The Wonderful Blog World

14 06 2013

I don’t know if I have any readers left out there in cyberspace, but since I was put on sick leave on the 21st May I have been trying to spend as much time as possible in a horizontal position and it’s difficult to blog from there… However, I was told by the doctor yesterday that it looks quite ok for the moment so I am daring to be a bit adventerous and sit up for a while!

I read today on a blog friend’s blog that her son had asked her to make his favourite banana pancakes for his school summer party, and the recipe just happens to be mine!! Her blog post reminded me that I wanted to write about the wonderful blog world:

My blog turned 6 years a few weeks ago and even though I am not a very active blogger anymore, I still read all my favourite blogs and just like my pancake-making friend above, I am reminded every day of the blog community as many of the people I have met through the blog are now my friends on Facebook. Also, the blog world has meant that:

– I have met xx number of bloggers when travelling (New York, Virginia, California, Copenhagen, Stockholm, southern Sweden, and Brussels of course)! And of course this has also meant lots of great travel suggestions!
– We have hosted blog friends who came to Puerto Rico to visit!
– I still can’t believe that I missed the big Swedish blog meeting here in Brussels on the 10th September 2011 as I just happened to be in labour!
– I have had long skype talks with one dear blog friend whom I still haven’t met IRL but hoping to do so one day
– I was given advice on how to proceed to get a Swedish passport for my new-born son (born here in Brussels) by a blog reader
– and through the same blog reader I was introduced to a mother-baby group here in Brussels and through that group made new friends (and my son got some of his first friends!), got breast-feeding support when my son was losing weight at 2 months old, my new doctor was recommended through this group and today I just had a delivery of 5 books to read while resting from the wonderful midwife Jo who runs the group – all which would not have happened if I didn’t have a blog!
– My son V got lots and lots of wonderful presents when he was born from my dear blog friends, some of them I haven’t even met IRL.
– and maybe the most amazing of all: one of my blog friends is going to become OUR NEIGHBOUR!!! (I will let her announce that herself when she’s ready to go public…)

So all in all, the blog world has given me lovely friends, support and information as well as entertainment and distraction when life has been rough…

Thanks everyone and I hope to continue blogging, even if as sporadically as lately.


Comments : 16 Comments »

Categories : Recommendations (films books & music etc), Travels

Mother’s day confusion

27 05 2013

Mother’s day is not a big deal in my family, nor in O’s family (where no special days are special – not even birthdays!) but we would at least wish my mother “Happy Mother’s day” and maybe she (!) would make a cake. A Friday end of April I noticed that the newspaper Metro, which I don’t usually read on the metro but always see the front page on the copies read by fellow passengers in the metro in the mornings, had an ad mentioning la fête des mères, I thought that it could be a nice occassion to invite our friends and neighbours C & J for a “Mother’s day fika”.

On the Sunday V and I went to the bakery and bought a lovely tarte au frangipane, and I took out my “Mother’s day 1975”-plate (flea market find from last summer). We had a really nice fika together, little M came dressed up in her cute Spanish red boots (gift from us) and V refused to take off his hat (2nd Sunday in a row when we had friends over that he insisted on wearing it indoors!)…

The following Sunday, 5th May, O announced that it was Mother’s day in Spain and I had a nagging feeling that it was the same in Belgium! So, I sent a message to our friends saying that “Opps, sorry but apparently I was mistaken last Sunday but we had a nice fika anyway, didn’t we”. Like most Sundays V and O went to the bakery to buy some “couques” (Belgian French for croissants, pains au chocolat etc), and they came home with this flyer: Moederdag on the 12th May?? Could it be that the Flemish have another Mother’s day than the French-speaking Belgians? Everything is possible in this country!!

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Another rectifying text message to our friends who had probably started (?) to think that I was a little Mother’s day crazy… Later on during the day O invited them over for melon and ice cream (and beer!), celebrating Spanish Mother’s day!

When discussing the whole thing with my Belgian colleagues (who don’t have children) on the Monday after, we concluded that it was Mother’s day for the whole of Belgium (also the German part??) on the 12th May! That Sunday we were in Sweden and of course didn’t celebrate Mother’s day (but I read all the Facebook messages of friends in Belgium wishing mothers “Happy Mother’s day”).

And yesterday, it was Swedish Mother’s day and we didn’t do anything special except V and O went to buy our Sunday couques, and then they cleaned the whole apartment while I was relaxing on the sofa! Quite an ok day, and hey, we had celebrated Mother’s day twice already!

