I wish you all a happy July. For my friends in the States, it will be your 4th of July in a few days.
To my little darling Joshua,
Happy birthday tomorrow hunny bunny...
You will get a big bunny for your birthday from big mama and big daddy, darling. Have fun with mama, daddy and little James.
Love you... mwahhhh...
The Dutch are celebrating their Queen's day today. It has been 3 generations of Her Majesty The Queen instead of HIS Majesty since Queen Wilhelmina, then, Queen Juliana and now Queen Beatrix. Netherlands will have a break from a female "Ruler" after our present Queen's because her successor will be the King of Orange-Nasau from the eldest son who is the Crown-Prince, Prince Willem-Alexander. "Koning van Oranje-Nasau." Hmmm, that sounds marvellous. Fortunately for the Queen's kingdom, the next generation will continue their tradition with our little Princess Amalia who is followed by 2 other little sisters.
The country is full with "Oranje" (Orange) and everyone is partying for this day. OK, almost everyone because yours truly is now typing this piece at home while waiting for the sunshine to come outside and play.
Fijne Koninginnedag!
It is not fair. My whole body is aching and my bones are shouting to be taken out of the flesh and skin. That was only because I had a night out with girlfriends to a Salsa (cum others) party and did the gardening at the "backyard" this weekend.
I had a really wonderful birthday recently and was thinking out loud (to my family and friends) that I still felt the same and will always be the same. I mean, seriously, I don't FEEL being in the 30s at all. My family (except my sweet sweet siblings because they are younger than me) and friends have welcomed me into the 30ish club ages ago and I can still forget that I am no longer 22 y.o.
There were times when I thought people who were above 30 y.o. were under the category of OLD. I would address them as the old lady or the old man. Of course I would think that way when all my aunts and uncles would behave as if they never were children. My paternal youngest aunt is only 8 years my senior. Being a niece, I would simply think my aunt was OLD because she was older than me and she was/is my AUNT. (Despite the age, we both are like close friends though.) Now that I have (long) reached the 30ish and she is in the 40ish, I started to think how would life be when I were on her age or even MY MOM'S? (My mom is still young, mind you, she got me when she was only 18.)
"The age is just a number. It is important how we feel."
OK OK But how I feel right now is like a beautiful and sporty car being bumped by a giant rock from the sky.
That's the curse of being older, at least to me. What I need now is to go upstairs and use all the home trainer equipment or better still, go buy the pump for my flat *bicycles so I can join the Dutch cycling.
Note to bloggers: Share your story - how you feel being in your current age. Then share it with me here (at comment) so that I won't feel the only one feeling like a 101 y.o. lady.
* Yes, I have 2-bicycle and one is still brand new after acquiring it some 5 years back. I am scared of being robbed by a lunatic or I end up joining the ducks and other alients in the water. (Excuses... *looking-at-the-sky*)
I have been to so many interviews this year. Most of them are very nice positions. When choosing for the interviews, I only go for the best positions with nice job profile and an international company who uses English as a business language. Normally I know when a company is looking for a new hire through the Recruitment Agencies. Today's interview though was introduced by my former colleague who is now working there.
He knew I was not happy at my last employer. So, he forwarded me the job profile from his company. It was not in his department but it did sound interesting. I forwarded my CV to him and he forwarded it to the hiring manager.
I was called to come for an interview after a couple of days and today was the day. No, my friend didn't say anything positive about me yet, he only introduced me to the hiring manager.
So, today I went to the company, situated in Rotterdam centre, same street as my previous employer in Rotterdam which is GOOD. At 1200 to 1300 I had an interview with the hiring manager, but we finished around 1315. Then the next hour, I had with his boss. After that with the Corporate Human Resource Representative, until 1500.
The interview was difficult, I was tested in all areas: knowledge, skills, and creadibility. Fortunately I have been to so many interviews that I know how to be myself more.
Just after the last interview, I left the office and felt really really tired (mentally). Instead of going shopping (to get it over as I usually do), I went straight home. Oh well, not really straight because near my house, there was a Bazar, so I did manage to buy something there. Yep! A big buy folks which is bad for my bank account.
Once I reached home and haven't even sat down yet, I got a phone call from the Corp HR Rep. They would like to give me an offer and the hiring manager wanted me to already start on the next Monday. Wow! This was awesome. Just after 2 hours later. They did make a quick decision. I am flattered.
So, this whole evening, I was so happy that I danced and I laughed and I asked my hubby if he was proud of me and I jumped. The nice thing was that the salary package was YUMMY... hahaha... But since I am the usual business minded person (yucks lol), I negotiated with the HR Rep to give me another EUR50 extra per month (no, not hundreds, just 50) although I already have hundreds of extras. I wasn't sure if she would do it though, because I was laughing when I said it.
Hey, I'm tired now... I really am... I will skip studying tonight but have an early good night sleep.
Praise the Lord. Amen.
I had a nice birthday celebration. It was a last minute decision but so we couldn't invite so many people and there were people who didn't turn up as well because of other obligations. Anyway, we all had a nice time. My close friend, Sam, helped me shopping on Friday evening, very last minute shopping (after all the interviews going on). Then she helped me cut the meat and I cooked 3 types of meat that night, half cooked. The next morning I only prepared several other dishes. Sam prepared the deep fried crunchy chicken. Yummy Sam.
Most of my ex-colleagues (who are now my friends) couldn't make it, but only 3 couples: the Brazilian, Curacao and Suriname. My dear friend Liz, from Sabah, came with her hubby. Liz was not happy with me when she saw me carrying all the heavy stuff because I just had my ops she said. So, she helped in the kitchen together with Sam. Liz, thanks for the help.
