Homeless

Bye bye Booischot apartment!

but not entirely...
I don't have my own place anymore...
Now the world is my home
(and my luxurious parents place too of course).

Een lach en een traan

Gelukkige verjaardag moeke!
Wat was het fijn om zo nog eens lekker wat tijd met elkaar door te brengen!
Je verdient meer van deze avondjes!
















En moeke, tot altijd hé!

It's official...

... we live in Putte now! From monday 27th!

Good luck in the place new renter!

We celebrated that by spending some time in the sauna!
Another welcome present in these stressful times (dank je wel Grietje en Wim voor de bongo).

These days are of course full with goodbye's... Everyday another last visit...
Liesje, het was heel fijn je nog te zien. De volgende keer kunnen we met een glimlach terugkijken naar vandaag en trots zijn op onszelf!

Sunday bloody sunday!

Started the sunday off with a big, tasty and lovely breakfast!
Thank you friends for the wonderful time and the sweet gifts!

That strong breakfast proved to come at a good time... We cleared out the entire place...
I thought I didn't have much, but... How did I end up with that much stuff?
Oh well... It's all nicely stored in moeke and vakes attic.

Thank you Griet, Wim, moeke, vake and Tim!
And special "thank you" to you Ella for cheering the place up during all our hard work!

Saturday oh saturday

Last saturday in Belgium (for a while).
Got some packing done, but most importently...
Said goodbye to some lovely ladies.
Thank you Tanja and Anneleen for the lovely time!

Saterday morning breakfast. Love is even in the kiwi!

Not safe to drive

Spent the day playing, taking care of, hugging and kissing Ella.

Had a wonderful time with her mama en papa...

Driving home, my Tim took over the wheel...

Not safe to drive with all those tears...

Gaatjes vullen

• sleeping in
• finishing granola
• drinking liters of green tea
• boxing bathroom stuff
• getting last his and hers Frank-haircut
• visiting 'the attic'
• taping kids songs, rhymes and stories
• preparing last bag of couscous
• finishing off bottle of wine
• filling holes

Life for sale

My challenge for this year is 'letting go',
this also means stuff I don't need no mo'.
This Wednesday I was on the other side
and put away all my pride.
No more looking for cool retro stuff to buy
but, and this is how I justify:
letting go and selling my shit,
because I no longer need it.

Say it with brownies

Under my umbrella ella ella...

Spent some time,

with a big sweetheart of mine.

This is a picture from a while before,

she's even cuter now, that's for sure!

The big move

Sunday was `big move day`.
Thank you three strong men!

We now have no bed to sleep in,
no couch to sit on,
no fridge to cool food
and no more place for our books...
Oh well...
I see this as preparation
for when i`ll have a lot less luxury...

Family and friends

Orange runs in the family...

Thank you colleagues!

My last day at work was definitely special...

Thank you wonderful colleagues for:

the crazy delicious breakfast

the outrageous costumes (special thanks to Spain)

the encouraging words

the super sweet and thoughtful gift

the support

and for making it awesome!

Bye bye friends

Thursday 16th of february... the day I moved my plants...

I hope they`ll survive...

How did I fit all of them in my tiny apartment?

Saying goodbye sucks!

More goodbyes to come...
but today had it all:

• teary eyes
• hug
• "we`ll stay in touch"
• thoughtful card
• wonderful gifts
• "best of luck"
• kisses
• nervous feeling in the belly
• laughter
• choking up
• warm fuzzy feelings

Thank you colleagues 

from building number one!

I will miss you!

Chocolate from a stranger, flowers from my love

Valentines day is not such a big deal...
that`s why we just heated up leftovers and went to the supermarket.
Valentines day is commercial...
that`s what some Flemish political party proved when they handed out chocolates at the train station.
Valentines day is about love...
that`s what I noticed when I came home.

