Posts from — October 2007

The fall is here

Withering leaves turning yellow

And slowly they fall

Swaying to the ways of the wind

Forming art on the land

Though never can we piece them again

Only to wait for Spring to come

When new green leaves will find their places

To fill those wonderous trees again

Fallen Leaves

Exactly how my heart feels

Waiting for spring to come

To mend the heart and fill it with joy

It was a beautiful day today! Sunny and blue blue sky. But unfortunately, Mr D is still dozing off every now and then due to his jetlag.

Still, I managed to drag us out at least for a couple of hours to discover a new place – Cook & Book. I read up about this place in Cheese Web, a featured blog in the expat website. Sounded too good to be true for me - 9 bookstores with different themes – comics, art, travel, music, cookery, english… I stopped venturing when I found the english section where I dwelled for a couple of hours. Though most of the books are in french or flemish, occasionally, one will stumble upon some english reads.

The decor is impressive with every room at its own theme setting a perfect dining and reading browsing experience. Amidst all these, as much as I am overwhelmed with the ambience and tonnes of books, I can’t help swaying to the old french tunes playing at the back of the scene.

This is just THE perfect place for a lazy Sunday, to chill with a book and a good cuppa coffee at hand. Or maybe even brunch?

As usual (the shopping streak in me) I couldn’t leave without grabbing myself a couple of books. Cookbooks! I will embark myself on a ‘Japanese Cooking for Dummies’ ‘Mastering Japanese Cooking’ project for the next 3 months! The other book is for Mr D to add more variety to his Belgian dinners. Ha!

Well, well, well, time flies. I have been in Belgium for 1 year 5 months already!

I would say that adapting wasn’t that difficult after all. There has been and still are many challenges (e.g. languages, weather etc) but so far, I have been coping along and moving with the flow quite well. Luckily, my appetite does agree with the Belgian cuisines though once a while, I do crave for a nice steamy bowl of noddle soup!

Here’s one typical dinner menu!

Fresh buy from the weekly Saturday morning market (may look funny or sometimes obscene but they taste heavenly)

The making of mash potatoes (secret recipe!)

Voila! Sausage with sweet long beans and mash potatoes. Yummy!

And since winter is almost here (or already – looking at the erratic weather), we made a HUGE pot of witloof soup so I also had a bowl of witloof soup as accompaniment to the main dish!

I only learn about the witloof since I started living here. I think it is also known as the Belgian endives? Witloof is a winter vegetable. It can be eaten raw in salads, braised or made into soups. And I love it – which ever way it is served. There is a hint of bitter end taste in the witloof. Try it!

I forgot that I wrote about witloof before – so you can see the pictures here.

Wowooo, I have a new toy, courtesy of kind Mr D – the new iPod Nano in RED!!!

It looks cute!

And what is the RED about? Apple launched a series of (PRODUCT) RED special edition iPods where a portion of the purchase price to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.

The fact is, red is just my favourite colour…

So now I have an iPod Video, iMac, iPod Nano… am turning into an apple freak!

I had a very heavy weekend – unplanned, spontaneous and big fun.

It all started with one innocent after-work-beer. And one thing led to another. We bar-hopped about Brussels, ended up at Jeux d’Hiver. Even had a huge shot of Tequila at some point. AND the whole night, we were singing “My Name is Luca”. And it just kept on playin in my mind. All weekend.

On Saturday, a girlfriend needed some companionship. She cooked dinner for me at my place in exchange. Hehe. Then we headed out to the Asian Night @ SoHo Club. Was just so-so. Then forgetful me managed to lock myself out of the carpark so I had to sleepover at her place. Cosy and nice. She offered her bed and made breakfast. Well, that’s quite a handful of companionship. Hehe.

I guess, most important realization this weekend is that I AM ALIVE! I feel so alive even my dear from Aussie coud feel the vibes through MSN. I believe, my living in Europe so far has in someways cultivated my self-confidence, learn to truly enjoy myself and most importantly being able to express it. And just being myself.

I like that a lot in fact. I like to know that I can make people laugh. So its becoming easier as I can just be myself!

Like what my best friend told me, “yeah..i want to live it. I want to live responsibly, but at the same time live spontaneously. enjoy life, by not basing it on frivolous stuffs, but at the same time not forgetting to really experience life”

Or is it just an evolution towards the BIG 3? Ha!

So, here’s magical song.