Hi there,
How are you?
I have no specific subject this week. Not that I haven’t been busy, I have! A lot has been flowing in my direction. Last Thursday I had an exciting conversation with Helena from the German Cemetery in my hometown. They have a youth program, and I will be helping out with a debate/workshop on freedom of speech the following week. I will be talking on behalf of Amnesty, for which I am still volunteering when an opportunity rises. But more on this next week.
A visit to Antwerp! Always fun… Been there?
Took the train to Central Station – a beautiful one, if you haven’t been there – followed by the subway to the Groenplaats. Last days of sales. I felt the urge to go into a few stores in the city of fashion. A hit! A whole outfit from Julia June, a Belgian brand, and one of my favorites, at half the price! That evening I told hubbie how much I saved. “And what did you spend?” was the answer. “The same amount!” 🙂
Alongside the river Scheldt I walked towards ‘t Eilandje (translation: the small island), an upcoming neighborhood with new museums, a little marina situated in the old docks, and and a great location close to the new port of Antwerp.
Do you like throwing a party?
I certainly do! I always love to organize, plan ahead and of course: decorate!
No, I won’t go into the details unless you ask, but I just want to give you ideas if you are thinking of giving a party. Let me know if you want more info or just need a hand with the decorations. I love to do this.
It all starts with the invitation! I always make invitations (and X-mas cards – more on this by the end of the year) myself in Photoshop. If you use your own pictures, it becomes so much more personal. Nothing wrong with sending an email, but I adore real cards. Since it has become quite exceptional to receive one, it is so much more appreciated.
I think it is important that you decide upfront what you want to do yourself: what you like to do, what you are good at and what doesn’t give you too much stress. I wanted someone else to do the music. A friend from a friend was DJ and he got half of the guests on the dance floor till 3:30 am, so no need to say we were satisfied.
I was also very happy to have found a good photographer. Asking a family member or a guest to take photos is not a good idea, because they want to party! It is such a shame if you don’t have good quality pictures, they are such precious memories. And ask your photographer to come a little earlier, so you can have some nice family pictures, while everyone is there and dressed up. I am so happy we now have some recent photos from all of us together.
Under the Puglian Sun. This is the name of the whats-app-group for my American friends and me. We created this to make it easy to communicate before, during and after our stay in Casa Vita. Before it didn’t really work because I was the only one who had installed whats-app, during wasn’t much use either, because in the house we were without internet most of the time (remember the broken wifi-antenna in the area?) and outside were the high roaming costs. But now we’re all back home and chatting about how lovely our vacation was. And how hard we are struggling to get back to reality…
It’s seems a little odd to use the word “friends” for people I only see once every few years or so. We live on another continent, speak a different language and there are many cultural differences. The last time I saw Jenny and Debbie was almost three years ago, and then merely for one evening. But nonetheless we are good friends. We have had some wonderful vacations together over the years, and I believe this is the best time to catch up, when you have time for endless conversations. We have time to discover that there are so many items that unite us: remembering those days when we met at Washington school, waiting for our sons, who were friends back then, full of endless energy and mischief. Being proud of the grown-up men they have become – something we were a little afraid of at some point, I honestly admit 😉 Discussing relationships, the ones that lasted and the ones that didn’t make it, and putting all possible reasons under the psychological microscope. Analyzing our own characters, why some try to avoid confrontation and others are straightforward. We agreed upon the fact that the main reason lies in our different childhoods. Well, we aren’t the first to come up with this theory, right? None of us has a psychology degree, but we can all be therapists. Do you remember the quote: Friends are the best therapists? Wine is too… and we tasted plenty of excellent local wines during our week. In fact it’s possible we tried almost all of the wines in Puglia…
Laughter is a big part of friendship too, just continuing the silly jokes we laughed about so many years ago. Hilarious!
Thursday night.
It has been cold. It has been raining all day. It’s getting dark already, although it is 8 pm.
The only thing that can save me is food. Food that has soaked in the sun’s rays. Food that tastes like summer!
Luckily I can watch the happy and sunny pictures Marie made when she visited Casa Vita a month ago. In Italy everything tastes so much better. The mozzarella is so creamy and delicious. I usually choose smaller tomatoes, they have more flavor. And then I grill some vegetables: eggplant and zucchinis, smothered in olive oil from the region.
I would like to look more like Nigella Lawson, still working on it, it is my first appearance, right? 😉
What is so wonderful in our house is that there is so much to be found in the yard. On the front there is a big hedge of rosemary. The only thing I need to do is to take my scissors and cut some.
Grilled veggies with just the local mozzarella is enough for me. But if you need more, you can always also find a wide range of prosciutto or salami to go with it. Ideal for a light and delicious lunch.
I am very much looking forward to my next visit. This time four friends are coming with me. Or better said, we will meet each other there, because they are flying over from the US. I got to know them when we were living in the States for three years, and we met through our kids–Oldest was friends with their boys. We stayed in touch, through email, Facebook, and visits. I went back to the States a few times – I never get tired of visiting New York!–and a few years ago we went to a Spa together. We laughed so much! It is always fun seeing each other again and catching up. They came over to Europe a few times too. We took the boys to Normandy to see the WWII historical sites and stayed in a small, deserted castle. While it was fun to have this huge estate to ourselves, playing cards in huge dining room, the strange noises in the attic fired our imaginations. Our to trip Paris with our daughters was also a bit creepy. The small hotel we stayed in was the opposite from the castle in Normandy, small and dark but in the perfect location, across from the Notre Dame. It was called Esmeralda, and old Esmeralda was still spooking around.
Oh, those sweet memories.
I am sure we will have fun again. And do lots of cooking in our new kitchen.
What is your favorite recipe?
All pictures in this post are made by Marie Bouly Photography
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