Tuesday 01 April 2008: It's (almost) First of the Month Flashback at Face The Day! Take a walk back with Heidi and Sarah...

Sarah says:
We tried to make a combo of all of the years photos from the 1st of April above. Heidi's showing off her boobs again and I'm flapping my tongue. Not a pretty photo but who says fun is always pretty! It was a good day today I'm happy to report! I haven't been fooled yet but I did fool one or two people! It is possible I have been walking around all day with a fish on my back though. You?

That's me above 1 year ago today on the 1st of April 2007 with a fish on my nose and a webcam for a camera! I had a band then because I had left my camera at rehearsal. I need a new band by the end of this year! That's a goal now! If you want to see what we were up to 1 year ago today at this time, click here!
There's Heidi's boobs two years ago today on the 1st of April 2006! Since then her boobs have been used to feed a child but she remains a Viva Voce fan!
There I am 2 years ago today on the 1st of April 2006. Click on this link if you want to go back in time and see what Heidi and I were busy with two whole years ago today!

And as it is the 1st of April today, otherwise known as April Fool's Day - below you can see some shots of me and my foolish family playing the smoothie lip fools. We had a great laugh - though the below photos were on the 31st of March. We were just practicing for the 1st! Watch your backs on April Fool's Day! We will all try to get you good!
The title of the below photo is "The Botox Kiss".

Weird day 31 March 2008: but it is spring!

Sarah says:
Daily lenses day 2! So far so good! No headache to report! Cold almost gone! That time change and losing an hour messed the whole day up though - for both Heidi and me! But we remain colorful and optimistic as ever! Have a good evening!

Heidi says: An amazing scene in 'Me and you and everyone we know'... Yeah I know. it's in my system and it won't come out. It shouldn't. It makes me love.

Sarah says:
Funny video of Erika and Neil and Oscar Dionisio Smith!


And check this out! My cousin's wife Rebecca Flowers has a book coming out soon - on the 10th of April! It's called Nice To Come Home To.

Here's a small description:

Everyone around Prudence Whistler, thirty-six, seems to be settling down. Her girlfriends have married and had babies. Her gay best friend is discussing marriage with his partner. Even her irresponsible younger sister, Patsy, is the single mother of a two-year-old. But when Pru panics at losing her mediocre boyfriend of two years-and begins to see the door to her traditional family life closing-she accidentally finds something even better: a new definition of family and happiness.

Here's a link to buy it if you are interested!

And here's another link to an article about Rebecca Flowers and her new book in The Berkshire Eagle

Sunday 30 March 2008: Heidi is crazy about her family. Sarah is beating this cough and cold fast she's happy to report!

Sarah says:
Feeling better and in cooking mode! Nothing like soup to kill a bad cold and cough! You would think winter soups would be all but done by now as it's SPRINGTIME! But not yet here in Belgium. It's raining and chilly. I give the sun two weeks to get it's warm butt over our way. We need some sun - not just for a second but sun with some sort of lasting power! Soup is great but sun is even better!

Sarah adds: My kid took over my head and hair as we watched tow episodes of Little House tonight. By the way - I'm trying our my new "daily" contact lenses and so far, so good!!

Heidi says: Crazy in the head and crazy about my family! Watched a crazy movie yesterday! Sweet and crazy and a little absurd. Beautiful! It was 'Me and you and everyone we know'. It immediately goes my my top 10 movies! And I dare to say that it has one of the nicest love scenes I have ever seen in my life! Thank you Miranda July! You are a star!

Sarah says: As for my Post Secret pick of the week, well I just couldn't resist the one below. I don't mean to reduce the presidential election to a make out session, but what the hell! No wouldn't that be a great sensation if Hilary and Obama just started making out during a debate! That would be one way to mess with the far right big time! What in the world will happen? Who is the next to be king or queen of America?

Saturday 29 March 2008: Sarah is on the mend with no fever but a wicked cough and paler skin than Heidi's for dang sure! Heidi says yes, always yes..

Heidi says: ... but Heidi is healthy! That is why Sarah is paler than Heidi! Schönes Wetter Heute! Ich gehe spazieren mit meiner Mutti! Hali halo guten Tag besten Bob!

Sarah says:
I'm paler than you Heidi. I win. Just look. There's no denying it.

By the way - the banana an hour before bed trick seems to be working. Two nights in a row of falling asleep fast. Or it's the exhaustion and last night it must have been the codeine but the banana might have helped as well! After all these years, all I needed was a banana in my bed! Who would have known!

Friday 28 March 2008: Sarah's foaming at the mouth now that's it's Friday and HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH'S OLD FRIEND CD IF YOU ARE READING THIS!!!

