Antwerp finalists Miss Belgium 2006

On Sunday evening the press presentation of the Antwerp finalists for Miss Belgium 2006 took place at Nanno Sur L'O in Antwerp. At 8.30pm the finalists were presented to the press and sponsors, followed by an after-party at 11pm. The press presentation was accessible for press and sponsors only, the after-party was public. Press only? A challenge for Bart.La and Joeri to get in! We dressed up in full suit and drove to Antwerp. It took a lot of effort to convince the bouncers to let us in, since they got the instruction to let no one in before 11pm, but finally we managed to get in! Once inside we joined the Miss'es for a walking dinner. The Laurent Perrier was served constantly while we were enjoying the food (great lobster) and the incredible audience. Not only fifteen beautiful finalists were part of the crowd, also ex-Miss Belgium Veronique De Kock('95) and Ellen Petri('04) were present. Finals will take place at the Belle Epoque hall of the Antwerp Hilton on September 23, '05. I wonder if we'll get in that night! :o)

Sailing the North Sea

6.30am It was an early wake-up call on Saturday morning, I had to make it to the Ostend sailing harbor by 8.00am. A beautiful blue sky and a four Beaufort wind, a perfect sailing day! Unfortunately it became cloudy once we left the harbour with our Oceanis 411, so we sailed towards the spots where the sun broke through the clouds. We made it to Zeebrugge and back with enough sun for a nice tanned skin!

Highstreet, Gumball 3000, Zillion, The Temple

An other extended weekend in Belgium, an other good reason to throw in some parties! On Friday night I had a warm-up drink with Joeri at Bell's Café in St-Niklaas. Around midnight we arrived at Highstreet in Hoogstraten after picking up Christof. The unfriendly staff at the parking lot and restrooms was compensated by Petra, a girlfriend of mine who works as a waitress at one of the chilly bars. She served us a bottle of Vodka, which kept us in the mood for the rest of the evening. See the rest of the pictures taken by Christof here.
Saturday was the big day for the Gumball 3000 fans. The Gumball rally of almost 200 sport/luxury cars began their 5000km journey through Europe. At 18pm the rally left London for Chateau D'Acoz, being the first checkpoint of the rally in Belgium. The trip from London through the Eurotunnel to Acoz would take them six hours. We decided to drive to the checkpoint to see the cars and meet the drivers. Filip was our driver for the night, in his brand new BMW 320CD. After passing lots of speed-checks on the highway, we arrived at Acoz, a village which on an average day has only the milkman as traffic on it's roads. On Saturday night there were 12.000 people in Acoz! Check here for some pics of checkpoint Acoz and definitely have a look at this movie (106mb!) by Tjitse. Andy, a friend of mine who is a teacher, was with his students in Prague, which was the checkpoint on Sunday morning. He made some really cool videos which I will post when he's back home. If you want to follow the rest of the Gumball 3000 journey which continuous until next Friday, I suggest you check this great Gumball blog.

Anyway, back to Saturday evening... we decided to leave Acoz early(1.30am) to avoid the huge traffic jam. After dropping of Filip and Bram in Hamme, I drove with Pedro to Zillion, where Fou hosted (the last?) Zillion private party. The cozy intimate athmoshere gave this party a unique dimension. Check this 19MB video to get an impression.

Sunday evening was the set for a lounge-bar drink at Bloomingdales and a party night at the Mega Temple in Destelbergen. Topradio organized the Retro Area Trance edition party which resulted in a packed Temple. An other video to get an impression. Enjoy!

It wasn't an Illusion!

Thursday May 5th was an official holiday in Belgium, so clubs were open on Wednesday night. I met Janneke, Arsenio, Maaike and a colleague of Maaike at Bloomingdales in Ghent. A nice lounge bar located under Ghent's biggest cinema-complex 'Decascoop'. We enjoyed a few drinks and left at 11PM for a visit of Club Famous where the Zillion DJ Contest Finals took place. See my pictures here. On Saturday night I decided to tick off an other club on my list of 'Clubs to visit', Illusion in Lier. Illusion was founded in 1987, but was closed for 17 months after a police raid in June 2003. In December 2004, the club reopened and since then packed again each weekend. On Saturdays the ground level of the club hosts Trance and Hardtrance DJ's. On the second floor, 'the Level room' you can enjoy Groove & Club beats. Me and Filip had a great time dancing non-stop on the music while watching the hottest babes of Antwerp and surroundings! :-)

May 1st - Birthday Party Hubert

Yesterday, a tradition was kept alive. Each year on May 1st all friends of Hubert come to Gent to celebrate his birthday. Everyone is invited only once, an invitation valid for a lifetime. So each year the mansion of Hubert, a history class teacher of mine in five and six, hosts a party with walking dinner and lots of quality wines. Five years passed since my last visit, but still I recognized a lot of the guests. I enjoyed the cheese buffet and the delicious pastry, I'll definitely go back next year!