Saturday 07 July 2007 other wise known as 07/07/07 - the day of good luck... Heidi and Sarah feel lucky to have YMA as a Face The Day special guest!

Sarah says:
YMA is way too cute. She's showing me and Heidi up! Good to see her and her mom as usual! It's sunny in Belgium today! Slow, easy day. Nothing much to say here...

YMA, HEIDI AND SARAH WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY WEEKEND!

Friday 06 July 2007: Where's Heidi? Sarah visits Lille and Ieper today...

Sarah says:
We went to Lille and to Ieper today as we have guests and that's what you show guests around here. In the photos today you see Tyne Cot Cemetery in Ieper. Can you imagine that there are 11,856 graves of WWI soldiers there, of which 8,365 are unnamed! It's quite amazing to see and to think about. We went to the Last Post under the Menin Gate at 8pm. Here's what this Last Post link says about this moving daily ceremony:

"Every evening since 1928, at precisely eight o'clock, the Last Post - the traditional salute to the fallen warrior - has been played under the Menin Gate Memorial in Ieper, Belgium.

This daily tribute - performed by a team of local buglers - serves to honour the memory of the soldiers of the British Empire, who fought and died in the immortal Ypres Salient during the First World War. It is the aim of the Last Post Association to maintain this ceremony in perpetuity. Today is the 27072 day of the Last Post ceremony."

Thursday 05 July 2007: Sarah gives YMA a piggy-back ride and grabs Heidi for a fast photo at the street corner and puts NSM and JO to sleep...

Sarah says:
First I have to say that I have been corrected - Janis Joplin didn't write that whole freedom line mentioned in yesterday's post - Kris Kristofferson did. I apologise!!!

So above you can see me and Heidi. Even though I am on vacation now and not seeing Heidi as much as usual, I knew she'd be on the street corner so I ran over and got the above photo and gave YMA a piggy-back ride at the same time. See her little head bopping around up there? Cute, eh?!

And below you see my brother NSM and his wife JO feeling pretty relaxed and sleepy in my house today. They arrived from Budapest last last night after a very awful few weeks in Italy, which were ruined for them because of a lost bag from Athens to Venice, terrible customer service, lots of money blown and cancelled flights and plans. My advice to y'all from hearing their stories is never travel via Alitalia. So after such a bad trip, my husband's parents were kind enough to invite us all over for a great and long lunch! Now we are all feeling very relaxed, full and lazy. I think we'll just chill out the rest of the night. Tomorrow we head to Lille and then to Ieper for the Last Post.

Wednesday 04 July 2007: Sarah's vacation begins today as she sees stars and stripes and fireworks and wishes all y'all a Happy 4th of July!

Sarah says:
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! I FEEL FREE FOLKS! FREE AS A BIRD! As Lynyrd Skynyrd said, I must be travelling on, now, 'cause there's too many places I've got to see. It's Independence Day! This is when we Americans became independent from Great Britain back in 1776! That's funny because at this stage in my life, I feel more tied to Great Britain than ever before! But as Janis Joplin said, freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose... So there you have it. I am almost free. I have nothing to lose and I was born ready. I'm talking a lot of crap now. My brain is mush. Perfect moment to be on holiday! If only the sun would now shine it would be perfect! I have one brother coming to Belgium tonight with his wife and another one coming here for the first time next Monday. I look forward to having some good old family time! I'm not going anywhere for my vacation! Just home sweet home. Yesterday I was already in vacation mode after work. I watched TV from 6pm till 11pm starting with Home & Away, then Little House on the Prairie (my favorite!) and then The Wire episode 3 season 1. I have to be careful not to watch too much TV during my holidays! If I can get addicted to anything, it's TV.

I hope Heidi will have a good couple of weeks without me around! The poor dear! Good luck!!!

Tuesday 03 July 2007: Heidi and Sarah are troubled today....

Monday 02 July 2007: Heidi and Sarah have curiously dumb faces today, diarrhea and very little to offer the world apart from various excretions...

