Stardust

Whenever we start a new project at work, the project owner can choose a name for it. For big projects there are rules like should be a name of a star (e.g. Orion) or a diamond (e.g. Excelsior) or a cartoon (e.g. Goldorak) or a beer (e.g. Leef) and many more. Some project names are really cool some are so so but each project has to have a name, right.
Last week a new project came on the table and its leader gave it the name Stardust. Having no clue where this is coming from, I naturally googled it. It turned out that Stardust is the title of a fantasy book which has been adapted in a movie. To my big surprise I discovered that one of the characters, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, is called Lamia!
"Michelle Pfeiffer as Lamia, the witch-queen who attempts to cut out and steal Yvaine's heart to gain immortality as well as regain her beauty."
On good days she looks very pretty.



But on bad days, she is slightly scarier.






Of course, everybody in the office now, says they should be careful with this project... afraid I would turn out like an evil witch :)

VERY Belge

Food today was a selection of traditional dishes from Belgium: tomato with shrimp, shrimp croquette, waterzooi, eel stew, veal kidney, americain, carbonade, dame blanche, Belgian strawberries and many more.
We made sure our visitors could experience the real Belgian gastronomy... with a Belgian beer of course :)

A different type of business trip

In the 3 coming days we will have a global meeting in Brugge. Given it's at least 1h drive from Brussels, the local team decided to stay in the hotel with our visitors.
As a consequence tonight I took a train from Brussels to Brugge.
The train was ok, especially because I booked 1st class so I had a better seat and it was much more quiet... less people, less noise, what you need when you have to include last minute changes in the presentation for the following day.
It felt somehow weird to pack, gather everything to travel and end up on a platform to take a train that look more like a suburb train. No passport control, no check-in, no aircraft. Part of me doesn't feel like it is a business trip.
However the fact that I had to spare my Sunday night does feel back in business... I could have left tomorrow morning very early but I prefer having a good night sleep and enjoy an swim before sitting for hours in a meeting room. And anyway my dear one is busy with his new toy. Might not even notice I'm not around.

It must be the influence of Eddy Merckx

Right across the fields is Sint Brixius Rode where Eddy Merckx lived at some point in his life. Who's Eddy Merckx? For those who follow cycling (and the inevitable Tour de France) you would know that he was a famous cyclist in the 70s and won many championships. He is ones of those few Belgian athletes who played at world level. If you don't worship cycling, you might know him from "Rabbi Jacob", the movie, and the very famous scene where Louis de Funes tries to guess who's being interrogated based on the answers.
"(Person being interrogated) La bicyclette, c'est comme la révolution, quand elle n'avance pas, elle tombe !
(Louis de Funes) Eddy Merckx !
(Bad guy)Mais non, Che Guevara !"
(see the scene here with English subtitles)
If none of the previous, it was just some Belgian famous cyclist who happened to have lived nearby.
This said, the reason why I'm bringing Eddy in the discussion is because every week-end, the roads around Sint Brixius Rode turn into a mini Tour de France. People are biking. Cyclists are cycling, probably training for some competition. From dawn until dusk, it's almost non stop. If it's not his heritage, then we moved to an area where cycling is THE sport to practice and we definitely need new bikes.

IT arrived

The Macbook arrived today. In case you are free this week-end, just pass by or call. I sense I'll have plenty of time on my own :)

One more time

Belgium is on the verge of not having a government, one more time...
It just seems unbelievable that a country, supposed to be the center of Europe, can find itself again without a government.
I often say that from the outside the disputes in Belgium look like a storm in a glass of water, but now I really wonder if this country is meant to be. While most of colleagues cannot care less about the linguistic power game, it seems politics do and this is a major hindrance to any decision in Belgium.
Remember, 2 years ago Belgium achieved the record of 194 days without a government. Are they going to break another record?

Rodrigo y Gabriela

Tonight I went with Aurelie to the concert of Rodrigo y Gabriela, namely 2 guitar players from Mexico.
Absolutely amazing!!!!!! It was such a great concert.
There are only the 2 of them on stage and 90% of the time the only instruments are their 2 guitars but you would not believe what music, what sound, what rhythm, what atmosphere they can create with just 2 guitars. For 2 hours they played songs from their previous and new albums. Each time the live version was taking the songs to the next level.
If you ever get the chance to see them, don't miss it!
Go on there listen to some of their songs and I can tell you you will re-discover guitar.

