Our wedding: the kissing line-up

After all the wedding ceremonies and picture taking, you get thirsty and hungry. And then it's time to receive the guests fwhich is basically a long kissing duty for the couple and their parents :D.

We had a seperate wedding reception with a different group of invitees from the evening dinner party. This is not uncommon in Belgium. At the dinner your best friends and close relatives are invited whereas in the afternoon you can invite people you have less close contact with but whome you also like to invite to your wedding, to a reception without dinner (e.g. colleagues?, neighbours/colleagues from parents? , ...). It all depends on your personal situation and on your budget and the number of guests. Some weddings don't have a seperate reception but only a dinner. Others have one reception/aperitif but some guests are not invited for the dinner and they know they are supposed to leave when the other people go inside for dinner, etc... That last scenario is a bit tough to organise for the caterer: it's important to give enough appetizers, canapés, snacks for the people who only come to the reception. But you don't want to completely stuff the people yet who are expected to spend the rest of the evening at the dinner table.

So during more than an hour we were lined up to welcome our arriving guests ....one biiiig kissing line :). I remember in my sister's wedding video the continuous kissing smack sounds and other brides had warned me to have the chapstick at hand. But it really isn't that bad: after all you continuously welcome new people whome you've often not seen in a while and greeting them is then very genuine and spontaneous and not a burden. The only problem is that there's hardly time to go and have a chat with them and that's really a bummer. By the time you're making your round to talk with the people, the first people start leaving again and ....you get to kiss them goodbye :D. Yep more kissing.

And then shortly after the last reception guests were gone, the other guests for the evening party started arriving and were in line again to congratulate us with some kisses :)

Madonna

Yesterday evening the Queen of Pop concerted for the first time in Belgium and we had tickets for the sold out concert. I don't consider me as a big Madonna fan at all, but figured such a concert would be a fun event to take in.

The advantage of living in Leuven is the accessibility of the nearby festival site at Werchter. Whereas I was getting messages on FB to warn me about the traffic jams on the highways here while a few ten thousand people were trying to make their way to the little village in the countryside, we simply walked out to the Leuven train station where we'd hop on the shuttle busses. Last year when going to the festival TW Classic I had been particularly impressed by the smooth organisation of the public transport.

So it was a big of a shock when we arrived at the Martelarenplein when we noticed a line of people all around the huge square, continuing in the direction of where the shuttle bus would indeed leave. Damn...seriously...we gave each other a hesitating look, took a deep breath and joined the line at the end. Fortunately it kept moving at about 5 min per square side. In the mean time we kept busy checking out who was going to Werchter for the first time or not (based on the unappropriate shoeware) and who had not been outside in a week to realise that the summer weather had been replaced by very unstable rather grey wet weather.
When arrived on the 3rd side of the square we noticed that the little mobile office from De Lijn at the end of the line all of a sudden drove off and the entire line started walking swiftly towards the waiting busses. Quite funny to see a > 500m row walking ahead. Sure enough the sales of tickets had somehow ended and we were all smoothly waved into the busses that were showing some music notes instead of their usual line number on the electric signs. 26000 music fans were transported this way to the festival terrain and we have no clue why we got treated to a free ride. it's our guess that there was a technical difficulty and considering the long row of waiting people there was no time to have them all waiting for a solution. Anyway 15 minutes later we were walking to the festival entrance.

We were welcomed by a sudden downpour that hardly gave us time to put our raincoats and rainpants on but by the time Madonna was expected it had fortunately all cleared up again. Pheewww, not sure if I'd have the motivation to stand there in the pouring rain all evening.

Time passed, and passed, and we were all waiting and waiting but the diva apparently didn't feel like starting. In the end we got quite irritated and I even started wondering why the hell I was on this (slightly) muddy terrain anyway. Pooh, big star or not, it's very impolite to keep 65000 people waiting and staring at the big empty stage decorated with the shiny huge M's.

