Strange things are happening

Each morning Carrie and I drive to work.

Nothing scary about that.

And each morning we drive on this steep hill through the village of Groombridge.

Still nothing alarming.

But each time we try to look over the railing of the road and that's where it gets scary...

TA!TA!TA!


When you look very carefully over the railing you see something that looks very much like a children's playground. It has one of those slidy things where you can sit on and then need to get to the next platform at the other end without touching the ground. (I swear I'm making sense!) Anyway, it's like this entire track and it looks very much like fun for children. BUT... we've never seen children down there playing on the funky rides.

And to make it even more strange: there's barb wire all around the thing.

So that's where the new theory started: a military base. (in the middle of the British countryside - well hidden of course) But then again, we have not spotted any army men (they might be wearing their 'I'm supposed to be a bush' outfits) so that kind of gets that theory out the window.

And then FINALLY, to make things even more confusing... I saw a goat on there the other day. A GOAT. I'm totally lost and can't figure it out. If you have any suggestions on what this mystery might be, do let me know!!

Totally happy

I'm fullfilled with joy and happiness. The sun has decided to pay England a visit... Spring has sprung and the birds are singing. Tralalala...

Let me give you a short update on the happenings over the last few days:

1. I devoted my Saturday to making a cake for Jacky's birthday. Very adventurous of me to bake a cheese cake with possiby to most difficult decorations in the world. Of course my cake didn't look anything like the one in the book and it tasted discusting as well!! (little tear flowing)
The good thing is everybody else liked it...

2. Went to see Thomas the Tank Engine on Sunday!!! This must have been one of the most exciting days of my life. I knew Thomas was coming weeks in advance so I was very much looking forward to it... (as were all the other 100s of children under the age of 5!) Just to clarify if you’re not with me anymore; it’s like the train in the cartoon but REAL. And he comes to our station together with all his other train engine friends!!

I’ll put a picture on here when I get them developed tomorrow in the hope you’ll understand my excitement.

3. After the thrilling experience of seeing Thomas, Stu was even nicer that day by taking me to IKEA!!! Oh heavenly paradise of gorgeous and cheap designer furniture… Of course I couldn’t refrain myself from buying things so I decided to give the bedroom a new look.

Hanging up the new curtains I, of course, managed to splice my thumb of which the blood was pouring out. (little red spots are still visible on my brand new curtains)

4. Carrie and I have finally done our photo shoot of the daffodils. The weather is gorgeous at the moment in England so it was time to go out for lunch and pose with the flowers. Pictures of that will follow as well.

5. And then there’s the house of course… It turned out to be rather a MAJOR job to make it liveable. And Stu didn’t think he’d have the energy and devotion to be focussed on such a big project for such a long time. Fair enough. One day I will live in a castle and people will call me Queen Lotte of Twerpland.

But it’s ok, we’ve already spotted another property; an empty loft this time.

Stu phone home

It's 2PM and Stu still hasn't phoned me.
He left ridiculously early this morning to visit the house in Antwerp and it's now been an hour since he's had the appointment and he has still not phoned me. I'm going bananas. I want to pick up the phone every time it rings and scream "Why haven't you called me any sooner??!!" but it's best to stay polite and remember I'm in charge of the office today. (well, Carrie and I both - our boss man and Bjorn have left us with full responsibility.)

And it's not that I can call him now because he's having a meeting with the Belgian mortgage man... OOoeeehhhh. I'm so curious!!! It's either going to be a big fat NO WAY I'm going to start doing up that pile of bricks, or it will be OH YES that would be lovely to have our 5 (future) kids running around there. (It's got 6 bedrooms, what else do you do with them?)

I'll keep you updated.

A new entry in my vocabulary

I was translating some survey answers for Easyjet tonight and I learned a new word:

Ill-mannered

Don’t you think that sounds beautiful and very 17th century?! I could well imagine reading this word in one of Jane Austin’s bestsellers… I could even hear Mr. Darcy whisper it in my ear.

“Miss Reps, you have behaved in a most inappropriate and ill-mannered way.” SPANK SPANK. (as a figure of speech!!)

If you’ve ever wondered where my email address comes from, I can tell you it has a long story. It goes back to the days of my ‘healthy’ obsession with Pride and Prejudice. There was a time when I could lip-sync the 6 hour TV series...

