Sandra's blog

Five on Monday

2010-09-20T21:00:00.000+02:00

1. I am bad at blogging. Every time, I say to myself “now I will really do the weekly blog” and every time I do it for 1 or 2 weeks and that’s about it. Maybe I need a less boring life, so that I actually have things to blog about? Or I just need some more discipline, to start up my PC once a week and go online and post my blog (I am online every day at work, but blogs are blocked, so no posting from work). Am I going to promise I will post every week? No, because I know I’ll break the promise, but I’ll do my best!

2. Less than 3 weeks and I’ll be on vacation (aha, one week I won’t be able to blog is coming up, lol). On October 8, we’ll be flying to Malaga (in Spain ), to board the Adventure of the Seas on the 9th. We’ll then cruise the Med, get off the ship on the 16th and stay until the 17th in Spain (we intend to visit Gibraltar ). I am really really looking forward to it. We haven’t booked any excursions (yet) because it’s supposed to be a relax vacation. At first, we said we wouldn’t go to Rome while in the port of call for Rome , because I have visited before, my mom has visited it many times and we don’t feel like rushing around and spending a lot of money to just quickly see it all over again. But now we have decided that we might take the train into the city, take some pictures, have ice cream, shop around and go back to the ship. But that is the most I will do there, I will not be the one running from the Vatican to the Colosseum to the Forum Romanum to the Spanish steps. In Mallorca I want to shop for the Mallorca pearls. I have also seen en excursion at one of the other ports to some sort of turtle farm. And that’s about what I intend to do and see. :-)

3. The day before my vacation is the last day for me on this part of the project at work, after my vacation I’m moving to another stream within the project, and I’m very very very happy with that. Less than 2 weeks before the person who will replace me is going to start, and then 1 week of handover and then I’m gone. Woohoo!

4. This whole change at work makes that I’m going from extremely stressed out to just a normal stress. And while I can’t diet when I’m extremely stressed, I can diet when I’m just normally stressed, so I went back to Weightwatchers. Over the summer, I gained some weight again (hello, twice to DLP, a couple of birthday parties, and then of course all the boulimic episodes everytime I was about to explode from stress) but I still weigh less than when I started Weightwatchers in June, so that’s a good thing. J It’s hard to keep to my diet because of irregular working hours etc, but I really hope I can find some rhythm that allows me to do something about my extra weight.

5. Weighing less is very important, because it’s getting so difficult to find clothes. I must say that I’m actually very disappointed in the private shopping session that I did. Yes, we went to some nice stores that I didn’t know before, and yes, I saw some nice clothes that I would have never considered before. However, I have to lose like a gazillion pounds if I ever want to fit in those clothes. I now realize that that day didn’t help me at all. I still didn’t find a skirt or pants or whatever that I can buy now because I fit in it now. I only saw clothes that don’t come into my size. I had hoped that the personal shopper would show me stores that do carry clothes in my size and look good. Not so. So I’m rather disappointed. Last weekend, I went shopping, because I really needed some things for when the weather is getting less good now. I ended up with some boring old-fashioned clothes. The only things I could find in my size. Although I had hoped that I would have known where to go to find more glamourous clothes. Oh well…. I guess I’ll just have to keep up the diet.

5 on Monday

2010-06-14T16:44:00.001+02:00

1. Yesterday, we had to go vote. I got up early and got there by 8.15 am (which I thought was going to be early enough as to not have to wait forever and ever, but late enough as to not risk having to stay there all day to “volunteer” with the organization of the election). I had to wait about 25 minutes before it was my turn, and that was not one minute too soon. Every time things like that happen and I have to go a bit “deeper” into my neighborhood, I wonder why exactly I wanted to live there. It’s not Brussels anymore, it’s the “brousse”.

2. Last week, I had an “offsite event” from work, from Thursday late afternoon until Friday late afternoon. An evening with dress code “black and white, life at the castle”, a princess-room and bathroom, a morning of presentations and an afternoon with teambuilding games. It was a fun event, it was great to talk to some colleagues I usually never see, …Oh, and alcohol is the devil, and I will once again have known it!

3. This evening, I am going to my second Weighwatchers meeting. I am going to ask to re-calculate the number of points for me again, because it seems really way too much to me. If I eat the healthy way, I just can’t eat that much, and it doesn’t seem right to me to eat unhealthy when on a diet, just to reach some number of points. If after that, I am still not satisfied by the way the diet goes, I will keep on going to the meetings to keep me motivated, but use the Weightwatchers-system they had so many years ago when I tried it first. That worked really well for me.

4. On Friday, I will make lots and lots and lots and lots of desserts for a charity. I will have to calculate today or tomorrow how much I will make and how many ingredients I will need for it, so that I can do the grocery-shopping on Thursday at the latest, and bake all evening/ night on Friday and again on Saturday morning. I will make apple cakes and also vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with butter cream (Belgian recipe of butter cream, way less sweet than all the American recipes I found). I already have bought the cupcake-cups: red-with-white-dots and red-with-white-stripes. They look really cute J

5. Last Thursday, we received all the Victora-jewelry. I brought most of it already to the people who were at the party and ordered, I think one more order has to be delivered (in Antwerp ). I am very happy with the jewelry I got and have already been wearing some pieces. I am already looking forward to the party of next year!

5 on Friday. Uhm… on Monday.

2010-06-07T11:09:00.001+02:00

1. I really suck at this Blog-thing. Every single time, I have good intentions to keep up with it, but then something happens and my good intentions are long forgotten. I have been busy writing my trip report (in a Word document). Next step is to upload pictures and then I will start posting it. I think this is about the first time I have actually finished writing a trip report (for trips longer than 3 days). Will I get all the way to the end to actually post it? We will see.

2. Today is a big day. I will finally go to Weightwatchers again. Many years ago, I managed to lose quite a bit of weight thanks to their “diet”, but unfortunately, because of many issues, I have gained the weight back (plus some more) over the years. I have now decided that it is really time to do something about it, so, today is THE DAY. The last day I will eat a “good” sandwich at work and have Martinis in the evening, because from tomorrow morning on, I will have to count points. Anyone knows how many points a Martini Rossato is?

3. Talking about Martini Rossato, I have a weird “obsession”. I love when you get items as gifts when you purchase food or drinks or cosmetics or what not. Like “buy 4 6-packs of Diet Coke and received 6 Coke glasses”, kwim? The past few days, I have stocked up on some drinks *ahem*. I bought Diet Coke/ Coke Zero because there was an offer where you got Coke glasses with them (I have 12 glasses now). I also stocked up on Bru sparkling water, also because of glasses (12 Bru glasses have found a new home in my basement). Next to all that, I bought lots of bottles of Martini (Bianco and Rossato) because they were accompanied by the glasses that are used in the commercials (the glass George Clooney is drinking Martini out of, ha!). I already have 6 of the small glasses and 2 of the Martini Royal glasses. I saw in the ads that next week, Lipton Ice Tea has promotions with the Ice Tea glasses when you buy 6-packs of their Ice Tea. I know that is an obsession leading to hoarding, but damn, I love my glasses! Oh, and Bacardi has this Mojito gift box: 2 bottles of Mojito, 2 glasses and a couple of straws (also as in the commercial, lol). By the end of “glass-season”, I will be an alcoholic!

4. Last week, on Monday, I had my Victoria-party. Which is a sale of jewelry through house parties (comparable with Tupperware). I organized the event, but it took place at my parents’ house, because their living room is way bigger (like almost bigger than my whole apartment). I provided the drinks and the dessert buffet (Brownies, lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing, orange cupcakes with orange butter cream icing, apple cake, strawberry bavarois and an assortment of cookies and chocolates. I will post pictures of it later on). I invited some friends, my mom invited friends and neighbors, and I think in total we had about 20 people who came. It was a nice evening and everyone enjoyed themselves. Well, I guess they did because many already asked when I would be doing another one! A lot was sold that evening, which meant a lot of free jewelry for me, woohoo! Next weekend the sales consultant will bring all the jewels, it will be like Christmas in June!
Victoria jewels: http://www.victoria-benelux.com/index_nl.asp

5. Talking about Christmas, I already had Christmas-in-May. I got my tax refund, I got my vacation money, I hope my employer will pay my expense note soon, … I am rich! I am stinking filthy rich! That is, as long as I don’t look at that Visa bill that arrived. No, I will stay in denial and just pretend that I am rich!!!

