Viva Vlissingen!

A perfect day for a nice walk on the beach! What more can one wish for on a lazy Sunday afternoon?! Although it's been a short "weekend", it's been one full of relaxation and I'm full of energy to face the "bridge" tomorrow. I guess. I hope. I'm soooo NOT looking forward to it :S But hey, shit happens... (like almost every monday hehe)

23 - pass on the paranoia!

Another old-fashioned night out in Antwerp! Finally I got to meet Maaike again! We should do this sooo more often!! ;) WHAT is more relaxing after a long week of work than sitting back in those amazing chairs @ the movies?! hehe. Although it's a very busy period at work, and the irregular working hours are slowly breaking me up, I realise I NEED to keep going out and just have FUN!! it's the best way to recharge. Besides, I'm learning to put myself more at 1st place, it's a process, but I'm getting there. Slowly. But getting there ;)

Daylight savings

Thanks to my dear friend I didn't forget hehe... *time flies when you're having fun* ;)

Beer at 10 AM

Besides the car sale we had the darts tournament at the Confetti on Saturday: a lounge filled with so-called "oversized" people hehe, blue of smoke and beer drafted before 10 AM...do I need to say more?! It was a nice spectacle just observing them (craaazy people!) but I was happy Willy covered my shift at night; my eyes had dried out completely and I needed fresh air soooo badly!!

Tall stories

For 3 days we had a giant car sale at the south side of the stadium. It were long, exhausting days, but we had so much fun! Many salesmen started with the bacardi in the morning to keep themselves warm (uhuh), and around 9pm when the show officially ended and the bottles of beer appeared, there was no more escape: tall stories around everywhere! My god, what true entertainers they are! Every hour they got more and more drunk and you just couldn't imagine the next morning at 9am their faces were like serious as ever! Those days didn't look like working at all, it was as if we were having one big party!! =) When Vief and I returned to the stadium at fridaynight we were sooo dull, had to laugh about just anything, but then the players arrived from Helmond and joined us for a drink and then there was no reason to laugh anymore hehe. Another loss...Helmond...what the f*&$# is wrong here?!

RBC's Hyve-hype

There's always been some "rivalry" between RBC Hospitality (the "west-side", OUR side, the GOOD side hehe) and the office (the "east-side"). In a good way of course ;) But lately, especially at the office, colleagues are competing for gaining the most number of "Hyves-friends" and they'll do about anything to get them ;) Sooo silly! I always have to laugh about Raymond, "Mr. Commerce", who is faaaaar far behind Bart, "Mr. Ticketing", but soooo desperately trying to get more friends; it's just funny to see him struggling hehe. He's logged in @ hyves.nl almost all day long, he even made himself a goldmember to track down people who visited his page and didn't invite Raymond to be their so-called "friend". How pathetic is that hehe. I just hope he doesn't forget to work occasionally...

What started as a nice and easy day ended full of frustrations. Bleeeeh. Yesterday I was being the "caterer" which meant delivering orders across the city and helping out Vief at the car sale. The weather was nice and sunny so the walk to and from the stadium was pretty comfortable hehe. All was fine till the end of the afternoon. Too much events took place at around the same time and we were all pretty much on our own. After my own dinner for the salesmen at the southside of the stadium, I was supposed to help out William in the Confetti, but due to fuses that were blown like every 30 seconds (no kidding!!) dinner was quite disastrous and I arrived at the Confetti not before 7pm, about an hour late hehe. Wil was in SUCH a bad mood and I can't stand it when he is, I automatically get upset as well... So we had a great time, the two of us :S, tried not to talk and ask too much hehe. Around 11pm Natasja's guests at the brasserie left as well and she covered for me helping out William with building up the business units. I just had enough of it. My finger hurt like hell! It had been a long day and I just wanted to get out of there hehe. It was just another one of "those" days ;)

Seriously STITCHED!!

Phew what a day! This morning I cut my finger pretty bad! It just wouldn't stop bleeding! My sweet colleagues tried to help me out in any way they could but after quite some time we concluded that I REALLY needed a physician. WeeeeWeeee! It needed to be stitched and OMG what a giant hook that man pulled through my poor finger!! Ouch!

