Category: Life
-
Sofa vs. Cycle: The Relative Merits
In a rash fit of positivity, we decided that we’d take a family bike ride this Sunday. Maybe I was artificially stimulated by the purchase on Saturday of a new bike for the wife (even though we won’t pick it up until next week), and the fact that I finally repaired Finn’s bike which has had a puncture for around a year now. Or maybe it was the thought that this could well be our last burst of good weather before winter really sets in. Either way, it seemed like a good idea at the time. We cycled up to… Read more
-
Four Wheels Good, Two Wheels Bad
Last Sunday was ‘Car Free Day’ here in Brussels. This is the one day a year when all traffic (emergency vehicles and the ubiquitous police excepted) is banned from the city. I think it’s to promote exercise, or reduce pollution, or something. To give them credit, the Belgians fully embrace these kinds of initiatives, so the main roads into town were blocked, and the police were on strict orders to ticket anyone who attempted to drive their car within the city boundaries. Even the businesses jump on board – I saw a banner at one public car park in the… Read more
-
He not busy being born…
This week another old (old established, not old aged) friend of mine died.   I hadn’t seen her in at least a couple of years – mainly because I have been living out of the country, but I still considered her a close friend. She’s the third one in the same group of friends who have died since I left England. Shit, I’m too young (at 39) to be scanning the obituaries already. Their death doesn’t upset me; death is inevitable – it is the one thing you can count on in life. What does bother me is that none of… Read more
-
RSS – Read Something Stupid
When I started this blog a couple of months back, I noticed that a number of other blogs offered RSS feeds. I didn’t really know what an RSS feed was at the time, but as everyone else had one, I wanted one too. (I’m such a child!) Actually, I just don’t like to leave a technological path untravelled, regardless of whether I actually need to go down it or not. So I did some research, worked out what an RSS feed would give me and what I needed to do to get one, and within no time had my very own… Read more
-
Refuse Fascism
Belgium prides itself on being one of the more forward-thinking countries when it comes to refuse collection and recycling. This is commendable, but damn, if they don’t make it difficult.Firstly, the refuse collectors (dustbinmen, residential waste experts, whatever…) will only collect your standard household refuse if it is bagged in specific proprietary bags (with the refuse company’s name on them). Standard black bin bags (heftybags) are just left in your driveway, untouched. This seemed a bit excessive at first, but this is how they charge for the service (a roll of dustbin bags will set you back some EUR20 (around… Read more