There are many situations when you feel you just have many issues in life (all generated from within yourself). I had one such week and for the first time since I was 13 years old I lost my temper completely.
This does not include losing temper against husband. This does not include the time when, unable to reach my tall husband’s head, I got on top of the bed next to which we were fighting. He stood by and watched never having seen me in a temper before. He laughed and scoffed at the bowl of curd in my hand. My adrenalin surged and my head clouded over – he challenged me and came forward. Hand over my head and then over his head, I quickly with razor precision tipped the bowl over. That December night, 10 years back, he stood in the cold house in Bangalore, with curd dripping all over him, all over the wall/door and spilt over the bed. He blinked in disbelief, turned calmly around went and got the cloth and started cleaning while I stomped out of the house. Even that was 10 years ago.
This time it was not even my husband (if it was, then at least it would stay in the family and between close friends until 10 years later when one can laugh about it). So here I lost my temper and displayed childish behavior while everyone waited for the 3.5 decades of experience to show itself. Sometimes my righteousness gets better of me… Luckily it was not at work. Nevertheless there are many things I do not want to destroy the last few months I have at Brussels. So here I am catching a few of them – all caught on my blackberry when I did not have my camera and all show some aspects of the city I love.
As I enter the ICE train to Brussels, I catch this and send an sms to my husband – we should meet in Bruhl for this. He loves the picture and agrees – we never meet there – something else comes up that makes us cancel the trips.
One of my haunts – my office buildings after it gets dark – this day I felt the beauty of it. As many difficult days as I have had here, I still love the place. As my friend Eric says “Why do you cry? You end up loving every place you go to”… it leaves me wondering – am I not discerning enough?
As I drive to work one morning, I notice this small little white ball pulling his head sidewards to take a look at what is happening in front. I really did not get that lovely shot with the symmetry – however, I hoped this will help me keep the memory.
A weekend where I spent cleaning all the papers – the final result were all the magazines put away, the newspapers put into a cover the Rose, the cleaning lady from Ghana who comes once a week on Friday mornings, and articles about best places to eat in Brussels cut out along with articles of events I attended or wanted to attend in Brussels over the year.
The fruit shop I pass every morning on my way to work which is not open that early, and every evening on my way back from work and it is too late to be open at that time… this evening I was excited to see the lights in the window but too lazy to find a parking space and park – well – after all it is not Pizza, pastries or cheese… they are ONLY fruits.
Here is the tram driver who jumped out of the tram at the traffic light, went and poked the tram tracks like one pokes a fireplace when the fire needs to be needled into strong flames.
This sign is very famous here in Brussels – it means “you Belgian drivers who are so unlike the German drivers and so like the Italian or Indian drivers, stop speeding and pay attention that speed limit is to be respected – else we will take a picture of you and make you pay amount equivalent to your monthly savings” – and there is a camera which hides just a bit ahead (I wonder whether that works though…).
There is a square (which is actually a round) and the tramstop is just in between the circle – what a nightmare for those running for the tram and for those drivers not used to stopping in the middle of a roundabout and especially for those like me who get into a Schumacher mode when they come into the roundabouts – we are forced to put sudden brakes as the trams pull out – trams have priority in Brussels over other traffic and pedestrians. Taken during a snow fall with the wiper trying hard to remove the snow, I try to drive, wait for the wiper to be out of the way to take a picture and watch out for the traffic in the circle all the same time – my fellow women drivers will be proud of me.
Another tram stop – this time a normal one – one of the beauties – but even here people still run for the tram – snowing or raining or sunny…
Hubby and I went out on Valentine’s day. He suddenly, after 10 Valentine’s days after marriage gets it into his head that he wants to do something alone with me. Not used to it, I had invited friends home for tea which he made me cancel and I growled about for 3 days after cancelling. When he suggested a movie – I said “Up in the air” – let us see whether anyone else wants to join – he growled at me… Having misread the time as 16:45 instead of 16:35 for the showtime, we found ourselves with 2 hours to kill before the next show and we landed in this place. We had gone there in autumn and lake was surrounded by trees covered with different coloured leaves (not taken on BB).
This time lake was frozen white and instead of colour we just had pristine white.
Finally… again when driving a dog walking and a cat sitting caught my eye…
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