Endimi's ramblings

2 weeks ago to the day after a long and difficult night and morning I gave birth to our little baby girl, Manon Leda Emilie on 25 November 2009 at 13:56. She's a beautiful doll and weighed 3,720 Kg.

So here I am at home. The bathroom's clean, the kitchen's spotless, the baby's room is just about ready but missing some stuff that is still at my parent's, the room in the front of the house has an added toilet (still need to fit in the door) and new flooring, most of the attic is painted and the flooring is also ready to be put in, the new shower room is ready save for the glass shower walls and the flooring, but one is being delivered soon and the other has been chosen.

The building stuff has been out of my hands for a while now, most of the cleaning as well but I managed to do a few things on my own, and god did I need that.

So now all there's left to do is to wait. Wait for baby to announce the arrival.

We all wait...

The Boombalfestival was great, as usual, but I did laugh my ass off with some of the behind-the-scenes info I got. Just in case you're wondering: I volunteered this time so I would have free entry, free drinks, free food and free hot showers, which was great, I only paid for extra food because I wanted fancy stuff (preggy me, hehe). So when you're selling meal and drink tokens you can hear the walkies chatter with all sorts of info, stuff like "the dancers just fell through the floor in dance temple 2, please send assistance" and "who the hell put the shower drain pipe into the field where people are going to be camping later?". Funness. :)

I went to see Trinket on Tuesday and Wednesday but went home to sleep in my own bed each time. As of Thursday we shared once again the big tent Katleen had provided (Trinket can stand up straight in that thing!). But first I went to see ophi to return her lamp and got a special preview of her brand new kitten: Osiris. She made me a wonderful lunch and we chatted until we both had to leave.
In the evening I sold tolkens for 4 hours, very hectic: there were in total 2 tills opened and each till had 2 people selling at top speed, but the lines didn't get any shorter until about 11pm, when my shift was over. Then I went to enjoy the set by Accordzéam and saw a bit of the after jam. I went to bed early enough, dead tired but also because I had my next shift when the festival opened on Friday.

A calm shift, I sat there mostly alone, not many people needing tokens since they'd bought them the night before... Then I went to see Double-D and Bogus at the free podium, enjoyed some Rue Pascale Quartet, and was completely set to thoroughly enjoy Naragonia. As usual the sound in the big tent was terrible, so we didn't enjoy Blowzabella as much as we could have. At that very same moment a small rainstorm announced itself, but we didn't feel that in the tents, except for the fact that it was suddenly filled with people. I ended the evening listening to Boréale but went to bed before the end of their set. And good for me I didn't stay: they played a 3 hour set in the end!

Had a good night's sleep thanks to the very good earplugs Trinket and I got. After my shift I was just in time to see Manimoen, a new group with Toon and Pablo and some of the guys from Harakiwi. A very fun set indeed! Then I went to see Thomas who was trying to reanimate the hurdy-gurdy he got for me to use this year, it was in a dreadful state. Since I was there anyways I stayed for the TLS with Toon, but one of the bagpipes was out of tune, and I only got halfway through the song when I got beaten black and blue from the inside because the baby couldn't stand those pipes anymore, so I left and wandered around a bit. I shunned the big tent that day and sat chatting with a number of people, enjoying myself immensely. At midnight there was a surprise gig by Triple-X, a great set, and I stayed until the first songs of Beatball, where once again the baby made it perfectly clear it did not appreciate the sounds that were coming its way.

Once again: thank god for earplugs!

Sunday morning, last shift, and quite calm. I picked up my hurdy-gurdy and went to listen to a bit of Miek & Roel, Herman Van Veen, Parasol and then the absolute top of the festival: 2 sets by Hot Griselda! They got called back twice at the end of the last set and they were sooooo tired. Jeroen's guitar fell down again and the damage that had been repared before reoccured: the head of the guitar split off. Luckily Trinket has about the same guitar, so he ran to get it and the barely anyone noticed Jeroen was playing a different guitar. When the stage was cleared we all went to bed, stopping by the big tent to dace a tiny bit to some good party music, and then it was all over for this year.

Looking forward to going next year, if I can persuade parents/in-laws to babysit for the weekend... maybe bringing the little one along for one day... we'll see :)

So last week I was home all week, slight viral infection causing a serious drop in blood pressure and the heat didn't improve the situation.

Monday and Tuesday I was definitely out, Wednesday was a lot better and I did some much needed shopping so as not to starve during the day ;)
On Thursday I was already feeling a lot better, so Trinket drove us to Lier in the evening where Peter had reserved us some chairs to sit and listen to an evening of Daithi Rua and Aidan Burke. Lovely as always. They were going to be back there on Sunday as well, BUT...
On Friday we had to go to the Avatar (new film by James Cameron in 3D) preview in Kinepolis and we got some free tickets as well for a movie of our choice, so we went to see Harry Potter.
On Saturday I did the rest of the shopping and we had some friends over in the afternoon and evening. Trinket cooked and we chatted until late in the evening.
Aaaand... On Sunday Trinket was playing his first Folk gig: a ball in Gooik.
The gig went great, and I heard lots of good comments afterwards, so everyone was pleased.
Now I'm going to relax for a few days. Trinket is out to the Boombalstage, and I will be joining him as of Thursday, well rested I hope.

