Last weekend, Kim and Sarah gathered many of our Belgian friends together and threw threw a baby shower. This is a very unusual practice in continental Europe, and no one else had ever even been to such a party. However, these two managed to arrange a very entertaining afternoon.

The guests competed for prizes in games such as guessing the flavour of unmarked jars of baby food, by filling out quizzes to try and guess my thoughts on the baby, and by estimating my circumference. While the most extreme guess was that my girth was around two meters, I was happy to report that in reality I had not quite reached that size just yet.

Adrian served pizza and blue lemonade, and we finished off the event with cake, blueberry tarts, blue-chocolate covered strawberries, bounties, milky ways, and blue vegetable chips. It was really fantastic to be able to acknowledge this pregnancy and be spoilt with attention and celebration. We also now have a selection of very cute outfits to dress our little guy up when he arrives in August.

The year 2010 was a pretty big year for us – our first full year living in Belgium, with lots of adventures in and out of the country.

Career wise, I moved from an external consultant to an internal employee of my pharma company. I presented my work at the World Parkinson’s Congress in Glasgow, had my first epidemiology paper accepted for publication, and received an excellent end-of-year performance review. I am really enjoying my job, and I feel that I am very suited to the work that I am doing.

I also received my diploma for my Masters of Public Health, so I can now add a few more initials after my name.

Adrian won over 3 million euros worth of research grants this year, permitting him to expand his lab to include several technicians as well as seven PhD students. He published seven review articles, with several primary papers soon to be completed.

We are becoming more comfortable in our new home. I now have a Belgian driver’s licence and permanent residency, and my French has progressed from beginner’s level to intermediate. I can now have a basic conversation in most stores and usually walk out with the item that I required, as well as helping a person on the street with directions to a nearby landmark.

We have made a small but warm circle of friends in Brussels and Leuven. I have enjoyed Ladies’ Night in Leuven, as well as celebrating birthdays, Halloween and New Year’s Eve with some wonderful people. I have been welcomed into a dynamic English-speaking book club full of intelligent and articulate women.

Pepper and Mint are thriving. Through a regime of clomipramine, feliway, and regular treats, they are now relaxed and happy. No longer hiding under the couch, they run to greet us when we return home and seem to enjoy our company.

Our spare rooms were put to great use this year. Michelle and Grant were regular visitors, arriving with a bag full of home-made jam and Cadbury’s chocolate and leaving with a suitcase full of Cantillon beer. In January, Sydneysiders Robin and Neil used our place to rejuvenate during a round-the-world trip, sampling every gâteau that Pierre Marcolini had to offer. Luke and Shyla came to visit us from London to see and taste a bit of Belgium. Canberran Anna stopped by to help me celebrate my 30th birthday with cupcakes and cosmopolitans.

In July, Adrian’s mum Lynne took her first international flight to see her family in the UK as well as us here in Brussels. We took her on a road trip to Burgundy, France, where she met my mum and Josef for the first time.

In August my sister Amy stayed with us during her eurotrip, and we shared moules et frites in the Grand Place with our uncle Greig and aunt Margaret who also happened to be in Brussels at the same time.

In August, Mum and Josef arrived in Belgium to see our home and our new life. We took them to our favourite restaurants and shared with them the best sights of the region.

We have also managed to see a bit more of Europe. After starting the year in Milan, in February we took our young friends Lila and Grace to see Disneyland Paris in the snow.

Our Canberra friend Lina joined us in April to visit Slovenia, Italy, San Marino, and the Vatican City.

In June we spent a day in Cologne, Germany, to see the Cirque du Soleil perform. A few weeks later, after a couple of days in Belarus we met up with NYC John to journey through Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.

We visited the UK several times – to explore Michelle and Grant’s new hometown of Cambridge, to see Luke and Shyla’s new flat in London, and I spent some time with Mum and Josef while they were house-swapping in Chichester.

In November a quick trip to Paris reunited us with the old Seattle team of Jeong, Lianne, Shyla, and Luke for some gourmet meals and spectacular sights.

Sadly, the year 2010 also had its moments of loss and grief. Some were dealt a very personal and heartbreaking loss, while others marked the anniversary of loved ones who had passed away in the years before. My nephew Jayden passed away in July from a sudden illness – this January 7th would have been his 17th birthday.

