As promised: Pictures of Elinor's party

We had a lot of fun with the table decorations. (The problem afterwards was that the colour of those thing got into my skin and I couldn't get it off for two days).

Elinor in the middle with Mathias (left) and Johan (right)

As it got later in the evening, Christian suddenly found the floor to be his best friend.

I really like this picture. On it are Jeroen, Elinor, Pelle and David.

So we're back...
It feels really weird to be in the same place for a while, even more so to be able toplan at least some things ahead. It's funny how quickly you adjust to not being able to polan things and to just live day by day.
We went to the photographer yesterday and the wedding pictures turned out wonderful. The waiting time to get your album is about four months though, and although she said she would do her best to get it done while we're still in Belgium, she couldn't assure us that. Grr...
Not much else to tell really, I'm just dointg the laundry and cleaning up our room... not that exciting. So if I don't write too much the next couple of days, don't be mad, it's just that not much is happening.

Elinor's party

There was another party this saturday at Elinor's. The whole company was invited, so there where a lot of people. She made mexican food for all of us and it was actually quite good. After dinner, they started making whipped cream, so David assumed we were getting dessert, too. What a mistake to think such a thing. When people in Sweden make whipped cream it can have no other reason than to make hot shots of course!
We didn't drink all that much, because we wanted to enjoy our last day off in Sweden and go for a shopping spree the next day (I have to mention that their winter collection is quite good, I think it's even better than ours in Belgium).
So the party went on and we had great fun dancing and just plain enjoying ourselves. Until at about one o'clock we started getting tired and wanted to go home. We had driven there with Jan, and when David went to ask him to go home, he got quite dazzled. He drank too much to drive he said and he wouldn't allow anybody else to drive his car. He never had the intention to go back home and he would sleep over. That had been the plan from the beginning and it seems everybody forgot to mention that to us.
I got so angry, we instantly called a cab and got home anyway. (If ever somebody comes to Sweden: cabs are extremely expensive, so you'd better drie to parties yourself, you've got to be carefull, though, because there's a zero tolerance towards alcohol, so you'll drink one glass of wine with your food and that's it!)
I do have pictures from the party, but they're on the other laptop, so I'll upload them when we're in Belgium.

Leaving Sweden

This is it... We're all packed and leaving around three thirty. It feels weird. In the end we have been here for three months and it really allready feels like home. We got to know a lot of people. Will we see them again? Will we ever get back here? Who knows...
Still leaving Sweden means getting away from really bad food and equally bad coffee, so in that department we won't miss it. But it also means giving up having our own place for a while, and as much as we love our parents, that is not easy after living on our own for so long. It also means haing more time for our friends at home...
It's really confusing, I'm not sure if I will miss it at all, but I certainly couldn't guess feeling so weird about leaving today.

Palm oil fame

On a lighter note, the company had a visit from a guy who has a palm plantation in Columbia. He came here after seeing the article in the newspaper abut David and his biofuel machine. Another guy from his company had already met David in Indonesia, and since David is apparently getting rather famous, they where interested in buying a machine as well. So they came over here.

car trouble... again

We had to be towed for the second time today. This time, our car waited to break down until we got to a parking lot next to the highway, luckily. The good part is that Jeroen (the Dutch guy) drove by right that moment and saw us there, so he could come and tow us back to the company. Last time it was the fuel punp that had a leak, we've had that replaced. This time, it seems to be the filter... so I don't know if they'll be able the fix that and if we will be able to go to the appartment... Anyhow, David still has a lot of work to do today, so we'll find out sometime this afternoon.

I would also like to ask you all again to comment when you read this site. With sitemeter I can now keep track who's on and for how long, but it's still quite frustrating to keep writing and nobody ever says anything. So please next time, take five seconds to leave a comment!

Wedding pics part 1

Ok, I've called this part one in the hope of getting more pictures sent to me in the next couple of days, becuse these are the first ones I've seen so far and I'm extremely curious.

Isabelle, ik hoop dat dit uw nieuwsgierigheid toch al een beetje kan onderdrukken!
Nic, nog s heel erg bedankt hé!

This one is taken just after my part of the speech (which wasn't all that big a deal), so at the very beginning of the dinner.

Our magnificent, gigantic, three-flavours wedding cake, from which I could only eat half a slice (why oh why did I put on such a tightly fitted dress!)

David and his mom.

David's dad and sister. Although not a big dancer, David's dad didn't leave the dancefloor for one second that night. He was going so completely wild, we started wondering if he had taken speed...

Newspaper scandal

A while ago - I think it must have been somewhere last week - a Swedish newspaper published an article about the Holocaust which provoked a lot of commotion here in Sweden. The reason for this scandal was an advertisement by a gas company, saying how it is the most environmentally friendly energiesource, right underneath the article mentioned above... Talk about product placement!

