It's been quite a while now, so let's just start at the beginning, shall we..

On Monday, obviously, we had to go back to work after a really nice weekend. From then on my days of complaining about boring jobs are gone. It has been ridiculously busy this week. On top of that, my colleagues left me on Monday and Tuesday. There was a training they had to attend and so there we were, me and the big boss. Quite scary but we managed. It was a good experience for me though, especially all the proofreading. Loads of Dutch translations came in and I had the honour of reading them and pointing out to the translators what a horrible mistakes they had made. Can't get any more satisfying than that. Mind you, I did have some Tropicana Smoothie nightmares after having proofread translations about this product for a couple of days in a row. But as I said, I can't complain any longer, so that's all sorted!

On Monday, I also started going to the gym and I absolutely love it! It's a very small one, but all I need (I did mention the sauna, the jacuzzi and the sunbed, didn't I?!). No, I really enjoy it because I now feel as if I'm doing something useful and I'm always very proud of myself after having been working out for 1.5 hours. On Friday though, I was less lucky: I was having a shower when all of the sudden all lights went out. I thought...oh ow, I'll be spending my weekend at the gym. But suddenly someone shouted that it was a powercut. So there I was, under the shower, covered in shampoo, not knowing where to go, not knowing how to open my locker (padlock) and get my towel. What an excitement! For all those we are having dirty thoughts by now: I did not ask someone else to dry me off and I was wearing pants and stuff when I went home...

The weekend was very nice again. On Friday some Belgian couple and their 3 children came over and stayed till Sunday, lunchtime. So I decided to amuse myself, oh and I did! I went to the shopping centre to get myself new training trousers but ended up with loads of other things. Well you know, I needed an outfit for that evening and as I have issues with making decisions I needed to buy two, you see... So that evening I went out for dinner as it was Kristian's birthday. It was really nice, food was great, company (mind the exceptions - no names) was brilliant, we had a great laugh. Yep, I did enjoy that! So that night, I stayed over at Dan's (thx again), in his castle. I had my own bedroom and major bathroom. Loved it! Then on Sunday we went to Ikea in the afternoon, had some lunch there and got frustrated because they didn't have the bed Stu and Lotte wanted. Never mind, good excuse to go back soon. Afterwards we went to a quize at the pub. Very nice, they even served food. But no need in announcing the results...

There we go, fully updated. This young lady needs a bed!

Pictures England: Lotte & Stu's moving- in party, London. Brighton

Bye mummy!

What a lovely, yet exhausting, weekend!

My mother arrived on Friday, together with Lotte's parents. We met at Nero's for a coffee and I could immediately see she was already enjoying it. All she could say was : "'t Is vakantie!". Her last holiday was like 2/3 years ago, so I thought it was really brave of her to finally do something for herself, as she earns it more than anyone.

So, after a lovely dinner we all went to bed quite early. My mother slept like a (rather noisy :-) ) rose, not having to wake up to go to work or clean the house...

On Saturday my mum and I went to London. The weather at first was brilliant, until it started raining and it actually stayed grey for the rest of the day. Also, it was extremely crowdy. We had great fun though, I really enjoyed spending some time with her without anything else on our minds. I showed her everything London had to offer. We even were lucky enough to be on time for the change of guards at Buckingham Palace. Really nice! Shame though my mother had a bit of a fight with the camera and only took a picture of the street. But, keeping in mind she's related to me, she was eventually clever enough to handle the piece of technology. Well done her! We also included Harrods in our tour. A bit too crowdy because of the sales, but a good experience. We sat on top of a typical red London double decker bus. Eventually we ended our tour at the Big Ben and Houses of Parliament, singing "Always look on the bright side of life" and dancing in the middle of the street. Absolutely brilliant!

On Sunday we all went to Brighton. (6 in 1 car). Me and my mum first did some shopping, sightseeing and then went to the beach to meet up with the others. It was a lovely day: sun was shining, bleu sky, nice sea wind, couldn't have been better. Driving back, we did some off-roading (aka 'joy riding') and enjoyed the beautiful English countryside. We had dinner at The Beacon, a nice and cosy pub with the most amazing view ever seen.

And this morning we had to say goodbye. I am really glad she had such a good time and that she was able to relax a little...

