Trial test

Well, time for another blog now :) About time as well, as it's been a couple of weeks already again.
Anyways, last Tuesday I had the trial test for my drivers licence. It's completely like a normal test, other than that you don't hear whether you pass or not, you just get asked what you thought went good and bad and well the stuff you need to work on. This is fairly new, but it helps keeping the amount of people not passing down due to having experienced it already once as well.
My test didn't go exactly fantastic though sadly. Then again no body expected me to drive fantastic yet I guess since then it would have been the final test and not another two weeks of lessons and all. It didn't go exactly fantastic because I was seriously nervous and started making more and more mistakes towards the end of my lesson (I had an hours lesson before the test). To which my instructor started moaning an moaning harder and harder and thus even before the test even started I had no confidence left already..
However, it was not all bad, because apart from knowing how the final test will be there's another pro to taking the trial test. It's that if you pass the special manoeuvres you had to do during the trial test, you don't have to do them again on the final test. This part of the test went good and thus I at least don't have to do any parking, turning and other shit like that during the test but only driving :)
The parts that still scare me are highways, sooo fast! And I need to do all the things at the same time, like speed up and look and keep the steering wheel straight and all that.

Something else that's been happening often and fast, so far without any result though is checking houses. I'm now getting emails, with places that fit our searches, every day. Of those we pick the ones we like, if there are any at all and forward them to Sue. She then contacts the company to see if they can arrange a viewing but so far that's not been possible yet. They always wanted rid of the houses in the same week, which is of course way to quick for us sadly. But Sue and Tom are going to take a look around this Saturday, so hopefully they will be able to find something semi decent :)

I have also send the form that needs to filled in by the Dutch government to them. So hopefully it won't be too long before they sent it back and I can sent all of it to the UK.

Also, I've changed the look of the blog. First there was another look I liked which made me lose the old one I had, so then I came up with this. Pretty nice I think :)

Anniversary and more

Well, it's been a while already again since my last post. But that doesn't matter! This is a whole new one, with pictures! :)


First of all last Thursday Dan and I have been together for four years already! Four years.. Doesn't seem that long at all really.. But well, we decided to have a little day out together as there was still a couple of things we wanted to do here in Amsterdam. One of them being a canal cruise through the centre of the city. Another was to actually visit the palace at the Dam, but sadly that was closed until later in October, so we'll be coming back for that later in the month most likely :) The canal cruise was awesome. It was fantastic weather, if anything a bit too hot, but well, on the water that's not too bad. Took a couple of pictures too, which I'll litter around this little post :) First the one to the side is when we took of with the boat, just a couple of cool looking houses with a seagull sitting on a pole in front of the brown house.

The pictures above and below are a clock tower called 'Malle Jaap' or translated to 'Crazy Jack' by the very British sounding taped tour guide. It got the name due to the fact that for years it was unable to keep the time. Also you can see that the base looks different then the top. This is because the tower was first lower and only hundreds of years later the top was put on.

To the left is a picture of the smallest house of Amsterdam. It's just about a metre wide. If you look at the doorway, it just about fits the door and that's it. For you who aren't sure which one on the picture it is: yes, it really is that small green and white house that's already much much lower then the rest of the houses.


The next picture is one of a couple of very traditional looking houses on the 'Herengracht' (Gentlemen's Canal as translated by the guide). I thought they were looking all pretty and renovated there together with the three of them :P
  

Then the tour took us through the old harbour and behind the Central Station, that's the train, bus, tram and metro station for the city. It's one of the biggest stations in the country if not the biggest. Also, you can see a 'small' bike storage stand too. 

After that the boat turned back into the town centre and we got off again. All in all it was quite a nice hour of seeing and hearing stuff about Amsterdam :)


But before we went on the boat trip we went shopping as well. And we bought, among other stuff, some leather Magic the Gathering deck boxes. As seen on the picture below :) It's even got a magnet in it's flappy top :)

On a completely different note, Rachel told us last week about this awesome small washer thingy. So I went to look for it on the interwebs and it turns out they are available in the Netherlands too :) So I got us one. Which means I've now been writing this blog while waiting for the washing to be done! I can do washing at home!! :D To the left is a picture of it in it's first use :)

Theory test again

Well, some stuff happened again over the last couple of weeks. 
First of all my nursing registration for Holland got sorted. And I've now started on getting the one for the UK sorted. It's just not going very fast, you know how governments work :P I had gotten a form that needs to get signed by the Dutch body that gives the registrations, but there I saw an option to get a letter send. Which I thought would be the same. But well, it's not. So now I've got to figure out how to get that signed.. But last week was so crazy busy that I've not exactly had the time to yet.


