The End

The end is drawing near .... at least the end of this year. And what a year it has been for us. This year was the year of the big move, the big chance, the big everything! Looking back, I can only say and feel that we've worked very hard to get to this point and that all is well.
I dunno what the future might bring ... (ok, that's a huge cliche, but I mean, I don't even know what I'll be doing in 3 months ... usually people have some idea ... but I really don't.) It will depend on what's happening the next couple of 4 weeks. It'll determine what I'll be doing jobwise, when we'll be visiting Belgium and when our visitors are coming.
For now it seems that 3 couple of visitors are more or less confirmed (a part for the set dates). That will be Aunt Magd & Uncle Dick, Tinneke's parents and Sarah & Sven. And it seems they'll all be coming early summer. But we'll work something out ...

So what news??? Read the soundbites below.

• I am mentally preparing myself for Christmas dinner and finding caribou (at a reasonable price). Before dinner we might go to IKEA and buy new kitchen equipment. Buy everything all over again.
• Heard on Gilles Peterson Worldwide (BBC radio 1): the new Cinematic Orchestra single of the upcoming album "Ma Fleur". And no one less than fellow Montrealer Patrick Watson (yeah I know, I keep on mentioning him) on vocals and piano. I you haven't checked out Patrick Watson: SHAME ON YOU!!
• I am confronted again by bureaucracy ... it was a long time since my last encounter, but it's back! I went down to the Provincial Quebec Insurance office to change my Belgian License to a Quebec one (for the car sharing thing). When I got there and didn't have an appointment (why do you need an appointment?), I had to pick up a phone, wait for an operator and make one. The first possible date was 29th of January!! And then the funny part, I need to have my Belgian License translated into French. Even though I have an international license as well, I need it officially translated and approved. And every year I will have to renew my license and pay about 100 dollars for it.
  And then something else: before you're admitted to the car sharing, they do a credit check. But the way it works here, we have no history yet . Kenny, my bank guy, called me once to say we could have a VISA card with 500 dollars maximum amount (ghee, what a load of money, can't even go out on a CD shopping spree with that!) and he advised me to do payments with it and pay the invoice rightaway (VISA always is revolving credit, meaning you can postpone your VISA payments), so we can build a credit history and get confidence and so get higher amounts on the VISA. But without the VISA, no credit history and without the credit history no car sharing. So I guess we need to think it through once more.
• Tinneke and I went X-mas shopping. And we decided to buy gifts for ourselves. I bought CDs I wanted for a very longtime. And Tinneke bought naughty undergarments (don't you like that word, it has an old-fashioned retro sway to it, much better than lingerie, unless said with a very French accent :-). But in fact, Tinneke listens to my CDs as well and of course the undergarments are eye-candy to me. So they really are gifts for the both of us. True Christmas spirit that is.
• And since I am higher up the payscale now (going from no income to a real salary), we went down to China Town to buy some nice, sometimes kitschy stuff for the house. And we went to buy peking duck as well and togheter with plum sauce rolled with some chopped spring onions in mini-pancakes they make a true savoury delight. I serve boiled jasmin rice with them and sauteed bok-choi with garlic and soy sauce and sesame seeds. And ice cold beer of course!
• Tried eggnog for the first time this weekend. The readymade stuff you buy in supermarkets is kinda like liquid ice cream to which you add a dram of brandy (Canadian Club Grand Reserve in my case) and some ground nutmeg sprinkled on top.For Tinneke it was a mini-revelation as well coz she never had it with booze. And it's supposed to be a spiked drink :-)) But the home-made eggnog is supposed to be kinda fluffy. It really is like a kind of creme anglaise with booze.