Morning all

As I have a short gap in my ever busy schedule of yoga, french lessons, shopping and generally acting like a tai tai without the budget, I thought I'd update you lot on the latest goings on.

We are now fully ensconsed in Brussels. The flat is looking pretty good, I've been busying myself putting up curtains and swearing at Ikea "self build" furniture for the last 2 or three weeks. Got the lawn done last weekend so we're about finished in the flat and I'm getting bored. Of course in Hong Kong I could just go shopping to stave off boredom but here, with currently only one salary, that isn't really an option. bugger! VAT makes everything bloody expensive aswell.

Brussels is a pretty decent place. Exactly as bureaucratic as you would expect the centre of the EU and NATO to be, which means things take forever allowing you to have fun in the meantime. We are planning to get our bike licenses here, it appears to be about the same process as doing it in the UK, but we can't register a vehicle until we get our ID cards and that could take months more yet....!

Then of course there is the beer. About 15% of our household GDP is currently being spent on beer related activities. Enough, in fact, that one of my tasks this week is to recce a cheaper way to get hold of (decent) beer so we can continue drinking at the rate to which we have become accustomed. Belgium reportedly has >400 breweries, not bad for a country of only 10 million population, and produce everything from basic lagers, pilsners, White beers and wheat beers to stouts and ales as well as a very specialised beer called a Lambic, the appreciation of which is a hobby unto itself and something that I am putting quite a lot of effort into at the moment. It's not all >9% bonkers gear either, although much of it is... Andrea suggested the other night that I think about becoming a beer jounalist. I'm not sure she realises what she'd be letting herself in for!

Bomber out