When we returned at the stadium lunch time was pretty much over and I felt pretty bad about it as Maurits deliberately changed my working schedule yesterday because he needed an extra helping hand around lunch time... but I wasn't really helping out hehe. From 2pm till 5pm I had a break, to return for the night shift. I don't like those breaks; of those 3 hours I'm only 90 minutes actually at home and in that time you're supposed to cook, have dinner and get some rest. Yeah right...

Now I'm happy to be back at home! =) It's just that a few minutes ago blood is coming through the bandages again and I'm afraid I put too much pressure on my finger at work tonight and I reaaaaally hope the stitches are still ok!! I'm afraid I'll have to switch the bandage now...it just hurts so much, I'm not a very brave girl hehe ;)

Again, it's been too busy lately! I haven't been able to update the blog properly! Just be patient hehe ;) Recently Elles and Niels became the proud parents of little Cas Cornelis Fouchier -here's to them!, I feel so bad for Menno and Brylie who had a miscarriage earlier this week, I've had the honour to host a party with "opa & oma" at the stadium which was waaaay to funny hehe, my dear Gemmy returned to the Netherlands for about ten days -ohhh I've missed her sooo much! I WILL visit you in Italy very very soon I PROMISE!!!, in an attempt to live my life more healthy I started RUNNING again this sunday! I'll REALLY try to stick to my regular 3-times-a-week-schedule but with those irregular working schedules I doubt if I can keep it up. I'll really try... I'll update more thoroughly very soon, I hope this will do for now ;) This upcoming week will probably be a very COLD one... we'll be having a kind of exhibition of cars on the parking lot of the stadium from wednesday till saturday. Brrr! Weather isn't really cooperating gheghe. I can't wait for the summer to come...

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 ;)

for your warm birthday wishes, (e)cards, messages, etc.! Past weeks have been too crazy, soooo extremely busy at work and I haven't been able to reply to you all properly. I'm so sorry for that! In the near future working days will probably stay very long since Maurits had his skiing accident this Monday and revalidation will probably take a few months... Too bad for him, but too bad for us as well... :(

Welcome, Cas!

Happy Birthday To Me!

28 does hurt somewhat...

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...

Sooo silly me...

I lost my wallet...so I thought. I've been missing the damn thing since last Sunday and I've been looking for it over and over again for days! Soooo annoying, living without an ATM- and creditcard, or even cash money!! It makes you kinda creative though ;) (uhh mom, I stole a bread from your fridge hehe. you'll get one in return this weekend!!) Eventually I gave up the searching and reported my missing belongings to the police and just when I was going to block my cards I felt like checking my dust-bin in the garden. Don't ask me why, I just felt like it!! And my oh my, my mouth fell wide open... I found my wallet! HOW &#^!%& did that thing get there!!! I must have thrown it with some garbage, but geez, you would notice something like THAT, wouldn't you?? I think it's too weird; the fact that it was lying in the dust-bin, the fact that I had the urge to look in there, even though I had no CLUE to look in there, and if I had been a little bit later the thing would have been emptied (is that a verb??) by the refuse-collector. I must have a guardian angel...

The dutch saying "scherven brengen geluk" says these *&%@!% splinters -that are now in my garbage can- WILL bring me happiness... I really do hope so. So far I've broken 3 (!!) plates already this week! Ouch! Too much in a hurry > stress > CHAOS... I guess hehe. Or maybe I'm just being a very VERY clumsy person

"'t Bleft Kunst"

't Bleft Kunst 2007 - Carnival in Roosendaal Feb. 16th-20th! After RBC's homematch on Friday we managed to finish work pretty early; it was around 2AM so we did a good job! =) The idea was that we would ALL go to the pub afterwards and have some beers & cheers, but work did not go all well this night and Vivian, Annet, Maurits and William ended up in a very bad mood and decided to stay at the stadium. Their loss ;) So we left without them, I wasn't too happy with that but if I'd stayed as well I know that would have ruined my happy mood as well. AND THAT'S JUST NOT WORTH IT!! (No) thanks to a very bleeding nose (I'm having LOTS of them this week - not much fun!), we only arrived in town just before 3 AM, so we were lucky and allowed to get in! Time flies when you're having fun and soon it was 4 AM and I really had to hurry to get me some very fast food!!! My god, Alanya was already closed, Willy's was closed, everything closed!?! Pfeew De Smalle Pijp was just closing its rolling shutter but -my luck!-they were nice enough to let me in! YAY for them! I know it's no good, but I just can't sleep without a big fat meal in my stomach after a working night!