See you next time!

Five on Friday

2010-04-16T11:18:00.001+02:00

1. My Florida vacations are doomed. Really. First time I went, I had back problems and could hardly move. Second time, I fell down the stairs 2 weeks before the trip, broke my ankle and went on crutches while in a cast (I now know that that was a stupid idea, I should have stayed home). Third trip, I had a good vacation until the last day where I fell and spent 4 months at home.µ
This time, meaning leaving next Saturday, everything looked good. I still have not broken anything, no… But there happens to be a volcano in Iceland who decided to become active. I hope by next Saturday the sky has cleared and the airlines are flying as normal. If this trip is going to be ruined by an exploding volcano, I will also explode.

2. Tomorrow is my style & colour session => yeay! On Monday, I already had the first follow up session regarding the use of Artistry products. You have to put your head in a box with special lighting that allows looking “under” the skin. Well, using those products has improved my skin a lot. It is still not perfect, but I’m felling way better and prettier.

3. Next week, I will be going 2 days to Paris for a training. I really hope it will be interesting and fun. I will leave Thursday morning early by Thalys (train) and coming back Friday evening by Thalys too. It will be late by the time I will get home, so I will have to make sure I am somewhat prepared regarding my packing.

4. Packing. I really should start this weekend, at least to see if I need to last-minute buy some things. I don’t like to pack early, but this time, I really should get organized. Want to bet I don’t do anything this weekend and will just freak out next Friday around midnight?

5. I have butterflies. I can’t do the whole story on a public place like this blog is. But I have butterflies. :-)

5 on Friday

2010-04-09T14:29:00.001+02:00

It seems to me that I pretty much suck in this whole blog thing, lol. Or it could also be that I suck at writing trip reports…
Someone I used to read her blog from had this “5 on Fridays” thing. I think I will steal that idea from her and see if I can keep up with posting at least once a week.

Since today is a Friday, here we go with my first 5 on Friday!

1. Two more weeks. I am not counting down or anything, but it’s only 2 more weeks until my next vacation. Flying to Miami, going on a cruise to Labadee (Haiti), Ocho Rios (Jamaica), Georgetown (Cayman Islands) and Cozumel (Mexico) on Royal Craibbean’s Liberty of the Seas. The cruise will be followed by 6 days in Orlando, to shop and visit the Rat. Err, Mouse that is ;-)

2. Eight more work days. Only 8 more work days at the client, because the last two days before going on vacation, I’ll be in Paris for a training. I am looking forward to it, because this is a training that wasn’t mandatory and that I picked out because I like the topic: Process Methodologies. I hope it’s not too much about the basics and that I will learn more about Lean and/ or Six Sigma.

3. Six kilogram. That’s the weight I managed to get off. It’s not as much as I wanted, but it’s better than nothing and I can feel the difference in my clothes. After my vacation, I’m going to join Weightwatchers again. I have done it before, and I know it works for me (but only when I pay every week to get weighed at the meeting). Probably because it isn’t a diet but a lifestyle and one isn’t hungry all day long.

4. One more week. One more week until my style and colour consult session. I am really looking forward to this! From a previous workshop, I know that I am a summer, but I really want to learn what the good and bad colours are for me, which make-up will and won’t work, what hair colour would look good (I tried a new one last week, and while it’s not awful, it’s too dark). I am very colour-challenged, so I really need help with this.
Also the style advise should be very helpful: what kind of skirts and tops and what not will help to hide my not so good features and accentuate my good features. I’d love to have a more “Sex and the City” look but have no idea where to start so I hope this will help me in achieving that.

5. 99 euro. That was the maximum I wanted to spend on a new cell phone. My old cell phone worked perfect, and then last Sunday it didn’t want to “slide” anymore, so I had to get a new one. I hate making phone calls and don’t use all the gadgets that many cell phones have (only calls and text messages) and I really hate to spend a lot of money on it. I got an LG touch screen one. It looks pretty fancy, was within my budget and I even managed to make/ accept calls and send text messages. I am so good, it scares me to death!

Look there! And there! Did you see that???

2009-11-20T10:30:00.001+01:00

“Mom? MOM! Get out of bed! Go look at the window, is that a cruise ship coming by?” Why I don’t get out of bed myself to go look? Because I forgot my glasses at home, which means I’m blind as long as I don’t wear my contacts. As far as I could tell from the pictures on the website, the cruise ships would have to pass right by the hotel coming in this Saturday morning, and I woke up from noise coming from a bigger boat, so I wondered. “MOM! Get out of bed! What do you see?” She saw cruise ships. But smaller ones (Silversea or something like that). Ha! Maybe I don’t see, but at least I hear!

After spending some more time snoozing in bed, we decide it’s time for breakfast in bed. No, not room service. Did you see the prices they ask for some rolls and coffee? Heck, the 0,5l bottle of water we took out of the mini bar was 6 eur! I do like to stay at deluxe hotels, but I admit, I can’t justify spending the huge prices they charge for breakfast. So we kind of brought Danish with us. We’re cheap that way. Hey, at least we didn’t roast a pig in the bath tub or cooked chuckwagon.

After taking a shower (oh, I love the soap we got!) and getting ready, we bring all our stuff down to concierge and … we order a taxi for 1pm. Yes, the original plan was to take the vaporetto back to Piazzale di Roma, and from there a shuttle to the cruise terminal. The new plan was to take a water taxi from the hotel straight to the cruise ship. My whole body hurts from carrying our suitcases (well, bags actually. No wheels. Remember all those bridges? Oh, and it was very warm in Venice!)
I had originally budgeted some money (ha, who am I fooling, a lot of money) to do a gondola ride. Once I smelled the water in Venice and saw the behaviour of the gondola-drivers, I decided a water taxi was a way better use for the money.

Before taking the hotel shuttle again to shop and sightsee some more, we decided to take a look at the rooftop pool. Oh! My! God! The Hilton is the tallest building in Venice, which means you have the most beautiful views! On one side, you could see all the cruise ships! On the other side, the whole city with all the towers. I would have been perfectly happy had we spent our whole morning up there, but alas, we needed postcards, so off we went!
Since we have our priorities straight and had only had a small breakfast, we got gelato as extended breakfast. I love vacation! And gelato!

After walking around a bit more and taking some more pictures and buying postcards and a gift for the grandmother, we decided to go back to the hotel, for the simple reason that San Marco was starting to get flooded! Yes indeed, water was coming out of the ground, and in no time, the whole piazza was filled with ankle-deep water. Nice… not so much.

After retrieving our suitcases, concierge made sure we as well as our stuff got safely on a water taxi, and 5 minutes later, we were at the cruise terminal. Yes, this is very convenient. However, be warned, this is also very expensive. Less than 5 minute water taxi ride costed me 60 eur. I kid you not. But my back and arms and hands told me I made a right decision, lol.

Shop till you drop in Burano!

2009-11-16T15:23:00.001+01:00

Since we have our priorities right, the first thing we do when we get from the shuttle boat is buy gelato. Yummy, there is something about Italian ice cream that makes it so much better than any other ice cream! Next thing is look for the vaporetto to Burano. I am in love with embroidered sheets and table cloths etc, so a must for me is to visit Burano. The boat ride to Burano is long and pleasant. I almost fell asleep sitting outside in the sun, being rocked by the boat, lol!

