May 2006 archive

One degree of seperation

Sunday, 28 May 2006 | Journal

Sunday afternoon. I forgot to do grocery shopping, so I decided to hop on the tram downtown for a late, late breakfast. I sat down at a place called Klavertje 4 for a sandwich and some juice.

I recently had lunch here with my Maltese friend Julie. When we were here, she told me she was pregnant. Just like my Hong Kong friend Andrea, who is due in 2 months if I’m not mistaken. I have yet to have the pleasure, but am sure I will at some point meet her German father. I hope May is doing well. She recently got married and moved to Germany from her native Thailand. A few days ago I went for some Japanese food with my Thai friend Marn and his Belgian boyfriend Frank. We had a great evening at Japan Inn. My Canadian friends Bradley and Simone, who live in Amsterdam, introduced me to what I think is one of the best Japanese restaurants in Amsterdam. We should all go there together sometime! But right now, we can’t, because Bradley and Simone are visiting relatives in Miami. My father just returned from visiting relatives in Canada, he was there for 10 days and I have yet to get ahold of him on the phone. He’s probably recovering from his jetlag. I’ve never met those relatives. But I have been to Canada, where my friend Natalie lives. On one side of the world. And on the other side of the world is my other friend Arjan, he’s Dutch and married to Nuy who is from Thailand. They happily live together in Bangkok. A few days ago my Korean friend Kim, who I at one time was hoping to marry at some point, told me that she was planning to book her holiday for after I have left for Bangkok too, so she can say goodbye to me. She’ll be visiting Turkey. My (half) Turkish friend Ayfer just returned from her trip to South Africa. I have yet to speak to her too, although I’m certain she had an amazing time there.

The world is such a small place.

The sandwich was good. I wish I could go to see my Italian friend Andrea in his espresso bar, he makes the best espresso. But his shop is closed on sunday.

The countdown has started

Today marks D minus 100 days. The countdown has started. In exactly one hundred days from now, my plane will take off from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and I will be on it with the stub of a one way ticket if all goes as planned. It seems such a long time to have to wait for another 100 days. I feel I’m ready and would be able to leave a week from today if need be. But finishing my project is an important agreement I made with my boss and I intend to honor it.

To make sure everything does indeed go according to plan and being the project manager that I am, I sat down a little while ago and made a list of things to do. Most of the things were related to physically moving, or rather, making sure my condominium was empty and my stuff sorted. I was lucky enough to sell my place months in advance and so all those things are mostly taken care off. It is a really nice feeling to not have to worry about that anymore.

Without permanent abode

Nearly two weeks have passed since I moved out of my condominium. I’ve been somewhat of a nomad over those 2 weeks and will probably continue to be over the next three months. Travelling for work, spending a few nights with Kim and then move to my dads place to catch up on my paperwork, some more work for travel, etc.

I’ve now got a temporary home. For the next two weeks anyway, although I will be travelling for work a lot too. Bradley and Simone are gone to visit family in Miami and I’m house sitting and feeding their cats.

As much as I love Kim and Given, it is nice to have ‘my own place’ again. It’s nice to chat with someone and ‘come home’ to someone. And it’s not like Kim and I feel the urge to spend every minute together, we actually just lead our own separate lives and sometimes find we’re having dinner or relaxing at the same time. But it feels different not having to fight over the remote, play the music I want and basically do whatever I want. I do feel Kim has found it hard to have someone invading her nest though. We’ll see how things go when I return in two weeks.

Although many think this nomadic existence is an unpleasant one I am actually quite enjoying it. The key, I have found, is to just accept the fact that you are where you are and try and make the best of a horrible hotel room instead of feeling sorry for yourself. And the fact that you have to constantly figure out what to pack and when you will be back at ‘base camp’ is really not an issue once you work it into your routine.

Update
Natalie had an interesting point about this. As were discussing on the phone how I felt having ‘my own home’ again, she said that perhaps it’s not so much the place you are at that makes for the ‘at home’ feeling but the fact that you can do your own little routine is what determines that. In the same sense that some people travel with their own pillow or need to have their a cup of tea before going to bed. It makes sense. I don’t know what my routine is. But I’ll be watching that…

Customer service

Tuesday, 16 May 2006 | Journal

So yesterday morning I had the last bit of stuff that needed to be moved to Kim’s place. I had overlooked it during the move this weekend, there was no time to go to Kim’s place and so I decided to store it in a locker at central station. Stupid.

