belgianwaffle

Reading etc.

Some links


Posted in: Reading etc.

Margot Wallstrom’s blog. In particular her commenters. What is wrong with me?

Found this heartwarming tale via Dervala – it’s a bit long but, um, heartwarming.

Thanks to Thierry who is our source of information on all things Belgian, tomorrow we will investigate Trash People.

I think I should stop while I still can.

Comments
belgianwaffle

on 02 April 2005 at 10:05

Yeah, but it’s all a little weird isn’t it, the whole corporate blog thing?

Bobble

on 02 April 2005 at 14:56

Some good links our Waffle.Nice to see that some people are still blogging. I’ve been away a few weeks and people are dropping like flies… How are the blotches?

belgianwaffle

on 05 April 2005 at 08:36

Full update on blotches this am Bobble, bet you can’t wait…

Touched by greatness


Posted in: Mr. Waffle, Reading etc.

Mr. W: Your cousin lives in Luxembourg?
Younger Colleague: No, he was working there for a couple of weeks. Actually, he was making a film. They have great film making facilities in Luxembourg.
Mr. W: Really? What was the film? Would I have heard of it?
Y. C.: Maybe, it was “Girl with a Pearl Earring”.
Mr. W: Oh yeah, I actually saw that. Who was your cousin?
Y. C.: Um, the painter guy.
Mr. W: Sorry, your cousin is Colin Firth?

Apparenly yes and he hates it when people come up to him and talk about “Pride and Prejudice”.

Comments
Mikeachim

on 23 March 2005 at 17:42

By ‘eck.
I’ve never understood the Pride & Prejudice wet shirt thing.
(But then I’m male. Apparently you have to be female).
Can anyone explain it?

lauren35

on 23 March 2005 at 18:09

Mikeachim : the primal act & animal energy of diving into a natural pool, the haughty but piercing & troubled look at the woman he loves, the strength of the body revealed by the clinging white shirt … need I go on?

NorahSplog

on 23 March 2005 at 18:13

Mmmmm Colin Firth.
When they make the film of my life, Mr Splog will be played by our Col.
Why’d he have to be called Colin though?

belgianwaffle

on 24 March 2005 at 08:03

Um, judging by the comments, it doesn’t look like he’s put P&P behind him, does it? Very good point about his name, Norah.

jackdalton

on 24 March 2005 at 10:01

Is there a ‘natural pool’ anywhere within striking distance of any stately home in Britain since the time of Capability Brown? Just wondering.
Anyway, I think he fell in because he was on drugs…..

belgianwaffle

on 29 March 2005 at 20:34

Ah Jack, you’re just jealous.

LRB personals


Posted in: Reading etc.

I like my women the way I like my kebab. Found by surprise
after a drunken night out and covered in too much tahini. Before too long I’ll have discarded you on the pavement of life, but until then you’re the perfect compliment to a perfect evening.  Man, 32. Rarely produces winning metaphors. Box no. 04/08.

Comments
dmts

on 23 March 2005 at 15:58

it makes you wonder why he thought the LRB was a suitable medium. I may be intrigued enough to meet him because of that. Adding swiftly, that it would only be an idea given that I’m a respectable married woman and wouldn’t do that sort of thing. Well, I’m married.

Kate_Sith

on 23 March 2005 at 15:59

But I’m not, Heather, and he sounds like my kind of guy.

belgianwaffle

on 23 March 2005 at 16:02

Yes, HJB, I know, appalling. Kate, am duly appalled. A kebab lover?!

Kate_Sith

on 23 March 2005 at 17:38

I’m duly hanging my head in shame. But am still strangely drawn to him.

belgianwaffle

on 24 March 2005 at 08:02

Kate, snap out of it! Now, quick, before you turn into a kebab.

Kate_Sith

on 24 March 2005 at 09:48

Argh! When you put it like that…

jackdalton

on 24 March 2005 at 09:51

What’s wrong with kebab, Kbabes? 😐

Kate_Sith

on 24 March 2005 at 12:44

Nothing really, but I wouldn’t want to be one.

Friar Tuck

on 24 March 2005 at 15:47

A prize to the first person to use the word “skewer” in his/her comment.

belgianwaffle

on 29 March 2005 at 20:35

No Kate, you wouldn’t. Down Jack. FT, there’ll be trouble – have you fixed your email yet?

Friar Tuck

on 04 April 2005 at 04:18

If you fix your e-mail, would it then be called an e-unuch?

belgianwaffle

on 05 April 2005 at 08:37

Look, is it fixed or not?

