Life, and other things on my mind

I’ve been ignoring the fact that I have a blog to write on for too long now. All my excuses for not doing so are gone as well, I was going for the “I’m trying to finish my masters degree, I’m really busy” kind of excuse. I’m ashamed to say that’s not even completely true. Yes, I was finishing my masters but I wasn’t THAT busy. I still could have posted something every now and then. So hereby: sorry to all the people who missed me. I’m back now, finished my masters and all. (Yay! Throw yourselves a party in my honor)

I’ll start the working life next week already! I’m really excited about that, although a little more vacation would have been nice as well I guess. Oh well, at least I got this week to enjoy doing absolutely nothing! I’m planning to read at least one more book and maybe, if I feel like it, get some web programming skills. I still want to design my very own blog theme some day… I’m afraid the week is too short for that one though. I guess I should start on that book then!

I’ve got too many friends.

Why is that, you may ask? Well, one of them is going to Australia for half a year and we’re having a going away dinner tonight. I said I would make cupcakes for desert, with Australian flags on it. What a great idea! And what a lot of work! Damn, I like baking and all but I don’t like spending 3 hours decorating 9 cupcakes.If I had only 3 friends it would have been way less work! Australian flags suck (no offence to all the Australian people, nothing wrong with you, just your flag) Maybe I should have thought of this before but hey, it was such a nice idea! And the result is good I think, I’m actually a bit proud of my work here.

I’m adding a picture in this post but only if you won’t tell me what’s wrong with them (the color isn’t right, the stars don’t actually look like real stars etc). I already know all of this and I don’t want to hear it! Please just tell me they look incredibly cool and make my day!

And to my friend: please don’t ever decide to move to the USA. If you do, I’m not gonna make you cupcakes!

It’s time for my report on the second part of “the discovery of heaven”. Remember the first part I wrote? I told you I really liked the books, against all expectations. The second part was equally good in my opinion. It started again by the angel talking to his boss which I didn’tn really like but luckily that part was over quickly and the real story continued.

Again, I won’t tell you what hallend because, if you’re like me you don’t want to know I think the ead along is great, two weeks is enough time for me to finish the part of the book we are supposed to read. I’ve just finished it yesterday so I don’t have to wait long to continue the next part luckily. The read along is hosted by Iris, check out her blog to see what she thought!

What I can say about the book is that I really enjoy it, like I already told you after finishing the first part. The characters are nice and likable. I can really feel with them in what is happening. I’m really looking forward to the next part. I’ll update you in two weeks!

P.s. Sorry for not posting lately, I haven’t been feeling inspired to write something and I think I’ll take a break from my blog for a little while. I will respond to comments and read other blogs though, I won’t be gone completely!

I’ve finished the first part of the discovery of heaven and I have to say, it really is quite a good read I hadn’t expected this since for some reason I always thought the book was boring. I hate spoiling books for people who still want to read them so I’m not gonna give a summary of what happened up till now here. I’ll just tell you what I thought.

The book started off a bit strange by stories on finding the right people and getting the right DNA together top create the person “they” needed. After this we are taken to the real world and the actual story starts. The caracters described here are well thought out and it is easy to follow the story. Even though there are many words that are less common and I didn’t know the meaning of all of them it’s still a light read I think. I’m happy I started this book and I look forward to the next part of it!

1. Tube socks, calf socks, crew, ankle, none?

I’d say any socks as long as they are warm! My feet are always cold and it sucks. Well, at least in winter that is, in summer my feet are mostly sweaty, which isn’t too nice either. So, in winter warm socks, in summer none!

2. Was your childs (children’s) name a mutual decision or was it a debate? If you don’t have children, do you plan on giving your spouse a say, or do you have a name you MUST have, regardless if your other half likes it or not?!

I don’t have any children yet but if I ever do, I’d certainly wouldn’t decide on the name all by myself. Why shouldn’t I be the only one to choose? My husband/boyfriend will have as much right to it as I do!

3. What is your favorite type of weather?

Nice and sunny outside, with about 20 to 25 degrees I think. I love the sun and with these temperatures, and maybe a slight breeze it won’t be to hot to go out and enjoy it!