Sarah says:
It's Friday! Time to collapse. My flu symptoms are happily gone! No more aches and pains! But my cough is annoying as a mofo and getting all the worse! After a good work day, I went to the library with the hopes of getting The Wire season 4 but it's out for another week for sure! So I'll hopefully get it next weekend! Instead I picked up Grease and My Best Friend's Wedding to watch with my kid and Street Car Named Desire and Paris Texas to watch with my husband - along with Coming Home!!!! - which my brother sent me ages ago and which finally we'll have time to watch! After the library, my daughter and I went to take out some Chinese Food - which we rarely d. And now we will veg out until Sunday night basically. Other then having to go food shopping and clean the pig cage tomorrow, we have 0 plans. We will lock ourselves away this weekend! I need to catch up on sleep and get over this cold. My husband's back is hurting badly so he needs some rest and relaxation. Our kid will be happy to have our undivided attention.

Viva The Weekend! Hope you enjoy yours!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY GOOD OLD FRIEND CD!!!

Thursday 27 March: Sarah is about to fall over and pass out from aches and shakes as Heidi stands by...

Sarah says:
As if it isn't enough that I am coming down with the flu - maybe even big time because my body seriously aches all over - and that I slept only one hour last night - now I have my freaking period and a heavy, painful one at that!!! It's a bad, bad day health and body wise. I am off to bed. I will drug myself silly if I have to! If I don't sleep tonight, I'll get really ill I'm sure. On the advice of a wise man, I will eat a banana tonight one hour before I plan to sleep. I hope this little trick works! One more day until weekend! Then I will let myself totally go!

Still - it was a good, good, satisfying day!

Heidi says: I went jogging again today, after work. It didn't go so well :). I get lower back aches when I jog. Also very sour muscles. But I won't give up!!! Not yet!! I had a very nice busy day today! It's cool!

Wednesday 26 March 2008: Heidi and Sarah welcome special guest VC to Belgium and to Face The Day all the way from London...

Sarah says:
That's VC up there. She's from our London office and visiting us for a couple of days. It was nice, as always, to have her here with us! It's great to work with such lovely people!

In other news, I am starting to feel sick as a dog. Bad, bad cold. Miserable really. Can't wait to crash this weekend!

Tuesday 25 March: Heidi and Sarah forgot to take a photo today so they give you an extra sick one from Wednesday the 26th instead...

Sarah says:
I'm getting ill. Boo Hoo. These are good busy days. I have to stay healthy! Colds are mofos! That's about all I can say other than this photo is really from Wednesday and not Tuesday. We tried Tuesday but my battery died.

Monday 24 March 2008: Sarah is back home and tired after a great weekend away! The only thing bothering her is her Dutch!

Sarah says:
Home sweet home! It's always nice to come home even after a fabulous weekend. I just love being at home! I'm tired and have a busy week ahead!

I chose the below Post Secret this week not because I agree with it, because I don't - not completely anyway - but because I'm feeling frustrated by my own Dutch and I do understand why people can really have trouble speaking a foreign language. Sometimes you even can speak it but you are afraid to with certain people. Sometimes you try your best to speak it and people clearly have no idea what you are saying. Sometimes you have moments of total clarity and speak it almost perfectly. Language is my single biggest frustration in my life. It's the one thing about living abroad that can truly make me feel miserable and totally self-hateful. It comes and goes. I just totally suck at languages as hard or as little as I try. I feel dumb in Dutch. Not always -- I mean, for some reason I don't have such a problem speaking Dutch for business with strangers. But it is so hard with people I know!!! I don't know why really but it drives me mad! I can speak Dutch. No doubt about that at all!! But with friends and loved ones I mostly can't formulate one good sentence and it drives me mad and sad!! It's still something I need to get over but it is the one freaking thing I hate about myself and I hate about living in Belgium. I will never, ever feel smart in Dutch and that sucks. Hence the below Post Secret! Don't forgot how hard it can be to learn a language and to integrate into another country. Even after 12 years you have these moments of feeling not only like a complete idiot but also like a total alien who will never, ever really fit in or be embraced by the place...


Heidi says: I started to do some jogging three days ago. I am posting it here, so that you can be my witnesses and you can make me go on with it! I am doing it all alone. That makes me feel free and capable (if I jog with someone else, I feel inadequate because I can't follow :) ). I will try to jog a couple of times a week and to have 2 resting days... Today my muscles feel sour. Tomorrow I will jog again! The world is mine!

Sunday 23 March 2008: The fun continues for Sarah on her long weekend away with riends and family and stcks and balls among other things...

Sarah says: There's me and Marv in farm country having a great time!

