08 October 2013

Originality is not expensive

For about 2 or 3 weeks in September, Ross and I went "kringwinkeling" nearly every day. Mostly to find things to furnish his new apartment.

Before

But I often find things I just can't pass up . . .

Like this adorable chest of drawers. Only 10 euros!

I've mentioned the kringwinkel on several occasions in my blog posts because it truly is one of my favorite things to do. Flanders (northern half of Belgium) has captured and refined the art of bargain hunting and I am all in.

Ross found this 1950's Bernina sewing machine - runs off pedal-power, not electricity!

Begun in 2002, there are now 118 kringwinkel stores in Flanders so you're never more than about 20 minutes away from one and the treasures change daily.

Their mission is pretty simple: save the environment and social responsibility.

- recycling what would have been waste into useful and affordable items for nearly any budget.

- to create jobs for people who have few opportunities in the labor market here - we can't all be doctors and lawyers and Indian chiefs.

I know, I know, but for 5 euros, this hedgehog was calling my name.

Sometimes it's difficult to get the larger items in the car . . .

like when we were trying to get this cabinet in the trunk.

Seriously, we actually saw this pink Cadillac. In Belgium. We didn't stay to witness what eventually happened, but we figured despite the cowboy's determination, THAT was definitely NOT going to happen.

Since not every purchase is in perfect condition, occasionally some modifications are needed . . .

Here's Jim, Ross and his sweet friend Laurel doing just that.

Yes, that's my finger over the lens. I have quite a few pictures like this on my phone :-/

Sanding away.

Notice. No finger in the picture.

Jim and Ross constructed his new desk from a door and some pipes.

Not bad, huh?

Ross also did his own artwork to decorate the walls.

His studio wasn't limited to the garden . . .

it also encompassed the dining room/parlor? for a week or so.

I'd say it turned out quite nice.

Home sweet home.

Sometimes I can't help picking up a thing or two for the kleinkinderen.

How adorable is this dress for 3 euro?!

03 October 2013

Traffic Update

So, since I posted about the Belgian verkeershinder recently, I figured I might as well update that post with this one. I was surprised to find this article in our local newspaper only days after I posted on my experience driving in Brussels . . .

ECONOMY Despite the crisis and the long queues, the number of cars in our country in one year increased by 50,000 units to 5.5 million units.

That according to the latest figures from the FPS Economy. A total of 6,993,767 registered motorized vehicles in our country. Besides the ordinary cars concerns include 740,000 trucks and vans, 450,000 motorcycles, 184,000 agricultural vehicles and 16,000 buses.

The electric car remains a marginal phenomenon. The 919 electric cars represent only 0.016 percent of the 5.5 million cars.

No doubt Belgians have an obsession with owning a vehicle despite the vast options for public transportation here. Not to mention the bike!

Of course, there is some added cost to biking too - the ~~likely~~ assured event at some point your bike will be stolen. We should know.

Which reminds me of the time Ross was headed to the train station here in Hasselt and the lock for his bike was all the way upstairs (3rd floor) and I said "Don't worry about it, who would steal that POS?". When he returned to the station, I got this text . . . "Bike's gone". There you have it.

Released just yesterday, these are current gasoline prices (in US dollars) per gallon. Also included are gas prices, for this time of year, since our move to Belgium in 2009.

Release Date: October 2, 2013

Retail Premium Gasoline Prices, Selected Countries(U.S. dollars per gallon, including taxes)
Date	Belgium	France	Germany	Italy	Netherlands	UK	US
9/30/2013	7.90	7.69	8.12	8.88	8.83	8.17	3.76

10/1/2012

8.24

7.51

8.16

9.00

8.90

8.46

4.09

10/3/2011

7.81

7.45

7.55

7.95

8.15

7.83

3.70

10/4/2010

7.14

6.81

7.04

6.97

7.62

6.94

2.97

10/5/2009

6.95

6.71

7.28

6.86

7.47

6.34

2.71

That's a 5-year average of $7.61 per gallon for Belgians and an average of $3.45 per gallon for Americans. Frankly, I don't know how they do it here.

Nearly 7 million vehicles on the road in this tiny country. No wonder there's ~~often~~ pretty much always a traffic jam!

12 September 2013

Verkeershinder

Verkeershinder, more or less, means traffic problems in Dutch. We have our GPS programmed to "speak" in Dutch and it frequently uses that word as we travel around this tiny country.

Ross is moving into an apartment in Brussels and we've been making trips back and forth taking all the treasures we've found at the local kringwinkels (thrift shops). At first, we waited for the weekend and Jim did the driving.

I finally decided this week, despite normally driving as little as possible, I needed to get comfortable driving to the new apartment. Now, that may not sound like a big deal, but . . .

where do you think the worst traffic on the planet is?

Los Angeles? New York? Paris? London?

Nope, it's Brussels, Belgium.

According to an article I read in Forbes magazine, the INRIX scoreboard of navigation and traffic gives Brussels the Number One spot for "worst traffic jams in world"!

The 10 Most Traffic Congested Cities In The World

1 of 10

AFP/Getty Images

1. Brussels, Belgium

According to the annual INRIX Traffic Scorecard, drivers in Brussels face the worst traffic jams in the world.

And to add insult to injury . . . Number Two goes to Antwerp - also in Belgium.

Keep in mind that you can fit the country of Belgium in the top one-third of the state of Louisiana. It's tiny . . . with a lot of people - and a lot of cars.

I don't know how many people use public transport here, but the times I've taken the train to Brussels, there is often standing room only. About 500,000 people commute to work each day in Belgium and a whopping 75% of those are going into Brussels. Thank goodness some people don't have a car!

So, having said all that, I'm cautiously optimistic about continuing to drive into Brussels - preferably not during rush hour(s) and preferably not in the rain. Neither of which is possible, of course :)

Forbes article