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Hi, Heidi,
Thank you for asking. Saturday I did a 4-hour one way train ride to a nature reserve in very southern Holland. Hot, humid, muggy. But area was kind of pretty. Small hills, lots of pine. Asked a gentleman how to get back to the bus stop as the place was criss-crossed with trails. He offered me to go with him to a spring to cool off then he’d walk me to the entrance. This time I took him up on it. Enjoyed having someone to talk with. He pretty much walked me to my bus stop. Sunday was a disaster. I woke up with diarrhea so was not able to go on my $300 tour. I tried. Took some baptismal and went to the bus stop. Wasn’t there one minute when I had to go back to the apartment. I think I’ll at least get to reschedule the bird/wildlife part of the tour. Not sure about the horseback riding. Depends on if the stable will give me a credit to come another time and I haven’t heard yet. Didn’t leave the apartment for 2 days, which absolutely drives me up a wall. Today I went into the office. Left at 6:30 and didn’t get back till 7:30. Long day.How was your weekend?
Smiles,
RhondaThank you, Spyce,
Yes, my happiness is definitely affected by where I am. Thank you for understanding that. I might be able to live on less, but I also don’t have enough money saved for retirement and I need a new car. Mine is a 2012 with over 186,000 miles on it. We’ll see. But maybe time to switch my focus from work to making friends. We’ll see how this goes.Hoping the weather holds this weekend. Forecast is for rain Sunday. I hope its wrong as I have a tour to look for birds/wildlife and then horseback riding in the afternoon.
Smiles,
RhondaThank you, Spyce,
I do appreciate you understanding. My location definitely makes a big difference for me. I probably have a much stronger connection to my environment than most people and feel it keenly when away from my mountains. I am a totally different person when I am home in Calgary.I will definitely go home end of contract (early next March) if I don’t find anything earlier. There are some things I want to accomplish here, but if I can get them done before Nov, I may quit and go home in Nov. While I would like one more high-paying job, I also can make it on social security and Canada’s equivalent. That would allow me to get a job cashiering or build a pet photography business. I’ll keep praying and see what God has in store.
Do really appreciate all your support and understanding.
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
Yes, I would definitely read some books and watch some videos. I think you’ve suggested Joe D. I’ve watched some of his videos, but its been a while. Any other suggestions?Why did I go back to Worley? I’ve talked with Bob since 2015 so thought he would be good to work with. Knowing that it’s not companies that treat people bad, but the people, I was thinking maybe the people in Europe were different than the ones in the US and Canada. Again, I thought it was my dream job and something I had wanted to do for a long time. And jobs have been few and far between since 2017 when the industry crashed. Plus, in this industry it really is who you know far more than what you know. Teams tend to stay together so it’s difficult to break into a new team.
Going to try tomorrow to make it out to the national park to see horses. 2 hours, not 1.5, but hopefully no problems like today.
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
Yes, I know you have mentioned working with a specialist. My big drawback is the money. It’s very expensive. If I had stayed in Sarnia and had the income from there I probably would have considered one or two sessions. I was making really good money there. Right now my #1 goal is to pay back the $8000 +/- I’ve lost from coming over here and do some traveling. I’m praying for one more good-paying job when I get home. It will be Aug 23 before I really have a good feel for my finances. I have 2 more $1400 deductions. I’m still really mad that they helped themselves to $1200 of my money without any warning or explanation. Which reminds me, I still need to email my boss about it. He asked me to, but said he had tried and got no where. I’ve totally lost respect for Worley as a company. I knew better than to go back to work for them as I have seen them treat employees, clients and vendors like shit.I’m not convinced all of the depression is coming from pain. I highly suspect there are some physiological causes as well. I haven’t mentioned, but my maternal grandmother was mentally ill. My uncle suspects she was bi-polar.
And right now my brain is shot. I answered one of your emails with my adventures today.
Hope you had an awesome day.
