September in Brussels

...has been better than August, but still not the Indian summer I'd been hoping for. Today especially feels very autumnal - wind, rain and very changeable.

Work is plodding along ok. The nature of most jobs, I suppose, is that things are often quite neutral and there isn't much to report. Teaching was also an exception to that - where days were often so good or so bad, they always made a good story. But today has been a fairly typical, if quieter than usual, example of my daily routine here. I had a late start this morning, getting in just before 9.30, and wrote a story about a pharmaceuticals company so small that none of the sharetraders I called covered it - and half of them hadn't even heard of it! After that, it was relatively quiet until just before lunch, when I went to the Commission press conference. That was relatively uneventful too. The competition spokesman seemed in an uncharacteristically cheerful mood following yesterday's European court of first instance ruling for the Commission against Microsoft. I went for a long lunch with Fran at Au Bain Marie - which was really nice. In the afternoon, I chased up a story about an EU merger case and then I spent about two hours on Facebook. Not a taxing day, but also not really one worth writing about.

Last weekend was much more interesting. On Friday after work, I headed down to Place Lux with Antonio and Golda, and we bumped into about 30 college people there. It was really nice to see everyone and catch up, though it did feel a little bit like Celtic Ireland (the Irish pub in Bruges) transplanted to Brussels.

On Saturday morning, Niamh arrived, meaning that all of my flatmates are now here. I went with Antonio, Jakob, Helena and some of Jakob's colleagues to the Palais de Justice. In Brussels it was the "journées de patrimoine" last weekend - which is when lots of buildings which are usually closed to the public open their doors - like the Open House weekend in London. It was an interesting tour, but they only showed us a relatively small part of the fascinating building, which is built on a steep hill. You enter at the top of the hill and there are some higher floors, but you can go down many more floors, to exit the building at the bottom of the hill!

Following a quick lunch in Sainte Cathérine, we made the compulsory trip to Ikea - but it was mostly a preliminary one... the worst is yet to come next month... That evening, I cooked for my housemates and we had a relaxing evening in, before deciding quite late to go out for a last drink. We headed to St-Géry around 11.30 and went to Gecko.

On Sunday, we went en masse (the novelty of the new flatmates hasn't worn off yet) to Stockel, where the Thai embassy had arranged a big festival of Thai food and culture. There were lots of tents around the edge of the main square, each serving a different Thai dish. I had chicken satay which - though unoriginal - is still my favourite. I was more adventurous with the deserts, trying some strange sesame-flavoured green jelly. Later that afternoon, Niamh and I met up with Stephen for coffee in Place Jourdan (so nice to have coffee right by where we live!) and then went to church in the evening.

All in all, it was a very pleasant, if uneventful, weekend. This doesn't make for the most rivetting read, I'm afraid... but life is just plodding along ok at the moment without too much excitement.

Having said that, I did go to Cologne last weekend, and had a really good time there with Kai and Maren :)

Hopefully, I'll be able to write about something with a bit more excitement soon!