the small world we live in

It was in September that my sister sent me a instant message to tell me she had found our brother online!
We had lost contact with him after our father’s death and we had all been looking for each other. My niece’s husband found him on Facebook!
Since I had more or less snubbed Facebook as something only the younger generations were using, that was a place where I had never searched.
Of course I have since adjusted our point of view and have been uploading items and added friends.
Then out of the blue I received an email from my old boyfriend. We had not seen each other since 1978 when we broke up! That was a shocker! Of the good kind but a shocker all the same! This goes to show that the internet does work in bringing people together in amazing ways.
I had often wondered what had become of him and even now have memory triggers that linger and remind me of the places we went and the things we did.

As we are filling the holes of what happened to both of us since we last saw each other, I have been taking pictures to show him and his wife where my husband and I live.
Some pictures turned out so well I wanted to add them here too.

There won’t be too many more ‘nice’ days this year so we might as well take advantage of them. I miss the Belgium I left so many years ago and realize that is something I can never go back to but finding links to my youth has been comforting and healing for me.

New Voice to me

Just had to write about Sarah Bettens this morning.
Had no idea who she was until this morning.
She is Belgian too. She lives in Tennessee. She is a singer.
She has an amazing voice.
She was featured in Flanders Today online magazine
http://www.flanderstoday.eu/jahia/Jahia/pid/2105
I followed the link to her site to find out what she sounded like and was so delighted by what I heard I had to embed a link to her concert in my blog.
She will be at the Festival of the Golden Spurs this week-end in Belgium.
I understand how she would have a great following.
Just had to share my WOW for the day!

Music speaks to the soul, in any language: Queen Elizabeth Competition

When I was about 10 years old I developed a liking for the Queen Elizabeth Competition. It was hard to follow as I was young and the competition happened at night.

I had a little radio and had been able to locate the channel where the competition was being broadcasted every night so when I went to bed, it was not to sleep right away or at least not as fast as my father was hoping I would.

It is true that it is how I discovered there was classical music I didn't like as well. Some eventually grew on me but some remains much of the contemporary classical movement remains 'too much' for me. That is where I fell in love, Tchaikovsky's famous Piano Concerto#1.

This also helped strike a friendship later in life with someone who would give me a recording of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony made during the Queen Elisabeth Competition competition.

"In 1937 a dream, long-cherished by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium and Eugène Ysaye, came true: the Concours Eugène Ysaye was born. The war brought this enterprising and generous venture to a stop that many thought definitive. However, the Queen’s determination was such that the competition was eventually resumed in 1951 under its present name. It soon became a highly popular event in Belgium’s musical life and progressively acquired an enviable international status.

...In 1988, the directors of the Q.E.C. launched the Song Award. This was done on an experimental basis, but the general response was such that it is now a permanent component of the Q.E.C.

An important characteristic of the Q.E.C. is its emphasis on Belgian contemporary music which was materialized in the test pieces for the semi-finals and the finals. In fact, from 1938 to 1983, the unpublished concerto played by all twelve finalists was by a Belgian composer. The first of these was composed by Jean Absil for the 1938 Concours Eugène Ysaye"

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Mar02/Queen_Elisabeth.htm.htm

The internet has brought the competition online and what a special treat to find it just in time for the Piano last year! I was able to download the mp3s on ITune but my pc crashed and all that remains is what I have uploaded here. The Belgian Liebrecht Van Beckevoort took 6th place. The winner Anna Vinnitskaya, was brilliant. I watched the audience stand up, applauding for an encore, which is not be allowed by competition rules, because they were so taken with her performance. And it was absolutely wonderful! I think she won that day, but maybe not...

I'll admit that I skipped the Voice this year and although I look forward to next year's Violin, the Piano is my favorite, and that will have to wait until 2010. They have announced the rules for the 2009 Violin Competition.

http://www.concours-reine-elisabeth.be/

To watch this year's performances - until September 15, 2008, go to http://video.cmireb.be/vod/

Ramblings...

As I scrambled to finish putting Belgian Laces together this time, I have found myself wandering lots of wonderful places that I can add to this blog but that I would also like to add to a specifically TBR blog... That would be nice but I think I am really scattering myself way too much already.

