Robin Wilton's esoterica

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25 Mar · Sat 2006

They can do a marathon...!

No blogging for a couple of days, as I was in Brussels for a planning session. We were right next door to the EU Summit meeting, which was interesting for a couple of reasons: --- first, the presence of so many heads of state meant that security was tight; barbed-wire barricades, armed police and armoured trucks were much in evidence. I got a chance to add to my collection of esoteric credentials: before the meeting, our colleagues in Brussels had to apply on our behalf for a police pass for each person who needed to get through the police cordon. The resulting slip of paper was linked to me only by the fact that it had my name and date of birth on it; details which happened to match the passport I was asked to show at the same time. The credentials got to me because they were left at my hotel during the day. Hmmm. --- second, there was French President Chirac's high-profile snit over the fact that a French delegate not only gave his address in English, but then said that he did so because English was the (if you'll pardon the phrase) lingua franca of business. M. Chirac could do worse than visit this page on the Europa site, where EU statistics reveal that French, Italian and English rank an egalitarian second equal in terms of native speaking populations in Europe. When it comes to non-native speakers, though, English ranks first, with a higher percentage than the next 10 official languages put together, and over 2 1/2 times the number of non-native speakers of French. However, all that levity was but a memory today, as we were out on the towpath again. Anna and her crew-mate canoed a marathon 26 miles down the Thames; their furthest yet. For once, they weren't paddling into a biting East wind. Long may that continue...

Posted by racingsnake @ 08:34 PM GMT+00:00

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