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Ok,... I admit,... I’m a Belgian.
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You know about Belgium :
Flanders poppy fields, Brussels capital of the European Union, providing the first European President Herman Van Rompuy, home of ancient castles, old fortresses & citadels, Pieter Breughel, Victor Horta, René Margritte, James Ensor, P.P. Rubens, Jan Van Eyck, mannekin Pis & associates, Antwerp, Bruges, waffels, asparagus, the Brussels Griffon, home of the genuine (first working) Speech Technology, Bakelite (the first plastic), Yperite (musterdgas WW1), poppy fields, the first country to ban land mines (easy for us,... we have none), tennis icones like Kim Cleysters & Justine Henin, the Ardennes and WW2, Belgian chocolates, Fries, Julius Caesar who said that Belgians (Belgae) are the bravest of ‘em all (after beating the crap out of them).
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I got mail from Kelly Adams.
He urged me to mention the Chimey Bleu quality beer. I’ll also mention Lambic, Geuze, and Palm as my favorite traditional Belgian beers. Perhaps you’ve also heard about Trapist, Duvel or White Beer (know Celis White Beer)?
Any specific beer questions,... don’t ask me, ask Kelly. He’s the expert.
Belgium : Europe in the palm of your hand.
The small multiethnic nation of 10 million has mind-numbingly complex bureaucratic systems. The country is divided in 10 provinces, 589 communes and run by a national government and six overlapping regional governments representing the French, Dutch and German language groups and as a second overlapping division the Brussels, Waloon and Flanders regions with each their own parliament and more ministers that there’s hair on a dog. Our national slogan is :”Union makes force”. This fragile balance is often interpreted as a typical Belgian quality to find a consensus for every problem. The land is evolving into a federal state with largely independent regions.
Something like Mini Europe.
 Read more on this website about the (in extinction) ancient Brussels dialect.
I’ve lived more than two decades in and around Brussels, now capital of Europe. Believe me when I say that’s it’s still a village in the mind of most inhabitants.
Born and raised between the slopes of the green land north-east of Brussels in times when men still dreamed of walking on the moon, the Beatles did their first gig, God was still Almighty and only the major, the priest and the upper class spoke another language besides Flemish. Belgium offers high speed internet access in every home, internet technology in every day’s life. Most kids have a PDA and a computer of any kind. Nowadays modern Old Continental Hotmail- & Youtubed kids think that milk is created during an industrial process, that it is a white variant of Pepsi & Coca Cola. Should I shock ‘em and tell ‘em that their favorite drink comes from between a cow’s rear legs? Nah,... they’ll find that on Google!
I am an old fart that (besides MP3) still listens to Jimi hendrix, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin & other Uriah Heeps on vinyl.
My all-time favorite musician is (in memory) Tommy Bolin - www.tbolin.com. When I was a teenager, I listened to Slade, Sweet, Mud and Suzy Quatro. Later to the Runaways, Warren Zevon, Rory Galagher and stuff. My nowadays favorite band is the American punkband Nirvana - don’t erroneously call it ‘grunge’ because it’s punk finally played by genuine musicians. Eurgh... what? Lead singer Cobain is dead allready? Has been many since years now... forgotten by youngsters? Gosh, time flies. So let’s go Brittish and listen to The Darkness. A mixture of Deep Purple gone drunk, Van Halen without Rilatintin®, Marry Poppins on the rocks & the night of the living Mme Tussauds wax museum. Huh,... equally forgotten by youngsters. Gosh,.. i must be getting old.
Professionally :
I work 3 to 4 days a week (psychiatric nurse / counselor) in a beautifully located Brussels Hospital.
This historical university hospital was build by Victor Horta (Art Nouveau) and also contains a building made by Lacoste.
Two days a week, I work independently (for my pleasure) in the motorcycle business. Mostly in an all Japanese motorcycle garage/shop.
And I manage a small company with an associate for the remaining time where we teach/instruct professionals about palliative communication, violence prevention, aggression management and digestion after being a victim of violence in a professional context. That leaves me plenty of time to build and manage websites,... among them this nondisputandum.com relic that I keep updated for personal use.
This Nondisputandum project:
Eurgh... Let’s say that I started it due to personal needs as I never seem to remember a url and forget how exactly it is to fix a windows based computer.
Fortunately I also discovered Apple computers many years ago. Comparing the quality of a Mac with Windows/PC is like comparing a Ferrari with an Oldsmobil.
The advice in this website is 100% Windows based. No complaints whatsoever are accepted. Use software at your own risk.
My native language is Flemish aka Dutch.
Both Flemish & French speaking in my private life though to keep things simple mostly French speaking in Brussels because else I would have to translate myself in whatever I say - even as a reflex when talking to a Flemish person. Yea,... the Flemish original dialect of Brussels is going down the drain as you read this. German speaking when visiting the eastern Belgian regions, English speaking for Global comfort and Flemish speaking when working in the motorcycle business.
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These are the images that I think speak form themselves.
Perhaps they do not show who I am, but at least they shown how I would like you to see me.
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