Portraits
Marie Pok, 35, is artistic director of the Design September festival, which takes place across Brussels this month
I have a great job. I’m a journalist who specialises in writing about contemporary art and design, which is my passion. I also organise the annual Design September festival, so I get to travel to the international design fairs in Milan, Stockholm, Paris, London and further afield. I also visit Belgian designers in their studios with the aim of bringing them together with international designers for the festival. Design September was launched in 2006 and has gone from strength to strength. This year we have a whole range of designers, from newcomers to well-established stars of the design world, all converging on Brussels for a rich kaleidoscope of events from September 9 until October 1. You name it, we have it: exhibitions, conferences, debates, visits to designers’ studios, city tours and even a flea market featuring post-War design. It’s a pity that we don’t have a museum dedicated to design in Brussels because we have a great deal of talent here. Des...
José Fernandes, 51, is a photographer from Lisbon who recently came to Brussels to work on a book about the city’s Portuguese community
Before I started working as a photographer I did many other things: I left Portugal when I was 18 and went to America on a tennis scholarship. I studied economics, I got married, I had a daughter, I moved to New Orleans because Hammond, Louisiana, was just too small for me. For 15 years I sold fur...
Sarah Moon Howe, 37, is a filmmaker and former striptease dancer. Her recent work has been inspired by her disabled son Jack
I’m best known for my film Ne dites pas à ma mère (Don’t tell my mother), which recorded my experiences of working in a striptease bar. I used an old Super 8 camera, bought in a flea market. At the time it was all I could afford, but its grainy images turned out to be pe...
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, 67, yoga guru to Hollywood stars, brought her Kundalini Yoga workshops to Antwerp this summer
Most people just call me Gurmukh. I was born Mary Mae Gibson, but Yogi Bhajan gave me my Sikh spiritual name, which means “one who helps thousands across the world’s oceans”. He was the guru who introduced Kundalini Yoga to the West. For thousands of years it had been passed in sec...
Sofia Caessa, 30, is the co-founder of Brussels’ Little Film Academy, which runs movie workshops for kids
Although I am Portuguese, I never had any real interaction with Portuguese culture until I was 14. My family moved around a lot and I went to international schools in the Netherlands, Brazil and Portugal. In Portugal, my friends were American, British or Japanese. If I did have Portuguese friends, t...
Personal trainer and physiotherapist Joe Arrindell Jr, 36, specialises in sports injuries at the Royal La Rasante Club, Woluwe-Saint-Lambert
I was 19 when I left the Caribbean island of Saint Martin to study at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. The opportunities at home were limited and I decided on Europe rather than America for its freedom and variety of cultures. I’ve never regretted that decision. My father’s Amer...
Eugenia Ramirez Miori is an Argentinian tango dancer and actress, who stars in the new film La Cantante de Tango. She also runs the Nosotros Tango Club in Brussels
A love story brought me to Brussels – a love story which happened because of a film. In 2002 Brussels-based filmmaker Diego Martinez Vignatti (pictured with Eugenia) returned to his native Argentina to make a documentary, Nosotros, about the people and culture of Buenos Aires. In the film, ...
François Matton, 85, launched Woluwe-Saint-Pierre’s first ever annual street party (Fête de quartier)
My philosophy is simple: life is more pleasant when people say hello to each other in the street. Every year in late June someone in every street in our neighbourhood opens his or her garage for everyone to gather and enjoy an aperitif and a snack together. In recent years there have been similar &l...
Men’s hairdresser Faik Dobra, 51, has turned his Evere salon into an art gallery, collectors’ corner and recording studio
I’ve been working in my salon for 25 years, so I have many clients and friends. When you talk to people while you do their hair, it makes it more personal, and the time passes easily. They tell me about their lives, and their secrets. I like people to feel good when they come in here, so I dec...
Yvonne Nielsen is Chair of St Anthony’s Fayre committee, organising the Kraainem event which attracts thousands of visitors every June. She’s praying for sunny weather this Sunday
No one seems to know exactly when the fayre began, but it’s certainly existed for at least fifteen years and has become a key event in the expat calendar. I first got involved eight years ago and have been Chair of the committee since 2006. The work starts every January. It’s such a h...
Stephanie Manasseh, 35, is founder of the Accessible Art Fair, where art lovers can meet artists and buy their work
This weekend’s Accessible Art Fair is the fifth. It started as an annual event in 2007 and now I organise two art fairs each year. This time we have 55 artists and expect more than 3,000 visitors. It makes me so happy to feel that I’m getting art out there. I arrived in Brussels as a ...
