vanishing justice ....

Male Nude – Hamburg, originally uploaded by cromacom.

hi there! nice to see that you're still reading my blog :-) and here's the today report!

I had a court case in Turnhout, that's 2 hours by train and a bit more then 1 hour by car, so I choose the car :-) what else do we have the engine for hehe? I had to be there at 10.30 am, so I could have left the house at 9.15 am.

But I didn't. Because in order to reach Turnhout, I have to pass Antwerp, and that passing is always highly time consuming, with lots of problems and standing still traffic in the morning, especially on a Monday morning. Most of all, because there's a tunnel under the main river (the Schelt), so horrible.

So I left way in advance, at 8.15 am. Just because I was ready and no use in waiting to depart :-)

Guess what happened ... it took me till 10.15 to reach the court house. Fortunately I left in time.

My client was there in time too, he took a bus from Antwerp, where he lives. He's tired of fighting for his rights, and he informed me that his battle in justice soon will be over, the poor lad. I can understand him. Fighting for your rights is a troublesome action, it simply never ends. And for all of us, there comes a day that we don't want to fight anymore. Sometimes, the ideal of justice is simply vanishing ...

I pleaded nicely, I had a good feeling about the to-be-expected result of the court session. Then afterwards, I drove the client back to Antwerp. And guess what? There was a huge accident in the tunnel, direction of Gent, and the traffic around Antwerp in that direction was standing still everywhere. Plain horror.

The client guided me through Antwerp, to an alternative small and old but convenient tunnel. He was happy to be driven back home, and I was happy to have avoided the jam!

This brings me to my basic thinking: by offering the client to drive him back (instead of making him take the public transport) I was not standing still in an hours long jam. That is the essence of my life: by doing good and spreading joy, you will receive much more good and joy in return. Don't you agree?

joyful hugs,
PB
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Centuries old, and almost brandnew

SpringHouse-2, originally uploaded by naked.duck.

Nice picture, isn't it? Just an illustration of the renovation work in the low house next door.

The renovation is almost done! Now we started to buy stuff to decorate the old "new" house. Today we got 2 huge plastic pots, since we will have plants there too. Provisionally they decorate the garden now, but they will end in the renovated house.

BTW, do you know that the renovated house is already many centuries old? It's a miracle that it's still standing there! 

The entrepreneurs should have finished everything by the end of this month, I hope. Then we can start to do the interior painting, and slowly move in there. By the end of the summer, we should live there. That's the planning!

Did you ever move house? If so, did you enjoy it?

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Long Live Long Warm Weekends!

geoffrey1105171, originally uploaded by Luis Machado.

Good evening!

Once again, Belgium is holidayparadise :-) we have a long weekend now, from Thursdag till Sunday !!!! Incredible, isn't it? One might wonder how this country can still function with all those holidays!

Anyway, for me it's work as usual. I prefer not to follow the workflow of the majority ... I cherish to be a minority :-)

This includes also working in the garden! After our long absence, the garden really needs urgent attention. I give it sparsely, since the office needs the same, and the office gets priority !!! Guess why hehehe?

Tomorrow I'll make 2 hours free time to go to Lars (the eldest son of my sister). Next Sunday, he'll celebrate his Holy Communion (which is some kind of rite from boyhood to adulthood), and I promised him to buy a very nice present for him ... and he choose a cellphone! So we'll go cellphone hunting tomorrow, Lars & Howlan & me :-) Let's hope we find some working shops (due to the long weekend, I expect lots of shops to be closed ... or will the financial crisis urge the shopkeepers to be more active and lure as many customers in as possible? Wait and see!)

That's about it for today :-) I don't want to bore you too much with stories about the work hehe!

huggies,
PB
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X1 search engine! I love it :-)

this is by far the best search engine I found on the internet till now! And it's for free (well, the basic version, but that's all I need). In the blink of the eye, it guides you to all your files on your computer, stuff that otherwise would be dormant till the end of times :-)

Free and perfectly working, what more do you need?

