it sure feels like europe!!

what an excellent autumn day!  the sun was shining, but still cool enough for a light jacket during a languid Sunday afternoon bicycle ride into the South [het Zuid] of Antwerp...

I'd brought along my camera for any incidental photos, but the amazing thing that i found out when I got back was that I really liked all the pictures!  There was a very fine fog in the earlier part of the day, and probably helped to diffuse the sunshine that little bit extra nicely..

here is just a doorway to a house on one of the streets leading to the Leien  [the avenues that used to be the fortifications of medieval Antwerp]

and in this pic, you get a sense of the fine mist i mentioned earlier....its quite magical what it does with the light

here, the first signs of autumn are kicking in; with just-browning leaves
and an extremely desirable addition to any home; a shrubbery!
i was gobsmacked when I saw the entrance to this unassuming ground-floor entrance to a 3 storey walk up
look at that character all behind the typeface of the number; I would love to get such a classic typeface for our next home!!
i seemed to be taking a fair number of autumn-coloured pictures, and this is one of the unexpected ones that I really liked!
and I took this pic on our way back home; isn't it amazing that the builders have to put this much effort to conserve the integrity of the neighbouring apartments on the corner?  I think I am too used to seeing yet another HDB en bloc redevelopement site...this, to me,  just says that care and effort are going into this building!!
and here was an unexpected bit of street art that jumped out of no where....can you spot it?
all in all, it really felt like a very European day out yesterday - yes, its a bit silly to state the obvious, but that's what I was thinking in my head for the rest of the day...

op de dokken!

So we spent the evening yesterday at the docks of Antwerp; yes, for those of you who didn't know, Antwerp is a bustling port-city too!!

I was involved with this project - MAS under construction, where there was a one day exhibition/livemusic/BBQ event, and i was working on the exhibition component of this where we installed works INSIDE a heavy goods boat!!

here is a pic of the MAS [museum aan de stroom] in the morning; it's a new building built on 'het eilandje' or small island, which is in the docks...and the museum is for the maritime history as well as ethnographic past of Antwerp...

here is a pic of the boat where we installed the works into...it was a really nice space with lots of rust and textured wood! and get this, the owner is a web designer!!

this was some kind of light-boat which was docked around the corner from the MAS..cool eh?

and this is the view into the boat....here we have some artists installing their works ...

and this was one of the main things i had to work with an artist-friend, Ephameron - it was just about being finished when i took this pic...

one little thing...Jos has mentioned this in the past days...the weather here actually looks really nice - AND it averages about 15 degrees during the day...which is great!! the nights on the other hand are dropping to the single digits, so it is getting a bit cold...

nothing some hot chocolate can't solve, eh?

its national day again!

yes yes, you didn't see wrongly...the Singapore Embassy for the Benelux threw a National Day makan session for Singaporeans in the region, and i scored us an invite!

so in the morning, we decided to go past the Art Deco Swimming Pool from 1933 which was open as part of the Monument Open House day..

on our way there, we came across this children's playground..it must be some kind of device for child-like fun....but it looks like the synthetic floor's been pierced!

so we made it to the swimming pool; and yes, the skies are blue but the weather is now firmly in Autumn with 15-19 degree days, even with the sun out!

here are some balloons on the ceiling for the kids who visit..

and this is us on the part of the tour where we look at the basement levels where they have a 'hammam' styled bath - with spice and oil baths for patrons!

and this is a chimney which comes out of the complex..

we then made it over to an Indonesian restaurant where the National Day celebrations were being held...the Ambassador to the Benelux gave a tiny 4 minute speech, and basically everyone went into full swing with eating and talking and saying 'lah'

and here is Jos with half of her lunch [which consisted of a good version of rendang, gado gado, ayam lemak and mee goreng] outside because the place was packed !!

it was good to have met some Singaporeans overseas - and of course the makan was a good reason to be there too!!