Getting worse

As a counterbalance to the previous, back-slapping entry, here are a few ways in which I’m inexorably declining, as part of the inevitable entropic decay of the universe. 1. Impatience. I no longer have the patience to deal with certain types of irritant. The most notable example is poor driving. Before learning to drive I was [...]

Getting Better

Brussels is wet ‘n’ wild today (no, not like that). Almost every bin I see on the streets is overflowing with discarded, fractured umbrellas, their skinny arms and flapping material looking like giant broken bat wings. As I walk down the street the wind keeps shoving me in the back as if to say “Come on! [...]

Watch this space

While reading an article about moving house with children, I came across this: “A researcher working on a photography project with three-year-olds found that some children took pictures of empty spaces where they had once seen something memorable, which suggests that preschoolers have a powerful connection with their surroundings.” I found this fascinating, although I’m [...]

Nothing new under the sun

Last week I saw The Departed. It’s a remake of a Hong Kong thriller called Infernal Affairs. Some people object to remakes in principle, feeling that they betray a lack of creativity and originality, that they prove that pop culture is in terminal decline and has to resort to self-cannibalism. Yeah, tell that to Shakespeare. [...]

Back to life

Brussels doesn’t seem to have entirely woken up to 2007 yet, with two consequences for me this morning.  One – little or no traffic on the road to work this morning. Good.  Two – café at work closed, forcing me to get my morning cappuccino from the machine. Bad. Machines cannot make cappuccino. They make [...]