Above you can see the Boys Team during our throw sticks at blocks game. In this game size didn't matter but strength did - and sadly for the Girls - the boys won!
In the photo above, we had moved on to Farm Golf! It was pure MUD and WATER and pure cold, rainy fun, fun, fun! I got a good movie of it all. If I can figure out how to post it on here, I will. We were dirty and cold after this fun-filled day, but again - what a blast!!! And not one bit of back pain for me!
The Boys Team won again but we all came together and showed our team spirit in the end!
HAPPY EASTER FROM EASTER BUNNY AYLA!!!!!

Saturday 22 Maart 2008: Long live Peter Clasen and his Anny! And long live Sabine's orange mouth and Filip's stone feet!

Heidi says: With my substitute man, Wout, I had a great day today. We went to Peter Clasen's sweet wedding reception, where he showed his true love for his Anny and Anny for her Peter. Afterwards, we drove to Tervuren , where Wout picked up old collector's material from Madonna, and then we bought flowers at a local flower shop, drove back to Kortrijk, and ate MacDonalds. What a day!!! Lovely!



Sarah Says:
That's Sabine with the orange mouth in the above photo. Our mutual friends, Filip and Vanessa, arranged a weekend away with us for the last few days because their two kids are our "god" children. My husband is the godfather on their son and Sabine is the godmother and I am the godmother of their daughter and Sabine's husband is the godfather. It was such a great weekend of relaxation and fun! Even though the weather was totally wacky, we managed to get outside to the roaring sea, to play a great throwing sticks game as well and also to play farm golf in the middle of mud and sludge and cold rain. It was a blast!

Sarah adds:
Everyone had the task to make someone happy with something. Filip was made happy with hot stones between his toes. I was there to record this for you all! :-)My feet were just fine in the rain and cold! had my new totally water and wind proof machine-washable boots. They did the job well! Isn't that interesting? By the way, sadly - I didn't have my camera with me at the sea, so these photos might be a little bit out of order. I don't know if I took photos the day we went to the sea. I did with my phone but I can't figure out how to get those photos off my phone and onto my computer. Once I can, I'll put some here because the wind and the waves were fantastically wild and whipping against us! At first, you think - oh no -- this is damn cold and uncomfortable. But then you see the strength and beauty of nature and you weather the storm! It felt amazing to be blown like that by the wind and to have sand whipping you in the face. My skin felt burnt and dry but good. I LOVED it!

Friday 21 March 2008: IT IS FRIDAY!!! Heidi, Sarah and the funny bunnies wish you a GOOD Friday!

Sarah says:
Have a very GOOD FRIDAY!!!! Don't you love our bunny, Easter friends? They make me hoppy! But I am not allowed to hop or jump ever again. I could never be an Easter Bunny! I envy the Easter Bunny - not to say I'm giving him the evil eye - Easter is a hop, skip and a jump away from today! I'm checking out for the weekend! Off to a weekend of fun with good friends and their kids. Time to relax and sit back but not bend backwards - can never do that again! I feel like the funny Alice bunny in wonderland right now or rather the one who talks in riddles. In any event, have yourselves and eventful weekend! I'll be back by Monday to check in!

Heidi says: Unbelievable but it is Friday again!! And this time, I need it! The last days were somewhat annoying and a little hard, although not so extremely hard. It was just a bit too much running around, with a sick vomiting daughter with diarrhoea and and all the rest to take care of. But with help from our social system (CM Knuffel) we did better than fine! Thank you Belgium!

Here you have a picture of Jules, my best friend katrijn's son. He wears a jumpsuit from Air France, that I gave them. I bought it on a retro fair. When I saw it, it totally made me think of Katrijn, as she used to say she wanted to be an Air hostess. Jules looks lovely in it! Adorable!!

Thursday 20 March 2008: almost Friday!!!

Heidi says: Almost Friday!! I long for some days off! I am tired. Tonight I'll do some fake Pilate's to relax :). And I hope to have less back/shoulder/neck-pain by doing exercise...

Sarah says:
If I ever complain I'm too fat just remind me that I ate that WHOLE chocolate freaky head in one sitting today and have a belly-ache because of it. I rarely do that but today man - today I just needed it badly!! I needed a sugar rush. A lift! An extra few chins and fat rolls! And it tasted good! Really good! It was for Easter. How could I resist. I couldn't! Heidi went for a healthier choice - a banana! Not me folks! That's why we are like Laurel and Hardy! That's it right there! :-)

wednesday 19 March 2008: This is a black day for the world. Hugo Claus is dead. Long live Hugo Claus. The Sorrow Of Belgium...

Heidi says: the news brought tears to my eyes. Hugo Claus died this afternoon. He is now longer ours. He will be missed.

