Tag: Belgium
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Democracy: Too important to be left to the people
There was a report in the newspaper recently on a bridge in Slovakia being named after Chuck Norris. Apparently local officials had put it to a popular vote, and (at the time of writing) 74% of people had voted to call it the Chuck Norris Bridge, outvoting a local historical figure by a huge margin. On the face of it, this is all highly amusing, but it does emphasize my point that people should not be allowed to vote – on anything – because they’ll just take the piss, or screw it up. Seriously, it happens every time you let… Read more
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Bureaucracy: Belgium’s greatest export
I thought that I’d left all of the bureaucracy behind when I left Belgium earlier this year, but no. It seems that not content with foisting their arcane machinations on the rest of Europe, the Belgians have now set their sights on the global stage. On July 15th, a new law will come into effect in Belgium whereby any non-residents who work in Belgium for more than five days in any calendar month are required to obtain an L-1 LIMOSA declaration. Given that there’s an extremely good chance I’ll be sent back to Belgium on a business trip at some… Read more
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Raising the (Chocolate) Bar
For some reason I’ve got this real craving for Toffos. Unfortunately, being some 10,000 miles from the nearest packet, it’s likely to remain unsatiated. Despite globalization and the flattening of the world, some things just don’t seem to travel intercontinentally – and sweets (candy, snoep, what you will) seems to be one of them. Although there’s not much I miss about England, sweets are something I certainly do. Not enough to move back there, you understand, but enough to give me pangs of nostalgia. Or of hunger. It’s difficult to tell, this late in the afternoon. I spent several years in… Read more
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And not a ‘Hi-De-Hi’ within earshot
Last weekend we enjoyed a family holiday (4 days – does that count as a holiday?) at one of the CenterParcs here in Belgium (De Vossemeren). We’ve never done one of these kind of places before (I think us Brits have a natural aversion to anything that even vaguely smells of a Butlins Holiday Camp), but yes, we did actually enjoy it. It’s not necessarily my first choice of vacation [I couldn’t sell the family on a 10-day meditation retreat…], but the kids loved it and if they’re happy then the holidays are a lot more relaxing for us parents,… Read more
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Nu kan ik Nederlands spreken
For the past year I’ve been studying Flemish (a.k.a. Dutch) at night school. I’ve just had my end-of-year exams, and thankfully I passed (and quite comfortably, with 84%). For my efforts, I’ve been awarded an offical certificate, which felt oddly like the Straw Man in the Wizard of Oz receiving his diploma, as I didn’t really study that hard, and relied largely on my (basic) knowledge of German, which is fairly similar to Flemish. Overall, the course was fun. We started out with about 22 students in the class (although this was whittled down to around eight by the end of the year)… Read more