He is back

It took a while but the moment has come to become social again.
I and myself have spend a nice week at the Belgium coast. We have had a great time. The weather and doggy N invited us almost every day to go for nice walks on the beach.
Tomorrow I start working again and in the evening we have been invited by L and C.
In my mind everything has been sorted out to move to Stockholm. I still need to buy some furniture in Ikea and we will get more furniture from friends and family. The only issue I might encounter is time. The stuff from Ikea still needs purchasing and the club seat are still at my parents place.

work

Today I had a day from hell at work.
I have to admit that I didn't really wanted to start working this morning and have to admit that it didn't got any better. When the first tests started it became apparent that you cannot always delegate work. (The killing the person bit would never be outsourced, I would like to do it myself).
A lot of people are leaving the company this week and if feels weird. It is not like they go on holiday, they go on a permanent holiday. I'm sure that I will still see some people. Only a small percentage of the staff is moving to Sweden and the rest spread out over Europe.

Weird, weird, weird, ....

Squash is a mortal game

Yesterday we had the last squash game with M. before she moves back to France. We were 6 and had a lot of fun. I started the first game agains T. I had a stressfull day and wacking that tinny black ball against the wall helped me to get it out of my body. And this was just the day that T played very wel, consequence I lost my first game. And not to say the least, I was already sweating and puffing. I still had to play for 1,5 hours.
In stead of having a steady slow game I had to play E, who jumps and runs down the court like speedy Conzales. I would like to take the same pills as he does to be as quick and vivid on a court. And yes M, as promised I made you run around the squash court. Hope your butt hurts!

After our game I still had to play for an another hour against B. He was superconcentrated and with a bit of luck I managed to win the game.

After a nice shower we had a couple of drinks to celebrate the last time we were going to see M on a squash court in Waterloo. Snif snif

And now my legs hurt!!!

Appartement

En ja, verleden week hebben we ons nieuw liefdesnest in Zweden gevonden.
Veel keus was er niet. De firma die ons begeleid in het Zweeds gegeven had maar 1 huis kunnen vinden in ons budget. Het is eigenlijk geen huis, maar een apartement in een 2 appartemenshuis. De eigenaars wonen beneden, maar zijn het gros van het jaar in Spanje. Dus, .... geen last van de directe buren.
Het huis [laten we het zo maar noemen] is 120 vierkante meter en heeft 3 slaapkamers. Plaats genoeg dus voor vrienden die willen overkomen. De living is heel ruim en is naar het zuiden gericht. We hebben zelfs een houtkachel in de living. Dat gaat gezellig worden. Wel opletten als V komt, zorgen dat er geen 'peau de bete' voor komt te liggen.
Hopelijk kan ik de verhuis regelen voor de tweede week van Januari en dan begint mijn leven echt in Zweden.
Ik heb 2 parkeerplaasten voor auto's. Vermits ik zelf zonder auto vertrek, ga ik die verhuren aan collega's. Vermits alcohol duur is in Zweden, ga ik ze in natura laten betalen.
Ik zie al enorm uit naar de zomer. Het terras is groot en onze BBQ gaat mee. Joepie

holidays

This is the last day of our short trip to Spain. We will fly back tomorrow morning to Belgium. Having to wake up around 4 o'clock tomorrow morning is something I try to block out of my mind. Tomorrow evening I will be taken a late flight to Stockholm. I will have to prepare for my meeting on Tuesday and will be glad to sleep early.
We have been blessed with the weather in Spain. Today we have spend time on the terras and the sun. There was a little breeze, but apart from that everything was great.
Yesterday evening I bought a pair of shoes. Off course I didn't need them, but ....
La meson de la costa on Friday was superb as always. Did we eat too much, off course we did, the food is too well made. We had ham and pulpo as a starter. It felt like angels piing on our tongs. The fish for the main course was served on a bed of red peppars and was delicious.
I had the feeling that my stomage was going to explode.

Vacation

We had a warm day today in the south of Spain. As of 10 o'clock the sun came out and it became warm. We have spend the day on the terras reading books and magazines. Never imagined that I would still be able to sit outside in T-shirt and shorts.
Having day light until 6 o'clock is now considered a big benefit.
Tonight we are going to have dinner with T and A in meson de la costa. This is the best restaurant in Torrevieja to have a typical Spanish meal.
We will be driving into town with our undertaker car. Hertz has upgraded our small car to a Ford Focus Estate (with an unbearable smell).
We have already done some shopping and there is more to come tomorrow. I have seen a nice pair of shoes.
Thanks to Ryanair we cannot buy a lot since any other kilo will be charged at 8 euro/kilo.

