Mood:  happy

I love my new place ! It is still a student’s-room kind of place only, but I have my own attached bathroom now and the view is much improved. From my window I can look @ the park and see the squirrels jumping from tree to tree. When it was suddenly snowing last weekend, everything was covered in a beautiful white layer of snow.

Needless to say the large kitchen is also a big improvement, and I can actually sit outside to enjoy the early spring sun in our petit garden.

Ever since I came to UK I had to start cooking for myself again. When you go around and see what the average UK-fare is like, you’ll understand why. But I kind of enjoy it and rediscovered what I have always quite liked to do; experiment and improvise a bit with food. The best part was when one of these evenings one of my consultants and colleagues came over for dinner. We had a good time and it felt just like those good old days when I was still in medical school and my house was pretty much a mini-restaurant where on a regular basis 3, 4, 5 or more people came over to eat.

Mood:  silly

Flower bulbs are Dutch best... I bought some bulb flowers for the house the other week. The scent of this beautiful Hyacinthus is just lovely. Today I thought about how back then in the 2nd world war, when there was a famine in The Netherlands, people were forced to eat flower bulbs in order to survive. Then I was reminiscing about what the effect would be... if anyone would fart later on, would it be smelling like flowers ?

Mood:  blue

The stocks turn red and my days turn blue. I hate job hunting... I always have... It is all so artificial, almost like performing a play; you dress up, pretend a bit, make up some good one-liners... much like going out and trying to get the girl at the bar to talk to you, and better even, get her to like you - also something I was never ever good at - it's all about first impressions. But how looks can deceive...

Last week I had my first interview in Germany. I got along quite well with the language, no prob's there. But it started out already with the chief consultant interviewing me from his bedside... turns out he had some unfortunate skiing accident. An interview like that can hardly tun out normally, can it ? Anyway, fate will take me where I'm supposed to go. I started looking around for opportunities in England already. But one thing's for sure; I always bump into all the weird stuff, it's like some kind of physics law.

Oh, BTW, talking about skiing; last weekend I visited Frank & Paul's by now legendary Apres-Ski Party. Good old-fashioned fun, as you can see

Mood:  happy

No Dutch goes without a bicycle. If you don't have a bycicle, you're not a real Dutch (and you'll have to walk most of the time). That's why this is my new (2nd hand) baby...

Mood:  not sure

Being back in the Netherlands was, in a sense, a bit of a bummer. Of course there was the cold. And all details I had to arrange didn’t exactly add to the joy. Though from a financial and career wise perspective, coming back was probably a wise choice, for the emotional component it seemed to be not the best move ever. It makes you realise that you cannot step into a process that has been ongoing for many years, and then suddenly expect to be fully part of it. On top of that there was the sad passing away of a young person, who is both the younger brother of a close friend, as well as best friend with 2 other close friends. Makes you think about things when you're standing there on a crisp-cold, December morning to give your last respects...

Christmas was a drag, as it always is. Feels like running around with your head chopped off. I guess it’s just too many days of too many visits in too short of a time. Still, it was good to see how especially my grandparents were happy to see some visitors.

I guess that I dread these cold, dark, gloomy days because due to the short day-light period, time seems to slip through your fingers. All those days seem as if you only had done a fraction of what initially was planned. Even subsequent days don’t seem to yield anything, since public services and shops are still not working. Now the 1^st week of January has passed, I finally seem to be able to get some work done. My job interview in Germany will be coming up soon. I’m quite curious what it’ll be like. Will it get me where I wanna go ? And do I know where I wanna go ? I’ve turned 35, and by now I need to know at least a bit what I’m heading for. So far it doesn’t look yet as if I really had a clue…

Mood:  celebratory

Went to my friend’s parents house for Deepavali. I missed out last year due to night shifts and so on. Brought some cup-cakes of the renown brand “Pretty Frostings” that Liza picked up @  Amcorp Mall (thanx ;o). It was a joy to see how the little one of Saundri’s brother was handling her cupcake. Just to think that about 3 years ago she was born some 6 weeks too early in our hospital, due to bleeding placenta praevia. I still remember how anxious Saundri’s sister in law was @ that time, as I was part of the team taking care of her in that time. Looks like some things turned out all right for sure…

Mood:  not sure

Haven’t been updating anymore these days. Life is in turmoil lately, a whirlwind with me in the middle of it. I don’t know yet whether going back for 4 months is a good idea… whether it will turn out in another disaster, both careerwise and personally. But, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do… And like always in life, anything you do will always have its backdrafts, it’s just a matter of how you’re gonna cope with it… But as for now, I guess it’s just go with the flow… See all you friends in December….