I am torn between talking about the year my parents were married: 1958 and the terrible weather Liege and all of Belgium is having to deal with this year...

I saw some terrible reports on the news that make me worry about my friends and I hope they're ok.

I was translating an article about floodings that occurred in the Middle Ages and at one point there was such terrible destruction that they didn't even rebuild. They left...

No tsunamis in Belgium but the way the rain has come down lately, the flash floods that come of the storms have created waves of mud streaming down the streets, getting into everything... It's awful to see... In one month Liege has had 3 episodes...

And it's been all over Belgium, there has not been any real safe place to speak of.

Right now the big concern is the water supply that is no longer safe to drink because of the storms, and then this morning I read that water is once again ok to drink in Wallonia, so I am beginning to relax a little.

Goes to show that what Mother Nature wants, Mother Nature gets... nothing stands in her way...

The only difference has been that through coordinated effort they have been able to minimize the problems although in one situation their safe plans failed because the water cut the rescuers off from everything...

The US have not been spared either and the economy is bound to feel it in times that are already hard enough on everyone.

Legacy

The past couple of years we have experienced something rather unique.
Bruce’s uncle Stanley died and Bruce has been serving as Administrator of his estate.
We almost didn’t have know there was an estate and that is a whole story by itself but serendipity lined things up so we were able to discover a treasure trove of family documents, photos, letters and artifacts that we are grateful to have been able to recover.
Bruce’s uncle lived in Los Angeles. He was 84y old, never married and was definitely a pack rat.

One treasure I want to share is the near 180 letters he wrote his mother during the time he was in the service between November 1942 and August 1945.

I have made phone calls to several places including to the Legacy Project http://www.warletters.com/mission/index.html
Andy was very nice and suggested reading the whole lot of them and finding one letter that was more outstanding than the rest and posting it to their site.
That is how I learned a little more about the man behind the boxes of things we had brought back from Los Angeles.

I discovered someone who must not have been very happy and had learned to keep to ‘safe’ subjects in his letters although at times the wall does come down but he would not let the guards down long.
Maybe I can start typing the letters here… one at a time… create a webpage for him in his memory before we ship the whole thing to Fort Sam Houston where they will keep his letters in the museum. Odd to think a person’s things could end up in a museum… and the only reason we are opting for Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio, TX rather than Los Angeles is that Stanley was part of that first group of trained technicians that came out of Brooke General Hospital, now the Brooke Army Medical Center.

He later became a landscaper and would have rather been in the Fort’s green houses than doing what they had him trained and training others to do but he was there for more than 18 months and tells his experience through his letters.

I would like to eventually publish the whole thing and so reserve the right to do this.
The timing may not be right and there may be more psychology involved here than little ole me can handle. When the time is right, maybe… we’ll see… right now… the tedious task of transcribing is daunting and I am not looking forward to it…
So here goes nothing…

Baseball: Rockies win!

Baseball, baseball and more baseball…
It seems like I was doomed from Day 1 of our marriage.
My life is so entwined with the sport of baseball I’m not sure I’d know how to act if there were no baseball games to go to any more.
And so here we go again… After a disastrous year last year, Michael has had an incredible season this year. He plays for the Peru Little League Rockies. His team only won one game last year. They started the season slow and we were ready for a repeat but did they ever surprise us!!! They only lost 4 games total. They finished ranked #2 and won the City Tournament!
Michael who had not had a single hit all year last year (practices don’t count), really came out of his shell this year! He blew us away when he hit a 3 run homer followed in the same game by a grand slam! It was inevitably followed by a strike-out streak but he snapped out of it and started hitting the ball again…
Where he really surprised a lot of people was with his pitching.
He threw 2 no-nos (no hitters – someone asked how that could be called no hitters as he did hit a batter in both of those games putting them on base)…
Say that I am a terrible mother but the thought of him having to learn that life quickly turns the tables on people, I wasn’t thrilled at the news he would be pitching in the championship game… “What a time to eat humble pie?”, I shamelessly thought…
Well… I am eating the crow… and happily so… Michael did great. His pitch count pulled him out for the last batter but another great little player relieved him and got the job done: Eamon Borse. Final score: Rockies 11 – Cubs 6
It was not a no hitter… In fact Michael gave up a homerun to his friend Larry… but they made brilliant plays! They played like a team should, together… Nobody more important than the other…
Much can be learned from sports, when we relax and let ourselves enjoy the moment and remember that these are games. The parents were great this year too. For the first time in a long time I enjoyed going to the Little League Park… And for us, our time is done…
We will be doing All-Stars soon, where and when we still have no clue but Michael is sre excited.

