Our Top4 is turning into a right little Miss Housemaid, isn't she? She got Top1 to assemble some cleaning stuff and set to work to make her reflection shine once again.

Please visit Francesca at FuoriBorgo for more Corner Views of the world!

The cleaning was interspersed with several episodes of "breaking out", which meant Top4 leapt out of the window and ran around the house, entering it again through the back door and then sneaking up on me in the kitchen :-))

I just cannot read it... yet.

I'd love to live my life creating a lot of funny / quirky / moving content and be paid for it as well. (Who wouldn't?)

So, I am planning on turning the flowtops.com site into some sort of artsy webshop. I've got tons of ideas, and really don't know if people are up for it. (I'm a bit scared, can you tell?)

I'll post some of the attempts at new content on this here blog.

Honk twice if you like 'em!

In Clay (by Top4)

In Real Life (by Top2)

See this post for a portrait of our other four-legged friend.

And please do visit Francesca at FuoriBorgo for more Corner Views of the world!

Top3 is very much into Crazy Bone GoGo's. These 1 inch tall plastic creatures dwell in their own GoGo City in our living room, where they lead an adventurous life with a hint of romance (i.e. there are a few married couples).

Top3 also likes to read comic books. We've got stacks and stacks of comics laying around, which he mainly reads during breakfast and lunch, and late at night in bed (if he doesn't feel like reading a book).

Furthermore, Top3 adores computer games, which we let him play for up to an hour at the time, no more than two or three times a week (less when the sun is shining).

And last but not least, Top3 is a natural illustrator. His drawings are detailed and realistic (and way too small ;-)). He spends hours drawing all kinds of Warhammer / GoGo stuff against the backdrop of computer game scenery.

So I present to you a few enlarged images from his latest comic, which deals with GoGo's on a quest for fun adventures on another planet.

"Can you make me a space suit?" - "I sure can."

"Will you come with me?" - "Hmm... Yes! Can XXX come too?"

This weekend we celebrated Part III (Birthday Party for the Grown-ups).

Part I was: Birthday Treats at School.

Part II was: Unveiling the Birthday Room.

Part IV (Childrens Birthday Party) is yet to come.

Wouldn't it be nice if all good things in life were to unfold in four parts (or more), thus lasting longer?!

This is a lamp Top1 created out of a can for Top4's birthday gift bedroom. He'll be making a lot of these, for a webshop he is opening soon.

Will keep you posted about his endeavors!

It took me years to figure out why nobody seemed to understand me. Part of the problem is that I feel the presence of other people within a radius of 25 to 50 metres. I feel our connection strongly, I feel their emotions, I understand their needs. To me that is a very lively form of communication, but I never realized that most people need a tangible form of communication as well.

Though my children have big antennas as well (I think all kids do), they are quite good at communicating on a variety of levels. For instance, this is the note I received the day after Top4 had thrown a big tantrum (which she herself attributes to her little noggin being all filled up at the end of the day):

Dear mommy,

Do you know why I made this for you?
Because I love you and I try very hard.

(In phonetic spelling of course.)

I thanked her profusely, in my heart, and out loud. That much I have learned.

Please visit Francesca at FuoriBorgo for more Corner Views of the world!

1) Jet biker for sale. Aigel: "I'll offer 50 euro." Some other GoGo: "OK Aigel!"
2) Stick man: "I'm gonna steal it!" Aigel: "Give it back!"
3) Aigel in pursuit. Go!
4) Diagram of jet biker with enter hook and rocket shooter.
5) Aigel using the enter hook.
6) "Missed..."
7) "Got him!" Bang!
8) Aigel: "He's death..." Stick man (dying): Bam!
9) Aigel: "Now it is mine!"
10) Aigel puts jet biker up for sale.
11) (another stick man offers a million euro) Aigel: "OK!"
12) (Aigel waving a fat check and dreaming of his very own palace)

THE END

At the moment, these are what keep us afloat physically. Medicine. Strong medicine, meant to cure Top1, who's been suffering from Lyme Disease for about three years now.

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but here in The Netherlands Lyme is tremendously underestimated. It took us years to collect enough data to self-medicate, because our GP would not take Top1 seriously when he complained about joint aches, numbness and tingling in his feet, his face and his thighs, headaches, severe fatigue, spells of dizziness, etcetera, etcetera.

At the time, Top1 was 45. At first, the GP thought he suffered from flat feet, a tennis elbow, a slight hernia, and - get this - old age. Because apparently, at 45, you're just plain old when it comes to ailments of undeterminable nature. Old, or mentally confused, or both.

Over the years, it gradually got worse. In 2010, Top1 began to loose his mind, bit by bit. He suffered from mood swings, felt like his head was fogging up, cried a lot, couldn't focus. Then, his nervous system began to fail. He couldn't feel his legs, his buttocks, his genitals. His speech deteriorated slightly, he forgot words. His emotions were skin-deep.

We scheduled a visit to an alternative clinic in Amsterdam, and luckily, by now our GP had decided to take action and sent Top1 to a local neurologist. Let me tell you, these people only want patients who have clear-cut diseases. Although the suspicion of Lyme was raised by one of them, the others disagreed. After months, we succeeded in securing a combination of strong antibiotics through the alternative clinic (not covered by medical insurance at first) and started on a regime based on the ILADS guidelines.

Slowly, Top1s symptoms began to disappear. He is not well yet, and may not fully recover, but looking back he is more himself now than he has ever been these past three years.

The stomach flu that hit our family this week, is just a minor illness for most of us. For Top1, it is a setback. He missed medication because of the vomiting, and now has to build up strength again. His immune system is rather unstable...

Meanwhile, the rest of us have almost recovered. I've thoroughly cleaned all of our beds and all bathrooms (stomach flu = spring cleaning!!), Top4s birthday party has been delayed just by a week or so, so we have something to look forward to, the sun is shining.



Added later today (in light of a far worse world drama, i.e. earthquake in Japan, I thought I'd alter this blog post a bit). A certain brand of Alpine Cow Milk chocolate cures all, or so Top1 would have us believe.

Hope jgy is well, and all the lovely people I've met in Japan when I was there oh so many moons ago...

stomach flu...

It's International Women's Day. The Flowtops step away from the creative flow for one day to stress that All Are Equal and should therefore be treated equally.

This cheap weekly schedule planner gave me a lot of food for thought. If I were a sociologist I'd probably make this a case study for in-depth analysis and three-year follow-up, with articles and peer reviews and the lot ;-)

"Take Flip the Schoolbear with you this weekend. Write a story about him. Take lots of pictures too. And remember: he needs fresh air badly. Who wouldn't, after hanging out in a stuffy classroom all week."

Roger that. Over and out.

Lest y'all think houses are the only thing on my mind these days: This little house really is sitting on our kitchen counter. We found it in the local thrift store, and thought it would come in handy to build a scenery for Warhammer or something like that. But then Top3 discovered it was a box! Now it functions as safekeeper of batteries, jewelry, buttons, toothpicks and what not. You know, the stuff people tend to collect in their kitchen.

Go visit Francesca for more Corner Views of the world!

As I've mentioned before, we are slowly getting ready to put our house up for sale.

The market is not really flourishing at the moment. Will it help, I wonder, if we include the swing in the deal? We could even throw in Top3, who'd come by once in a while to make sure the swing is getting enough practice. Top1 could mow the tiny bit of lawn, I could clean the windows, inside and out and Top4... well, she could do a little dance, perhaps.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, my friends!