380 days of plague
Yep, ten days on from my last post in this series; April Fools' Day, though I do not feel particularly mirthful
More or less a year since I did my second lockdown video, about the ponds at Zoetwater:
The Belgian numbers have continued to rise rather alarmingly, though with the eye of faith there may be some flattening in the infection rate over the last couple of days. Vaccinations, which had been steadily increasing, seem to have lost a bit of momentum. I made a very careful expedition into Brussels to meet a diplomatic contact last week, walking around les étangs d'Ixelles; my tracker app conked out half way through, giving the impression that I teleported back to the Flagey car park shortly after buying my ice cream.
We had a nice excursion en famille to De Torenvalk, a walking area where a few weeks ago I had unsuccessfully looked for the planet Mercury in the dawn sky. U, with some reluctance, tried parts of the fitness trail.
More educationally for me, I took F and U to the video games museum at Tours & Taxis in Brussels on Sunday, along with a couple of other friends. (Anne has studying commitments at the moment.) It's a very well laid out exhibition, with enough explanation to make me feel that I understood a lot more at the end than I had at the beginning. U has her difficulties, but she does basically get video games. Here she is trying Pong, her faithful Android tucked under her arm, with F talking to our friend P (who is a real life pinball wizard) and P's other half V taking a nostalgic photo in the corner.
Unusually I had not one but two media interviews last week, with Radio Free Europe picking my brains on Kosovo, published in Albanian and Serbian, with a brief video excerpt in English:
And then I was asked to contribute to a panel on the Egyptian channel Al-Ghad ("Tomorrow's Channel") on the subject of EU-Turkey relations. This was an interesting experience, with simultaneous translation of what the other participants were saying in Arabic into my ear in English, and my own words being simultaneously translated from English into Arabic for viewers. I have no idea if I said anything sensible. The sharp-eyed will note the same background for both videos.
We have the long Easter weekend now; I'm taking tomorrow off and will be enjoying Eastercon (I'm on two panels on Saturday). It will be nice to recharge my social batteries a bit. See some of you there.
More or less a year since I did my second lockdown video, about the ponds at Zoetwater:
Click to viewThe Belgian numbers have continued to rise rather alarmingly, though with the eye of faith there may be some flattening in the infection rate over the last couple of days. Vaccinations, which had been steadily increasing, seem to have lost a bit of momentum. I made a very careful expedition into Brussels to meet a diplomatic contact last week, walking around les étangs d'Ixelles; my tracker app conked out half way through, giving the impression that I teleported back to the Flagey car park shortly after buying my ice cream.
We had a nice excursion en famille to De Torenvalk, a walking area where a few weeks ago I had unsuccessfully looked for the planet Mercury in the dawn sky. U, with some reluctance, tried parts of the fitness trail.
More educationally for me, I took F and U to the video games museum at Tours & Taxis in Brussels on Sunday, along with a couple of other friends. (Anne has studying commitments at the moment.) It's a very well laid out exhibition, with enough explanation to make me feel that I understood a lot more at the end than I had at the beginning. U has her difficulties, but she does basically get video games. Here she is trying Pong, her faithful Android tucked under her arm, with F talking to our friend P (who is a real life pinball wizard) and P's other half V taking a nostalgic photo in the corner.
Unusually I had not one but two media interviews last week, with Radio Free Europe picking my brains on Kosovo, published in Albanian and Serbian, with a brief video excerpt in English:
And then I was asked to contribute to a panel on the Egyptian channel Al-Ghad ("Tomorrow's Channel") on the subject of EU-Turkey relations. This was an interesting experience, with simultaneous translation of what the other participants were saying in Arabic into my ear in English, and my own words being simultaneously translated from English into Arabic for viewers. I have no idea if I said anything sensible. The sharp-eyed will note the same background for both videos.
We have the long Easter weekend now; I'm taking tomorrow off and will be enjoying Eastercon (I'm on two panels on Saturday). It will be nice to recharge my social batteries a bit. See some of you there.