrada Familia

One of Gaudi's most photographed

We got Elfed

click on the limks below ...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1163858275

This elfin' greeting brought to you by OfficeMax®.

Today is Wednesday

Actually here, where we live ... vandag het is Woensdag en ... where I work ... aujourdi (sp???) c'est Mercredi (I think???) - geeze we have learnt a little in the last two years.


HAS IT BEEN THAT LONG????? JA ... OUI!!!!

Today was an unusual Wednesday, well for Sue at least. Mike went to work, as usual, but Sue had a meeting in Brussels from 11 - 15, so worked at home either side. Got more work done than going into office - for sure!

On Monday Sue drove through 3 countries - visited a Chemical Park (conjures up images) in Marl, Germany. So drove to Antwerpen, picked up collegue, drove into the Netherlands and then into Germany and back again. Tommorrow need to visit with business collegues in Rotterdam, and Friday Mike and Sue are off to Barcelona, taking advantage of another meeting in Tarragonna on Monday. We decided to make a weekend in Barcelona. It is a busy month ... Holland, Germany, Spain, Wales and Portugal in the month - end of year - gets busy!!!!

Action Shot

Here is an action shot of Mr Forrest that we took when the weather was a little kinda, and we could actually lie on the grass.

Now it is a big soggy mess!!!!

Cirque du Soleil

Last night we went to Cirque du Soleil in Antwerpen. They have a new show called Varekai and you can viewit by clicking on this link http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/showstickets/varekai/intro/intro.htm . To see a video click on intro when you get there and then high rez.

ENJOY! We did!

Here's looking at ya.......

What is wrong with this picture!

World Famous in New Zealand since ages ago

A Frozen Sunday Morning

Mike and I went out on the bikes this morning, and it was bit crunchy under-foot. We have had almost a week of -5 degrees in the morning and the Tervuren lakes are starting to freeze. You can see the top layer of the lake is pretty icy in this photo. The weather master is predicting snow ... woohoo!

Kiwi!

The "mad (?) " kiwi - actually clever I reckon!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=g0G9vDKcdLg&feature=related

Here is the Mad World Version ... it appealed to a mad kiwi. Click on the link above.

Friday again

Today is Friday, yipee! Another week rolls around and winter is certainly trying to grip on. This morning it was -5 degrees. Now we are housing the beema in the garage I have to park the A3 outside - brrrr. Although I am happy to say I am learning to deal with a frozen car in the morning and we are having really sunny days, which makes it quite pleasent.

The Shopping Trip to Paris

While looking for another photo I came across these and realised I never got to tell this story as it happened before we started the blog.

Sue, Kris and Super Kath decided to take the train to Paris and do a spot of shopping. (side note: Can't help but notice we all have the same harido!!!) Anyway, this all happened while SK was still living in Den Hague (Holland), in June she moved to Shanghai - just a wee move!

So we took the train to Paris, (Scene set - AB FAB crew - Patsy and Eddie in Paris shopping - it was fun. (Oh sweetie darling pass us the bottle of Champers will ya?) So three bottles of champagne later and several hundreds of Euros (see photo with shopping bags) we are back on the train. Sue offers to get a drink from the bar - Kris says anything with bubbles. So Sue came back with three Duvels (an 8.5% Belgian Beer) - just think of it as low alcohol champagne, says Sue!

Snow fell

Oh yeh, and we got our first snow fall yesterday - and it is still only officially Autumn. It didn't stick around though.

The Dudes

This a photo of my little brother, Carl, and his boy, Isaac. Not so little anymore - both of them. Isaac turns 10 today - happy birthday dude.

A busy week with 2 days in the UK

Well, well, sorry no blogs this week. It has been a busy one. Sue spent a couple of days in the UK, so that takes a big chunk of spare time away. The flight times are damned inconvienient - have to leave at 5am and get back at 12pm. So needless to say slept in today, finally. Here is a photo of the hotel I stayed at. It obviously was a family residence at some stage but is now turned into a hotel and is nice and posh. It is called Crathorne Hall and me and some collegues had dinner down the road at the Crathorne Arms, which was for lesser posher mortels such as oursleves.

Psst ...

We just blogged some more poems on To Infinity and Beyond ... up to 2004 now.

The Rose That Grew From Concrete

http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/36355-Tupac-Shakur-The-Rose-That-Grew-From-Concrete

Tupac, I hear you
I knew a rose that grew from concrete
But the rose I knew I wanted to kill
I dug it and sprayed it and poured concreted on it’s ass
And still he grew
He must have known you

Times have changed

We looked for the poppies in Flanders fields
We looked for the white crosses
We found holes in ground
We found memories of good people fallen
We found metal crap of ways to kill
We learned this should never happen again
We learned what a waste
We learned.

2007 Mike Vennik

In the Trenches

And not far from Ieper was some of the WWI trenches still in tact, it was errie...

In Flanders Fields, where the poppys grow, row upon row ...

Today was Saturday, and instead of our usual chores we did something different. We went with our Canadian friend, Ronaye, and her boyfriend, who happens to be from (and currently lives in)Auckland, to the Flanders Fields.

Here is a photo of the Museum in Ieper / Ypres ...

