How do you get parliamentarians and their staff to better use web tools in their everyday work? It’s a question at the heart of what I do for clients on an everyday basis… So I’m rather content that Google’s Brussels office has asked me to help out with a workshop […]
Back in 2002 I was doing a poorly paid internship at Institut für Europäische Politik in Berlin and my then boss (who subsequently has become a good friend) Bernd Hüttemann said to me on my very first day “Jon, there’s no point you making travel bookings for me, it’s just […]
The original (53 million views at the time of writing) The Newport spoof (ace, especially for me as I grew up there, 1.2 million views at the time of writing) The Brussels (half-)spoof (where I live now, 26k views, some catching up to do!) Set all of those playing all […]
Right, this is a blog entry that’s going to annoy a lot of people. But I’m very annoyed. So here goes. I’m totally, utterly and completely sick of dog owners. Note I am not completely and utterly sick of dogs. I’m not unfriendly towards animals. A dog is a dog. […]
One of my favourite political books – mentioned on this blog before – is Don’t Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff. The idea behind the title is to show what happens when the wrong words are used. You read that title and of course you think of an elephant. […]
I’ve known for a while that I needed to move away from Brussels. I even tried to crowdsource some answers about where to move. But now my mind is made up – London it will be, from sometime later this year. I don’t know quite when yet, and I equally […]
I’ve had a nightmare winter on the rails of Europe – stranded 3 days thanks to Eurostar (and missing a friend’s wedding as a result), delays with SNCF, and mess with a journey to Germany. Yet today, back home in Brussels, everything looks just a little better. Almost 2 months […]
A mother of three has been shot in Uccle and EUObserver is jumping up and down reporting on the crime rates in various Brussels communes. You can just hear the typical EU expat having a whinge at Place Lux complaining about things, about how unsafe Brussels streets are… and then […]
Brussels on a bicycle is the fastest way to get around, but it’s often like some sort of assault course. Here’s an example. I set off from home at 1950 last night, heading from St Gilles to a friend’s place in St Josse, going via Flagey, rue Gray, chaussée d’Etterbeek. […]
I had an hour between meetings today so called for the first time at Blomqvist’s, a Swedish espresso bar on Place St Boniface in Brussels (no website yet, but FB page is here). It was a cold January morning and the place was rather empty, so while munching my Kanellebulle […]
In the January edition of ‘Mobil’, the magazine of Deutsche Bahn there’s a picture of Guillaume Pépy (head of SNCF), Rüdiger Grübe (chair of the board of Deutsche Bahn) and Yoshio Ishida (president of UIC) beaming at Gare du Midi, Bruxelles, in front of the Climate Express, a special day […]
I had to chuckle when, via a Facebook Friend, I came across the Frequently Asked Question on the Campaign for European democracy (aka Strasbourg defenders) website entitled ‘Why should the European Parliament in Strasbourg be reinforced?‘ Perhaps the campaign is unaware that FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions and that […]