catching up

I read yesterday's post and realised that the font was a little large, but decided to go with it, since ....well, some of us are of a certain age and a little bigger is no hardship.
The next few entries are going to consist of me posting pics and generally getting caught up.
I've noticed that any of the blogs that I've read, or followed for that matter, tend to have a host of pictures. Maybe I'm just a little "simple" is all, but the pics seems to make things heaps more interesting. Even if it's of people I don't know, or of places where I might like to go, or avoid.
So this morning I went out and took some new pics of the house, since the ones that I had were pitiful. I have my moments of frustration with the camera, since it just doesn't always want to give me an in focus result. And since my eyesight is a tad weak, I quite often don't find that out until I upload and discover I've taken a bunch of crud.



The little balcony is off the bedroom. We don't go out there.
There's a little patio kind of thing down below and to the right.






The back door, which is the only one we ever use.
I should mention that, I had uploaded all of these images and was going right along, but managed to do something dumb and lost a couple of them.
Moving the images around is still a bit of a challenge, but please bear with me, as I'm still taking baby steps here.

So there might be the odd space where there shouldn't be, and that kind of thing.
I suppose at some point I'll take the plunge and start adding html tags, but this is day two....so cut me some slack.

I should make some mention of the little car. It's actually quite acceptable, really. It's a Honda FRV, so has plenty of space, and is really too big for some of the parking spaces. Had a heck of a time in the underground parking at the hotel in Brussels. Almost had to back into the building, since it was almost impossible to turn around.
Since Gabe originally turned down the first car they offered (a brand new Volvo S80) because she didn't fancy driving a standard, a new car was ordered, but won't come along until October.
Really, she's the Divisional Controller for Europe, and has decided that at this point in her life, would prefer an automatic. D'ya think somebody might have checked with her first?
Anyway, this car had been in use by a fellow who has gone back to the States, and even though the leasing company "got it ready", there was no washer fluid, which I had to buy in Belgium....and wasn't really very clean.
No big deal you say.
But then about a week ago it occured to me that maybe it was a little behind in the oil change department, and sure enough the oil light came on yesterday!
Now, I'm not anything close to being a gearhead, but I'm pretty sure my heart rate went up when the oil light came on. There was still oil on the stick, which means there was enough (barely) in the crankcase and I remedied the situation by buying a litre of oil (€10,00!!) but it needs to go for an oil change. Not a big engine, so one litre was enough.
You can bet yer bippy I'll be keeping a close eye on the Audi when it arrives.
Maybe that explains why I don't see a lot of used cars around. That and the fact that most of them get shipped off to Africa (I kid you not) where there are no pollution control issues whatsoever.

I rode the bike into town this morning to drop off some mail for the landlord and realised that it's market day in Delden. They were just setting up. So I think I'll head back and take some more pictures, but this time I might just take the car, since surprise! it looks like rain.










See...not enough light, and it comes out fuzzy! *###!!*!!






This store on Langestraat, is that of our landlord. They moved out of the house and into the apartment above and put it up for sale. Story goes that the Mrs. didn't "fit in".....or something of that nature.
I figure we'll never really "fit in" since we'll always be foreigners.
Thought I would try the small image option, and see what I think.
Time for a little lunch, and then I think I'll head off to the airport.