Armistice day--Remembrance day

We're off to the cemetery up the street.  Its shocking to realize there are more than 1500 graves of commonwealth soldiers within two blocks of us and we never knew.  There's no ceremony in this location, but there will be today at Grand Place, downtown.  Not likely going to make that one, since it starts in 20 minutes.

Just to remind you and myself, this land I'm on has been multiple times soaked with the blood of soldiers from many wars.  Think back to the 3-4 hours it took Napoleon to be defeated, only meters from where I now work in Waterloo.  Shameful that certain men make decisions that kill others so violently.  Think of the landing at Vimy-- 2 hours from our doorstep.  10 000 men murdered in a matter of days.

Also, since this is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, it too for us was a "remembrance" day of sorts...telling the kids what this means was tough--they just can't fathom it...nor could we that an entire nation was divided...  Here's a pic of us checking out the pieces that are on display at the European Parliament.

Enjoy the day, talk about it and remember so that it never happens again.

Happy Birthday for Matthew

Ah, to be 39 again. Perhaps if I start going backwards, I'll catch up to my husband sooner or later...

Here's hoping your B'day is as good as they come, dear.  Breakfast in bed and the smell of baking chocolate layer cake should be a good beginning, I hope. 

Much love dearest on your last year in your fourth decade...
M.

Hallowe'en Belgian Style

There are still things that Belgians are not brilliant at...namely those pagan rituals taken to the new country with our Irish and Anglo Saxon ancestors--Halloween just isn't the same in this Catholic country.  They try, but there's just something missing.  Ah well...they make it up to us while we rest during our All-Saints week off (Toussaint) from school.

Here's how all hallow's eve panned out...

Saturday afternoon we got the Jack O'Lantern ready, put a kettle of chili on the back burner, found our costumes and painted some faces, then welcomed our guests, K and B over with their three youngsters (4, 3 and 7 months) so that we could go up and down the only decorated (and barricaded to traffic)

street in our neighbourhood.  B and K also brought a Belgian/Canadian friend, S, with her two children 5 and 3 so we had a full house of little people.  Our two boys sure looked huge compared to these little guys and girls--ours seemed to have grown up under our very eyes and seemed so much more mature compared to their ankle biters!

But that didn't stop ours from getting right into the spirit of the event and getting as much candy as they could.   Yelling "Trick Or Treat!" also is something that has escaped the Bruxelois... instead as you open the door, they cry out "Bon-bons ou vous etes morte!"  Candy or you die.  To my ears, this sounds a bit harsh, don't you think?

The town got into it, in a way.  There were two constables stationed at each end of the 3 block street's barricades and a car had been outfitted with a loud speaker blaring out creepy music and instructions to kids and parents.  Two "puppets" on wheels were being pushed up the street donning witches caps and there were about 12-18 houses decorated and offering candies (no full sized hershey's bars, mind you but lots of "chocotoffs") to kids' outstretched hands...didn't they know to get their pillowcases and witches' cauldrons ready in advance?

The evening ended very nicely with a catching up with our friends over white bean chicken chili and cornbread, white wine and lots of laughs.  What was the best was the no teenagers ringing our bell past nine p.m.!