45 minutes late her throne finally appeared from large videoscreens but the first songs seemed a bit weak to me, but that might be due to the fact that I don't really now her most recent songs. Slowly though the show picked up rhythm and the setlist moved on a fast speed and she had clearly mastered the gift to remix her own old and new songs in new modern electronic versions that sound fresh again.
Her show (pictures) (setlist) proofed what a good entertainer she is , an amazing dancer and less a good singer. Despite the fact that some of the songs were clearly supported by tape as well (not a surprise if you see her dancing along), she clearly did not bring pure play-back show (unlike the much critised concert of Britney Spears this week in Antwerp) as she also has the gift to sing amazingly out of tune now and then. Ouch.
I had hoped a bit for a bit of shocking provoking elements but it was a quite digestable. The beginning more electronic , then more rock , then balkan ethnic folk mixes including Isla Bonita which I particularly liked, ... Almost at the end she did play "Frozen" as had been predicted although she has lost a court case for plagiarism in Belgium in 2005 and since then it's forbidden to be aired here (quite problematic in some best of charts where radio stations have to get quite creative to "bring" it someway). Clearly Madonna herself doesn't care for potential fines at all :p. Good for her, that case was so ridiculous anyway.

I don't think the concert has converted me into a big fan, but I did have a good night out and I'm glad I was there. I also was in awe for the physical condition of this 51-year old woman. Wow , I can only hope to have a fraction of her shape & energy at that age...or at this age even :p. I also love how she has managed to transform herself over the decades and remain new. Big contrast with the male counterpart of this queen of pop, also 50 year old, who had musically already died long before he has died physically !

Beleuvenissen Vlaams

I must admit that I was highly disappointed when checking this years program for the 4-day festival Beleuvenissen in Leuven. Each Friday evening in July 6 downtown squares have live artists performing for free all evening and the 4 nights are centered around one theme. The city buzzes while a few then thousand of people stroll around from stage to stage to enjoy the music. I even thought last years that the atmosphere

Usually one of the themes is folk and it's always been my favourite. But for some reason it has been abandonned this year. Last week all concerts were jazz, a music style I really don't learn to appreciate very much. We did walk around and enjoyed our stroll but didn't truly wait anywhere to enjoy the music.
Last Friday the theme was "Flemish". Quite appropriate the day before the Flemish regional holiday , which is heavily stimulated by the Flemish government and cities to organise parties and concerts. However a "Flemish" concert theme sets off a "Schlager", irritatingly commercial contentless humpa humpa alert in my brain and the list of artists expected partially confirmed that fear. No offense to their many many loyal fans but Willy Somers, Lisa Del Bo, Wim Soutaer etc don't get me excited unless it's 3 AM and we're all goofy & tired on the dancefloor acting silly. Nevertheless it's a pity to sit at home when a few blocks away all the fun is happening and some friends were coming over so we headed downtown.

After some dinner nearby the Vounckplein from which we could hear the coverband "Ontpopt" bring fun hits, we headed to the Vismarkt where Axl Peleman would come with some pretty good guests. On the square we met some other friends and in all honesty, I've missed most of the concert since I was so busy talking all the time :p. Then we walked by the Grote Markt where we'd sniff up the atmosphere of the schlager concerts...after 1 minute we figured we'd sniffed up enough atmosphere already and we walked on. Right at that moment "Als een leeuw in een kooi" started. Oh gosh, for a moment I was very tempted to embrace my inner side that in fact does love "wrong" music very much, but I resisted. We also resisted Will Tura, although surely a big artists and went to listen to the for us unknown Buurman. That was a very pleasant surprise: melancholie, chanson, pop and rock as they describe themselves brought with authentic instruments with an interesting live act. The sign language interpreters on stage were additionally very fascinating to watch as they were partially interpreting, partially dancing and showing the rhythm.

So after all, the "Flemish" beleuvenissen was worthwile visiting and my prejudices had proven to be wrong.

Vacation reading

I love reading book reviews on blogs. That's how I've discovered Jodi Picoult over at "My Life in a nutshell". "Plain truth" was the first book I read from her.....good reading but not exactly blowing myself away either. Last summer I was blown away by her "My sister's keeper". So from now on I keep an eye on the shelf "PI" at the library to check out her other books ;). But in London I had actually bought "Change of heart"

I must say that I was a bit annoyed by the incredible "miracles" that seem to happen that forced me to be either a believer or non-believer as well, as the other people in the book. Why didn't Jodi simply write another emotional roller-coaster full of personal dilemma's, ethics and legal problems? Why this annoying layer in the otherwise such brilliantly developped plot.

