Thursday, August 19, 2010 – 9:00 pm
I sometimes wonder how the Belgian ambulances work so maybe somebody can put me straight.
Last week, a car hit a bollard as the driver tried to make a u-turn and ended up turning over completely, trapping the two people inside. I ran to the car along with several other people to see if I could help and was immediately asked to call an ambulance.
As the hospital was very close I expected to hear the sirens pretty quickly but no, I appeared to be engaged in a game of 20 questions. Realising that there must be quite a few hoax calls made, I presumed that the person at the end of the phone was simply getting details of the accident and then relaying them on to the paramedics that had already left the hospital. Questions such as the location, and what had actually happened were expected, but when I was asked if anybody was hurt, I began to think that somebody was taking the piss.
Finally, I think I was believed and as I left the scene where other do-gooders were helping out, I told them that I had called for an ambulance, and at last heard the sound of sirens approaching.
It reminded me of a time when I had to be rushed to be hospital here – I ended up in the back of a police car as the ambulance was taking so long.
My Good Deed of the Day was slightly squashed, I admit, but thankfully, nobody died.
Wonder Woman. Come to me and do your Good Deed.
Monday, August 16, 2010 – 10:23 am
My parents made a brief visit to Brussels again this year and so I met up with them the night they arrived and had an excellent supper at Jardin du Nicolas and then prepared for a barbecue with the children the following day. We weren’t sure whether or not the rain would hold off but it did and thanks to my dad’s faux pas by saying that “women think barbecues are such wonderful ideas because all they do is watch the men slave over the barbecue”, I managed to order my dad to make the salad as I knew the children were rather excited to show off their barbecuing skills. My mum and I sat and chatted away which made a lovely change.
During the afternoon my parents showered us with gifts of cheese, mint chocolates and the children received their Christmas and birthday presents which is always lovingly wrapped up in an envelope. My father has promised to pay for a new pair of glasses for me as I can’t afford a new pair myself. I count myself very fortunate indeed.
Next year will be slightly different as it will be my parent’s fiftieth wedding anniversary and they are presently thinking of renting a gite in France for a family gathering. I’m wondering what I could paint gold without it looking too kitsch.
Todd had some good news as his dad had found him a job as a postman for the next 2 weeks. Despite the early mornings, he wasn’t too fazed by the idea, and I think it’ll do him some good, especially all that exercise around this village on the bike they’ll give him. He will also be given ‘security shoes’ which had us all wondering. My father guessed that they are probably handed out as a security measure against guard dogs.
Well, it’s a possibility, I suppose.
Monday, August 9, 2010 – 7:27 am
There is nothing more that pisses me off than somebody fucking around with my life. Sunday morning started out fine – until I tried to Skype someone only to find that Alexsander123 had hacked into my account and was quite happily using it yesterday. Fortunately, I only had about €1 credit, so no loss there – but my contacts have obviously all gone. I’ve managed to recuperate 4, but there were quite a few more. So if you want to keep in touch with me, just drop me an email.
To be honest, it was partly my fault as my Skype account and my old gmail address had the same password so it was easy for Alexsander123 to hack into the two accounts, but if you receive an email from my zoeeee gmail address, beware – it’s not from me.
So yesterday I spent the entire day trying to recuperate my old gmail address but despite filling in Google’s lengthy form whereby you have to include 5 people that you email and 4 labels, they still refused to admit to my identity. And I had to give up my old Skype address as I had signed that up with my old gmail address of which I no longer have any control over.
Great.
The rest of the day was spent changing every single password that I had for every single account that I have – many of which I had long forgotten about and left me in a foul and furious mood.
It was also Todd’s 17th birthday but he wasn’t here all day apart from a quick pop around to the house to insult me again and then off with friends, so I guess he had a good time. I didn’t even have enough time to give him his present and god knows where he is today.
But he’s no longer a minor – YAY!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 – 5:48 pm
The ‘children’ are back again and Todd is none the wiser. He has broken two more doors simply by hitting them and all I was trying to do was talk to him. Perhaps I should ignore him totally and he’ll love me forever, but that really isn’t my way of bringing up a child. The boy has anger issues and takes them out on me as he’d rather not take them out on his father. Ho hum. Tatiana is still working at the local supermarket and Coralie is studying hard to re-take 7 (eeeeks) exams so as to get her degree. So far she seems to be very serious about re-sitting the exams – for which I don’t blame her, as she will have a job in September if she passes.
Todd is finally going into the fourth year next month – at the age of seventeen. That means that he’ll leave school at the age of (almost) 20, but it appears to be pretty common amongst boys in this country. I’m sure that he’ll do very well for himself, as long as he doesn’t decide to become a hairdresser…
I was speaking to the Ex about Todd and his behaviour this morning, along with the fact that there really don’t appear to be any jobs on the market in my domain. So the Ex suggested sending my CV to hotels to work as a receptionist, something that I could do but am not exactly jumping up and down about. But then, if it’s a job – well, I should go for it, despite the awful hours.
Apart from that, I’m keeping myself busy de-cluttering my office (at home) and have subsequently ended up with backache. The days are pretty quiet as nobody is around so I have to do something or it’s back to watching Jezza Kyle again, and quite frankly, life is too short for that.
Tomorrow: hairdressers. The joy.