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My mother became a mother for the first time in 1975 when I was born – but I was born AFTER Mother’s day that year 😉

Moral of the story: get your dates right from the beginning (and don’t trust ads in Metro), or not, this way we got to celebrate several times…


Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Brussels 2nd time, Family

A family affair: Ascension weekend in Sweden

19 05 2013

My only chance of spending some time in Sweden this spring / summer was last weekend, which was a long weekend for most Europeans. We were looking forward to spending time with my family and to meet M, V’s new cousin! My parents, my siblings and I decided that it was time for a family weekend at the summer house!

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Before departure at Brussels airport: We thought that letting V run around would tire him enough to sleep on the flight… nope! Not even the car ride back to my parents’ place made him fall asleep! He eventually crashed with us at midnight. Oh well, he is after all half-Spanish!

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Two boys who were completely oblivious to the cameras… We had waffles elevenses (elvakaffe) with my parents’ former neighbours and their son O, one of my best friends, and his family from Norway. Their daughter is 5 days older than V but she was having a nap while the boys were playing with the tractor!

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V wasn’t too impressed with the swing my parents put up for him 😦 In Brussels it is almost impossible to find a baby swing in a playground for some reason!

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The old beach toys!

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But what are some plastic toys to a 20-month old boy who loves REAL POWER TOOLS? My father and O spent two days building a fence and a gate to keep the new family members inside the garden, and guess who wanted to help!

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I guess it would have been quicker if not one of the two carpenters always had to keep the little assistant from assisting too much…

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I wonder if the kitchen utensils will be as fun next summer as they were now and last summer?

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Wow! Grand-dad connected the tv to youtube so that V could watch “El vals del ocho” with Miliki on the big screen! O doesn’t think that it is too early to start with the multiplication table 😉 and V loves the song (waltz?) of the number eight!

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I finally finished my present to my nephew M who turned 7 weeks last weekend! A quilt in green and white…

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Some of the patches: the old shirt of Brysselkakan’s son, the curtain fabric of SunnySwede’s son’s bedroom in England, my parents’ first curtains in our first home, my paternal grandmother’s napkins with her initial, an old shirt of mine, a nd some of the fabrics that my aunt used to make a quilt for my sister as a baby (+ various new fabrics)

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A little pulling help from daddy – uncle D’s old car!

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Good morning! V woke up at 05.30 every morning as we slept in the living room with too many windows to cover up from the early Scandinavian summer morning sun… O, V and my mother walked to the beach to play in the sand while the rest of us got to sleep in (maybe not so much the new parents in the guest house!?)

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The turban was not a hit with V! I had just bought a new cap and a sun hat but of course we forgot them up at the house…

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The Baltic Sea! There were actually sunbathers on the beach and some kids playing in the water!

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The traditional ice cream stop at the kiosk!

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Before heading back to the summer house to pack the bags and start to say goodbye…

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A knackered boy after a long weekend full of attention and playing with the Swedish family! In the evening we went to Copenhagen and V was once again full of energy again until we all went to bed at 23. We got up at 04.30 to catch the metro to the airport and he slept the whole flight back to Brussels. Too bad that we still haven’t received our suitcases due to the 4-day long baggage handlers’ strike at Brussels airport!


Comments : 7 Comments »

Categories : Family, Sweden

Living room angles

4 05 2013

8 months after we moved into our new home, and it is starting to become presentable… There are still a couple of corners of shame (skamvråar) with boxes which haven’t been unpacked (papers and shoes…) and we still don’t have an oven or kitchen cupboard doors. Here are two views of our living room (the dining part is at the front of the room by the windows and the balcony):

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Yes, one of those corners with boxes… The big book case in the middle is from Puerto Rico and we tried to give it a built-in look with Ikea Billy shelves around it. The leather armchairs are also from Puerto Rico and the armchair to the left is my grandmother’s and should be in V’s room but is currently hiding the hole from the partly removed fireplace (to stop V from climbing into the hole which is not too clean…). We still have to decide what to do about the fireplace. We think that you are not allowed to use it so we might put in a fake fireplace? The carpet is from my grandfather and has a label stating that it is from Iran!