But she won me over. After a while it didn't matter anymore: what mattered was the convict's life or death, the sick girls life or death, their family's and friend's emotions. At the end I was glad to be wearing dark sunglasses near the pool as I had some teary eyes.
Yep Jodi did it again....she caught me in the plot and dragged me on onto the end.





1,5 year ago I had read the Kite Runner from Khaled Hosseini and I was captivated by the horror , sadness and hope of the events. I remember being disgusted by the torture, having the tendency to turn my head away as if I didn't want to know what would follow because I feared the worst...yet a minute later I was picking it up again because I was hooked and had to read on.

At such moments I always have to think of "Friends". Do you know the episode where Joey is reading a book that is so scary he needs to put it into the freezer? And then he's reading Rachel's book "Little Women" and has to put it in the freezer too when Beth's going to die.
Sometimes books are too good, plots are too thrilling, the stories are such a captivating rollercoaster that I feel needing a break and putting the book in the freezer. That's because I need a small break but equally because I don't want it to be over yet. I want to hold on to it a bit longer just as well. Just before the last 10 pages of the book, I'll go for a swim, empty the dishwasher, ...but I end up reading even before starting or finishing that other activity. hahaha.


Anyway, "A thousand splendid suns" by Khaled Hosseini is such a book too. I was a big confused as the backside promised me a story about 2 woman and chapter after chapter it was only dealing with one woman Miriam. A fine story, but I don't like promises that are not being kept so I did feel a bit restless until Laila was introduced as well....and then I was waiting until their roads would cross. And then they did and it was time to put the book in the freezer and out again and in again and out again and ....

Since I read Luisa's post this week, I realise why this is such a splendid bood: she explains that good books appeal to both intellect and emotions. Oh boy this book does both for sure.
The fate of Miriam and Laila is so cruel, their friendship so beautiful, .... You can only love them and pray for their lives and their happiness in this world ruled by violence and death. While following there lives you can't help wondering as well how the western world has screwed up the politics in the area, what the news broadcasts we still get from the area in reality could mean for people like Miriam and Laila living in the area, ... Even though this story is fiction, it might not be. There were/are Miriams and Laila's in Afghanistan and that makes this book so choking.
Everything is also written so visually that you see it all happening in front of your face

"When nana saw the bowl, her face flushed red and her upper lip shivered and her eyes, both the lazy one and the good, settled on Miriam in a flat , unblinking way."

Whaa both the lazy one and the good......such a sentence on the first page already. A must read book!




(by the way, I own both books in English so you can borrow my copy if you live nearby )

Our nieces and nephews starring at our wedding

They were priceless

On the road

* That big Volvo cruising by with the 2 people in front with their sunglasses on singing very loud along with Studio Brussel who was broadcasting The Kaiserchiefs live from the festival Rock Werchter....
that was us

Ruby Ruby Ruby...Ah Ah-ah aaaaah

(watching a summary of the 4-day "best festival in the world" at 15 kms from our door on tv right now...damn there's been quite some good groups this year: Coldplay, Placebo, Lilly Allan, Metallica, Kaiserchiefs, Kings of Leon, Black Eyed Peas, Amy MacDonald, Nick Cave, Jason Mraz, .... Maybe we should consider going next year. But then again there's so many groups I don't know)

* Earlier on the afternoon, those 2 people making funny movements to Shantel's Disko Partizani ...that was us too.

* Note to all moterdrivers:
I know the weather has been quite hot in Belgium last week until the thunderstorms ended it tonight. Nevertheless it is fxxxing stupid to be riding your motorcycle in a little T-shirt on the highway. "dumn as a cow's ass" to quote Jan. Oh my gosh I'd not wanna see you if you've hit that road with your bare skin. eeeeek. Come on, use your brain.

