Life: Idiotropic

Well, Kyrill came and went on Thursday night creating quite a racket through the night and some strong wind the following day, but in our area, it was pretty uneventful. Tinny reported that Monschau didn't fare as well with most of the basements completely flooded, but that stands to reason given it's valley location near a stream.

On Friday night I had the pleasure of attending wine club. I'm not a member as of yet, but a friend was hosting it, so I went and brought a couple goodies to help out. We were spoiled with a wonderful selections of Bordeaux reds and whites and some very good foods. My favorite was the coffee served with a champagne liqueur from Monschau that was absolutely delicious. I don't drink wine much although I do enjoy it and it's better here. Though I still have a fondness for Oregon wines, the wines here are a lot less expensive and very good.

On Saturday we made a movie. Arianna, for two weeks now, has been begging to make a real movie. NOW. She was so heart broken the first time she asked to make her movie and the answer was "not now". We had to make a script, we had to find costumes, and we had to charge the video camera. The next week, she wasn't getting any further with her play idea although convinced that "she knew how to do it." So, on Saturday, she asked to play dress up. Then she got into costume and asked Tiara to do her makeup. So, completely ready, she came to Kirk and I again. "Is the battery charged, Kirk?" "Yes." "Bring it down in five minutes... it's time to make a movie."
Arianna told us what we would do. I was assured a short scene with one line. We all got into costume. Luci was going to be the mean lady, but when it came time for the mean lady to carry off Marie Kitty, Luci realized that she couldn't pick up Arianna and didn't think that dragging her by the collar was convincing enough. So, all of the sudden, Luci got the one line, and I became the mean lady with no script, so I had to improvise.

Scene 1: Morning came. Tiara, the maid, dusted the furniture. Luci, the owner, fed her sweet Marie Kitty (Arianna). Then, while Marie ate, the Mean Lady (me) swooped in to catnap her. Just then another little kitty (Elise) wandered unscripted into the scene, so the Mean Lady grabbed one kitty under each arm and carried them off to her dog-infested castle.
Scene 2: At the Dog-Infested Castle, the Mean Lady interrogates the frightened kittens looking for the secret recipe for Meow mix and where all the tastiest salmon are.
Scene 3: The kind maid finds the castle and comes into save the kittens. She fights the Mean Lady who falls to the floor moaning. The maid rescues Marie Kitty, but the little kitten runs to the Mean Lady who is melted by her kindness and they all live happily ever after.
Scene 4: It is Christmas. Marie opens presents. All is well.

Saturday was also the day of the freak hail storm that caught Kirk coming out of the woods. He was out for a walk while the girls clung to me in a very rare thunderstorm. The clouds rumbled for 20 minutes or so before it all broke loose the in 5 minutes the previously dry ground was covered in white dime sized hail balls. And, Kirk had just come out of the woods about then, walking through the farm fields wondering why the ground was so crunchy. It's the shoes. My previously fashion-uninterested man is now going absolutely bonkers over Lands End shoes, shirts, etc... So, it was hailing and he didn't feel a thing except the crunch.

Sunday was Tongeren Day for me! I picked up Holly at 0630 and we drove the one hour to Tongeren, Belgium arriving when is was still quite dark out. It would have been nice to have a flashlight. The wind was cold and biting and it spit rain on and off, so the crowds were very low. The vendors were a little more sparse as well, but the people that were there seemed a bit friendlier than usual.

Going to Tongeren is a bit addictive. I absolutely love it and would go every week if time and money allowed. The amalgamation of the old town gate and wall with all the little treasure shops tucked around it and the sidewalk vendors lining the sidewalks and streets with every possible aged object engage me. It all seems so story-like and the characters sitting on the back of their trucks have as many stories as the wares they sell. Going to Tongeren is a bit like an open area museum in which you can touch everything. Last time I'd gone I found a piece of Steuben glass that I can still clearly remember. This day, walking along casually looking about the randomness on each table, I found an another amazing glass vase - just sitting there in the middle of an unimpressive assortment of old stuff. I will have to look online to find out more about it, but it was truly special and signed. I got to pick it up, turn it in my hand, and feel it's weight. Then I asked the price. 1300 Euros. And probably worth more. Though it would be fun to decorate my home with all the Tongeren treasures, it is also a privilege just to be able to pick up and touch some of these things that could easily be placed in a museum behind glass.

