Me, my thoughts and everything else

hiya

2012-01-29T16:19:00.002+01:00

I'm still alive only very very very busy. Work's crazy (as always). Get paid to work 40 hours a week. But since it's too busy to take decent breaks we're working at least 45 hours a week. In my free time I have to do a course on labour law. If I pass it before my contract is due, I might get a fixed contract instead of a (half) year one.

Boyfriend and I are still looking for a place. It's getting ridiculous, we're still in the top 20. What if you move in together, get married and divorce within 10 years, how are you going to find a place? You probably won't have enough money to buy a house or private let something, but the social system is not helping either since a "simple" divorce doesn't count as urgent (you need police reports to cut the line).

Boyfriend has finally decided to look for a real job. He was working shitty hours, for a shitty pay, and shitty times. One week he'd work 20 hours but the next he'd be home for the whole week. Coming week he has to work 16 hours (if it's under 4 hours of work he'll get paid for four hours, and he has to built and take down a set on 2 days).

Apparently in the Netherlands the bride and groom can have a total of 4 best men/maids of honour. One of my best friends is getting married and he chose his brother to be his best men, that meant that she could have 3 maids of honour so she didn't have to pick. We're now trying to get the bachelorette party together. Won't make it too wild. Won't get a stripper because that's too much out of everyone's comfort zone. We thought of going to a show like the Chippendales but of course they aren't in the neighbourhood in the weeks prior to the wedding. So we're thinking of buying aprons with male torso's on it. And we'll do a cake decorating workshop and a pole dancing class. And we'll end with food. And afterwards if people still want to continue to party that's possible but won't be in the total price. We're only with a small group which makes it rather expensive if you have to pay for it all.

Not only my best friend will get married in the next few months but also one of my cousins (the first one on my dad's side). Talking about wedding stuff makes you realise a wedding is bleeping expensive. And who will you invite, who won't you invite. And if you invite B you should also invite X Y and Z, so where do you draw the line. I'd love my big fancy wedding but I only want people there who I want there not because I'm obligated to invite them. The boyfriend doesn't care about the party he only cares about the (old fashioned) idea of marriage. And that's why he one day wants to marry me. So we might just elope. Do a photo shoot in gorgeous wedding outfits and send that card, we got married, to everyone. Then I've got my beautiful dress and none of the hassle.
What's your opinion about it all?

Okay back to Labour Law.

Happy holidays

2011-12-24T18:36:00.000+01:00

Toys for Tots 2011

2011-10-24T19:17:00.004+02:00

I'm still alive and kicking. Still sorting everything out. We still haven't found a house. The house we were once interested in is still for sale and we could easily buy it. But now is the question if we still want to buy. Still love the house, but it's at least 20 min from friends and family (only 10 from work which is a big plus). I know for some people that's nothing. But I live not even a 10 min walk from a couple of friends or 5 min drive to other friends. And when you live closer together people drop by more easily.

Work is also going great. Got 1 new colleague and finally a store manager, both are great. Have to adjust, because there's a whole new way of working. My contract ends half December, keeping my fingers crossed that it'll be renewed.

I know I was going to these updates closer together but I'm still sorting everything out but had to come her and post about Toys for Tots 2011.

Ashly Star over at Not your average chick is doing another Toys for Tots. She'll raise money so she can buy some Toys for Tots.

Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, an IRS recognized 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity is the fund raising, funding and support organization for the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. The Foundation was created at the behest of the U. S. Marine Corps and provides support in accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding with the Commander, Marine Forces Reserve, who directs the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. The Foundation has supported Toys for Tots since 1991.

The mission of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.

So go to her site and donate.

Give me some time

2011-09-05T22:11:00.002+02:00

Today was my first day after my holiday (which was very relaxing). It was so messy I'll be needing another holiday after this month.

Just before my holiday 2 of my colleagues (out of 4) told me that they'll be starting their new jobs on October 1. Today colleague no 3 told me that she'll be quitting per 1 October as well. She was supposed to stop near the end of October because from November onwards she'd be travelling (she was only here temporary). So 3 of my 4 colleagues are leaving at the end of this month, which means I have to do everything they did because....colleague no 4 won't be back from maternity leave on Oct 3 (haven't even met her).

I had the blogger app on my phone. But it kept restarting and being annoying and all so I deleted it. Give me this month and I'll finally bring structure to my time outside of work. Which means I schedule in 1 hour of replying e-mails and blogging at least twice a week (at my previous work I was able to send at least 100 emails to my friends on a daily basis, Junior and I even had 1 line emails as a form of chat I haven't been able to send him an update since my new job, it's bits and pieces).

So give me some time and I'll be back. With loads of stories. Because work is insane, holiday was sweet, boyfriend even sweeter, and househunting is still full on.

Reappearing act

2011-07-20T14:26:00.001+02:00

So posting more often isn't really happening now is it?

Work is still as busy as can be. We've learned so much over the last few weeks, although we still can't survive a day without asking questions. We've been on our own a few days but colleagues at a different location are only one telephone call away.

With the way we've been working the last few weeks we've made more hours than was budgeted, although we need to keep this up if we want to keep on the budgeted hours overall (the first half year the hours were under budget so we have to get more now to get the average).

My friends from Scotland are currently in the Netherlands. Yesterday they were on their own to explore Amsterdam (she got shouted at by a prostitute, don't know why). Today they're off to madurodam and the Hague.

Boyfriend and I had talked with a bank concerning mortgages. If I get a note from my employer that they want to give me a fixed contract after my half year ends, we can get what we wanted (we took information on a house we possibly want with us since friends told us that the banks always tell you that you can get more than what theyll actually give you. So they'll say you can get a mortgage of 200.000 but when you actually want that for a house, they'll say but we can't give you that much for that house). However I already know I'll be getting another half year contract after this one. And I've just started so it's a bit much to already ask for.

Let's see if I can post every Wednesday.

The new job

2011-07-05T21:50:00.001+02:00

So the new job is taking up all my time. This one keeps me busy day in day out and I really like it. However it does leave me me-time. Half of the time we only eat our bread and then continue instead of taking our 1 hour break. Hopefully this will change once me and my also new colleague will know more and be able to survive a day without any questions. Although we will be on our own on Thursday.And if the Blogger app would be a bit more user friendly I'd be able to most more often. Not that the app isn't easy to use. It's very user friendly when you type something and immediately post it. But it bleeps up the entire layout when you save it. You'll get a lot of extra spaces and enters. And also when you've used bolt/italic/underline in the draft, you get a lot of /,<, >, b, i, and u's. But it's all excuses. Should just post more often.

New job

2011-06-20T12:35:00.001+02:00

Hey all,

Sorry for disappearing from the planet again. I had some posts scheduled but somehow they didn't get posted :s.

I've found a new job. Am now working at a temp agency. Instead of looking for work for myself I'm helping companies find new employees and people find jobs.

Nothing worth posting has happened.
Although I do have to write a post about my "parting gift" from the old company.

Hope everyone is doing fine? I do keep up with all your blogs (which I secretly read at my desk on my phone).

Work stories: nut case colleague

2011-06-06T00:07:00.002+02:00

Editor's note: had this all typed in my blogger app. When I came back today to post it, layout was crap (every word that was in italic had way too many /i characters before it) and half the story was missing. So could still be parts missing.

====

For 3 weeks we had a new colleague. My polish coworker left after Easter and we just needed a pair of hands in case me or my senior was absent (senior and me is the whole team now). He came from a department that was being transferred to the UK. Every time you explained something to him he was Oh this is the same as in old department. But then he would do it wrong. We know that there are small differences in the two departments that's why we explained it all over again. When he finally got it, he was slow. His reason This is all new to me, you can't expect me to be fast. But at the same time he's doing like it's easy because it's the same as the old one. And he wasn't just slow, no he was slooooooooow. What he did in a whole day that's what we did in 1 maybe 2 hours. We really wanted to cry a couple of times.

I can talk a lot but at work I've got my moments. But one thing is I do talk fast. After I came back from London he was Ah it's done with the peace and quiet. While if we even say one word about our boyfriend//girlfriend we get the whole story about how his girlfriend (fiance even) treated him and had an affair blabla. And even mentioning Lithuania (girlfriend nationality) or UK (her lovers nationality) sets him on a rant of at least 1 hour. And don't mention anything football (soccer) related that's his favourite topic. So after he gave that comment I got an email from my senior Thank you're back. he doesn't shut up and he's driving me crazy.

Really if we had windows that could open, he would have been thrown out.

2011-06-06T00:00:00.001+02:00

Normally I'm very good at keeping my word. If I say I'll do something I'll do it. I don't know what it is with blogging that I don't do what I say.

I sort of have the time. And I've got a Google reader app so I read most of the blogs as soon as they have a new post. Maybe it's just that I don't think my life is interesting anymore, which isn't true either since I'm going through major changes.

Boyfriend and I are looking for houses. Although I'm still not sure if we'll buy or rent. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Next to the normal pros and cons for buying comes the advantage that we don't have to undersell our old house because we just don't have one. The biggest disadvantage is that with the money we've got we can't buy what we want. Maybe we could but I don't want to turn over every dime 10 times before spending it. And while I could use my savings to get a lower mortgage, boyfriend doesn't have any savings.

I got a new job. It's gonna pay a little less than I get now but the job does seems so much more interesting. But if I get a call on Monday that I can get the management assistant job at another company (i had an interview there a few months ago for a different job but they liked me better for the man ass job so was kept in their files) for the pay I asked, I'm taking that one. I know I should have said that I would think about the one I accepted but I was so happy that they met me halfway in pay (they started with loads less) that I said yes. But it will probably take another week before they can say more about the other job, as per usual :(.

I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is the start of my last week at this company. Hope to come back to you on Tuesday with some workstories (in which I rule of course).

London baby

2011-05-19T22:48:00.001+02:00

Yeah I know I said I'd post more often but the new guy is an absolute twat. He thinks women are less than men and doesn't listen to them. So all that I tell him to do I have to re do because half of it goes wrong. Not that he listens to my male colleague, only when that colleague throws a fit that he should work better/harder/anything else to improve.

But what I wanted to say: I'm going to London for the weekend. But it will be over in a jiff.

Good news

2011-05-06T19:16:00.002+02:00

No I haven't found a new job. And I'm not even discussing it at the moment, the reasons why it's not me is getting too ridiculous. Oh well...I'm discussing one though.

Man: How do you feel to do more than just your job? I mean we're a small company which is quickly expanding. Sometimes we need a few extra hands in a different department. Would you be ok with that?

Me: Yes, as long as it doesn't affect my own work, I'll be willing to help in any way I can.

Man: Also helping out in the warehouse?

Me: If that's where they need me, why not?

Call from them the next day: I'm sorry but you're too willing and eager to do extra things.
WHAT?!

But I said I have some good news.

One of my best friends is getting married and I'm one of the maids of honour. In the Netherlands you can have a total of 4 maids of honours/best mens (all called witnesses), since he only has one, she could pick 3, which is nice since we're with the four of us (the bride-to-be being one of course).

And some other good - or fun would be a better word to use - news is I won a blog contest. Erin over at Fiction and Flair / The Striped Notebook held a contest for a book and shower gel. And I won the book. I'm soo excited. I haven't won anything since I've all been grown up (I used to win everything (not sports related) when I was in primary school).

Well....that's my news for today. Hope to pop in more often. But being fully busy at work, trying to look for a job, keeping up a social life, and keeping boyfriend happy is sort of taking up a lot of time. Although there might be a post on the not so new guy at work. Since we're down to two, Manager has decided we need an extra pair of hands in case one of us is absent. He didn't have a choice, we all rather didn't want him. But he's the most pathetic guy of the other department seeing as he's the only one who hasn't even looked for a job while that job ends in 2 days. And he's just....well....let's say it's a good thing our windows can't open. Either we would have already pushed him out or jumped ourselves to just not be near him. See...I'm already in a rant mode.

I know, MIA again

2011-04-27T08:46:00.001+02:00

And all of a sudden I remembered that I haven't blogged in a few weeks.

Loads has changed. I'm starting again with healthier food and more exercising.

Work is crazy. I've had 2 job options within the company I work for now, but turned them both down. Furthermore am I being overqualified for the other positions I applied/interviewed for. So still looking. But unfortunately not so active since my colleague got a new job and I'm doing his as well, currently doing 3 jobs in 1 and it's kind of exhausting because he left things unfinished, which is rather annoying.

I had an amazing long Easter weekend. Went out to a lake with boyfriend and it was so nice. Doing nothing but relax and get a tan. On Saturday boyfriends brother and girlfriend joined us.

Well...I believe my car is ready (had it's yearly check up) so I'm rushing to work. Hope to keep you updated a bit more often. I shouldn't have forgotten about the app on my phone.

Strange job interview

2011-04-11T21:17:00.001+02:00

And it was definitely my strangest interview I've got so far.

Last Thursday morning I got a call on my cell and it was in English with a very heavy accent so the English was difficult to understand. He asked me some questions, I got that it was for an interview but no clue what position or company he was talking about.

After a few minutes he connects me with a dutch colleague who has to schedule the interview. I ask her about the position and company. We make an appointment for Monday afternoon and she says she'll email the details.

I was still unsure what all this was and wasn't sure if I even wanted to go to the interview. So when 5 hours later someone else calls to make an appointment for Monday afternoon I accept since I didn't have received any details from the "weird" company. Of course I do get the details when I'm almost home.

I had already decided to give them a call to cancel but since they called with unknown number I couldn't call. When I got the email I immediately give them a call to let them know Monday isn't possible and after Tuesday is not an option because of the job I've already been offered. The lady on the phone made a note for the interviewer to call me back.

Friday morning I get a call and it's the interviewer. She heard that I got another offer but I had to come and see her because 'I couldn't let this chance pass me by'. I managed to leave the office earlier and do the interview.

She starts with 'Are you willing to move for the job?' Euhm..from where I live to here is doable, something like 40 min. 'No it's not, if people have to travel longer than 30 minutes they won't keep the job for long. My assistant must have miscalculated, I'd have never invited you'. Wow.

Then she asks me about the job description. I tell her that it sounds very interesting but I'm not sure if I'd be good at making acquisitions, I know I can do all the other aspects. 'making acquisitions is the biggest part of your job, if you don't like that you wouldn't be suited for the job'. I tell her that I've already told her assistant this on the phone. 'Well I think he didn't understand you because otherwise he shouldn't have invited you'. That's the second time she says I shouldn't have been invited and she made it sound as if my English is rubbish, which I can tell you it's not.

Furthermore does she tell me that 'the step from low level administrative mbo job to this hbo job would be too big for a person'. What the bleep, why did you let your assistant call me in the first place? I told you that I took this job to have a job but that I'm looking for a more interesting and challenging job. And I've explained that I can handle loads of work so Argh...this lady annoyed the bleep out of me.

She made me do the interview last minute and looked at me with a disapproving look when we shook hands because I wasn't suited up. Euhm hello...I left in the morning for a job that doesn't require a suit, if I come to you straight from work without passing start euhm..home, I can't suit up.

I was in and out of the building within 30 min. I was too shocked to be snappy back and I think I wouldn't have lowered myself to her standard (I could have definitely taken her on her clothes she was wearing a mismatching suit, and the way she pronounced some English words she used I think I could have taken her down at that one as well).

Got to update the job offers tomorrow. I've already said no to the one in the company that had the many customers. And I'm going to say no to the one from this afternoon. I've got 1 interview left to do but no date set yet. So I'll give them a call before I give my potential new boss a call. Maybe I'll say yes maybe I'll just update him and say I need a few more days for the last interview. However I'll tell him that's it him or the last interview, all others have been dismissed.

Enjoy what's left of your day.

Choices

2011-04-07T22:21:00.001+02:00

I fell of the bandwagon snacking wise. Had some peanutbutter sticks, actually it was a full bag. I was in a frustrated mood and I needed something to munch on. But I did do an hour of intensive aquajogging.

The reason I was - and still am - frustrated is because of the job hunting. Within the company I currently work for I've had 2 interviews, and both have said If you want it, it's yours. Which of course is fantastic, but leaves me with a dilemma, what am I going to do?

X is closer by than Y. But it takes me the same amount of time to get to both during rush hour. If the roads were empty I think it will only differ 5 min.

Based on feeling I like Y better, but there's a voice in the back of my head going "But X is probably more interesting that it seems".

For X I would be working with a lot of different clients for stuff all over the world. Y only has one customer and I'd be responsible for one country. So on one hand you can service to a lot of clients, make sure every one of them is happy, and every client has its own way of work, so it's very diverse. But on the other hand you'll have a very good relationship with your one client and thus with all the people you need to keep this one client happy.

And you'll never know which one is the best until you've tried both. But I can't split myself into two, otherwise I'd have already done that way back. And it's not like you can shadow them for a day because it will take 6 months to get someone properly trained and knowledgeable of all the stuff you have to do.

Got the weekend to make a decision.

I've got 1 more interview next week but that's for a completely different company and I have to double check because I got a job description of sales support and the appointment confirmation says order entry employee, could be the same but order entry sounds a lot less interesting as sales support. And sales support and what the girl told me was that it was an hbo-level job while it now sounds mbo, which isn't bad but it will probably have me bored in a few weeks.

You'll probably have no clue what I just said with hbo and mbo. In the Netherlands you're already divided up in different levels of education when you're 12 years old. It's based on how easy you learn, the booksmart kids go off to vwo while the ones who might don't like books or are good with their hands go to vbo. In between are more options. And after high-school you get higher education which is again on different education levels and hbo is higher than mbo. University is highest if the higher educational level.

And with that I'll leave you be.