Sarah says:
One of us has bad stomach problems today and the other more minor ones. Can you guess who has it worse from the above photo? To make this guessing game harder, both of us have bad headaches today. One of us has our period but that is easy as I have no shame and no secrets really. And one of us had vomit all over us yesterday. Who do you think? One of us had to wash a lot of snot off a bottom pants cuff today. Who would that have been? Both of us had eye-cocky today no doubt. And that's about it really! I told you we had nothing useful to offer today! Below is a photo from this morning that I took in case Heidi and I didn't get the chance to have a photo together. Notice there is no hangy piece of bang flapping about in the middle of my forehead for once. Sadly in the above photo there is a major piece of inescapable bang. Indeed my hair looks exactly the same as ever sadly.

Last piece of disturbing news is that there are no new Post Secret entries yet this week. I wonder why! Maybe Frank, the guy who makes the site, is sick or something. Diarrhea is going around big time you know! Anyway, I just discovered this My Space Post Secret site - so I have taken two Post Secret entries from there in the meantime to post this week. I like the one about being crazy and being fine with that but feeling like nobody really knows what that means and what a struggle it is. I don't feel crazy right now but I sure have in the past at times during my teenage years and you just get through it but it is very lonely and you feel very misunderstood. There are so many people out there who suffer from some sort of mental illness or major struggle. They have to function much of the time and that can really be a struggle - one that those of us who feel "stable" surely take for granted. Anyway - the post card art itself is very telling and beautiful. We all live on our own islands like the person in that chair. We all feel like misfits at one time or another. Sometimes all of our thoughts are too much..

As for the below Post Secret (My Space) card - I can relate to that one for sure too. When I was a teenager, man oh man did I like the edgy rockstar boys. Everyone I saw was a potential crush. But I too often and mostly felt like the fat, ugly girl not worthy of attention and love - certainly not from the cool, edgy guys. I fell in love with anyone really - anyone who gave me the slightest bit of male attention. Sad but true! Being a teenager was wonderful and difficult. All that drama. I have no idea why those teenage years are so much on my mind right now...

Sunday 01 July 2007: It's First of the Month Flashback at Face The Day and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ASG!!!!!

Sarah says:

Above you can see two things - that I am very tired this morning with very tiny, crusty eyes and that the sun was beaming through my window. Now it looks like it will rain so there goes the nice SUNday! You can also see my new haircut in its "bedhead" glory. Not bad. Not bad at all! Last night Wout told me in his very honest way that no matter what haircut I get, my hair always looks exactly the same anyway. That it is hard to even see that I got a haircut. He says it is because of my long, right bangs (very clear in photo above). It just makes my frontal view unchanging. But I can't cut that piece of hair shorter. If I do, it curls up into an arch and goes all 1980s on me. So I guess I'll just have to deal with the fact that I always look exactly the same no matter how hard I try to make a little difference with a haircut or whatever. Oh well, there are worse things to worry about I guess... SUCH AS...Man - I'm not even going to get into the terrorism attempts in The UK. We live in one seriously screwed up world. It is so hard to even fathom these acts -- that there are people out there willing to just blow up and kill a bunch of innocent people. It is so fuc*ed up! We all just have to go on living and pretend we are safe from such attacks and just hope, like now, such attacks get stopped before they really explode. It's just so freaking beyond comprehension. Hard to wrap one's thoughts around. Hard to live with the idea that these fuc*ers out there are really trying to kill whomever they can to make some point that will make the world an even more terror-ble place! I'm afraid to read the headlines each morning now.

As it is the 1st of the month I'm going to have to find Heidi today and take a photo of us together for comparison to last year's photo on this day, which you can see below. I also had to include the photo from last year on the 2nd of July because in it you can really see Heidi's pregnant belly! my a lot has changed between then and now. I'm sure such photos make Heidi nostalgic to that period in her life. Not me - all I am reminded of is of how much back pain I had at that very second and the miserable diet I was on to lose weight before my operation. Now Heidi has Yma to show for it and I have a fixed back. A lot can change in a year! Heidi was stuck at home with very early contractions. Most of her time a year ago was spent resting, reading and sun-bathing on her roof terrace. It was hard to feel sorry for her! Check this link to see what we were thinking a year ago today, and this link to see what was on our minds a year ago and a day today... and this link to see my fave Post Secret of all time which I put on here a year ago and three days today...

