Storm day

Our luck with the weather the past weekend in the Ardennes couldn't last.   Saturday had remained unexpectedly dry but cold. We had profited with 2 big walks/ visits  but on Sunday we woke up in a world that got drowned in the pouring rain and smacked by big wind gusts.  As icing on the cake, neither me or Kabouter felt 100% ok. 

We hang out for a while in the house and played with the toys but soon in the morning we decided we might as well return home. We could hang out together at home as well but at least the drive through the storm would have been completed and if someone got more ill, it's more comfortable to be home.

With some medication I managed to drive home and much to my relief, Kabouter had fallen asleep in the car.  I had to clench my steering wheel to manage the wind the entire time so I was happy to arrive at home and not to have to leave the house anymore.

After some more resting, also Kabouter seem to revitalize and he showed interest to bake the cupcakes which I had promised at the start of the weekend as my rain activity. Under the approving eye of my mother, we baked our set of cupcakes just before she left.

The storm on the other hand, was throwing my mom's returning plans in the wind.  There was much damage with fallen trees and ripped off power lines which had disturbed rail traffic to the degree it all train traffic in Belgium got stopped.  All trains were ordered to a nearby train station and wait, right at the moment we were about to leave.

It was clear to me that my mother would have to wait until the evening to see whether train traffic started up again or whether I'd have to drive her home after the worst of the storm was over.  We also invited her to stay with us for another night. Nevertheless she had set her mind on leaving and not taking up our time any longer. So we went to see what the situation was like in the train station: pretty hopeless... 

When we turned around with her little suitcase to come back to our home, a young woman approached us.  "Do you need to go in the direction of Ghent? I need to get there too and my parents are bringing the car and then I'll drive and I have free spots. Do you want a ride to the Ghent train station?"   Hell yeah. 

And so my mom left against all odds at the time she intended.  And in Ghent, her connecting train had already been rescheduled ahead of time into a replacement buss due to construction works on the railroad....so ironically enough she could hop on a bus ordered by the railroad and probably the only railroad service running operationally on time yesterday. Well that ends well.