WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

The week started with the Ommegang, the pageant commemorating the Joyous Entry of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V into Brussels in 1549. "Ommegang" is Flemish for "walkabout", and "joyous entry" is the term used to describe a new ruler's formal arrival in his new fief, although when Peter Mandelson took up his post as Commissioner it could have meant something quite different. The second performance on Thursday was particularly joyous as it was also the first day of the Belgian Presidency of Europe, which as yet still doesn't have a government itself. The Belgians have therefore decided to let Herman Van Rompuy run Europe for the next six months, which is good because (a) that is supposed to be his job anyway, and he hasn't had anything to do yet, and (b) by a happy coincidence, he is also Belgian. There is going to be a big concert in the Place Luxembourg on Saturday night to celebrate, headlining the singer from Placebo and perhaps a haiku or two from Herman.

This week we also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the independence of the Congo, formerly the Belgian Congo. King Albert and Queen Paola are out in Kinshasa, perspiring stoically and silently through interminable speeches, and having to sit down to dinner with the likes of Robert Mugabe and other great African democrats. As one Belgian radio broadcaster said: it must be like going to a picnic with the worst offenders from a high security prison, only without the prison and without the high security. Still, after what his great-great-uncle Leopold II did to the Congolese people, it's a small price to pay. The Congo made Belgium rich with its rubber and minerals, and is also where they got the cocoa beans to make their delicious chocolates, and for that alone, I say "thank you the Congo!"

Life for the Belgians in the Congo is accurately depicted in Hergé's volume "Tintin in the Congo".



This weekend also sees the opening of Bruxelles-les-Bains - the annual urban beach experience first started with Paris-Plage and now to be found across Europe - not to mention all manner of other concerts, festivals, open-air cinemas and amusements to take people's minds off such trivial annoyances as the 836 million euros spent on the Toronto G20 last week. The result of the summit was a 27-page declaration, that works out to nearly 31 million euros a page, to say "make poverty history". My sentiments exactly. And perhaps there wouldn't be so much of it about if there were fewer summits. I think I might join Scrumpy and his friends at the next G20.

Another famous Belgian heading for the next summit

If the quarter finals of the World Cup and the finals of Wimbledon are not enough sport for you, on Sunday the Tour de France arrives in Brussels, and departs again on Monday lunchtime via the end of my street. I probably won't bother going to see it. I've seen it once already, and I know how it ends. The guy in the yellow jersey always wins.

Meanwhile, I don't know what the weather's like where you are, but here in Brussels it's just gone 6.30 p.m. on Friday and the thermometer on my front balcony - which is in the shade - reads 36 degrees centigrade. That's 96.8 in old money. It's hotter than July. Enjoy this, Pat!