Almost Hallowe'en

I realize that it's been a month since I posted, so it's too much time for me to write a long linear description of all that's been going on.  Instead I'll just look through the photos and touch on a few of the things of note that have happened.

It's getting close to Hallowe'en now, and the trees are mostly changed.  We get some bright oranges and reds from the Japanese maple trees that you see dotting the gardens around Watermael-Boitsfort but for the most part the autumn colours here never come close to what you see in the hardwood forests of our part of Canada.  Pictured above is the flowering tree from the park down the street that is typical: more yellow than anything.

The school holiday of one week for the boys starts next week, right after Hallowe'en.  This year Maggie's school has their Toussaint holiday a week earlier, so the two of us have been enjoying being around the house together on our own.  It's nice to have lunch together on the back terrace, and so far the weather has been surprisingly nice.  Here's one such lunch, of a salad with fresh figs, prosciutto, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, baked potato bits and chopped red onion that we improvised.

We have some company for our terrance lunches: the spiders are huge, and they have beautiful large webs that are covered with dew in the early mornings.  I seldom see them catching many flies - there are almost never any mosquitos here - but obviously they are doing well, as every year around this time there are many on both sides of the house.  I guess they are thoughtful to help us decorate for Hallowe'en.

Our car is now old enough that it needed to have a contrôle technique.  This is a safety inspection that has to been carried out once a year, and must be done again in more detail in the event that you are selling your car.  It is really a good idea, and tests the brakes, suspension, seatbelts, lights etc. and although it is a bit of a cash grab for the government I think it makes sure that every car is made roadworthy every year.  We went together very early in the morning to line up and got it done without too much trouble, although we were a little worried about the emissions test, given the recent Volkswagen scandal.  But there was no problem and that's taken care of for another year.

Maggie celebrated a birthday this past month and so Malcolm's present included a birthday cake that he shopped for, and baked and iced himself... she also got some chocolate, slippers and some perfume, so she was very happy...

Her requested meal was pizza, so we made a truly heroic number of pizzas of various types.  The boys and Maggie all take lunch to school with them so it's good to have leftovers.

We also spent an afternoon this past month with our friends in Ottignies, visiting with them, with Osa the dog, and checking out the latest member of the Kiana animal hospital... the patient pictured here is an ill or injured pheasant, and after a week or so of nursing, he recovered and went back on his own.  But he seemed quite tame, and could be picked up and carried without any fuss.

We all went to see the Weird Al concert in Brussels this past month also.  It was his first time in Belgium, and we all really enjoyed it a lot.

pre-concert

Canadian Idiot?

polka medley #1

Word Crimes

Jedi, Weird Al, accordions and Marshall Amps... what's not to love?

Weird Al Yankovic is someone I have been listening to since I was Duncan's age, and everyone in our family enjoys his music.  Rather surprisingly his most recent self-produced album "Mandatory Fun" was a smash hit and won a Grammy award for best Comedy Album last year.  It also went to number one on the Billboard Pop Charts, something unheard of for a comedy album.  His parodies are funny, bizarre, but often quite intelligently written, and his live show, performed with his backing band of many years was excellent.

On the topic of music, Malcolm is continuing to play the flute, play in the flute ensemble and orchestra, and sing in the choir.  He's also starting to learn some guitar chords, and has been expanding his vinyl record collection.  I found a gorgeous second-hand Harman Kardon amplifier to replace our old one that was starting to hum, and he purchased a turntable so that he could stop borrowing the landlord's, and with his babysitting earnings he has been expanding the collection quite a bit.

I have some records here in Europe but the bulk of them pictured above are his.  He has recently acquired three Led Zeppelin Albums, for example, and two of them are coloured vinyl (green and orange), which I have never seen before.  They play just the same as the black vinyl ones do, but look much cooler... He has two regular babysitting customers and it looks like he has picked up a third, so he's raking in the dough, and feeding his vinyl habit enthusiastically.

Speaking of habits, I have been feeding mine... for coffee.  Apart from the stereo amplifier I have made a couple of additional thrift store finds, and one of these is this coffee grinder, which I found in the Troc consignment store, for 79 EUR.  If you read the espresso fanatic forums, you will soon learn that most connoisseurs spend more for the grinder than they do for the machine.  The beans need to be of uniform consistency, ground just before brewing, and ideally they should not be heated too much while grinding, so as to not destroy a lot of the aromatic molecules that make espresso taste and smell so amazing.  I saw that this orange grinder did not have a recognizable make or model number, but I had a hunch that it might be a Rancilio or similar make based on the build quality.  Because of the obscurity of the make and model, it had already been there unsold for three weeks, and knew that they would reduce the price if I waited and was lucky, and that is what happened.  I bought it for 65 EUR, and have since discovered that this type of grinder is actually a Mazzer, probably a Super Jolly, and they retail new for between 800-1000 CAD.  Used they can be found for around half that, so I definitely lucked out!  It needed a little cleaning but we are now pulling espresso shots with a ton of crema and an excellent taste as fast as you can say barista.

