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!