Sarah adds:

And below you can see Face The Day Star, ASG, in one of her wedding shots from Scotland last weekend! Today is her birthday and we here at Face The Day wish her a GREAT and SATISFYING one full of good stuff and fun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASG!!!!

Saturday 30 June continued... Sarah gets the famous Jan “Zoane” Vandenbussche as a Face The Day guest and meets her new neighbors Wout and Alexander!

Sarah says:
I don't know if we have ever had Jan “Zoane” Vandenbussche's mulle on Face The Day but it's about time we did. Tonight I went to the Gèsman gig at my neighborhood's yearly feast. It was a great concert actually. I saw them in De Kreun a while back and didn't enjoy that gig nearly as much as I did this one. It was nice to have them all to ourselves on the next street over! Gèsman has a bunch of gigs coming up soon. Check them out if you can. You might recall Gèsman himself (aka Steven Vervaecke) being a guest on Face The Day not too long ago.
Anyway - Heidi is a big fan of Zoane too so it's too bad she wasn't at our neighborhood feast to be in this photo too!!!! Zoane is known for many old and new bands around town, especially The Feather, which has some cult sort of status in these here parts but was before my time here. Besides his face and the fact that he looks like a bunch of rock stars rolled up into one, Zoane has some "legend" status among some circles. Thank you dear Zoane for gracing our Face The Day pages tonight.

Sarah adds: Sorry for the ugly photo above but I just wanted to show you what having one's leg-hair sugared looks like. It's a big warm, sticky ball of a sugar jelly mix that gets pressed and rolled onto your body hair and on the third press gets ripped off, grabbing the hair with it. All that hair you see in the above photo is now gone. Getting my bikini area done today hurt like freaking hell to be honest. Much more painful than regular waxing. But with that said, the results appear to be much better than those with standard hot waxing. The skin is smooth - not all red and raised and bumpy! My legs would be fine too if there weren't so many ingrown hairs -- but over time, sugaring is supposed to help get rid of those as well. Ann at Botee in Kortrijk does a great job. I go again next Saturday for a final test session to see if the underneath the skin hair will come out. I hope so! I'd love to not have to shave in the summer. I always end up shaving between waxings during the warmer weather because my dang hair is so dark and so course I wouldn't dare wear shorts or a skirt with any of it visible. I wish I didn't care about these things - it would be so much easier not to. But alas, I do. So I am finding my ways to be gone with the hairy beast side of myself!

And finally Sarah adds one last thing... That's Alexander and Wout!!! You know them! They are regulars here on Face The Day. Heidi's best mates. And now as of today I am so happy to say they are our neighbors!!!! They moved around the corner today and live like 3 minutes away from me and from Heidi! They showed up at the Gèsman gig in OUR neighborhood tonight. I was so happy to see them there as the new kids on the block! I hope they love living in this area. It's such a fabulous place to live. And their being here makes it even better!

Saturday 30 June 2007: Sarah gets a good night's sleep but still feels tired...

Heidi says: Nothing to say really. Is that bad? I guess not, I already talk so much... Oh i do have something to say!! I love your hair, Sarah!!! It is very elegant and it suits you very well!

Sarah says:
Where is Heidi? I guess she has no time to put her photos on here so here I am dominating Face The Day again! Oh Heidi, oh Heidi, come out and play meisje!!

