Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Out and About ...

Get to our front door. Open the door. Up the stairs. On no! We forgot to shut the door. Back downstairs. Shut the door. Back upstairs. Into the bedroom. Into bed. Under the covers. We're not going on a bear hunt again.
Extract from, We're Going on a Bear Hunt.

And that kind of sums up the last couple of days ...
I wandered into work in Brussels yesterday, worked on the database, talked to a fireman from England, caught the trams out to Paola and Simon's, had a delicious pasta meal with wine and Italian ice cream and just really enjoyed catching up on their news - talking far too much about me.

I slept at the top of the stairs in their bedroom for guests, woke this morning, a little nervous about all the trams and places I needed to find ... knowing that without geographical landmarks I am constantly lost therefore it follows that the Brussels underground metro completely destroys me however I am proud to write that I found my way back to the city via two trams, met up with one of my ex-Istanbul English students, wandered with him - a cafe for a coffee, a cafe for lunch (it was minus one celsius today).

A goodbye to Ege and back on the metro to Madou to take photographs of a Jewish/Muslim dialogue workshop the NGO was running.

I love photographing the workshops and using the new Canon EOS was purely delicious. It was its first time out with my flash and all went well.
I love it!

Back through the underground, onto the Antwerpen train, reading John Simpson's excellent book A Mad World, My Masters, and emerging, quite surprised, back in the city.

Reading Mr Simpson, there has been the depressing realisation that all wars are the same and often an invented political event. As I read through his tales of attending various wars, I see that the same template has been laid down again and again and again. Same reasons, same excuses, same dead civilians ... to read it on the heels of the Israeli offensive into Gaza makes me see how much we let our leaders get away with. Have a look at his book if you doubt me.

Home via the apotheek for medicine for everyone here at the apartment. Gert's been in bed sick since lunchtime, Jessie has struggled on with the same coughing feverish misery because little Miss Four has developed bronchitis so ... it was pizzas for dinner, checking in with everyone on who needed food, drink and painkillers, downloading today's work and voila, here I am, updating the blog some.

A busy couple of days.

2 comments:

paris parfait said...

Wow! You HAVE been busy! But it all sounds like fun, except for the extreme cold and your poor sick husband and the girls. Hope they're much better soon and you don't succumb to the same thing! Glad you're enjoying your new camera. Yes, more dialogue is definitely needed! They're at it again. Sigh. So distressing. xo

Di Mackey said...

Indeed, they are.

Have you read John Simpson's book, A Mad World, My Masters? I was annoyed about the Israelis breaking the ceasefire to get votes for their upcoming election but to read that the common understanding about the Kosovo crisis was that it was a set-up was depressing.

It's crazy how often our governments lie to us. To quote Simpson: 'President Clinton, badly damaged by the Monica Lewinsky affair, had decided with his Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, that there would only be one outcome to this particular Balkan crisis: Milosevic would have to back down, or be bombed into submission. The draft agreement the Americans offered him at the Rambouillet conference at the start of February was packed with elements he could never have accepted. They wanted him to say no.

Hmmm, sound like a familiar set-up?

I had to smile when I saw this extract: 'Tony Blair says this is a war for international morality. People here call it the War of Two Penises - Clinton's and Madeline Albright's'.

I guess the recent offensive in the Middle East would have Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni starring as leads in the two penises show.