Online memorials

Some people would consider my activities past weird.
I just came back from the cemetery where I have been taking pictures of the graves.
They are not particularly special in beauty or artistry. They are special because they contain information that researchers may be looking for, but more than that.
This all started for me about 3-4 years ago or so.
I have never been fond of cemetery. I had never understood how people could jog through cemeteries as part of their daily exercise routines. To me THAT was weird. I figured I would eventually end up in one of them soon enough, why would I haunt them prematurely?
Well… I guess it’s another one of those “never say never” times for me…
I always seem to eat my words…
And this I do happily…
My grandmother Driessens died in 1994 in Belgium of course and I could not attend the funeral. However my father did something amazing. He sent me the ribbon that was wrapped around the coffin along with a clip of my grandmother’s white hair… In his letter he added that he wanted me to have a private ceremony to have my own closure.
Well, of course I could not do that! That was my grandmother’s hair… I kept it!
Then my father passed in 2000 and there could be no closure for me there either. Until one I opened an old letter and saw a picture of him waiving back at me as though he was saying goodbye and I cried like a baby…
As a genealogist I interact with many other researchers all over and one person in particular peeked my interest. He was taking pictures at the Robermont cemetery fro a website. http://www.lescimetieres.com/Accueil/cadreaccueil.htm
Since my Grandmother’s ashes had been dispersed on a lawn there, I asked him if he could send me a picture of that lawn. It was really out of curiosity at first. Joseph is a wonderful guy and he sent me the attachment shortly thereafter.
I had not been prepared for the effect the picture would have on me.
Pretty much like seeing my father waiving at me…
There was texture to the event. Something that had happened so long ago but that maybe because of distance had not quite registered completely. I was overwhelmed.
That day I realized that Joseph Beaujean, the photographer, had given me a priceless gift.
It may not have cost him much materially, although it cost him in time and dedication, but the gift was without a doubt priceless.
That day I realized that I wanted to do the same for others and began to help my friend Deb Beheler, who coordinates the Indiana GenWeb, including Miami county where I live, with her project of indexing the local cemeteries and adding pictures to the index.

http://incass-inmiami.org/miami/cemeteries/perutwp.htminmiami.org/miami/cemeteries/perutwp.htm
That’s how I started spending time in cemeteries… Amazing? Not really… I just hope someone will benefit from this effort… I know I have, as, strangely enough, I have grown closer to the community I live in. I have found our Adeline Cattin who taught French to Cole Porter when he was 6 years old. I know where she is even though I still haven't actually found her grave yet... Soon I hope...

Pierre Rapsat - Joan joue aux dominos

Pierre Rapsat - Joan joue aux dominos
Vidéo envoyée par Quarouble

Bonjour ou Bonsoir ,
Second des trois extraits du Concert
Rares sont les Artistes a s'être fait accompagner par un tel ensemble Musical .
Beau moment ...


http://www.rapsat.net/
Sité créé par un Fan .....bien fait

Pierre Rapsat

I’m not a poet, but I wanted you to understand why this song is so beautiful.
This is probably Pierre Rapsat’s most beautiful song.
For more about him
http://pierrerapsat.canalblog.com/

All the dreams that we have shared
All those dreams, must not be forgotten
All that brings us a bit of sweetness
All that matters leaves us

All the dreams, all those dreams, all those stolen kisses
All those long gone dreams that we have abandoned
That gave us the desire to keep going
Now plead with us just to keep standing

But the dreams, all those dreams that we no longer dream
But those dreams, all those dreams that we believed lost
It only takes a spark so that all of a sudden
They resurface deep inside of us...

