Living in Belgium

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New Belgium Brewing Company Aims for Zero Emissions
2007-09-19 20:17:00
This article is not exactly about Belgium but about a type of Belgian beer being produced in the US, inspired by a bike trip in Belgium.At New Belgium Brewing Company 's Ft. Collins, Colorado plant, you walk past colourful perennial flower beds and well-used bike racks and enter the building through the bustling employee break room, where recycling bins neatly line one wall and employee computers another. On the bulletin board, an announcement explains how to become an "employee owner." One of the employee owners explains that after a year of working at New Belgium, you get a new cruiser bike as a reward. On a typical sunny day, as many as a third of the company's employees ride those bikes to work, often including at least one of the company's founders?Jeff Lebesch or his wife Kim Jordan, who live about a 15-20 minute ride away. "It's a little hard to drop your child off at school on a bicycle," says Kim, "or else we'd probably drive even less than we currently do." The bike is...
More About: Emissions , Missi

Scots Weekend, Alden Biesen
2007-09-19 19:54:00
I was astonished that over 20,000 people visited for the 21st annual Scots Weekend (7-9 September 2007) in Alden Biesen, a sort of castle in Limburg, Belgium. Even the lousy weather we are having did not put people off.We visited on Saturday and heard various pipe bands (bagpipes), shopped for Scottish produce on the market, drank Gordon beer, sampled Scotch whiskies and the children tried their hand at archery before burning off energy on the proverbial bouncy castle.My photos of the Scots Weekend on FlickrI met a group of young men in matching T-shirts and kilts, one of whom was dressed up with toy armour. I asked them where they were from and discovered they were Belgians on a stag party weekend. Apparently it is traditional for Belgians to do this! I saw a group of women in matching costume when we were leaving so maybe they were on a hen party.I was pleased to hear that the Belgian group of monitors at my fitness club, Olympia in Hasselt, won first prize in the Highland Game...

Time to Call It a Day
2007-09-19 19:27:00
In response to the Economist's suggestion 'Time to call it a day', editor Paul Morris finds a possible answer in Belgium's surrealism. In last week?s Economist, a point of view article suggested that it was time to 'Time to call it a day' in Belgium (The Economist : Time to call it a day).When I arrived here in Belgium, elbow to elbow with the euro, there was a charm to the fact that there were two languages, that signposts and street signs in Brussels - the only official bilingual region in the country - had schizophrenia, with French text above and Dutch below. I marvelled at how graphic designers had adapted themselves, using ever more ingenious means to include both languages on posters, business cards and toilet ducks. Belgium and Brussels in particular is very strong on the visual arts, abounding with painters, sculptors and of course the very bande dessinée out of which Tintin, one of its most famous sons grew. And it is done with great, often black humour. For artists ...
More About: European Union , Call

Belgian Schools Scored Highest Worldwide
2007-09-17 15:11:00
From 1 September 2007, junior schools in Belgium are to be "kosteloos", ie without costs.Children receive the following items from the school:- books, atlases, dictionaries, notebooks, diary- reading books,picture books- pencils, ballpoint pens, rubbers (erasers in US)- paint, art paper- glue, scissors, ruler- compasses, set square, protractor, calculator, compass- photocopies- balls, rope, tricycles, climbing equipment- cardboard, wood, tools, building blocks, puzzles- computers, internet, software- musical instruments.What is not free ie for what must parents pay?- Swimming costs (except first years who receive free lessons, the 6 year olds)- Trips out such as theatre, walks in the wood, sports activities, school journeys.- Sport clothing, newspapers (if necessary).The school may ask a maximum annual contribution of 20? in nursery and 60? in the junior school.The school may also request payment for activities and services outside normal school hours but children are not obliged to...
More About: Schools , Worldwide , Belgian

Pocket World in Figures 2008
2007-09-17 15:09:00
This is the new edition of this annual bestseller of fascinating facts and figures about the world we live in. The 2008 edition has been completely updated, revised, refreshed and expanded. It contains rankings on more than 200 topics in subject areas as wide-ranging as geography, population, business, the economy, trade, transport, finance, industry, demographics, the environment, society, culture and crime. This annual bestseller has the answers to all these questions and more. It contains data on 182 countries and profiles of more than 65 of the world's major economies, together with special profiles on the Euro Zone and the World .The best level of human development and quality of life overall is to be found in:1. Norway2. Iceland3. Australia4. Ireland5. Sweden6. Canada7. Japan8. USA9. Netherlands, Finland & Switzerland12.BELGIUM & Luxembourg17. UKWorst quality of life:Bottom 5: Niger, Sierra Leone, Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea-Bissau.Standard of living1. Luxembourg2. Bermuda3....
More About: Belgium , Figures , Pocket

Why we left Spain to live in Belgium
2007-09-17 15:07:00
I am English and my husband is a Brit from South Africa. We met in England, now have two young boys and lived in Marbella, Andalucia, Southern Spain until Summer 2006 when we chose to leave the blue skies, warm/hot weather and move to cloudy, rainy, boring Belgium . The Belgians ask us in astonishment why we left Spain for Belgium and we reply,"For the weather". They look blankly so we follow up with,"Actually, it was for the beers".The truth is we chose Belgium as a civilised, normal, friendly place to live and bring up children. I lived in the capital, Brussels, for six years from 1981-1987 and often regret leaving. My life would have been very different had I stayed. Life in a quiet country village is very different to the capital as a single girl but we still know that we made the right decision.I am writing this blog to share with you why we love this country and what life here is really like.Boring, Belgium certainly is not.
More About: Live , Left