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October 29, 2004
Photo Friday:Still Life
This is my first ever entry in Photo Friday. Its a disapointing beginning but I've decided its better to make a start and post something (ANYTHING) rather than wait for the right day, which quite frankly, may never happen. It was taken with any one of series of disposable cameras after our Canon G2 was stolen in Spain in August*. (Bastards, bastards, bastards!) What I particularly liked about this was the corny composition, accentuated by the almost painterley appearance of the scenery, which I then exaggerated a little, (but not much!) with Photoshop. Its as flat-as-a-pancake and very still.
*Footnote: Yesterday I discovered that my Visa card which was also stolen is being used daily at toll booths in and around Barcelona, despite having been cancelled, blocked etc back in August. Anyway, its been cancelled again so the COMPLETE BASTARD who has the Visa card, probably the camera and MOST importantly the memory cards with the 100+ photos of Jacob, Ron and I in and around Poncebos is in for a rude shock tonight on his way home from work. I hope it well and truly FUCKS UP his weekend big time. (Phew; Deep Sigh. I'm Ok now, I'm over it, no really......)
Posted by Faith at 11:02 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 28, 2004
Crumpler Surf
In my pre-Dutch life in Melbourne I had a Crumpler bag. It's now in a box in the back of my mother's house being too old and daggy to bring to the Netherlands with me. I've never seen many crumplers here but recently they seem to be having a bit of an European debut.
My ex-colleague Jaap was talking about getting one not-so-long-ago and a similar discussion is in progress on macbebekin and this morning at Cafe Krull they were there in the most recent edition of NL20 as the-must-have-accessory (except they seemed to think they came from America?).
Spurred by this and a camera-bag-inspired-existential-crisis* I've been trawling the internet and noticed one thing about Crumpler I HADN'T known before. They make some damn KEWL internet sites.
Crumpler Australia (made by Sputnik)is brilliant and you must try ALL the buttons, bells and whistles, just go mad clicking, to make sure you don't miss out on anything. Then I went to Crumpler in the States which was a bit dissapointing, a bit too cleaned-up and corporate. Crumpler Germany were on the right track, true Crumpler style with some nice German twists. And finally Crumpler Europe which it turns out is just Germany in disguise but with a nice intro. (how scary....?)
After that it was all down hill, Crumpler in the Netherlands, well we can only live in hope. Crumpler Japan was suprisingly, the most dissapointing site. Given the Japanese penchant for bizzare sites this was a great let down, or is its ordinariness what make this site bizzare in Japanese terms? Crumpler UK was also disappointing, I thought eccentricity was meant to be a British skill?
PS. I hope you read everything about Chicken Tex.
PPS. How come I never have clients like this?
PPS. Are there more Crumpler sites out there?
Posted by Faith at 01:36 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
October 27, 2004
Number crunching
On a SUPER-NERDY note, it hasn't escaped my attention that I'm not the only one who has had to go to some trouble of late to ban IP addresses. (I'm just soooooooooooo perceptive)
Brian Weatherson has thoughtfully published his list of banned IP addresses so I have combined it with my list and you can download the "IP Collection 2004 Vol I" from here should you wish.
Download Banned IP addresses list. (Right click and choose "Save target as" or double-click to open the list in IE...excuses for all the assumptions in these instructions)
Footnote:It was interesting (and scary) to see just how many IP addresses WEREN'T in both lists.
Posted by Faith at 11:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The reflex
Jacobs's latest party trick is to stick his fingers in his throat amd make himself gag. (VERY Calista!) Tremendously impressed with this reflex, he has enjoyed playing with it for the last few days.
And so, the inevitable happenned, and Jacob is one step higher up the cause-and-effect educational ladder. Papa spent a cosy 30 minutes in peak hour traffic last night in a small car with a baby covered in his own vomit. While papa tried not to breathe all the way from Ijsselstein to Amsterdam, Jacob cooed away happily in the back doing a Pro Hart. Nice to see the boy's creative side.
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October 26, 2004
Koninginnedag navelstreng mutsje
I've finally started and finished something within a reasonable time! This Umbilical Chord hat (navelstreng mutsje)from the Stitch 'n Bitch Handbook was knitted in two evenings. (I know you serious knitters would have done it in five minutes but I can only aspire to such productivity, at least while there's a glass of wine at my elbow...). It is knitted in Rowan's Cork Delight, which, as I've said before, is practically edible it's so delicious to look at. You can't see it in the photo but there is a slight colour variation through it, the effect is pumpkin soup with a wee bit of creme fraiche. As I said, delicious!