Secondly: I PASSED MY THEORY TODAY!! With which I was very pleased as I didn't think I would do it today.. I am just having a bit of a period that I'm totally fed up with it all. But apparently so has nearly everyone. So I guess it'll go again. But I passed it anyways! :D 


And that's pretty much all that's been happening. Well that is other then waking up early to go to work :P

Theory exam

Well, today I've tried the theory exam for my drivers licence for the first time. The first part of this blog has actually been written on the mobile app while waiting in the building :p

I was pretty nervous before hand and not expecting at all to pass. Mainly because the book I had was from 2007 and the cd from 2009 and they changed a lot of rules in 2010. So I already was afraid there might be questions that I wouldn't know or gave the wrong answer because the rule got changed. On top of that while doing the trial tests on the cd I did indeed notice that some questions I answered wrong even though I gave the right answer according to the book. So before I even started on the test I kinda expected not to pass..
On top of all that I developed a terrible cold last night and this morning. That didn't leave me feeling much better about it of course..

My feeling before hand was pretty right because I failed with just 3 questions too much wrong.. Funny thing is, there was a couple of questions where I first gave the right answer and then started to doubt myself and change to a wrong answer.. So if I would.have actually trusted myself for once..

Still I'll be booking a new test as soon as possible. Since I also know now what to expect :)

Busy but not much news

Well it's been a while since my last blog. Mainly because not much has been happening other then me working.
I did however start on my drivers licence last week. Yesterday I had my third lesson and I'm still much enjoying it. It's also difficult though. So many things I need to pay attention too and do at the same time. Yesterday we even went on the ring road for a little bit, which was quite scary considering it was only my third lesson!!


I've been busy with getting the required registrations as well. For the Netherlands I've sorted it almost completely, I just have to send in the papers.
For the UK I send in a form that should get me an application set.. So now I'm just waiting for that :)
We have also been thinking of moving a little later because the NMC (Nurses and Midwifes Council, the body that sorts the registrations in the UK) is going to take up to 12 weeks to get my registration sorted..
The preferred time of moving has now changed to the beginning to half December. That way I'll also be able to finish working the entire month of November.

Graduated!!

Well, last Thursday was my graduation! Finally! :D I've got my papers! 
Last Sunday Sue decided to fly over as well, so she was here from Tuesday afternoon till Thursday evening. Which was absolutely amazing! :D
I was pretty nervous because that also meant she was going to meet my parents! All of them, because not just my mom, but also my dad and Dick were going to show up for it! But all was fine. All I don't think my dad said much at all to her, but that's probably his usual struggle with the English language.


While every body inside had to listen to a welcome story we had to line up in alphabetical order outside. Then we got to go in and we had to sit on the first two rows. Then there was a couple of teachers doing some stories. One was on video and very funny. Then we had to take the oath. Which was like three powerpoint sheets long! We all had to read out the sheets at the same time. After that we had to turn around and each individually got asked: "What do you say to this?" and then we had to answer with "Yes, I promise" or "Yes, I promise or so God mighty help me". For that we looked at the entire audience, who were representing society in there.

Then there was a teacher who said a little something about every one of us personally. I thought that that really added to it! What he said about me was this: I started the study as a quiet and shy girl. Then, from quite close by, he saw me grow to a nurse which was taken into account by the entire department from an academical hospital. With that he hinted at the fact that I finished all my internships in the third year so well. During that time he was my internship coach, so he literally saw me grow during that time.


After that we all got called to the front one by one to sign the papers and get the badge. During that there was a sheet on the beamer with a picture and bit about the person. With me they went on about my project. The subject for that was about the internal transfer on the ward. I didn't think this was going very well, because the forms were too long, and therefore not used. They pitched in on that about the fact that I'm a quiet girl, a girl about little words, and that everything should be to the point. Then they ended it with the line: "Let's hope for her that they'll appreciate working to the point in Great Britain". So they had put that in too! Which I thought was really awesome!

After the graduation ceremony was done there was some time to sit around, congratulate and get congratulated and have a drink and a snack. And I finally had some time to spend with the people I invited to be there with me :) One colleague showed up as well, she brought a huge bouquet of flowers and a card. From my dad I got a bouquet of flowers as well, from my grandparent some money and from my mom an awesome necklace and bracelet. But the best gifts I got were that everybody was there to be witness of and celebrate with me this very important event :) 

Very random..

Well, this week was a very random week in which quite a bit happened! First of all, was the party at my parents last Friday. I got a very nice bouquet of roses from my mother for my graduating. As you can see I took a picture, so she could see how pretty they were. But so can you all :) 
I've also heard that day that my dad is actually showing up for my graduation, but he won't be staying for dinner because there's another graduation he's got to visit... Which is pretty annoying and sad..


Then when I arrived at the metro station Monday morning, I found my bike missing it's pedals. Yes... It's PEDALS!! Oh, and the gear that is attached to the pedals. Which kinda looks like the pictures... On the first one you can see that the right side pedal is missing and the gear it's supposed to be attached to is missing as well... And on the second one you can see that the left side pedal is missing.. 
And here I thought I had such an old bike already anyways... Apparently not. Or it might have something to do that in some peoples eyes the brand is rather good... But well, I was not happy as you can imagine..
So.. Then I wasn't only 15 minutes late for work because I had to use a tram to get there, I also had no bike to work with/on.
Luckily I could borrow a bike at work to use for the time that I needed one, but I didn't feel very comfortable using that for a long time though.


