Outside

I Swear to God, I do not know what happened.

I lived in Belgium for 4 years now, I start to understand it, it starts to fit me as a cloth, an habit, a routine.

I know Brussels, fat lady that stays up late and, in the few hours of sleep, grabbed through 2 and 6, she snores, as if it was impossible to make her shut up.

I know his People, Up early- hardworking day by day.

People that have in mind only the first beer they will have in the evening, and the smile of the one they love, flashing through the bubbles that float up inside the glass.

I know his food, biomass that has decided all alone that taste is never enough, sauce never too spiced, serving never too rich and cholesterol irrelevant.

And over all I know his surreal weather were it snows in August and you have 15 minutes at 20 Celsius on the 25th of December, quickly replaced by a monsoon shower that would make my Indian colleagues proud.

I know the little nervous tics of that ever changing weather.

The weather of this land were you bring the umbrella to be sure it will not rain and you never open it anyway because, if you opened it each time it rained, God would have made you with it.

And I know the eternal single season that starts and ends the first January of each year in which it rains, snows, there is sun, it hails, it is windy, it is too hot, chilly cold and humid at the same moment but in different parts of the town.

Nonetheless, if I really knew all of this, if I really could always foresee what will happen, I would probably not live in this little corner of Europe that has decided to keep me and every day finds a way to surprise me and to offer me a gift.

Because Belgium likes you wondering and he does it always with what you expect the least like a sweet, gentle, sudden spring.



I do not know why or how he does that , but one thing I do know for sure.

We are locked inside the house working since October and outside, suddenly, there is sun.

So please, leave everything and follow me.

I want to show you something...

April Fool

Already that long?

Seems yesterday that I finally put the final touch to the "guest room" and finally could free myself of the book boxes that were almost embedded in my floor around the house.

And instead here I am to tell you what happened through the whole month of April, a month full of news.

From were do we start? From the party obviously.

From the partIES actually, because it was immediately clear that the sum of all the people I know here in Brussels would have been impossible to place inside the flat even if I did shovel 'em inside.

As such a second party was planned a week later to accommodate the second serving of colleagues :)

From left to right: Gouda piggies, Herve mini pizzas, tactical Tramezzini

First party was almost in Fred's honor. That's right, my penguin brother always helping and trying to get enough Karma points to earn that cloud with view over the Mediterranean sea.

Melissa and Dana, my Texan friends were present as well. How? I did create a chat channel and left the laptop opened, Whoever wanted could drop a line.

There is a Geek living here, what did you think? ^_^

It was just after the parties that I realized that the guest room could still be bettered.

AGAIN?!

Yup my friends, you should know that there is no limit to mods if I'm at the wheel.

Remember the dead space that I had after putting the Benno CD tower? Well, it came to me that I usually borrow CD and DVDs with great liberality, but then forget always to whom.

As such I got myself a self sticking chalkboard and put it at the side of the library.

I made a little chalk tray starting from a little Tupperware I had lying in my kitchen ( would you believe it ? It was Ikea as well :D ), I just had to cut off the excess plastic and glue a coin under it.

Coin was needed for the following phase. It was all good and well to be able to write, but how would you have deleted the text? A little sponge with a glued magnet solved this issue and here is what the final result looks like.

I started immediately making a list and found out that half of my collection is around the world and the other half is made of borrowed material ^_^''.

Live and learn.

My brother visited me in the new apartment and could test the "guest room".

It worked, but I decided that something had to be done about the wall right behind the bed if I still wanted it to be yellow instead of brownish.

That is how the following delirium ensued...

Got your back covered!

It is not a big idea ( as all of my ideas) but it works and that should be the idea behind everything I do at home.

I took a cheap wood board that was roughly as wide as the bed and put Velcro all around it.

I then cut some foam and glued it on the board.

Day after I cut some fabric and after sewing a quick border I sewed the Velcro on it.

I'll spare you the pics of the sewing part, I'm not proud of it, you would not like them, it works and that is about all that is needed.

Till I do not learn to sew on a machine and buy myself one, there is not much more i can do about it.

4 screws later the structure was on the wall.

Two bonus results are met as well, first it covers the electric cable of the central lamp, second, it is completely invisible once the sofa is transformed.

My parents, visiting for Eastern, did appreciate very much that they had something warm behind their back when they were reading in bed.

That said I already know I will have to sew a second cover.

The fabric I choose is a paille like tick one, very warm and very uncomfortable in the coming summer ( guests won't like that).

That said like HELL I will start this second cover if someone does not teach me how to use a machine and borrows it to me.

Line starts on the right, any volunteers?