Once in Burano, we walk through the little streets, admire the coloured houses and the beautiful embroidered items. And yes, I can’t help it, I have to buy some sheets. Very beautiful old-fashioned hand-embroidered sheets and pillowcases. I love them! What we love less is that it turns out my mom’s credit card doesn’t work. She got a new one days before we left, had the pincode changed but didn’t try it out. So, now we are in Venice with this fancy-schmancy platinum MasterCard that doesn’t work. Good thing there is something called cash, and that I have a very basic normal not so fancy-schmancy regular Visa card. Of which I forgot to temporarily increase the limit of course. After some phone calls to dear old dad who on his turn called the bank and BCC, we decide that we’ll use my CC each time they require a pin, and use my mom’s when they don’t require a pin code but just a signature, like on the ship. For all the rest we’ll use cash and worst case we’ll get more cash out of ATMs with our Maestro card (how much does my mom intend to spend anyway??).

When we’re done shopping, we take the vaporetto again. Not back to where we came from (San Marco) but we continue the itinerary and end up on the other side than San Marco of the main island of Venice, which allowed/ forced us to walk through the city.

I knew Venice from movies and books and postcards, it always looked very beautiful and romantic and… well, a lot of things. In my opinion, in real life, it doesn’t look all that nice. Almost every house/ palazzo looks very moldy, it’s all dirty, a lot looks abandoned (I don’t think it was but it looked that way). The water smells not so nice. Yes, I was rather disappointed in Venice. It looks nice when you see it from far away, but in my opinion it looks far from nice when you look from close by.

After finding our way through small streets, the Rialto Bridge, the Grand Canal, and so much more, we arrive at the very famous Piazza San Marco. Where there are no doves. Which makes me glad because I hate doves but also disappointed because according to the movies, there are always gazillions of doves! Lol.

By that time, we are tired and starving, so we walk back to the shuttle to the hotel, where we get our room keys, find our beautiful room and after dropping the luggage off, we have dinner at a small pizzeria near the hotel. Because we were too tired to go all the way back to the center and walk all around to find a decent (read: non-tourist trap) restaurant. After the pizza, which was good, we end the day in the most wonderful bed and it doesn’t take long before I ZZZZZzzzzz….

Day 1 – We’re off to Venice!

2009-11-13T13:41:00.003+01:00

This, we’re flying to Venice. That is: from Brussels South to Venice Treviso, knowing that Brussels South is nowhere near Brussels and Venice Treviso is quite a bit outside of Venice too. But seeing how Ryanair flights were so much cheaper than Brussels Airlines and because of the better schedule, we’ll fly out of Charleroi.
I told my mom I would pick her up at 6, which I do, we drive all the way to Charleroi and once arrived at the airport, I look for the budget parking. After quite a while, I find it and guess what? Of course it’s full. GRRRRR. So, we have to go back to the regular parking (first bump of the budget, lol).

A good thing about a smaller airport like Charleroi is that you don’t have to walk so far, and thus not have to schlep your stuff too far. A good thing about flying Ruanair is that you are very limited in what you can take with you, so you don’t have to schlep heavy stuff either, lol.

Check-in is easy, we go through security, browse through the duty free and then we discuss our “action plan”. I am tall, you know. And have a very very bad knee, that shouldn’t be bent too much. Ryanair is a budget airline. Which means they stuff you in like sardines in a can. However, I paid extra for the priority boarding. Which means we have a better chance of getting one of the 12 exit row seats. Now, one problem: we’ll have to walk down stairs, walk out of the terminal, to the plane, climb up stairs to get on the plane and fight for our right to have an exit row seat (lol). Problem? I have to take stairs one by one. Action plan: Mom goes off, hurries up, throws herself on one seat and her bag on another until I’m there.
Once boarding begins, I am almost yelling “GO GO GO”. OK, maybe not. Or maybe yes I did. Who knows. Result of our action plan is that we have two great exit row seats with lots and lots of room to stretch out our legs. Aaaahhhh, flying budget airlines isn’t that bad ;-)

Only an hour and a half, no food nor drinks later, we arrive at Venice Treviso, once again a smaller airport, so not much walking or schlepping. Busses to Venice ‘”city” are scheduled around the departures and arrivals at the airport. After buying tickets for the bus, we wait a bit, get on the bus and an hour later we are at the Piazzale Roma in Venice, yihaa! There we quickly find out where the vaporettos (water busses) are, get a 24 hour ticket, get on the line to Piazza San Marco because I know our hotel has a free shuttle from there to the hotel. However, at some point I think I recognize the hotel, I ask the man from the boat if it’s the Hilton Stucky Molino and he says to get off the next stop. OK, now we have to walk and schlep a lot. You know how Venice has a lot of water? Well, all that water comes with a lot of bridges. And all those bridges come with a lot of steps. Don’t wear high heels in Venice ;-)

And then we arrive at the beautiful Hilton Stucky Molino. These buildings used to be the old grain mills of Venice and have been turned in a beautiful hotel. Check in was easy, but the rooms wasn’t ready yet. We drop our suitcases at concierge and take the free shuttle boat to piazza San Marco. That shuttle boat looks small from outside, is pretty big inside, and holy cow, makes me seasick! It’s a good thing I have cruised before and *know* cruising is not wobbly like that, or I would have canceled the cruise right there and then. No way could I survive a week being in such a wobbly boat, lol.

We’re going to the Venetian! And then to Disneyland to ride the Jungle cruise over and over again!

2009-11-12T11:41:00.000+01:00

Every year, I try to go on a “long” vacation (at least 2 weeks), a “short” vacation (about 1 week), a few visits to Disneyland Paris (DLP, 2-5 days) and maybe a city trip (Or two. Or three.)

Our long vacation this year was a trip to NYC-Miami-Cruise in the Caribbean-WDW. We went to DLP in July, August and probably again in December, to Champagne in August, to Paris in October, so the only thing missing in the list is the “short” vacation.

Our first idea was to go back to the US again. With the dollar being so cheap, it’s a very affordable destination, as long as you can avoid costly items as rental cars (because of all the insurances that are added, it’s a very costly affair) and expensive theme park tickets. We wanted nice weather, shopping close by, … At some point, I found an American destination that covered all of that: Las Vegas. If you don’t want some fancy-schmancy huge suite in a specific hotel, there are a lot of good deals to be found around for deluxe hotels there. It seemed like a great plan. And then the plan started to grow. Let’s go visit the Grand Canyon while we are there! It’s close enough to California, let’s add a few days at Disneyland! Not only the plans started to grow, also the price tag started to grow. Until it reached the point of me saying “OK, I really want to go on this trip, but I can’t justify the price tag anymore, because it’s only a “short” vacation that is not supposed to cost a fortune.
Bye bye Venetian, bye bye Jungle cruise.

So, I started browsing the net again, to find a nice one-week vacation around the Med. Maybe back to Morocco like last year? Nope, haven’t forgotten yet us being sick the whole week. Or maybe back to Tunesia? Been there twice, but it were both great vacations, and not expensive. Or maybe Turkey? But which place to chose? I don’t want the only “entertainment” being night clubs. And I want nice weather. Malta, Cyprus, … all a little too expensive.
OK, I am bored at work, nothing to do, let’s see how much cheaper that 10-day Baltic cruise at the end of August is. Hey, wait a minute! They have Med cruises too! And holy cow, they are not expensive at all!!!!!!! So, some text messages to my mom later, the decision has been made: we’re going on a Med cruise! And that evening, the decision is made which one: a Royal Caribbean one leaving from Venice going to the Croatia and the Greek islands (nevermind I hate Greece, lol, but I loved the price!)

