VERY vip party!!!

Crazy days, very fast food...

It's been way too long since I've cooked myself a proper meal! Thank god, on long working days we can have dinner at the stadium, but still, when returning home at night William and I can't resist the fastfood! :P I prefer the pizza (Gorgonzola! yummy!!) since I can save 2 pieces for breakfast that way. Ohhh I'm bad, I know! ;)

Box 14

Past two weeks Martijn and 27 of his Philips Lighting colleagues spent their working days at the RBC stadium. Usually I don't get to see Martijn that often, so this was quite exceptional, meeting him DAILY! His projectgroup was stationed in Business Unit/Skybox 14, and I must say, this group of relatively young men was the most enthusiastic and fun of all four groups. Every day they welcomed us warmly when entering box14 (or: they welcomed the coffee and especially: the chocolate cake!! my god, according to Martijn they even made a "cake schedule"). I must admit, I kinda miss them this week... The 10h30 round through the stadium is pretty boring now ;) Luckily they will be back in about a month if I'm not mistaken :P But then, it's also good not to be distracted from work too much hehe. Especially my birthday was a pretty rough day since they ALL knew about it ;) But it's been fun. And above all I ended up having a date with cute project leader Jörgen! Still trying to manage a date for Martijn with Vief but I doubt if I'll succeed hehe...to be continued ;)

Men with Guns!

Another loooong day! This morning the &%^$!@ alarmclock rang at 3.15 AM but I didn't need any coffee or even Redbull to keep me awake today! While biking to the stadium I passed by William's place and saw his lights still burning hehe he just got home from the "bridge" (poor thing!! ) and my new day was starting already!! Kinda funny! When I arrived at work there was no time for yawning...till 9 o'clock Maurits and I had to follow a VERY tight schedule but we managed all just right in time! Pfew! Sweat running all over the body! Besides, surrounded by 300 armed policemen we felt a bit unconfortable hehe; they did keep us alert and awake though. It was a "topsecret" briefing, and during the presentation we were not allowed to enter the lounge. Oh well, "secret"?? A parking space FULL with police cars, police dogs, a huge amount of storage boxes, ..., as if "nothing" was going to happen?! You don't fool us! Curious as we are we turned on the radio this morning and eventually learned about their actions:

clipped from www.bndestem.nl

Tientallen arrestaties na inval in Bergen

Dinsdag 27 februari 2007 - BERGEN OP ZOOM - Driehonderd medewerkers van politie, justitie en FIOD-ECD hebben vanmorgen vroeg bij invallen in zeventwintig woningen en bedrijfspanden in Bergen op Zoom tientallen arrestaties verricht.

In het grootste rechercheonderzoek sinds vele jaren stellen politie en justitie een belangrijke slag te hebben toegebracht aan een criminele organisatie die zich, vanuit Bergen op Zoom, bezig zou houden met de grootschalige teelt en handel in softdrugs. Bovendien wordt de bende verdacht van het witwassen van crimineel geld.

Onderzoek van deze krant wijst uit dat de bende, die zich concentreerde rond de Bergse familie A., de laatste jaren tientallen miljoenen euro's heeft omgezet.

clipped from www.bndestem.nl

Give me a break!!

I knew a very busy period would start at work these days but when I saw next week's schedule earlier today I was just s p e e c h l e s s ... For example, starting at 5AM while doing the "bridge-shift" the night before >>> usually I won't be home before 4AM, and then I have to leave at 4.30AM again?!? That's no life!! I asked Maurits to have a close look at the details again hehe. I'm a hard worker but I'm not crazy. At least, not THAT crazy...

Long time no blog! Ain't got no time, ain't got no life hehe. It's been a pretty hectic time since I OFFICIALLY started as a fulltimer at RBC Le Royal. Not that I didn't make the working hours before - being a parttimer you can work fulltime as well hehe - but now I work more during daytime which is quite different than the night shifts. I will now only work at CMA when I start not before the afternoon or evening at RBC . Since work during daytime is totally different than what I was used to, I still have to learn a lot! It's a somewhat stressfull time for me but it seems William, Vivian, Suzanne & Maurits are very patient with me ;) Ohh well, what choice do they have? They need me badly since a very busy period is starting off very soon. Let's pray I'll be ready for that! =) Not that much to report besides the daily work-eat-sleep. This week I've promised myself to look more after myself and eat more healthy hehe. It's about time... ;) And I've enjoyed catching up with Maaike and Gemmy this weekend! It's been way too long! I so needed this! If a day only lasted twice as long... =)

Victories!

