X-Mas

Merry X-mas

& a

Happy New Year

Liefs Joanne

Najat just left. She came by to show her pretty baby boy Zuhair... He is sooooooooo sweeeeet! Najat looks gorgeous, a very proud mum...

You'll never guess what I did yesterday!

I played Cricket *\o/* lol

Never thought I would do that... It's not a big thing in Holland. I don't even know the rules or the purpose of the game for that matter. But I've figured it out, it's easy!

You've got this cardboard box and you try and hit it with the tennis ball. the guy with the bat is trying to defend the cardboard box by hitting the ball. When he does that he runs over to the baseball cap and back, before they find the tennis ball and hit the cardboard box :D

It was fun! You could see that by the colour of my face - red.

The weather is getting better - finally! Sunbathing, playing cricket, boozing in the back garden and eating outside... Finally SUMMER! The nuisance about eating outside is the bugs. But Matt attacking a wasp with an empty wine bottle is very enjoyable to watch and takes away any discomfort... (Chicken flying round and Matt chanting "Go and sting someone you're own size!")

I'm so exited! And I just can't hide it... *cough*

I've been brainstorming, the tornado kind - air head :) Listening to all the stories of people around me made me wonder. What would life be if I wasn't such a "mierenneuker" or if I saw life less serious. I think I would be strolling through life as a Jamaican... Pass me da jonko man... or whatever a really relaxed person would say.

Now I'm worrying about my future, what life would look like in 5 years time. What should I do, do I have the luxury to dream. If yes... about what?

My dad wrote on a card once "Don't leave before you're the boss of bosses". It would be nice to do that. But it means I have to stay here for at least 2 years! :D
They already know I'm marvellous or like I would say "Geweldig", but you have to have some experience as well.

I have opened 2 saving accounts... So that gives me some room to make plans. I know this comes as a shock to most of you. Joanne and a saving accounts! I never said it was going to work, but at least I'm trying :)

The problem with me and dreams is they never work. They just end prematurely. You know what I mean... You really want something and you do you're very best to get wherever you want to go. All of a sudden, something happens and you'll try and work it out but instead of making it better you end up making it worst. So to protect myself I've decided I'm not allowed to dream. I can make plans, but not dream about it.

One day I woke up and said to myself: "Babe... one lesson... Let others create kaos". It's not the best acronym but at least now I can say B.O.L.L.O.C.K.S.

The best part of this saving business is "it doesn't matter what will happen in a years time as long as I put aside the 100 pounds every month". When it's 06/08 I'll review my life, plans and finances and decide what my next move is going to be. Staying here, moving to wherever or going home... who knows ;)

Even een berichtje in het Nederlands. Het heeft niet zo veel nut om dit in het Engels te schrijven, aangezien het gaat over www.nabaal.nl Ik heb deze website nog niet zo lang geleden ontdekt, maar het is zeker de moeite waard om even een keer te gaan kijken. Het zijn simpele tekeningen met een klein beetje tekst... Een humor, niet te filmen! Ik heb me rot gelachen :)

I finish at 8pm when I'm working late shift's. By that time I'm the only one left except for 2 people from the International team. One of the guys gave me a lift home even thou I live only 1.5 miles away!

When I came home all the doors were open and everyone was sitting in the back garden. We've got a new housemate, named Mark, and Caroline had some friends and her sister over.
We share our garden with the boys next door. We all have the same landlord so if it comes to privet garden parties: the more the merrier.
Everyone who has been following the weather reports over the past few weeks understands we can't do this every day, or week for that matter. Which is to bad because it's always good craic!

Last night we had 2 Aussies, 1 Kiwi, 2 Irish girls, 1 Dutchy, 1 from Garforth and 1 from Newcastle and Matt wasn't even there and he's from all over the world, but mainly Hong Kong.

Every "gang" has their own phrases. The running gag here is "OK... Ta", and we annoy the hell out of each other by quoting from "The Wedding Crashers". To be honest, I've never seen the whole movie, I was watching it one time when they decided they were to drunk to stay up and kicked me out! I'm still trying to steal it and watch the whole thing in one go.

A couple of weeks ago Kiwi or Steve...N (I'm not allowed to say Steve. It has to be "Ste" or "Steven", so now he's called "Steve...N" just to annoy him). Anyway. A couple of weeks ago one of those "Cautious - Slippery when wet" signs appeared in our front garden. It had graffiti on it saying "OK... Ta". As cheeky as we are, we could not let that pass unnoticed. So... a few days later they had a sign in front of their door saying "OK... Ta, Wankers" (Mwahahahahahahaha *cough* *cough*).

You'll never guess what I found in front of the front door this morning?!

Saturday was the best ever!

As you all know by now I had to work on Saturday... The evening started off pretty lame. Lying on the couch watching television, waiting for my show to start (Jekyll - BBC1). I went over to the shop to get some stuff when I met our next door Kiwi jogging down the street. He wanted to know if we (Caroline - my new house mate and me) were going out that night.

