Back from Cairo

Bang up to date now - Happy New Year! I just got back from Cairo on Friday, we were lucky to leave when we did - I really hope things settle down there soon and that it all works out for the best. As usual I only had time to do much "sight-seeing" at night and my little camera isn't the best for coping with that!

Catching up - Christmas and before

And then it snowed A LOT. And then it was 2011....

Christmas decorations in Brussels were not brilliant this year, and the Electrabel Nights show in the Grand' Place was very disappointing.













Trip to Maastricht just before Christmas: I was told the Selexyz bookshop, housed in a former Dominican church, was the most beautiful in Europe - but I disagree (this one, in Porto, Portugal, is the most beautiful I have seen so far)!


























Back to Brussels, and more negotiations in the new Mont des Arts conference centre, "The Square".

In Brasilia for negotiations with Mercosur

Catching up - Europalia China

Europalia takes place in Brussels every other year, but from Sept/October of odd years to Feb/March in even years, so in fact it is on every year. In October 2011, Europalia Brazil will be starting already, but at the beginning of 2010 I went to a number of the exhibitions on China. My favourite "event" was the tea house in the Dynastie building at the foot of the Mont des Arts, which was exceptionally open to the public, and fetchingly decorated for the occasion with 5000 lanterns.

The "Son of Heaven" Exhibition at the Palais des Beaux Arts displayed some fantastic porcelain, manuscripts, textiles and objets d'art, and "The Three Dreams of the Mandarin" was largely about writing and Chinese brush painting. One of the great things about Europalia is that in addition to the official exhibitions, concerts and so on, local shops also get in on the act: Wittamer made a chocolate version of one of the terracotta warriors (for Europalia Mexico they made a chocolate cake in the shape of an Aztec pyramid - can't wait to see what they do for Brazil!), and another shop was selling Chinese lanterns.