It took a while for my vacation request to be approved, but once I got the approval, 15 minutes later, everything was booked lol!
We were going to leave on October 2 to Venice from Charleroi (don’t be fooled, Brussels South airport is nowhere near Brussels) flying Ryanair. We would stay one night at the Hilton Stucky Molino in Venice, and on October 3 we were going to board the Splendour of the Seas to go to Split (Croatia), Cyprus, Athens, Mykonos and Katakolon (port for Olympia). On October 10, we’d fly back to Charleroi with Ryanair.

It’s a good thing I knew I was going to sleep/ eat on board, because otherwise, I might not have agreed going to Greece again, lol!

So, no Venetian and Jungle Cruise for us in October, but Venice and a Med cruise!!!!!

Apparently I don’t love my family. Or they don’t love me.

2009-11-06T11:43:00.001+01:00

I have been thinking long about writing a trip report/ blog about my last vacations or not.

First of all, it takes a lot of time. The few times I tried writing one of a longer vacation (i.e. longer than 3 days), I started but never finished it.

Secondly, it seems that people feel like you’re bragging if you dare to write about your car, house, vacation, … On the other hand of course, everyone wants to know how your vacation went, what your house looks like, …

Thirdly, it seems I’m a pathetic loser who doesn’t love her family or who is not loved by her family. Why? Because I dare to travel by myself or with just my mom. Meaning my mom is a pathetic not-loved or not-loving loser too, because she dares to travel without my dad.
Have I been told this “in my face” (or straight to my screen name)? No, I admit that.
However: I have read a number of times reactions like “oh their marriage must be failing if she goes on vacation without her husband.” I usually reply then explaining the way my mother and I travel together, without my dad, that both of them are happy with that arrangement and that it doesn’t mean their marriage is falling apart.
You know what? I could bet money on it, that each and every time, I get a reply by someone saying “oh, well, different strokes for different folks, but *I* love/ value/ blablabla my family so much that I couldn’t vacation without them.” Well, it’s that last comment that implicitly says “you’re a loser who doesn’t love your family and/ or is not loved in return.”

Since I already know now that I am a non-loving loser who likes to brag, I will attempt to write a trip report/ blog about our latest vacation.
Who wants to bet money that I won’t finish it? Or maybe I will finish it? Only time will tell…

The weight loss challenge.

2009-11-04T13:40:00.001+01:00

I started Weightwatchers a couple of days ago. No, I am not going to the meetings, I’m doing it on my own. I did it a couple of years ago, so I have all the “tools” and flyers and whatnot. The only thing lacking is the power to keep on doing it.

Monday was the first day. I did GREAT! I even bought this cool little notebook to write my points in every day. Tuesday I did GREAT!
Today, Wednesday… ehm… not so great. I don’t feel well, and what do I do when I don’t feel well? Right, I eat. I had this fancy sandwich for lunch, and I am pretty sure the mozzarella and Parma ham and pesto that was on it accounts for a gazillion WW points.

I’m an emotional eater. So, what I need is an alternative. Right now, I eat my emotions away. I need something else to handle my emotions. If you know something, feel free to email me. Sandra_vanbossuyt@yahoo.com

My vacation - part 2

2009-06-07T23:11:00.002+02:00

During our wheelchair-monorail adventure, we encountered the nicest people you can think of.
First on our trip from Grand Floridian to Epcot, a nice family offered my mom to help her with getting me safe down the ramp at the TTC. The husband made sure my wheelchair was not going down down down fast, lol. Once we got down safely, they offered to drive us to Epcot. Which was like the husband would first drive us to Ecpot and then drive back to the Magic Kingdom to pick up his wife and two small children. I can't believe that people are so nice, because basically, we were complete strangers, we had only been in the monorail together for two steps! It was very nice, but I felt so bad for the children who were (half) asleep that we declined. I don't know the name of these people, but you were so nice, thank you so much!!!!

I then waited about an hour at the TTC while my mom went to Mousegear in Epcot to do my last-minute shopping; she got everything except one kitchen item. When she got back to the TTC, she tried to push me up the ramp towards the resort monorail. It was hilarious in some way, because there was no way that was going to work. She is short, I am heavy, that ramp is LONG!! Thankfully, a nice gentleman offered to push me up. Once again, such a nice person, thank you so much!
When we were on the monorail, I told her the Contemporary had boutiques we didn't visit yet, I told her to just leave me in the monorail station while she went speed-shopping for the spoon rest I wanted. While we were once again on the monorail, we met another very very very nice couple. The husband was in a wheelchair because of some illness, the wife had some inside information about Disney, and they gave me all these tips on who to contact at Disney for compensation regarding my fall. They were so nice to me, I don't know your name, and you'll probably never end up reading my blog, but I also want to thank you!
Thankfully, the Contemporary boutique had what I wanted, and we could continue to the Grand Floridian again (thank goodness for elevators to reach the monorail, yeah!)

At the Grand Floridian, we went to the concierge, asked them to call AS Sports, where they had promised to come pick me up whenever I was ready. However, they could not be reached, so the Grand Floridian sent their private driver with us to the AS Sports!

While I still felt miserable because of a lot of things (pain being the main one), I could really appreciate the efforts Disney made to make it a little more comfortable for us.

In the end, after I got home and went to doctors here and had extra tests done, it turned out my injury was way worse than just a sprain. The cartilage in my knee is completely ruined. It has been more than a month that I am on sick leave, at least one more month to go. I get injections with replacement cartilage in my knee, am going almost daily to physical therapy and I swallow pain medication like Dr House.
The doctors told me that while I might not completely recover, in the end I will be able to walk somewhat decently again, enough to go shopping and visit Disney. I really really hope they are right.

My vacation

2009-06-07T22:33:00.002+02:00

I went on vacation. Quite some time ago, that is. In April actually. Yeah. That is how long ago I went on my vacation. And haven't blogged about it yet. Hm.

I don't want to write a trip report like "we got up at 8, had this and that for breakfast, went out the door, turned left, ooh-ed and aah-ed on Times Square, had such and such for lunch", and so on and so on.
I would like to give my thoughts on everything about my trip, and I do realise I will probably get flamed for it. And it took me a while to find a flameproof suit. ;-)

Anyway, as I said, I went on vacation, with my mom who is my partner in crime, and in vacations. We left on April 11 in Brussels, flying into JFK. We spent 4 whole days in NYC followed by a day of transfers to Miami. After one night there we boarded for a cruise going to Key West and Cozumel. Our vacation then ended at Walt Disney World.

One of the first things I'll tell you about is how the vacation ended. It ended in the Celebration ER. The person who came up with that name, should be shot, lol.
I am such an elegant person, and I do not leave one opportunity unused to show that elegance. *insert some roling eyes here* On our last full day at WDW, I went to the lobby to check our pick up time for DME. While I noticed the gazillion cheerleaders in the lobby, I didn't notice a wet floor, and there were no signs to tell me teh floor is wet. I basically found out when I was on the ground, cursing in a not so Disney-like way because I had slipped and fallen. On my knee. Considering my weight, that is not a good thing. I can tell you my vocabulary wasn't the "klassiest" one.

I must say though, immediately there were people there wanting to help me, as well other guests as CMs. They asked me if I needed a paramedic or ambulance or what not. Well, the only thing I wanted was cursing and crying and a alcohol shot. It didn't matter which alcohol. Because my knee hurted so much. After a couple of trials, they were able to reach my mom in the room (while I was going to the lobby, she was calling home to tell we were doing OK, yeah, right) and after discussing with her, we decided an ambulance would be not such a bad idea, considering the pain and the fact I could not stand on my leg.

Can I say that that was the end of our planned day at Animal Kingdom? No parade at Magic Kingdom? No dinner at Grand Floridian Cafe? No last minute shopping? Can I say I cried like a child out of pure misery? It was the combination of pain, somewhat the shock of the fall, the fact we wouldn't be able to do what we wanted to do that day and the fact we were supposed to fly back home the next day.

