Blue Sky Directly Overhead but ...

It would be fair to write that Antwerp city struggles with terrible air pollution.  Most of Europe drives through Belgium ... trucks in their gazillions.  People on their way some place else.

I read: Antwerp is particularly affected by air pollution generated by the eight-lane motorway passing near the city centre, its important seaport (second largest in Europe), as well as by the presence of the second largest petrochemical industry worldwide. Moreover, the high buildings located in the city centre create street canyons where noise and pollutants are especially concentrated.

Researching this was fairly depressing ...

Tram 11, a poem by Herman de Coninck

TRAM 11

Tram comes. Tram goes. Going: a young Zairean
humming huskily with baby, plenty of time,
intimate with each other, in public
yet still alone. The tram looks on.

Tram comes: a Moroccan woman tries to quiet
her whining little tatty boy. The more she shakes him,
the more syllables fall from him.
Until an Antwerp woman's ta-ta-ta

brings him to himself. And to all of us.
Ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling through the town.
Public transport civilizes us, makes us festive,
maintains our confusion.
Herman de Coninck
Translated to English by Cedric Barfoot and Sonny Williams.

Way back in 2007, that was me reading Herman de Coninck's poem on stage in front of more than a few people. 

Midnight in Antwerp, on New Year's Eve

It just went crazy here at midnight, in that Belgian city where fireworks are illegal on New Year's Eve.  Just before midnight it sounded like a warzone.  19 minutes later and there are still explosions but it's no longer the ENTIRE city anymore.

Kids on the streets, neighbours too, some rain, and cloud cover.  Weather Underground tells me it's 7 celsius as I write this.

And so it is, 12 hours after New Zealand crossed over into 2014, we've arrived too.  Happy new year to you.  I'm posting a shot taken in New Zealand around this time last year.  The tree with the red flowers ... the NZ Christmas tree.  The Pohutakawa.  Cooks Beach.

Note: In Belgium, in general, it's only illegal if you're caught ... or that's what the locals tell me.