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October 23, 2004
Back In Brussels...
Before continuing the A&B&C story we'd like to welcome a newborn in the Ponthus family: Marion, daughter of Sylvie and Bruno (A's brother), sister of Yohan, came to life the 20th october 2004!
Congrat to the courageous mother and fulfilled father! (their not-yet-updated website: http://grosbidon.free.fr )
Back in Brussels... Our come-back-home turned out to be quite a tough experience: Bjoern got ill, we all suffered from jetlag for about a week. We had to move back in a chaos, our new appartment, though a neat place, still unfurnished and piled up with boxes ( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/brussels-sept-04/IMG_3752 ). Nobody took care of unpacking our stuff while we were away :-( We had to buy furniture and other home-things to make it a place to live in... IKEA the hated savior...
Agnes fetched her new car, an Audi A4, and crashed the 2nd day... So used to the tiny size of her former Smart, she rub out the right mirror while driving to close to a parked truck... This poor car underwent other injuries, it barely survived the first month under Agnes and Bjoern's ownership...
However we are extremely happy of our new living: a clear, wide, sunny, feeling good appartment ( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/brussels-sept-04/IMG_3754 ). Everyone of you is welcome to visit us ! There is now a confortable place for you to stay in Brussel.
Visit the back to brussels album: http://www.theandb.com/galleries/brussels-sept-04?page=1
More recently, we made it to Moers in Germany to Anja and Joachim's wedding reception, the last week-end of september. Cille was kept by Genevieve her babysitter, for the occasion. A typical German, friendly, wedding party. Indeed a very nice evening!
We again spent a day in Germany, (it's merely 2h drive from Brussels), at Monchengladbach the home of Zilke and Andre where they invited us. Zilke cooked a wonderful oriental meal for dinner. ( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/Monchengladbach-oct-04 )
It was good to see those of you we met these last 2 months. We enjoyed dearly to see, chat and laugh with you again!
We missed all of you and look forward to more travels to visit you all in your various places.
In the meantime don't hesitate to grab the phone, type a few e-words, and give us news. Best would be you actually come and pay us a visit ;-))
Posted by theandb at 01:00 PM | Comments (0)
October 14, 2004
What's Up !
Well, well, well, we've been around, visited friends, moved appartments... Shaking-up our lives a bit after a studious, busy-business summer.
Early September we traveled to USA. Our final destination was Seattle but we made a stop at Denver to attend the wedding of Gilles and Daria (go discover http://mcgil.com !).
We were hosted at Greg and Peggy's house, not forgetting young Ian! ( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/denver-sept-04/IMG_3624 ). A fabulous place: peaceful, cheerful and made most confortable for our stay by the most wonderful hosts.
We had a great time in Denver. The weather was warm, alternating dry air with electrical storms. We had to escape from a canyon (Castlewood) , totally soaked up, after a 20mn scary stay under a not-very-water-proof tree...
Gilles and Daria sealed their union at the Sacred Heart Retreat House, a beautiful place further away from Denver, situated on top of a hill facing the majestic rocky mountains.
Our little Cille slept on an armchair at the entrance of the chapel. We left her inside while following the group for a toast outside... A mistake hardly forgiven as she unfortunately woke up, alone... Loud sparkling bubbles of champagne (correction: Blanquette de Limoux !) poured in the many cups, didn't succeed in covering her cries :-(
The reception , dinner and party at a very chic restaurant nearby, the Gabriel, let us forgot the incident ( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/GillesDariaWedding_ViewByMcGil/IMG_1837 ) . Cille ate, danced and played up until late. We were able to have her sleep in her travel crib back in a storage room... Great food, great party !
In Denver we also had a delicious dinner at Chance Smith house ( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/denver-sept-04/IMG_3616 ), a former colleague of Agnes, who moved back to the States with his family. It was a little outlandish at first as we hardly knew each other. But we all managed well and had a very pleasant evening. Our Cille again left some colorful souvenirs of her stormy passage (watch the crumbs on the carpet...).
See the Denver album: http://www.theandb.com/galleries/denver-sept-04
For the wedding we couldn't help but picking photos from Gilles himself ( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/GillesDariaWedding_ViewByMcGil) and Ayumi ( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/GillesDariaWedding_ViewByAyumi ) who did a better job at shooting then us...
Then Seattle : it felt like home ! Thanks to Gilles and Daria's great offer to stay at their appartment we were once again very confortably installed and enjoyed our stay a lot !
Most of all we enjoyed meeting YOU ! The best part of our journey, each encounter with one of you turned on the bliss button 100%! We dinned with Suzan and Patrick at their new house ( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/seattle-sept-04/IMG_3720 ), met with their Belgium friend (coincidence ?). We met the Hirsch-Stenzel family whom daughter is about as old as Cille ( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/seattle-sept-04/IMG_3744 ). Thanks to Britta, we were also equipped to move Cille around in a borrowed stroller.
We visited our stuff at the Public Storage ( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/seattle-sept-04/IMG_3742 )... Good to see that everything was still there, untouched, as we left it, more than 2 years ago ...
We did grocery at our beloved whole food market nearby Greenlake. Greenlake, a known terrain where we ran several laps tiredlessly: we dug it! We also shopped at Madison Food Market. Cille discovered the Public Market, waterfront and Seattle shops & lively streets . She loved street musicians rythmic sounds and they loved her for driving everyone's attention :-)
We bit in these devilishly delicious cheese rolls from our secret russian bakery at the Public Market( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/seattle-sept-04/IMG_3728 ). Agnes drank liters of coffee ! We bought a lot of stuff.
We even found the time to go for a hike in the backcountry, at Snowlake, a tip from Ayumi.
Hey, we also had an evening at Pierre's appartment with Rabah and Ayumi and finally smoke one of Mr Galin 's reknown waterpipe. We hardly made it, though, couldn't find the place, again soaked up under heavy rain!.
We found out about Marven and Bonnie's new stage of relationship, finally and openly a couple ! We had a great day with them. Lunch at Fremont. Walk down to the beach in Discovery Park. A dinner at a Thai restaurant in Fremont ( http://www.theandb.com/galleries/seattle-sept-04/IMG_3733 ). We announced to Marven his new responsibility. He is the *lucky* winner of the "who's Cille's godfather" lottery :-)
Agnes & Cille paid a visit to the Woodland Zoo (facing Gilles and Daria's appartment...), very cool Zoo that A recommands to any Seattler.
There are many things we wanted to do but didn't find the time... We leaved Seattle with a tightened heart.
See the Seattle album: http://www.theandb.com/galleries/seattle-sept-04
Back in Brussels... That's a story for next week !
Peace,
TheAndB plus Cille
PS: Thank you very much to Gilles (http://mcgil.com) and Ayumi ( http://www.bobothecat.com/ ) for their contribution to this edition of Theandb picture gallery
Re PS: Notice the new gallery system ! All the old galleries are still alive just click on the archive link right next to the search box
Posted by theandb at 01:00 PM | Comments (0)