Monday`s moments

This last Monday, was my last working Monday... The last, but not the least...
What I loved:

• having a different breakfast then on other mornings (because we didn`t go to the supermarket)
• taking a nice morningwalk from the train station to work and NOT slipping
• crossing a lot off of my to-do list
• feeling that I made a difference in a clients life
• seeing a client smile after a lot of sad words before
• having fantastic potato league soup for lunch (because we were out of bread and forgot to go buy some)
• receiving unexpected kisses from a work relation 
• being brought home after getting stuck on the train because of an accident (thank you Annemie!)
• coming home to a lovely man who had a lovely dinner ready
• taking a hot shower and getting into a warm bed

This monday deffinitely had it`s moments... I`ll miss mondays like this...

Dinner and a movie: the sequel

Sunday was Flemish movie night
= a big flemish movie,
+ "frikandellen met krieken"
+ a good "bierke"
+ some "carnavalsvlaaikes"
+ some good flemish company (the american fit right in)
= awsome!

Thank you moeke for the "frikandellen met krieken" en the taking care of the burned popcorn.
Thank you vake for fixing the DVDplayer so we could watch the movie and then to perform your magic again when the player decided to spit out the disc again.
Thank you Tim for the hugs and the occasional hand before my eyes.

Dinner and a movie

Doing some things that we will miss...

Like this:

cooking our own food

and when we are in the mood:

watching a movie on our tiny TV

with a nice cup of green tea!

A lot of "last somethings"

These days are full of "last somethings"

• last teammeeting
• last time opening a file
• last visit
• last time seeing you
• last of Tims early saturdagmornings
• last email
• last workdays
• last egg in the fridge...

Mixed feelings

Spending two full months (april and may) in a yoga and meditation retreat.

Without Tim... Just me, for me, with me, because of me... 

The idea:

terrifies me and excites me

makes me nervous and curious

makes me doubt (for even considering it) and proud (for even considering it)

makes me just want to stay in my comfortable little zone and makes me want to break out...

Good times with my 3 favorite ladies!

Thank you moeke for the "talking-walking-caring" quality time!

Thank you Ella for the heartwarming-cracking up-cuddling-cosy time!

Thank you zusje for the "it's all good, have as much tea as you want" relaxed time!

  

Another sign

 Sometimes I have doubts.

Am I doing the right thing?

Leaving everything behind?

And then this happens...

Call me superstitous,

but one of my favorite flee-market finds

falling and breaking on a doubtful day?

Yes, another sign.

Preparations

Burning my last candles,

wrapping my last gifts.

Dat kleine meisje en haar mama...

Ze stelen mijn hart,

steeds weer.

Wat is dit hard

en doet dit zeer.

Kleine meisje en lieve zus,

ik zal jullie missen dus!

Lovely saturday...

• warm bed
• sleeping in
• breakfast and book
• driving through the snow
• cold air, warm clothes
• finding the prefect gifts
• warm cup of soup
• spotting awsome snowy spiderwebs
• spending time with loved ones and hot cups of tea
• taking a nap
• having delicious dinner with wonderful friends
• warm bed

I'm only happy when it... snows!

It snowed today! A lot!

The world became so much more beautiful and it got me all excited!

Not that I don't want to go jump around in it and make snowangels... But: I find myself so much more relaxed driving home on a day like this... Weird?

For me there is just less stress, less wishing that everyone would get out of the way, that they would drive faster or get off the road so I could have it all to myself.

I just enjoyed everything going slow, because there is now way going faster. And everything is so pretty!

I wanted to wave to everyone and smile and shout: "This is great, right!". I felt connected with all the people around me, like we were all sharing this amazing thing. I'm pretty sure not everyone feels this way...

I'm so grateful that I got snow and really cold temperatures before I leave...

It will be hard to imagine it being this cold in a few weeks when we are in warmer areas!

Thank you Belgian weather!

Orange was fun

One month...

Only one month until the big adventure begins!

One year...

One year leave of absence to travel!

I will miss my tiny but cozy apartment in all it's orangeness!

This retro lamp now has a giant burn mark on it from a candle and I am starting to drop and break things around the apartment on a regular basis...

This tells me my time's up!

Almost ready to go!