July 2002 Archives
The last two weeks of August and the first week of September, Maria José and I hope to have holidays. If everything goes well, by that time there won't be a lot of work left in our house, so we probably will take our little tent and leave the country.
Were we will be going? Surprise, surprise... Holland!!!
We expect to stay there about 10--12 days. Most of the time we will be in the house of my parents in Harmelen, but we also plan to spend some days camping on one of the beautiful campgrounds of the NTKC. Furthermore we are thinking of visiting the Floriade (after all we are tourists from Spain...), and of course the Crespon Tentfeest!! Besides that, we will fur sure visit some old friends and/or colleagues (quite a while ago, isn't it?).
Anyway, if somebody has more ideas or wants to see us again, just drop me a line and maybe we can arrange something.
It has been a long time ago since I last updated my Geek Code. So I set to work, and here it is:
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GB/IT d+(--) s++:- a C+++$ UBLAVHIOS*>$ P+>++ L++>+++$ E W+++ N++ o K--? w !O- M+ V PS+ PE- Y+ PGP+ !t- 5? !X- R tv- b++ DI++ D- G++ e++ h--- r++ y* z
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
Last weekend I had a few moments that I was realising what a great life I live. These moments were not really special, but just small things which I apreciated a lot.
The first moment was Saturday at lunch time. We had spend the morning searching for furniture and just decided to buy the furniture we have seen two weeks ago. Heading for this shop, we stopped for lunch. That morning we prepared our 'bammetjes' but instead we went to a restaurant at the beach. The food was great, the wine was great, the weather was great, we were on the beach, so we could take a bath after lunch and we had finally decided which furniture we want. Yes, at that moment we were very happy.
On Sunday evening my very happy moment was more simple. We were sitting on our terras drinking a beer, when I realised that I could spend hours like this.
La Seu Vella is the most important monument of Lleida. It is situated in the middle of the city, on top of a high rock, and as a result you can see it from far away. La Seu Vella consists of an old cathedral and an old fortress. Yesterday the cathedral served as the perfect housing for a baroque opera.
"Los elementos" was written by Antoni Lliteres (I also never heard about him) in 1704. It describes the relation between the four elements fire, water, earth and air, together with dawn, harmony, the time and the dead. But in fact the opera is about the political situation of Spain at that moment, where Felip d'Anjou (fire) and Carles de Habsbourg (water) were fighting for the Spanish throne. Fortunately, everybody received the whole explanation on beforehand so that it was easy to follow.
The old cathedral had a beautiful atmosphere, but for the accoustics it was way too big. Also the chairs were really uncomfortable, but what disturbed me the most was the fact that the musicians had to stop in the middle of the opera to adjust their instruments. Fortunately, the quality of the artists was high, the costumes expressed the right atmosphere and the opera was entertaining. All this made it 5 quarters of listening and viewing pleasure.
So far, things are going well. The worker has done a nice job; he removed one wall, and moved two doors to another position. In the mean time we (or better: mostly MJ) have removed one wardrobe in the hallway and are working hard on removing the paint from the doors and the door posts.
Now it is time to start building up again. We are still hoping to move in shortly after the holidays, but this depends mainly on the moment our furniture is going to arrive. Anyway, I'll keep you informed...
Just after writing that the weather is alright over here, the sky became gray (or better: black), it started raining a little bit, it started raining hard, small pieces of ice were coming down, and eventualy really big pieces of ice were coming down. I´ve never seen anything like this before. The stones were up to 5 cm big, destroying everything.
Just a short message for the people who weren´t present yesterday at Jong Nederland Harmelen when I phoned: Yes, the weather is nice over here!
Although 2 months ago we started working in our new office, the office has been inaugurated officially yesterday. The last week a lot of people have been working very hard to make everything spick 'n' span. A new gate, small white stones around every plant in the garden, repair the basket ball net, finish the kitchen in our guesthouse. Inside we cleaned everything and I supplied the two vacant desks with brand new HP e-pc�s and Samsung TFT screens. We also created a nice screensaver with the ICG logo.
Before the guests arrived, the mayor of Lleida was shown around in the office and the gardens. I was 'lucky' enough that he was waiting for our CEO next to my desk, so I could have a short talk with him.
Present were the representatives of the local government, the biggest clients from Lleida, some other relations and our distributors from Andalucía, Madrid, Portugal and Mexico. The mayer revealed a memorial stone on the wall, the CEO and the mayer held their obligatory speech, and then we could enjoy the cava, tapas and live classical music in the gardens.
Some people already told me that the new office looks like the house off a mafia godfather. Well, yesterday with this set-up and all the people in suits with sunglasses walking around, I certainly could agree.
After some months of preparations, yesterday the big work finally started. OK, we already did some small things, but yesterday the worker we hired for the big works started.
And he started well! In one day he removed the wall between a bed room and the salon, giving us a bigger living room. Besides this, he is going to close one door, move two doors, lower the ceiling of the kitchen and the bathroom and install the kitchen and the bathroom. Plenty of work for the next weeks...
To celebrate, MJ and I went for a drink at Llobregat.
