Visverkopersstraat, crossing rue Dansaert
A shop for rent, bilingually advertised. The grammatic bastard construction d’ activiteit is an excellent Brussels contraption of French and Dutch words, perfectly understandable, and much shorter than the correct Dutch ‘van de activiteit’
Between Square de l’Aviation and Boulevard Poincarelaan, statue for the fallen Fun fair worker.
This statue commemorates the travelling fun fair workers who died for Belgium in 1914-18 and 1940-45. It holds a masque in its right hand and a sword in its left. Since a few weeks the sword is broken. Likely reason: someone tried to climb the statue, held on to the sword for support, the thin stone blade snapped and bend forward. On the occasion of 21st of july, the day of the Nation, flowers were put at its feet and an attempt was made to tear the sword more or less back into position with a black ribbon.
Puzzling correction by the Brussels public transportation company STIB / MIVB on Metro Rogier, Line 2, direction Simonis. An arrow is added to the information board already displaying an arrow. If that one was corrected, why not replace it entirely? Or does this mean that the metro which runs in the direction of Simonis (as indicated by the original arrow) following the locations displayed on the right, departs on the left platform?
What kind of complaint, or deep insight led to this mysterious intervention?
sighting and photo by femke
Froissart straat / Schuman plein
Found on: http://www.loughrigg.org/belgium/
In the absence of a proper street name sign, somebody put up this substitute! This is where Rue Froissart leaves the Schuman roundabout, in the heart of the EU district in Brussels - both the European Commission and the Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers) have their offices here. So the replacement of the standard Dutch ’straat’ for the English ’street’ is a nice touch, I think!
An extrapolation of Pascal Smets plea to make English the third official language in Brussels.
‘In verband met de meertaligheid van de stad lijkt het me wel nuttig om van het Engels, naast het Nederlands en het Frans, de derde officiële taal in Brussel te maken.’
thanks Femke
Gare du nord / Noordstation, south entrance on bus platform.
Some technical defect causes these doors to open and close endlessly.
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Metro Ribaucourt
The new anti cellulite revolution has arrived! l’Oreal’s Perfect Slim solution. Somebody must have had something against the billboard and smashed the glass. The transportation company STIB MIVB reacted by swiftly pasting a sticker on the smashed glass. Not on top of the hole though, but just above it, right over the depicted anti cellulite machine.
The self adhesive reads:
“This device is temporary out of order. The responsible company has been notified and will do all that is required. Thank you for your understanding”
Rue Washington Straat
Two neighbouring houses with similarly DIY adjusted house numbers. Number 59 is drawn slender and solidly with upright tendencies, whereas number 63 is voluptuous and round, keeping in paste with the intentions of the original design. The imitation copper 6 has been neatly integrated in the permanent marker lay-out.
Financial Tower, Kruidtuin / site former RAC CAE
Many examples of reparations done with tape can be found in this category, most of them are small scale DIY temporary solutions. These two construction workers use tape on a larger scale: on the 20th floor (or there about) of the Financietoren / Tour de Finance they hand over a role of tape to bandage a huge steel hook. (no sound)
This sign asking to separate trash in different coloured containers was mounted upside down. It seems the mistake has not gone unnoticed; the plate has been turned back to its normal position.
The above photo’s were taken by Tineke van Engeland at Metro station Ceria-Coovi, Brussels, in November 2006. Among many other excellent pictures they can be found on her site: Fototineke.be