PS: a big thank you to my sister you made me discover them.

Guinea pigs

The good thing when you have family visiting is that I can try new recipes as I know they will give me their true feedback on it.
Tonight after the day trip to Keukenhof I experimented with some wok recipe with scallops, pepper and rice noodles. Somehow it was missing something... maybe a bit of spice? or soya sauce that they usually put everywhere.
For dessert, I tried the "Crumble belge" i.e. a pear crumble with speculos crumbs. Perfect with vanilla ice. mmmmhhhh
Not sure they appreciate to be my guinea pigs, but someone has to do it :)

Millions of Tulips

Millions of tulips (well at least hundreds of thousands) is what you will discover when you enter Keukenhof. All the possible colors and shapes are there. Actually there are flowers unless you take a closer look at them you would never guess they are tulips... but they are, it's written on the name tag :)

This said Keukenhof place is a really nice park to visit. Flowers everywhere you look, nice perfumes everywhere for you to smell. Somehow it's like walking in a flower shop except it's outdoor and 100 times bigger. And today we were extremely lucky as the sky was blue, the sun was shining and the majority of the flowers were in bloom.

Take a walk with us here.
After walking a couple of hours throughout the park, it was time for an ice cream which we enjoyed nicely sited on the one-of-a-kind bench from the place.

I know it doesn't look like it, but it is very comfortable.
Re-energized by the ice cream we went to the wind mill and discovered behind it, the long-expected fields of tulips. As far as you can see there are flowers. That on its own is worth the trip. The colorful lanes spreading around until the sun, really really nice.
On the way out Yann spotted 2 peacocks on a tree. Perfect opportunity to use the zoom lens and try to get a decent picture. Now could somebody tell the birds to stand still?


PS1: Dad, don't miss the Hortensia with 2 colors in the video. We must get the same for the garden.
PS2: Keukenhof is an expensive place to visit. It reminded me of Disneyland. Quite expensive entrance ticket (14 euros each), parking on top (6 euros) and any food or souvenir being hugely over prise (3 euros for a 50cl water or an ice cream). Sadly I have to report they did not have a tulip burger. Next time we will bring a picnic to not only save money but also eat much better.

Keukenhof, finally

I've been living in Belgium for several years now and every years when springs comes, there 2 things that you should not miss:
- the royal greenhouses in Laeken, opening only for a few weeks in April-May
- the fields of tulips in Holland, namely Keukenhof.
While I've been to the royal greenhouses several times already and love going back, I had never been to the tulips. Main reason is that it's a 2-hour drive and you would only make the trip when you have visitors and good weather within the months of April and May... Not necessarily the easiest combination.
This week-end Joy and Yann were visiting and agreed to make the trip.
We all left this morning in their brand new Mazda 3 direction the tulips. Sadly the 2-hour drive became a 3-hour trip. Believe it or not but on a sunny Saturday there are many road works creating traffic jam. Not to mention the road to access Keukenhof is a single lane road, naturally packed with cars.
Now those tulips better be worth 3 hours in the car!

Volcano

Scary that a volcano in Iceland so long asleep is coming back to life and as a consequence most of the airports in the UK are closed. It's creating quite a mess and my boss is stuck in Newcastle. Now is this good or bad?
PS: very impressive videos on the Internet showing lava coming out of ice.

The good thing about wedding...

...or any big celebration is that I get to wear one of Lena's dresses, i.e. the tailor made dresses I acquire when I was in China. This time it was the pink silk one, designed to go with the pink pearls my dad offered me when they were visiting.
It was a pity that the weather was so cold and I had to keep my coat on.
Looking forward for the next opportunity to wear one of Lena's dresses because nothing feels better than wearing a dress perfectly fitting you :)

The first lunch outdoor

Around lunch time we were blessed with sunny weather and decided to grab our plates and eat on the terrace. Fair enough we are wearing sweaters and when the sun is hiding behind clouds it's chilly. But just the feeling of eating outside under the sun was great.
I can already foresee more lunches, dinners, BBQ, seating on the terrace. Just need the summer to come fast.
PS: we also quickly concluded that we need to get a table and chairs if we want to eat properly outside but let's wait for the weather to get warmer.