It is destined for Jaap and Edmee. At least the baby will be well-prepared for Koninginnedag!
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October 25, 2004
Mars to Earth....
Having spent almost four years immersed in Dutch life and culture, (Dutch job, Dutch friends, Dutch hubby and Dutch baby, strangely enough, NOT Dutch food!) I've decided its time to extricate myself to some extent and take a peek at what the rest of the world is up to. As part of a self-imposed "extra-gration" course I went along to the Expat Fair at the Beurs de Berlage on Sunday and helped man the ABIE stand and also talk to people about The Southern Cross Group.
It was halfway through the afternoon before it dawned on me that this was the first time in two and a half years that I've spent so much of the day speaking only English. And that I'd finally stopped stuttering and spluttering and using strange mixtures of Dutch grammar + English words as I do when friends and family are staying from Australia.
And it was fascinating to see just how many Australians there are living in the Netherlands and to hear all the different stories about how they ended up here and what they were all doing.
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October 24, 2004
The Boy
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October 22, 2004
Click click
"De Bok is Los" and last night I celebrated with Odette over a gezellig couple of bok beers. On the way home I crossed the Dam where a fair has parked itself outside the Royal Palace. I take it the queen and family are staying in the Hague for the duration!
Earlier in the day I popped down to Utrecht to the Adobe Digital Photo Tour which was well worth the trouble. What DID suprise me was that most people attending were older than me. These days, that is saying something!
Posted by Faith at 10:54 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 21, 2004
No smoke without a moustache
Yesterday afternoon while tricycling home from the creche Jacob and I came across two firetrucks in the Eerste van de Helst Straat, just outside the butcher Cor Noz. A cherry picker was aloft and there hovering above the butcher's, outside someone's apartment window, were two of the best looking fireman you've ever seen. In uniform. What was really remarkable about the two of them was that neither had a moustache. A remarkable thing in any part of the world for a fireman. In uniform.
Being a devoted wife and mother the presence of two very-handsome-fireman-without-moustaches-in-uniform meant absolutely nothing to me and I would have hurried on but Jacob wanted to stay and watch the fascinating red trucks, not to mention the fate of his favourite, the enormous fibreglass bull that occupies the pavement outside the butcher Cor Noz. And being a devoted wife and mother I had to give the boy what he wanted.
It soon became clear that there wasn't a fire, and no one seemed to know why the fireman were there so most of the crowd eventually melted away. Maybe it was the launch of a new nationwide fireman-without-moustaches service?
Posted by Faith at 11:17 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 20, 2004
I'm awake now!
So, this morning I went into the bank to do some routine housekeeping on my accounts and was startled out of my first-thing-in-the-morning-semi-slumber when the nice young man at reception said 'Are you SURE you have an account at this branch?".
A little-bit-more-awake, I assured him that not only was I sure but actually I have TWO accounts here with QUITE a bit of money in them thank you very much. Friendly but firm. Still calm. Despite this the nice-young-man-at-reception wasn't able to find any trace of my accounts and now WIDE AWAKE I was ushered to a desk to consult a consultant.
Happily, consultant found a record of my accounts. Unhappily, they had several 0's, in every column, on the WRONG side of the comma. (They use a comma in Holland, not a full stop, dus, think $0,00)
It was at this point that I started sputtering and godverdommering about my two accounts with a SIGNIFICANT amount of money in them. (Think, more-money-than-I've-ever-had-in-my-life, think, house-deposit, think, panic!)
Turns out some precipient bank employee has closed my accounts and moved them to a branch in a city in which it has not YET ever occurred to me to live.
At this news I went all FOREIGN on the poor woman and started asking the sort of questions that only foreigners ask,.... like WHY? Why had someone closed my accounts and moved them to another city? This bought out the latent Dutchness in my consultant who looked at me aksance, mentally checked if she could remember where the security button was and asked me why, WHY had someone closed my accounts and moved them to another city?