Sorry, we are suckers for cute animals, but muisje bit the dust ...

4 - Nil

Winter time is here

Well, you can tell we are suckers for cute animals...

It was an unusual Monday today. We changed to winter time yesterday and this change, just somehow does not agree with me. I spend most of winter time being on summer time and going to bed at 8.30pm, 'cause I never really get with the groove. Just to top it all off we lost power this morning. It just happened to occur when I spilt some water over the oven, accidently. But it was not that in the end. The landlord helped with getting the electrician round and it turned out to be the heating elements in one of the heaters.

Well, we got there in the end and managed to cook, we were dangerously close to having to go out for Chinese though.

baby-kitty-dozing-off

But Forrest is still having a good snooze ...

Maar Forrest hebt leker slappen ...

An Unusual Friday Night

Well, it is an unusual Friday night. Mike is on the phone, as one of his collegues has to work and can not get his IT sorted properly, and there is no red wine in the house! WHAT???? That's what I said! Mike goes "out to work" and the red wine stocks get depleted!

I was just looking back on the entries - it can be therapeutic ... and I see that Mike and Greg bought Halo 3 on September 29th - they both clocked it on October 22 - same day - kinda weird they clocked it on the same day and kinda weird they clocked it in three weeks! That's gotta be therapeutic ...

A Tribute to Eddy

Eddy (on left) passed away on October 12th, not long after we took this photo. She lived quite happily with diabetes for the better half of a year, but lost in the end. Patsy, misses her best girlfriend, but says "Cheers, thanks a lot, it was great knowing you."

The Ballingstraat quartet is now the Ballingstraat Trio (one tenor and two sopranos).

Forrest pays homage to the heat god...

Forrest is making the most of the cold temperatures, he is a heat magnet!!!!

Brrrrrrr!!!!!

The last two days we have woken up to beautiful clear skies and minus temperatures!!!! Winter is here already so we are totally glad we got the fire wood in a couple of weeks ago. (Side note: Huge THANKS to Greg who, at the drop of a hat, helped us in moving the 4 cubic metres on a Sunday afternoon). Monday morning it was -2 and this morning is was only 0.8 degrees, noice!!!! Finally, Sue got to wear her Hugo Boss wollen coat she bought in Milan before last winter. Last winter only gave her one oportunity to wear it and now she has had two days out of it already .... tres noice!

Says Mik - "What's a Melee?"

The Autumn Sun

The Autumn sun sits on the trees like a big red cheese
The haze fades away into the thinning forest
The pumpkins come, numbered one, two, three
Sitting on the stoop to scare away the hairy melee

KRISA LOOKING SUPER GEORGEOUS!!!!

Another Flatty ...

Mental note, have to go an buy better tubes, second flat as in as many rides ...

Another Sunday Morning

Today we decided to defy gravity and ageivity and went off on the M-Bikes again.

Photos to follow soon as Blogger "is currently experiencing a problem - that they are aware of and are currently working on!" ...

But, anyway, radically, Sue did not fall off today (thanking the gods!), butt was still black and blue from last weekend. The only person that did fall off today managed to do it big time... Mike drew blood!

Nothing that a couple of Duvels and Ribekjes van Gebrokenhof can't fix though...

They even managed to get two, one full and one empty, into their kennel outside!

There WAS 6 milk bottles!

There was 6 milk bottles sitting on the floor

There was 6 milk bottles sitting on the floor

And if two Yorkies spot them

There aint no milk no more

There is only two milk bottles left sitting on the floor

M Biking

Yesterday we went Mountain biking for, really, the first time. Sue won the prize for falling into the widest variety of things ... mud, gravel and blackberry bushes.

Kris won the prize for falling into the most painfull thing... Stinging Nettles, just before we took this foto. She had an excuse though it was the flat tyre (picture Greg and Mike fixing the tyre), Sue just lost her balance and left a nice big assprint in the mud!!!!

TADAH!!!!

Here she is, finally we got around to taking a photo of the new auto. She arrived last Thursday and it took us ages to get to the airport to take back the rental. We didn't end up eating till 9pm that night.

Mike figured out the voice control today, very groovy!

Sue took her to Avenue Louise shopping on Saturday (a very hip place to shop with all the Italian designer shops!). All week it had been foggy so she forgot the sunnys, then the sun came out and, picture this driving (well crawling really) down Avenue Louise with no sun glasses ... VERY UNCOOL! She went with a new collegue and friend from Canada (Ronaye), ended up having to drive around the whole inner ring of Brussels ... well, just showing Ronaye around!!!!

Fotos of the beema are coming soon ...

Watch this space! .... we had a full on weekend, been on the M Bikes ... loads of bruises .. will keep you posted soon! ...

The Pink Panther

Well, gotta say...yesterday and today was pretty stressfull. THE PINK PANTHER decided to escape!!! (pronounced, esskarpay). Yesterday we got a phonecall from Aunty Nicky saying Forrest, AKA the pink panther, was on the loose. He had managed to get through the barricades and into the nighbours. Aunty Nicky saved the day, Sue came home and made sure the section was Forrest proof (secure!). THEN, picture this, today 1330 Sue is on the A16 from Rotterdam to Brussels, takes a phone call from Aunty Nicky ... Forrest has escaped again ... the nieghbour (burman) has put him back four times. In drives Sue, 1830, Mike is Forrest proofing the section again ........................ tommorrow will tell..... THE PINK PANTER STRIKES AGAIN!!!!!

