Last post of the year

I thought I could just fit in one more post before 2010 is over, and because I'm skiving my work.

I have today off from my fulltime job and guess what I'm doing? My dad's project. And I'm soooo done with it, unfortunately it's not done with me yet. Believe I have another 10 hours (if not more) before it's finished.

Work is completely dead at the moment. On Monday I had some cleaning up to do and I could also enter some orders for Tuesday 4 Jan, but I was e-mailing and gtalking the whole day while I was doing that. And in the end I still had too much time left. Yesterday I got one e-mail which wasn't even for me :s. I did take a book with me so I started reading it.

On Monday me and my colleague got an e-mail from our other colleague that her father passed away. She would be at work this week but not next week Mon, Tue or Wed. When all three of us were at work yesterday, she told us that she'd like to take of Thu and Fri as well because then she could have some familytime (she hardly ever sees her family). Because there's literally nothing to do, the attending manager (our manager is free and didn't respond to her text/email) said that she could go.

I planned to go home early on either Thu or Fri so I could do some work for dad, but because I'm the only one there I'm not able to go earlier. Because I thought it would be rude to just take my laptop, I asked permission. Hey, otherwise I would be reading my book, and I'd make it very obvious that I was only there because I had to be.

The attending manager said that it was okay but that he would check with the different departments if they need my help - I'm gonna get very angry if I have to help a different department because the only thing I've seen the other departments do is surfing so they can't have any work left either - and maybe he would sent me home earlier. Well...wait right there, that's not gonna happen. In my manager's e-mail it said that if our tasks would permit it one of us could go home earlier but the other had to stay until 4pm. And my travelbuddy has to work the whole day, so if I go home earlier he has to take the bus.

I don't know about Friday yet, but I do have to come in on Thursday and if they want to send me home earlier I'm just gonna say that I'm dependent on my friend because I drove here with him (instead of the other way around), and if I have to take the bus home I would have to walk 20 min to the nearest busstop, sit 30 min in a bus which will make me very sick (I've got motion sickness, although I can do roller coasters) and then a 40 min walk home.

And since I'm allowed to work for my dad at work (oeww I'll be doing some actual work on work, although it's not for the same boss :P) I have no need to go home earlier. Of course they don't know I'm getting paid for the work I'm doing for my dad (and I'm not telling them either).

What are your plans for New Years Eve? My friends and me are going to a town near the Belgian border, apparently the fireworks over Belgium are pretty awesome.

I wish all my readers the best in 2011. See you next year :D.

another year gone

I know we still got a few weeks before 2010 is over, but I already want to make a new years resolution: don't be so MIA on blogger.

This year's been hectic. First with school and doing 2 years in 1. Then finalising my thesis. Enjoying the few holidays because I graduated. Finding work and also doing my dad's project on the side.

In between I got a boyfriend who also wants attention. And in all fairness I want his attention just as bad.

We've only been together for 3 months (since yesterday) but since we've been best friends for a few years and have know each other for a few years more, things tend to go a bit more quickly than any other relationships I've been in. I think we've discussed bits and pieces of everything that's gonna come one day. Living together (when we can afford it, which is hopefully soon), kids, marriage, even divorce although at the moment we don't think we're gonna be apart one day.

Yesterday while we were getting up all of a sudden he says I'm not wearing black. This came totally out of the blue. We got up quietly and both hadn't said anything for a good few minutes, so I thought he's talking about Christmas, I mean that would be most logical. There's no "fancy" birthday party in between now and next week. I replied with You can wear whatever you like. Of course this made it clear that I had no clue what he was talking about. So he said I'm not wearing black to our wedding. Euh...what?! As I said before we've discussed marriage but not really into depth as the design of it all. Only that we want to get married and that it probably won't take place in a church. I would love for it to take place in a church but that's probably just the whole image that is created for weddings. And most weddings I go to are catholic. But I think it would be very hypocritical to marry in a church, I only go twice a year (no not with Easter or Christmas, but for grandpa's deathday and birthday). And boyfriend isn't catholic.

And I hope I don't offend anyone here, but I'm not really sure what I believe. I do believe there's a higher power or that there's something, I just don't know what.
I do respect everyone who does believe and all religions. Believing and religions give people strength, strength to cope with this world and live.

So I totally digressed. Anyway what I wanted to say is that the future is on Boyfriend's mind too, sometimes maybe even more than on mine. And by the time we decide to get married, there's gonna be a fierce discussion on what he's allowed to wear. He doesn't like dark or sad colours. He wants to wear something bright. I'm sorry love, but that's not gonna happen.

If I don't come back this year: happy holidays and glorious new year.

update soon

Where did the last few months go? And within another month another year has gone by.

I'll try to give an update soon. But still sooo behind on some projects (dad's work project with deadline 31 Dec, xmas gift deadline 23 Dec) that I don't even have time to have a life.

Hope you are all doing fine. I do have a few minutes everyday to check my google reader to see if the people I read are posting and I do have time to read them.

Where has the time gone?

@ Americans
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. Did you go out on Black Friday?

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Yeah yeah I know I've been MIA again. Where has the time gone? I mean it only feels like yesterday that we had the birthday party of Boyfriend and his sisters.

In the meantime we've got weeks of work. And secret St. Nicks. This weekend we've got my dad and my birthday party for the family and family friends.

Work is getting more hectic. And my senior is getting frustrated with me. He told me I had to handle problems one at a time. But I'm sorry if I get a problem and I need to call a carrier who has to look into his warehouse and trucks, I'm not waiting 2 hours before I can start the next problem. And he's like If I ask you the update on this or that you always have to think, you should write it down. Euhm....giving me a second to think will probably be faster than me wasting time on writing the stuff down and looking through my stuff to find my notes on the problems.
And I had to send out an e-mail to all the suppliers. Which I did. I even asked him for how to send it (cc, bcc). When he said bcc, I told him that I would then send it to the group e-mail address. No reply.
So when I send them the next day he gets all crossed eyed (even more than usual). What if everybody replied to the groups e-mail then it would be bombarded. Well...I told him that most would just hit reply and not reply-all. And that I would keep the group e-mail clean. Which I did, and I managed to keep up all the other work he was throwing at me. Which got him even more frustrated.
And he's not always friendly towards me, normally people are more friendly when they want to use you, but he even isn't nice for that. He was impressed though by my organising skills, because he told me that I should keep the e-mail to all suppliers in drafts for when we need to use it again. I told him that I had a file where I have all the e-mail addresses and you only have to do "select all" "copy" "paste" send. And I'm even adjusting the e-mails that bounced so that those e-mails are correct or deleted for next time. And he was looking at me like Where do you get the time, I've been throwing everything I can your way and you still manage to do everything. But all he said was "Polish guy (one of the colleagues), she's good".

Oh Boyfriend just called to say he was already done with work. Which means no work for me. Jeez I don't think I can finish this project before 31 Dec. I planned to do 4 hours tonight, but it was already turned into 2,5 because I had to do so much else. And now he's gonna be here in a few minutes. Ah well....I'll work a bit harder during the evenings next week. It's weekend and I need to enjoy it while I'm still young and rather carefree.

Still haven't figured out how to e-mail posts but I can always just save the e-mails and then copy/paste the posts. So hopefully the St. Nicks story sometime next

Update + little rant.

At the moment I'm home sick from work. I had a horrible night and was too tired to get up in the morning. And also....I just didn't fancy going.

As I've told you before I'm very busy since I started my job. This is not only due to my job, but also to the project I told my dad I would do (as calculated I need another 60 hours to finish, this has to be done before New Year's Eve). And I would like to have it finished asap. However the stars are not aligned in my favour.

My schedule for last weekend was
Saturday:
- wintercheck for my car
- celebrating boyfriends birthday and his 2 sisters birthdays (his bday was 3 Nov, sisters' bday 9 Nov)
- my best friends birthday
Sunday:
- work for my dad

On Wednesday the schedule completely changed. Because his family (uncles/aunts/cousins) kept on changing when they were visiting on Saturday, and with us having to go to my friends on Sat evening, they changed the birthday party to Sunday. Because then everyone would be there round the same time and have dinner and blablabla.

First I thought no big deal. I can work instead of the party and then on Sunday morning. Guess again.

I thought no one would go to the wintercheck, wrong. It was supposed to start at 9am but people were already banging on the doors at 7.45am. It was crazy. I get there, they appoint you to drive into a lane, then you get notified about the waiting time: 1,5 - 2 hours. Yikes!! You can't not go since there are parked cars in front of you and new cars arriving behind you. So after 12 I get back (of course it took longer than 2 hours). And I'd already told boyfriend that he could pick me up at 4. This would mean I had a couple of hours to work.

Since mom wasn't at home I decided to head into town to buy her Christmas gift. Of course it wasn't was she wanted and when I found what she wanted it was too expensive (and def not worth the money).

When I got back I had two hours left. Do you think I did anything? Nope, my younger brother decided he wanted to catch up on the Voice of Holland online. I can work with music, that's not a problem, but when there's a big ass screen next to you, your eyes tend to wander.

Boyfriend picked me up but still had a couple of things he needed to do, so I thought I can do something in the meantime. Nope the whole table was covered in plans for building a miniature mill. I has permission to clean it up since no one was using it. When I finally had installed myself to start work, his father and grandfather get home, and took back the table.