Calendar

I should start to maintain a travel calendar. Tomorrow I have to organise our trip to Stockholm. Next week I and myself will be visiting apartments around Stockholm. I really hope that we will find ourselves the place where we will have our future dreams.
Superb music on JIM TV by the way, Zornik's latest single.
On Thursday we will be challenged: we will be flying to Spain with Ryan Air. Spain, here we come for 4 days. On Monday we will arrive in Belgium and Monday night I will be flying out to Stockholm to give a training to end users.
My squash games are decreasing by the minute. At the moment I'm only playing 2 times a week in stead of 3 to 4 times a week. I will have to start running again to not to turn into a rolling apple.
The end of year is coming soon like this and ze still are unaware where we will spend it.
Snif snif snif

Geraadsbergen

K organised a food trip around Geraadsbergen. We started the trip on the main square of Geraadsbergen where we learned that in the Middle Ages 4 fountains were placed around the main square. They even had the Manneke Pis. I, as a Bruxelois, has to say of course that only the one in Brussels is the most important one. Our guide was really good and we understood the impact of the Napoleon translations on the street names.
After climbing the famous "muur van Geraadsbergen" which is very famous from one of the biggest cyling events in Belgium we enjoyed dinner with a Leffe from the tap.
I had already cycled up the Muur when I was jonger and staying with my grandmother, but I just couldn't remember (or even imagine) that I had cycled it a couple of times.
Even if it is a small city, it really is a lovely city.
I really enjoyed the stories told by our guide on how the inhabitants once threw their last food over the big wall to fool the people that wanted to invade Geraadsbergen.
K had organised this really well. After an hour walk we enjoyed a glass of champagne and some starters. After a walk we had lunch and after another bit of stretching the legs we had a big plate of dessert with coffee.

Today was a really weird day. This morning I got a mail confirming that I might have found my permanant place to live in Stockholm. Let's hope that this will be the place.
I was lucky that I didn't went to Stockholm today. Stockholm was covered in a 30 cm white blanket. Traffic was put to a hold. P was telling me today that her dad was stuck in Stockholm a couple of years back because of the snow. All flights were cancelled and he had to stay in a hotel.

Workwise, it was a tinny disaster. I have the feeling that today I received a big plate of pasta. In stead of eating it, the pile of pasta only got bigger and still I wasn't able to enjoy the sauce.

And now I'm home enjoying a movie on VT5. I will miss my Dutch speaking channels!!!

Papers and decisions

I finally got the confirmation for my flight tomorrow to Sweden. I’m flying out tomorrow morning and coming back tomorrow evening. With a bit of luck I will have filled out all the necessary documents to apply for my social security number.M from the relocation agency is going to accompany me to the offices and in the meantime she will tell me by how much I will have to increase the budget for the house rental. People in her office have been looking for a house in the budget and apparently they cannot find anything.
I will also try to find out what it will cost me to keep my scooter in Sweden. Oriflame is not paying for the shipment of the mean machine (although my trip tomorrow is four times as expensive).
Time is not my best friend at the moment, I still have a bit over a month to find myself a house to rent and arrange for the shipment of the furniture.

Last weekend

Guess where we were last Friday after work................................ The Grapefine at Place de Luxembourg. Some Oriflame colleagues joined for the drinks. The pub was packed and very smoky, but we had a good time.
Colruyt the next day was a nightmare. I'm getting used to people driving their trolley onto my ankles, but this time the butchery took their time to prepare the food for the raclette. I went to pick up our order while I was queuing. And yes, I had to pay first, put everything in the car and rush back up since the foodstuff came too late.
We got home on time to bring the groceries back up, quickly prepare a sandwich and rush to the squash court where B trashed me.
The Saturday we had friends over for racqlette. L & C brought their daughter with them. Too bad the little girl didn't put on her Megamindy suit. It looked nice, I tried to fit it on, but couldn't even get my arm into her super outfit.
Sunday was sofa time, but still managed to go for a 45 minute run.

the fun starts

Yesterday I was dragged into a conference call to discuss my situation. I thought that I was insured in Sweden, but this is wishful thinking. Since I don't have a social security number, I'm a nobody in terms of insurance. Solution: I will fly to Sweden in order to get this arranged.

