Fabian's Blog

I made it , because I sad to myself that I wanted to finish my 2nd revisited edition of my poetry bundle be finished before the 1st September, and I have just submitted it .  So for everybody who want to spam their local library, here is the ISBN number: 978-90-814596-1-7  (yes for these damned 70 Euro ‘s , to be continued).  Now everybody can order it on the entire world and you can spam the local library if you want:-)

And here the front picture:

And here the résumé:

Il n’y a pas un jour spontané que tu penses que tu vas commencer avec écrire des poèmes car ceci t’arrives. Personnellement ce jour est venu pour moi en Mai 1995 en Vendée en France.

Depuis ce jour là j’ai écrit une centaine des poèmes. C’est difficile d’écrire des poèmes dans une langue qui n’est pas ta langue maternelle. C’est un peu rare qu’un Néerlandais écrit des poèmes en français, mais c’est possible comme vous voyez, ce livre des poésies et le résultat.

Les plupart des ces poésies ne sont pas seulement une réflexion de mes pensées et émotions, mais aussi une réflexion des images que j’ai eu pendant mes voyages au travers l’Europe. C’est pour cette raison que le titre est « de Pays-Bas au travers de l’Europe ».

Suivez moi de Pays-Bas au travers de l ‘Europe, au fil des voies ferrées, au long des rivières, du polders de Pays-Bas au plus hauts montagnes de l ‘Europe….

Time for some champagne

As you know I have published my own poetry bundle end of April of this year. I published it in France, via but when I asked an ISBN number in France then they politely replied that I have to ask for an ISBN number in the Netherlands.

In France an ISBN number is for free (when you only ask one), but in the Netherlands I asked for it and I have to pay EUR 48.56 exclusive VAT + EUR 6.61 exclusive VAT…. We live in the European Union , why this difference ? To be continued…..

This weekend I had the honor to attend the wedding ceremony of Ian and Carolien, good friends of me who live in Brussels, Belgium. On Friday afternoon I left the Netherlands, to join the party in Brussels. After a nice party it was time for the ceremony on Saturday. When we arrived at the city hall of Sint-Jans Molenbeek a civil servant asked just 5 minutes before the wedding started if we had a translator…..panic in the house… Carolien asked me if I could translate during the official ceremony for the Belgian law.

I did not want to do it, but if your friends ask you this, then you cannot refuse it, or at least, I cannot refuse it.  So I had to translate the official wedding ceremony from Dutch to English for Ian, but first I had to hand over my ID to the civil servant. Translating is difficult, especially if there are a lot of people looking and listening to you and what even more difficult for me was that this was their moment in their life and I could contribute in it. I did not want to make a mistake, and that is difficult when you have to do this by surprise.

So I had to translate some Belgian laws about marriage (look here), something like:
Art. 216. <W 14-07-1976, art. 1> § 1. Iedere echtgenoot heeft het recht een beroep uit te oefenen zonder de instemming van de andere echtgenoot. Yeah how do you translate that? Something like “Every husband has his freedom to do the job he or she wants, without permission of the other opposite.

And then the civil servant sad: ok, now it is becoming official, if you have any doubt about it then you have to say it now. I translate it like “Ok Ian, if you don‘t want to marry then you have to run away now “;-) People told me afterwards that I did it in a good way. What I found especially difficult was the moment of interruption…But the compliment which people made afterwards was warm and I felt honored afterwards that I could do it for my friends, but at the moment itself I was really nervous.

So the rings were given, the signatures were placed and Ian & Carolien were married for the Belgian law, we could go outside and I could taken some air which I desperately needed after the job I did.

Then the normal ceremony started with confetti and the photo session (my SD-card broke down, but most of the pictures are recovered by my friendly colleague). Then it was time for the reception @home and after the reception we went to the middle of nowhere in Walloon Brabant (Bierghes), see at the right.

Then the “humanistic” ceremony started and I had to kick off again with my poem:

Le Cygne

Tout seul à coté du lac
un  couple des cygnes
ont fait l’amour.

Au printemps la maman
se trouve au-dessus du nid
pour que les œufs soient bien chauds.

Le père patrouille autour du nid
pour protéger les résultats
de leur amour.

Le jour où les bébés verront les premiers rayons du soleil
sera le jour de leur beauté,
une journée dédié à leur amour.

I really liked this kind of service, because no religion was involved, but a more “world” view and not the very narrow view of religion.

Then the party started which was really nice of course. There were musicians, there was a clown act then of course dinner and of course a good party afterwards. I asked some people if this was a typical Dutch or English wedding:  most people told me it was a mix between it, and the Belgium beer could not be missed of course…..

I saw a lot of friends which I did not see a long time ago, I made some new friends so the conclusion: I really enjoyed it . I am glad I was invited and that I could even contribute to it (and even in a way I did not expect)….

It was different then the wedding ceremony in Serbia, but it was good for me to see that real love still exists; it does not matter if it is in Serbia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and UK or wherever…..