Sunday we went to boyfriends sister for the party. And it was good, we had fun. But... of course there's a but.... there was a small discussion. One of the sisters wanted to go away for 2 weeks starting 24 Nov. That's not a problem but we had decided (already over a month ago) that we were doing secret St. Nicks (we've to St. Nicolas at the beginning of Dec) on 27 Nov. So now the date would be changed to 20 Nov. We were still available but we had in mind to go away that weekend. Boyfriend had gotten a hotel voucher from my parents for his birthday that had to be used before the end of the year. His other sister also had in mind to go away that weekend with her boyfriend. But since we both hadn't booked the weekend yet, we could change the date to 20 Nov. Later I heard that the sister leaving on 24 Nov hadn't booked their holiday either. And their mother was like It's not like they didn't know that they would be together for 10 years then :S.

Anyway we get home and get the voucher. Ready to book a weekend. But the only option would be next weekend. Because well...there's 20 Nov: secret st. Nicks, 27 Nov: my dads and mine birthday part. 4 Dec: his sister and boyfriend are gone so Boyfriend is in charge and thus needs to be available in the weekend, 11 Nov: grandma's 80th birthday. 18 Nov: the weekend before Christmas, you don't want to be in a city.
And Boyfriend said he would rather give back the voucher to my parents so they could use it, instead of trying to squish in the few days, because we don't have time at all. And we would go away when we do have time. UGH! I had time. The weekend of 20 Nov and 4 Dec. And there would be a Christmas market in Brussels from 26 Nov.

The voucher is usable for any day of the week. But since I just started my job, and my colleagues had to finish their holiday days, I'm unable to take a day off because at least one of my colleagues will be away.

And the thing is, I might not even have a job in the new year. Remember that first I might have been hired for a different department but at the last minute it fell through? Well....that department is completely going to move back to the UK. Six out of eight have to be replaced within the other departments, one of them being mine. And since I'm the last one in, I think that there's a big chance I'm the first one out too.

And somehow I don't mind leaving. I know I should be lucky to have a job. But the travelling is getting to me. Google maps says it's 30 min drive, I believe that when there are no cars on the road, I would be there in 20 min. But traffic isn't fun, so if I'm lucky I'm at work in 40 min. Last week I got stuck in a traffic jam, I had calculated to be at work at 8am. And I finally got there 9.15am. Not funny.
And I would love to be able to cycle to work. Doesn't matter if it's 30 min cycle, but you know it will never be more (only when you get a flat tire and that's an excuse to be late).

I'm done ranting and complaining. And I'm back to work on my dad's project. And I've to babysit my cousins tonight (I know I'm not making it more relaxing for myself).

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Don't forget to check out Toys for Tots and donate what you can spare.

Toys for Tots

So one of the blogs I read on a regular basis (the low activity that's currently happening in Blogland makes me able to keep myself update on the active blogs) is AR - Not your average Chick.

She is doing a blog fundraiser for Toys for Tots (just follow the link). With the money she collect from this fundraiser she will buy toys and bring them to the organisation who will hand out the toys to children who don't have anything themselves.

Please follow the link and read her explanation, she does a better job of it than I do. And hopefully you can spare a few dollars and donate them to children in need.

Me time

I need me time. I'm behind on my me time. I haven't read a book since I got back from Spain (not even one page of a book). I haven't had the time to keep up with the series I follow.

I'm running all the time and got the feeling that I haven't got control anymore. And I don't know when I lost that control. Normally working during the day and being home at 6 was fine. I mean, in Scotland I was home at 6 and had to make dinner (now it's mom) and still had enough time to hang the whole evening with friends, or watch a couple of episodes of Supernatural with my best friend (through skype, we would say 3 2 1 play, and then watch).

Now I just seem to have no time to read, watch anything, or sleep.

The quiet Thursday at work is going to change. This week we were very busy because a lot of countries have a bank holiday on Monday and we needed to chase them (read: I got to chase them). Afterwards I had to chase the French suppliers because they have another bank holiday on 11 Nov. Oh my god are some French horrible.

I speak a few words French and can get my point across but if they respond with difficult words or with questions I'm unable to answer (most of the time). And some French are able to speak a few words English and together we make it work. When we don't know we give each other the time and sometimes a laugh here and there. But some....grrr...they just want you to hit them in the face or something.

I was talking to one of the companies and he was trying but he couldn't understand me and I couldn't understand him. I knew he was trying to help me because he was saying How can I say this differently (in French of course). Then I noticed movement around me. One of my colleagues can speak French (not my direct colleague but in the same room) and he helped me out.

Then I call someone and I ask if she speaks English she says no. I ask her to hold on for a second so I can grab my colleague. It takes him a few seconds to cross the room, but in the meantime she hang up. He calls back and gets a guy on the phone. Before he can explain why he is calling, the guy says that he doesn't have time for this and he has loads of work to do and what an idiot my colleague is and then hangs up. Argh. It's not like we disturb him in his work, we help him. Because next Monday he's calling in panic to say ask why we won't collect his goods on Tuesday. Well....because we needed the info on Friday (instead of Monday) so we could collect Tuesday.

And today ugh. I had asked that colleague if he could write down some basic sentences I could use. A different colleague said that I shouldn't ask the French if they could speak Enlgish in French because then they will always say no. So I call this one supplier. Lady picks up and I say Bonjour and then I continue to explain who I am in English (with the bonjour i want to indicate that I know a few words French), she says that she doesn't speak English. Before I can change to French she hung up on me. I call back directly, no one answers. I call again after putting the phone down. This time she picks up, I tell her in French who I am. She says that she doesn't not want to respond and that I have to stop calling her.

For both these rude companies I have contacted the plants these suppliers make goods for. Because if the suppliers aren't answering or responding to our calls or e-mails, we won't be able to pick up the goods and the plants won't be happy, but neither will the suppliers.

But anyway, I need me time. Checking my own e-mail at work isn't enough to keep me in control of everything. Maybe I just need to give it some time. Maybe I just need to take a step back and let everything be out of control for once in my life.

sigh work

I know the title doesn't seem all that positive, and I've only been working for two weeks, but it really is *sigh*, probably even *very very big sigh*.

I knew that this job would be very simple. They told me I would be overqualified for the job but they wanted me anyway and they paid a higher price for that (differed 600 euros per month with another job opportunity I had, and that didn't even have grow potential). I'm okay with doing simplistic work, it's fine. The market is horrible to get a job I wouldn't be over- or under-qualified for, and I need to gain experience. So that I can apply for the job that asks Need 2 years experience in blabla.

And I'm not complaining about the simplicity of it all. And I'm not complaining on Fridays, Mondays and Tuesdays (our week starts on Fridays due to the fact that we have to book in stuff that needs to be picked up on Monday). But I'm really complaining about Wednesdays and Thursdays.

On Wednesday morning I had a bit of work to do, booking in stuff for being picked up on Thursday. In the afternoon I have a bit of work to do by booking in stuff for Friday. But the Thursday and Friday bookings are so low it's only 10 in total (for Tuesday its near 100). And everything was already in on Wednesday afternoon for Friday. So most of the time I was bored on Wednesday.

Thursdays you can only book in the mornings for Friday, and in the afternoon you can do other stuff you have to do because the new file with the bookings for Monday doesn't arrive until Thursday night (which gives you more work on Friday mornings). And since everything was already booked in on Wednesday, there was nothing to do. As soon as I get settled at my desk on Thursday morning, I ask my senior Is there any work for me to do? And he simply replies with No. So I was already bored at 8.30 in the morning.

In the afternoon there was even less work to do. I see my senior asking one of my male colleagues if he has work for him, so I ask one of my female colleagues if she has work for me. She says that I have to ask my senior because she only has a few min worth of work. So again no.

Loads of websites are banned at work but notalwaysright.com and gmail are still accessible (for now). I think people never had faster responses to my e-mails. Through gmail I'm able to read my google reader and thus read the blogs I follow.

My boyfriend knows I'm not gonna be able to do simple work for long but he thinks I'm gonna cave under the absolutely no work. My boss was off this week so on Monday I'm asking him for a talk, asking Thursday(afternoon) off, I don't want to have a contract of only 32/36 hours but that I will only work so many hours and in case it's busy I'll work the full 40 (if you change the hours, extra hours are paid in overtime, which is something that is not easily accepted at top management).

Some extra info
My senior gave me a supplier that I had to make a booking for. While I was making the booking I heard my phone vibrate. I open internet, I sign in at gmail, read the e-mail, reply and then close internet. Before I finish, something on the radio (news) sounds interesting and I want to know more. So I open internet, go to a news website and read the info, close internet again. Then I finish entering the booking. I ask my senior Got some more work? His response You should work that fast.

I know I should be lucky to finally have a job because sitting at home was driving me crazy, and there are so many people without a job. But seriously in the evening I'm either jumping around like Tigger (Friday, Monday and Tuesdays) because I didn't leave my desk often enough, or I'm too tired to do anything because I got tired doing nothing (Wednesdays and Thursdays).

two weeks?!

It has been over 2 weeks since my last post. Oh dear.

So boyfriend is taking up a lot of free time. And currently my free time has been limited, and it will probably stay that way for a long long time. From going to not having to do anything all day except what you want to working 40 hours a week. That's what most people do but still going from 0 to 40, that's a big change.