On Saturday I went to see the parade. The weather was just great! With a nice cold beer in my hand and the sun burning on my skin and a bunch of happy people around me, I was just sitting there enjoying the moment. Life can be good ;) Afterwards I went to grab me something to eat (for the 3rd time visiting De Smalle Pijp this week...*shame on me*) and ended up having a drink with some colleagues from the hospital before heading home. Pretty tired.

Mon-Tue-Wed I was off from RBC and worked at CMA. Especially on Monday the Emergency Room was extreeeemely busy! The phone rang almost constantly! But lucky me, from 9am I was with either Sophie or Bas at ophthalmology (did I spell that right?!?) these days, with is soooo quite and almost peaceful hehe. Good to escape the carnival-troubles and recover some yourself haha Sophie was wearing baseball caps these days not to show her face too much...this morning she was absent due to sickness :P

Tomorrow the extremely-hectic-RBC-period will start. That's why we had the 3 days off. To "recharge" hehe. I feel pretty tired already! Maybe I shouldn't have worked at the hospital and stay in bed for those days... hmmm just a thought...

*Smelly cat!* what is she feeding you?!

Recognize this sweety?! =) I had the honour to care for and play with the lovely Timba over the past few days! Just wondering... wasn't I feeding him ENOUGH?!? Each time I sneaked into the room I caught the *fat cat* (hehe) eating from the plants!! It looks like he's gotten himself quite some meal already! The *big boss* said he asks for attention that way...oh well he got it

Happy Valentine!

ps I DID have dinner with my gorgeous colleague tonight...at the local snackbar! So far for "romance"...

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.

Federbear everywhere

Today I received my little parcel from SW19 containing my Federbear!! Just in time for the AO finals! Federbear got himself a nice spot on my television so we can cheer together tonight, that is... if Roger doesn't crush Gonzo in only 3 straight sets!! ;) RBC plays a home match tonight so I won't get home before 5AM. Hope to see the matchpoint though!

Rumshop sessions

Rock, Reggae, Latin & Rap... Roger, Touché, Jon, Jacob, Rocheteau & Roël played a very good accoustic show tonight with some surprisingly songs! From 2nd row we had a very good view (hehe Roger is even smaller than I thought he was...is that even possible??) and although I still think a concert like this doesn't really belong in a theatre, it was a well-spend night out!

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!

Lèon

This week I had Tuesday's night off to visit a show of the dutch comedian Leon van der Zanden. While constantly testing the audience's boundaries of what is acceptable and what is not (particularly the NOT hehe) on subjects like religion, sex and death we were asked sometimes pretty awkward or just difficult questions. I was thinking quite often "don't pick me! not me! nooooo!" ... Very happy not to sit front row!! but when Leon started to run through the audience there was no more escape hehe. Da*n! Luckily I gave no stupid answers. I guess... High speed, a lot of humour, expressive mimic art and a VERY lithe body to reach and experience an "immortal moment". I'd never seen a show of this guy in the theatre before (only knew him from the dutch Olifantendoders) but it was a very pleasant surprise! Too bad Gemmy couldn't join me obviously but when a next show is released we should definitely book the tickets again! I'm sure you'll like it!

This night's immortal; we fell just off the picture weeeheee

Aussie action!

Haven't received my precious Feder-bear mascotte YET, nonetheless I'm ready for action! In just a few hours from now the Aussie Open will start on Melbourne Park: that means looooong long nights for the next two weeks! Yay now I've finally got something to watch on television when I come home from work!! At that time of night dutch television usually broadcasts only things like call-tv or webcam-babes hehe, NOT that much of pleasure for me! But I really have to make sure I don't stay up toooo long hehe! Ahhh the temptation!! Haven't seen that much of Kooyong Classic exhibition last week but I hope it's been enough preparation for Roger since he skipped Doha this year. Ohh well, he'll do just fine! Allez Rogi!

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!!

Did you survive NYE?!?

I know I did!!