When I walked into the locker section of central station (which has shrunk in size over the last few years, while the number of users is rising, go figure), it was packed with backpackers trying to find a spot to store their luggage. I found a locker, but when looking for change (a mind boggling €3.70) I discovered I had none. No problem, I thought, I’ll change it at the change machine … and this is where the night mare starts.

• Change machine 1: out of order, not working, tough luck, byebye … can happen, right? I’ll just try the other one.
• Change machine 2: shit outta luck buddy, no change, no nothing, byebye … oh well, i’ll try the office
• Office: yes, I know we are the service office for the lockers but I won’t change your money. i don’t care if you don’t have change, you want a locker, I don’t. Try the train ticket office on the other side of the station … sigh, typical dutch ‘service’, I’ll just get a pack of gum
• Kiosk: no sir, we don’t give change to match your desires, you are getting 2 €2 coins because your change is €4.00 and I could not care less if you only need €3.70 for your locker … at this point i started to get pissed off, i think she noticed and she ended up giving me the change i had requested.

You would think that after this I would happily run to the locker. But nothing less is through, I first had to wade my way back through all the backpackers to reach an empty locker. And then …

Homeless

Monday, 15 May 2006 | Journal

The final day of home ownership, for now at least. Who knows what the future will bring. At 16:13 today I signed over ownership of my condominium , after a succesful inspection and handing over the keys. Where did I go wrong! I had so much going for me and now look at me, I’m homeless! Why me!?

Ahum. Excuse me.

The past weekend went fairly well. The lady who bought all the furniture showed up, or rather, her son did and they took most everything. After that, Bradley and I went to get a van and moved all that was left to Kim’s basement. It’s completely full with my stuff; that which needs to be stored here permanently, possibly shipped and still for sale. Over the next few months, it will probably be emptied out. Bradley and I needed two rides over, but went smoothly. Thanks again B! The day following the move I took out all the carpeting, which was a lot easier than I had expected. After that, I went for drinks with Arjan, Nuy, Frank & Marn - to say goodbye to Arjan and Nuy because meetings prevent me from being at the airport when they leave (which is what I usually do).

The last night was spent on a mattress in a completely empty livingroom. And I’m talking concrete here! After waking up in the morning and taking a shower, I took the matress, sheets, towel and everything else and tossed it into a container. No more use for it. During the whole process of moving and the formalities today, I wasn’t really feeling any emotions about it all. It was a little weird to see my place so empty. But that was it really. Just stuff that needed to be done in preparation, just another appointment in my calender today.

I’ll stay with Kim for the next three and a half months, but I’ll also be house sitting a couple of times. Kim and I have never lived together, so although we’re both looking forward to spending time together we are also a little nervous about how well it will all go. The house sitting I think is a good way to ease into this living together deal. All things considering, we should be fine.

Just say yes

Thursday, 11 May 2006 | Leaving the Netherlands

On my way back to Amsterdam after a day of meetings, I was really tired and dozed in and out of sleep with the sun shining in my face, I received a call that really woke me up … it was mr. middle management!

After initial negotiations, he had asked me to put everything on paper in a letter addressed to him. He would then discuss with the HR department if or not the deal that we had made was legal and possible, after which he was going to respond. During the call just now he asked me to make a slight adjustment to the letter and send it to him again, he said he had already asked someone to draw up a response to my adjusted letter. I for some reason didn’t dare to ask, so I’m not sure if he has already asked the HR department about the whole thing. I think he will go to the HR department with my letter and his response, after which I will receive the letter if approved.

So it looks like things are going to work out. Remember, them saying “no” can still make this whole thing not feasible or at least a lot riskier. Fingers crossed.

Ready to move out

As I’m speeding through the country, attending meeting after meeting and spending nights in every corner of the country, I’m also preparing the upcoming weekend - the weekend of my big move. I’ll leave my precious condominium permanently next monday. Over the last week or so, I’ve been increasingly feeling sad about having to leave my home. Although with it, the anticipation of departure day has also been growing so it’s not like I’ve also started doubting my decision. I’m sure that will happen at some point, but not just yet. Right now it’s just about having to leave the place I’ve lived for the last few years, with it’s incredible view, location and all.

I will move in with Kim. She and I are well aware of the risks that are involved with my moving in with her and Given. We have actually had some discussions about it tuesday night, but have decided to give it a go anyway. So I’ve moved my internet connection (very important!) to her address and will move my things to her apartment on saturday. I won’t sleep there until sometime next week.

All in all, I think having to deal with all the issues involved in leaving my home months before my departure day is a really good thing. Although there are some additional things to take care of, such as finding temporary residence, it does give me a feeling of having less stress in the last month before I go.

