We've spent the morning at the town hall, applying for Belgian citizenship. If you've lived here continuously for seven years (and we've been here for over nine) it's pretty much automatic; you just need to get your birth certificate officially translated into the local official language. After handing those over, and then a lot of hanging round in ( Read more... )

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions as to which Nobel laureate in literature I should try next. I may be able to return the favour by saying a little bit about Ivo Andrić, the Yugoslav writer of Bosnian Croat origin who won the prize in 1961, since I seem to be the only person of those who I've seen doing the meme who has actually read him ( Read more... )

...because I'm in Dublin airport waiting for my plane.

Book spoils from Belfast:

Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick, Endgame in Ireland
Plato, The Republic
Chris Bird, To Catch A Tartar: Notes from the Caucasus
Olivia Manning, The Balkan Trilogy

( What I did in Belfast )

A true breath of sanity in the mad world of Northern Irish politics is the weekly Portadown News, edited by Newton Emerson. I've just been spending a few minutes looking over his recent election coverage. His piss-take of the Ulster Unionist Party's dire election slogan "Decent People...Vote Ulster Unionist" is hilarious but also (for obvious ( Read more... )

From inner_storm:

1. Okay, just a few hours ago, we saw the white smoke, a new Pope has been chosen... What do you think of Benedictus XVI? ( answer )

7) The Distant Past, by William Trevor.

Set of short stories by this Protestant writer from rural County Cork, mainly depressing tales about Protestants in rural County Cork (you should write about what you know, as Anne always says). Reminded me how glad I am to have moved away from Belfast. But easy reading.