Summertime

Last week Belgium has enjoyed an almost heatwave: temperatures reaching nearly 30C each day. I love it. I love it , I love it , I love it. Did I tell you already that I love summers? Most of my reasoning can be found here. Last week was simply one as I'd want every week to be!

Last weekend we visited family and then drove off to The Hague to hang out with our friends there as we often do at the end of June. A nice weekend of hanging out in the garden, BBQ, birthday cakes, more friends coming over, playing with the kids, dinner at the beach, .... Great!




Last week we had all our dinners outside, had bbq's , spent an entire evening drinking bubbles in the garden of friends who live in the neighbourhood and invited us to come over to pick up some of their abundant harvest of sour cherries. Great!

Yesterday evening we went downtown for the first edition of Beleuvenissen this year. The theme yesterday was Jazz. Not entirely my favourite style of music. Nevertheless I truly enjoyed strolling through the hot city , watching all the full terrasses, the crowds walking around slurping melting ice-creams and stopping in front of the different stages on the downtown squares with live music. Everyone comes outside and here and there you stop briefly because you meet people you know.

Today we went to a BBQ from a group of Jan's study friends and their families. Aaaah summer life is tough :). Can't this last forever? I love it!!!!!!

Our wedding: the ceremony at the abbey church

Our church wedding took place at the Park Abbey closeby where we live. It's my parish church and both Jan and I love to walk around the abbey grounds.



I've enjoyed this wedding service most because it was totally "our" service. From all the compliments I've received that day or the days after, I am most pleased when people say they loved our wedding service. After all: the dress, the flowers, the food, the pictures....are all services we've purchased from people/businesses who are doing their job. Our only accomplishment is chosing those professionals who fitted our wishes and budget and communicate with them.

For the wedding service, it's a little different. Here we've been carefully reading a lot of texts, songs, ...comparing, chosing and then rewriting things to find our service. It was very important to me that what we created was meaningful and in line with our thoughts and feelings. It wasn't that easy since we both have quite an opposite view on religion...as opposite as an atheist and a Christian are I guess :p. We wanted this to be reflected: on one hand it had to be a catholic wedding, on the other hand we didn't want Jan to pretend anything or take part in prayers and liturgic traditions he didn't support. So we chose for a "word" ceremony without the sacrament of the Eucharist (something which is actually more and more stimulated by the Church so it seems!). After all in the catholic tradition the sacrament of marriage is performed by the couple itself while expressing their wedding vows, whereas the priest and the community is only witnessing this. Fortunately the priest stimulated us to personalise and we made-up a service that I'm quite proud off.

I'm also quite happy that a lot of people were present in church. I had feared beforehand that a lot of our relatives & friends who were invited to the evening dinner would not have come early to attend the church service. I guess in some countries attending a wedding is a day-event by definition due to the big distances, but in Belgium it can often be combined with lots of other activities. Since we are more and more a secular society , many people only show up for the reception or evening dinner without going to the church service. I think that's a pity since you go to a party to celebrate an event you haven't bothered to attend. But my fear had been ungrounded as a lot of friends and family were in the church after all, which was so great to have them with us!



Our arrival at the abbey in our "London" taxi


Caminhando, the choir I am a member off, brightened the service with their songs and I had fun singing along :)



Jan and I welcoming everybody


Reading our self-written vows to each other




Exchanging the rings



The Church has now pronounced us husband and wife.



Distributing self-made candy brochettes to the children present after the church service, while greeting everybody coming out of the church.

Stories from Bali and Singapore II

I've already told how helpful the Balinese people are and the service in our hotel was top. Our room was on the ground floor with 2 big glass sliding doors giving entry to our little terrace closeby the pool with on the inside 2 wooden sliding doors to keep the light out (or unwanted looks).

Since the travel agency was informed that this vacation was our honeymoon, I wasn't quite surprised to see that they gave us a small surprise. Nevertheless I was utterly amazed when I saw how much trouble they had done. While we were showering after a lazy afternoon at the pool , they had started to put flower decorations on our terrace. When I say flower decorations, I mean lots and lots of them. This hotel also sets-up weddings on site so they knew how to create festive decorations: pots, flower bows,...an abundance of tropical colors. It was amazing when I peaked through the slice of light of the 2 wooden doors and I saw that more and more people seemed to be assembling in front of our garden to watch what was going on and to congratulate us.

