le weekend
I took this photo as a bit of a joke for my friend Clara :)
On Saturday Bert and I went to Antwerp because we each had a coupon for a free meal at Greenway, wanted to get more comics and wanted to go see the Rubens in Private exhibit at the Rubenshuis (House of Rubens) museum and shoot some photos for the next edition of BCM in the garden.
We started off by stopping at T2, where the shop was empty aside from staff. I asked if I could please take off my nylons in the fitting rooms, because my skirt kept on riding up against them, which was a huge case of DO NOT WANT. The shop girl totally sympathised and said it wasn't an issue at all. We looked around to see if there was anything nice in the shop, but they had nothing either of us wanted so we went on our way to Mekanik.
I got Deadpool #250 in which he apparently dies and kicks off Secret Wars, but I've not read it yet. Bert has taken to investing in some starting issues and storing them for later as comics tend to get quite a bit of value after time passes. He lets me read them first though so huzzah. So I read some of the infamous Convergence (end of time) comics from DC. #0, Batman Shadow of the Bat #1 and Batman and Robin #1. I have to say that I think Convergence is quite ridiculous, it seems to be a continuency issue happening on the spot and it seems like the people behind it just watched far too much MTV's celebrity Deathmatch to be honest. Don't get me wrong, I like Celebrity Deathmatch as much as the next person, but this is just... I don't know, I feel they could have come up with something better.
Because our customer card turned out to be full (they found out we had an old card, so merged them and because of that it was full) and I got an € 18 discount on my next purchase, I immediately went back to the back of the shop, pulled out Thor, God of Thunder volume 3, Accused and bounced back up to the register and spend another less than € 5 to complete my Thor, God of Thunder collection. Huzzah! Well it's not entirely complete, because I've not got the Goddess of Thunder volumes but considering volume 1 isn't out 'till May 13th, I''ve got all of them right now, including the infamous single #25 and Thor Annual #1 :)
Hell yes!
Or should that be Niffleheim yes?
Anyway, comics safely stored in a map in my backpack, we went to Greenway for lunch. And I was MIGHTILY DISAPPOINTED ON THE SPOT! Not only is this Greenway (click here for the menu) more expensive than the Louvain one, they also had no carrot burger! I mean... no spinach burger either. Instead they had two burgers I'm allergic to (urgh). They had different wraps too, and seeing our free coupons were good for a kebab wrap, we got two of those. I should have given them both to Bert and gotten a slice of lemon pie instead though because I didn't much like mine. I didn't like the vegetarian meat substitute in them at all, and it was heavy on my stomach 'till the evening. I'm definitely NEVER having that again. I didn't finish it either, I gave the left over to Bert.
What is good about Greenway though, is that they have glutenfree options on many of their dishes (if they aren't gluten free to start with) so that's good for people with gluten allergies. And if you're allergic to something in your dish, or simply don't like it, they'll leave it out without any problems.
But this one is a cash free Greenway, which is a pain because I tend to not leave a lot of cash on my card, urgh.
After food we went to the museum, but first we went to the Games Workshop store and Dille & Kamille.
I had discovered that I had BADLY scoffed my right shoe (seriously Sacha, use better leather!) I have no idea how it happened, but I did know how to fix it. I just needed a pot of acrylic in the right brown.
Phil, the British shopkeep who STILL doesn't speak Dutch after all these years (total pet peeve of mine, I think that if you move to another country, you need to learn and speak the language, end of story, no one cares you have an accent!) came to investigate what I wanted and asked what I was going to paint (they're used to me coming in for metallics for Nerf painting) and wasn't even surprised that I said I was going to fix my shoe. Which leads me to believe people buy paint for REALLY WEIRD purposes. He did agree with me that fixing shoes life hack style was way better than buying new ones :)
And later that night it totally turned out I was right. Some brown and trusty Smoke (oh how I love Smoke by Vallejo!) later and the scratches were a LOT better. You can still see them, but now you have to look for them :) Mission accomplished. Too bad it weren't Shinto scrapes like on my derbies, as those I can make vanish completely, but oh well, at least my shoes are presentable again.
Desigual's store was once again decorated :)
and I discovered that the cherry blossom trees on that street hadn't lost all their blossoms yet.
Photo of the day: 18.4.2015 (day 18)
The Rubenshuis was super busy, but the queue moved along quite well, so that was ok. I left my backpack in a locker whilst Bert already joined the queue. We got tickets but had to return 20 minutes later because they were letting people in in shifts. We got armbands with our timeslot and went to the second hand bookshop down the street for a bit to look at books :)
We didn't buy any though.
Rubens in Private wasn't worth the € 10 they were charging to be honest. It was far too small and mega cramped. I think it would be a nice portrait exhibit during daytime on a weekday when there are less people, but so crowded you could barely move or see anything (and it was so bad that in the final room we literally only could try to move to the stairs because they had an entire group with a guide in there, that barely wanted to move an inch to let us reach the stairs so we literally saw nothing but angry looking people [even though we super politely asked to be let through to the stairs!]). So yeah, that was a shame. But luckily we could still see the permanent collection, which was slightly less crowded. Bert wasn't terribly keen on the Rubenshuis either. He kept on saying he liked Plantin-Moretus better (I did tell him we could go there instead of the Rubenshuis, they have a much nicer garden anyway!)
My outfit. Obviously this isn't the shot I'll be using in BCM, that's a much nicer photo :)
Hat: customised, bought on ebay
Gear brooch on hat: made it myself
Glasses: Theo
Top: Lulu Guinness x Uniqlo
Cardigan: Primark
Skirt: made it myself
Bag: Angelic Pretty (Royal Chocolate)
Socks: ebay seller
Shoes: Sacha
Otome kei has really grown on me. I like the prints, and I love how you can easily wear hats (even crazy hats) and you don't need to wear a petticoat (total bliss in summer) or tights. You can totally have bare legs if you want to. And wear sandals.