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Another living room angle, with my grandmother’s cupboard (her brother made it for my grandparents when they got married in the late 1940’s), her Tandberg radio (V loves to push the buttons and turn up the volume…) and the foot stool that belongs to the armchair plus a picture that O got from his colleagues when leaving Puerto Rico.

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And this is what it looked like last summer… Before and after the demolition of the fireplace, and polishing of the wooden floor!

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Comments : 15 Comments »

Categories : Interior, Life in Puerto Rico

Our little table climber…

30 04 2013

I think that I will go crazy!!! V’s new favourite thing is to climb up on the table and I say “nej!” (no in Swedish), take him down and try to distract him probably 20 times per evening! He has also started to say “no” while he does it… Terrible two’s, here we go! He will turn 20 months on the 10th May.

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But he is also the sweetest little boy, who even though he gives most of his attention and hugs to his daddy, also cuddles with me (when O is not at home at least!), blows kisses and loves talking on the phone with his Spanish abuelos and on Skype with his Swedish mormor & morfar. He knows how to turn on the radio, increase the volume and starts to dance!

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He loves reading his books about Pelle (Jan Lööf books) and the story about the red apple (Sagan om det röda äpplet) – a Swedish book that O very often reads in Spanish, I am impressed how he (O) manages to guess the story almost word for word thanks to the pictures!

He can take instructions in both Swedish and Spanish (and French at the creche), for example O will tell him to get his gorro (hat) or tonight when I told him to build a tower, he went straight to his room and did just that with his building blocks!

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His active vocabulary might not be huge, which is understandable with 4 (FOUR!) languages around him but he asks for agua and pan (bread), banana he has abbreviated to ba, he says ja (yes), titta (look) and tittut (peek-a-boo) in Swedish as well as momma (mormor = grandmother in Swedish). And of course mamma and pappa, which is both Swedish and Spanish (practical!). He is extremely chatty but unfortunately we don’t understand everything he says.

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The social bee loves hugging his girlfriends (we don’t know that many boys his age!), sharing sippy cups (despite our protests, exchanging of germs and viruses isn’t such a great idea, we think), picking daisies at the playground and say hello to dogs in the street. I am always on the lookout for dogs to show him that I find myself doing it when I am alone as well, ha ha!

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Vacuum-cleaning, mopping the floor, playing with water in the sink and wiping the windows are favourites that I wonder where he gets them from – we definitely don’t like cleaning that much  😀

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NB how his father has fenced in the balcony with a net, it wasn’t very child-safe before…

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He can also create a real mess… NB Behind V there are 30 litres of Spanish olive oil (in the cardboard box + the two big yellow bottles) that we brought back from Spain!

He has periods when he refuses to go to sleep in the evenings but he sleeps through the night since he was probably around 6 months (more or less??). But usually his routine is to drink his bottle in bed and then fall asleep unaided. He might complain a little bit but most of the time he gets quiet within minutes, otherwise we will go in to see him and comfort him a little before we leave him to fall asleep on his own. He still sleeps in his crib in our room but that will change soon as somebody else is taking over the crib in a few months’ time. He usually sleeps between 20.00/21.00 – 7.00 / 8.00 (we keep him up until 21.00 on the weekends so we get to sleep longer in the mornings!) and has one nap during the day (1-2 hours).

Next weekend, Ascension weekend, we are off to Sweden to meet his first Swedish cousin and my first nephew, little M*. We can’t wait! A cosy family weeekend in the summer house by the Baltic sea is awaiting us!

*) you might remember that I have mentioned that V’s three Spanish cousins have names starting with M!? Well, now he has 4 cousins with names starting with M; plus his two grandmothers, his Spanish grandfather, an uncle and one aunt!


Comments : 14 Comments »

Categories : Brussels 2nd time, Family

My Venice favourites

23 04 2013

Every now and then I get asked to give some Venice advice since I lived there for 5 months in 2000-2001. A fellow blogger, Miss Marie, recently asked for Venice tips, so I thought that I would make a blog post out of it. Venice is a magical, amazing, beautiful, smelly, frustrating tourist trap for a city and I know people who visited the city and returned home really disappointed! However, there are ways to limit the disappointments and this is what I usually recommend people to do:

Venice seen from the Lido, Italy

    • The locals drink spritz al aperol, not Bellinis. I know, I know, nowadays a drink famous all over Europe but let me tell you, in 2001 not even the Italian students in neighbouring Bologna had heard of the spritz!!
    • Favourite places for drinks: Campo San Lio close to the Rialto bridge, there is a bar, L’Olandese Volante where we always used to go. Also Campo Santa Margherita which is the square where the students hang out. I usually go to some of the bars next to the “Pizza al volo” “hole in the wall” (by the way, great pizza to eat on a park bench on the square in the middle of the night).