4. If left to your own devices, what time would you wake up every day?

I think between 8 and 9 in the morning. Not ridiculously early, but not that late either. There’s still plenty of time to make something of your day without being grumpy about getting up too early. Not that I’m usually grumpy in the mornings though…

5. Have you bought your cemetery plots yet?

No, and I don’t think I ever will. I want to be cremated when I die and then my ashes can be spread wherever. I’ll leave that to the people who will have to take care of it.

Hello there Bambi!

Hi there! It’s time for another one of my five favourites. This time: things I like to do most when I don’t have to do things I don’t like that much

• Hanging out with boyfriend. Something I haven’t been doing much at all lately. Boyfriend is away for almost two weeks already, which I think is a ridiculously long time. I want him back here, right now would be good.
• Reading books, which, by lack of the previous point I have been doing a lot in the last week. I’m really enjoying the discovery of heaven, against all expectations!
• Watching girly TV. I’ve done a five favourites post on TV shows a while ago and next to those there’s many, many more that I watch. Occasionally I also like a movie or two.
• Enjoying the beautiful weather in my parents’ garden/boyfriend’s roof terrace. Basically doing anything there. Listening to some music, just sitting and doing nothing, reading a book, drinking coffee (or a beer in the late afternoon)… Anything!
• Cooking/baking. Although I don’t always feel like doing this I do enjoy it while I’m at it. Too bad there’s never a recipe for a one person cake, those things will cause overweight if I’m not careful!

A what, you might say? It’s a read along. It means several people join each other in reading the same book. And at the same pace too. There’s a set amount of pages to read for a certain period of time and then you can post your findings about it on your blog. I heard about this through Leeswammes who announced it at here blog. The read along is organised by Iris on her blog. I saw this and I thought it might be fun so I decided to join in. The book we will be reading is The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch. I’ve been meaning to read this book for a very long time now and I think this is a great opportunity!

A short summary of the book (by wikipedia):

The Discovery of Heaven tells the story of an angel-like being, who is ordered to return to Heaven the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments, given to Moses by God, which symbolise in the book the link between Heaven and Earth. The divine being, however, cannot himself travel to Earth, and on several occasions in the book resorts to influencing events, being in effect a deliberate personification of deus ex machina. He affects the personal lives of three people (two men and one woman) in order that a child will be conceived. This child would then have an innate desire to seek out and return the Tablets.

The book consists of four parts (dubbed “The Beginning of the Beginning”, “The End of the Beginning”, “The Beginning of the End”, and “The End of the End”). In between these four parts, the angel-like being discusses “The Plan” with his superior, who is supposedly an archangel.

I’ll keep you updated on the reading and who knows, maybe I’ll write a review of the book in the end. I’ve been thinking about starting a book blog next to this one for a while now and I guess this is a great way to give it a try before I dive in full speed!

Since there were constructions on the highway to my place I had to drive through Belgium to get home tonight. It was quite a trip, several times I saw things of which I thought ok, this can only happen in Belgium. So here goes:

• Only in Belgium are you allowed to drive 90 km/h with a bicycle lane just next to the driving lane
• Only in Belgium do you see a sign saying 70 km/h and find a roundabout 50 meters ahead of you
• Only in Belgium do you see speed limit signs every 100 meters, which are all the same by the way (ok, the one in the previous point was followed by a sign saying 50 km/h)
• Only in Belgium are you hopping up and down in your car due to the bad roads
• Only in Belgium do you get a traffic light to warn you for a traffic light. Seriously, I don’t know what else they would be for. There’s a traffic light which doesn’t seem to make any sense, no roads to the left or right, and then a couple meters ahead there’s another traffic light on a crossing or something.

This is what I encountered today but I’m pretty sure there’s many, many more of these examples to find if you look more closely. No wonder I thought this trip was gonna be a bit scary! Nothing happened though, everything was just fine and the car is still in one piece, me included. Thanks again to boyfriend for having me use his car while he is away!