Going Deep

I went deep today at spinning class. My God! I have never ever ever felt that way while working out!
I felt really dizzy at a certain point, so I needed to slow down. My mind didn't want to stop, but my legs were thinking differently. I grabbed some sugar and hoped I wouldn't freeze. I didn't and went all the way. 
I just took a shower and my battery is charged again!

I Banned Mr. Murphy

Nothing happened today and that's OK. I had enough of Mr. Murphy. I forgot to tell you yesterday that he broke my laptop too... He melted my batteryplug and I burned my finger getting it out of my laptop.
So I loved this quiet day! I just did some work for my sister.

Restart

I didn't turn my headlights down yesterday when I parked my car in front of our appartment.
My dad needed to come over to start my car. At least now I know how to do it. A day full of real life lessons.

My weekend alone

I had a real busy day and week at work.
My boyfriend is on a trip with the boys, so I'm home alone for the weekend.
What I have planned:
* Visiting a local fabric store
* Sleeping
* Eating
* Sewing
* Working on my sister's website
* Packing boxes
* A drink with friends

I think I will get a lot done by Sunday evening!

Almost Safe

Synology: Check
Media Center: Check (Let the fun begin tomorrow)
Back-Up: Running (Almost safe)

Master Repeater

There are some things about my boyfriend that make me laugh every time.

One time I noticed that he was playing a CD of 'No Fun At All' time after time, singing along quite enthusiastic. I got really irritated because of the music (and his singing), so I began to focus on the lyrics to figure out what was bothering me and what got me so worked up. It became clear quite fast. They're always repeating their lyrics, not only the chorus, but sometimes sentences or words too. I couldn't believe a band with such shitty lyrics could be so loved. I get so frustrated that I can't help but laugh every time! And now we laugh every time he sings along with music in repeat.

Master celebrator - No Fun At All

Took a Ride

Before summer my boyfriend bought himself a new race bike and I got his old one. I was super excited, because I liked spinning class and I wanted to ride for real. Unfortunately the local women's Cycle Club were already training for a few months. I would be too slow and inexperienced to ride along with them. Understandable, but I was a little disappointed. I told myself I would give my best at spinning class to get myself ready for spring 2014 and the open road. 
I parked the bike in the back of my mind until spinning class started last week.

Today, my boyfriend was working on his new bike at his parents house (we don't have the space at our apartment to give it a safe place), inflated the tires of his old one and proposed to go for a ride (on the bike, of course! Perv!). 
I didn't feel like it at first (I was wearing high heels, I came straight from work), but I gave in after a few minutes. I got a pair of socks from my boyfriend's mom and luckily I had some sneakers in the back of my car. 
And off we went. To my boyfriend's grandparents' house. Me and my new old race bike. 

I LOVED IT, although I was just wearing jeans. Respect for all you cycling women out there! There's nothing left from my Vajayjay! About time my Urbanist chamois get to production!

My boyfriend:
"I thought you would be complaining all the way!"
"I was surprised on how fast you went."
"You have a natural position on the bike."
"You look sexy!" (Say whaaat?? I put my jeans in my socks ^o)!)
"I think I fell in love with you again!"

I can't wait until spring ^^!

Sigh!NoLogyc

I have been feeling sick in my stomach all day at work. I ate some pasta this evening, but my stomach kept feeling funny. I decided to skip spinning class, just to be sure not to puke all over my fellow bikers. 


After diner I had to lay down for over an hour, but I couldn't control myself and started to look into our new toy: our new Synology DS213j NAS center.

I thought it would be easy to set-up all the necessary settings, but that's far from the truth. I'll need some assistance to guide me through it and he will be coming by on Thursday. I can't wait, because we also bought a Raspberry Pi to access our movies and series and play them on TV. Dream come true! I'm done with always carrying our laptops around the house and plug them into the TV and figuring out on how to put the sound on, etc. etc. 
To all my IT colleagues: Yes, I'm a dummy! And after THE expert comes by on Thursday and learned me how to install this, I'm on my way to IT brotherhood!

Sunday Kitty Teasing

Sunday kitty teasing

Les Tissus du Chien Vert

My mom and I went to a fabric store at Brussels: Les Tissus du Chien Vert.
A coat is an obligatory piece this year at sewing class, so I needed new fabric.
Les Tissus du Chien Vert have a few stores and are specialised in both fabrics for your interior and clothing. Although these are very big stores, I was quite disappointed about what they offered. I'm not questioning the quality of their fabrics, but their variety is very classic. I was looking for some retro fabrics too and couldn't find it. After a long search through the whole shop I bumped into some fabric that's normally used for curtains. I thought it would be nice for a coat too and it wasn't that stiff, so I can do anything I want with it. I bought 2 meters for 30 euros.
I still need some retro fabric for a tricot dress. I will find it elsewhere. In two weeks I will go to a designer fabric sale and I will probably find heaps of fabric I like there. Fingers crossed!
We also went for sandwich between two stores. It was a while ago since we went out with just the two of us. We had fun.
Eventually I'm really happy with what I chose today with the help of my mom :-).

