Strange people in Brussels yesterday. Lots of strange people. And loud! With rythme! Yes, the Zinneke Parade took over the streets around the ‘Grand Place’. And as expected, it was a lust for the eyes, the ears.

Enjoy the gallery (30 pictures).

Eddy

PS: the pictures of the previous Zinneke Parade, in 2010, are here.

Antwerpen-Noord does not always get positive coverage in the news. But today everything was positive vibes: Toer de Nord. An XL street theater festival, full of music, games, theater, art and lots more… And – yahoo! – my favorite murge Sentimento Verde woke up from their winter sleep! I do mis their golden dresses, but their beats are still the best…

Enjoy the gallery (26 images).

Eddy

Today everybody could come to Berendrecht and pick some nice tulips.

Oh yes, as you may have guessed, I’ve colored the pictures a bit… Some HDR (high dynamic range) seemed appropriate this time.

Enjoy the gallery (11 pictures).

Eddy

This WE the festival ‘City of Wings Ypres’ took place. It is a festival where street theatre makers can introduce themselves, a festival where street theatre lovers can get an overdose. This time there were women in trees, women playing with fire, man with fiery suits, man with multiple flutes and real super bugs… Too much to mention.

At a given moment I saw a piper and drum band warming up. But the official folder didn’t show them… A little later it became clear why: they were here for a much more serious matter, they were on their way to the Menin Gate, for the last post… Where there was quite a crowd: a large group of Canadian youngsters where there to pay respect to their fallen ancestors. The contrast couldn’t have been bigger: here respect and modesty, in the rest of the city joy and entertainment. Like the contrast between the ruined Ypres in 1918 and the City of Wings in 2012…

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”
(For the Fallen, Laurence Binyon)

Enjoy the gallery (29 pictures).

Eddy

PS: I’ve also visited this festival in 2010. Here you can see the pictures from that event.

“The beginning. My life was quite normal. I was 8 years old and lived together with my parents, my brother, my sister…” These are the words on the first statue in the exhibit ‘From Then, Now and Later’, a project from the SISA school (Antwerp), on the Holocaust and many other genocides during the past century… In the hall of the Central Station of Antwerp is a group of skinny, help seeking people. Symbols for the many lifes that were taken too early. In the name of The One and Only True Religion, the one and only true political conviction or just a stupid power game…

“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”

View the gallery (12 pictures).

Eddy

The adventures on snowshoes were rather limited this winter, due to the late arrival of the snow and a trip that was cancelled. Eventually I ended up in a place with a very pretty name: Schönberg (translated: pretty mountain) in the Stubaital (Austria, near Innsbruck). There we made three pretty hikes. The weather gods were kind to us: the first day it rained significantly when we departed, but with the car we drove higher up the mountains untill the rain became snow and it snowed the rest of the day. The next day was grey, with a beautifull layer of fresh snow (which resembled the powder sugar on the ‘Kaiserschmarrn’ I had for lunch that day). The third day the sun was shining the whole day.

On almost all of my previous snowshoe hiking trips we had composite snowshoes from TSL (226 Approach if I remember correctly), but this time we had aluminium snowshoes from Nibus. Which are not that good in my opinion, e.g. a ‘heel lift’ (for steep climbing) isn’t available on those shoes. And it was often not that easy to place your shoes correctly in the snowshoe (with the TSL it is fixed very firmly). One of the guides also had another brand: Tubbs (FLEX TRK Snowshoe), but that also had some downsides, e.g. the way the shoes are fixed in the snowshoes came loose regularly (a rubber band). So to conclude: I prefer a good old TSL!

Enjoy the gallery (33 pictures).

Eddy

The past week I was in New York for my job. Fortunately I did have some time on Sunday and in the evening (after the conference I attended) to take some pictures. The first picture in the gallery is from 1 WTC, formerly known as ‘Freedom Tower’. And sometimes you have to be lucky: the reflection of the sun was really nice, which made the view unique (despite the freezing cold).

And what else can you expect from a city like this? Well, the usual ingredients: super heros and other comical figures, ice scating in open air, yellow cabs and UFOs over Manhattan (#13) .

Enjoy the gallery (25 pictures).

Eddy

PS: during the Summer of 2010 I also visited NYC, you can find the pictures here.

About a year ago I started taking Tai Chi lessons, you know: a healthy spirit in a healthy body. Today our teacher (Si GingCong) organised his annual Chinese New Year event. With a performance by Xia Hua who played a BiBa, demonstrations Tai Chi and a short performance by two young ballet dansers.

The light in the room was not ideal, so the images are a bit more ‘artistic’. Black/white is also more forgiving than color…

Enjoy the gallery (11 images).

Eddy

At this moment the second edition of the Light Festival takes place in Ghent. Last year I was there and ended up with some nice pictures, so this year I went there again. First we made a short boat trip, afterwards we wandered around the city.

Enjoy the gallery (20 pictures).

Eddy

Yesterday we had our yearly family new years party. And it seemed to be quite a long time, since 2009, that I had taken pictures from the grand childeren of my two sisters (so my grand-nieces and grand-nephews).

In the gallery you can find two pictures, one of them while being busy with the things that keep childeren busy. The other one while enjoying a nice ice cream…

Enjoy the gallery (12 pictures).

Eddy