'Best of 2011'

I had the Photo Theme for Thursday on my blogroll on the baby for ages and forgot a bit about it. But when I looked at it again the other day, when I was using the baby, I thought: I have to remember this, because it sounds just right for me. And this week's photo theme is 'best of 2011', part 2. I missed part 1, but never mind, part 2 will be as fine!

I posted it before and it features on my annual 'Over Mara's Shoulder calendar', because I absolutely loved it! It's a hoodoo which are found (amongst others) in the Badlands of Alberta, Canada. An area which I got to enjoy thanks to my great blogfriend Kay who took her dog and her car and met up with me near Calgary. And then she drove us out to the Rockies (day one) which were really nice and then to the Badlands (day two), which made my heart race and my eyes go into overdrive! I absolutely fell in love with that part of Alberta and actually went back there a few days later to enjoy it some more!

My first entry for the Photo Theme for Thursday meme!

Plans

When dealing with high water, these windmills of old still do their bit to keep part of the country dry!

It was there! I saw it and Anvilcloud saw it too! But alas, it has somehow disappeared into cyblivion, because it's no longer there! Which of course is extremely annoying. It took quite some time to write it and find a nice photo with it. It was all about the water that has been pounding us from all sides (except the south) for the last few days. How in the north people were evacuated because of the rising water. I even made a little joke about if the dykes were to break in the part of the country I live in, my house would be completely submerged by the water. After all: I leave on the bottom of the sea. Literally! But the post has gone. And only Anvilcloud and I have read that brilliant piece of literature, that you will now never get the chance to read. Which of course is a great gap in your life, I know!

Ah well, since that didn't go the way I had planned it, I thought I might as well do something different and hope this one does come off...

Day 3

Rain, wind and more rain and wind were the words of the day today. And in the midst of all that rain and wind I had to go get myself some groceries. I had run out of bread and I was low on milk. And I just reminded myself I forgot the soap. Anyhow.
I also did some pre-work laundry, so I won’t have to show up to work tomorrow wearing dirty clothes, I watched the Tour de Ski (cross-country skiing) and had another slice of the really nice apple pie I made on New Year’s Eve.
Life is about to start again!

Strange

Isn't it strange how on only the second day of the new year, you think: it's the same as last year! Nothing is different. The alarm went off at midday exactly (in the Netherlands every first Monday of the month the alarm goes off, so we know the sound and react when it sounds at a different time), the weather is still the same old weather and I still sit behind my computer thinking of all these great ways to spend my time and not doing much about it. It's a good thing it wasn't a resolution or I would be in trouble already!

Tomorrow will be my last day off before I am back to another bout of work. School runs probably and not much excitement. But on the plus side: my head is a haven of tranquility right now. It's actually so quiet in there right now I started having funny dreams again. I always do when I don't have anything to do really. And the one I had going from 2011 to 2012 was a doozy! Dreaming of having dinner with a lot of biathlon stars is always good, but for the first time I also spoke Norwegian in a dream. A good omen I hope...

2012

When I first starting talking of emigrating to Canada, I was still in the middle of a massive debt. I spent more than I earned and it wasn't until I realised that Canada wasn't going to allow me in with a debt hanging on. So, I mended my ways, got rid of holidays and my car and instead of spending I was paying off that debt. But even when the debt was completely cleared I wasn't there yet, because Canada wasn't going to allow me in without any cash to my name, so the next thing to do was save. Still no holidays, still no car, but the savings added up.

Fast forward to last year. I finally had enough money to go and visit Canada and try to find a job there. I knew it was going to be hard. I knew it was going to be difficult. And I was right. It was hard and difficult. And in the end it proved impossible. The job that I was looking for could be filled by some 18-year old Canadian and then the company wouldn't have to go through hoops to get me the work permit. And they probably would be cheaper too...

The day before yesterday I got an email from my agent in Canada. He had sent my resumé to most of the hotels in Edmonton (no result), had given it to people who knew people working in hotels in Edmonton (no result), was now moving onto Red Deer and still had an option in the work camps up north like Fort McMurray. I sent him an email back saying that due to the incredible response of Canadian employers (would this be sarcasm?), my age and the way things are in my current job, I had decided to say goodbye to Canada and hello to Norway. My last professional link with Canada was severed!

So, 2012 will hopefully see me move to Norway asap. Where it's cold. And dark. And they speak a different language. But, that's only in winter. In summer it's warmer. And lighter. Although they still do speak a different language... My other resolution is to loose weight by hiding it somewhere. I just have to figure out where!