Yesterday somebody came round by the apartment to estimate how much we will be moving to Sweden. I still don't have a house and therefore couldn't reply if we needed storage or not. If they find me a place to live, then I don't. But on the other hand ........................
Oriflame will not pay for the transportation of the scooter, pfff. I have received the price quote yesterday and 145€ is not exagerated. And now I will have to find out how much it will cost me to put it into circulation in Sweden and what the cost of insurance will be.

The fun starts as you can see

Variety of events

Belgium will sadly beat the record in not having a government for at least 148 days. When you listen to the reactions from the different extremists on both French and Dutch speaking sites, we will be heading for an absolute record.

Personally I had my first training session at work. I had to explain some people from our Nordic organisation how to create and maintain their current work in a different ERP package. I'm still trying to find my way in the system world of Oriflame. I have the impression that day by day my learning curve is growing. Tomorrow will be an interesting day of writing test scenario's with my favorite consultant G.

I only got back around 19h00 tonight and since I still had to let the dog out, I decided not to go for a run. She was superexcited to see me. I jumped into comfortable clothes (yes people, I was dressed very classy today) and took Nicky for a walk. L, your dog is in good shape. We started running and 15 minutes later we were still running. I had to take a shower when we came back. For those who know the dog: "Yes, S was violated".

Facebook is superb, my ex-boss has found me and we can communicate again. I just love technology!

Dogsitting

Yesterday L brougt N over. A couple of months back we already babysitted N for a weekend and now she is staying with us for the whole week.
Although L was saying that she gained weight, she is in top form. After the squash game yesterday I went for a walk with her. The walk turned into a run at the beginning of the park. This time I wasn't the one winning the battle, she ran in front of me. This long weekend (yes Thursday and Friday off) I will take her for a 25 minute run and see the effects on the tiny legs.

Rijden in comateuse toestand

Ongelooflijk bericht op vrt nieuwsdienst

di 30/10/07 - In Sint-Niklaas is een 43-jarige man veroordeeld omdat hij betrapt werd achter het stuur met 5,15 promille alcohol in zijn bloed.
Volgens de rechtbank werd nooit iemand betrapt die zoveel gedronken had. De man werd vorig jaar gevonden achter het stuur van zijn auto toen hij in een sloot was gereden langs de Pillendijk in Kieldrecht. De bestuurder verzette zich toen hevig en moest geboeid worden overgebracht naar het commissariaat. De man geeft toe dat hij een alcoholverslaving heeft, maar zou daarvoor in behandeling zijn. Hij moet 1.650 euro betalen en is zijn rijbewijs voor drie maanden kwijt.

Zeno: En hoe lang ben je je rijbewijs kwijt als je 1 promille in je bloed hebt?

Beer, wine and rhum

Yes the weekend was great. Place Lux, after work on Fridays is becoming a habit. I parked the car in front of the apartment and took the bus.
I and P had already arrived and were chatting away with some people. I was thirsty and started with a big beer. R with the new haircut joined us as well. Everybody wanted to see a glimpse of O. As usual he was a bit late and this was all due to work.
A and M rushed into the bar to see the magic O. We were glued to his lips when he was talking about his first impressions of Puerto Rico. Breakfast seems to be a reason to get up. The fruit section in and outside the shops are very exotic. Coconuts are just collected from the ground once the fall from the tree. P you have got yourself a nice job when we come over.
O was always complaining about the paperwork he had to fill in whenever he went to the city hall or had to talk to other Belgian authorities. Apparently Puerto Rico is worse.

And yes in the meantime we kept on drinking. During the drinking some more friends showed up and at the end we decided that we needed to balance the alcohol with a burger from the Radisson. A burger without a glass of wine is not a proper burger, so wine was added into my already full liver.

And that was just the Friday evening. Saturday evening we had food and drinks at a M's place, Sunday lunchtime with T and A and in the evening my dad had prepared us a spaghetti.

Tonight we will be celebrating B birthday.

And tomorrow I'm going on a diet till Wednesday evening when we will have our next food and drinks feast.

