musical instruments, football and a bike ride.

I think that this week has been more interesting than last. On Monday evening I went running with a group of people in the woodlands south of Brussels for about an hour. It was very different from my normal Sunday afternoon run along the city streets because we had to follow a trail to complete the run, which also included false trails, so there was a lot of running around to try to find the correct path to the finishing point. I also liked this run because as it was mostly in woodlands, there was a lot of running up slopes, through bushes and jumping over fallen trees. It was even better because when we all reached the finishing line; we started to sing some songs. The only one which I knew well was the Lumberjack song from Monty Python but with different lyrics, but a good song for when you are in the forest I guess. We also had a few beers and reviewed everyones performance during the run. I got a bad review for having the weakest beer at the rest point (for more information about Belgium Beer please check out this blog http://sudsucker.blogspot.com/) but overall I did quite well and I looking forward to running with this group again.

On Wednesday I went to an interesting talk on the result of the UK general elections and the state/complete mess of the British economy. I find it hard to picture our universe which is around 12 billion years old and must be billions and billions of miles across, so I find it even harder to picture billions and trillions of pounds. Adding the word ‘debt’ to this also makes it as scary as a super-massive blackhole, which is where most of the public finances must have gone over the past couple of years. Anyway it was a good speech and being a Brussels expat, it is always nice to hear about news from back home.

The next day I was booked on a cycling tour around Brussels in the afternoon. It was arranged by the lefty Greens in the Parliament as part of the ‘Green Week’ to try to get people out of cars and instead use environmentally friendly means of transport. So it must have taken a couple of vans to deliver all the bikes and about 20% of them were used. I signed up to this only because I love cycling and I plan to buy a bike soon and I thought it would be good to have a go at cycling around the city. The President of the European Parliament came along, who is the most important political figure that I have cycled with. I had to try to avoid bumping into him a few times; it would not have been good for my political career if I failed.

On Friday the World Cup kicked off and after work, wearing the new England kit, I headed down to a place called the World Cup Village which is showing all the games. It was very busy, obviously, and we had to stand outside because all the tables inside were already booked. It was a good night but it was really just killing time until the England game the next evening which I choose not to mention in this post in any way, shape or form!

So skipping Saturday, I will move onto Sunday and I spent most of the day doing some housework and went to the musical instrument museum in the afternoon with one of my housemates. It was very good and had instrument from different countries and different historical periods, from the panpipes of Peru to the music of pre-communist China and lutes from the medieval world. If you are ever in Brussels it is well worth a visit.

Nanotechnology and a plastic teapot

Not much happened on Monday and Tuesday this week, apart from not going to the gym when I was meant to (yet again!) But on Wednesday I went to a conference on Nanomedicine in Europe, which is a topic I find interesting because I believe that it can massively improve the early detection, diagnostics and cure of diseases. It can also detect diseases before a person starts to show external symptoms, so I have no problem with these little nanos swimming around inside me. But being at the European Parliament, most of the conference was on the political, social and industry side, which I do not find as interesting as the medical and biological aspects of this medical science. I could go deeper into this subject but I think it is too heavy for a Sunday evening.

On Thursday I gave one of my flatmates a tour of the Parliament and went AWOL from the gym again as I decided that it would be a better idea to go for a drink in the glorious sunshine. Friday was pretty much the same as it was one of my colleague’s leaving drinks. But I also went for a lunchtime picnic in the park and I have therefore been out in the sun a fair amount have I have started to turn as golden-brown as the coffee I am drinking while I write this.

On Saturday I did my usual trip to the supermarket and then walked into town with one of my flatmates to do some shopping. This resulted in the purchase of a pasta pot and a teapot, which (if I may be honest) is a horrible plastic thing that does not seem to do the job very well. I need to find a nice china one...

In the evening I watched a film about Joan of Arc and Sunday was almost as relaxing, apart from going for a quick run. Well I say run, but I spent most of it talking about food I need to get for my British themed evening. I also made another very nice chicken tikka malsa curry with rice for dinner tonight while watching Dr Jacob Bronowski. Maybe curry might be a good idea for the evening...