Yesterday was the last day that my mum was here. Since her flight didn’t leave until the evening, we got spend most of the afternoon together.
I met up with her at her place because she needed me to help her carry the suitcase down the stairs, just like I had to carry it up when she arrived. We walked to the train station and left the suitcase in on of the lockers there.
We then starter off at the diamond district where we walked around and I thought my mother was interested in the stores, but apparently she was more curious about the people living around that part of town.
We only went into two shops since I am not that much of a shopper. I got myself one nice top and one summer dress. My mother didn’t find anything either. We quickly moved on to just more walking around the city.
We walked to a small botanical garden. Which was really pretty. A nice little breather from all the city workers. After that little adventure, we walked to a place to eat. This time we ended up at a small bar inside a pretty hotel. We didn’t have as big of a meal as we did the day before. We both went with the burger and some drinks.
When we had eaten our meal, we headed back towards the train station and I just helped my mother to find the right train and help her carrying the luggage up on to it, and then we said our goodbyes and I headed home again.
I had a nice few days with my mum. Despite it being a bit stressful from time to time, I still appreciate her flying out and being able to spend some time with her. We did have some lovely moments. I have relieved to being going back to my usual day and spending time with my friends again.
Yesterday was a shorter day than the others since wee started later due to the day before, and my mother wanted to end earlier since she was traveling back the day after.
I met up with her at around 2:30 pm. The plan was do a bit of shopping. We started walking down a street and just kept walking. We stepped into a few shops, but didn’t end up getting anything. I did get a nice new bag, but that was about it. Since it was a Sunday not all the shops were open, so we decided to move the shopping trip to the next day since my mother’s plane wasn’t until in the evening.
We ended up just walking down a nice street next to a small park, and then we walked back along side the canal. While we were walking it started raining, which is very normal here in Belgium. At first it was just some moderate showers, but then it started really coming down since I didn’t have my umbrella I ended up getting soaked from top to toe. I did thankfully have my raincoat with me, but that one was also soaked due to all the intense rain.
We eventually made it back to where we started and decided to sit down for dinner at an very cozy Italian restaurant. They had comfortable chairs and also heated lamps. Since this was going to most likely be our last proper meal together, we went all out.
I ordered some tempura shrimp for starters and a huge entrecote as my main. My mother ordered a small salad and pasta with shrimps. Everything tasted delicious. After our meal we parted ways for the day and I got to go back and relax with my friends which I haven’t been able to do a lot this weekend.
My friend Seyaca and I continued our playthrough of “Split fiction” together. The game is so good, but it does throw a lot of variety stuff at you, so it’s easy to get overwhelmed. We make sure we don’t have too long sessions, also because we don’t want to rush through the game. Just want to take our time and enjoy it all.
Yesterday we took a long walk towards a sculpture park which was located all the way in the southern part of the city. The gps said a bit over 1h, but it took us more like 2h.
The weather while walking was on and off rain. My mother lost control of her umbrella due to strong wind. I tried to retrieve it, but it happend over a hug crossing, so it quickly got caught by cars and broke. We thankfully found a store that sold an umbrella and she got herself a new one.
Some time later we were standing in front of a bike lane and a crossing and when I was going to cross the bike lane my mother suddenly let out a huge scream. She thought she saw a car coming to hit me. It startled me quite a bit.
But after those two events and a lot of walking we managed to get to the sculpture park. They seemed to have some sort of event going on cuz there were people in costumes and a big crowd of kids.
We walk around and looked at the installations. Some of them were very interesting indeed. Since we got there a bit late, we didn’t really stay too long. We had a some drinks and then headed back to our place. We could thankfully take a buss all the way home.
When we got home. My mum and I just sat in the sofa chatting about different things while Nathan sorted out dinner. We discussed stuff like job hunting, house cleaning and other things. It got a bit heated there for a moment but that almost always happens.
Thankfully, dinner didn’t take too long to make so we ate the food and since it was already 10:30, my mother ordered a taxi to take her home.
It was an alright day up until we got home to our place and started chatting about certain things. I ended up feeling very exhausted and a bit frustrating, but other than that the rest was good. And the food that Nathan had prepared was delicious.