Rest

Well, hello everyone! Did you miss me? I know, I know, I have been away for over two weeks, but I have a good excuse: it was busy. First it was busy with work and I worked all day every day it seemed. It was quite tiring and I really needed the holiday that was coming up. But when work quietened down, it was home life that was busy. I always make the family newsletter and it's always quite hard to get everybody to send in their stories and things. Which is quite annoying, but in the end I had something that looked quite like a newsletter.

When it finally looked like a newsletter, I had to print it out, staple it together and send it to the family! Which was another day's work and finally on the day before Christmas I was finished with that. Earlier in December there had been plans to celebrate Christmas with some friends of mine, but my head was too full with busyness that I decided to cancel that and just stay home. And apart from the one day where I visited an aunt celebrating her birthday, I did just that: stay at home. Go to bed late, sleep in, eat horrid food (do Smarties count as a food group at all?) and watch television.

For the new year, other things are causing my head to be full of busyness: learning a new language, finding another job, moving to another country, it all needs to be placed somewhere in my head and on occasion I feel it might explode.

Anyway, for now it's quietened down a great deal and if the neighbourhood doesn't go overboard with all the fireworks in the next few days, I shall be fine.

PS: if you were wondering what that photo has to do with this post: absolutely nothing!

Head spinning

For some reason my boss or the planner or whoever it is that gives me the work, has decided to give me a lot of work. I was off one day only last week and worked both Saturday and Sunday. Long hours as well. On Saturday I had to go to a Yule Market which is big business in Germany. I was headed to Düsseldorf, which is quite close to the Netherlands. I had to leave from a nearby trainstation at 8am and here's how the conversation went when I arrived there:

Woman 1: Is this the bus to Düsseldorf?

Me: Yes it is.

Woman 1: Is this number 21?

Me: No, it isn't.

Woman 1: But this is the bus to Düsseldorf?

Me: Yes, it is.

Woman 2: Is this the bus to Düsseldorf?

Me, Yes, it is.

Woman 2: Is this number 24?

Me: No, it isn't.

Woman 1: But this is the bus to Düsseldorf?

Me (getting quite exasperated by now): Yes, it is.

Woman 1 and Woman 2 simultaneously: So, is this number 21/24?

Me: NO, IT ISN'T!

Man 1: Is this the bus to Düsseldorf?

Me (grinding my teeth by now): Yes. It. Is.

Man 1: Is this number 21?

Me: NO!

Woman 3: Is this the bus for FNV to Düsseldorf?

Me: Yes, it is! Welcome.

Man 1: But you're going to Düsseldorf?

Me: Yes, with the union.

Man 1: What's that?

Me (being helpful even though I was fully fed up with them): Which company have you booked your trip with?

Women and Man: GEBO.

Me: This is Connexxion Tours. (and I won't write down what I was thinking at that point, but I give you a clue: it had something to do with sods)

Anyway, the trip went off without a hitch. I was early everywhere and the return trip was good as well. On Wednesday I am off to Cologne. Another Yule Market!!

Did I tell you?

I am learning Norwegian and at the moment I have a vocabulary of about 400 words and phrases. I know what a 'bil' is (car), I know how to count to a hundred, although it does take some time to get the Norwegian answer to Norwegian sums and I am about to learn about verbs and their perfect tense and the past tense and the other tense that uses to have. And I can tell you: it's not easy!

So far, the words I have learnt (with a few exceptions) have something to do with either English, German or Dutch and sometimes it's completely alien. And then there are verbs. Those dreaded verbs. And having to learn about those tenses is in some cases the complete opposite to Dutch.

So, today I set myself a task. Every single verb I should know by now I had to write down the present, past and past perfect (is that it?). The first page was more red lines than any other colour, by page two I had figured I was doing it all wrong and went with my gut. By that time the red became less and less.

To prove to you that I have learnt something more than 'God Jul' and takk (which means thanks): here's a little story about me:

Jeg heter Mara et jeg bor i Nederland. Også har jeg bodd i Frankrike, Italia og England. Jeg er førti år. Jeg har to katter som heter Wuppie og Linette.

Easy! Right?

Nothing

Just so you know I am not lying dead in a ditch somewhere. But I don't really have much to say right now. It's busy at work, the weather is awful (wind, rain and more wind) and I spend most of my time off learning Norwegian, doing laundry and watching television. I was supposed to go to Brussels this weekend and planning on contacting Gattina to see if we could meet up, but that was changed this morning, so unless Gattina wants to come to Düsseldorf in Germany...

Friends

Grateful for friends who make me laugh! Even if it makes for wobbly photos!!