Spritz al aperol, Venice, Italy

    • Another Venetian drink is to order a “ombra“, small glass of wine together with some snacks (Venetian “tapas”) in a bar.
    • Tramezzini are triangular sandwiches that Italians eat for a mid-morning snack, sold in all bars
    • You pay more if you sit down to have a drink / coffee. Be careful on Piazza San Marco (the only square that is called “Piazza” in Venice, the others are “Campo”) as the coffees are VERY EXPENSIVE, especially at Caffe Florian (they add more to the bill if there is live music). Have a coffee standing at the bar instead if you really want to have a coffee there.
    • Visit the San Marco basilica and look at the mosaic FLOOR – it is beautiful and completely uneven after all the aque alte (when the water rises – an unforgettable experience if you ever have the “luck” to see it!)
    • Piazza San Marco is the most romantic and magical in the middle of the night, no tourists, no pigeons, no peddlers trying to sell you cheap souvenirs…

San Marco, Venice, Italy

    • In general, avoid restaurants on the Piazza San Marco-side of the Canal Grande and go towards Piazza Santa Margherita (Dorseduro) as it is cheaper and less touristy, which means better food and better value for money. You will see more “everyday Venetian life” on the other side of the canal.
    • IF you find it, and IF it still exists, check out the restaurant Arca, close to the church San Pantalon (Holy trousers?!) nearby Campo Santa Margherita. Nice pasta and pizza and not very touristy.
    • The Peggy Guggenheim museum – great museum, great location in a small palace next to the Canal Grande. I always visit the museum when I go to Venice. http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/
    • There is a nice ice cream bar on Fondamenta Zattere, and lovely views towards La Giudecca island – also a must for me!
    • The restaurants around the Fish market, close to the Rialto bridge are quite nice
    • You don’t go to Venice to eat well – just remember that! In general Venetian food is not as great as in other regions in Italy. Lots of polenta (I am not a fan)…
    • You always get lost in Venice but it is part of the experience. Look for signs for Rialto, San Marco, Ferrovia (train station) etc, that way you always find your way eventually. Addresses are not used in Venice so ask for instructions how to find a place instead of the “street name”. Getting directions from a local is impressive: “cross two bridges and three squares, turn left, turn right…”, you will never remember it all! Bring comfy walking shoes as there is a lot of walking involved, up and down bridges…
    • If you are looking for shoe bargains – il Gran Viale / Strada nova is the only “normal” shopping street in Venice, the street from the train station Santa Lucia towards Piazza San Marco.
    • I never took a gondola ride, very touristy and expensive (and I was a single student ;-)). Take a vaporetto instead to experience the Venetian ”buses” (i.e boats).

Vaporetto No 1, Venice, Italy

  • A really sweet place for a souvenir is the Itaca Bottega Art gallery, where a very friendly artist, Monica Martin shows and sells her pretty pictures of Venice http://www.itacaartstudio.com/ or more info here: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/19d299/ Address: Salizzada San Lio / Calle delle Bande, Castello (close to the church Santa Maria Formosa, kind of behind Piazza San Marco). I fell in love with her art and got one of her paintings as a graduation present from my parents (our graduation ceremony was in the Palazzo Ducale – the only time I have been visited the palace!)
  • If you want to visit any other island, visit Burano for pastel coloured houses or Murano for the glass studios. Don’t bother to visit the Lido, not really worth a visit if you are short of time – believe me, I lived there for 5 months!
  • Ponte Accademia – one of three bridges over the Canal Grande and the only one in wood. Cross this bridge towards Campo Santa Margherita, at one point you might pass a veggie boat where they sell vegetables directly from the boat
  • Campo San Polo is a lovely calm “everyday” square.
  • Literature: The city of falling angels by John Berendt and Out of this century by Peggy Guggenheim.

You can also read my blog post about an unusual hen party for a groom that my friends from my studies in Venice and I organised a few years ago!

