Without a title

"Nowhere in the world is an Australian as lonesome as when he's living in England. I sometimes miss Australia so bad, I can taste it. I yearn for it. But whenever I return, I want to get out of there after 2 months". Nick Cave, Spraakmakers, Canvas (Belgian television)

You came on your own, and that's how you leave, with hope in your hands and air to breathe

Well it's time for my yearly blog entry. As many of you already know: I passed my exams for the first time without failing any. Thus keeping my hopes up for a study-free holiday. Now, I just have to prove it wasn't a coincidence. I also experienced the best motivation by visiting my old job place right before the exams. That has given me strength in believing this is indeed the best choice I made. Nothing more fulfilling than seeing people being stuck on their desks for 8 hours a day under the tyranny of a boss "who means the best for his employees" and who does everything "from the goodness of his heart". Strange how these two things always seem to correlate with monetary benefits in his favor. For those of you who recognize themselves, I will be joining you anyway soon. Just let me enjoy my 4 hours a day of courses (tiring), discussing psych-subjects in the uni-bar ( women and sex) and believing I know how the world works (that's what you do as an 20-year old). To prove I am so busy: on an average I am reading 1 novel every two weeks.

I know life isn't always easy and we had to sacrifice a lot for my studies but despite my own efforts there is someone who even deserves more credit when I graduate and that's Ingrid. She is not only my motivation to strive for perfection but she has endured everything and is giving up a lot herself when it is not even requested. She has offered me a chance to fulfill a dream and is still the only reason why I am able to do what I am doing. There is not a day I don't realize how everything is because of her. I know I will never be able to thank her for this chance but I will try for the rest of my life. She knows how I feel but sometimes you just need to write it down. ( I could say this was written under duress to make it funny and be myself but for once I am going to let it go).

There is an answer to the darkest times. It's clear we don't understand it, but the last thing on my mind is to leave you

Well here's my half-annual contribution again. Ingrid normally keeps you up to date as good as she can so I don't need to make any more comments. For those of you who know her: frankly, I am not allowed to mess up her blog!

I've finally finished my first year of uni in Belgium. It has been a wonderful year and one of the best choices of my life to commence something I really believe in. I made it through with only 2 fails, which for Belgian standards is not too bad, especially because I didn't consider myself smart enough to pass even one in the beginning of the year.

Quick note: In Belgium the schooling system works a bit differently from the Australian one. We have 2 semesters which contain 12 courses (7 the first, 5 the second semester). You have a 3 week period of exams. If you do not pass an exam, you get a retry in August. That's when you need to pass, otherwise you can't go up a year. I can give an explanation of median and average and standard deviation to show you all what I learned and to prove that I am not doing badly, but I'll keep it to the simple explanation that the average is 3 to 4 fails on the first go (for psychology anyway). Since I did not receive my complete score yet, I am still better than average.

The problem with psychology is that it is one of the most popular courses at the moment. We started with 240 students. By the time the first exam period had approached, there were about 180 left and for the second exam period we had numbers of around 100. Of the remaining 100 students probably another 60-70 will remain in the second year. This is all due to the simplicity they give to psychology on television these days. For once and for all - people, psych is NOT telling people what clothes to wear to feel good or how to stop eating because you're fat! One of my favourite therapies is electric shock therapy; it looks like fun and you can inflict pain on somebody without being blamed.

Anyway, I'm pretty confident for the summer because I know which errors I made. With this blog I'd also like to give full credit to Ingi for allowing me to go and also to withstand my moods during the exam periods, she's been bliss! Kym and Ben, I'd also like to thank for their patience when they came over during the first exam period and noticed my tension. At least with all the techniques we learned it was better the second semester.

Most important thing we learned over the course of the year: "NEVER EVER have friends or family as patients and if you do: charge double"

Now everything is finished and I am having a week off before we fly to Australia. It feels like a camp I've been on and now I've returned home. You always come home from camp or holidays and you feel bored, restless, missing the buzz,... There's no more studying and I still have to get used to it.

But I am sure that it's not going to take long since I am now rejoining my friends to say goodbyes before we leave (read: drink alcohol and talk about soccer).

I would promise to write sooner now, but I won't since Ingrid will take over.

Funny quote: "80% of statistics is invented on the spot"

Think about it next time somebody tells you that 70% of all people do this or eat that...

