I’ve been the happy owner of a Gaggia Classic espresso machine for more than 2 years. It’s a stout, shining beast of a machine that sits proudly in my kitchen and provides 3 or 4 excellent cups of espresso that make my daily website programming much more pleasant. So pleased […]
So David Cameron is finally starting to make good his pledge to take the Conservatives out of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, as covered by the FT Brussels blog, Richard Corbett and Iain Dale. There’s of course a lot of bluster about the whole thing, and plenty […]
In the 6 years since I was last in Pristina, Kosovo, everything has changed yet nothing has changed. In 2003 it was a UN Protectorate, now it’s an ‘independent’ country. Then it was emerging from a post-conflict situation, now it’s generally stable. Before everything felt temporary, now the investments feel […]
I was due to fly today from Liège to Pristina with BelleAir, and Italian cheap airline. Why is such a company flying from Liège to Pristina I asked myself? And will it work? Well the answer to that is that it doesn’t. I’m writing this from Brussels as the flight […]
As things finally start to calm down with the Atheist Bus Campaign in London it’s worth reflecting a bit on some of the aspects of the campaign. I’ll post more reflections here as I begin in my own mind to draw some conclusions from how things developed. I’ll also be […]
Presidency logos are always worth a chuckle and the Swedish Presidency for the second half of 2009 is no exception. As was astutely pointed out to my on Twitter my Magnus Ljugkvist the logo of the Presidency (above right) bears a striking resemblance to the logo of Sony Ericsson (above […]
Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen announced on Friday that the MEPs from his party, Fianna Fáil, will join the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE) group in the EP after June’s elections. Graham Watson, currently leader of ALDE, has welcomed the idea, as reported by EUObserver. But let’s look […]
The picture on the right is a machine that applies the durable, thick paint to roads. I show it here because employing one of those is Belgium would really help me avoid having a nasty accident in the near future. The chances of it happening – unless I mount a […]
I’m just home after having spent a pleasant hour at La Maison Cauchie, a preserved Art Nouveau house near Parc Cinquentenaire in Brussels (5 rue des Francs, south side of the park). The house is one of only four that the artist Paul Cauchie built and it dates from 1905. […]
A post at Tom Harris MP’s blog caught my eye this morning in which he cites comments by Graham Watson MEP that it’s actually his wife writing his Twitter feed on his behalf, and that he has asked staff to hoover up Facebook friends for him. Quite frankly I don’t […]
In Brussels Bente Kalsnes (bentekalsnes.wordpress.com) and I have been brainstorming projects for a campaign for a nordic NGO. We have some fun ideas, we have some funding, we have very little time, and we need help! We have 2 specific programming tasks that need to be completed by 6th March […]
I seem to be in a state of perpetual confusion when it comes to my telephone and mobile communications – something has to be changed. But I don’t know what… So if anyone can help me with this I would be very grateful! (1) Landline This is about the only […]
