Patience...patience...

WCB's fate hangs in the balance...how much longer must we wait?

Maybe that's a little melodramatic, but I'm waiting for an answer from the city of Antwerp - I'd like to claim that it's been months, but actually it's more like a week and a half (which is perfectly reasonable, if we're honest).  I'm waiting to discover whether they're going to be nice enough to let us play in their fair city during our little trip - in practice, it's not all that urgent but it would just be nice to know...that way, we can get on with arranging all the other bits and pieces for the trip.

In the meantime, I suppose I'll just have to sit and twiddle my thumbs, ponder whether there are any well-known traditional Belgian pieces that we could include in our programme and look forward to the closest we'll get to going abroad before May...the WCB Spring Concert - A World of Music - tickets available soon!

Gent...? Wrong!

I have a big dilemma. Throughout this blog so far, you'll have noticed I've talked quite a lot about Gent...but is it Gent? Or should it be Ghent? This is obviously a serious issue worthy of some lengthy research and some in-depth analysis...!

Unfortunately, it turns out that there's not a great deal of research to be done - it's simply the case that Gent is the Dutch name for the city whilst Ghent is the English, in much the same way that Bombay was (until 1995) the English version of Mumbai. For language fans, the French for Gent (or Ghent) is Gand and the English version used to be Gaunt - you may have heard of John of Gaunt (born, of course, in Gent in 1340) who was the Duke of Lancaster, the fourth son of Edward III and cropped up in Shakespeare's Richard II.

All of which means that technically, I suppose I ought to be talking about Ghent, at least until my Dutch improves significantly but as a fan of languages in general, this doesn't sit very comfortably so for the time being, I'm afraid that you're stuck with Gent!

The Numbers Game

So, we know all about where we're staying and how we're getting there but is that enough? Well no, of course not. "What we need," I hear you cry "is some proper information about Gent...enough of the airy-fairy waffly bit, we want some cold hard facts."

Without further ado, therefore, here are some of Gent's vital statistics...

24,144,001	Metric tonnes of freight in the harbour
236,629	Inhabitants (‘Gentenaars’)
475	Restaurants
250	Types of beer
239	Miles from Woodley to Gent
134	Rooms in the Ibis Gent Centrum Opera Hotel
108	Days before WCB sets off on its first ever international tour
74	Parks
30	Hectares of pedestrian space in the city centre
26	Civic ponds
20	Fountains
19	Museums
10	Chocolate shops
2	Mediaeval Castles
1	Impressive City!