I've started wearing shorts underneath this skirt though, because the slightest bit of gust and it flies up worse than the dress in that iconic Marilyn Monroe photo XD.
After the museum we decided it was late enough and went back to the station. Turns out we were going to miss our train anyway, so there was no rush. So I popped into America Today to buy a Snapple lemonade :)
They had these huge bins full of foldable umbrellas that were like € 9,95, but when it rains you get them for € 7,95, I thought that was really cool. A rain discount on umbrellas :)
Obviously I didn't get one, we have plenty of umbrellas, but it was still cool :)
We also popped into Mediamarkt for a bit, where Bert bought me Thor 2, The Dark World on DVD, huzzah. It was definitely a day full of Thor :D Plus then we had something to watch in the evening when we got home.
Although first there was loading belated Easter stuff onto my eldest niece.
When we arrived home Noor and Fran were there with Bert's parents, they had just gotten back from a 2 week holiday in France that da. Because they left before Easter, all of Noor's presents (Fran is only a year so she doesn't understand Easter yet) were still at our house. So seeing we saw her, we gave them to her. I had also given her a coloring page that I drew, of the Easter Kraken, and she was super enthusiastic, shouting that it was the Easter bunnies flying friend. I was so proud. And then she asked whether the Easter kraken brought her presents and I considered my job as the weird aunt completely DONE haha. We got her a bag of organic milk chocolate bunnies and a Disney princess umbrella at Primark, which she loves. She collects umbrellas so yeah (two guesses who she copied that from, totally did my job!). I also gave her an old bakerboy's cap of mine, in brown. I never wore it because I never quite liked the model of it and felt it didn't suit me much. Noor loves it and she looks cute in it. She wanted a princess hat, but she totally changed her mind when she got that one haha :) There's hope for the future yet :D
On Sunday we walked to the Sunday market. It's only about half an hour (I think) to walk there, which is better than spending AGES to find a place to park, and then still having to walk quite the distance. Might as well walk immediately and save the stress :)
Bert wanted to get an organic cherry tomato plant, but there were absolutely LOADS at the organic market section, so we decided to wander over the market first to Het Voorwoord, a bookstore that has new and second hand books and a café. It was pretty crowded in there too, and I had to resist spending € 25 on a Dutch copy of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass I had wanted for a while but never saw in a shop before. I think I'll go back later to get it if I have a little more cash to spend. I collect Alice in Wonderland volumes, I have loads (some sadly damaged by Shinto *sigh*). Had they had a special edition of 20 000 Leagues under the Sea or 80 Days around the World by Jules Verne (which I also collect) it would have been a lot harder to resist. But those are rare books, Alice in Wonderland isn't exactly rare so I can afford putting it off a bit.
I also want to get Professor Astrocat, which is a total kid's book but the art is OMG SO CUTE! I want the original English though, I don't know, I'm a bit torn. If I get the Dutch I can pass it on to my kid later, but I am kind of averse to translations when I can read the original. So we'll see.
On the way to the market I encountered apple blossoms.
Photo of the day: 19.4.2015 (day 109)
I didn't take photos at the market because it was too crowded, but I did pet a super fluffy chicken. They were in a big open cage with several colors of that chicken. I totally wanted the chocolate brown one, but Bert pointed out we should check it with his grandparents first as it is their coop and fancy chicken breeds are probably pricy. So I went some cages dow and petted the GIANT grey and white rooster instead. It kept on giving me "what the hell are you doing, no no don't stop now!" kind of looks haha :)
It's amazing how often you can find TAME roosters at that market.
We also bought a chicken leg, which Loa and I half ate (it was so heavy on our stomachs, urgh) and some organic cheese and a baguette as well as the tomato plant.
People in our street have a cherry blossom tree in their front yard just like the one my parents have in theirs, maybe a bit bigger. And it has huge fluffy blossoms! So I took a picture. The people that live there are super nice, so I'm sure they won't mind me having stood on their driveway to take this photo :)
And after lunch, I took Loa outside whilst Bert transferred all the little seedlings to the planter box outside. He ate so much grass, so I think the chicken wasn't really agreeing with him either. We shouldn't have had it lukewarm I think. Either cold or reheated, but not half cold XD
So we'll likely just have it cold for lunch today ^^ Loa definitely feels like it, because whenever I ask him if he wants some chicken later his eyes go really big and he starts purring haha.
Bert decided to properly buff up the shoes I fixed yesterday, and now the scratches are even less visible. So yay. Still too bad that Sacha shoes scuff so easily. I don't think I'll buy a black pair of brogues (I have them in brown) from there now. Although of course, if I scuff those it'll be super easy to fix with some paint. But I still think I'll try my luck with asos instead.
We spent the rest of the day cleaning the house, and because we got up so early we were done by 4pm. I tried to convince Bert to drive to Antwerp so I could get a Kanken mini at Rewind, which failed. And luckily too, because later that night he went and did a yahoo search (which is way more efficient than a google search as it turns out) and found a German webstore that sells outdoors stuff that have temporary sales on minis. And this week it was brown and forest green x ox red. So for € 15 cheaper than everywhere, I ditched the idea of a sand one and got the brown one whilst I could. Still brown, so still good :) My Kanken big is the same color so yeah :)
For € 45 isn't of € 60 I'll happily get my second choice in color rather than my first. I said I wanted any brown but Mud or something super light (as they just get dirty and need weekly washings) so it's all good :)
So hopefully it won't be too long before it arrives, it just has to come from Germany so yeah :)