“It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (opening line)

This has to be arguably the greatest book ever written. There’s always a copy next to my bed, which is scribbled full of marks and notes. It’s witty, funny and highly sexually tinted from time to time (Jane Austen wasn’t a little daisy I’ll have you know).



Luckily I was supported by my best friend in the P&P passion. We even started to write emails to each other in 17th century style. Which is bloody good fun to do, but it takes its time!!


1st email from an ill and bored Yasmine to me

My dearest Darcy,

Since I have not a thing to keep myself busy with (apart from those terrifying exams, but those are just minor details), it seemed appealing writing you a nice letter. I'm still very ill, but Mama rang the doctor the other day.


email back from Mr Darcy (aka me)

My dearest Lizzie...
I'm grieved indeed to hear the unpleasant news of your illness. I hope you are not suffering from any inconveniences, otherwise send me an express by courier and I will be there at once to release you from your present dissatisfaction. Forgive me for not being in contact with you any sooner. One of my acquaintances has delighted me with a visit this afternoon. For it was Lady Natalie Leysen, who was an a most functional visit to bring me one of her pieces of art, a painting made for myself personally. I will of course, show you the art itself on your next visit to Pemberley.
I sincerely wish you can keep up your studies in the Eastern Culture and wish you the best of luck on your testing of the Italian subject next coming Monday. I will, of course, be thinking of you, in a gentleman like manner...
If there is anything more I can do to show you my sympathy, please be so kind to inform me straight away. I will have my horse made ready all the time.

Yours Truly,
Darcy.


Lizzie sending an answer back

My fierce and ardent admirer,

Indeed, what a pleasant surprise hearing from you so soon. As you must know, I have been occupying myself with the Studies of Literature of the Netherlands. I am so annoyed. I have been looking all over the World Wide Web, and I was not able to find anything that could fulfill my needs. I am asking this to you, my dear Darcy, am I as picky as Mama says?

Huisje – tuintje – boompje

I’m ecstatic and pissed off.

Ecstatic because Stu and I have found a ‘castle’ for sale in the middle of Antwerp town and pissed off because he’s going to have a look at it on Friday and I have to work.

It’s massive, it’s huge, it’s gorgeous, it has 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms over 5 floors. Oh yes, I was talking about a castle, indeed. (Hasn’t got a turret room though – slight disappointment) It’s a lovely townhouse in a very nice area of Antwerp. Mum went to look at the house and emailed me the colour scheme and interior design ideas…

Guess where I get it from.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to Friday evening when Stu gets back from his visit to our future palace and tells me how lovely it looks. There’s still loads we need to sort out, especially mortgage wise, but we’re getting there.




Got the second part of my sailing exam tonight. I even had nightmares last night. It's not that easy to cheat on this one so I think I might spend the rest of my lunch time on some practise...

Ab Fab weekend

Isn’t it just lovely having gay friends?
You can talk about interior design, be giggly, cry in front of TV, the bathroom all of a sudden smells a lot nicer and the bedroom is tidier then before they arrived.

GREAT.

Went out on Friday evening and stayed in Da Vinci’s till the lights went on. (Can’t even remember the last time that happened) Of course there was kebab on the way home of which Mark spilt all the mayonnaise on his Gucci trousers. DISASTER darling!!
Went to the boat in Eastbourne for a cup of tea on Saturday and visited Gay capital of the world Brighton on Sunday.


Mark fixed my stethoscope so we played doctors and nurses on Saturday morning!!

How I love to shock people…

(Mark is at Med School) I now know exactly how to listen to lungs, heart and gastro-something. I also know how to bring somebody the unfortunate news he’s only going to live another 3 days and how to check the size of your liver.

Stu and I dropped them off at Ashford International last night and they bought a Union Jack Rubber Duckie for me as a thank you for the weekend!!!

I will Rule Britannia from my bath from now on.

St Patrick's day 2004

I’m a little outdated, I know.
I was suppose to clean last night since I have visitors this weekend but that didn’t really happen because the New Last Ever episodes of Friends were on, followed by the New series of ER. And Stu all of a sudden started to have (cleaning) pains so he had to sit down…
So we cancelled that cleaning session and decided we’d do it tonight. Always better when there’s some stress involved!

