No pass

So, we finally thought to not have to spend time on the project for a week because we handed it in for feedback of the woman we're working for, but she massively disagreed with the product we send her. So now we're back to working on it hoping she'll be happy with the changes we make.. The most painful thing she send was "Well, I expected more of last year students". That's like outch, where did my confidence go?


I did start on that new job though this week and it's really fun! It's so much better then the one at the other organisation. With some help of my mom I've been writing a letter of resignation to that place as well. I'll be able to do so much more with this new job and I'll actually be working with proper nurses there, that want to learn and grow and give the best possible care they can. Oh, and it's a lot of fun and I already start feeling at home there, after just two days.. Which didn't happen at the other place for the last two months :P I do have to get used to the day shifts and thus early mornings though. At the other place I've only done evenings, so I kinda got stuck in that rhythm.


Been pretty busy with coaching a student and writing the essay that has to be done with that, but I'm really enjoying it! It's a lot of fun to see how you can help someone by just asking questions :D And the essay part of it I don't even mind writing, which makes it go all the quicker :)


Dan's been to the GP today for his ears. He's had a loud, high pitched, ringing noise for nearly a week now that doesn't seem to go and only seems to get worse over time. Which is also giving him a lot of headaches. The GP did kind of diagnose him with Tinnitus. But there's pretty much no treatment, so she wants Dan to do a hearing test on Monday, but if it shows no hearing loss she'll pretty much do nothing until it goes worse. But I'm really worried of it going any worse he's sleeping seriously bad already and having to take painkillers pretty much on a daily basis just to be able to cope with the headaches..
She was about as useful as when I went there to ask for a different pill because I'm getting migraines of the one I have :S


I haven't really had much time for knitting the last few days, but the first part of the shirt is coming along very nice! I'm already at the point where it's going to split in two for the shoulders and the open back :)

Too busy to be funny :(

Well, I kinda forgot last week to write, although it was mainly because I was seriously busy..
Last Saturday, the 14th of May, we celebrated the 55 year anniversary of my grandparents which was really awesome! :D We went on a boat over one of the rivers, on which we got a few pictures taken as well :) On there we had some drinks, the presents were given. Both my grandparents got a flower to be put on their shirts and my grandmother got a wedding bouquet to carry around with her the rest of the day :P  


After the boat trip we drove to the farmhouse of one of my aunt and uncles and there we had a barbecue, which was yummy :) After that the cousin we got a ride with went back home because both him and his wife had to be up early in the morning. So what happened after that we don't know :P

On the boat we got the picture above, of Dan and me taken, there's another one as well, which I like a lot, but I couldn't find that one in the massive list of over 300 pictures of the day when I looked for it to download it of the website my mom put it on. But there is this one of our family. 


The past week I've been very busy with the project. We're in a group with girls from Alkmaar as well, and they barely pull their weight if at all. Which is quite frustrating, and the teacher is going to be on their side too, if he knows anything at all about it. He's made a few mistakes that are just silly, and doesn't really know anything, so he can't really help us with the project let alone issues within the group.
But every day I've had to go out or when staying in I've had to do schoolwork. But the next two days I've actually got proper weekend as far as I know. And I'm going to enjoy it! :D

Family visit

Well, the past week we've had Dan's cousin, Steven, over for a visit. Which was a lot of fun! Luckily the weather was a bit cooler then the weeks before, otherwise we would for sure have cooked out of the house :P He stayed two days shorter then we at first thought due to some miscommunication, which was a shame. But it was a lot of fun nonetheless  :D


He arrived last Saturday, on Queensday, and just to see what was going on we went to check de Bijlmer. There was mainly a lot of people going on, not much more though.. So after grabbing some last shopping we went back home and relaxed the rest of the evening and the next day as well. 
On Monday we set out early in the morning for the Albert Kuypmarkt, a big market that's linked to shops and is there 6 days a week. Very nice, got Sue a necklace and so did Steven. He also got his parents some of the cheese that Dan and I normally take to the UK. After that we got on a tram to ride to Leidseplein and from there we walked back to central station. Of course we did take the route over the Bloemenmarkt and the Kalverstraat. 


On the Tuesday we went to the Bijlmer again, just to so some shopping and Steven went in Mediamarkt. Turns out that the shop is all over mainland Europe, but not in the UK. On Wednesday, Rembranceday for World War 2, Dan and Steven joined me in the two minute silence at 20:00, but sadly the neighbours lacked that respect and while apparently the entire country is meant to be silent those two minutes, there was still talking and music going on in the complex.. Which made all of us annoyed, these people have absolutely no respect! Which isn't something we didn't know of course, but playing music through the two minute silence tops all so far!


