Life and its little pleasures

Update

2008-12-01T22:14:53+00:00

Complaints from the homefront on the lack of updates, so here in a photo overview some of the things I have been up to in the last couple of months.

Watching two games at the US Open at Flushing Meadows in Queens:

Discovering New York's West side (Hudson River):

Playing baseball at the batting cages at Chelsea Pier:

Enjoying my neighborhood (Flat Iron):

Going to Las Vegas for work (view from Bellagio hotel):

Admiring Berlinde De Bruyckere's art with Tuur and Mike:

Celebrating my birthday with my best friends in New York. (yes, this included karaoke...):

Getting awesome presents (including flowers, Trivial Pursuit - the 90's edition, Yoga-lessons, books, DVDs, drum sticks, vodka, concert tickets, sexual positions-card game, ...)

Visiting the Bronx with Phil:

Flying to Miami with the girls for the weekend (including Sarah):

Celebrating Halloween with Mike and Hilary (with some awesome fake knife wounds!):

Watching Carlos (monkey) for a week:

Making Carbonades a la Flamande for the office Potluck lunch:

Celebrating Hilary's birthday (with Katy in town!!):

Right... That should cover a lot of it. More later on the awesome Thanksgiving weekend.

Belgium

2008-11-28T19:35:59+00:00

Although I consider New York, USA my home now, I am still Belgian and I try to follow the news in my birth country as I find it very interesting. It's even more interesting when the two countries meet in the news. Unfortunately, in the latest news storm where those two (kind of) met, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

So this is the short version of the story:

Belgian minister of defense comes to New York with a delegation. They party one night in a Belgian cafe and (according to the Belgian waitress) the minister sings and drinks. A member of his delegation talks to the Belgian waitress and tells her that they aren't doing very much in NY as most meetings were canceled. Something they knew in advance and did not stop them from flying over the ocean for this field trip.

The waitress, who keeps a personal blog to inform friends and family about her adventures in the big city, writes a report with her version of the evening on said blog. She gives her personal and subjective opinion and this gets some momentum on some other blogs.

When questioned about it, the minister denies getting drunk and having a fun trip in New York. He also lies about calling the New York Belgian bar and so getting the waitress fired. Two days later he admits that there was a contact between his office and the bar that caused the dismissal.

Now all blogs are of course writing about the disgrace. How can a politician who claims (on his own website) to be open to dialog through the internet, make a public speech about the menace of blogs? Who the hell does he think he is and what dictatorship does he live in to get someone fired?

Now I have read a lot of the comments everywhere and I have to agree with the majority, De Crem, our Minister of defense is a total ass. This however is not news to me. He always was an ass and he is not and never will be capable of dealing with criticism. I suggest he finds another job...

I do find it a bit weird that almost nobody is criticizing the actions of the waitress. As an employee, her loyalty should be with her work. She blatantly ignored this and put her boss in a position where his business's reputation was at stake. Maybe she didn't think her blogpost would have this effect, but that does not mean she is not responsible for her actions. I have worked many years in the "horeca" and I believe there is a unwritten law that says that discretion is a given. If I owned a business like that, I would expect my staff to be discreet and to serve our customers. That is what they are being paid for.

And of course she has the freedom to write this down on her website. Nobody is arguing that she does not have that right. But if I write things on my blog that would hurt my company's reputation, I fully expect to be fired. In the end, they are still paying me to do a job and to be a representative of their brand. I don't see why this would not be the case with this waitress. She made her bed and now she must sleep in it. Unfortunately, it is not the nicest way to find out how powerful freedom of speech can be.

But that is just my humble opinion about all this...

And it's a first edition!

2008-11-19T16:08:01+00:00

So the boyfriend has connections... :-) He also does the artwork for this author's books. Cool, no?

I will find you...

2008-11-18T18:50:38+00:00

J., my cat (who lives with the parents) came home last week while breathing from his back... Something created a huge hole in his body and left a gaping wound. Not a lot of blood, no infection, just a big hole. The opinions are divided as to what or who could have caused this. Some say a car (?), I say a rock that someone threw... Just so you know, whoever hurt my cat (if it was a person), do it again and I will find you. Trust me, it will not be your best day!

The vet did a good job (according to my sis, who is also a vet).

Atlantic City

2008-11-17T14:14:52+00:00

After a busy, but fun week in Europe (London and Belgium), I drove down to Atlantic City, NJ for the weekend. So much fun! A fairly nice hotel, great company, the most decadent meal ever (6 pound lobster and steak!), a little bit of gambling, lots of staying in bed and heaps of saltwater taffy. What more could a girl wish for!