O made it to Belgium

O has made it to Belgium. He arrived in the morning and went straigth into work. He had meetings the whole day long and a got the phone call around 19h00.
At that moment I was preparing myself mentally for my weekly game of squash against P. We had some good games. I was very happy with some of the shots that I had played. P might used the excuse that one of the strings snapped, but it won't work.
After a quick shower I headed to the pitta place in Brussels for a dinner with O. It's weird, since he left Brussels I only had pitta twice.
Since we had so much to discuss we headed to a pub and were able to chat with a couple of Duvels. It was a great night and the good thing, we will be going to Place Lux tonight for more liquid lunch.
And now ................. work

Will we see O???

O should arrive in Belgium today.
Watching football has its benefits. While I was watching football I was chatting with P. It was P who informed us that O would spend the night at R's place although R is still unaware of this. According to P again O would spend the night in our apartment on Friday and will take his flight to Spain on Saturday evening.
We were supposed to have a quiet weekend this weekend! Well it's not going to be the case. On Friday we will be going to Place Lux (will O be there????). On Saturday we have to go gift shopping for 2 friends. In the evening we have a drink at a colleague from I. Will I have to give O a lift to the airport and when??? According to P he will either fly out around 22h or arrive in Madrid around 22h. On Sunday we will have lunch with T & A and sandwiches with my parents on Sunday evening.

No, P is not O secretary although you might think so.

Cold winter???

Winter has kicked in. Yesterday morning I had to scrape ice of the windows of the car. This morning I didn’t had to! It really feels like winter. It’s a good test for me. I guess that the weather conditions in Sweden will be worse than here in Belgium.
I guess that this weekend I will be going to Decathlon to start buying my warm underwear. I already have the jacket and the gloves from skiing, but I will have to ensure that I buy myself proper warm clothes to go running.
If Y or O are reading this, I know that the weather is better on the other side of the ocean!

Badminton

Yesterday evening I played a game of badminton against T. We were the only 2 to show up and after a 5 minute warm-up we started a match.
Last weekend we watched a couple of badminton games on a Dutch channel. The game looks so easy when you see them play. Those players (top of the world) are able to play all the shot and make it look so easy.
Well…………… the difference is huge. During the warm up I had issues because of the speedminton I played on Sunday. The shuttle wasn’t as fast and dropped on the floor a meter before me while I was trying to hit it. First moments of embarrassment.
The first 2 games were very intense and the after the second set the sweat was dripping on the floor. I hadn’t played an intense single game for a long time and the difference between badminton and squash is huge. Each won a set in the beginning. I won the last 2 games (only because I was a bit fitter than T).
The difference in game strategy was significant. T varied his game a lot, he manages both drop and long shots. There were moments were I thought that the shuttle would drop before crossing the net and at the end I had to run like a lunatic to reach the shuttle. Luckily we don’t have computer statistics after a game, I would have looked ridiculous.
Before I left the office I wanted to go for a run after badminton.
A good shower and dragging myself in the sofa were the only activities after I drove back from the sports centre.

Formatie dag ?????

De hoeveelste dag zijn we nu al zonder een regering?
Het begint een onozel spelleke te worden. Voor zover ik begrijp hebben we een interim regering die wat lopende zaken afhandeld, maar over niets meer mag stemmen.
Probleem:
Op dit moment schieten de olieprijzen de lucht in door een conflict in het Midden Oosten. Een pak sectoren hebben hier last van. Denk maar aan transport sector, taxi bedrijven etc. Zij kunnen niets doen omdat de interim regering hier geen bevoegdheid voor heeft.
En nu gaat het FDF nog wat meer dwaze spelletjes spelen. In 3 faciliteitsgemeenten gaan ze de gemeenteraad in het Frans houden terwijl dit bij wet verboden is.
Er is toch positief nieuws. De verschillende coalitiepartners hebben al een akkoord bereikt over justitie, veiligheid en binnenlandse zaken.

Ondertussen verliezen we ons gezicht in de rest van de wereld. Verleden week bereikte ons het bericht dat verschillende buitenlandse bedrijven enorm geïnvesteerd hebben in ons land. Ik begrijp dat mensen de cijfers willen betwisten, maar de feiten zijn er toch. België is een goed land om in te investeren.
Het politieke (communautaire gezever) zet dit wel voor een deel op de helling.

