I'm blogging over at DiMackey.com now.

See you there.

The RSS feed issues should be resolved over there now.

Thanks to Peter and Simon for letting me know there were problems.

From my Sunday ...

my bike, originally uploaded by - di.

We biked over to the new (rented) house today. We have the key to take measurements and coming back, through the park nearby, I couldn't resist stopping to take this photograph.

My beloved old black bike is there in the foreground and this is one of the many beautiful city parks Antwerpen has. I miss the wild rugged wilderness of New Zealand but have to confess that sometimes, these parks are almost enough ...

Reminder: Im moving over to the new site at DiMackey.com

Moving to DiMackey.com ...

I'm moving web-spaces, the furniture isn't quite in place but 'shifting' is taking up a lot time as I move, upload and create content over on Di Mackey.com

You're welcome to wander on by and check out where we're heading next ...

On the bright side ...

Waking at 4.45am, wrapped in a mosquito net and sweating does mean that you get to hear a fairly exquisite dawn chorus.

Busy ...

a wee one, originally uploaded by - di.

23 celsius at 11pm and mosquitoes in the know are partying down at 'the' mosquito club ... Di's ankles.

Work today, a good day but for the rivelets of sweat running, everyone checking their pants and skirts as they stood up from hot plastic seats, soaked by the lack of fresh air as we trammed, trained and laboured our way through these 30 celsius days in the cities.

Living in Belgie, one becomes unaccustomed to such heat, the lucky ones are already on holiday at the beach. Summer holidays have begun and today I noticed the trains and trams had already halved their passenger loads.

I've been processing photographs and just loved this image.

We have the house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Genova

Camogli, Italy, originally uploaded by - di.

And so it begins, I fly out in 11 days heading for Genova ... my favourite city in the world.

This photograph was taken at Camogli, not so far from the city itself. I hope to swim there with Pippa, an old friend I used to visit the beaches of home with. I think this will surely become our northern hemisphere beach, although it will be so very strange not to have my old labrador - my constant New Zealand beach, lake and river companion, with us in this new place. I'm sure she would approve though.

The best thing about leaving is surely the tangible deadline ...

I have to have Istanbul finished.
I have to have tidied up my photography exhibition in the city and I need to have a book outline for the next in-between project.

The 'new, getting old fast' website has had its corrupted module rewritten and I am packing a whole lot of paper notes because I prefer to read paper over laptop screens. I have interviews and all kinds of other things and an 8 day period alone for loading that website and kick-starting it finally ...

All of this and I don't want to think about the fact that the real estate agent and the owners of the house decide whether we're 'it' today.

Okay, back into Istanbul.
We're expecting 30+ celsius all week, only broken by thunderstorms at the weekend ...

Tot straks.

It's midnight and still over 20 celsius.
Our apartment is top floor with a flat black roof that attracts ALL the heat you can imagine. We open our doors in the night and the mosquitoes congregate to party at our place. My ankles are testament to this wild party still happening now ...

When I was child, my parents would load the 4 of us into the backseat of the old Holden stationwagon at midnight and let us swim within the high beam of the headlights at Outram Glen. Failing that, we might walk over to the school next to home and midnight swim in the swimming pool there - the safer option I'm sure, although I still have two brothers and one sister.

Life was so much simpler back then.

So ... it's one of those impossibly hot summer nights here in the flatlands - no a/c at our place.

Little Miss 4 had her 5th birthday party today, early so that her kindy friends could come before summer holidays begin. It was a wild day that left everyone except her completely and utterly exhausted at days end.

She's a 4th of July girl, more celebrations to follow.

On Flanders Fields

on Flanders Fields, originally uploaded by - di.

Sandbags and red cross, ancient WW1 wall

Sandbags and red cross, ancient WW1 wall, originally uploaded by - di.

Found yesterday on Flanders Fields ...

Gert had spent hours reorganising my laptop's internal hard-drive ... I am stuck with the little travel laptop and this watermark for my photographs, just for a wee bit although my new website has crashed and burned for the moment and perhaps my other laptop is out of service for another day.

Maybe I shouldn't have killed the invading ant army.
They're back anyway, it seems they didn't find our behaviour offensive.

The international community pledged $4bn to rebuild Gaza after the war - a publicity stunt says one lady I spoke to who lives with her children in a tent by the side of the rubble once their home.

An update on life inside Gaza.

The sad facts are that eleven members of the Deeb family from across three generations died within seconds, from three-year-old Nour to her 76-year-old grandmother.

...After the war, Israel left 75 tonnes of depleted uranium in the soil, while half of Gaza's hospitals were demolished. And that's just the infrastructure.

A period of breath-holding ahead ...

Slowly our 3-bedroom apartment here has filled with people, there is this continuous ebb-and-flow of family and friends, one that sees Gert's two children coming and going between parents, my daughter and her daughter moving in, Gert and I here since we began, and many many delicious foreign guests and so it is that we combine to fill this place to overflowing oftentimes.

We have a delicious 15 metre balcony but the wrong climate to make much use of it, with the frustration of many mosquitoes who fly in and breed exceptionally well in the warm weather. We have a rooftop view too and an extremely reasonable rent however ... the peasants have been revolting, in every way, and there has been a call for change.

Jessie spotted this very cool old house, with more bedrooms, bathrooms and a garden!! for the same price as our apartment which translates as stunningly reasonable, mostly because there's no car-parking or garage. Perfect for this car-less family who use old-fashioned black bicycles and public transport.

Jessie and I went with Little Miss 4 and fell in love which then meant we had to haul Gert into the process. Haul because it could be said that Belgians are, in general, reluctant movers, especially when compared to the kiwis I know ... but this is mostly explained by the tenancy agreements and difficulties of making a house move.

I took him back to the house this morning.
He fell in love too.

It's 3-storeys high, has atiny steep staircase that is normal for these narrow high old Belgian houses and then there are all these quirky ... yes, quirky is the word that most fits this house ... all these quirky rooms that we can easily fill with people and stuff. New central heating using gas, 2 bathrooms, a cellar, and lots of windows for the light I'm so in love with.

Best of all, the ground-floor is an open-plan series of lounge through into living space, into dining room area and straight on out through double-glass doors into one of those pocket-size Belgian gardens, so full of possibility that I can't stop smiling. Or left to the kitchen, with a real laundry room and a big sink, so missed in this apartment of ours.

The only question mark over the move is when we have to move in by, as it could mean paying rents on two places and that's no-ones idea of a good time.

We hear on Monday or Tuesday ... but we're so in love with the place, so very in love.
I'll let you know.

Note: and as observed by Paola, there's room for a dog in this house that's so close to one of the big city parks ... ;)

That chilled white wine, Belgie

A chilled white wine, Belgie, originally uploaded by - di.