Archive for May, 2008
Picture time
Time for some new pictures. First, you can see some new pictures of the house here. New things to be seen on them are the heating that’s now complete, the tablets on the windows are in place and a lot of other finishing touches. We expect the stairs to be put in next week.
I don’t have pictures yet of the wedding of Els & Kristof, but Tom1 made a one when he saw them in Ghent, you can see it here.
The big wedding
This weekend was the big one. The wedding of Els & Kristof. And a magnificent feast it was ! We had a lot of fun. The ceremony in the morning was a bit different than most weddings, they had put together their own. Part of it was testimonials from their friends. Natalie & Tine talked a bit about Els when she was in college and Paul about Kristof’s past. I had the privilege of being allowed to say a few words about them as a couple 
I was a bit nervous though, but it all turned out alright.
Also they had Monica & Olivia do the music. Olivia has a very beautiful voice, she sang one of my favorite songs “A whole new world” (from Aladdin). The vows Els & Kristof made for each other were also very touching, I have to confess that my eyes didn’t stay completely dry 
In the afternoon the guys and I executed our evil plot. We decorated Els & Kristof’s house … I’ll spare you the lengthy descriptions but just point you to the before and after pictures attached to this post
In the evening it was time for the big party. There were plenty of people there whom I knew and hadn’t seen in a long time, for example Johan, JP and some ex-colleagues from Thomas Cook. It was nice seeing them all again.
After the introductions we sat down to eat and I have to say, the food was excellent. I especially loved the first course, a salad with salmon, yum !
After all the food it was time for yet another surprise from the guys and me. I had put together a short quiz for the newly weds. There were questions one had the answer about the other, or questions they had to answer together (such as recipe questions about their cooking class, or Kristof had to point Els out in a class picture from when she was 7 or something). I was happy that it was well received, we had a blast And to give them a prize for their effort, the guys and I put our gift in a big block of concrete. Hehe, evilness !
We concluded the evening by dancing the night away (well at least I did, Katrien didn’t want to dance so I dragged Monica onto the dance floor )
I don’t have a lot of pictures of the wedding since I didn’t take any myself. But I do plan on gathering them from the other people present and then making a separate gallery to put them in, so you’ll get to see Els & Kristof in their full glory eventually
The other thing I did this weekend was go to Tom1′s on Friday for a fun evening of playing on the Wii with him and Tom2 & Nico. We had a great time messing around with the Wii Balance Board, I’ve included some movies below, enjoy !
Oh yeah, and before I forget, we also went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. As a fan I have to say I’m pretty disappointed. I won’t say too much about it, since people might not have seen it yet. But although I’m a SciFi fan … such things do not belong in Indiana Jones … And also, it looks like some scenes were made up because they specifically wanted to do some sort of special effect … it should always be the other way around. A missed chance for an awesome movie I think …
As promised the pictures:
Nico going crazy on with the Hoola Hoops:
Tom1 having a go at Yoga:
Another long weekend
It was a long weekend again. Gotta love May Also the weather was absolutely awesome. This gave everyone the idea to have a barbecue. So I got invited to 3 of them, yay !
The first one was Saturday evening at Kristof’s. During the day we had done some shopping for the house. We bought our floor for upstairs. And believe it or not, I managed to convince Katrien to buy the one I liked, I had never expected that I’m a bit suspicious though, there must be a catch ! We’ll see I guess, this was probably the last item I had a say in or something We also went to look for tiles for our terrace. Just to see which ones we like, as usual our taste didn’t vary much so that was easy. We didn’t order yet though, we’ll see how the budget is next month or so.
So as I was saying, in the evening we had a nice barbecue at Kristof’s. Dimi and Chan were there also. I ate a lot of meat (duh) and it was very yummy, for Katrien there was plenty of fish. Their wedding is getting closer, only 2 more weeks to go Kristof had also just received his Iphone, so I had to show him some stuff. I love my precious
On Sunday I went to Arwen’s, Katrien didn’t want to tag along and went horseback riding instead. We started the barbecue in the afternoon and played a game of Kubb afterwards. For those of you who don’t know the game (I’m guessing most, I only had a vague idea about it myself) you can see the explanation here.
We had a great time, I was on the winning team 3 times (and I changed teams so it must have been me ). Poor Arwen, he played the championship and got an excellent place, and now he got beaten by me with my beginner’s luck
We also agreed to meet up coming Sunday at my place for a game of Descent (Dungeons and Dragons board game). It’s been ages since we played it. Should be fun. Of course today Arwen calls me to tell me he had forgotten that he was supposed to do something else on that day. Typical … but at least this time he is still coming, just a bit later Next year I’m getting him a diary for his birthday !