I have to look into the options of being able to send the post from your e-mail. Since I do have internet access. And my boss told me at the end of the day when he "caught" me looking up something online that he wasn't strict in that. As long as work is finished and work comes first.

To be honest I think I was online for 6 hours in total today. Yup that's most of the time the case when you start somewhere. Hope it's gonna improve, otherwise I'm not going to be able to keep this up.

this and that

I'm still jobhunting. And it ain't no fun anymore. I've got an interview tomorrow so fingers crossed.

On Friday I applied for a job with experience in construction (it was just admin work so no heavy lifting), I told them I didn't have the experience but I'm willing to learn and up for a challenge. I signed it with my first and last name, attached my resume which contains my full name and a picture. Yesterday I get an e-mail saying

Dear mr [my last name],

Unfortunately.....

Where on earth did they assume I'm male? And it's not like it's most likely that the position will be filled by a man, because it isn't. It said secretary for admin work.

Okay onto more fun stuff. I would still post about my new boyfriend.

I know him for ages. I've dated his brother over 5 years ago. I've dated his best friend. He dated my best friend (at the time, currently she's no longer in any of my friends lives). We've been best friends for a couple of years. He's the one who picked me up in Scotland. When outsiders saw us they assumed that we were together.
Even our friends didn't understand why we weren't together.

The villa in Spain wasn't as big as a villa would be in a different country (at least that's my perception). His room was so small it only fit a bed. His room was next to a couple with a squeaky bed. And those 2 rooms were the only 2 upstairs, the others were sleeping on floor level. So I told him to grab his mattress and join me (I had a bit of space).

My bed was a sort of bunk bed, only top bed and a desk underneath. So in the mornings when I got out of bed, I joined him since I was too lazy to climb back into mine. When my knees weren't working, we spend the whole night together in his bed (I couldn't climb the ladder).

One of the mornings we crossed the best friends line. And we've been having talks about what now. I know he always wanted more but was okay with what we had. I never crossed the line before because of my past. It always goes terribly wrong and I don't want to hurt him or lose him.

But he assured me that we're us, and that we would talk (which we both had problems with in previous relationships) if something is wrong, because that's what we always do, we tell each other everything.

So far so good. It's weird though, dating your best friend, who you already know for years. It's not as exciting as a relationship with someone you're still starting to learn. But it's so much better. You know what to expect, your mind isn't doing any overtime, so you can really enjoy and relax.

Can you believe it?

So I called the TA's today. And I noted down the dates they had called. I had 2 calls last Tuesday and 3 on Thursday. All of those positions have been filled since Friday. Can you believe it?

When they introduce me to a company it takes weeks before I know more. But when I am unavailable to answer my phone, it's filled within a week.

And of course all the older missed calls were also about positions that have been filled in the meantime. Ugh. Back to square 1.

Ow and the HR one. On Thursday they wanted me, and on Friday they had found the perfect person internally. Sigh.

I'm back

So I'm back from yet another holiday. Spain was amazing. We had a good time.

Starting from tomorrow it's back on track with the jobhunting. I told the TA's before I left to just apply me to jobs they thought I would be suitable for. Guess what? I've got a dozen of calls from the TA's while in Spain. Sigh.

But since I changed providers halfway through the holiday, I got voicemail again (I don't do voicemail since I always first see who I got a missed call from, I call them and then I notice the message of voicemail). So listened to the messages today and I've got at least 5 jobs that they want to introduce me to. And the company I had the motivation letter for because they thought I wouldn't be able to handle the job, well....they are interested in me.

So I've got my work cut out for me tomorrow.

When I've got everything sorted out (parents painted my ceiling while I was away and now my room's a complete mess, got too many e-mails to reply to in one day, and of course I have to be active to the parents who are going on holiday tomorrow) I'll update you all on the events of the holiday, because one of my best friends turned into my boyfriend (still feels to weird to say that).

keeping one busy

Since I haven't found a job yet, my dad gave me a list of people to call to update our customer register. Oh the joys.

You get a lot of complaints and a lot of people don't answer their phones. But there are also the entertaining ones.

Me: story of why I want their e-mail address. So are you interested and can I have your e-mail address?
Lady: Of course. P dot William
Me writing down: P dot Wil
Lady: Edward Henry
Me turning the i into an e.

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Me: story of why I want their e-mail address. So are you interested and can I have your e-mail address?
Lady: E dot [last name] ending in double Nico
Me: E as in Edward.
Lady: No E as in Eric

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Me: story of why I want their e-mail address. So are you interested and can I have your e-mail address?
Man: animal.... at mail .....ow wait I'll give you the internet specialist.
Lady: j.b.animal at [email provider] dot nl

Finally: the holiday rant

There's always a lot of frustration and annoyance when me and my friends go on holiday, although it's probably mostly on my part.

This year we started late when looking for a holiday. Normally the discussion starts in Feb but now I think it was April when someone wanted to know our summer holiday plans. This year it was quite easy to discuss who was going with us, the same group as 2 years ago + a boyfriend (or the same as last year + me, since I was in Scotland before and school started when they left).

Now the discussion about where started. OMG this is always a pain the butt because half doesn't want to go where they've already been and others just have places they don't want to go to period.

As always it's only me and one of my friends who are looking for destinations. And when we all get together, the others just shoot our ideas. Come to think of it, it's always like this. Next year I'm not even going to bother.

Then they want to go to some place and hire a villa for 2 weeks. This means renting cars, extra costs because not all of us are over 25, extra costs because we need more than one driver per car. This means taking the car if you want to leave the villa to go do something because well....villas that are affordable are not close to anything. Think that before we come to this conclusion we've been discussing the destination for hours and hours.

In the end the destination is south Spain and the accommodation is a villa. They had found a trip that would include villa, plane ticket, and a car.

Since they haven't been listening to me at all, I'm rather furious. I'm the specialist in holiday, my whole education was focused on tourism and tourism destinations.

And of course the costs were high. And I rather pay a bit more for comfort, they didn't want to spend more than a certain amount.

I get home at 3am (we've been going at it since 8pm), and I'm still fuming (the 5 min drive hasn't cooled me down at all nor has the prospect of sleep). I go online and look for the villa and the deal. The "free" car that was included was a Ford Ka. I don't know if you have any idea how small a Ford Ka is, but it's small. It would fit 3 people. So how are we going to fit 7 people and their luggage in 1 Ford Ka? That would mean a bigger car thus extra costs, or an extra car, again extra costs.

So I look for stuff separately. The flight, a few villa options, car options, the total being below the budget amount. I e-mail this to the others. And they start discussing and discussing. Of course this time I get my way since it included all their requirements.

However - yup here comes the next problem - I had already told them that I did the research so I wasn't paying (of course I would pay my part but I wouldn't want to be responsible for the money). One of the others asked me What now? I told him Book it.

A week later we get an e-mail from him saying that he's going to book the stuff. So I e-mailed back that he should let us know when he wanted the money. - if you book things separately most of the time you have to pay everything in one go and I don't know about you but do you have 7x a 2 week holiday amount on your bank account to spare? - he replied to all that I came up with a smart comment and if we could pay the amount to him asap. I had to reply that I had even a smarter comment What's your bank account no?

A week later he e-mails me that the cars are no longer available (think that we're now 3 weeks further along than when I made the suggestion). Since of course they all assume that I'm the one who'll look into other options, I go in search of an alternative.

Meanwhile they discuss the possibility to drive ourselves. Because all the options I've given them are too expensive (come on people you all have full-time jobs you can all easily afford this). So I look into the costs and an overnight stay. They don't want an overnight stay because that's too expensive. COME ON!!!! It's only 30 euros pp extra.

One of the group has bought a van (an old volkswagen thingy which seats 8 people) since he needed it for work anyway, he just upped the search (he first planned to buy it sometime next year). And we could all drive.

I don't know about you, but since I've got my driver's license I haven't often driven in a convertible nor that big nor without the steering wheel help. So I asked for driving lessons, just in case. Because I would not be driving unless it was an emergency. The owner of the van said that it would be wise if everyone took a driving lesson. One of the girls said Why do we need driving lessons, if we can't drive now, we won't be able to drive on the way to Spain, and we'll figure it out then. Euhm...sorry but if it's your turn to drive at 3am and you're unable to drive in the van, no one's gonna be happy that you've woken them.

Hmm this post is shorter than I thought it would have been. Although I'm not ready yet since another grr-ing moment has happened this morning.

It was sort of an unspoken agreement that we would leave Friday (we get the keys to the villa on Saturday). We just needed to agree on a time. One said that everyone must be able to sleep in and be completely rested before we start our journey so meet at noon. I suggested leaving earlier because most people will be up early because it's a day of travelling (I'm always too excited to sleep in on a day I'm travelling) and if we don't leave before 12 we'll hit traffic near Paris. Then one says we won't be near Paris, the only traffic point would be Lyon (a few hours more south)(I then only communicated with the noon person that 10 would indeed be too early because you'd hit traffic at Lyon). The no need for driving lessons girl says that she doesn't want to leave at 10 because she has to work and her evenings are completely filled (you know you're going on holiday leave the evening before you go open, at least that's what I did) so she needs to pack her bags on the Friday morning and she needs to go to her parents for coffee (sorry what?!). And she made it sound that she wasn't going if we did plan to leave at 10. (her words: I'm only coming tomorrow (face to face discussion on when to leave) under the condition that we won't leave at 10)

So tomorrow I'm going to the discussion. I'll be present but I won't say anything (they won't listen to me anyway). I'll pack my bags on Thursday, get in the van on Friday and that's it. As soon as we get to Spain everything will be fine and we'll have an amazing time. But next year I'm not doing this any more. Or I'm not joining them on a holiday or I'm not putting any effort because it's not appreciated anyway.

