every once in a while you're witness to a mass-gathering of national proportions (that is Belgian size).
last week: front row seats to the massive demonstration of the trade unions
the demonstration had been announced weeks in advance; a 'strong' signal to the government was expected; all colleagues even received an e-mail including a form to fill in if access to the building would be denied by the demonstrators *0_o say what?*
btw, meeting point for a couple thousand demonstrators: underneath our window
a couple of hundred became a couple of thousand became a couple of ten thousands.
the avenue was coloured in red, green and blue
and those couple of ten thousands brought along the good many noise
whistles, small firework, smoke bombs, drums...
in particular the fireworks were startling... and omnipresent
cause there the explosion for one, than the noise from the explosion, that same noise bouncing off our building, the building across the street, the tower next to ours, and the six other buildings on the avenue... *very annoying
my colleague wanted to go down and - in her own words - scream like an old lady would do (including swinging a walking-cane I imagine) "stop it! stop it! stop it!"
after another 30 minutes of whistles, small firework, smoke bombs, drums... I went to the bathroom
finally... a noise-insulated room... silence...
I was so into that sound - the delicious sound of silence - that I kept on hearing that sound of silence when I came back
... wait
... have I gone deaf? O_o
"have I gone deaf?" I asked my colleagues
"nope, they left"
lovely... !
couple of hours later I got on the train... conveying quite a lot of those demonstrators
:( no peaceful trainride for me
... but I was offered a beer by one of them
... nice guy :)
last week: front row seats to the massive demonstration of the trade unions
the demonstration had been announced weeks in advance; a 'strong' signal to the government was expected; all colleagues even received an e-mail including a form to fill in if access to the building would be denied by the demonstrators *0_o say what?*
btw, meeting point for a couple thousand demonstrators: underneath our window
a couple of hundred became a couple of thousand became a couple of ten thousands.
the avenue was coloured in red, green and blue
and those couple of ten thousands brought along the good many noise
whistles, small firework, smoke bombs, drums...
in particular the fireworks were startling... and omnipresent
cause there the explosion for one, than the noise from the explosion, that same noise bouncing off our building, the building across the street, the tower next to ours, and the six other buildings on the avenue... *very annoying
my colleague wanted to go down and - in her own words - scream like an old lady would do (including swinging a walking-cane I imagine) "stop it! stop it! stop it!"
after another 30 minutes of whistles, small firework, smoke bombs, drums... I went to the bathroom
finally... a noise-insulated room... silence...
I was so into that sound - the delicious sound of silence - that I kept on hearing that sound of silence when I came back
... wait
... have I gone deaf? O_o
"have I gone deaf?" I asked my colleagues
"nope, they left"
lovely... !
couple of hours later I got on the train... conveying quite a lot of those demonstrators
:( no peaceful trainride for me
... but I was offered a beer by one of them
... nice guy :)
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