In Holland the weather is always the subject of the day, mainly because it is never the same as the day before. Last week, the weather has been the main topic over here as well. Not because it is changing so often (I wish it would!), but mainly because it is so bad. For the people who still think that I am in a warm sunny country: you’re wrong!!! It is f***ing cold over here!

At this moment it is already a week ago since I was in Holland. Yes, I have been a litlle bit busy this week (indeed, I slept a lot). Anyway, I can say that I really enjoyed my short visit. The wedding of Paula and John on Thursday was really great. But OK, free beer is always great, isn’t it? It was great to see everybody again. And in such an atmosphere, it doesn’t matter that the band made all the songs sound like René Froger.

After hearing a lot of times that having fog every day is not normal, and that it is only the case here in Lleida, I decided to check it out myself. So last Saturday, MJ and I decided to spend one day on the beach, hoping to see some sun. We woke up early (at least for us), prepared all the stuff for a pick-nick on the beach and got into the car.

The 6th of December is an important day: it is the birthday of ‘Sinterklaas’ (yes, I know it is Paul). Every year the old man leaves Spain to visit Holland for a few weeks and to give presents to all the Dutch children. As you can imagine, the Dutch children are very pleased with his visit. But I have to warn all the Dutch parents: DO NOT TRUST THIS GUY!!!!!!! I haven’t found out yet what is wrong with him, but it is a fact that the Spanish people are really happy because he is out of the country for some time.

This weekend MJ is in Lithuania for a Fimcap meeting. I better say ‘was’, because she is almost back again. In a few hours I will take the car and pick her up in Barcelona. Of course I could have used this weekend to have a big party (after all, the b**** is gone…), but I decided to have a quiet weekend. Of course I went to drink a beer yesterday, but most of the time I was sleeping, reading, watching television or studying Spanish.

No, I don’t have an argue with MJ and no, I will not go back forever. But in December I will be back in Holland two times. First from December 13th until 16th to be present at the wedding of John and Paula and later from December 29th until January 1st to celebrate a new year. If you have any interesting and nice activities, just tell me, and maybe you will see me one more time…

Today it is Saturday, the day of the cleaning the house. MJ and I always do the first floor. Or better: MJ is doing the first floor, and I am bothering her a lot, thinking that I am helping her. Fortunately it is not a lot of work, so we only spent some time in the morning doing that. This afternoon (after lunch, so around five o’clock) we will go to town to do some shopping.

Yesterday somebody tried to phone me during the day. Unfortunately I was not home yet, so I thought that it might be handy to explain something about my working hours. In the morning, usually I leave at eight o’clock. First I go to Lleida to bring MJ and her sister Cristina to their work. Afterwards I drive to Torrefarera where my company is. I start working at nine o’clock and finish again at half past one.

Yesterday MJ and I decided to visit the cinema. After a very busy week with a lot of new impressions, we felt that we had deserved it. Our choice was “The Score”. We found out that we were not the only ones who have had a busy week, because the city was full of trafic, looking for a place to park. Normally in the Netherlands the Sunday evenings are quiet, but here Sunday is the day to visit the cinema.

Today was the great day… working at ICG. After a short tour through the building and meeting a lot of people of whom I can’t remember the names anymore (as usual on a first day) I was introduced to Massimiliano. He told me everything about his job and about the company. After three hours of listening to Spanish, my head was at the point of exploding. No more information please!

Next to me is the big bag with the last things to take. I only have to pack my laptop and I am ready to go. In 90 minutes my parents will take me to Schiphol airport, and that’s it. Tonight I will be a citizen of Alpicat. I spent yesterday evening at the “Jeugdhof” just like most Thursdays the last 13 years. Sure I will miss that. Just as usual, it was way too late when we finally went home, but this time I had a good excuse since it was the last time.

Yes, I am unemployed at the moment. Yesterday was my very last day that I worked for Aino and on Monday I will start at ICG. That makes me unemployed for a few days. Don’t worry, I will survive this period… 😉 I can tell you that it wasn’t easy to say good-bye to Aino after working 4 years and 7 months for MultiSystems/Avalix/Aino. Yesterday morning I finished the last work.

As most of you know, I have spent a lot of my spare time doing voluntary work for Jong Nederland. Jong Nederland is a national youth organisation, with a local group in Harmelen. Yesterday after a big fund-raising activity, the board and the animators of Jong Nederland Harmelen surprised me with an official good-bye. Normally leaving animators are thanked at a special evening with all the parents of our members, but since I am leaving the country next week they had to do it earlier.

On Saturday, October 20th, my parents and my sister have organised a farewell party for all my family. They have really made a big effort of organising a great party. The best for me was that all the invited people showed up. Fortunately the weather was quite good, because we really couldn’t fit everybody into the house. MJ and I have received a lot of nice presents, mostly typical Dutch products as drop, hagelslag, erwtensoep and pepernoten.

One week of holidays is not a lot if you have to travel back and forth to the other end of Europe. Last week, we have spent the whole weekend packing my stuff. The result was a huge pile of boxes, of which everybody doubted it would fit into the car. On Sunday evening we removed the couches from the car and started fitting everything in it. To our surprise, there was some space left!

Just a few more days to go! My room in Harmelen is turning little by little into a big mess. I am emptying my wardrobes, spreading everything out on the floor, putting stuff into boxes. Along the way I find back things of which I couldn’t even remember their existence. And as you can imagine I just have to read those old letters, go through the old pictures, look into the old magazines…

The main reason most people will visit this site at the moment is because you want to know when I will be moving to Lleida. The answer is: SOON! Next week, on October 15th–20th I will be moving all my stuff to lleida by car. I really hope that everything will fit in, but we will see… After I am back, I will be working again until October 31st. On Friday November 2nd I will finally take the plane to the south of Europe.

Yes yes, since last Friday my age starts with a 3… I’m definitely getting old. The next period I will be preparing my move to Lleida (Catalonia), so it will be quite exiting.

This is definitely the least updated page on my site!!! I see that the last update has been more than half a year ago. SORRY! Anyway, as you can imagine a lot of things have happened in between. I have travelled a lot to Lleida, which is also the place I’m planning to move to next summer. But first I’ll have to find a job and housing over there. I expect that it won’t be a big problem.