And now the fun can start because they have never ever been in Spain nor can speak a word Spanish. I know my Spanish is rusty but at least I can read and understand bits and pieces. Not that I'm telling them that.

I think I know what I'm going to do the next few days: get out my Spanish books.

Overqualified or not enough experience

So unfortunately I didn't the jobs. They couldn't combine the two positions and I would be overqualified to do just one.

The other company thought I would be bored too easily since I was overqualified for the job and my motivation was too high to do routine work.

My dad told me that maybe I shouldn't be too enthusiastic and motivated when I go into an interview. Because apparently people think I'm overqualified. But at the same time I think that if I went in with less ethusiasm and didn't show so much motivation that I won't get the job either because I'm not motivated enough. (lose - lose situation)

But I think that even though I might be overqualified, I'm applying for that job. I know the pay won't be much, but I'm accepting it otherwise I wouldn't have applied. And at least I'll be getting paid, which is more than I'm getting now being home unemployed.

Other jobs I've been looking into, you need experience to do it. Which I'm sorry to say I have none. That's why I need the simplier jobs, just to get more experience.

One of the other 2 jobs I'm applying for fell through too. After a week of waiting I finally get a call, the TA lady was kinda annoyed by the company (who could blame her) for keeping her in the dark all week and then going for an internal applicant. I'm sorry but if you think you've got a qualified person internally I would first explore that before going externally. Now the TA had to call all the applicants to tell them that they didn't make the cut.

I did get another offer today. But it wasn't in my file that I'll be on holiday from 3-19 Sept, which annoyed me since I've told every agency there is. And when they offer me a job I always say Remember that I'll be on holiday in September. She would talk to her contact person and let me know if I would still be considered. Told her that I didn't have anything planned until 3 Sept so I'm available for an interview any time.

This jobhunting is sucking big time. I just want to do something, just to keep me busy.

Job update

So Sail 2010 (Amsterdam) was amazing. It was busy and sometimes it wasn't fun to be on a boat. There were a lot of (small) boats. The canalboats just "drove" like there was no one there and since they're completely made of steel, it doesn't hurt their boat if it runs into another one. So loads of boats have green stripes on the side.

Then there were the bigs boats, who can hold a few 100 people, who thought that they wanted to be moving instead of laying still, so they just moved sideways to get into the stream of boats, meanwhile almost crushing the smaller boats that were already in the stream.

And then you had the people who didn't know how to use a boat and don't know the rules. Even though there's water everywhere, that doesn't mean that you can go everywhere, ugh so annoying those ignorant people.

But anyhow. Had 2 job interviews today. One was the one I didn't want with the fixed and variable salary. But I couldn't say no until I was sure I had one of the others. And the other was the second interview.

I still haven't heard about the hr or the higher secretary position. And to be honest, even though I wanted the hr one the most, I don't want it anymore now. I have no desire to further develop myself in hr, the only things I liked was the secretary stuff, so I'd be better off somewhere else.

The interview this morning (a) - for the job I didn't want - turned out to be a surprise. They had 2 positions to fill and the TA had told them to discuss the possibilities with me, what I would prefer and what they thought would be best. Well.....that conversation ended with I'm gonna see if I can combine the positions because you're strong in admin but you need the customer contact to keep you entertained. Okay that works for me too. And the fixed and variable salary isn't that bad. It's team targets and even if the targets aren't met you get 65% of that part of the salary. Ow the fixed/variable ratio is 80/20 so if it's 2000 a month you'll get at least 1800 of fixed and 100 of variable, not too shabby.

In the afternoon I had the 2nd interview at that company (b). While I first had a feeling that I wanted to know more about the other positions but only to get a feeling what I would say no too, I'm not completely sure anymore. All the employees look nice and friendly, except one, guess which one? Yup the one I would be working with closely :s.

The afternoon company (b) decided this afternoon who would get the position and would let TA know. I haven't heard anything yet. Which is fine by me. Because I had a discussion with my dad this evening and we put everything in perspective and I decided that I would go with the company I had an interview with this morning (a), from who I will hear tomorrow afternoon. So I'm hoping that the TA that was supposed to call this afternoon (b) won't call until tomorrow afternoon so I have an answer from the other company (a) (confusing isn't it? hopefully the a's and b's I've added will make it a bit less confusing).

So fingers crossed for A.

all of a sudden everyone wants me

The jobhunting is going okay.

One of the TA's (temp agencies) had a position of HR employee that they saw fit for me. The company however thought that I wouldn't be able to handle the job, that I was too lightweighted for it, only basing this on my resume. 1) there must have been a reason that the TA would think I'm suitable 2) with only a high school diploma and no experience I can't go looking for manager or director's job now could I? So I wrote a motivation as to why I do think I would be able to handle the job. As far as I can tell from the job description there's nothing there that I haven't done before.

The same TA has a higher secretary position for me too.

Then there's a software related company that's interested in me but because the lady of that TA is out of office I won't be hearing much until Monday.

And then there's the allround admin position. I had an interview there yesterday and although it was great and all, and I got invited back on Tuesday to meet other people, I've got a weird feeling. Not that I don't think this job is going to be amazing (although I have no one to talk to since it's a guy only company and I'd be the only female on location), but I want to know that it's the best decision. Like preferably I want to have an interview on Monday for the hr position and on Tuesday morning for the higher secretary. Then I can compare and choose. But I don't think I'll have that luxury.

But I'm gonna give the 1 TA a call this afternoon and explain the situation, maybe they can help or push the companies.

Got to get ready to go to Amsterdam. It's the Sail 2010 this weekend, boats boats and some more boats everywhere, and it should be pretty fun.

Have a great weekend!

No job

So I didn't get the job. They told me they'd know more the next day (that would have been a Monday). Guess they missed a week because they didn't call until yesterday and not even with info. They let me know today that I didn't get it.

I was a nice girl and the talk was nice, but I'm too much of a perfectionist to be happy in that job.

Euhm...isn't that my call? I applied for it (well..sort of) so I think it must be interesting, and who says I wouldn't be happy?

Was searching the web for interesting traineeships or jobs. The traineeships all want to have the master so that's too high for me, or they want people who want to do a master while doing the traineeship, I'm done really studying so another no.

I don't mind to do a course or a training, but not another tough year like last. I don't want to do that anymore (wanted to say I can't but I probably can, I just won't). I might do it after a few years if the job is right, if that's a requirement for my dreamjob. But since I have no clue what my dreamjob is, I don't even know where to look.

I've applied for another job, I'm a bit overqualified but I called the temp agency that has it in stock and they said just to apply, they have more applicants so I asked the girl to let me know if they would even consider me a fit for the job, so far I haven't heard anything back. I know I was always fast with responding and that was within the same day (or if you send after 4pm it might be answered the next morning). So I know I have a different perception of fast/quick the temp agencies have. For them fast is at least 2 days.

I'm absolutely loving my phone. This is the first time ever, since I normally change phones every few years and am just happy because it calls and lets me text. This one does everything. I made a comment to my friend what I thought was strange (i had bookmarked a page but when i start typing that page it doesn't auto complete it, i have to completely type it, while at the same time I accidentally hit a link on another website and everytime i want to go to that website it gives me that website and the link i accidentally touched as auto complete) and he said Why didn't you take the Iphone? Euhm...I just didn't, I don't get the whole apple hype. And then he was checking out my phone and he was like Hmm I still don't get why the Iphone doesn't have this (at the top of the screen there's an icon if something is happening, like talk, text, update one of the apps). And I'm like HA! You like my phone better than yours. And he did like the design better than his.

@ penny
We get free upgrades every few years too. But if you buy a sim only contract because your old phone is still good enough, the contract is lower.

I'm paying 22,50 euros on average per month with phone, while if I just did the contract without phone I would have spend 16 euros a month.

And I don't think you can compare the US contracts with the Dutch ones. Because for my 22,50 I get unlimited internet and 150 minutes/texts (and since most of my friends got email on their phones we'll be emailing instead of texting).
My cousin in the states pays 106 dollars and that's for unlimited internet, unlimited texts and i don't know how many minutes.
In the Netherlands we don't have the option of unlimited minutes or texts. You can buy unlimited texts for 10 euros a month but that's only 1000 texts. I would say that's way too much texts, but ask my cousin who's sending 5000 texts a month (or well...in 2 weeks he had send 2700 texts and that was only to 6 people, just pick up the phone and talk or meet and talk, since those texts will have kept you occupied for more than a few afternoons).

new phone

If I have to buy something new that's kinda expensive I get very indecisive.

I had a sim only student contract, but since I'm no longer a student it didn't deel right to prolong my contract. So my options were:
1) sim only
2) sim only with internet
3) contract with new phone

First it was the case that option no 3 would cost me 100 euro extra to get the phone i liked. So that wasn't really an option.