Last night was a somewhat strange night. First of all RBC's homematch was played on a Saturday instead of a Friday. We didn't like that since many of us had to cancel our weekend-plans! Boooh... Then it started half an hour earlier than usual. Lots of supporters weren't aware of that, or forgot about that, and entered the stadium half an hour late: by that time the match was actually already played- which annoyed them a lot: RBC won 5-0 over FC Emmen! The goals followed each other with an amazingly speed and Pakito's Living on Video (RBC's 2006-2007 "goaltune") was heard almost continuously through the stadium hehe. But despite its longawaited victory after so many negativity in the media lately the crowd wasn't in a partying mood at all! Why?? Beats me! There was a really weird atmosphere in the lounge. Luckily the players were in a happy mood which was much fun. Love to joke around with Arjan Ebbinge, he's such a cool and funny guy! The supporters left relatively early this night so we finished early as well. Which was nice for a change too! It was just before 4AM so just in time to order a delicious PIZZA @Willy's !! but they kicked us gently out the store with our yummy pizza's since they closed at 4. So we finished them at William's place who luckily lives VERY nearby; if I had to bike all the way back home my precious pizza would have turned damn cold hehe. Time flies when you're having fun and I completely forgot about the AO finals! I got home around 6AM and immediately tried to check the results on the internet. Aargh no connection! Tried textmessages on television, but no results of ATP finals published?!? I went nuts! Ohh well there was nothing I could do about it so...time for bed! When I woke up I tried the internet again, and I realised the match wasn't even played yet hehe. Silly me! So I crawled back into bed, watch Roger win his 10th GS (yay!), and fell back asleep for the rest of this lazy Sunday. All was well.

After drinking away our "bridgeclub-frustrations" Will & I got sooooo hungry so we decided to attack the local shoarma-king since we both had nothing quick&easy&fatty to prepare at home. Now THAT is hard on a mondaynight in Roosendaal at 4AM! Having passed many closed doors (aaargh!) we saw burning lights in a small -to me unknown- place but uhoh they were about to close! NOOOO! We put on our most hungry faces, our nicest smiles, put our best charmes forward and ohhh our supplications were acknowledged! YEAH! YUMMY!

My guess: more visits to come hehe

Dancing with the local stars

It's been a tough week. I wasn't feeling too well while having loooong working nights. At the same time I started working at CMA again this week so too little sleep for me!! Last 2 days I crawled into bed between 7 and 8 AM, luckily able to sleep during daytime. Not too much fun for a weekend hehe. Ain't got no life ;) Apart from the usual monday-*yawn*-bridgeclub-night we had a lot of parties at the stadium this week. Even Boy Buffel (MOOOOOH!) and Frans Bauer & "Maris" made their appearance ;) Highlight of the week was yesterday's "Dancing With The Local Stars"; a dancing competition between local celebrities at our Confetti Lounge. It was a HUGE event (tables sold for a €1000 each!) with a very tight schedule, planned by the minute but we did such a gooooood job! William and I were responsible for the main bar, Jeroen for the small one (ahhh my favourite partners-in-crime hehe ;) ) and a lot of colleagues "running" through the lounge. After work we were all sooooo exhausted, plumping down a chair and just staring at each other! We just couldn't get up to head home; we just kept drinking hehe. What a job!

Ouch! After the big relief of fixing the electric light-cables right in time, RBC lost last night's big match 1-3 vs De Graafschap which means we lost our number one position in the Jupiler League as well. And maybe our chance to promote to the premier league next season. No hard feelings nevertheless cause my colleagues and I prefer the matches on fridays instead of the weekends anyway! ;) But it's nice as well to see them WIN ofcourse. Afterwards trainer/coach Robert M. announced leaving RBC Roosendaal by the end of the season. He didn't go into details yet, but I can imagine some reasons "why" (nice job, mr. P.!!). Despite the loss last night, the drinking was not less afterwards! It's been the busiest night of the season so far and we left the building very very early in the morning (many cock-a-doodle-doo's on my ride back home!). ps Maurits confirmed what William told me earlier this week: they sooo appreciate my efforts and would like me to join their team of permanent staff and work more hours as soon as possible hehe.

