Totally wired for Belgium
— Relocating to Brussels throws up lots of challenges such as how to evaluate Belgian supermarket chains and rewire UK plugs.”
We’re both working now and an embryonic daily routine has started. Some kind of normality, albeit a new and fresh one, is creeping into our daily lives. And to function effectively in our daily lives, we need to have a solid grasp of the basics.
Supermarkets
As an Information Designer, I’m used to working with hierarchies. Hierarchies help information consumers to understand the relationships between distinct data.
I learned that, here in Brussels, you can make quick value judgements by applying a hierarchy to compare day-to-day options. All you need is a pencil, a sticky note and a native Belgian:
| Poshness | UK | Belgium |
|---|---|---|
| Rolls Royce | Harrods | ? |
| Mercedes Benz | Marks & Spencer, Waitrose | Rob |
| Ford Mondeo | Sainsbury’s, Tesco | Delhaize |
| Nissan Almera | Asda, Somerfield, Morrisons | Match, Champion, GB, Colruyt |
| Austin Allegro | Lidl, Aldi, Netto | Cora, Lidl |
Coming from Britain, possibly one of the most class-conscious nations in the world, these comparisons are helpful!
Plugging in
As daily life in our new country now starts to take shape, we realise that it’s time to make another small break with Britain: electrical plugs.
There’s only so far you can go on a couple of converters bought in the airport lounges of the past!
Belgium uses CEE 7/7 plugs and given that J is a major fan of both electronics and toolbelt DIY, I let her rip on some of our “business critical” connections.
It was pretty much impossible to get information from the Internet about rewiring UK plugs to European formats.
Typically, Wikipedia boasted an overwhelming volume of information about the various international standards, but nothing whatsoever of practical value.
That’s why, if you dear Reader, should need to convert your British plugs to Belgian or French plugs, I have prepared this nice diagram.
It really is as simple as that – just apply the normal wiring to the plug as shown and you’re away.
You shouldn’t need to worry about fuses and that sort of thing, everything worked fine in our tests.
Comments
3 responses so far to Totally wired for Belgium
Comments are now closed on this article
See also:
Thai cookery evening
An evening in Braine l’Alleud, having a lesson in Thai cooking.
- Originally published: 28 Feb 2009 in Editorial
French language characters on a qwerty keyboard
Retaining a qwerty keyboard in an international environment where French is commonly used.
- Originally published: 10 Nov 2010 in Personalia
The story of Lawrence Padgett
A soldier from Yeadon who went to Europe and never returned.
- Originally published: 9 Mar 2009 in Personalia
Invasion postponed due to fog
Folk have fought violently over this strip of coastline for centuries but with such thick fogs, one wonders how.
- Originally published: 9 Apr 2009 in Europe
Three Days of De Panne
Easter weekend started early as we headed up to the Flemish coast at De Panne.
- Originally published: 5 Apr 2010 in Europe
Who you gonna call?
Hello you, I'm Mike Padgett. I'm not a Princeton curator, Knoxville mayoral candidate, Kentuckian pastor or Arizona journalist, I just share the same name. In fact, I am a consultant working in user experience and information design.
I also enjoy travel, concerts, films and walking.
I'm originally from Yorkshire, England but nowadays I live in Belgium. My current favourite Belgian beer is Black Albert.
Shameless self-promotion
Over a year in the making, Dopeology.org is my latest personal project: a topology of doping in thirty years of European pro road cycling.
I collected information from thousands of sources, then I modelled and published it via a lightweight user interface.
October 8th, 2008 at 16:41
Great idea to get rewiring!!! Guess you cannot stay with Brit plugs forever – a bit pointless (or pinless)
October 9th, 2008 at 17:01
Hell…I get lots of those little two pin kettle leads and just throw them out! :-(
October 10th, 2008 at 11:00
Well, I suppose the sagacity of that depends on whether or not you intend to move to Continental Europe in the future, doesn’t it? ;-)
We arrived in BXL with a few travel adaptors. When J’s sister left us another one after her visit in summer, we realised in our eagerness to receive this bounty just how much we had come to depend on them. When we started furnishing and it became important to keep cables tucked away, that was the moment to strike.
The little story behind the last photo is that I took it at exactly the moment J plugged in her newly rewired plug. I thought it would be funny to have the flash on the camera go off at that moment, giving J a little scare and me a laugh. In reality however, because the timing was faultless, poor J was more than a little traumatised by the experience and I ended up rather regretting my mischievous impulse :-/