For Helena

Yeeeeeeeeeehaah

My son is staying with me for two weeks now!!!!
prepare for two weeks of fun and mischief

Restaurants and desserts

Yesterday for the first time since long, I went to a restaurant by myself, like I used to do frequently before I met Lenore.

In a local Nepalees-Italian restaurant (yeah I know, weird combination) I took the spaghetti of the chef and a glass of red wine.
The spaghetti was really good while the wine was not the best I ever had…

But the dessert…
When I took the menu to choose a dessert I noticed something I didn’t know: Sewai.

It turned out to be a combination of a cream with small spaghetti pieces, chocolate sauce, coco powder and a ball of vanilla icecream…
It was a really weird combination (especially the spaghetti) and it will never be one of my favorite desserts

Find an online recipe here (not exactely the same):
http://100recipes.blogspot.com/2008/01/sewai-kheer.html

So, on to the weekend.

My son is coming over and I hope that Daughter will come too… she has skipped the last few weeks so I kinda missed her much. (bear in mind that I have NO legal authority over her and thus cannot -and will not- force her to come. It’s just that if she stays at her grandma’s, she allowed to do whatever she wants… kids ey )

Fever no more

The fever has been gone for a couple of days now…
Only a cough remains.

For the rest nothing much to write… I’m seeing some old friends this evening that I haven’t seen in a few years. I know that at least some of them have married and/or have kids now. I wonder what surprises I’ll see…

Verniet

Een nederlandstalige site waar elke dag of om de paar dagen wel iets gratis ende voorniets te krijgen valt… Voorbeelden van de laatste dagen: gratis koekjes, gratis staaltjes parfum, gratis kattebrokjes, gratis hondebrokjes…

Verniet

(A dutch language site where you can regularly get free samples of lots of things )

New year and movies…

It has been quite a while since I posted…
A lot has happened but nothing extraordinary actually.

Around new year, Son and (Ex)Daughter came to stay with me for a week. Daughter stayed for a few days only since on newyears eve she wanted to go and see the fireworks in the city, so she stayed with her uncle. And on Saturday she wanted to go to Lenore. She wanted to go to horseback riding classes. Daughter sometimes has difficulties adapting to her new environment. Soldiers daughters seem to be allowed everything while she has to share everything. Well, that’s what Daughter says, but I know she exagerates. She doesn’t like the fact that she has no privacy anymore. She has to share her room, her toys… Everytime she gets a present, Soldiers kids want it too and get (an improved) version of what daughter got…
Daughter flunked her exams. On 6 courses she didn’t qualify in school so now she has changed school to become a hairdresser. I hope this is what she really wanted. According to Lenore it is. But I know daughter to change her mind quite often. I just hope this isn’t one of those occasions.

On newyear we visited my parents for a nice lunch. 
On one day my Son went “Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?” etc.  for the entire day. From 9h30 am to 02h00am… Trust me, it WILL get to your nerves! No matter how much you love your kids.
Together with her and Son we visited Godfather and they had a great time. Both of them like playing with Godfathers (step)kids.
The final day Son stayed with me (Daughter had already gone to Lenore) he decided he needed to tell me all kind of things at 03h00am. Pfffffffffff… Pretty tiring! And even though he gave me a few hard days I regretted it that he had to go to Lenore already.

Oh, I also watched an old movie of Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks. And although it was old, it still mabe me laugh (or grin at least) quite a few times. So I got a bit back into “movie-mode”…
This week I finally received the DVD of the movie Avalon by Mamoru Oshii. I never found it in the (regular) stores but thank God for e-bay  )))
The movie is about a woman that plays a virtual reality game. In the game she’s a real champion. But in reality she is quite lonely. The whole atmosphere of the movie is dark, lonely, depressing… I think Oshii wonderfully translated the typical Manga-atmosphere from cartoon to real movie. A lot of things in the movie remind of The Matrix. But that’s because quite a lot of the Matrix is based on other movies such as Ghost in the Shell which was made by… Mamoru Oshii (see the connection?).
Anyway: I think Avalon is one of the best movies I know. I think the story is good, the atmosphere is super. Only the depth of the characters could have been a bit better.

That brings me to a list of movies in my top 10 (in random order)
1. Avalon – Mamoru Oshii
2. Akira - Katsuhiro Ôtomo
3. The Green Mile - story by Stephen King
4. American History X
5. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
6. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
7. Fantasia and Fantasia 2000
8. One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest -  with Jack Nicholson
9. Apocalypse now - Francis Ford Coppola
10. Memento
I also like (but do not consider them top-class): Kill Bill, The Mask, Spaceballs, Only The Strong, Mortal Kombat, Dogma, Blade, Permanent Record

Oh well… too many nice movies to mention…

Milestone 2: 10.000 visitors

Wow…
Who would have tought?
Last night a new milestone was reached:

Escape?

hehehe… just got this image from my boss…

escape

American election day

Well, I guess this blog just can’t escape the whole American election fuzz…
I’m not American so don’t worry, I can’t vote. And frankly, I wouldn’t want to be American. No thanks… if I look at the country I see too much problems, too much radicalism, too much intolerance. Failing healthcare, high crime-rates, etc etc.
If I see that people vote republican because they always have done so. Or the same but for democrats… I really wonder whether people really vote for the one who would be the best. Republican or democrat.
And then there’s the practical two-party system. It’s (almost) impossible to gain votes if you’re not a member of these two giant-sized parties. Winner takes it all.
For a Belgian such as me, it is incomprehensable how a governement can function without decent discussion. And I’m not saying Belgium is a good example of how it should be… Especially the last few months/years have been terrible.

