Still ill

 A week ago on Thursday I arrived home all hot and bothered and with an imperceptible tickle in my throat which for the moment I chose to ignore. 

I put it all down to the whirlwind visit from my bosses earlier that week as one of them seemed to have brought a persistent cough with him. Their visit also included a visit to IKEA to select some furniture for the soon to be finished office, part of which was supposed to be delivered on Thursday morning. 

When they still hadn't shown up by 2.30 pm, a phonecall to IKEA confirmed that they were stuck in traffic. Then, when they eventually did arrive half an hour later, they weren't able to find a proper parking spot. When your office building is landlocked in the middle of a city's main shopping area, this tends to be a problem at the best of times. To cut a long story short, they refused to put their blinkers on and quickly unload the stuff in the street at the back of our building, which is what everybody else is doing all the time. Having had to run downstairs and argue with them in the biting sub-zero cold seemed to have made matters worse so, quite unsurprisingly, I wasn't feeling exactly my best when I woke up on Friday morning.

We lingered over breakfast, after which I started feeling a bit more human and was even prompted to dress up in something stylish, warm and comfortable. We might have scrapped our usually charity shopping plans, but I still wanted to dress up and look the part, even if reclining on the sofa would be the only order of the day.

I'd bought the mustard flannel skirt brand new from Uniqlo back in October, and this was its first wearing. It's from the shop's collaboration with the French model and fashion designer Inès de La Fressange. Together with the vintage blue acrylic jumper and the white fluffy waistcoat which was a cheeky and cheap high street buy a couple of years ago, it was absolutely perfect to brave the continuing deep freeze temperatures. We were down to between -7°C to -9°C by now, which is a big deal in this part of the world.

Although I only briefly braved these bone-chilling temperatures for a handful of outfit photos in our new favourite spot ...

Then I was tempted by the sight of the iced gems in our garden to walk the length of the garden path and snap a few pictures. 

The last of the Nasturtiums, still going strong until a week or so before, had now all succumbed to frostbite, their limp orange blooms encrusted with jewels of ice.

These, together with the icing sugar coated bright red Cotoneaster berries and the clusters of dusky blue Virginia Creeper fruits provided the odd splash of colour.

Then it was back inside to hunker down for the rest of the weekend, Bess unashamedly taking advantage of the fact that we weren't gallivanting around like we usually do on a weekend.

By Saturday, I was a coughing and snuffling wreck, with brain fog and fatigue preventing me from doing anything more strenuous than reading a couple of pages here and there. Although I did manage to cobble together my previous blog post and publish it that evening.

We even had to cancel Sunday's much anticipated visit to our friends Kris and Marnix, who live just over the border in Holland. Kris used to be my colleague before he moved abroad and due to circumstances which I'm sure don't need an explanation, we hadn't seen each other since December 2019. Which made it heart-rending that we once again had to postpone our reunion ...

Not even dressing up in one of my favourite vintage frocks managed to make me feel better. After taking a couple of hurried photos we scuttled back inside where I uncharacteristically changed into jogging bottoms and a jumper for the rest of the day.

At the time of writing, I'm still in the throes of the lurgy - which luckily turned out not to be Covid! - and my brain fog and fatigue are still very much present.

Consequently, there isn't much to tell you about my final working week of the year (apart from the fact that the IKEA delivery has now been completed), and as no outfit photos have been taken either, why don't we have a proper look at last week's flea market finds instead.

I was instantly drawn to the colours of this ancient and time-battered tin, which I believe to be from the 1930s. There's no indication as to its provenance, but I loved it enough to give it a home.

The flea market yielded some odds and ends as usual. The mystery object on the top left was pure childhood nostalgia for Jos, who remembered being given this bank savings calculator when he was a schoolboy. 

The trivet on the top right was a giveaway by washing power brand Tide back in the day and depicts a well-known Bruges scene. It was a gift from friend and trader Tanja. 

The small hinged trinket box came from the stall of another favourite trader, Ilona, and has already been roped in to hold my jewellery selections for the week.

Tanja had to laugh when I made a beeline for the green cruet set, commenting that I always go for the kitschiest items on her stall. Well, what can I say? I'd already spotted it on her Facebook page the day before, so I made sure to look out for it especially, hoping that it hadn't been sold in the meantime. And that was before she told me it was English!

Back to back with Tanja's stall, is Rita's, supplier of last market's plaster lady. Her stall now contained a display of perspex rings, which all turned to be my diminutive size. Apparently, they all came from the same lady who could no longer wear them due to arthritis. 

From a box full of furry hats, Rita then conjured up the delightful muff on the bottom left, which I insisted on wearing for the rest of the market. 

Meanwhile, Jos fell for the white Bakelite pillbox size thingy bearing the logo of Belgian chocolate and biscuit factory Victoria, instantly recognizable to people of a certain age in Belgium!

When I picked up the tiny fruit basket, which is actually a brooch, for closer inspection, Rita insisted that I accept it as a gift. Isn't she - and the basket - sweet?

Finally, let's have a look at the other brooches I picked up and which, to answer Vronni's question in her comment to my previous post, have all found space in my drawers of brooches, even if it is becoming a bit of a squeeze in there! 

The celluloid deer came from the same stall as the 1930s tin, while both the fox's head with its piercing blue eyes - which might very well be my favourite - and the brown-hearted one on the bottom right came from random stalls. The latter is the only one which is marked. It's by Sarah Coventry. Founded in 1949 by Charles Stuart, Sarah Coventry's name was the combination of his granddaughter’s first name and the town of Coventry in England, where the Stuart family had emigrated from to the US. The jewellery was sold via house parties a la Tupperware and Avon.

Another regular seller, Nelly - who always gushes over my outfits - supplied the superb enamelled pansies brooch ...

... as well as the pink-rimmed plastic flower brooch (a twin of a blue-rimmed one I've had for years) and the gorgeous blue Cameo.

The tiny pair of cork slippers and the moulded rose brooch were my final finds of the day and came from another random stall.

That's all for now, my friends. I hope to be back in full health after Christmas and promise to catch up with your blogs soon.

Before I go, though, here's the other present my bosses brought me, and which was infinitely better than that nasty cough: a very fragrant Jo Malone gift set!

Have a wonderful Christmas, whichever way you celebrate it - or not!