Journees du Patrimoine: Chateau de Jehay

So Saturday I headed off to enjoy to visit a stain-glass window factory at Comblain-au-Pont... and got lost! :p
Apparently at one point I turned right when I should have turned left (I have since bought myself a road map) and after 45' with no idea where I was I saw a road sign for a city I did know and decided to give up on the stain glass in exchange for a Chateau...

But hey! Getting lost on back country roads around here means driving through some beautiful roads and through some cute towns with pretty churches:


and since it was a Saturday... well that means wedding parties walking around!


Anyhow, I was glad to find at least one place I had wanted to visit during the weekend: le Chateau de Jehay!


It's a 16th century Renaissance Chateau with some beautiful grounds and a series of sculpture, glass, ceramics, book, and coin collections.



Here I am ready to head in to follow a guided tour and learn all about this place:


If you can read French and are interested in the Chateau's history, you can visit the old website here.

Entrance gallery:


The late Count Guy van den Steen was quite a collector and also dabbled in quite a few hobbies, namely sculpting. Here's his auto-portrait as a "snow storm":


and his wife, Lady Moira Butler:


Apparently one of the Count's masterpieces, done in a new technique he developped to give the scene a better impression of depth, having the elements in the forefront be very detailed and really stick out, while those furthest in the background aren't as precise, as if hard to see in the distance... it's the end of the legend of a poor fellow who challenged the Greek Gods to a music competition (can't remember it right now, perhaps Juliette can remind me?):


Lovely rooms, lovely furnishings, interesting guide... nice visit!


My favourite among the many collections on display... coins! (I wish my collection was as lovely! and this was just one of four cases)


Check it out! The guy had an authentic "shrunken head" from a South American tribe! yikes!


These two "suits" are guarding the main entry and the access to the "off-limits" second floor (was occupied by the late Count until his death in 1999).


Ah, I have many fond memories of High School maths thanks to this fellow: Monsieur Pythagoras, he of the famous theorem!


When the Count returned home with his new wife after WW2 was over, this drum was actually the only thing he found in his house (the house had been emptied to serve as a children's orphanage/hospital during the war)! They had to refurnish it with items from his wife's properties in England...


Dinner anyone?


My favourite room in the place (as in many places I visit), the library! :o)


I thought this was such a cosy little tower room...


and loved the ceramic chandelier!


This was actually the first statue I saw as I walked into the grounds... very freaky preying mantis lady!!!


Walking around the park...


Take a closer look at the branches of that tree in the middle of the avenue, weird! Like 100% pine cone tree! I've never seen anything like it!


This maiden seems a tad bit sad...


The chateau looks even more enchanting cradled in the green:


This was a lovely statue, "Venus in her bath":


Hmm... you can tell it's Saturday, more lovebirds! I can sure understand why they'd want to come to this parc for their wedding photos... ;o)



Tomorrow: an old Abbey being restored.

Farewell to the Man who made me want to dance...

Sigh, not a good piece of news to wake up to!



I have very fond memories of sneaking into the living room one day with my sister to watch Dirty Dancing (my Dad had -unbeknownst to my Mom- taped it for us, they didn't agree on whether we could watch it or not). We absolutely LOVED that film! The time period, the music (specially "She's Like The Wind" and "Hungry Eyes"),



the "bad boy hearthrob" (of course!), but most especially the dancing! :o)

Damn, all this has made me want to watch Dirty Dancing again... and I left the dvd in Spain! :o(

I guess I'll have to make do with what can be found on YouTube:



Argh! For some reason this clip cuts off before the end (so we miss the "lift") and all the more complete clips have the "embedding" disabled! (grumble...) For a more complete version go here.

Oh, and for the record, it took me years to understand what was so "dirty" about the dancing... After we saw it my sister and I couldn't understand why my mom hadn't wanted us to watch it since it was obviously much less "adult" than Excalibur for example which we'd found years ago among the dvds and seen who knows how many times by that date (my King Arthur obsession started very young). ;o)

Welcome to the Journ�es du Patrimoine!

Hello, hello, HELLO!