Whoever knows the author, I'll buy you a beer

Always look on the bright side of life

This song was really appropriate for yesterday evening. For the first time we actually went on an away game from my favourite club, Germinal Beerschot. Even Ingrid came! We drove to the far Genk (in Belgian terms). It is actually just more than an hours drive. But it was a mixed game. We were locked up in a bird cage far away in the corner of the stadium. It is sad but immediately there's the feeling of being a group. The pride for your club takes over and you stand there not willing to back down and show these people something. There's an unwritten binding and you have the feeling that this is what soccer is all about. You make yourself out to be more because you are no longer just a supporter. You've progressed to the heavy club of people who stand behind their club in good or bad. You would travel to the end of the world to take part with this small group of nutters who spend all their money on their club. You are what makes the team. On away games you sing louder because your group is more compact but you all stick up for each other. You are not wanted and just that fact makes you want to be their more.

Well that wonderful, exciting, glorious feeling lasted just minutes and then the game was over. We lost with a convincing 4-0 and were slaughtered the first half. (The real supporter uses "we" even in times of great defeat, not just when victorious times approach our history). At the end of the first half the atmosphere became a bit grimy and potentially dangerous. Half time came just in time for a beer and a toilet visit.

You might want to notice that toilet visits are crucial for a football fan. If you do not go to the toilet you will not be updated. Go to any other toilet in the world (as a man) and your only concern is to avoid eye contact and avoid conversation. You just want to step in, flop it out and stare at a blank wall, in the meanwhile keeping up appearances that they should not try to mess with you because you're tough. Not so at the soccer. In the toilet that's where the action is! The full line-up is being analyzed. The coach is being critized, players are being giving ratings. The angry hooligan that has been mocking his team the whole game all of a sudden comes up with the cleanest and most clever analysis of the game. People throw all their anger out in this little room. It is unwritten that you leave insults at the door and listen to other people's opinions because we all have an opinion and we are all equally important. After this refreshing (both mind and body) moment you do NOT wash your hands!!! This classifies you as somebody who feels better than the common football fan (this is the only rule I do not obey, sorry to the real fans). And to top it of, you step out of the room in your most manly position and yell the first Neanderthal thought you can come up with to get the blood running again. Common you wankers!!!! And we're off again.

Lucky for us the second half the mood changed and we started laughing with our own club, yelling slogans like "it is just a practice game", "we're going for champions league" and my favorite " we're playing them nuts". Of course we couldn't escape the monty python brigade and their all-time classic. We left the stadium in good spirits.

It's been a while since I've written. But I am well thanks for asking. I made the best decision of my life going back to uni doing psych. I also do my best not to bother anybody with it because people tend to feel intimidated and investigated by me when I talk about psych. For everybody: I've had psych for 2 months, at this point I couldn't even analyze a turtle if I wanted to. But meeting new people everyday. And yes there are some cute girls but they are all 18 years old and when I look at them, I see somebody even younger than my sister so thinking of them as anything else but classmates seems like something you can be thrown in jail for. My only concern at this moment is getting through my January exams. Ingrid and I had to find our new way of living together a bit but I think we finally found the right balance between doing things together and working for school. Even if this wouldn't work out, I already learned heaps and will never look back on this as a bad decision.

We finally have got easy weekends coming without obligations: winter is on its way so life in Belgium stops. Already wearing gloves, scarf and hat at nights. But we finally can relax a bit and do stuff with the two of us.

Let's conspire to ignite all the souls that would die just to feel alive

Finally another entry from me and not from ingrid. After another horrible workweek of playing games on the internet, counting down the days till I leave and making up jokes to harass the people that are actually working, I was pretty worn out. So on Friday we had dinner with a colleague who leaves for holiday and I am not going to see him anymore. So I can not leave without telling all the company secrets and gossip for him to use or to abuse. On Saturday we prepared everything for our party. Tim and Tash came especially from Liverpool just to help trash our apartment. Tommeke organised a whole tap and two kegs of beer. Luckily Ingrid's plan of getting our new couches failed so people couldn't spill all over them.

The night itself went as expected. Ingrid's work colleagues came and behaved, Tash spilled and blessed the new place, my mates showed up fashionably late and left un-fashionably drunk. After cleaning up and watching soccer till 4 in the morning we got to bed. Being the happy little campers that we were on Sunday morning we managed to go to Antwerp for about an hour and the rest of the day we spent playing boardgames with Tim and Tash while we got rid of excessive wine bottle. So I think we all ended up a little tipsy when we got to bed.