The ambulance arrived, I got an ice pack, the brought us to the Celebration ER (what a name) and I discovered that not each and every US ER had a George Clooney working there. That was a bummer. :-( While nurses and doctors and quite some other people took care of me, my mom spent a lot of time on the phone with our travel insurance company, Touring. They did a marvelous job, really. Usually, when you don't have to stay at least one night at the hospital, you have to pay yourself and they'll reimburse you afterwards. Well, in my case, they took care of everything, they contacted the hospital directly and took care of everything. I wasn't able to think straight, and my mom's English isn't that good plus she panicks when something happens, so it's good they took over, and we could focus on other things.

After the X-rays and all, they declared it was a "sprain", gave me pain medication (I saw pink elephants fly!! weeee!!!), a brace and crutches. And called a taxi.

Once back in the hotel, Disney took over a bit. They reimbursed our taxi, took care of our phone bill for all calls to Belgium (btw, they charge 10 USD a minute to call to Belgium! That is pure robbery!!!). They also offered to send a personal shopper to DTD to get the items I wanted and they offered us a private driver to get to the Grand Floridian for dinner, after making us a second ADR there, a later one, since we needed to first sort things out with the insurance company. Like how I was going to get home, since I couldn't bend my leg, am already very tall to begin with and had a regular economy ticket.

After numerous phone calls with the insurance company (in the end we didn't even have to say who we were and who we were calling for, the dispatcher put us through directly) and after getting messages like "staying a couple of more days in the US", they were able to rebook my ticket for the original flights to business class. I must say, doing that when it's Saturdat night in Belgium for a flight on Sunday is amazing, since you can't reach American Airlines during the weekend here. They were able to arrange it, together with special assistance in each airport, etc etc etc. Their service was amazing.

After that was arranged, we were just in time to get to our original Grand Floridian Cafe dinner. As promised, a private driver from All Stars Sports drove us to the Grand Floridian.
We enjoyed a very nice dinner (salad with strawberries, steak and key lime pie/ cheesecake) and then... it turned out somebody stole my wheelchair!!!!! Yes, the CM had parked my wheelchair in the restaurant lobby, and some idiot guest must have stolen it. Many CMs toldme this was the first time ever they had something like that happen! How can you just take a wheelchair?? Don't you realize that that means a person who needs it will be in big trouble? The Grand Floridian didn't have any spare wheelchairs anymore so they sent a CM to the Magic Kingdom to get me one. While I couldn't get over the fact someone stole mine, I was amazed to see they did this to help me. That's the Disney-touch, I guess. After I had my wheels back *insert some rolling eyes here too* we were up to do our last minute shopping. Of course, none of the Grand Floridian boutiques had what I wanted. I told my mom that I knew that Mousegear at Epcot had everything, and I asked her if she felt comfortable enough to go there and get it all. She told me she would even take me with her, so off to the monorail we went, and we took it to the TTC. There it turned out you have to go down one ramp and up another one to get on the Epcot-monorail. No elevators. At all. After the adventure it was to get me off the one ramp, I told her no way I was going with her to Epcot. So she basically parked me at the TTC and went by herself to Epcot. About an hour later, she was back and after an adventure to push me back up the ramp, we were back on the monorail, woohoo!
However, the adventure didn't end there.

*to be continued*

Tell me why... I don't like Mondays...

2009-04-06T16:32:00.002+02:00

I don't like Mondays, in general, and I don't like this Monday (today) in specific.
I woke up with a cold (thanks to the freezing place where I went to see a boring theatre play on Saturday) and allergies (ah, don't you love it, when spring arrives, your nose starts to run and your eyes tear?)
I must say, I really don't feel fine. My head hurts, my whole body hurts. I drank hot tea all day long (and had to run to the restroom all day long because of the tea) but it didn't help in making me feel better.
And my nose is so red, although I use the expensive Kleenex balsem tissues (are supposed to be soft for my nose).

I so want to go home and to my bed... I wonder if I could leave work early? It's not like I have anything to do here...

So, I don't like Mondays. Weekends are way too short, and I usually wake up on Mondays thinking "5 more days and it is weekend again"!
However, I'm sure I'll like next Monday, in New York. And the Monday after that, on the cruise. But not the Monday after that, since I will be so jetlagged after spending all night on a flight. But I will not think about that right now!!

The "after" pictures of my living room

2009-04-05T16:59:00.005+02:00

I have made some pictures of my living room after the remodelling.
Of course, it includes a lot of Mickey, and a lot of Ikea, but it is a place where I feel at home, and that is the most important!

First of all, I will show you an "in between" picture, from during the remodelling. I must say, each and every single time I entered the appartment during that period, I got depressed, because it seemed each single time, there was more "stuff" in there and it seemed like it would never get ready!

The following are "in between" pictures when I just moved in and hadn't all my furniture yet. Pictures are made on my birthday:

The dining room part of my living room, ready to host some (ex)-colleagues (the space pig convention, lol):

And this is the other side of my living room:

A close-up of a part of my Disney-collection:

And this is how it looked like the morning after the "space pig convention":

It's a good thing I didn't take pictures of my kitchen (Mount Everest was nothing compared to the mount of dishes in there. That will teach me serving everything on tiny little plates and in little glasses).
But it was so much fun, I would do it again in a heart beat. And I will, in some months.

Today I almost died of a heart attack

2009-04-04T09:45:00.002+02:00

It's Saturday. One week before going on vacation. It's something I wanted to brag about on my "roll call" on Cruisecritic, and to even be more specific, I went on Travelocity to look up what time our flights leave, to be able to say "in one week, we'll be already doing some duty free shopping at Heathrow" or something like it.
So, I open a new tab in IE, www.travelocity.com, log in, and... WTF?????????? No trip in my account????
I go to my email, look for the confirmation email I received and WTF?????????? Instead of the overview I used to have in there of all teh flights (6 in total), it only says "Thank you"?? Where are my freaking flights???

I can tell you, at this point I am panicking. Sweating. And panicking some more. I have this instant migraine from the stress and feel like I have to throw up.

Since I was still in pyjamas, I throw some real clothes on, go to the parking, get my notebook out of my car and start looking for print outs I have made when I booked everything.
I find some confirmation numbers and start calling around and looking up flights on the airline websites, ...

On the British Airways website, I find our flights back, and am so releaved, at least we'll end up IN the USA. That's a good start. But, WTF?????? Why is my name spelled as Dra San instead of Sandra??? *heart attack number 2 almost happening*
I call them, am forever and ever on hold (they don't even have nice music like Mobistar has :-( ). In the end it turns out my name is registered as Sandra in their systems, why it turned up as DraSan on my screen, only the internet-gods know.
Next I look up is US Airways, their website says I am on their flights, cool, so I'll be able to go from NY to Miami.
Next is American Airlines. *3rd heart attack almost happening* I can't find my booking, it always says there is no booking with my reservation number and name, oh my God, what am I going to do? Oh, yes, call them! WTF??? They don't work during the weekend? Oh yes, this is Belgium, no customer service during the weekend...
Then I see in very small print that on their website you can only look up flights being made through their own website. Which I did not, I used Travelocity, but in this day and age of integrated systems??? I am going to call them on Monday, to find out what is going on, worst case I'll go to their check in at the airport, I work there very close by (can see the airport terminal from my desk).
This is the flight I least stress about (hey, if we are not on it, we'll just stay in Florida ;-) ) but this is not a good way to start a Saturday.

It's 10 am now, is that too early to start drinking? Because I really could use a drink now...

I will survive... I have survived!

2009-04-03T13:27:00.002+02:00

I have survived my dream team meeting, aka the space pig convention.
I ha dtaken the afternoon off on Wednesday, was home at about 2 pm, my mom came around 3.30 pm and together we prepared quite some little "bites".
One of the new recipes I tried out was a feta-salad, and it was really good. Want the recipe?

