Annual Nursing Christmas Celebration

Last Thursday we had our annual Christmas party of the neurosurgical nursing department. We thought about doing something different this year, so we went for a culinary walk in Lier with matching diner in a restaurant afterwards.
Now what's so funny about celebrating Christmas in February, huh ? Don't laugh! It's cool to do that, away from the mumbo jumbo at the end of the year.

Tammy picked me up at work and we drove to Lier. Getting there wasn't so hard, but finding a parking space was the tricky part of the deal. So we did some nice sightseeing in Lier, drove by the local hospital three times (nursing is a calling, not a profession...), and pwieuw, finally found our boss standing in the middle of the city square and giving us directions.

The culinary walk was a guided tour. The guide was talking about food and food habits in the Middle Ages all the time throughout the walk. Argh, we hadn't seen any since lunch and it was already eight pm ! Why was this woman torturing us with her talks about sausages, baked herring, roasted pigs and cherries with meatloaf. I think you could trace our footsteps by the dripping saliva from our mouths.
'And nowadays', the guide said,'you also can have a culinary good time in Lier. You can go in one of the restaurants for a meal. And we even have a genuine cocktail bar, where you can drink very nice cocktails like Mosquitoes and so' ...

I trotted to my friend.
'Tammy', I whispered, 'what kind of a cocktail is a Mosquito? Am I being blond again or what?'.
'Dunno', Tammy said, 'I think it's a local specialty from Lier, never heard of it'

After an hour and a half of walk, we finally arrived at the restaurant where we were going to eat our dinner. It was a three course menu:
- Loze Gommersoep: some kind of winter vegetable soup
- Konijn van het Begijn : Rabbit stewed in local brewed beer with mushrooms and onions
- Lierse Mette : dessert with pudding and cherry sauce

After a few glasses of wine, our table party started reflecting on the guided tour. We learned a lot about 'Begijntjes' : They were devoted women, who were not necessarily poor and lived in little houses together in the 'Begijnhof'. These women were not married and a lot of them were nurses. We thought they were very cool ! So on the first picture, you can see Tinny, Tammy and me, imitating the Begijntjes.
On the next picture you can see what happens when you give me a large glass of white wine. I start imitating the food on my plate. This is me, doing the 'Konijn van het Begijn' - look.

Things really started to get fun, when Kat told the penis joke again, in front of our whole table. I started laughing again with it, couldn't stop like before.
'It's funny down there', I heard a mumbling from the other table, 'I can hear Heidi's laughter'.
Uh oh, am I getting a reputation at work or what ?

I drove home again, with Tammy and Kat, the three of us thinking that getting out of Lier wouldn't be so hard than getting into the bloody town. Were we wrong ...
We saw the local hospital again, honked at two men peeing at a sign post and finally asked for directions from a nice handsome bloke.

It was a non-forgettable night, having a lot of fun with the colleagues. We didn't taste the mosquito cocktail though, we should return to Lier for that...
But the rabbit stew would also be remembered : Kat told me she puked during the night and I had a stomach ache and rumbling bowels all night long.
I told everybody a dozen times but nobody listens:
Fluffy furry animals are not edible !