Utaventure

Hendrik passed his driver's exam already in the beginning of December, but as he was going to spend the Christmas holiday in Belgium and as our insurance premium would skyrocket the moment he picks up his licence, we decided to wait until he returned from Belgium to pick it up.  But once he got back, there was no way to wriggle out. So now our 16 year old son is driving all by himself to school. 😱 Hendrik leaving for the first time, all by himself, to school   Suddenly, we have become the passengers! Cool teenagers in the front ... ... scared parents in the back We started 2019 off with a drink on the 5th of January @ our place for the whole international community. It has become kind of a tradition to do this around the 6th and introduce them to our Belgian '3-koningen' (3 Kings or Epiphany) tradition ... the cake, not the singing!! Only Belgian beers are served that night ...reason enough to avoid the singing part 🙉! 🍻 Another tradition we have with the

January 2017 As I mentioned in my previous post ( January 2017 ), we went to Las Vegas for a soccer tournament of Hendrik. When we were not cheering on a dried out soccer field,  we did of course explore Las Vegas, aka ' Sin City '.  Knowing that there are 104 casinos, and just by walking around, you immediately understand where this name comes from 😬 ... But why did such a 'Sin City' arise in the middle of a godforsaken desert? I n 1930 the construction of the Hoover Dam (more about this later in this post) had begun. With this, an influx of lonely male workers flooded the Las Vegas valley and with them the demand for 'male-focused' 😏 entertainment arose, and up popped showgirl theatres and hotel casinos. The further development we have to thank to the Mob (Maffia) and the Mormons 😳 ...  Now the connection of Las Vegas and the Mob seems logical as gambling has always been a very important business for them, but the Mormons??? Well, i t was