‘Some people manage to buy a brand-new bike over the Internet for a bargain price. As they are incapable of setting up it themselves, they are not at all embarrassed to come and ask me to do it for them. My answer is would you dare to take a steak along with you to a restaurant?’

He was 12 years old in 1980 when he became a refugee fleeing Vietnam by boat. That was the start of an eventful struggle for survival for Cuong Luat Nguyen and his two brothers. Their destination was a country where they could start a new life in peace and freedom.

Josée Lemaître spent 10 years working as general administrator for the Flemish Government's Research Department. There she was positioned at the source of all the flows of information.

People cycling along the Leuven-Brussels high-speed train line sometimes see him. A thin, grey-pigtailed man on a racing bike, a retro bike or a self-constructed, open reclining bicycle. From Herent to the Royal Athenaeum School in Zaventem and back, peddling furiously to cover 50 km a day.

The likeable and charismatic news presenter Wim De Vilder is a familiar face to viewers of the Flemish public broadcaster VRT. His father Herman worked for a long time in…

‘Dutch expressions, such as all Belgians are born with a brick in their stomach (have an urge to build) tells me a lot about the way you think.…

Swinging with the beat, with intense facial expressions and confident gestures they are positioned slightly lower than the musicians, providing their wordless translation for all of those people who are…

Reiko Seigo from Japan works at Toyota Tsusho's European headquarters in Zaventem and lives in Brussels. Even as a little girl she was curious about Europe. So when she was offered a job in Belgium she jumped at the chance.

Nineteen-year-old Nozizwe Dube fled from Zimbabwe to Tervuren six years ago. She really concentrated on learning Dutch, determined to be able to speak the language fluently. At the start of this year, she became the chairperson of and spokesperson for the Flemish Youth Council.

A treatment for Parkinson's disease has led to a breakthrough in cancer research. A discovery by Pierre Sonveaux from Sterrebeek attracted the attention of the international press last year.

Robert Rimez from Sint-Pieters-Leeuw is a man with a passionate interest. As a result of 2.000 kilometres of hiking within the space of one year, he knows the area like…

How has life been treating Svetlana Bolshakova? Five years ago she shared her mixed feelings with us. There was a lot of media attention for this triple jumper at the time but things have now gone quiet for this top Belgian athlete with Russian roots.

All it takes is one - the right book in the right place and away you go. Boredom is a thing of past now that you have stories at your fingertips. Journeys to embark upon in your imagination. Hugo and his daughter Sigrid Bousset both lead literature-saturated lives.

This Metallica fan-cum-art historian hails from Asturias and now lives in Sterrebeek. A fresh start in a foreign country took some getting used to.

Although the chances of him succeeding in the world of football seemed to be very slim indeed, Geert De Vlieger ended up playing in goal for Anderlecht and the national team. ‘When I was a kid I used to play for an unexceptional third provincial league team. Just for the fun of it.'

It took the author Stefan Hertmans 30 years before he dared to open the notebooks containing his grandfather’s memoires. Three years later and his grandfather has become a fictional character and the memoires a book.