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Rain, rain, lots and lots of rain … a small confession to make: I actually enjoy a proper rainy day on occasion. I don’t suppose you should live in Brussels if you don’t. Woke up early and transported myself + sleeved blanket onto the sofa to watch France beat England in rugby, a good start to the day. Caught up on a bunch of editing, bought some food, cancelled all plans, had some cancelled on me and planned myself a movie night (between films now!). No photos today but a tip for the next rainy day – Chez Franz on rue Frank Merjay, the sort of place that makes you want to sit down, order a glass of wine and lose a few hours. Also very nice for brunch on sunny days mind you, since it has a huge terrace. It opened quite recently in place of the Mont Chauve which had a grumpy owner, but good beers and a tasty brunch – and was one of my first hangouts in Brussels – RIP
A power failure in the neighbourhood meant that the entire European Parliament was evacuated today! Hearing snippets on the news, it sounded like there was potentially something highly dangerous occurring when it was just a case of the computers being on shutdown. François has a training at the EP today and tomorrow and caught up with Henri and me looking like a schoolboy who’s been told his teacher is ill! We were pretty much skyving for the day anyway, enjoying the sun and scouring camera shops, so the more the merrier. Shot this on the terrace of the Le Fontainas, one of my favorite café/bars in the centre.
SMART (my contract agency – I love them) have released a pretty handy tool – ‘le repertoire des artistes’ which lists all the various grants, prizes, residencies, competitions … for artists in Belgium. Nothing quite like it has previously been available so well worth grabbing a copy. I went to the release event to pick up some extra tricks and chat to a few people and they even fed us so that was nice. Fellow photographer Chris popped by in the pm so we could exchange tips and look through some stuff. Grabbed a couple of beers at L’Athenée
I once decided that rain + sun was my favorite weather – at the time I was waiting for a friend in front of the Pompidou centre in Paris and it happened to fit the place, the vibe and my mood perfectly. Since then, I’m always vaguely excited when I witness that combo, but it’s never been quite as right – until these last few days in brussels, when we’re being ‘spoilt’. It’s a constant vestimentary dance (sunglasses on, rainjacket off, rainkacket on, sunglasses off) and sitting on a terrace enjoying a beer one minute and rushing inside for comfort the next… I love how it seems to wake the city up – the rain staining everything a darker shade, under blue skies. Other than that, henri, marie L and Luc over for dinner; I made spinach and ricotta lasagna.
Kate over for breakfast and ‘workday’… stuff related to Imagine expo. Lunch at Le Comptoir (I go too often, need to mix it up a bit) and then some editing, lots to do… I also impulse bought a lens (cheap one – the 50mm, 1,8 – quite plastickey, no gimmicks but all my lenses are zooms and I feel like I need some fixed-wide-aperture- fun). First test shot – Kate.