We spent about 30 seconds locked into our micro-trans-global-dispute, she with an "Only-a-foreigner-would-allow-this-to-happen-to-their-money" look on her face and me with a complimentary "Only-a-Dutch-bank-would-do-this-to-my-money" expression on mine before we decided on a truce. She would arrange for my accounts to be moved back to the branch from whence they came and I would return in a couple of days and sign a lot of bits of paper.
By the time I emerged from the bank onto van Baerlestraat I was desperately in need of a martini. As it was only 10.00am I settled instead for the Aftsap and a wool splurge. Ron has decided that what he wants more than anything in life at the moment is for me to knit him a scarf with lots of Rowan's Big Wool and some 8mm bamboo needles.
I'll tell him about his decision when I get home.
Posted by Faith at 12:55 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
Too taxing
I went to a seminar at the Kamer van Koophandel, (Chamber of Commerce) on Monday night to find out everything-I-need-to-know about being a freelancer. Turns out its quite simple really. There are two ways of doing things. The first entails you "being-taxed-in-the-same-manner-as-everyone-else", the second delivers "significant-tax-advantages". I'm guessing maybe 2 people in the country have achieved the criteria demanded by the second.
Of course the Belastingdienst clears it up nicely.
Posted by Faith at 10:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 19, 2004
Overheard in Cafe Krull:
Girl: You know I was in America recently and ordered an Iced Tea and they gave me just normal tea, cold, with ice blocks and mint! Just normal everyday tea, like you'd normally drink but cold!
Boy: What no bubbles? Not Lipton Ice or something?
Girl: No! It was disgusting!
Posted by Faith at 02:41 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 18, 2004
Grey
One thing I will NEVER get used to is the utterly-soul-destroying-greyness of winter in this part of the world. I don't suffer from SADD so much as UFM (Utterley Fucking Miserable). Its 'the darkness' Shauny was writing about combined with a limp greyish light that will hang around for oh, six months or so. The sky hangs down around your ears and its oh so damp and grey.
My only glimmer of hope is a nice cold winter with lots of sub-zero temperatures. THEN we get blue skies, sun and dry air!
This morning I took Jacob to the creche in the dark and rain, and tonight I'll pick him up in the dark and rain. Despite my enormous investment in mega-wattage for the living room, I'm sitting here in the gloom watching my spirits sink faster than the Titanic. They'll bob up again sometime in May 2005. Until then expect MISERY (interspersed with brief interludes of happiness from Istanbul, the French Alps etc).
*Footnote: OK, I've been out and had my daily "koffie verkeerd" so things aren't looking quite so grim now. It seems there is ONE thing worse than 'the darkness' and that is coffee withdrawl!
Posted by Faith at 10:46 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 17, 2004
Sunday morning
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October 16, 2004
Knit happens
On the knitting front a dismal summer effort on my part at least has been slightly atoned for with a bit of an autumn flurry. Struck last week by the realisation that Jacob, while blessed with an embarassment of riches in hats, beanies, jackets and jumpers is lacking in the scarf department I've launched myself into action. A rather uninspring but very practical ball of wool, was promptly whipped into a long and serviceable, if not particularly attractive scarf. It strikes me now that I'll have to knit a beanie to match.
Meanwhile, there was always the plan to knit an orange Pumpkin hat but before this could be realised the ugliness of the first scarf had propelled me onto a second, in Rowan's Cork Delight, to go with the as-yet-non-existent Pumpkin hat.
Hot off the needles from Ijsselstein comes the latest offering from Oma, a cable jumper in which Jacob looks very handsome indeed.
Not to mention a very handsome blue number that arrived with grandma from Australia at the beginning of the summer. It has languished all summer long in a drawer but I'm here to say, its day has come. The weather is turning cold and this blue looks so handsome on Jacob, the collar is very dapper too!
But its Great-Oma Smits in Vianen who is just plain showing off with Jacob now coming home weekly with a new pair of socks!
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October 15, 2004
Moustaches were in
1903, Sunnyside, (on the Omeo highway N.E. Victoria, Australia), Tom Hunter is immortalised as a member of the Sunnyside football team, Premiers.
Moustaches were in.
(Thanks to Johnny for the timely photo)
2004. De Pijp, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His great-great-grandson, Jacob can only aspire to such a moustache. Not to mention the biceps.
Posted by Faith at 09:14 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Champagne
Champagne was consumed last night after a pretty piece of paper turned up from the Australian Embassy in Berlin with a picture of a large rabbit and strangely-proportioned pigeon announcing that Jacob was officially now an Australian Citizen by descent.
