Spot on

I was checking out the weather forecast for the Formula 1 qualifying sessions and race day at Silverstone. The BBC has a special forecast dedicated to the race on the sports page, which is very handy. But I did have to look twice when I saw the prediction for Sunday. Now look closely at the picture I added.

Those rain showers. Somebody just had a laugh in the digital map room and put some random dots over the British Isles, didn't they.
It looks like chickenpox erupted all over.

www.gwendolynruttenlookslikeahamster.be

http://www.gwendolynruttenlookslikeahamster.be

New website to be launched shortly.

Click below for a sneak preview.

Ah come on. She does doesn't she?

Press Conference

This weekend it's the F1 Belgian Grand Prix.
I was looking at some pictures from the press conference on Thursday and came across a funny one.
I just couldn't resist adding a few text captions.
It's probably a bit obscure if you're not following F1.

Subs on holiday

The subs of of one of the national newspapers are on a summer break and monkeys are filling in for them once more.

These gems were in the paper's online edition last Sunday:

First up is National News.
It reads "19 people dead in traffic accident in Egypt."

Second one from Wednesday's edition in Foreign News:
It reads: "Magnetic field of Sun about to turn."

You can't get any more foreign than that.
What happened to the Science News section by the way?

Iron butterfly

The radiant Jeanette MacDonald, born on June 18, 1903

Reblogged from Nitrate Diva.

Similar

I've spotted a peculiar simularity between the logo of 'Storify' and the logo of bankrupt Belgian national airline Sabena.
Are they in any way related? I think we should be told.

10 cm is all it takes.

Just a few centimeters of snow and the whole country slips into utter chaos.
Or not as is the case. Just media scaring people to death with 'total chaos on Belgian roads', 'No trainservice due to severe weather' etc.

I took a screenshot of the traffic centre map yesterday morning while enjoying a nice cup of coffee before driving to work.
I didn't even know we had 1600km+ roads here. I looked it up on wegenwiki, which is a wikipedia for roads and according to the site we only sport 1763 kms of motorways.

And the new Pope is...

Black smoke: a tell-tale sign?

What the hell are they getting up to in that Sixtine Chapel?

I've never seen such utter black smoke billow out of a chimney! As if it came straight from Satan's bottom.

I mean, we all saw the Italian fire brigade on the roof installing the pipe extension but did they sweep the chimney first?

They could be in for a down right nasty surprise down in the Vatican.

All those cardinals sealed up in a room. They could all have died from carbon monoxide poisoning for all we know.

Alternatively, they could be: 

a) having a barbeque

b) having an old fashioned cross burning

American Psycho

Why do I, every time I see a picture of Lance Armstrong, think of a certain movie from 2000 starring Christian Bale?

Pope retires ... not yet

The pope announced his retirement last week.
But no time to waste to follow up on other interests he never had time to pursue.
Pope Benedictus XVI has been confirmed for a part in the upcoming sequel to The Three Amigos.

Hanging Santa

Hanging Santa's are not a thing of now, but are a thing of every decade. They've been around as a tacky Christmas decoration since at least the 1920's.
What's a Hanging Santa you may well ask? It's a doll dressed up in a Santa costume and pinned to one or other part of the roof or gutter to make it look like Santa himself was mucking about on top of your house.
I found a picture of one, accompanied by his airplane in a 1926 brochure by the National Lamp Works, the R&D department of the General Electric lighting company called Yuletide Lighting.
Looks like degenerate taste is embedded in our genes and will not go away for generations to come.

Gothic Revival beer tasting

I suppose most people spent Easter eating loads of jummy stuff or hunting for eggs. Dr Livingstone, Miller B, his spouse and myself went to a beer festival in a decommissioned neo-gothic chapel. How much more Belgian can you get?

The Lady chapel of the hospital, in the Gothic Revival style, was completely restored in 1998-99. It was built and inaugurated in 1905 and was designed by Peter Langerock. The seven neo-Gothic stained glass windows were designed by Gustave Landon a glazier from Ghent. In 1926 the walls were decorated with neo-Gothic designs. The frescoes of the Cross, along with two other painted scenes of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Elizabeth of Hungary were made by Hungarian painter Gábor Balogh Bëod.

Alas Miller B's wife doesn't like beer and Dr Livingstone volunteered to be Bob (that's the designated driver for you non-Belgians). So it was just down to two of us to order beers and pass them around to taste.

Dr Livingstone did order just one, which none of us liked. It seemed stale, no foam when the beer was poured out. It didn't actually taste of anything special, so it was a bit sad to have to clear away a full glass.


