Sunday 10 May 2009
2009 Brussels 20km
It's time to start seriously preparing for this year's Brussels 20km run. It is on 31 May, which means there are only three more weeks to train. So far I think I'm OK - I'm running 15 km every Sunday without any problem - no blisters, no pulled muscles, no heart attack! Hopefully the stretch to 20 km will not be too hard - I'm hoping that the extra adrenalin that such an evnt produces will carry me to the finishing line. Unfortunately the last 5 km, that I have not yet added to my training schedule, include the notorious Avenue de Tervuren/Tervurenlaan, a long hill that comes just at the point when the very last thing you want is a hill.
Saturday 14 February 2009
February 14 - no love for Salman Rushdie
Lesser known than St Valentine's Day, February 14 this year is also the 20th anniversary of the issuing of the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie for his book The Statanic Verses.
I've read The Satanic Verses, and frankly don't see what the fuss was about. I suppose that Ayatollah Khomeini hadn't read the book, but I'm far from an expert on the workings of the religious mind so maybe there's something I didn't see. Either way, I'm glad that nobody was foolish enough to try to act on the Fatwa, and that Rushdie is still alive and well (I saw his cameo role in Bridget Jones's Diary again recently). It's a pity, though, that he had to live his life in fear for a decade because of the inability of an aged cleric to understand the modern world.
I recently read Rushdie's earlier book, Midnight's Children, for which he not only won the 1981 Booker Prize but also won a unique 'Best of Bookers' in 2008. Both well deserved prizes - it is a much better book than The Satanic Verses and presents a convincing picture of an India (and Pakistan) that few westerners know. Written in a disarmingly simple style, its message is powerful and moving. At times you feel that the true central character is Mumbai itself, Rushdie's birthplace and obviously a place that exerts a strong influence on its natives. But the story goes well beyond Mumbai and brings the reader with it brilliantly.
By coincidence Slumdog Millionaire, also a film with Mumbai as its unforgettable backdrop, came out not long after I read Midnight's Children. It presents another, but not inconsistent, view of that great city. I think we'll be hearing more and more from Mumbai as India moves more decisively towards the global mainstream.
I've read The Satanic Verses, and frankly don't see what the fuss was about. I suppose that Ayatollah Khomeini hadn't read the book, but I'm far from an expert on the workings of the religious mind so maybe there's something I didn't see. Either way, I'm glad that nobody was foolish enough to try to act on the Fatwa, and that Rushdie is still alive and well (I saw his cameo role in Bridget Jones's Diary again recently). It's a pity, though, that he had to live his life in fear for a decade because of the inability of an aged cleric to understand the modern world.
I recently read Rushdie's earlier book, Midnight's Children, for which he not only won the 1981 Booker Prize but also won a unique 'Best of Bookers' in 2008. Both well deserved prizes - it is a much better book than The Satanic Verses and presents a convincing picture of an India (and Pakistan) that few westerners know. Written in a disarmingly simple style, its message is powerful and moving. At times you feel that the true central character is Mumbai itself, Rushdie's birthplace and obviously a place that exerts a strong influence on its natives. But the story goes well beyond Mumbai and brings the reader with it brilliantly.
By coincidence Slumdog Millionaire, also a film with Mumbai as its unforgettable backdrop, came out not long after I read Midnight's Children. It presents another, but not inconsistent, view of that great city. I think we'll be hearing more and more from Mumbai as India moves more decisively towards the global mainstream.
Friday 13 February 2009
Brussels Metro 2009
Today they finally put up maps of the new arrangement of the Metro lines in the trains themselves, but so far the new map is not on the STIB/MIVB website. The new arrangement will start on 4 April.
The new arrangement adds only a small extra piece of track, between Clemenceau and Gare de l'Ouest/Weststation, but they have taken the opportunity to completely rearrange the Metro lines. Where before there were three lines, known (confusingly) as 1A, 1B and 2, there will be four, to be known as (stll confusingly) as 1, 2, 5 and 6. The missing lines 3 and 4 are not actually metro lines - they are the 'through-town' tramlines which used to be clled 'pré-metro' lines. Got all that? Good.
Anyway, I will be on line 5, which will go from Herrmann-Debroux to Erasmus (instead of Heysel at present). There will also be a kind of circular line going around the centre of town (the old Line 2, but now all joined up). It isn't yet clear if it will go in a continuous circle, or if it will go back and forth like a circular pendulum.
All in all it will mean quite a few changes in the way we look at the Metro. With four lines it will make Brusels seem like really grown-up big city. But for our daily lives I don't really see much change, on the eastern side of town anyway. Over in Gare de l'Ouest/Weststation, the only place along with Beekkant where all four lines will run, it will make a lot of difference I suppose. If they increase the frequency, which is already quite good, it will be an extra bonus.
The new arrangement adds only a small extra piece of track, between Clemenceau and Gare de l'Ouest/Weststation, but they have taken the opportunity to completely rearrange the Metro lines. Where before there were three lines, known (confusingly) as 1A, 1B and 2, there will be four, to be known as (stll confusingly) as 1, 2, 5 and 6. The missing lines 3 and 4 are not actually metro lines - they are the 'through-town' tramlines which used to be clled 'pré-metro' lines. Got all that? Good.
