Well it's been a while since our last posting and a lot, yet very little has been done.
Joel has attended a playgroup a few times on Mondays and Fridays which is great. Joshua can have a good run around and mix with other little ones and Joel can interact with some adults! There is another guy who goes, with his 2 year old daughter, so Joel can actually get some male bonding time in - another bonus. The playgroup is run by a group called the BCT and we'll definitely become members as they have a lot of activities and events planned for little ones.
We had a lovely weekend a couple of weeks ago, spending Saturday at my boss's lovely country cottage with a huge garden. Josh 'played' football with Mike's 2 little boys, Daniel and Matthew and at that point Matthew decided to adopt Josh as his little brother for the day. Very cute.
The following day was the BCT's 30th birthday party (see photos above) and even though it was raining, the predominantly British group persevered with their outdoor event! Fortunately there was a little house in the park where they had cake stands and the all-important 'cuppa cha' stand. Joel was bemused by the lack of fizzy drinks/soda/pop and even more so by the teeny tiny cups the juice was served in (no refills here either!).
All in all a great weekend and we were excited that on the Tuesday we were supposed to be moving to our 3rd temporary accommodation which was nicer than our existing one. Of course, when we contacted the agency, they claimed we had totally misunderstood and they had no intention of moving us. I called one of the other reps who had been dealing with us and he agreed that his understanding was that we were supposed to have moved. A big ole' mix-up and noone really apologised or took ownership. Joel and I agreed that we were ok to stay where we were - whilst it's not great, it is on the ground floor so we have access to a small patch of grass for Josh to play on and at least it means we don't have to pack up our things again (just yet).
We are even more excited that our shipping is due to arrive in Antwerp on Thursday. At least we would be, but things are starting to get really confusing.
You don't really exist in Belgium until you have registered at your local commune. You can't register at your commune until you are living there. So, we were going to wait til our shipment arrives before we registered. Unfortunately, in order for the shipment to clear customs, you have to have registered.......
At the last minute we were suddenly advised that we needed to pay 2 months of rent for 'key money' as well as a month's rent upfront. Totally unprepared for this coupled with the fact that all our money is tied up in the US and the exchange rate is just so bad we don't want to move any of it, I asked Deloitte for an advance. They agreed to the advance (after about 15 emails on the subject) and yesterday I went to sign the contract which agreed to pay back the money. The contract required us to pay everything back by the end of July which, given the contract was dated the 23 June, isn't much of an advance if you ask me.
Our internet suddenly went down a couple of weekends ago and we assumed the server was down. When we finally got hold of the agency who own the flat, they confirmed that everything was up and running. Still no connection. This was 9 days ago and we are still battling to try and get this fixed. The agency's IT dept. say it's a problem with my laptop. Deloitte have triple tested it and claim it's a problem with the connection. Noone is really willing to budge and, in the meantime, we have no internet. Customer service doesn't really exist in Belgium. Certainly not to the standards in the US where we felt eligible to complain if something wasn't fixed after a few hours of it breaking!
The weather here has been superb. We've had about 4 days of rain in the almost 4 weeks we've been here and had lovely warm sunny days. Of course, that doesn't mean that it will hold up, but let's be thankful for the gorgeous sun we're getting at the moment.
Josh is really entertaining these days. He recognizes a lot of 'requests' to go find something. His favourite thing are shoes - anyone's - and whenever he is holding an item of clothing or towel, etc, he likes to run it behind his neck in a kind of striptease move. Delightful. He speaks a language that on occasion sounds exactly like Chinese 'ow pow wa' or similar. He also loves to throw himself on a mound of pillows or on Mummy & Daddy's bed (which, let's face it, is NOT the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on - we can't WAIT for our own bed to arrive!!).
We're still finding our feet but more settled than we were a couple of weeks ago. As I've said before, we are kind of in limbo at the moment as everything here is centered around the commune that you live in and your being able to register at that commune. Our temporary accommodation is in Woluwe but our permanent place is in Etterbeek so we can't register til we move there.
We can't find Cheerios, tofu or that cheap 'fake' parmesan in a shaker. However, the fruit and vegetables here are delicious - even Joel is eating tomatoes, a previously unthought of food item - and there are sweets a-plenty everywhere you go. Nothing is so bad that Belgian chocolate can't make it better.