Hmmm... didn't work! Was hoping an enthusiastic greeting would help shake this lethargy that has gotten hold of me today... but, nope! Must be the rain. Or the accumulated fatigue from a couple of short nights and very long days!

This (past) weekend is one of my favourites in Belgium: Les Journ�es du Patrimoine! Basically it's a weekend to celebrate Belgium's cultural and architectural patrimony (is that the right word?). Centuries of human artistic and religious expression, of human ingenuity and history, embodied in structures of wood and brick and stone... It's the chance to visit (usually acompanied by intelligent and amusing guides) some wonderful buildings and monuments for free (some of which are usually closed the rest of the year), to get a better feel for their place in history, for what inspired people to build them in the first place, to understand how they've transitioned into the 21st century.

So I'm going to take you on a little tour over 3-4 posts, hope it won't be as exhausting as it was visiting them all!

I had planned on starting yesterday... but got sidetracked by a "welcome back party" here in the University Dorm "Les H�mes du Sart Tilman" where I'm staying these three months. I hear there's another tonight and again tomorrow! Hmmm, more on that another day. IIf start in on Belgian student life now we'll never make it back to the buildings! I could write a thesis on the topic (and I'm already running behind on that other thesis I'm supposed to be writing...)! ;o)

Fishy Fridays ep.1

WELCOME!

To the inaugural episode of Fishy Fridays!

Typically for me, once I plan something I get caught up in so many other things I have trouble finding the time to put it together properly! It might take me some time to come up with an original logo... :p

What to do? What to say? What to show?

Well I figured I'd start out by introducing you to the place that helped develop even further my interest in aquatic critters: the Li�ge Aquarium! Not only did volunteering here for 8 years (doing well over 200 guided tours) teach me a lot more about fish than I had known before, it also increased my awareness and interest in them (before I was more of a strictly marine mammal and reptile girl). It also helped me a lot in the teaching / speaking in public / improvisation department. When you're speaking to a bunch of noisy kids on a weekly basis you need to learn how to manage your voice, project it, keep the kids under control without stifling them (give them the chance for Q&A but not babbling away) and adapt your story material to your audience's educational level and interests (you don't tell kids the same things as a group of teenagers or adults).

So I'm going to do what I do best... and take you all on a guided tour over the next several weeks! Now a guided tour can be as short or as long as one likes... or so I'm told! I have real trouble keeping mine under the 2h mark, and it's almost impossible for me to do one under 90'! I just can't bear to cut certain fish out of the show! There's nothing worse when starting a tour to have the teacher come up and say "We need to leave in 1h15', is that ok?" aaaaarrrrrgh!!! Then I'm stuck with just the highlights and gut-wrenching feelings when kids keep asking me about aquaria we're not stopping at... So sorry, since I'm running this show you guys ain't gettin' the abridged version! No sirree, you're getting the real McCoy, including a "behind-the-scenes" photo tour if I can get the authorisation! ;o)

Don't worry, I might give you a break one week or another and talk about something else...

Now since I haven't had time to go downtown and start photographing the inmates, I'm going to have to work with stock footage today. I'll be including (whenever possible) short video sequences a friend took a couple of years ago while she followed me around during a guided tour. Fortunately for you it was an English-language group!

Ok, so as I said: Welcome to the Li�ge Aquarium!

(oops! can't believe the only "complete" photos I have of the building -from my old appartment- are snow-covered ones! It happens so rarely...)

Isn't that a beautiful 19th century building? Well it would be if someone would bother to give it a face-lift!

Let's go in for a closer look...


Unfortunately the Aquarium doesn't own the place, we're just a small A.S.B.L. lodged down in the basement. This is actually the Zoology Institute of the University of Li�ge, where once upon a time almost all the biology-related classes were taught (except for those related to humans in the Med School and Botany which had their own Institutes). Since the main body of the campus got shifted out of town starting in the '60s this building has seen less and less use. Indeed the only people left are the behavioural scientists. And the Science Museum. And the Zoology Museum. And the Aquarium!