That's me fake-smiling above. Just trying to look bright and fresh and cheery. I got up so early this morning even though I got home from London so late last night. I had an eyebrow appointment at 8:15 so I had to get up and I'm glad I did. A good eyebrow plucking can really wake up my face. I am a hairy beast you know. At 11 today - in about an hour, I will get sugared again - legs and this time bikini area also at Botee in Kortrijk. She just started using sugaring so I'm testing it out as well. She tried my legs already with pretty good results so now it is bikini time! That might hurt a bit more. We'll see. So all this hair removal makes it seem as if summer is maybe here. But it's cold outside today!!!! No sun at all! It will rain I'm sure! It's almost July. It is really time for some sunny and beautiful days. I am so glad my vacation starts the middle of next week. I need it! I'm feeling a little worn out at this point like you always do when a vacation is near. It's like you allow yourself to admit you need some rest where as usually you just keep going and going because you have no choice. Vacation allows you to shut down a bit and my body and mind are anticipating that already and in the process of slowing down. Or maybe that's just my period talking. It's a really bad one. I feel so crampy and tired. I even have a headache and such sharp pains in my womb that I have to stop moving when they come. I get the feeling my period is getting worse as I get older - or at least since my back operation or something. Anyway - I am sure you don't really want to hear this. So why are you reading this?

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND FROM HEIDI AND SARAH AT FACE THE DAY!!!

Friday 29 June 2007: Sarah finally get her Covent Garden / Neil's Yard haircut and has a hell of a day...

Sarah says:
Because of the bomb scare in London the trains were all off plan and this made it hard to get around and to get where I had to go. Everything was busier than usual and that's no fun when you are carrying suitcases and bags and stuff. So I had a bit of a distance to travel so I checked my suitcase in at Waterloo and went on my merry way to where I had to be. Easier said than done! Man oh man they had us running about. They told me to get this train to this place. I get on it, it stops soon after, thy say it will no longer go to the place so to get off. A bunch of us get off and try to find out where we can get a train to our destination and they tell us track 4 - that one will be there in a few minutes. So we all run, run, run down and up stairs and through walkways and as we get on the track the freaking train pulls away! It didn't even wait for us. Anyway, I'm all worn out because I have a heavy back-pack, I'm dressed way too warmly and my clothes are wet because it had rained so hard and so suddenly when I boarded my first train that morning and I haven't run like that since before my back operation. To top it off, just at that very second my freaking period comes - in a major way and I am unprepared!! So the train people tell us to get on the next train and switch at this stop and get that train there to that train there. Time is a ticking. I'm late. I'm wet. I'm sweaty. I'm bloody! It sucks!!! And then the sun starts beaming all of a sudden and because it rained it's like an oven effect and I'm feeling like I will faint at any second. Seriously. It sucked!!! But then it was okay and then my day was over with an hour to spare before I caught my Eurostar back. So what did I do? I finally got my haircut in Neil's Yard in Covent Garden! I saw this small edgy hair salon there probably 13 years ago for the first time and since then have always wanted to get my haircut there. It's called Hair By Fairy. I arrived and it was so busy I thought okay, nice dream. But the guy said I could have an appointment in 10 minutes! I was so pleased. A long-haired Italian guy with lots of piercings chopped up and thinned out my hair and I love it! It's perfect for the summer. Shorter than ever. Easy to make wild or proper. So that made my evening! Needless to say, when I arrived home I fell into my bed and was asleep immediately. I love travelling and don't even mind a late train every now and then - but the combo of heavy bags, the wrong clothes, changing temperatures, screwed up trains, running like a mofo and getting my period was a bit too much for a 15 minute span of time. So for the moment, I am glad to be home again!! You can just see in my eyes and face in the above photo how tired, raggy and crampy I was on the train back...

Thursday 28 June 2007: Heidi and Sarah are fuzzy wuzzy hairy bears...

Sarah says:

Off to London... See y'all at the weekend! I am a fuzzy-headed ape today... At least the sun is shining... Have a goody!

Later that day I ran into a Andrea, a friend of a face the day star ASG's in London and there happened to be this lovely painting hanging about. Andrea is a great gal! It's nice to know somebody in London as I am there every now and then... And I am always happy to get to know the friends of my friends. I love how life is this series of networks and that you can just link up and form all these chains. Makes the world feel a lot smaller and more cozy!

By the way - the next day there was a bomb scare in London right near the area where the photo was taken. I am so glad that bomb didn't go off. It's amazing how everyone just learns to live with these things and it's business as usual - especially in London, where I suppose they are accustomed to crazy bomb scares and the like. What a messed up world. Truly.

Wednesday 27 June 2007: Heidi and Sarah are listening hard for the answer is blowin' in the wind...and Sarah does not look like Beth Ditto!

