Posh wipe. This season's must have - the little black roll.

Renova, a Portuguese paper products company, is releasing an all black toilet paper. Last year, Renova debuted the product in Paris "to a select group of high-society women, and it was very positively received."

"Elegant, sophisticated, rebellious, alternative and eternally fashionable, black has become virtually synonymous with chic and style. But while this colour is often present in avant-garde creative work, no one has ever dared to use it for toilet paper until now. Black in the loo, how chic and sophisticated can you get?"

You can find le noir toilet paper in the bathrooms of places like celeb after-hours hangout Bungalow 8, Bette, Kittichai and the Four Seasons. This all-black toilet paper from Portugal is brand new, real, and mercilessly chic. And, as it turns out, 10 times more costly than the average Euro-wipe.

Is black the new black? Black jeans were the new rage last season. What's next? Band aids?

For the "chic and sophisticated", you can purchase a sample directly from the manufacturer. Renova can be found at http://www.renovaonline.net/

Talk about provocative advertising.


January.


February.


May.


July.


October.


November.

Wet bank holidays...

... are rubbish.

Hot chick...

... or not.

Bruxelles.

Hotel Bristol Stephanie...


... along Avenue Louise.


Elevators down to the old town.


La Grand Place de Bruxelles I: a remarkably homogeneous body of public and private buildings, dating mainly from the late 17th century.


La Grand Place de Bruxelles II.


La Grand Place de Bruxelles III.


La Grand Place de Bruxelles IV.


La Grand Place de Bruxelles V.




Falstaff: classic Art Nouveau restaurant slash bar, with a resolutely Belgian menu and a good variety of biers.


A little history...


Interior:: loving the stained glass.


Le 1er citoyen de Bruxelles: le petit Julien - Manneken-Pis.


"Et qui va promener le chien?" Chic bar with a large ‘terasse’ on a pedestrian street and a funny name: "And who will walk the dog?".


Pierre Marcolini: the self-described Hermes of the chocolate world. Minimalist-chic bonbonniere on the Place du Grand Sablon.


Dinner at Niels': crayfish pasta; white wine. Excellent meal!


Saucy mannequin. Couldn't resist the shot whilst walking back to the hotel.


View from hotel room. Lovin the weather!

Ouch.

"The French may like to think that Chanel No 5 is their scent but we all know that garlic and stale Gitanes are much more representative."

That has to be the most insulting quote of the month.

_______________________________________________________

LONDON (AFP) - The French have been voted the world's most unfriendly nation by a landslide in a new British poll published. They were also voted the most boring and most ungenerous.

A decisive 46 percent of the 6,000 people surveyed by travellers' website Where Are You Now (WAYN) said the French were the most unfriendly nation people on the planet, British newspapers reported.

The Germans have no to reason to celebrate the damning verdict. They came second on all three counts.

WAYN's French founder, Jerome Touze, told the papers he had been stunned by the thumping condemnation of his compatriots and sought to blame it on Gallic love-struck sulking.

"I had no idea that the French would emerge as such an unfriendly country," he said.

"I think our romantic 'moodiness' is misunderstood and I will be sure to pass on the message to my family and friends back in France to be a bit more cheerful to tourists in the future."

Italy was voted the world's most cultured nation with the best cuisine, while the United States was named the most unstylish with the worst food.

The British did not feature in the top 10 of any of the categories.

"The British fit in nowhere -- good or bad. It appears that we are so completely average that the voters did not include us in any category," the tabloid Daily Express commented.

"And to our shame, four percent of respondents -- all British of course -- said they would only talk to other Britons when they are abroad."

This unwillingness to talk to the locals appears to go hand in hand with respondents' perceptions of foreigners.

While most said Spain was the foreign country where they would most like to live, they said the Spaniards were nearly as unfriendly and ungenerous as the French.

To add insult to injury, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph put the boot in on Saturday by saying in an editorial that the French stank.

"The French may like to think that Chanel No 5 is their scent but we all know that garlic and stale Gitanes are much more representative."

Funny commercial.

In Dutch; the ending says: "Mercator Homesolutions. Because one day you will be living on your own again."

Ads.ch: Welcome to Love Life.

No Action Without Protection: this is the new slogan for the Love Life Stop Aids ad campaign in Switzerland.

Skanky whores.

Overheard the other day: "Lawyers are like whores - we charge by the hour."

I'm feeling as skanky as ever.

NY-LON

Guys, it's confirmed; I'm moving to the Big Apple. London's burnt out for a wee bit.

I'm well chuffed - there's no doubt about that. But we're talking September, so don't get rocking yet, my babies. Oh, and people are welcome to stay if they're thinking of visiting.

God, this week has been groovy. Slash over-worked.

Whatever. In other news, I'm off to Brussels on Sunday for a working visit; racking up the points on Eurostar, and (hopefully) getting some time off to do the touristy-thing mincing about the Grand'Place before meeting Niels for dinner at his.

Fuck me, it's 3am now. Time to sleep.


Moving to the Big Apple.

See http://absolutad.com/:

ABSOLUT NEW YORK (taxicabs) is a second version of the "New York" ad; the first was an artist's rendering as part of the ABSOLUT STATEHOOD Collection from USA Today newspaper (1992-3) and 2/14/94 Time magazine. This new version looks like ABSOLUT CITRON (taxicabs) and is an aerial view of a busy New York City street, crowded with cars. In the middle of the cars are 34 yellow New York taxicabs, forming the Absolut shape. Photographed by Steve Bronstein, this ad has the 1998 copyright date from the original Citron/cabs ad.