Well, as usual, summertime is too busy.

The week-end was packed, and our plans on Sunday were slightly changed as well, we went a lot earlier to my parents and then spike1977 came over and we kinda celebrated moving into our house one year ago by having a good chat, some good spaghetti and watching the next movie we were at for SW: The Revenge of the Sith. And I still don't like that movie, but hey, it's part of it ;)

Tonight is a calm night, tomorrow there's a b-day party (and I still don't have a pressie, argh! The thing I set my mind to is impossible to find all of a sudden!), nex week-end is packed!

So if it's a bit quiet here, you know why ;)

Went to pick up the album with our wedding pictures last night, they're fab!

Because she didn't find what she liked, the photographer made the whole album herself, meaning yes, she actually hand-crafted the paper first, then cut it, then made the album and then put the pictures in. The result is great!

Had a long chat while we were there as well, the boys talking larp, rpg and IT, the girls talking wedding, babies, work and refurbishing of houses.

We got home kinda late, but it was soooo hot... so didn't sleep very well last night, especially with these damn mosquitos eating me as soon as it started to get light.

But as of tonight: WEEK-END!
With on Friday a b-day poolparty thing, on Saturday looking around for a less expensive bathroom and a visit by some good friends and on Sunday visiting my parents to show off the photos. Busy as usual. And in between try to get the walls in the attic completely finished and the house a tiny bit clean.

Gonna post a bit to unwind because they're stressing me out to bits here at work and that can't be good for the baby.

Last night after work and dinner, we rested a bit and then went to Ghent for the final evening of the 10-day festival. Finding a parking spot was hell, so in the end we just drove to the St-Michiels paypark where there was room for us. We arrived in time to enjoy the last few songs of Triple-X and see Jeroen fix a string, break it again, etc ;o)
They had a trumpet player along, Bart Maris, and combined with Stéphane's bombarde it was a great sound. They ended their set with the great slow-jig that astounded Kris when I explained the loops were recorded live during the song.

Loads of people were there: Annelies, Leen (x2), Daithi, Fré. The place was not packed this time, so we had ample room to sit and enjoy the show.

Second part: Boombalbombardement. And this time they had taken out the big guns! Wouter Vandenabeele, Tom Theuns, Soetkin Collier, Jo Zanders, Pablo Golder, Sophie Cavez, and I'm forgetting some, were joined by special guests Gabriel Yacoub and Walter De Buck. There were some great songs, and some lesser songs, but as a whole quite enjoyable. We didn't stay 'till the end, though. It was getting late, cold, and the sound wasn't that great. So with a last chocolate milkshake we were off and said good-bye to the Ghent Festivities for another year.

Since I was feeling better yesterday, I was able to carry out my plans and go to Ghent once more.

On the agenda: having pancakes with randallsilver made by his gfriend at the Novotel, Boombal Intiem with Naragonia, go and pick up Trinket, meet up again with Randall and Anja for dinner and then Hot Griselda at Baudelo.

Needless to say that a day spent with Randall was hilarious. At the Novotel there were question marks all over people's faces when we were having the pancakes, and speculation was all around: was Anja supposed to know, was I maybe his sister, etc. We had lots of laughs.
Then off to the Spiegeltent where we met Kris and enjoyed Naragonia playing. One of Kris' friends arrived as well and he and Randall instantly started being silly together (matroesjka-cups!).
After this I dropped of Randall close to his place and went to pick up Trinket who had helped the LAN-guys pack and leave.
And off we were again, back to Ghent for dinner at a great Turkish restaurant where Randall got us a free round of drinks and then off to Baudelo! Kris was there as well, and I even was able to dance a bit with Trinket. With Daithi and his camera around, more silliness ensued!

We ended the evening at the chocolate bar, a milkshake each. Yummmm...

One more evening in Ghent to go, and then it's another year's wait.

Update!

Last Thursday I went to see a specialised chiropractor for my back, since with the pregnancy and all I cannot just go to any doc. He warned me not to think it is a miracle solution and to give it at least until Sunday to really get better.

Well, it did get a whole lot better! Still have to watch out and take my rest on time, but it's a world of difference compared to the pain I was in at the beginning of the week.

So the energised me is ready to go!

How could I stay home on Tuesday? National holiday and Boombal Intiem at Baudelo plus Yevgeni at Polé Polé!
So in the afternoon I drove to Ghent once again. After some parking hassle I got there in the middle of a big rainstorm and they had of course succeeded in frying the electricity... But no worries: Jeroen and Wouter had placed themselves in the middle of the dancefloor and played an accoustic set. Until Wouter broke the string of his violin... haven't seen that too often!
Also met Patrick, zomermaantje and Annelies there. With Patrick I immediately had a dancepartner for a slow waltz and a careful scottish, so as not to hurt my back too much. Lovely to dance on a dancefloor that wasn't packed.

After that it was off to PoléPolé, where Yevgeni sang "Kannibaal" when we were well installed in the light rain and we had the chance to enjoy a few other songs. But we didn't stay long: randallsilver arrived with David for our dinner date. As usual we had a hilareous time, but the next day was another working day, so after dinner (and getting the chance to say "hi!" to Anja) I slowly went home, to rest my back since it was baaaaaad.