The Corporation

For the moment I am trying to relax a bit in couch! But I don't seem to succeed! Reason: today's classes! Our programme: the movie 'The Corporation'. Something else then having to listen for two hours and taking notes.

So after lunch in the student's cafetaria I walked over to our movie theater for the occasion. We got to see a two hour film- documentary about world wide corporations. After having been forced to see that film till the credits scrolled down the screen I feel rather strange. I seemed to have a knot inside my stomach.

Some facts that I have learned today and what I am reflecting about are:

- Corporations got out of hand because of the misinterpretation or rather abusing the 14th Amandment to the American Constitution. This piece of legislation was created to preserve the newly gained freedom of the black slaves after the Cival War! Guess that once more it's proven that any law can be abused.

- Corporations seem not to be aware of what they all cause. So when a stockbroker goes wild at Wallstreet he hardly reflects about all the waste that his corporation he trades for makes end up in the ocean. I have to be honest if I have to throw out all the clothes that are made in a sweatshop I might end up naked!

- Corporations don't serve the common good. PROFIT, PROFIT and only PROFIT! And they cross the borders to get this. Patents are now allowed for everything except one thing: a born human being! So everything out there seems to drag along a barcode. Could be a funny walk when you take along one of those scanning machines.

- Corporations gain when others only lose. In Vietnam (Agent Orange), Iraq (burning oilwells) and other warzones these unities seem to be the first who can smile. And do they have nightmares of all the hubris they leave behind in these warstruck countries? Seems very hard to believe when they only see the number of gained contracts.

- Corporations are like Big Brother. Even your toddler is not safe. The vultures put the best scientists, product managers and developers on creating ways to make these small consumers influence the ones with the budget. The best of all was the nagging study they put out. Not to let it stopp but make these kids even nagg more efficiently!

- Corporations make us think that they can sustain whatever happens. They seem even to able to let us believe that they are like the energy bunny!! And that don't have to take in account anything. They seem to forget that they need all these things that they take for granted. Water, wood, cotton, meat, fish, oil, steal, copper, ........ The list is long and distinguished. What if they wake up one day and they are not there any more. Earth is demanding a fat paycheck! And rightly so!

Obviously not a very upbeat lesson. Still, there is a silver lining to this grey cloud according to the moviemakers. We as individuals seem to have the power to actually make some changes. Corporations have tried to tell us that it is useless to challenge them. Well, the movie showed us some people with guts who raised their voices. They were not able to spend many time at the beach. But they want to be sure that we can still spend one day out there and admire the precious world.

In a moment I will get up, walk to my fridge, take out a can of soda, watch a detective series and after that I will go upstairs, brush my teeth, moisturize my skin, take some cold medicin, get into my PJs, read some pages and then be off to dreamland. Seems like I will meet many corporations on way to dreamland! I am guilty as charged!

P.S.: Want to know more? Check out: http://www.thecorporation.com/ or google 'corporation' for some video results.

Happy meals!

Today we were in Antwerp. P, A and I love that place. We have got our favorite spots all over town. But it can still surprise us. Thanks to the attentive ladies from work I still had a gift certificate to use. I had not lost it out of sight. We just not seem to be able to find the right time to go out and actually use it. So just before the deadline I tried to book us a table at one of the addresses that were in the colorful booklet that came along with the gift certificate.

After numerous phonecalls we finally got a three chairs and one table at 'The Lunchbox'.
My sister, who used to live down there, had already mentioned that unique lunchspot. But you know since that we have A going out for food is not easy. So sometimes it takes quite some time to finally take the risk and take your kid along for food. Now five years later I am not afraid anymore and have learned some things about taking kids out for food.

1. Kidmeals can be better then the dishes you order! A his homemade hamburger with fries was so delicious!!! We happily finished that meal for him. And to all those restaurants that only serve meatballs in tomatosauce for under 12. We don't understand you!! Even kids older then 30 like these better then lobster or spareribbs.

2. Fancy places can be childfriendly! We were sometimes surprised what places were nice to A! He even once made it into the kitchen of a posh restaurant and was allowed to make his own icecream! Do I have to mention that I did prefer that dessert to my colorful plate covered up with sweet delights?