Het ongeloof
teistert de gelovigen
in de verzorging
Verpleegster, in uniform, olijk
mongooltje, onrechtvaardig,
slachtoffer, hoe lang nog? Twee jaar?

Wij zitten in ongenade, in
hetzelfde schuitje

Zelfs de zeeleeuw van de geologie
is verbijsterd
door het moeras
van zegeningen

Hugo Claus

Sarah says:
The Sorrow of Belgium -- Hugo Claus is one name I have heard over and over again since day one of my being in Belgium. Rest in Peace HC.

Tuesday 18 March: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXANDER THE GREAT!!!!

Sarah says:
What a great moon last night! I almost turned into a werewolf! Still haven't gotten a good night's sleep!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXANDER!!!




Heidi says: Gelukkige verjaardag mantje!!!! up uwn on dah mug je eindelijk rusten!!

Monday 17 March 2008: Sarah's new bedtime is 10pm at the latest as this girl needs some sleep bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sarah says:
I really thought that once my back pain went away thanks to my operation last year that I would start to sleep better. I always woke up from pain and couldn't sleep from pain. Now I am basically pain-free and have learned that I am in fact an insomniac and it sucks!!! I don't need a lot of sleep and generally have a lot of energy and stamina regardless of how many hours rest I get -- but it all adds up and eventually wears me down. I feel a little worn down right now. That might just be because I stayed up till 2am this past Saturday and I'm feeling it now. Who knows! All I know is that I would kill to have a full-night's sleep without waking up at 4:45 to pee, without only falling asleep by after midnight despite having gotten into bed just after 9pm. My brain isn't even on when I go to sleep. But when I can't fall asleep - it starts reviewing my day and predicting the next day and going through annoying songs and lyrics and thinking about TV series, etcetera... Then I am screwed because I become wide awake! It's an endless battle! I have to find a way to win it! Suggestions are welcome. I might just go to the sleep school at this point! Anything for some rest!!!!

HEIDI SAYS: HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday and Sunday 15 and 16 March: Sarah celebrates being married for 12 years with Marv!

Sarah says:
Saturday the 15th of March was our 12 year wedding anniversary!! Marv and I had a nice evening seeing Zita Swoon perform at Antigone in Kortrijk. The nicest thing about our anniversary was that we each had written each other a card and basically our cards said pretty much the same things. We are very in-tune with each other and feel so lucky to have made it this far and to still feel happy. Life is good for me and Marv right now. I hope the next 12 years will feel this good too...

Sarah adds:
The above photo was taken today - Sunday the 16th. We had a late night and it really shows in my face. That's me with very little make-up. And that's why I chose the below Post Secret this week. I too wish I felt pretty enough without make-up to not be bothered. Mostly if I don't wear it, people ask me if I a tired and sick. That makes me slop it on again and feel bad. Make-up is a great escape but also an addiction of sorts. I can't live without it - not yet anyway. Maybe one day!

Sunday 16 March 2008: Party's over, going home, sleep and relax.

Heidi says: Hell yeah, this was a party! Radio Modern does what is necessary: organize fun warm retro parties with a good band and good DJ's ;)! The DJ's definitely had fun this evening and night!

Saturday 15 March 2008: Ready to party! Back from France Thursday and Friday 13 and 14 March...

Sarah says:
Below are some pictures from our two days in France - just to keep this site up to date. First one is Thursday the 13th in front of the fire before a long meal.


Above you can see Max from our Paris office. We had a good time with him and BG, another fun co-worker of ours from France. Lots of laughs and lots of Justice!

And there we are on the train back Friday the 14th with protective coverings from our various visits surrounding us. Two long days but two good days. A very worthwhile little adventure...
Heidi says: my new party look!!

Wednesday 12 2008: Sarah has a pounding head and wants nothing more than a good night's sleep for once!!!!!

Sarah says:
I have a pounding headache. I want my head to blow up and start over all clear.

Tomorrow Heidi and I are off to France for two days on a road-trip with two colleagues. It will be good to see them and do what we're going to do! It's always nice to find yourself in a complete other environment - in the middle of nowhere you have been before...

My friend MS has started a creative writing group. She's the coolest because she's sending me her homework assignments to do along with her. Our friend ED is also involved. I did the first assignment last night and sent it to the gals this morning. I can't wait to read their writing. I can't wait to write some more! It's been so long since I have written creatively and with assignments. I'm very excited by it all! I hope I keep it up. MS is the BEST for letting me play along! THANKS MS!!!! Tomorrow on the train, I'll work on the newest exercises!

Heidi and I probably won't post on here until Saturday so goodbye until then!