Ups and downs

Yesterday was not a good day. I had the car all day and Joel was stuck at home in the rain with Josh. By the time I got home, he was bouncing off the walls. Fortunately we managed to get in contact with the BCT (Brussels Childbirth Trust) and found out that they had a playgroup on Friday mornings (actually it's a craft group but let's see how Joshua interprets 'crafts'...). So this morning, Joel dropped me off at work and headed over to Wezembeek Oppem in the east of the city to check out the new group. We'll let you know how that went.

The BCT looks like a great organization for us to be involved with. There are playgroups, coffee mornings, craft sessions, etc all over the city. Their 30th birthday party is on Sunday with a party in the park so we are going to head down that way to check out the clowns, face painting and bouncy castles!

Tomorrow we are heading to my new boss Mike's house for a BBQ with his family and another British inpat to Brussels (by way of South Africa and Paris), David. David's a Director with Deloitte and he and I started here on the same day. His wife and daughters are still in Paris until the beginning of July but already Kim (his wife) and I are emailing each other so I look forward to her arrival! The great thing about the 2 of them is that they have known about their relocation for an extended period of time so they are already in their own home. Of course this means they have researched everything to do with internet/phone/cable tv providers, how to register at the commune and a number of other key steps that we will also be going through. David offered to give us Kim's email address so she and Joel can share information - I asked if Kim would mind if it wasn't such a reciprocal arrangement......I'm not sure it will be a give and take relationship!

The weather could be better (miserable grey rain all day yesterday and really very chilly today) but hey, we didn't move to northern Europe for the weather (or the cost of living - although beer, wine and chocolate desserts are all very reasonably priced...). We are really looking forward to the weekend!