Update on no snacking April and work

2011-04-05T22:00:00.001+02:00

I'm doing ok foodwise. Had a few crisps in the weekend but it wasn't more than a handful each time (I got small hands, and no I didn't get a handful after a handful, I had one on Saturday and one on Sunday). Exercising isn't really active although I did walk a lot and cycled to boyfriend instead of using the car. Everyone was making jokes that I would call boyfriend half way but I didn't. The next morning boyfriend had to work veeeeeery early (alarm went off at 4 something am) so I cycled back at a decent time. His parents had offered to throw my bike in the back since they were heading my way anyway but I said no. And on Saturday afternoon we walked with the dogs. Ours is so tiny and his familys dog is so big. So funny if you see them walk/run, the big one is walking faster than normal and our little puppy (he's not a puppy but he's puppy size) is running.

On work front. Oh dear...I've already been labelled part-timer since I'm off half the time for interviews. Had one last Thursday, one last Friday, two yesterday, one today, one tomorrow and one Thursday. I'm definitely not taking the one from last Friday. And only yesterday and Thursday (which are for the same position) are with the company, all the others are with recruiters or temp agencies (which doesn't have to mean it's temporary). So currently waiting for feedback from 5 companies the recruiter/ta introduced me at. I do like the job description of Thursday, the first talk was very interesting, they sold their vacancy pretty well (well...you'll never know if it's really as exciting and interesting as they let on). But I'm not sure if I want to go the distance (that's why I planned the second interview in the morning so I'll know how long I have to travel). There are so many jobs closer to home and I'm going to try and stall so I can find out if this is indeed the job I want to do. They ask commitment for at least a year. They're gonna invest in me so I should invest in them and they're right but if I say yes I shouldn't keep shopping for something else, and I'm not gonna be I would like to have covered all my bases and checked out the other options.

Ugh. The others have to hurry up. I want more info like yesterday.

I'm gonna sleep on it, maybe my dreams will provide me with some insight (probably not but you'll never know).

I'll keep you updated.

Starting tonight

2011-04-02T10:20:00.001+02:00

So I said I would post more often but so far that's not really happening. But its April now and I would try to post more often this month as to have a bit of control over losing some weight.

My Scottish friend said this week Starting tonight I'm going to not snack and exercise more. I decided that I would join him and not wait for April 1. So far we're doing ok. Not good but ok (i had a colleague leave and he treated us all to a magnum ice cream).

I did do some extra exercising which its still killing me. I did some stretch exercises for 30 min on Wednesday and I can still feel the insides of my upper legs. Although I did more actively participate in my aquajogging class because I wanted to exercise more and shouldn't whine like a baby for a bit of muscle ache.

Job hunting is still meh. Had an interview yesterday and I believe they want me. But I have another interview on Monday and one one Tuesday. And one recruiter would introduce me to 2 companies.

And the one from yesterday and Monday are within the current company but I'm not sure that I want that. It's not the company but the kind of job. I want a more active job with loads of different things. Yesterday the manager gave me
4 different departments to choose from: dealing with customs (at airports and such), customer service, administrative thing, or one I could fill in myself. I told them a combination of 2, 3, and 4 (which would be secretary and/or hr). He was impressed.

So now I have to think. And my manager will come to me on Monday and ask when I want to switch departments but I just don't know if I even want that. I got until the end of June to find something else, so I got some time and I should really go and do what I want. But somehow all these recruiters and temp agencies are giving me a job that resembles my current job and even if I tell them I want something different, they say I really think this job fits you best.

I even have one recruiter say I think this suits you best so I'm not introducing you at the other jobs you applied for. I'm sorry but is it not up to me to decide that?

I so hope the guy who had that job at the gaming company has something else for me soon. I really liked him and it seemed that he was more invested in what I wanted and said than in what I can on paper.

Have a great weekend. Hope no one April fooled you yesterday.

Testing

2011-03-26T13:04:00.001+01:00

I just got the Blogger app on my phone and I'm trying to see if it works.

Maybe this app helps me post more often.

I know I still have to figure out how I can email posts because at work it's easier to type on a computer than on a phone. And if I'm typing on a computer it won't look like I'm not working. I know I've said this more often but maybe I should really try this as it would give me something extras to do in my hours of boredom.

What I don't get from this app is that it starts randomly looking for a gps signal :s.

Next month I'm going to try to post on a daily basis how my getting fit project is going. I'd like to exercise more and not snack//buy lunch at work. I wanted to do the no snacking think for lent but mom made a chocolate cake she only makes every few years, so I couldn't let that pass.

Have a good weekend.

Oops

2011-03-24T19:07:00.002+01:00

Guess I've been MIA again. I've been very actively looking for a place where Boyfriend and I can live together. And also for a new job. Both seem to be very difficult.

For private letting or buying I need paperwork from my work, which I'm not getting. Thus we can't get a mortgage high enough to buy something. And if we want to rent from a private letting agency I also need those papers.

We already subscribed to the town council which has social houses/apartments. But for that we own too much because my salary does count here. Sigh.

Jobwise. We've been told the contract for my department hasn't been renewed and the end is near. I got the news I can stay until the end. Which is nice but I'm sooooo over this job. I'm bored as hell. I was off on Monday and they screwed up the half of my work, left the work that wasn't necessary to do on Monday for me. And I still managed to finish everything on Wednesday before noon.

Luckily the new guy is already gone, so I'm getting his job back.

I've been applying everywhere. So far no luck. All overqualified. And the ones who are for my level of my education need so many years experience that I'm underexperienced. I had one that was on my level and even then I was too enthusiastic in the interview because they said I was overqualified and would be bored after a few months. There were 3 managers and they needed support, would be doing support for all 3 managers, pr, hrm, finance, sales, logistics, and also secretarial and administrative tasks. Finally one that was diverse enough and that really looked like a challenge.

Hope to have some good news soon. Or at least another post.

and another fortnight gone

2011-02-16T19:56:00.002+01:00

My new year's resolution isn't going very well now is it?

Not much has happened though.

Work
Had an interview a while back for a secretary position somewhere. They saw my resume online, they invited me, then they said no because I don't have a secretarial degree.

Last Friday my aqua-jog friend called me to ask if I could e-mail my resume because they had a position open and it needed to be filled asap. (I was home sick/day off because I was flying out to the UK, more on that later) I get an e-mail on Monday saying they want to do an interview with me this week. My friend had already told them I was off on Friday and Monday, and that my department was currently understaffed (next to being 1 person short, my senior is off this week) so I might need to schedule early or late. So they knew I wouldn't be able to reply before Tuesday morning. They also knew that I have at least 1 week notice, still they invited me. I send an e-mail on Tuesday 9ish because I had to ask my manager if I could leave earlier or come in later. I get a reply after lunch (near 2ish) that because they didn't have a reply from me when they got in this morning they've scheduled all the other candidates for that day or the next morning, and all of them would be available on Monday. Euhm...what! You knew I was off on Monday, you knew I wouldn't be able to start Monday and you still invited me, so this is a bleep answer. I forwarded the e-mail to my friend, who took it up with HR because it was just utter bleep, and HR agreed so some people will get a slap on the wrist.

Social
Went to visit a friend at Bradford University last weekend. Was fun but on the way to the plane was diverted to Liverpool, which meant a 2 hour busdrive to the right airport. I was supposed to take a 45min bus, but since I hate buses (or rather my body hates buses) I wasn't feeling all that well after 2 hours. So I took a cab to my friend, costed way more but at least I wasn't nauseous. Went to Liverpool the next day. Was a really nice day. Sunday the weather was horrible, rainy and cold, so shopping in Leeds wasn't that much fun, and we didn't buy that much either. Only new shoes because I tore out the inside of my other shoes on Saturday, and a valentines day gift for boyfriend.

Love
Only gave Boyfriend a small valentines day present (a mug saying that he's wonderful, handsome, kind hearted, blablabla but best of all (turn mug) MINE!). Did go out for dinner but that was a dinner for me getting back not for valentines day. He said that he doesn't need a special day to let me know he loves me, he loves me everyday. And I wasn't allowed to go away for that long again (I was out of the country for 72hrs, and that is from the moment I crossed the border to Germany and back). He had missed me and was very glad I was back. But then again so was I.

Hopefully I'm back next week, but I'm not making any promises. And now I'm off to my aqua-jog friend, we have a Wii date. Going to do dance work outs.

work

2011-01-30T14:02:00.003+01:00

How can time get away from you this fast? We're already at the end of January. When did it start? (yes I know 30 days ago.)

I've finished my dad's project over a week ago. Unfortunately after a few days he gave me a new stack to do (which I should be doing right now instead of blogging). I keep planning on starting it then or then, and of course something comes up and I postpone it.

Right now I've got boyfriend working on his car (minivan) so I could do some articles, which of course I really don't want to do. But since dad does anything for me, I should not complain and help him like a good daughter would.

Work took a turn for the worse last week (although it has improved). Last Friday we were all a bit playing around. My senior was holding his empty water bottle upside down like a bat and my manager asks if he wants to hit something. Since I have a small stress ball on my desk I picked it up, as planning on throwing it towards the bottle. Before I can do so, manager says Throw it against his head, you've got my blessing. Of course I don't actually throw it at my senior's head but it was head level (20 cm off) and I didn't throw it that hard (if I would have thrown a brick it would have fallen on my toes). Everyone's laughing and joking, so nothing's wrong right? Guess again. After half an hour, I get an e-mail saying that if I ever throw something at him again, he'll be handing in an official complaint and make sure things get taken to the next level. I should see this as an official warning. What the BLEEP, so I reply we were all just joking. And he says that he didn't like the joke. Come on! It's not like he just entered the room and the ball was fired at him, he was completely in on it.

On Monday I told our colleague what happened. Not to badmouth my senior to him, but because that colleague almost threw a ball at senior that morning and I just wanted to give him a heads up in case he actually throws it a next time. And he was like No way! There's no need for that. See, that's what I've been thinking.

Friday I came home and all the frustrations came out, this was the final straw. Dad - being a good dad - kicks into overprotective mode and tells me I have to call in sick on Monday and resign. Well...I just couldn't do that. I know I should care about me and not others, but the team would have been in great distress if I had called in sick. I decided to talk to my manager and tell him I would resign as soon as a replacement was found (for the colleague who left the week before). But Monday during lunch manager got a call and he had to leave (grave personal issues) so I didn't talk to him until Wednesday. By that time Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning had gone by without any problems so the issue called down. I know I still needed to have that conversation because otherwise the next time something happened I would explode and really quit on the spot. So I talked to manager and we decided that he would talk to senior and that I should say something the next time something happens.

This will be difficult for me since I never do this. This is the first time with a boyfriend I've been able to discuss anything and everything. I normally would keep it all to myself until it was too much and then there was nothing the other could do to keep me from leaving. Work-wise it's the same. When I was 18, I was doing my internship in a hotel and in the week my dog was very sick and would probably die, I had to be in the restaurant. And no I couldn't help out in the kitchen, everyone had to be out on the floor during lunch. So suck up and smile. That's basically what I've been told. And I'd always been good at that, but since that day I could also do it when I was in ubersadness mode (I believe I cried more when my dog died than when grandma died, although I miss grams still everyday).

Looking for work has been ugh. I've told the temp agency who gave me my current job, that they put me back on active. I don't have to leave straight away (although that would be ok too) but that I would like to leave.

Yesterday I went to the careerevent with boyfriend. Please remind me next time I want to go somewhere I don't take him. Not that he was so sweet to go with me while it's not for him. But he's a technician. And the market for people who have a technical degree is growing. For him to join me he had to register as well. When we got there I got a red bag and he got a blue one. Blue was ICT/Technicians, green was legal, and red was other. We start making our round and someone comes up to him while we pass the first stand. He tells them that he's only here for me and that he's not looking for a job. Well...they were looking for technicians so I'm not interesting enough for them. Boyfriend looks at his bag and decides it will fit in mine (which it easily does), the guy at the next stand sees this and is like Did you just hide your blue bag? Because blablabla. Argh! No one came up to me at all. I've been talking to a couple of people but not until after I came up to them.

Maybe it was because they didn't think I was looking for a job. In the faq of that event it said you don't have to dress up, but it might be smart if you see this as a kind of job interview. I always suit up for job interviews so I was wearing a suit (with trousers since it was freezing). The only other people in suits were working the stands. Didn't really find anything. Only handed my resume to a company once and even they might not be interesting enough for me (it's a logistics company, which is even located further away from home than I already need to travel to work to now). Most companies were located further from my home than my current company is. Which isn't necessarily bad, as long as the job is very interesting. But since I still have no clue as to what I actually want (although I do know what I don't want), I don't know if the job further away from home is interesting enough, and do I want to take that risk?

Ok, let's get down to business and do those bleeping articles. Have a nice Sunday!

so that's 1 resolution down the drain

2011-01-24T18:44:00.002+01:00

Ugh...I so meant to blog last Thursday. I had some free time after aquajogging but I got a call that friends had a good deal on a weekend getaway but the deadline for that deal was that night. So instead of going home and blogging, I went to my friends, called the hotel (because apparently that's what they think I studied for (I did tourism)), and not book a weekend getaway because the hotel was booked when we wanted to go.

So bad excuses but hopefully I'll be back this Thursday. Stay tuned for DRAMA at work.

finally: first post of 2011

2011-01-13T22:22:00.003+01:00

So I said that one of my new year's resolutions would be blogging more often. And then what happens? I don't show my face in the first 2 weeks. Yeah I know, what's up with that?

First of all...Best wishes for 2011. Hope you all had a good NYE.

I'll give a small update now and hope to be back to normal blogging from next week (that means at least once a week).

I celebrated New Years Eve with a bunch of friends. We were supposed to have a good view over Antwerp since apparently they have good firework. But we didn't see anything, we could even hardly see the fireworks we fired ourselves, it was soooooo foggy. There should be a deal made with the weather that it can't be foggy or cloudy on NYE. But we had a good laugh.

Afterwards we played a game: the battle of sexes. So men vs women. Which was totally unfair, 7 vs 4. I think the guys should have had even more extras because they are just unable to win that game. Although when the men get a question like Women think that ....and then you get a quote, you have to say most agree or most disagree. It's a 50/50 chance. And the guys were arguing and it took 10 min per that kind of question to answer. We get the question Men think that [quote], we're like Agree, agree agree agree or disagree disagree disagree agree. Why agree, that's why...yeah but we disagree because of this. okay well more disagree than agree so disagree. done.
And you have questions were both can guess, so one guy (because there were more of them) reads the first hint, and you have to think of something that could be the answer. If both answer wrong you get a second hint. if again wrong you get a third. But we got the sports questions right.

Ow and it was so funny. One was, hint 1) Her letters were the beginning of her books. (or something like that). And I was hmm you've got this Dutch writer but I also thought about Beatrice Potter. But since I know the others don't know Beatrice Potter, I said the Dutch one. and while i said that name one of the other girls also said that name. But it was wrong. Dunno what the second hint was, and I was like Beatrice Potter, I'm sure. The others werent but couldn't think of anything else, and the guys couldnt even come up with a writer. and then the guy who was reading the card was like What the hell it's Beatrice Potter. How could you have known? And no
one else knew about her. (just for the people who don't know her either, she wrote the Peter Rabbit books, amongst others).

And there was this one quote which we girls did agree about. Men think being loyal is not as important as being honest. And while we were discussing it, it was like so what would we rather have: a guy cheating on us but being honest about it. Or a guy not cheating on us but lying ....[hmm that's not going to sound right] ....about it. *laughing erupts*

Work is doable. One of my colleagues is leaving and my senior has decided that I'm replacing her. They didn't ask me, we just got an e-mail with New work division. And it says Nic will move to Operations. [colleague who's leaving] please start training Nic as of now. And I'm like, can't you just ask? Her work always looks more interesting so I wouldn't have minded it, but still being asked to change positions would have been a common decency.

Next to that my senior annoyed the hell out me with something else too. One of my friends is doing her master in England. And I planned on visiting her in Feb for quite some time, but every time I asked when I could ask for 11 Feb off, he said We'll discuss next year's free days next year. So last Friday morning, I hear him ask another colleague When do you need to take your weeks off for the wedding (his brother-in-law is getting married)because I'd like to take 2 weeks in Feb from 7 - 18. And I was like What?! When we discussed the days we want off with our manager I asked for 11 Feb, and he didn't say anything about his two weeks off. So I got it.

Although now after checking the ticket prices I have to ask Monday off as well. Because I planned on going Fri 11 in the morning and returning Sun 13 in the evening. That was 80 euros. If I take a lowcostcarrier I'd leave Fri 11 in afternoon and return on Mon 14 in the afternoon, which would be 30 euros. Still I make more than 50 euros a day so I'd be fine taking the more expensive option. When I clicked further and further, every click added costs, online booking fee, seat fee (twice), booking fee 3,5% with minimum of 7 euros, and a payment fee of 2,75%. In the end that totals 120 euros. Oops. But the deal for the lowcostcarrier is until tonight but the prices I got were 7 each and then some extra fees, while the sale said 8 euros. So it might be out of the sale range and have the same price tomorrow. I'll double check before asking Monday off.
Mom said You have enough free days, why not take one extra. Me: I'd rather save them for the (summer)holidays. Mom: You plan to be long gone before the holidays. Which is so true.

Jobhunting-wise, I'm doing ok. After last weeks debacles I decided to look a bit more harder. Posted a letter on Monday and on Wed. Today I got 2 calls, one I had to decline, and for the other I have a first interview on Tuesday.

After this weekend I'll have my dads project finished, even if I don't get to do anything fun with Boyfriend. This project is killing me and it has to be gone.

I believe this small update wasn't so small at all.

I typed most of it during work in a draft e-mail. But when I got home my gmail isn't working properly (will only load 99,9% or something), so I can approach gmail from igoogle but there I'm unable to see my drafts, so from my phone I had to mail it to myself.

Still have to set the options so I can e-mail my posts. And maybe there's a blogspot app for my phone.