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the boundaries of relationship

Van Manila-Cebu-Bohol-March2009

It's Saturday night, and from a fresh (15°C) Belgium, I send my best wishes and greetings to you :-)

So many things were on my mind today, but I don't want to get you bored with detailing all of them !!!! Just this little one.

Today we went shopping for furniture for the renovated house. It was fun, we went to Ikea, and to a high-end designer shop. Ikea was cheap and (almost all) boring, the designer shop was expensive and interesting. As HL always says: one price one quality hehe.

Anyway, that's not what I want to write on this blog about :-).

I feel that moving to the renovated house, in a month or two, will have an effect on our relationship. Not yours and mine, but HL's and mine.

We will be placed in a new environment, we will have to decide on new subjects like decoration and what to order for the kitchen, and so on and so forth.

This brings me to the question: how far can a relationship stretch? We are now together since 1997, that's more then 12 years. Our relationship today is different then it was in the beginning, but I think we still enjoy it, both of us.

From the beginning, it was a monogamous relationship. For HL, because he wanted only one lover in his life. For me, the main reason for monogamy was safety. 1997 was the time of AIDS spreading and it seemed wise then to limit oneself to only one lover.

Now we are 2009. Times have changed. Our relationship has changed. We still feel very nice and loving and caring with each other, and I hope we'll continue for the rest of our lives like this. But the question remains: what are the boundaries of our relationship? Should we limit it to only the two of us, or should we allow others to enter it?

The question is particularely genuine, since it is clear for everybody who knows me, that I am attracted to youth. Don't worry, I do stick with legal age, I don't go for underaged persons :-) However, youngsters give that sparkle to my life, that I so much need. They lift me up and make me alive. Nothing much I can do about it, that's who I am.

That being said, it's not necessarily a sexual desire. I enjoy the energy of youngsters, I admire their beauty, I am ravished with their scent and smile and spirit and spontane reactions. That doesn't mean I want to dive into bed with them :-)

But what if I encounter someone that awakens these very natural desires in me? What should I do? Faithful as I am, I will never abandon my bf. Human as I am, should I refrain myself and deny the natural desires?

The question is not imminent yet. But I feel it coming. If the question would arise one day, I wonder how my bf will deal with it. And most of all, how I will handle the situation.

When taking all that into consideration, please don't forget that I have given myself a ten-year-limit (see former blogs). I still have 10 years to live. How will I live those years?

I really look forward to your comments and ideas and advises. Do not refrain yourself from being blunt. Just spit it out. What would you do if you were me? paulbavo@yahoo.com !!!!

sensitive hugs,

PB
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Dental Deterioration and Dawn. And how long?

Van DentalArtist

you! yes you! hehe! do you know I'm 55 y.o. already? Well, I do. Slowly my body is decomposing. Every now and then a part needs to be replaced, like an old car that begs to be guided into the repair workshop.

Lately I have dental problems. 2 teeth were removed, and I need a so-called "bridge" now. I hate it. But no choice, the dentist said that it was necessary. Who am I to discuss?

Today, I went to the so-called "dental artist". He's the one that will decide on the colour of my new teeth. Fake of course, but obviously the dental industry is doing its best to show fake as real as possible.

The guy was checking my teeth (the colour of it) over and over again, sketching and making photographs, my oh my, I thought it would never end! I took some pix, you see this dental artist on top of this blog :-)

All this rambling about my teeth brings me to the following topic. How long will I still be here on earth?

I keep on thinking that my life will end around 65 y.o. I have no idea why, since statistically, males live till 77 y.o. in Western Europe. Maybe the smoking and drinking has something to do with it :-)

If my thinking is correct, I'll live another 10 years.

What would you do, if someone told you that you have only 10 more years to live?

Do tell me :-) paulbavo@yahoo.com !!!

huggies,

PB

Michael Jackson performs AGAIN (now in Malaysia)

who doesn't like japan guys?

gay youtube!

the continuing discovery

Van Budapest[Hungary]-May2009

I was thinking last night ... will we ever return to Budapest? We probably will. I think that, after this 3rd visit, we haven't seen half of the city. So many things still to discover. And HL is ravished by the really good buys he can do here, when it comes to fashion. Top brands at a fraction of the price: the Ukraine maffia at its best. But it's likely that we won't come back to this hotel: it's overpriced, even though the luxury of having an indoor hot spring is tempting. Instead, we should look for a place to rent, although the prices I've seen today (a 3 bedroom appartment costs 100 euro per night!) urges to some more research!