Also forgot to tell you Carrie, Andrew, Stu, Jamie, Dan, Michelle and I went out on St. Patrick’s day to have a lovely meal at Weatherspoons. They did the best deal in there, Guiness and St. Patrick’s price wise. That’s why Carrie and I both have a Guiness hat now… (It took the boys 10 pints to get those for us!!)




I'm v.v.v.v.v.v. very excited because Didier and Mark will be here tonight!! It's absolutely pissing it down at the moment so I told them to take warm socks, gloves, scarves, jumpers, earmuffs, hats, waterproof jackets and snow boots.

Just in case.

S.O.S --- ... ---

Had our RYA Dayskipper theory exam last night. (hence me not writing anything in my diary)
You could clearly tell who'd been a student last, looking at the ingenious ways of cheating. I first had my notes hidden under my charts which turned out to be rather unhandy since I had to move them around quite a bit. I then went to sit on my notes which proved to get even more difficult looking at them especially since I still haven't got those eyes fixed on my butt... Apart from the fact we were all exchanging our answer sheets and had lively discussions about questions 4 and 11, I didn't really find the need to cheat.

I knew it all.

Ha, we'll see about that in 3 weeks when the results come out.


I'm also terribly excited because I only need to sleep 2 more times before Didier and Mark are going to come and stay with us!!!!!!! Which means that I can be twice as loud as normal. I only realized yesterday that Didier and I have known eachother for nearly 7 years now... That's a hell of a long time.

I feel some celebrations coming up this weekend... Apart from our day out in Brighton, day in the country side on Sunday and the photoshoot of Carrie and daffodils. (which are looking gorgeous at the moment!!)

Just checked out the Weather for this weekend and it doesn't look too good... Didier darling, don't forget your brolly.

Tony's Binge-drinking plans

So he wants to tackle the binge drinking problem in England.

Hhhmmmm.
Now there's a challenge.

Getting this message out to people 2 days before St Patrick's day isn't a good move either.
We all know, the entire world knows, the British are famous for their drinking and they're not going to change their reputation. (Ibiza/Falaraki here they come!!) As a 'foreigner' I must admit, I can still be pretty shocked about the whole drinking thing. When going out at the weekend and observing people (one of my favourite hobbies EVER!) it seems that young people (ya right; starting to sound like a granny!) can only enjoy themselves when they had a substantial amount of % in them; and have their boobs out.

I find that difficult to understand.

Especially because I seem drunk 24/7. (read= hyper) I can have tons of fun without drinking one drop... Lucky really. Pancreas is still not fully recovered after his hospital visit! Which had NOTHING to do with alcohol I'll let you know.

Anyway, we'll see how Tony will deal with his reducing-liver-transplant plan.
Just watched a very interesting documentary on BBC just now actually about Liver transplants. (Now I come to think of it; he is doing his best!!)



Oh well, one metre more or less... (that's the Belgian way)



The last thing for today.
Can I just say I LOVE Will Young's new song!! (Title: 'your game')
Those backing vocals are WICKED. If it wasn't for them the song wouldn't even made it in my top 100. It's been on repeat all evening long and Stu's about to turn green with purple dots if I play it one more time...

What ya gon' do - I don't know
What ya gon' say - I ain't sure
Always the same
Every day
I can't keep waisting my time on your game.

It's raining!! (for a change)

Whilst checking Louarnes blogspot (I seriously need to ask her how to spell that name!!) I spotted her 'duck' session. Being absolute in favour of having ducks in my bath (it's a bonding thing), I got a bit excited about all the different ones displayed on her website. People who've visited my place and went on a loo visit know that my bathroom is slightly more yellow than the avarage. So far, my collection has stretched itself to the more ordinary ducks, but seeing what's out there, I NEED TO GO SHOPPING.

How about this one?
Go and check out Luarne's (possibly?) site and check them all out!! Especially Mr T! You know what to get me now for my birthday!!

And then there's always Ebay!!



Watched Down with Love last night on DVD.

CRAP OR WHAT???

Having Ewan McGregor (sigh, giggle, faint) as lead does normally the trick for pretty much anything. But this one was so bad I lost interest before the first word was spoken. And it wasn't because there was no full frontal nudity going on... It was just plain boring. BLAH BLAH BLAH.

Have you ever thought about the fact that Ewan is probably the most 'revealed' actor out there. (If there's someone else, let me know!) Carrie and I have planned a weekend of Ewan films this month since she's never had the pleasure to see any of his films without the best blurred out.