Last post of the year

2010-12-29T13:26:00.002+01:00

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

2010-12-19T12:57:00.002+01:00

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

2010-12-14T19:34:00.002+01:00

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?

2010-11-26T20:21:00.002+01:00

@ 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.

2010-11-08T13:33:00.005+01:00

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

2010-10-31T10:00:00.001+01:00

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

2010-10-28T20:14:00.003+02:00

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

2010-10-22T20:22:00.002+02:00

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?!

2010-10-14T20:54:00.003+02:00

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

2010-09-28T09:58:00.002+02:00

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?

2010-09-20T12:28:00.002+02:00

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

2010-09-19T23:11:00.003+02:00

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

2010-09-01T15:25:00.002+02:00

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.

====

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

====

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

2010-08-30T14:00:00.004+02:00

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

2010-08-26T13:32:00.003+02:00

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

2010-08-24T19:15:00.002+02:00

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

2010-08-20T10:56:00.002+02:00

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

2010-08-10T18:16:00.003+02:00

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

2010-08-01T12:36:00.002+02:00

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

2010-07-29T16:11:00.002+02:00

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

2010-07-25T19:15:00.003+02:00

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

2010-07-02T15:30:00.001+02:00

Let's go and kick some Brazilian butts!

I'm baahaack and school's out

2010-06-29T11:16:00.003+02:00

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

2010-06-07T12:06:00.002+02:00

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

2010-05-28T12:13:00.002+02:00

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

2010-05-16T12:07:00.003+02:00

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

2010-05-13T11:10:00.002+02:00

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

2010-05-06T14:51:00.002+02:00

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

2010-04-26T12:44:00.003+02:00

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

2010-04-16T13:22:00.003+02:00

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

2010-04-11T16:00:00.003+02:00

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

2010-04-07T10:55:00.002+02:00

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

2010-03-25T10:53:00.001+01:00

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!

New look

2010-03-21T10:49:00.004+01:00

So I finally was brave enough to cut my hair. I've always gone with the layered or straight on the shoulders look. I wanted something different but it had to be easy enough that I wouldn't have to get up an hour earlier each day to do my hair.

After long discussion with the hairdresser, and her colleagues, I finally choose for a bob. It's not as short as most bobs since that's undoable with my hair (too straight, too heavy and too thick, so I would get obvious stubbles in my neck).

The hairdresser thought I would have to do my hair with a flat iron. But only after I had washed my hair. But when she was done, my hair was already naturally falling the way it should. Go hair!

She did use the flat iron to see the difference, and there was a small difference. But when she was waiting for the flat iron to warm up she had already changed her mind about using it. It would be too much for me to do my whole hair with, so only the top layer was necessary if I wanted to use it. Well...I already get tired if I have to blow dry my hair, that already takes 20 - 30 minutes, so first blow drying it and then flat ironing it, no way.

I don't really have the feeling that my hair is short since the front is still "long" (it's below the chin). And the good thing about this hair, is that when I woke up this morning I looked in the mirror and my hair was already good.

I'll try to post a picture sometime during the week.

ps I'm sorry for captcha for comments, but I've been getting these spam comments lately and I don't want to put my readers or myself in danger if those links contain a virus or anything.

China: Shanghai

2010-03-18T21:37:00.000+01:00

I had planned to have this post up a few days after the last one, but school got the best of me.

******************************************************************

Sometime during all these work productive days, we get an e-mail from my mom that one of my uncles will be in Shanghai on Thursday (the same day as us), and that grandma had told him to call us. We give him a text to see in which hotel he’s staying. According to google maps, our hotels were 10 minutes away by car, or 112 min walking.

After Shenshen we took the plane in Guangzhou to Yancheng (although pronouncing this town it sounds more like Yunchang), we had to meet with another supplier. This supplier was rather standoffish and really quiet. And every time we asked for a price of an item he had to look it up in his computer, which took a few minutes. My dad and I were getting a bit agitated. The suppliers items weren’t anything really special – nothing we hadn’t seen before, maybe just a different colour – and the prices weren’t even interesting. The meeting was over sooner than we expected but at the same time it was a good thing since we were done with the quiet guy. We had to stay friendly though because he was driving us to Shanghai the next day.

If we had known that we would be done so early we wouldn’t have booked a hotel but taken a train to Shanghai. We would arrive late but at least we would have an extra half day. And being in Shanghai in the evening is better than in a town where there’s nothing to do and you’re stuck in your hotel room.

Well...anyway we were stuck in the hotel.

The next morning we were driven to Shanghai (3 to 4 hour drive) and the guy was as quiet as could be. Once we were getting closer to Shanghai, my dad called my uncle so we could meet for lunch (my uncle had an appointment in the afternoon and thus would probably be dining with that supplier).

When we got to Shanghai we first drove past my uncle’s hotel. And I was thinking only another 10 min and we’re out of the car (my stomach doesn’t always agree with cars). But once we could make an u-turn, the guy makes an u-turn. And a few minutes later we’re standing in front of our hotel, which was right opposite the hotel of my uncle. Wow, of all the hotels in Shanghai, we managed to book hotels opposite of each other.

We let my uncle know that we had arrived at our hotel and that we would cross the street to him. We had lunch at the hotel my uncle was staying, and both my dad and uncle were astonished that they managed to not only be in the same city at the same time but also staying just a few minutes away from each other.

After lunch my dad and I started to explore Shanghai. We did the large shopping street and went looking for a fake market. The concierge of our hotel said that that it was somewhere in between east and west of the shopping street. But when we headed into the east side of the street, nothing looked like a fake market whatsoever, so we went to the nearest hotel: Waldorf Astoria. It all looked okay, but I’ve always imagined a Waldorf Astoria to be more grand, can’t really explain in which way. But I digress. We asked the concierge there and she pointed us to go left, said it wasn’t far and handed us a card with important locations (fake markets, tourist attractions, airport) and crossed the name of the place.

After walking for an hour we finally got there – what do you mean it’s not far? – and we got some jade bracelets for my mom (although I wanted to keep them myself). You really have to walk at the same speed, not stopping and not looking sideways but straight ahead. When the sellers see you but even glance at their stand, they are trying to pull you in. If you just keep your eyes straight ahead, they will only try to convince you to come in.

We walked all the way back to the hotel, decided we could go for some food and took a taxi to the Bund. Don’t ask me what that is exactly since I have no idea, but normally you should be able to walk along the boulevard and look at the other side of the water to the skyline of that part of Shanghai. But because of the World Expo it was closed and you could only walk on the other side of the road.

We went for dinner at a restaurant located at the 7th floor, it had a balcony so you could see across the water. I told my dad I would take some pictures after dinner. But once again I had some bad luck (remember the fog in Hongkong), the lights on some of the buildings went out at 10pm. That was before we were finished with dinner.

I had noticed that this time we weren’t the only non-Chinese people, we were not even the only Dutch people. I was guessing that these guys were with my uncle, although my uncle was not there. My dad didn’t think that they were since they didn’t have that vibe (sorry if this is a bit vague but otherwise I have to mention names and I’m not willing to do that). Well....once we were done with dinner, I still wanted to go to the balcony to take some pictures. My dad pulls on his sweater and jacket (he didn’t bring a winter coat since he didn’t think it would be that cold in Shanghai) and we head outside. Immediately a Chinese guy follows us and asks my dad where he got that sweater, it was his sweater, exclusively made for my uncle’s company. So we tell him that we got if from my uncle, and he tells us that he was supposed to have dinner with him but my uncle was stuck in a different meeting, so he was only there with some of my uncle’s employees.

So my dad calls my uncle and asks him why he’s never on time. And then explains that we ran into a few of his employees. My uncle was a bit annoyed that his other meeting ran late and thus couldn’t have been there. Again dad and my uncle were amazed that if he was on time that we would have run into him. Lunch was planned, but dinner, not so much. And then choosing the same restaurant, that’s just hilarious. How big is Shanghai? We’re not even able to see each other in the Netherlands and then you run into each other at the other side of the world.

The next day the weather was horrible. So we had to take a taxi to see the jade Buddha, which wasn’t very interesting. You could take pictures of anything except the jade Buddha, and you could only see him from the other side of the room.

For lunch we went to the same restaurant as the evening before since I still wanted to take pictures of the other side of the water. Unfortunately it was foggy, ugh. Then we took the sightseeingtunnel to the other side. We thought the tunnel was a glass tunnel where you could see the fish in the river. Nope, it was a tunnel with lights, rather disappointing. We did walk around but it was pouring so hard that it wasn’t funny to be outside (even though we had umbrellas).

In the evening it was time to fly back home. When it was time for boarding we couldn’t board because there was a technical problem, and it would take 45 minutes. After a few minutes they changed the board of “Getting ready for boarding” to “Boarding”, and I asked if that was correct since I thought that it should be changed to Delayed. Well... we were allowed to board, but once we were all on the plane, they said that they had a technical problem and that it would take 45 min. Argh! Why let us board? After 45 min they said it hadn’t been solved and that it would take another 45 min. In the end we left 2,5 hours later than planned.

And then the next morning we were back home.

China: After Hongkong before Shanghai

2010-03-13T01:00:00.000+01:00

After Hongkong we took the boat to Zhongshan. Because the tickets were too cheap, my dad bought “expensive” VIP tickets.

Ow about cheap tickets, we took the ferry from Hongkong Island to Kowloon, and the tokens were 2 HKD, I was like This ain’t right, but it was, only 20 eurocents!

But back to the boat to Zhongshan. The stewardess was looking at all tickets and was sending everyone onto the boat at the same level. We were send up the stairs, another stewardess checked our ticket and said Left at the front, she didn’t gave us any seat numbers, so while walking to the front my dad said Just sit down on the front row (leg space). But I thought it was weird that she hadn’t given us any seat numbers or rows. At the front I look right, and see two small doors with a sign VIP on top, so I take another step forward to see if there are also doors on the left, and there were. We had a small “room” to ourselves. It consisted of a small space with 4 comfy chairs, 2 going forward and 2 backward, and a table in the middle).

We were picked up by a supplier, they took us out for lunch and that was my first “meeting” to Chinese food.

Hmm...it seems I haven’t told everything from Hongkong, because now I remember that we’ve already had eaten with chopsticks, but that was Sushi, and we were the only non-Chinese people in the restaurant. Most of the time we were the only non-Chinese people everywhere, and for Chinese standards I’m tall (I’m 1.66m, that’s 5”6 I believe), so I’m a tourist attraction everywhere I went in the first few days. Also in Zhongshan and Shenshen.

Back to lunch. If people would just show me how to use chopsticks like they use them, I could copy that. But because I’m left-handed, they put the chopsticks in their left hand and then do not manage the chopsticks left-handed themselves so they don’t even bother explaining it to me. Well...sometimes I could do it, at other times I cheated and cut the part up in smaller pieces (I had no problem playing with chopsticks and peanuts). Later during the trip, when we were having a Chinese lunch with yet another supplier, that supplier doesn’t try to explain the chopsticks (the first few times I’m always failing) but tells me that if you’re able to use your chopsticks with your left hand, that means you’re very clever. Well...that may be but I’m unable to manage the chopsticks in my right hand, so what does that make me?

Chinese food is okay, as long as you just choose what you want. I’ve tried almost everything but certainly didn’t like everything. During this first lunch we also got a small plate with a bird on it, including its head. I quickly picked up my plate gave it to my dad to remove the head and then hesitantly ate it, the Chinese people were laughing.

I don’t mind eating animals (except for bunnies/dogs/cats) but I don’t want to see their (little) heads. I’m sorry vegetarians.

The restaurant, we had our lunch at the next day, had a living kitchen (except for the crocodile), which even included cute little turtles. Looking at the fish, I had no clue what was what. For me salmon is orange/pinkish, it doesn’t have a face.

Except for suppliers we didn’t do much because the places were in the middle of nowhere. The factories are all in the “smaller” cities and not in the city centre but in small towns around the city, comparable to the suburbs. (Shenshen was small with only 2 million inhabitants, well...since the Netherlands is small, our biggest city has 800.000 inhabitants.)

We did have a foot massage at one of the hotels. Which wasn’t completely funny or relaxing. It was relaxing until the end, were the masseuse took out a small barrels, with a flame removed the air, and stuck it on your feet or leg. Oh my god, that hurt like hell. My dad was sitting next to me, laughing his head off, he already had these barrels on his feet but he hadn’t complained. Normally when you even point at my dad’s feet he’s screaming in pain, they’re that sensitive, but he didn’t complain so I thought it wouldn’t be that bad, ugh it was. But his were placed differently, one was on the bottom of the heel, the other one the (inner) side, and one just underneath his toes. Mine were on the (inner) side of my feet, on my leg, and in the arch of my feet, ouch! That was pulling my skin and muscles all the wrong way. A few days later, after I had a full body massage, I discovered I had a huge bruise on my foot (I was wondering why she only massaged one foot), and I still had those circles from the barrels on the side of my feet and on my legs.

Other crazy stories to shared about this part of the trip. If you have a death wish, cross the street in Zhongshan or Shenshen. It’s one crazy chaos. Red lights doesn’t seem to apply to mopeds or taxis, and they all use their claxons constantly.

To be continued....

China: Hongkong

2010-03-11T01:00:00.000+01:00

So I’m back.

China was amazing. We started in Hongkong and saw the lasershow on our first evening. It was cloudy so I believe it didn’t do itself justice (at least I hope that was the case since there were only a few (green) lights shining from left to right). Our hotel was in Kowloon, so we had a good view of the skyline of Hongkong Island (room was on floor 28).

The next morning we had an appointment with a supplier. Normally my dad’s company doesn’t do trading men, because once you’ve placed an order they go shopping around for a cheaper price, which is most likely also a lesser quality product, which isn’t good for our buyers. However this guy was a trader but he didn’t have much to show. He showed us a catalogue of a factory that they already have connections with. The meeting ended sooner than we expected, he just didn’t have any interesting products. And instead of having only one day to explore Hongkong (going to Victoria peak) we suddenly had a day extra.

We went to Shantau Island to see the big Buddha (apparently it’s in gold). We didn’t do an excursion because that was rather expensive and we didn’t want to visit the other sites of that excursion. We took the subway to the cable carts and bought tickets for the crystal carts (had a see-through bottom), and the sales guy told us the carts could be a bit shaky because it was windy. It would have been kind to mention that it was also foggy. In the beginning we had a good view over Hongkong (well...Shantau Island) but then we went over a hilltop and all of a sudden it was If you look left you see white, if you look right, forward, backwards or below, you’d also see white. We went up all the stairs to see the Buddha, but we could only see its outline, the only part of the Buddha we could actually see was the lotus he is sitting on. It was a bit of a shame, but at least we tried.

The last cable carts were leaving at 6pm, because it was so busy on the way to, I told my dad we had to be there earlier than 6 because what if there’s this big line? We get there at 5ish and see a massive amount of people standing in line. We choose our path (crystal carts) and followed it, thinking we’d hit the line of people just around the corner. Nope we could walk right through and we didn’t even have to wait for a cart because it was already there (there are 2 normal carts and then 1 crystal, then 2 normal, 1 crystal...), so with paying a bit more, gave us no waiting line.

In the evening we went to a fake market. I bought a Dennis & Gill bag (I normally don’t do (fake) designer stuff but I just liked the bag), although I think I’d could have gotten it for a better price. The sales guy started with something and I started very low, wasn’t completely sure yet if I wanted to have the bag, and of course I didn’t want to pay too much. I’m very persistent when it comes to bargaining (at least at fake markets). When normally the sales person says 500 HKD (hongkong dollar) and you say 100 HKD you’ll end up at 300ish. Well...I don’t do that. The guy started at 600 or more, and I said 100 (yes I know I’m evil) and he went down to 400, I went up to 150, he went down to 350, I stayed at 150, he 300, I 150, he told me I was crazy, my dad said well...make it 200, and he said sold, ugh.

We also walked a stand with fans, these huge fans you hang on the wall for decoration. I really like them and want to place one above my bed once I get my own place. I did see a nice one but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted (I want a sunset something, this was with flowers, it was beautiful though), but I had to know the price. What if it as so cheap you just couldn’t leave it there? Yup women (I’m normally not like that but when you’re on the other side of the world, you just don’t go back there next week). So the lady starts at 800 HKD (btw I believe that 100 HKD = 10 euros so approximately 13 US dollars?), since I just sort of only wanted to know the price I went in really low, 100. I believe I ended up with the lady agreeing to 160/180 or something (yes I’m evil, I’ve already admitted that). Because the fan is hanging on the side of the stand, she has to get it down, it falls. Doesn’t rip but it has some severe wrinkles. I ask for a new one. Not possible. While she is packing I’m talking to my dad, he has been witnessing this whole thing from a few feet away, this time not interrupting, and he asks what I’m going to do with it? First I’ll put it in storage and then I’ll use it, but will it match the rest of my decorating then? And I decide not to get the fan, which I tell the lady (the one I’m picturing will fit any interior design, I just know it).She tells me she can get a new one, hmm curious since she first told me this was the last one. But I really don’t want it anymore. While unpacking she murmurs crazy, my dad goes Women! I buy some pretty chopsticks and a magnet for my mom (I think she’s getting a new white board for mother’s day, this one is getting packed with all the magnets she has collected so far).

While we were in Hongkong we’ve also hired a tailor to make us some suits. My dad had already been to this guy’s shop 5 years ago (the last time he was actually in Hongkong). I’ve always hate suit shopping. The shorter, fitted jackets really stand out at my hips, it looks really nice on top but when you get to my hips all of a sudden it sticks out. So for the jackets to not look weird at my hips, they need to be longer. But then it looks like I’m wearing my dad’s jacket, it just looks huge on me, even though a smaller size doesn’t fit. So a tailor-made suit it was. And I look good in them. One is charcoal grey and the other is a bit darker (don’t believe it’s actually black) and has a line in it, very subtle. The tailor said that one skirt is Prada and the other Louis Vutton. Well....I’m not one for designer clothes (mostly because of the price tag) so I took his word for it.

