z e e b o d e m

Last saturday we were in the second hand shop in gent. After i’d dragged all the fragile stuff in the car (few blocks away) and returned to the festive area i dragged S back in the shop and showed him the glass door book case – a slightly worn out piece of furniture from about fifty years ago. He liked it too and since it cost only sixteen euros we decided to buy it. When we were about to pay the electricity went out in the whole building..

Today S swapped cars at his work to get us a transport vehicle that could take in that bookcase. As bonus he drove to stekene later in the evening and collected the water container he’s been dreaming about for a while. It can contain one thousand liters and it used to be filled with caramel sauce.

Yesterday we did the unusual thing and drove to gent on a saturday!! S had to hand out some flyers in the happening at kringloopwinkel brugse poort and i went along to do some shopping.

Found something familiar there for a democratic price of one and half euro. Still in it’s original package a soup spoon with a wooden stem (palissander) made in sorsakoski, finland. So cute! It’s from Lion Deluxe set designed by bertel gardberg somewhere in the sixties.

Also bought seventeen plates in four different sizes for 8,75 euros. They’re white with brown stripe around on the edge and two blue flowers painted on the border. They’re made in sweden by rörstrand and the set is designed by jacqueline lynd in 1988. They look much older though, vintage style. Here’s a coffeecup from the same set. Turns out that in 1989 hackman bought the porcelain production in wärtsilä and they continued under the name rörstrand-hackman. Today they’re both brands of of iittala group.

I have no idea where the six glasses i bought in the same place come from.

We had meat fondue party in the garden yesterday evening. Just the two of us and the chicken.

It’s been a warm sunny day and i accidentally burned my neck. We biked to a second hand market in zwaluwlaan and made a tour along the river on our way back home. Spotted a possible bike for Gk for sale on the side of the road. Noted down the phone number. Now we both got unisex mexican striped long green summer pants. 1969 edition of photography annual. A pen holder with a yellow canary bird carved from one piece of wood.

I posted this out in our garden with annoying but silent small flies buzzing around the screen and listening to classic21 from our wireless wooden speaker. S was laying lazy on the trampoline all this time and he still is, reading his book. We’ll have some pancakes with whipped cream soon..

The birthdays of S and my youngest brother today. S is still sleeping and i wonder if we’ll make it to the second hand bike market before noon. Probably not. Since we didn’t get the keys yet, we had to alter our plans when it comes to a restaurant. So now we have a reservation in Amadeus for two hours this evening.

#gift hints: something from them there and this.

I never saw this before but someone is driving around gent with an amphicar! Unfortunately i didn’t have my cam with so the picture has less quality, taken with gsm – also the above picture is just a detail which explains the blurriness. This specific car used to belong to a certain kapitein zeppos (never heard before).

It’s another party in gent and we can hear the fireworks.

#amphicar nostalgie

We drove to the airport yesterday morning. A plane left the ground every three minutes. We watched it all happen through the windows of a cafe. Frosty stella’s, tiramisu in a plastic pot and a cola. My mother and brother almost missed their plane. But they made it (arrived in their hometown at eight in the evening). I visited my former colleagues shortly before returning back to G.

Don’t have to do a thing which is good.

Home alone with the cats since yesterday. Nothing much to do and it’s gentse feesten so i’ll keep avoiding the city as well. Had to go there yesterday to buy some extra dekens for my mother and brother – and any other future guest. I’ll pick them up at the airport next thursday and they’ll stay a week with us. S comes back on saturday. Then before Gk comes back on sunday we hope to visit the houSe with my mother and brother.

Hope it will get warmer by the time of our holiday as they promised it would.

Went for a walk in the watersportbaan/blaarmeersen today and it was windy and chilly when the sun was behind the clouds. When sunny it was only so-so warm. Sitting here downstairs i’ve just turned the fire on. Gotta enjoy the easiness of it while i still can. Soon it will be real fire with wood – though much more work, i must admit that’s what i prefer.

Been waking up around six in the morning for two days now. Sleep is ok all night through but it’s gone when the sun rises.

Been reading a book of Murakami in dutch (translated by the husband of one of my japanese colleagues) – i’ve read it five years ago in english but wanted to re-read it opnieuw. I like to read his books again. First time i ever heard of Haruki Murakami was via Justin Hall’s links.net site (currently offline). Justin was so mind-blown by “a wild sheep chase” – which he was recommended to read by his girlfriend Egg – that i immediately wanted to read that book too. Needless to say that was quite some time ago, back in the ninetieS (i think). And then i re-read it again – also five years ago – while traveling across europe.

On friday evening (after setting the house straight) i walked to the pilates lesson and back. Meanwhile Gk had come home to G and was waiting for me with S. We called our favorite italian restaurant and ordered three pizzas (take away). Two times capriciosa and one il basilico. They make the best pizzas in Gent!

Steve came by on Saturday cause they needed to write down all the talks from his documentary. The texts should get translated and added as undertitles next week. S worked with him all day.

