Happy New Year

The man who sells waffles in Schuman metro station, in the heart of Brussels' Euroland, was not at work today. I tend to think that if he wasn't at work, having presumably decided that too few people wanted his waffles today, then nobody else should have been at work either.

I, for one, was relatively happy to be at work today. It's the beginning of a new year, the sun was shining for once and the empty Schuman metro station was boasting a new sign that made me laugh. The bins had all been covered with metal sheets, presumably because of New Year fireworks and terrorist threats not mixing well with big important Eurobuildings, and each had an accompanying explanation in several languages. The English version was best: for our own protection, the bins had been 'temporarily suppressed'. It conjured images of bins running wild with raised fists, and brave metromen nailing them down with their sheets of metal, protecting all the waffleless people of Brussels from this terrible scourge.