BTW speaking about designer names. There was street where all the designer shops are located. And it was Chanel (with a waiting line outside), Prada, Cartier, Gucci, Louis Vutton, H&M, Burberry. Euhmm...hold on! back! H&M? That so doesn’t fit the list. Looks more like cross out which one doesn’t belong in here, and explain why?

The next morning we slept in, well...we were out and about by 10am. Today we would go to Hongkong Island and to Victoria Peak. We took a train up to the peak, only discovering we were sitting on the wrong side of the train (the other side had the views, we remembered this for the way back though), and of course like we couldn’t see anything but white on the cable carts, it was foggy today too. Bye bye beautiful scenery pictures.

My dad remembered he had taken a bus tour so many years ago and at the peak they sold bus tours, but that included the ticket up and down the peak (euhm...and you’re selling this on top of the peak?) so we could get a discount because we already had the train ticket, but it was still too expensive. When we’re back down, we thought we walk a bit and maybe we could find out where the bus tours were. All of a sudden we see a tour bus stopping just a few feet away (I’m sure it was a random stop for them since we never passed it again),we bought tickets for 110 HKD for 2, this included two tours of the island. One of the east side of the island and going past modern buildings, the other of the west and going through more historic buildings. Good times.

We had fun in Hongkong. To be continued...

Tomorrow: China :D

2010-02-22T10:02:00.003+01:00

I'm so not a fan of packing my bag. I always have the feeling that I'm forgetting something important. But my dad always responds with: got your passport? Ticket? Creditcard/debitcard? Yup? Then you're good to go.

My notebook is finally functioning correctly. Although that didn't happen after repair guy no. 5 came by. Yup I've collected 5 repair guys, do I now get a reward? Like we got when we were in primary school? You know, collect 5 stickers and then you could pick out a nice card (with cute animals or Disney).

Repair guy 4 came and had the wrong stuff, and that was it for me. I called and I yelled (hey, after a month of constant contact with dell, they are still unable to send a repair guy with the right stuff), and I wanted to talk to a superior. You know what they said? They weren't coming to the phone because the situation hadn't gotten of out hand yet. Euhm....sorry? I asked the guy on the phone what I had to do to have the situation get out of hand since I've already collected 4 repair guys, with no 5 already on its way, I've had 90% of my notebook replaced and of that 90% most was double, triple or even quadruple replaced (okay this isn't grammatically correct but you get my point), I had been on the phone for ages and ages (all dell employees would have to agree), and the situation hadn't gotten out of hand?

And then when I wanted to file a complaint they said that they weren't going to look at it because the case was already solved. ARGH!!!

Okay enough about Dell. When this notebook is being replaced I'm not going for a Dell ever again. And neither are any of my friends. And I hope you would reconsider after this story too.

Just one more thing. Although this isn't about the tech support but about their customer care (which is located in India for private users). I received an e-mail requesting I would fill out a survey about my experience with customer care. Oh boy, that lady that "helped" me is toast, if they actually do something with their surveys. Were you satisfied? 1-9, 1 was very unsatisfied, 9 very satisfied. 1. What was the reason: the language that she spoke wasn't English or any other language I can understand (If I try I can understand Spanish, French or German, next to English and Dutch). Was our employee a) not professional b) using technical terms you didn't understand c) not nice ......j) other: please specify. Euhm....all of the above?
Would you recommend Dell to friends? 1-9, 1 was never ever, 9 was Dell should be the only thing they would want to buy. EUhm....1 again.

But back to China. We're still going to be there when they are celebrating Chinese New Year, apparently it lasts for 2 weeks, so I hope to get to see some of the festivities, much be amazing.

Well....I'll take pen and paper with me (no laptop) so I can write some stuff down so I won't forget to tell you guys all about it when I return.

China, here I come!!

2010-02-12T21:47:00.003+01:00

So after so much trouble my notebook still isn't fixed. But I've managed to finish the project for school. Of course when one things "works" something else goes wrong. So when I had to print it - three times - the printer stopped after 1,5 times. Thus having to call neighbours to ask them if I could print it there (pretty good relationships with the neighbours). Finally found one but then it was too late to go to school and also go by the library. So I had to go in today. And with the snow and me having to work from noon, it was an early morning.

But it's finished, and handed in. So now I can prepare for China. For some bookings they need your visa number, and the passports were in the mail yesterday :D.

Although it doesn't go as smoothly as hoped. We wanted to book a ferry from Hong Kong to Zhong Shan, and were picking out seats, is the page suddenly gone. Not that particular website, nope Internet Explorer just disappeared. Ah well...just do it again right? Wrong. The special seats we had selected were all of a sudden booked, hmmm right, within a minute? It's not that it's a popular ferry trip, or that many people will pay a bit more for the VIP part (Dad wants to have luxury when travelling).

Although we did get most hotels booked. We had to since it's Chinese New Year next week and you want to have everything taken care of before you go.

Now I can further search for specific things to do. We have to visit suppliers but still have time to do other stuff (I wouldn't have survived only suppliers, since why would I join if I can't see a bit of the country).

Any recommendations? The trip: Hong Kong - Zhong Shan - Shen Shen - Shanghai.

Sigh: different notebook problems

2010-02-10T21:35:00.001+01:00

Can’t they do anything right? Yesterday they almost replaced everything except for the screen and the frame around the screen, which btw still needs to be replaced.

Today I have been working fulltime on that paper that already had to be handed in last Friday. While typing my cursor is moving all over the place, selecting and replacing my cursor at a different place in the paper, sometimes deleting stuff since I’m typing.

In the morning I had the feeling was extra sensitive but now I’ve just realised that they mis-replaced the cover which contains the touchpad. I have a normal keyboard for a laptop. But the touchpad is for a keyboard which also has the numeric keyboard on the side. So when placing my hands appropriately on the keyboard, the mouse of my left hand is on top of the touchpad, thus resulting in the cursor moving all over the place.

Big sigh!

They were supposed to call today to schedule an appointment to replace the frame around the screen, which of course they didn’t. So on my to-do list for tomorrow is to yell at Dell. And then quickly finish my paper (only the rationale), and relax!

Weekend of Fun

2010-02-08T11:11:00.002+01:00

After all the computer problems from the last weeks and the disappointment in not having passed all my exams, I was in need of a relaxing weekend to take my mind of things.

On Saturday I did have call with Dell because well...my notebook still isn’t working and I demanded that they would call me the first thing on Monday morning (didn’t happen, so now I had a blowout on the phone with a – for me – new tech support guy, and I’ve told them I’m going to contact my (legal) advisor, come on, there has been no solution to my problem for 3 weeks now). And in the afternoon I went to my friends’ house. They were going to do a dinner party, which I sort of suggested, and I was there early to help. Between the three of us, everything was done pretty quickly and we only had to wait for the others to arrive before we could put the food in the oven.

The food was delicious (duh! I’m not making food that I’m not going to like), and we had fun. Everyone was updated on the others’ lives. Of course there are always anecdotes which make the evening even more memorable. Friend 1 made a comment to Friend 3 that inclined that she just made a stupid remark. I stood up for Friend 3 and told her that Friend 1 made an important discovery a few weeks ago when we were together but Friend 3 and her boyfriend weren’t there because they were skiing (jealous much?).

Friend 2 just told us that she became an aunt, and that the baby is doing fine. Friend 1 and 2 were just talking about the pregnancy, that it went accordingly, although her brother’s wife did have a miscarriage before this pregnancy.

Friend 2: She had a miscarriage when she was in her third month.
Friend 1: That’s horrible, she was almost halfway.
Friend 2: ...
Friend 1: A pregnancy lasts for 8 months, doesn’t it?
Friend 2: No 9.

Later at the table.

Friend 1: I’ve just found out that a pregnancy lasts for 9 months. I always thought it was only 8.
The others: Hahahahahahaha. Nope it has always been 9, or if the baby’s early then it could be 8, or when the baby’s late it could go up to 9,5 months.
Friend 1: That long!

Friend 3 was also laughing at hearing this story.

After dinner we played a grammar game, it sounds boring but it’s actually really fun. It’s about your knowledge of words or how to spell them (there are two options for a question).

During the game we discussed our way of travel the next day to go shopping (our shops aren’t normally opened on a Sunday). Originally it was only Friend 1, 2 and me, who planned to go shopping, then boyfriend 1 and 2 wanted to come along, and while we were discussing we invited Friend 3 and boyfriend 3 to come along if they wanted, which they did.

So Sunday came and we went shopping. It was fun, although we didn’t buy much (which isn’t normal for us). We only had from 12 to 5, so we didn’t even have the time to check out half the shops, and because it was Sunday it was twice as busy as normal (or even busier).

This was exactly a weekend that I needed, enough distraction to not think about problems (how insignificant they might be on the overall plan).

Normally if I go shopping I have a small backpack with me, it’s just big enough for your stuff and a bottle of water. In the summer my mom uses it when she goes somewhere by bike. We’ve turned the house upside down but we couldn’t find the bag anywhere. After breakfast my parents helped to search in my quest for the bag, and they searched for an hour and I even searched for two hours, but we still haven’t found the bag. As soon as I’ve finished the paper I’m working on (situational analysis that I wanted to hand in last Friday, but because of computer trouble I still haven’t been able to start, and I have to hand it in on Thursday because I have to work on Friday, and then we have a week off, and then I’m off to China), I’m going to really turn the house upside down. I’m going to rearrange everything and clean while I’m at it, and then hopefully the bag will turn up.

Okay, I’m going to start on the paper. And I won’t bore you with more computer problems, hopefully by tomorrow afternoon it’s all working as it’s supposed to.

Neverending notebook problems

2010-02-05T18:05:00.002+01:00

Here I am again, to bleep about my notebook, again.

I guess it’s a never ending process with my notebook. Today it got even worse and I was done, so after I made a backup I called Dell, saying that I wanted to run the recovery disk. After the explanation of what happened yesterday with the repair guy and that I wanted to run the recovery disk, he put me on hold and contacted his boss. After 10 minutes of listening to silence (normally I get music, but I’ve heard that tape too often so now I can actually sing along but I guess the tape run out), he had a complete list for me:

I’m getting a new bottom cover. That’s not the bottom of the notebook but the top. Mine is flamingo pink, I had the option for a free cover choice, then I’m not choosing for boring black or silver
I’m getting a new hinge cover. That’s the frame around the screen.
I’m getting more internal memory. At the moment it’s 1x1gb and 1x2gb, but those might be cancelling each other out, so I’m getting 2x2gb. Luckily free of charge
I’m getting a new backplane. Yup again.
I’m getting a new processor
And I’m getting a new palm rest. That has got something to do with the touchpad.

So....that’s costing Dell a lot of money. And if you count the numerous phone calls, the time I have put in (on the phone, and being frustrated that it’s not working), the time tech support has put, the repair guys, the stuff listed above and the other backplane and new keyboard. It think it’s worth a couple of notebooks. But apparently it’s procedure. They are not allowed to send a new notebook, but repair what’s wrong. That already 80% is/will be replaced, doesn’t matter.

Ow and a guy will be calling me euhm...still today (he has until 8pm, so that’s another 2 hours) to help me run the discovery disk with a special feature (not the normal way).
So hopefully he will call, otherwise I’m calling him after dinner (if he calls during dinner I’ll just have to excuse myself and hope he’ll let me eat, put gives instructions). And then I have tomorrow to reinstall everything that was on my notebook before (except for one program that I need to get at school).

And hopefully I can start on that paper I was supposed to have hand in today (I don’t have deadlines anymore but I wanted to stay close to the previously set deadlines, so I don’t fall behind, and can do everything on my thesis without being stressed).

Today we booked tickets for China (end of Feb) and US (middle of June). I’m so excited to go to China, I’ve never been to Asia (Turkey is the furthest East) and can’t wait to explore Shanghai and Hong Kong, and some other towns. I’ll have to visit a few suppliers with my dad, but we still have enough time to go sightseeing.

We haven’t made a planning for June yet. We know we’re going to Disney World (I’m such a sucker for Disney) for 2 days (Magic Kingdom and MGM studios), visit my uncle and family, but that’s it.

Got two holidays to look forward too. And after the last six months, I really need one.

School stuff

2010-02-04T14:34:00.002+01:00

The notebook problems came back, and the guy for the new backplane is coming this afternoon. Although he won’t be installing the backplane because they (the dell people) hadn’t ordered it. He called and he asked what the problem was because he didn’t know, and since I didn’t know which computer guy I was talking to (the repair guy or tech support) I asked about which kind of problem he wanted more info one, and he said that he would come by anyway and check.

But I wasn’t gonna post on notebook problems. I’ve bored you enough with that over the last week.

Last Monday I got an e-mail from the coordinator of my course, saying that she wanted to talk about my grades on Tuesday. This sounded worrying but she didn’t want to give me any details over the e-mail. So the next day I’m at school, and already 2 friends come out of her office not having passed all their courses, and thus have to go back to the regular bachelor programme instead of the premaster we were doing at the same time. But they all had more re-exams than I so, I was a bit more confident that I had made it. Last Friday she told me that with one fail you don’t have to go back. So since I only had 2 (I already passed no 3) I thought well...it’s only going to be a fail for marketing and I can still continue.

But unfortunately not. We need 60% for a pass, I had a 44% for marketing (which was to be expected that exam was too idiotic to pass to begin with, no one passed it in the re-exam) and a 57% for the other course. They could deal with the 57% and if I had a higher mark for marketing it would have been okay too, but this was too big of a fail to let me pass. So byebye premaster, all that hard work for nothing. Having had no life for the last 6 months, has all been for nothing.

On the one hand I feel like such a failure for not having passed, I know I can do it, although my grade for marketing says I can’t, and if I would have done a premaster more specific to the master I would have wanted, I would have passed, because then I wouldn’t have any marketing. But that would have cost me an extra year, and I’m done with school. I don’t mind school, and I love to learn new things, but I’m 24 now, if I have to do another 2 years, well...that’s too much. If I had finished this year and got the premaster it was a smaller step to consider doing a master because that would only be one more year.

But on the other hand I’m really relieved that I have my life back. I don’t have to pass the deadlines, although I’ll try to obtain them. And I don’t have to do the academic stuff like the literature review anymore, or the academic writing. I won’t say my English is that good, but it is good enough on bachelor level, and I just don’t like writing academically. And everything has become easier. I can now go to China without taking my notebook with me and worry about school. I can have my weekends back, and if I manage it all, I’ll be able to get a job and bring in some money, which I need if I want to be able to go on all the planned holidays.

Feb: China. Although this is a business trip for my dad, we’re gonna do touristy stuff too
May: hopefully Edinburgh with my mom.
June: US :D with parents
(I know, I travel a lot with my parents but my friends just don’t have time, and travelling with my parents isn’t as expensive as travelling with friends, because mom and dad pay for dinner and stuff).
July: with my friend from school to a Greek Island,
Aug: to Edinburgh on my own, to see my friends
Sept: don’t know where with my friends from my hometown

Although I don’t know if all will go ahead. The Feb June and July definitely will, and I have to visit my friends in Edi as well.

I still have to finish the topic appraisal I was working on but not hand it in before Friday. Which I was not able to finish in time anyway. I freaked out Monday after that e-mail and didn’t do much that evening. I did a huge part on Tuesday morning and if I’d been in that same work mode, I would have been able to finish it. But then I had to go to school to hear that I failed, so I didn’t feel like doing much that day. To “celebrate” that we had our live back my friend from school (she also didn’t pass) went to see the last movie with Heath Ledger, the imaginarium of doctor Parnassus. I had an appointment with my tutor the next day at school, so I didn’t do anything in the morning. And I didn’t get home until 8pm because a boat sailed into a railway-bridge so I couldn’t get home. Our public transport is pretty good, a lot of people are always complaining but if you compare our railway network to other countries, we can go almost everywhere by train. But if something’s wrong, then we suffer huge delays.
And today was the computer fix day. I still have to call the guy, but I just don’t feel like doing that right now. I guess I'm just destressing from the last few months. I'll start again tomorrow.

How's everybody else doing?

Something else

2010-02-01T12:00:00.000+01:00

My life is not only focussed on my problematic notebook and school.

After my oral exam on Friday – which I passed easily, I don’t know why I was worrying, I could even have saved myself the problem of learning because it was that easy – I went over to my friend’s place, to just be lazy, watch a movie, and get ready for the evening.

We had another party with the class, and it was great fun. In the beginning we were afraid that the party wouldn’t come alive because well...it just took people ages to finally drop in. But then the party really took off. After a few hours we headed to town, so we could go dancing. Opinions were mixed where we should go, but in the end we found a place where we all could fit in, and were allowed in (some bars you’re not allowed to enter if you’re bigger than a group of 5). We stayed until the end and when my friend and I finally got home it only took minutes to clean up the mess (which mess, it was just collecting the cups and beer bottles).

This was a goodbye party with our class. Most will return home for their dissertation and we’ll barely see each other. This makes the end really come into sight. In a few months I’ll be graduating and leaving my school life behind me. Well...graduation day is on July 1st. But the deadline of the thesis is at the beginning of June, and I’m hoping to have it finished at the end of May, so only 4 more months. Yikes.

Next Saturday I'll have a dinner party (with games) at a friend's house, so that should be fun too.
And we (my dad and I) are planning our trip to China for the end of Feb too, so I've got a lot of fun to look forward to :D.

Notebook problems, part 6 (conclusion, hopefully)

2010-01-31T11:21:00.002+01:00

In my last post I mentioned that I had to run the recovery disc, well….I didn’t.