3. Kids are gourmet lovers! I have been amazed by the pure tastepalet of my son. Kids are so damn honest! Once we were in one of these typical Belgian French Fries places. He ordered his normal menu and after tasting three fries he said outloud:'Mummy, these fries are no good!' And he was right. We never went back.

4. Kids can play tricks on you! More then once A ordered something and ended up eating our dish! Seems that you as a parent have to be very patient and assume that kids know what they want. So don't get attached to your cheese and ham sandwich or pasta dish! Try to bribe your precious one by promising him or her two desserts. He or she will then be end up at the cashregister with your personal selection without tandrums!

5. Kids are entertainment for other guests! Numerous times I was rather annoyed and ashamed when A went to check out other guests and their food. Funny to say that he made tons of friends while spilling half of his orange juice over the floor. Kids seem to have a gift to make even the most serious food inspector laugh. Just don't try to do the same things as they do.
Bet you won't get away with crawling under tables, checking out all the chairs, finding the best place to race your toycars or moving around half of the furniture! Chances you get kicked out before your drinks have made it to your table.

6. Kids get always more, we end up with less! A gets always spoiled. Free icecreams, toys, eatware, stickers, color pencils or candy. We seem only to end up with one thing extra over and over again: the bill!

Our brunch at the Lunchbox was a success. A only moved half of the decoration around and ate none of our food. We can for sure recommend this place. The menu of this healthy food cafe looks good. They serve breakfast and lunch. Have smoothies, lassies, and cocktails to moisturise yourself the right way. The desserts are home made and let you end up in foodheaven. The staff is friendly and outgoing (sometimes they even sing outloud) and there is a wall of fame!

When we had finished our meal we made A go up to the counter and ask for the bill. This time we were the ones that ended up with the candy. Guess that after five years of experience we finally got the hang of it!

P.S.: To get into the right foodmood you can perhaps check out: http://www.lunchbox.be/

Bolt and the beautiful!

The Oscarwinners are known and I seem to be one of the few people who seems not to have seen any of those. There was a time that I had seen them all by the time the enveloppes were opened. I read tons of magazines, knew all the moviereviews before and after a theater visit and even managed to get through the novel of most of the blockbusters.

Well, the situation has changed slightly over the last five years. The last movie that I saw was 'Lord of the Rings, The return of the King'. I remember being pregnant and A was having a blast because he enjoyed all the sounds effects as well. I had the complete movie-experience because of him being in there with me!

Now I have to setlle for getting the DVD and watching it on a rather small screen. If I take a close look at my DVD-collection I even have to admit that half of them are for minus 12! Okay, Walt Disney stated many times that he did not created his fantasy world for kids only, but still. Blaming it on A that he forces us to buy these is not fair. Because honestly, animation movies can make me smile!

Even P, who most of the times judges movies only by the reviews, googles new releases. So today we took A once more to the movietheater. He had to choose between a dog or a mouse. A is five now and he knows for sure what he wants. I tried to bribe him by pointing out that he is not very keen on dogs. I even pointed out that he loved 'Ratatouille'. I showed him the trailers of both and then I waited for the results of the jury! 'BOLT!'

So there I was sitting in the dark watching a movie about a dog who thinks he is a superhero and abducts a cat! You must know that I am a catlover and I dislike dogs slightly. But thanks to the 'ghamster' (Emanuel from 'Fawlty Towers', knows what I am talking about) I was glued to my seat. P, who is allergic to most of the animal habitat out there, even started to laugh outloud. A was enjoying his popcorn and tried to get his hands on our cokes!

By the time the superhero was on his way back home I noticed that P and I were having a better time then A! And you know what? For once I did not mind. I was having fun and so was P. When the credits came up A pointed out that he wanted to go home. Once we arrived home it became clear why. He went straight for the livingroom and searched his newest asset in his stuffed animal kingdom: Baziel, the cat! It was so cute to see him hugging that animal.

