We are the last beatniks, the lost heretics

I'd been promising Filip for a while that I would come over to Leuven for a fair bit of party pleasure at some point, and well yeah, so I did last week.

We started out by drinking some beers and watching the Olympiakos - Standard game in Filip's regular student pub, which was fun, even though the game's result wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. Then it was time to practice some sports ourselves. With 'ourselves' I mean Filip and his mates, who had to defend their faculty in a 24h run between the different uni faculties. I was allowed to run myself as well, but since my shoes weren't really appropriate for such an activity, I decided to put all of my energy in cheering (and catching up with Sam, the other Filip and Jeroen from high school). Something I clearly still need to work on, because Filip's faculty did not win. ;)

We ended the night in the Seven Oaks, a pub that goes beyond your imagination (a while ago, I used a less flattering description, but Filip & co couldn't really appreciate that), and danced the night away. :)

Not a cult.

The Chapman Family are in my opinion not only THE band to keep an eye out for, they also have the best merchandising I've seen in a while. I so want a 'not a cult' bag or t-shirt.

High class girls hung in elevators

Hurray, I've got my ticket for Paul McCartney in Cologne!! I'm so excited - I've been walking around like I'm on speed the entire day (the people who know me in real life will definitely get the correct mental picture whilst reading this), and the fact that there's a Hindu Nights in Ghent this evening doesn't make it any better. As usual, I'm going to take plenty of pictures so I can share them with you, but in the meantime you can watch the pics from Heebiejeebies, two weeks ago at the Make Up Club.

MACCA!

Paul McCartney's touring through Europe in December! Yeey! But, typically, he's not coming to Belgium this time. :( Since I'm dying to see him play, I'm considering going to one of the gigs in other countries, with Cologne and Paris on top of my list. No idea how much the tickets are (only found prices for London and Dublin) and how or when I'm supposed to order them, though. To be continued!

In the meantime, this is Macca making mashed potatoes:

This home is more than bricks and mortar

This year's buys at the Brussels book fair (all together for less than 19 euros!):

- Michael Palin's travel book on his adventures in the Sahara

- The Beatles Anthology

- The Beatles biography by Bob Spitz

For I haven't got the room in my head for these things

So what's going on lately?

- I've found a job I can practice whilst still being a student. It's a copywriting job which involves me writing commercial texts on the most divergent topics. I'm so glad I decided not to do an internship so I can do this job.

- In one of my other lives - the one as a student - I've started working on my master paper. It's about the way Russia is represented in Flemish newspapers during the eight years under Putin. I've always wanted to do research concerning Russia and/or Putin, and I might even prefer this topic over the one I picked for my bachelor paper (on the tactics and strategies McCain and Obama used in their three presidential debates).

- I've booked my Eurostar tickets to London!! I'm going there for six days mid-November. I'm staying over at a friend's place and there's heaps of things I want to do!

- I'm in one of my Editors phases. They occur about each time Editors release a new single/release a new album/play a gig I'm going to/or just for no special reason, except for the fact that I am completely in love with their music. Their new album 'In This Light And On This Evening' is simply brilliant - it's the record of the year and you should feel obliged to listen to it!!

- Remember my Finnish friend Ann-Sofi? Sadly she left Belgium a couple of months ago after working here as an au-pair for almost a year. But last week she was back in our country for a couple days and of course we had to meet up. We had some great chats and of course our dearly beloved Australian Ice Cream. :)

- It seriously freaks me out how many relatively young people are dying lately. Stephen Gately (my childhood idol), Frank Vandenbroucke, Felice, Michael Jackson, Yasmine... When does it end?

- It's suddenly getting a lot colder over here in Belgium. Days are getting shorter and the evenings and nights are really chilly. I'll probably get tired of it soon, but for now I'm quite enjoying this change in climate. I love buying new winter's clothes and I'm infected by the christmas fever already! The perfect soundtrack for this new atmosphere? The Leisure Society!

Most played (15)

1. Snow Patrol - Just Say Yes


2. Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man


3. The Raveonettes - Last Dance


4. Air - Sing Sang Sung


5. Noisettes - Never Forget You

I won't be ok and I won't pretend I am

Before the Make Up Club party I told you about in my previous post, I had a very nice day in Ghent.

Since a couple of weeks, I'm completely addicted to this website called Travbuddy. It's a website which allows travel-loving people to exchange travel tips, write travel blogs, meet people to travel with or to meet up with during their travels. I'd been exchanging messages with a British guy called Daniel. He was about to visit Belgium for one week, so we decided to meet up.

I showed him around Ghent, although it didn't take that long before we ended up in a cosy local pub and had some Tongerlo's (I'm wondering why I never had Tongerlo beer before, it's amazing!) and a nice chat about music, travelling and the western view on Russia (yes, I actually àm capable of having serious conversation!). Later on, we met up with Olga, Daniel's girlfriend who usually lives in Latvia but who is currently doing an internship in Bruges for a couple of months. We did another little tourist tour and then headed back to the pub where we had some more great talks about travelling, languages and the reasons why Daniel should buy Olga flowers. I had a great time, Daniel and Olga both turned out to be absolutely amazing people.

It kicks like a sleep twitch!

Working at the airport for a month somewhat murdered my social life, but now I'm back. To celebrate this, I went out in Ghent and had another great night at the Make Up Club. Can't believe I hadn't been there since August, must be a record!

In the following pictures: dancing crowd, Sis and Christophe, Sam, Elien.

I don't see myself when I look into your eyes - thank god for that

The gig season is back on. It took me a while to get out of the festival atmosphere, but now indoor gigs feel right again. I went to see Explosions In The Sky earlier this month, but last week felt like the real start of the new gig season. First up were Reverend And The Makers (Botanique) and Starsailor (AB), and neither of them dissapointed.

Reverend And The Makers were catchy, energetic and bold in a way a rock band should be. Singer Jon McClure seemed to quite impressed by the Belgian audience (something that doesn't happen too often) and took us outside ("You, me, outside!") to play some more acoustic tunes (including The Beatles' 'Revolution') in the beautiful Botanique gardens. Was an awesome night, good music and a lot of friends around.

Starsailor was pretty amazing as well. They sound a lot live like they do on their albums, which is usually a thing I don't like that much, because you go to gigs to get something slightly different from what you already have on a compact disc. I didn't mind it with Starsailor though, because James Walsh seemed so passionated whilst singing. It's hard to believe that a band with so much love for what they do is going to split (at least for a while).