High emotion to start the day with

This morning while driving to work on the A12 (i.e. on a highway full speed) I saw something on the road. From far it looked like a big rock, or a wheel, or a box or anything big enough and grey to be noticed from far away and bouncing on the road.
Quickly assessing the situation there was not way to avoid it as 1) the car next to me was right there and 2) so was the car behind me. I did try to break down at least a bit but nothing could avoid the shock. This reminded me of the case study when you learn how to drive when they tell you if there is an animal on the road (like a deer) you'd better hit it than avoiding it as you could create a bigger accident than just killing the poor beast. You would wonder how much thinking your brain is capable of in the few seconds before the collision. For sure processing info full speed.
So here we go, I know the shock will come, can't help it. Still hoping this guy on my right would somehow move faster or slower so I can change line. But no.
And there it came, with that awful sound. I can already picture the bump on the car given the speed and the size of the object :(
It was one of those small carry on container that you can put on a motorbike. Must have fell from the motorbike that by-passed me not so long ago. Grrr... how come that thing was not properly fixed? they should not fall! I guess we were lucky that it was empty and not full.
After yelling at whomever could hear me and highly upset, we arrived at work and stepped out of the car to assess the damage.
Well, it's not that bad. Just a bump on the bumper (isn't it why we have them), quite some scratches and some paint gone. It could have been worse.
And we are lucky it's just the bumper damaged. Could have been way worse and no one was injured.
Still, I'm pissed of. What a bad way to start the day.
Maybe I should buy a SUV with one of those huge bumpers that nothing can damage... Food for thought.

Lamb for Easter

Happy Easter everyone!
At Easter it is tradition at least in my family to eat lamb. Having this year enough people around the table I bought a leg of lamb. I was very enthusiastic about serving it until I realized I also had to cook it. Now how do I do that?
Of course I called the emergency number when it comes to cooking: my mum! She briefly explained how to do it. Basic rule: 15min in the over per 500g. Easy. She also told me to check the instructions of the oven to see what they suggest. Hum, "for 4 servings, 190-210 min"... now how many grams is 4 servings? and gosh 190-210 min that seems very long compare to any other recipe.
So here we go, 1h before lunch time and I'm facing the beast, or at least its leg. I prepared like they said in the recipe with the butter, the garlic and the rosmary; I put it in the oven for 45 min and fingers crossed I waited.
Of course after 45 min it was not cooked, well 75% there but the core by the bone was clearly still raw. We put it back in the oven for another 15min and took a break in the lunch until the lamb would be ready. Luckily for us those extra 15 min were enough. I was already picturing us waiting for 1 hour... and I asked the man in the house to slice it.
My first leg of lamb! and I did not take a picture of it before cutting it :( What was I thinking? You can see the slices of it on the dish on Wolfram's blog.

PS: Learning of the day: the oven is not as strong as we thought it was and extra time is sometimes needed.

Anything can happen

While checking the weather forecast for tomorrow on www.meteo.be I was pretty puzzled by their forecast.

According to this forecast tomorrow:
- it can rain
- it can be sunny
- we could have thunderstorms
- maybe even some snow
- or simply just cloudy
- or even better, any combination of the above.
Bottom line is that they have no clue about the weather forecast so they predict everything... or nothing. If everything can happen it's hardly a prediction.

De Greco

Wolfram's parents arrived yesterday and the plan today was to go to the coast and pay a visit to the sea. Except the weather was not in the mood for a little trip. It was raining cats and dogs, in other words the perfect weather for museum.
After a quick look at what's on we left to see the Frida Kahlo exhibition in Bozar. Seems today was not the day where things would go as planned as when we asked for tickets we were told the first ones available would be at 4pm. Hum, what to we do in the coming 4 hours then? Fair enough it's a small exhibition and they limit the number of people inside but what of our plans?
After a bit of debate we decided to have a look at the other exhibition at Bozar, this on on El Greco.
I had heard of El Greco obviously but could not really associate him with a painting. This is now solved.
What a better match than religious paintings on Easter week-end :)
El Greco was born in Crete sometime in the 1540s and was to become a painter of icons. Life being what it is, he went to Venetia and Italy where he learned the Italian techniques and later moved to Spain. Reason why I am mentioning that we moved quite a lot in his life is not because I plan to write his biography but because you can see clearly the influence of each technique he learned in his paintings.
It was quite interesting to see how he combined the different styles while trying to find his own. It was even more eye opening to me that the way he painted towards the end of his life was clearly avantgardist for 1600s.
Another surprise of the exhibition was to find out that he had a very good sense of business and had set up a workshop where apprentice would copy his creations, so he could sell a lot of them. That artist was not meant to die poor :)