A week of ups and downs

• Since last weekend already I'm so tired even though I am usually spending enough hours in bed.  I think Beertje was drinking more frequently at night.  I just couldn't achieve anything and spent my evenings counting down until I could go bed early. Jan was complaining about fatigue in solidarity. 
• I had to go to Paris for 2 days for work  = an alarm clock at a painful early hour to leave through the dark silent city with some extra paracetamol in my handbag to battle some (fatigue?) headaches. 
• The visit in France was very interesting, including touring half a day with a French after sales technician on the road in the south of Paris to learn about their after-sales organisation, processes and software. The French customers were really nice, despite off/ thanks to the Belgian delegation shadowing the repair technician at their doorstep.   It was very inspirational for the project we are launching in Belgium.
• Our French colleagues were so nice to invite us for a nice informal dinner downtown Paris, earlier than they'd usually eat out to respect some of the our cultural differences (phewww). Nevertheless I had to use some of my paracetamol and my hotel room's supply of instant espresso before we went to manage to hang out for another evening. 
• The traffic in the French capital was relatively nice to us those days. 
• I slept for the first time a non-interrupted block of 7 hours since more than a year :)
• I pumped milk for the first time in public, right on my spot in the Thalys train and also in the technicians van.. there is a first for everything. 
• I managed to jump on a connecting train within 5 minutes of the Thalys arrival in Brussels.
• We got the tragic news at work that a colleague lost his son unexpectedly yesterday.   
• This tragic news hit us all while we were still digesting the devastation that another colleague got totally unexpectedly a really bad diagnosis of far spread cancer in multiple organs, 2 weeks ago.
• I could walk an excited little birthday boy to school with a box full of muffins and got him back in the evening with a huge crown that he didn't put down anymore.  (it's been different in previous years) . 
• Jan almost missed his birthday due to Thalys train issues (or train tunnel technical issues) but a rental car finally solved the issue despite the many traffic jams. I took the children "out" in a nearby bistro for a spaghetti, where Kabouter showed off his crown and birthday cards that he had carried over there.  Fortunately they both behaved and were calm so it worked out on my own with them.  Jan, in the end,  managed to deliver the birthday boy his present on the bed just before bed time. 
• I've got a cold (which could explain the fatigue and soar throat earlier this week?) and also the kids are running around again with very snotty noses.   Hurray for autumn and winter coming.