Following Sunday mass, more than 700 wheeled vehicles — from cars to motorcycles to bikes — lined up in a queue several hundred meters long to receive blessings from a priest. Both practicing and non-practicing parishioners waited for the blessing following mass honoring St. Christopher, the saint of transportation. A report stated that the priest needed 10 liters of holy water to accommodate the crowd.

Motorway laybys in the Liège area haven't been serviced since the beginning of May. Rubbish has been piling up by the roadsides, as negotiations for a new service contract with the company which won the recent tender got off to a late start. It will take an estimated week to clear the backlog, made worse by unscrupulous fly tipping, which authorities promise will be investigated.

Two websites to promote inter-cultural dialogue by allowing citizens to adopt a person from the other language community launched last week. The websites www.adopteunflamand.be and www.adopteereenfranstalige.be only allow you to adopt an individual from the other language community, with German-speakers allowed to adopt either. The ratio of willing adopters on the sites stands at about four Walloons to one Fleming at the moment, said the creator.

Fabienne

The political crisis spawned the first Miss BHV contest pitching five multilingual women from across the disputed electoral district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde against each other, including on a political leaning level. Vote for your favourite at www.missbhv.com.

A 26-year old Antwerp resident has recently published a cookbook featuring recipes exclusively for pet dogs. The book, titled "Wat een Hondenleven" (translates to "What a Dog Life!"), lists 20 recipes with titles such as "delicious flea killers" that are made with ingredients recommended by pet nutritionists, said the author and owner, Manuel Goossens. More information on the book, available in English, can be found at hupple.com.