This Thursday my mum arrived in Belgium for her planned visit. She decided last year that she was interested in coming back to explore more of the place I live and to be able to spend more time with both me and Nathan.
Her plane was delayed already by 1h on the day of arrival so we didn’t get to Antwerp until noon. I met up with her at the train station and we walked through the city towards the place she was staying. She got to see the shopping street and the “Groenmarkt”. When we finally got to her place we realized that the stairs where super narrow. In Norway we would call them “Chicken stairs”. So it was a good thing that I was with my mum at that time since I of course had to help her carry her luggage upstairs, which quite the workout for sure.
After we had relaxed a bit we went out for a nice lunch and a short walk around the area. We didn’t have a long day since my mother was tired from traveling.
Yesterday was the first day of proper hanging out together. Nathan and I met her at KMSKA which is the place Nathan had is first performance with KARO, but this time we were here for the actual museum. They were some really nice paintings and sculptures. We managed to see everything right before they closed.
Then we were planning on heading home and have my mum over for dinner later, but plans changed due to my mothers phone acting up. After walking while being in a queue for almost 45 min to talk to customer service, we decided to just go out for dinner and do the appartement visit the next day. My mum wanted to take us to the place she recommended called “De Pottekijker”, but they didn’t have any free tables. So we took her to the Takumi ramen where Nathan and I always go whenever we eat in the city.
She ordered the spicy miso ramen with shrimp. She said that this is the best ramen she had tasted before. For dessert she tried Taiyaki and I tried a Taro (Japanese sweet potato) cheesecake.
After our dinner Nathan and I said our goodbyes and head home since it had been a long day. We needed to rest up for the next day too.
This weekend was really fun. I had been looking forward to this for a long while, because a group of my friends came together to plan a big meetup at FACTS. We were 9 people in total, and some of us were even meeting each other for the first time.
We woke up semi early because our friend was arriving at 10 am to pick up Nathan and I and take us to FACTS. It was about 1h drive from our destination. The drive itself wasn’t bad and we arrived at the convention around 11:30am, after struggling with finding a parking spot.
Our friends were gathered outside and it was REALLY nice seeing familiar and new faces. I met my friend Sunni and Gortax for the first time, since Sunni had flown in from her country to attend this event. After our first greetings, we headed into the building. We started right in the middle where all the big stalls were. You could skip that if you wanted and just enter it by the artist alley.
We started walking around and looking at what they had. There were a lot of everything. TCG stands, T-shirts, Plushies, Posters, Cloths etc… We ended up splitting into smaller groups cuz of different interest and walking pace. We visited the 18+ area which was the first for me. I thought it was sort of cool that they had a dedicated section for those type of stuff. After a while, we all met up at the food hall to get something to eat and drink, and just to share the stuff we had bought so far. We then checked out the artist alley, where I ended up buying a lit up picture frame of Totoro (Japanese movie). I also walked around looking for more League of Legends trading cards, but only found one stall that got them.
Just like that it was already almost 6pm. We met up one last time before we said our goodbyes and left. It was really fun and I enjoyed meeting up with so many of my friends, BUT I did get super overwhelmed with the entire thing and I also felt like I didn’t get to see anything (Which was ofc, my fault for rushing through it all) If I do this again I will focus more about seeing everything rather than just sticking around my friends and just go where they wanted to go.
The drive home was just as smooth, but when we finally got home all the walking and overwhelming feelings caught up to me and I started feeling a bit sick. I also hadn’t eat a lot throughout the day. I just had 1 egg + bacon sandwich and 1 onigiri throughout the day. As for drinks, I only drank 1 monster and 1 cola. I also just felt overly exhausted and it felt as if everything in my body hurt xD.
After a much needed rest I felt much better. Sunday I joined the band boys for their photo shoot. That was also very fun, because they had such a great and goofy vibes.
Overall a great weekend with a lot of fun and I used a lot of energy XD Had a lot of fun and can’t wait to hopefully do more IRL things like this in the future.
So it’s been a while since last time I posted due to constantly forgetting about it xD but there are a few things that has happened which I will briefly update you guys in this post.
So we left off just at the end of January, going into February. The events that happened were 1) Valentines Day, 2) The boys first concert of 2026 and 3) My first TCG convention.