Having worn himself out descendeding to Australianism Jacob retired early leaving his parents to finish off the champagne.
Which we did. We don't usually bother with excuses with our champagne, preferring it straight, but found it was still pretty yummy anyway.
There are now two Australians and two Dutchmen in this household of three.
Posted by Faith at 11:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 13, 2004
The window cleaner has been
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What the *uck?
Jacob brings over his favourite book "Ken jij mijn vriendjes vraagt het kleine eendje" and we spend the next few minutes flicking through the pages while he points repeatedly at a large yellow fluffy object which I call a "duck" and we have one of those conversations where I say "Where is the duck?", "oh there is the duck!", "No, thats not a duck, thats a cow, where is the duck Jacob", "thats right there is the duck" and finally he says "uck" and points to yellow fluffy objects on every page repeating "uck, uck, uck" (I HOPE he's saying duck.). And I'm very pleased about this because I've been being very good about remembering to speak English to him even when I'm in a situation where I'm speaking Dutch to everyone else and it seems to be working.
Well pleased with himself, Jacob saunters across the room to his father, with a smug little smile, which is what he has taken to doing, (sauntering and simultaneous smug smiles) since he got this walking business pretty much under control, (still working on pivot turns and the distance is yet to come but its all happenning...) and he presents his father with his favourite book and they start going through the pages together and Jacob points to the "uck" and before he can open his mouth his father says "dar is de eend" and Jacob hesitates, shakes his head and points again and his father says it again, "Eend. War is de eend Jacob?" and Jacob drops the book by his side and with the most exasperated look in the world looks up at his father and then over to me as if to say, "what the #uck is going on here?"
So then he walks back over to me, a bit more purposefully now, no more sauntering, he is on a mission, and lifts up the book and points to the fluffy yellow thing and I say "Duck" and smile and tousle his hair and give him a kiss, so reassured he sets off to set his father straight but when he gets there papa persists in calling the yellow fluffy object "Eend" and Jacob is left stranded, standing there in the middle of the living room, his book hanging by his side, his mouth hanging open in dismay and disbelief, turning his head from one parent to the other.
There's no fun like messing with the kid's mind.
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October 12, 2004
Quicksand in de Pijp 2
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October 11, 2004
lazy weekend
We had such a laid-back weekend, one of those perfect ones where the art of doing-almost-nothing was perfected and happily coincided with sunny, if very cool, weather. Always a bonus at this time of year!
Friday night Jacob took his new babysitter, Emma, for a roadtest and we were all happy with the results. Ron and I took the opportunity to go and eat out. Embarassingly we didn't get far, in fact we stayed in the street we live in but our excuse is that Vamos a Ver, our local Spanish restaurant, is worth staying close-to-home for! I'm sure with practice we'll eventually venture a bit further from home.
Saturday we took Jacob to the local childrens' farm. We've been a few times before but this time we were practically besides ourselves with excitement when we realised Jacob would be able to wobble on his own two legs amongst the geese, ducks and chickens. Jacob seemed as keen as we were and we promptly launched him upon the fowl-world of the Pijp. He had his hand snuffled by a hungry piglet twice his size, nearly lost THAT pointing finger to a large goose and had his knees poked by duck bills. Safely up off the ground again he also patted some ponies, and gazed longingly at the goats sunbathing, always his favourites.
We haven't been down Scheldestraat for months so we made a quick pitstop at Ziwinds to get the bugaboo's tyres pumped up, stopped at La Delize to find it is La Delize no longer but made some purchases nevertheless, before venturing down to the Cafe D'overkant where we found a table in the sun to sit and enjoy a coffee.
On the way back we stopped at Boek 'n Serve where we discovered it's Children's Book week. As a part of kinderboekenweek Eric Carle's Vader Zeepard could be had for (Euros)2.50. Besides the most gorgous illustrations the story is also really sweet being all about fish dads and the eggs or young they were carrying or babysitting.
Once home I decided to try Clotilde's Zuchinni and Pinenuts with arborio rice. Since Jacob's first birthday we have been putting into practice that we all three eat together. The down side is that we have to eat at 6.00pm! The up side is all sitting down together and seeing Jacob enjoying his food. Because of the pinenuts this was the first time we've had to give Jacob a different meal to ourselves. Clotilde's recipe was a great success with even Ron enjoying a dish made almost entirely from zuchinni's. I do think it would be better though with pasta, as in Clotilde's original recipe.