Receptions

On top of the many New Year's receptions we've had at the stadium last week, last night RBC had its own for its players, staff, employees, volunteers and business sponsors. Ofcourse we had to work on our own reception hehe. No sweat, cause it was SUCH a BORING event!! Now we made ourselves a little money out of it; otherwise it would have been a completely wasted evening!! Looooong long speeches from RBC's chairman mr. P. and our newly presented general manager. I don't like mr. P. His speech did annoy trainer/coach Robert M. as well. He refused to comment on it, but it irritated him visibly. Understandable. Speeches were pretty pessimistic. RBC's organization is not that stable at the moment, as well as its financial situation. It's only OUR part of the organization, RBC Hospitality, that is doing great at the moment. It was very nice to see that confirmed in the newspaper today by giving Maurits a compliment on frontpage- next to all those negative messages related to RBC!!

Dark times...

Last night 20 copper wires were cut from one of the electric standards at the stadium! Only a few days before THE match of the season! The KNVB put the deadline friday at noon; if the lights don't work by then, the match will be cancelled, which would mean quite a disaster given RBC's financial situation. It would mean a lovely night off as well!!

What a party! (What a mess!!)

Last night the Jan Tinbergen College held its annual gala ball in our ConfettiLounge. Guess it was a huge success! At the start of the evening Anique and I were "stationed" in the brasserie to host a reunion of JTC's former students but upstairs people went like crazy and Vivian and William were running like crazy accordingly. So Maurits asked me to go to the lounge asap. No sweat cause the little reunion was kinda boring hehe. From that moment no more time for thinking, breathing or whatever, just goooooo with the flooooooow!! Even chef Harry assisted us at the bar! My god, those little kids, their main goal was to get drunk as soon as possible and "SCORE"!!! Ahh it was really fun observing them all! Very entertaining :P Were we just like that when we were young?!? ;) It was extremely hard work but really much fun. No time to visit Natasja and Suzanne at the small bar though. It was only when the cleaning job started we finally "met"! And WHAT a cleaning job! Argh you just can't imagine the mess they left!! And you just can't imagine on what absurd places we found "bitterballen". They were like everywere!! :S You don't want to know the things we had to pick or mob from the floor. We washed it three times and you'd still stick to it... Yuck! Time flew by and we all felt like zombies walking around, except for Will who surprisingly got more and more energy!! Very annoying hehe. We still don't know what drug he took ;) Walking around dressed like Santa, making weird voices and movements, making fun of actually everything...pfff all we wanted was a drink and a bed. And we got it! Too bad this night is again only 2.5 hours long... *yawn*

Herbstmeister!!

Whoo! whoo! RBC Roosendaal entered the winter break still leading the Jupiler League thanks to a 2-0 victory over FC Den Bosch; which meant PARTY TIME last night! Although this week's match was played on a Wednesday instead of a Friday, it was a "full house" at the stadium! It was an extremely busy night and the hours passed by in just a flash! After the press conference an auction was held in the ConfettiLounge, selling paintings painted by the RBC players and staff. It was fun but a bit toooo crowded and loud in my opinion. Happy to see everyone leaving in time ;) I guess we were all a bit exhausted. It was just Vivian, Maurits, William and me hanging in for a drink afterwards, which is quite exceptional, especially on a match day! It was only then when I heard Kevin, one of our cooks, had a car crash late that night when driving home from the stadium. As far as we know at this moment he's not too seriously injured, but he did go off the talud with his car, which is total loss by now! He's just damn lucky considering what might have happened! But it was quite a shock nonetheless!

We want a tree too...

Tonight I had the "bridgeclub-shift" with Anique, while William was being BOB - the builder all day long, setting up the lounge and all rooms for the next day to save us some time. Much appreciated! The meeting was held again at the restaurant so Will could knock himself out at the ConfettiLounge, but for us it was not fun working. It actually was A MESS! We couldn't even finish two out of the six rounds within the thirty minutes we have for each of them! We were far behind... But hey, life goes on, right?! ;) This night we had to say goodbye to our two nicest people of the group who will be playing on another level of the competition from now on. They approached the bar with a gift, it was a lovely small decorated Christmas tree they just received from "Santa". "We've got something for you", they said. Anique and I got a big smile on our faces and we were very touched. "Could you please pass this from us to William?", they continued... "We want to thank him for all the years of good care - no offense to you though". Oh well, we understand WHY they give it to HIM, but hey, are we allowed to be a BIT jealous here?! ;) *sigh* it was such a sweet little tree!! Will just had to laugh and took the damn tree home. "Can't split it in halves, right?!" He's right... (*shoot!*)

Black Fingernails, Red Wine...

