Category: Belgium

It was Brusseling when I arrived in Belgium – that misty drizzle that never quite settles. I wondered if I’d have the same feeling about Belgium as did for France, but whether the animosity had been dissolved by the positive experiences I’d had there, or because there was so much more to my Belgian history… Continue reading Brusseling

‘You shouldn’t have to pay to get well!’ Those words make me grind my teeth every time I hear them. And I hear them a lot. Someone in the crowd shouted it out during ‘Audience Viewpoint’ at a Crowded House concert and they made it onto the live album. The retort, ‘well, try harder to… Continue reading BYO P-A-S

Continuing on this positive vain, I’m impressed by the European effort to protect the environment. One of my big frustrations in Japan was that people pretented, even believed, that they were being environmental, but they really had no idea. Most separating of garbage was limited to burnables and non-burnables, but the primary example of the… Continue reading A Green Country

I recently got a message from a friend who, after browsing through this site, said ‘I never realised that you hated Belgium so much.’ The message upset me because I had no intention of creating a negative image in my scribblings. In fact, I love Belgium. I would have left a long time ago if… Continue reading Polyglots

My new company is offering me a company car. I can choose from BMW, Mercedes Benz and Alfa Romeo among others. And I’ll refuse. Driving in Belgium isn’t particularly fun. I rented a car on my first visit and again for a couple of weeks when I was moving in, so I know. It’s not… Continue reading On the Roads

It rained on the weekend. I mean, it really rained. Not this piss-weak mist that everyone complains about here, barely roughing the surface of puddles and drying on your clothes before the next drop can hit. This rain was heavy enough for me to put up the umbrella I normally only carried so as not… Continue reading Hopscotch

After Japan, it’s not surprising that Belgian customer service fails to please, but surely they can do a better job than this. I used to take a few minutes to do my grocery shopping on the way home each day. Here it takes a good hour just to get through the registers so, needless to… Continue reading The customer is always…

If you finished the sentence by talking about the European Union, chocolate or the Maniken Pis, you get one point. If you answered with the name of the ugliest monument I’ve ever seen, the Atomium, score two. But Belgians would give you most points, say five, for realising that many things other countries are famous… Continue reading Famous

To me, trams represent an ancient world. I’d seen the photos of trams in Miranda near where I grew up, but the photos were black and white, which meant that they were taken about as far back as history went. Seeing them still running in Melbourne and in Sapporo didn’t change that, and when I… Continue reading Trams