Sarah says:
The weather has improved here in Belgium just a little bit. There's a little less rain and a bit more sun. But the heavy wind keeps on blowing indeed. Tomorrow I am off to London for two days and I just hope there aren't any downpours like there have been here. There are few things worse than walking through London in the pouring rain with no means to get dry! Ughhh.

Anyway - I know I am not in my usual writing-way-too-much on here mode but it's just because I am too busy these days. You can be sure I'll get back to my old self soon. I am like in another world these days between manic and comatose. It's all good but it'll be nice and necessary to chill out for a while in July while I am on vacation. I need a little rest I think. That's all!

One more thing, the concert of the Gossip was really great last night at the VK in Brussels. I am really happy I went. That is one powerful band that gives seriously good show! But if one more person says I look like the singer, Beth Ditto, man I'm going to be annoyed. It's not that I think she's unattractive - or that I would mind looking like her. In fact, as Heidi once told me, she is damn sexy on stage with how she sings and moves and all and all her power - and she's curvy and pretty. But the reason people have said I look like her is simple - because the people who have said it, don't look further than the FAT!. Beth Ditto is a fat singer, there is no denying it (by our western standards anyway). That's her. But she is much more than that and more freaking power her to her for just getting up there and being proud of her body or at least playing it like she is (posing naked on the cover of NME for example). I am also a fat singer with black hair and I am American. So there you go - people make an easy comparison. We do not look alike at all other than for those things. It's like saying all black people look alike or all asians look alike. All fat people look alike.... People gotta open their eyes! Anyway - I just had to say that because in two days I have already gotten the "is that you" or "you look like her" comment from three separate people. Ding-dongs!

The photo below is of Beth Ditto - the singer of the Gossip. It is not me!!!

Heidi says: Beth Ditto, I love you!

Tuesday 26 June 2007: Heidi and Sarah offer you a medley of mulles today. Sarah has food in her teeth. Heidi looks evil. Just a normal day at FTD!

Sarahs says:
Tonight I'm joining Heidi to see the band Gossip in Brussels. Heidi is a big fan of Gossip and I only just heard their newest CD so I can't claim anything here. I'm just along for the ride basically as I couldn't pass up some free tickets I was offered and I could hitch a ride with Heidi. It should be a good evening with the band! Wouldn't it be great if we could get a photo with the singer Beth Ditto? It won't happen but it's a nice thought. Heidi and I are very happy and in great moods these days! It leaves us with less to say here. It's like with writing songs, it's easier when you are depressed - more to complain about. I have nothing to complain about right now and nor does Heidi, which is nice...

Monday 25 June 2007: Heidi and Sarah are spirits in the material world....Go woo-oo (WOO)...I wanna haunt this place

Sarah’s Ghost says:
I wish I were alive to write on this blog today but as you can see in the photo, Heidi was the driver for once and we both crashed and died sadly when her GPS failed to tell us how to get from her house to mine and she got really lost on the one street that goes directly from her house to mine and we hit a bus or a bus hit us – maybe it did and maybe it didn’t –can’t remember what went down. Anyway, this is my ghost here to keep up this blog. I’ll do my best. Boo!

Sunday 24 June 2007: Happy 40th Birthday to Sarah's brother NSM!!!!! And happy times abound over here!

Sarah says:
My kid and I are still having a good time though this time she said NO MORE photos!!! Good for her. She knows when enough is enough!!! She's off to her youth group and Marv and I are about to hit the town and have a few hours walking around the center of Kortrijk with no particular plan or goal. It's a dark Sunday outside but a light in cheery one inside. I feel so pleased today. Light and airy and chipper!

Below you can see my fave Post Secret pick of the week about wishing there were more happy secrets on Post Secret and how the sender of the postcard's secret makes him or her smile! I agree! Secrets don't have to be sad and dark! They can be happy, happy, happy! Three cheers for happy secrets!

Saturday 23 June 2007: Heidi and Sarah are shiny happy people holding hands, shiny happy people laughing...gold and silver shine...

Sarah says:
oh happy day....