FEBRUARY HAUL
Valentines day
Not much planned for that day because Nathan had band practice for most of the day, so I decided to do a little Valentines stream with my community. I had a lot of fun. Tried an upcoming game together with Seyaca and then a new cozy game called “A little to the left” which is about organizing.
I made reservations for Nathan and I do go out the day after to a place we have been several times called Amadeus which serves “All you can eat, ribs”. We tried taking our bikes besides me suggestion that we go by public transport. Nathan quickly realized that biking wouldn’t work and we had to ride home and cancel. He understood that I was a bit upset about this, so we decided to go out to one of the few restaurants closer to our home. We picked one and made a reservation. I had a GIANT calzone and Nathan had a chicken pineapple cream curry. Even though it wasn’t what we had planned I appreciate Nathan understanding they situation and we ended up having a nice time in the end ❤
Pepperoni CalzoneChicken cream curry
The boys first concert 2026
The weekend after that aka 25th of February, the boys had their first concert of 26 in Gent. It was in this small very narrow bar with a small stage. They were the warmup band, but there were a lot of confusion about when they were going to play. First it was 10pm, then it became 9pm and at the last minute it went back to 10pm again, which is a bit annoying since Gent is ~1h drive from Antwerp. We also got to learn that the drummer had agreed to let the other band use his drum set, so we couldn’t even leave after their performance because of that. So we weren’t home until close to 1am, which isn’t the best.
The concert on the other hand was great! I personally thought they were WAY BETTER than the “Main” band. Not due to bias, but just like the genre better, the songs and just the overall experience. The members of the other band were all ~18-20, so they were quite young. They didn’t put any of their music online and was planning on just do physical stuff like Vinyls and CDs. They were apparently were well known and already had a decent fan base. I just personally didn’t really vibe with their music. The female lead singer also was kind of a drama queen and wore a pretty short skirt. Their most raved song was something about a monkey? idk xD Just glad when it was all over and we get to go home. I also had to wake up early the next morning.
My first TCG convention
The next day I woke up at around 8:30 am to get ready to ride into the city. I left my bike the underground bike garage by the central station and took the train to Breda. I was attending my first TCG (Trading card game) convention with Nacho and Moopie. It was my first time, since I don’t collect any TCGs. Nacho overslept a bit, so I got breakfast at the station before heading to the location. There were for some strange reason a lot of police people there that morning, even a small squad outside of the station as I left towards the buss stop. I never got to learn why.
After meeting up, we just walked around looking at all the stalls and all the cards. Nacho collects Pokémon cards while Moopie and I didn’t collect anything. I did however decide to get a few cards since I have been considering starting a new hobby, but I didn’t want to go with Pokémon. I picked the somewhat new TCG set from League of legends called “Riftbound” since I felt the most connected with that. I bought 5 single cards and 3 booster packs. The cards I got were really nice looking and I am excited to look for more in the future. We also had this funny moment where we walked around to find the best price for those transparent plastic sleeves used to protect the cards. I bought some and put them in my pocket and then we went to sit down. Not even 10 min later when we were a bout to leave, I asked Nacho if I could have some sleeves from here, and it wasn’t until I stood up and reached into my pocket that I remember that we JUST bought some! The best part was that all three of us had forgotten, despite walking around for past 30+ minutes looking for them. We all had such a great laugh and a great way to end the convention.
After my train ride home, I went down to the garage where I parked my bike and was greeted by the worst possible scenario. My bike was STOLEN! At first I thought I had forgotten where I parked it, but then I saw my cheap locker that had been cut, just laying on the ground. It was such a shitty way to end the day. I couldn’t walk around too long either since my phone was on less than 20% battery and I needed it for my buss ticket. R.I.P bike :c
MARCH -> TODAY
March was quite uneventful. The only thing that did happen was that I applied to a job at our local McDonalds. I was given an interview which I was thankfully allowed to do in English. I mentioned that I was very flexible as one of the reasons to pick me. He then asked if I would be able to work a random 1pm shift, to which I answered “ye” and he went “woaw, you are indeed flexible” xD. I met up the next week for my 2h trial run of “proefperiode” as they call it here. It was a lot and much harder than I initially thought. I was in charge of the grill aka “making” the burger patties. I tried my best, but it was sometimes hard to use the spatula to scrape the burgers off the grill without leaving too much behind. I also did some finishing and just learned about the workplace in between. The worker who was in charge of training me did his best to do it in English, and he did a really good job. Later when things were quite and we had a small chat. He asked me which lvl my Dutch was. I said it was 2.4 and went “THEN WHY ARE WE DOING THIS IN ENGLISH!!” xD Apparently he was lower lvl than me. I tried to explain that it was due to being nervous BUT I was nervous xD
I ended up not getting the job in the end.