As far as my stuff goes …

Because my fathers’ address will be my official residence, I’ve moved all my paperwork to his home. For the next months, I’ll go down there to do my paperwork, pay my bills, etc. regularly. At some point he and I will discuss how to deal with incoming mail and what not after my departure. In notifying companies about my new address, I’ve found that this is an ideal opportunity to slim the volume of mail I get. I’ve notified the companies that I’ll continue to have a contract with of my new address, the rest has received a letter I’ll be moving abroad and so they can take me out of their files.

Most of the furniture and other stuff has been sold and picked up. The big load will be picked up on saturday by the lady who bought most of it in one go. The things that are left to sell, will be stored in Kim’s place so I can sell it from there.

The decision if or not to have things shipped has been postponed. So all the things I will leave in the Netherlands permanently AND the things I might leave here or might want to take with me have also been stored in Kim’s basement. I’m still looking for a permanent solution and still researching the shipping option.

On monday, somewhere around 16:00 I will no longer be a home owner. Snif.

Sightseeing Holland

Wednesday, 10 May 2006 | Journal

For my current project, I travel the country extensively. Tonight I’m in Groningen, where I will spend the night before attending a 9am meeting. And as I’m sitting here, soaking up the evening vibe and enjoying some sushi¹, I’m thinking how appropriate it is that this is the last project I do before I leave the Netherlands.

I get to see all sides of my country and spend time in places I never would have visited otherwise. Sometimes my preconception about certain things, places or locations are confirmed. And sometimes, like in the case of Groningen, I’m pleasantly surprised to discover what a great city this really is. Because I travel by train, I meet interesting people or sometimes just doze off in the sun. And sometimes people annoy the hell out of me with their typically dutch behavior.

But everything considered, and hoping the weather stays this way, I think this is the perfect last project. Oh and I do love the actual work too, which makes it even better.

Happy birthday, Marn!

A week ago last tuesday, my friend Marn celebrated his birthday. Because he and Frank were away for a short holiday at that time, Arjan and Nuy threw him a sort of surprise party last sunday to which I was also invited.

I had a great time. It’s always nice to see what I refer to as the ‘Thai-Dutch’ group, because what initially brought them together were the fact that the women - well, all except Marn are women - are from Thailand and they met taking dutch classes. There were others, but the majority was from this group. Anyway, the girls naturally took the opportunity to chat in their native tongue, while the guys did their typical thing and talk guy stuff.

Or well, Thailand was a popular subject. At least I think it was. Or maybe I was just being annoying and talking about Thailand this and Thailand that and thats why I think Thailand was a popular subject. Regardless, it was nice to see everyone again and I feel I’m really getting to know a few of the guys in the group. I also got to talk to my teacher. She instantly remembered who I was without me even introducing myself, even though we had only met briefly in august. She said we would start classes the beginning of june. She’s a really nice lady and I enjoyed chatting with her.

And ofcourse the food was awesome. Both the snacks in the afternoon and the table full of Thai dishes in the evening were aroi maak! Both courtesy of Arjan & Nuy Catering Services, who did a fabulous job.

Notorious notary

Tuesday, 9 May 2006 | Journal

Recently I sold my condominium after it being on the market for no more than 6 days, a quick sale even for Amsterdam standards. I was quite happy with the speed of the sale and also the price of the sale. I was even happier when last week I heard the buyers had agreed to move in on May 15th, next monday. We originally agreed upon June 1st, but were both ready and willing to exchange 2 weeks early. This is the first time I’m selling a property. Especially since the buy too was out of the ordinary (I bought my condo at an auction), this whole process is new for me. Nothing special, just paperwork really. But one thing has surprised me to no end … the notary.

These people do nothing but draw up contracts, in the sale of a condo an undoubtedly standard contract. Simple production work, one would think. Along the same lines as flipping burgers at Burger King. But this firm (name available upon request, as to avoid hiring them) has been decidedly unprofessional and lax with the transfer of my condo.

A week ago I received the draft papers for the transfer, which said I would purchase a second parking spot and then sell the whole thing (condo + 2 parking spots) to the buyers. While it has no legal, financial or fiscal consequences for me, I had never agreed to doing this and was even more surprised that when I raised the issue the notary actually had the nerve to say I had agreed to this. Luckily, my real estate agent corrected it all. And this morning, I receive their billing statement in which there are 3 errors in amounts and 2 dates are incorrect. Yikes.

Yes, I know, I shouldn’t be such a baby and not whine about this. But what an incompetence! And I want a free drink while I wait for my new burger!

