Paul Walking

Conservatoire Brussels – Friday 26th March 2010

hodsopa — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:58:57 +0000

We went to see the European Union choir singing various things. I liked the Brahms best, this is a picture of the Charpentier (never heard of before) story of Peter denying Jesus. The guy on the right is the Evangelist. Then we went to eat at the Grande Porte. Came back too late for the lift and had to walk up the slope at the Palais de Justice.

Moorhens in Parc Tenbosch – 25th March 2010

hodsopa — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:08:52 +0000

In the park this morning I saw the moorhens for the first time this year. One of them was out on the path 5 metres or so from the pond, you don’t usually see that. Trod back when B and I appeared. There are a couple of them there on the pond and also a couple of ducks. The reeds have been cut down; has this to do with a lack of food or of cover and them going further afield. But in any event the pond was frozen for a good part of the winter and the Holden Caulfield question remains.

I suppose there is a contest between the moorhens and ducks. In past years the moorhens have won.

Bicycle rue des Melezes Brussels – 22nd March 2010

hodsopa — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:45:43 +0000

This is what my new Fuji camera can do. Make the background flou so the subject is in focus. Re content, I like bikes as multi person transport.

Lebanese restaurant at Bascule – Saturday 20th March

hodsopa — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:32:53 +0000

L home, Match of the Day on. Yesterday (Saturday) S and I had lunch in the Lebanese place at Bascule, used to be Italian, the place they called H “Mlle Aubergine”. I had the ‘falafel sandwich’ only €4, better value than the vegetarian plate we usually have I think, which is €13 or so. Cheerful staff, keep it ticking over, bright and popular place.

Rue Belliard, Brussels – 17th March 2010

hodsopa — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:27:19 +0000

I was called to give a short speech at the Bavarian representation at the last minute. Afterwards I had to sit on a panel, armchairs and low tables, with men in dark suits and ties, and felt rather conscious of my white socks. I then walked back to the office up rue Belliard, taking this picture. The HOTEL is new.

Four rusty letterboxes with a rising or setting sun design, Brussels – 16th March 2010

hodsopa — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:02:45 +0000

Listening to Tom Waits, something off the Bastards and Brawlers LPs. If I keep listening to this I seem to remember there’s a song coming at some point about it being hard to dance when it’s 10 below freezing; it justifies the whole damn thing. My favourite songs of course are older – Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis, Jersey Girl. I ain’t got no husband, he don’t play the trombone.

I’m trying to persuade the embryo band in which I play bass to play stuff I like; Whitesnake Kiss Survivor come back the suggestions; unfortunately playing those songs turns out to be quite a pleasure (though I remain convinced that if I could get them to play the Clash version of Police and Thieves the pleasure would be greater for me and possibly even not absent for all). We practiced this lunchtime with our new singer. Who can sing.

Anyway I went and made the mortgage application for the new house this morning, passed these letterboxes on the way back.

Amsterdam – Saturday 13th March 2010 (to Monday)

hodsopa — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:12:11 +0000

(First picture): we had a weekend in Amsterdam, colourless sky and cold as it always seems to be when we come here. Perhaps we shouldn’t come in March! The first night we stayed in the American hotel. In the morning I ran in the Vondelpark, then after breakfast we walked there. A bourgeois late C19 inner suburb after our hearts.

(Second picture that I can’t separate off): on the Monday I did a work thing at the RAI centre then waited in this cool station for the train to Schiphol.

I like Amsterdam, I don’t think I love it.

It is a tatty place. On the metro to the RAI the automatic announcer was a stop behind.

Bar near Place Châtelain – 11th March 2010

hodsopa — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:49:39 +0000

Oof, Friday, I need the lie in. S and I are going to Amsterdam tomorrow, it will be nice but I miss that 6^th day of work on Sunday. Fool.

I’m going to write about last night for Paul Walking:

A night of drinks on Ch. de Charleroi. S and I met at a place diagonally opposite the Manos Stephanie (after resolving ambiguities created by the fact that there are two Manoses/Mani), talked about what to do given that the house we want to buy, the expert says it’s not worth it. Then we went to visit a fantastic flat on Charleroi we could maybe stay in during the period between moving out of our present house and moving in to that one. Then we went and ate at Ma Folle de Soeur. I had some nice tuna and OK mashed potato. In any case I like the feel there. Then called into the bar in the photo on the way back home and agonised some more. I’m not going to write here what our approach is in case our seller is one of my tiny number of readers.

Listening to Tom Waits, The road to peace.

Gare du Nord, Paris – 7th March 2009

hodsopa — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:59:58 +0000

There’s a new late train back from La Rochelle on Sundays, we can leave at 1750 and still be back in Brussels before midnight. (The photo for today is from the open doors of the Thalys about to leave Paris, most of the journey done.) I think La R is the furthest down on the west coast you can get by train after work and be by the sea. I love going there. L gets annoyed because S and I say “high skies”. Even if it is just as cold in Chatelaillon as in Brussels, you get high skies in Chatelaillon rather than Brussels grey when it is never really light in the winter. Manchester is like Chatel: when it is not raining the skies are high. Oxford is like Brussels.

The other thing you can do in Chatelaillon in the winter is run on the beach with your dog off the lead. And if I’m running he is more focussed, less likely to go off and ruckus with other dogs or bully small children.

Path from Chatelaillon to Les Boucholeurs – 6th March 2010

hodsopa — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:28:10 +0000

We are on a long planned visit to Chatelaillon; this is the part of Charente Maritime that was hit by the storm last weekend. It was less strange than I expected to be here. We walked from Chatelaillon to Les Boucholeurs this morning. The path along the bottom of the cliff was closed, guarded by a police woman, so we had to go along the cliff (see picture). In Les Boucholeurs you couldn’t go further than the Marko di Mare restaurant, I think to stop looting. (Someone we know who lives there and had to leave her house, after they went back to get stuff, the house was burgled). Local people could go in. Not much real sign of damage here in Chatelaillon, for us just a drainpipe down; the main damage was, it seems, either side of us at Aytré and Les Boucholeurs.

The commune is looking to rent houses from second home owners for a year to accommodate les sinistrés.