Right at that moment Jan had walked in the room from the bathroom and had probably accidently turned the light off as I found myself in the pitchblack.
"Jan Jan, you have to come, look what they've done, they've surprised us"
"Jan turn the light on, can't find the handles of the doors"
[bang]
that was the sound of my head banging the glass doors


"Jan come on, you have to see all these flowers, they expect us to come outside. Gosh they've done so much trouble! "
"Turn the light on, I can't see what I'm doing"

I was annoyed by Jan's sloweness in response and lack of enthousiasm. Finally he turned the light on next to his bed and much to my confusion he was laying in bed giving me a weird look.

I tried to speed up my thinking but my brains seemed to have frozen at that moment.
The wooden doors were open and clearly it was pitchblack outside as well. Huh? What was going on? Where were the flowers and the people? I knew this meant something, but what? Jan asked me what the hell I was talking about. Euh yeah, what was I talking about? What was I doing in the dark in my pyama's at the garden doors? Huh, why was I up? What time was it?
I felt so incapable of thinking anything.

"Nothing nothing, turn the light off, I'm going back to bed....sorry for waking you"


And now I still have to live through Jan's jokes when he asks me each night if I've already seen the nice flowers outside or if I could please not wake him up this night or .... Quite some giggling guarenteed!

The wedding flowers and our rings

Our rings are natural white gold (so not bleached as the traditional white gold, which gives it a modest yellow warmer shine) and quite linear and without much decorations. Mine has a few decorations to give it a more feminine look.


I wanted all flowers to be modern, linear, no-nonsens, one-color....except for my bouquet which fitted better with my dress if it was round. (I had expected to choose a sober linear straight dress , but when trying them all on I fell in love with a much bigger, more decorated, more romantic dress I had ever anticipated...hehe). In every floral piece at every location were white calla lilys as a returning theme.

All floral credits go to Verde, a Leuven florist at the Kapucijnenvoer!! He did a way better job than I had even hoped :)

Our civil wedding ceremony

First we had our civil marriage ceremony in the gothic townhall of Leuven. You have to wait in a side gallery of the building while the previous ceremony is going on at the other side of the window. They were running late on schedule so the previous couple only got in when we arrived. At the moment the wedding was pronounced and we heard the applause we were tempted for a second to knock on the window and wave extensively and give them thumbs up or something....but we behaved and didn't disturb their moment :p.


The ceremony was as expected not much special: reading out loud of the law texts concerning marriage, a few questions to be answered with yes and a little speech to congratulate us.

As to answer your questions: we didn't get married by the well-known mayor Tobback. He married the couple before and after us. I guess he was alternating with is CD&V alderman colleague ...it was the day before the elections :). He was standing outside the hall though and congratulated us when we walked out.


After the ceremony you get to walk out at the big staircase in front of the townhall leading to the big market square showing off to all the tourists :p

Stories from Bali & Singapore

Singapore is hot and sticky....I mean very hot and sticky. On the other hand it's also the only place where I've been that has pedestrian underground bypasses that have effective airco cooling on! No wonder everyone flees in the many many many shopping malls !


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One evening I was opening one of the 3 sliding doors of our wardrobe closet only to realise just in time that I was about to put my hand on one of these little fellows that were everywhere outside...but now clearly inside our room. Of course the sneaky monster had already disappeared in between the open doors and kept running around on the door while we found no way to catch it and lead it outside. The lizard didn't scare me but I didn't like the idea of going to bed while it was snuffing trough my clothes either.
So Jan called the reception to ask whether there was a good way to catch the animal. They'd send someone. An instant later there was a knock on the door and we were showing the man where we'd last seen the lizard in between the closet doors. After some sliding back and forth, there it was all of a sudden indeed on the middle of the door.



"whoaa....ok now we've located the animal I have to phone a colleague to have it removed. I'm to scared to touch the animals." he said while he looked ever more nervous.

Dugh, as if the lizard was going to sit and wait. Sure enough the lizard hunt could start over when the colleague arrived and in the end we all gave up and said it really didn't matter anymore. We all convinced ourself that the lizard that now was sitting outside our front door was the same one as had been in the closet. We wisely didn't declare any meat at the airport security either ;).

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We had a cooking workshop in the middle of the rice fields in which the essential herbs for Balinese cooking got explained for their culinary value but also for their medical value. So we learned that a basic ingredient for the original (iso)bethadine is turmeric and that "Bali belly" gets cured by some freshly grounded turmeric that needs to rest for several hours in your belly button. This also forces the Balinese suffering from digestion problems to lay down and rest for a while, whereas the busy westerns resort to a quick pill as they need to move on right away.
A thin slice of ginger can be stuck against your temples as an aid against headache and stress. If it sticks, you need it....when it drops down you don't need it anymore, which got demonstrated by the cooks that were running around with their ginger slices most of the morning :p.

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The Balinese are very very helpful. Somehow I had gotten a scratch on my knee when we arrived in the airport at Denpensar: a tiny scratch that was bleeding a bit. I only noticed in the car and when arriving at the hotel I happened to point out with a small gesture to Jan that I had scratched myself. The receptionist had noticed and before we could even check-in, he had to carry on the big first aid box. No use telling over and over that it was a silly little scratch: I had to get some desinfectant on it and then he stuck a cottonball to it (dugh...but I didn't dare to protest anymore) . The day we left Bali, the taxidriver that had driven us upon our arrival 2 weeks before, enquired whether my knee had healed well!

Both Jan and I thought simultaneously that we should never tell which surgical wound wasn't yet 100% cured :p

After one week my digestion started to play up and when I had cancelled my ordered meal and left Jan behind in the restaurant to go and rest in our room, some room service was immediately sent : black tea with sugar, dry toast, fresh turmeric juice to drink for the stomac ....oh yes and some freshly grounded turmeric to put in my belly button. Hey why not, I figured....

I had the yellow bellybutton and yellow fingers to prove it the next days!

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The main religion in Bali is a local interpretation of Hinduism.
It's hard to distinguish houses from temples in Bali: every village had 3 temples which are walled complexes with multiple "bale's", roofed open-air platforms for multiple functions, shrines and entry gates. A traditional house is also a walled complex with some closed and open-air structures, a house temple, 3 shrines, .... Every rice field has a shrine for the rice godess Sri. Besides that all objects and nature (big trees, ...) are "holy" and are draped with cloths and are decorated with colorful embrella's to symbolise this. Needless to say that everything starts looking like a temple!
A couple of times per day people bring little offer baskets to the shrines and to the temples (or simply in front of the houses at the sidewalks so you need to step over them constantly and risk hurting your toes by a burning incence stick, amidst the hotel tables in the middle of the breakfast service, ....) and the communities have big ceremonies for many many occasions. Truly this is the land of gods!

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The Balinese believe Bali is an island carried on the back of a giant turtle in the sea. We did a lot of diving but haven't seen it's head or paws though. We did see other turtles, reeftip sharks, frogfish, lionfish, stingrays, murrays, cuddlefish, octopus, squid, crocodilefish, .....and had the joy of hanging beneath some manta rays for 45 minutes!!!! Oh yes

The water was still too warm (26C- 31 C!!!!) to see any of the rare spectacular Mola Mola's.

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The Gods get very angry every 5 to 10 years and send rats to the rice fields. In the mean time it had been already quite a while since they had been angry. Nevertheless the guy with the big gun we met on an evening walk through the fields claimed to be hunting rats.

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Diving on vacation is fun since all your material is usually taken care of by the dive center. In Tulamben (village where the SS Liberty sunk) the side assistance is nevertheless spectacular! The village has a cooperation setup to cater for all the divers coming in. There's a big parking with showers and toilets where you need to pay for an entry fee and then the women of the village, the "porter's of Tulamben" move all your stuff to the beach and back.


We actually had the feeling that community life is still very very strong in Bali also on the countryside where still a lot of young people seem to reside and work in agriculture. There seems to be different cooperations going that share benefits for progress for the entire community. Whereas the people are surely not rich and don't have all the western comfort we are used to in their homes, we have not seen beggers and people in big misery by poverty.

