Euralia 2017

This is just a yearly post with pictures. Something i decided to do last year since i left again to Australia. Just a little description what changed in euralia, so when i look back at my blog i see the  yearly changes or progress of my little heaven.

So let’s start with the house. Inside the farm doesn’t really change much, maybe just certain furniture decide to move to another spot, certain rooms getting a temporally change of purpose. In a way , it’s fun to have the interior not finished, things can be moved , rooms can be transformed multiple times and ideas still can grow.The red robins in the driveway are having a happy life. They doubled their size and becoming more and more a wall of green and red leafs . The parking area is still a gathering place of rocks, stones, concrete and misfortuned bricks . Still waiting to be shipped away to an unknown destination . 

The biggest change this year, is at the front garden. Almost has his definitive shape. The pond is ready , what makes the fish pretty happy. They don’t have to worry about predators or the coming frost. The fruit walk is finished , called like this because the path is occupied by all kinds of fruit plants. The front garden just needs some modifying and final touch. A little bridge over the pond , a waterfall and wooden deck still have to be made, but that’s it. Finally one place that will be finished in my ten years project. Even the plants in this area , are as they are to be. 

The back garden is still in his early stage. Plants still need to grow , sheltering my two little grass zones. My nine trees are reduced to three trees. Three trees are already entangled with each other so they look like one tree. The ultimate goal will be that they all become one big statue of branches curled together , forming bridges over the path . A living sculpture providing the back garden with a cool shade area.

Eve is smiling, her fruit trees had their first fruit hanging on the few branches. Soon she will be able not only eating an apple , but also cherry’s and pears. How would that change the world. Soon i will be able to sit on a self made bench , extra magnifying glasses on my head and a walking stick next to me, watching eve enjoying the forbidden fruit of my garden.In the end , there was not much change between 2016 and 2017. But this was expected. Due financial means and being away, not much can change. The years that are following are just a time zone to leave the garden of eve slowly take their natural shape. It is a process of years to allow the green habitants to mature. 

All roads lead somewhere

It was good to see Euralia and the family again. Ten months were gone and there is a lot that can change in ten months.

The fauna and flora of Euralia didn’t stop growing and certain creatures has found refuge in my little oasis of green. A hedgehog has made his own network of tunnels to escape when i came up driving the driveway. Birds made little houses under the roof. Fish had multiplied as rabbits. Yep, it was good to see there was life in the little farm in Loksbergen. But they had to learn to live with a new resident for the next eight weeks.
A lot was planned, but i noticed soon enough that broken ribs and bags of concrete don’t mix so well. There was not much i could do the first weeks , except walking around admiring the tunnel work of the hedgehog and seeing the fish reproduce. And of course netflixen, and enjoying a warm relax hot bad to gentle the painful ribs. A shame a female specie didn’t found my safe heaven while i was away. I definitely could use the company.

But as always time just crawls further. After a few weeks one bag of cement a day became two and then three, and soon i was working again at the plans i had for the farm. One of the ideas i had was to finish the pound, It was necessary , because at the rate the fish were multiplying, they would need some more space and depth to survive the cold and there natural predators. But still , my working rhythm was way below my normal speed. 

Luckily , i had some visits of new exciting friends helping out the heavy work in the garden. . And a godchild who loved his new by himself chosen swimming pool. Swimming and playing in the water , that even made my own fish in their pond jealous. But still, my ribs were a pain in the ass. So many plans were made in the red outback , for the couple of weeks i would be in Euralia. And just one was slowly taking shape. But it is as it is. 

Our yearly city trip was coming nearby. This year my sis and i were going to Rome. A city that talks to the imagination. Romans, gladiators, popes, nuns, Caligula, Caesar, hidden treasures and more. This time we didn’t need to go with carriage number two. A plane brought us to the airport of the ancient city. From there a formula one pilot with an abusing language , thinking he was driving a mini instead of a bus full of scary passengers brought us in a minimum of time to the centre through graffiti invested suburbs. We walked  a detour of an half hour to reach our little hotel. I have to confess , that making detours in a city build on a hill is not really a good idea. But it was a charming hotel located next to an exciting club, but sadly , not having had the occasion to visit. 
Rome, Oh Rome. Always do as the Romans do. But there were not many Romans to see. The centre was invaded by tourists , visiting all the ponds there were to visit. For every god , Greek or roman and who else knows, there was one, protected by officers who had invented an own language on there little whistle . Sometimes we wondered we had stepped back in time. More precisely , 1943, an occupied city in time of war. Armed military patrolling the mayor entrees and attractions of the inner city. But as the Romans do, we just sat on a terrace enjoying a cool beer in the heat of the day, hoping this day wouldn’t be the day they blow up fountain number 65. 