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
Well, hmmmmmm. Don’t even know where to start with this.Definitely had I realized how this would all work out, I would not have come. I’m feeling much more isolated here since I’m working from home. That’s hitting me a lot harder than I realized it would. I also thought I would be able to join a couple meetup groups and travel and neither of those things have happened, so my coping strategy failed me. LOL.
So, true, I have put work and financial needs as first priority and it has cost me in relationships. This job I didn’t put financial needs first. I wouldn’t be here if my finances and money were first priority. Wish I had made money first priority. I thought I would be able to make a difference over here in getting the SmartCompletions program set up. Not turned out at all like I was hoping. And I thought I would be able to travel and explore. I was thinking my kids would come visit. Not happening. Thought maybe a friend would come visit as well. Not happening. So, yeah, this has not been at all like what I thought I signed up for.
LOL. Well, my tolerance for pain has drastically decreased since my 2nd divorce. I no longer put up with the kind of abuse I did in my marriages. First indication that I’m not respected, I’m gone. I’ve passed up several opportunities to date because I didn’t like the way I was treated. Also passed up a couple opportunities to date because it just didn’t feel right and wasn’t quite what I was looking for. I’ve also pulled away from my parents and siblings because of the dysfunctional ways they run their lives and the way I’m treated. So my tolerance for pain there is substantially lower than it used to be.
So you say I’m carrying around a lot of baggage. That to me is very vague. What specific baggage and how do you want me to deal with it? I know you have suggested journaling. So as far as my mom goes, she apologized to me (in a very dramatic crying way) for being so harsh on me. I just told here I knew she did the best she could at the time. I realize she had a very dysfunctional childhood so didn’t have the skills to parent well. Same with my dad. So while it hurt and I know I didn’t deserve to be treated that way, I also know they didn’t have the skills and at least wanted to do what was right. I thought I had done pretty good at dumping my baggage so could use some more specifics.
Thanks,
RhondaWell, I just lost more money. When I came over the exchange rate was about 1 EU to 1.4 CAD. Now its down to 1 EU to 1.35 CAD. Trudeau has done nothing for the economy. Its also raining today and supposed to rain every day now for the next 2 weeks. Found a national park (more like state parks) that MIGHT have wild horses. Its 1.5 hours from here, but its raining there as well for the next 2 weeks and I have a couple k to walk from the bus station to the park and don’t want to walk in the rain with my camera. Coming over here has not gone well for me at all. Many, many things have gone wrong. 🙁
Hi, Heidi,
LOL. Yes, I don’t want to “retire” – just be home and find something I enjoy doing to supplement my retirement income and maybe find a place to volunteer. Not sure how that’s going to look yet. But do know I need one more high-paying job after this one. Yes, LOL, I would have managed at Sarnia, and it wouldn’t have been a full year, only till October and I could have gone home one weekend every month. Steph, the girl that was so hard to work with, left and I would have seen Joep every night. 🙂 It did help to have people (especially Joep) to eat dinner with. And the money was good. I’ve watched about $20,000 disappear in just a few months. $10,000 went to Trav’s school loan, $8000 went to upfront costs to come over here and $2000 to repair my car. That need for money has driven my choices my whole life and God has been good and I’ve never been out of work and I’ve been able to provide for my boys. I thought I would be able to come over here, slow down (work 40 hours instead of 50), do some traveling, and break even. I was thinking it would be a nice transition to retirement. That hasn’t happened. I’ve lost a substantial amount of money and still haven’t been able to travel. Did FINALLY send some money home. Just sent a little bit of money to make sure it goes through before I send more. So this adventure hasn’t turned out at all like I thought it would. I also am finding out I’m really missing people interaction from not going in to work. Working from home is very isolating.Yes, I would really like something different. I dream of being in a loving relationship and have someone love me. (whatever that looks like. Nobody’s loved me. I don’t know what love is like.) I also dream of being home and having friends over for bbqs and being able to go kayaking and hiking with friends. I’m not sure what other type of work I could do where I could make enough to put more money in savings. Still really regretting coming over here. Trying to make the best of it while I’m here. This was supposed to be a job for me, but it backfired and didn’t turn out that way.