After quickly checking the Australian election results and sinking into a small depression, I revived enough to finish off the basis for Kittyville's Lil' Devil Baby Hat. Now all I have to do is figure out how to pick-up stitches so I can work on the ears and other bits and pieces.
Sunday is Ron's morning to sleep in so I took Jacob out on his tricycle to enjoy the morning sun and take some photos along the Amstel. After lunch we went for a ride along the Amsteldijk in the direction of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel. I ride along here quite regularly but Ron only gets the odd chance at weekends. Jacob sits in his "kinderstoel" attached to the steering wheel of my bike. Spinning along in the sun besides the river obviously agreed with him as he waved and babbled incessantly! While the rest of Amsterdam is surounded by urban sprawl its a quirk of this area that although almost in the center of Amsterdam, it is only a 5-10 minute bike ride before you are in the country. We stopped at Klein Kalfje where Jacob ordered his first ever hot chocolate before cycling back home just in time for his afternoon nap.
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October 10, 2004
Stel je voor................
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October 08, 2004
Goats wool socks
Not only is Jacob spoilt by two grandmothers knitting for him but he also has a great-grandmother who has just knitted for him his first pair of real can't-get-much-more-Dutch-than-this goats-wool socks.
(Meanwhile his naer-do-well mother is struggling to finish even one small beanie for him.)
The sock timing is uncanny, I was just talking to Jeanette at Kidskitsj yesterday about a pair of nice blue clogs for the boy. (To go with the blue disco pants, you know? .....just kidding!)
Posted by Faith at 11:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 07, 2004
Disco king
Jacob's been 'walking' for about a week now. Initially this was achieved by hurling himself at an object/person/savage dog some distance away and wobbling over as fast as he could, his little toddler arms waving around his ears.
But the last few days he has taken to strolling from A to B. From the first he has done this casually, even laconically, as though it was the most natural thing in the world that he should suddenly appear in the doorway from the kitchen and saunter across the length of the living room. The only give-away as to just how incredibly pleased he is with himself about this is the tiny little smug smile on his face, and the way he ducks his head at his destination and looks back over his shoulder to see who has noticed.
But the far more important is his dancing skills. Always a bit of a dancing-queen, what Jacob is really happy about at the moment is that he can now stand and dance by himself, feet planted firmly apart, knees bent, bounce up and down and then raise left hand in the air and point one finger skywards!
And that is why I HAD to buy the little blue flares with the silver glitter trim around the bottom of the legs. Damn you Imps and Elfs!
(Europe may be crumbling around us but Jacob is going to look damn good bopping amidst the rubble.)
Posted by Faith at 07:32 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 06, 2004
stepping stones
Crossing the Gerard Douplein I always end up doing some fancy footwork to avoid stepping on the plaque that marks the spot where Anja Joos was murdered.
Anja was a 43 year old homeless German heroin addict well known for years in the streets of the Pijp. A hard enough life you'd think but on Oct 6th last year life suddenly, if briefly, got harder, when 8 employees of the local supermarket who suspected her of stealing a can of beer chased her down the street and kicked her to death on the spot where she fell on the Gerard Douplein.
Bang, smack in broad daylight, on a busy shopping day, in the heart of the Pijp, a stone's throw from the Albert Cuyp market and in the same street where Andre Hazes was born. In same the street that Hazes used to escape to as a child when the poverty and violence of his home life became too much. In the gezellige Pijp, where traditionally the streets and cafes have been the living rooms of the students, artists, migrants, prostitutes and impoverished families living cheek by jowl in the overcrowded buildings. Its the one place she should have been safe.
Its a self-indulgent superstition but this is why I don't want to go stepping on her plaque. With bad luck like that she doesn't need me rubbing it in.
Today I was saved from my customary hop-skip-jump by several bunches of flowers marking the 1st anniversary of her death. Ironically and sadly there was also the news that two supermarket employees from Delft were charged with assault after breaking the leg of a man whom they suspected of stealing from their store.
(The 8 youths convicted of the murder of Anja Joos have been given sentences of three years, against which they are appealing).
