Largest lake on an island in a lake on an island

Largest lake on an island in a lake on an island

Warning: A post with potential for brain injuries due to too much thinking.

Beware the unknown

Whenever someone asks you: ‘Do you really want to know?’, think twice before answering ‘yes’. Because once you do know, there is no such a thing as “unknowing”.

With a little bit of luck, you might forget whatever you have been told but chances are that you won’t. It’s especially when you think ‘Gosh, I wish he hadn’t told me’ that this very particular random piece of information is burned into your memory.

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It’s actually not that complicated

One of those things men don’t understand (and women don’t bother explaining) is perceived temperature.

Men basically know two temperatures: warm and cold. In extreme cases, they may add two more: too warm and hot; hardly ever too cold.Women know roughly 15 levels of temperature of which one ‘status’ totally escapes the male comprehension: “I’m not cold but it is not warm either.”

In case you don’t see what I mean: that’s the point at which most women put on a light sweater or jersey while they are not cold; leading to some head shaking, sighs and other expressions of utter non understanding.

Note: putting on this jersey is indeed not a matter of being cold or warm. It is a matter of feeling the cloth against the skin and the however light weight of the jersey that makes the difference.

Now, if you still don’t understand it, then I can help it. Just deal with it as a matter of fact.

Neutral-Moresnet

One of the ‘advantages’ when you are living abroad is that family and friends relate to the place and send you little stories. One of those came from my granny about Neutral-Moresnet. A small country – or rather stretch of land – created so that Germany (Prussia) and France stopped getting into war about it. 104 years of existence – totally forgotten today.

Considering that some people tried to found the first Esperanto speaking state there, the Wikipedia Esperanto page is astonishingly short. But that can’t be linked, can it?

Totally banana

I noticed the other day that the skin of a banana gets thinner the longer you keep it. Is that already a sign of decomposition?

Metro DJ

A long time ago, I was wondering whether the public transport in Brussels (STIB) had someone selecting the songs they play in the metro stations all day long. In the afternoon, it’s usually Queen or Abba, at night always classic music. Today, through one of the far too many newsletters, I got the answer:

“In fact, the STIB purchases the playlists in ready-made packages from a specialised company. And due to the linguistic tensions in Belgium all pieces are either in English or instrumental.”

The Belgian Lion

is a strange species. It is too cold for lions to exist naturally, and the drawn up Leo Belgicus not only did not feature what is known as Belgium today but was pretty soon split in two.

But if you ever come to visit the Palais de Justice this megalomaniac monster building, then have a look at the winged lion statues which are alike to those in Venice. I have no idea how all of this fits together mais c’est pas grave.

“How to” guide for Belgium

Following situation: You need to do something at the post office – pick up a parcel, an inquiry, whatever. Coming into the post office, you take a ticket for the waiting line. After taking it, you realise that there are over 20, 30 or more tickets before you. How to know if it is worth staying or doing something else in the meantime without losing you place in line by coming back too late?

My experience: Multiply the number of tickets before yours by 3 (assumed minutes spent per person on the counter) divided by the number of open counters.

Example: You got number 184, current numbers called to the counter are 121, 122, 123; open counters 4. Ergo: 60 people times 3 minutes = 180 / 4 = 45 minutes waiting; i.e. enough time to do half an hour shopping and be back in time.

Warning: 60 people in line and just one open counter means that you might want to try your luck another day.

Beware the nationality

If you have food or other stuff accompanied by ‘national’ adjectives, you can be almost sure that they won’t be called this way in the country they apparently come from. Examples?

• Lait russe (Russian milk) – A kind of Latte macchiato sold in Belgium
• Cuisine américaine (American kitchen) – an open space kitchen like in Friends
• Salade macédoine (macedonian salad) – a salad mixing all kinds of vegetables, served with majonaise
• to be continued

Exception confirming you know what: German shepherd (Deutscher Schäferhund, berger allemand)

I love having a blog for this kind of deep thoughts and knowledge insights.

Revolutionary discovery

There are three types of compliments:

• Natural properties – beautiful eyes, nice hands, etc.
• Merits – an achievement, project or article which was a lot of work
• Nicked ones* – credit for a well done job though it was was someone else who did it