Language, rioting and bird flu

Morning proles, my French lessons are now in full swing and are taking up about 6 hours a day so that's keeping me busy. I threw a bunch of applications in to firms that were advertising only in Dutch. Not sure what they were for, but seemed like a laugh at the time. Actually, I'm beginning to get the impression that employers simply demand tri-lingual (Fr-Nl-En) candidates as a matter of course. My French teacher reckons there's precious few tri lingual people in Brussels and certainly everyone seems to choose either Dutch or French, rarely speaking both. In fact one of my first lessons in Brussels politics was watching two people talking to each other on the street. From their accents, one was clearly French, the other just as obviously Flemish. They communicated in English. There seems to be a crisis of identity here; Brussels is reportedly about 50% Francophone and certainly the language of the street seems to be more like 80% French. The City, however, is not only the capital of the country but also of Flemish Brabant and so you don't need to go too far out (say ... 3 miles) before French stops being spoken completely. I am banking on the Flemings (as my Fr / Belgian mate Marc calls them) to be more forgiving of a mono-lingual twerp such as me than the French are.

Which reminds me, a quick note about the rioting in France. I just heard reported speech on the radio (God Bless the BBC) that some politico or pundit said "if they're not happy here, they can return to their homelands", to which the rioter responded "but that's Lyon", which just summed up the whole problem, really. Seems the French Right wing are right behind the rioters - poking them with sticks.

Jezza sent me this weather report for today;

On to the linkys and I am privileged to be on the mailing list of Carnage resident and world famous raconteur Guy Brennan. Guy clearly has almost as much time on his hands as I so I get a lot of stuff from him. Mostly videos, which I can't be arsed to post, this story, however about two cheer leaders doing what comes naturally and getting arrested (although not for that) is worth a looky. Finally I got this from Jezza, who also has too much time on his hands;

Actually, you could replace Bird Flu with SARS and the joke would still work, it reminds me a little of the Belgian legend that, way back when, beer was popularised here by some duke announcing "Drink beer, then you won't catch the plague!" Interesting logic and based on the fact that water for beer is boiled during the brewing process, therefore proofing it against the disease. Of course he could have opined "boil your water, then you won't catch the plague!" but then L'eau du Trappiste doesn't really have the same ring to it.

Bomber out