I love, love the cupcakes made by Lilicup! It’s a very cute place, close to Chatelain that mainly does cupcakes, but also other sweet treats. But not just any cupcakes, the best I’ve eaten in Brussels.

Courtesy of Lilicup (photo from their Facebook page)

I must say that 90% of the cupcakes I tasted from them have been absolutely fabulous, with a perfect balance of flavours and so pretty to look at, as well. There is a wide range of flavours, but you must be lucky to get the special ones and you should go early, of course. Don’t try going there at 5pm, they will only have brownies left. Their downsize is its size and the fact the the stash finishes early, as a consequence you need a plan B

So, if you do feel like having a cupcake after work or in the week-end, go to Cafe de la Presse, on Avenue Louise. It’s a very funky, retro place. You can always find a seat as it’s very spacious and as it’s not so close to the center, it’s mainly populated by the people from the Avenue Louise area.

 

Whichever you will go to, make sure you try a peanut butter cupcake, it’s a guaranteed success. Very tasty, moist and melts in your mouth. You literaly have a sugar high after one of these bad boys (ups girls, assuming cupcakes are girly So, go for one of these sweet wonders and see why I like them so much! I already convinced most of my friends, it will be easy to convince you too

Lilicup:  Facebook page (Chatelain area)

Cafe de la Presse: Facebook page (Avenue Louise/Bois de la Chambre)

Peanut butter, chocolate and Tiramisu

I’ve been away for more than a month and although I missed writing I was happy to learn a few things and discover old skills.

The main reason why I was away, in the first place was because we had this big event at work and we were two people to put it together. My job is taking care of our communication, social media marketing and whatever is related to these, not really into organizing events.  I have to admit it was very stressful and tiring. Nevertheless, I had a great satisfaction at the end of the three days hearing wonderful reviews from participants and managers.

I realized that I am capable to manage people, to coordinate tasks and deal with the pressure of a 600 people event running smoothly. I am happy I had to experience this and acquire new skills and ignite old ones.

During the event

I also had to prepare a presentation to present our social media strategy and surprisingly a lot of people showed out, considering we had 5 different rooms they could choose from. That was a piece of cake and I absolutely enjoyed the kick I go out of speaking in front of people. One of my strengths is Communication. 

Next, I got to visit my pretty and very pregnant sister and tried to spoil her for a week. There, I remembered I had some cooking skills and prepared some restaurant food (pictures on the bottom). I really enjoyed the time with my sister and the amazing food. It was a good time to chill and not touch my laptop for a week. Although my family is sort of spread out in different countries, every time we meet I am so joyful and realise how much I love them and easily connect with them.

My sister and I (1 month before the baby comes)

Also, lately, I realized that sooner or later I should “grow up”. Grow up in the sense that even though I can act like I’m 20 for another 20 years, my responsibilities will change, same as circumstances and priorities and interests. Although for some things I will never have to change, for others I have to rationally take the decision to do it. A simple example would be, living in a comfortable apartment in a nice area in the middle of nowhere vs. living in a match box in the centre of Brussels. I believe that this is part of evolving and growing.  Hopefully, this makes sense.

Finally, for the first time I was scared that I might not leave Belgium for a while or ever. That thought gives me a bit of shivers. I would really like to live in a country where the sun doesn’t only shine 10 days a year, where I can have local friends and actually feel at home. I do want to enjoy while I’m here, learn as much as possible, but I don’t really want to succumb to the habits and certain rules or mentality here. Sounds harsh maybe, but prefer enjoying life, rather than adapting to a culture foreign to my liking. Belgium has many good things about it, but not too sure I want to grow old here. This is what too many hours in the car does to you.

These are just a few of the things that have been happening. Of course, still enjoying cupcakes, bagels and other high in calories goodness that is primarily meant to be enjoyed without regrets

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When you get a sunny day around here, you better take advantage of it! So, that’s exactly what we did with a 20°C day. We hopped in the car and in 1h we arrived in Rotterdam. As it was a spontaneous pick, like many of our trips, we did not do any research, so we didn’t know much of what is there to see. Nevertheless, about 10 years ago I’ve been to Rotterdam for a day and I remembered that there were some weird shaped, yellow apartments that I must see again. So, that was our quest.

Tiny cupcakes in Rotterdam

The gps took us to the center of the city, we parked and off we went. But first, short stop to the cupcake place, just for benchmark reasons. The place wascute and the cupcakes quite decent.Now, with the sweet stop left behind, we just started walking around the shopping streets, dodging the multitude of people out to shop, eat, hang out and simply enjoy that beautiful sun. I must say that, as in the Hague, I really liked the window displays. They were very chic and playful, something that I miss seeing in Belgium, where it’s maybe too serious and dark. Anyway, it smelled like Spring and it was so so lovely to walk around without the stress of seeing a list of 20 touristy places.

