Sunday 21 January 2007: Heidi is still in Oostend and Sarah is still introducing you to new Face The Day guests. This time it's Hilde!

Heidi says: We had so much fun at the sea. We were staying at some sort of 'Benidorm in Flanders'. Now, everybody knows what Benidorm stands for: eat, sleep, eat, eat and eat. Oh, and the people who stay there are mostly not so young people. And there we were, six, no, seven young people (if you count Yma as a young person). So what do you do as a young person at this 'resthouse' to entertain yourself? You start making jokes about everything you see around you. At our first breakfast, we see this man sitting at the table next to us, holding a coffee jar above his head, to ask the waitresses for more coffee. But we gave it another explanation: this man was trying to win an eating competition! And his first competition was to drink as much coffee as possible. So he was holding the coffee jar above his head because he just emptied it all by himself and he wanted to show off! Since that moment, everytime we were at sitting at the table to eat, we were pretending we were competing with that man. I know, it might not sound that funny, but you should just have been there! It WAS damn funny!

Sarah says:
Now it's even later early early Sunday morning around 1 am! Still wired. Damn coffee. Still happy and gay. Please meet Hilde - another Great Dalmuti! She plays that game well too. She's a player! Too bad our photo came out a little blurry - but it was just midnight when we took this shot - time to call it a night. (UPDATE: In case Hilde is reading this, I had a comment from somebody saying that you are very cute and a beautiful woman! Have a good day!)

I think I am feeling spastic and full of energy because I had visitors and I felt alive! More and more I feel more and more alive since the back operation. This fake disc in my spine has not only made me taller, it has changed my life already just a month after the operation. I cannot believe how freaking good I feel. I cannot believe I lived in such agony for the last two years and in such on-and-off pain for the last 8 years! I feel so happy and thankful to feel this good. I cannot begin to describe what it feels like to have all this energy back. I am thanking my lucky stars and just hoping this goodness lasts! I have heard you can feel great the first few months and then the pain returns in other spots. I am prepared for that of course but obviously hoping that won't be the case.

My back is tired now and it has been a long day. It's time for bed - if my brain ever shuts off!

Here's my favorite Post Secret entry this week about staying in bed while everyone else is working... To be honest, I actually don't really like staying in bed and I would rather be at work. But I will say that life is easier when one person in the relationship isn't working. There is just more time to get other things than work done. It leaves you not only more time for your kid, but also more energy and more desire to spend time with your kid. And I have to add that it is nice to be relaxed for once and not have weeks full of stress and finding time to get things done. It is good to be at ease and not all wound up by a work day. With all that said, it is also very boring to be home and my brain does feel like mush. Plus, so much of my self-definition comes from a job well done and being challenged and active that it is hard to feel like a whole person right now, so-to-speak. I do look forward to going back to work but I have enjoyed this constant state of ease to some extent. I do not look forward to the tug and pull of work, wife hood, motherhood, friendship and all the other obligations going on all at once again. That's life, I know. But there is something to be said about turning down the stress and obligations levels and not spreading one's self so thin. It's a mixed bag really! And the grass is indeed always greener on the other side. As for the postcard - well, if only I was a good sleeper and a napper then I could be enjoying all that but I am not, so mostly I'm just bored at home watching the clock...