The other Face of Brussels: Parks

Woluwe Park!

Being quite close to home, it's quite a nice place to relax. And, as we lack beaches in Brussels, it became also a nice place to go catch some sun...

You're so great

And I feel the light
In the night and in the day
And I feel the light
When the skys just mud and grey
And I feel the light
When you tell me its ok
Cos youre so great, and I love you

Dr Frankenstein

The United States helped to create a whole context of which they seem now to have lost control…

Stop it now!

Last Wednesday, they killed four UN observers. Although the UN Secretary General and many countries rushed to speak out their anger, the US managed to block an official condemnation of Israel for this shameless attack. They grown confident, carried on, returned to Qana and killed 54 Lebanese civilians, many of them children. The suspension of the Israeli air strikes was announced by an American responsible... Now Mr Bush and Ms Rice can’t hide it any longer: the unjustifiable Israeli action has an accomplice and the blood of innocent people can be found in the hands of America, once again... I just read in an on-line newspaper that, according to Israel’s defence Minister, Israel isn’t ready for truce yet; well, the time has come for everyone – especially for the American citizens - to cry out loud that humankind isn’t ready for war any longer!

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

I can't believe the news today,
I can't close my eyes and make it go away.
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long? Tonight we can be as one.
Broken bottles under children's feet,
Bodies strewn across a dead end street,
But I won't heed the battle call,
It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.

And the battle's just begun,
There's many lost, but tell me who has won?
The trenches dug within our hearts,
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.

How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long, Tonight we can be as one.
Tonight, tonight.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.

Wipe the tears from your eyes,
Wipe your tears away,
Wipe your blood shot eyes.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.

And it's true we are immune.
When fact is fiction and T.V. is reality,
And today the millions cry,
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die.
The real battle just begun.
To claim the victory Jesus won,
On a Sunday bloody Sunday,
Sunday bloody Sunday.

The burials of Qana...

Ten years after history repeats itself. After the massacre in 1996, when 106 civilians that had searched refuge in a UN forces compound were killed by and attack of Israeli Artillery, once again civilians are victims of the never-ending conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

The site of Jesus' first miracle, according to John's Gospel, turning water into wine during the marriage of Jewish disciples, is now the scenario of a nowadays tragedy: turning faith into blood...

The all powerful UN Security Council held an urgent session today, in order to discuss once again this conflict, now under the light of the shocking news of the Qana air raid. UN Secretary General expressed is deep dismay that UN calls for ceasefire were not heard.

I had the chance to see live earlier today the meeting of the UNSC, namely the intervention from Israeli ambassador, Dan Gillerman, when he accused Hezbollah of sacrificing their own people as human shields and as victims. We further mentioned that Israel deeply regretted the death of civilians, while for Hezbollah the death of any Israeli was a victory. Though he may be right in his argumentation, he forgot the bottom line: it's because of Israeli attacks that civiilans are dying and that the risk of killing civilians never prevented Israel from carrying out these attacks.

Finally the leaders of the world (apart from the US) are effectively pressuring Israel to the cessation of the hostilities.

We have a saying in Portugal that is "Better late than never". Unfortunately, it is already too late for the hundreds of lives, most of them of innocent people that constituted a token for the capture of two Israeli soldiers.

May Qana witness from today a new miracle: that of peace in Middle-East!

Click here for the BBC report at the scene

The value of life...

Can there be any more hypocrisy within Bush's administration?

"He thinks murder's wrong!"

"He doesn't want human life destroyed!"

"Every being counts, every person matters!"

"This country has to be very careful about destroying life to save life!"

To cry or laugh, as you will…

I know sometimes a man is wrong...

In Portugal, my country and one of the 25 Member States of the European Union, there is a Municipality which limits the financial support to NGOs to those who accept, by a written contract, to abstain from criticising in public the Municipality and its Mayor. The author of this brilliant idea is Rui Rio and, unfortunately, he is the democratically elected Mayor of Porto… As Ben Harper would say, "I'm taking the Mr from out in front of your name because it's a Mr like you that puts the rest of us to shame..."

DASPU

A group of Brazilian prostitutes, who are members of the NGO “DaVida” and like fashion, decided to launch a fashion brand: DASPU. For now they only have t-shirts, but they plan to extend the scope of their work. The t-shirts are part of the “activism” collection, focusing on Human Rights and HIV/AIDS prevention, but new collections are yet to come: the “battle” collection (street and home clothes); the “leisure” collection (for beach, parks and gardens); and the “madness” collection (for carnival and parties in general). Apart form its fashion value, this initiative is also a way of promoting the civic rights of prostitutes and I hope it will help to change the minds of many people, in Brazil and elsewhere. Even though it is only in Portuguese, I recommend a visit to their website.

