Sticks in the mud

What's brown and sticky? A stick, of course, and what is browner and stickier is a heap of them being used to make a "sculpture" called Cityscape which will fill a vacant lot opposite the Brussels Hilton until they get around to building on it at the end of next year. Belgian artist/designer Arne Quinze apparently describes it as a "deconstruction manifesto", I think it looks like the guys are building themselves a nest of frites!

Prone to confusion

I know I am picky about language, but I don't really understand why the word "prone", which means "lying on one's stomach/face down" is apparently taken by some people to mean something like "lying flat" (how else can one lie, anyway?!).

In "Life Sentences" by Alice Blanchard I read: "Now she stared at the ceiling from a prone position on her motel bed." Well either this character could turn her head completely around as in "The Exorcist", or else she must have been looking at the ceiling of the room below! Or, of course, she was actually lying "supine", i.e. on her back (face up).

Burning building

Looking East

I saw a strange sunrise the other morning: the sun was catching the side of a glass skyscraper on the other side of town, making it look as if it was on fire. Unfortunately I was a bit too fuzzy with sleep to focus properly, but the effect was really odd.

Looking west

Eau de Canal

Here's an interestingly-named perfume I found in a local budget shop. "Ecluse" means "lock" as in "sluicegate", I can't imagine why the makers thought anyone might want to smell like one, or what sort of romantic image such a name might be expected to conjure up!






Mind you there is a better-known French perfume called "Calandre", which sounds rather nice but actually means "radiator grill"; I understand that the reference is supposed to be to a high class car like a Rolls Royce.

Life's a Beach

Albeit, in Brussels, an artificial beach. Bruxelles-les-Bains is here again, by the side of the Canal de Charleroi, to the great delight of the kids as well as the boules players and (hopeful) sunworshippers.













































The strange-looking artificial trees are water-sprays, which are very pleasant when it's hot - which it has been, intermittently.

Cool stuff

I'm going through an acquisitive phase at the moment (I think it has something to do with compensating myself for having to go back to work this Autumn!), but I can't quite justify acquiring these:



Cute webcams by Eric Zhang








Golf theme flip-flops (known in French as "tongs", btw!) by Reef - only for guys, apparently.


Pretty (useless?) glasses, designed for an Antwerp fashion show; I wonder if one can actually see through them!