We are reminded that every day is precious, and we see how lucky we are to live and work in such a beautiful and interesting country. We are thankful for all the experiences that we shared with our friends and family in 2010, and we are looking forward to even greater adventures in 2011.

Two hours ago, our train was just departing Paris, and now we are settled back home, looking through our photos and getting ready for bed.

We had a wonderful two days in France with our four friends. After a quick journey through the snow-dusted countryside, we met up in the hotel and set out to taste our way through the city. After a quick stop at the Pantheon, we sat down to some crêpes at the Crêperie Josselin for our first meal together in a bustling restaurant filled with Dutch decorations and an astounding number of menu choices.

Once our bellies were filled, we caught the cramped metro to the Les Halles district. While the others admired the shelves of sweets, teas, spices, chocolates, teas, mustards, dried fruits, and pâtés at G. Detou (“J’ai de tout” – I have it all), I bought a brightly coloured insulated coffee mug at the evanescent Pylones design store.

After a few more hours strolling along the streets while some soft snow fell upon our noses, we turned up for our reservation at A La Biche Au Bois (The doe in the woods). Adrian had a goat’s cheese omelette while I had a tender fresh salmon with wild mushrooms, then stole spoonfuls of crème brûlée and chocolate cake from the others’ desserts.

The next day, breakfast was a fresh pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) dipped in steaming hot chocolate before a stroll through Luxembourg Gardens. The gardens were looking a little grim this time of year, with most trees preparing for the impending snow to soon descend upon their boughs. After a seafood lunch – I had crayfish tail and mango salad – we said farewell to Liannabanana & J who were off to watch their other friends get married in Paris.

Our final stop with Shyla & Luke was to explore the Galeries Lafayette, which were packed to the brim with shoppers. We rested our legs and revived our hearts with some drinks at the champagne bar while admiring the sparkling tree reaching towards the center of the 1912 glass and steel dome. All too soon it was time to say goodbye to our amis américains and hop back on the Thalys to home in Brussels.

A few weeks back, Adrian was invited to speak at Cambridge, and I tagged along for the weekend. I left our house in Brussels at 5:15pm on Friday, and I was walking down the streets of Cambridge by 8:35pm.

Our hosts for this trip were Grant and Michelle, Kiwis that we met in Australia who are now post-docing in Cambridge. They fed us, entertained us, and even put us up for two nights. They gave us a tour of the old and mysterious colleges, took us to a bakery that sold cupcakes, and showed us the Mathematical Bridge. I hope this won’t be the last trip that we make to visit this charming and picturesque town.

Being in England is so strange. In Brussels, when eavesdropping on fellow travellers I struggle to pick out a few common words – manger (to eat), travailler (to work), mes amis (my friends) – and see if I can piece together a vague understanding of the context. Over there, it is almost like I can read minds – as I can understand everything that people say to each other, even if spoken quickly or quietly. The announcements, the fine print, the instructions, all of these communications are instantly comprehensible to me. In Belgium, it takes me ten minutes to translate a text message, but over there, I can absorb a page of text in a moment. I can express myself quickly and easily. My linguistic burden dissolves whenever I travel north through the chunnel.

We were even able to pop down to London to go see a broadway play, because over there, most of the theatre is conducted in English. We went to see Avenue Q, a play about muppets on the wrong side of the tracks. I laughed, I gasped, and I cried as I watched the little monster puppets struggle with the challenges of life. Afterwards we had dinner at one of the many delicious curry houses on Brick Lane. We haven’t found any good Indian restaurants in Brussels yet, so it was a great chance to fill up on some cheap and delicious naan and palak paneer.

We ventured into the supermarket to pick up the little things that we can’t find easily in Brussels – crumpets, hot cross buns, korma and tikka masala and tandoori sauces, crème eggs and other Cadbury’s chocolate, and gravy granules.

Grant and Michelle have found that one delight of living in Cambridge is walking to the next town for a pub lunch, and then walking back. They took us for a picturesque walk past Midsummer Common and Jesus Green to The Plough in Coton. The food there was amazing – for dessert I had a toffee bread and butter pudding that just melted in my mouth. Not only that, our hosts cooked us a hot breakfast of pancakes or waffles every morning. Another reason to return soon.