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Hi, Heidi,
My brain was better today. While it’s a lot of commute time, I do like getting out of the apartment and going into the office. I THINK I got done what Bob wanted me to get done for Falcon. We’ll see. A lot of what he wants me to do is typically the responsibility of a turnover manager and I don’t have the knowledge or experience to do it well. We’ll see if he’s happy with what I did or not. Bob is like a roller coaster. Sometimes appreciates my work and sometimes comes across as upset because I haven’t done something or didn’t read his mind and do it the way he wanted. I never know what to expect from him. You’re right. His opinion does not define me, so… and I need to keep reminding myself that much of what he’s unhappy with me about is stuff that typically isn’t the responsibility of a database manager. I think there was some miscommunication on what he expected of this position as a good 1/3 to 1/2 of what he wants me to do is the responsibility of turnover manager, not a database manager.Well, I walked back to the apartment again tonight. Seems like the cut the number of buses that run on this line in the evening in half. That’s the 3rd time now I’ve waited for 20 min only to have the bus not show up. Well, it shows up, but then switches to another line. Looks like it runs every half hour when it used to run every 15 min. Problem is, my train gets in about 5 min after the bus leaves, meaning I either walk or wait for 25 min for the bus to come. 🙁 I think I’ll just plan to walk. Takes me half an hour and its good exercise after sitting all day.
23 more days till I go home! I splurged and spent the extra money to get a hotel in Amsterdam the night before I fly. Flight doesn’t leave till 11, but when I looked at the train schedule there is maintenance going on that day so travel takes an extra 45 min. I would probably be ok, but I don’t want to take any chances with public transportation and I want to be to the airport by 8. Still don’t know that airport well enough to know where to go. If I fly out of terminal 1, it’s good. I think terminal 2 is ok as well (or so I’ve heard). Terminal 3 is a total nightmare. I’ll spend the extra money not to take any chances! Yippee! Going home!
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
Yes, I-70 goes from … someplace east of Ohio all the way to I-15 in Utah. Been over maybe half of the entire length? Maybe not a half, but 1/3? I-80…. been over 2/3 of that freeway.. several times. Chicago all the way to San Francisco. I-15… I know it well. I-25.. been over quite a bit of it as well. I-90.. Been over most of the western portion of that as well from ND west.LOL. Understood about the traffic. Don’t blame you at all for avoiding those areas.
Campbell River is about halfway up the east coast of the island. They have lots of whale tours, grizzly bear tours, etc. That’s what I went for. Telegraph Cover is just a tiny little place they were running sea kayaking tours from. Stayed in Ft. McNeil close by. Up near the northern part of the island. The company is no longer doing kayaking tours from there. Too bad. It was gorgeous.
I do tend to explore a lot. When I’m home I wander from Waterton to Jasper and over to Radium on the weekends. Longer trips I’ll head into BC.
Am I allowed to have bad days? Today was one of the worst I’ve had in a long time. Couldn’t do anything right! Brain wouldn’t work. Did stupid little things. Not a good day at all. Oh well, tomorrow should be better. Going in to the office tomorrow. I’ve kind of gotten to know one of the girls and she’s good about asking me to join her and her co-worker for lunch, so at least I get out of this apartment and have people to talk to.
24 more days and I leave for home! Can’t believe it! Yippee!
Ghent was disappointing. Yes, there were huge, massive, impressive cathedrals. Like 3 of them right in a row. Stepped inside one and was going to take pics when I noticed through the people in front of me that there was a real service going on so didn’t take any pics. My camera makes noise when I take a pic. Someone was singing and the acoustics were awesome. Sounded so cool. Saw an old castle. Walls were leaning. It was smaller. But the cities are built up close around these castles and cathedrals and its really difficult to get decent pics. Europe has lots of trams so there’s tons of electric cables all in the way. The cathedrals are so massive and tall you can’t get far enough away to really get the whole thing in the frame. I need a wide angle and didn’t bring it. Plus, per the usual any more, it was cloudy and not good light.
In some ways I feel like I’ve lost a lot of confidence from this job here. I often feel Bob thinks I’m incompetent and he’s not happy with my work. One reason I’m willing to leave early if this other job becomes available.
Hope you’re enjoying your day,
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
LOL. Well, that’s the news on the weather channel. I went to check weather for here today and that was one of their news posts. I think I-70 gets up pretty high near Vale, if I remember correctly. I did several projects down near Grand Junction, Parachute and liked to stay in Glenwood Springs when there on work trips.So cool you got to go to Vancouver Island. I love it there. Taken a couple trips up the east coast to Campbell River then the last time went on up to Telegraph cove to go kayaking.