When I got back to the house I received a text (smsje for the Dutchies among us) saying: "Goin dwn drnk nw cum?" so I sent back "I'm not sure what u just said but I'll be over in a sec". So I went upstairs and got changed and that's when I received the following text: "Going dwn leodis nw if u wana cme." (Leodis is a pub further up the street).

After 3 pints, 1 game of pool, 3 games of darts and meeting 3 new people we were kicked out of Leodis as it was 11pm and the old folks have to go to bed.

We ended up at no. 66, sent Steven and Adam on a quest of finding alcohol in the middle of the night. Two hours + 2 bottles of vodka heavier they found their way back to Green Lane. ASDA was closed and Tescos was closed (In the UK you've got 24h supermarkets) in the end they found a Indian shop with overprized alcohol.

I went to bed at 4.30am, Caroline went to bed round 10am and the guys crawled into bed at 11am...

=====================================

Sunday I had a sleep in, had a sandwich with egg, lettuce and tomato for lunch/breakfast and some leftovers from the day before. I watched my show I missed the night before (TV on Demand!), waited for my other favourite show to start (Dexter - FX). Got changed, remembered what our Kiwi was doing the day before... Jogging... which sounds like a bloody good idea when you've got nothing to do and you start making stupid jokes like "You're thin and I'm thick". So I went out running...

Jaap called me right before "Dexter" started so I had to call him back. Normally I would turn off the TV to listen to people but "Jekyll" and "Dexter" are only on once a week so the rest of the world can wait!

For everyone who doesn't know Jaap... Jaap is a friend from Holland who moved to Vancouver - Canada, we both know what it feels like to be so far away from people you grew up with and we can have normal "grown-up" conversations... in the middle of the night because of the time difference.

This week I'm doing the late shift. Starts at 12.30pm and ends at 8pm. This means I can go to bed at decent hour and still have a sleep in!

*** Our new house mate is going to move in today... He's really fit - and 19 years old - and very tall and we think he spends more time in front of the mirror than Caroline and me combined ***

Working on Saturday. Nothing wrong with it. Everyone has to do it every now and then. In my company it's kinda weird, it's only me (from my team) and 2 from the international call centre. There could be one or two from other departments but only when we've got too much to do. Today the VRU (you know... the lovely woman telling you you've got "six.... ty people queuing in front of you") wasn't working as it should be so it's pretty busy for a Saturday. I'm the only one who's here to answer the phones so I feel a bit rushed.

The good thing about working on a Saturday is you're off on a weekday! This week I was off on Thursday. One of the guys from the other side of the floor is leaving. He is going back to Australia. We had his leaving party the 19th in The Revolution Bar in Leeds (I'll add a link next time). I don't think I will ever understand why people give parties on any other day then Friday or Saturday.. Anyhow... I was wearing my new purple and blue and white shirt and my new red hair... The kind of look that makes guys turn around :)
We had a few drinks in The Revolution Bar after which we went for a curry in Shabab (Currie restaurant)...

Currie is interesting... It makes you feel interesting on the inside as well...

The next day I was feeling somewhat tired... hmmm how come, I wonder...

It's red alright... Not as red as it was whenever I lived in Belfast, but pretty close. I like the colour and today I'm wearing my green earrings my parents gave me for my B-day last year and a green pashmina which Francis gave me when we were in Amsterdam.

I've been emailing with my mum about my brother. He's going to my old school and all these memories come bubbling to the surface. Years after the horrid experiance of classes lasting for 90 minutes and day's that start at 8.30am and and end at 5.30pm I found out I actually liked it.

Now I just have to convince my brother and he'll be fine!

It works! It works! It works!

My mum just confirmed it! Everything I send will be visible on my Space :D
And now it's time for me to go home... true the rain and stuff :(

I really hope this is going to work... I've added another email address to the big list from which I can post stuff on my Space. I've written down the address and of course I left it at home :-S
So that's the reason why I'm posting another "Let's see..." kind of story.

After (trying to) keep(ing) a Space up-to-date for over a year I feel more connected to girls like Anne Frank and Bridget Jones. I've never been the kind of girl who kept diaries. I always wanted to cuz it is kind of glamorous, I just never continue. My diaries are time jumps and parallel slides. It was also to confronting, life is not that interesting when you have to tell someone else. I know the purpose of a diary is not someone else reading it, just confiding your deepest secrets to the paper. Not my cup of tea. I don't do deep secrets :D

Hmm... deep!

The weather is really freaky out here... One minute you have to get your diving gear out thanks to the rain and the next one you're the equivalent of a battered sausage because the sun is scorching your skin... and we're stuck in a building with a air conditioning with a mind of his own. It's quite challenging to dress to impress and keep in mind the climate changes inside the building.

I would like to go home and go to bed (like that's gonna happen). Caroline (house mate) said we were going to dye my hair today... Red... Again... Just wait and see, I always get so nervous when it comes to dyeing my hair... what would the rest think about it, how will it look, what if it turns PINK?!?!?!?!

To be continued....