... and it's Monday again...

... how did that happen?

The żałoba for the presidential air crash is over (although Gazeta Wyborcza is still in black and white). I watched some of the funeral, cried a bit (mostly because of the fantastic music and footage of lovely Kraków in mourning, not to mention Jarosław Kaczyński looking pale and sad on his own - it must be awful to lose a twin) and wondered who was providing the interpretation. Burial at Wawel castle is a bit of a controversial issue, since this is an honour reserved for Polish kings and heroes. I think the generally accepted view is that burying the Kaczynscy on Wawel hill symbolises all the victims of the crash and by extension the memory of the victims of Katyń. In any case, emotions have been running high: reactions from the Krakowian side have been largely anti-Wawel, not least because the President preferred Warsaw as a city anyway. In any case, it's done now.

Ash cloud: I can't see any sign of the ash cloud. There have been clear blue skies over Brussels for at least four days now, all the more so for the lack of vapour trails. The balcony door has been open all day and the sunshine is flooding in. It's weird, for Brussels, but I'm not complaining...

I would, however, like to book trips to a) Kraków - for the blogmeet and b) Italy, somewhere, anywhere, for a few days of linguistic and cultural immersion and a reminder of why I love it all. So please, ash cloud, disperse yourself! I promise to study my Icelandic pronunciation diligently (for strictly musical, not professional purposes).

And lastly: I genuinely thought that by the age of twenty-nine my Clearasil days would be far behind me. Sadly not. Sigh. What's the French for Benzoyl Peroxide?