Ewan's films with food for the eye:
1. Velvet Goldmine
2. Shallow Grave
3. Pillow Book (suppose to be an 'art film' - I call it porn)
4. Trainspotting
5. Night watch
6. The Serpent's kiss

I'm sure there are some more but my video collection is somewhere in the loft ever since Stu walked in my life... ;-)

Did you know...

If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. Makes you wonder doesn't it? Where does spicy food come from again??

I just had a look on Google to see what would come up if I type my name in under the Image section... (yes, I'm sad! Bored more like.) Apart from a bunch of other girls with the same name, there's a significant amount of dogs and horses on there... Also a bunch of buildings in Asia seem to be named after me; even a tube station!! The best one I found so far is the logo of my own "Lotte World".



Went out last night in town and paid a visit to Que Passa. Stu's cousin, Louise - Weazel, came down from Bristol for the weekend with her new boyfriend. The last time I'd been in Que Passa was probably 4 years ago, during Summer School...

I FELT OLD.

Although there's a strict no under 18s, the place was bursting of 12 year olds wearing the most ridiculous short mini skirts, combined with 'fuck me boots', their faces plastered with an inch of make-up and the biggest golden earrings possible. TARTS is the word I was looking for I believe.
Oh yes, and there were boobs, LOTS of them!!

Spotted a guy in there who was wearing the most sad clothes in the world. He had a very old, long jacket on which he refused to take off, (even though the 'kids' in there tried their best to be hot) together with a hat similar to the one here. (It's very difficult to describe him and I did my very best to find a picture similar to him on the net, but nobody is AS sad as him) If he would have been my granddad's age, I'd say fair enough. But the poor man was only in his 20s...

He nearly made my cry in the end, because he looked so miserable and didn't have any friends. He just stood there on his own with his pint in one hand and his hat in the other.

So I had to leave the building... (I would've been shedding tears, seriously!)

Proceeded the evening by going to Pitcher and Piano. More style, people my age and cute guys to look at. (Michelle was with us; and I'm allowed to look but not touch) Wondered back home after closing time. (that is 11 o'clock oh dearest non British people!!) What a sad life I do lead; makes you wonder why I moved here in the first place?!

Ended the night in UK style by getting a greasy Kebab.

Pheasant for supper??

Since a couple of weeks the pheasant society in the South of England has become suicidal.

Especially the society living on the way to work. Carrie and I drive into work each morning carefully avoiding head-on collisions with these horrible, though tasty, animals. They either decide to have a rest in the middle of the road, to come out of the bushes when you least expect it or simply 'fly' into your car. (tiny corrections there; Stu's car - damn you pheasants, don't even think about hitting that car!!)



Luckily so far there haven't been any cars coming the other way when the pheasants were about to turn into dinner, so I could freely drive the continental style... Mind you, you need to have this clear picture in mind of the British country side lanes here. (They come after Motorways, dual carriage ways, main A roads, B roads, pedestrian walks and THEN there are the county lanes) Hardly wide enough for 2 bikes to cross...

I just sincerely wish those animals will seek some phsychological help over the next few days and sort themselves out, cuz the bruises on my arm (caused by Carrie grabbing and screaming when disaster is about to happen) won't heal!!

My dearest colleagues

Just got back home from a veeeeery long day at work... And all I can say is AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG.
(frustrated yawp) Some people drive me up the wall with their little changes here in there. Can't they just sort out what they want translated in the first place before sending it to me. No no, that would make life too easy and my job unchallenging. Mental, unorganised, disturbing, unprepared, non-structured, so not thought-through , uncontrolled loozers. (shift F7 - great feature!!)

And it's not like my colleagues could calm me down since we're all in the same situation. Check these pics out, taking today at lunch. Health and safety should see these...


Poor Bjorn... (He's going to find out about his brain surgery soon!)


No hope for Carrie anymore...

Luckily, on Thursdays we get our afternoon visit from Little Woofington. Bella, my 'goddog', comes into the office and entertains all young and old. She's probably the most human dog in the world; sitting at her window on her chair looking outside to see if she can spot her boyfriend Cameron. She spends half the afternoon on Bjorn's, Carrie's and my lap, trying to type on the keyboard with her nose. (she's making progress) How can you not love this puppy??!!

