The youth of today

I said: "Make sure the bus is clean or I will not leave on time this afternoon!"

The bus wasn't clean.

Two girls cleaned it and were then allowed to wait on the bus.

All the others had to wait outside for five minutes after we were due to leave before I finally let them on.

There was a slight drizzle.

Yeah!

My poor head

No, this isn't another post about headaches. Fortunately not, but it's still about my poor head. As you may or may not be aware of, I am trying to emigrate to Canada. Which is great of course. Even if it means that I have tons of things to do before the actual move. Like selling all my stuff, either on e-bay or through my blog. Plus of course all the things I need to do to find a job and a home and things like that in Canada. Add to that, that I still have a job to go to in the Netherlands that makes me work at the weirdest of hours, both during the week and during the weekends. And I would also like a tiny bit of social life. I am not asking for much, but a tiny bit should be doable.

So, what did this daft, extremely busy and 'can't take anymore on my plate because my head is already full' woman do? Yes, you guessed it: I took something else on!

Don't get me wrong, the something else is not done just by me, two cousins of mine are also in it, but still, it's more things to do and think of and keep track of. Now you're wondering of course what have I taken on. I would if I were in your desk chair. Well, I have taken on the joint organisation of our not annual family day. Find a venue, get food and drinks, think of silly games, make invitations, send those invitations out. And I bet there will be other things that crop up closer to the time!

I am about to make list upon list upon list now. One for the emigration, one for the selling, one for work, one for my social life, one for my cats, one for the family day, one for the groceries and one for Columbus (as in Christopher, the guy who apparently first discovered the Americas). Wish me luck!

Hello, I am...

I needed to make a video presentation about myself so Henk could show that to prospective employers in Canada. It felt a bit dating agency, but then again: in both cases you need to sell yourself!

Anyway, today I finally remembered to bring my camera to work, since I wanted to do it on the coach, and started. Well, twenty (I think, it could have been more) tries later I finally have a finished presentation. Not the most smiley me, but it's clear and I think it gets my point across. But the little video I show here is one of the many many many junk ones!

*Sigh* 

New friends

I met up with some virtual friends yesterday: Kay and her husband Dick are travelling through Europe and are meeting up with several bloggers. Which is a wonderful way to see Europe of course. So, I made my way up to Amsterdam yesterday morning and fortunately recognized them from afar.

We first made our way to the trainstation to validate their traintickets and lock their luggage away: we didn't want to take it with us through town. We then made our way to the restaurant. They had wanted to eat proper Dutch food, so I brought them to Haesje Claes, which turned out to be a lovely restaurant with fantastic food at quite reasonable prizes. Definitely a restaurant to go to again if I'm in the area.

It took us quite a while to decide what to have, since we were too busy chatting about everything and nothing. However we will not talk about horse meat again. I promise! By the time we left the place was really busy, but we had to make our way back to the trainstation to catch the train to Brussels. I was getting off at the airport though, since I was meeting a cousin that afternoon.

A great way to spend a Saturday morning/afternoon!

Oh my!

No, I haven't been in an accident and had my hands chopped off. Nor did I loose my memory after a severe blow to the head. And I didn't go on a week long trip either without access to a computer. I just didn't feel like blogging.

So, what have I been up to during the last week? Well, I tilled my back yard, hoping to avoid those pesky people from the housing association, it will be the front yard's turn tomorrow. I worked a lot, but I didn't think it was that important or interesting to tell all about it. Since it wasn't that important or interesting. I think.

I locked Wuppie in my bedroom a couple of days ago. On one of the longest working days! So, when I got back the first thing I did was looking for any litter and the only place to look was the bed. Well, I had to change the bedding anyway! Before I left for work this morning I had to get him of the wardrobe again. He's just a stupid cat...

Did I forget anything else? Oh, the weather: it's almost like summer now, although it's due to get a bit cooler over the weekend. And speaking of the weekend: I will be meeting some blogging friends all the way from Canada! I am really looking forward to it and not even getting up at the unworldly hour of 3.30am tomorrow is ruining that!

Heart

The other day I was showing one of my colleagues my ABC book and as he was leafing through it, he said something about March 17th being the day our former colleague died. I wrote a post about that two years ago: click here. I had been the last person to speak to him and H was the person who found him. We had always said that we should visit A's widow some day, to bring a bit more closure to her and to us.

Today we finally went. A day before the second 'anniversary' of that awful day. And she really appreciated it. She had tears in her voice when I phoned to ask whether we could come, she had tears in her voice and her eyes today. She liked hearing our side of the story which also filled in some quite significant gaps for her. She was glad we hadn't forgotten all about her or her husband.

She's not doing well. Her life has lost its shine, its sparkle with her husband's death. He was her rock, her guide. Ever since she had a severe car accident, he did the cooking and quite a bit of the housework. All that was gone in an instant. On top of that she's gluten intolerant, she suffered from breast cancer (while her husband was still alive) and last year she was diagnosed with bone cancer. She only has a few more years to live. Fortunately she has her family and her friends who come by and see her quite often, but it's not the same.

The visit brought closure to both of us as well. Especially my colleague couldn't have done this last year yet, but now he was fine. Also because we were able to give her some answers. When we left we were both presented with a little gift: the heart you see at the top of this post.

In memory of Anton, who died too young...

Monstrous Update

It's been a while since I spoke of my monsters. So I thought an update was in order.

The one I'm most worried about is of course Sophie, but lately she's been doing great. She hasn't lost any more weight and actually seems to be quite happy. She will occasionally come and sit on my lap, which is highly unusual, but it's lovely nonetheless. She licks all my plates, loves drinking out of the shower (don't ask) and still doesn't like Linette.