That leads us to Easter. Where nothing much happened. I did get to do a lot of games with friends and I also finally started my Easter chocolate. Nathan and I ordered a lot of Chinese food which were delicious. My next adventure is FACTS on April 11th. I am so excited cuz I will be meeting up with so many of my friends. We will be like 8 people walking around.
That’s it for this quarter update. I hope that you all have had a great 2026 so far. Enjoyed your Valentines day and Easter with either your loved ones or just celebrated by yourself ^^. Next post will be about my first FACTS experience (if I don’t forget again)
We are almost through with the first month in the new year, and I can already say that I have had a much better start than last year.
I started the year with hosting my very first charity event over on my twitch channel in honor of my dad. I chose to raise money towards PF (Pulmonary Fibrosis) which is the disease that dad was diagnosed 6 years ago, and is the reason he passed away. I found a British organization called “action against pulmonary fibrosis”.
APF (Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis is a national UK, people driven charity. We bring people together to drive change so more people affected by APF can live well for longer.
We provide expert support, information & education. We collaborate to drive change that improves health and care and we provide vital resources to researchers, bringing hope for new and future treatments for this devastating disease
The event lasted for 4 days (from Jan 3 – 6th) with the total goal of £50. I didn’t want to make the goal to big, because I’m not a huge streamer with tons of views. I honestly didn’t expect anybody would donate, so I was absolutely over the moon when we completed it. I was so overjoyed that I have decided to make this a yearly thing and increasing the goal a bit each year. I’m already looking forward to the next one.
The second event this month was the 5 year anniversary between Nathan and I, which we celebrated on the 18th. I had it all planned out. We had our sliced Wagyu which we bought from the butcher during the holidays, I had my rose mixed with tonic and then we had a meringue cake for dessert. The entire meal was SUPER delicious. The Wagyu was so tender it just melted in your mouth, and the cake later was a perfect mix between soft with a bit of crunch. The drink however was a complete failure, but I was already slightly prepared for that. It was overall an amazing experience, but Nathan and I did agree at Wagyu is overrated for how much it costs compared to what you get.
The finale event of the month was the a dinner party with Nathan’s mum. They moved to the Netherlands last August and this was the first time we were able to visit. We met up with the brother per usual and then we all headed over there together.
Their new place was quite nice, not too big. They also had a dedicated room for the grandson aka Nathan’s nephew. We exchanged Christmas present and just did our usual catch up, since this is the first time we had seen them since they moved. Our was gourmet with different meats, veggies, bread and cheese. I tried blood sausage for the first time, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Then for dessert we used the same grills to make pancakes. I also spent a lot of time hanging out with the nephew as I usually do. He had gotten a mini arcade machine loaded with 200 games, so we just play some of them on the couch while the rest was talking. I did ofc get the repeated question about having kids, to which I answered “maybe”. The mother wanted me to tell here in advance so that she could make a room for it when the time comes. I am quite used to her asking me about it, because she does it every time we visit. I just wish she would remember my answer, because it’s getting a bit annoying having to repeat it every time, but it is what it is xD
We stayed from around 3pm till 8pm. On the way home the nephew wanted to play their version of truth and dare, which let to more questions about kids and also marriage. I like that there is a difference between visiting the mum vs visiting the dad when it comes to topic of conversations. We answered all their question and some answers even made them go wild for some funny reason. After we finally reached our home, we just chilled for the rest of the night
This was everything that happened this month. We don’t have any other plans. The next thing on the calendar is Nathan’s first concert this year, some time in February, but that’s it.
To summarize: This start of the year beats last ones. Even though it wasn’t that hard of a challenge. I did have a lot of fun doing the event, being consistent in uploading stuff on my socials and meeting up with family. Hopefully the rest of the year will continue being this nice.
The Anna behind Yannani 