A beautiful day of Thanksgiving

It's been a busy last few days. Maggie's parents arrived on Friday from Amsterdam; they've been on a Netherlands trip for more than a week, and are here for a five or six-day visit. We've had a great time catching up with the news of their adventures, and showing off our new apartment. Last night they helped us organize a big cocktail party for Maggie's birthday (but I'll let her blog about that herself), and enjoyed meeting all of our Brussels friends and celebrating with us.

Today we went off in different directions; Maggie, her parents and Duncan headed to the Place Gilson Sunday market, which is fabulous, and Malcolm and I stayed home for a bit. He painted while I sang through a couple arias, and then we headed out to catch the GB grocery before it closed at noon, to pick up a few things, then headed to the Hippodrome de Boitsfort where I've heard there is a brocante every second Sunday of the month. We are still on the lookout for all sorts of things to continue furnishing the house, but even if you aren't actually looking for anything specific it pays to poke around these flea markets just to keep up on what sorts of things they have. You can sometimes get some fantastic bargains if they don't quite know the value of the stuff they're selling...

Unfortunately there wasn't a brocante in sight, so Malcolm and I were about to walk home when we spotted the sign for the Brussels Golf Club, and decided to take a look, hoping that the visit wouldn't be totally wasted. It proved to be a great idea: Malcolm and I rented a couple of clubs and hit a bucket of balls on the driving range, and got the details on green fees. It turns out that when the old Hippodrome shut down, someone bought the land and built a nine-hole golf course, range, putting green and clubhouse on it. It was fairly cheap, and there are four golf pros there (one Canadian) offering private and group lessons for kids and adults. They play here all year round, and it's fairly inexpensive, although you need to take a test and get your "authorized golfer" card before they'll let you on a course in Europe.

I forgot to mention the weather today that made it so beautiful; we started out in sweaters but were soon in t-shirts and jeans. The sky is a gorgeous blue, and it's still and quite warm, well over 20 degrees.

Duncan has a friend over for a play date this afternoon, his buddy Valentin, and you should hear the three of them chattering away... Duncan operates like a native speaker in French, it's really amazing to hear. Maggie's on the back terrace ironing in the sunshine, and her parents are having a little lie down. I'm drinking a small Jupiler and having a little snack; in a few minutes I'll start prepping for tonight's Thanksgiving dinner: leg of lamb, green beans, carrots and potatoes (I couldn't find a turkey but no problem; lamb is always yummy!).

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!