I like to do homemade Christmas presents when I can. Used to give tole painted gifts but now its photography gifts.
Mud does not sound like fun. Hope you’re enjoying your day anyway.
Smiles,
RhondaHey, hey, hey, Heidi, I see parts of I-70 are shut down because of snow and the ski resorts are open. 🙂 I’m sure a lot of skiers are happy. Early, isn’t it, for ski resorts to open? So cool. So are you and the pups going to go play in the snow?
26 days till I leave for home and 29 days till I’m home! Should have taken one more day with my boys, but the flight’s already booked and paid for. I’m hoping to bring Trav to Canada next summer. If I get that job in Vancouver I’ll have the money to do it. Trav loves the ocean so he would love Vancouver. Plan a sea kayaking day with him.
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
This would be another job with Worley. My only concern is they want someone ASAP. I MIGHT be able to …., yeah, I don’t know. I’ve already booked my flight to come back here on Jan 8. We’ll see what happens. If I get it, I may have to change that and not come back in Jan. They have 5 projects and one starts in Jan. We’ll see. I’ll leave it with God. Bridget just asked for my latest resume. She’s sending it to them today or Monday. Seems like these people don’t think ahead much. But, if I take it and it doesn’t work out, I’ll at least be in a place where I can retire. 🙂I’ve done calendars for Christmas presents for, uh, probably 7 or 8 years now. I always do a book for me for the year and sometimes I also give the book away. Also given mugs and other photo gifts.
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
That is really a fun idea for a book! I’ll have to work on that. Have an idea what pics I could use. Next challenge is to come up with a story and be able to tie it altogether. I often feel like I’ve lost all my creativity. My mind often goes blank any more. But I’ll try. Trav is very good at art and could draw some cartoon tumbleweed characters. Hmmmmm……Yes, glad Trav FINALLY got his passport. Now he still has to get his driver’s license switched to NY and get his car plates switched. So somehow the record of his insurance lapsed in ADOT. He always had insurance as it was coming out of my account automatically, but somehow it didn’t keep up with ADOT so they won’t send him his title. He talked with them and they told him to go enter his insurance info on line. He tried to do that and it kept coming up with a system error. Poor kid. He’s really had way more than his share of troubles!
Snow is melting at home. Not much left any more. So good news yesterday. Bridget, our global SmartCompletions support person called me. She wanted to talk about some cases I had opened but also wanted to get my permission to send my resume on to a huge project in Vancouver. It’s a 5-year contract. So she’s going to try to get me on that project. I’d go to Vancouver. So maybe beginning of year or earlier in Feb than I had planned on. We’ll see. But that’s pretty exciting.
Can’t believe it’s almost November already. Started putting together my calendar for Christmas gifts. Do one on Shutterfly for people in the States and one in Costco photo center for Canada. This year I’m doing one of Europe, mostly buildings, then I’ll do a nature one with birds and animals. Then I do a book as well for myself and maybe a couple other people. May have to do two this year as too many pics. One for Netherlands/US and one for my tours. Picked up some felt “wooden” shoes for the boys and Alex for Christmas. Kind of bulky so a challenge to fit them into a carryon.
Going to Ghent Sunday. Looks like I’ll be alone again. My neighbor across the hall was going to go with me but her brother ended up in the hospital and is not doing well, so I’m pretty sure she’ll be with him and not want to go. I doubt he’ll be out by Sunday. Then in 2 weeks to Cochem in Germany. Hope the weather is good! I’m tired of this dreary, cloudy weather.
Smiles,
RhondaYippee!! Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, boing, boing, boing. One month from right now I will be on a plane headed to New York to see my boys then home!!! Should have taken an extra day with the boys as Trav will be working most of the time. He does not have Thanksgiving off. But his passport has come, so he has a passport now. We’ll see how work turns out for me and maybe I can fly him to Calgary to spend some time with me next spring or summer.
Called my insurance and got my name back on my car insurance as primary driver as of Nov 28. Have my neighbor on it right now so he can take my car for a spin every 2 weeks or so. I didn’t want it sitting for 10 months without moving.
SOOOOOOOOOO excited!!!! Yeah! It’s countdown time.
