I knew I would have to start one some day: a weblog. You know, I'm not always the most modern and technologically advanced person. Only lately I found out that the 'memory card' in my palmtop was just a piece of plastic (thanks, Rastko), which was the reason why it was running so slow all the time. It's not so long ago either that I finally relinquished my ICQ, after my last active contact, my grandmother, started using MSN Messenger. This also explains why I'm holding my fellow bureau member Marc in such a high esteem; it's incredible how he has conjured this new site. Goodbye greyish, unpractical and old-fashioned website, so long!

Of course, it took a while... I remember promising the readers of the IFLRY newsletter about its coming quite a while ago, but I'm sure Marc will write you all about it in his own blog!

IFLRY is indeed going through quite a few changes. The most visible one, at least from the outside, is of course this pretty new site. However, as Monika is leaving us in the end of november, we're also seeking a new Executive Director. An even more profound change is perhaps the move of our office from Brussels to London. The latter is induced by a few factors. First of all, we had to leave our current office anyway, as the rental agreement expired. When it was concluded three years ago, we agreed a very reasonable price with the house owner, and we knew that if we'd start up negotiations for another term, we'd certainly have to start paying a way higher price. Besides that, we were increasingly suffering from the neighbourhood. Even though it's perfectly placed right in the center of Brussels, we had two burglaries in only two weeks last june. Drunken or other crazy people would sneak their noses in everytime when the people working at the office (Monika and her interns) decided to leave the door ajar for some fresh air. Another compelling factor was the denial of the administrative grant from the European Commission, which over the last couple of years had helped our organisation to stay active, as we were in their eyes too similar to our grant-receiving friends from Europe, LYMEC, also residents of Brussels. By moving to London, and of course through a few other things, we hope to distinguish ourselves more from LYMEC, so both of us can eventually receive this grant. Last, but not least, we're not simply moving to London, but are in fact moving to the actual headquarters of Liberal International, the worldwide umbrella for all liberal-minded parties. As we share principally the same goals, I hope that our common residence will prove to be a great basis for future cooperation on many fields.

Luckily enough JD (Jonge Democraten, Netherlands) has offered to help out with moving from Brussels to London, as they have a minibus that they normally use for their 'Enjoy Europe' campaign, but would have otherwise stayed idle in the weekend we planned for moving. This trip will therefore also help boosting the finances of Eurostar, the company in charge of the Canal tunnel between France and the UK, which has, to my knowledge, never made any profit since they started digging the first hole in the ground. Not surprisingly either, if you consider the amount they charge you for making use of it! If we'd had a smaller car, it might have been cheaper to drive it to a Ryanair airport, dismantle it completely, pay a bit extra for the luggage, fly to the other side of the sea, assemble the parts of the car again, and drive on. But again, I'm not such a technical person either.