Lady Lipstick has Arrived

So the Ladies arrived safely. Woohoo ... Kris couldn't wait for the boys bikes to arrive so we went for a ride in the forest on Saturday. Mental note: will have to put a little pink ribbon on mine, so we can tell them apart. It was a hoot, quite a different ride to the road bikes. Kris won the gumbie of the day award from a fall ... hope she's OK today.

John Doan playing Harpolyre music by Fernando Sor

Have you ever seen this before?

Fairy Land

It's mushroom season, and Mike spied these ones in the Fairy Land at the "top" of our garden. Under the trees at the front of the garden, they are there ... and if you look really closely you can see the Fairies sleeping under them. Well we can anyway! If you open your mind just a little more you can see them dancing around every hour or so...

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Lejo dj

Lejo: Accordion

Winemaking Part II

Adding the Yeast

Mixing the sugar into a slurry

Wine Making

The pulp and measuring the SG to see how much sugar we need to add ...

Saturday comes around again ...

Yeh, so another week has flown by and the usual Saturday morning stuff is on the cards. Mike is working again! Sue is blogging again! Frodo is demanding we play with him again! Skyped it with both sets of parents this morning! Forrest ... fast asleep! Dishwasher running! Eggs for breakfast! RAINING! Brilliant day to go and buy Halo 3. In fact I have it on good authority Greg was in the Halo 3 store this morning and rang Mike to see if he wanted it. (side note: Something about the Pope and his religious denomination!).

Well actually we did do something a little different this morning ... enter photos of grape stomping!!!

An Autumn Day

Today was an Autumn day alrighty - strueth! I am sitting here at our dinning room table and looking out at the forest and there is a patch of red poking it's way through trying to get noticed(you need to spot it at 10 o'oclock - if you click on the photo it comes up larger and you can spot it). It is quite amazing really the colours of Autumn here, and this one is kind of hiding away amoungst the greenery and telling us that the fall is here. Now I know why these northern hemisphere folks call it the fall. It really is quite different here with all the falling leaves. Probably as many evergreens we have in NZ, here we have those shedding their leaves ....(side note - oh my gawd my language is changing! If I speak Kiwi they often do not understand so I think how the Americans might say it - and that ususally works.) It is pretty miserable weather, but the colours are so lovely I just had to share it with you.

The tenor part of the Ballingstraat Quartet

The sopranos are Frodo an Forrest.

The Hounds

This week Nicky and Neil have decided to make us jealous and have gone off to the sunny Bahamas for week. Good on them actually, we have the pleasure of looking after their hounds.
Enter Patsy & Eddie ...

...and a lazy Sunday

We did have a lazy day, but we did manage to start another wine today. A collegue of Mike's, Joost, has all these grapes that he did not know what to do with. He was sure they were for making wine, but not sure what variety they are. They are very small, the size of blueberrys. They are blue black, with tight bunches. In fact that the resulting liquid is very purple. We are sure it will make a great wine. will let you know how it goes... Here is a foto of Frodo helping - NOT!

Frodo and Forrest had great delight in chasing and eating the little frozen berries that escaped.

Well we thought we had had a lazy day, but looking back Mike did managed to mow the lawns as well, flu and all. I told him I had done it before (once I think when I was about 18 years old!), but I was sure I could figure it out agian. He soldiered on anyway and the lawns are ready for another two weeks. Hopefully it will slow down soon...

A Sunny Saturday

Gosh the time flies, doesn’t it? Already it is Saturday morning and I must say it is a beautiful one, sunny but cool. It is the equinox so it is all downhill from here for us and uphill for the NZeders. In case you were wondering the actual equinox is on the 23rd at 09:51. Mike just caught a bout of the flu so he is pretty miserable and stayed in bed this morning. Me I am off to see Jan, our guitar tutor, this morning. Other than that it is just crash time this weekend. The temperature has dropped so we put the heating on and it is now nice and warm when we come down in the morning.

A wirlwind of a weekend

So you probably thought we had forgotten the blog for now. Noooooo, we were just radically busy. We had a mate from New Zealand come to stay last Thursday and he just left this morning. He is also a guitarist so we spent heaps of time playing guitar, sampling the Belgian beers and European wines, searching for good music on youtube and we managed to sqeeze in a trip to Brugge to experience Motzart’s opera The Magic Flute. The opera was staged in open air at the Stadhuis, which was built in the 1300’s. It was very cool. It was a whirlwind weekend, but a goody.

Here you can see the Stadhuis as it looked all lit up for the opera.

Slaap kops

This is what these little fullas get up to post 7pm when we get home. A sure sign that they have been running round like mad dogs during the day. Yesterday we came home to bite marks out of the edge of the dog house roof - we thought that maybe they were rehearsing for the next season of Hansel and Gretel. Anyway a bit of pepper fixed that!