Because I had to wait for the guy I called one of my friends who’s an expert in computers and he didn’t know it either but I should run the disc control while I was waiting, just to get minor things repaired. But it would most likely not fix the big problem. You know what? It actually did. Or well...almost. I’m still not able to type in blogger without it frustrating the hell out of me (that’s why I continue typing in word), but that’s it. And I can live with that.

If it gets worse again, I’ll call again, and this time just demand a new notebook. They can see the history of the notebook so they’ll see that it’s a returning problem that apparently can’t be fixed.

The guy was completely amazed the this worked. I already did the disc control when this thing just started. But I did that, he never asked and he should have suggested it, but maybe together with all that he has done on the notebook, the disc control worked.

I’m still getting a new backplane, yes another one. And it’s a good thing too, because the last guy didn’t put my notebook together nicely. I had to push the case back in its place just above the keyboard, and on the side a bit is sticking out (the upper part of the case should be over the lower part, but that at point it’s the other way around) and now I’m unable to plug in ear buds to listen to the interview I have to transcribe, which is rather annoying. But at least a guy is coming and I can check my notebook if everything fits nicely before he lives.

Notebook problems, part 5

2010-01-28T12:23:00.003+01:00

I don't want to do this anymore.

The only option now is to run the recovery disc. I'll lose everything on my computer. I did make a back up of all my files, music and pictures. But it'll take weeks to get every progam I had back, and I take most of those programs for granted so I won't even know what I need to re-install until I need it.

And the only problems occur with internet (I've now also used a different browser).

Sigh. Me is not happy.

Notebook problems, part 4 :'(

2010-01-26T15:27:00.002+01:00

:'( Not fair.

!! Warning, another rant on my malfunctioning notebook. !!

Oh I just love love love notebooks that don't work. Jeez. I'm trying to study to ace that damn test tomorrow, but I can't say I have studied that much yet. Yesterday was more a lazy day and with the compter not functioning well...extra excuse not to do anything. But today that doesn't mean I'm allowed to not study. But that's what's going on. It's gonna be an allnighter if I want to pass this test.

I woke up this morning from a call from Dell, asking if everything went fine yesterday and if it's working well. I told him I'm not completely convinced yet, give me a few more days before you can close this case. Already yesterday the keyboard wasn't completely functioning. So I couldn't tell him it was working perfectly fine now could I?

Then I start working on my notebook this morning and with everything internet related, the keyboard is malfunctioning. So what do I do? Immediately call the guy, they are able to put me through to technical support but not to a specific person. I finally get to speak to him, but he's not behind his computer so he will call me back in a second. A second goes by, hell....3600 seconds (1 hour for the lazy among us) go by and no call. So I call them. They make a note for him to call me back asap, another 2400 seconds (40 min) later the telephone finally rings. That was two hours ago. I've been on the phone with him constantly and he has tried everything but it's not really working. Yes, the keyboard does work in the beginning but as he asks me to type an e-mail (who are you going to send an e-mail to if a stranger is watching?) and already keys start to fail. And now he's consulting colleagues because he has absolutely no clue how this problem can be solved. All drivers have been re-installed, the backplane and keyboard were replaced yesterday. But while he was "away", I had to send e-mails to check if the problem was still there and how bad it was.

And in the beginning (about 10 min ago), it was fine. Maybe a key wasn't working but that could also be the result of me typing faster than I should and missing a key here and there. But after a few e-mails it starts to get worse. But then I have nothing to type anymore. I mean, the stuff for my exam is already on paper, I don't need to type anymore. But then I thought of you guys. I could type in blogger, because that is one of the places I type a lot and it's really frustrating if the keyboard is not completely functioning.

And while I'm typing this, I see it becoming worse and worse. Backspace, space, enter, ', shift, and some random letters aren't working fine. A key doesn't work and I have to go back, but backspace doesn't work, so I'm pressing the backspace down harder (not that it works, like yelling doesn't work either), but after a few times it actually works.

But next to the keyboard, internet has become absolutely slow. In the e-mail I would type a sentence and when I was done typing that sentence then the sentence would appear. Opening a new tab on internet explorer (I know I should use firefox or chrome, but IE has always been working perfectly fine, and if it ain't broken...) takes ages, and when it finally opens, it doesn't show up automatically, you have to click it again to switch tabs, and also this takes too long.

I'm going to give up. I need to study, I need to pass the test, otherwise you'll be having an even more crankier me. Argh! It's already 4pm and I wanted to start at 10am, sigh.

PS: I've tried to add all the missing letters, but I could have overlooked one here or there, so I'm sorry.

Notebook problems, part 3 OR no more notebook problems (hopefully)

2010-01-25T15:51:00.003+01:00

So they called this morning and scheduled an appointment for today. Then the guy calls to tell me that he will be coming by after 3.

At half past 2 a car with advertisements of a local computer company drives by. Dell has deals with computer companies who come and fix the computer/notebook. The guy doesn't ring the doorbell until almost 3, there was movement in the house, he could have rang sooner. Well....anyway at 3ish he's looking at my notebook and while I'm explaining what is wrong, he is making a DUI package of my notebook, he completely takes it apart. He says that it's probably my keyboard and will repair that first, then if it still doesn't work, he'll look at my backplane. I'm still explaining, how back in September, the Dell guy helped me to check if it was software of hardware. And then the guy looks up and says "that's typical backplane". So he starts on that.

Well...anyway both backplane and keyboard have been replaced, and now I hope it all works as it's supposed to work. Although I'm not completely convinced just yet. Already typing this little piece of text in blogger isn't going as smooth as it's supposed to be.

Hopefully not to be continued...

Notebook problems, part 2

2010-01-24T12:00:00.000+01:00

(part 1 is below this post)

Since a week or so (maybe a bit longer) my keyboard has been being annoying at certain times. First it was only gmail, then the comment sections in the blogs, then google, then the whole internet. Ow what fun it is to type passwords, you have no clue which letter it did or didn’t take. It was really one letter at a time.

Last Saturday was the final straw and I decided to call Dell again. This time a guy says that I have to download some drivers from their support website, install one, restart the computer, install the other one, restart the computer, then everything is supposed to work all fine, otherwise I had to call back and they would make a note to call me back on Monday when the experts are there. Well…it did work all fine…for two hours. So in the afternoon I give them a call back. Told him that [name] had let me install two drivers but it didn’t solve the problem. He would make a note, asked me for my phone number twice and said that someone would call Monday, otherwise Tuesday. I told him I was unavailable Tuesday (you know that if you tell them they can call in the afternoon, they’ll call in the morning during the exam). So they would either call me Monday and if there was no other way they would call me Wednesday.

Monday goes by without a call from Dell. Wednesday goes by without a call from Dell. So Thursday morning I decided that I’d give them a call (they have probably have already earned too much money from clients this way), and finally I get someone on the phone who knows more from computers than I do (and I know quite a lot, as long as it can be solved with the keyboard, I can solve it, but in this case the keyboard didn’t work so I couldn’t solve it myself, and I often know what to do so I can solve small problems myself but I can’t explain it to anyone else because well…I’m just weird). He tells me that after my last call, a few drivers were installed. I told him I had called back after that, so that they could make a note of calling me on Monday (or Wednesday). Well…that person apparently said he had but he hadn’t because it wasn’t in the system. Just my luck :s.

The latest Dell guy wants me to restart my computer and then use the boot options menu. I still have no clue how we got that one started the last time and this time it’s not working either. He then opts for another solution. Opening up my notebook. Yeah right, opening up means losing my guarantee, I wasn’t going for that. He told me that it was fine as long as I was on the phone with him, and he would put everything in the logbook. I still wasn’t so sure about this, well…I know we need to be nicer to others and everyone is way too suspicious (Dutch newspaper article in yesterday’s newspaper), but I couldn’t see what he was typing and then it would be his word against mine. But alright I wanted my notebook fixed so I removed the battery, and saw a little screw, of course it’s little, so no screwdriver fits. I had to look around for spectacle screwdrivers, which I found, but the screw just wouldn’t move.

The guy then had to find another solution. He would have a mechanic come by, with a new keyboard and backplane. The guy would give me a call on Friday or Monday, and then make an appointment for sometime during the next 5 working days. I would get an e-mail with the confirmation of this case. I wrote down his name and the case number just in case. The e-mail wasn’t in yet when we ended the call, but then again it always takes a few minutes if it’s not from the same euhm…supplier?? You get what I mean. But at 2 the e-mail still wasn’t there. So I called back, I wanted to make sure that it was all in the system and that someone would come by and fix my notebook. The bleeping thing isn’t even 6 months old. Apparently he typed my e-mail address to fast and made a mistake (or well…added a 0). But it was automatically generated e-mail so it couldn’t be resend but also this guy promised that [name] was responsible for all of this, he had marked the case as high profile, so it would be in his care.

So now I’m waiting on that call for an appointment. They said Friday or Monday, since Friday has already passed I can only hope that they call Monday, otherwise I’m calling them again. And I think then I’ll ask them to pay my telephone bill for this month.

Again...to be continued....(hopefully with the final verdict).

Notebook problems, part 1

2010-01-23T12:00:00.002+01:00

After periods of inconsistent posts, all of a sudden there are posts on a daily basis. Although I think it’s only short term, since I have no life next week or the weeks after, and nothing much is really happing. However, I do have a party with school next Friday, maybe that will give some new post material.

For now there’s another topic: my notebook. After five years of working on the same notebook, I decided I needed a new one. This year is the year of my thesis and a fast notebook would be useful, not one where you can get and drink a cup of tea before it’s started and ready to go. And after five years, how reliable is a notebook? It had been working fine, as long as it was me using it. One of my ex boyfriends, a computer expect, thought he could upgrade my notebook and make it faster. It wouldn’t even go past the start up screen, I would get a black screen saying Press “key” for re-boot, which I did but then got the same screen :s. Of course, I got it fixed.

When I was in Scotland, one of my friends thought that he could make my notebook faster, but he does it without permission, and he also changed everything to his preferences. Instead of getting igoogle when opening the internet, I would get a news website. That’s nice and all, but that’s incorporated in my igoogle, including my rss feeds of some blogs (I’ve updated it and now all my faves are on there). And he would have changed the icons in his favorite order. Euhm…that’s nice and all, but I have to work with it, it’s MY notebook. And apparently he had deleted some stuff (like updates) because that wouldn’t hard a computer. Well….it did mine, and I wasn’t able to skype, watch my favorite movies or series on my notebook. And I didn’t have sound. Of course, I got it fixed.

KEEP YOUR HANDS OF MY NOTEBOOK!!!

So I though a new notebook would be a good investment. I could have the old one breaking down in the middle of my thesis writing and lose everything. After a lot of research, my dad and I decided on a notebook from Dell. Now, Dell isn’t a bad computer company, it’s actually pretty good, out of 1000 computers/notebooks only one has problems. Guess which one is mine? And nope it isn’t one of those 999 perfectly fine working computers/notebooks.

After two weeks, the keys on my keyboard started to work less than perfect. Gmail and word were still fine, but everything else, ugh, random letters would work. It’s not like you know the T isn’t working, no it was random, and it took me ages to type stuff. That’s why I started to type most of it in Word, and then copy/paste.

When the letters started to fail to work even in Word, actions had to be taken. Come on the notebook not even two weeks old. So I called, talk to this guy, who wants me to re-start my computer and then go for F12 the boot options menu. Well…my F-buttons are hidden under the buttons for sound/media player/and some other buttons that most of the time are hidden under the F-buttons. So I have to hit the function key at the same time as the F12. That didn’t work, and not work again, and again. I don’t know how we got it to work, but we did. I had taken my brother’s external keyboard and attached it to my notebook to see which key were or weren’t working. As I told you, they were/weren’t working randomly so of course on that test all keys worked. You pressed them slowly and with caution. It was the faster typing that did it, or slow and blind typing, that didn’t work either.
But that meant that it was a software problem and not a hardware one. Woohoo :(.

This meant that the recovery disk had to be used and then I could start to re-install everything. – the notebook had come completely done with everything already installed – That was on a Monday, but because it was time for the guy to go (end of support day), he would let me get all the stuff installed and if I had questions I could call back the next day. Of course nothing works as it should be so why did I think the re-installing would go fine? Most of the drivers couldn’t be installed and I was on the phone with him the next day. It’s a good thing that I was home when this all happened because that means I have more computers that are available (otherwise it’s only the new one). He said to download some drivers from their website , but I didn’t have access to internet on the notebook. I had to download and save the driver on a stick on the other computer, and then take the stick and put it in my notebook and install it that way. Of course that didn’t work either. He then asked me to install something else so he could call back tomorrow (yup before I had time to call it was already 6pm and we’d been on the phone for 2 hours), and access my notebook through his computer. Well….guess what? I couldn’t install that driver/program either. So he would have to check with other people and he would call back on Friday because he didn’t have to work on Thursday and well….he only had half a day on Wednesday and he needed to figure out what to do. I told him to call me early because then we had the whole day to get my notebook fixed. He made an appointment to call me at 10am. At 12ish I get a call from one of his colleagues, saying that a note popped up on his screen that I was in the system to be called. I told him yes, [name] would call me already at 10, but I haven’t heard from him. Do you know what? The guy didn’t even have to work that day and probably didn’t felt like dealing with my bleep computer anymore. The “new” guy helped me and everything worked out fine, he told me that if I had any other problems or something like this occurred again I should e-mail them because that goes into higher parts of the company and they would be able to give me a new notebook.

I start to install my own programs and put all my files back on my notebook. Then I wanted to watch a well deserved episode of one of my favorite series. Guess what? The sound didn’t work. So instead of calling I e-mail. That was way back in September. I got the sound fixed myself, don’t ask me how, but it’s working. But I still haven’t got an e-mail or a call back from Dell concerning my sound. And since it was working I sort of forgot I send the e-mail (well…it would pop up in my mind and I would think that I need to give them a call when I had time, which was never).

To be continued….

Helping Haiti

2010-01-22T11:08:00.001+01:00

What happened in Haiti is horrible and I’m glad to hear that people are doing things to collect money for the people on Haiti. Whether they donate 5 Euros (or other currency), or a few hundred, every Euro helps.

Yesterday we had a big beneficiary special. Most radio channels were airing the same songs and trying to get people to donate money. In the afternoon/evening the most important television stations were also having specials to collect more money for Haiti.

Between the day of the earthquake and yesterday evening, the Dutch have collected over 83.000.000 Euros. For the United States with a population of over 307.000.000 that may be nothing, but the Netherlands only have just over 16.000.000 inhabitants, and that’s quite something. So go Dutchies!

Yesterday we really showed that we can put our own problems aside and help others. Why can this only be done when something horrible has happened? Why can’t this be done on a daily basis? Why can’t we help our neighbor or be friendly to our neighbor but can help the Haitians at the other side of the world?

I’m not saying it’s not a good thing that people are donating money for Haiti, but it would be nice if people would start helping people in their own surroundings. That’s how you can make the biggest change, start in your own backyard.

Needle phobia

2010-01-21T12:14:00.002+01:00

I've just got a call from the assistant of my dentist. She didn't explain to me that the pictures taken two weeks ago, showed that my wisdom teeth have to be removed because of reason a b and/or c. Nope she asks if she's talking to the right person and then asks "have you already made an appointment with the jaw surgeon (don't know how you call those people in English)? That was a BAM!

Monday two weeks ago I had a dental appointment. It's been over a year, and it's a new dentist practice, at least it was for me, since my old dentist retired.
I went in, had to wait 20 minutes (ugh already delayed at 8.20am), she looked at my teeth, said that she was going to take some pictures. I told her that I'm very difficult for taking pictures, because I already have problems brushing my last teeth without vomiting. She tries and tries and tries. She tells me that I have to breathe through my nose, but easier said than done because before I can even try to breathe through my nose she’s already trying to put that plastic thingy in my mouth. She gives up and tells me to wait for her assistant so they can make a big picture. After waiting a few minutes, the assistants takes a few side shots and an all-round picture. I have to wait another few minutes before I have to go up to the reception where a new appointment is scheduled for a checkup in six months. They will call me sometime during the next week if something is wrong with the pictures.

So the week after passes and I’m thinking I’m okay. But then today I get this telephone call. And I’m not afraid of the dentist nor of a doctor, spiders or snakes. But the one thing I’m afraid of (except for failing all my exams) are needles. I’ve never had a traumatic experience or a reason to be afraid of needles. My parents aren’t, my brother was, but I believe he’s okay now. My grandma was but that was because of her veins, they turned away.

And my mind knows that it’s stupid to be afraid of needles. Walking into a wall hurts more. But somehow I’m really really afraid of needles. If I have to get injections, I’ll have big bruises for weeks (although during the last re-injection, I told the lady I was afraid of needles and she actually managed to distract me and I didn’t feel a thing, while normally I tell the injector that I’m afraid and the only thing they do is talk about the needles, yup that’s gonna help :s).

So going to a surgeon to have my wisdom teeth removed, that’s not gonna happen if I don’t know why, because from what I’ve heard, there are big needles involved and it hurts like hell. If I have to do something I really really don’t want to do, they have to give me all the details why I should do it. So I’m still on the phone with the assistant, mimicking a child “why?”.

Apparently I don’t have space for them to grow. Well…I already knew that when I was little, the teeth next to my front teeth were behind my front teeth. But I ask her, well…if they can’t grow, and they don’t hurt, why do they need to go? She didn’t know, that’s what the dentist told her. But then again, she also thought that I already knew about the wisdom teeth removal. And I also wanted to know “what are the consequences if I don’t let them get removed?” She also didn’t know that.

She continued to ask me if I already made a new appointment (with the dentist), and I told her “yes but that’s in six months”. She would talk to the dentist and discuss if it was necessary that the teeth were removed right away or if the dentist would discuss it with me in six months time. I’ll know by tomorrow.