Talking of Linette, she's her old self. Soft and cuddly and always wanting more attention. It's still a bit too cold outside, so she will only go out for about a minute or two before wanting to come back in again. I know however that will change once the weather gets warmer.

Mathilda is also doing fine. As a matter of fact she's sitting right next to me right now. If I don't pay attention she will jump on my shoulder and walk around a bit like a parrot. She's a weird one she is! She is lovely though...

And then there's Wuppie. The big ginger monster still loves his food, still loves his cuddles and kisses and still loves to escape. He's like a mini Houdini, but he always comes back within five minutes, so it's not that bad! He is still heavy though, which can be quite difficult when you're trying to turn around in bed and he's lying on your legs! But if it's good enough for Dr Phil, it's definitely good enough for me!

There you have it: my monsters...

Inner city driving

Driving on the motorway in Europe is easy. Driving in inner cities is a completely different matter. Streets are narrower, corners are tighter, you have to watch out for cyclists and pedestrians everywhere and all in all, it can be quite daunting to get into a town.

Last night I had to pick up a gaggle of sorority girls (six new members if you please), who giggled and gaggled for over two hours while I drove them to their 'home', a pub! As I entered the town where I spent most of my childhood, one of them came up to me asking me whether I knew the town. Well, I know how to get to my old home, but not the driving situation in the center of town. According to her though, all coaches would come into that street, so it was possible. I was willing to give it a go!

I drove into town, making tighter turns on each occasion and finally came into a street where I was even able to turn my coach around and drop the giggling gaggle off. After which I had to get out of those tiny streets and go home. My satnav had a certain route in mind that I found would be impossible to pursue, I would have damaged the coach on several sides. So, I had to reverse out again, reverse down the road up to a point where I could turn onto the other side of the canal and then go home. I managed though. Because I am such a good driver!!

IWD

So, how was your Tuesday? Were you spoilt by your partner or by your boss? No? Well, you should have been living in Russia then, because it is really big there. They even get the day off! Because yesterday was International Women's Day! A day to celebrate your womanness, your being a female member of society, your tits and ass (if I may be so blunt).

But for all our importance, IWD seemed to be swept under the carpet a bit (unless you were in Russia of course). Which is a shame, since we are so very important (do you see how I am not one to brag?)!

When I started working as a busdriver one of the questions I heard quite often was: 'Do you have your driver's licence?' Invariably, the people asking me this question were men. Older men at that. My reply would always be something along the lines of: 'Do you need one to drive a bus?' On the other hand women (especially older ones) thought it was fantastic that I was driving a bus. If I had a euro for every time I heard a woman say: 'Isn't it great women can do anything nowadays?', I would have been able to move a long time ago. And take all my rubber duckies along as well!!!

So let's celebrate. Let's celebrate our womandom, even if it is a day late. Have that piece of chocolate cake, that dress. Spoil yourself and your daughters! And don't ever forget how important you are!!!

Radio silence

Of course I could have done 'silly' posts all week, since that was all I was up to, but I decided against it. Which resulted in radio silence (or blog silence) for a few days. So, what did I do during those few days?

Well, work mostly. And quite uneventful at that. As a matter of fact, I can hardly remember what type of work, so no fun things to tell. At home things just toddled along as well, Sophie staying as thin as ever but sitting on my lap a bit more often now; Wuppie being his old big self and Mathilda and Linette both vying for laptime as well.

I think the most exciting news this week must be the sale of all my rubber duckies! Finally! I knew they would swim out of my house, but alas, it took a bit longer than expected. Apart from the rubber duckies I also sold all the crafting paper and quite a few other little bits and pieces. It may sometimes seem as if things are going slow as regards to selling, but than there will be someone who will just buy the lot!

I still have a lot more things to sell though. Yesterday I rifled through the shed and found tennis rackets, a frisbee and more children's toys! I thought I had seen the last of those, but no. And I am still working on all those dvd's I've got for sale. Even though I've sold over 50 so far, there are still over 130 left.

So, yesterday I put a notice up at my local supermarket and during the course of next week I will put notices up at some of the other supermarkets in town as well. Trying to get rid of everything I have, starting with the stuff I never use anyway!

Next week is promising to be quite uneventful once again. I wanted to go to an industry contract meeting, but with a couple of colleagues ill and a couple who are now too old to drive, they are already relying on outside drivers and the chances are very slim I will be able to go. I will probably just have to do schoolruns, which is boring to say the least, but it does pay okay.

Translating

So, you were wondering what I wrote about yesterday and even after using Babel fish or Google Translate you were at a bit of a loss? Well, I had the text translated by Google translate and this was the result:

Look, you people should not be too easy. So I decided to look this weblog in Dutch to do! Pretty easy for me, although I also in Dutch would not know what I'm talking about should have.

Of course I would have about my work. After eight days off, I've worked three days. And tomorrow I'll be off! I have stopped Saturday with defective V-belt, I am today to Germany and I have a lot of orange juice to take home with them. Thanks to residual lunches. Not really interesting.

Well, and beyond? No idea where I should have continued on, so I stop there with me now.

And this is what I actually said:

Okay, you shouldn't make it too easy for people. So, I decided to write this post in Dutch! Nice and easy for me, although even in Dutch I don't have a clue what to talk about.

Of course I could talk about work. After eight days off, I had three days of work. And tomorrow I've got a day off again! On Saturday the coach had broken fan belts, today I went to Germany and I was able to take a large quantity of orange juice home. Thanks to left-over packed lunches! Not really interesting.

What else? Not a clue what I could talk about, so I will stop now.

So, now you know! Google translate makes me sound Russian!