Geike and i went downtown and bought a birthday gift for Simon. D came to pick her up with the red deluxe van in the afternoon. After late lunch i copied all of my moloko’s and roisin murphy’s for Isabel. It took a while.. i could not copy their first cd because some trick in it makes the cd get stuck inside mac as soon as inserted and i can only release the cd slot by logging in with a no-access-rights dummy account. [i paniced with that issue long time ago in finland, thought i had ruined the cd slot of my iMac. Then i found this simple solution all by myself after having googled & called and tried out different stuff first. i don't have a dummy account in my macbook though.] Anyways, i’ve got some of the first album tracks on the fabulous live Black Session (1996 in Paris) and some as remixes.

We drove to Lovendegem in the evening to drop Steve and pick up Geike. They are planning to expand the kitchen and renovate the rooftop at the same time. So there will be no decent cover for their bedrooms in the summer and they’ll have to cook in the garage. Girls were jumping on a trampoline.

It rained hails today but it all cleared out by the evening. We took a walk in the (urban) nature before the sunset. Blaarmeersen is not yet ready and they are supposed to have the opening withing two weeks. Somewhere in between nothing special we watched a part of the latest keynote.

Geike has no school tomorrow but Evi (from our street) will take care of her before noon. I’ve got dentist appointment on tuesday. Just a check-up.

*S comment: “If you enjoy time flies, they say.”

We went to Bilbo sales this noon. Fifty procent discount from all cd’s and i bought seven.

Miho Hatori – ecdysis [she's the one from cibo matto]
Divas de Cuba [Omara Portuondo, onder andere]
Sting – the dream of the blue turtles [because of the turtles, only five euros]
Merceded Sosa – the best of [memories from when i was young(er)]
Jukka Eskola -jukka eskola [teppo mäkynen from teddy rok seven plays with]
The trendy eastern Tokyo / Music for Living Style … from day into night [mooi]
Music for modern living [loungy...]

S bought more than i did, including the two i found for him: gene vincent and a 70′s gay soundtrack. Gk found two cds from two different girl(y) trios.

Now we’ll go and eat something in the hopduvel.

We visited the Belgian coast – for the last time with our car! Such a hell on the highway whenever the sun shines and it’s weekend. It was wrong to expect it to be calmer on the road on saturday morning, during a weekend that started for most of the people already on wednesday afternoon. It was busy. On top of it we missed the alternative afrit because the signs were not clear enough and got stuck in the next one for 35 minutes! which was just five minutes less than it took us to drive there in the first place. And then the hassle of looking for a parking space.

But as a reward of all the trouble we were put through there was a panoramic view to the wide open sea waiting for us. A clear view to the blue ocean – almost all of the beach people were hidden behind a dune. A view that we could enjoy safely behind a window glass while listening to a soundtrack by Gainsbourg. We had a lunch in a brasserie down in the corner of the apartment building where our friends were staying. This happened in Sint-Idesbald before us moving on to a “cabane-park” in Nieuwpoort and they returning home.

It was a warm day turning to a warm evening. I had never been to such a holiday “trailer-park” before. It was cosy and quiet there although the area was packed with small toy houses with just a little bit of grass around each block. Space enough to put up a terras, few plants/trees and a small storage. Space enough to have a summer barbeque or just to chill around. Those bits of green that we miss in our city house.

We had dinner in the cabane of parents S with the parents of S.

The next one and half hours we were stuck on highway. That was pure horror and made us decide that it would not happen ever again.

Today we stayed home in Gent and ate the second taart we bought in de 3 B’s yesterday. Last bites in the afternoon with the leftovers of Talea. Gk was with the scouts and we had biked around watersportbaan and blaarmeersen. Stopped at café Leiezicht for duvels and daydreaming.

Chinese (at home) for dinner.

We discovered a funky jazz club on friday evening. After visiting a private soirée at deluxe we stopped in the old Patershol for a drink. Rococo was not yet open so we went to Aba Jour instead. Leen was there with a friend (Anja) and we were invited to take seats at their gereserveerd table. There i sat with three west-vlamingen. S had a duvel and i a glass of red wine. The two of us though about having a jenever in ‘t Dreupelkot before going home but when we were returning back to our car we happened to peek into an underground world of White Cat and it looked so inviting that we decided to step in and check it out. It turned out to be an excellent choice. Great music both live and by dj. Live was a funky hammond sound accompanied with drums, a trombone and a piano. Absinth on the menu caused that after few hours we had no other choice than to pay for tomorrow’s parking and walk home.

The next day we returned to Patershol and bought some comics in Popville. I bought plots #2 and #3 and S bought a set of 6 albums from Fritz Van den Heuvel and a second hand cd of AC/DC*. Then we had a late lunch in Simon Says : croques & solid cakes. We skipped all the other plans we had for that afternoon and drove blue kango home after i had bought a gift for Iitu in the monsters with an attitude. Somewhere in between S made a choice and returned home with a knife from Laguiole.

Saïd came to pick us up with a red deluxe bus and we listened to Powerage* all the way to Menen and back. We saw the non stop show “de boane noar rissel” bij de figuranten.