Well, this little tumbleweed just booked another trip. ???? I question my sanity. Leaving Saturday morning, Nov 12 returning Nov 13. Going to Cochem, Germany. There’s a castle there and it’s less than 6 hours on the train as opposed to over 8 to Fusen. Main reason going is to use my vouchers for the German train, so round trip only cost me an additional 7,80 EU and the hotel was 65 EU including breakfast. Pictures show beautiful rooms. We’ll see when I get there. I’ll have to buy bus tickets from the hotel to the castle, but shouldn’t be too much. Pics look like its in the mountains, so I’m happy. Maybe snow then? If so, should be beautiful. Glad I have my Norwegian sweater!
Hi, Heidi,
It’s SNOWING! Not here….. back home. Got some notices from my Arlo camera and there’s like 3″ snow on my deck. Last one I could actually see it snow. I wish I were home!!! Your Christmas lights would look SOOOOO pretty in the snow! Has it snowed there yet?
It’s 7:30 a.m. A dusty blue is creeping up the eastern sky pushing the midnight blue higher in the sky dome. The moon greeted me with a soft, crescent smile. A playful breeze breathed a whisper through the crispy fall leaves still clinging to the trees. The birds sounded the morning alarm with their songs calling the sun to rise and shine……. and I’m off to Hoensbroek to see the castle. And my day went down hill from there. 🙁 Trip was to take 3.5 hours. Took over 4. Delayed train, so missed the bus so had to take the train to Herleen instead of the bus to Hoensbroek. Got into Herleen and I could not scan out of the station. It kept scanning me in, not out. 🙁 Gave up and left anyway. Finally got to the castle. It was supposed to be half sunny and relatively warm, mid 60s. It wasn’t. It was dark and cloudy and cool. Pics so-so. Then I stopped to eat my sandwich…. all soft food. Suddenly something went crunch. Couldn’t find it again to get it out. Another crunch on the other side. Still couldn’t find it. Swallowed everything. I had lost a filling. 🙁 Same filling I lost a year ago. Missed the bus to head back. Got on the next one. It was the wrong one. 🙁 It was ok, but not the way I wanted to go. Got back around 5ish. So much for the sunny day!
Yippee!!!! I can’t believe I’m heading home in one month 2 days! SOOOOOOOOO excited! Hearing Worley MIGHT have a project I can work on in Canada. We’ll see. Randy is really fighting for me. I really appreciate it. He still doesn’t know where he’ll be next.
Next weekend going over to Ghent with the girl across the hall. Should be fun.
How is your weekend going?
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
God’s been good to me. Sunny when I got in last night, so had a great evening. Today was cloudy and really too dark for pics on the 2 hour ferry ride to Rosendal. Norway coast is gorgeous. Tons of rocky islands. Got into Rosendal and the clouds were a bit lighter. Met a really nice couple from Alaska and they said they’d walk with me so we took the waterfall loop. Ha Ha High winds at the top of the loop and it started raining. So glad I had my sweater and coat and then my poncho over that. Still an awesome hike. Will send pics when I get them edited. Absolutely gorgeous. Got back to town. The couple stopped at a little restaurant. I went and found the little historical church in the village. Got back to the waterfront around 1:00ish and it’s a good thing. It started in raining. Rained hard all the way back to Bergen. Got very wet walking the half mile back to my hotel. So glad I had my sweater! It was quite humid/damp, very windy and in the 50s today. Got a warm bowl of soup at the hotel restaurant. Perfect. Ha Ha. Came back with over 1000 pics today. Most of them I won’t edit, but did get some good ones.My tour for tomorrow was cancelled. Email tonight saying it was cancelled and I’ll get a full refund. Supposed to be snow and ice in the mountains tomorrow. Booked another 4 hour fjord cruise going up a different fjord to see waterfalls for tomorrow. Only 57% rain tomorrow so should be ok.
Smiles,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
Trip went smoother than expected. Started out rough. The train I got on in Rotterdam to go to Amsterdam got cancelled for technical issues. Had to wait almost half hour for the next train. Got to Schiphol 6 hours early. Last experience there was awful. This was much better. One really large, nice security for all of terminal 1. Took only half hour to get through security. I was stupid and asked the gate attendant about my bag and she told me it was too big. I had forgotten my large bag I carry to repack and keep my cameras and laptop with me so ran back quick to one of the stores (small mall in the terminal) and bought their largest bag. Made it work for my cameras and laptop and they checked my now half empty bag. Really annoying as there was plenty of room in the baggage storage in the cabin. One of the bays was almost empty and my bag has fit in that size luggage area several times. Next time I won’t ask! My ride was a bit late to pick me up. But it worked out well. Super nice gentleman. Told me a bit about the town. Drove me right up to the hotel door. Told me to take the “train”, “trolly”, whatever it is to the top of the hill. Went up just after sundown. GORGEOUS!!! My photos have a little hand shake, but not too bad. Absolutely beautiful from there. I’m totally in love with Norway. Loved Switzerland, but love, love, love Norway. Splurged and bought me a genuine Norwegian wool sweater. Expensive, but it will last the rest of my live and that’s my one purchase for the year in Europe.Oops. It’s late. Gotta review where I need to go tomorrow then get some sleep as I need to be up early.