Maar alle, laten we maar hopen dat we voor het einde van het jaar een regering hebben. Als we nog een beetje wachten kunnen we de federale en regionale verkiezingen op dezelfde dag hebben.

Car crash

Yesterday evening F&L and their two kids invaded our apartment. We hadn’t seen each other for a long time. The chips and little cheese cubes were a big success with the kids. I and F inhaled both the flavour and the liquid of a nice white wine. I prepared a rhum-based cocktail for both L and myself.
At the end of the night F&L decided to spend the night with us. We managed the logistics. The kids and L installed themselves in the guest bedroom while F slept in the sofa (I have already tried to sofa out myself a couple of month ago and I must admit that our sofa is very comfortable to sleep in).
After breakfast we decided to go to the park to give the children the time to play a bit. We don’t really have a lot of toys in our apartment. On our way to the park we heard a car braking and quickly after that the bang of cars crashing into each other. At the end of the street we saw the damage, a van had driven into a BMW. The trunk of the car was completely gone and smoke was coming out of the BMW.
The speed limit on Franklin Roosevelt is 50 km/h. After seeing the damage we all had the impression that the person driving the van was speeding.
It was only during the speedminton game that we heard the police and fire brigade rushing towards the accident.
I just cannot imagine what would have happened if this accident would have happened two minutes earlier while we were crossing the street!

Concerts

I'm only moving to Sweden at the end of this year, beginning of next year. My choice to move to Sweden is already affecting my decisions right now. In March 2008 the new Lotto Arena is hosting Nightwish, one of my favourite bands.
The question of the day is: will I buy my tickets here or do I start surfing on the internet to see if they also perform in Sweden.
And this is not the only band where I would like to buy tickets for. The Cure is coming to Belgium. I know that talking about the Cure makes me look old, but they are a top band. I still remember the days where .............................. I was dressed in black ................................
As everythings stands right now I will be saving money by playing the chicken and not attending either of the 2 concerts.

snif snif snif

Thank you G.!!!

The Oriflame gang gathered around for their weekly Tuesday squash. We were 9 to smack that ball against the wall. I started of against T. who as usual gave me a hard time. He won the first set and the other 2 were won by me. By that moment I was already sweating and I still had to play against the master.
I guess that E. will not play next week. Last week I tattooed his hand by hitting the ball on it. I swear that I didn't do it on purpose. Today G. hit him with the racket on the butt cheek with his racket. G. hadn’t seen him. The both of us came to the conclusion that E. is too quick on the squash court.
And then game itself. I guess that people watching the game had a good time, we didn't. Our game was full of long rally’s and the other colleagues were all watching the game. It is frustrating to play super shots and then seeing G. returning them.
Victory, victory, victory ………………. I won, I was so pleased but had no juice in my body to celebrate it.
We are now a couple hours later and my legs are killing me. What will it be tomorrow (or even worse on Thursday)??????????????

This weekend

We got so used to having P. in our apartment that we miss her. The weekend was great and a bit too heavy. We started with some drinks on Place Lux on Friday and a bottle of wine with pizza at our place. As usual on Fridays I watched TV while I should already have gone to bed.
On Saturday morning we bought the present for I. godchild. We purchased a laptop for kids (with a mouse). His teacher had told the parents that kids nowadays (he only turned 4) know how to use a PC and he was the only one of his class that didn’t knew how to operate a PC. Well from now on he will be a wiz kid.
We had to be in Ganshoren at 16h00 to celebrate his birthday with the rest of the family. I and I drove separately because P. was having her farewell party in our apartment. Traffic was horribly. An accident happened on the inner ring. I had the superb idea to take the scooter and managed to go between the cars. I must have passed V. on my way back home. It took her over an hour to get from Affligem to our apartment.
The party was great (not for everyone since France lost against England in rugby). We met some of P.’s friends that we had never seen before. Our place hosted a blend of nationalities. P. had clearly mentioned that no food would be served. Some people took this very literally and took their own food to heat up in the microwave. A new way of throwing parties I must say.
Around 2 a.m. most of the people had left. We cleaned up the apartment after that and went to bed. I was tired and had the intention to sleep long, but ………………………………………… the helicopters broadcasting the marathon of Brussels thought differently. We woke up around 8 o’clock. We couldn’t sleep afterwards.
Around 11 a.m. we enjoyed a brunch on Place Lux and spend the rest of the afternoon in the apartment. In the evening we drove P to the airport and went to my parents for dinner. I was dead by the end of the evening.