Today we strolled in the area of the Astoria metro station: mostly Racoczi Ut. In the sidestreets, the red light district is developping (we didn't visit it), and it's an enchanting alternative area.

This is our last full day here. Tomorrow afternoon we're off to good old Belgium! Thanks to the Danubius card we have a late checkout (at 3 p.m., then the taxi comes and brings us to the airport at a promised price of 25 euro, roughly double the normal cost).

See you then and there!
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adam's costume

Van Budapest[Hungary]-May2009

The program of today contained only 2 topics:
* see if an upgrade at Malev was possible, and
* walk in Vaci Ut + windowshopping.

Entering the Malev office is like entering a plane in first class, really nicely done. Unfortunately, a relatively friendly lady explained us that upgrading was not possible, we should have done it in Belgium before using the tickets, according to her. Well, we didn't put our hopes to high hehe!

Then the metro to the center, and from there a nice sunny walk along Vaci Ut, so many nice houses there, in lots of styles. HL quickly jumped in his favorite Designer Outlet store, and got himself a white pants, much nicer to wear in this springtime sunshine!

And then by tram 2, along the river, back to the bridge, jump on the bus (fortunately the bus was there, because suddenly it started to rain!), and back to the hot spa in the hotel! It will be a cosy evening :-)
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presents and goodbyes

Van Budapest[Hungary]-May2009

yes yes yes, everybody was present in good health today :-)

We had our usual long walk, and at 3 p.m., we said goodbye to the familymembers, off they went! Johan & Patricia offered HL a Swarowski flower, and the present by Liesbet & Freddy was a 55 euro coupon by Fnac. Happy birthdayparty to myself!
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Methadon

Van Budapest[Hungary]-May2009

Catastrophe !!! Volkwin drunk from (what he thought was) a bottle of water, and he poisoned himself: it was not water, but Helfrich's Methadon. Result: the whole day, Volkwin was sick as a dog, vomiting everywhere (fortunately in a plastic bag) and expressing his feeling bad in a demonstrative way. And on top of that, it started to rain in the morning!

Apart from that, our family-outing today was a success: we managed to do all the highlights of Budapest, although it's clear that a second day is sufficient.

Liesbet & co stayed in Budapest, I don't worry about them: they will find their way back to the hotel. Johan & co returned to the hotel by our bus, discussing wether it was necessary to call in a medical doctor. I hope Volkwin makes it till tomorrow, then they'll fly back to good old Belgium :-)
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how to knot a tie :-)

Van Budapest[Hungary]-May2009

Johan and Liesbet arrived, Raf couldn't make it, and husband and wife and offspring join the party! They clearly like it here, Lars and Arne couldn't wait to conquer the spa. After setteling in the rooms, we took off. The guide explained us that we'd better avoid Budapest today, because of the festivities in the city on this day, and the political manifestations, and several roadblocks. So off to Szentedre, an artistic village 20 km north of Budapest. Packed with fellow tourists, it was nevertheless a nice walk there, HL compared it with Plovdiv (Bulgaria) but he found that one more authentic (which it is). The couleur locale came alive when a carriage with horses passed by: marriage in the local style! In the pictures, look at the lovely way the tie of the boy near the car is knot: I'd love to know how they made such a lovely knot!

Then back to Budapest, uphill in the Gellert district. It's our first time that we see the statue of freedom from this close, so we enjoy it too. And the views of Budapest from this high hill are absolutely spectacular on this sunny and bright day!
Going back downhill, we spy at the Gellert baths (Danubius Gellert hotel), it's really an artistic building, and the setting is breathtaking, too bad there's so much traffic around the hotel.

After the 4 hours tour, everybody's exhausted, except for Johan's kids: they plan to dance the night away in the discos in the city ... I hope to see them alive and well tomorrow!