A little anecdote which describes life in Venice quite well (and might explain why I keep insisting on “the not so touristy areas…): an Italian friend from Abruzzo (another Italian region) lived and studied in Venice for 7 years. He would always go to the same bar in the morning, have his coffee and chat with the other locals (as he saw it). One day he went into the bar with a friend, a true born and bred Venetian, and guess what: the coffee was suddenly cheaper than usual! It is not official, but apparently some places have local prices, “Italian” prices and the “tourist” prices… I have seen it in a restaurant where the menu was all of a sudden much more extensive when some locals came in for dinner than for us mere mortals (i.e tourists)!

Oh, writing about Venice makes me really want to go back…


Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Recommendations (films books & music etc), Travels

Easter holiday photos

9 04 2013

Some photos to accompany the previous blog post…

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The French police was more than willing to show us (and the driver in the Spanish car) to a local ATM so that O could pay the speeding ticket…

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While in the countryside we went to a local wholeseller of fruit and veggies… V loved the madly barking guard dogs (inside a big cage) and wanted to help select potatoes and tomatoes.

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One way of eating your dinner… Everytime I tried to tell V to sit up / not touch something etc, his grandparents said “Oh, let him…”. Oh dear, Houston we have a problem…

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Have you noticed that IKEA almost always have Swedish books in their bookshelves? The book to the left is a “wine guide for ordinary people” – in the kids´ section in IKEA, opps  😉

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Passing time in IKEA in Zaragoza while daddy was having a conference call in the restaurant section… This was taken before V decided that it was more fun to run around the whole shop and I tried to keep up with him

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The grandparents shop is full of fun stuff to play with but who wants to stay in the back room when you can charm customers and try to plot your escape everytime somebody enters / leaves the shop?

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Some last tapas with Vs grandfather before we headed back north… V was offered a lollipop by the bar owner who was a bit surprised when we said that he doesnt eat sweets but quickly produced some bread and jamon when we suggested that instead. (second time V was offered a lollipop in Spain…)

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Our Ibis hotel at Futuroscope in Poitiers, halfway between Zaragoza and Brussels. Perfect place where we will probably stay again – child friendly, 81 EUR for the night including a great breakfast buffet and just by the motorway – easy to find. The hotel room was basic but nice (no fitted carpet, we like that!) and it even had a balcony! V was a little shocked though when he just before checking out managed to turn on the shower while standing under it… Poor boy but he looked so funny that we couldnt help laughing!

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My new nephew! 🙂

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Not the planned outfit but after the impromptu shower it was the only dry option, and I think that he looks very cool in stripes!


Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Family, Spain

Random Easter thoughts from Spain

3 04 2013

We had to re-schedule our traditional Easter holidays from the Easter week (Semana Santa) to after Easter since Vs creche is closed this week and we couldn´t take two weeks off work. But even though that meant that my parents couldn´t join us in Spain, they came to Brussels for 5-6 days last week, which was great! V got an extra week off the creche that way and got to spend time with first the Swedish grandparents and then now with the Spanish grandparents.

  • I became an aunt* on the 23rd March when my brother´s son (who everybody was convinced would be a girl 😉 ) was born. He chose to arrive the day between his paternal grandmother´s birthday and his maternal aunt´s birthday! I can´t wait to meet him!!
  • The old ladies, the priest and the nun in the small village where V was baptised last Easter were delighted to see him again on Sunday. One of the old ladies whispered “Henry** is here” when she saw him in church. Guess who couldn´t sit still during mass – fortunately it is always a very quick service in that particular church.
  • I told O “I told you so” when the nun, when seeing that we are adding to the family, told us that “now you really need to get married” (religiously that is). She is really sweet though so no pressure…
  • I managed to block the sink in the bathroom late at night and O and his mother spent more than one hour to get it unblocked… opps! I thought that the nausea was over for this time but nope, my breakfast came up yesterday morning as well (this time in the toilet and not in the sink…) 😦
  • V absolutely loves running around in his grandmother´s shop and creating trouble… it´s getting a little old picking up all the chewing gums (wrapped) from the floor again and again…
  • I got hysterical when Vs grandfather wanted to drive off with V in his lap even if it was “just for a 5 minute ride”***. Later on that day the car seat buckle broke (fortunately not our own new car seat) when we were in the neighbouring town and we had no option (??) but to drive home without V belted in. I was convinced that we would have a crash! Guess who felt punished by the car safety gods…
  • Driving 1400 km in two days with a 18-month old was do-able. Hoping for as good driving karma on the way back this weekend!
  • O might not agree with good driving karma as he got fined 90 EUR just before the Spanish border by the French gendarmes (police). They stopped a Spanish registered car and our Belgian registered car, but none of the French that were driving at least as fast…
  • A lost cause: trying to convince my mother-in-law that V understands Swedish as much as he understands Spanish…