Let’s love the stars
Let’s let them go their way
Love the stars

All these dreams buoy us up, make us love life
All these dreams, they lift us up and make us want
Want a better world, it’s beautiful but easy
Not to make mistakes, that’s more difficult

Because the dreams, sometimes fail
And end up in front of a tv screen
In a world that attacks us and can tear us to bits
Alone in a 3 room apartment, all that remains...

Let’s love the stars
Let them go their way
Love the stars
Let them go their way

All the dreams that we have pursued
All the dreams, all these dreams for a happy present
That gave us the desire to go the distance
Now beg us to keep standing

But the dreams, all these dreams that we didn’t dream any more
But the dreams, all these dreams that we thought were lost
It only takes a spark so that all of a sudden
They come back in strength, the dreams are inside us.
The dreams are inside us...

Words (French) and Music by Pierre Rapsat

Pierre Rapsat les rêves sont en nous

Pierre Rapsat les rêves sont en nous
Vidéo envoyée par sylvieh

montage photos sur la chanson de Pierre Rapsat les rêves sont en nous

Stella Artois replacing Bud?

Boy oh boy, have you been following the news of InBev’s unsolicited bid to buy Anheuser-Busch?
I had heard in passing that they had bought the Clydesdales to advertise their beer (Leffe), and thought it was cool but many people obviously think it’s awful.

Then I heard of the bid and mentioned it to my husband and for whatever reason he must have thought I was telling him he should buy some stock so he did… So now I own some BUD stock! Still not sure what it means or whether it’s a good thing to let InBev buy or not but it’s certainly exciting to me to see that a Belgian company is causing such havoc in this country.

InBev sells Leffe beer as mentioned before but since I’m no beer drinker, it means very little to me. Now Stella Artois on the other hand I recognize more easily. Not that I ever had any either but the name is more familiar. After all it is Belgium's #1 beer!
The glasses these beer are poured in are what always fascinated me, and the places where they were made.

When I was young, my father took us on week-end outings in the Ardennes and we would usually stop to have an omelette and he would order beer.
I wonder where this will all go… today the stock is down but it’s up from when we bought it… Something to keep an eye on… Isn’t life interesting!?

June already!

Can’t believe it’s June already!
Where have these past months gone to?!

I had really hoped to devote more time to learning the ropes of a blog but here we are again in the middle of baseball season… This is our last year of Little League.
We never thought we would see the day, but we are.
Michael has had some success this year and this has made things somewhat more pleasant. He got to pitch the last game they played and only threw 46 pitches in 5 innings to win the game 8-2. He pitched a no hitter! Even had a ‘perfect’ game into the 3rd or 4th inning when he hit a batter and caused he walked.
Oh well…

Our little town of Peru, IN had a fire that burned down a furniture store located next to the Circus building that is a big tourist attraction every summer. This has put a real damper on things although it is nice watching the acrobats practice on the river front. It’s almost like stepping back in time.
They say they’ll not be using the building this year so they have to improvise and his will no doubt mean lost revenues and extra bills.

This reminded me so much of those times when my father took Hélène and me to the Jean Richard Circus. It was always in a tent. I can’t remember if we went to see this one but the Bouglione Circus is quite important in Belgium.

This year marks an anniversary in Belgium… that of the 1958 Brussels World Fair, the one that saw the birth of the Atomium.
http://www.bluebrussels.com/pictures/atomium/flickr.php

For the occasion the monument was spruced up and is more beautiful than ever.
I found some beautiful pictures on Flickr but I’m pretty sure they’re copyrighted.
There was an article published online a couple of days ago about the often overlooked beauty of Belgium, but they also pointed out how expensive things are for the American tourist right now with the exchange rate being so disadvantageous.

I am content working with the Archives and FamilySearch to get the records online – when that happens – as traveling to Belgium is becoming less and less likely every year.

This year the animals the kids brought us had babies: 8 puppies in January and 7 kittens 3 weeks later!!! It was a zoo here… We are now down to 4 cats and 4 dogs… better than 10 of each!!!

Next time I write I’m try to compose something special about Belgium or Liege.