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Carnival in Tilburg

Carnival in Tilburg

Published on 1 March 2025

Somehow I keep ending up in North Brabant during carnival. However, while last time it was by accident, this time it was intentional: I went to Tilburg—for the occasion renamed Kruikenstad—for a special carnival run!

Tilburg station was very crowded when I arrived, and the square in front of it was even worse! The reason became clear when I overheard people discussing today’s schedule while I was having my coffee at Buut Vrij: right around the time I arrived in Tilburg, Prince Carnival—every town or village over there has one appointed for the carnival season—was expected there. I was basically crashing his welcome party!

Since I still had some time before my run, I seized the opportunity to discover the local craft beer scene. I didn’t expect many places to be open, or serving anything special during carnival, and my first intended stop—Café Kandinsky—was indeed closed… Luckily in the LOC Brewery it was business as usual, so I could try some of their beers there. I wanted to take a couple of cans for later—I love the Dutch hashers and their runs, but their choice of beers less so—but apparently there is a very strict separation between the hospitality industry and retail in the Netherlands! So after being unable to sell me any beer to go, bartender Teun was so kind to call ahead to Koen of De Bierbrigadier—the craft beer shop in town—to ask him to already put some LOC beers in the fridge for me, so they would be ready and cold for consumption later.

Amsterdam H3 Trail – Carnaval in Tilburg

With cold beers in my bag, I then headed to the start location for the run. As is not uncommon for trails by the Amsterdam Hash House Harriers—the organisers of this run—the start was from the hare’s home. After waiting for everyone to actually find the place, and changing into a theme appropriate outfit, we were off! I was one of only two runners—the others were walkers—but we did get some nice views on trail the walkers didn’t! There were a couple of drink stops on trail, but one was quite unique: it was on a hand-operated chain ferry, in the middle of the canal!

After the run, we gathered back at Pink Panter’s apartment for Circle and dinner.

Since the Belgian rail unions were still partly on strike, I didn’t want to leave it until the last train to get home. So after dinner, I made my way through the partying city to the station—which was way less crowded than when I arrived there earlier that day—to catch an early train to Breda. Over there, it was a bit more chaotic—bigger carnival crowds, multiple last minute platform changes—but I made it on my train to Brussels eventually.

Join me in the Fediverse!

Published on 24 January 2025

If you haven’t noticed how the social media landscape has changed recently, you probably haven’t used it for a while… In short: the ‘classic’ social media—X formerly Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram—are now either nazi owned or have otherwise become very toxic! Time for a move!

Promotional image of Global Switch Day - 1st of February 2025: switch from X to Mastodon (logos of each with an arrow pointing from the first to the second)

Mastodon

I actually left Twitter quite a while ago already, and found quite a happy new home on Mastodon, my first venture into the Fediverse… What makes the Fediverse unique, is that that it’s decentralised and not owned by big corporations. That means that there isn’t just one central website or server for it, but you have to look around for a bit for an instance. You’ll be able to find and follow anyone you know the account name of from any instance, but you’re more likely to find interesting new accounts to follow if your instance suits your needs and interests. That’s why I use the instance Mastodon.green for my personal account, and Mastodon.beer for our Beers ‘n’ Bites in Brussels account!

Mastodon is still a bit lacking Belgian media, institutions, businesses, and other organisations so far. While Bluesky—where a lot of them are migrating to now, only to discover in a couple of months or years, that it can be bought by a tech billionaire just as easily as Twitter—is not quite part of the Fediverse (yet), with a bridge it is even possible to follow Bluesky accounts from Mastodon, and vice versa!

Promotional image of Global Switch Day - 1st of February 2025: switch from Instagram to Pixelfed (logos of each with an arrow pointing from the first to the second)
Promotional image of Global Switch Day - 1st of February 2025: switch from Facebook to Friendica (logos of each with an arrow pointing from the first to the second)

Pixelfed & more

But the Fediverse is way bigger than Mastodon! Another ‘platform’ that is booming right now, the fedi-replacement of Instagram, is Pixelfed, which I’m on already as well.

Bookwym is the fedi-version of Goodreads, and I found a home on the Rambling Readers instance!

I’ve only dipped my toes in Friendica, the fedi-version of Facebook, but still have to find another person I actually know on there…

But what’s the use of the Fediverse, with all those different platforms, you ask? Well, the beauty is, you don’t have to create an account on all of them—like I did—but just one(s) that suits your style most. For instance—pun intended—if you’re mostly in sharing photos, you’d create an account on Pixelfed. But with that Pixelfed account and app, you can then actually also follow a Mastodon account, without creating one yourself! Or, if you’re on Mastodon, but still interested in what I’m reading, follow my BookWyrm account!

Well, I hope that some of you will join me somewhere in the Fediverse soon!

Homage to a Clansman 2024

Homage to a Clansman 2024

Published on 5 October 2024

Once again, the Scottish clans with members in Belgium, gathered in Ypres to pay homage to their kinsmen fallen in The Great War. This year, there were representatives of the clans Hay, MacLaren, Ramsay, MacKinnon, Lamont, Sutherland, MacLeod, MacMillan, and Scott.

Read here why I am a member of the Clan MacLaren Society

For the clan MacLaren, I was the only one member able to make it to the ceremony this year. I knew this quite a while In advance, so I was able to order a poppy wreath made at Lady Haig’s Poppy Factory, with the MacLaren clan crest and motto already mounted in it. Apart from the convenience, it is also nice to know that it keeps disabled ex-servicemen and women employed, and that the proceeds help out veterans and their families in Scotland.