Joel has attended a playgroup a few times on Mondays and Fridays which is great. Joshua can have a good run around and mix with other little ones and Joel can interact with some adults! There is another guy who goes, with his 2 year old daughter, so Joel can actually get some male bonding time in - another bonus. The playgroup is run by a group called the BCT and we'll definitely become members as they have a lot of activities and events planned for little ones.
We had a lovely weekend a couple of weeks ago, spending Saturday at my boss's lovely country cottage with a huge garden. Josh 'played' football with Mike's 2 little boys, Daniel and Matthew and at that point Matthew decided to adopt Josh as his little brother for the day. Very cute.
The following day was the BCT's 30th birthday party (see photos above) and even though it was raining, the predominantly British group persevered with their outdoor event! Fortunately there was a little house in the park where they had cake stands and the all-important 'cuppa cha' stand. Joel was bemused by the lack of fizzy drinks/soda/pop and even more so by the teeny tiny cups the juice was served in (no refills here either!).
All in all a great weekend and we were excited that on the Tuesday we were supposed to be moving to our 3rd temporary accommodation which was nicer than our existing one. Of course, when we contacted the agency, they claimed we had totally misunderstood and they had no intention of moving us. I called one of the other reps who had been dealing with us and he agreed that his understanding was that we were supposed to have moved. A big ole' mix-up and noone really apologised or took ownership. Joel and I agreed that we were ok to stay where we were - whilst it's not great, it is on the ground floor so we have access to a small patch of grass for Josh to play on and at least it means we don't have to pack up our things again (just yet).
We are even more excited that our shipping is due to arrive in Antwerp on Thursday. At least we would be, but things are starting to get really confusing.
You don't really exist in Belgium until you have registered at your local commune. You can't register at your commune until you are living there. So, we were going to wait til our shipment arrives before we registered. Unfortunately, in order for the shipment to clear customs, you have to have registered.......
At the last minute we were suddenly advised that we needed to pay 2 months of rent for 'key money' as well as a month's rent upfront. Totally unprepared for this coupled with the fact that all our money is tied up in the US and the exchange rate is just so bad we don't want to move any of it, I asked Deloitte for an advance. They agreed to the advance (after about 15 emails on the subject) and yesterday I went to sign the contract which agreed to pay back the money. The contract required us to pay everything back by the end of July which, given the contract was dated the 23 June, isn't much of an advance if you ask me.
Our internet suddenly went down a couple of weekends ago and we assumed the server was down. When we finally got hold of the agency who own the flat, they confirmed that everything was up and running. Still no connection. This was 9 days ago and we are still battling to try and get this fixed. The agency's IT dept. say it's a problem with my laptop. Deloitte have triple tested it and claim it's a problem with the connection. Noone is really willing to budge and, in the meantime, we have no internet. Customer service doesn't really exist in Belgium. Certainly not to the standards in the US where we felt eligible to complain if something wasn't fixed after a few hours of it breaking!
The weather here has been superb. We've had about 4 days of rain in the almost 4 weeks we've been here and had lovely warm sunny days. Of course, that doesn't mean that it will hold up, but let's be thankful for the gorgeous sun we're getting at the moment.
Josh is really entertaining these days. He recognizes a lot of 'requests' to go find something. His favourite thing are shoes - anyone's - and whenever he is holding an item of clothing or towel, etc, he likes to run it behind his neck in a kind of striptease move. Delightful. He speaks a language that on occasion sounds exactly like Chinese 'ow pow wa' or similar. He also loves to throw himself on a mound of pillows or on Mummy & Daddy's bed (which, let's face it, is NOT the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on - we can't WAIT for our own bed to arrive!!).
We're still finding our feet but more settled than we were a couple of weeks ago. As I've said before, we are kind of in limbo at the moment as everything here is centered around the commune that you live in and your being able to register at that commune. Our temporary accommodation is in Woluwe but our permanent place is in Etterbeek so we can't register til we move there.
We can't find Cheerios, tofu or that cheap 'fake' parmesan in a shaker. However, the fruit and vegetables here are delicious - even Joel is eating tomatoes, a previously unthought of food item - and there are sweets a-plenty everywhere you go. Nothing is so bad that Belgian chocolate can't make it better.
1 comment:
Not a dull moment!
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