I’m not getting a needle into me if it’s not necessary. I’m already freaking out now, and I don’t even know if it’s going to happen now or in six months. Otherwise I’ll probably be freaking out from now until they are actually removed.

Has anyone got any tips on how to get rid of this phobia? I’m freaking out over a little (well…maybe not so little) needle, while one of my best friends just lost his mother. I’ll bet you that he would trade the wisdom teeth removal with having his mom back within a second. Just like the people in Haiti (don’t forget to donate), trading a wisdom teeth removal with having their house and family back.

I read that looking at needles will already help. While I couldn’t look at needles before, I can look at needles now, as long as it’s not a needle that is destined for me. But I still definitely can’t see an injection, whether it’s for another human, a dog, or even a tree.

ugh :( re-exams.

2010-01-20T16:59:00.002+01:00

So this week and the next are all about the 3 resits I still have to do. Or well....I did one yesterday and 2 are still on the agenda for next week. I will pass those 2 without a doubt (I didn't study for them previously because of time limit). But yesterday's exam? Ugh.

Out of 30 students, this specific final year consist of, at least 15 had to re-do the marketing exam (maybe more but only 15 showed up). But omg was it difficult. We had 900 pages to learn and only 5 short questions were asked in relation to a case. The teacher had given us the most important chapters, the chapters we had to study extra hard, and did he ask questions about that the first time? Nope. Did he ask questions about them this time? Again nope. The other 5 questions (every question is 10% of the final grade) were on the articles we had to read. 5 questions on 6 articles, that is not even that unfair. Well….can you remember what Carrie wore in the first episode of SATC? Or the name of the (first) victim in CSI in episode 3 of season 2? The questions were that specific.

If I or any other student don’t pass one of the exams in these two weeks, we will have to quite this education and go back to the “normal” one (I’m doing a two-in-one final year). And by the sound of the remarks after the exam, I have the feeling that we all have to go back.

So what to do? Go to the head teacher to ask what happens if you only barely failed one exam? She wasn’t there so I went to see my marketing teacher. He asked how it was and I told him the exam was horrible. This time I knew he was going ask about the articles (I hadn’t re-read them for the exam the last time) so I knew them inside out but not every sentence. And I told him I really didn’t even knew those words in English (apparently we were allowed to bring a dictionary but we didn’t know that until the exam started, because they had told us before “no dictionary”) or that I had passed them while learning for the exams. And then we talked about some other articles and he said well…you only have to know the important things of the text, know it generally. Argh…you’re contradicting yourself here, teach.

Now we just have to wait and see. I have to pass the other 2 exams brilliantly so I can show the head teacher I’m not planning on going back. And for the master I want to do, you don’t need marketing. You need management and I aced that exam. And I’ve aced all the non-marketing exams, and I passed the other 3 marketing related exams. It’s just that one I can’t pass because it’s just too much to learn. And then only 5 questions on 900 pages, and it’s not like they’re essay questions, no they’re tiny questions. (Like which Ansoff strategy did they use.) I’m just not the marketing type, and I’ll never be. I’m good with numbers and management.

And when I started this specific program, it was called Strategic business management. No mention of marketing, and no one told that there was going to be such a grr course on it. And now the specific program is called Strategic business management and marketing. Ugh!

I’ll just have to wait, can’t change anything now. Back to studying and typing the first chapters of my thesis. My tutor wants to see the paper (thesis related) I have to hand in on Feb 5, next Wednesday. While most tutors have no clue what the specific education holds and have only had 1 meeting with their students, my tutor is a teacher in the program so he knows how hectic everything is and he still wants me to meet with him every week, jeez. Just my luck. But at least I will have it done while everyone else is still working. I only have to work harder now to completely ace my exams and finish the stuff my tutor wants to see.

Sorry the stories are only on school. I just don't have a social life right now. But that's only until Feb 5. Then I hope to go out and party and see friends, and see the world (I'll know if/when I'm going to China tonight, yay).

New layout

2010-01-16T15:37:00.003+01:00

Wow this is my second post today (see below for the first one). So much for working my ass off for the marketing exam :S.

No I did study today but there's just so much activity around me that I'm not completely able to focus on my schoolwork. So in between just reading the material I've been first updating my layout and then decided I wanted a new one.

I like the top image (well...duh otherwise I wouldn't have chosen for this layout now would I). But I'm not completely happy that it's not spread out across the whole screen. I don't know about you but I've got a black column on each side of the text. But I already had those with the old layout.

Hope you all like it. And let me know if your name is missing on the blogroll, or if you have recommendations for a blog. I'm always happy to find another interesting blog.

Yay!

2010-01-16T11:48:00.002+01:00

So the studying paid off, well...for a part. I've got some re-exams coming up. But back to the good news. I passed all my exams and papers from this period (started Nov) even with being ill and the grrrr girl (aily).

We had to be at school at 12 for pictures and then I had to wait until 15.45 before I woul get my results. Our head teacher gathers all the results from the teachers so we get the whole picture and not one at a time.

My best friend from school (she was the other girl in the story of the ailment girl, and we got close) already got her grades at 13.30 and she had one fail. For the project she had 70%, which sort of meant that I had passed that too, because the oral we had on the project could only up- or downgrade your grade with 5%. Which meant that if she did a good job during her oral and I tanked, I would have 10% lower, which would still mean a pass :D.

At 15.20 I walked up to the right floor and saw a lot classmates waiting. I asked the girl who had her appointment at 3 how she did, she hadn't been in yet. Hmmm....that wasn't a good sign. At 16.45 I call my mom to ask if she can wait with dinner because I wasn't going to be able to make it. At 16.50 it's finally my turn, within 5 min I'm out again (originally you had 15 min), with most of my grades. I had to wait for my finance mark. Since that is my favorite course (I know I'm boring) and I know the teacher quite well, I just walked into his office. At that moment he was actually checking my exam. Since he was almost done I waited. And he started to make comments, I made a silly counting mistake (700.000 + 1.700.000 = 1.400.000). Then he said what did you do here? So I stepped beside him to see what he meant. And I had calculated the numbers in the normal way so I didn't get his question and started to point out Well...here's this and there's that. Then he picked up a blue pen (he was correcting with red) and adjusted his answer sheets. I was like Euhm..sir did you just correct your answer with mine? And he replied with You can't trust your coworkers anymore now can you. lol. I passed that course too (86%).

Me =happy. Although I'll have to bust my ass for marketing, that's so not for me. And for the previous exam I knew all the stuff inside out but when I saw the exam I didn't know a thing, until I left the room :S.

Only 5 months to go

2010-01-12T10:53:00.003+01:00

So I've just had my exam week. The resits are going to be next week and the week after. At the moment I know I have 3 resits, from the previous period. And I can only get 3 more from this period. Although I'm quite certain I passed at least one (the finance course). Yesterday we got a list with times for feedback on one of the others, my name didn't have a time, and an extra note said that if your name didn't have a time but you want feedback you can make an appointment in 2 weeks, which is after the resit of that course. So I'm quite positive that I've passed that one too.

What I believe is a very weird thing with my resits, is that the resits from the first period are divided over 2 weeks, but the resits from the first period are in the first week of those 2 weeks. We will get our grades this Thursday but if you've failed them all, you have to resit them Monday Tuesday and Wednesday instead of having another week to study for them. But then again I don't think I have to worry about that because hopefully I've passed those exams.

My New Year's Eve was okay, I had loads of fun and hit my bed way too late (or early ;)). And last Friday I had another party, called Do not mention anything about the exams-party, with my class. Only half turned up but we had fun and again went to bed way too late. And at the end of this month we have another party with my class, because after that everyone will be going their own ways with their thesis and stuff (people going to Sweden, India, north of the Netherlands, cmopletely south of the Netherlands, London, Prague).

June 11 is only 5 months away, finally the end of my schooldays is near, whoohoo!

Today I'm taking a completely free day from school and I'm going to do almost nothing (almost is eating, drinking, walking the dog). I planned on doing relaxing stuff like reading a book or watching a movie, but I'm not in the mood for watching a movie, and if I start a book now, I know I won't study the next few days because the only books that are on my bookshelf unread is a serie of 3 books. And knowing myself that means that if I start no. 1 I won't stop until I finish no. 3.

Okay, I'm off to being lazy. Have a fun week!!

Happy New Year

2009-12-31T13:50:00.004+01:00

I already want to wish everyone a happy new year. Be safe with the fireworks tonight, don't drink and drive (well....if you're drinking alcohol that is).

A little over 10 hours to go (at least for me) and it will be 2010, the year of my graduation. Finally, the end is near :D. I've got no more classes, only exams and my thesis, which I hopefully finish at the end of May (that way I have it handed in before the deadline of June 11, and will be on my way to the US with my parents).

Read (since see is not appropriate) you all in the new year.

little pet peeve

2009-12-28T13:26:00.003+01:00

So how was everyone's Christmas or other holiday you celebrate? Mine was doable. We have two days of Christmas. The first was spend with my mom's dad, and the second with my dad's family. It was ok, we had food, we didn't eat too much. My mom didn't want to spend her whole day in the kitchen so we had an "easy" dinner (although it still consisted of 4 courses). The second day everyone has made small snacks (we did something with smoked salmon). Apparently something wasn't completely right since my stomach wasn't all too happy that night (I normally sleep on my stomach but now I couldn't which resulted in a bad night sleep).

In the beginning of November me and my friends had a birthday party of another friend. I had some ideas for presents and we decided to put our money together and buy the gifts for the friend. Since it was all done through text messaging and e-mail, the money wasn't actually put together yet. I bought the gifts and was supposed to get the money afterwards. It's fine, I know my friends, I'll get the money. Because the birthday friend was constantly around us, I didn't get the money that day, which is still ok. We decided that I should e-mail my bank account number so that they could wire the money. Well....from one friend I got the money even before I send the email with the number (I was in his "address book"), and I got another after a week or 2. So after 2 weeks I send them a reminder that I still hadn't received all the money. One friend emailed back saying that he would wire the money from him and his girlfriend that evening, but he forgot.

On the day of my birthday party (4 weeks after the friend's birthday party), I still hadn't received the money from 3 friends (out of 5), so I send them another reminder e-mail with the message that if they want they could give it to me tonight.

Immediately after I send the e-mail, I had this weird feeling. I told my school friend (girl 2 from previous post) that I had the feeling that they would give me the money back in form of a gift. E.g. they see something I'd like, but it costs more than they would spend on a birthday present and then put the money they owe me also in the birthday present. The school friend was like No one would do that, would they? And I know my friends aren't like that but I still had this weird feeling.

So that evening the party starts and people come in and hand me their presents. The couple says this includes the money we still owe you. I open the envelope and I find money for my birthday in there as well as the money they owe me. Then I get the present (also an envelope) from the other couple where only one still owes me, and the girlfriend says this includes also the money he still owes you. I open the envelope and it's a gift certificate for an online shop which includes the money he owed me.

Now I know it's a gift certificate and it's not a present, so I can still spend the money. But I would like to have the money, and not include it in my gift. Now I'm obligated to spend the money he owed me on something in that online shop. And I'm not happy with that. I had that weird feeling, and it was justified. I should have send that e-mail a day later, or reminded them at the party. (Although that gift certificate takes a day in the post to get there, I wonder if that would have made a difference, or maybe they already had that gift certificate lying around and after that e-mail thought we can finally get rid of that gift certificate).

Would you ever do that? But the money you owe someone in a gift?

Christmas break

2009-12-21T17:17:00.002+01:00

So I've been slacking here. It's just because I've been soooo busy.

I was sick the first week of December, too sick to do anything. I'm still coughing and have been for four weeks (it's getting pretty old, I haven't slept in my own bed for 3 weeks now, since that one can't go up).

Maybe the reason why the cough isn't gone is because of all the stress I had since the beginning of December, I haven't been able to get a second of rest.

First of all, slacker girl (previously known as aily) has been kicked out of the group. We gave her another deadline. Mostly because we didn't have time to do her stuff before the deadline anyway. The deadline was set Friday 1.30. At 1.19 we get an e-mail with an attachment, in the e-mail she says that the other stuff is on another computer and that we would get it shortly. The attachment contained crap, it was completely irrelevant to the project so no clue why she send it to us. At 8pm we still haven't had the stuff, so I send her an angry e-mail asking how much it takes to walk from one computer to the next? and if someone else would be working on it, that person could give her two minutes because it doesn't take longer than that. I gave her another ultimatum, Saturday morning before 9. Well....at 8.50 we get an e-mail, saying that the email was still in saved and hadn't been send.

What would any normal person do if he/she would find out that a very important e-mail hadn't been send? Send it! Well....she didn't do that, nope she first opened the e-mail I send the previous evening (6ish) with the latest layout, adjustments and sorts. And she copied and pasted her stuff in, making a few adjustments along the way in her previous stuff. We figure that she hadn't not send her e-mail with the stuff, we think she was still typing it. Even after we e-mailed a few times that if she had problems with the stuff she could come to us. But nothing. Then I looked at what she actually did. She had to describe something with 10 aspects, guess how many she did describe? 3, and she did only the minimum, she only defined what does 3 aspects mean, not even comparing them, not even to the conceptual framework she was supposed to describe. So we finally kicked her out.

But that meant that I had to spend my Saturday instead of preparing for my party, writing her stuff. Well...I planned to do stuff for school anyway because I had more than one project that had a deadline last Friday. But I couldn't because I had to do slacker girl's work. I choose to do that project because there's this other girl dependent on too.

And with the bad nights I'm having because of the coughing, I was really taking it hard. I couldn't focus. Our presentation was fun, that was before slacker girl was thrown out, she hadn't let us know that she wasn't coming, although we didn't expect her to show. The other girl had some stress problems too and was seeing black spots, so a minute after she started her part of the presentation she broke down since she couldn't see the text on the paper in front of her. I took over her part but I was reading it and with the coughing fits in between, I don't think anyone had any idea what our presentation was about. But I digress.

I had a week and we still had 2 major projects to sort of start. And with the bad nights, I was almost completely worthless. Even the doctor couldn't do anything for my coughing and wrote a note for my teachers (yup I just turned 24 and the doctor still writes a note for my teacher :S) saying that I needed to rest, and that all the bad nights could have an effect on my project work. So I e-mailed one teacher (I was trying to do as much as I could before all the deadlines and I was only asking one teacher for a delay), but apparently that already gave me the feeling that a heavy load was taken off, so my work went smooth. I finished that project in 2 days, and on Wednesday me and the other girl made our own model out of the stuff we did before, and also that went as a train, we finished that day (most people were working on it for a few days not to say weeks, but we were so done with everything and the deadline being only 2 days away we didn't really have a choice). So instead of finishing everything just before the deadlines (noon and the closing of school), we finished everything on Wednesday evening. Handed the stuff in on Thursday, and then went shopping, to the movie (avatar 3d) and out for dinner. And all our other classmates were still working on it Thursday night. So we did a good job, and we deserve a few days of peace.

But of course that's passed before you know it, since I have to make up the lost time for my thesis (when I was sick the first week of Dec) and I've got exams right after the Christmas break. Only until 11 June, that's the deadline of my thesis. And then I'm completely done with school. Now I can only hope that I can join the workforce.

Happy Holidays!

I so hate freeloaders

2009-12-01T19:33:00.002+01:00

Sorry for not posting but life has been hectic. Well...maybe not life but more school. All those bleep projects.

I ranted in a previous post that I had to give up my "free" Tuesday, well....that project took a turn for the worst.

We're with a group of 3. And we have to describe 3 theoretical models. So 1 each right? Wrong. One of the group has an ailment (aily) so missed a lot of classes the first period, and didn't do the exam (so she didn't study). Because 2 out of 3 models have already been discussed in class and were in the topiclist of the exam, me and the other person described them. The third was new for all of us, and because we get that she has an ailment and can't do as much as us, we would do the third one with the 3 of us. Aily would be the expert and we would help describe the model.

So the other person travelled to her room in our school town yesterday (a trip of over 2/3 hours), that way we could start early today. I only have to travel one hour, so I took the train this morning. While I'm in the train I get a text from aily saying that she's working from home today but we could e-mail her. WHAT?! We came to school especially for her. I called the other person and she was mad too. What a waste of time.

Aily has a knack for being passive. She was unable to make the deadlines in the previous period and she discussed that with the coordinator. Fine, I get that. But I would make sure that the teachers of those courses knew it too, she didn't notify them, she hoped that the coordinator would. And then she looked at us like Ha! I did better than you on that small test. Well yeah duh! If I only had that small test to focus on I would have gotten higher than you, but since I have ten zillion other classes to worry about too, that one can slip because I'll pass it anyway.

Then before the exams she already knows that she won't be able to do one of the exams because she has one from a previous year (which we weren't allowed if we wanted to enter this course but hey she's an exception), and I told her that it would be smart to also let the teacher know. Her reply? He's already gone. He was probably only 5 steps away from the classroom.

But back to today. We decided to meet anyway there's a timelimit. Texts and calling left us without a response. After a lot of discussing we went to find the teacher for this course, just so he would know that she didn't show (again). He was a bit angry, appointment is appointment, and you can't behave like this. But since we are in our final year we should be able to handle this ourselves, but if we wanted to kick her out of the group we'd have his consent.

We thought that was a bit too drastic but we've come to that idea in the end. We've reorganised our project, added some things, and divided it all up into 2. We've send aily an e-mail that if she wasn't our friend we would dismissed her from the group way before this, that we're now in a difficult situation and don't know what to do. Hoping that she would reply. And apologise and stuff. From 12 to now (that's almost 9 hours) we haven't heard a thing.