The boardwalk is quite nice off season. It reminds me a bit of the Belgian coast in the early 80s.

Behind the scenes

2008-11-09T12:16:03+00:00

Claudia Schiepers

Yes!

2008-11-07T18:11:38+00:00

Claudia Schiepers

Blog

2008-11-04T20:03:07+00:00

It's been quiet here lately, but I have been blogging on one of the Standaard blogs: In alle Staten. mostly about the elections and what is going on around here.

Once that is all done, I promise to devote more time here again!

So exciting today!!! I feel like I am watching history unfold right in front of me. Or around me. It will be a very emotional night. Let's just hope it will be the good emotions.

8 years later

2008-10-28T21:39:31+00:00

Funny, but bringing a tear to my eye at the end...

(Audio is not in synch with video, but stick with it, it's better in the end)

Via this site.

3 American toilet things to hate

2008-10-28T19:47:34+00:00

Last year, I wrote only one blogpost on the Bathroom Blogfest, but when I got the email this year that the fest was on again, I promised myself I would put in more effort! The official title is Bathroom Blogfest '08 - Cleaning Up Forgotten Spaces Around Us. A lot of other blogs are participating again this time and you can find a full list below. There is a Facebook event too this time, you can join it here.

After talking about my little room experiences in Belgium (my home country) last time, I think I should just continue with that story and move to another country: The USA.
There are three things that bug me tremendously in the United States bathroom world. First of all, the spaces everywhere! Seriously... what is up with the holes between the door and the wall; between the walls and the floor; and between the walls and the ceiling??? I don't care that much about people knowing what I'm up to in my daily life (I wouldn't have a blog otherwise), but I do value my privacy in the bathroom! I want to be able to take my time, make embarrassing noises and use as much paper as I want to without feeling like everyone in the space can see me, hear me and worst of all: judge me... For my readers who are not used to American toilets, see these pictures as evidence.

The second thing I don't like about my new home's bathrooms is the amount of water in the toilet. Why is there so much? It seems to work fine in Belgium with a lot less water and the water also seems to be much farther away from my butt on the other side of the continent... I can't believe anybody likes it when the water that you just relieved yourself in, splashes back up and wets your bum. I know I'm being quite graphic here, just trying to explain my dislikes to you, innocent readers...

The last thing I don't like about American toilets is their location in a lot of restaurants. Now, it is not fair to call this an "American toilet" problem; "New York toilet" problem is probably more accurate. A lot of the bathrooms in the restaurants here are unisex. I have no problem with that. Whoever says that men are more disgusting than women has probably never done any real comparison. Women are way more gross, so sharing the same bathroom with men does not fade me in any way. In fact, I am that person who (when they are separated) will skip the women's line and go straight for the one free stall on the men's side.

Anyway, back to the location... Since most restaurants only have one or two bathrooms, the door opens straight from the eating area into the bathroom. No hall way, no second door, nothing. So if you don't lock the door properly, you will be exposed not only to the person invading your toilet space, but to a full restaurant (if you go to a popular place, that is). Embarrassing, yes, but that is not the worst part. The "only-one-door-between-eating-food-and-taking-a-dump" - fact is WAAAAYYY worse. Can you already imagine the smell coming from that door when that 300 pound guy decides to empty his bowels? Bon appetit!

So, as you can deduct from this little rant, I am not a big fan of the toilets of my new home country...

Next up: Japan

Other participating bloggers:
Susan Abbott at Customer Experience Crossroads
Katia Adams at Transcultural Marketing
Shannon Bilby at Floor Talk!
Laurence Borel at Blog Till You Drop
Jo Brown and the blogging team at Kohler Talk
Lisbeth Calandrino at Lisbeth Calandrino
Sara Cantor at The Curious Shopper
Becky Carroll at Customers Rock!
Katie Clark at Practical Katie
Iris Shreve Garrott at Circulating
Ann Handley at Annarchy
Marianna Hayes at Results Revolution
Elizabeth Hise and C.B. Whittemore at The Carpetology Blog
Maria Palma at Customers Are Always
Sandra Renshaw at Purple Wren
Kate Rutter at Adaptive Path
Carolyn Townes at Becoming a Woman of Purpose
Stephanie Weaver at Experienceology
C.B. Whittemore at Flooring The Consumer