So early on Saturday morning, I found myself at the train station in full, traditional Boy Scouts of Belgium uniform—including hat¹ and thumbstick—and my MacLaren kilt, to start my journey to Ypres. Earlier than I would have liked, but due to engineering works on the rail network my trip would include a replacement bus and take much longer than usually… Since it was a matter of of arriving 15 minutes late or 45 minutes early, I at least had some time for coffee and cake at local roastery SloWWings before the ceremony would start.

After meeting up with the other clansmen and clanswomen and the Grote Markt of Ypres, we marched to the Menin Gate, headed by the Clan Hay Pipe Band. After arrival, we waited for the stroke of twelve and the sound of the bugles playing The Last Post. The ceremony then started with a reading of the fourth stanza of “For the Fallen”, a poem written by Laurence Binyon:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

A representative of each clan than read out five names of their kinsmen fallen in Belgium and France in World War One. As the only Maclaren present, that honour fell to me. After that, each clan then in turn laid down a wreath. Again, for the MacLarens, for the first time, that honour fell to me.

After the ceremony we headed back to the Grote Markt of Ypres, for an aperitif in Clans Pub Les Halles, and a lunch in the In Flanders Field Museum café.

Since I had a long journey back to Brussels ahead of me, I said my goodbyes then and went back to the station, sadly missing out on the afternoon ceremony at the Scottish Memorial in Zonnebeke.

¹ The keen observer will have noticed the dents on my hat are wrong for a BSB hat. This is because I only replaced my old hat eaten away by moths the day before with a hat from the catholic scouts shop, and didn’t have time to reshape it.

Day 5 – Last Day, Last Hash…

Day 5 – Last Day, Last Hash…

Published on 21 September 2024 
Reached this post by just scrolling through my blog? 
If you want to read about this trip from start to finish, instead of in reverse order, click here!

On the last day of my trip I had one more hash to go, with London H3 this time, and at noon already. Once again, in the west of London, meaning another day spending quite a bit of time on trains again…

No hash with at least some food in my stomach, so my first stop of the day was at BrewDog Waterloo , for a Croissant Brunch Burger and some pancakes. Being at an Outpost, I had to try some of their beers brewed on site… Good morning!

After that, and had no time to lose, and took the South Western Railway to Barnes Bridge, from where the P trail lead me to The Coach and Horses pub, where the London H3 trail would start. It was a great hash to do as the last one during my London visit, but even though I only walked this one—I didn’t want to too sweaty on the Eurostar—if was definitely one of the longer ones!

After trail, it was time to get closer to my final departure station, and to my favourite London BrewDog bar: BrewDog Camden. I originally had other dinner plans, but since I was running a bit late, I just had some Korean loaded fries in the bar. 

Getting to the Eurostar station, through security, and onto the train: it all went pretty smoothly, so that marks the end of this trip.…

Day 4 – Tunnels & Taprooms

Day 4 – Tunnels & Taprooms

Published on 20 September 2024

No hashing on the fourth day, nor any BrewDog bars… Lots of taprooms on the schedule though, but first the Vagina Museum and the Brunel Museum!

Well, before that breakfast actually, and today exactly as planned: kejriwal—fried eggs on chilli cheese toast—at Dishoom! 

Then off to Bethnal Green, to the Vagina Museum. The tiny museum was quite interesting and educational—as are their toots—so I happily donated a bit to help them keep up the good work. 

Just a couple of railway arches down the track was coffee roastery La Tostadora. Here I learned that in Australia, my usual order of a double shot cortado with oat milk, is apparently called the “Magic”!

Another couple of railway arches further is Mother Kelly’s, where I bumped into Tasha, who I know from her Weird Beard Brew Co. days! The beer list was cracking, impossible to get through if I wanted to make it to another museum in time…

That next museum was the Brunel Museum. Being a big fan of shows like “The Architecture the Railways Built”, I simply had to go there! As it turned out, it was a different Brunel who built the Thames Tunnel! While the famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel was involved for a while, it’s was actually the project of his father, Marc Brunel. Fun fact: my train to get there went through the tunnel the museum was about. 

And just like that, I ended up on the Bermondsey Beer Mile again, passing a couple of places I knew and liked, but I was here for one the newer additions: Mash Paddle Brewery. Did I mention that every single place I went to today so far—apart from the Brunel Museum—was in a railway arch?

Just a couple of minutes’ walk took me to the new The Kernel Brewery Taproom. Yes, another new one, it’s their third location I visited… As usual, a lovely cheese board from Neal’s Yard helped tie me over until dinner. 

From there it was an underground and overground ride to Distortion Brewing Company, another brewery I had never tried before. Well, I certainly missed out! And guess what? Another railway arch!

I actually had some beers by Mondo Brewing Company before at BBP Dansaert, but didn’t visit their brewery and taproom yet. It was also the perfect opportunity to have dinner, served by the resident pan-asian joint Kato Kitchen. You can’t go wrong with fried chicken and spicy noodles, can you?

From there it was back to the north, to Red Hand. Not a brewery this time, ‘just’ a beer bar. It definitely had a Friday night out vibe, so not your typical craft beer bar. Great music though, and some nice beers!

The last stop of the night was the House of Hammerton, a bar operated by Hammerton Brewery. I made it to their taproom once, but only just before last call… So tonight was a great opportunity to try some more beers of them.