After dinner he then asked to watch 'The Aristocats'! Together with Baziel he snuggled under the duvet and had a good time. Well, I guess there is for sure one thing clear after going to see a dogmovie. When it comes to a preference to housepets he turns to his mother! I can't wait to watch with him the 'Garfield'-movies and I am sure those will be hit because A loves LASAGNA! So dogs out there you can rest now your case! A LOVES CATS!

P.S.: Check out the trailer of BOLT on www.disney.go.com/disneypictures/bolt .
And N don't worry! Hamsters are not on the hitlist of your godchild!

A bubbling afterparty in the kitchen!

The afterparty is over! The champagne glasses are back where they belong, my dishwasher is doing over time, my finest China is shiny after a good hand wash, the floor looks good again and A is in dreamland. My bed is also waiting for me and I can't wait.

Today, A had his fifth birthday party for the family. Because I don't consider pie and coffee a real birthday party I again went whole the way. I had fun with Nigella and other cooking goeroes and turned my kitchen in a battlefield. P tried to help out but of course he was most of the time only in the way. By the time the guests arrived I was rather a stressdoll.

Every year again I promise myself to do it differently. Not to try something new or strange. But it's an urge that I just can't resist. So yes, the buffet consisted out of some surprises. A was now opening his gifts. He went completely wild when he got his stuffed cat from Bommeline (my mother). It is amazing that this surrogate stuffed animal can make up for not having the real thing! He gave the toy-cat the fitting name 'Baziel'! P managed to make it back in time after being called in for an emergency and was trying to keep everybody filled up with drinks and food.

I have to admit that I most of the time spend my time in the kitchen while my guests were having a good time. You might consider this strange but for me are content guests the nicest gift I can receive during a hostfunction. Of course some of the women paid me a visit. I did love their faces when they saw what I had standing in the oven. My wafflepie with raspberries and white chocolate! Some of them admitted to me that they were already hoped for this and tried to get the recipe! I am thinking now of ways to sell it to the highest bidder!

After the sweets I served some special cheese sandwiches with coleslaw. My guests seemed to appreciate this by being silent. I ate two of them while sitting on a kiddy chair. By then already the first guests had left the building. We spoiled the youngest guests with a goodiebag and then they were off.

Some of the dishes were empty, others contained still some leftovers that we tried to send along with the guests. They behaved nicely and took some filled up containers home as well along with some sugar filled up kids!

A took Baziel along to dreamcountry. He is sleeping next to his bed on a little chair under a blue duvet! When we asked if he had a very good day, he smiled and said:'YES'! So did I and I just want to say thank you to all my guests who were so polite to eat my food. I hope sincerly that you all had a good time because I did and so did the birthdayboy! THANK YOU!!!!

P.S.: And now I want that last glass of champagne! Oh damn, the bottle is EMPTY! grrrrrrrr!

Braintraining!

They finally made it into my inbox! My exame-results. They really took some time to become something less abstract. I know some people who were already running around with their results for two weeks. Not that I was looking forward to them.

You must know that studying for this was also something abstract. I had made the promise to A and P to give it a try but I had not made the sacrifices that some people make when they are full time students. So yes, I had not changed into one of those sleepdeprived zombies that I knew from my college years. I remember very clearly my close friend N who even put toothpicks between her eyelids to keep on going!

I gave up a few weekends to hammer the most important facts into my head. The reading material I tried to manage beforehand. But my course material seemed to take the proportions of a papermonster that was out of control. This time I had no time to run wild and start complaining. I still had shirts to iron, meals to cook, a house to keep clean, a toddler who loves his mother baking panecakes or other edible stuff! So college folders became almost a piece of decoration and attracted some extra dust to kill!

So taking them was like travelling back into time! It was strange to enter a college room filled up with strained faces that looked very pale! I felt almost guilty that I still looked awake. While I was reflecting about the questions I felt a bit akward. I wondered why I was doing to this. I handed them in with mixed feelings, packed up my stuff and left.

The hard part was dealing with friends, family and collegues when asked about the results. It seemed like they were so confident about me that I would pass that I felt a bit out of tune there! I even ended up dreaming about the results!