Posted by Faith at 09:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 05, 2004
Quicksand in de Pijp
By Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil. Part of the Quicksand Project. Try here for a description in English.
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October 04, 2004
toddlin'
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happiness is...................
The hot water and heating are fixed and 'de bok is los'! My happiness is complete!
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Beefcake
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October 03, 2004
Deja Vu
Saturday in Amsterdam was the big demo, the first such demo in twenty years. Between 200,000 and 250,000 people turned up to demonstrate on Museumplein against the Balkenender cabinet's proposed budget cuts.
The cuts are pretty extreme in some cases, toughening up of requirements in order to receive the dole, people having to work longer before they can receive the pension, cuts to the health sector budgets and major changes to the way medicine is paid for that besides anything else, would have to cost more just to administrate?
For me at least there is a sense of deja vu about all this, when you think of a lot of the economic reforms made in Australia over the past 15 years. But what is even more familiar, and what really gets up the average person's nose, is the attitude of the cabinet leaders to the protests against the changes. Because, despite the demo, and the obvious concerns people have about these reforms, the cabinet has indicated that none of it will make any difference, they will be going ahead with all the changes regardless of what anyone thinks.
Er......reminds me of someone?
What does make it a bit different is that the unemployment benefits and the pensions they are restricting access to are, in contrast to Australia say, mainly self-funded. Compulsory contributions are made from your salary each month to a pension (or superannuation) fund, an unemployment fund and a health insurance fund and this is the basis of the Dutch social security system. This is on top of possibly the highest tax rates in the world.
But, obviously, its NOT your money Ralph.
While we would have liked to have gone to the demo we were instead doing "good deeds" down in Utrecht. Ron's employer organises a weekend away each year and usually these are quite pampered little trips to luxury farm-stays in Limburg or the like. This year we spent the weekend volounteering on a children's farm and organic vegetable project, De Moestuinen van Maarschalkerweerd, building animal enclosures, picking beans, painting the canteen and building picnic tables and benches. The weather was suprisingly good and it was nice to be outdoors all day! Jacob spent the weekend with his Oma and Opa in Ijsselstein, so we got to sleep in AND the hotel had HOT running water which is more than we had at home in Amsterdam! All-in-all it was hard to know who was doing whom the favour?
Posted by Faith at 08:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 01, 2004
The geyser-man cometh....or not.
Just over a week ago we turned the heating on for the first time since we moved in here in May. It was toasty and gezellig that evening which is a good thing because it was the last time we had either hot water or heating.
The owner of this flat is not a subscriber to a heating/hot water repair company so when we rang around most companies said it would be two weeks before anyone could come and have a look at the 'geyser'. One company said a 'geyser-man' could come in a week so we reluctantly settled for that.
This is what happens at this time of year in Amsterdam. Everyone who limped through the end of last winter putting off the cost of repairing their heating turns it on the following autumn and bang! September is national I-need-someone-to-repair-our-heating-system month. And they're ALL subscribers.
Today, after a week of boiling water to wash the dishes and ourselves and nervously awaiting the weather forecast each evening, 'geyser man' turned up. I saw his van pull up outside our flat and I saw him reach for his mobile phone. (Aha, I thought, ringing Ron, who had made the appointment.) I saw him chat on the phone and then drive on, (Aha, I thought, gone to find a parking spot after confirming he had the right address) Then our phone rang. (Aha I thought, thats Ron to tell me 'geyser-man' will be here any moment)
WRONG! 'Geyser-man' had rung Ron to say that as he couldn't find a parking spot he was LEAVING and going home!
Hallo?
Who on this planet accepts a job in the Pijp and expects to be able to park outside the address he is going to be working at? WE have a parking permit and still we need a bike to get to our car its parked so far away. And how come every other tradesman who has been here is prepared to park streets away and walk but not 'geyser-man'? How come the pavements are littered with ILLEGALLY parked tradesman's vans 'geyser-man' but not yours?
Despite spitting and hissing and storming up and down and screaming "godverdomme onge-f*cking-looflijk" no one else is prepared to come in less than another two weeks and the best the company can do who sent 'geyser-man' is promise someone will be here 8.00am Monday morning. And if they can't find somewhere to park?
A massively underwhelming company-weekend in a Utrecht hotel with Ron's employer is suddenly looking very attractive.
Posted by Faith at 09:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack