Free Beer

Off to the UK in two days, chiefly for the family annual theatre trip; this time to the Criterion to see the The Comedy about a Bank Robbery . A farce by the same team as the one we saw two years ago entitled, The Play That Went Wrong and which went down a storm. So this choice is by popular request!

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An enthusiastic marching Oompah Band of drums and portable

xylophones provided a robust soundscape!

But today, Sunday 7^th January 2018 I stepped out on a sunny, crisp beautiful day which was also numbingly cold. The purpose was to investigate whether or not free beer was being handed out to residents, possibly to visitors and tourists, in the Burg. I found a huge delighted, buzzing crowd of hundreds milling about, queuing for free beer, gluhwein and coffee. The atmosphere was joyful and upbeat; couples, singles, families all greeting each other with the compulsory triple Bruggean kiss-on-the-cheek and chatting away as if just released from long solitary confinement. I circumnavigated the square to find the shortest beer queue [all beer was Brugse Zot as far as I could ascertain, from the Halve Maan, the local brewery.] and then joined it. The ambience was happy, happy, to say the least and the ten minutes for which I queued gave me time to look and listen and consider. I assume the Burgemeester and his council were behind the generous gesture; rather more than a gesture in fact. A reward to the long-sufffering townspeople for tolerating the huge, long assault on ‘t Zand which continues. One year of chaos down there with buses re-routed and pedestrians constantly challenged to find the new but perilous path on traffic-strewn roads to reach the bus shelters, the Concertgebouw or simply to cross to the other side. The chief challenge after negotiating the traffic without the protection of zebra crossings or lights, is to stay upright amid the edges of the rubble. That so many do that, in generally good humour, time after time over what will be at least eighteen months, suggests a free Brugse Zot [Bruges Fool] per sufferer is earned. But full marks to the Town Council for doing it with the good ambience it creates AND, after all, whisper it not in Gath, elections are not far away!