Bruges visit, new car, prehistory

 

Maggie is at work, and the boys are at school, and so for the first time in many days, I am a) alone in the house and b) without pressing business outside of it.  I have made myself a big list of things to do, but thought I would also write a bit about the end of our Carnaval holiday week.

Brussels is lucky to have a great many museums, but one that I had not previously visited is the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.  It's a fifteen minute bus trip from our house and then a five minute walk, but unlike Maggie and the boys I had never had the opportunity to go there.  It houses the largest collection of Iguanodon fossils in the world, found in the late 19th century in a coal mine near Bernissart.  

If you've read anything about the history of paleontology you may remember that Iguanodon was a very famous dinosaur (the second one named and one of the three original genera that defined Dinosauria) and was at the centre of a very publicized and acrimonious debate between Gideon Mantel and Sir Richard Owen.  It's also the dinosaur with the thumb spike that was initially thought to be a horn... that makes it a perfect illustration of how the scientific method works to gradually form our models of the world, and is open to re-writing them based on new evidence.  It's a fabulous dinosaur gallery, in my opinion just as nicely arranged as in London's Natural History Museum.  As well as the dinosaur gallery there are numerous other galleries, and the museum is of a size that is manageable, so one doesn't get tired of walking, and unlike some museums (the confusing and impractical Libeskind designs of the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto come to mind) it's well organized so that one never feels lost.

There is a large space on the main floor for travelling expositions, and that is what chiefly convinced us to visit when we did.  The museum of Prehistory in Flémalle near Liège is undergoing renovations and so the exhibits, the animateurs and their activity sessions are visiting Brussels until the end of May.

 

If you spent any time with us in our former Brussels house in 2007/2008, you'll know that Malcolm was absolutely crazy for flint-knapping, the manufacture of bows and arrows, and things of that nature, spending many hours outside in the garden whittling things and enjoying his tree house, so it was natural that he would be interested.

 

Duncan found it very interesting as well, and all four of us attended participatory demonstrations on how to use spear throwers, rope-making and hide preparation, and even fire-making with flint and iron pyrite.  Very cool!  I had no idea that ground-up shelf mushroom worked so well as a tinder, and the while we had partial success with our sparks the animatrice was obviously an expert.  Perhaps we will send one or both boys on a stage in the Ardennes préhistorique this summertime so that they can practice?

 

After the museum visit we went to meet our friend Olga and her friend Andrea, who had spent most of their holidays in Spain, but had included a two-night stopover in Brussels on their way back to Toronto.  Most of the photographs of our time together are still in our visitors' cameras, but we did manage to snap a few ourselves, including this one taken at the famous café La Mort Subite, behind the opera.  The cherry beer was a big hit!

The next day we got up early and headed for Bruges by train, taking a lovely canal tour by boat, eating cornets of frites, climbing the Belfry tower (the boys counted the steps on the way up and the way down just to verify that 366 is an accurate number) and sitting in the square across from the Belfroi (inside by the fire of course) and drinking a Kwak beer in its special glass, before walking back and catching the train home.

That evening we all warmed up by drinking champagne and eating raclette with pickles, before walking Olga and Andrea to the Metro, and wishing them a safe journey home to Toronto.  We all love having visitors from Canada, and make sure to devote our time and experience to showing them around.  Thanks to Olga and Andrea for visiting; we hope you had fun!

Yesterday was the culmination of a long and surprisingly arduous process of getting our new car.  I've written before about how it seems that nothing can ever get done in Belgium with one visit, but that was true in this case.  We decided to trade in our car on a newer one, and so spent the better part of a day last week in the bank, then at the dealership, then at the bank again.  Then we waited two days for our new license plate to arrive, as all new plates must adhere to the new european standard of seven digits (single number-three letters-three numbers), and the person at the bank assured us that the plate was ordered.  On Friday the car was to be ready to be picked up, but there was a problem with the computer interface between the bank and the licensing bureau, so the demand for the plate had not in fact happened yet.  This meant that we had to go back to the bank, and get a pink paper with three different rubber stamps on it from different people, then take it to the license office downtown in person.  After a two hour wait we were informed that the license plate would arrive - not then and there, as happened last time we ordered a plate, but after two days' wait, on Monday!  Monday morning it arrived by post, but the postman needed 30 euros, so I had to run to the bank... and wait for him to finish a delivery and return.