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From Belgium to Hungary!

Van Budapest[Hungary]-May2009

Yesterday we took the plane to Budapest! The flight is code-shared between Brussels Airlines and Hungarian Airlines, and HL booked the ticket through the Hungarians: for the same product, their price is fundamentally cheaper! It pays to compare prices :-)

The flight to Budapest was with Brussels Airlines; in the Brussels airport, HL tried to get an upgrade to business class with the One-World-points, but unfortunately, that didn't work (as far as I remember, points-upgrades are only theoretically possible in the airport upon departure: you really need to do it in a regular office, long B4 departure)! Which was not inconvenient, since our tickets were B-flex: a nice meal included, and free flow of wine :-) BTW, Brussels Airlines has a lovely white wine from New Zealand, try it if you can!

It has been some years now since we last visited Budapest. We remember the city as totally inefficient, neglected, dirty, lots of homeless and a general mood of hopelessness; we thought this was going to change fast, since everywhere renovations were being done, and we had the impression that the city and its inhabitants were moving forward rapidly.

Unfortunately, the financial and political crisis has struck here too, the currency is in a free fall, and poverty is harder then it was before. Lots and lots of police on the streets, identity controls (not ours, we clearly look like tourists and therefor harmless), when taking the bus, it seems that we are the only ones with tickets (but in the underground, every single passenger is controlled).

You could suppose that this would be a very cheap holiday then, but that would be a mistake: a room in the hotel here (Danubius Spa, Margitsziget) is 200 Euro per night, double the price for half the service. Some hotel staff speak relatively well English, others clearly still struggle with the language. The rooms are nice but outdated, urgent renovation is required. And the problem is: the locals just don't realize it, I guess that they think this is the summum of comfort and luxury.
The hotel has an old wing (old castle-style) and a new wing (former communist retreat for the leaders), and we stay in the new wing, half board. Each wing has its own restaurant. However, due to the lack of hotel guests, only one restaurant at the time is functioning: we have to take the breakfast in the new wing, and the dinner in the old :-)

Today we spent half a day on planning the family trip: we compared prices between the offer of the hotel, and the offer of Toukan Tourist (an openly gay travel agency, we found it on the Web, and we'll gladly support their pride in this - still homophobic - country), and the hotel-offer was almost 50% more expensive, so after running back and forth between the two, we went for the Toukans! The manager there is mister Istvan Pocsai (he could use a dental, his front teeth are really admirable!), he's a charming guy, efficient and clearly moved by the fact that we choose his agency because of the gay label.

Our usual daily program here is: wake up around 6 am, go for a swim/bath (the hotel has its own therapeutic hot spring!), breakfast (basic but good, except for the coffee, even the - extra charged - cappuccino is undrinkable), stroll. This will change in the coming 3 days, when my siblings and their offspring will be here on my invitation, to celebrate the fact that I managed to be alive for 55 years :-)

More on that tomorrow!
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fresher then fresh!

Van Athens-Feb+Apr2009

Greece already prepared us: it's only 15°C in Belgium for the moment ... fresher then fresh :-) I'm sure you would enjoy it tremendously hehe!

We do miss the warmth though, this climate really makes us long for our next trip. And we miss you too, of course!

When in Belgium, we concentrate on work. So it might be that I skip posting for a week or so, I really need to catch up with the office now, I'm sure you'll understand!

But if there's something nice or interesting or disturbing to tell you, I'll post it here, so that you stay tuned!

Meanwhile, fresh hugs!

PB
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The End Is There!

Van Athens-Feb+Apr2009

Ah, Athens! Here we are again, in one of the places of ancient civilization ... wherever you roam you'll find marks and signs of thousands of years old. It's Fierce!

We stay in Athens for one night, in order to overcome the worst effects of the usual jetlag ... traveling between time zones (from left to right and vice versa) is causing physical discomfort, and we learned during our travels that it's best to overcome the jetlag in a non-homey-environment. In this case: Athens!

