“I haven’t been lucky in life”
The view is breathtaking, Thursday, 6 p.m., the sun falls on Mons station, the workers have just let go of the grinders. I know Livia “via via” but we have never spoken to each other. I imagine her as David Jeanmotte, falsely crazy and naive. Go figure why, I want to bully her. I begin a “would you rather” deliberately “deceitful” and submit a few choices. You prefer to be said that you have succeeded thanks to your physique or thanks to friends in high places. Livia laughs, “thanks to my physique, at least it will come from me and not from others”. Well done, Livia takes the point.
From reality TV (she spent several weeks with Nabila) to Belgian TV and radio, it’s hard to identify little Livia’s dreams. “I wanted to be a pediatrician. I loved children…before”. It’s a joke but behind the jokes often hide the shortcomings. Livia does not idolize Dalida by chance. Great lady with a fragile personal destiny. “I am not unhappy but I have no luck in my private life”.
For a few minutes I’ve been watching Livia, not her appearance but her way of “sending”. This is called charisma. I’m pretty sure the look on her has changed. “Yes, I can feel it, it’s true that when we arrived in the Grand Cactus, people said to themselves that I was a pretty girl who was useless. When people approached me, I felt tension. Today is more tender. It has really changed.”
Livia is a strong woman, she still works full time in a law firm, as a legal assistant. I ask him if it’s out of financial necessity or out of fear that everything will end. “I keep this job because I come from a modest background and I know that you have to have your back. The Grand Cactus, at first, was not enough to pay the bills. “. You will see it on video, Livia is a number pro. Useful when managing transactions between divorcees.
It’s hard not to mention big brother Jeanmotte. Beyond friendship, is he a bit of your mentor? “No, I am in the analysis. David has the merit of trying everything but he always tells me to accept everything, I often refuse”. This is perhaps their only difference, because for the rest these two are of the same stamp… That of those who understand everything.
Charging my dog is racketeering
Last month we joined friends in an airbnb near Ostend. For 260 euros per night, we had booked a very large two-bedroom house with private access to the farmyard. Cuistaxes, a playground and a swimming pool had replaced the cows and tractors, it was expensive but enormous… As soon as I arrived, the owner of the place jumped on me. “You didn’t say you had the dog… it’s 5 euros more… in cash”. Five euros to run in the yard, frankly it’s racketeering and more black.
This week, bis repetita. I have booked a ferry that will take me to the islands. I know this ferry by heart, it’s a huge liner with thousands of people and hundreds of cars. A huge thing in which “Skip” is a drop of water and yet I had to buy a seat for him for 20 euros… Twenty euros to walk on the carpet and be in my arms, that makes the trip at sea expensive.
Once there, I intended to book the campsite we go to every year. Impossible with a dog. The campsite prohibits animals in high season in the chalets. I was ready to camp in a tent to allow him to come anyway, but even in a tent, they don’t want it. Bottom line, I have a ferry but no accommodation.
On the road to the islands, I have to pass through Switzerland. Along the way, I saw that a campsite was asking… €1 for the dog. A euro to be in the open air is expensive racketeering.
Message for skip: don’t worry darling, dad has more than one trick up his sleeve so as not to leave you alone in Belgium.