While Steven was here I knitted him a case for his MP3 player as well, similar to the one I made for Dan. He liked it a lot and I needed a smaller project next to the shirt. The shirt is coming along very well, but it just takes a little more time then other stuff, because it's bigger :P But I'm starting to recognize that it's going to be the back of a shirt now :P

Busy week

Well, it turns out that they liked me pretty good at that last tryout, because last Tuesday I missed a call that they would like me to come in for an interview if I liked it as well. Which I did a lot! :D Today they called again and I've got an interview for May 11th :D Very much looking forward to that :D Now I just have to sort out my current job and what on earth to do with the fact that I've still not had a contract :S


I've been so busy today with cleaning it's insane! I've thrown out two full black bags of stuff, mainly papers. And we changed how the house looks a bit as well. Not much though. We just turned the table, which we thought at first would be pretty impossible, because we weren't too sure where to keep the chairs, but we tried anyways. And it turns out that there's more then enough room for the chairs and it gives a lot more space as well, which we're going to need, since Steven is coming over this week :D 
So looking forward to that, he'll have some money of Sue to help out :) And creme eggs and Smarties Cookies! I've already got him the cookies he likes so much as well :) That way there can be an exchange of cookies :D


Tomorrow is Queensday over here, and first we thought of going into the centre of Amsterdam, but we decided not to do that, as Steven only arrives at the airport at 13:30, so before we've been past home to drop off bags it's probably going to be pretty late. So now we're just going to the Bijlmer. There'll probably be some markets and stands there as well, and it means we can pass by the shops to get some stuff he might need. We will however drag him to the centre of Amsterdam at another point :P He's got to see some of the city while he's here of course!


School is going pretty good as well at the moment. I've emailed the girl I'm going to coach for an introduction conversation for after the holidays, so that should get all that started. Now I'm thinking about it I'm getting pretty nervous about having to help another student with something I don't know much about, but well that's coaching I guess :)
The project is well on it's way as well now. The project plan was handed in today and yesterday we had a conversation with the woman we're working for now. We're actually working for the school, which just gives such another feel to it then working for a hospital. I hope they really use it, that we come up with something useful in the end even more then normally because I know that if we do now it's going to be other students benefiting from it :)


The knitting is going pretty good, kinda slow though, but that's because it's actually a lot of stitches per row, but it's getting pretty big already :) Getting used to the abbreviations finally as well, and the silly odd stitches too. If I carry on this way it might actually look pretty decent :P

Another job tryout!

Yes, that's right, yesterday I had another job tryout! 
It's for basically the same kind of job, just for a different company. One that seems to fit with my views of nursing a bit more. I really liked it, so I hope they can offer me what I need apart from that as well. One of the issues I've got with Cordaan is that it seems like there's no time for actual patient care. You get to a house to do something, like putting on or off a sock, or giving someone medication, and you only have the five minutes you need for that. And that while for a lot of these people you're sometimes the only contact all day, they want to chat, which is fair enough. And I think there should be time for that. To give healthcare that fits the patient, not something that's handy for the nurses. 
One of the other things is that I think a lot of the people that work at Cordaan might have lost feeling for the job. It's quite close to a calling, something that you need to enjoy doing, and it definitely shouldn't be a routine! Maybe I'm getting the wrong impression, and these people actually act differently when they are with a patient then when they are with colleague's, I don't know that of course. But the ones I've seen at work are not different, they are harsh and somewhat rude at times. 
But I don't feel comfortable saying what I think is right healthcare in such a big organization. I mean, it's not like I on my own can change the way they work anyways. So I'd rather not loose my job trying to do so.. 


But this new place, I got introduced by my mom, a friend of hers works there as a nurse. She was interested in me as they have a lack of nurses there as well. It's fantastic, they work with self regulating teams. I'm actually not sure if that's the right wording, but they have no managers and such. All there work is nurses, no managers and no planners. It does mean that once a week every one has a mobile phone for a day in which they'll be able to be called for emergencies and such. And they have to make their own work planning. But, I don't think I would mind that. 


I made a case for Dan's MP3 player this week. I finished it in a few days, because it was rather small. It was still though though, as so far I'd only tried the one stitch yet (E:Knit/D:Recht), but not the other one to make the stockinette stitch (D:tricot steek). It was a bit of a struggle at first to get my head around it, but now I've made this little thingy I got my head properly around it and it's even going nearly as fast as the other stitch now! :)
I've started on my next project already as well! It's going to be a shirt from the magazine I got for my birthday. I'm currently working on the gauge, which I want to do right, as I'm working with entirely different yarn and needles now. Bought a second set, a bit bigger, as advised in the magazine, yesterday. This shirt is being made with bright orange 100% cotton yarn, while all the other stuff was made with 100% acrylic yarn. This yarn works so different, but well. I've found a nice pattern for a pillowcase as well, but I don't have the money for the pillow to put in it at the moment, so the pillow has been put back a bit again. I've also found a nice pattern for slippers which I might be making at some point.
But you all want pictures of course!

On this first picture the MP3 player is in the case and it's all finished and done. I used stockinette stitch to make it, but Dan liked the 'wrong' side more, so I made that the outside. I put a button at the front so he could close it. But because it's so small, and I don't know yet how to make a buttonhole I didn't make one :P So I used a bit of yarn wrapped around itself to make a loop which attaches to the button. It looks quite good if I say so myself, and Dan likes it very much :D

 This second picture shows the case slightly open with the MP3 player still half in it. Oh, please don't look at the messy right top corner, my desk sadly isn't bigger :P

And that's the MP3 player out of the case. On the inside of the top bit that goes over to the front you can see the right side of my stockinette stitch. 


Last night I also figured out how to count rows in stockinette stitch, quite handy to know when you've got to make a 22 stitches wide and 28 rows long gauge square :P