Finally all was ready, and I went to the dealership, handed in our old Polo, and eased into the cockpit (I know it's just a seat but "cockpit" sounds cooler) of our new Golf Cabriolet turbo diesel, and drove out to Waterloo to pick up Maggie.  Cue the Ferris Bueller soundtrack!

They say that hunger is the best sauce, and the anticipation, plus a sunny 8 degree day made it a natural that we would put the top down.  With the heater on and Booker T and the MGs on the stereo, we were quite comfortable in "Schnelli" for our ride back into Brussels, and are looking forward to many more road trips in the near future.  When you're in a country where it rains much of the time it's important to profiter du soleil when you may...

Congé de Carnaval

These past couple have weeks have marked a welcome resumption of my rehearsal activities after some down time in January... I began coaching the St. Matthew Passion with Peter Tomek earlier this month, but Peter left Brussels late last week and will be away until the end of the month.  Over the last ten days or so I have been lucky to have four afternoon sessions with Bart Van Reyn in Antwerp, and we worked our way through the Bach, which is tremendously exciting music to sing; he will conduct me in my first performance of the work on March 22nd.  For those interested the ensemble did some professional video recordings of the Passion two years ago, and a number of the same soloists will return this coming year.  You can see those recordings here.

Yesterday we also took a look at the Don Giovanni score together, singing through the Commendatore part, and some of Masetto, and we think it's going to work out fine for our five performances in October, including one at the BOZAR.  Yesterday was nice also, in that Maggie and the boys - off school for a week's holidays - shared the 35 minute drive to Antwerp yesterday.  While I was in rehearsal they went our for pizza and then to the Plantin - Moretus printing museum and manuscript archive, a UNESCO world heritage site.  I was sorry to have missed it!  It has the two oldest printing presses in the world, a gutenberg bible, the studio where Rubens worked, and other interesting displays.  The printing company was founded around 1550 by Christophe Plantin, and after his death it was owned by his son-in-law Jan Moretus.  I hope to take a couple of free hours next time I am in Antwerp to go have a look through the museum myself.

In other musical activities I was happy to receive the Duruflé Requiem score, and am looking forward to the Brussels Choral Society performance in June with conductor Eric Delson.  The Duruflé is scored much like the more familiar Fauré Requiem, and the tessitura of the baritone solo is right in the sweet spot, so that should be a lot of fun.  It's a nice modestly-sized part to make my debut with the Choral Society here, so that's also fortunate for me.

What else?  We decided on replacing our car, and will pick up the new one tomorrow (you'll have to wait for details and pictures).  This meant that we have spent pretty much an entire day this week in the bank and the car dealership, calculating the financing.  Even more time consuming has been the decisions about insurance: the packages in Belgium are a little mystifying at first, with interesting names... the basic third party liability insurance is mandatory, and that is all we had for our first car, as it was several years old and cheap to replace.  This car is newer and more expensive so we wanted to add accident, theft, fire, glass coverage etc.  The names are also interesting: "Mini-Omnium" covers everything but accidents that are you fault, "Omnium" covers everything, and Maggie and I found ourselves speculating that a third category should exist, called "Om-nom-nom" that covers theft by the Cookie Monster.... They should have opted into this insurance package in Hannover...

St. Valentine's Day is not at all a big thing here in Belgium, probably because it very frequently falls during the Congé de Carnaval.  A very few shops - the perfume, clothing and chocolate shops do decorated windows but it is a much smaller deal.  However we will have something nice tonight no doubt.  The schoolchildren don't give each other Valentines here, but the boys received cards in the mail from my parents, so that's nice for them.  Perhaps some chocolates will appear, who knows?  Honestly the Belgians give each other chocolates and flowers all year 'round anyway.