Anyways, on Monday Katrien and I went to visit her parents. They were throwing a barbecue also, so by now you can just roll me wherever I need to go It was nice to sit outside and enjoy the splendid weather on the last day of the long weekend though. I hope it’ll be the same weather next week, only time will tell
Wii Balance Board fun
As promised, here are some media of us messing around with the Wii Balance Board. I’ve almost unlocked all the balance games, one more to go ! Also, I read today that EA will be making some games for the board as well, so that is excellent news. I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ll cook up.
About the pictures and such, unfortunately I’m always the one behind the camera, so only 2 of me that Katrien took with my Iphone. When Valery came over I took some pictures and videos of her playing with the board. They are quite funny. As you can see, we had a great time
Pictures:
Videos:
Valery Snowboarding:
Valery Hoola Hooping:
Visitor from Holland
Just had a great weekend. The weather was absolutely wonderful and Valery came over for some fun. We started our 2 day adventure by visiting Castle Jorn. She had only seen it on pictures so far. The workers had just put the finishing touches on the outside (the filling between the stones). I took some pictures which can be seen here.
Valery thought our house looked very cool and roomy I hope it’ll still have that feeling when we fill it with our stuff (we have a LOT of stuff ), but we’ll see that in a few months.
During the rest of the afternoon we played a bit on the Wii. I had to show her my new Wii Balance Board of course ! We had a lot of fun messing around with it, I took some pictures but I’m going to post them some other time. We also played a bit of Mario Kart which turned out to be quite a fun game too. Katrien even joined in for that one, something I hope that’ll repeat itself
On Saturday evening we went to eat dinner at Dimi’s here in Wetteren. We had planned to go to another restaurant, but with the good weather parking would have been hell in Ghent, so I decided to go somewhere closer. Besides, it was a good opportunity to show Val our regular place. We had a nice meal, there wasn’t any room for dessert even
After dinner we went to see Iron Man. I must say, it is a very good movie, better than I expected (and I was expecting it to be good, so that means it really is excellent ). If you haven’t seen it, I can highly recommend it.
On Sunday we had a small family excursion planned. I had planned to go to the Star Wars Exhibition in Brussels together with Valery for a while and my brother (along with his girlfriend Joke) and sister decided to tag along. The exhibition itself was a bit disappointing to be honest, I had expected it to be bigger. It was mainly focussed towards the prequel movies, and less so at the classic trilogy. There wasn’t even any information about Luke Skywalker or Chewbacca for example. No X-wing to be found anywhere. And then to top it all, in the gift store most of the books they were selling were in French. I mean, what’s up with that ?? Don’t get me wrong, I had a good time and it made me want to see the movies again (hopefully I’ll convince Katrien to watch them with me ). But could it have been better ? Definitely. Valery had the exact same feeling about it, so I guess it’s not just me
I did take some pictures though, I’ve made a (very) small selection, you can view them below. Enjoy
Long weekend
Welcome back, or hello to all you new people ! (Gotta stay optimistic about the number of people visiting this site )
Right, what have I been up to this week ? Last Friday I had my 6 monthly evaluation talk at my new job. A bit weird taken into account that I had only been working there for 10 days then. However it was nice to be able to talk with my bosses straight up. In itself these 6 monthly talks are a nice feature, most companies only do them yearly, which is a bit long.
Another interesting thing that happened on Friday, I got myself a Wii Balance Board. Now I have to say, this thing is COOL ! There are a few basic games it comes with like walking a rope or skiing. Great fun So much fun even that I had invited Arwen to come over and try it out … twice. First day (Monday) he couldn’t make it, so we arranged for him to come today (Friday) but Arwen being Arwen he forgot he had a whole day planned in the Ardennes. So I’m stuck here home alone today because Katrien made other plans when she heard the house would be invaded with guys (Arwen was going to bring Bouw and maybe Kirsten along), along with a giant pile of snacks. I hope you feel bad if you read this Arwen, because you should ! 
As I mentioned in my previous post, I also went to a new colleague’s wedding. It was a nice event, I sat at the table with all my new colleagues and the food was yummy Katrien, being a vegetarian, dumped all her meat on my plate while I gave her all my vegetables. I think I got the better side of the deal The meat was very yummy and so was the cake ! Congratulations again Peter
Currently I’m on the second day of a 4 day weekend. Yesterday was mainly a cleaning day to get the house ready for Valery visiting. She’s coming over tomorrow, should be fun We’re going to the Star Wars Exhibition in Brussels. I hope it’s good
Oh yeah and before I forgot, on Monday we had a meeting with the guy from the construction company again. He confirmed to us that the house will be ready at the end of June. So we sent a notice to the guy who owns the house we are renting now that we are leaving at the end of July, which is when we plan to move. The point of no return has been reached, keep them crossed for us that everything goes as planned