2007
en images
in pictures
in fotos
in pictures
in fotos
| Off to Duesseldorf, Germany for a huge once-every-three-year trade fair. Traditional group parties include alt beer and pork with colleagues from Japan, China, Thailand, Germany and Belgium. Things got a bit crazier at the company party organised by colleagues from Frankfurt. Oct 23-31 |
| Hallowe'en! 8 kids in costume at the door, colours from this year's corn and pumpkin crop. Oct 31 |
| We celebrate my birthday with 15 guests with a full Moroccan meal in our Kasbah room, followed by (what else) dancing until well after 2. Nov 3 |
| I accept an invitation to speak at a conference in Valencia, Spain. With colleagues from Duesseldorf and Barcelona we explore Santiago Calatrava's amazing Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències. Nov 13-14 |
| We take off to sunny California for Thanksgiving week, and visit the San Juan Bautista mission, packed for mass in Spanish. Nov 18 |
| Our generation takes a limo to dinner at 2-Michelin Star Manresa in Los Gatos. Nov 18 |
| WWU sets up a scholarship fund in memory of my mother. Nov 18 |
| The traditional walk up the dish beforeThanksgiving Dinner. Nov 22 |
| Through Koen we get tickets to the semi-finals of Flemish TV's live reality show "Sterren Op Het Ijs" (Stars on Ice). We get to see cute Katherine (and hunky French-Canadian Sacha), and I get my picture taken with Belgian Idol's 2007 winner and tweenie heart-throb Dean. (Deeeeeean!) Actually quite a nice guy, but scary to realise I could be his dad! Nov 28 |
| Visiting the Christmas market in Köln. Dec 10 |
| It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at home. Dec 10 |
| A quick trip to Japan to meet with HQ in Tokyo. Golden ginko leaves carpet the palace grounds, and extremists campaign for traditional values among the Christmas trees and cold gaze of Cameron Diaz in Shibuya. Dec 15-19 |
| The season kicks off with birthday lunch with the Durieux, before feasts on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Dad steps in for me on oyster duty. Dec 23-25 |
| Dad and I take a field trip to west Flanders, visiting the WWI Flanders Fields museum in a stunningly-rebuilt Ieper (Ypres), and a stop for fritjes near the begijnhof in Kortrijk. Dec 26 |
| We spend a fun day in Schaerbeek with Océane and Sara, while Sara's parents were off on a business trip. Dec 29 |
| We catch up (at long last) with the family of our foreign exchange student, who stayed with us in America in 1981-1982, now living just down the road in Leuven. Dec 30 |
| The Old Year ends (and the New Year begins) the Flemish way: silly hats, good schlager, better cuisine and with very good friends and family. Dec 31 |