The Institute has hosted scientists interested in the marine environment since its inauguration in the second half of the 19th century. But it wasn't until the late 1950s that talk about creating an aquarium actually started producing results. Results which included the grand opening and inauguration of the Aquarium in 1962 with only 27 tanks. This number has grown to 47 exhibition tanks, with the most recent expansion in 2002. Unfortunately since we're housed in the basement of the building, any true expansion (like that of 2002) requires a massive amount of construction work down and around the exterior of the building, and with the financial crisis further plans have been paralysed... Anyhow, even though it's a very small Aquarium (particularly compared to the behemoths being built across Europe these days... all very flashy and purty, but rarely very educational), it's amazingly complete! There's an incredible diversity of species with freshwater and marine fish from the four corners of the globe. Individuals housed together in a tank will be found together in their natural habitat (no mixing of species from the North Pacific and North Atlantic for example). And it's the perfect size for a guided tour, just right to incite people's curiosity about fish and the aquatic environment, just enough to whet their appetite and make them hungry to learn more.

So how does one start a Guided Tour? After welcoming everyone in and giving them the basic ground rules (no flash photos -fish don't have eyelids-, no monkeying around -only the guides get to be monkeys and climb on the barriers-, no talking all at once, raise your hands etc.), I'll usually start at one of the "bigger" tanks (where everyone can see well) and just ask them what they see. This is where I like to get a feel for the group. See how perceptive they, evaluate their previous knowledge in the field, identify the shy kids, the loudmouths, the perceptive ones etc. That and let them all just go "woah! BIG fish!" like they almost always do!

Want to hear what they have to say?



After that I'll probably talk about what fish eat, basically trying to emphasize the point that if there's something living in water, you can be sure there's something else there that's going to eat it! Everyone's got prey and predator.



And then I start on individual fish... but that will be for next week because I have to go and mix up a batch of brownies for a friend's birthday party! I'll have to bake them at his place 'cause the kitchens in this blasted dorm don't have ovens! (but that's a rant for another day...).

Remember: any who are interested are more than welcome to join in on Fishy Fridays! I was going to try and set up a Mister Linky thingy, but turns in I have to pay and upgrade from the free status so that will also wait until I figure it out better. In the meantime if you feel like posting something aquatic related just leave me the link in the comments and I'll add it in and link away! :o)

50 Things killed by the Internet

So there's this article on the website for the British newspaper The Telegraph in which the author lists (and explains) 50 things that have become obsolete (or extinct) thanks to the internet and other new communication technologies (cell phones, GPS systems).

Here are a few points I thought very interesting and heartily agreed/disagreed with:

1) The art of polite disagreement
Oh yeah! No one seems to take the time to think before they "speak" (i.e. write) anymore! No more "count to ten if you're angry"... people just blast away and then without taking the time to re-read their rant, insults, arguments whatever they just click on "send" "post" and off it goes into cyberspace... No matter how you regret it later and wish to retract it, it's still there for any and all to see and discover...

5) Punctuality
The author states:

"Before mobile phones, people actually had to keep their appointments and turn up to the pub on time. Texting friends to warn them of your tardiness five minutes before you are due to meet has become one of throwaway rudenesses of the connected age."

Now I am so guilty of this one that I often wonder how on earth I (and my friends who are just as bad as me, if not worse! at least the Spanish ones) ever managed to meet up with people before I ever gave in and got a cell phone?! Although I must say, the advantage to this is that we no longer have to stand around waiting >1/2h for that one friend who was always that late (if not more). Now we can just send him a text message and say "we're at such and such place so just show up whenever". :p


10) Watches
Um, excuse me?! I can't live without my watch! As an occasional guide and teacher I need to have something easy and quick to glance at to let me know how I'm doing in distributing my time and if I need to pick up the pace or can take a bit longer on a certain point! Pulling out your cellphone to check the time in a middle of class is just rude! To me it sends a message of "bored now!"

12) Letter writing/pen pals
So sad and so true... I miss mail!!! :o(

14) Dead time
Ditto. I don't think I've spent much "alone time" disconnected from my computer since I started this blog!

15) Photo albums and slide shows
Umhmm... but then I think of that massive box with several years of photos still to be organised and put in albums... and I look at the number of digital shots stored on my computer... and I can only be grateful for this one! ;o) (besides, much as I looooove photo albums, sitting through someone else's isn't usually that fun!)