I opened up the threatened mail when I was at work. My cheeks turned red, my heartbeat went wild, I got sweaty handpalms! It all came back to me all those moments that I was waiting for the result of the jury. The prospect of having to deal with dissapointment, the tears, having to study in the most sunny months of the year and not knowing if it would be worth the energy.

While I was staring at the points of the jury it all became a bit fuzzy. It took me a few seconds to take in what I saw: one failed, one passed!!!!! The subject I passed was the hardest one out of two. It was the course that most of my fellow students didn't consider a. And the stack of college joyride. The folders that I now get to dust off will be already a bit less hard to reach for. P and A are very happy for me as well. Also I want to thank all those people that still believe in me. I have more days then you can imagine that I still wonder if I can do this!

I feel now already a bit less out of tune in a student library, the student restaurant, the ACCO (the college store) and lecture hall! Being a student with wrinkels is something I never imagined to be but it seems to work! It turns out to be the best beauty product that I ever have invested in! In combination with my Nitendo DS game this braintraining makes me feel fit and so much younger! Can you already see the difference?

P.S.: I am so sorry that I had to kill the mouse that was running around the house while I was studying! She will be thrilled to hear that I failed that subject I tried to study for while she was paying a deadly visit!

Baziel, the king of the house!

I am a catlover and having to be obliged to live without one of these cuties is rather hard. But an allergic partner makes you do strange things. We don't even have a fish. There are days that iI really grave for one of these four legged micehunters. An extra way to keep me company when my I feel a bit down and can ease down after a hard day at the job. So I was very happy that I still had our housecat Baziel to turn to.

Baziel was one of these cats that bit by bit becomes one with the house. Coming home was also finding at home a purring cat who just hat finished his gourmet meal. He pointed out very clearly he would not liked to be disturbed while being in catheaven. One of our wise houseguests pointed out once:'A dog has a boss. A cat has got staff!
'
Well, Baziel had staff. And the number one butler was my mother. Baziel and her were partners in crime. He was very picky on food she served and the other issue he had was being shy. When we adopted him he was one of these fluffy grey hairballs that snuggled down on your feet because he was still too small to jump on your lapp.

My father, who considered naming pets a serious bussiness, came up with a very fitting name for him: Baziel. A derivation of the Greec word: basileus, meaning king. In the hope he would be as stunning as one of his kinsmen: the lion!

Around the time that we graduated from college Baziel was more at home then we were. He even forgot that he had to guard the house, hunt after mice and trying to impress fellow-machos who tried to come closer to his door. My mother frequently expressed her dissapointment about Baziel not living up to her expectations.

He did turn out to be afraid of strangers, crying babies and other cats and he showed this by not entering the house when there were strange cars parked in front of the house. And he only prefered the lapp of his personal assistant: my mother. Only watching, no touching.

It only became very complicated when the youngest bunch of the family became aware that Baziel was great fun to chase after. The grandkids seemed not to agree with Baziel his rather easy lifestyle and forced him to make some changes. He had to start getting used to hands that tried to pull his tail off or did not leave his favourite seat in the living room.

In return the tomboys started to be devoted catlovers. Going to 'granny' (mum will kill me when she reads this!) was going to Baziel as well. It was so cute to see them petting him and talking to him in the hope he would talk back. Of course he never did but the fact that he started to hang around a bit more when we were over was a blessing.

Baziel of course got older and my mother seemed more and more trying to care of a retired cat. You wish that it would be true that a cat has got seven or more lives. That they are stuntmen and can stand any tempest and walk in spick and span. You hope that they have discovered the spring of eternal youth. Well, Baziel decided that he had spent enough time in this catheaven and was off to the other Wahalla. My mother had him put to eternal sleep after he was not able to eat, drink or taking care of his himself.

When I asked her if she was okay, she said:'Of course I cried because Baziel was my cat!' Yes, my mum has taken care very devoutly of him. She got up at four in the morning to let him in for his milk and brushed his coat like it was one of the most expensive furcoats. So, Baziel you will be missed and my mother's lapp will miss an extra blanket. Hopefully catheaven is all you hoped and more!

