Last night, we went to see The Ghost Writer, Roman Polanski's latest movie, in Raleigh's Independant Rialto Theater. A nice cast (Kim 'Sex In The City' Cattrall, Pierce 'James Bond' Brosnan, busy bee Ewan McGregor, ...), an engaging story which sounds all to familiar, and of course a bit of US (and UK) bashing as could be expected from the director. In total: 90 minutes of entertainment and suspense. No need to go and see this in 3D, on IMAX, or other technological gadgets: the storyline and actors make this movie worthwhile by itself ! Click here to read more »

Well, since April 5th I'm back in Raleigh for awhile. And the weather isn't even that much different from Belgium - unfortunately. The good news about all the rain: everything is green... if you do a quick compare of the new picture on the left (Spring 2010) with the picture on Google's Streetview (on the right, impressive amount of detail on this free map service !) you will immediately notice that the summertime brings a bit warmer and dryer weather (and that the bushes have grown :-). Click here to read more »

At the Narita Airport, leaving Japan. Overcast clouds, unseasonably cold - so I missed the Cherry Blossom season. Missed the moment when people rush out and have a drink and/or a pic-nic under the Cherry Blossom trees with their friends and families. So they say. And I have the feeling I missed much more... Click here to read more »

Last Tuesday we had dinner at Bocconi with a group of 6 people. Bocconi is a nice Italian restaurant, part of the 5-star Hotel Amigo adjacent to the Grand Market place in Brussels. The food was simply great - a wide selection of nice combinations, prepared with quality ingredients and very tasty (I had sole with Belgian endive and schrimp, calamares with artichokes as a starter, and black current & strawberry ice cream as desert). Click here to read more »

I used to have a favorite Italian restaurant in Brussels... a small family place, where the chef would suggest something and I would just say yes. But Dameo is no more, so I needed a new place. And I found one. After several visits I feel comfortable to call La Crèche des Artistes my new favorite Italian place in Brussels. Click here to read more »