Stephan Schommer, 35, is a freelance cameraman
There is no typical day in this job. One day I’m trying not to fall overboard filming fishermen out at sea near Calais, the next I’m at a violent mixed martial arts contest in Amsterdam. I’m self-employed and have around five regular clients, mostly news broadcasters, plus another ...
Helen MacEwan is founder of the Brussels Brontë Group, which meets to celebrate the lives and literary works of the Brontë sisters
Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece Jane Eyre was the first grown-up novel I ever read. I went on to read and love many other nineteenth-century novels, but the works of the Brontës have continued to grip me like no others. When I moved to Belgium as a European Commission translator in 2004,...
Elien De Schryver, 25, is a music therapist, helping children and adults express their feelings through music
Everybody is affected by music. That’s why it can be such a strong tool for psychotherapy. Music is one of the first things we experience in life. Even before we are born, we hear the sound of our mother’s voice. Music touches the most primitive core of our being and offers an alterna...
Sabrina Dufrasne, 31, visits pets while their owners are out at work. She looks after cats, dogs and horses
For me, there is no greater pleasure than to have the daily company of animals and to be outside with them in the natural world. I think I inherited my love of nature and my passion for animals from my mother. When I was a child, our house was like a little farm with horses, cats, dogs and chickens....
Robert Priston, 49, drove the first Eurostar in November 1994. He is now one of Eurostar’s Senior Drivers and a Traction Inspector
Like most kids I wanted to be a train driver and I suppose I never grew out of it. I started with a summer job cleaning carriages in my hometown of Exeter in the south west of England. I was planning to go to university, but enjoyed the camaraderie of the railway so much that I applied to join the t...
Lorena Lowe, 48, is a Venezuelan bookbinder. She brings the colours of Latin America to her handmade books
Ebooks are not for me. I prefer to have a book in my hands, to touch, smell and feel it. I suppose it’s the romantic side of my Venezuelan spirit that makes me love the way a book can engage all the senses. Bookbinding is a very ancient art. It began almost as soon as people discovered pape...
Paul van Gorp, Director of the Royal Estate of Laeken, is preparing for the opening of the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken, from April 15 to May 9
When people come to the Royal Greenhouses they should experience an ‘everlasting spring’, in keeping with the dream of King Leopold II, who had the greenhouses built between 1874 and 1905. We show around 2,000 flowering plants, many of which do not naturally bloom in April, when the Roy...
Marina Gates Fleming, 56, is a Dog Listener. She teaches humans to communicate with their dogs
I’ve always been a dog lover and have always had dogs as pets, but it’s only since training to be a Dog Listener that I’ve understood them fundamentally. I grew up in Belgium, then studied in England and worked as a banker in London. That was when I first heard of Jan Fennell an...
Estonian-Russian duo Merike Estna and Maxim Surin offer art tutorials in painting, drawing, collage, video art, graphic design and animation from their 100-square metre studio near Botanique
MERIKE: As a child, I went on a school trip to an art museum. My friends and I saw artists there, and we thought they looked really funny and strange. I said that I would never want to be an artist when I grew up. But look what happened! Both my parents are photographers and they regularly took me t...
Kimete Basha i Novosejt, 56, is a member of the team running Treasure Trove, the only English-language children’s bookshop in Belgium. She is also librarian at the International School of Brussels
Treasure Trove has existed in various forms for many years. It was started by Christine Moore in the front porch of her home. As it grew, it took over her basement and eventually moved to its own premises in Moorsel. When we heard that Christine was retiring and that Treasure Trove might close, my f...
Anna Wcislo-Willaerts, 45, has recently opened La Solution, a shop selling products for those with allergies and food intolerances
I’ve always worked with food starting off in Poland where I completed my studies in nutrition. A nutritionist’s role in Poland goes beyond the equivalent in Belgium as you work hand in hand with the doctor checking the patient’s medical history and the medication they are prescribe...
Michel Roorijck is chairman of the Conservatoire Africain, an old Belgian charity.
If you are out and about in the Brussels area on the weekend of 13 March, you might see my friends and me collecting money into a small doll. I am a ‘Noiraud’, one of sixty members of our charity. The Conservatoire Africain was formed in 1876 during a period of severe famine in Belgiu...
Mariane Mormont is a 60-year-old physiotherapist in Watermael-Boitsfort. She has helped hundreds of children with learning disabilities and is now opening a centre where they can learn a job and find a place in society.
Looking after handicapped children is not just my job – it is my life, my passion. I don’t like the word handicapped, though; it’s too restrictive. A handicapped child is a child like any other, with a future. Besides, we’re all handicapped in some way. I always knew I wan...
Bulgarian filmmaker Zlatina Rousseva fled her home country in 1986. Now settled in Brussels, she tells us of her mission to preserve the intangible
I began working on films despite people discouraging me from this profession. They told me that it would be very difficult to break in but this was not the case. I think that if you really want something, you can always find a way of obtaining it and for me filmmaking was my vocation, my destiny. ...
Christel Janssens, 38, is a Belgian nurse with a passion for Irish dancing. She performs with the Celtic Clover Dancers
I’d never even heard of Irish dancing before I went to see Riverdance in 2000. By the time I left the show, I knew I had to learn to dance like that. I looked for classes in Brussels, but couldn’t find any, until one day I heard that an Irish teacher was visiting Belgium to give a worksh...
Barbara Siraut, 44, is President of the International Taekwondo Federation of Belgium and has recently been awarded her fifth degree black belt. She prides herself on creating a multilingual Taekwondo family
I first became interested in Taekwondo 26 years ago through a visiting friend who was already a black belt. Some of his passion rubbed off on me and when he returned home to the United Arab Emirates, I knew I wanted to take up Taekwondo myself. At that time, it was an unusual sport, hardly known ...
Ben Bramich, 35, is the founder of Reason2.be, delivering boxes of organic produce. He believes the key to his success is good service
I started Reason2.be in 2008, doing most of the work myself, with one employee helping out. Now I have three guys working here. We make 200 deliveries a week and have 300 households on our list. Demand has really exploded recently, all by word of mouth. I first came to Brussels in 2001 as an engi...
Danny Weckx, 39, is a postman in Tervuren. He combines his job with a passion for photography
I always have my camera with me and often stop to take pictures while I’m doing my round. That’s one of the perks of being a postman: you’re outside, seeing things and meeting people, and you don’t always have to rush. I enjoy the contact with people, especially working in Te...
Valerie Delacave, 34, is founder of the Antwerp jewellery business, Etrocha, which produces affordable designs with inspirational messages
Etrocha was created as an ode to my children, Sacha, 6, Ethan, 5, and Roy, 2. Its name is made from a combination of their three names because I feel that I owe it all to them. Before becoming a mother, I was a lost soul, looking for meaning in life. I converted to Judaism when I married my husba...
Richard Ellwood, 27, is the new pastor for the Communauté Chrétienne de Bruxelles Est, a Protestant Evangelical Church in east Brussels
My faith has influenced so much of my life that becoming a church leader is in some ways a natural next step. My parents brought me up in the Christian faith and I met my wife Anna while we were both studying at Bible College in Oxford, England. We wanted to move abroad and become more involved in o...
Canadian-trained child psychotherapist and play therapist Soraya Yavari, 36, is the founder and head teacher of Roots and Wings preschool
Before my little girl was born, I remember driving to work in the morning and being stopped at a red light, or simply in a traffic jam as is the way in Brussels, and my eye turning to the passers-by hurrying along the street at eight in the morning. Invariably there would be some stressed parent rou...
Gabrielle Bill is an artist. She is also wife of Lieutenant General David Bill CB, UK Military Representative to the EU and Nato
I come from a military background so I knew what I was taking on when I married David. I knew I would have to follow him wherever the Army led. We've made 20 moves in the last 27 years and it has certainly given me a broader perspective on life. We met in Hong Kong, where I was teaching cookery a...
Thomas Chatelle, 28, is a footballer. He plays Right Midfield for RSC Anderlecht
My parents say that I began my football career as soon as I could walk, and was always kicking a ball around the garden. At five and a half I started school at Collège St Michel in Brussels and joined the school football club, where it became obvious I was pretty good. I moved to Wavre, then ...
Illustrator Kitty Crowther, 39, draws fantasy lands peopled by sad giants, talking insects and even Death. Her latest book, ‘Annie du Lac’ (Pastel) has just won France’s Prix Baobab
If I had to choose one word to describe myself, it would be storyteller. I’ve been steeped in stories from as far as I can remember. Books were my refuge, my bubble. Everyone around me loved stories and my father and grandmother, with her raspy, chain-smoker’s voice, were wonderful story...
Carol Youngner, 59, is a ceramic artist and teaches pottery classes. She believes everyone has the ability to be creative
Working with clay is a little bit like playing in mud. You can get messy here in my studio and no one will object! Adults often haven’t done that since they were kids and they soon realise it can be a lot of fun. People often come to my classes saying, “I’m not artistic. I&rsqu...
