Monthly Archives: September 2006
First Country Meeting
After almost 2 months working in this new company, I finally met the local controller in Germany and also the new controller who is now in the process of taking over the current controller’s job. Since this American company has been taken over by a German company, a lot of changes have been and will be taking places.
Hence the meeting today and tomorrow with the current and new controllers to discuss on the work done locally and also from the Shared Service Center in Rotterdam (i.e. done by my colleague, RM, and me for Germany, Austria and East Europe). RM who has just back from his 2 weeks vacation to Australia unfortunately has not been given time to chit-chat with other colleagues about his trip but to enter directly in the meeting room this morning. 
And poor him too, he has cold, guess it was from the changing of the weather or from the temperature in the plane. Who knows.
But I guess the meeting today was quite successful and hopefully we will reach a better understanding on both sides in producing the figures for our books. In case some of you are wondering, we, in SSC, are producing the actual figures while the local controllers producing the budget and forecast figures. So, we, both parties, work “alongside” in managing and finalising the financial statements of our countries.
Light lunch was delivered at noon and I believed it could feed the whole department because too many for the 5 of us. Dinner was also delicious. We ordered 2 surprisemenus for 6 and of course when you go to a famous Spanish restaurant, you would want to order Tapas. I guess I was already full from the first serve.
During dinner, we had general talk about work, social life and then we moved to the talk about the highest sales in Rotterdam, and the favourite of footwear and appareal. Sure, it was not ours. Why not? If you look at the way in promoting the brand, it is pretty poor. Apart from that, it is quite difficult to get the latest model or difficult to get order. By comparing to the other brands, it is quite shocking how you see the campaigns go on and on in promoting their products.
So, if you want to talk about sales figures, not this one. Oh, I would say not from the city.
Rome, Italy
Do you see the photo? This is one of the photographs I made during my trip to Rome, Italy in July 2006. I shall add more photos on Italy in the future.RET on strike
What a horrible day yesterday. Good that hubby was off otherwise I could not go to work. The RET was on strike the whole day. RET stands for Rotterdams Electrische Trams which include the trams in the city of Rotterdam, the busses and the metro from Rotterdam Central Station to Spijkenisse, where I live. Now, they have 2 lines, Erasmuslijn and Calandlijn. I used to use the Calandlijn to go to my former work now to Central Station, it’s Erasmuslijn the best to reach there.
So, imagine, no public transport so everywhere was the heavy traffic. Normal time from my house to the city is 20-30 minutes, now it took us almost 2 hours. Imagine that. After office hour, I went with a female colleague with another male colleague who live in the same city.
My Sisters, My Bestfriends
When I miss my sisters, I would look at their photos. For me, my sisters are the best friends of all. I used to ignore this priviledge but once I am older and wiser, I am always grateful with my sisters. Friends are good to have but once we have a misunderstanding, it is (more or less) all over. Even though you were the type of easy to forgive or always give and take or even the very down to earth kind of a person, it is having the same outcome from the other party is hard. So, I am glad for my best friends, my sisters.
This is the wedding photo one of my bestfriends (my younger sister)´s wedding with a group of friends.
To the Warehouse
We had a half-a-day trip to the warehouse today. The company ordered 2 taxis (van) for 11 people who have never been to the warehouse yet. Hubby and I like to drive to Maasvlakte to see the ferries coming in and out of Rotterdam harbours. And we always pass by the big building, shapped a huge box in blue.
My manager, 2 of my colleagues in the same team and I went with 7 other people from different department. We left office at about 9.30am and back at about 1.15pm. Maasvlakte is situated outside Rotterdam, and if there was no traffic, we would reach the place in 45 minutes.
Our trip was quite quiet when suddenly I saw a man was standing on top of a car in a professional pair of suit with cables on both side of his arms. I thought he was hanging himself but in a nice manner. 
Apparently they were making some sort of an advertisement.
We were thinking of perhaps it was the ads for another insurance company or so.
Since Amsterdam has restricted the making of commercial ads, Rotterdam still has a lot to offer. It seems that this city (or outskirts) are now busy with this kind of ‘free shows’.
