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