Did you know

Did you know that 49.6% of households in India have a toilet?
By contrast, more than 60% own a cell phone.
Clearly owning a toilet is over rated.

It's a....

I already share some time ago that comes August I will become an aunt.
Tonight my brother and Lisa invited both families to join over skype to find out altogether whether it is a boy or a girl. Note that we already confirmed there was only one baby.
My brother had read the story of future parents who wanted their whole family to find out the sex of the baby together with them The story says that they asked the doctor to write the sex of the baby on a piece of paper and to put it in an envelope. The future parents took the envelope to the bakery and asked for cup cakes to be prepared with the stuffing matching the sex of the baby: blue for a boy, pink for a girl. Later on they gathered their family and everybody found out at the same time, biting into their cup cake.
Inspired by this story, Lisa and my brother asked for the famous envelope. Sadly no cup cakes were baked. Blame it on the distance between all of us.
Still, tonight, we connected via skype, the envelope was opened and we found out that it's a girl!!!!

Note to myself: check out how group video works on skype. Seeing the face of my brother as he find out that he will have a baby girl would have made the night even better!

Happy 100th anniversary, Oreo Cookie!

Happy Birthday to the cookie of my vacation in Asia and US.

It's official

Publication of the banns for our marriage.
Let's hope no one will oppose :)

Thanks Mum for helping with the paperwork and taking the picture.

L'Ecole du dos

Today I had an appointment with the doctor to figure out how to fix my back. First good news the appointment was advanced: someone cancelled and gave me the chance to go two hours earlier thus avoiding rush hours which is always nice. Second blood analysis showed everything is normal. Third the muscles of my back are weak. There is hope for strengthening them by 50%. That's apparently good news. Fourth one of my disk is in bad shape. That was not good news. Net the doctor decided to enroll me in the Ecole du dos (school for the back) to re-educate me thoroughly. And thoroughly it will be as we're talking about 36 hours!!!!! 6 hours of theory and 30 hours of exercises under close supervision with the hope of no more pain and a better back for the long run. I can't even start thinking how I will manage work, thoses classes, my own swimming, preparation of the wedding, training for the 20K with Alice and Ingrid, and the potential move. I feel some serious planning will be needed. But for now, I will try to get some sleep because lack of sleep will not help any of the above.

2MossesRunRome - Marathon 2012

A colleague of mine is running the Rome marathon with his daughter to raise money for cancer research.
A beautiful story that I feel deserve support and being shared. Read about it here.

Go Charlie and Mike!



Finally, we know why

I've been having back pain for a bit more than 4 years now. Whoever knows me, knows about it and the adjustments I've made in my life to reduce / limit the pain.
Since December however my back has been painful, literally speaking, getting to the point where I struggle to sit for more than one hour in a row. My colleagues have had the delight to watch me alternating between sitting and standing in meetings. Not the best way to concentrate.
Leveraging my Dad's network, I've had an appointment with another specialist in February to help finding a solution. She asked for a full set of tests, including MRI, blood analysis and muscle strength measure.
What I discovered is that getting a MRI for the back in Belgium is a test of patience. Namely, minimum two months before having an appointment. And apparently I was lucky as some people mentioned up to three months.
This is where my Dad worked a little miracle finding a MRI appointment for me within two weeks time. However not in Belgium but in France, in Lille. Once again it feels good to have a doctor in the family extremely well connected who can get you appointments faster than for anyone else.
This morning we left the house early to avoid traffic on the ring and drove to Lille. Wolfram had to take a day off to drive me there as driving is, sadly, one the things that are extremely painful these days. Sitting alone is bad, driving is worse. After a little tour at the Carrefour near the hospital where we bought a puzzle (my passion these days when I have to rest), I had my MRI scan done.
Given the MRI was done in France, I had to pay the whole amount and hope getting some of it reimbursed in Belgium. Fingers crossed I'll see some of that money back.
Net, it took my Dad's connections and 350 Euros to finally get an answer to what's causing my back pain. Based on how it looks on the scan, I'm not sure I will like what the doctor will say in our upcoming appointment.

Until then, I can focus my mind on the puzzle :)