Who is Mme. CL DE PAUW?

Who is Mme. CL DE PAUW that lives on the 8th and 9th floors of the Hotel Belgium in Brussels on Avenue Louise, 315?

Send me your theories.

How can I fit in here?

I was flying to Budapest the other week and the Alitalia flight to Milan was cancelled. Luckily I got a direct flight from Bologna to Budapest. The check-in personnel mentioned I was the only satisfied customer of the former Alitalia flight. All the others were getting ready to board a bus towards Milano.

After enjoying the bonus hours at the airport I boarded the transfer bus towards the plane. When I got there my mood changed - I was flying a Carpatair plane. What the hell is Carpatair? I had never heard about this company before, nor was I able to identify the manufacturer of the turbo propeller plane I was about to board. I immediately checked for any hanging parts and the plane's painting condition. It seemed well taken care of, so I got a little bit more relaxed.

I'm not afraid of flying but I'm used to fly in major airlines where you know a certain level of maintenance is (should be?) expected. When I get these unknown carriers I get a little suspicious. After all it is the same reaction when you are expecting to meet someone you know and suddenly someone else appears that you've never seen saying 'Hi there! I want to take you on a joyride!'. After you get to know that person you may get more relaxed but until that happens there's something that doesn't let you relax.

By the name I suspected it was a Romanian airline, which was later confirmed when I visited their website. It seems it was founded in 1999 and mainly connects Timisoara to several European cities.

When I got to my seat I learned the plane was a Saab 2000, by the name I deducted that it may be some decades old. Any product that contains that number usually refers to the year 2000. They did (do?) that to project a futuristic image to the product. I would say that branding trick would have stopped at the most by the early 90s. After some investigation I found that the plane was projected in 1988 and entered service in 1994.

The layout of a Saab 2000

Another particularity I found out in this plane was the size of the WC. It's unbelievably small! I had to curve myself to be able to do what I was supposed to do there. Another interesting aspect of the plane's WC was that it had a little window! It was my first time on a commercial plane with a window in the WC. Unfortunately I was flying at night so I couldn't enjoy the experience the plane ideators' had conceived for the passangers.

To pave or not to pave?

The apartment I live in is located on the outskirts of Bologna, in Calderara di Reno, which is a wonderful place to relax after a stressful day. You can run or bike in less trafficked roads but you are only 15 minutes from a vibrant downtown - full of osterie, bars and university students.

The apartment complex is made up of 4 building blocks each with 5 floors. Two on each side and other two in the middle. The two blocks on the sides curve at a point, making them perpendicular.

The construction of the external areas was still going on when I moved in October 2004. Not much time after the last construction worker vanished from sight, I noticed a very curious thing. The ramp for the external area in the back on my block was paved with some nice bricks, but the same ramp for the middle block wasn't paved, it was bubbling with nature - rocks, dust and some plants already conquering back their territory.


Since the construction company was the same that did the apartment complex I wonder why they had paved one side of the ramp and not the other. I couldn't come up with an answer myself and I was getting quite obsessed with the matter. I usually get obsessed by things I don't have an answer for.

One day I found a neighbor in the garage and I ask him the question that had been tormenting me for months. He mention that the reason was that since each building in the town of Calderara needs to have a certain percentage of green space (until here I was very impressed!), the construction company found out that the originally planed green area for the 2 middle blocks wasn't fulfilling city rules. So to resolve their legal problems they didn't pave the ramp, so that it counts as 'green' area! Can you believe this?!

Satelite photo of the apartment complex taken from Google Earth
(It was still under construction. I guess circa 2003)

In the above photo you can see a simulation of the green area of the two blocks. You can see that the proportion of the green area vs the block area is much bigger on the right block than on the left one.

I wonder where the problem originated and who was the smart &$% that came up with the brilliant 'solution'. Who in the Calderara comune accepted that as a valid way out? It's better to be paved and get the construction company pay some kind of violation ticket for breaking the law.

How much is 1x1?

That's an easy one, but how about multiplying 111111111 by 111111111?

12.345.678.987.654.321

Ah! The beauty of math!