We discussed the situation with a couple of other classmates/friends but they hate to be in our shoes right now. Aily is a friend but one of the other said, well....is she a friend if she lets 2 friends out in the cold? She got a point there. If I would have not been able to come to school, I would have called with a detailed explanation, I would have send an e-mail with this is what I've got, and I would be available by phone the whole day. And so would the other projectmember.

We've just decided that if aily doesn't respond before tomorrow 2pm, we're done. The only excuse is hospital or near dying. I know it's hard but we have to take measures. We're now discussing if we should let aily know about our decision. We've told her that we would have thrown her out if she was any other and that we were now uncertain what to do. But to be politically correct we should text and e-mail her. But then she could pull an all nighter and still have something to show, and we're sorta fed up with her anyway. And it would be cruel to keep rubbing it in, but it's also cruel to just throw her out. SIGH!

The last e-mail on the course we got from her was at 0.30am, I was fast asleep at that time. So the other member said we should suggest that aily sleeps at night, works on school during the day, and keep away from other activities. Now she's making her problem our problem, and we're not so happy about that.

Well...thanks for reading another one of my rants on school. All advice is welcome.

What's this world becoming?

2009-11-22T19:16:00.004+01:00

The people in this world are becoming crazier by the minute. Here's why:

Last week a 14 year old boy was found dead in the woods. Today I heard what the reason was he was beaten to death, the 14 year old offender was in love with the same girl as the boy who died. How sick?! And you know what people (complete strangers) are saying? That the girl (13 years old) is to blame for this, because she made them fall in love with her. Come on!

I open my igoogle just a few minutes ago and there's the latest (horror) story. Yesterday a man was stabbed to death in the New York subway because of a seat. The victim had his bag on the seat next to him and refused to remove it when someone wanted to sit on that seat because there were enough free seats (apparently the subway was only half full). The offender then started to stab the victim multiple times.
Why? Why not remove the bag? Why not choose an empty seat to begin with? Why if the person doesn't remove the bag choose a different seat? Why on earth are you carrying a knife for anyway?

Why just not treat people the way you want to be treated? That way the world would hopefully be a better place.

oops forgot to post (business as usual)

2009-11-17T13:40:00.006+01:00

So I clicked save instead of publish on Tuesday, just before I shut down my laptop. But here's the rant anyway.

Life is going as usual, school school school. I've managed to fit in two birthdays the last weekends, so I've catched up with most of my friends. The next time I'll see them is probably on my birthday (3 weeks).

The teachers are giving us loads of stuff to do but at the sometime nothing at all. The deadline is known, Dec 18th, but we can't really start yet, which is really frustrating, because you know you're going to be uber-stressed in a few weeks time.

Right now I'm giving up my free day to work on the project. Well...Tuesday is class free but most of the times I'm completely stuffed with schoolwork, like today but we have to start the project and that leaves me giving up my free afternoon. I'm soooo not feeling it, I would like to do some other courses but I don't think I'll be able to manage that today.

The things that I am able to do for the classes are taking longer than expected. For instance for Finance I've had all this stuff before but the teacher just gives us less data and I was staring at one of the assignments for over half an hour before I knew how to calculate it. Dad and little brother couldn't help me either and they're both good at finance too. I know you're all thinking why didn't you just give up and start the next assignment, well...I knew I was able to find the answer, I just didn't know how. None of my classmates know by the way, they are already crying for help because nothing makes sense. So I think I have to schedule a few tutoring classes, which will be good but then again it will take up a lot of time. And I'm not sure if I have that time, since I already know how to do everything. If I help them pass one course and because of that fail another, well....that's not good. I need to make sure that I pass everything. So they'll just have to wait and see if I'll have time for them.

Going under

2009-11-08T12:17:00.002+01:00

I survived last week, but only barely. I had decided not to study for the exam on Thursday, that way I would have enough time before Tuesday to focus on the Tuesday morning exam, and would leave me with Wednesday and Thursday to study for Friday.

On Tuesday I get to class, late. Well...actually, after Monday's exam I get to the station and see that my train is cancelled for unknown time. The only way to go home is to get a bus, but not one going straight from this station to my station, no the bus has to pass all the stations it always passes. So I would first take a bus from A to B, 1,5 hours, B to C, 1.5 hours, C to D 1 hour. And if you have motion sickness, that really isn't an optiion. So I had to wait, luckily I had schoolstuff with me, but I came home at 5pm instead of 12.

One of my friends said Hope your train rides tomorrow. And I was like, well...we have our exam at 10.30, I'm at the station before 9 (train is supposed to leave at 9), so then I have over an hour to get to school, and I only need an hour. She was ok that's good.

On Tuesday morning, I get up 30 min earlier than I need to get up, I was awake and figured I could use the extra time to revise. When I'm completely done with my morning ritual, I pack my bag (that morning it was around 8.15), I checked my schedule to see what room I have to be in, and see that the exam starts at 9.30. Oh, that meant that I had to be in the train at 8. But we can be 30 min late for the exam and I would only be 5 min late, hopefully.

I called my friend to tell her that I would be late, and that she could have warned me that the exam wasn't at 10.30 but at 9.30, well...she didn't know, she also thought it was at 10.30. Ah well...she would be on time and notify the teacher. Then the train stops change, normally it's an intercity and only stops at the few big cities, but because of the accident the day before, it would stop at all stations in between as well. And there goes my exam, oi.

Well...I got lucky the bus was a bit late so I managed to catch it and be only 15 min late. I looked at the exam and thought I should have missed it, because I didn't know any of the questions. The teacher had mentioned that the models in his lectures and some chapter from the book were the most important, so I studied them and you could ask me anything about any of those models. It had just slipped my mind that we also had articles that accompagnied every workshop, so I had read them once for class but I hadn't studied them and most were about a model anyway. Well...the teacher asked very specific questions about those articles. Most people had no clue what he was asking.

The girl sitting in front of me gets up 45min after the exam started. That's fast, but most of the time I'm also one of the first to leave. So I didn't give it much attention.
Later when we're studying with a group for the afternoon exam, one says She just walked out, she had only written half a page or so (not nearly enough to answer even 3 questions). Doesn't she know you have to have at least 35% to be allowed to do a resit? And I and all the other went euhm...WHAT!!!

Previous years you had to have 55% correct for a pass. This year it's 60%, under normal circumstances that is perfectly doable (I normally go for 70%, don't try to compare it to the US system, it just doesn't work), but with too much to do for all courses that just managable. But now we also had to have at least 35% to even be allowed to do a resit. Jeez. So long for my exam on Thursday and Friday :s.

I studied mostly for the one on Friday and did minimum for Thursday because I knew that there was no way I'm going to pass, so hopefully with minimum studying and creative answers I would be able to get 35% right. Well...I did the exam, and I'm not counting on it but I might have actually passed it. It was just sooo simple, and if I had done just a bit more I would be sure that I'd passed.

The one on Friday was also doable. At least this teacher already mentioned the models you needed to use for the question in the question (not like the one on Tuesday), but you have to completely explain all models. I think I have managed at least 50%, I know that's not 60% but this exam will be combined with a paper (deadline the Friday before Christmas), and I usually get 70% on those which is 60% on average.

As soon as the exams were over I had to start a project with a deadline this Tuesday. Well...I rewarded myself with visiting a friend, I was in need of some rest and no school thoughts (well....that didn't really work since her thesis is on stuff I had to learn for these exams, so I could help her a bit with giving names for models and sources).

Yesterday my brain just didn't work. I had managed to get everything non-school related done before 12 (that includes sleeping in), but there I was was, sitting in front of my notebook with my schoolbooks and just nothing.

So I only have today, and I'm sort of procrastinating. The paper is only 10 pages but the teacher said that it would be difficult to stay within those 10 pages (although it's allowed to be a few more but anything over 15 won't be read). And I soooo don't want to do this anymore.

It's not that I can't handle it, I'm managing, sometimes almost having panic moments/nervous breakdowns, but I'm handling it. But the thing is, I would love to just have one day, one day completely free of school. Not only just relaxing and doing nothing for school but also not having that little voice in your head going it would be smart if you'd do something for school, you know it's going to be tough if you do nothing. Because right now, I have the feeling I'm going under and that I'm not coming up to catch enough breath before going under again.

This whole paper should have just not been there. They just gave it before the Autumn break (only studying for exam week) and it has to be done after the examweek, so only 2 weeks. And those 2 weeks no one had any time at all (everyone still had to start this weekend).

This weekend should have been completely relaxed, done with one period, not yet started on the next. A weekend where you could destress and mentally prepare yourself for the next challenge.

Although there's some good news. the next examweek is after the Christmas break, so 2 weeks of studying instead of 1. And I've checked and we can only have 3 exams.
But with good news there's most of the time also some bad news, only 3 exam mean at least 5 papers to write (got 8 courses), and those deadlines are all Friday 18th Dec. Only 6 weeks. (but that also means, only 6 weeks till Christmas).

Another reason for me going under. In October I wanted to go a month without snacking, which I gave up after 2 weeks, since it didn't help. And I still have no idea why not? Instead of loosing weight I'm gaining weight. I know I haven't moved a lot the last 2 weeks, because I was too busy with school but that also means that I haven't been getting up to get snacks. I gained 2 kilo's, how on earth is that possible?

So with the new school period starting tomorrow, I'm going to stop snacking again (at least till Christmas) and try to do extra exercises every day for 30 min (I already cycle for 30min (but that's from getting to the station and back) and walk 30 min (since the damn train is delayed and I miss my bus) on top of all the walking daily do). This needs to work. I can't start dieting, I'm a too picky eater for dieting.

Now I really have to get to work on my paper, ugh.

Nervous breakdown

2009-11-01T16:32:00.003+01:00

No I'm not having a nervous breakdown. I'm just allowing myself to have one. I have the feeling that I'm going to fail all my courses. But I'm not doing the nervous breakdown thing, it won't help so why do it?

In my stuff of one of the courses I found a test exam I haven't done yet (not that we have access to the answers somewhere but at least I can try and then check it with the book). And I couldn't even answer the simplest question. Alarm bells going off.

And while I'm studying one of the courses, another one keeps popping up. Because they use the same terms but explain it differently, or it's exactly the same but just with different terms. And oh dear if you're using the wrong term for the wrong exam. Again alarm bells going off.

And that I have the feeling that I've been doing nothing but studying this week but at the same time haven't done a thing at all. Some more alarm bells going off.

You know what? I'm not having a nervous breakdown, I don't have the time to have a nervous breakdown. And what if I fail all my courses? I'll just do it again at the end of Jan. Hoping that I've passed the next set of courses at the beginning of Jan (so I won't have to do 11 resits).
I have chances and options, so there's no need for me to have a nervous breakdown.

And from next Monday on, I'm just going to work a little bit harder so I won't be doing two weeks of studying in the Christmas break, because I can't do this last week again.

Luckily for me, one of my friends/classmates thinks the same way. Which means that we're going to work together. Well...not completely together because that would only result in doing nothing except chatting. But we'll both read the stuff assigned, and one makes a summary immediately of course A and the other of course B, so we have our summaries ready before the Christmas break and we only have to study our summaries instead of the whole book and making the summaries.

Okay, I'm not having a nervous breakdown. I'll do fine. I'll survive next week. I'll go for 3 out of 5.

Autumn break?

2009-10-27T16:35:00.003+01:00

Officially I have this week off from school because of the autumn break. But I can't see I'm having a week off, I've been studying my ass off and it's not funny. I've got 5 exams next week, and I'm only going to learn for 4. It's not that I don't want to study for all 5, but I just don't have the time. And of course even those 4 are working on my nerves.

I thought I could do 5 chapters of marketing in 1 day, so far (it's already 4.30pm) I've done only 2. So I still have 3 to go before bed. Yup not funny. I had planned the evening free (so work till 5/6pm which means I should be superwoman to be able to reach todays goal).

This just means that I have more chapters to do tomorrow, because on Thursday I have planned to study for another exam.

Ow and we also have a project due during next week, which they just handed out to us last Wednesday, but I need my dad for that (it's for his company) so I can't start just.

My schedule for the rest of the week
Wed: study exam 2
Thursday: study exam 5
Friday: study exam 5
Saturday: make project
Sunday: study exam 1
Monday: do exam 1, study exam 2 and 3
Tuesday: do exam 2 and 3, study exam 4 (maybe 5 instead of 4 depends on how the studying goes on Thu and Fri).
Wednesday: study exam 4 (or 5)
Thursday: do exam 4, study exam 5
Friday: do exam 5, make project

Soooo not funny. How can they call this a break? I'm really in need of one. But as soon as the exams are over, our next courses begin. And we have more courses next block. Although I have no clue how since we don't have any books left to study (maybe handouts?) and we've got the complete booklist of the whole year not only one block (we've got 4 blocks per year).

Okay, back to my studying.

I can breathe again

2009-10-16T10:35:00.002+02:00

So I made my deadline :D!

I handed everything in yesterday at 5pm and e-mailed the stuff this morning at 10. Woohoo.

Now on to the next deadlines (Tuesday and Friday).

But having finished this project was the worst, it took up most my time and now I am able to breathe again. I didn't do anything for school last night, which is a first this week.

Enjoy your weekend!

I gave up

2009-10-14T20:59:00.002+02:00

Normally I'm not a quitter, but this time there was no other option.

I hate to be on a scale, so I don't do it often, but when you're trying to lose weight, you sort of have no other option. So I get on there and there's a difference of a kilo (in 12 days). Well...since I haven't been snacking or eating more (I didn't eat anything instead of my snacks), you'd think that it was a positive difference, wrong, I'm over 1 kilo heavier than when I started on the 1st. How on earth is this possibile? So I gave up not snacking, I'm not gonna snack much, but when I get gggrhrhrrred because of school I'm getting myself some chocolate.

Because of course school got more grrr-ed. We had 3 deadlines for Friday, I've got 2 finished, and I'm working on 1. Well...now got 2 removed (teacher's word) to Tuesday, guess which 2? The ones I've already finished.

And on top did we get another big amount of stuff to do before next week. Marketing communications plan, an academic skills essay (have no clue exactly what, I'm not starting until I have the deadline done), and a strategy for a company: roadmap to e-business. So byebye relaxing weekend. Not that it was going to be relaxing since I still have amounts to read and learn before the exams the week after. But now it's just more stressful.

Well...I'm back to creating stories, since I have no clue what to type anymore and it definitely doesn't make sense. Only tomorrow and I've still got 7 pages left to fill.

Oh dear

2009-10-10T19:38:00.002+02:00

So transcribing the interview is taking me waaaay longer than I expected. Thank god I was the interviewer and not the interviewee since I can talk a mile a minute (well...I can, and almost alwyas do), and now I only had to ask questions.

The teacher said it would take 1 hour to transcribe 10 min, maybe with slow talkers. It took me 2 hours! That's not 6 hours of transcribing but 12. It's 2.5 minute per 30 minutes, that's NOT funny.

Another oh dear. Grandma asked me if I was available next Saturday, and when I said yes, she told me she was taking me and one of my cousins out for dinner then. Ai there go my bonus points for not snacking. And what's worse, well...worse can't say it's a bad thing but it is for the trying to lose weight thing, I also have a dinner on Friday. Maybe I have to continue the not snacking until Christmas, oh boy, that's never gonna work. There's my birthday and my two best friends birthdays in between. Oops, maybe I have to try to throw the exercising in as well. But were do I get the time to go exercising? I don't even have time for friends. And I'm sorry but that's more important than exercising.

Well...I'm back to my interview (blegh), just 6 more hours to go (blegh x2)

I need chocolate, ice cream, cookies

2009-10-08T20:58:00.002+02:00

I need to blow of some steam.

I am working on a literature review for my topic. Well...I have never written a literature review and have no idea how it is written. So I do some googling, read the chapters in books we've got and the outline of the assignment. I still don't have an exact idea how to write it, so I just start reading the literature I have found on my topic.

After a few days I still know nothing. Oh I have read the articles and they will be of some use when I am doing my dissertation but I am not a step closer in writing my literature review. Then I just start systematically, I type the topics that we receive marks on in word as the structure of the literature review. And I have the feeling that I need to thoroughly read all the literature and compare, combine and comment on that, using quotes, theories and models. Since I still have no idea where to begin and the deadline is only a week away (I know most people start at the last minute and I still have a week, but this is only part of that deadline), I have a small breakdown. I e-mail my tutor and ask her if she has time to meet me this afternoon, although she has to calculate my travelling time (I live an hour away from school). She replies within a few minutes if I cannot call or explain what's wrong via e-mail. Phone is always easier so I call.

And guess what? I was already doing stuff for next term (Nov/Dec/Jan) and the third therm (Jan/Feb), I didn't need to go in-depth, I need to have a broad sense of what possible directions are that my research can follow. Ok, so meltdown is over. But I had to start from scratch since before starting the literature review we had to do a mindmap and fishbone structure and I did those before I had the final outline of my topic. First it was internal communication, now it was changing internal communications to fit with the change in the business life cycle of the company.

So while my first plan was to have the literature review finished on Monday, and that got adjusted when I had (read: needed) a relaxing weekend to Wednesday. But Wednesday afternoon I had to start from scratch. In the evening I had my new mindmap and fishbone structure. Since this morning I am looking for more literature because of course I limited my choice to where I wanted the research to go instead of keeping all my options open. And now I am again filling the structure in word. But bleep finding enough primary sources (like articles, thesis, studies) is hard. I have enough books I can use and that are new and up-to-date. But the assignment says 10 primary sources, 5 secondary and 3 tertiary. Well...the last two are already done, the first one I'm halfway. And I've done my search strategy. I'm working on my findings, being critical on the found information (but since a few are books we use in class, they can't complain that I'm making use of them).

And with this whole stress and deadline, I am craving for chocolate or ice cream, or anything junk food but I am not going to, I'm keeping up my 31 days (8 down, only 23 more to go :S).
Ok with the exception of Dutch liqourice since I have a sore throat, and I am not able to finish any of the other throat "candy".