Home sweet home

We took the plane coming back here two days ago. As we've become regulars on the Ryanair Charleroi to Skavsta flight, we use web check in (because the check-in at charleroi airport is hell, frankly) and so we can beat the boarding cue. As we were waiting to board, there was another Flemish guy behind us who had also used web check-in. "The joy of having a computer", he said to me. I nodded and answered that it was quite easy and less uncomfortable than the usual way. He said that, sadly, in Sweden he wouldn't be able to check in through the internet. I frowned and asked him why - apparently assuming that everybody lives in Sweden. As he said he wasn't sure he could print out bhis boarding pass in the hotel, I caught myself saying: "ah, but we live in Sweden". I was rather surprised about saying such a thing.

Some more remarks about the wedding

David had a headache for about two days after the wedding. It made us wonder about how quickly we lost our partying stamina. We would have never had so much trouble with getting into bed at three o'clock and drinking a couple of beers when we were 20... What will it be when we're forty if it goes downhill so fast!
Another fun fact that few of you know about: in the beginning of the party (somewhat after the speech), my nephews girlfriend came to me. She had to tell me something, she wispered, and took me off to a quieter place. David's pants was torn, she said, at the backside (yes, at his butt!). Because he always put his hands in his pockets, it became visible... And there was nothing we could do, because we didn't think about bringing needle and thread (whuy would we do that!)... So I told David to stop putting his hands in his pockets. He was so embarrased that he put on his jacket and ran around with hat until he was to drunk to bother.

Apparently, we've got a lot more readers than we bargained for... But that's just fine, because it makes it worth while to keep writing.
We're back in Sweden since yesterday evening, and this should be the last visit. We should be back in Belgium by the 17th of october, if all goes well.

I haven't got any pictures from the wedding yet, so if anybody has some, please send them to me!! I would like to dedicate this blog to an overview of the wedding, but there's so much to tell, that I don't know where to start. Firts of all Isabelle and the two Jokes, it is such a pitty you guys could't be there, because it was truly magnificent. I had my doubts before, because it wasn't really what we had wanted, but it has proven to be really great.
I got to the hairdresser at 7.15 in the morning after a night of getting hardly any sleep. It was real fun and she did my hair just great. She used 3 pieces of 45 cm long hair!
My mom came to pick me up at about 9 o'clock and we left for Brussels around ten thirty. When we arrived at the hotel (we stayed at the Conrad) the photographer was already waiting for us, so we quickly went into the room and I started painting my face on... Nathalie arrived shortly after us and we had quite some fun getting on my dress and undergarments.
We were a little behind schedule. David was at the hotel before I could put on my dress. When I finally got to the bar I had to stop him from crying (I knew I would cry too, if he would and was afraid it would ruin my make up). My mom did cry (and she thinks I did not see it).
The server came to offer us a glass of champagne to congratulate us on our wedding, but we hadn't eaten anything until then and it quickly got to our head. And I had to pee, too, which was quite a task with the enormous dress I was wearing. I had to take Nathalie with me and couldn't close the door. It was very funny and Nathalie was sorry she didn't bring her camera to take a picture of that event.
While we were in the bar, a little girl came in with her mama. She gaspt for air whilst pointing at me and said: "look, mama, a princess..." (It wasn't the last kid that would say that during the day, so I think I achieved my goal!)
After taking some pictures in the bar (It was raining and we were waiting for it to stop), we went to the 'Justitiepaleis' and the Sablon. My brother joined us to drive the car and he was already wearing his tux. The kind with slips at the backside. So when we where walking round the Sablon, there was a couple sitting in a café. When the girl saw us she pointed us out to her boyfriend and said: "Look, how cute!" then my brother passed by and the uy want: "You see, it's not for real!". When finally the photographer passed by thay were startled and didn't know if it was for real or not. From there, the phototour lead to La Grand Place and the Galerie des Princes. We were so hungry we got some muffins at Haagen Das and got a discount! Later on we were eating that and a woman came up to us to ask us where we got them. When we were taking pictures in the galerie, another woman came to ask us if we were realy getting married or if we were just there for decoration.
We went to L'estaminet for a beer and got a standing ovation. I had to turn around to fully show my dress. When David went to pay the check, the man scribbled a smiley face on a piece of paper and said we didn't need to pay.
The time had come to get to L'abbaye de Forest, where the party would be. Eventhough we got lost driving there, we managed to get there before anyone else. Slowly people started arriving, but there was no sign of our photographer (we had dropped him off at his car and he would join us from there). In the end he got there and apparently was stuck in traffic for about half an hour.
And so the party started. The food was great, everybody looked lovely. But I could hardly eat anything, because I had a corset-like bodice on my dress, that restrained my stomach from expanding! We had a wonderfull five high wedding cake with all different flavours. Again, I only ate half of one piece, because it didn't fit in my dress. David did the most wonderfull speech.
It was over quite early, because there where elections the next day. I think we got into our bed at 3 in the morning.
That's about all I can think of. I hope to post some pictures later on.

So I'm back in Belgium again, since friday night. I'll be staying untill after the wedding. Strengely, there's nothing elwe I can do for the weddingf anymore. We did the las bits this weekend, and that's it, apart from going to the hairdresser en getting my nails done. I don't like having nothing to do, it feels so out of control.