Condensation Art

Dr Livingstone made some surprising art work on the inside of the window this morning, back lit by the rising morning sun. I asked him what he had drawn on the window. From left to right: a horse, my car, our house, a tree.
Dr Livingstone: "I started out with the idea to draw Mouser, but I ended up drawing a horse."
Mrs B: "What's that next to it?"
Dr Livingstone: "Your car."
Mrs B: "But it has legs."
Dr Livingstone:"Yes it does."
Mrs B: "Is that our house next to it?"
Dr Livingstone: "Yes."
Mrs B: "But it has got a gable roof."
Dr Livingstone shrugs.
Mrs B: "And it has a pair of eyes."
Dr Livingstone: "Yes."
Mrs B: "Cool".

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

Uli does not want

Pneumatology ≠ pneumology

I have this strange subject that, regardless what your field of study is, you are required to take it. It's called Religion, meaning and world-view. It bores the pants off if you're not into that kind of thing. Some theologist saying this and then another theologist not agreeing because of God knows what kind of reason.
The text we're using is larded with words like creed, revelation and eschatological.
Anyway.
I was reading through this bit of text on a certain Mr Jürgen Moltmann. I got through a paragraph but it didn't really make any sense.

It says (roughly translated): "In the third volume the insights from previous works are completed by reflections on ecclesiology and pneumatology."

I could't quite work out why a theologian would be remotely interested in combining religious studies with pulmonary diseases. Could it have been because of the crucifiction Jesus had a hard time breathing with all that water in his lungs?

It didn't make sense. None at all. The penny dropped quite late after a bit of confusion.
And then it dawned on me: Pneumatology is not the same as pneumology...

Belgium is no longer a country

It has been lingering in the foul smelling air for some time now, but as of this week it has been made official:
According to the message I got on youtube, Belgium is no longer a country.
And if it's on the internet it must be true. :-/



The RTBF (the French speaking community's broadcasting corporation) has blocked me from viewing a trailer for Rundskop because I live in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium. Which is according to the copyright restriction ... in another country. Ironically enough the film was financed with money from the Flemish, Brussels, Walloon and Dutch governments.
And it is an international trailer.

So does that mean the international film trailer will only be available in the Walloon part of the universe?

Reasons Greetings from a profoundly confused Belgian.

Why am I not surprised

"Friends haven't been doing anything new recently."



O RLY?

It's funny because it's true

Just fancy that

I'm the only living soul out of a class of, say 90 students, to recognize this man:



Professor: "Does anyone know who this is?"

I was the only to raise a hand.

Me: "It's Levi Strauss."

Professor aghast and pausing slightly: "That's correct. Very good... To be honest I didn't think anyone would know."

Me grinning like an idiot and feeling slightly embarassed at all the heads turning towards me.

Professor: "Tell me, how did you know it was him?"

Me, trying not to come over all sardonic or some other pedantic impression I was giving, said gingerly: "Erm, I recognized his -eh- face."

/facepalm.

All done!

The room makeover has been completed. The radiator and borders are in place, Dr Livingstone has fitted all the electric sockets and switches.
Even the curtain rod has been installed. Unfortunately it had to be screwed to the wall some 7 cms higher. I say unfortionatly because the curtain was also 7 cms shorter and they were made to measure.
But then Dr Livingstone had the exceedingly brilliant idea of fixing the curtains to the rods with a novel system. Watch out IKEA, it will be patented!
He fitted small chains in between the gliders inside the rod and the hooks on the curtains. 4 links, that's all it took.

So here we are now, the definite 'before' and 'after' pictures.

It seems a shame to have to fill it with furniture now.
We won't be able to sleep in it until that nasty paint smell from the radiator has completely vanished.

You will be missed, blunt poet.

I raise my glass bottle in honour of your life and works.

Room Makeover Day 6

Well, it's white. From wall to wall.
The paint is on, all the ugly colours have been banished by the brush! Hurrah!
The wooden border is very elegant and looks better than the tiled ones.
It'll look very smart once all the tape has been removed, the floor has had a good scrub and the wooden border on the ceiling is in place.
Pfff. Just a little push and it's all over!

Room Makeover Day 5

Yes, this is Day 5. And behold! The ugly orange smear marks have disappeared behind the wall paper! Three cheers for covering up ugly things!
The room has been papered all round and now just needs a lick of paint (and if need be there must be 2 layers of paint to hide the seams and blotches shining through) and the slotting into place of the radiator.
I'm concerned there's not enough space now to put it back and it will be right up close to the new wall.
But hey, it's nearly done!

Room Makeover Day 3 & 4

Second round of sanding down and plastering the seems, and then for my Magnum Opus...

/drumroll

the spray painting of the radiator.

Two cans was all I bought due to tight budgetting. The main trick to doing this the right way is spraying on little layers. Not too heavy ones, they might form those 'tears' and we want a slick, clean and smart looking item.
Dr Livingstone and I had to move it away from the wall.
First up I sanded down the radiator with a medium sanding paper. Then I washed it down to get rid of all the paint and chalk. And then le moment sûprème.

It has been quite some years since I wielded a spray can for decorative purposes. After the first can was empty I went and had a drink, a cuddle and a breath of fresh air.
I didn't do the back of the thing, it is pretty useless since it is facing the wall and no-one will ever cast a sideways glance at it.

So from a very dull, dark brown, I now have a pristine white one. It says on the paint can it is white-white. But it looks a bit of a creme colour.
Anyway, I'm quite pleased with the result so far. It just needs to dry now and then reconnected once the wall paper and paint have been slapped on the wall. \o/