Our CS club friends came as well including those I didn't know yet: 2 Indonesian, 3 Swedish, 1 Austrian, 1 Costa Rican and 3 Dutch. But it was fun especially the surprises and the nice people. We all enjoyed ourselves and as for the birthday girl (ehem! lady), she felt soooo young. hahaha
My Brazilian friend, Vilma and her partner Ger, Sam and moi
The 2 couples
Some of our friends, Iwan (from back), Fafa, "Klingon"(our funny friend), Ana Banana of Costa Rica, Birgit of Austria (3 months practical in Holland) and Wim
Makan time. Whatever are they talking about... Care to join Liz and Sam?
The Sabahans: Liz, moi and Sampey
Black forest cake baked by Fafa (my Indonesian friend) and she took it all the way from their home in Armhem. Took with her the cream and candles. What a surprise! Girl...
Nice to be pampered by my dearest friend, Solainge of Curacao. Ed is her partner.
Andre, Iwan from Indonesia and Fafa also from Indonesia. They just met at the party.
Here's the ladies only... fun eh?
Father-in-law doesn't look good nowadays. He's so weak and has lost 25 kilos. He is in pain and suffering from his terrible cancer. He cries and moans about his pain. I didn't know what to say anymore, I always tried to say something funny to make him laugh.
My birthday is coming in a week time but we invited my FIL and his lady-companion (his close neighbour) to dinner in a Dutch restaurant in Spijkenisse. It was his favourite restaurant, so we went there. He was in pain and didn't eat so much but he did laugh with me for about small things. It was nice to see my FIL laughing.
It's Chinese New Year and I have been to Zoetemoeer today for an interview. Nice position but not the situation and the company. I like big company and this is a very small one. It's good also because by using public transport, I will need at least 2 hours to reach the office or to reach my home. Oh well, I will have to look further. I know now I don't want to work there.
My darling little nephew turns 4 today. The eldest grandchild in the family is going to be a grown-up boy. 4 years ago, it was a day before we left Malaysia for Netherlands and the day our little Owen came into this world. He was my dearest youngest brother's first son.
Happy birthday Owen ~ Jwayne~
Gefeliciteerd Schat. May all your dreams will come true.
We will make it happen honey.
Happy birthday to you, my darling.
How was your New Year's Eve? Ours was great. Although only with 3 couples, we had fun and enjoyed our time together. Of course, we didn't celebrate it in a restaurant, a pub, a beach or some other places but our gathering with good friends was precious.
We had simple Dutch dinner together with my Malaysian girlfriend, Sam and husband Michel, my Brazilian girlfriend Vilma and partner Ger and us.
Vilma and Ger.
After dinner, we had snacks, the Dutch tradition 'olie-bollen' (direct translation is oil-balls, a mixture of dough in water deep fried in oil. In Sabah we call this kind of 'kuih': kuih bom.).
Olie-bollen is served or eaten during the New Year's Eve. But it can be purchased from before Christmas when the bakers started to sell them. There are several types of olie-bollen: plain olie-bollen, krentenbollen (with dried grapes), apel-bollen (with apple) etc. It is normally served with sugar-powder of top of them.
A few minutes before the clock struck to 12.00 midnight.
A few seconds before New Year, champagne is ready.
HAPPY NEW YEAR - HUGS AND KISSES AND ALL THE BEST WISHES
Chinese style fireworks outside the house, with all the neighbours witnessing the New Year 2008.
More fireworks
And more...
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE POLDERVAART.
Dear all beloved family and friends,
Wish you all a wonderful Christmas and may the joy, peace and love be with us all always.
Seasons Greetings from Poldervaart Family
Netherlands
Received the first photos from Nicco. Mine are still in the camera, wondering if Peteri will send his too. Well, guess Nicco is on the way to Sweden now. These are some of Nicco's photos on Codrin and Fafa's birthday/anniversary party yesterday. About 12 people attended.
Smiling Nicco... hmmm, scared of the flash or what?
Birthday boy
Sweet smile of Fafa
Girls with sweet Peteri, our little brother... So young but so smart, he's from Finland. Yes, it was an international evening. From Finland, Sweden, Rome, Germany, Netherlands, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Some lucky prizes for the lucky ones...
Fooddddddd
Chatting, listening, the dance hasn't started yet.
From another angle.
The silly girls
Dancing time
Enjoying the time...
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Back to normal Saturday which means taking my sweet time wandering in my dreamland. Unfortunately dear hubby has to work today, so I've had my sweet dreams till late morning.
We went to the Christmas Party last night in Aalsmeer, a very big and sofisticated place called Events Center Aalsmeer which belongs to the TV man Joop van den Ende. The entrance was great and after leaving my winter jacket with a lady (I got a number 685), Wim and I were guided to a big room. Was it because we wore beautifully that night or something else, I would have no idea. Oh yes, after having my elegant dress for 2 or more years and left in the wardrobe, I finally decided to wear it. No one knows what would happen tomorrow.. That's not all, I was all bling-bling, from top to my feet. LOL
More than 400 people were at the party. Mostly the Adi-Rbk employees from four different area in the Netherlands and their partners/spouse.
Here are some pictures I took from my little Olympus. I'll share you again once I get the photos from the company.
The dessert
4 of my Rbk colleagues, and one lady is the spouse of that guy there... :P
There was a band entertaining the people
I call them the crazy girls. haha
Now you know what I mean
Dear hubby & yours truly. And my other colleagues from different depts.
'Billen' shoot... LOL... My very nice colleague - she is a footballer, an actress, a dancer and an accountant... nice eh?
Dance people... dance... woohoo!
One more pic ladies before we go...
The 2 colleagues... S and her lawyer boyfriend.
Have fun browsing...
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