It's been a rough couple of weeks and it was time to make some changes or risk having an entirely sad Belgian winter ...
And so, having earned a few euro working as a volunteer photographer for the integration office here in the city I went out and bought the happiest little red couch you've ever seen.
It started out as a joke, as we have a blue Ikea lounge suite, nice lines but not a cosy curl-up-and-read kind of suite. On Saturday while visiting the local secondhand shop, I spotted a little red couch and joked about buying it.
Sunday, still reading Eat Pray Love I realised that I needed to accept that I'm here in Belgium for a few years, or at least until Gert's kids are older and so ... I've set about making my mark on his apartment, furnished man-style before I moved in.
And in the interest's of having something resembling a real office, I've decided to break all the rules about why you should never set up office in your bedroom (because that's only place we have space)and I picked up an extraordinarily nice, very reasonably priced oak table for dinner parties - freeing up an Ikea table as that extra desk now required. Old and battered oak tables are much more me and it expands to more than 2m ... it may be we'll have that Italian dinner party out on the balcony in the summer now.
I've always lived lightly here, not expecting to stay and not in the habit of living in the same house for more than a year or two but now I need to make a strong base, with the hope I can wander and come home to a place that I know is mine too.
Photographs to follow on arrival of little red couch.
Red. " Use red when you don't want to sink into the background. Use red to suggest speed combined with confidence and perhaps even a dash of danger. A little bit of red goes a long way. Red is hot. It's a strong color that conjures up a range of seemingly conflicting emotions from passionate love to violence and warfare. Red is Cupid and the Devil." It seems to me you have made the right choice in your new addition. I can't WAIT to see the pictures. :) << hugs from a very dismal and gray Cape Cod >>
ReplyDeleteHehehe, you are going to become one of those expats who never leave :D And you are going to hide it too, just like dozens of other expats in this teeny country who come here thinking to stay for a few months, maybe a year or two, and end up living here for over ten years.
ReplyDeleteI only can wish you a good stay and hopefully Gert won't nag to much that you broke his nice man-style colour-coded living room:D
Well you probably noticed I have not just one, but TWO red sofas and a red coverlet on my bed, and a red oriental rug in my office, and red hair on my head.
ReplyDeleteYes, the color of passion, warmth, confidence, energy--c'est moi!
no office in the bedroom? oops - well my office is pretty much where i sit down with the laptop, ergo it's everywhere in my house
ReplyDeleteAhhh then yes, it was fated to be red. And now we have to change the colour scheme of the lounge just a little to fit the little red couch in :)
ReplyDeleteSending hugs back your way from the probably equally grey and dismal grey Antwerpen day, although as I write this, the sun has just broken through and maybe I see some blue skies ...
Well Manic, I might have said something a bit wicked when I read your comment, you evil creature. I wonder if I'll have fluent Nederland after 10 years ... we won't hold our breaths, will we.
Lol, you must have been delighted when you read Claudia's comment, v-grrrl. Amsterdam next week? :)
Dear furiousball, and so you are advertising yourself as normal?
ReplyDeleteLol, I couldn't resist. Anyway, I imagine Ninja's can do whatever they please without incurring the wrath of the 'do-righters'.
Well, you know Di, New Zealand runs through my veins :D
ReplyDeleteYou'll have improved your Nederlands in such a huge way that you will amaze Mark :D
It's the mocking, Manic - it will go a long way in NZ. We live and breathe it there and you're good.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll scare Mark with my Nederlands already. I'm good at some of it and it's a wee bit different to what Mark's used to hearing from me.
He'll be over visiting next year!!! :)
Well, as I told you, only in nederlands: ik wens je rode avonden in je rode stoel, met een lekkere rode wijn en mooi avondrood op de achtergrond ... this will take you a while to translate ... and don't dare to ask Gerd!
ReplyDeleteSee you, maybe in a red restaurant on december 28th ... Lut
Great Move Di.
ReplyDeleteDoes it resemble this one:
http://thefightspot.com/desktops/
couch-1024x768.jpg
or,
more this one:
http://i.pbase.com/v3/80/119680/2/
45407519.RedCouch.jpg
or
can we let our imagination run wild and imagine this one:
http://www.crestock.com/images/contest2007/
2486-2-merkleycontest.jpg
:-)
I'm an expat brit stuck in Venice! at least the weather's better down here :-)
ReplyDeleteHmmm okay Lut, there were 3 words I wasn't sure of but otherwise I could read it ... I'll look the 3 up and translate tomorrow. I'm just home from a lovely evening out here in Antwerpen :)
ReplyDeleteHmmmm, there was a problem with the links Peter, I'll try again in the morning, maybe fiddle with them some.
Hi travelbrit, sounds like a marvellous place to be stuck ... I was just reading of Venice on the tram to the city and find it easy to be a little bit envious :)
My URLs are being cut in half by blogger :-)
ReplyDeleteTo watch a red sofa in all its glory: just cut-and-past them in a browser window:
http://www.crestock.com/images/contest2007/
2486-2-merkleycontest.jpg
I tried posting the URL on one line, but blogger won't let me:
http://www.crestock.com/images/contest2007/2486-2-merkleycontest.jpg
Oh Peter! I almost roared with laughter ... ummm yes, something like that but I'm not allowed the dog ;)
ReplyDeleteHi Di,
ReplyDeleteThe travel/moving bug never leaves you! We have been living here almost 8years, come March! Breaking our own records everyday we stay here.
But as I said the bug never leaves, I often catch mum looking at houses online!!
Who knows what the future holds! We are just enjoying and make the most of what we have for now!
Love to all XOXO
Hey Ash, lovely to find you here and yes, as always, curious to see where we all are in 10 years xo
ReplyDelete