How we love holidays!

Mummie 's coming!

God bless rubbish translators! At least they provide you with some work. I did some Dutch proofreading this week. Really fun, finding all those mistakes and having the right to send "not so nice" emails. So yes, I am finally feeling useful.

The rest of my week was nice and calm. On Wednesday I went swimming in the local pool. It's offcial now, swimming is the most boring sport all time. Although...the life guard was pretty nice. Anyway, I decided I wanted to go the gym instead. Fairly expensive though, £40 for 4 weeks. I must mention though that sauna and jacuzzi are for free. That makes it all worth it!

Earlier today the clouds suddenly opened up and provided us with a little lake in front of the office door. Even a nice waterfall in the middle of the street. Cars were almost swimming around. It was rather scary. Especially, because at that time my mother was on the boat, on her way here, to see her beloved daughter. It did, however, only lasted for an hour so I suppose she'll be allright. If everything's fine, she should be in Tunbridge Wells by now. Really looking forward to seeing her after work!

And tomorrow...I am taking her to the Big City!

Update next week...

Me, myself and London

On Saturday, little Me went to the big City! Yes indeed, I did make it back, but not without any problems...

It all began on Trafalgar Square. I was taking some pictures (as tourists do) and all of the sudden a police man started screaming at me: "Go back, we are clearing the square". So okay, little Me started walking in the other direction. By that time loads of police had arrived, as well as the fire brigade. Then the whole crowd was ordered to go inside of the National Gallery and only ten minutes later we were allowed to go out through the back door. Never found out what had actually happened... So there I was, all disorientated, in this little street that wasn't even on the map. So I started walking around, and around... Oh yes, I realised I was just walking in circles. Good thing little Me is a Great map reader, and so I managed to make it to Buckingham Palace. Afterwards I walked to Picadilly Circus, St James's Park, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Russel Square, St Paul's Cathedral, Tate Modern and back along the South Bank. I have walked miles and miles (resulting in some beautiful blisters), but I had a real good time.

Mother...prepare yourself!

Test test

Hi there!

Not quite sure what I'm supposed to do, but I guess it is okay for me to just start writing stuff that will bore all of you. So let's start with the beginning, will we:

I've arrived in the beautiful England last Friday. A whole bunch of Belgians stayed over at Stu & Lotte's new/old appartment(rumour has it that Bram might snore), waiting for the big day to come. And there it was, the moving-in party on Saturday. We had a big BBQ, followed by a bonfire. My boss-to-be was there too, but, shy is I am, I did not dare to go and talk to him. Shame in me! I do want to apologise, but, again, to shy a girl. Never mind, we had a great time! And I do mean "English time", as everyone was vast asleep at 12.30 o'clock. For Belgians, and especially Yellow-Towners, this sounds very odd. That night, all I could dream of was Tommeke. Oh yes, I saw that cute Belgian (buttom) driving by, on Sunday. The Tour de France came right through Tunbridge Wells, and we had the honour of waiting for 2 hours and see some coloured spots flying by in 3 seconds. I was so excited. I have filmed the whole event. It didn't really work though, as all you can hear is some crazy chick screaming "Boooooooooonen"! Hmmm...wonder where those painful glands come from.

Monday...I was shaking. My first day @ Wordtrans. First impression: warm & too organic (Lotte will understand). No, it was rather nice, as the first thing I could see was people running around on bare feet. Think about it, going to work, taking off your shoes, go and make yourself a nice cup of coffee, eat some cereals, chat a bit,.... Not the Belgian way of doing things, but it does make work much more pleasant. Until I found out what I would be doing. I was looking forward to keep busy with setting up projects and stuff, only, there are no projects at the moment. So what am I doing: cleaning up the mess. Not literally of course, I am updating the Translator's Database. Hard to explain what it is all about...just pretty boring. But I am still hoping for some project to come along, so I can do some real work, which would be much more satisfactory. Da komt allemaal in de sjakos, as Geelish people would say.

Right, I suppose I should get back to work, as my lunch break is over.

Technology, I trust on you to do your job, so that I haven't been writing all this for nothing. Next step: importing some pictures....

You'll hear from me again! Bye!