Nicki Forman-Levitan, 37, is founder of the Yoga Form studio in Antwerp. Her mission is to brighten lives with yogic philosophy
I came to Antwerp 12 years ago and stayed here purely for love. I was working as an attorney in my native South Africa when I met my husband. He’s also South African but was already working in Antwerp. I followed him here, leaving behind my family and friends, the ocean and sunshine, as we...
Natalie Minh, 29, is the European champion in fitness modelling. She is also a financial analyst
I’m riding high at the moment, having just won the MuscleMania European Championship in Milan. Now I’m training hard for the world championships in Las Vegas. I started training to be a fitness model early in 2008, when my job as a financial analyst brought me to Brussels. Coming her...
Olsi Leka, 29, is principal cellist with the National Orchestra of Belgium. He is Albanian and has lived in Brussels since he was a music student
I started learning the cello by chance when I was six years old. My first choice had been violin, but all the classes were full. Now I’m immensely glad I got my second choice. I grew up in Albania at the time of the Communist government, so my musical education was very strict, with exams ever...
Dave Meyer, 28, and his wife Annabelle Vinois, 27, are about to set off on a three-year round-the-world bicycle trip, studying permaculture projects on the way
We’ve been planning this trip for five years, but we still have a ton of things to organise before we set off on November 17. We’re planning to cycle across Africa in the first year, South East Asia in the second year, and we’ll spend our third year in the Americas. Altogether, we ...
Jean-Paul Delcorde, 65, is the director of Le Refuge, a home in Lillois for children who have mental, physical or social difficulties
Thirty-eight years ago, I returned to Belgium from Morocco, where I had been a teacher for four years, but I didn’t want to teach anymore. My sister worked at Le Refuge, and one day I volunteered to help. When I arrived, I knew that was where I wanted to spend the rest of my life. I have been ...
Jacques Peustjens, 49, runs Cliniclowns, bringing clowns to entertain children in hospitals
I used to be a clown, now I train them and do the organising and fundraising. When I see the clowns at work in hospital, I really miss doing it myself. They go from room to room, entertaining each child with some magic tricks, a little music, an improvised game, whatever will lighten their stay ...
Dominique Corbiau, 28, is an operatic countertenor whose passion is to mix music with visual art
It’s not easy to step outside the established way of doing things and to carve one’s own path. I am trying to create a different way of making concerts by collaborating with artists from other disciplines, especially visual artists such as painters and sculptors, and performing artists s...
Helen Grant, 44, is a novelist. She is looking for Flemish inspiration for a new novel
I love to interweave my stories with folklore. I’m learning Dutch at the moment so that I can research the local history and legends of the area around Duisburg, where I live. I’m hoping to find something interesting for my next story. My family moved to Belgium last year, but before...
Delana L. Loevbak, 45, is a lampwork glass artist. Her craft dates back to Ancient Egypt
Working with glass is like making magic. When the glass is hot, it flows like honey and I’m in charge of it – or sometimes the glass is in charge of me and I have to be humble. Lampworking is an ancient art, using the heat of a torch to melt rods of glass. Once molten, the glass can ...
Ilke Pedersen-Beyst, 41, is founder and president of Sunbeams, a project to help expats achieve a greener lifestyle
I’ve always been a nature lover, but I started to think more about the environment and my own ecological footprint when I became a parent. I saw clearly that we are just borrowing this planet from future generations and that we must give it back in good shape. I thought, how will I answer my c...
Wenceslas de Lobkowicz, 56, grew up as a political refugee in France after his parents fled Communist Czechoslovakia. Now, he works for European integration
I was born in Paris in 1953 coinciding with the death of Czechoslovakia’s first Communist president, Klement Gottwald. My parents got engaged in Prague but married in Paris in 1948 after fleeing Czechoslovakia, where aristocratic families such as ours were considered enemies of the proletariat...
Gary Wilton, 48, is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s main man in Brussels, and is most definitely not a lobbyist.
As job titles go, I suppose I do have one of the longer ones. It certainly needs a deep breath to announce oneself as ‘Canon Doctor Gary Wilton, the Church of England Representative to the European Union and Canon of the Pro-Cathedral of Holy Trinity Brussels’. Sometimes I just say I am ...
Jyrki Karsmakers, 34, owns Karsmakers coffee house in the EU quarter. He came to Brussels via Limburg and California
What brought you here? Returning from California with my Bachelor’s Degree, I moved back home to Limburg. Very quickly I felt the need to escape. Brussels appealed to me: it is international and close to home. At my first job, I met my lovely wife and we have two adorable children, aged thre...