Saturday we will welcome our friend Olga from Toronto to Brussels, as she and her friend will be stopping over for two nights.  We plan to visit Bruges at the very least, possibly an Yves Saint Laurent retrospective, and maybe some other museums or exhibitions.  Who knows, we might simply do a chocolatier "crawl" and let them decide for themselves which chocolate they like best...

Happy Valentine's Day!

January holiday; tartan and toasts

We have had snow on the ground for at least a week, and most people are unequipped to deal with it.  I had to go out and purchase a snow shovel and some sand, to keep the sidewalk clear in front of our house.  While it is a legal requirement to keep the walkways/pavements clear, almost no one has complied, and I would imagine for the elderly it is quite hazardous to try to navigate the snowy and icy sidewalks.  Other than a little snow removal January has been pretty relaxed for me since I last posted; I have had no matters of any great urgency to attend to, and so have been rather indulgent with reading lots of novels, watching police tv shows and staying up later than usual... but now that the first rehearsals with others are approaching I am returning to a more normal rhythm, but am glad for having had the time to rest.

Upon our return to Brussels on Sunday the 6th of January, we got back into the normal routines fairly quickly, but made sure to have our own little Epiphany celebration with the galette des rois.  This year Maggie got the fève for the first time, so she at least was happy, Duncan a little less so... La reine boit!

That first week was unexceptional for us, but then Maggie left for a week of skiing in Saas-Grund, Switzerland with her class.  What is good for the goose is good for the gander; as has been far more usual for me to be working abroad, and for her to be the solo parent, but we managed without too much trouble.  The menu for the week leaned toward things that Maggie doesn't particularly enjoy, but that the three of us gentlemen like, such as oxtail curry, moules marinière, fish, liver with bacon and onions, that sort of thing.  While the week had its charm, it was wonderful to see her back home again...  but it was a short stay, as she leaves again this afternoon for five days in Rome and Pompeii as part of her ongoing teacher training.  I think the average temperature forecast for Rome this coming week is temperatures in the low teens, so I hope she enjoys the break from the winter weather here.  Our temperatures have been nothing like those in central Canada, but the damp makes me feel more chilled somehow than I feel in Canada's clearer, drier air.
 
Last weekend was the Burns Supper at St. Andrew's Church of Scotland, ahead of Burns' actual birthday this coming Friday.  As I mentioned in an earlier post I had ordered a Macpherson ancient colours tartan from the kiltmakers at Kinloch Anderson in Leith, Edinburgh, and was happy to inaugurate it while giving my first speech at a Burns Supper, and indeed - apart from a quick toast at a friend's wedding - my first formal speech since I was a teen-ager. 

 

It was really quite a pleasure to research and discover the many connections between Canada and Scotland since the first visit to Canadian shores by European explorers, and my audience was most appreciative and generous with their applause.  For those who are interested I am sending along a link to the text of my speech, plus a link to the audio recording of its delivery.  (* please note: I apologize for the poor quality; it was captured on my phone and so isn't the best audio, but it gives you some idea of the atmosphere that evening).  I hope that you each get a chance to have some haggis; the boys and I will have ours on Friday night, courtesy of the Stone Manor British store here.  When we lived in Kingston we frequently enjoyed our haggis at the Kingston Brewing Company on Clarence Street; I'm not sure if they continue this tradition today but I can't imagine why not.  If you have the chance get out there and try some, it's delicious, and comes in both meat and vegetarian varieties.

Today I am working on some Bach recitatives that I will perform this weekend, at the Chapelle des Minimes here in Brussels.  To paraphrase AC/DC, I'm looking forward to getting "back in Bach" mode, prior to the St. Matthew Passion which I begin coaching with Peter Tomek and Bart Van Reyn next month...

Happy Robbie Burns Day!