Dangerous Liaisons

Mr Hugo Chávez is on a world tour, partly to win support for Venezuela's bid to win a seat on the UN Security Council. Yesterday he was in Moscow to sign an arms deal worth around USD 3,000,000,000. He will travel now to Qatar, Iran, Vietnam and Mali. The worst part of this tour took place on Monday, when Hugo Chávez visited Minsk, met Alexander Lukashenko and called for a strategic alliance with Belarus and for a new friendship with the Belarusian dictator. Today is Mr Chávez birthday. My present is to completely withdraw my support to him and his government until he condemns Lukashenko and the Belarusian regime. Shame on you Mr Chávez!

Coffee

Reacting to the heat, I opted out for breaking the ice, where I found one of these trivial web queries about coffee. Well, here's the result:

You are a Black Coffee

At your best, you are: low maintenance, friendly, and adaptable At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty You drink coffee when: you can get your hands on it Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Yeah, I guess I'm low maintenance and adaptable and I like to think I'm friendly.

Yeah, you're damn right I'm cheap! Specially when I have to pay 2 EUR for a lousy coffee in Brussels while we pay 0,50 EUR in Portugal for a (almost) perfect one.

Angsty? Well, who said these queries are accurate...?

And I sure drink coffee like water...

Several years ago, still at university I had quite a hectic life. I worked part-time in the mornings, engaged in my youth organisation in the afternoon, going to classes at night (well, some times…) and going for drinks almost every day, until around 2am.

This was possible with the help of at least 7 expressos a day. Around this time, my doctor got scared (and got to scare me too) about my blood pressure. No more coffees, she said. And so I did! As a result, for a month or more, I was falling asleep in a matter of seconds, usually when chilling out, be it at a bar, at a friends place, a restaurant, wherever…

Some friends still recall this and take the piss out of me every now and then :-)

The failure of the "War on Terrorism" and the Middle East crisis

The invasion of Iraq (2003) had several justifications, according to the reasons invoked by the Bush Administration. One of those, the possession of “arms of mass destruction” by Iraq’s dictatorial regime, putting at risk the safety of the West, proved to be totally false and represented, since the beginning, a serious setback for the credibility and consistency of the American strategy for the Middle East. But such invasion was also part of the so-called “global war on terrorism”. Firstly, because of the supposed connections between Sadam’s regime and Al Qaeda; and then, because it was hoped that the fall of Iraq’s dictatorship and the subsequent democratic regime to be installed, would have had a “contagious effect” in the Middle East region and would then help to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As everyone can see…

The strategy associated to the “global war on terrorism” had several components. On one hand, the fight against terrorism was conceived as a “war” and, therefore, the focus put on the use of military means as the most efficient way to defeat the terrorists. Such strategy (hard power), immediately managed to alienate the huge wave of solidarity that Americans had known after the September 11th, 2001 attacks. Remember not only the hesitations of the governments of many allies’ countries on the militarist strategy, but also the huge popular demonstrations opposing the war on Iraq on February 15th, 2003, especially, but not only, in Europe. On the other hand, these hesitations of the allies on the strategy focused on the hard power and the difficulties of the Americans in framing it within international legality are at the origin of the second fundamental component of this “global war on terrorism”: the unilateralism.

In After the Neocons – America at the Crossroads (2006), one famous American neoconservative, Fukuyama, not only recognises the failure of Washington’s hard power strategy, but also declares his desertion from the neoconservative movement, namely because of its support of such options in terms of external policy. Otherwise, President Bush himself recognised (at least implicitly) the failure of his options and, more recently, moved away from them and tried to give more focus to the use of the soft power and multilateralism.

This is all because of the recent violence escalade in the Middle East. Reacting to the capture of one of its soldiers in the Gaza border by Hamas’ activists one month ago and, two weeks later, of two other soldiers in the Lebanese border (by the Hezbollah fundamentalists), Israel started two war offensives not only against those movements, but also against Gaza and the Lebanon as a whole, randomly attacking governmental institutions, civil and military infra-structures, civil settlements and military forces. The Israeli leaders have been trying to present the provocations and the attacks on Israel as being part of one more strategy of the “axis of evil” (nowadays composed by Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah) in its war against the West. Therefore, we are again at the “global war on terrorism”, now starred by Israel, with American support.