Bye Bye Wisdom

And out it goes, his wisdom, together with his wisdom teeth.

Again, I underestimated myself. I was a very good girl at the hospital while the doctor was extracting my boyfriend's teeth. I heard the doctor sighing and saying: "Man, this one's stubborn!". I think the man has strong construction skills. He was drilling, pulling, pushing, suctioning all at the same time (I hope for his wife that he's quite the handyman at home too). He was done in exactly 10 minutes and during that time I didn't felt the need to faint. Not one time! Although I had a hard time not to throw up when the doctor was waving one of my boyfriend's freshly extracted teeth in my face, saying: "Look how crooked this root is! When a tooth has a root like that, it's quite the pain in the ass to get it out. I have to put my whole weight in it!". 

Some of you might think I'm a crybaby, but human teeth and/or nail/finger-related injuries or surgeries make me really nauseous. I had an accident in my first year at middle school, where my finger got stuck between a door hinge. My finger was totally messed up and I needed surgery with a long recovery. My nail was gone from the injury and didn't grew back so fast. My finger hasn't been growing that well since the accident and is deformed.  I still get goosebumps when I think back about how my finger looked. So that's my thing with nails.
Where my trauma with dentists and teeth comes from, I have no idea. I just have a fear and I always fainted when my dad extracted a loose tooth from my mouth. 
But these two things are the only things that make me feel real sick. I've watched surgeries, I dissected a rabbit, I remove dead cats from the road. You can give me anything with blood, but please, no teeth or nails. 
But I got through this challenge! YES!

Presentation Skills

I had to present our event planning today at our general meeting together with another colleague. I was really nervous, but once I was standing in front of the public and started to talk, I just went for it. I even liked it, to be honest!
I got really good comments from my colleagues on my presentation skills, so that's nice. I was quite worried I would be talking too fast or that my accent would be too obvious. Everything turned out fine! I even got an applause for a joke I made!
Hooray for me!
A presentation you need to see about presentations: You Suck At Powerpoint!
 
Now I really have to go to sleep. My boyfriend needs to go to the hospital tomorrow to remove his wisdom teeth. Fingers crossed I won't faint!
X L.

Grumpy

My blog is all about the positive. I'm not allowed to be grumpy.
There's just one grumpy thing allowed on my blog and that's...

GRUMPY CAT

She makes me so happy ^^!

First Date

I started packing today... The first boxes are a fact.
I meant to clean our apartment and I thought I could very well start loading some boxes with stuff we don't really need right away. 

I bumped into some funny things along my way trough my mess! I found a movie ticket for Slumdog Millionaire I held on to. It was the first movie my boyfriend and I went to. After the movie we went to visit some friends of his and went for some pizza. If I remember correctly, we didn't even kiss that night... A nice memory I haven't thought about for a long while. Packing isn't that bad :-) ...

Zen

Spinning class started again for me today.
I'm so tired right now, but I'm zen! I love it when I feel that way after our class!

Wedfest

The wedding we went to yesterday, theme: Festival.

I was a little skeptic at first, because I didn't know what to expect but it totally worked! It was the best wedding ever!

The invitation we got was a line-up poster (with my name spelled wrong, but that's no biggie). I was quite curious about the whole theme, because it was going to be outside in a big tent. 

We first went to city hall at 11.45h for the actual marriage. 

The happy couple arrived with a bus from De Lijn (our Flemish public transportation), together with the whole family. When I saw the bride coming out of the bus, I had a little teardrop I needed to whipe off my face. She looked beautiful! More beautiful than I already expected her to be. She was perfect!

The ceremony was just like it had to be. The room was full of friends and family who love them very much and everyone was moved by their speeches and when they said I DO. 

We got a drink after the ceremony at city hall. 

At 5.30h we were welcomed at the tent for the party and the food. When we came in, we got a wrist band to enter the party with their names on in black & gold. So cool!

I was really looking forward to what the food would be, since it was a festival theme. There were three foodbooths: Italian with pasta and pizza, fries and hamburgers. There were enough benches and tables to sit and eat. 

The first dance was set by Emzjés. The bride zipped out her wedding dress and had a red strapless dress underneath. They started to dance salsa, I think. I wish I had filmed it instead of taking pictures, because it was MINDBLOWING! They obviously had been taking dance classes to get this right, without anyone knowing. Everyone was completely stunned by this performance. They flipped over each others back and everything! I have no words for this, except: "chapeau"!