This title of the Eskimo Joe song is sooo appropriate for this day! Today a rheumatism association had a Christmas dinner at the stadium. In the afternoon I welcomed the (mostly elderly people) at the entrance and helped them upstairs to the ConfettiLounge. Now here come the "black fingernails"... Just try to get a bunch of not-that-mobile-people at once in an elevator: that takes some patience and time! So I had to keep that bloody door open! Now the sensor failed multiple times and my hands and feet got smashed by the closing door more than once! Fingernails turned red > purple > blue > nearly black!! A not that good start of what turned out to become a loooooong long night! They had cocktail-"hour" for three hours (!) long before even starting to serve out butter & bread, not to mention entrées and the actual dinner! Pfff everything progressed so sloooow, even the songs of the choir were everlasting hehe. But eventually all stomachs were stuffed and almost ready to go home. =) Ohh almost forgot about the "red wine" here. A new colleague was unlucky and knocked some glasses of red wine of her tray over six people. OLD people, choir people, abundantly dressed up for "Christmas", all wearing VERY white blouses. Until then... A moment we'll never forget ;) From that moment on people were only talking about "red wine"... every table I passed I heard them whispering "red wine...". My god, no one dared to order red wine since! It was just an accident, but soooo happy it was not me spoiling the wine!!! ;)

Red-nosed at CMA

Today we got our Christmas tree at the Medical Archive! To get completely into the "x-mas feeling" we were walking all day with Rudolph's antlers on our head. Not really convenient as those things got stuck between the files regularly. But it was sooo nice to get such a positive response of the people passing by! People smiling, holding thumbs up or waving to us... To get people in a good mood by such a minor "detail", is such a joy, especially in a hospital where there's so much misery and bad things happening already...

A bit tired?!

Uhmm, after discussing for several minutes what date it was, we concluded it was DEFINITELY Dec 10th. While in fact is was Dec 11th. Actually at that time of the day it was already Dec 12th, but we'll ignore that fact ;) So what date did we write down? Nov 10th!! We both checked the details and signed the paper... while it was completely NONSENSE! Guess we were both a bit tired... hope I get paid though...

Cursed

William and I survived the bridgeclub-meeting once again ;) We started both a bit out of temper, but when the hours passed by our good humour came back and we ended up singing the Freggle-song hehe. ;) The people were again pretty friendly. Okay, there are some reeeaaal pain in the @$€$, but there will always be some I guess... Nonetheless, we still feel cursed! We just can't close the door and leave at a reasonable time! Whenever we think we can be ready quite early (relatively early...like 2AM) we just can't manage to do so. No matter HOW early the people leave, it just seems we're cursed to stay! It might somewhat have to do with the fact that we were at the "brasserie" tonight and not at the ConfettiLounge, which gives a lot of extra work like laying the tables for lunch/dinner. But whatever the reason is, it kinda sucks hehe. Every week the same story...around 2AM William points towards the clock and shouts out : "We're cursed!!" It does feel that way. Just as we feel cursed that every monday night it appears to be RAINING!! Or when we cross "De Schuiven", the stop-sign ALWAYS turns from green to RED!! Why?? There's no traffic at that time of night!! That is so strange, at night really every single stop-sign I pass automatically turns green when approaching, but when we approach this one... We just have to laugh everytime...we're cursed...

Piccies!

Thought I'd post some piccies of the RBC Roosendaal Stadium here. Just to give you an impression of the building where I'm spending many nights lately ;) Main entrance of the stadium Entrance of "Brasserie Le Royal"- our restaurant If you look very good, you could see Vivianne - our restaurant supervisor. Gosh I need to find me some better pictures hehe. View from the kitchen - with Arjan in it ;) Anique at the Supporterscafé Players' Home - so glad I didn't have to wear THAT last time hehe ConfettiLounge (main bar) ConfettiLounge: Empty!!! ConfettiLounge (small bar) Jordy, "boxmuts" Charlotte and William in Business Unit 4/5 Maurits - our BIG BOSS! =) Press Room Well that's only a small part of the stadium, but I guess it might give you some impression ;)