Stu's useless bit of information for the day:

What's a billion MegaBits per second of network traffic called?
A Petabit

(that's a pitta bread to me)

Airballoon spotting

Macky D's or King of the Burgers?

It's always a point of discussion isn't... What's the best way to a heart attack?
My personal favourite is a Giant Burger from Quick with McDonalds fries. Mind you, I wouldn't say no to a Double Bacon Cheeseburger from Burger King or a Fillet burger from KFC.

The old time favourite ever must be the Giant though... It's a burger which you can only get in Quick - Belgium and which has a special and secret 'Giant Sauce' who nobody knows the ingredients of...



"Eat me"

Found this survey which will tell you how much of a Fast Food junky you are. (I scored a healthy 4/10 - there's still hope!)

Guilty feelings

I know I know I know. Stop telling me. (little voice inside my head looking a lot like a little devil) I know I should go to the gym. Why am I not going?
Easiest way is to blame Stu... If he wouldn't be here, I'd be in the gym working my arse (and calories) off. But since he is here, he seems like the perfect excuse...

Why can I not get my butt in gear?
Top 10 excuses for not going to the gym
- Stu doesn't want to (10/10)
- I'm tired (when I'm actually really tired, 9/10) - when I'm just making it up (5/10))
- need to go to class (Sailing class will finish soon, so that excuse won't do anymore!) (and I've completely given up French; partly because I was bored out of my wits but also, I do confess, because it's the new series of Friends on Thursdays!!)
- no time, need to work (only very occasionally)
- how about eating dinner?
- want to study (I guess that's my favourite at the moment)
- it's raining (still got the car to drive...)
- it's winter time and therefore freezing outside; which means that the walk to the gym is like trekking to the North pole
- and I've run out of excuses...

Why should I get my butt in gear??
- I'm paying too much money to just NOT go
- Michelle's a member as well (men spotting is so much more fun when there's 2 of you!)
- HEALTHY (at a disappointing 3rd place)
- would like to be able to write: gets you a nice figure, but it doesn't make a wee bit of difference in my case...

See what I mean... Pro's and con's in consideration, I should go for pro but somehow always end up with con. Maybe my next favourite excuse will be: "It'll change when the spring's there because it'll be lighter outside in the evenings and not as cold."

I thought writing this little passage might make me want to go...
but it still HASN'T. AAAAAAhhhhhhhh.

May be tomorrow hmmm.

Antwerp pictures are posted

I finally got around to uploading the Twerpland pictures on to the net for everybody to see. The 2 Nero couples (aka Carrie and Andrew - Stu and me) went for a luuuurvely Valentines weekend to the most romanic (where the Romans come from) city in Europe. On Friday, right after arriving we decided to hit for the "Youth Club" my little brother was hanging out in... (Youth clubs are apparently something completely different in England hence Stu and Andrew's refusal to go at first) But all went fine, just a pub like any other, but without grannies in it. We had a couple of metres of beer and went home satisfied and tired.

Next day, hit into town on the tram. Did the usual touristy things; eg. Diamant area, station, Meir, Rubens house, vogeltjesmarkt, Groenplaats, cathedral, Schelde and finally the Irish pub. We managed to eat 4 times between 12 noon and 12 midnight.
1. lunch - Panos
2. tea break - Waffles met veel slagroom!!
3. dinner - Italian Da Giovanni
4. midnight snack - Belgian Fries (where Stu ordered in Dutch!!)



After dinner we visited a variety of places where we could try out the different Belgian Beers. Ended up in a cocktail bar though... "The dirty Laundry" (I think you can guess how rough some of us looked in the morning)

Went for a bike ride in the park on Sunday where we also had a miniture picknick until our toes started to get frostbite. Played aerobie, climbed in a few trees (alcohol still talking) and went back home for some pumpkin soup.

Bloody brilliant weekend that was.

You can look at all the pictures by going to my Imagestation

So I've decided to start writing an online version of my adventures on the crazy Island

Carrie mentioned one of her friends did this thing online where she'd write all her thought and ideas on this website and then everybody who wanted to could read it. Great idea I thought, I can do that.
(only I have to keep on asking Carrie what the website is called to find my own diary again!) I've also not figured out yet how to upload pictures, so I'll need to get in contact with Louarne (god knows how to spell that name...) and seek advice.