*) Of course I am also the tía of O´s niece and nephews
**) One of V´s two second names 😉
***) Trying to get my parents-in-law to understand car safety is another lost cause I fear. Their constant argument is: “We had five kids who were never attached in the car and they were never hurt”. Sigh…


Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Family, Spain

A 24 hour birthday spent in Malmö

18 03 2013

Due to my long blog paus, I haven’t shown any photos from our two weeks in Sweden over the Christmas holidays. It’s now been a while since my sister turned 30 but I just came across the photos from the birthday celebrations as my parents are coming to Brussels on Friday and have been taking shopping orders from the rest of the family. Apparently my sister-in-law really liked a cheese that we ate while celebrating my sister and now we are trying to figure out (among the methods to remember was looking at photos!) which one it could be (maybe tomme de savoie, one of my favourite cheeses!?).

It wasn’t easy to find a birthday surprise activity for a 30-year old which should also accommodate a 7-month pregnant woman (my sister-in-law, due in one week!!), a 16-month old and be available on the 1st-2nd January when a lot of restaurants, hotels etc are actually closed! And not to forget the weather in January… In the end my father and I decided on a programme that we hoped the rest of the family, and especially the birthday girl, would enjoy. I think we succeeded quite well!

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1) check into a hotel in Malmö on New Year’s day. The 7½ of us took the train to Malmö without telling my sister the final destination.

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Scandic Hotel S:t Jörgen was a great option – the newly renovated hotel rooms are much fresher and nicer than on the photos (!!! it seems that they have actually updated the website since then…) and it’s smack in the middle of the city on the main pedestrian street.

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My sister’s photo
2) Organise an impromptu pre-birthday drink in the biggest hotel room as most restaurants in the city were closed on the 1st January! We brought cheese (see above…), wine, champagne (I think it was cava actually), grapes and snacks. Music was provided with an iPhone and V danced for us.

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3) Yummy hotel breakfast with all the trimmings, including gluten-free bread and muffins for my sister-in-law and a play room for V, who of course thought it was more fun to run around the breakfast room and talk to other guests… (his speciality is to walk up to strangers and just stare at them – at the airport in December he actually looked so longingly at a woman’s sandwich that she asked if she could give him a bite… poor starving boy)

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4) Check out from the hotel and walk for 15 minutes to Malmö castle (Malmöhus) which hosts Malmö museums

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5) Visit the exhibitions, including the fish finger (fiskpinne)  😉 Sign says: “With its rectangular shape the fish finger is adapted to freezers all over the world”

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6) Try to keep track of the 16-month old… he really liked the stuffed animals! The rest of us liked the temporary exhibition of old school posters (see photo on my sister’s blog) and some of us [female family members] enjoyed the one on 1920’s fashion. We’ll save visiting the famous submarine for when V is a bit older!

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7) Have a delicious lunch at Årstiderna in the Kockska house (the oldest house in Malmö if I am not wrong, which our grandfather helped renovate in the 1960’s). Bring entertainment for the youngest family member…

Finish off the day with some shopping before heading home. The birthday girl ended her birthday with cocktails at the Grand hotel in Lund but that’s another story.

My sister has also written about her birthday on her blog…


Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Family, Sweden

Snow: 14 months apart

13 03 2013

Viggo’s first snow in Genarp (small village in Skåne), January 2012:

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Viggo and his father looking out on the snow tonight, March 2013… He has some more hair 😉

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Yes, we got more snow tonight… Where is spring??

Isn’t it typical – last week I noticed that the heel on my boot was wobbly and as my mother arrived last Thursday, I asked her to go to the “cobbler” / shoemaker and get it fixed. Apparently he laughed at the state of my [comfy almost flat] boots and said that there was no point in mending them* and volunteered to throw them away, and my mother didn’t protest!! As I don’t want to walk in boots with heels at the moment (too slippery for once and also trying to save my back), I have had to resort to my Timberlands… not the most stylish for the office but it is force majeure…

*) I should have brought them to Spain, which I have done with other boots in a worse state and they were mended without any protests!


Comments : 7 Comments »

Categories : Brussels 2nd time, Family

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