Monthly Archives: April 2008
Queen’s Day
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!
Rotterdam is Proud
Yep, Feyenoord won 2-0 from Roda JC on Sunday evening match. The got the KNWBbeker (beker=cup) and today the Stadhuis (City Hall) at Koolsingel in Rotterdam is full of fans. It seems this year the people have changed. No stupid hooligans and no fights. Good for them.
Rotterdam is proud of their favourite foodball club.
Go Feyenoord! Go Feyenoord
The curse of being older
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*)
New Contract and New Challenge
I signed the contract today.
I have to do a lot of things required by the corporate policy such as going to the ‘Stadhuis’ (City Hall) to get a written confirmation which will be done in a couple of weeks by the ministry saying that I am free of criminal activities or any bad intentions and that I have behaved very well as a citizen of this country. That will cost me EUR30.05. I know because I did it once for ING and now for ‘LB’. Some other companies don’t have this requirement.
There are other pile of paperwork that I have to fill in as well for the Human Resource Dept to get their job done. Health insurance, pension scheme, choosing between saving scheme (spaarloon, maximum about EUR603 per person p.a. and the only thing which is free from income tax) or life saving scheme (which is not so appealing to me because I still have to pay tax), partner’s pension scheme (a special arrangement from this company for couples) and the list goes on.
This company has recently done a merger with another company in December 2007, the people in Hoofdorp will move to this office (the global EHQ in Rotterdam except for Finance, in Houston) in June. Since I came from the same type of environment, I asked questions about the 2 different cultures between 2 companies and then, which is a very important topic, the motivation of the employees from both companies. I suggested several things to the HR Manager (who is also from the other company) and one of them is having workshops for the employees so to avoid having conflicts between them etc.
I guess I am lucky to join the company after the merger happened. I can act neutrally between the 2 companies instead of taking sides.
The contract signed and I started working today (unofficially-will be exchanged for the 2nd of May) i.e. to get the hand-over from the lady whose last day was today. I guess people still need to learn on the ‘how to’ hand over their work before they leave. I never left a company before documenting all the processes and knowledge and therefore whoever joins the company I have left behind will have all the information they needed insteed of struggling to get the knowledge from someone else who knows nothing. The same reason people know me by name although they have never met me.
I was introduced to most of the absence colleagues by my new manager, EJ, who apparently is a nice guy. At lunch, he and I walked almost half of the city to get a Dutch-style-sandwich and then we ate while walking back to the office. He has been in this company for 10 years and have done 6 joins as an accountant/financial analyst before becoming a manager. I made a mental note not to take that long to join him in this company. He told me more about the job itself, the plant that is now being shut down to follow the rules of the authorities and the plans. I was so glad I knew what he was talking about although I have never worked in chemical industry before and never did the management accounting in reality.
OK, I could have been like EJ if only I accepted one of the offers as a Head of Finance and Administration or Accounting Manager or even Group Controller but because of the distance I had to refuse. If I were a bitch, I would say that to the arrogant wife who visited the office that day and correcting me loudly and sharply that she was a “SENIOR” Cost Accountant instead of just a Cost Accountant. LOL this is just too funny. It seems somebody still has to grow up here. Unprofessional way of thinking. Typical!
Unfortunately she is my immediate contact at the plant (but naturally I will have many other contact persons in other departments or countries). I will be the FA for a big joint venture plant in M between our company and a company in Germany and I will have to contact her for the figures of the costing and such. If I could handle some REAL tough -and a pain in the ass- people before, I could easily handle this snobbish.
That’s a good thing of finally being able to adopt the Dutch culture of being direct instead of being a quiet and shy Asian lady. Talking about this, I will share this new culture to my fellow Sabahans later on which brings me to be where I am today.
Sushi with Sampey
Whenever I think of sushi or seafood, I would drool like crazy. But once eating the all-you-can-eat-sushi-and-such, I dare not to even think about food anymore.
That was what happened to me today. Sam, my Sabahan/Paparian very close friend in this country, and I went to have lunch in Rotterdam this afternoon in a Japanese restaurant. She has never been to this place, so I recommended her to come here. Although Sam does not eat raw food/fish, the restaurant has lots of choices for hot meal.
We ate so much and enjoyed our time together. On the way to the Central Station, I almost couldn’t carry my stuff: the pile of papers/contract which I picked up at the new company earlier, the very heavy books for my study which I just bought at De Slegte, the Shiseido stuff and not to forget my FULL stomach.
This would be our lunch AND dinner. Dare I to think of hot noodle soup right now?
Good news today
Yeayyyyyy…
I almost fell off from my chair. I got a phone call from the Corp HR Rep at the new company. And she told me my monthly gross salary that I would be getting. It was enormous pay compare to the last one. Yep! You heard me. But I still haven’t seen the letter of offer yet, probably I misunderstood.
The only bad thing is, I have to start paying 50% of my salary to income tax for the rest of my annual wages. Yikes!!!
OK, it’s time to study. I have until the end of this month to study and I will start working on the 1st of May. Thanks to those who pray for me. You’re great… 
(The photo on the left is at my ex-colleague’s (a South American now friend) house in Amsterdam when I visited her in March.)
God is good
I planned to go to church today. But in the morning I was a bit lazy to get up from bed.
But something came up, I was not happy inside me. As usual, I sang a song of Praise to God and asked for His guidance. Then, I decided to go to Church just in case God will show me the light there.
The Mass starts at 10.30 am normally but I was already there at 10.10am. So, I spent all my time at the Virgin Mary’s room to pray Rosary after lighting up a candle. It felt really good to be with God and Our Lady again. Although I always do this at home in my room or anywhere, it feels better here with the sounds of the organ from the Church, the bell and all the candles.
Today’s theme was God is always with us. The priest had the kids showed their drawings and shared where and when God is with them/us. After the mass, I went back to Our Lady’s quiet room and once finished I went out.
There were 3 Philipina ladies looking at me and talking to themselves at the same time. I knew it was Tagalog but I didn’t understand what they were saying but I also knew that they were wondering about me. So, I looked at them and said, “No, I am not from Philippines. I am a Malaysian.”
We became acquainted and I also met another Singaporean whom they call auntie Margaret because she is 75 but boy, she is so active and shows me her bellydance in front of other people. What a funny lady. After the coffee time, 2 of the ladies sent me to home and then I invited them to have drinks at our home. They were very nice ladies, around 52 and almost 60 but looked really like in the 40s. I call them both Auntie Mherzy and Auntie Nila. I am glad I went to church today. (I went alone because dear hubby had to work this weekend.)
God is there whenever I need Him. Praise the Lord.
Finally A Great Offer
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.