I know I have a high tolerance for pain, pretty much go numb to deal with it. Strong, too strong for my own good. But at the same time, I’ve never had anyone to help me. Never had anyone I could depend on. I don’t know what other choices I should have made. I had no options but to support my boys and get out of the debt ($50,000 when I was making only $25,000 a year) that my ex ran me into (I got all the debt in the divorce). I have been successful in accomplishing that. I thought coming over here would be a nice pre-retirement chance to travel and slow down a bit, but this has backfired on me and not turned out at all like I thought. I thought the job itself was my dream job. I was trying to make a choice for me, my dream job and a chance to have kind of a working vacation. Attempted to make the type of choice you’re talking about, but it has not turned out the way I thought at all. Thought I could join some meetup groups to meet people, but that hasn’t happened either. One only goes out for drinks and the others only do hikes that are 20k or more. And the kayak club was too expensive. I would not have gotten my money’s worth from it.
Didn’t make it south today. Didn’t get to sleep till after 1 last night. Woke up very tired. It was cloudy and windy and I had no energy or motivation today. I cleared off and the sun came out. I went and laid out on the balcony. Did nothing else but watch BYU random acts, George to the Rescue and animal rescue videos all day. Feel like nothing but a robot, a non-existing, dead, robot. Monday is the last holiday of the year till Christmas, so I’ll try again to make it south on Monday.
Hope you’re enjoying your day,
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
You’re right. I’m not sure how interested Aleks really is. He’s not talked about coming over to travel any more and I sent him my email explaining my subscription was expiring, and he comes back, don’t worry, IF it expires we’ll talk on email. It feels to me like he thinks I’m lying. My guess is he thinks I’m lying about the calls as well.So, ok, I’m already retirement age. I should have stayed in Sarnia. I would have been in a good position to retire had I stayed. After coming over here I need to work one more job. I’ve already changed careers 3 times. I would definitely move into renewable energy if I have the opportunity. The industry also is by nature “cliquish”. Teams tend to move from one project to another together and its sometimes very difficult to switch companies. I would definitely change if I get the opportunity. Right now there’s not very many large construction projects going on in Canada. I’ll sit tight here till I find something that works for me. Thursday was better. Looking for one more good-paying job then will retire. I’ve been watching jobs in Calgary. If I can find one that pays over $35/hour I’ll apply. Hey, being through 2 abusive marriages and raising two boys alone, I’ve been in survival mode my entire life. I don’t know anything different.
Slept in till 8 this morning (after working an 11 hour day) Went to market this afternoon. Weather is warm. Hope to head south tomorrow. We’ll see.
Smiles.
RhondaHi, Heidi,
Sunday, we saw maybe 20-25 seals? It was windy, cold, cloudy, but still cool to see them. I will send some pics when I get them edited. Looks like I’ll be doing another tour with the same company. I’ll be going to a place where there are deer and wild horses and then horseback riding for hour and a half. Should be fun. Did hear from Christina. She said her husband and daughter have health problems so she doesn’t have a lot of time, but she did ask if I wanted to go on a boat trip with her, so hope that works out.So what should I do differently? All the jobs I’ve taken are the only jobs that were available. A couple of them I didn’t get till my previous job had ended and I had to have something. Haven’t had any options or choice on where I go.
Mentioned to my line boss the issue with the request for marriage certificate and divorce decree. He seemed to not be concerned about it. Said they probably wouldn’t do anything if I didn’t get them in. Did get an email back from the city saying if I couldn’t get them in by the time they asked to call them and they would give me an extension. So have no clue what I’m going to do. He also said it would probably not be a problem for me to work from Calgary for mid Nov to first of Jan as long as the projects were ok with it. So no clue what I’m going to do. Have to talk with my functional boss yet. He’s on vacation. Definitely not going stay here beyond the end of my contract next March.
