I have been moving house - right now I sit here between the last boxes in a living room, which looks more like a jumble sale, that something I have been imagining for the last weeks. But I am here and happy - on top of it it has been a glorious blue days here in Brussels, blue blue sky during the whole week and the garden, of which I am now a pride keeper, is in full glory. In the morning I totter out in the garden, coffee cup in hand and walk a little around to see how things are. I feel at home.
Sleeping in a new place is always an ordeal, as human beings are such creatures of habit. Must be some old genetic inheritance, this not sleeping sound in new premises. But it gets better and better. I have made already aquaintance with a red squirrel, who is everyday doing its round of checking the ripness of the hazelnuts, doing the most acrobatic moves and once in a while throw a glance at me and then gets on with the bussiness. And I know already the place in the Chestnut tree, where the doves like to sleep. The dogs are happy as well, sitting in the sun in the garden.
Utter luxury is a roofed terrace, right next to the kitchen. We have been eating out everyday, as the weather is going on and on with blue skies and lovely temperatures in the evenings - have been sitting out more times already here than in the last years together!
The funny thing is, how the house has a will of its own in getting furnished. You will laugh, but I am very convinced that houses have their own personalities and it is normally no good to go against them. This house here has a very earthy feel and a sort of easy going elegance. Not a city elegance, but more countryhouse elegance. It is not rustic, but not urban neither. My furniture feels at home. The pictures as slowly filling the few walls I have, as most of them are windows. Curtains and colourschemes take shape in my head all alone, it is no hard work, but great great fun.
It will take some time, but one room after the other will find its voice. And then the more human voices of happy children, guests and a lot of music should make it simply a Happy House.
Wednesday 15 August 2012
Tuesday 14 August 2012
Why don't you...
start having fun with summer in the city? You could for example..
- spend the summer holidays at home: No hustle-bustle in long traffic jams, no overrun planes with screaming infants, no crammed beaches, but a quiet life in town, money to go eating out, to the cinema and evening spent with friends on the terrasse doing the odd BBQ. No traffic jams, people nice and relaxed... Cheaper, calmer, more comfortable - your own bed, your well known supermarket around the corner and the possibility to do whatever you like!! Going to Paris for a day? Off you go. Going for a walk at the beach? Off you go. Sleeping until noon? Off you go. And so on and on.... By far the most comfortable way of spending holidays I can imagine.
- have a new haircut? Change is in the air! What is nicer for the girl about town as the sensing of the "rentree" slowly creeping up in August? It is now, where all the glossy magazines bring out their autumn/winter issues, with all the "new" stuff coming fresh from the pintshop. So be prepared... And, not to forget, during the summerholidays your hairdresser will be not stressed and will have time to discuss this new "you" and give you a VIP treatment. As you have not spent those 600 Euros for a plane ticket, throw in the odd manicure as well. Luxury!
- have a first look through the shops for the Fall collections, especially if your size is quickly sold out. Go with a friend and have fun in trying on everything you might find interesting or quirky. Then don't buy, but go home, sleep a night and consider if this money well spent? A better investment than buying the 54th sun hat or overcharged swimming costume in the overcrowded holiday resorts, where you out of sheer boredom will spend money on junk you will never ever wear once you are back at home in reality.
- work during august? Sounds odd, but is fun. The offices are calmer, the lunch breaks can be longer and there is most probably all the time in the world to reorganise your desk and have all up to date when the storm starts on the 2nd of september. My collegue and I did a lunch spree to Ikea and came back full with plants and made our office look like a jungle. Fun!
- change the rhythm of every day life: No cooking, but a good brunch. An afternoon off in town, alone. No ironing for 2 days in a row ( believe me, what a difference!). Trying new fruits and vegetables. Make the children cook. Have a pijama day. Read in the garden. Write a letter - oh yes, please! Do things differently, have a look from another point of view, get out of the trample pfad of the daily treadmill.
Most important of all is to find time to slow down. Let the other search for entertainment and change far away and come back exhausted from the stress of having fun and "the time of their lives". Mostly crap anyway.
- spend the summer holidays at home: No hustle-bustle in long traffic jams, no overrun planes with screaming infants, no crammed beaches, but a quiet life in town, money to go eating out, to the cinema and evening spent with friends on the terrasse doing the odd BBQ. No traffic jams, people nice and relaxed... Cheaper, calmer, more comfortable - your own bed, your well known supermarket around the corner and the possibility to do whatever you like!! Going to Paris for a day? Off you go. Going for a walk at the beach? Off you go. Sleeping until noon? Off you go. And so on and on.... By far the most comfortable way of spending holidays I can imagine.
- have a new haircut? Change is in the air! What is nicer for the girl about town as the sensing of the "rentree" slowly creeping up in August? It is now, where all the glossy magazines bring out their autumn/winter issues, with all the "new" stuff coming fresh from the pintshop. So be prepared... And, not to forget, during the summerholidays your hairdresser will be not stressed and will have time to discuss this new "you" and give you a VIP treatment. As you have not spent those 600 Euros for a plane ticket, throw in the odd manicure as well. Luxury!
- have a first look through the shops for the Fall collections, especially if your size is quickly sold out. Go with a friend and have fun in trying on everything you might find interesting or quirky. Then don't buy, but go home, sleep a night and consider if this money well spent? A better investment than buying the 54th sun hat or overcharged swimming costume in the overcrowded holiday resorts, where you out of sheer boredom will spend money on junk you will never ever wear once you are back at home in reality.
- work during august? Sounds odd, but is fun. The offices are calmer, the lunch breaks can be longer and there is most probably all the time in the world to reorganise your desk and have all up to date when the storm starts on the 2nd of september. My collegue and I did a lunch spree to Ikea and came back full with plants and made our office look like a jungle. Fun!
- change the rhythm of every day life: No cooking, but a good brunch. An afternoon off in town, alone. No ironing for 2 days in a row ( believe me, what a difference!). Trying new fruits and vegetables. Make the children cook. Have a pijama day. Read in the garden. Write a letter - oh yes, please! Do things differently, have a look from another point of view, get out of the trample pfad of the daily treadmill.
Most important of all is to find time to slow down. Let the other search for entertainment and change far away and come back exhausted from the stress of having fun and "the time of their lives". Mostly crap anyway.
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