After wondering around for a hour, we decided to ask a local where can we find the yellow, diamond looking apartments. We were aprox. 30 min away, which was perfect, more to explore.  And so we did, passed by the Maritime museum, very cool sculpture and buildings and beautiful bridges.

Alas, after walking for more than 2 hours, behold the funky, yellow apartments that raises eyebrows in terns of architecture and a big frown in terms of practicality. I was so glad to get there, bring back teenage hood memories, explore with Fernando and soak in the sun.

Voila, the yellow, diamond apartments

Aren’t they cool? I was so happy to be there. I really enjoyed the Dutch sense of style, use of colors and joie de vivre. I suppose it was also due to our low maintenance attitude we have towards travelling. We might have not seen all the cool places Rotterdam hides, but came back content. Also, not sure why Rotterdam isn’t more popular and visited. Do go if you’re in the area, it’s a pleasant, funky surprise.

Thank you Fernando for being spontaneous and thank you Dutch people for being so bubbly!!

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Recently I had lunch with our Sales & Marketing team from work and obviously we were having 10 different conversations at the same time. The restaurant was owned by the parents of one of my colleague. So, we were trying to guess who was family or not among the restaurant staff. Suddenly, I see at the bar a guy who looked just like my colleague and I ask him if that was his brother. He said yes and what stroke me the most was that they both had the same hairstyle. I jokingly said: “Dude, you copied your brother!”. To my surpise, he naturally answer:”Yes, of course, I copied my brother, he alwasy does things better than me!.

I immediately got sad and a bit angry when hearing his words. I just don’t believe in these comparisons, I hate these low self-esteem reactions. I think it’s also because I didn’t feel not good enough when I was a kid. I was in primary school (7 – 11 years old) no matter how hard I worked and how hard I studied my marks were always mediocre. I was so frustrated that my hard work was not sufficient.

Long story short, when I got to secondary school, my hard work finally paid off. I was considered among the best and respected by my different teachers. Afterwards, when I met my primary school teacher I told him straight up that I was now good as well, that I finally had great grades and that I was proud of myself. I know now this is silly, but I realized that I was angry at him and at me.  At him for not valuing me as I deserved and at me for letting myself believe that I was mediocre and that I cannot be part of the best.

I think that was the moment when I started resenting words like “not good enough”, “she/he’s much better than me”, “mediocre” and so on. Don’t get me wrong I’m not delusional and I do have an objective view of reality, but least try not to make it tough for me. So, coming back to my colleague, the second day at work I had a chat with him and told him that he should stop this stupid comparison for a number of reasons:

1) It’s unhealthy. One thing is to feel inspired by another person and a totally different thing is to copy them thinking you’re not as good.

2) I feel it’s like giving himself a reason not to be the best he can be at what he’s talented at, because his brother is better than he is anyway

3) WE ALL ARE UNIQUE AND PRECIOUS! This is my strongest argument, as we have all been designed uniquely and have individual great traits. I’m pretty sure he is better than his brother at many things.

So, next time you have a wrong image of yourself slap yourself really well and try to look at yourself objectively. A practical thing you can do is to just write down everything you’re good at and focus on them and be proud of that.

I’m thankful for all those precious people out there who are encouraging and sensitive to people’s talents and uniqueness!

Serve the City

I think these three action verbs can sum up what Serve the City means for me! There are so many needs out there, so many people looking for help and so many resources that are still untapped. If you think you haven’t got much to give, then you’re wrong. Probably, the most precious resource you have is your time.

The Serve the City International website has a very clear and succinct description of what STC actually is:

Serve the City mobilizes volunteers to show kindness in practical ways to people in need. We partner with homeless shelters, refugee centers, orphanages, and other associations, and invite volunteers to offer
practical help and support. Read more

Every week or every other month, you can set aside a few hours to volunteer, meet new people and give hope! Serve the City is not doing anything out of the ordinary, just putting out there the needs of the city and looking for people like you to come meet them.

For example, Serve the City Brussels organizes every week meals for the homeless, activities with refuges and victim of trafficking. Every other month, there’s a focus day, which means that there’s a Saturday when volunteers come together to serve different categories of people in need, like the elderly, victims of abuse, children and so on.

Come this Saturday(17th March) in Brussels and volunteer for different projects. I can assure you that at the end of the day you will leave back home satisfied, content and a little bit tired  If you can’t make it, don’t worry, just click here and stay updated with the events, there’s always an opportunity to serve! So, go online here and check out if you have Serve the City in your city

I am thankful for such an accessible opportunity to help!