Raving about RSS

Friday, 5 May 2006 | Off-topic

RSS is a standard way to gather information in a structured form and manner that requires little effort from the user. And it does so perfectly, if you ask me. For quite a number of years now, RSS¹ has been around. And for all that time I never really considered it being usefull to me. A little over a year ago I decided to give it a serious try and it has changed the way I keep myself up to date on world affairs and my personal interests.

“Rob, what the hell does that mean?”, I hear you ask.

Well, what I mean by structured form is that RSS more or less forces publishers to adhere to certain standards² in publishing their information. So instead of having my brain adapt to the different layouts of each website I visit to stay up to date and scanning the screen for the information I’m looking for, I simply decide on one format in my RSS reader and all information is formatted in a consistent and comfortable manner.

In saying that it requires little effort from the reader, I’m referring to the fact that it’s easy to subscribe to an RSS feed and that my RSS reader then keeps checking that feed for new articles - notifying me in the way I have decided is best for me.

“Reader, feed, RSS, subscribe … how does it actually work?”

Alright. If you’re like I used to be, you probably read a few websites regularly that have information you care about. You probably subscribe to a few mailinglists, because they too provide information you care about. These two things have something have in common that the information you receive through them is 99% ‘read-only’ - meaning you don’t ever hit a ‘reply’ button like you do in e-mail. You read it and thats it. Like TV! The daily, weekly or (even worse) incidental reading of those websites is a pain because you keep having to adapt your brain to each website layout. Perhaps less so if you don’t read 10 sites daily like I used to, but still. The mailinglist are an equal nuisance, because they put items in your email inbox that are non-personal and just ‘information providing’.

Many website publishers and mailinglist providers these days also offer their information by way of an RSS feed - or ‘feed’ for short.

An RSS reader is a program you install on your computer and is sort of a cross between an email program and a web browser. With this reader you can subscribe to a feed, meaning you click on an icon on the website or add a URL much like you would in a browser and the reader puts the address in its list of feeds. It then periodically (every 10 minutes, hour, day, week) checks each site in that list for new articles, downloads them if there are any and then saves them in something that is like the inbox of your email. You can then read that information at a time that is convenient for you. There is no need to be online³ to do so, since the information is stored locally on your computer. For instance, I do it during my commute.

And the cool thing is that it’s not only official websites of big media companies that publish RSS feeds. It’s not only ‘news’ that you will find in your RSS reader. All types of information can be subscribed to. For instance, someone who writes an online journal might publish the articles in a feed - I do that too. Or you could subscribe to new photos published on the internet by friends - my friends Bradley and Simone publish their photos on a photo sharing website called Flickr and I automatically get their photos in my RSS reader.

While perhaps you might not really see the use of RSS right away, neither did I before I actually started using it last year. Now I find myself wondering why it’s not used inside my company for keeping people up to date on things they care about, or really why it’s not used in a more widespread manner. I guess the masses still have to catch on.

I highly recommend you give it a try.

On the first day of springtime

Wednesday, 3 May 2006 | Journal

Today was a gorgeous day in the Netherlands, the first in it’s kind this year. The sun was out and the temperature rose to a very comfortable 25 degrees (77F) in some parts of the country. Finally, spring is here.

It’s weird that temperatures that here are considered ‘warm’ are in fact the lowest temperatures I can expect in Bangkok in the wintertime. I haven’t been in Bangkok during peak temperatures, so I’m curious how I’ll deal with that. I’ll arrive at the end of the rainy season and will then ease into winter (for some reason, I can’t keep a straight face when I call something that involves these kind of temperatures “winter”), before I’m exposed to the highs of april.

Anyway, before I go I have a whole summer ahead of me over here. And the first day was amazing. I was lucky in that my last meeting finished early and I was able to sit outside on a patio and work in the sunshine for a couple of hours at my uncles’ restaurant. The rest of the week is looking to be similar weather, I just hope the weathermen are right!

If so, this weekend I will make my annual ‘falling in love’ walk downtown. Every year, in one of the first beautiful and sunny weekend, I find my way to the downtown area (the canals) of Amsterdam and walk around aimlessly for a couple of hours. During those few hours, I fall in love with this city. The green trees lining the canals, the boats on the water, the little patio’s outside, the people on their bikes, the breathtaking buildings, the nice and comfortable life that goes on in these streets … Amsterdam like this is a city I thoroughly love and probably always will. She is unique. Ofcourse there are things I don’t like about this city (or well, village) … but we’ll have our annual encounter, where I put on my pink glasses and perceive her to be flawless.