After the first dance, the Emzjés did the rest of their set that lasted for more than two hours, I think. They brought some gypsy dancers too. The brides grandfather was in really good shape, because he started to dance with the gypsy girls and everyone followed them to the dancefloor. 

After the Emzjés a DJ did his set. Not always my style of music, but fun to dance at. 

I normally don't dance without drinking, but yesterday I let myself go (not all the way, I still need a drink for that). I had real fun with some of our best friends. 

I think everyone will agree with me that this wedding was totally in style of the bride and groom (party animals) and that this 'Wedfest' was the best wedding EVER!

My boyfriend just woke up and has a major hangover. I'll have to leave you to go and tease him! 

See you tomorrow!

Wasted Wedding

I just got home from the best wedding ever! I'll tell you about it tomorrow. First I got to take care of my wasted boyfriend...
A taste of my story:

Caviar

My Pronails Cuvée Caviar Blossom has been in my naildrawer for a while now. I never had the courage to take it out, because I thought I would make a mess.
Tomorrow, we have our last wedding of the 7 that were planned this summer and I thought it was the perfect occasion to try out the caviar.
I didn't make a mess at all. Because of the special cap it's super easy to use!
I totally love it and will use it more often from now on.

The red nail polish is Flamme from Germaine de Capuccini.

Amsterdam

We went for a trip to Amsterdam yesterday.
My boyfriend had tickets to a concert of Good Riddance so we went for a day out. 
He had a few stops planned out. He wanted to go and take a look at the fixies from Pristine and he wanted to go to Cut Throat Barber to trim his 'beard' and cut his hair in a retro way. 
The barber was a guy from New Zealand who's dad was Dutch, so he ended up in Amsterdam to open his shop. My boyfriend wanted to give him carte blanche, but I said he could go a little Ryan Gosling (jumjum). 
His beard wasn't hard work, James the barber just had to groom it and it looked a whoooole lot better and sexy. Now I have my own black haired Ryan in the house. Damn.

After the barber we went for some pancakes at Pancakes! Amsterdam and for a stroll around  De 9 Straatjes. A very nice and cozy neighborhood with small shops where I bought a nice black & white vest at By Fabrio for 35 euros. 
My boyfriend was looking for a shop where they had Haglöfs jackets and found one on the internet that was very nearby. At least, that's what he said. We had to go for a looooong walk to the 'suburbs' of the city. He didn't buy a thing at the shop, by the way. 
After our town walk, where I grew butt muscles like you wouldn't believe, we went for dinner at Royal Thai, nearby De Melkweg, where we needed to be for the concert. 
After the concert we went for a frozen yogurt at Frozz with some friends we went to the concert with. 

My picture of Amsterdam: A hip and fancy city, quite cozy with all the canals and little bridges and people are very friendly.
What I noticed though, was that Amsterdam is often dirty. Shopkeepers don't bother to clean their shop every day, many restaurants look quite old and dirty on the outside, you can already smell public lavatories from miles away and garbage bags are lying on the street, teared apart. If you can look past these little things and open up for the warmth Amsterdam gives you when you talk to the people you will see that it has a lot to offer.

I had a really fun day with my Ryan Gosling and I will certainly visit Amsterdam again.
As I told you before, I love The Netherlands, and there are many cities yet to explore. 
I'll keep you posted on my travel guide around The Netherlands. 

Finally Home

I'm finally home from a wonderful day at Amsterdam. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, because I really need to go to sleep now.
Nightynight!
XL.

Back at my habitat

Yes, I'm back at my habitat: sewing class!

Fever London Tote Bag

Remember my pair of Noiselle heels? I won them through an online competition. 
I rarely compete in these sort of share and like competitions, but in May I did it again. 

It was a Fever Wedding Belle competition. I had to comment on the question: "What would your ultimate honeymoon be?" I think I could have won a bridesmaid dress (would have been handy with all the weddings I was facing at that time... I had my eye on the Ivy Gown in Merlot.).
I can't remember what my answer was. I tried to look it up, but couldn't find it.
Anyway, the reason I need to dig my memory is that the competition was in May and someone had sent me a Facebook message the same month. The problem is that I recently (read: last Friday) discovered that my Facebook account has two inboxes instead of one. Apparently messages from people you don't know end up in the 'other' inbox without sending you a notification (or I clicked to remove). I had multiple unread messages in that inbox and one of them was from Lauren, working at Fever. I won a prize in the competition. I apologised for my late reaction and asked her if I could still redeem it. Today, my mailbox contained a flowered tote bag and a voucher for the online shop.
Me = happy :-) !