Vooruitgang Belgisch voetbal wordt door politiek tegengehouden

Work & sports

I have the whole week a DRP training at work. The 2 brain cells that I have are overloaded. Yesterday I played squash with M, P & E. I ran a lot and realised some nice shots, apart from one. During the game against E I hadn't seen that he had moved in the direction where I wanted to hit the ball. Instead of bouncing against the wall, the ball dropped from his hand on to the floor. The mark of the ball is still visible on his hand today.
And off course he has been blaming me the whole day with it.
P will organize her party in our apartment this Saturday. I'm in charge of the music and already started to create a playlist in Itunes. I already have the equivalent of 9 hours of music and made an effort to select music that other people might like.
I'm looking forward to celebrating R farewell drink and dinner. I guess that this will be the last time I will be seeing some of my ex-J&J colleagues. And now back to reality -> DRP training!

This weekend

My parents organised a party this weekend to celebrate their 60th birthday and their retirement this year. They had invited both friends and family. The DJ started the evening after the both warm and cold buffet. My mom was really into it and was almost non stop on the dance floor. The last people only left the venue around 2 in the morning.
We shared the table with a Belgo-Danish, Belgo-half English couple and our friends V and S. If everybody will come and visit us in Stockholm, I'm going to resign immediately and open a bed and breakfast in Sweden. S is seeing somebody in Germany. This guy must be fantastic if you see the smile on her face. I'm really glad for her.
We got back home around 3. The next morning I woke up around 9 to watch match of the day. There were only 2 games. After the football I had the superb idea of going for a run. I went into the forest and ....................... got lost. I had to intention to run for 45 minutes but at the end I was gone for an hour and 15 minutes. I was completely dead by the moment I got back home and the shower didn't really change it.
My legs were still heavy this evening when I played badminton with M., E. and T.

Belgian football

What is happening to your first national sport? It is quite sad to hear that only Anderlecht will survive the winter in Europe. Apart from Standard none of the Belgian teams had to play a team with a more difficult league.
Too bad that the best Belgian team at the moment (Standard) couldn't qualify. At this moment only 2 teams are bringing attractive football. Standard, a team who is playing with a lot of youngsters and Cercle Brugge, the revelation of this season start.
They should do something to make the game more attractive to watch. Even during champions league games I cannot focus anymore. I have the impression that I'm watching a game of risk with lively players.
Apart from Defour we don't have that many young players that see the game, have fun during the 90 minutes and have the balls to convince others to look at the game the way he does. I have the impression that young players are drilled to follow the drills. Let young players which are very talented exploit their talents. Why don't we train them more on indoor football to develop their dribbel skills.
Is this wishfull thinking?

My first week at Oriflame

Today is already my 5th working day at Oriflame. I don't have the feeling that I'm the lost son who found the path to heaven again.
The job content is completely different to what I had done before. I'm looking forward to the new challenge I have undertaken by joining again. I'm at the beginning of a new learning curve, which gives beautiful sparkles to the Oriflame dream. It surprised me that I know so little on the overall process. When you work in a department you only know the touch points with the other departments, but not really everything in dept. Next week I will have to learn all the ins and outs of the DRP process. I will have a continuous head ache. I’ll have to drink alcohol this weekend to free up space in my memory.
I had an SQL training yesterday in a very tiny, warm room. The projector and all the laptops added a few degrees to the average temperature of the room. By the end of the day my few brain cells were boiling and overloaded.
Luckily I still had a game of squash lined up. Danish dynamite made me run and at the end of the game I was completely exhausted. It made my head ache even worse, but what would men be without medication and a good night rest.
Today I'm feeling fine again and ready for some drinks at Place Lux tonight.
Tomorrow my parents are throwing a party for family and friends to celebrate their 60th birthday. I still cannot grasp the fact that they left the fifties behind them. I would like to age like they do. They have rented a venue and after a nice dinner we will be able to stretch our legs on the dance floor. We will have the make sure that we pick our favorite dancing shoes tomorrow evening.