So now we have got the prospect of going home to an apartment we have got to clean while we both are buggered and just want to relax. We were going to have a quiet weekend this weekend but that fails again because of my going-away party at work. But I think we are going to spent the rest of the weekend doing nothing except for getting the new salon. And we can now call all of you people in Australia through skype because we ended our Flintstones era and joined in on the international communication highway. Details of skype you have to ask Ingrid.

Always take the weather with you

Well back at work for one more day after another Catholic holiday. One thing religion is good for: holidays. Maybe I can use my religion to take these days off in Australia as well. Make the most of it since I was baptised once.

Nothing much happened this week. I am really disappointed that after 4 months of practice I injured myself one week before the race (20km of Brussels) but hey there are worse things in the world: Summer is coming up and it hasn’t stopped raining for 2 weeks now (going on to the 3rd)

We saw “Volver” yesterday. It is made by Pedro Almodovar. The movie is awesome . Almodovar is on of my favourite directors. For you who don’t know him, just go and see “la mala educacion”. Gorgeous movie. Not only did I love the movie but it also strengthened the feeling of going to live in Italy or Spain for one year just before we come back home to Australia. I just love the history and feeling when in Italy or Spain. The way of live, the passion. And I would also love to learn Spanish (although not much use in Italy). And another really important reason: football!

But first we need to get rid of our apartment. We are having trouble getting rid of it. In Belgium it works like this. We give notice (usually 3 to 6 months, with us 3). And then you just do your notice. If you want to get out before hand, which is our case, you need to find another tenant. There is the problem. All Belgians can afford something a bit better. Exactly the reason why we are moving. And we got heaps of foreigners calling but our landlord doesn’t want any foreigners in his apartment. I can understand him in the way that he already had some foreigners and they just left without saying or paying. But the problem is that we always have to lie for him. And we also have to find somebody else. So we are getting a bit tense. We don’t want to leave but if it comes down to paying when we already left or finding a foreigner I go for choice number 1. Because in that case we did find somebody and he can’t charge us any fines. Our obligation is to find another tenant but we don’t know if we have to pay fines if the landlord keeps rejecting them. I would rather pay the last 2 months without living there instead of moving. Or we can always try to find somebody of the friends who just lives there for 2 months. I rather pay than not move, it’s only money anyway. I rather be happy in the new place.

So except for the fact that we need to get rid of the apartment, which will surely happen, we are just tense; we are pretty happy. All we have is luxury-problems. We still adore one another. And yes Andrew and Lyn, she’s still as clumsy as ever. Ingi’s head is like the moon: full of bumps.

Well now it's Ingrid turn to talk about the weekend.

I run as fast as I can, but still I end up not moving

Just a quick one. I was absolutely thrilled with my result. Hoping for 1 hour 40 min and I did 1 hour 25 min. So next year am aiming for 1 hour 20 min. No pictures however because Ingrid could keep up. Although she's going to say otherwise. Next challenge is the 20 km of Brussels which last year I did in 1 hour 51 min without any training whatsoever. So am aiming for 1 hour and 40 min. The fact that I have already got 6 hours of running in my legs from the last weeks would help me reach my goal.

And of course there is also soccer tonight. Barcelona is playing for a spot in the final against Milan. 1-0 ahead and playing at home so it should be possible although you never know with Milan. The fact that Barcelona haven't lost a single game in this year's champions league campaign just relaxes me a little bit. So it is going to be tense at Tom and Ingi's tonight! And you know, if barcelona isn't through I am not going to be a happy camper.

dEUS came, won and conquered Belgium. We knew the concert was going to be good because the were playing on home-turf. But it was the best concert we have ever seen, music-wise that is.

Driving there we got lost again in Brussels, for the second time in two days. So we have got a perfect record so far. So it took us a lot longer to get there due to bad navigating (according to Tom), bad driving (according to Ingrid). Luckily at Vorst we got a secret parking place that never lets us down. Vorst is becoming a second home considering all the concerts we've seen there last year. We have got it time that well that we exactly know how long the traffic jam will take going to the concert.

Then just got in, in time for the concert. Elbow was the opening act. Didn't see them though so can't give any remarks. dEUS was amazing. We knew there were a really eclectic band but they have got so many qualities in one band. Tom Barman is, apart from being a really good lead-singer, also from Antwerp and lives not far from us. Ingrid almost fainted when she saw him once. Reminded me of 16-year old girls when the Backstreet Boys walk on by. The musician of the year is their lead-guitarist (Mr. Mauro Pawlowski). Apart from that the violinist, drummer and bass-player are all talented musicians.