But Rome did impressed me, especially ancient Rome. 
The Colosseum , the playground of the riches and the men about to die. Thinking in the past, it had to be amazing, Rome, the metropolis where all roads lead to. A white shiny marbled town full of fresco's on top of the hill. Houses that look down the valley , with the roar of the fighting gladiators in the background. We could only imagine the riches brought here from around the world. But talking about the Colosseum , it’s something i will never forget. the grandeur situated in time, even if it was in his state of ancient Rome nowadays, it would have been nothing to compare to. A building that would have blinded you on a sunny day. 
Imaging the gladiators in the middle of the arena surrounded by 80000 spectators . Even in present day , superstars don’t attract that many people. What would have been the thought of those men in the middle of the arena. Leaving there earthly life by the scream and roar of those 80000 viewers . “This is a good day to die”. 
But thinking about it , life didn’t change that much in all those years. The riches still life a life of decadency and the poor work all there life to reach this goal to finally drop dead working. We still have our wars around the world trying to own the globe. People did’t change at all, we only changed our clothing and appearance. I wonder what ancient philosophers would write nowadays. 

Time to be back in the present. Time to do some work in Euralia and to achieve that decadency, and hopefully before i drop dead. It was time to clean up , and getting the farm ready to hibernate and leave it into the hands of my previous occupants , who have been into hiding since i arrived. My plane to the other side of the globe was waiting.

Another flight

After my short flight in empty space from ramp to rock, i soon had another flight coming up. I spend  scaring days in the hospital , waiting if the doc’s would give me permission to fly again , but then for a trip of 16000 k’s. Ribs fractured and a collapsed long with air inside are not really the best circumstances to take a flight of this magnitude on. The only thing i could do those days in the hospital were trying to get my longs as quick as possible back in a their normal function. So i started to train. The stairs in the hospital were my play ground. Trying to walk up the stairs was never that hard, especially considering i’m a die hard on walking up a hill , multiple times a day , as part of my daily work out bush trying to create a track to the top of the hill. But i kept walking those damned stairs in the hospital, making several doc’s and nurses nervous. 

But it helped, after a few days my long capacity was back to normal, as normal you could get for somebody who likes his rollies. The only thing i couldn’t get out of my longs was the extra air in it. And as we know pressure on high altitudes can give some troubles in a human body. So i had to wait, patiently till a few days before my departure if i could fly or not. I had a doc’s appointment a few days before my flight date. 

Two days later , i was standing at the tiny airport in Alice, with the approval of the doc. I have to say , i was a bit anxious . Several flights were waiting a head of me, 38 hours of travelling without bed, shower, now i wished i had one of those cards with enough saving points on so i could upgrade to first class and have a bed in the plane. But a good thing a witch in ancient times discovered plants with calming effects. Nowadays something you can buy in every chemist without ending on a burning stake. Luckily i had those painkillers with me and off i went. I have to say , this was the hardest flight ever, and i did a few of them, i remember the Chinese airline one, all Chinese movies without subtitles, other flights, where the close transit are so close together , you end up just thinking the whole damned flight if you gonna make he connecting flight or not , because of a delay  at the departure time at the starting point. The multiple times my luggage was nowhere to be found at the collecting area. 

And this flight has become number one on my list. It all went smoothly , thanks to more then one painkiller, till i was somewhere above the ocean between Australia and India mainland. Suddenly our flight captain announces that we gonna make an emergency landing. Such a simple few words can make you jump up a little bit more in your not already comfortable seat. Are we hijacked , not uncommon in our present global community ? Are there problems with the plane, did they change the more expensive bolts that keep the plane together, for cheaper ones to keep the flight cost down in our global economical downfall ? Or are we beamed up by a higher intellectual aliens, preferable all females ( but that's my personal objective opinion of course, i reckon my female passengers are hoping they are being beamed up by Brad , Clooney, Depp or Banderas look a likes)?It’s a good thing our dear captain , didn’t wait to long to say the real reason we were diverted to another airport Colombo , Sri Lanka for the emergency landing. A few passengers became really ill during the flight, and there was no doc or medical treatment available at the moment to keep flying for another 7 hours and to maintain the safety and health of those passengers. So down we went, we spend a few hours sitting in the air plane on a airstrip in Colombo. And remember , we always try to make our long flights as short as possible to shorten the transit times as much we can. This time it was no different. I had three hours transit time in Dubai, and saw the minutes, hours ticking by at an airport in Sri Lanka with fractured ribs in the most perfect seats there are available.




So i think you can imagine what i did the next seven hours of flight when we departure again from Colombo. Landing in Dubai , i was already prepared to stay there , and wait till there was another flight to Brussels. But no, there was a hostess standing with one of those signs up in her hands, and it did had written my name on. So , i gladly and willingly went to see her, it’s not every day a beautiful woman chooses me out of a crowd of exhausting people. But sadly , she just tells me to run with her. Not even the time to have a chat. So i run trough the endless airport of Dubai chasing a short shirted air hostess. We arrived at the closing gates of the flight to Brussels. I didn’t even had the time to bring up my nicotine level in my body. Immediately boarding to Brussels airport. I don’t even know the name of my life saving angel who ran together with me trough crowed spaces as we were be chase by something evil.

Thanks to extra painkillers i managed to survive the next flight and landed without extra problems in Zaventem. The only thing was that my bag again didn’t emerge out of that luggage hole . I lost count how many times my luggage didn’t leave the airport at the same time as me. But i have to say, all those times my bag always found his way back to me.