LOL. Loved the hills in Valkenburg. But also enjoyed the quaintness of the town and the old, old buildings. Castle ruins were interesting, too. I’m thinking of heading south again this weekend. Its a 4-hour trip down to where I want to go, so we’ll see. I do like southern Holland a lit better than around here.
Aleks did say he would see if he could arrange a zoom call. I do appreciate that about him. We’ll see how that goes.
Smiles, Rhonda
Hi, Heidi,
No, haven’t been able to talk with Aleks yet. I tried to call again this weekend and got the same message – the signal is too week. Not sure what’s happening as his is the only number I have problems with. I may suggest Facebook or something.So the Dutch are way overkill on legal requirements and identity. I had to have my original birth certificate notarized by the state. ????? So they questioned because my surname is different on my birth certificate and my passport. ????? And at my age, why wouldn’t it be? So now they want my marriage certificate and divorce decree (again they have to be notarized by the state ???). And I know once I turn those in, they’ll want the marriage certificate and divorce decree from my first marriage as I’m sure my marriage certificate has my first married name as I didn’t go back to my maiden name. So she said I have 6 months to get it. I emailed to verify it would be Nov 30 when I have to have it in and asked what would happen if I left mid Nov and brought the documents back first of Jan when I come back. We’ll see what she comes back with and says. I’m really tempted to work till just before Thanksgiving and go home for good. I can get most everything done by then. Have no clue what I’m going to do.
Ha Ha. I’m laughing. Your concerns are a big reason why I didn’t go to Austin. Didn’t want to jump into another place I wasn’t happy. If I have to, I can apply for social security and the equivalent in Canada and get by. LOL. Now don’t be too hard on me. I did finish out my contract in Louisiana. In fact, they extended my contract by a few months and I stayed through that extension.
Thursday was a holiday so I took a spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment trip to Valkenburg. It’s way south in the hill country. Hills maybe 100-150 ft high? Pretty country. Wheat fields and I saw a canola field (a blanket of bright yellow). Valkenburg is a cool little town. Newer construction around the edges, but the center of town is centuries old and at the base of a hill with castle ruins on top. There’s a cave and an old coal mine. Three hour train ride, but worth it. Then Sunday went on a seal tour. It was cold and windy, but other than that, fun. Did get some good pics.
Have a SUPER day,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
I thought I had answered your last message, … I think I’m losing it!My position is usually out on the construction site, so not one where I can work from home. ….. Except over here I’m working from home 4 days out of 5. But they want me here to go into the office once or twice a week and once Holland Hydrogen is underway, I’m hearing I’ll be out on site frequently. Job hunting isn’t going well. What I do is pretty specialized and positions few and far between, especially in Canada right now. And I’ve been doing that for the last 10 years so feel not qualified for other types of work, except the really low paying jobs.
Yes, I think Trav is finding it difficult to regroup after his plans fell through. I really hurt for him.
Thank you. I’m really looking forward to Sunday. Yesterday I woke up looking for something to do and on a whim took off to Valkenberg. It’s way down south and is a 3-hour train trip from here. It’s a cool little village. Much of it new construction, but the center is centuries old and at the foot of a hill with castle ruins on top. I didn’t pay to go through the ruins, but enjoyed it from the outside. Valkenberg is in the hill country (maybe 100-150 feet elevation). There were wheat fields, and I think it was a canola field we passed going down. There isn’t much that is bright yellow. I miss the canola fields in bloom in Alberta. There is also an old coal mine in Valkenberg. Very pretty area. There’s a couple other places in the way south I’d like to go, but they are 4+ hour train ride to get there so will stay closer home tomorrow.
So I got hit AGAIN by the Dutch government. Now, out of the blue they’re telling me they need a copy of my marriage certificate (1991) and my divorce certificate (1997) and they have to be the originals and have to be apositlized – whatever they call it, anyway, it has to be “notarized” by the issuing state. Quite stupid. Come on. They have my passport, notarized birth certificate. (Had to FedEx it to the State of Maryland with a self-addressed envelope to The Netherlands. I found out after the fact is was over $100 CA to ship one envelope to The Netherlands) I already have a Dutch “social security” number. This is way overkill and ridiculous. I wrote them back and said the originals are at home in Canada and I’m not going home till November and I’m planning on returning to Canada permanently when my contract is over next March. So I got an email (in Dutch) from them saying my “complaint” was registered and to go to My Counter to find the results. Ha Ha. So I had to apply for a DigiD (application all in Dutch) to even log in and now they are snail mailing a code for me to get in – taking 3-5 business days. What a royal pain!! I’m pretty much fed up with The Netherlands. And Worley did take $1200 from my paycheck. No response at all from my boss. I still owe two more $1400 payments, so now it will be August before I get a full paycheck. I’ve pretty much had it. First job I’m offered at home, I’m gone. And I’m figuring out my boss is totally “by the book”. Everything has to be done formally and by the book. And he’s…. when I’m working a project I just go talk with the person I need to and get questions answered as they come up. My boss has to book meetings, have everything formally written up. My style is quite a bit more casual than my boss’s. I try to keep him happy, but it’s tough. I’m sure ready to go home!
I’m kind of starting to like Aleks. We’ll see how it goes. He’s a very positive person, and I like that.
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
Thank you. Yes, I’d go back to Veluwe, but not very often as its such a commute. But the heather blooms in late August, so if I’m still here I’ll go get some pics. Yes, of course it was drilled and pounded into me growing up, don’t go with strangers. So that, plus, I had just started on the trail and wanted to go to the lookout. We would have headed the opposite direction if I had gone with him.Aleks really hasn’t talked about his work. Just the standard mention in the profile. He had said he goes frequently to Vancouver so I asked if he had family/friends there and that’s when he said he works in a clinic there. He also said to call in the morning and hopefully he wouldn’t be with a patient. I’m not going to call him at his work. He went to Jasper this weekend so I didn’t try to call. He told me before he went and messaged me a few hours after he got home, which made me feel good. I did give him my email. My subscription expires June 8. And I did mention that to him as well.
Last time I lived and worked at home was Feb 2019-Feb 2020. I’m way ready to go home and settle down.
Trav, I think, is just trying to survive. He’s been sick for a week with a bad cough. No insurance. Did get to a clinic today but said they did very little for him. He did get a prescription, so hope that helps. He’s working nights which makes it hard to do anything. He is working on a google certificate in data management, but anything is more difficult working nigths. He’s very intelligent and very talented but doesn’t seem interested in a career with those talents. His high school teacher said he was extremely good in drafting and his art teacher said he was good enough to do it commercially, but he’s not particularly interested in either field. I think being rejected by 5 schools and having his plans totally blown apart has really thrown him for a loop.
I did finally splurge and book a seal tour for Sunday. Quite expensive – 125 EU, but its a 4-day weekend and I need to do something. I will also go to Nationaal Park De Meinweig probably Saturday. Thursday I’ll sleep in as won’t get home from a work BBQ till late and Friday is not free transportation.
The NOVA job in Red Deer was a really good job. Team was awesome and I like Red Deer, so that was a good 2.5 years. Louisiana, the team and job was ok, but the location was not good. Ohio and Sarnia, both the job/teams were toxic and the location was bad. If I could be on another job like the NOVA R3 project in Red Deer, I’d be very happy.