On one hand, internally, it is basically with Israel that the West shares democratic values, the same concept of human rights and common guidelines in terms of liberalisation of habits and traditions. Moreover, we can’t help recognising its right to respond to provocations and attacks from its neighbours. On the other hand, we also have to condemn the brutal and disproportional reaction by which Israel is punishing the entire populations of Gaza and Lebanon. Otherwise, with these kinds of reactions, how can we distinguish the Israeli democracy from any barbarian dictatorship? Where does the supposed moral supremacy of democracies, so dear to the neoconservatives, lay? Past and forgotten seem to be the times of contained reactions of Rabin’s government to the continued provocations suffered, even after the Oslo agreements…

The same way that the Bush Administration’s militarist options completely failed, it is also very likely that the Israeli strategy won’t be the best way to solve the problems. On one hand, it deepens the Arab humiliation and gives more ground to some of the arguments often invoked by the fundamentalists in their crusade against the West. On the other hand, it alienates the needed support from the moderates to any Israeli-Arab agreements. But, are Israeli authorities worried at all? It is hard to believe that, since the democratic election of Hamas as the new major party ay the Parliament in Gaza, all the Israeli efforts were put in trying to isolate the movement and almost anything has been done to empower the moderates and to create the conditions for the recognition of Israel. And it is also hard to understand, unless it is seen as part of an already existing strategy, that, when the Palestinian President Abbas was trying, with the support of the Hamas, to organise a referendum which would implicitly recognise the State of Israel, the reaction of Israel to the capture of its soldier in the Gaza border has been so brutally violent.

*Text written by my fomer Political Sciences teacher, André Freire, published last Monday on Público. I am the one to blame for the poor translation into English...

Humidity...

The weather in Brussels for the past weeks as been amazing, due to the heat wave afecting Europe. It is such that people start complaining about it!!!

Yesterday, in one of these chitchats about the weather (in this case the heat), a brasilian from Rio was aknowledging that even for her it was a bit unbearable:
- How come?
- I think it's the lack of humidity.
- [???] But I always thought the heat was harder to bare the more humidity you have?
- But I saw in the hygrometer I have today that it was only 12% humidity.

I got a bit confused by this. Why the hell is everyone sweating so much then? Well, nothing like checking it out. So I did, and I can't resist sharing it with you. Ah, and I mustn't forget to tell her to get a new hygrometer...

The most blogged war

"This used to be my playground. Six days ago there were four buildings with 8 to 10 stories high and a little garden in front of them. My parents home used to be on the second floor in the building in the middle. They did not harm anybody their entire life. Neither did their neighbours", posted by Bashir at UrShalim

"A few minutes ago the sirens started again in the distance; they were so faint that we were only made aware of them by watching Haifa on TV. Like Pavlov's dogs we react to the stimuli dutifully, almost mindlessly. It's a second nature now. But this time it was different.On the way down we heard a large boom, my neighbor phoned his daughter across town as soon as the radio announced that Haifa was hit. Up until now he seemed to me the calmest person down there, but his expression changed. "It hit near you? The windows exploded?" His arm unknowingly touches the wall to support himself, "don't cry, don't cry.. Are you ok?". He hangs up and with resolve says that he's going down there, no tears but he's already changed. With shaking fingers he calls somebody else about the car", posted by and at Live from an Israeli bunker

"My cousin fled the country with her parents. She was engaged to a Beiruti who refused to leave his parents under the shelling. Now they’re living in separate countries. Their engagement was just 2 weeks ago. My friend works in Paris. Her fiancé is stuck in Lebanon; they had plans to get married this summer, now they're postponed until further notice. My brother's wife came to Lebanon to visit her parents. Now she's stuck and she can't go back to Africa where they live.This war is taking a particularly strong toll on Lebanese couples. My cousin, my friend and my brother are just a few cases. In Lebanon, unless you’re married to someone, you flee wherever your parents flee, to the mountains, to neighboring countries or to faraway lands.It is the very fabric of our society that accentuates this forced separation. A lot of people who come from different parts of Lebanon, meet in cosmopolitan Beirut and fall in love, only to be “recalled” by their parents in times of war. Most of them either have foreign passports or live in the other end of the country.Also, summer in Lebanon is marriage season. Most Lebanese work outside of Lebanon, and most prospective couples look forward to summer to tie the knot. To marry in Lebanon in summer, you had to book a place months in advance. Wedding halls are usually booked every single day between July and September. Needless to say. Not anymore. 5 weddings to which I was invited were cancelled.When my friend heard that I got engaged while Lebanon was being bombed, she thought our story would make a good Hollywood movie. Perhaps, but I’d rather have real fireworks, not ones dropped by Israeli Jet planes", posted by Mustapha at The Beirut Spring