- Half a cucumber, seeds out, in little cubes
- 1 green pepper, seeds out, in little cubes
- 2 tomatoes, seeds out, in little cubes (do you see a trend here? lol)
- 1 red oignon, in thin slices, and then each slice cut in half to have "half moons"
- 100 grams of feta cheese, in little cubes
- 1 table spoon of olive oil
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon of oregano
- black pepper
- sea salt

Mix everything together, and serve in little glasses.

My guests arrived later than I thought they would (may I say that at some point I kind of panicked and feared that they wouldn't come? I'm so insecure at times :-( )
But we had a great evening. We laughed so much at times, that my stomach hurted (sp??). Thank goodness they liked everything I prepared and ate pretty much everything (good thing I don't have to eat the leftovers until my vacation, lol!)
Everyone left around 1.30 am, I was in bed by 2 am and I woke up with the worst hangover I have ever had. Unbelievable! I felt so sick all day Thursday until... I had some wine at the company's happy hour, then my head cleared up! So one really has to fight evil with more evil, haha!

Now that this evening is over, I can really focus on my vacation. On Friday's we may leave the office early and I'm going to try to find a dress for formal night on the cruise. I also have to start packing the "small" things like batteries, sun screen, etc etc etc.
What I don't feel like doing is to find out WHAT to do at NYC, I told my mom that that is her task. After reading a gazillion hotel descriptions, I'm done reading for the vacation. Really.
And I'm at the point where I don't care too much whether I'll see "everything" or not, as long as I'll see Saks Fifth Avenue, I'll be happy ;-))

Dream team meeting. Aka space pig convention

2009-04-01T12:29:00.003+02:00

Tonight, I am organizing a "dream team meeting". Also known as the "space pig convention".
To "get" this, you might want to know some background.
I work as a consultant, project-based, in team with other colleagues. In October, I changed jobs and started on a new client/ new project together with some other people, all of us new to the company. We got along well together, and imho, we did well on our project. For some reason though, management didn't like the fact that we got along so well, and decided they were going to break our team.
In January, first person got fired. In February, I transferred to another department (it was that or commit suicide, I was really at that point) and just last week, they fired another person. No decent reason at all. Just because they wanted to break up our team. I guess they reached their goal now.

When I was looking for another job (in another department or even an other company) I told the others that I would invite them for a drink/party when I got away. On March 1, I switched departments, but with deadlines the others had, we decided on April 1 to be THE day.

Why dream team or space pigs? Well, in our opinion we are a dream team, in management's opinion we are a nightmare team (lol). Space pigs... that story is too long to write down here, but it included lots of laughing!

So, this afternoon, I have taken some hours off from work to prepare all the snacks, bites, munchies, whatever you call them. Champagne and wine are already cooling in the fridge. I'm already excited about it.
Not only will we have the opportunity to see each other again but also to catch up on gossip etc.

I really miss the fired people. And I don't miss at all the previous department. I can't handle management-by-terror.
But it will be a great topic to talk about tonight!!

It's almost vacation time

2009-03-26T11:42:00.002+01:00

Two more weeks and one day, that is the countdown to my upcoming vacation.

On April 11, my dear ol' mom (don't tell her I called her that!) and I will leave for New York City (flying with British Airways over Heathrow). There we'll spend 3 full days + the afternoon on arrival day. We hope to visit Ellis Island, do a hop on/ hop off bus tour, a "cruise" in the harbor (you know, the 2-hour ones, lol) and some shopping (have to go to Macy's or Sax 5th avenue for Clinique products and their GWP).
I don't know too well what to expect from NYC. I haven't been there other than a layover at JFK (but do have a picture of the Twin Towers, took it when the plane took off). Other than that, I only know it from movies and TV series. I seriously hope not everyone looks like a fashion model, otherwise I'll stand out too much... :-s

On the 4th day, we will fly down to Miami (with a stop in Charlotte). There I plan to enjoy one full afternoon, evening and night the Japanese massage-bath-jacuzzi thing that apparently every room at the Mayfair hotel has on their balconies. Oh, and swim in the wonderful rooftop swimming pool too!
I am SO glad I dared to Hotwire it and get such a fancy hotel for a reasonable price. First idea was to rent a car and do some minor sightseeing, but after seeing the description of the hotel, forget that rental car, forget sightseeing, hello the good life!
You think they'll mind the fact that I don't have the perfect bikini-body??

Then, on the 16th, we will board the Celebrity Century, for a short cruise. Key West, Cozumel and a day at sea are on the program. I have prebooked a tour to visit the Tulum Maya ruins, and am looking forward to those!
Also, after spending some time on the Cruise Critic boards, I have virtually met some other cruisers, and we have already made plans for a sailaway drink. Looking forward to meet them irl.
Also, April 16 will be the last day of my trial period at work, woohoo, after that, I'll be a "fix" employee.

When we'll be back in Miami, we are going to rent a car, have a look at alligators (aka living purses on feet) and drive to Orlando (hope we won't get lost).
After checking in at the Disney's AS Sports resort and having a first night's sleep, followed by a day of shopping (Ann Taylor! Banana Republic! Tommy Hilfigger! Ralph Lauren! Apple! and so much more!!) (oh God, my stomach hurts already when I think about my VISA bill afterwards, waaahhh!!!) after having breakfast with Minnie Mouse at the Cape May Cafe at Walt Disney World (I SO love Minnie Mouse, I think she is the cutest. She has sexy underwear and not even one wrinkle at her blessed age of 80 years old!).

The next 4 days will be spent with Mickey and his friends at the theme parks. What can I say, I am a huge Disney fan!!
The one attraction I am looking most forward to?? Jungle Cruise!!! I am a Jungle Cruise groupie. Because I am. I really really am. ;-)
Other must dos are the Safari at Animal Kingdom (our favorite WDW-park), Expedition Everest and Dole Whips. Oh wait, those aren't attractions. But I'm attracted to it nevertheless.

Then, finally, we will have to come back home. :-( Which usually means figuring out ways to pack all the crap/ stuff we bought while on vacation. Which usually included a lot of Disney books, other Disney crap and lots and lots and lots of clothing. Oh, and iPods that we don't plan on registering with customs when entering Belgium, sssshhhhtttt.

And once home, I'll have to start planning my next vacation. Some days at London. A Disneyland Paris visit. And another Disneyland Paris visit. And a Disneyland Paris visit combined with a Champagne visit.

Ah, vacation... don't you just love it?

The beginning of the remodeling

2009-03-24T14:44:00.005+01:00

In November 2007, I decided to start looking for my own place to live at. I wanted to stay in or just out of (the North side) of Brussels; the area where I was born at, where I grew up and that has quite some Dutch-speaking people and not too many criminal minds. After a short while, it was clear that renting would be way too expensive, so I started looking into buying. After downsizing on my dream-home a bit, I found a nice 1-bedroom apartment, built about 9 years ago, just a few streets from where I grew up. I liked the idea of staying in that neighborhood because it meant I didn’t have to change doctors, pharmacy, stores and whatnot.

When I first visited the apartment in December 2007, it was in the evening and there wasn’t too much light. Everything looked really nice, and I had the impression that only a bit of painting would be in order (+ adding a little sink in the powder room).
When the sale finally came through in the beginning of April 2008 (one must love the slow Belgian administration!) and I had a better look at it with lots of light, the list of things to do/ change just started growing.

Hallway

Nice big entrance hallway. Large space, but not useful because of the huge heating element in it. Oh, wait a minute, maybe we could take it out, so that I can use it as my home office? But then… the outlets are on the wrong wall, so maybe some outlets can be added on the other wall? Oh, the floor has to go out for that… ehm, is that really so much work to do? Pretty please daddy???

Kitchen

Nice spacious and sunny kitchen!!!! But oh my goodness, were those people midgets??? The counters are way too low for (tall) me! So, could we perhaps change that? And add a breakfast “bar” in front of the window because the view is wonderful?