Queenie, 25, is a professional belly dancer. She performs and teaches classical Egyptian dance
The first time I tried belly dancing, I found it really difficult. I was 18 and I joined a workshop at the annual Gentse Feesten (Ghent Arts Festival). I was immediately bitten by the belly dancing bug. I started doing weekly classes in Ghent. But once a week wasn’t enough for me, so I starte...
Dirk van Braeckel, 50, is the lead designer for Bentley. He also designed the entire Skoda fleet that you can see now on the road
The passion and emotion that cars evoke is the most appealing aspect of designing cars. I studied electrical engineering at the Free Technical Institute in Deinze, but my passion was for cars and building models of them. Eventually I built my own scale models of race cars and took them to the Ford ...
Marilou Dubois, 41, is the curator of Horst Castle, near Leuven. She believes it’s important to know and understand where you live and who lived there before you
It’s a privilege to work in an authentic 17th-century castle. It’s a unique place with a fascinating history. The downside is that it can get very cold in the winter. I have a small gas radiator in my office but the castle walls seem to soak up any heat and radiate cold. However, it&rsqu...
Rene Thirion, 61, is the director of the Mont-de-Pieté in Brussels. It’s a pawn shop which is based on the same principles as its better known American counterpart, but with major differences
You bring in an item to use as collateral against the loan we give you and you pay interest on the loan. Once you pay back the loan and interest, we return your item to you. This, I feel, is the only real similarity between us and a typical pawn shop. The Mont-de-Pieté is a non-profit organi...
Janusz Kowalski, 49, runs a construction company in Brussels. He and all his employees are Polish
I first came to Brussels in 1992 for a very prosaic reason: money. A friend was doing construction work here and needed a partner who could speak the languages. I’d studied languages at school, read Polish philology at university and learnt about the shipbuilding industry at technical colleg...
Hervé Eeckman, 43, is the founder and coordinator of Belgium’s only Braille newspaper. He works for De Kamelego which also publishes digital and audio versions of the Flemish newspapers De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad.
I studied law at Leuven Catholic University (KUL) and was engaged in the student movement. In discussions with professors and other students, I would often say: “How do you know about all of this: politics, environment and other subjects. Where did you get this information?” The answer m...
Julie, 24, is an artists’ model. She poses nude for life drawing classes
I’m always looking for new experiences, so when I saw an advert for life models, I took the chance to try something different. The thought of modelling had been in my mind for years, ever since I saw the film Titanic. I was struck by the scene where Kate Winslet poses nude while Leonardo DiCa...
Patrick Ferryn, 63, is a photographer and film-maker, as well as a very active ufologist
I first became interested in the study of UFOs after listening to the science-fiction radio programme Red Planet back in the 1950s. Even though I knew it was fiction, I was already very interested in science so found it fascinating. Later on I went to conferences that looked into UFO sightings and r...
Father Bob Eccles, 69, is a Dominican friar and Catholic prison chaplain. He works with high security prisoners in Ittre
Every prisoner has a constitutional right to see a chaplain. No one can stop me going through that cell door if the inmate wants me there. A chaplain is the only person who goes in without strings, just to listen and befriend. We visit every new inmate. Many are very young and have grown up without...
Dr. Steven Weyers (38) is the gynaecologist on the world famous transgender team at Ghent University hospital. It’s one of very few places where the transformation from male to female and vice-versa can be done under one roof
The transgender team consists mainly of a psychiatrist, gynaecologist, urologist, endocrinologist and a plastic surgeon. Many other specialists including dermatologists, speech therapists as well as psychologists play their role in the various operations and procedures. Male-to-female is performed ...
An Schoofs, 47, has worked for 24 years as a probation officer. She sees herself more as a social worker than a prison guard
Contrary to popular belief, I see my job as that of a counsellor rather than a controller. I am a social worker, not a prison guard. When people come to see me they have already been judged by the criminal system and it is my job to motivate them not to re-offend. If a person comes to me from prison...
Laurent Dumont, 37, from Brussels has built up a business selling and servicing aquariums. Most of his clients are corporate
Iwas given my first aquarium when I was nine years old by my parents for Christmas. I don’t know why they gave it to me; maybe because I liked going fishing with my father, often in Sint-Genesius-Rode. I never ate the fish we caught, and to this day I do not like the taste of it, but I always ...
Tony Allebé, 66, has run an organic farm for thirty years. He’s happy when he sees wildlife living alongside his crops
Keeping a balance with nature is essential. Most farmers specialise in certain crops to maximise profits, and immediately the balance is lost. Here on our farm in Walloon Brabant, we don’t plant too much of any one crop, we have a little of this and a little of that. We always leave plenty of ...