But back to American elections. If I would vote I would vote democrat I guess… Somehow that McCain guy looks un-trustworthy. And with that I’m not saying that Obama is trustworthy. Both candidates have issues that I don’t agree with. Think same-sex marriage, abortion rights,…
But overall IF I had to choose between these two guys, it would be Obama. At least he poses as a bringer of change. To me McCain resembles identical to Bush. And I REALLY can’t stand that shrub dude… I really hate the fact that he invaded a souvereign country against the will of the rest of the world. his “coalition of the willing” was (mostly) composed by countries that would face financial/economic consequences if they didn’t aggree. And it’s this arrogance to think he is the sheriff of the world (yes, the trigger-happy, gung-ho wild west style) that makes me want to throw up. And I’m affraid that his arrogance is projected unto the American people in the minds of people of the rest of the world. It seems like America is going back to (economic) colonialism again… a new American Empire with King George Dubya Bush at the helm… (sorry for the ranting)

And it seems the rest of the world aggrees with me: only in macedonia McCain wins…
Look at the polls here

One tooth down…

Since a while, I’ve neglected my teeth…
I’ve had a few blows to my mouth which resulted in two broken teeth.
But the worst was one rotten molar tooth in the back of my mouth.
And so I decided to go to the dentist. As if my tooth knew something was about to happen, he refused to let me sleep tonight. Every hour I had to sit up due to tooth ache. If I sat up, the pain vanished after a minute or so.

Was this tooth protesting the fact that I was going to the dentist?

Anyways, this  morning I went to a dentist in the neighboorhood. Before, we went to a dentist a couple of cities further on, because Lenore thought that guy was great. But this one, who lives about 1 mile from my home, is also excellent. Although he told me to take more care he never judged me.
Anyway… the molar tooth has now been fired, layed of, extracted, gone… And I immediately made an appointment for the reconstruction of those two broken teeth…

Time to start caring again…

Dragon essential oil warmer updated with picture

I updated the post about the dragon I seek with an image…

Find it here

PLEASE SOMEONE FIND ME AN ( ONLINE ) STORE WHERE I CAN BUY THESE AGAIN !!!!

Changes in the air

From Sunday till Tuesday Lenore seemed to be quite upset about something. It was almost as if she was angry with me. I only was spoken to if necessary. So no casual talk or jokes or whatever. On Sunday she went to a childrens’ playground with the kids without me. It felt as if she wanted to avoid me for some reason. During the other days it was as if there was some kind of tension in the air. You know the feeling when there’s a thunderstorm waiting to happen but hasn’t started yet? Something like that. In bed, she couldn’t stand me touching her (in a non-sexual way. Sex is out of the question. I can’t make love to someone I don’t love anymore…). And normally that’s a sign that something is seriously wrong.

On Wednesday morning when I woke up, I noticed however that Lenore had crawled up to me during the night. So during the day I couldn’t help but tease her with it… And since then, things seem to have defrosted a bit… There’s some small talk again. Yesterday morning I went to the bank to get the extra money I need. The 15k I need to pay Lenore for the house. And while I haven’t got official approval from the bank, normally everything could be settled by the end of next week.. At noon we brought the kids to grandmother and Lenore and me went to the coast. Lenore asked to go. Her asking surprised me. First she seems mad at me and now here we went to the coast as two friends. She even suggested we go and look for some of those dragon statues I would like to buy again (like the ones Lenore will take with her as part of the deal we made). I wonder: has she realised that I will play the game with honor? That I will not play dirty tricks on her? As I told her: I COULD play some very dirty tricks on her. But so can she. I don’t think any of us would be helped if we would start an all out psychological warfare. We’ll have to live with the fact that we’re connected the rest of our lives due to our son. So what’s the point in fighting? It would only make everything worse.

So anyway, she even started talking about Soldiers girlfriend. Apparently she IS playing a hard game with him. Denying him access to the car, stalling the move, cancelling their holiday but keeping the refunded money etc. Has Soldiers’ wife opened Lenores’ eyes? I don’t know. If that damn woman keeps on stalling everything, I will have to go and talk with her… As long as she is stalling, Lenore can’t leave me either… And I want to restart my life again…

Anyway, the last couple of days Lenore and me are behaving as friends again. And it’s a real relief. I hate the cold war feeling. I’d rather keep acting normal and decent. It almost felt like she’s opening up again. Showing her feelings. It may not seem much, but I do think that Lenore talking about Soldiers’ wife is a big leap for her… it shows that she is starting to trust me again (I think/hope).

OK, so the Love between me and Lenore is gone. But we’re still human adults right? It would be hypocritical to teach our kids that fighting isn’t the way to handle things, but fight amonst ourselves… Nah… I hope/think we can be two adult, sensible, intelligent humans and arrange everything peacefully…

Help needed – dragon oil warmer wanted

update: picture inserted

Hi all,

For once you can all help me out on something… two little statues I bought online will be moving together with Lenore. And I can’t find the link to the store anymore… And I tried google a zillion times without success…

Does anyone know where I can buy two scented oil warmers (=fragrant oil) in the form of a black dragon to hang on the wall? (i’ll try to update with a picture of ours done)

I would be thankfull beyond words if you could provide me with a link…

Forget it!

My “Love” has begun a war against the world… She’s burning all bridges behind her.
I cannot help her anymore. No-one can.
I just hope the kids will somehow be spared the pain. But I’m afraid that will be impossible :’-(

My heart weeps. It sincerely weeps.
My bloodpressure is up to 140/80 where it has been 110/70 all my life…

First milestone…

My weekend: Executive summary

Friday: rediscovered Sisters of Mercy (on a party by X, thanks )
Saturday: Gained wisdom: Half a salto is NOT a good idea. Especially the landing on the neck.
Sunday: Dolphins really are beautifull creatures