"I know them. I worked with them. I made friends amongst them. Together we had built a fragile bridge between our two cultures. Yet, as with every other bridge built over the years, it was cruelly destroyed by barbarism. Only this was with my blessing. This is one bridge I don’t want to rebuild", posted by and at The Perpetual Refugee

"What does this mean? I'm not sure. I'm too sad and overtired to think about it right now, to be honest. But I know this is significant. I do think about the fact that many of these bloggers are from their respective countries' educated, liberal elite and I am sure that amongst them are some future leaders. When this latest round of pointless death and destruction ends, when the anger dissipates, perhaps they will remember the personal connections with their "enemy." Think about what it means, if the next generation of Lebanese and Israeli politicians and business leaders have intimate and personal knowledge of the others' humanity. They won't forget that, even while there was a war going on, they were able to talk to one another and express their feelings. It's not so easy to kill someone you know. It's possible to contemplate embarking on a joint development project or business endeavour with someone from the other side - if you know him or her as a human being, not simply "the former enemy.", posted by Lisa Goldman at On the Face

Holidays' Postcards

I am on holidays in Portugal for almost one week now. The weather has been kind, with sun and warm temperatures, but without unbearable heat. I’ve been one day in Lisbon and then came to Guimarães, met my son and spent time with him between Braga and Guimarães until the end of the week. This last weekend was spent a bit more up North, near Viana do Castelo, my neighbour Pedro’s hometown. More precisely, I’ve been sleeping next to Vila Praia de Âncora, going to the beach in Afife and promenading the coast up to Caminha. I and Francisco - my son - had lots of fun, enjoyed the sun and the sea and met very nice and lovely friends. He is now sleeping, tired of all the excitement and the almost-non-stop physical activity over the weekend; I am still trying to cope with the sun-burnt in my back… but have a huge smile on my face!

The Camel Club II

“[…] Like most Muslims, the only jihad Djamila had ever practiced was the “greater jihad”, the internal struggle to be a better follower of Islam. This man was obviously speaking of another jihad, the “lesser jihad”, the holy war, a concept that originated with Islam in the seventh century. At first Djamila dismissed the man and his advocacy as mindless ravings, yet as her situation grew bleaker, she found herself beginning to listen to him and others like him. The things he was saying, added to the horrors she had seen firsthand, started to make sense to the young woman who’d lost everything. And soon her dismay and hopelessness turned to something else: anger. […]”
David Baldacci, The Camel Club

The Camel Club

“[…] But it was more than the historically complex issue of the haves and the have-nots. It was a fundamental question of ignorance and intolerance. Tom Hemingway had always considered ignorance and intolerance to be like commas; because you often found them in pairs, and almost never did you find one, ignorance, without its evil twin, intolerance. […]”
David Baldacci, The Camel Club

Father & Son

There is another world!
There is a better world!
There must be...

Friday News

Say you stand by your man
Tell me something I don't understand
You said you love me and that's a fact
Then you left me, said you felt trapped

Well some things you can explain away
But my heartache's in me till this day

Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way

All the times
When we were close
I'll remember these things the most
I see all my dreams come tumbling down
I won't be happy without you around

So all alone I keep the wolves at bay
There is only one thing that I can say

Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way

You must explain why this must be
Did you lie when you spoke to me

Did you stand by me
No, not at all

Ponta Delgada

Almost one week without posting... again! It has been a busy one indeed! In the meantime, I’ve been in Portugal, more precisely in Ponta Delgada, on São Miguel Island, in the Azores. It was a short stay, arriving on Wednesday and getting back to Lisbon on Thursday evening and to Brussels yesterday morning. But still it was nice to be in Portugal and enjoy the sun and the blue sky! I like Ponta Delgada a lot. I like especially the historic streets connecting the hotels and the churches to the shops and restaurants. And I like to promenade along the Avenue by the seaside, looking at the marina. And, of course, I love the mountain range of Sete Cidades, with its lovely valley and twin lagoons. Ponta Delgada is also the city of nice friends and personalities I admire, like Antero de Quental, Teófilo Braga, Roberto Ivens and… Pauleta!