Baziel, you can be sure that you had not one staffmember but tons of devoted caretakers who happily treated you as a king. You can be sure we will wave once in a while because that is what a royal animal deserves. We will miss you!!!!!

About 'Vlees en bloed' ('Flesh and blood')!

There are many TV-series that are worth to mention. Many can make you forget the bills you need to pay, the trash that you still have to put outside, the laundry that still needs washing, the basket full of ironing and the huge pile of dishes that needs a soap attack but there are those rare gems that just to that one bit extra. There are directors who take the risk of trying to let you sense something that is very complicated.

Seven weeks ago, Thursday, we were able to tune in for witnessing the daily life in a butcher's shop. Seems not that thrilling. I must admit that I even forgot to watch the first episode. Suddenly my collegues stopped mentioning the weather, their kids, travel adventures and daily complaints because of this one hour of television they had watched last night! They had sparkles in their eyes!

So the following Thursdays I planted myself in front of that square screen to figure out what this was all about. Already at the very beginning you get hooked. Butchering is about meat and so they show you in the first copple of minutes exactly that but then filmed with high speed camera. The images are slowed down so the details are amazing! The freshly cut bacon, rolled burgers and chopped steaks make you already shiver. And the blood that flows gives you goosebumps! This all along with incredible music. Meat becomes an art and suddenly your local butcher gains more respect.

The storyline: a family business who tries to keep the bussiness exactly that but seems to fail desperatly at doing so. The wife who finds out that Viagra won't to do the trick with her mariage, two chopsteaks that make you walk through the woods, the 'bospoeper' (sorry non-Dutch speaking people I am not going to get in detail what this all about. There are amazing online dictionaries. So I challange you here!), a dog with a camera who changes all, the grandmother who hopes that all her children will get along and won't sacrifce all she worked her bud off for, the neighbour who can't wait to order his daily portion of sausages and wants to finds out the latest gossip, the shopassistant who falls in love with the son, the lost son who draggs along many secrets, the secret ingredient of the notorious sausage sold only once a year, the local sherriff who knows all the family secrets and tries to keep the family together, the daughter who hates meat and is married to a frustrated retired inspector.

The press states that the story line is so typical Flemish. This could take place anywhere along the Flemish roads. Many Flemish people seem to recognise these situations. We are known to stick to tradition, have the tendency trying to hide our real feelings, the battle between son and father, mother and daughter and the search for a real 'home' and recognition.

By episode five you suddenly start to love this place and know that you are in for a special treat. You start to feel close to these personalities. And by episode seven you don't want to let it come to an end.

Last night about two millions tuned in to watch the last episode and I made sure that my kitchen was clean by that time. It is hard to explain what the director managed to do. But the people who know a bit about some yearly traditions in a typical flemish village will be able to agree with me that what we got to see was so geniune.

In many villages in this rather greyish flemish corner there are still the yearly 'kermissen' or fairs . Then many families will come together for family lunch or dinner, there are fun rides for the children, pubs stay open very late, and on the first Sunday the 'koers' will take place. Local bikers will race through their familiar roads and are cheered on by their neighbours, friends and family to win the trophy.

It is that image that made me smile last night. The whole family cheering on their guy on wheels. Mike, the loyal butcher employee, made them realise what life should really be all about. He won the cup against all odds: overweight, deadtired after spending the whole night preparing the special sausages. Thanks to a special prepared piece of fruit he was able to go completely bananas on his bike.

In this scene I suddenly thaught back of the time that my little home village organised their yearly fair and all the sounds, colors and smells came back to me. Even the sun light I tried to recall. And the best moment of all was P who was sitting in his running outfit with a big smile on his face staring at the same scene. It was one of these nostalgic smiles that makes you wonder what is on his mind.

I just know one thing for sure that the next time I open the door of the butcher shop that I will smile for sure. And when the shop assistant has got tears in her eyes that I will still smile when she tries to convince me that she just chopped onions up for in the 'americain preparé'. To make up for her lost tears I will then order an extra pound of that meat prepared with love.

If you want to find out more about this rahter unique series you can check out: http://www.een.be/vanvleesenbloed