The Friendship Store

friendship store

Who needs Facebook when Brussels has this to offer? Love may not have a price but friends do, it seems.

I wanted to check it out but it was closed for holidays. I'll have to go to IKEA and get some flat pack kits and see if I can make some friends instead.

Mechanics Shop

garage shop

I love this shop with it's splash of colour, the bold announcements, the display of car parts and engines.

But most of all, I love it for the mosaic under the window "Pour Vos Cadeaux". how very seasonal and remember, if you love her, say it with spark plugs!

Deviation

deviation tapis sign

Could this be a cunning ruse to increase carpet sales? Take a deviation into the shop and find out for yourself.

blue phone

blue phone

Another great shop sign, this time near Ribaucourt Metro.

Papered Windows

papered windows

Thought a photo of a closed shop would fit in with my mood after England's miserable performance last night.

Still, we'll get a new manager, but will we get a new pitch? The new stadium cost around 1.5 billion euros and has a pitch that is virtually unplayable if the British weather is anywhere south of party cloudy.

The underside of the pitch is 95% sand, supposedly to help with drainage. however it doesn't and players can often be seen sliding right off the pitch in wet weather. That amount of sand means that the grass doesn't bind together and great clods of turf can be seen flying around.

Ho hum.

Gayelord

gayelord

Yes, it's time for cross-cultural confusion, evidenced in product packaging.

I later saw some sweet pastry 'cigarettes'...

Doctor Vinyl

doctor vinyl

There are a couple of good old fashioned record shops in Brussels, some cool and hip, others just engagingly shambolic.

It isn't as much fun flicking through a rack of CD's and their tiny sleeves as going through a rack of LP's.

And vinyl does sound better.

flamingo

flamingo

This shop is currently having a sale, a pallet sale, to be precise.

All I can say, is if you're buying your mucky DVD's by the pallet load, you've got a problem.

mmmm Tasty

spice_of_cat

I thought the gourmet readers of this blog might like to try out this little treat.

Hat tip to Andy Ramblings.

Spiderman Goes to the Gym

spiderman

Just splendid. I love this shop, not least because I was looking for somewhere to service my Spiderman kung fu boxing needs.

Now I just head down to the American Gym Fitness Shop.

Beautiful Brussels

beautiful brussels sticker

This one worries me. Perhaps it's the psychotic facial expression, or the uncertainty about what exactly you get for your precious Euro, but whatever it is, it just seems disturbing. Though the poor chap seems deleriously delighted to be urinating on France.

peruvians

peruvians

A group of Peruvians have taken over rue Neuve for some time now. Usually they're just selling various faux-ethnic goods whilst keeping an eye out for the police, but sometimes they really go for it.

Ever since Clannard and so on in the eighties, the worlds city centers have been plagued with the sound of pan pipes. Now they are very pleasant, but like bagpipes, have a limited range and one quickly tires of it. Especially when they appear to be using Motorhead's sound system. I get the feeling that if they get the right note they would smash every window in cite 2.

So, out come the budgie costumes. It all sounds like an Andean birdy song, but is quite nice to see and hear for a few seconds. After that, I find it irritating.

Saturday

departing tram

And Saturday means.... double shopping.

One thing I've not got used to is that pretty much everything shuts on a Sunday - at least it does in bland suburbia, where we are.

If you forget something then it's a long trek to the garage a kilometer away. In Britain garages at night are full of stoned kids looking for munchies, in Brussels it's the middle classes searching for missing ingredients for supper.

Les Intimes

erotix shop

There are some places where you take photos quickly, and this is one of them. I loved the bar's name, Les Intimes, next to the 'erotic' shop. Also caught the girl trying to get a sneaky peek inside.

I've never seen a sex shop that was sexy or an erotic shop that was erotic. Guess I'm not that into seedy and shabby.

Coiffure Anneessens

coiffure

I found this sign to be a bit startling as it seems to indicate that you would get severe facial injuries if you had a haircut here.

I've seen so many wonderful shop signs over the years that I always keep my eye out for them. My favourite one is in Brikama, The Gambia, where I saw a small blackboard outside a plain shop saying 'Rice and Cement'.

Sure enough, as I looked inside, there were sack of rice to the left and cement on the right.

Next door they were selling 'Readymade Chicken'.

Spot The Dog

dog and dogs close

Finally the rain stopped and out enjoying the sun was this bulldog next to a couple of designer dog decoration things.

I also noticed that the pooch had a bumbag. Didn't want to try and nick it though.

Anyway, notice to shopkeepers: if you want to boost trade don't put a bulldog on the front step, blocking the door.

Restaurant Marian

slaves close

Wandering along Anspach, I couldn't help doing a double take of this restaurant when I saw it's specialities.

No, I didn't eat there as I'm not sure about the etiquette of munching on a slave. Do you use forks? Are they a dip? what about salad?

I did the decent thing and contacted the police and Amnesty International.

Closed Tarot Shop

closed tarot shop

I thought this shop looked interesting and when I went up to look at the odd hand symbols, I could see that it was an old tarot and fortune telling shop.

I wonder if they foresaw themselves going out of business?

A Mannekin Pic!

2-heads

It's looking like being a busy weekend, celebrating Iris Day. Party Animal Planet has a good run down of the events this weekend. There's Hoverphonics in the Grand Place on Saturday, but I'm going to the street festival in the Place Saint-Jean quarter.

After that I might pop into the Parliament and finish up with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra in the Grand Place.

Anyone else coming?

Mmmm Coffee

java-shutter

I loved this globe, painted on a trendy cafe's shutters, especially the added red arrow pointing at Belgium and saying 'You Are Here'. You've got to look for bad coffee in this city and even the Quick does a decent cup.

There's a Tea Room next to Anneessens that does a lovely 'revive the dead' cup that works for me, but Zoe doesn't like it at all.

So, where should I go for coffee? Who does the Best in Brussels?