They found the perfect balance of old songs mixed with their classics. Off course the crowd was ecstatic, knowing every line from every song. For you aussies who are interested: dEUS is Belgium's biggest rock band. If you want to look up some of their songs: 'Suds and Soda', 'Fell of the floor, man', 'Little Arithmetics' and favorite and one of the highlights of the night 'Hotel lounge (be the death of me)'. So we had a great night and the best concert.

We are both worn out now after our 2day music-tour and tonight is the night for TV, bumming around and maybe playing some guitar.

My little Hitler forced me to mention her following remark 'next to the speakers, the bass coming through was enough to rattle the phlegm out of the worst emphysema patient'

So looking forward to the next one: Sophia in April. I think we're on about 30 concerts a year. I truly don't think I am over exaggerating.

Hey man, nice shot

Differences between Belgium and Australia part 2: Soccer. All important soccer or football, even for me. You can compare it in a way with Rugby in Australia, but then again it is nothing like that. Supporters of rugby are passionate and love there team. We would die for our team. I play soccer and am a huge supporter for FC Barcelona. I can honestly say that I would rather lose every single game for a whole season as long as Barcelona wins. We won 2 big games in a row last two weeks until this weekend we lost again. In the same period while we won, Barca lost twice until they finally won again this weekend while we equalized. Well I was happier this weekend. This week it’s Chelsea- Barca. And that date has been crossed in my agenda for weeks now. My mood during the next week depends on this game. Barcelona were kicked out of the Champions league last year by Chelsea, which resulted in me sulking about for a month and ever since hating Chelsea and everything that surrounds it. I can honestly say that I won’t even go on a holiday to Madrid because they are arch rivals and I hate the city! You might say I’m crazy but I am actually one of the mild supporters or fans.

I read or am reading books about fans of soccer. I just read Fever Pitch by Nick Hornsby (writer of about a boy). Hated the book, but it shows the fanatic supporter in England. But if you really want to know soccer in Europe, read One year with Verona by Nick Parks. It is not only a book about football but it wants me to move to Italy at once. It has got such nice descriptions about Italy, it’s marvellous.

But anyway football is life here. Me and Ingrid have had plenty of discussions about football and me watching it. Lately we even got a system. I “book” television a couple of weeks in advance and off course I can watch every game when Barcelona is on. I think Ingrid watched one game with me and then decided she would fled the house every time Barcelona is playing. She doesn’t get that it is not a stupid game for us, it is our life. We talk about it, we play it, we discuss it, we think about it, we even imagine it is us on that field. We love players but most of all we love the club. There’s a notorious story of the Barcelona club captain moving to the Arch rivals Real Madrid. Ever since then and even nowadays (he doesn’t play for Real anymore) we still despise them. Players are nice as long as they play for us. But otherwise we hate them! Profoundly!

I brook the couch last year while cheering for a Barcelona goal. But it was well worth it. I can honestly say that I am the worst person to watch a game with when my team is playing because for me it is not a game, it is dead serious. Today and tomorrow are just two days running up to Wednesday, match day. And then on match days I wear my Barcelona shirt with my name on, sometimes even to work. And all day long I check websites to see the line-ups, hear what players and coaches have to say. Have a look at the opponents website. On normal days I check soccer news at least 3 times a day. All the gossip, injuries, transfers, I probably know them all. Event he most stupid details I know. Don’t ask me what I did in 1990 but ask me something about the 1990 world cup and I will probably know it.

And after all this I still have a life, go out, am a normal person, listen to music,…
But there’s always football. I am just happy I found one person in Australia who is as crazy as me about soccer. I sometimes event think he’s worse because Tim moved to Liverpool after all. But then again, I still dream of living in Barcelona for one year, just to follow the team. But I keep telling everybody it is because the Spanish lifestyle and the architecture in the city.

Well I always invite everybody to find differences between Europe and Australia, there are lots more but the more peculiar the better

People are fragile things, you should know by now...