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At one time we went diving and the boat was about to leave when the crew got all agitated. They were pointing at a jellyfish swimming by. Much to our surprise they jumped in the water with a bucket and caught the jellyfish. Hmm quite against diving etiquette to catch fish so we enquired why they did so. Turns out this jellyfish was very rare and always holds a special rare type of fish tangled up: the jellyfish was the crown of the little fish and they needed it for special temple ceremonies. Sure enough when we got back, the 2 of them got seperated and the jellyfish was released in the water again while the fish itself was taken on shore.
cool, we had a boat ride with a holy fish and its crown :).

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In our hotel in Ubud they advised us not to dry clothes outside in the garden/balcony. After having seen the local troup of Macaque fleeing themselves on some of the balconies, I think I understand why :p. We have not seen any monkey in a tree with a bikini on its head though....Bummer huh.

Each afternoon they seemed to make their way along the marvelous swimming pool (picture here). I learned the hard way that keeping a distance of 4 m to take pictures, like the other people were doing isn't always enough. When I all of a sudden realised 2 of them were no longer minding their own business next to their tree but were staring directly into my eyes, I backed-up to give them some more space....but they are damned quick. Before I had gotten up 2 stairs, I got a fright by feeling one of them on my leg. Fortunately some Swiss next to me were screaming at them and gesturing vividly (I do blame them for causing the attack in the first place though) so they were off my leg immediately as well though without scratches or bites. Pheww. That gave me quite a fright. The next days the little bastards walked behind my chair again and were posing extensively at 2 m from my chair for a row of excited tourists in the pool but I wasn't getting up for them anymore. I did keep a close eye on them though. Poooh.

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After the big volcano eruption in '63, all of the rice production was lost. Balinese rice is full of gluten and sticky and takes 6 months to ripe. At that moment the government has imported quickly a different type of rice grown elsewhere in Indonesia which holds lesss gluten and needs 3 months to ripen. In the mean time Bali no longer needs to import anything anymore and this "government rice" is still the main type grown and sold everywhere. Balinese rice still used for special dishes and ceremonies is a lot more expensive than the government rice.

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Our wedding: the morning preperations

Thank you all for asking more about our wedding and honeymoon! Now we're back from our honeymoon I finally get some time to start looking at the hundreds of pictures we have of both our wedding and honeymoon. (please if you have some taken yourself , could you e-mail them?? I'm so curious). So here are some stories and memories :

As I had said before we had arranged to have both wedding ceremonies taking place on the same day. As a result we'd have to run on a tight schedule and our day was starting early.

In the Belgian tradition the bride sleeps at her parent's house (quite obvious in the past when the couple wasn't usually living together yet before the wedding, but less and less obvious in the current society and therefore a bit of a disappearing tradition in its strict sense). and the groom and his parents and siblings in the "suite" arrive at her house to pick her up. Since my parents live 100 km from the wedding locations that wasn't quite so practical to do. But since Jan's foreign colleagues were already arriving the day before the wedding and were staying in the hotel next to the wedding venue, Jan had booked a room there. On Friday we all went out for dinner and drinks with my Canadian host parents who had arrived and his collleagues and then he left me home alone with one of my best friends.

After a night without much sleep our alarm went off quite early to get us going for make-up and hairdresser appointments. If I had stress it were mainly worries that I'd be too tired to keep going all day and to enjoy it all conciously. But I was told that brides are never tired or cold or ... and that would turn out to be the truth.

After dropping some stuff off at the church, we were ready to get dressed. Yeaaaaay exciting!

And then we had to wait until Jan would arrive, until my friend had spotted the taxi in front of the door and yelled "He's there!". When the doorbell rang, my hands were trembling slightly.






And after Jan , the rest of our family arrived and we took the time to have a toast and some relaxed socialising before we'd all be absorbed in the ceremonies and conversations with all the wedding guests.

Back from the country of the Gods

And now I must return to reality....it'll be hard!

Thanks for all the lovely wishes!!

We had a great day!!

It was a fantastic day without stress and we've enjoyed it very much!