'Cause they'd fill up the air and leave teardrops everywhere

I know, I know, I've been a rubbish poster (again) the last week, but I promise things will get better (again) after this week, when things calm down a bit. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of Brussels' christmas market, which is a success as usual!

(hurray for Mongolian vodka!)

Most played (17)

1. Julian Plenti - Only if you run


2. The Boxer Rebellion - Spitting Fire


3. Stereophonics - Innocent


4. Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension


5. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance (usually not much of a fan, but I must admit this is a really interesting single)

Don't answer me, don't break the silence, don't let me win

R.I.P. Eric Woolfson

London part 6

And so we've arrived on my last day in London. I spent the morning on my own (Mathi and Lenny took the coach back to Belgium very early) and made a little trip to Covent Garden (I've passed your greetings, Bart!) as I was dying to see how they would have decorated it for Christmas (I am a sucker for Christmas decorations). There's a lot of picture material so you can judge yourself.

After having a great tagliatelli carbonara, I met up with Rob. We took the tube to South Kensington where he could finally show me the Natural History museum he had been telling me about for a long time. He seemed to be quite into the dinosaurs exhibits and considering my own enthusiasm for the dinosaur museum in Brussels, he said I should definitely see it. The museum was absolutely worth the visit, even if it was just for the amazing building. The architecture was fenomenal, on the inside and outside. But of course I enjoyed the dinosaurs just as much. :) Mine and Rob's favourite was the huge whale, though! We had a drink at the museum, then made a walk through Hyde Park. A part of Hyde Park was now renamed to 'Winter Wonderland', an extremely tacky but - that's the Christmas freak in me again! - also very cosy christmas market/ fair. Unfortunately there wasn't too much time left before I had to leave, so we took the tube to Liverpool Street and had one more drink and a very nice chat in the Ten Bells (Jack The Ripper pub :)). Then I headed back to Brick Lane to pick up my luggage, met up with Eloise at Liverpool Station to hand her the keys and say goodbye, then got to St. Pancras for my Eurostar. The end - but hopefully not for long!

The shop on the left ('Duke of Uke') was the cosiest ukelele shop you can possibly imagine. One night a week, they even give ukelele classes. :)

Covent Garden.

Natural History museum/the whale!

Rob and the wonderful architecture of the museum.

Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.

Goodbye Brick Lane.

London parts 4 and 5

My fourth day in London was a rather quiet one. I had stayed over at Rebecca's (she lives in Hackney and honestly, I've never seen a flat as huge and gorgeous as hers) and returned to Brick Lane in the morning. That's where we (Eloise, Lenny, Mathi and I) spent most of the day, strolling through the countless vintage shops and markets. I bought a pair of lace gloves and some second hand books. Late afternoon, we went to the Old Blue Last again for a drink. Later on, we met up with Rebecca and had dinner in a Mexican restaurant. We made sure to get back home in time for the X Factor show, especially for Rebecca who is quite into Jedward, the exentric twins. :) I can't believe how quickly I became hooked myself. My favourite contestant, however, is this young lad called Joe McElderry. What a voice! We were planning on going out after X Factor, but it was raining so hard that we didn't feel like doing so anymore. Rebecca went off because she was going to a birthday party, the rest of us stayed in. We watched a charity music event and a documentary on Britpop, drank the cava I had brought from Belgium and had a lovely night after all.

The day after, I met up with Jonathan (my host on my previous London trip) at Tate Modern. He's got a membership card so he took me to the paid exhibitions for free. :) I especially enjoyed the Pop Life exhibit on Andy Warhol and other pop art icons. But it was even better to see Jonathan again after such a long time. We had a cup of tea and a piece of pie in the member's cafetaria, then took the tube to Putney, where he lives nowadays. I couldn't stay very long, but it was good to catch up. Back on Brick Lane, I met with Eloise, Lenny, Mathi and Rebecca. We went to a cinema in Whitechapel to watch New Moon, which turned out to be a very crappy movie.

London part 3

On the third day I woke up...oh no, wait, I didn't, thanks to Dean you can reduce that to just stepping out of bed and still be sort of awake. The worst part was he hadn't even noticed Eloise screaming at him and me kicking him all night long. He was very embarrased though, poor guy. :) Eloise went off to work, me and Dean headed to McDonald's for breakfast.

After some good laughs and Dean showing me all the pictures on his phone, we seperated ways and I took the tube all the way to the Wimbledon museum. Cost me 10 quid, but I didn't mind as it was quite a good museum if you like tennis. You get to see a whole lot of old (old, wooden rackets, tennis outfits for women that look like ballroom dresses...) and more recent (Wimbledon cup, Roger Federer's amazing military style outfit...) tennis attributes and the fantastic Centre Court (with the new rain roof). The shop is pretty good too!

On my way back I made a stop at Rough Trade East, which turned out to be HEAVEN. I bought myself a whole lot of stuff, ran into my mate Murray by coincidence, then headed back to Brick Lane. Lenny, Mathi, Eloise and I met up with Eloise's friend Rebecca. After watching some tv, we had a drink at the Old Blue Last before going to this place called Catch. At Catch, we had a great time dancing to eighties tunes you'd rather not know. We also ran into Grant from The Rifles, again by coincidence.

Breakfast with Dean

Wimbledon

Centre Court


Pretending to be Roger Federer

Roger's outfit

Rough Trade East

Party at Catch

Grant and Eloise

Rebecca's impeccable dance moves

London part 2

On my second day in London, Eloise had to work and Lenny was in the studio to master the upcoming second Freaky Age record. I spent the morning in the Tate Modern, where I visited the free exhibitions (I would still get to see the paid ones later on my trip). I was mostly impressed by Miroslaw Balka's installation. When I first saw it - a huge and rather ugly turbine - I felt quite insulted that this guy was thinking I could possibly see this as art, but then I went inside and experienced the actual power of the work. It's hard to explain to someone who wasn't in there himself - it feels like you're being sucked up in the darkness of the turbine. You're kind of scared even though you knów nothing bad will happen, and even though you're scared you can't stop yourself from walking further. Fascinating is the least you can call it.

In the afternoon I took the tube to Oxford Street for some decent shopping, the huge HMV record stores and Topshop being my favourite places to spend a few fun hours! :) I bought some christmas pressies and found myself some good dvd's, cd's, a cute dress and my new favourite shoes.

Back home, I watched some Top Gear until Eloise came back from work. She was planning on staying in that evening as she had to work the day after and was feeling a little ill as well. I was invited by Dean to join him that night. He had put me on the guestlist for The Enemy who were playing the Forum in Kentish Town. First we met up in a bar near the tube station, where I got to meet Deans brother and another friend of his. We had some drinks and chose some good tunes for the jukebox before heading to the Forum. Over there we met Nikki, Nadya and even more of Deans friends (he has over 2000 facebook friends, no need to say he knows about everyone in London).

The Enemy did quite well - I like them but I'm not a superfan, though I did enjoy this gig quite a lot. After the gig we went to the afterparty in The Enemy's dressing room (Dean's a friend of the band), I got to meet the band and had a good time chatting with Nikki and her mates. I was planning on taking the night bus home - didn't want to stay out too late as I had to wake poor Eloise to get in the house. Dean didn't have the money to get home (all the way to Kent) so he joined me on my way to Brick Lane where Eloise told him he could stay over if he wanted. Not the best of ideas: Eloise and I didn't get a second of sleep that night because of Deans eh, impressive snorring. :p

Tate Modern

the turbine

Oxford Street

Top Gear

The Enemy @ The Forum