I think I am entitled to make some comparison between Australia and Belgium since I lived in both countries now. It was just lately when we were on holiday in Morzine that I noticed the little differences between the Aussie and Belgian-mentality. I think it is extraordinary how we are all so similar and yet so different in our simple little things.
One thing that has always stuck in my mind was following:
- greetings:
Belgians always kiss girls when they meet. Doesn’t matter if they were just introduced or you’ve known them for years but you always give a kiss. You kiss each girl when you enter somewhere and you give every guy a hand.
But then there are exceptions. You kiss someone three times with special occasions (birthday, Christmas,…) Some guys even kiss each other, yes, even non-gay ones but totally different story altogether. I like kissing all the girls but it also creates some nasty situations such as: the girl hasn’t washed herself in ages, or her facial hair is covering more spaces on her face than yours,… As you leave the same routine takes place.
This little ritual has the big advantage that you have to get close to everybody and be introduced. So after one round everybody knows who you are and you’ve got a good idea as well. It also creates an openness since people are immediately forced into your personal space line and you are in theirs. But this will also force you to be friendly to people you don’t like (Belgians are champions in this)! And it takes up a lot of time because you can’t kiss half of the group and forget the rest!
And that’s how Belgium works. For every little ritual there are rules of what to do and what not to do. Some I love and some I can’t stand.
Ingrid learned the little rules the hard way sometimes by doing something every one of us always wanted to do but never did because it didn’t fit the “rules”. I don’t think Australians are so stuffed up to care about rules. Off course you are not going to greet your best friend on a party the same as your boss on a Monday but it is all a bit more casual. It almost seems like there’s a secret manual (only for Europeans) going around with every possible situation and every possible solution in which it is explained how to behave. And I think this is a world-problem: just because you are not aware of some rituals and normal behaviours and fall a bit out of tone, you are looked upon as a savage or dumb or someone without an education.

I just think people need to be more tolerant towards different cultures. This is just a dumb difference between Australian and Belgian cultures but in essence it is the cause of a lot of problems worldwide. I just don’t see the point of starting a war or fatwa just because Ingrid didn’t know that you have to stop kissing my Grand-dad on his birthday after 3 kisses. We can laugh away such a culture difference why can’t we do it with other “meaningful” things and see it as what it is. Just a stupid mix-up because of not-knowing the culture

Holidays are wonderfull..if you're the one that's leaving on an airplane, sitting on a train, just watching by while the clouds take shape

Well back from a holiday and I can speak for both of us if I say we're having trouble adapting to the working life again. But then again, I read some other people have as well. We just made up a balance of everything to come in 2006.

Music-wise: Personally I'd love to be any good on the guitar. I am still in the beginners month (also known as the "I wished I 'd never bought this f**??! thing"-month). But am passionate about it and eager to learn. Also off course am looking forward to Rock Werchter this year, maybe Tim and Tash will come over. We are going to see the Arctic Monkeys and dEUS. Furthermore lots of exciting and new bands and cd's coming up: Arctic Monkeys, Editors, Red Hot Chili Peppers, maybe Sophia,...

Work-wise: I am also delighted that I am quitting work and going back to uni. Don't know how this will turn out, fiasco or heaven. But at least I'm trying and being scared of my decision but am sure that I am making the right one!

What holidays are concerned: the next one will be to Rome in March, and hopefully watching a socer game as well. We also want to go backpacking in Portugal this summer and maybe we can squeeze some weekends in between. We'll be busy enough!

Sporting wise: I am running the 20km of Brussels again plus this year, the 10 miles from Antwerp. Ingrid is goign to take a shot at the 5 miles. So now she can't back down anymore because it's on here!

Well that's about it for me this year. I think studying will be change enough but the beauty at the moment is that our lives could be totally different in a few months so who knows: we might end up in South America oir come home Australia before 2007, you never know,...

Tommy

Male information

Hi everybody,

I just wanted to congratulate Ingi for this blog. In fact she put it all together so all credit goes to her. But I did want to write something because she is only sticking sappy pictures in here like me with a baby. So I will have to post some male pictures (anybody interested in Tom in his Tarzan outfit??). Anyway I hope you have fun reading of our "Tom and Ingrid do Europe" blog and don't be shy to write your comments.

What have we been up to lately? Here's the short version: gone to a lot of concerts: Bob Dylan, Starsailor, Bloc Party (absolutely awesome), The White stripes and I think I am forgetting some. We've gone to a couple of footballgames: Liverpool vs Wigan when we were visiting Tim and Tash: great atmosphere. KV Mechelen-Antwerp, was fun, nothing more nothing less. Been to Liverpool for Ingi's birthday and Barcelona. But still hadn't had the change to see a game of barca. Anyway been pretty busy partying as well and are looking forward to going skiing in January in Morzine. We'll keep you all posted. bye bye for now