December 31st - New Years Eve

December 31st – the Homestretch ( not posted yet)

And now, the end of the year is here
Three of the four kids are off travelling somewhere
My brother and his wife stayed with us for an overnighter and celebrate the New Year here with us in Antwerp, what a trip!

We went into town after lunch and much to our surprise, the centre was empty, as if a bomb had gone off
As the afternoon progressed and we were walking about drinking warm wine and enjoying coffees in the most beautiful places, people traffic picked up some .
Home for dinner, afterwards we each picked an angel card and talked about what that meant to us.
11pm rolled around and since we had heard that Antwerp put on a serious firework display, we set out. The metro was jampacked. Literally, body to body, depending on someone to move, so you could move
Giggly we looked at each other as in ” what have we done?!!” and then suddenly the train stopped and we all had to get out due to a fire on the rail…..divine intervention as it turned out.
As we surfaced from under ground, the streets were packed with people moving all towards the fireworks, but doable and space to breath. Fortunately the weather stayed just a tat above freezing, we were well dressed, no problem there
We ended up finding a very good spot near the river and the fireworks were terrific. I saw displays I had never seen before, we all agreed it was well worth it.
We decided to walk back to the apartment, together with a few thousand others

More warm wine, more champagne, to bed at 3am

Next day went to a festival in a tent, listened to gypsy music, drank coffee and more champagne and had pancakes and soup
All around different and fun, whilst talking to Belgians in their best mood, which does not happen a lot.

Now that all visitors have left, silence is upon us (David, Saar and me)
Have begun to clean up beds, blankets, sheets, collect boxes, re-organizing the apartment for the move ot Amsterdam on Wednesday the 6th.

Monday the cat will be picked up, I am so sad, I have become very attached to her.
Cold……

One resolution: kick back on sugar once again, a must do!