Back again... Troubles in Paradise; Zaventem Airport
Mood:  cool
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
My flight back to Brussels went quite OK. On arrival, the only awkward thing was the intense cold again. My car was still right where I left it and seemed to be just fine, it even started right away. But when I wanted to drive away and hit the accelerator pedal I found out that it was totally paretic on the bottom of the floor ?!!! Turned out the cable connecting it with the engine had broken. I had to get to a garage to get it fixed. By then, my carefully arranged itinerary was already messed up and I arrived 3 hours late at work.

The test in Malaysia went quite good, as well as the interview. As the matter of fact, they already decided to take me, so it’s just waiting for government approval now. The only other thing still bugging, besides the fact I won’t be paid there, is that apparently I won’t be allowed to work after finishing the masters program because my degree is not recognized ??!! That’s really silly ! I have to find some things out about degree recognition and stuff, and also about possibilities to work in Indonesia afterwards and the procedures for that. After all, in the end my exams will all be British based, so that should be good for something. I still think I’m gonna go through with all this; I’ve really had it with a lot of things over here.

Last-minute to KL
Mood:  rushed
Geez, I can hardly imagine kids nowadays play computer games so often; during my 10 hours plane ride I played Nintendo for half an hour and for the rest of the trip my thumbs really felt numb and sore pushing these buttons all the time... Do these kids have special thumbs ? Do they work out ? What’s their secret ? When I was a kid we played with Lego, but I heard on radio last week that sales decreased dramatically last couple of years....

Happy return to cold areas ?? OK when you're everybody's pet...
Mood:  cool
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
When leaving Malaysia I felt quite OK, knowing that I wouldn’t have to camp out all the time in a little room with everything I owned stuffed in a backpack. When I finally arrived in the Netherlands though on Monday morning I knew in an instant why I don’t like living in this country. It was cold and wet and dark; anything you’d expect from a descent Dutch autumn/winter. It’s not exactly my piece of cake. I picked up my car and after thinking for a full minute about whether I was going to drive on the right or left side of the road I decided to stay on the safe side and picked the right one. It turned out to be a good choice and so I arrived after a 2 hours drive in my hospital, because I had to go for a late shift right away. Even though I might not be so happy to be back again the welcoming in the hospital was quite heartwarming. Why I stayed away so long, how they missed me and how quiet it had been while I was away. Ah well, it’s easy to be everybody’s pet when you’re the only male around. But it sure feels good …Even my bosses had missed me and to proof it they had saved up a stack of about 50 patient files that had to be turned into a letter during my coming nightshifts….