Tuesday squash event

Yesterday was the first time in 2 weeks that I entered a squash court. We were 5 and had to rotate. I started my first game against T. who hadn't played for a while, but you couldn't tell. He won the first set and was leading in the second set. I was lucky and managed to win the second one by 10-8. At the end of the second game I managed my shots better and could control the game better and won the 3rd set. The sweat was dripping on the floor and it was only when we finished the game that we realised that we had played for 30 minutes. Not that nice for the 5th person that had to wait for us.
Tonight I will be playing B. who had a lot of squash practise last week. I will post the result of the game tomorrow.
I will have to decide this weekend if I will continue playing squash in the box on Mondays. They have changed the member fees. L. will give me the cost per month tonight.

My first day at Oriflame

4 months after closing the Oriflame door behind me, I opened the door again.

I started my day with an all day meeting. I thought I would have forgotten a lot, but some braincells picked up the topics of the day again.

I'm fully booked for the next 2 weeks. I will be working very closely with A. as of next week. A lot of vitamins will be required to completely understand the DRP. I have 3 months to grasp the whole process (which is almost impossible).

Organisation at Oriflame is a weak point at the moment. It's understandable since every week people leave and come. I already have a desk and a PC, the rest will follow.

I'm already on a Swedish contract, I need to look for the public holidays and hope that I will have November 1st off.

I was missing the positive stress in the past month. The feeling already came back during my first day.

Last working day

Friday was my last working day at J&J. I’m glad that this chapter of my life is closed. I called it a day around lunch time and drove together with I. to the apartment at the seaside.
When I looked into my hotmail I saw 2 messages from my new boss K. The first wishing me all the best for my first working day and the second with an overview of my calendar for the next two weeks. How professional!
It feels great and did give a boost to my self esteem knowing that I will be welcome again. I have the impression that I’m coming home although I will be leaving my secure network in Belgium by moving with them to Stockholm.
As promised by K. will I be working on the project that I wanted. With a bit off luck I will have to spent some time in Warsaw. I and myself will be able to visit P and G in their home town.Joining Oriflame gives me warm home coming feeling which I have never had at J&J. I was supposed to have a full agenda (completely overbooked), but ….

A lovely day

I was about to start another year of squash in my little squash club close by Waterloo, but ..... As last year, the person in charge of the squash club changed. Now that JJA will not be around anymore, I decided not to renew my membership for these few months.When E. invited me yesterday for a game of badminton with colleagues I didn’t hesitate. At the end there was only E. and M.. They 2 of them played against me and made me run. I was really happy with some of my shots (and obviously not with others). It was crowded and therefore we were not able to play for 2 hours.

Today I’m enjoying a day off. This morning I went for an half an hour run (which was not that easy when your throat is aching, but I was really happy at the end of the run). I even did the food shopping. What a superb experience, nobody was driving their trolley into my ankles. Why can’t it be like this during weekends? Now that I’m writing about it, it became apparent that I haven’t seen one group of people: retired people. Would it be true that they only shop on Saturdays?????

Bedrijfjes die wegdrijven

Een overzicht van bedrijven die uit Belgie wegtrekken.
En nog blijven die politici verder sjabberen over een staatshervorming. Zouden ze niet beter een regering vormen die zorgt dat Belgie een goed ondernemersklimaat behoudt?

Bedrijven die het afbollen of hun activiteiten verminderen:
1. Oriflame (Waterloo): Volledige vestiging verdwijnt in het begin van volgende jaar.
Aantal mensen: +- 160

2. Uniliver (Vorst): een heel deel van de supply chain activiteiten verhuizen naar Rotterdam
Aantal mensen:

3. Janssen Pharmaceutical: Bij Janssen Pharmaceutica in Beerse en Geel sneuvelen 688 banen. Dat hebben de vakbonden vernomen tijdens een speciale ondernemingsraad. Het zou gaan om 521 vaste en 167 tijdelijke contracten.

4. Nokia Siemens (Herentals): Bij telecombedrijf Nokia Siemens Networks in Herentals wordt bijna de hele onderzoeksafdeling uitbesteed aan een Frans bedrijf. Het gaat om 163 banen.

5. Bij het farmaceutisch bedrijf Pfizer in Puurs vragen de vakbonden en de directie een sociaal bemiddelaar. De onderhandelingen over een nieuwe cao voor het bedrijf zitten muurvast. De bonden vragen de directie ook garanties voor de werkgelegenheid. Bij Pfizer in Puurs werken zo'n 700 mensen.