Good night,
RhondaHi, Heidi,
I’m freaking out, panicking tonight. Flying tomorrow. Schiphol is a mess. I won’t know till I get there what gate I fly out of. Probably will have to ask 3 or 4 people like I did last time. It’s NOT a fun airport! Confirmation on my shuttle from the airport, so nervous about that, but should be ok. Confirmation on one of my tours. The other has gone silent. Got confirmation a while back, but no voucher and I don’t think I’ve seen the charge notice. I won’t be using TripAdvisor again.No massage till I get home.
Yes, counting days till March. Things are going better with Bob. Looking forward to getting home. Logistics now of a power cable for my European work laptop and arranging to get into the office in Calgary, but should be minor details. I haven’t been looking much for work. It will be very slow now till next year. Loonie is dropping in value. Trudeau is not good at keeping the economy going. He needs to go.
Our Thanksgiving is the 1st Monday of October, so they just celebrated. Not as big there as it is in the States.
LOL. Wow, you’re early with your Christmas decorations! But understand. They do make a person feel happy. Have you gotten snow yet? Outdoor lights and decorations really brighten up the neighborhood. I’m sure others are enjoying your lights as well. I had solar dragonfly lights on my back deck. Had to take them down when I painted, so looking forward to getting them back up. And have four solar torches that look real. I do miss my deck.
I used to do some writing way back in my younger days. It could be fun to write children’s books. LOL. Those little coots are so ugly they’re cute.
Oh, P.S. Saw some red-crested pochards (ducks) on Lake Geneva. They aren’t supposed to be there so must have been migrating through. Saw some pochards on Kralingse Plas this spring. They were only here for a couple days.
Had to laugh on my walk today. Some silly coot just had hatchlings. I mean those little fluff balls must have just hatched this week. They looked like tiny tennis balls. I doubt they’ll make it through the winter. 🙁 There were 3 of them. One little rascal already thought he owned the world and took off on his own. He headed out way away from the rest of the family and out to deep water to see the world. One of the parents went after him. Fortunately the mate was still around and stayed with the other two who stuck closer to the safety of the reeds. The parent kept trying to turn the little one around and get it to come back. It was having a difficult time. Little guy was bent on exploring. Too funny. But dangerous for the little one who was totally oblivious to the dangers. There are still quite a few gulls around who would love to have a little coot for dinner.
Hi, Heidi,
I don’t know why I’m silent instead of standing up for myself…… well, uh, yes I do…… 95% of the time when I have stood up for myself, I have just get gotten beat up more and beat up worse. I think I did make it clear when we got back to the cruise spot that I was done talking with him as he did leave.Airport is awful. Unfortunately, it’s the biggest one around. Flying out of Rotterdam or The Hague costs more. Maybe could try Brussels, but internationally, Amsterdam is the hub. Just need to allow plenty of time. And yes, of course I’m still going to go. Paid for some of it already and would not be able to plan another trip, so going rain or shine. Hopefully it will be like my trip to Zernes. Rain predicted all weekend, but we only saw rain one afternoon. Take my parka and warm clothing. It’s still a week away so hopefully it will change.
Hi, Heidi, no other job possibilities on the horizon and with Canada predicting a recession, which is crazy as there are many opportunities for industry with the energy crisis in Europe, I don’t know what will be available next year. We’ll see. Contract is over first week of March 23. It was only a year contract.
Was feeling better today till I went for a walk. Now my throat is quite scratchy again. :(. But I’ve been couped up in this house all week and its sunny and around 60F, so beautiful day. I’m feeling weak, though, with little energy and little strength in back and arms. One of the first things I’m going to do when I get home is go see my chiropractor. My back is out and my neck is severely out of joint. Then I’ll treat myself to a 90 min massage! Can’t wait!
Smiles,
Rhonda
