Among the conditions were such requests as a fireplace, just outside the capital city, a garage, a kitchen that has or can have a dishwasher, storage place and of course a garden. I will not list them whole here because that is not the point and it would bore you anyway. The very important thing that even if it is just a place to rent, it was very clear from the beginning that the house had to have a “soul” or something close to that idea.

We visited a first that was a wreck and where owners were probably expecting us to redo the place before they would eventually sell it. A house that made us feel like we were in a hospital as it was completely anonymous and where touching or changing anything was a sacrilege to the owners. One were there was a real bedroom and then three spaces in the attic that were promoted as rooms. A charming one from inside but where we felt like the architect had decided to put all the rules of practicality outside and where you could not fit any piece of furniture inside due to weird angles, doors, windows or even roof.

Anyway all those were close to what we wanted and we were very close to pick one of them until we fell on the house we both loved. Big rooms, garage big enough to fit a car and park one in front, massive space in the kitchen, calm neighborhood (as far as we can tell), nice place in the basement and a garden that looked like it had been untouched for years. The person from the agency told us that the owners would take care of the garden before we moved in.

We decided to put an option on it and started the painstaking process of applying for it. The questions stripped us from head to toes and I think they know us more now than we know ourselves. It took forever to have answers from the agency they seem to have a hard time to reach the owners too. Eventually we received the draft of the proposition for the contract and decided to have a last look on our way back from a week end in the Ardennes.

That is were the world seems to be filled with strange people who do not think about the consequences of their actions. I was driving at the time and missed the house… why? Because the whole garden was gone! The owners seemed to have decided to remove everything, from the trees to the hedges including the plants, and grass. The only thing that was left was the bare ground and the house in the middle of it.

I must admit, I lost it. Was it that I was tired after the trip, the look in the eyes of my girlfriend about to cry, the fact of being powerless, looking at someone destroying nature for no reason, the fear of having to find something else in a short time, loosing the dreams we had for this garden or maybe all of it put together? On the way back I even stopped the car and started kicking the steering wheel while swearing against them for such a blunt stupid act. Needless to say that I also ended up with a worried girlfriend.

Anyway, after explaining this to the agency we got an appointment with the owners and decided to have last desperate attempt to understand what was possible and how they would fix this situation. When we arrived a new very small hedge has been planted but the rest of the garden was still a pool of mud. The owner explained to us that the previous tenants had disregarded the maintenance of the garden for the last five years and had left nature take over (great, that was what we liked!).

Unfortunately there are rules that limit some things you can do around there, like the heights of a tree, hedge and so on to a maximum of two meters and the hedges and the tree were about four meters high. Trimming them to that height would have killed them (apparently) and had led to an only possible choice, removing them.

Whether we believe this story or not is another question, the thing is that we managed to have an authorization from the owner to redecorate the garden as we see fit as long as we respect the initial convention. And thus we began surfing the net for any possible plant, hedge tree that would grow fast and give life back to this deserted ground.

Since then we cannot stop looking at the garden that we see around us, the type of hedges that we see and wonder how long it would take to grow. My view of the surrounding has been completely changed and includes even more details now than before.

I will not say that this was a positive experience yet, since we are not moving in until next month if we sign the contract. But it certainly is an event that changed the way I look at nature all around. I will probably post more once we sign the contract (I keep my fingers crossed) and start the move.

“Le 22 …2 fois 2….une double fête…un annif et une crémaillère…Le but, être plus que 2 …vous pouvez venir à 2 sans demi-mesure…pour que toute la nuit ça dure…

Dites 33 le 22 pour faire un bienheureux…pour son voyage au Canada un appareil photo il lui faudra…car l’ours est peureux…un zoom il vaut mieux ! ! !

Dites 33 aussi si vous voulez une blonde, une brune, une tequila ou une NA. L’open bar, c’est notre histoire (mais pour les spaghet’, berwet !”

And so we celebrate the 179th birthday of this little country with parade, concert and fireworks! It has been a while since the last time I had a chance to go to this event, usually as it is a day off, some other things take place and the television serves as the relay of the event.

Although we had a slight shower (which is a traditional here), the overall day was absolutely great. I even had the chance to shake hand with our Prince, Phillipe as he was passing by the park.

The decision has been taken tear it down and to replace it with, well I don”t really know but I think just a road to the other side of the building block that was there instead of having a dead end.

Whatever happens we, as in my colleagues and I, have been working in the building next door with all the commotion that are implied in the whole process of taking down a seven floor building. Let just say that some cups and other small items on our desks have had the nasty habit of moving a few milliliters every so often. And I am not even going to recount the number of deep tremors that we felt every day.

Overall I must say that they have done a good work, the building was not only connected to another, it was also surrounded by other buildings which did not leave a lot of space to maneuver the massive crate, boulders and other massive instrument of destruction that those guys are using. Oh yeah one other stuff that will not miss, is the quantity of dusts that landed in and outside our building.

On a final note i have to admit that it was old and ugly; so, good bye and welcome to whatever will come next!

I must admit that regardless of it modern line and the choice of color, the noise is still quite loud but comfort inside and the space available is more than fine.

To give you an idea they went for an American or Japanese arrangement, where you have a single corridor with seats on either side and bars with some sort of little belts hanging from the roof in the center of the corridor.

It’s a very efficient way of using the space and with a single open connection through the whole train it you do not even lose space between the cars. Of course they kept some bus seating arrangement as well in the some cars to create some private space for passenger on long journey.

The other big improvement that has started in the previous model is the introduction of an information screen with the upcoming station, accompanied with a voice announcement of the next station as well as some brief useful information (mainly: train, metro or tram connections). Something that people having traveled in other capitals (London or Paris) may have already experienced but in a city where you have to take at least two languages into account, it is noticeable.

To summarize I am very happy with this new metro and with the new display in each station the underground traveling will soon reach a more modern level on a technical side. If only the same could be said about all the stations…

]]> http://www.0blivion.org/2008/11/subway-station/feed/ 0