And then the bubble burst...apparently people are not equal after all.

Just when you think people are doing the right thing, just when you think we are moving ahead in this world... that's when you read an article about Prop8. Prop8 wanted to overturn a state Supreme Court decision that granted gay couples the right to wed in California. And they did it.

Also in other states in the US people voted YES on the ban for gay marriage.

Unbelievable. In the first place this is not about marriage, this is not even about gay people, this is about equality! Apparently there are a lot of people out there who feel that straight people should have more rights than gay people. I got quite sad and angry when I read this and most of all disappointed. Hopefully they can turn this around again.

Someone explain to me why people get bothered by two people getting married because they love eachother, cause I don't understand. According to me this is just plain discrimination.

I'm inviting all the gay people who did get married or want to get married to Belgium. Yes we have gay marriage and adoption. Here it doesn't matter if you are gay or straight and for that I'm proud to be Belgian.

Can we just for a moment...yes we can!

Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the US of A. The first black president in America. They made him the symbol of many things..mixed races, change, a new image for America in the world after the last horrible 8 years of Bush.

The man sure knows how to deliver a victory speech. I particularly enjoyed this part :

''It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled ....''

And also McCain gave a very nice speech I think. I have to admit that I do respect that. Not necessarily for his VP pick, but he did lose like a winner.

Today the criticism already starts : What will change for Europe? Was McCain a better choice for world economy? Will Obama be able to commit himself to do all the things he promised?
I understand, people need to ask these questions and I think it's a good thing.

Ofcourse he will not be the answer to all the world's problems and will not only do good things. It would also be unfair to put so much responsability on one man.

But can we just for today.. maybe also tomorrow and next week.. have that feeling of Hope. That feeling that we are World Citizens. In a World where colour of skin, religion, sexual orientation, physical condition,.. does not matter and that we are all the same. That we are all people. And that we should just Love. Can you just leave me in my bubble.. just for today?

London DAY 2 and 3

DAY 2

I really wanted to buy a new jacket so we went to Carnaby street to end up with just buying some tea. Went around Regent and the likes to look for shops.
The best thing about visiting a city for me are the walks. I don't need to have seen everything that you are supposed to see. I just love walking around.
We checked out some museums and also went to Tate Modern which I really love. We found out there was a Rothko exhibit but decided not to go because of time and money. (what a stupid decision!)

In the evening we checked out more of the Concrete&Glass festival and saw Lykke Li play at Cafe 1001. They were really great. I love it when bands are better live than on record after loving the record.


DAY 3

First we had to drag our bags to another hotel, thanks to the friend of the Italian. ( see previous post)
The hotel was not really my thing. Clean and everything, but too business like. It did have a nice Apple IMac in the room with free internet though.
After playing with the IMac we went to Portobello market and Camden. Camden is for a lot of people probably too crowded, but I still love the neighbourhood and all the little markets.
For dinner I found this vegetarian restaurant online which got all great reviews.
After taking several tube lines we found out it was full, and since we were starving we didn't want to wait.
Before we had run into a pub that seemed nice, so we decided to just go for it. We ate for
like 12 pounds. This included vegi burger + chips for me, burger and chips for the Italian, a jacket potato to share and two huge beers. The food was great and the scenery entertaining including a drunk middle aged lady who fell over in the middle of the pub and stayed on the carpet floor for about 10 minutes.

After that we went back to the Tate, I really wanted to see that Rothko exhibit but we didn't make it on time... damn it. (I guess we have to go back before January 2009)
To get over this disappointment, we decided to hit the hotel bar, I had what was the best Mojito I have ever tasted and The Italian enjoyed his fancy Scotch.

* pictures to follow