Bill Roseman, 44, is a blues guitarist. His repertoire is eclectic, ranging from R&B to bluegrass
I’m a middle-class kid from New Jersey, so by rights I probably shouldn’t be singing the blues at all. For me, it’s all about emotional expression. The blues is a feeling, which you can sense in just one note. It’s a common thread running through many styles of music. It&rsqu...
Rik Cappelle, 51, is a dowser. He searches for geopathic radiation which he believes can cause chronic illness
When I started dowsing, I was a sceptic. I was 18 and I wanted to prove there was nothing in it. I soon became a convert, though, when I saw with my own eyes that it could cure illness. Dowsing is an ancient art. In the past, divining rods were cut from branches of hazel, but nowadays they are more...
Michel De Vos, 36, is a fertility specialist at Brussels Free University Hospital (VUB). He is the first gynaecologist from Belgium to have a PhD in genetics
The reason I chose gynaecology, as opposed to other specialisations, is that it enables me to provide continuous care to a patient. I can first see a patient, for example, when she has reached adolescence and continue to treat her throughout her life. I’ve also had a long-standing fascination ...
Jean-Pol De Saedeleer, 58, is chief concierge at Brussels’ Radisson SAS Royal Hotel. He’s been making hotel guests feel at home for 35 years
The goal of a concierge is to ensure a guest’s comfort in a hotel and to try to provide whatever they want as long as it’s legal. I have been a concierge for 35 years now. I spent the first 15 years at Brussels’ Hilton Hotel and was then given the opportunity to be chief concierge ...
John Fordham, 56, breeds rare dogs. His Curly Coated Retrievers and Sussex Spaniels have won championships across Europe
It was my first Curly Coated Retrievers, Sabre and Zelda, who got me started as a breeder. One lunchtime I popped home from work and found Zelda on my bed surrounded by eight puppies. I’d been wondering if she was in whelp, but wasn’t sure, so it was a wonderful surprise. That was in 198...
Jean-Paul Goossens, 57, holds a black belt in Taekwondo and is a national coach. He also used to be lead singer in a rock band
My life in Taekwondo is really my third incarnation. In the Seventies I was lead singer with the Belgian hard rock band Doctor Downtrip. We were well-known and toured Europe. Now our claim to fame is that we played with T-Rex at Forest National. In the Eighties, I gave up music and started a new ca...
Samia Bousbaïne, 29, is a concert harpist. She set her heart on taking up the instrument when she was three
Some of my earliest memories are of wanting to play the harp. It all began when my parents took me to see the Disney film The Aristocats. There’s a scene where the cat, Duchess, plays the harp. I was so impressed by its beauty I made up my mind to be a harpist. My parents thought that the des...
Bart Lemmens, 46, owns the iconic Brasserie de l’Union in Saint-Gilles/Sint-Gillis.
I started running the bar with my brother-in-law 12 years ago. In those days there was nothing much happening for young people in this part of Brussels. We were young then too, of course, and in the beginning it was pure rock ’n’ roll. We would open very late seven nights a week and thro...
Ahmed El Ktibi, 53, is a Brussels City councillor. He makes sure the roads, pavements and drains are in order
As councillor for public works, I have very concrete responsibilities: roads, pavements, drains – practical problems that affect people’s daily lives. Every day I get about a dozen complaints, demands or proposals: from broken pavements and street lights to flooding because the drains ar...
Courtenay Willis, 43, is passionate about yoga and nature studies. She runs YogaKids classes for children as young as three
People often look at me in amazement when I say I teach yoga to kids as young as three. They consider yoga to be for adults only, but children are natural yogis. They’re flexible and energetic, they have no inhibitions, they’re open to new ideas and used to imitating. When we moved to B...
Anita Lixel, 34, is a TV Brussel presenter. She once waited until six in the morning to get an interview
E ver since I was a child I wanted to speak French. I’m Australian but we lived all over the place as I grew up. One day in Indonesia somebody taught me the phrase ‘le train est grand’. I never forgot it. My other dreams were to have a kind husband who wasn’t too tall, and to...
Augustine Nwaekwe, 33, is assistant chaplain at Holy Trinity Pro-Cathedral Brussels. He moved here from Nigeria with his wife and children
Anyone working in the church will tell you there is no such thing as a typical day. It’s not a nine-to-five job and you have to expect the unexpected. I can get telephone calls at any time of the day – or night – asking for prayer or advice, or simply a listening ear. Even on Satur...