Anyway, I will be on line 5, which will go from Herrmann-Debroux to Erasmus (instead of Heysel at present). There will also be a kind of circular line going around the centre of town (the old Line 2, but now all joined up). It isn't yet clear if it will go in a continuous circle, or if it will go back and forth like a circular pendulum.
All in all it will mean quite a few changes in the way we look at the Metro. With four lines it will make Brusels seem like really grown-up big city. But for our daily lives I don't really see much change, on the eastern side of town anyway. Over in Gare de l'Ouest/Weststation, the only place along with Beekkant where all four lines will run, it will make a lot of difference I suppose. If they increase the frequency, which is already quite good, it will be an extra bonus.
Sunday 8 February 2009
Belgian Boat Show
Don't bother, if you're a sailor.
I drove to Gent this morning to go to the Belgian Boat Show. Although I am not yet an active sailor, it is my intention to get a boat one day - a real boat, a sail boat. But the Belgian Boat Show had, ... well ..., almost none to see. There were about 10 superboats, of 10 metres length or more, and price tags to match, and two (yes 2) smaller 'day sailor' boats. But the whole large range of 7 to 10 metre boats was entirely missing, and yet this is both the most popular range, and the most affordable.
There were a few (but not many) dinghies, and a lot of motor boats - basically macho boats, all white leather seats, champagne bottle holders and chrome.
So, if you are looking for a power boat, something to make you feel cool and trendy on the Cote d'Azur, then go to the Belgian Boat Show. Otherwise don't bother.
Me, I'll be going to the Paris Boat Show next year.
I drove to Gent this morning to go to the Belgian Boat Show. Although I am not yet an active sailor, it is my intention to get a boat one day - a real boat, a sail boat. But the Belgian Boat Show had, ... well ..., almost none to see. There were about 10 superboats, of 10 metres length or more, and price tags to match, and two (yes 2) smaller 'day sailor' boats. But the whole large range of 7 to 10 metre boats was entirely missing, and yet this is both the most popular range, and the most affordable.
There were a few (but not many) dinghies, and a lot of motor boats - basically macho boats, all white leather seats, champagne bottle holders and chrome.
So, if you are looking for a power boat, something to make you feel cool and trendy on the Cote d'Azur, then go to the Belgian Boat Show. Otherwise don't bother.
Me, I'll be going to the Paris Boat Show next year.
Thursday 5 February 2009
What happened to the 1980s?
In economic terms the 1980s seem to be returning in my country – unemployment is increasing rapidly, factories are closing every day, and people are starting to feel poor again.
But although I remember the 1980s all too well for exactly those reasons, it seems that in one sense I slept through most of the decade.
I analysed the music on my MP3 player by date of original recording, to see if it would show a peak of musical preference at a particular moment in my life. The results are shown below (with the raw figures grouped in five-year averages to avoid a too-spiky graph):
What the results show is that, as is normal, I have a visible preference for the music of my teenage years (the peak on the left). However, I have almost as great a liking for the music of the 1990s and 2000s. The surprise (for me) was that I seem to have no great liking for the music of the 1980s. Apart from 1988, which is quite well represented, I have an average of two tracks per year from the 1980s on my MP3. The question, of course, is not why I have those tracks, but why I do not have the others. So I checked back to see what was popular during the 1980s, to find that it was the decade of: ABC, Tina Turner, INXS, Hall and Oates, Bananarama, Pat Benatar, Whitesnake, Duran Duran, Billy Idol, Whitney Houston, Thompson Twins, John Cougar Mellencamp, The Police, Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, Cyndi Lauper, Bon Jovi, Huey Lewis & The News, Tears for Fears, The Go-Gos, Run D.M.C., Culture Club, Bryan Adams, Prince, Billy Joel, The Bangles and Wham!
OK, that explains it then!
But although I remember the 1980s all too well for exactly those reasons, it seems that in one sense I slept through most of the decade.
I analysed the music on my MP3 player by date of original recording, to see if it would show a peak of musical preference at a particular moment in my life. The results are shown below (with the raw figures grouped in five-year averages to avoid a too-spiky graph):
What the results show is that, as is normal, I have a visible preference for the music of my teenage years (the peak on the left). However, I have almost as great a liking for the music of the 1990s and 2000s. The surprise (for me) was that I seem to have no great liking for the music of the 1980s. Apart from 1988, which is quite well represented, I have an average of two tracks per year from the 1980s on my MP3. The question, of course, is not why I have those tracks, but why I do not have the others. So I checked back to see what was popular during the 1980s, to find that it was the decade of: ABC, Tina Turner, INXS, Hall and Oates, Bananarama, Pat Benatar, Whitesnake, Duran Duran, Billy Idol, Whitney Houston, Thompson Twins, John Cougar Mellencamp, The Police, Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, Cyndi Lauper, Bon Jovi, Huey Lewis & The News, Tears for Fears, The Go-Gos, Run D.M.C., Culture Club, Bryan Adams, Prince, Billy Joel, The Bangles and Wham!
OK, that explains it then!
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