And later that day my kid and I felt like celebrating! We don't know what or why really but we were in the mood! We had planned to go see Shrek 3 but it turned out she had seen it with her friend during the day so instead we rented a movie about Mermaids, got in our PJs and my daughter had suggested that the best way to celebrate anything would be to dip fresh strawberries in melted dark chocolate - so that's what we did! We celebrated our nice evening alone together! We have a lot of fun together! If that's nothing to celebrate, I don't know what is! Anyway, it was a nice day and a lovely night of fun, relaxation and celebration of fun and relaxation among other things!

Heidi says: I was in the same mood as Sarah!

Friday 22 June 2007: Sarah’s kid takes center stage on Face The Day today as Multiplication Champ of her 2nd grade class and welcome Amber!!!

Sarah says:
Though it's only a small photo above, it's captures a great moment! My daughter was one of the math champs of her 2nd grade class this year, meaning she very successfully learned the times tables and she won the trophy you see there in her hands - making herself and her mom and dad very proud! The funny thing is with no prompting at all, she asked me if I could put this photo of her as the first and main photo on Face The Day today. She asked me to ask Heidi is she would mind that - if for this once, because she was the champ, if her photo could be in the prime spot! Of course Heidi didn't mind at all. So there you have it folks - my smart and proud kid with her math champ trophy!




Sarah adds:
And here's another lovely little girl - Amber - the daughter of our colleague Nancy! What a cute kid and what a happy and proud mom! It was good to see that little family today!

HEIDI AND SARAH WISH YOU A GREAT WEEKEND AND ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO HAVING THEIR OWN GREAT WEEKEND - HOPEFULLY WITH LOTS OF SUN AND LITTLE RAIN AND GOOD TIMES AND LOVELY THINGS!

Thursday 21 June 2007: Heidi and Sarah can’t believe it’s the longest day of the year today! And check out Heidi in the glasses that Sarah gave her!

Sarah says:
The longest day of the year does feel pretty long. Sad that the days will only get shorter from this point on. But I think it’s going to be one hell of a fabulous summer and I can’t wait for it! Bring it on! Let the sunshine in! I am sure Heidi feels the same!

By the way – I never did put my fave Post Secret of the week up here this week so here it is. I’m not sure why. It just moves something in me. I guess because I have a kid and I know how eager I am to share things about her with her dad and for to have quality time with her dad and me together and with each of us apart – that’s important to her and important to us. It must be challenging sometimes when you can’t freely do that and when even though you yourself might not get along with the parent of your child anymore – that in the end you want the best for your kid – which in a perfect world would mean a lot of contact for the kid with both parents. But life just isn’t that way or that easy… I hope my husband and I stay together forever – but you just never know, do you! I hope we stay this happy family. I have never known that happy family feeling before and I do love it and flourish in it. I love our little world. But you never can be sure where or how or with whom you end up. If for some reason we wouldn’t stay together – I would just hope we’d both be able to be there strongly for our daughter and that we’d not be awful to each other…

Wednesday 20 June 2007: Heidi looks like she got a haircut but didn't and Sarah show you the sunglasses she's going to give to Heidi...

Sarah says:
See those sunglasses, they are a gift from me to Heidi but she doesn't know it yet. They have subtle leopard print on them, the lucky girl! I am so good to Heidi. So, so, so good to her.
I was in London all day today. Aren't I the traveller these days! London is lovely. I love London.

More Scotland: Heidi's medley

me me me

me and my pounds

Katharina: a mix between Juliette Lewis and Gael Garcia Bernal

Sarah and me on Loch Ness

Dress up!!!

Gretchen from Salem-Austin-PDX

in the Ladies cloakroom

ooooo... look at the groom's eyes!!!! Scary!!!

Is that a box of chocolates on the table?

Who is that handsome man?

Tuesday 19 June 2007: Heidi and Sarah are back Jack bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, full of ginger, full of pep, full of piss and vinegar...

Sarah says:
That’s right folks – we’re bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, full of ginger, full of pep, full of piss and vinegar, full of vitality, peppy, vivacious, zingy…

Why we feel this way, who knows... It is what it is as they say...