Oh, and when the counters end up higher, the upper cabinets will be hanging too low, so can those also be hung higher? Oh, if we do that, we’ll need to change the tiles on the walls? That’s ok, I didn’t really liked the original ones to begin with.
And while we are at it, could we change the flooring? I don’t like wood in the kitchen and would prefer a tile floor…

Living room

Nice sunny living room. Not too big though, so will have to think well about what furniture I will buy to optimize the space.
Only thing that needs to be done is adding outlets. Lots of them! And repair the cracks in the wall.

And take out the door to the hallway, so that it wouldn’t be freezing cold in the hallway after taking out the heating unit there and so I wouldn’t be too claustrophobic in the living room.
Actually, I just want one big space.

Bedroom

Very large bedroom! Nothing needs to be done. Except maybe add the cable-thing for a TV?

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/sandravb79/appt/P1030693.jpg

Oh, and maybe we could take out that door to the bathroom and replace it with a sliding door so that I wouldn’t loose too much space and have more closet-space??

Bathroom

Looked very nice while it was dark. Didn’t look too nice when there was light.
The wall tiles are very very damaged, don’t know if they will ever turn out well. The shower head is not in a very handy spot if you actually want to take showers in there. The faucet, well… it’s so old-fashioned, I’m wondering where they still found that to buy 9 years ago, same with the sink faucets.
Mirrors above the sink: hate it, hate the mirror and the ugly light and I can never believe that power outlet is save. And where am I supposed to stock all my stuff?
And while we are at it, can the floor be renewed too??? Pretty please daddy?

Powder room

Not bad, I just would like a little sink in there so that I and visitors can wash hands in there.

Laundry room

Not bad, will turn that into laundry room/ pantry. Eventually, in the meanwhile my laundry is outsourced. And it will be used as junk room.

That is what I started with in the beginning of April 2008. The next posts will be about what it turned in to.

It's Monday

2009-03-23T14:04:00.003+01:00

5 more days and it is weekend again! And the weekend will be there soon, the days fly by so fast, it's amazing.
I think it's because I can already see my vacation on the horizon. I have so many things to do, and there is just not enough time. Going to all different kind of stores, all in another part of town/ the country of course, to buy those couple of essentials I can't live without on vacation.
Making sure I made hotel reservations in each city, make sure I have arranged transport everywhere, check and double-check the dates, apply online for that new Visa-thing one needs when visiting the US, have the spending limit of my VISA-card temporarily increased (hello there, I have some serious shopping to do while in the US!!!). While it is fun, it is also exhausting me.

A new start

2009-03-20T15:27:00.003+01:00

Hello everyone.
After not blogging for quite a while now, I decided todat to pick it up again. Why? Well, some weeks ago, I got banned from the ***boards. I registered again, got banned again, got registered again, posted a bit and now got banned again for no reason at all (that's the way it seems to me anyway). Not too big a drama, too bad for those people on the DLP-boards I could give advice to.
But just today someone messaged me that people were wondering about my remodelling thread and wanted to see pictures.
That's what made me decide to blog again.
It will start out with the remodelling, and I don't know where it will end.

Exciting, isn't it? ;-)

Vacation, vacation...

2006-08-18T15:43:00.001+02:00

It has been quite a while since I last posted on my blog. I have been busy you know. Busy with important things, like golfing (woohoo, I finally played my first tournament!) (didn't play too well, though) and planning my upcoming vacation. Four more days, and I'm gone with the wind! Towards Mickey Mouse, that is.

Yes, on Wednesday, I am leaving home, and going to the great airport of London Heathrow. You know, where all those lovely terrorists wanted to board a plane, and blow it up. Yes, you know what I'm talking about. I'll have more than 11,5 hours to worry about being blown up while somewhere above the Atlantic. No way I will ever cancel the trip though, Mickey is waiting for me.

So, I'll arrive on August 23 at LAX, transfer to my hotel at Disneyland. Then, after a night of recovering from jetlag, I'll enjoy FIVE FULL DAYS OF DISNEY MAGIC!!!!!!!!!!!! In my head, the Fantasmic! music and the Remember, dreams come true music is already playing.

Star light, star bright,

First star I see tonight

I wish I may

I wish I might

Have the wish

I wish tonight

We'll make a wish

and do as dreamers do...

And all our wishes

Will

Come

True...

I love this part. I really do. And I do love the Haunted Mansion part of the fireworks!!!

Welcome, foolish mortals

To the Haunted Mansion

Is this room actually stretching

Or is it your imagination

*KABOOM*

Don't you just love that part? Well, I guess you need to have seen the fireworks show to know about it, but trust me, it's great!

Yesterday, I also finally called the resort to make my ADRs or priority seatings or however Disney Dining calls it. And lucky me, I got almost all the ones I wanted: Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour (I'll finally get to look into Club 33, woohoo!), Dinner at Blue Bayou, Breakfast with Minnie Mouse (I already dream about the Mickey waffles!), dinner with the Princesses at DCA (actually just because I think it's a nice place to sit and watch the lights of California Screamin' etc) and dinner at Café Orleans. Carnation Cafe had some funky opening hours, so I didn't made ADR's/ PS's/ whatever-it-is-called for that one. Let's hope they'll allow walkups without having to wait half a day.

I dream about the Disney food. I really do. Yes, you read it right. I know the dining options at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris are better, but still... I like eating in general, so when I can do it at the House of Mouse, I like it even better!

The rest of my vacation will consist of spending half a day showing my mom the beach/ ocean at LA, then we are going to the Dallas/ Fort Worth area, then we are moving on to an exciting huge city in the Texas panhandle, followed by a visit of Washington DC. Y'all be warned!

Going on vacation

2006-07-20T12:29:00.001+02:00

Going on vacation. It should be relaxing. But it isn't. First of all, there is the planning. It is stressful to plan a vacation. Really.
Right now, I'm planning my the vacation my mom and I will take from August 23 until September 12. 13. We will leave in the 12th and arrive back in Belgium on the 13th. Until now, the plans are as following: We fly to California, spend 5 whole days at Disneyland, transfer to a hotel close to LAX and some beach, spend a half day on the beach/ pier/ eating seafood. Sleep a couple of hours and fly to DFW-area. Spend 3 whole days at DFW and then go to middle-of-nowhere Texas, where we'll visit friends. From there we fly to Washington DC, spend 3 days over there and then go back home.
That means that I have to book a gazillion of flights, 4 hotels, a rental car at DFW, shuttles at LA and Washington, Disney passes, reservations for tours and breakfast/ dinner at Disneyland, maybe tours at DFW or DC, ...
It also means I'll go through lots of trouble with credit cards. Since I book everything over the net, everything is paid for in advance with credit cards, but it's always a hassle because of the credit card limits.
Right now, nothing has been booked yet. I only have an excel-file with lots of sheets, with hotels, flights, prices, more prices and even more prices. I sent out an email to my friends, to check if they'll be home on the days we plan to visit them. That's always handy, you know. Saturday, I should start booking. First the flights. Then the hotels. Then the shuttles. Then the car. Then the Disney passes. Then the ADRs etc. Then the appointment at the hairdresser, in order to do something about my grey hair. Really.

Going on vacation is relaxing. In theory. But the planning is stressful. And fun too!

Walibi

2006-07-10T17:46:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, I went to Walibi, a theme park in the neighbourhood of Brussels. I had been there when I was still in high school, and that's it. I have never really been a theme park fan. As kid, I loved to go to the Efteling in the Netherlands, because of the fairytale atmosphere, and now, I love going to Disney, because of the rat and the magic. Oh, I'm sorry, it's not a rat, but a mouse. Oh, sorry, it's a Mouse, with capital M! :-)

Since I don't like theme parks that much, and since I think they are awfully expensive, I never go (with the exception fo Disney). In this case, someone asked me if I wanted to go, and I couldn't say no. Oh well, going once wouldn't hurt me (right) and it might actually be fun (right). So, off we went. "We" were a rather weird mix of people. There was me, the jetsetting person (bwahaha, who am I kidding here!), my friend (works in the same company as I, but she works in a store, I work at the headquarters), her ex-husband, her nephew, a friend she knows from I don't know where, and the friend's two kids: a little boy who was SO cute and a girl who didn't open her mouth during a whole day.