And I'm going to continue with my research since I also have to do an 1 hour interview and transcribe it. And then label, code and analyse it. All before next week starts, because according to my tutor we get a bunch of new assignments and little projects to manage :S.

Day 5

2009-10-05T13:46:00.002+02:00

So it's already the fifth day of the month, and I've already caved. Well...only once and just because I have been having a lot of different parties over the weekend and they started to notice that I wasn't eating anything (there weren't any healthy snacks). And if I say I'm "dieting" or "cutting back on sweets", they all start saying that I'm not fat and that I shouldn't diet. Well...I'm not feeling comfortable in my own body anymore but I would if I could just lose a few pounds. But I didn't feel like going into that discussion with them, because I always get a tirade if I even say that I want to lose an ounce. So I took a handful of crisps and they lasted for a few hours, just nibbled on them. So I think it's justified, and I'm keeping it up for the rest of the month.

On Friday we had a happy/crazy bus driver taking us from school back to the train station. People always enter the bus, take a seat or when there are no seats left, stand but never walk past the door. So on Friday loads of people wanted to enter the bus but the first few that had to stand blocked the path for the others. The busdriver took the mic and said We're going to do some gymnastics, everyone look to the back of the bus, then put your left foot forward and then your right. The people who are good at this may even try to do both feet at the same time. Which of course resulted in a bunch of laughs. And he was even friendly enough to say Happy weekend when we left the bus at the train station.

In the evening I had the first party. The birthday girl turned 18. She wanted to have a second pair of earrings for years, but her mother didn't want her to, so her mother told her that she could get them when she was 18. We haven't heard her talking about those second set of earrings for quite some time, but on Friday morning, she woke up and said Mom we're getting my second pair of earrings today. Mothers, of course, wasn't happy. But the birthday girl got them.

I was planning on going to bed on time in the weekend. But bedtime on Friday was later than expected. We (my dad and I) were at the 18 year olds party (not for friends, just for friends and friends of the family) and at some point I checked the time, it was 01.18. So I had to get my dad to go home (I was driving but I needed to get him home too), but before we were home and in bed it was 2.
On Saturday I was invited for the 18 year olds birthday bash for her friends. Even though I'm almost 6 years older, I thought why not, change of faces. And I had to be up til 1 to pick up my parents, they had a family reunion. The birthday party was fun but the later it got, the worse the music got (youtube.com search for Dora is dirty, it only lasts 23 sec but they put in on repeat). So I left to get my parents a bit earlier, because of my grandma I know most of the family anyway (well...I know the names and the stories, don't know the faces). Well...that party was supposed to end at 1. But since they haven't seen each other since forever everyone was still there at 1, or half past 1, at 2 most people were leaving. I ended up in bed at 2.15, so much for going to bed on time this weekend.

I really need to go back to my studying, I have to write a literary review and I still have no clue how to write such a thing, so I'm first doing some research on that. I wanted to finished that off today but since I didn't do anything for school in the weekend I still have to start, so I hope to have it finished on Wednesday.

A month without....

2009-10-01T14:15:00.002+02:00

So I've been trying to lose some weight for quite some time. And every time I think I'll start this Monday, or I'll start tomorrow. But then something happens and I don't start on Monday or tomorrow. But now I'm really going to start.

From today, 1 October, I will not have any form of candy/snacks for a month. So no sweets, chocolates, cookies, crips, nothing for a month. Although I will still start the day with bread and chocolate spread, since a girl just needs her daily chocolate fix, and well...I can't deprive myself of everything. That will make it only harder to obtain the no snacking. Of course I'm allowed to have healthy snacks, but that's sort of a given.

Hopefully I can keep this up, and next month I'll start to do some exercises as well. I'm just too busy with school this month to exercise. And I know it's never the right time to start, but I have to do it step-by-step and not everything at once. So first the snacking, and then the exercising.

I'm already craving for something yummy, but that will just have to be an apple instead of something unhealthy. Good thing that I love fruit.

Let's see how this goes. Wish me luck.

Grrr notebook

2009-09-25T15:48:00.002+02:00

(Warning, this post is a long rant)

So....in my last post I was complaining about the keys on my brand new notebook. Well...it got worse, way worse. Because first it was only on blogger, and in the evening it also started in my e-mails. So I looked up the number for the support desk and gave them a call (they are open till 8pm).

Are it specific keys that aren't working? No.
Do you have the possibility of attaching an external keyboard? Yes.
Does this keyboard work? No.
Turn off your computer and restart it, but while restarting press f12. It doesn't work, my f12-key needs to be used together with the function key to get the f12, and I did press them together but it's just restarting.
Well....hold down the function key while you turn on the computer and then press f12. Nope doesn't work either (I was already loving this :S).
What if you press all 3 keys at the same time? Computer is doing something, or at least it's making a bit of a noise, but the screen is sort of frozen. But I'll turn on the computer again and try again. .... It's working, I'm getting a blue screen with some kind of test.
(After clicking to get through some screens) You need to go to the test to test all the keys. Ok, I'm doing that now. It's working perfectly fine.

By this time it was already 8pm so he made an appointment for a call back to check what we should do next since it wasn't the hardware but the software. I asked him what would have happened if it was the hardware. Then they would have send me a new keyboard, which I would have to put in my notebook myself. Euhm....it's not like you can do that in a second, you first have to unscrew the back (bottom) and then get everything out and then remove the keyboard and put the new keyboard in. No way am I going to do that. And as soon as I unscrew my notebook, I will loose my guarantee (and I have paid for 4 years). So I was definetely not going to do that. But it wasn't necessary since it was a software related problem.

On Wednesday evening the guy calls back and he wants me to put the recovery disk in. Euhm...I have made back ups of my files and documents but what about my programmes? We have the office 2007 for only 3 computers and mine was no.3, what will happen? He didn't know, he knows that my whole notebook would be cleared so that programme would be gone, but he didn't know if I was able to re-install office 2007. Great, I have a helper who knows less than me :s. If I had know that he wanted to put the recovery cd on, I would have done that on Monday evening, and not wait till Wednesday. He explained how it works (jeez it's not that difficult) and that it would take an hour or so and then I would have to install the drivers. So I asked him if he would call me back in an hour. Did you know what his response was? I don't thinkg so, more people are paying to get a service from us. I know but he just mentioned that it was quiet, and I'm paying too. And a notebook of not even 2 weeks old isn't supposed to have failures yet. So I told him I would expect him to call back in an hour, and if something happened before that (which i couldn't fix, although i didn't tell him that), I would give him a call. After half an hour everything is done. Then I'm starting the drivers disk, and it automatically takes some drivers but it left quite some undone. So I started doing them one by one manually, then for my network card driver, I had 4 options, no idea which one I needed. I know it's a general driver disk because every computer is different and it would be unefficient to make a personalised one for every customer. But none of the drivers worked, I got the "not compatible for the found software/hardware", so I gave the guy a call. And he said well...you have to download it from our website. Euhm...I have another computer here with internet but what if I hadn't? Of course he didn't have an answer for that. I went to their website, put the correct driver on usb and tried to install it on my notebook. Bamm "not compatible". The guy was completely lost he didn't have a clue what to do (ow great, it's your job to know). He told me that since it was almost 8pm (he called me at 6.15 or so) he needed to schedule a call back, and if I could install a different driver which would able me to connect to the internet with cable (instead of wireless), I suspected that this was coming so I'd already downloaded that driver too. But no it wasn't working either.

I scheduled the call back for this morning at 10am, so he would have until 8pm to fix this mess.
But since I hate being not able to use my own stuff, I was going back and forth on Wednesday evening, trying all kinds of things, and I don't know how or why but all of a sudden the drivers that weren't installing before, were installing now. So I fixed it, yay!

Yesterday after a long day of school, I downloaded and installed all my programmes again, including office 2007. And it was functioning as before.

This morning I was expecting a call at 10am. I gave him my home phone number (he had my mobile number in the register) since it's easier to put a bigger phone between your ear and shoulder. At 10.30am my mobile phone rings. A different guy from the support desk. I told him that I had fixed it myself but that with the windows updates it says something about a production failure, the computer was already restarting so I have no idea what it was about. But the next time this happens, I'm requesting the pick up service so YOU guys can fix it. And I told him that it would be useful if all drivers would be on the driver disk, and there should be more cds with programmes on it, because when I got this notebook it included several programmes and I had to download all of them. If it's included with the notebook, have it on a disk.
I could tell that this guy had more knowlegde and experience, and he said that they had gotten more complaints about this (so why hasn't it been solved?). And that he got my frustration and that I would go to their website the next time and e-mail them, e-mails go to higher management and they can actually schedule a pick up, or a new computer. But it could take up to a week before I would get a reply.
I was checking the specific page he mentioned and it said that if you e-mail, you would have a response within one workday.

But I'm hoping that I won't have to use that.

Ok. Back to the few 100 pages of homework.

Keep breathing

2009-09-21T14:17:00.006+02:00

Can't believe I haven't posted in over a week.

I'm still busy as hell though. This weekend I thought that I finally had caught up on my schoolwork. But then I remembered the projects that are due half October, which I haven't even started. As a consolance, none of my classmates have started it either. But I already have no time left for funstuff, how am I going to fit these projects in? I need more hours in a day and more days in a week (but then again, who wouldn't?).

Since a week or 2 I finally have a new computer. The old one was 5 years old and that's quite old considering the people around me buy a new one every few years. Although I'm not completely satisfied with the new one yet. The keyboard is already getting annoying. Sometimes it just doesn't take all the keys I type, and I have to go back and retype, slowly. And seeing as how I'm able to type almost as fast as I'm able to talk, this is quite, not extremely, annoying.
For now it's only every now and then and only in blogger (typing this post and commenting on fellow bloggers), but as soon as it's getting more frequent, I'm calling the computer company. I need a keyboard that fully functions.

I'm already getting stressy for my exams at the end of October. I know it's over a month away but normally we would get multiple choice if we had a lot of theory to cover, now we get open questions. This wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't that much, but I've got a page of 3000 to remember for the exams. And I don't only need to apply the theories in the books, no I also need to be able to say who's theory it is. And for marketing we have a dozen or so theories that are alike but all by a different marketeer. I'm sooooo going to fail those exams. But I just have to keep breathing.

Inhale 1 2 3 4 exhale 1 2 3 4 inhale 1 2 3 4 exhale.

Awards

2009-09-11T20:08:00.005+02:00

Way way way back M.E. gave me a couple of awards. And I'm finally cleaning up my "act" (and procrastinating with schoolwork, come on it's Friday evening) and posting those awards. Thanks M.E.!

So I pass them on to everyone who is still reading my blog. Please let me know if you are accepting your awards.

(P.S. The post below is about my roundtrip)

Finally the roundtrip post

2009-09-08T20:14:00.006+02:00

So finally here it is, the post on the roundtrip in Scotland (in the beginning of August, I know I'm ashamed of myself).

Let's see euhm......no just kidding.

So we left on a Saturday. We left around noon and we had our drive all the way up to Inverness. According to google maps and my friends gps system, the drive would last about 4 hours. We had to be at the B&B before 6pm, because they didn't do late check-ins.

I knew what we would be passing along the way so if I would see the name of the town which holds an interesting site, I would mention it, since we had enough time, right? Well....guess again. The gps system already send us the wrong way in Edinburgh. We had to leave the city north but it directed us south. I wasn't really paying attention to where we were going since I thought the gps thingy would send us the right way. So when we're in a part that I know is on the south side of Edinburgh, I'm asking my friend where the hell he thinks he's going since we have to go north. He's just following the navigation.

So half an hour later we're finally on the right way, on the north side of Edinburgh, where you have this amazing railroad bridge. It's pretty old (I know, I should do my homework on this, but it's been there before there were toilets in houses, because we were wondering how on earth they can built such a bridge but don't "invent" inhouse toilets until later).

After taking some pics of this bridge, we head further north. Me, having had little to no sleep the previous night (I was at the Kid's), fell asleep probably 10 minutes after leaving this site.
So my friend was enjoying the scenery all by himself. Of course I don't sleep constantly (I wake up for 10 minutes in between) and I notice that we've passed one of the more interesting sites we could have visited (can't remember what though, yes I know I should have written it down). But I notice the time and see that we don't have much time if we do want to stop (only an extra hour or so) because of the getting out of Edinburgh debacle. Then we hit roadworks, and it slows us down big time. We do get to Inverness on time, I believe it was 5 to 6.

We walk into Inverness for dinner. There are a lot of people on the road but all the stores are closed and no one is really heading towards restaurants, so it was a bit difficult to find a place where there were enough people inside. We found a pub, we got food, went back to the B&B and watch an episode of Supernatural.

The next morning we had breakfast, checked out, and headed towards Loch Ness. On the way to Loch Ness I made a call, and we got free tickets for a Loch Ness cruise (does my work come in handy). The cruise was ok. We didn't get that much information on the monster but we did have a nice scenery in typical Scottish weather.

After the cruise we continued our trip to Isle of Skye. We arrived at the B&B around noon, and then toured around the island. We had so much fun. The roads turned into one lane roads, and very curvy, sometimes you drove through cut out rock, and water was coming from the rocks too. Then there were loads of sheep on the road too. So much grass and they chose to stand on the road, weird sheep. There was one Paris Hilton sheep. I was going to take pics of the things we come across on the road (I even made a pic of people walking on the road, they looked at me if I was crazy). And there was one sheep who looked up as soon as I had my camera adjusted to the right settings, and continued grazing when I made the pic, not when I put my camera down, but when I had pressed the button.

Since it was a Sunday, we had trouble finding a place for dinner. When we finally did, the restaurant filled up in no time, apparently everyone on the road was looking for a place to eat.

In the evening we watched another few episodes of Supernatural (it's the only serie, we both watch, I'm not able to watch a few episodes of top gear, and I don't want to hurt him by making him watch One Tree Hill or Greys Anatomy, didn't have any unwatched eps of Bones left).

The next morning we leave and head back to Edinburgh. We did do some sightseeing from a distance because we passed something that was still closed and had bus and busloads of people waiting in front of the doors, it wasn't even interesting to stop.

When we were back in Edinburgh, we went out for a dinner and after that to the regular Monday evening poker night. We had great fun. Me and my friend didn't cheat (although communicating in Dutch what we had would have been easy). After the poker we went partying, for a bit then, since everyone was quite tired (including me), and it was my last night with the Kid, who casually said that he had to get up at 9 for work. Argh!

So that was my vacation story.
Now it's time to get ready for school. Pfff....I'm already done with school and I've got the feeling that I'm so behind on the work that should have been done, and it's only the second week, ai. Ah well....it's not even a year and I'm done (deadline for my dissertation is 11 June), and hopefully it gets a bit easier since I already have the topic and company for my dissertation. Got to run.

Any questions about my roundtrip, let me know. Or if you have any other questions, let me know too.

Swamped

2009-09-07T19:50:00.002+02:00

So I've been back to school since last week. And although my second day of school already had no classes scheduled, it wasn't a relaxing day. I've been working from 10am to 10pm to finish all the homework we received on Monday and that we had to finish before Wednesday. Nice beginning of the schoolyear :S. Since then I've only been able to have 5 minutes break in between school and studying, and I've been using those to read your blogs than to finally write my vacation post. But I will. I'll just schedule some writing time in my overfull schedule. But it can take a week since I'm more interested in your lifes than in mine. (And the worst part is, I've been back in the Netherlands for a month, and I still haven't written a decend post).

Another sorry

2009-08-18T08:46:00.002+02:00

I haven't had time to do anything I wanted to do, because grandpa is getting worse and worse.

I hoped to do some summer cleaning, shop, see friends, not feel sorry for myself for missing Edinburgh. Ow and of course post about my little vacay.

But that's not happening. I'm at grandpa's most of the time, or I'm at home, calling doctors, senior organisations and what not, and waiting for them to call back.
And since most of my time is spend waiting, I'm able to think, think and think some more. Which isn't good because that makes me miss Edinburgh even more. I had my whole life set up there, and I was doing just fine with all my social things. And now I'm back and I'm doing nothing sociable. Ok, I'm needed helping grandpa, but I'm not working out anymore (my lunchbreaks), or seeing friends (my evenings), I'm not even walking everywhere (if I needed to go from A to B in Edi, I'd walk, here I take the car). And it's making me a bit depressed.

Just less than 2 weeks, school will start again. Maybe then I'll get back into a routine and Scotland will be forgotten (athough I highly doubt that). I hope to post about my trip through Scotland before that, but right now it's off to gramps, yesterday he didn't want to go to bed, and now he doesn't want to get out. Sigh (I know I shouldn't but this is wearing me down. Today the time is reasonable, yesterday it was 4am).

postponing

2009-08-12T10:37:00.002+02:00

So I wanted to have my Scotland trip post up and running a few days ago.

But life got in the way, or well...more like grandpa. He's not doing well, and he's calling us whenever he wants, regardless of the time, and we then need to come over. Yesterday it was 4.18am!! And it's not like we can do anything, we just have to sit there. He's too afraid to be alone.
So after a few of those early mornings (well...yesterday was the earliest yet), we had the doctor over in the morning, and the senior help in the afternoon, and now we're going to have to start the process of getting him into a senior care home. And of course, no one's available since it's summer break.

But I hope to be up and running with my post before the weekend (including some pics, like the paris hilton of sheep). I'll let my mom do nothing at grandpa today (if he calls, the phone has been quiet so far, so yay), and I'll do the house stuff. Cleaning and washing hasn't happened in a few days. I can't be non-productive for another day. I've got my whole room to clean up. I have already unpacked my bags (already last thursday, so the morning after i came home), but all my closets are bulking with stuff (mainly the one with clothes) so they need to be redone.

Happy Wednesday!