My dat suggested that I should take the sim only and for the difference in money I could buy a new phone. But I had already decided that if I get a new phone I want internet on it. And for the difference between option 2 and 3 I couldn't buy a new phone.

Then when I wanted to make sure that I made the right decision - I would go for options 1 until the phone I wanted didn't cost extra with option - I checken the phone one more time. And guess what? It was free with options 3. So I went to the store and got it. Will have to wat until half september to be able to internet everywhere but in the meantime I'm on the WiFi at home and figuring out how this phone works.

Ow for the people who want to know what I got: htc desire and it's amazing.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Jobhunting

I still haven't started the whole holiday rant yet, and now it's all taken care of the rant has reduced in size, and will just become a story with loads of frustrating moments.

Since I've been back from Crete, I've been jobhunting. Not really actively but went to all the temp agencies and they had some offers but then they didn't and then they had something else and it's just blegh. Some examples: (temp agency = ta)

TA: You'll be great for that job. I'll introduce you this afternoon and when I have more info I'll let you know. And I'll call the other location to see if they have any other opportunities for you. I'll definitely give you a call tomorrow.
Me: That's great. The job sounds really interesting.
Tomorrow: nothing
Day after:
Me: I was just calling to see if you have more information. Since you'd said you'd call me yesterday.
TA: Well...the job is already taken and the other location doesn't have anything interesting for you. I'll let you know when I get something.

Me to mom: Okay would have been nice if he'd called me as soon as you'd know. Because the job sounded really interesting, and I told the other one no (the other one was working in a store for a few weeks).

During my intake with another TA
TA: what would be your salary indication?
Me: anything more than 10 euros an hour is fine by me.
TA: Hmm....that's like only 1600 a month, you could easily go for 1900 a month

Later that week
TA: I've got a job offer for you. It's starting tomorrow until 20 August.
Me: what is it?
TA: administrative work in [town]
Me: what kind of administrative work and which company?
TA: I got this from another location and they didn't give me any details. Only know it's admin work, it's in [town] and that you'll be getting 8 euros an hour (before tax).
Me: only 8? You'd said i should go for more than 10.
TA: but this is only a temp job so there's no room for negociation.
Me: give me some time to think about it and I'll call you back in an hour
TA: well....I need an answer before 1pm because they are really desperate. (it was 12.30) But when they call I'll tell them that they will get an answer asap.

So I wasn't planning on doing it. But I still hadn't heard back from another TA. So I gave them a call first. And if that one would fall through I would consider doing that for a few weeks, even for horrible pay, just so I would be doing something.

They introduced me on Friday morning and it was Tuesdaynoon now.
Me: Have you heard anything back from [big international company]
TA: no but it's not like they have nothing else to do than fill their vacancies
Me: they're big so they'll have a separate HRM department
TA: yes they do
Me: well...then at least that department is working on it on a daily basis. I know I was busy with resumes, calling candidates, discussing stuff with the departments. (they know i have experience on hrm departments)
TA: *long pause* Well....I haven't heard anything yet.
Me: Let me know when you do.

Hmm...this didn't make it easier.
Mom: you're not taking that job. Will they be covering for your travelling costs?
Me: I don't know, the TA guy doesn't know anything.

Me: Do you have more information on the job?
TA: No.
Me: Do they cover travelling costs?
TA: I don't know.
Me: I'm not taking the job. 1) I need more information before I can say yes or no 2)you told me i should ask for more than 10 and now you're saying i should accept an 8 euro offer? 3) I don't always have the car, and if you're not sure i'm being cover for my travelling I can't ask a friend to loan me his car for free.
TA: If you've got car to get there then it all stops. But because it's a temp job I can't get the pay higher than 8, there's no room for negociating.
Me: but if they're desperate there is room. But I'm not able to do it so it's fine.

Luckily today we do have some good news:
TA: You've been talking to my colleague from location [my city] about the job at [big international company]?
Me: Yes, he told me he would introduce me but I haven't heard anything since.
TA: Ow. We've got a lot of different openings for that company and I'd want to invite you for a talk so I could see which department you'd be best fitted for. When do you have time?
Me: That's great. When do YOU have time? Since I'm the one without a job.
TA: Tomorrow 10am?
Me: that's fine.

So I'm getting closer.

One of my friends has been trying to get me to work at her company. But they aren't hiring, but she did manage to get me sorta in. They have my resume, but they also had a lady who at the moment has nothing to do because of the summer holiday, so they are placing her at my friend's desk. Which is good for her because she would have to train me, and this lady already knows the systems. But it's not so much fun. Ah well...at least she got help. She is already working for 3 people and starting next week 2 other people are on holiday. She said "I've still got X to help me with that. although when is her holiday?". "Same time as mine." Which means starting next week. So she suggested a temp (that would be me), and they gave her someone else, but at least she's getting someone. Otherwise I think she would be home with a burnout after the others return from their holiday.

Have a nice Thursday!

here's another try

Three weeks since my last post, and I was hoping to post more often. Here's gonna be a new try.

Crete was amazing, except for our loss at the World Cup. The party after winning the semi-finals was amazing. Non-Dutchies were taking pictures of the cheering and jumping orange mass. And just before the finals, all the bars on the boulevard were full of people in orange. We felt like we were the tourist attraction with all the non-Dutchies taking pictures of us again.

We weren't like the other people staying at Chersonissos. Just to give an image to what the standard Dutchie does when going to Chersonissos: start drinking (alcohol) as soon as you get out of bed to "cure" the hangover (this could easily be at 3pm), stumble to the beach/pool for another few hours of sleep, if you're not asleep you're drinking even more alcohol. Go partying at 1am, fall into your bed at 8/9am. Oh yeah eat somewhere in between the cocktails/beers. And the cycle starts again. But we didn't do this. We did go out partying a few times but we were never in bed that late. We got up at a decent time (never later than 11am).

We had planned a Jeepsafari, but they forgot to book us in. So we don't go out on Saturday (it was our earliest bedtime), and got up at 7.30 on Sunday. We were at the pick up place at 8.15 because we'd be picked up at 8.25. At 8.25 2 other girls show up. Also for the jeepsafari with the same organisation, but on their ticket the pick up time is 8.35. Probably at 8.45 a jeep shows up. The guy gets out and asks if we're going on Jeepsafari today. All four of us say Yes. He gives us a confused look, he's only got 2 people on the list, not 4 at this pick up point. Down the street was another pick up point, if we could just walk there, there might be someone from the organisation. Nope. But there were a lot of people waiting. Not all could fit in the two vans they had ready for the jeepsafari people. So we and 2 other girls stayed behind.

We started talking about the jeepsafari and how stupid it was for us not to be on the list. And they also say something about driving. Driving?? - When we signed up for the jeepsafari we were asked if we wanted to drive (although we did have to be older than 21 and have our license for at least 1 year) or that they would arrange someone else to drive. Well....in a strange country, where you don't know the traffic rules, in a strange car, and on unknown roads. I've done a jeepsafari before and we were in buggies racing over the sanddunes. We both didn't feel comfortable driving. - The girls explained that we're not getting a driver (which we assumed when they said that they would arrange a driver for us) but that one of us (the people who signed in for the jeepsafari) had to drive. So we weren't even getting a professional driver, yikes.

The van returns to pick all four of us up. We get to the departure point and there there is a girl from the organisation. She says that apparently we weren't booked in and the guy from the Jeeps says that he doesn't have any space for us. Some other girls say that they would gladly give up their place since they didn't want to go anymore but couldn't cancel it (without losing their money).

Because we're still standing next to the girl from the organisation, we hear the Jeep guy say that they don't have enough drivers. Almost everyone expected to get a driver. A group of 4 guys split up so another 4 girls are able to go (there were only 4 guys). A group of 4 girls are willing to drive but they don't want to be in a car with strangers. Well...if I was in the group I wouldn't even be splitting myself up, it's not my problem that they others don't want to drive nor have a driver. In the end they don't split up. The two girls who we were waiting with in the beginning join us, while we're waiting to get a ride back to the pick up point. They don't want to go and definitely not with people they don't know. They wouldn't trust themselves driving so why would they trust someone else? (except for a professional driver of course.)

While we're waiting we're talking about driving and the stupidity of it all. We also discover that we paid 60 euros for the jeepsafari while they paid 75 euros (they were with a different organisation).

We're also picking up bits and pieces from other conversations. There's a group of 9 girls who all don't have their driver's license and of course don't want to be split up in such a way that one has to go alone (4 people per car). Another 2 girls are taking to the boys about how long they've got their driver's license: one doesn't and the other just two months.

In the end when everybody is divided. There are 4 girls left, the two girls who decided not to go, and the two who were talking to the boys. The jeep guy says that they can only go if they are driving. For the two who had already decided not to go, it was an easy decision, we're not driving so we're not going. The other two said well....if we don't drive we can't go and we want to go, so we're driving. And then the girl, who had her license for 2 months, says we're driving so there's space for another 2 people. No way.

I've got my driver's license for 5 years now, and I didn't want to drive off road in a strange car with unknown traffic rules, and I should trust a girl who's only got her license for 2 months?? The other two girls asked her if she was crazy, they weren't joining them.

If the jeeps were stopped along the way they would have a real problem. Only one of the guys had their driver's license on him, none of the girls did. Furthermore if they could convince the police that they could get their license, that would be ok. But if then is revealed that you've got your license for only two months, then you're in real trouble.

When you want to rent a car in a country (doesn't matter which one) you have to pay extra if the driver is under 25. And you're not even allowed to rent a car if you're under 21 and haven't got your license for more than a year.

Yes I'm still not over the fact that they let a girl drive who only had her license for 2 months, but you'd probably already guessed that.

Well...that was the only real action that happened. We did do a boat trip, and we went parasailing, but that went as smoothly as could.

I'm gonna try to post about the troubles of getting the holiday of september arranged. I know I've said it a couple of times before that I would start to rant on that topic, I haven't found the time.

Go Orange

Let's go and kick some Brazilian butts!

I'm baahaack and school's out

Well...only for a few days. I'm already counting down to Monday, when I'll be leaving for Greece for 12 days (yes I know I'm spoilt).

The US was amazing as always.

A short schedule of what we did:
Arrival and stay over at Orlando.
Drive up to my uncle
Go to Clearwater beach for a few days
Drive back up to my uncle and stay there for a small week
Go to Disney for 2 days (and buy park hopper ticket so we can do all parks)
Fly back home

We did some shopping at outlet malls, and of course I spend too much money. However, if I would buy the same stuff back home I would have spend 3x as much. I got 1 skirt, 1 pair of shorts, and 1 pair of jeans for 80 dollars. At home only those jeans would have costed me over 100 euros.

And the world is in a financial crisis - or at least most of the world is - well....at those outlet malls you couldn't really tell. There were a few busses worth of Brazilians and they were standing in line at GAP, Levi's, Victoria Secret, with over a few 100 dollars worth of stuff. And those lines where long.

That a lot of countries are in a financial crisis also wasn't noticable at Walt Disney World. OMG was it busy there. The park (at least the Magic Kingdom does) opens at 9am (at 8am for people at certain resorts) until 12am (and on some days even to 3am for the people at the certain resorts) and the lines are long long long (the fast pass rides were at least 60 min wait).
After the fireworks, the whole area in front of Cinderalla's castle was stuck. I got up on a bench to take a picture and everywhere I looked there was a sea of people.

But we did good. We started with Animal Kingdom on Thursday morning. This because we only wanted to do Expedition Everest. We ended up doing It's tough to be a bug and Primeval twirl too. Then we headed over to the Studios (used to be called MGM now it's Hollywood). We did the tower of terror and rock and rollercoaster. And then we headed over to Epcot, where we did almost all the rides.

On Friday morning we headed back to the Studios and did most of the rides there, including another fall in the tower of terror. Near 1 we headed over to the Magic Kingdom and did almost all the rides until it was time to go.

Just to confess how we managed to do everything with such long lines (normally we would do a park a day, except for animal kingdom because it kind of disappointed us the first time), we had the perfect fast pass times. Don't know how we got that lucky.

And it was hot. When we came out of a ride and wanted to discuss where we would go next, it was easily decided into the shades first, then decide on the next ride. Walking wasn't comfortable in this heat but standing still would only last for 2 seconds.

Then it was time to head back. Oh dear only 1 more day before I had to defend my thesis, yikes. And I was the first one too so no tips from others. I was so afraid the jetlag would hit me.

Luckily it didn't and I passed the defense, which means I passed school. I'm graduating on Thursday. WOOOOHOOO!!! School's over. I'm a Bachelor of Science.

Tomorrow the whole class will go out and party, hopefully we wouldn't make it too crazy since the graduation ceremony starts at 2pm. (although I have to pick my family up at the train station at 1, so probably I'll get 6 hours of sleep which i think will be sufficient).

And Sunday I'll be packing my suitcase once again, this time for Crete. Oeh I haven't even started doing research for that. Have no clue what there is to do and see on the island, ah well....got some time on Friday (although I have to watch the match in the afternoon Orange vs Brazil, Go orange!!!)

Holiday no 1

This Saturday I'll be on a plane to the States, yay.

Wanted to have my holiday with friends rant up before I go, but I've been so busy with dotting the i's and crossing the t's that I'm running out of time.

Got a last consult with my tutor today or tomorrow, but it's only for minor adjustments on my last chapter (the recommendations to the company). And tomorrow I've got a last day at work. I'll be printing the thesis and appendices there as well.

On Thursday I'm handing it all in (yikes). And then Friday will be consist of packing my bags.

And then I'm off to the States for two weeks.

When I return I have to orally defend my thesis on Monday, I'm amongst the first 3, and it's really scary. Although I can't prepare for at all, and I'll know all the answers (even if I don't know it, I can say anything since they can't verify it with the company).

So enjoy the next few weeks, I know I will.

First final draft

Tuesday 18 May, I told my teacher that we could meet again in 2 weeks, and that I would sent the first final draft (aka the completed thesis) to him on Friday evening 28 May. Which means I have to send the first final draft TONIGHT!!! *Gasp*

I have completely done nothing since that Tuesday. I've wanted to, but I failed every time. I know it are all stupid excuses but that doesn't hide the fact that I still haven't done a thing.

I planned to work the Wednesday morning, do the last interview in the afternoon, and only work Thursday morning going home at noon. I forgot that on Thursday I'm not travelling by public transport but by car. Which meant that I would not be able to go home at noon. I discovered this noonish on Wednesday. Since I still had enough work, it translated into me working the whole of Wednesday. I did manage to work less on Thursday, only til 3, and then did the final interviews. (so actually I have done something but just not significant enough)

Friday I had an appointment at the hospital. Where my doctor told me that I was crazy that I thought I had an allergic reaction to something in the Dutch water or air, the dermatologist said that it would probably be something in the Dutch air that would be causing this allergic reaction. HA!

After the hospital visit I packed my bags to go and spend a weekend at my friend's house. It was her birthday on Monday, but she was going to party on Saturday because once a year there's a weekend full of soccer, the fields are located down her street. This year 30 soccer teams from all over the Netherlands signed up. A part already arrived on Friday and it was fun. It was a real ego boost. Because everywhere you looked there was a guy staring at you. Male female ratio was 40:1? On Saturday all teams were there (600 guys), plus the locals, plus girls who want to snatch a guy (for just that evening). We still had fun because we just went there to have fun not go get a guy. The male female ratio was better, probably 25:1.
When we walked in, you had guys checking you out (new meat), and girls eyeing you with grrr and already hating you.

I went home on Sunday because I still had loads to do for my thesis. But the weather was soooo amazing on Monday that I just relaxed outside and got a tan.

Tuesday I got my other 2 wisdom teeth removed. This time the drugs worked so it was done even faster. And the healing is going as the last time. So I'm very lucky.
Didn't manage to do anything that they either because I had an ice pack on my cheek, and in the afternoon I had other stuff to take care of.

Wednesday it was work. Thursday I planned to only work until 1 and then start on school. My dad told me that we were going to be home late because some were going to work overtime. So when at 1 there was still loads of work to do, I thought well...If we're going to be here til 9, I can work til 3. At 3ish they cancelled working overtime, because the pregnant sister who was supposed to be babysitting, her water broke. Which meant that at 3ish I had just over 2 hours before we would head home. And with a phone constantly ringing (I took out my lunch at 1, I think I finally finished at 3, yes I know you're not supposed to eat your lunch at your desk), you wouldn't get any work done.

So I planned to work really really hard today. Get up at 8 (hey, you need enough sleep if you want to do loads of work), shower breakfast, start at 9.
However, reality turned out differently.

I got up at 8. But had to come downstairs and do some stuff because that needed to be done before mother could go grocery shopping. She left, I went for a shower. When I was finishing breakfast she came home. After unloading the groceries, explaining that her outlook can't be used anymore (the code on our office 2007 doesn't work, and the student version doesn't have outlook, so only emails can be received but you can't do anything else) and showing her how to use the new one, but she keeps on using the old one to read the emails and then switch to the new one if she wants to email anyone. Then I have to look something up for her because she was unable to find it for herself. She can also not use youtube, so when we found it she wanted to watch it, then of course you can never just watch one thing on youtube.
Long story short, I still have to start and it's almost 1. Byebye school.

Okay, lunch and then typing typing typing.

Enjoy Friday, and enjoy it for me too, since I'll be not enjoying it.

Trains

In the Netherlands we're always complaining about trains. And most of the time there is something to complain about trains.

Is it about the train company and trains, they are always late. If something happened (options will be explained in a minute), the trainpeople make themselves disappear.

The trains can be late. Just a few minutes so you miss your connecting train. Or a real long delay because a) there's a collision with a cow, b) with a person c) with a car or truck that didn't notice it was standing on the railtracks. But there can also be a d) power outage, e) problems with the signals on the railroad passages, f) there's something wrong with trains switching tracks. But is could also have something to do with the weather g) in summer it's too hot so apparently the wheels become square, h) in autumn or winter there can be leaves on the track. And of course i) there's always the people who steal a part of the track because of copper.
Oh wait j) there's also the possibility that your train or the train on the track in front of you has a defect.
And I even once had a delay because k) a boat ran into the railroadbridge.

Then there are the people on the train. In rush hours trains are packed. So put the bag underneath your seat or in the compartment above it, or even on your lap, don't let is have a chair by itself, that's just rude. And you have people having very private conversations on the phone. People that have their music blasting so loud that you can turn of your music because their music will drown yours out. Some just don't even bother to put on headphones but just blast their music on a small stereo. Then you have small groups of people who discuss everything in such a manner that you are unable to not listen to it (however this is better than the private telephone conversations since you can now hear both sides of the story instead of only one). And then there are people taking in the silence part. And of course then you have the worst of all, parents (or at least grown ups, not always sure if it's a parent since they don't do anything) with their kids, who are trashing the place, and are just plain horrible.

