Brugge!

On Saturday I went to Brugge with Ulrike, which was great! Brugge is a nice city, if you can look past all the tourists. Lots of old buildings, lots of restaurants and bars, lots of museums and lots of tourist shops where they think wooden shoes, porcelain and windmills are typically Belgian. The city is generally described as looking medieval, but apart from some of the main monuments, like Our Lady's Church, or many of the municipal buildings, the majority have more of a 16th/17th century look to them. Still though, the fact that pretty much the entire centre is centuries old gives it a very unique appearance, enhanced by the limited amount of cars and the large number of horse-driven coaches driving around. It's only the large number of tourists and modern shops that make it impossible for you to think you're in the past - if you want to get that feeling, I suggest visiting the great beguinage in Leuven in stead - no cars there, relatively few tourists and no shops at all.

Another thing Brugge can learn from Leuven is to put up banners. Perhaps they're present during the summer, but there were none when I visited, and I have to say that the first time I visited Leuven and there were medieval-style banners hanging in the streets and decorating houses on the market square, I was seriously impressed. It adds atmosphere on a grand scale, gives you an extra feel for the old days, even if you're unfamiliar with the flags. There were governmental flags now - many flying halfmast to commemorate the death of Albert I in 1934 - but they simply don't match up to real medieval banners (although the colourful Belgian flags get a lot closer than pretty much any other European flag). Still though, Brugge was great.
I would like to write a bit more, and quite possibly I will do so later, but at the moment I have to run. I'm publishing this now, as I have been putting off making a post for three days in a row and I really want to put something up. Sense of achievement, you know.

Snow, Zombies and Tyres

We had some snow in the past week, coming down faster than it could melt. Sadly however, as soon as it stopped snowing, it did melt, and now there is nothing to remind us of it. It's too warm for Winter.

What else has been up?
Well, recently, when I went with my parents to Schiedam and Delft to meet friends and family, we stopped by a way-restaurant where they peculiarly enough sold the DVD of Shaun of the Dead for only 7,50€, and, as I had been unsuccessfully searching all the stores of Maastricht for it, I could not refuse the bargain. It is a brilliant film, a comedy of the highest calibre; and certainly more of a real film than most other comedies, as it actually has a plot that develops in a semi-realistic way, and a director with more interest in directing than just making sure all the characters appear in the shot.

On Wednesday I had a flat tyre at the most inconvenient of moments: I discovered it after ten, when I was getting hungry and about to buy bread for my breakfast. It being Wednesday, the village’s bakery was closed, and so Maastricht was the only possible place to acquire a healthsome loaf. But as I had a meeting in the early afternoon at Tafelstraat, it was unlikely I’d be able to get back to my room before then, so I decided to shower first, have a placeholder breakfast of nuts and biscuits, and then cycled to town on my flat tyre, which luckily held its end quite competently; I had to pump it up again only once every kilometre.
I then had a quick lunch at Tafelstraat, cycled to the station in one go and dropped off my bike there to have an entirely new tyre set (the old one’s profile had completely wasted away) and walked back to Tafelstraat, stopping by for a quick spell at Ulrike’s, as that was on the way and I saw she was in. I was still back in time at Tafelstraat to have a slightly more extended lunch before the meeting started. How’s that for planning, eh?

Space Love

Some people really like space; more than a few films have been made about people who saw their childhood dream of going to other parts of the universe fullfilled, possibly with a romance thrown inside. None, however, have been as absurd as this news story: Astronaut in "love kidnap" plot.

A US astronaut has been charged with trying to kidnap a woman she thought was a rival for the affection of a space shuttle pilot.
Navy Capt Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew to the international space station last July, was charged with attempted kidnapping, battery and other crimes.

She drove from Texas to Florida to confront Colleen Shipman, disguised in a wig and trench coat. Police said Capt Nowak, who was denied bail, used pepper spray on Ms Shipman.

The man in the love triangle was said to be Navy Cmdr William Oefelein, who was a pilot on the Discovery's mission to the space station in December.

I don't really know what "battery" means in criminal terms, so if anyone here does, please enlighten me. Mad stuff, anyway.

Also in the news, the formation of a new Dutch government is very close indeed, and looking to be a coalition between the Christian Democrats, Labour, and the Christian Union, in that order. It's looking to be a more conscientious coalition than the previous few, with €800m set aside for the environment. This can only be a good thing, as the former Balkenende governments cared little for that important aspect of our country, and so it's all being going down the drain. We have yet to see what the other parts of the government will be like, but it looks like it'll be generally agreeable, with a more positive attitude to the EU, I hope, and possibly a more critical attitude towards US behaviour - although this will become easier regardless as the US is lightning up.
However, perhaps these are just dreams and we'll have more shit for the next four years.