Here is a photo of the two boys at church this past month.  Duncan is doing pretty well at his new school... he's starting to develop better study habits, and settling in with his classmates.  He does karate twice a week this year, and since he graduated from the ballet class isn't dancing regularly at the moment, but auditioned for the musical Peter Pan that will be run by an anglophone theatre company in March of this year, and has been cast as Peter's Shadow (a plum role) and as an "Indian" and his rehearsals have already begun.  There's a commercial tap and ballet school relatively close to us that offers classes priced per-session, so maybe we'll go try that out soon.

We had a visit this week from another international actor friend, Greg Ellwand, who lives with his actor wife Toni on Endean Avenue in Toronto.  Their three daughters were well known to us, and the two older ones babysat both of our kids, when we were living in Toronto.  Greg is playing a role in a famous Canadian play called Helen Lawrence, by the Canadian artist Stan Douglas.  So far this play has run in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Munich, Paris, London, and now it will play three times in Belgium at de Singel in Antwerp.

Greg and the cast made a side trip down to Brussels this week, and so we met him afterwards for a little sight-seeing, and had him over for dinner and a visit with the boys.  Greg is also a singer and musician and likes to draw and paint, so I was happy that he spent so much time discussing art with them...

After dinner I had already made plans to meet with my friend and neighbour Matthias, who is a senior policy analyst with the World Health Organization...  We had already planned to go for a beer at this amazing bar called La Porte Noire, named for one of the ancient gates of the medieval city wall of Brussels, that our friend Lawrence had introduced Bryan, Bruce and myself to this past summer.

The bar itself traces its history back to the 16th century, with its subterranean vaulted ceilings, a water well and vintage icebox; it once served as a kitchen for the nuns of the Alexien Convent, located nearby.  But the important part is that it has a ton of beers on tap that you can often find elsewhere only in the bottle, and a large inventory of many other little-known beers.  The ambiance is really great and the staff is knowledgeable and helpful.

Afterwards we headed to L'Express, which is probably one of the best durum pita places I've ever eaten at, and then we walked Greg to his train and then made our way back on the subway to Delta and then walked home.  We'll see Greg again on this friday evening; he has arranged tickets for our family to go see the show.

I almost never go out in the evening for that sort of thing, but I was in a mood to celebrate.  I received a lovely note this week from Julius Stenzel, the cellist and the artistic director of the Minimes Choir and Orchestra, with whom I sang BWV 96 this weekend, conducted by Jacques Vanherenthals.  (Both Julius at the cello and Jacques seated with a score are pictured above along with mezzo Aveline Monnoyer in rehearsal).  Here's what Julius wrote:

Hi Matthew,
Just checking in with a little positive feedback after Sunday—I didn't see you after as we had to race off... as always I very much liked your performance...
At last night's committee meeting, where the previous performance gets dissected, Jacques expressed his very positive impressions with your sound!  And I had not noticed it, but Jacques had a friend in the audience who also expressed admiration; this friend just happens to be José Van Dam, with whom we've worked with the Ensemble Orchestral on many occasions.  (I'll never forget playing the big solo from Don Carlo with him in the packed Beaux-Arts—that was as intense as it gets for an orchestra soloist.)  Van Dam is not a big baroque specialist, but he's quite a reference.  So I just wanted you to know you had some impact!
You'll be hearing from me at some point, when I've attacked the soloist department for the 2016 part of this season.  In the meantime, bravo and thanks again!
Ciao,
Julius

I'm just glad that a) the conductor was happy and b) the director was happy and c) I didn't know ahead of time that one of the finest baritone voices of all time was in the audience...

To finish up, there are a number of things to get done around the house.  I realize now that I only have a little more than three weeks left before I fly to Canada, and I still have a lot of prepare for the Berlioz l'enfance du Christ for its Toronto performances.  I have been working with Marie-Claude Roy, a Quebecoise pianist who lives here in Brussels, so I have the recordings of our rehearsals to listen to now, as well as some commercial recordings, including one conducted by John Elliot Gardiner, with José Van Dam singing my part, interestingly enough!  And then there are a number of pieces that I want to work on for the opera recital with Bruce, and also audition pieces to continue refining, and of course it wouldn't hurt to sing through the Messiah a few times just to stay in shape for the performances to come, and see if I have some new ideas about how to approach it... I have sung it more often than any other work but I may have missed something important...

Maggie is in her classroom right now but I should expect her home soon... she is taking advantage of the quiet and the extra space there while the school is empty to continue work on the quilted hanging that she is making for the 90th anniversary of the dedication of St. Andrew's Church of Scotland, which will go beind the communion table.  Anniversary Sunday is coming soon, but she might have it completed early, in time for Remembrance Sunday on November 8th.

This hanging isn't completed yet but it's getting quite close.  It's a bit of a family project: I drew the first concept sketch, and Malcolm enlarged the drawing and developed it with his own drawing skills.  Maggie has received a number of donations of fabric and has been experimenting a bit with the design; the colours are her decisions, and she's done some study sections that she has discarded, but I really like what she's created.  I think its coming along nicely, and I'll be sure to share the finished product here, when it's sewn and hanging in place...