Last week I got in the train near work. It takes over an hour before I have to get to the stop for my transfer home. After 3 minutes there's a stop, after another 5 another stop, then its 30 minutes before the next stop, and another 30 minutes for the stop for me to get off. At the first stop a bunch of kids with grown ups get in. Most go and sit at the opposite end of the train, only 2 kids with 1 grown up sit down rather close to me. In the beginning it's ok. The kids have a toy that needs to be put together, they have a drink and a snack. It's all civil. At the - for me - second stop, the train gets rather full and a lady sits next to the kids plus grown up. And that's when they are starting to misbehave. It started harmless, just a bit of shouting and fighting, just what kids do. When we got to the next stop, the lady moved immediately. And I was hoping that these kids would just get out. But nope.

The train filled up completely, and I had people sitting between me and the kids. But it wasn't enough for me not being completely annoyed by these kids. Well...maybe even more by the grown up, if it was a parent or a teacher, or just the babysitter, she needs to have some authority over the kids, but she didn't say much and when she did the kids would just ignore her. The kids started screaming, really fighting and hurting others, farting, burping. When one of the kids threw an empty bottle, it bounced of the knee of the lady opposite me, we locked eyes, just rolled them, and knew exactly what the other was thinking.

When we got near the final stop, I heard the lady say that she needed to get the train to [end destination of train], and I was like Hell no...that's the one I need too. But there are two trains going for that end destination (I have to get out in the middle), a fast one that only stops at the bigger stations, or the "slow" one that stops at all stations. From what I gathered was that they were going to take the slow one. Once the train stopped I would only have a minute to get to the fast one, and I was going for that one. Couldn't be locked up with those kids again.

The lady opposite me and I are getting up to get out of the train, and I tell her You only got in at the third stop (that only meant 30 min with the kids). She asked me when I got in and when the kids got in, and she felt sorry for me. When we get to the door, the lady that moved before said that she hoped her kids never got that bad. A man, who was sitting next to me was also waiting for the doors to open so he could escape the kids, said that he blamed the grown up more than the kids.

The train stopped, doors opened, and people who needed to go to the same destination as the kids, starting running to get to the fast one. I made it in time, and was greated by the buzz of friends, coworkers talking. I said down and apparently said out loud Finally some peace and quiet. The guy next to me gave me a weird look. But hey he wasn't in the train with those damned kids and grown up.

copied: bucket list

A new date for Antwerp hasn't been choosen yet. Although one of the other couples said that we'll do it at the end of August since they'll be on vacation from the end of July.
The repetitive asking friend did say she was sorry but she just didn't know. Euhm....read your e-mails! I didn't respond and just walked away, since I knew that as soon as I would reply, the whole discussion would start over. And like you guys said Don't reply.

I don't have much to tell, our vacation to Spain is still not completely organised so until then no rant post.

However I do have a post today. I was reading Collology, and Colleen posted a bucket list (also copied from someone else, but who cares). If you're game, copy and paste these 100 things to your blog. Highlight the ones you've done and let me know how interesting you are:

1. Started your own blog Duh
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii It’s still on my “places to visit” list
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world Can’t wait to go again. Only a month left :D
8. Climbed a mountain I don’t know if Arthur’s Seat counts.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang/played a solo When I still played the piano weekly
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables Some mushrooms and tomatoes, not sure if that counts as veggies
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill I had so much stuff left to do for school and I just needed a day to relax and do a bit of school stuff
24. Built a snow fort When the cold didn´t bother me so much, so that´s ages ago.
25. Held a lamb Some of my grandmother´s brothers still have a farm, so when I joined my grams to visit her brother I hold a lamb and pet a calf, and got stuck on a tractor which left me hanging upside down.
26.Bathed in a river
27. Run a Marathon I have the feeling that I will never ever do this. Not only is my fitness level for running horrible, my knees are just to bleeped up to keep me running for hours.
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse It wasn´t even so many years ago but I can´t remember when, we all got those glasses so you could look up.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Hit a home run By everyone´s surprise, even my own. I´ve never been able to hit anything, and then the pitcher already collected all the people to be close, because the ball would never go far, And I just got so pissed for them assuming that, that I hit it at the back of the court.
32. Been on a cruise Only a cruise for getting from A to B, but we had disco’s and performances, a swimming pool and a sauna.
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person That’s the reason I’ve been to Canada.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors How far back do you want to take it? I’ve been to the birthplaces of my parents, grandparents, and even some of their parents (not that difficult if that’s in the same place you live in)
35. Seen an Amish community When my family and I did a tour around the 5 big lakes, one day we stayed at the Amish. That same trip took us to the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls.
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied Of course not I’m still a student, although you need more than just money to be truly satisfied.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing That’s how my friend and I got to the top of Arthur’s Seat, although it was only a bit of rock climbing and not that high, since of course we didn’t have the proper equipment euhm actually no equipment at all, we just saw a shortcut up. Saved us at least 1 hour.
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person The line for that museum was long, very long. When we went to the Tourist information, a lady told us that the museum was free on Tuesday evening but you could only see David. We only were there on a Tuesday (leaving early Wednesday) and the only thing we wanted to see in the museum was David. Just our luck :D.
41. Sung karaoke Luckily not for the past 10 years. I can’t hold a tune.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight We went to a party on the beach in Brazil and the shortest way to get there was via the beach (strange huh if the party’s on the beach). Not exactly a romantic walk on the beach, but that was not the question. Ow with a bunch of friends we’ve walked the beach in moonlight in Turkey, great fun.
46. Been transported in an ambulance Thank god no.
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris I’ve been to Paris, that was no. 12. How can you go to Paris and not go to the Eiffel Tower? I can accept the fact that one doesn’t visit the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, but not go up the Eiffel Tower, nope.
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling We went snorkeling to catch scallops. Although I wasn’t that capable of going under and then blowing the water out of the snorkel. Got me coughing a couple of times.
52. Kissed in the rain I live in a very rainy country, and I’ve lived in another very rainy country, so yes I've kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud I think I did as a child.
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China Next time I’m going to China that’s on my to do list. Last time I didn’t come near it. So next time I’m heading that way.
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia On my "places to visit" list
60. Served at a soup kitchen I don’t believe we have soup kitchens here
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching This happened by accident. We were swimming in the Gulf of Mexico on our holiday way back (I believe I was 7 or 8), and all of a sudden people start screaming sharks, get out of the water, sharks. So we get out, and we see a boat and then some fins. My dad grabs the video camera and zooms in. He tells us it aren’t sharks but whales. So I rush to get some binoculars, since I just love whales. So I was whale watching.
63. Gotten flowers for no reason Just because I think gerberas are flowery flowers, I got a bunch because my dad came across them.
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma I’m afraid of needles, enough said.
65. Gone sky diving For my dad’s 50th birthday my brother and I gave him sky diving as a gift. We still have to actually plan a date to go sky diving.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp I don’t live that far away from them.
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy Still got almost all of my stuff animals, and my Barbies
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar Only a teensy bit since I thought it looked and smelled horrible, and then it also tasted horrible.
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London Been to London with school. We waited for them to change. We didn’t bother trying to get them to move though.
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper Not by choice. 3x a charm gave a picture with him me and a car on it to the newspaper, the accompanying story was about the car. Out of all the pics taken there was only 1 with me on it. And of course he had to annoy me and place that one in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one I’ve lost two grandparents, one was already gone before I was born. So technically I only lost 1. Luckily all my friends are still intact.
94. Made a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone Nowadays who hasn’t?
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Built a house out of mud Probably when I was playing with mud as a kid. I remember that I always tried to built sandcastles on the playground and beach. So I probably did that with mud too.

Apparently I'm 44% interesting.

I do think that not all are relevant. Because who wants to write down that she or he was fired? Or that you were involved in a lawsuit? Okay with the exception of a lawyer or judge.
And does it make you more interesting if you've had a check bounced? Or owned a cell phone? Actually I would find it more interesting if a person (between 15 and 60) didn't have a cell phone.

Have a great Thursday.

Friends rant

Be warned, I'm a bit annoyed with my friends right now.

A few months ago I posted about our trip to Antwerp. Just before splitting up on the way home, we said Let's do this again soon. And we said 15 May. Everyone was ok with it, but we didn't confirm anything through e-mail. When it came closer we discussed it separately. When I saw a few of my friends I asked if we were still on for May 15. And everyone was.

So a few days ago one of the friends starts e-mailing to confirm everything, but more for the movie choice (to Dutch standards Antwerp has a huge ass cinema). We have a slight discussion on Robin Hood or Iron Man 2 (I haven't seen 1 and one of my fave movies is Robin Hood with Kevin Costner, and I have a dislike for Russell Crowe). Then one replies that it's his mother's birthday so he's unable. I'm sorry but don't you know when your mom's birthday is since forever? Anyway his girlfriend replies that they could have sorted that out but it's also her nephew's baptise so they are still unable.