We started out with blond beers Vossen met de Meynen and Excalibur, accompanied by Dr Livingstone's St Bernardus' Wit. It was a pity, he had been looking forward to tasting this, it had been on his to do list for some time.
He did order a dark low alcohol dinner beer by Bavik brewery.
We had some amber beers for our second helping. Miller B moved on to Buffalo Bitter and I decided on a Cuvée des Trolls.
Last order consisted of dark beers Val Dieu and Dikke Mathile.

I asked Miller B if he had ever dreamed he'd one day be drinking beer in the very same chapel where he had to go to mass on Sunday.
Roman Catholics are not averse to using alcohol during mass, but they're not too big on beer fermented after bottling. Body of Christ-wise.

It was fun, albeit a bit short. We should have had some bread to clean the palate in between because after my first beer I could not really distinguish other tastes clearly.
Anyhow, I did have a slight lingering head ache on Monday...

Books! Blogging! Blimey!

Hello everyone!

I've been out of the blogging loop for some time. I've hardly had time to gasp for breath once in a while.
I'm back at university, I've had a spell of heart trouble, we've been doing all sorts around the house, we've been busy at the workshop etc. etc. etc.

Best to start blogging again once in a while.
And my first post in a long time will be about ... BOOKS.
How could it not be?
I had a spare half hour before my next meeting for a talk I'm giving with two fellow students, so I strayed into a bookshop.
I got away with:
1) Barry Pitt, Zeebrugge: Eleven VC's before breakfast. A book on the Raid on Zeebrugge in 1918.
2) a book on Belgians in Somalia during operations in the early nineties
3) a book on an evolving borough from the mid 19th century up till the 70's
3) The bedside book of chemistry by Joel Levy. A book on -er- chemistry. I know, I'm a freak.
4) Michel Peeters, Beelden voor de massa: kunst als wapen in het Derde Rijk. A book on art and how it was used as a propaganda tool by Nazi Germany.


I did manage to update my LibraryThing now and then. Which I also other books too that are compulsory reading this semester.

Belgian Wheelchair Rugby team secure place at 2012 Paralympics

The Belgian Wheelchair Rugby team has secured a place at the 2012 Paralympics today.
England defeated Poland this morning and so Belgium is through.
So far at the European Championchips in Nottwill, Switzerland Belgium has pummeled all teams they played against (Finland, Netherlands, Austria and Denmark).
The toughest competitor is yet to come today: Sweden. Let's hope their Ikea chairs are missing some bits or wheels come off.

So now on to the medals!

Currently the Belgian wheelchair rugby team is 7th in the World Ranking.

Finished

Got back from my last exam just on time to see the Kuznetsova-Wickmayer game at Wimbledon.
Mouser is also watching it from an uneasy angle. A lot of moving about always holds kitteh's attention for at least 10 minutes or so.

You have the right to remain...failed

I honestly thought these things only happened in Police Academy movies or to the bad guys in the A-Team series.
Some boys in blue were heading out to a robbery not far from Antwerp.
They decided to take the tram lane because the regular road was too busy.
Only, they failed to notice there were works going on and the men had just poured out some fresh concrete. Needless to say they got bogged down after a few yards.
I can just imagine the embarrassment they experienced when they called it in.
And the scorn they will have to suffer for years to come...

Feeding the Jay

I noticed some Garrulus glandarius (Eurasian Jays) hanging around the garden about a week ago. I start my study cycle each morning about half eight in the conservatory. I put down bread now every day on the fence so they can have a nibble. It's mostly just one solitary bird checking everything out.
They're very shifty, just like magpies. I decided to get the camera out and take a few snaps while drinking my first cup of coffee. No sooner had I started waiting in true paperazzi-style and three (!) of them showed up. I got some nice pictures, I even shot one through the screen and it gave me a lovely Marlène Dietrich effect.

The new cow in town

I was a bit startled to find a cow on the Ladeuze square on Wednesday.
A socialist trade union had organized a spot of Crap yourself rich, proceeds would go to the Cancer Fund.
At 1.30 pm the beautiful beast was let out of its box.
When I came back from class around 4 it still hadn't crapped.
Never in my life have I ever seen so much people stand in expectation of a cow doing its business. Really.
It must be like watching wallpaper dry.
Honestly. If you were a cow, would you be able to go with all those people looking at you?

Sebastian Skywalker

Ok, just one more Star Wars lookalike.
Luke Skywalker and Sebastian Vettel.
Looks like the Red Bull Racing Team has been using The Force to win all those Grand Prix.
The International Automobile Federation probably have got a rule for this.