The "&"-sign followed by various unknown terms

That's it! Forget it!
I'm not going to change it anymore. It's not clear to me what happens, but it seems that unusual signs (written on Picasa as commentary below pictures) convert into "&xxx".
The "xxx" stands for 'quot' or 'amp' or something else.

With unusual signs I mean: "&", " " ",...

I just wanted to let you know amigos.

Belgian beers, what we are proud of!

It's true. We have some of the better beers made on this planet! And I'm saying this in a very modest way.
Sure, there is competition: each country and region wants to profile itself and its products as 'the best', 'unique', 'the most', 'the biggest',...

It has to be extreme to be good, being n°1. That's the direction the world is heading. Sad but true.

Tastes are depending from person to person. But one of the leading websites that's evaluating beers through the opinion of visitors is Ratebeer.com

Check for yourself: http://www.ratebeer.com/Ratings/Ratings-Top50.asp

Westvleteren Abt 12 is a pure Belgian product and rare! For the full story I advice you to have a look on this link: http://www.sintsixtus.be/

Other famous beers are: Hoegaarden, Leffe, Duvel, Kwak (famous for the glass), Stella Artois, Jupiler, Westmalle (Tripel in particular), Vedett, Rodenbach, Kriek, Rochefort, Palm, Orval, Rochefort, Malheur, Maes, Liefmans, Kasteelbier, Grimbergen, Gentse & Brugse Tripel, Ename, Delirium Tremens, Chimay, Ciney, Belle-Vue, Augustijn, Affligem,...

Spanish beers, well Spanish beers are, well, let's say they are different!

Try, compare, and convince yourself!

The Westvleteren-series are not for sale in pubs nor in shops, but some basic must-have-taste Belgian beers can be found in BCN at: Belchica Bar, La Cervecera Artesana, Glaciar Bar, Cerveceria El Flabiol, Cerveceria d'Or, Cerveceria Mengi Mengi,...

Just another day for you and me...

...in the laboratory! (from 9-11 a.m. to 6-8 p.m.)

"How does a "normal" day look like? What are you doing there, in the UAB?"

Well, first of all, there doesn't exist something like a "normal" day!
Every day is different, with its ups and dows, depending mostly on the mood of the pilot plant.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'm following the (8hrs) cycle of our pilot plant. The other days are filled with meetings and reunions, processing the collected data -and thinking about explanations-, reading -papers in general, sometimes online newspapers-, fullfilling the daily needs of our precious plant, keep an eye on the pilot plant (= to make sure it works 24hrs/day), making the alimentation (or feed, food for the bacteria, eetn vo de bjeestn), keeping the place clean, cleaning the probes, making sure the analyse of the samples is done, walking around in the ETSE, going to have a look and chat with colleagues, making pictures, picking up phones, reading emails, checking Facebook, going to the restaurant to buy myself a Cacaolat or one of these great muffins, buying train & bus tickets for the weekend and begging for credit cards, etc.

And yes, I do wish a day was more than just 24hrs!

Out of business

A nightmare when you're depending on your portable for your work and (abroad) social contact, when you're addicted to your music on its hard disk, when you really like to take pictures but denied to make a backup of them because you thought it would never happen to you...

I had my lesson: when it happens, it's too late! So let's 'backupamos' frequently from now on.

*"Davy?"
-"Yes?"
*"Shall we do that more often in the future?"
-"Pfff, OK than..."

Thank you AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition for deleting the critical Windows file user32.dll; your skills convinced me to pay for the complete version.






After formatting my hard disk (Sp.: disco duro) twice, I'm back online! Unfortunately with the Spanish version of Office, but it's much better than nothing. A Dutch version is on its way and in a few days it's completely history.

Thank you Juan! You have a bigger value than the whole -at 10% speed working- (or maybe it's at 100 for them and picking up phones while eating snacks and coffee is their daily challenge) "help desk" of the ETSE.

PS1: Nothing, except my music, was lost.
PS2: Meanwhile I'm having again AVG on my portable. I guess they won't make the same mistake twice. Right?
PS3: The ETSE-"help desk" helped me after all: they gave me a link on a paper to a website where they "probably could help me". The protocol forbids them to touch computers or portables not owned by the UAB. Speaking of "playing by the book", I'm sure illegal software has never been touched by them as well...