Belinda White lives on a farm in Wallonia. In August, she imported 15 alpacas to breed them for their fleece
When the alpacas arrived and I put them out to pasture, they seemed almost too terrified to eat. In the mountains of Chile where they come from food is scarce and the sight of all this green grass was almost too much. Since then though they have settled down well and, while naturally timid creature...
Benny Claes, 48, is a police sketch artist. He draws all potential suspects in black and white
After finishing art school, I became a police officer in 1980 and a police sketch artist [technically a forensic artist] in 1982. It was always my dream to become a sketch artist. It was the combination of drawing by hand and the psychological aspect of the job which attracted me, especially since I...
Dominique Lossignol, 48, is a doctor at a hospital devoted to treating cancer. He performs euthanasia on dying patients
On the one hand, I have to admit that I never feel happy about what I do. On the other, I know at heart that it is what the person wants. I’m an oncologist who performs euthanasia at the Institut Jules Bordet, a hospital in Brussels devoted to cancer treatment. I regard my main task as managi...
Emilie Meessen, 27, is a founder of Infirmiers de Rue/Straatverplegers, a team of street nurses who treat homeless people in Brussels. She says they need more care than just being given a home
What I like about my work is that every time you go out, you meet people and can have enriching conversations. Before our organisation was set up in 2005, I used to work in a homeless shelter so I was already familiar with the kind of work we do. There are four people on my team. Our salaries are ...
Frank de Bleeckere, 42, is an international football referee. He recently returned from Euro 2008 where he refereed the Spain-Russia semi-final, among other games
The Bulletin: How did you become a referee? Frank de Bleeckere: I’m from a family of referees. My father and grandfather were referees for the top Belgian division. I started when I was 18 after I was injured as a player. TB: What’s the physical aspect of being a referee like? FB: In ...
Frederik Thoalen, 22, works at an animal rescue centre. He particularly likes looking after the raptors and the primates
I started working at Opglabbeek Natuurhulpcentrum about five years ago. A teacher of mine was a volunteer at the centre, and since I’d always been interested in animals, I went with him one day. I ended up volunteering for four years, but now I work here full-time. Almost every animal we...
Freddy Maertens, 56, is one of Belgium’s best-loved and most successful cyclists. He now helps run the Tour of Flanders museum
My uncle was a pro rider. He wasn’t great, but he was a pro, and that was important. My cousin also raced. I’d go along to races with them, and that was when I first got the buzz, the will to win. I had a bike and wanted to race too, but my father told me I had to finish my schooling fir...
Guy Hendrickx, 64, was born into Belgium’s oldest firework-making family. He was seven when he produced his first shell.
My great-great-grandfather Gustav Hendrickx lived near Antwerp and made fireworks as a hobby, taking them to displays around Europe in the late 18th century. I have a book of his handwritten formulas dating from 1788. His son Jean-François set up the family business in 1834 – just after...
John-John Dohmen, 20, has already made 100 appearances for Belgium’s national grass hockey team and is aiming for a top eight finish for his country in the Olympic Games in Beijing
My interest in hockey was largely inspired by my mother. She played for the Royal Leopold Club, the team I was playing for when they won the Belgian first division competition back in 2005. I now play for Waterloo Ducks, who are also in Belgium’s top division. I first made it into the nationa...
Josy Dubié was six years old when he was famously photographed shaking Winston Churchill’s hand in Brussels during the British politician’s tour of Europe after World War Two
I felt a bit embarrassed as I went off to Place Madou/plaats to see Winston Churchill during his victory tour of Europe the year after World War Two ended. My mother had made the British military police uniforms for my brother and me to wear for Liberation Day eighteen months earlier but by 1946 the...
Kattalin Landaburu, 32, is a television news reporter. She mainly works for the news channel France 24
I’ve been working as a freelance television reporter for the news channel France 24 since it started broadcasting in 2006. The idea of France 24 is to present a French point of view of the world so that listeners can choose between that view and those expressed on BBC, CNN or Al Jazeera. Franc...
Krisje De Meulemeester, 39, is a purser for Brussels Airlines. Ensuring passenger safety is her number one priority
I’ve been flying for 18 years, starting with DAT, on which Brussels Airlines was built. Since I was a child I’ve wanted to travel and meet people, so for me this is the perfect job. I’m going to Entebbe in Uganda in a few weeks, and my 12-year-old son will be travelling as an unacc...
Konstantin Vodenitcharov, 29, is a dating and lifestyle coach. He teaches men how to meet women
My clients are usually between 25 and 45 years old and are very successful professionally, but have difficulty meeting women. At the moment, I don’t teach any women. The most common objectives of my clients are to become more at ease with the opposite sex and less shy, and to develop better s...