Thank God I had some coupon: adults for the price of kids (still 26 EUR!!!!!) + we got a coupon for a free picture with "Walibi" in the park (Walibi being an orange kangooroo). After waiting in line forever to get our tickets, we finally entered the park and... some creature grabbed me and hugged me and didn't let me go until the photographer took some pictures. WTF????? At Disneyland Paris, you have to fight to get a picture with Mickey, here you have to fight the character in order to obtain your freedom again. And don't take all those pictures, I have no intention to buy them!
After fighting two characters, we finally could enter the park. OK, and now? Good that I thought about grabbing a map. Looking at the map made me worry... no decent park lay-out, no description of what the rides actually are, ...

I didn't make notes on the day, and I don't plan to give a complete day report. No, I plan on comparing this park with Disney. I know, one should NEVER compare some theme park with Disney. But I will do it. Anyway. Because I'm bad.

Disney is CLEAN, Disney is MAGIC and at Disney, you have music. Yes, music. Everywhere. All day long. Don't ask me what kind of music plays in Discoveryland at Disneyland Paris. I couldn't tell you. But I KNOW there is music. At Walibi, there wasn't any music at all. And I missed it. Big time. Next time I'll be at Disney, I'll pay more attention to the music. And I'll appreciate my CDs with Disney theme park music even more.

Disney is clean. Walibi isn't. This park is only open during the summer time. So, they have the whole winter to do maintenance in their park and clean the park and rides. That's what one would think? You'd think they have a gardner to keep the plants in control and fight the weeds. Right? No. Not at all. The weeds were taller than I (I'm 1m85, with is more than 6ft!) (that is without my high heels on). The queue was so dirty; people smoked while being in the queue, and they even smoked while being inside the buildings! Also, on the walls, there was graffiti everywhere. Not the "nicer" kind, but the kind people write with markers. All sorts of curse words and dates, and emailadresses. Also, the walls looked like they hadn't been painted in years. Uck!
The first ride we did was the mine train. Compare it to Big Thunder Mountain. Or no, do not compare it at all!!!! You know how that ride involves some water, and at one point, you get the illusion you do a short dip in the water? At Disney, that is fun. At Walibi, it freaked me out. It must have been the dirtiest water I have ever seen. And smelled. Also, at the boarding platform, there is no one who tells you what row to take. That makes it hard for larger groups to sit together. And it slows the whole process of boarding down. A lot. And do not look up. Along the ceiling, there were spider webs. All over the place. And I don't think the local Imagineers put them there.
Dirty water... Do you know how people sometimes complain about the Splash Mountain water? Do you know how clean the Jungle Cruise water is? Well, the water of the local "Splash Mountain" (no mountain, no theming, just a splash) was worse than Jungle Cruise water. It was so ugly, ucky brown... and it didn't smell like chlorine at all. I don't even want to know how many germs were on me after that splash.
I didn't go on the water rafts after that. I had had my portion of ucly water.
I did go on the "Cobra". A rollercoaster. That involves loops. 3 loops forward, and 3 backwards. A rusty rollercoaster. Very rusty. It didn't really assure me. I screamed. Big time. Not because of the loops, but because of the rusty steel it was made of.
But you know what scared me even more? The Turbine. Another rusty rollercoaster. One loop forward, one loop backward. No security harnass. Just a lap bar. Never ever do I go on that one again. I don't mind loops. But I don't like them in combination with a lap bar. Thank God I have a big butt, that kept me IN the train!

Now, at Disney, when you pay your ticket, you can go on every ride. You just need to pay extra for the arcades. At Walibi, you have to pay extra for many many many attractions. I didn't want to do that, I paid already enough. But that left not so many things to do.
There was also no parade, no fireworks, ...
At first, I though opening hours from 10 am to 6 pm was short, in the end, I was more than ready to leave.

Will I go again? No.

But one thing I ask myself: how could this park become this way? When I went to it, many years ago, it didn't look old and rusty like that. Of course, then I hadn't gone to Disney, so my standards were maybe not that high, but still.
In those years, the park has become a Six Flags park, and two years ago, it became Walibi again. It seems to me, management has done nothing to give it a nice look. Too bad. Because of all the publicity they make, it is well-known. Too bad they don't live up to their expectations.

And I will enjoy my next Disney trip even more. Because I'll appreciate the music!

WTF??

2006-06-22T10:56:00.001+02:00

I just read a discussion about curse words. Someone went to see the movie "Cars" and in the previews, they said twice the word "damn", and now the world is going to end and her kids are going to hell, because they heard the word "damn". Twice. Oh, and hell is apparantly a curse word too.

My first idea was "excuse me? what's the problem?". My second idea was: Oh, now Disneyland will have to put up a sign in front of Mr Toad's wild ride, saying it's PG-13 rated, or even R-rated, because it takes you to hell and back. Not that I would care, because I don't like the ride, but that doesn't really matter here, does it?

One person's reaction was: on some of your pictures, your kids are carrying (toy) guns, and that's OK with you, but you don't like the word "damn"? It made me think: how do some people determine what is OK for their children and what isn't?
Apparantly, for that one person, it was OK her 11 yo was shooting cans with a gun, but hearing the words damn or hell was going to ruin his "innocence". I don't get that. But I also don't get what is wrong with those words. Maybe because where I live, people don't care too much about things like that. "Bad words" are never ever beeped out of some television program either. We also don't care if some nudity is seen. No, I don't talk about explicit sexual acts, but about the human body without clothes covering it up. The way we are born, you know... I think regarding that topic, it are more the "dirty little minds" of people that do harm than seeing it. Someone once told me: "Women's breasts are just like electric trains. They are made for children, but it are the grown men that play with it".

Welcome all!

2006-06-20T13:48:00.001+02:00

As of this moment, I haven't decided yet about what I will write in this blog. It's the first time EVER I start writing a blog. No, that's not completely true. I have created one on Yahoo 360°, but haven't written a message in it yet.
Why I have this blog? Well, I think I did something wrong while registering on ths site in order to be able to post a comment on someone else's blog. So, now that I am stuck with it, I can as well start one. We know where it starts (here) and we'll see where it ends. Although I will try to keep it decent, I can't guarantee this will be a child-friendly place. Y'all be warned!

I guess now is the time to introduce myself. I am Sandra. I live in Belgium, and at the time I am writing this first message, I am 26. I work for the IT department of a multinational company based in Belgium. My job consists of doing all the work the others don't want to do. It's sad, I know, but that is life!
During my free time, I spend quite some time on the golf course (if you consider the club house part of the golf course, that is) and I love going on vacation, especially when it includes Disney and/ or a musical. Disney, indeed. I love the Mouse. I woreship the Mouse. I like to call the Mouse a rat. He doesn't like it, trust me!
Next to that, I spend quite some time on discussion boards like SGT and DISboards, I like shopping, I like to read and I hate the secretary at work. (Sorry, I just had to include that, lol!)
I am sure all these subjects will come up one day or another on this blog. Really.

This is also the time to explain all the typing errors I will make. English is only my fourth language. And I have trouble with the keyboard of my new laptop. And my fingers are not sychronized with my thoughts. These three ingredients are the perfect recipe for typing-disaster. But I am sure you'll be able to understand what I am trying to say. And if you don't, just ask!!

Oh yes, one more thing for today: in case I say something that appears to be weird, please, give me the benefit of the doubt. After all, it is only my fourth language, and sometimes I get confused by some expressions. The result of that? My readers are confused!