The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good

World Peace happens when diverse cultures learn from one another. Edouard's new buddy, Naim, taught him how to cut his food using a knife and fork. And Naim, now responds with "Cool, woueh!" to most questions (his father was wondering where he picked that up).

To his delight, Edouard got new Geox running shoes. If you believe the marketing hype, the venting holes in the soles and and the antimicrobial liner inhibit foot stink. That remains to be seen. All Edouard knows is that his shoes run fast.

The Bad

Another awful day at the Commune for Hubby. Long lines of folks asking for permanent residency, with woeful stories and bearing no official credentials from their tiny African nation. Hubby just needs his Belgian identity card so that the hospital can pay him a salary. To obtain his identity card, he needs a work visa, completed by the hospital. The hospital complied. The little bureacrat, kindly let him know that only the hospital director could submit the visa request. Would Hubby kindly ask the hospital director to queue at the Aalst Commune to validate his own signature on the visa request? The little man further insisted that Hubby, however, could validate his own visa request if he had...an identity card. That's where the logic ends.

The Ugly

I found this in Paris. I find this in Brussels. The water is calcium-lime hard. There are water spots on everything. I can feel the residue in my hair. My tangles look like straw. Will I have to hack it off? Will it recover from this assault?

On the upside, the water is good for my bones.