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Barca. The rise and fall of the club that built modern football, Simon Kuper (ISBN 978-1780724744, Short Books)
This was really an enjoyable read. I don’t remember how exactly it ended up on my to read list but I must have read about it somewhere and as I used to enjoy watching Barcelona games on Dutch tv in the nineties I bought it and put it on the pile. Then a few weeks ago when the World Championship in Qutar started and I wasn’t going to watch a lot of the games due the continuous controversy around it (corruption, slave labour, …) I decided to read this book instead. I have to confess I didn’t ban watching the…
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First 550km with the Stromer ST3 Pinion
This week I reached the 550km mark on my new Stromer. I have it since mid October and due to some unforeseen circumstances I haven’t been in the office as much as expected so the kilometers have added up more slowly than normal. Still, I am now accustomed to the bike and have used it in bad weather without having to worry about the chain. I just get on and ride. Only part that suffers a bit from mud are the disc brakes so a bit of cleaning every now and then is needed there. When deciding on the model…
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Why I am not watching the 2022 World Cup Football
Ever since the 2022 edition was given to Qatar the decision has been publicly debated on and off. It all started with the dubious motivation to host the most important football tournament in a hot desert country with no football tradition to speak off. That got fixed by moving the tournament from the summer to the winter and by building giant air conditioned football stadiums. Likely not contributing positively in our struggle to keep climate change under control. Then there were the incidents with unsafe working conditions, deaths and ‘slave labour’ while building the stadiums. Then followed the illiberal standpoint…
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Brasserie de Abdijmolen
Went for an early dinner a few weeks ago on a Friday at Brasserie de Abdijmolen in de abdij van het park in Heverlee. The sun was shining but it was raining on and off so we decided to play it safe and sit inside even though some people were enjoying a drink outside. As we were early we could pick a table upstairs next to the window and enjoy the sunlight and view over the water. The terrace upstairs was closed because of the bad weather and it was good we sat inside as there were a couple of…
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Café-Restaurant Bourla
Two weeks ago we went to Antwerp to visit the recently reopened KMSKA. After the visit we walked along the river to the city centre and then went for dinner in Café-Restaurant Bourla. This is located behind the Bourla theatre on the Graanmarkt. It is located in an old luxurious building and when you enter the restaurant it feels like you step into another era. The interior adds to making the dinner experience a real night out. We were a bit early but decided to have a drink before we ordered our food. We were a party of 8 and…
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KMSKA Open Again
The KMSKA has recently reopened after having been closed for almost 10 years. The opening was soon followed by a lot of fuss in the press about the white floor, which is immediately full of black stripes from the shoes of visitors. Compared to the past, the museum now actually consists of 2 buildings in 1. Via the old entrance you can still go via the central corridor to the first floor and view the old rooms with the monumental paintings by the old masters such as Rubens. This part of the museum has not really changed and still has…
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Museum van Schone Kunsten Antwerpen
Na bijna 10 jaar gesloten te zijn geweest is het KMSKA onlangs terug open gegaan. Dit ging al dadelijk gepaard met de nodige heisa in de pers over de witte vloer die direct vol zwarte strepen staat. In vergelijking met vroeger bestaat het museum nu eigenlijk uit 2 gebouwen in 1. Via de oude ingang kan je nog altijd via de centrale grappengang naar de eerste verdieping gaan en daar de oude zalen met de monumentale schilderijen van de oude meesters zoals Rubens bekijken. Dit stuk van het museum is niet echt veranderd en heeft nog houten parketvloeren zoals altijd.…
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Mac OS Upgrade Problems
Many years ago when my my Mac Pro 1.1 became obsolete I bought a new one, the black cilinder that was considered by many as a step back because of the limited upgrade possibilities, especially compared to the previous tower version. Looking at the latest version of the Mac Pro I guess Apple agreed even though they never said so publicly. I never had real issues with the limited upgrade options. In the end I only had to expand the RAM which was no problem and then at some point needed a bigger internal SSD. That was a bit more…
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Space – The Human Quest
This week was a school holiday week. This is always an opportunity to do something together as a family and searching the internet we came across this exhibition. It is an interactive display of the history of space exploration, from the first unmanned flights from the Russians and Americans to the manned Gemini and then Apollo missions to the moon. Besides history the expo also current exploration programs from NASA and ESA like for example the International Space Station, the James Webb telescope and the Arianne program. The various private companies from Musk, Branson and Bezos that offer commercial space…
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Swimming with Sharks, Joris Luyendijk (ISBN 9781783350650, Guardian Faber Publishing)
The Dutch version of this 2015 book (Het kan niet waar zijn) has been on my pile of books to read for a long time. I got to know Luyendijk through his column in De Standaard. And so I decided to buy his book. That ended up on the pile because I am a collector with more money than time for books. A while ago I bought ‘People like us’, also by Joris Luyendijk and when I had to choose a new book to read last weekend, this one was still at the top of the pile. Then it occurred…
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