The station square had been deserted, except for Christall, who had been waiting for me by herself.   I was there far too early, though.

She was wearing a salmon pink jogging at the time, as she wanted to leave as few marks from her clothes on her skin as possible when she posed later.

We reached the B&B 'Het Oud Torenhuis' in Evergem, near Ghent.  Not just a stay that looks like an average hotel room, but a complete apartment where the owner John had put his artistic stamp.

One of those artistic expressions is a work of art, 'monumental', as it is called.   A kind of column that is flattened at the top.   I asked Christall to take up position behind the column.   Her breasts more or less protruded above it.   In the post-processing of the photo I allowed myself some 'Spielerei'.

When we were in my car on the way here, we quickly got into conversation.  She was sitting in the minister's seat on the right at the back, I was at the wheel.  So there was a safe distance.   It was Sunday, October 4, 2020 and we thought that after the first wave of Corona there would not be a second one.   

Her English was very decent.  Unfortunately, I didn't hear any of the deliciously smooth Russian in it.

'What do you like most about Belgium ?',  I asked.   'You'll be surprised, she answered : The weather !   Here it's never extremely cold or extremely hot.  In Russia, on the other hand...' 

The theme of the shoot is 'candy'.  That's why a blue-green candy snake slides down Christall's waist.    Misled again ?    Sorry,  I can't help it.

I didn't see any tattoos on Christall's body; I thought that was a plus.  A tattoo often only appears half-and-half in the picture and then it looks like a slushy, black spot.   A shoot with only beautiful, well-lit tattoos, I've often thought about that.  

There was a chessboard available in the Old Tower House.   I made the chess pieces myself with English liquorice, which you can buy at Hema.   Christall is playing against her Photoshop self here.   I asked her if she wanted to make an opening move.   She resolutely grabbed one of the middle pawns and moved it two squares forward !   Russians and chess, it's in their blood.   Just watch 'The Queen's Gambit' on Netflix.  You don't even have to know anything about chess.

If you were raised Catholic, like I was, then hosts are still somewhat "sacred". You don't just put the 'Body of Christ' on the floor, even if it's only candy.   Christall wants to collect the hosts, but maybe there's still some supernatural magic to them ?

Forty years ago I was in Russia: Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev.   A kind of study trip.   It was Easter vacation.   Brezhnev was in power and Russia was still very communist.   Ice cream was sold in the streets, because for Russians the temperature of April is as good as our summer heat.   In such weather we only snack on a heart mint, for example.

A trompe-l'oeil is to the visual arts what a pun is to literature.   I told her a joke: 'When we flew from Moscow to Leningrad during that study trip, our plane had to stand on the tarmac for a long time after arrival.   There were two French-speaking men in the seats behind us.   

Suddenly the plane started to drive backwards !   Through the window we saw a building looming above which was written 'PETROGRAD', in large Cyrillic letters, probably the name of the airport.   One of the 'Frenchmen' stopped his argument and then said emphatically : 'Ah, voilà enfin rétrograde.'  

Christall laughed briefly and she did not ask for any explanation.  Apparently French was no more of a problem than English.

She had already visited several cities in Belgium during the past three years of her stay.  She found the Art Nouveau houses in Brussels very beautiful. The Gasparucci furniture below is from the seventies and therefore not Art Nouveau at all, but I found it so fascinating that I tied my model to it.   With candy.   I asked her if she wanted to act a little indignant and she did so with style.

This photo is the odd one out.  Replace 'odd' with 'mermaid' and whoop whoop !   Christall wore a knitted tail fin that I bought her.  The rest is Photoshop, or rather: Affinity Photo (just as good, but much cheaper).

On the road map of Russia, you see all sorts of 'wires' running from Moscow to the main cities.  It looks like a spider's web.  One of those wires runs south, to Kursk.   'In Western Europe everything is much more intact, untouched', Christall says.  

So completely beautiful and naked on the edge of the bath, she seems stripped of all culture.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  She is now also studying Dutch, like a language prodigy.  Language is music.  Playing the violin, with a bit of piano thrown in.       A clever young lady, that Christall ! 

She asks: 'Not the packaging material first ?'  I answer sternly : 'No, you first !'   Without hesitation she steps into the empty, cold bath and lies down shivering.   I grab the bag with packaging figure eights and sprinkle them over her.   She lets out delighted cries of 'oooh, aaah' because the packaging immediately creates an insulating warmth.   Blissful poses and blissful photos are the result.

Visitors from outer space. The Apollo cabin has landed. The former Earthlings have mutated into a near-ectoplasmic existence that will define the future of humanity.