Interesting Criteriae...

"Germany striker Lukas Podolski has won the Fifa young player of the World Cup award, beating off competition from Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo.

The 20-year-old Podolski has scored three goals in six matches so far.
Podolski said: "I would have liked to have taken home the World Cup - but this is a great honour and is a great motivation to become more successful."

Ronaldo was favourite for the prize but his antics in the quarter-final against England cost him the chance to win.

Holger Osieck, head of the Fifa technical study group that picked the winner, said: "We want to have decent behaviour and I admit we were critical of this.
Podolski showed a great understanding with Miroslav Klose and the two players formed a very effective partnership."

Fifa technical study group head Holger Osieck:
"We had a number of criteria but we have to admit players of that age do have their weaknesses and are not fully developed."
"Players should be role models and fair play is a consideration."
"But we have to admit young players are not always mature tactically and they also have difficulties in handling stressful situations."

Germany legend Lothar Matthaus, who is patron of the award, added: "You will never have 100% fair play and maybe looking at Cristiano he was obviously doing something here. "
"He may have accumulated a couple of minus points due to his gesture with Rooney but you sometimes forget what the laws are in the heat of the fight."
Portuguese winger Ronaldo, pilloried for his part in the sending off of Wayne Rooney, was leading the Fifa website vote by a huge margin.

But an email urging fans to vote for Ecuador's Luis Valencia instead led to an incredible 24-hour turnaround.

Ronaldo was deemed unsporting for appearing to try and get Wayne Rooney sent off for his challenge on Ricardo Carvalho.

Podolski also beat off competition from Cesc Fabregas, Lionel Messi and Tranquilo Barnetta to win the coveted prize.

No England players were shortlisted for the award.
Podolski scored in the final group game against Ecuador and bagged a brace in the 2-0 second round victory over Sweden.
Osieck added: "He not only scored three goals, he was a key element in Germany's attack.
"He showed a great understanding with Miroslav Klose and the two players formed a very effective partnership."

Taken from BBC website

Since I remember watching football, this was the first time that I heard of a player being accused with lack of fair play and being unsporting from pointing out to the referee an agression on the pitch. Amazingly (or not), Ronaldo was more criticized for his action (of alerting the referee) than Rooney (for stepping intentionally on Carvalho's genitals).

This is a very interesting fair play approach: Be a sport mate and shut the fuck up!


Note: Can you believe Alan Shearer comments?

After the comments and the 'unblemished' concern about Fair-Play from FIFA's Technical Study Group, what can we say of FIFA's criteria, with the election of the best player in the World Cup: Zinedine Zidane!

I agree that Zidane is an amazing player, that he made all the difference for the French team (together with Thuram, though I don't agree he was the best player in the WC), but how can you ignore this?


No doubt it feels like asking: 'Mais pourquoi? Mais pourquoi?"
And have you seen the italians pressuring the referee so that he shows a red card to Zidane? Astonishing! How could they be so unsporting? They're the World Champions, for God's sake!?!?!?! They should give an example!

Italy

Italy are world champions after beating France 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out after a 1-1 draw in Berlin. Several members of the happy Italian squad - Buffon, Cannavaro, Del Piero, Gattuso, Toni, Gilardino, Peruzzi, Nesta, Camoranesi, Inzaghi, Zambrotta, Pirlo and Oddo - are drawn from the four clubs - Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina and AC Milan - implicated in the match-fixing scandal and they face the possibility of being relegated from Serie A. Tonight they celebrate winning Italy's World Cup victory; next Friday they might be looking for new employers... That could make the World Cup win seem a distant memory...

It started again...

Six firefighters have been killed while battling a forest fire in central Portugal.

I can only plead insanity...

Eat right. Get active. Don't smoke. See your doctor. And live!

FIFA World Cup - The End

Germany shrugged off the disappointment of their semi-defeat by Italy to claim third place at the 2006 FIFA World Cup by beating Portugal 3-1 in Stuttgart yesterday. Bastian Schweinsteiger enjoyed a night to remember in the hosts' farewell match at these finals, scoring twice in the second half as Germany finished the tournament with the bronze medal. Luis Figo, on his final appearance for Portugal, sent over a perfectly placed cross for Nuno Gomes to head past Oliver Kahn, denying the German goalkeeper one last clean sheet before he too bowed out of the international arena.