After a breakfast rich in Vitamin C (the hotel has this huge machine that squeezes oranges right in front of your eyes, impressive!), HL decided to repack all the luggage, he's so afraid of overweight :-) which he shouldn't, because we can pay the overweight of luggage with our airmiles :-) 

In the late afternoon, we went for a stroll from Syntagma Square all the way to Omonia Square and back, first following Stadiou lane, and coming back by Panepistimiou Lane. Some things to remember:
* Omonia is clearly the meeting point for foreign workforce, whatever the work might be: Eastern Europeans and Asians group there, clearly waiting for someone to hire them, although the young ones are missing (they obviously don't need to publicize themselves there);
* the same square is one of the red light districts: lots of xxx venues;
* the Greek are so good in statues: you find excellent examples all over Panepistimiou;
* we attended a (part of a) Holy Mass in the Saint Denis Church ... all in Latin, the Kyrie Eleisons brought back memories :-)
* it's incredible how many homeless guys there are in Athens, they sit on benches everywhere, or stroll around in the most fancy dresses, and nobody seems to really care.

And here is our program for tomorrow:
6.00 wake up
6.30 swim
7.00 breakfast
8.00 shower, personal stuff, getting ready
10.00 transport by hotelshuttle
10.10 airport, checking in
11.20 flying to Belgium!

This will conclude our quite long travel. We were enchanted by all the new experiences, and be assured that we are - already now! - looking for the new ones ahead! But first let spend summer in good old Belgium :-)

Huggies,
PB 
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The Equinox

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox

Van Bangkok-April2009

Since it's Equinox in Thailand, it's hot hot hot .... and we'll be leaving tonight for Bahrain and then Athens!

I'm sitting in the hotellounge now, sipping my cappucino & Perrier ... and it's almost time to grab the hotel limo & drive to the airport, 30 minutes of relaxing left :-)

While I'm relaxing here, some things to be remembered:

* cars in BKK don't like hills. Our taxi needed multiple attempts to climb up the small bump on the entrance of the hotel. While we were driving on a flyover in BKK (they only have 2 lanes, one for each direction of the traffic), we spotted a huge standstill in the opposite direction, caused by ... a car that couldn't make it uphill on the flyover, it was just standing still there ... and no way for the cars behind to pass it. I wonder how this Gordian Knot got resolved! Did they push the standing-still-car over the edge to clear the path?

* paté in BKK is only so-so. Our yesterday dinner with Kevin was lovely, and I normally try out the paté when I visit a restaurant for the first time, and it was not bad, just so-so. Too much pepper to my taste (what did they have to hide?) and not enough other sensations. Paté is obviously not an Asian dish :-) HL confirmed that his dish (recommended by Kevin) was delicious!

* Alyssa gave us a tip for next-time-shopping: Platinum Mall, opposite of Amari Watergate. Original copies of the real stuff at local prices ... not to be missed by HL!

* young monks in BKK don't like to be photographed. They shy away. No idea why, they are cute!

* Thai people smile to much to hide the fact that they didn't understand you (said Kevin). Or they don't know the answer. Their best reply is a huge smile :-)

* The hotel here (Méridien) is cutting down on costs ... and the staff suffers. Before the crisis, the staff had a very nice choice of food in the cantine. Nowadays, it's only one dish, and sometimes the same dish day after day after day. An occupancy of 10 to 20% does seem to leave some marks ...

* The hotel in Hua Hin has no choice but to bring in more wedding parties. Without them, the financial goal cannot be reached. The staff will have a hard time in calming down the normal guests! And HL should explicitely ask - before booking - if there's a wedding planned ...

* BKK at the equinox is deadly. Be sure to have at least 1 liter of water per person with you, when you go out. Inbetween, buy new cold water and refresh yourself regurarely. The heat is sucking every drop of liquid out of your body. We saw many tourists and locals suffering, their faces all red and blown up. It's life-threatening.
Positive aspect: the pool is gorgeous! So nice to swim under the sun, in warm water, and noone else around :-)
 
huggies,

PB
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to vaio or not to vaio, that is the question!

