X-mas & New Year '07

Incredible what a different life you can create when you have no obligations and can do whatever you please. After working (only) six weeks, my life took the disorder of a whirlwind and blew me in all kinds of directions.

The trip to Europe from Watson Lake was pretty tiring. First a 20 hour drive to Edmonton with another hour waiting in the car until it was 6am and grandma was awake. A few hour visit followed before we did the last hours to Calgary in the afternoon.
36 hours I spend with my best friend Warren in Calgary, we had so much to talk and show to each other that we only slept for six of them. He took me to his work for six hours, we drove around, Warren made me fantastic food, we watched his photos of Costa Rica, we talked talked talked and played Carcassonne.

I so wish I could take this friend in my bag and give him a house close to mine.
So the night before my flight we did not sleep and he dropped me off very early in the morning; one flight to Chicago, a six hour wait and further to Paris: 28 hours in transit. I arrived in Paris around midday.

Trying to carry my whole ‘house’ with me and a moose antler (Zeph’s Christmas present) I had waaaaay to much weight. So I thought to be smart and made my carry-on box really heavy. It turned out there was a weight limit on this too. I had 22kg in that little box; there was a 12kg limit. Oeps! So, there I was, at the end of the last line before walking to my departure gate in Calgary: “This is gonna cost you a lot of money m’am, like $300.” Shit! I had to go and ask information. “Yeah, but my plane is leaving soon.” “Ok, let me see your flight itinerary m’am. Let’s see, your plane leaves at 7:17 and right now it’s......7:20...... O, ok, run to your gate, and see what’s happening.” Like a chicken without a head I ran through the hallways, of course into the wrong direction, and made it just in time to the gate, my name was already announced through the speakers: “Will Mathu Bloom come to Gate 20B now. This is the last call for Mathu Bloom.” She said to not worry about my big box, it would arrive, maybe not with the same plane, but it would get there. Of course I worried; all my ten diaries and three years of souvenirs were captured inside. On arrival my heart was ticking like crazy until I saw my bag, my other bag AND the box. The box had been damaged immensely and when we walk through the doors of the airport and hit the corner of the door it fell apart entirely, all my little stones and prullaria rolled out..... Imagine that happening half an hour earlier. But it all worked...... without spending $300, lucky dip-shit.

So, there I was, back in Zeph’s arms, back in grey Paris, back in European hours. Now Christmas could really start.

Diner with Zeph’s brother and sisters to discuss mum’s birthday diner, shopping for presents, being together, renting a car and driving to Holland and embracing my parents.

Shopping in Eindhoven with my brother and his girlfriend, wrapping presents and eating little snacks my dad created.

It was only the 23rd of December but Christmas had started with the family Bloom. My mum had decorated the house so nice and cosy, little lights everywhere.

The weather was perfect with a very unusual frost that gave a little white layer to all the trees and fields. It was absolutely wondrous, perfect for the time of year. We had nice walks and I wondered why I had gone to Alaska when nature here did the same amazing thing. Like it was showing me that it can be damn pretty here too.

Food, food, food, lots of presents, in-depth conversations with my dad and Zeph, which brought us to another step yet again. My dad & mum, Luc & Nina and Zeph & I: I was home.

The 24th we would not stay, after a huge breakfast we all left our cosy home and took off to other parents. Zeph and I drove back to Paris to celebrate the birth of Jesus, or maybe more the togetherness of loved ones, with his family.
Boy did I ever eat a lot those days, it was worse then Thanksgiving diner, worse then just ‘one evening being stuffed’. For ten days we ate so much good bread, oysters, lobster, rabbit, foise grass, tartar and chocolate cake that two weeks later I still had no appetite.
More presents under this tree, more conversations, more smiling faces.

The 26th it was time to move, literally.
In the month of January Zeph was gonna try to sell his parents apartment, so his parents have freedom to invest in building a house in Costa Rica (they bought a piece of land close to where Zeph will live for the next three years). This was his main motivation to undertake this quest, cause he would like to start a project for them over there. It meant that we had to move some biiiiig, heaeaeavyyy furniture to their second house, a farm in the North of France. It took us a whole day, and the next morning of muscle work to get it all moved, but mum and dad were happy.

Between then and the second of January we stayed here.

Zeph’s mum and dad were there for a few days, three of Zeph’s sisters came with friends and of course we cooked a lot of meals, made little walks, drank a beer in neighbouring villages, did some garden work and relaxed.
We were with eight people when 2008 started; a quiet and close start of this new and exciting year. It’s amazing to think that I travelled 13 countries, from the dusty dryness of Central America to the cold of Norway and Alaska. And this next year is planned full with visits to at least nine others, yeahaaa!!!

EVERY DAY IS A PARTY MY FRIEND!!!!!

A bonfire was made with green wet wood, amazing, even a bottle of benzene burned off without breaking in. My fire-poi let up the dark, humid night and a lot of very old French songs were sung by the Taffin siblings. I think the ten houses of Asonval were all awake.

And then my traditional New-Years-Dive. I’ve been trying to dip my body in nature’s water on the first day of the year for nine years now. It started with the Unox-Dive in Holland in ‘99 and has brought me indeed a fresh and exciting year every time I do do it. This year I dropped head-under in the AA, the river with the smallest name in France. The ladies came out too; they had to see this crazy tick. Yes, it was cold, and no it was not difficult.

The second day of 2008 we took the train back to Paris where my brother, Luc, and his girlfriend, Nina, were visiting Paris and us for a few days. But this first month will be told in total in a next chapter.