Last time we started in December to organise the trip to Antwerp, and we didn't go until March, because it took that long before everyone was available. So I said we'll just reschedule. My first opportunity is 24 July. One replies with Isn't something wrong with your planning if you're unavailable till then? I explain that due to my luxurious life of holidays and some birthdays I'm really unavailable.

Then one of the ladies reply with I don't know why you are unable but you can probably reschedule. So I reply that already booked holidays and planned birthday parties can't be rescheduled. She replies with I'm unavailable 24 July, but I'm sure Nic can reschedule. By this time I'm getting pissed. She already knows I'm going on holiday twice, but I didn't want to shove it in her face since she has money problems. And since I had already told her a couple of times that I'm unavailable and that it can't be rescheduled, I replied with What don't you understand about it not being able to reschedule?

This morning I got the following reply: I can't imagine anyone who is so busy for so long, except for me.

So she can be busy but not anyone else? I typed it all out. I'm sorry if I'm gonna flaunt my luxurious life. But I've worked for it and earned it all myself, although people seem to think I'm getting it all paid by my parents. My parents haven't paid for anything since so many years. I am getting a roof over my head and food if I'm eating home.

1. Free since this was planned to go to Antwerp
2. Birthday weekend, since it's the weekend of pentecost there are some activities where my friend lives and I'm going there for the weekend. This has been planned way back when, we even discussed it on my bday back in Dec.
3. Weekend for finalising my thesis. Rather be safe than sorry, I'm not going to plan anything the weekend before the deadline.
4. My brother's birthday.
5. Flying to the States
6. in the States
7. Flying back home.
8. Flying to Crete
9. in Crete
10. Flying back home.
11. 24 july.

So then one of the other girls finally checks her e-mail. She's online all the time but just forgets to check her own e-mail. She's horrible with texting too. We normally double check with her boyfriend to make sure she's got it, even if something only she's invited. She sends an e-mail to all Wow what a lot of emails in one week. I can't remember why everyone is busy for the next few months but someone must sure have been able to reschedule so we can go before the end of July?

OMG. You've just read all those e-mails, in which the very last e-mail was my planning. I've given up, I'm not going to reply to that.

As soon as our holiday in September is completely arranged and booked, I'm giving you a rant of that as well. A few years ago I've had a few posts on our holiday booking then. Now the discussion wasn't who is invited but where to go and how to get there. Let's say it ain't pretty.

thesis research

I've been rather quiet lately. But I haven't got anything to tell.

Have been doing research for my thesis last week and this. Probably add another week. I've been observing and actually just working.

The days are way too long. So I'm happy if it's Friday, Queen's day. Not that I celebrate Q's day, but I will have the day off to do nothing.

Last week the alarm went of 3x at 5am. And then not returning home until 7/8ish pm.

Today's gonna be even worse. I signed up for a workshop speaking in public. That's at 6pm. My alarm went off this morning again at 5am. Got at the office at 7ish am, but managed to get a nap in the car until 8am (I can't sleep in a car). So I'm typing out stuff for my thesis today instead of working. Which is better for me since work is just tiring (sort of grocery shopping for someone else the whole day, so walking back and forth through the aisles of the company). At 3pm I'm cleaning up to catch the train to school. And the workshop will be over at 8pm, thus me being home at 10ish pm.

Thank god my dad has to go to the dentist tomorrow morning, but otherwise the alarm would go again at 5am. And tomorrow evening I'm going to the theater with a friend, which means I won't be home until 11pm.

I know I'm doing this all to myself, but I need a life outside of work.

Btw last week I took my friend to the theater (I won tickets for an acappella group, and she won tickets for tomorrow night). It was amazing. Those guys did everything by themselves so no instruments only their voices. And they had the most idiotic dances. Our belly muscles got their work out.

Back to working out my notes from last week, I have to be able to show something to my teacher on Wednesday.

Have a nice day!

Removal wisdom teeth

They're gone. At least two of them. The next two are scheduled for 25 May. That's in 5.5 weeks, and after Pentecost, which means that I only have 5 weeks to finish my thesis (according to my schedule).

The wisdom teeth removal went rather smoothly, the waiting was the horrible thing. First 25 min in the waiting room, then 10 min on the chair. Got some liquid sprinkled in my mouth for pre-anaesthetic and then the anaesthetics. Another 10 min wait. Then had to go to a different room where some nurses were prepping the surgery. Need some extra anaesthetics and the surgeon got a bit annoyed that I was complaining about pain (they remove the feeling of pain but you can still feel what they do, it just doesn't hurt). He gave me some more and then brushed my cheek, asking if it was tingling. No it wasn't, so more anaesthetics. Then he removed them within a few seconds. Although my gagreflexes were working. So it was mouth open, remove one tooth, mouth close, breath through the nose, mouth open again, remove other tooth, done. It doesn't feel comfortable but it didn't hurt either.
Then on the way back home, I had an itch in my eye, and when I was "scratching" it, I felt my whole cheek tingle.

So next time I have to get more anaesthetics and wait longer.

Getting home I took the painkiller's I picked up at the pharmacy. You can take 3 per day. So that means it lasts for about 8 hours, but the next time I took it it was 12 hours later and I just took it just in case it started to hurt while I was asleep. That was all. No pain. Used only 2 painkillers (got 12).

Not a bad experience.

Nothing much

Yay! I've finished chapter 1 until 4 of my thesis. Or at least I think I finished it. I will receive feedback on it Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning.

I'm surprising myself by not (yet) freaking out about getting my wisdom teeth removed on Tuesday. Maybe this is because one of my wisdom teeth has started to be a bit more sensitive and painful since yesterday. I still don't want to go, but I would like to get rid of this annoying feeling in my mouth.

At least the tooth waited to be a bit painful until it was time for it to go. That way I have already planned the appointment, and I can just go on with business as planned. No extra hassle of rescheduling everything.

Well....my life is rather boring right now with the thesis and all. But if you want to hear something about a younger me, or you've got a meme, let me know.

MIA

I'm sorry I've been MIA lately.

Last week I had a friend over. What resulted in me not being able to do anything for school. And thus a week behind on her schedule.

I've got a meeting with my supervisor tomorrow at 2pm. And normally I send the stuff a day early. Well....I'm lucky if I can finish 70% of what I needed to have done before tomorrow's meeting. The teacher's gonna be pissed since I didn't tell him about the friend visiting, and he already thinks I'm behind. Which I can assure you I'm not.

I need to have it completed by 11 June. And I plan to have it completed by 21 May.

I will have everything ready for research on Sunday at the latest. But I'm not sure I can start Monday, since I only have the morning. And on Tuesday I'm getting my wisdom teeth removed (yikes :s). So hopefully I can start Wednesday, and then continue until the end of the month. I only need to do a couple of interviews and some observation. Then I have the first weeks of May to analyse the results and make recommendations.

Because I'm doing internal research, it's easier. You don't have to go looking for people and find the right target groups. Since there are only a small number of people working there, a survey is also not needed. So I don't have to wait for them to respond. I can talk to them while they are working. And I will only have a few questions for each of them. Leaving the interviews for the managers.

Hope this all goes as planned. Then I'll be back on the blogoshpere on Monday.

Hope you are all doing great!

ugh thesis

I haven’t taken any pictures of me with my new hair, yet. I haven’t really told anyone that I have cut my hair besides you guys. I just wait for people to notice it.

Last Sunday it was my uncle’s birthday party. I didn’t really have the time to go but I haven’t seen their new place yet (they moved in Jan 2009) and I just wanted to see the reaction of the family on my short hair (it was maybe this short when I was a toddler).

So I join my parents. We get there. My uncle doesn’t say anything, his wife doesn’t, cousins say nothing. Grams said nothing in the beginning but she was eyeing me, then she says You’ve cut your hair, it’s much shorter now, looks good. Then the others are like You cut your hair? Come on people, I’ve lost 30cm at the back and at least 10cm at the front (it was sort of layered before), how can you NOT notice.

More friends and family enter but no one really says anything.

Then a woman comes in, she is the wife of the previous owner of our company so I’ve known her for the better part of my life, and she’s from Amsterdam, true Amsterdammers are pretty loud. So she walks in – I’m on the other side of the room – and is like HEY NIC, YOU”VE CUT YOUR HAIR LOOKS FABULOUS!! Gives you a more spicier look.
And my mom goes Finally someone notices. The birthday uncle was I noticed, well you didn’t say anything.

And it’s not like I never notice stuff. I will even mention a small haircut, and then I get a reply Ow I didn’t really cut much off, but you’re the first who noticed, thanks.

But anyway I didn’t do bleep on my thesis last weekend. And I’m not really motivated to work on it now. And I wanted to have most of it done by today, but that’s not gonna work so byebye weekend, because I need to have this chapter finished before March ends.

The teacher’s gonna be annoyed with me tomorrow because I’ve been so horrible on keeping up. But really this is the first time ever that I’ve been this flaky and unmotivated. Still want to have it finished before Pentecost. Then I have 2/3 weeks to cross the “t”s and dot the “i”s.

However, if the teacher’s going to complain tomorrow, I’m going to complain too, he never gives content feedback. We only discuss what I still have to do, and I can’t show him anything for that since I still have to do that. And I want content feedback, otherwise I think I’m handing in a perfect thesis and they fail me. No way that’s gonna happen. I’m graduating July 1, no exceptions!