They still were not done when we finished our warehouse tour and lunch. For such a short time commercial ads on television (a few seconds), they took a whole lot of pain to make it perfect but surely they make a lot of money too.
Dare I want to do such a job? Hmmmm
Today’s Lunch Break
Had a great time with my Venezuelan colleague today during the lunch break. We went to the center to shop. By walking faster, as if you were being chased by a mad man, you would arrive at the big shopping complex near the big market. Normal time to get there is 20 minutes but for us, perhaps less than 10 minutes. So, we went to the chique shop and bought some stationaries and books.
Ah, the guys are putting up the balloons. Nice to see how they work. These are people working with experience.
Due to our pledge to eat healthy, instead of buying the cakes which were shown in the bakkery, we passed by the fruit and bread shop. I usually buy my salad or fruit from this shop. We were fighting either to buy the already ready mango to take away but it costs almost thrice as the price from the whole mango. So, we both took each of the fruit. P was saying “I’ll put it back if it’s 5 euros.” The mango is big.
“Good afternoon, how much is this mango?”
“One euro.”
“Oh, lekker.” So she paid.
So, I thought, what if it was 5 euros? She might say “Niet lekker.” ??? or She suddenly forgot her purse??? hahaha
Have a pleasant evening. (I’m going to play the Malay musics I found out from the internet now.)
Good morning Wednesday
Just a quick note since I have my laptop switched on for the yoga pilates video. Had a brief exercise just to loosen up the muscles after a night fighting in my dreamland.
It is really tiring when you wake up in the morning and still want to continue the sleep because you need to finish the ‘job’. Which is, instead of finishing the job, you are drowning or falling. The consequences of this process are you lose your energy and you get so exhausted. Feel like your bones were being broken or something. So, a brief exercise in the morning is all I need to get back my energy. And you should too. It does help to energise your body back to the fresh you, for both body and mind. Don’t forget to drink lots of water.
Have a great day today.
See you later.
Rainy day today
Another ‘weather talk’ for the record. Yes, it is rainy today.
Why can’t we be blessed for a beautiful sunny day everyday, I can hardly know.
Wish you can just ‘exhibit’ your arms and belly in the summer but I guess it’s just a dream unless if you were in the very exotic country.
Why! In the winter season, no one dares to go out without a jacket. It is like a forbidden sin having to show your arms without covering them. Oh, sure someone dares to go naked if someone dares him a challenge. But this person could end up in a ‘special hospital’ perhaps, for being stamped as ‘MAD’.
I used to stay in bed and heat up the house to 28 degree Celcius. I could not stand the cold.
A friend was even worse, at that time she was new to this kind of weather too, she stayed in bed for 3 consecutive days. Practically 3 days. She was all shivering if she needed to go to the loo and then ‘bloop’ back to her bed. Imagine the fun when we recall all these memories, I almost pee on my pants for the good laugh.
When I started my employment in 2002 in this country, I had no choice but to accept the cold. Imagine I had to cycle for more than 30 minutes to my work, in the cold, rain, heavy storm and snow. Or worse I had to get out of the house and get the earliest bus to the metro station in centrum and wait for the next bus for 1 1/2 hour. Brrrrr…
After going through with the tough winter, we always look forward to the beautiful summer and wearing tops and shorts, sandals or slippers, or even just putting on the bikini.
It’s pretty frustrating most of the time when we have to bring along our summer jacket (which is thinner than the spring jacket) wherever or whenever we go. The weather here in the Netherlands is really really really (indeed 3x really) really unpredictable. One moment you are almost naked because of the too dang hot weather, and next you are almost knocked down some girls, just to get the next jacket to cover your naked body. However, that is only IF you were in the shopping area. Otherwise make sure you have a spare thin sweater in your bag all the time.
It’s pathetic of course, for being sorry for ourselves just because it is raining. Unless we do not have to put on the jacket, it should be fine. But this is on the contrary. Argghhh… I need a new umbrella or I’ll surely look like fighting with a beast in a swamp.