The photo below is the storefront of a shop right behind a sidewalk antique vendor. It caught my eye and Holly thought it was quite artsy, so I took the photo. Kind of fun to play with.

Holly and I both had fun rummaging through a box of old carved mahogany pieces once used as stamps for type set. I got KT TALES - our initials and will put on a little shelf on the wall. I also found some beautiful hand-stitched, red leather children's cricket balls and later a nice pair of black, carved, wooden shoes with writing inside. On the way back towards the car I saw the chandelier I liked before. It's small, but the strings of crystals are all tied to form a basket with the bulbs inside it. It stood out from the others there, and the price was negotiable, so I think I got a deal on it.

On that same stretch was a man with a counter on which he had some wine glasses and several bottles of wine. He was clearing out a wine cellar. Two bottles of an 1950's French Bordeaux, he sold for 600E each. We had the pleasure of chatting with him and sipping on a 1996 Bordeaux that he was selling for just 30E a bottle. I would have gotten a couple, but he was selling it in a lot of 300 bottles. But these are the fun characters at Tongeren - friendly, open, without presumption. He chatted with us for a good 10 minutes and then invited us to come back for a nice glass later if we had the time.

After dumping our stuff in the van, we went for lunch in an old smokey cafe full of people. The only table left was a large solid round table that would have easily seated 8. We were two, but we sat and invited the group of Dutch coming in after us to join us. They'd purchased a rather comic clown for a friend as a joke. The lunch was light and nice. Cappuccino and a croque monsieur.

From there, Bab's place was just around the corner and I hadn't been in there since I picked up my trunk, so we stopped in.

Babs Nelemans is a petite blond woman in her 70's. She's from Belgium, but is Dutch as she would have you know and has probably smoked at least 3 packs a day for the last fifty years. Her place is thick with smoke, but her spunkiness is fun and she enjoys telling you about the furniture she has in her shop and her customers - many of whom have become friends. She loves to name drop and tells us of all the crates she ships to America and the houses she's flown to in the US to decorate.

She remembered us. Holly's eyes went big the second she walked through the door and saw the 19th c French farm table. I knew she'd be going home with it. The long table had a long drawer at the end that Bab's described as the baby drawer saying that a family would sit down for dinner and put the newborn in the drawer at the end. While Holly stepped out to call her husband, Babs offered me a glass of wine and we sat and talked at Holly's new table. Before we left I reached up on top of an 19C Austrian trunk to get down a dove decoy that had caught my eye. "Do you like it?" came the husky voice with the Dutch accent. "Yes, it's very serene." "Then it's yours, darling. Take it." And it was gifted to me along with its pair. As we walked out and said goodbye, both Holly and I got hugs and three kisses (the Dutch way) from Babs. I think we've made a new friend now.

An aside: Holly picked up her table on Friday with her German landlord. When she tried to pay, Babs said, "we don't pay here," and they all went to the smokey cafe that we'd gone to before for lunch - a long 90 minute lunch with coffee and cognac. Babs and Mike (the landlord) got talking and realized that Mike had bought a lamp from Babs 30 years ago. They both remembered and Babs was able to describe the lamp and the price paid for it! Amazing!


My Monday -

Some days are just strange. Today was normal in some respects and frightfully busy, but among that business were two sights I'd never seen.

The first: I was on the phone with a friend standing in my upstairs office window looking out like I often do when on the phone when I saw two men, dressed entirely in black, bring a body zipped up in bag, out from the apartment and put it in the hearse parked on the street. I know that these things happen, but it was weird to see. Tinny told us that he was an old Dutch man who wasn't in good health. We'd seen him looking out his window some evenings. I wish now that I would have waved. On the positive note, according to Tinny who is very practical in these matters and not at all insensitive as it would seem, there is now a very spacious apartment available immediately if we perchance, know of someone looking for a space to rent.

The second (and less morbid): Today while walking out of the Sittard markt, I saw a bicycle go by. It was a normal looking adult bicycle in most respects except that it had very large sturdy training wheels on it! I didn't get a good look at the rider, but the bicycle was interesting.