27) Knowing telephone numbers off by heart
Actually I mostly have this problem with my own (cell phone number). I usually end up memorizing my friends' landline numbers (since I call them -dial!!!- from my landline).

29) The mystery of foreign languages
NOT TRUE!!! I am very proud of speaking 3 languages fluently (English, Spanish & French), improvising my way through a 4th (Catalan) by mixing up two of the previous, understanding the basics of a 5th (German) and remembering a few key phrases and numbers in a 6th (Arabic)! I still want to learn the last two properly and tack on Greek... languages are lots of fun!!!

31) Privacy
Well, while I've got nothing to hide... you can bet if I did I wouldn't be dumb enough to post it anywhere online! ;o)

35) Concentration
Oh boy YES! Queen of Procrastination so admits to being GUILTY on this one! :o(


43) Solitaire
And why is this a bad thing again? :p


You can read the rest of the article by clicking here.

Anything in that list that jumps out at you? What else would you add?

I'd add a positive point about Facebook etc.: keeping in touch with old friends even superficially is better than losing track of them altogether when none of us had time to write serious letters! I'm the kind of person that once you've entered my circle of friends (real friends, not just acquaintances or colleagues) you're in there for life (but I must also admit I'm rather picky when it comes to letting someone get that close to me, quality not quantity is what matters!)! We can meet up years later and I will greet you and welcome you home as if we'd seen each other last week even if we have been in touch for years. So I like a device that lets me know how my friends are doing and what they're up to, will make conversations easier when we meet up again! :o)

Oh, and another positive point that has been brought to my attention while writing this: spell check in your web browser! :p

090909

Is it very nerdy if I admit I like numbers that look cool together?

Like today's date: September 9th, 2009 a.k.a.:

I just love its symmetry! :p

(not too mention its one of those days I don't have to worry if I'm writing the day European or US style, they coincide! lol)

And wouldn't you know, apparently there's a movie called 9 hitting the screens today (well, in the US at least. It comes out next Wednesday in Belgium)!

TV Addiction: too much internet? :p

Hmmm... do you think it's a sign I maybe spend a bit too much time browsing TV news related websites if I just got an e-mail inviting me as a "frequent commenter" to preview a new series online? :p

Or should I just feel honoured?

Or maybe EW was just sending out the invite to anyone who's commented on their website? Dunno... but anyhow I got sent a link and a code to preview the pilot episode for ABC's new comedy Modern Family:



Hmmm... kind of funny but in a contrived way (to me at least) so not very convincing! I was kind of annoyed by the repeated "interruptions" in the form of interviews of the three main couples as if they were in therapy or something... Although it's an interesting idea for the pilot (to introduce the characters to us), I think it could tiresome very quickly so I hope they don't keep it up throughout the series!

So the basic premise for this series is a tale of what it's like to be part of a "modern family" with three cases studies: An older man and his new much younger wife with her 12 year-old son from a previous marriage; a nuclear family of five with a dad who's not as cool as he thinks and a mom who wants to make sure her eldest daughter doesn't do the same crazy mistakes she did; and a gay couple who've just adopted a baby girl in Vietnam. Why these three families in particular? Well it all comes clear at the end of the pilot and it's a fun reveal so I won't spoil it for you. ;o)


I'm not very experienced in the "review field", so I think I'll send you on to a couple of people who do that quite well:

• Jace over at Televisionary was quite taken with this new show, particularly with the casting.

• Michael Ausiello over at The Ausiello Files on EW.com calls it "Easily the best comedy pilot of the new fall season."... um, oh dear! I mean, I giggled a bit, but no outright laughs...

• The TV Addict also really liked this pilot and called it "the Fall's funniest new show" (here).

Hmm... it's beginning to sound like I just don't get it or something! :p I'm not that big on flatout comedies -with a few exceptions- so that might have something to do with it (although I love some shows with comic elements / witty banter � la House, Bones etc.).

Anyhow, if you're interested the show premieres (for those Sateside) on Wednesday Sept 23rd at 9PM ET/PT on ABC. Let me know what you thought of it! ;o)