underdogs

I’ve always liked underdogs.  This might be related to being born, and growing up in  true underdog nation, Scotland, (and originating in Iceland – p.s. don’t mention the crisis) or it could be something else, but if you know your history and/or your football you will probably also feel it must largely be the former.  Brussels is just that, something of an underdog in city terms, a place people either don’t know about, quickly forget, or don’t expect very much from.  Which is why, as with all underdogs, it is a nice surprise when they jump up and bite you, so to speak.  I hope I can share my appreciation of Brussels, and even of life, with whoever out there who cares to know about it, and perhaps even do a tiny bit to help the little guy (brussels, not me) out, or at the very least bring a small smile to someone out there.

I suppose I should say a little bit more about why I decided to start writing my thoughts down online.  Partly it was the well appreciated suggestions of family and friends that I should record and share my observations, and moreover a feeling that I want to remember and even ‘advertise’ these times in Brussels.  It is a place which doesn’t get much luck (having been ripped apart by European wars for centuries, and then again by rather brutal urban developments and interventions, and even more recently by the two component parts of Belgium, Flanders and Wallonia, who tussle for it’s control)  However it’s also a result of having lived abroad for so long (I blame and thank my Erasmus experiences in Benelux and Scandinavia) and the fact that I feel my mother tongue English is getting dustier and stranger, as I pick up more and more the odd but often charming alterations that various people from various places introduce to it.  So for me this is also  a way to think once again a carefully about how to communicate, and how best to make use of a wonderful thing such as language, and enjoy a little wordplay, hopefully.

I do admit to hesitating over what to write for this, the first entry, as somehow I felt it would dictate the direction of this blog, but then I remembered that life is short, opportunities are there to be grabbed, and the things we enjoy doing should be done as best as possible in the moment we do them, because quite often we don’t get a second chance to do them any better.  So, I have just written the first things which came to mind.  I hope to now get on with posting my slightly random, probably provocative, and hopefully amusing reflections on this city, and indeed this life.

There you go/Alsjeblieft/S’il vous plait

bru

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