Alone at home

After careful consideration, we agreed with my parents that they can go to the theater tonight and leave us alone at home. We promised to behave so no babysitter would be needed.

Good to go

Today we completed the last step before the townhall. I dragged Wolfram to the notary to get the marriage contract sign. Sadly both France and Belgium are a bit behind in terms of marriage laws and therefore people get a contract done just in case. Because in those modern worlds you never know what can happen. I want to make sure that if one say I open a bed and breakfast and fail miserably, Wolfram won't have to pay for my debts. After this expensive exercise (400 euros!!!!!), we dropped the required attestation to the townhall. We also had a look at the room where it will happen. That's it, we're good to go.

Different perceptions

9 hours in the car
Wolfram will say the trip went easy and smooth, with no traffic and a bit of sun all the way. He might even say it went fast and was positively surprised each time 100km more were completed.
I, on the other hand, was in pain after 15min. I will tell you this trip was long, very long, that I'm happy there was no traffic or it would have been worse, that thinking of the upcoming 600km was nearly killing me.
Clearly the state of mind you are in, defines how you see things. Half full and sunny or half empty and dark.

Now where is the swimming pool to try to rescue what's left of my back?

First lessons from first day looking for a wedding dress

1) Make an appointment
Most places will open their doors only if you have an appointment. This said, the advantage is that the shop is then just for you and your crowd. Full attention just on you.
2) I like (high) quality fabric
In one of the shops we visited today, the designer who received us showed us the fabrics he works with: silk, satin, double layer satin, wild silk, and many more. Just buy seeing the fabric you can imagine how beautiful the dress will be. As a consequence any shop with 100% polyester dresses ended up almost immediately discarded, even more if they had pearls and beads on them. I simply don't see myself getting married in polyester even if I know it will cost me an arm and a leg.
3) Bring someone you trust to guide you
Sales persons will just try to sell you anything, especially the most expensive ones. And we witnessed a woman being advised to choose one dress over the other, just because it's more expensive and not because it fits her better.
4) No meringue type of dress
The more meringue the dress was (i.e. all puffy and full of air), the worst it was. We did laugh a lot but seriously I don't see myself getting married in a dress that will require 2m-wide aisle so I can walk through.
5) Bustier dress could be an option
Assuming I keep my shoulders straight.
Yes, mum I can hear you :)
6) It's exhausting
It's not just like any other shopping trip after which you come home with plenty of bags. This time you tour around several shops, try dozens of dresses and keep asking yourself: "Is this the one?"

Next round in two weeks. Let's see how this goes.

PS: THANK YOU Alice for joining me on this first day.

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.