Relaxed

Sauna day. Massage. Sleepy. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

I Can't Do 'Nothing'

Yesterday I told you we would be doing absolutely nothing today, but I wasn't telling the whole truth. Around 4 we went for a drink with some friends. I drank a sangria, a tea and a Licor 43 and I have to say that I was a little tipsy. Afterwards we went for a walk with the dog. Again, huge improvement, because half of our walk we didn't have to hold the leash. We also trained on coming to us on demand.

I ended my day with grabbing a road kill from the street on our way home. A little kittycat, maybe 6 months old and still warm. 
You can read about the second 'roadkill save' I did. I'm still convinced it's better to remove them to the side of the road to avoid shocked kids and/or owners. I don't have a problem with doing that. I just worry that people who see me will think I ran the animal over :-)!
I'm a good person! Pat on the back!

Family Walk

For my boyfriend's grandfather's birthday we planned a family walk to the ice cream store.
My sister-in-law and I took our dog with us. At first, I was a little stressed out, because what if they didn't like each other? But I didn't had to worry, because they were the best of friends.
I had a relaxing day and tomorrow it will be even more relaxing, because we'll be doing totally nothing... Next week is holiday week with a day of Amsterdam and a sauna day ahead of us... Finally some time out from work!

x L.

Barcelona Quick Shop Stop

As I have told you, I could sneak out to the nearby shopping center between office closing hours and our appointment with the Barcelona colleagues to go out for some food.

One of my colleagues told me about the accessory store 'Misako' a while ago. I was totally in love with multiple bags from the website, but it was 15 euros for delivery costs. I waited my time until we got our trip to Barcelona and I went to the shopping center in hope to find a Misako store there. I immediately walked over to the ground plan and I found the store. I almost ran to it, because I was in little time and I wanted to visit some other shops too. 
I found the perfect bag I was looking for and an extra belt with a nice flower buckle. I also bought some bracelets in sale to cheer up my colleague. She had been lying in bed all day at the hotel, because she was feeling really sick.
As I was walking around at the store, I bumped into the coolest hand luggage trolley ever! 
I lend the trolley I was using for this trip from a friend, because I didn't have one. So, I needed one, but unfortunately I couldn't take it with me. I would have checked it in as luggage, because I already had a trolley with me :-(. You all know I'm a true cat fan and so you will understand how disappointed I was because I couldn't take it with me.
I will buy it, someday! It's not on their website yet, but it will... Soon... And then it will be mine!

I'm super happy with my new bag though, because it has the perfect size. It's not too big and not too small, because everything I need fits right in. 
You really have to check the website and let me know if you want to order something. Maybe we can order together so we can split the shipping costs ;-) !

Barcelona Work Trip Part 2

Our trip to Barcelona was called BLITZ, and that it was. We've been working hard, I think.
We didn't have the chance to visit the city (only the shopping center close to the office for about an hour).
I've learned a lot of this trip. I admire people who travel for work all the time, because it's exhausting, allthough I wouldn't mind. You meet people in person you speak with on the phone on a regular base and you get to taste another culture. I love this and I hope I get the chance to travel for my job in the future.
I got to know my colleagues who joined me a little bit better and I think this trip will make us a better team. I had a really great time. I'm home now and really tired so sleep tight!
XL.

Barcelona Work Trip Part 1

So far so good.
Our flight took off at 6.30h so I got up at 3.30h to leave for our office at 4h to arrive at 4.30 to carpool with my colleague to the airport.
This early morning wasn't pleasant, especially now! I had a few drinks and I'm sitting in a cab on our way to the hotel as we speak.
We had a lot to eat (wow good food) and a few drinks. I'm going to sleep now because I have an early morning. I'll try to tell you more about it tomorrow.
Ow, I also did a quick shop stop.
More about this tomorrow.

6 Kilos

I'm leaving on a business trip to Barcelona tomorrow. Quite the challenge because I can only take 6 kilos of hand luggage with me (laptop excl.)!
But I managed to pack only the necessary...
Beauty products: for showering, sunscreen, toothbrush,...
Clothing: blouse, pants, dress, cardigan, fancy shoes (my lovely Noiselles) and Allstars.
Underwear and socks.
Weight: 5 kilos
This was the perfect exercise for our trip to Thailand!

Mobile Lost?

I forgot my cell phone at home this morning.
I missed it in the morning, but then I got used to it. I thought I would be helpless without it, but I'm still alive and I'm fine. I need to do this more often, when I don't have to go to work that is!

Don't Hold the Leash

My boyfriend watching Cesar Milan finally pays off.
Fré could walk right next to us without us holding the leash. He obviously thought we were still holding it, but he did great! This is truly a huge improvement when you know how he behaved when we went for a walk in the past (Fré that is). 
I'm proud of my boys! They're the best of friends :)