After last week’s disappointment with Parc du Cinquantenaire, Amber and I cautiously made our way to Parc de Wolvendael on Saturday afternoon. No easy task because roadwarks around our neighbourhood have disrupted a handful of tram and bus lines for a fortnight. But we persevered, and boy, was it worth it. The park was lovely, and the day was sunny and the right amount of warm. We spent the afternoon there people watching and eating a late lunch. I had been keen to try non-alcoholic beers here in Brussels, and we drank the NA beer of the month on offer — pretty good. That encouraged me to also pick up a couple of Trotinette IPA, also non-alcoholic, that I had spotted grocery shopping because of their adorable labels.
Our good luck with parks continued as we visited Parc d’Egmont on May Day. I was enamoured by the pair of Peter Pan inspired sculptures and Snibbles’s Tree. Yet another late lunch, this time at La Fabrique on Ville, rounded out the afternoon before we watched Devil Wears Prada 2 at a nearby cinema.
In the middle of the week, I made another trip to Schleiper. At the time, Amber was supposed to travel to Lusaka for RightsCon, and I wanted to pick up some craft supplies for my days alone. I have some cyanotype plans, but of course, the sun is expected to disappear for a few days, just as I am prepared to make some prints. In what was a complete shock, RightsCon was cancelled at the last moment, and so while the sun might be gone for a few days, my housemate will be here.
I almost met Ambika on Tuesday as she and her family were traveling through Brussels, but it didn’t work out in the end. I also had many more chats with my folks, which was nice.
Little by little, the apartment is becoming more lived in. We hung up some art in the bedroom — the cover of a sheet music pamphlet I bought at the Art Nouveau and Art Deco Objects Fair and a charming illustrated print of a heron I found on a greeting card. The heron hangs next to the window that is our birdwatching perch in this home, a little detail that makes me smile. In Noida, a pair of wooden bird sculptures, gifts from Aditi, sit next to the window wall that frames our living room, and acts as my bird hide.
With temperatures being well above average here already, we’ve been feeling anxious about what the summer will bring. In preparation, we bought our first fan, and I’ve been sleeping much better in its hum and breeze. Speaking of warm weather, my new sandals are still somewhere in the abyss of BPost and I’ve been feeling very annoyed by the delay.
This week, too, was quite good work-wise. I made reasonable progress on the type design project I am working on, sent in the first draft of an essay, and shared designs for the small lettering project that has been underway. I was also interviewed about the book, and that piece will be out in a magazine soon.