Would the English people please stop dancing

While I have no time for money spiders or being pooed on by passing birds, I now ascribe to my own good-luck superstition that Friends From England Bring Good Weather: this weekend the sun came out again as we were joined by ma collègue for an action-packed weekend in Brussels. We began the weekend at Club Havana, a heaving local dancerie, where, after warming up with some bizarre cocktails, we proceeded to dance like madmen to obscure 90s pop songs, not letting ourselves be put off by the fact that the Belgian clubbers didn’t seem to share in our delight. The club also happens to be perfectly placed for stumbling home, which was very welcome at 2am.

We managed to resist the lure of a Saturday lie-in, and steeled ourselves for a mini-tour of all the obligatory sights (Grand Place, Mannekin Pis and female counterpart, Parc, Sablon etc.). We also took a closer look at the Palais de Justice, which has an impressive entranceway behind the current cocoon of scaffolding.
In the afternoon we headed to Heyzel (home of the Atomium) to explore the Parc de Laeken, the greenery surrounding the Belgian Royal Family’s private residence. It is a cruel trick of perspective indeed, when, thinking you have reached the widest point of the perimeter wall that you’re walking round, you find that the boundary that separates you from your goal bows out with renewed vigour. Hence it took a good couple of hours of walking in baking sunshine to find the Chinese Pavilion and Japanese Tour – follies built to amuse the Royals when it was still ok for them to go in for such extravagances.

After a bit of lazing around in the sun, we came back via Stuyvenbergh metro station, which gave us the opportunity to take a closer look at the wonderfully creepy statues of the afore-mentioned Royals. Our own Elizabeth II should count herself lucky that the worst she had to suffer was Rolf Harris’s Very Dodgy Portrait. Here’s the full line up for tonight’s match:

No less strange is the new statue that appeared in Parc d’Egmont over night:

I won't even attempt to offer an explanation.

So, after our busy day out, we opted for a more sedate Saturday night with dinner in and Drinks in Silly Glasses at Delirium Café:

Drinking from a conical flask is enough to make anyone feel faintly silly but rather special. It also helps that the contents (Kwak) is pushing 10%.

So that's the round up from our weekend! Here's hoping that maman et papa bring some more sunshine next weekend...