6. Nedcar (Nederland): Bij Nedcar werken enkele honderden. Die kunnen waarschijnlijk hun werk behouden nu beslist is dat ze de Outlander mogen produceren. Op dit ogenblik wordt er enkel de Colt geassembleerd en de verkoopsresultaten vallen tegen.

als de dag van toen

Maandag heb ik mijn voet omgeslagen tijdens het recreatieve uurtje badminton. Het was mijn eigen fout, gespeeld zonder brace. Vermits we morgen naar Rome vertrekken heb ik dan maar besloten om niet te gaan lopen (alhoewel ik het voorzien had). De hele avond heb ik passief gesport. Ik ben naar de frigo gelopen om een frisse pint op het moment dat het balletje even stillag in de match Real tegen Werder. Had wel verwacht dat Real wat beter zou spelen.

Vandaag ga ik een frisse neus halen en wat in het bos gaan lopen. (dat hoop ik alleszins).

In ons Belgenlandje hebben we nog steeds geen regering. Ik snap eigenlijk de grote problemen niet meer. Hoe kan een stomme staatshervorming nu belangrijker zijn dan de verschillende berichten van bedrijven die sluiten (en degene waar we het van gehoord hebben, bevinden zich in Vlaanderen). Alle olle, ik wou er een weddenschap op sluiten, maar dat mag nu ook al niet meer.

Nu nog wat verder werken (niet te hard!) en al wat dromen van onze 4 dagen in Rome met A en T. Ik zie er al naar uit. Het enige dat wat demotiverend werkt is het vroege uur van de vlucht. Ik ga sloten koffie nodig hebben morgenvroeg.

Belgium first 100 days

We still don't have a government in Belgium. We had the elections 100 days ago and there are no signs off an opening. I have difficulties understanding what the true showstoppers are. Why would people want to divide Belgium into 2 or 3 small countries while most of the laws are determined by Europe. An article in Humo was very reveling. The wealthiest regions in Belgium are Brussels, Vlaams Brabant and Waals Brabant. Even regions in West Flanders are getting subsedies.
They still have another 48 days to beat the record. In 1988 it took 148 days to have a government. Hope our politicians succeed sooner.
I'm still wondering if I will have to vote from Sweden next year. As of January, February I will be a Belgian living abroad and will have to go to the embassy to vote. When will I have to do it????

Regular Thursday Squash do

Since P was flying back from the US, I decided to have a game of squash with B. The court was already paid for and couldn't be cancelled. Both of us arrived early and did the warm-up at court 1. The floor was very slippery but we decided to continue.
At 19h30 started playing at court 2. You couldn't call it playing squash. The floor was slippery (again!). It feld like playing squash on a ice skating ring. We had a good laugh when the other one was loosing his balance and in stead of going for a nice shot, fell on the floor. In stead of playing for 1h30 we stopped after an hour.
I really felt sorry for the girl at the reception. Everybody complained that day on the state of the surface.

Sunday lunch

We went to Ronse yesterday to celebrate the 87th birthday of I's grandmother. She is still fit and look after herself. Amazing! We were 18. A too big group for the restaurant. They didn't succeed in giving us the food on time. Apart from the food it was nice to see Inges family again. After the restaurant we went to W and C new house. They still need to finish the decoration. I'm always amazed how well they can furnish an apartment or a house. They done a superb job.

Squash

The squash season started again.

I'm out of shape! I have continued to play over the summer months, but it didn't help at all.

The variety that I used to play in my shots is gone. It looks like my harddisk was erased and needs to be filled again.

Played my new ex-collleagues yesterday and managed to improve my game. It felt great to tease them from time to time.

E. will help me in finding a new squash club in Stockholm as of next year. I'm going to a country where squash is an elite sport according to E. Look forward to play games against people that can boost my carreer. I promise I will loose (even if I'm soo much better!!!!)

On Thursday I'll be playing squash and badminton. I'll have to get better in both table tennis and tennis and I will be able to participate in racketlon competitions (and improve my condition!!)

Another day at work

My motivation level was quite high this morning. I had a good night sleep and went to bed quite early. Unfortunately, it didn't last the whole day.

Tomorrow evening I'll have to give a badminton lesson. Weird, I'm not even a pro myself. I can hit the shuttle over the net most of the time and it end there.