Friar Tuck

on 06 April 2005 at 20:11

Oh, sorry. I’ve a new address. Didn’t you get my email?

belgianwaffle

on 09 April 2005 at 14:10

No. Resend please…

LRB personals


Posted in: Reading etc.

Nothing in this world makes sense. Apart from Sphenodon punctatus, last survivor of the reptilian order Rhynchocephalia.

If only there were a woman like it – cold, efficient and brutal in
love, but also able to feed off small animals, inhabit the breeding burrows of certain small petrels and be in possession of a vestigial third eye. Zoologist M (51), possibly a little too close to his work. And his mother. Box no. 01/05

Comments
NorahSplog

on 23 March 2005 at 12:08

I like him.

lauren35

on 23 March 2005 at 12:50

I feel so uncerebral in comparison

belgianwaffle

on 23 March 2005 at 15:41

And people, there are lots more where this came from.

Pipes, scans, fame


Posted in: Belgium, Princess, Reading etc.

So, other news from the Waffles. They are replacing the lead
water pipes on the street. This is particularly good news for
those of us who choose to drink the tap water in Belgium.
On the minus side, they begin digging outside our bedroom window at 7.00 and tend to cut off the water at random intervals during the day. This is scheduled to continue for a couple of months.

Today the Princess is being taken for a scan. She won’t like
that. It’s at lunchtime and she can’t eat for three hours
beforehand. She won’t like that either. I am nervous and I
can’t feel that this counts as “taking it easy”. Sniff.

I missed a major opportunity for fame. A friend is a journalist
on a magazine here and he asked would I be prepared to talk about my blog for an article on Belgian blogging. “Oh yes, new readers” I salivated but alas due to constant meetings at work (ref para 1), I missed the all important interview slot and didn’t make the article. Am gutted.

Comments
poggle

on 22 March 2005 at 11:23

Can I have your autograph?
And good luck with Princess/scans and lazing about …..

Peggy

on 22 March 2005 at 13:51

I am Belgian and I read you regularly. Feel better?
Too many readers destroy the pleasure. You’ll feel like you shouldn’t disappoint people and it won’t be natural anymore.
If you agree I’ll link you on my blog, I’m far from famous but that should attract more “francophone” readers for you.

Friar Tuck

on 22 March 2005 at 18:02

The cure for what ails you, and as luck would have it, the way to increase readership is to floss more often. Oh, sorry!

Angela

(Homepage)

on 23 March 2005 at 03:03

You will be missed.
Best wishes to you on your road to recovery!

belgianwaffle

on 23 March 2005 at 10:18

Jack, do you think, I dunno, I think fame would have suited me. Pog, join the orderly queue. Peggy, je suis tres contente, moi aussi je ferais un lien vers ton site! FT less of it from you. Tried to mail you a number of times but looks like your email is down. Speak to Messrs Peak Peak. FP, you mistake, I am promising more blog now that I am taking it easy, not less!

Tchoup, Tchoup


Posted in: Princess, Reading etc.

T’choupi is the world’s most boring mole.  Our infant daughter loves him.  They have a T’choupi book at the creche and she had to be wrenched away from it kicking and screaming.  Mr. Waffle decided we needed to lay in T’choupi resources of our own and went to the bookshop this weekend to stock up.  He couldn’t see any T’choupi stuff on the shelves, so he asked a bored assistant whether he was familiar with T’choupi the mole.  “No, can’t say I’ve heard of him….unless you mean T’choupi the famous mole?”  and he led Mr. Waffle round a corner to a shrine dedicated to T’choupi. Bingo.

Meanwhile the Princess and I were visiting the Glam Potter and little L.  It will come as no surprise to learn that L has her own T’choupi volume and the two girls sat on the floor tugging at it and screaming “T’choupi, T’choupi” until I came and separated the combatants and escorted herself, kicking and screaming (T’choupi) to the car.

What with one thing and another, “T’choupi” was my book of choice for mass this
morning.  We were somewhat mortified as we went through the mole’s adventures sotto voce to see that the child next to us had a range of religious books which he was carefully perusing.  Came home and related our discomfiture to Mr. Waffle.  “And” I said “one of the books was called ‘Je vous salue Marie'”.  “Yes?”.  “But don’t you tutoyer God along with parents, friends and pets?” “Oh yes but you vousvoyer Mary”.  Dear Lord will the mysteries of French never cease to baffle me?