National Day

Just like last year (and actually like in 2004, 2005 and 2006) I went to Brussels with my brother to take part to the Belgian National Day celebrations. This time we took the car to get there, but it was quite difficult to find a proper parking lot, because it was forbidden to park in a lot of streets for "security reasons", I suppose. My brother and I walked to the Cathedral, where a so-called te deum mass was taking place; the majority of important politicians, magistrates, judges, ambassadors and some members of the royal family were attending the ceremony. On the following picture, you can see the Prime Minister's car (A.2) and Mr Reynders's car (A.3). (Incidentally, A.1 belongs to the president of the Chamber of Representatives, i.e. Herman Van Rompuy.)


In front of the Cathedral lots of pro-Belgium, pro-monarchy people were waiting for the King to appear, shouting "Vive le Roi !". Curiously I didn't hear the same slogan in Dutch. However, "België best" (instead of the nationalistic "België barst") was embroided on a flag. There were more people than last year, as I can recall.


The King, the Queen and their sister-in-law Queen Fabiola got out of the Cathedral and got in their luxury cars. (I found that quite unfortunate, since King Albert II complained about poverty in his semi-annual speech the very day before. He was saying that we (i.e. not him) had to make an effort to help people who are in need. My first reaction was to say that he could spend his own money on that, because His Majesty's fortune is one of the biggest in Europe.) The cars were preceded by a hundred of splendid horses.

After that I walked with my brother to the Place Jourdan where the famous "Friterie Antoine" is located. We bought chips (2,20 € for a pack) and we ate them in the park just next to the European Parliament and the Institute of Natural Sciences. Then we walked in the streets of Ixelles/Elsene before we slowly got to the heart of the city, finally reaching the Court Hall where the police had installed all sorts of stands promoting their administration. Here's a photograph taken from the Court Hall, showing you that a bad spell of weather was coming.

We continued our walk through Brussels, passing in front of the well-known Manneken Pis (wearing the same awful clothes as last year), then we strolled on the Grand Place.



After that, we wanted to get to the Belgian Parliament, in order to visit it for the fourth time, but there were so many people on the Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat due to the military parade that it was impossible to get to the Parliament, let alone all those umbrellas! (By the way, it was the first time in five years that it was raining.)



So we gave up, swearing that we would get back next year, unless Belgium doesn't exist anymore.



Note: you can also read my account on last year's excursion in Brussels; there are some interesting parallels. Some things changed, like the price of a pack of chips: 2,20 € instead of 2,10 €, while potatoes are cheaper than last year!

I was especially surprised by the accurateness of a prediction I had made: "Nous sommes passés devant le Ministère (non, SPF) de la Défense, où André Flahaut, à l’entrée, un verre de champagne à la main, accueillait pour la dernière fois ses généraux et autres chefs d’état-major." Indeed, we know that Mr Flahaut (Parti Socialiste) has been replaced by Mr De Crem (Christen-Democratisch & Vlaams) and that the latter's politics are far from being as liberal as that of his predecessor. As a result, there was no party for army officials in front of the Ministery! Generals and other that scum "working" in headquarters must regret Mr Flahaut and his soft politics that made of the Belgian army an amusement park.

I'm hungry…

If you're starving, don't watch this!



Never go to McDonald's, because here's what you might find in your meal:



Yummy!

The following video shows you university students of Berlin Technical University making fries in a kind of mechanical manner…



If you ever happen to go to New York, make sure to go to Pommes Frites:



You don't even find such giant cones in Belgium!

And to conclude, let's watch this commercial for Mora which I find hilarious:

Food Wars

If you wonder which country is hidden behind each kind of food, you might be interested in checking this list. I guess it was quite pretty obvious with the pretzels and the bratwurst!

Here are the famous battles that are re-enacted:

1. The World
2. WWII: Holocaust; French surrender; London Bombing; Pearl Harbor; Battle of Midway; D-day; fall of Berlin; Hiroshima
3. Arab-Israeli War: Brits leave Israel; Israel expands territory
4. Korean War: China and Russia back the North; the US back the South
5. Cuban Missile Crisis
6. Viet Nam: China and Russia back the North; the US back the South
7. Cold War: Arms race
8. Intifada
9. Gulf War: Iraq invades Kuwait, Scuds, smart bomb
10. 9/11
11. Afghanistan
12. Gulf War II: Shock and awe; IED
13. Bug Food

PS. This was my 400th post!

Happy New Year!!!

It is customary to say "Happy New Year" to everyone on 1st January, so now it's done (it was quick!), I can go on with my usual silly things I found.

Let's have a look at what will happen this year:

2008 is a leap year. It basically means that it has an extra day, namely on 29 February (on a Friday this time).

More interestingly, 2008 is the International Year of the Potato. That's good news for me, since I love eating them, especially as chips and crisps. (Yes, I'm a perfectly healthy person, though!) But while reading the relevant Wikipedia entry, I discovered that the UN goal was:

affirming the need to focus world attention on the role that the potato can play in providing food security and eradicating poverty.^[1]

All right, then. No International Year of the Belgian Chip.

There will be many interesting events during this year. Here are the ones I wanted to highlight:

• 14 February: "Bunker Philo" (I'll be there!), but also Saint Valentine's Day! I've gotta think about it… My first Valentine's Day. What a kerfuffle! But don't worry, I already have an idea for a present. But shhhhhh!
  
• 24 February: the 80th Academy Awards Ceremony: it's a shame they don't broadcast it anymore on BeTV, for I had been watching it between 3 and 6 am for many years…
• 2 March: Russian presidential elections. I can already assert that Dmitri Medvedev will win, because Vladimir "Combover" Putin endorsed him as his candidate to the function.
• 7 June to 29 June: the Euro 2008 championship tournament in Switzerland and Austria. Fortunately, the Belgian Red Devils didn't manage to be qualified, so that we won't be distracted by their matches during the exam period.
• 8 August to 24 August: the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. As we get less medals each time, perhaps we'll get only one this year (probably Justine Henin).
• 4 November: US presidential election. By the end of the year, G.W. Bush will eventually be gone! (Or kind of.) Perhaps the Americans will have a women as head of state?

Furthermore, the Iraq war will continue, as well as the War in Afghanistan, the Conflict in Darfur, and also the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And there's already a page for the deaths in 2008, with a large number of curious but interesting links…

We'll see in one year's time how the World has changed! Let's hope that all of us will still be there! (We never know…)

But still, have fun and enjoy 2008 !!!

What's a "cervelas" made of, actually?

If you want to know the answer to this question, just watch this. Its TRUE!



This extracts comes from the excellent film Dikkenek, a Belgian movie describing certain social classes of our glorious country. Its part of the tradition of "autodérision": laughing about ourselves. I've seen this film recently. I though it would be boring, but not at all! I highly recommend it!

For your information, "cervelas" (or cervelat in English) is a kind of sausage that you'll find in Belgian chip shops. It has a bad reputation about it, being made out of unhealthy things — even though it has a marvellous taste! (I ate hundreds of them in my life, and I'm still alive though!)

And oh yeah, that guy we see talking is nicknamed François l'Embrouille. He did some hidden camera shows in the past, and I liked this one in a chip shop, precisely: