A least we're good at something

I was too busy with exams and work and forgot to blog about this important bit of news.
Believe it or not, but Belgium is actually good at something!
Do I have proof to back up this bold statement?
Why yes: Let's take a good look at the table with finishing positions at the 2012 World Championships Cyclo Cross.
7 Belgian athletes were selected for the national team to take part in the event. All of them finished. Places 1 thru 7.
Eat that world!

Mrs B not on strike today

A Mouser Photo-Essay

8.30 am: Good Morning! Time to wake up?


10.20 am: Finally able to sleep on Mrs B's lap.


10.45 am: Lovely stretch, finally found comfy position to sleep in.


11.10 am: Mrs B had to put some wood on the stove and Mouser had to shift.


11.45 am: Trying out different sleeping position.


12.30 am: Still in semi-comatose condition.


02.00 pm: What's this? I spy lunch!


02.20 pm: What's for desert Mrs B?


03.00 pm: Afternoon nap.


03.12 pm: Deep sleeping.


03.15 pm: Afternoon grooming session.


04.00 pm: Afternoon sleeping session resumed in different location.


05.00 pm: 2nd Afternoon sleeping still in session

In Dreams

I can tell what Mouser is dreaming about just by looking at the way it is sleeping.

Rita Gorr is no more

Another star of the opera world has dwindled. Rita Gorr has died, the woman who made walls of various Opera Houses tremble.
I saw her last performance in Pikovaja Dama in 2007, my very first blog post.

Mirrors on shoes!

And in other news today: a variety of pervs were caught at the Brussels Auto Salon.
A man was seen masturbating behind the wheel of a Suzuki.
Maybe he was just being practical and trying out to see how roomy the car really was? It's an auto salon. My guess is Suzuki wasn't the only stand to get a visit from him. Not if he was comparing small city cars...

Then a German journalist was caught while trying to take pictures under skirts. I don't know what journal or magazine he was working for (Matador?) but I don't think it was the AMS.

And here is the icing on the upskirting cake ... a man was caught with mirrors on his shoes.
Mirrors on his shoes! My guess is we're not talking about a very high shine here.
How to you go about your business as a mirror-on-shoe-wearing-perv?
You needn't worry about getting caught, everyone will be looking at the cars and the hostesses, no-one will be looking down at your shoes. What could possibly go wrong? It's full-proof!

Here's that perv-plan in full:
1) Buy a ticket to the auto salon.
2) Try and buy custom mirror shoes through the internet.
3) If no one will supply you, make your own.
4) Buy two small pocket mirrors, some glue and some elastic.
5) Cut elastic to right size, glue mirror to it. Repeat.
6) Go to the auto salon.
7) If using public transport, avoid eye contact with fellow passengers as to not break into a smile. You know what you are going to do very shortly. They don't.
8) Go to lavatory and put mirror contraption on shoes.
9) Walk over to car stand, stand near women in skirt.
10) Put foot out and try to catch reflection in mirror.

Here's some possible explenations how he probably got caught:
a) I bet his mirror got all steamed up and he had to bend down to wipe it.
b) He didn't manage to find hand mirrors and had to buy some second hand car mirrors. They made him stand out in the crowd.
c) The girls at the Suziki stand weren't wearing skirts and got a bit worried at someone standing close to them with a foot out.

If the mountain won't come to Mouser

Mouser has been eying the birds fluttering about for a couple of days now. I put up some a bird feeder with seed and some balls with fat and nuts and strung them up all over the place.
I'm trying to get Mouser to eat the Speshul Kitteh Noms™ for some time now, but Velvet Claws has other plans. Yesterday was the final straw and it decided to go out and fetch its own food.
I was near the window studying for my Architectural History exam when I saw kitteh climb into a pine shrubbery and perch on one of the branches, right next to one of the balls.
Needless to say not one bird was going to fall for that one.
Finally Mouser decided it'd had enough after half an hour and came indoors to sleep away the hunger on my lap.

Cat-friendly exam

So, cat-friendly architecture it was. Le Corbusier and Eisenman were the architects I had to talk about during my exam on Monday. All went well.
The professor didn't look too pleased with my critique about Stéphane Beel's boring architecture.
Really, who wants to look at a dreary wall when you've paid through the nose for 2 ha of ground?
I'm just being practical here. Not snobbish.

Apparently you have to like Beel because he's getting all the jobs for renovating destroying beautiful historical sites. Remember, this is the guy who robbed humanity of a clear view of the Rubens House in Antwerp by putting that pointless fish tank in front of it.

King of Belgium and Nightmares

A striking picture in some online national newspaper of Albert II, King of the Belgians.
Has he been taking lessons in posing for pictures? I seem to recall an eerily similar pose adopted by Freddy Krueger of Nightmare on Elm Street fame.
They might be related. I think we should be told.

Cats & Architecture

What is up with cats and architecture?
I've been cramming for my architectural theory exam and have been looking at quite a few snaps of houses.
Here's a few samples of the things I came across:

(C)At Le Corbusier's Villa Savoie:


(C)At Eisenmann's House III


(C)At Desmet & Vermeulen's House in Wetteren


(C)At the architect Marie Josée Van Hee's house.




Notice the cats subtly stalking the photographer from the roof:


In the kitchen:


In the garden:


Do cats smell good architecture when they prounce about?
Notice I did not post a single snap of a Stéphane Beel design.
That's because it is bad architecture. Cats avoid living in a Beel house. It is to boring, bland and minimalist. I think cats actually appreciate a nice promenade architecturale; which is obviously lacking in Beel's work.

Special hommage was paid to Le Corbusier for making kitteh-friendly architecture.
Proof:

Art napping gone balls up

Remember the art theft of René Magrittes Olympia? I blogged extensively about thatover two years ago.
According to a Belga press release, the thieves simply 'returned' the painting after fruitless ransom negotiations with the insurance company. Neither did they manage to flog it on the underground art market, no buyer would burn its fingers.

I should point out that the article says the thieves knew how to disarm the alarm system. Unfortionatly the journalist missed the fact that the alarm is never switched on during museum opening hours.
So it still looks like professional thieves were commissioned to do the robbery, but the client wasn't really up to speed on the dodgy deal side.

So in my armchair detective fantasy world, Herr Director is still not in the clear...

Andrea Storm

Mouser hasn't been out since the storm reached our shores and has been pummeling us with buckets of water and gusts of wind. Velvet Claws™ snuggled up to us last night, feeling quite safe having wedged itself in between Dr Livingstone and myself.
I opened up the curtain of the front room, there is Maximum Kitteh Surveillance™ (MKS) going on right now. Mouser is quite unsettled by this extreme weather.

I think all the mouse hiding holes must have flooded by now. I don't think soggy, drowed mice are really appetizing. Neither does Mouser, come to think of it.
We got tiny puddles of water in the conservatory, we need to seal up some spots that seem to have a pin prick of space so rain can seep through. But nothing like a proper flood or something.
The sanded riding area is a bit soggy at the moment. I think it has turned into quicksand right now.
Ah well, another day of cramming ahead, what better way to be inside and warm.

In a DeLorean