After searching for Napoleon across the battlefields of Waterloo, Peter Philp finally caught up with the French general at La Ferme de Caillou, his last headquarters. Mark Schneider, 38, portrays the Emperor at the historic battle’s annual re-enactment
Peter Philp: I’ve been chasing you all over the battlefield! Napoleon Bonaparte: It’s not fun being chased. PP: How was the battle? NB: I thought the whole weekend was excellent. We were very fortunate to have wonderful weather, and a great turnout by re-enactors and the public alike....
Martina Daly plays women’s hurling. She is on the Belgian national team
I never played hurling when I was growing up near Dublin. It was always hockey. I only picked up the game when I came to Brussels. I arrived here in 1993 and now I work for the European Commission in communications. Two years ago I got wind of a hurling team being set up – or a camogie team, I...
Mathew Hocken, 29, is a New Zealander who plays rugby for several teams in Belgium. He juggles his love of the game with a career as a senior consultant
Rugby brought me to Belgium when a friend put me in touch with someone playing for the Brussels Barbarians Rugby Club. A quick call followed by a brief trip and then an interview with the consultancy I now work for, sealed my move to the continent. I came here on a six-month internship and liked it...
Nathacha Blandine, 30, teaches pole-dancing. She says it’s like Chinese pole acrobatics
Contrary to what most people think, I’ve never taken a dance class. I taught myself how to pole-dance, because I found it beautiful. It didn’t take me too long to learn. I’m training to be an acrobat, which helps me keep in shape for pole-dancing. I need to train two or three time...
Philip Yaffe, 64, teaches effective communication. He says writing simply is much more difficult than people might think
Before I started running courses, I used to write or correct speeches for companies. I was correcting a speech, and the writer was looking over my shoulder. I moved a couple of words around, and he said: “That’s so much better! Why didn’t I see that?” And the thought occurred...
Richard Wells, 59, has lent his voice to over 7,000 broadcasts. He also does impressions, including a fairly convincing Brusseleer
It’s my voice that has been my fortune. Over the past 22 years in Brussels, I have lent my voice to more than 7,000 TV, radio and cinema commercials, corporate videos, training films, e-learning programmes, websites and other audiovisual projects. I run Speak-Easy, a voice-over and presenters&...
Rudy Denayer, 42, is one of 28 rescue divers in Brussels. He’s often called on to fish body parts out of the city’s canals
When I was about five or six years old my family used to go for walks along the canalside in Brussels on weekends. We often watched the pompiers-plongeurs [fire department divers] training there. I was impressed by the divers dressed all in black and the truck. I always wanted to stay and watch them...
Rupert Smith, 64, is a retired British general. He used to be the number two at SHAPE
I joined the army because I couldn’t think of anything else to do. It was the 1960s and I was young – only 18. Somewhere in my late 20s I realised that this was the profession I was going to follow. I lived in Mons from 1999 to 2001 while working at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Power...
Sandra Hensen, 35, is a member of the Belgian Voyage Club, the biggest Star Trek fan club in Belgium.
I first got into the show when I was five or six years old and watched the original series on TV. Mr Spock and his arched eyebrows and pointy ears fascinated me. Then I really loved The Next Generation when it came out in the mid-1980s, and everything took off from there. I joined the Belgian Voyag...
Stavros Malaxos, 40, is a Brussels-based real estate agent. He keeps up to date on all the new property laws
People think being a real estate agent is just about being the middleman, matching buyers with sellers, renters with landlords – but it’s much more. You have to go through a three-year training course, followed by one year of apprenticeship before you get your real estate agent’s l...
Vanina Ickx, 33, is a racing driver who competes in the Le Mans Series championship. To train for the track, she plays computer games and sits in saunas
I didn’t really like cars when I was young and had no ambition to follow in my father’s footsteps. He stopped racing driving when I was 10 and never encouraged me to take it up. In fact, I only got into it by chance. I met someone at the gym – she was a driver and training for a ra...
Wilfried Dumoulin, 48, works for the housing division of the free legal service Solidarités Nouvelles.
I can see the Justice Palace from the window of my office. I used to work there as a lawyer but when my wife and I had children I decided to go part-time so I could spend more time with them. My team covers the whole of Belgium, although about 90 percent of the people we deal with are in Brussels. ...
Yannick Debel, 18, is a plane spotter. His fascination for passenger planes takes him across Europe
My love for planes began with my first experience of flying at three years old. The sensation of flying and the loud sounds in the cabin made a very strong impression on me. I first started to photograph planes during a trip to Brussels Airport with my father in September 2001. Most of the...
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