FM de la UAB!

I've never seen an official university open air party like this!

You can compare it to a medium Belgian summer festival: the music, the big stages, the party people, the drinks (Absent incl.), the weather, the sounds of several thousands of young people gathered to let it loose.

Welcome to the "Festa Major de la UAB"!

24.10.2008 Life - Once again, the UAB is celebrating its annual festival, the Festa Major. This year the festival will take place on 6 November at the same location as last year, on the western side of the campus between the Plaça Acadèmica (Rectorate Building) and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The Plaça Cívica will continue to be the area reserved for activities related to culture and solidarity.
This year's FM UAB 2008 is filled with activities. There will be the traditional student and association stands - a total of 80 this year - with food and drinks, and prizes for the most sustainable stands. There will also be several concerts, from resounding rock bands to the more mellow grooves of reggae or ska, without forgetting pop and electronic music. This year's guest group will be The Gruixuts, a Catalan Rock&Roll band from the Empordà region, winners of the 2007 edition of Sona9.
The festival will include circus and dance performances and human castle building by the University's castellers. Students can also participate in human table football matches, poem tournaments or rock band competitions and many other activities.
There will be fun and games for all, without forgetting the UAB solidarity stands, the Creative Recycling Area with information on renewable energies used on campus, and health campaigns at the Chill-out area of the "Health Tent".

(from: http://www.uab.es/servlet/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1096476786473&noticiaid=1224829294326&pagename=UAB%2FPage%2FTemplatePlanaDivsNoticiesdetall)

Concert at Harlem Jazz Club

A concert of who?

Fouad Al-Hayani!

I'm sure nobody knows this guy, but the songs were great. All members of the band were into Arabian style. When Fouad was singing and you closed your eyes, it felt like being in the Middle East on midday.

He tried to let us sing (making "sounds") but it's impossible to follow the heights of his voice. It looked like it took a lot of energy to make those sounds.

Toughest question is: what were they singing about? Probably girls, youth, love, like over 75% of all songs ever made.

The music wants to let you dance. A few almost did. Almost.

Thanks for the invitation Jose & Anabel!

Harlem Jazz Club

C/ Comtessa De Sobradiel 8 (barri Gótic)

08002 Barcelona

Spain

(http://www.harlemjazzclub.es/)

Margots new haircut

"A woman changes during her life 26 times her look."
(recent news from the newspapers)

And it seems to be correct: they ARE indeed changing very often. But ok, it's not sure if she's doing it that often like the (let's call it) tittle-tattles say. Honestly it doesn't matter for my blog... For me it's just my silliest message until now! Maybe others think it's the most interesting message I've wrote?
No more words, but pictures.

Dear colleagues, here you got the new haircut of Margot:

PS1: You're next...

PS2: I'm sorry Margot... but you were the perfect example and on the wrong place(s) at a wrong time! :p

Vдℓєŋςιд

"City of fiestas, sun, horchata, paella, orange trees, rice,..."

That's how I would describe this great Spanish city. There's always a place to party, for some reason it rains rarely, they use tigernuts (chufas) to make a drink of it, paella is one of its prouds, oranges can be found in the streets, rice is grown in the south,...

And it's impossible not to mention the "Agua de Valencia" ("Aïgua di València" in Valenciano), to explain "who" is "El Carmen" (= old city center and good place to go out), to ask the question if the money to build "la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias" was justified, to tell you why my Valencian friends are not pleased with their "Rita" (the mayor), to tell you what the "Túria" is (= dry river converted into a huge park), to tell you churros and buñuelos are best aten with chocolate, to predict the end of "Valor" when my (Belgian/future) chocolate bussiness in Valencia runs at full speed,... This list doesn't stop! I could tell you a hundred typical things about Valencia and at least as many stories (let's say "tonterias")... ☺

After my 5 months of living in Valencia (in 2007), I have returned 3 times. The best part of going back is that feeling you can have with a very familiar place: the coming-back-home-feeling! When every street, every building, has an important role in emotional memories, you never get bored of seeing them.

It was the best period of my life until now.

¡VIVA VALENCIA! (*)




(*) and the people that were/are part of it!