Wow, yeah, so I'm not doing such a great job of blogging lately, my apologies! But februari was heel druk (very busy).... and yes, I now write in a strange mixture of Engels-Dutch - you should see my emails to Dutch people (besides, some Dutch words just look better than English ones... for example "appel" "wafel" "appartement" etc, my spelling in English is certainly going downhill!
So, my excuse for the lack of blogging activity is the fact that during februari I was actually only at home for about 9days in the whole month... I spent the first week with the nuns on my intensive Dutch language training course, then it was my birthday and I spent a long weekend in Maastricht with Rich (it was their "mardi gras" carnival... ik was een kikker) and the last week of feb I was away at a conference in Zurich. Zurich is beautiful but you certainly pay for the experience, around £7 for a cup of coffee and the conference meal (3 (tiny, tiny) courses) cost £70!! I wasn't even full afterwards! So I'm glad I got to see it on a work trip as I definitely wouldn't go back for a holiday, not when lunch prices are like evening meal prices!
A really busy but interesting month!
Here are some pics of the crazy carnival:
Unfortunately I have no pictures of Zurich as my camera was stolen on my last day :-( Terrible timing as two days later I managed to explode the back tyre of my mountain bike, so it's been an expensive couple of weeks.
Well, the problem is that work trips go hand in hand with free food, free alcohol and no exercise so I'm feeling pretty unhealthy right now. I thought I'd give up alcohol for lent but then I realised that St. Patrick's day is in the way and that would be a great shame! Also, in an attempt to make up for the lack of sport and too much eating, I set my alarm 45min early every day last week planning on going for a 30min run before work each day, however, each time the alarm went off I just switched it off and went back to sleep again... this week I didn't even bother!
I did have a sporty weekend tho, Sat I went for a 2 and a half hour cycle ride (I cycled to the Hague, ate dim sum and cycled back again!) and Sunday I got my ass kicked in a squash tournament!
Until next time....
Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts
Monday, 12 March 2012
Friday, 16 December 2011
What a busy but excellent week
Had a fantastically busy week:
Mon - went to play ice hockey in the evening, the hockey itself was great (but I hate ice compared to wheels, too damn slippy and it made me miss roller hockey even more that I was already doing), but it nearly killed me getting there with my enormous hockey bag on my back (big enough for me to fit in and yes I have tried) and my hockey stick in one hand, precariously balanced on my bike, cycling for 15minutes in the rain. 15 minutes doesn't sound long but half way there I had severe back, shoulder and chest pain! It only took 2min to kick in on the way home! Won't be going again, too impractical to reach.
Tues - had my work Xmas meal. Great night, we went on an outing (uitje) first to the university observatory where we viewed jupiter and it's moons, very cool. Had a lovely meal (I really, really miss cider here tho, I'm not a beer drinker so I'm finding the pubs rather restricting) and I must remember to ask for my meat well done, everything comes rare and bloody as standard here, hate my meat half alive on my plate!
Wed - At work in the afternoon I had a FOUR hour web-editing course. For all you guys at Warwick, you are never, ever, ever to complain about SiteBuilder ever ever ever again, Sitebuilder is literally a palace of dreams compared to whatever they call their old fashioned system. I genuinely feel like I've woken up and it's 1998 and I have to try and use the internet... I was hoping I would learn new skills in this job but now I'm worried in my next job I'll look like a total Neanderthal from being used to working on this old thing... WYSIWYG?! What's WYSIWYG they ask?! Blimey! Not only that, but they're all still working on office 2003. It's nearly 2012 right?! ARGH!
Thurs - I had my first actual proper Dutch lesson (I'll do a separate post all about language, this could be a biggy!)... After my weekend in Antwerp and practising in my drunken Dutch at my Xmas do where I feel I absolutely blew people away with my "would you like some water, it is cold" and "why is mummy washing the dog?" sentences (good huh?) I was BRIMMING with confidence. That was until I turned up to my lesson on Thurs where the bloke talked to me in Dutch the entire time (what was he thinking?) :-p More to come language wise, I'll check back into this later! Right now, confidence not so brimming, perhaps I need some more gluhwijn?
Fri - Was at a medical conference all day, felt a bit out of place, I've never heard anyone speak so openly and unashamedly about vaginas for a whole hour. Other than that I'm now left wondering about a whole variety of diseases and also wonder how many mice the med. dept get through here each year? The food on the other hand was brilliant (I will also post about food later, the food here (esp the snacks) are AWESOME (I wonder how much weight I've put on?)), I had a nice evening meal too.
Mon - went to play ice hockey in the evening, the hockey itself was great (but I hate ice compared to wheels, too damn slippy and it made me miss roller hockey even more that I was already doing), but it nearly killed me getting there with my enormous hockey bag on my back (big enough for me to fit in and yes I have tried) and my hockey stick in one hand, precariously balanced on my bike, cycling for 15minutes in the rain. 15 minutes doesn't sound long but half way there I had severe back, shoulder and chest pain! It only took 2min to kick in on the way home! Won't be going again, too impractical to reach.
Tues - had my work Xmas meal. Great night, we went on an outing (uitje) first to the university observatory where we viewed jupiter and it's moons, very cool. Had a lovely meal (I really, really miss cider here tho, I'm not a beer drinker so I'm finding the pubs rather restricting) and I must remember to ask for my meat well done, everything comes rare and bloody as standard here, hate my meat half alive on my plate!
Wed - At work in the afternoon I had a FOUR hour web-editing course. For all you guys at Warwick, you are never, ever, ever to complain about SiteBuilder ever ever ever again, Sitebuilder is literally a palace of dreams compared to whatever they call their old fashioned system. I genuinely feel like I've woken up and it's 1998 and I have to try and use the internet... I was hoping I would learn new skills in this job but now I'm worried in my next job I'll look like a total Neanderthal from being used to working on this old thing... WYSIWYG?! What's WYSIWYG they ask?! Blimey! Not only that, but they're all still working on office 2003. It's nearly 2012 right?! ARGH!
Thurs - I had my first actual proper Dutch lesson (I'll do a separate post all about language, this could be a biggy!)... After my weekend in Antwerp and practising in my drunken Dutch at my Xmas do where I feel I absolutely blew people away with my "would you like some water, it is cold" and "why is mummy washing the dog?" sentences (good huh?) I was BRIMMING with confidence. That was until I turned up to my lesson on Thurs where the bloke talked to me in Dutch the entire time (what was he thinking?) :-p More to come language wise, I'll check back into this later! Right now, confidence not so brimming, perhaps I need some more gluhwijn?
Fri - Was at a medical conference all day, felt a bit out of place, I've never heard anyone speak so openly and unashamedly about vaginas for a whole hour. Other than that I'm now left wondering about a whole variety of diseases and also wonder how many mice the med. dept get through here each year? The food on the other hand was brilliant (I will also post about food later, the food here (esp the snacks) are AWESOME (I wonder how much weight I've put on?)), I had a nice evening meal too.
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