Sunday was La Journée Sans Voitures in Brussels, translated to The Day Without Cars. From 9am until 7pm cars were forbidden to be on the road. IN THE WHOLE CITY. In some parts of the city they even rolled out sod on the roads so people could walk/run around. The city was in party mode and I can’t even explain how relaxing it was to have the fear of Zane and Lily being run over by a car gone from my mind (a constant and reasonable fear around here).
We walked down to our commune center to hang out and walk around. We ate ice cream and listened to music before playing in the park.
Bikes ruled the road (as if that was different from any other day). But, today they had total control of the road.
It was so nice to see potluck neighbourhood get togethers, if only we knew more of them!
Zane and Lily finally got to ride their small bikes around town in the streets and enjoyed every second of freedom.
Which was a welcome change from the drama that had occurred earlier that morning. Balloons were given out to all the children at our weekly Sunday Market. Sadly, both children learned the hard lesson of “what happens when I untie my balloon from my wrist and let go.”
The devastation. The drama.
Speaking of drama…HELLO again to yet another European House Spider. This guy even got the privilege of crawling across my arm as I screamed in horror. I was putting away laundry in the bathroom when I grabbed a stack of towels. Much to my and the spider’s surprise, I flipped the towels on their side where this guy was hanging out. He scampered and climbed up my arm as I jumped around on hot coals, flailing and screaming the whole way.
My heroic husband came to my aid and tossed him in the bathtub for a photo-op before we smashed him to death. But…like it always happens, the longer I watched him running around terrified, the more I felt sorry for him. He is technically harmless, except to those with heart conditions, so I decided to let him live, much to Jason’s annoyance.
But being the supportive husband to a tree hugger that he is, he captured him in some tupperware…
And let him go in the farthest corner of the backyard we could find. Live and let live.
Words cannot tel you how much I enjoy the blog. Your sense of humor and the drama the children provide are amazing. Zane always seems to display a bit more drama than Lily. Having balloons go “bye bye” is a hard lesson to learn. Jason behaved very heroically, rescuing you from the spider … I like the “live and let live” concept. Hope all of you are well and know that I love you very much. GiGi
Those poor kiddos, losing their balloons! It is a hard lesson, and one that is repeated often throughout their childhood. I have to admit, with a spider that size I totally don’t get the “live and let live” concept. I would have wanted proof of death! If I felt bad afterwards, perhaps I would have given it a moment of silence… perhaps!