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
Took the train to Veluwe Zoom National Park today. (big grin) Actually found a place with some small hills! Maybe 50′. Very pretty. There are deer and fox there but got there too late to see them. First train doesn’t leave till 7 and it takes 2 hours. Had a strange experience. Met a man on the trail. Tall, good-looking, kind, friendly eyes and a beautiful smile. We talked for a few minutes. He asked me to walk with him for 2 hours and we’d walk up to Velp and he’d drive me to the train station. Very kind of him. I turned him down. His English wasn’t the best and I wanted to see the overlook. I wonder what would have happened if I had gone with him.As for Aleks saying he works in the medical field, that was off the occupation list on the dating site. They are very generic. I think mine says engineering. He said he works at 2 clinics and talked about working with patients. I haven’t asked him specifically what he does. He went to Jasper this weekend. I’m jealous!
What do I miss about home? Everything. My house, my deck, my grill, kayaking with friends, doing things with friends, the meetup groups. I miss the food. I miss going to the mountains. I miss the dryer weather. 91% humidity today and I came home with a major sinus headache. Job here took a downturn. I’m getting the impression that automating the loading of the database is the most important thing, to the point of sacrificing the quality of the data in the database. It’s far more important to say we automated the import (linked to exported data from the engineering programs) than to have a database with clean, well organized, useful data. Auto loading the database trumps having a high quality database. And that really frustrates me and grates on my nerves. Bob wants me to use some stupid, meaningless drawing name that exports to the turnover documentation and does not correlate to the drawing number at all just to automate uploading drawings. I told him No and that was a hill I was willing to die on. I think its time I seriously up my job hunting at home. I refuse to put out a messy, sloppy database.
Dustin and Alex are doing well. New house is fine. They like it. Been doing some painting and minor remodeling. Trav? Not so well. He was sick last week. Door Dash turned down his application with no explanation. The job at Home Depot is not going well for him. I do hurt for him. Wish he would get his passport and I’d try to get a visitor visa for him to come to Canada for 6 months.
Hope you and your pup are having an awesome day!
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
Yes, it was fun to tour with Christine. I haven’t talked with her since. I’ll send her an email in a day or two. How did the places feel? It made me think twice and be very grateful for the peace we’ve had for the last 80 years. Pretty sobering to realize I was standing where bombs hit in WWII. And I didn’t mention, we also saw one of the sidewalk plaques the German’s initiated for the Jews. They little plaques had the name of the Jew and where they were taken and it was put in the sidewalk in front of the house where they lived. We saw one in Scheidam. Pretty sobering. And what an incredible feeling to be standing on the sidewalk where the Pilgrims walked and touch the walls of the church where 400 years ago they planned their trip to the New World.Yes, money was the biggest reason I didn’t join the kayak club. I didn’t think I would be using it enough to warrant the cost. I would have to walk 45 minutes to the club, paddle, then walk 45 minutes back after I haul a 17′ kayak out of the water and put it away by myself. Plus many nights are very windy and I wouldn’t go out on those nights. I just figured it wasn’t worth the money. For the cost of the kayak club I can go for a seal tour up north.
It sounds like the job is still open We’ll see. I looked up True North Solutions. They are an engineering firm specializing in electrical and instrumentation and also commissioning. They put on their web site they value honesty and integrity and treat people and clients well. Who knows. I’m not impressed with Worley and wouldn’t mind leaving. Ken did say he would set up an interview, but that was a couple weeks ago. I’ll continue to do my best here till I can find a way to go home.
Haven’t heard from Aleks. He works in the medical field. He didn’t say he was a doctor but said he works in the medical field and he works in two different clinics. I’ll message him again this weekend and maybe try to call again. I’ll send him my email as my subscription will expire in a week or so.
Joep went home this week. He’s taking a few days to go to his parents so I’ll wait for a week or so to call him. He does like my pics, though, so I should send him some of my latest ones.
Calgary Christian Singles is starting BBQs and game nights again. (sniff, sniff) I do miss those. (sigh) One of these days I’ll get home. So homesick.
Enjoy your day and weekend!!
Smiles,
Rhonda