Van Bangkok-April2009

To vaio? What does that mean? hehe! It means that my Sony Vaio (having problems from the early beginning) finally got a repair here in the Sony Repair Center in Bangkok! It wasn't easy though: we went there at 10 a.m., and we came back at 4 p.m. .... that's 6 hours of going there and coming back, and waiting inbetween, and testing the repair of that moment, and sending it back to further repair. But it was quite interesting. Not only we saw (and chatted with) so many people who had problems with their vaio computer (fortunately all solved on the spot, though not necessarily cheap! e.g. the guy who had the screen replaced for 29.000 bath ....) but we also had a stroll in the nearby area, visiting the very cheap neighbourhoods in wooden houses on the slopes of the river, built on standing still water, a perfect place to breed mosquitos and other unpleasant environmental aspects, with narrow streets and remarquably clean and not smelly at all!
The Sony Center is next to the ItaloBuilding on the New Petchbury Road, all the taxidrivers know that landmark.

In the Sony Center, a cute caucasian guy approached me, asking if I were a tourist or a resident there ... because he's tired of teaching English, and he's searching for someone who can hire him at a very cheap rate ... it's crisis indeed, when even the caucasians start to sell themselves cheap ...

On the Sony building, there is quite a huge pond with extremely huge fishes ... so everybody who's waiting for a repair and who wants to have a smoke, pops outside and sits there ... excellent stuff to make pictures :-)

But I'm still not convinced if Sony is such a good brand for computers, given the endless stream of problems and defaults, rolling in there ... then again, what brand is problemfree?

While sitting in the lounge here, enjoying our evening snacks & drinks, A.P. popped in at yahoo. We agreed upon a parcel of land to be bought in the Phils, but suddenly all the preparations go about something totally different, where it is clear that the seller is trying to mislead him (and me) and tries to sell the less valuable land at the given price. That is so unfair, I hate those kinds of so called misunderstandings. We agree upon a given solution, and at the end something totally different pops up, clearly in our financial disadvantage. Why do some people keep on thinking that we're tourists, and thus stupid? My confidence is this seller is completely gone, and I was quite disappointed in A.P. ... how can he defend his rights when even beforehand he admits to be the looser?

Anyway, in a couple of days we're out of Asia, and back in the harsh jungle of good old Europe, where liars and thieves are daily meals :-)

And now, let's jump into the single malt :-)

blub blub blub :-)
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Dear Bangkok? A Deer in Bangkok!

Van Bangkok-April2009

Never ever in our whole life we would have expected to see a living deer on the streets of Bangkok! Well, today was the day! We went to the Sony Center (my Vaio has sound problems) to check if they could be of help (they will, we'll go back there tomorrow) and after stepping out of the taxi, and proceeding to the entrance door, The Bangkok Deer looked us in the eye! Woohoo, for a moment we thought we were beamed up to the German Forests! What an "Aha Erlebnis" !!!

And it was hot today, my dear, so hot, that even the locals were suffering and fanning themselves and sweating like never before. In this heat, it's impossible to start a revolution :-)

After our Sonyvisit (I was quite impressed by their professionalism, Japan clearly has a good influence on Thailand), we strolled to the nearby Wat Mai Chong Lom. The word "Mai" can have 4 meanings in Thai language, so I'm not guessing which one it is in the name of this temple! Very nice, but urgent renovation required, and it looks they are going to do it.

Then back to the hotel, by taxi ... if we find one! The first empty taxi stops, but the driver doesn't like to bring us where we want to be, he mumbles something about "traffic jam" and drives away. The second one is more kind, at least he admits not knowing where our hotel is. No problem, I'll show him the way! A swift ride :-)

A short rest, and hop hop hop shopping time! To ZEN now, once again by the SkyWalk. Buying underwear (what they have here, we don't find in Belgium) and a gift for Alyssa (a very cute black purse from HL's favorite designer ... guess who she is? Does VW sounds a bell other then VolksWagen?).

The evening will be filled with our usual routine: swimming, enjoying the lounge, watching a movie/DVD. I hope you enjoy the evening as much as we do !!!

huggies,

PB
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