commemoration day

We had a day off in Belgium yesterday, because the end of the First World War was commemorated. It seemed that not too many people love to honour this day, because I couldn't find much Belgian flags in the streets and on the houses. Of course, it's almost a century ago that troups decided to stop that terrible war. And, yeah, people have better things to do nowadays...

Me too, by the way. I went to Antwerp to the biggest Belgian book fair of the year, the boekenbeurs. People were bumping against each other because, like every year, the place was far too crowded. But then again, you don't really go for the books. You go to the fair for the atmosphere, for the authors, in other words, just for the pleasure of telling friends and colleagues afterwards: "I went to the book fair". Because nothing else sounds so intelligent.

Maybe placing a nice, Belgian flag in front of my window (which wouldn't make much of a difference, because only the chicken of our neighbours would be able to see it, but that's a minor detail) had been a better idea.