Portugal didn't do much wrong yesterday. Germany were very effective, particularly with their long-range efforts, and there wasn't much to do about that. There was nothing to choose between the teams in the first half, but in the second, Portugal let two goals in one after the other, the first from a swerving shot and the second when Petit deflected a free-kick. Germany's third goal was a beauty though! Portugal also had chances, but just couldn't put them away.

Fourth place feels a bit hollow and Portugal deserved a different scoreline. But I am proud of what the team has done and, at the end of the day, to finish fourth in a World Cup is good. The fact that Figo and Pauleta are both saying goodbye represents the end of an era, but we have to respect their decisions and congratulate them on their magnificent careers.

Cry

And then she said,
- "What's that on your eyes?"
She touched me. Yes, I was crying.
- "For many years I've tried, but now I'm too tired to hide. No reason why. Just need to cry."
And then she said,
- "I'm sorry I asked."
She kissed me and took this pain off my chest. Each tear that fell down vanished in the ground.
- "No need to dry. Just need to cry."

FIFA World Cup - Final Act

Portugal was unable to end the curse and lost once again to France in the semi-finals of a major competition. France booked a World Cup final spot against Italy after Zinedine Zidane's first-half penalty earned victory over a disappointing Portugal in Munich. And disappointment is exactly the key word, after a match in which I never felt France to be better than Portugal. They might have deserved their win, as wins are always deserved, but they didn't convince me, as they had convinced me in their matches against Spain and Brazil. Even though there's still a match to go, this is the moment to make the balance... and I don't hesitate to say that I feel proud of what this team has achieved in this World Cup! Go Portugal!

Jim Morrison

35 years ago, Jim Morrison, the Lizard King, the lead singer of the American rock group The Doors, was found dead in a bathtub at his apartment in Paris. A doctor's report stated the cause of death was heart failure aggravated by heavy drinking. He was 27.

Til Kingdom Come

Steal my heart and hold my tongue.
I feel my time, my time has come.
Let me in, unlock the door.
I've never felt this way before.

The wheels just keep on turning,
The drummer begins to drum,
I don't know which way I'm going,
I don't know which way I've come.

Hold my hand inside your hands,
I need someone who understands.
I need someone, someone who hears,
For you, I've waited all these years.

For you, I'd wait 'til kingdom come.
Until my day, my day is done.
And say you'll come, and set me free,
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.

In your tears and in your blood,
In your fire and in your flood,
I hear you laugh, I heard you sing,
"I wouldn't change a single thing."

The wheels just keep on turning,
The drummers begin to drum,
I don't know which way I'm going,
I don't know what I've become.

For you, I'd wait 'til kingdom come,
Until my days, my days are done.
Say you'll come and set me free,
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.

Sleepless in Ferihegy

I’m in Budapest. I’m at the airport. I shouldn’t be here…

I was on my way to Skopje and I was supposed to have a short scale in Budapest. My flight from Brussels was delayed and I was afraid of missing my connection, but I ran through the terminal only to find out that the flight to Skopje was also delayed… for more than 4 hours! First, it was announced that it would leave at 2.00am (instead of 11.10pm), but soon the information changed and now we are supposed to leave at 3.40am…

I guess these things happen and I am aware that, travelling so frequently, I’m even more exposed to them… still, it is frustrating! As you may imagine, there’s nothing much to do at the Budapest airport at 1.30 in the night!

Well, I am still one of the luckiest among the hopeless passengers to Skopje who share with me this nightmare. At least I was able to access Internet, I have my lovely iPod with me and a couple of sleepless friends addicted to sms! And I’m not travelling with my parents!

FIFA World Cup - Flagey 2006

Portugal march on to a semi-final date with France after defeating England 3-1 on penalties following a last eight clash that ended goalless in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday, 1 July. Neither of these sides could find a way through during 120 minutes of entertaining and closely-contested action, with Portugal unable to translate into goals a numerical advantage they had held for almost an hour thanks to Wayne Rooney’s 62nd-minute dismissal. The match therefore became the second 2006 FIFA World Cup quarter-final to be settled on penalty kicks and, just as Jens Lehmann was Germany’s hero yesterday, so Ricardo was Portugal’s today, saving from Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher to leave Cristiano Ronaldo to stroke home the decisive kick. On Wednesday, we'll settle our debt with France... Go Portugal!