So then I didn't have much more left to do then to look into buying a new bike.. So I browsed some second hand websites and some bike shops for second hand bikes as well. But for the budget I had it seemed impossible to get a second hand bike.. At first I didn't really want to spend much more then €100,00 since I still am not so very sure that I'll get paid this month yet.. But I couldn't find a second hand bike anywhere for that price.. I could however find a simple new bike for €145,00 which seemed a fair price. Mind you, I did want a very simple bike this time, since on the last one the gears and brakes had started breaking and the lights also didn't work anymore. So I ended up buying that bike, and so far I'm quite happy with it. I'll still go back to the station to get my seat of the old one, just because it's pretty much brand new, barely half a year old. So it would be a waste to let it get to waste at the station... Still, time for a picture of the new bike!

So, that was a bit of an annoying and frustrating start of the week. But that was not all that happened. I pulled out our first fresh vegetable from a balcony tub for plants. It was a carrot. And while it may be bite size the second one I got was a bit bigger already, so there's hoping for the third one. Which is still in there at the moment. And let's not forget it's a balcony tub, so they won't have that much room to grow. With all that in mind I think this first experiment to grow carrots on the balcony was quite a success :)



My work is going pretty good at the moment. I've finally received my contract this week and sent it back signed. It also included a changed contract already for July and onwards where my level, pay and hours will go up :)
Although I still don't know if I'll get paid this month, which is a quite frustrating thing.. I mean if I just knew I didn't get anything, I would be able to plan for that as well..

Passed!!

I passed the last test I had today. Which means I will now officially be graduating on the 7th of July!!
At first I thought I would be able to do this relatively easy, but I got so nervous that I forgot a whole lot of stuff. Which was a bit sad and frustrating, but I passed! :D
Now I'm finally going to be able to properly relax for a bit and have a fun day tomorrow at my parents! :)

Almost done

Well, I'm so close to being done with my study now it's unfunny! :D All I've got left is my final conversation this Thursday. Which I think I should pass proper anyway, since it's nothing new. They'll try to ask me the most difficult questions ever, but it's all about myself and what I want and what I can do, which is luckily not something you can or have to study for :) All my other grades are in now as well, so this Thursday I will know if I'll be getting my papers indeed on July 7th!!


About the house in Shrewsbury that I contacted about a couple of weeks back, we still haven't heard anything back from the letting agency, but the house is still on the website..


My new job is really cool. I started to do my own patients this week, and it's so much more fun then what I did before. Simply because I'm allowed to actually do more stuff then wash people :D


I also got a new monitor this week, because we thought the old one was part of the reason of Dan's tinnitus. One of the other reasons seems to be loud music from our delightful neighbours, possibly caffeine in Coke and Pepsi and possibly his pc. But the monitor is pretty! :D It's a fancy 24" screen from Samsung. The fancy design like they do their lcd tv's as well :)

Finally back in control

Well, I do believe I'm finally back in control of my own time :) The project has been sent to the woman we're working for for a review. I've actually got a better feeling with this new project then I had with the old one. Sadly the one girl was still quite annoying and saying stuff like "Well it doesn't matter if we don't pass anyways because I'm not getting my papers this year anyway" Which is quite a demotivational when you are trying to get your papers this year! 


The coachingsproject is going quite well as well. The girl was very happy with the help I've been able to give her and she got her goal, so that's a good thing. I did run into some difficulties with that as well though, as the theory book was absolutely impossible to get since it's back at the printers for a reprint... So pretty much no shop sells it, it was all the selling of back stock and apparently there wasn't a lot of that :( Luckily I had some other books and most of the theory was said in the lessons too, which made it that I only had to get the page numbers and could still use it in the essay. But still an annoyance that the school didn't provide another book that could be used instead..


I've also caught up with my schoolwork quite fine I think, I've been writing the essay about the coachingsproject after every conversation I had and that made the project nice an quick to finish. Tomorrow it needs to be handed in and I've got it done already yesterday! So all I have to do tomorrow is quickly read through it one more time, then email it and print another one to be handed in on paper and send that by mail :) 
Then I can start on the last big essay for my big fasetest. That is going to be proofing that I'm functioning on the right level and that I'm worth my papers. I'm pretty nervous for the conversation, but the essay will be a good start for it. We've also finally had a lesson and a training for it, so we actually know what they expect of us now :D That is a real help and has saved me a lot of stress the past week for sure!


I've also reacted on a house in Shrewsbury. Not to say that we take it, but just to ask the estate agent what the extra costs like deposits are and alike. Oh, and what they chances are they still have this place or something similar in the next couple of months, because we actually really love this place! If it was possible I'd probably ask Sue to view it and see if it's really as good as it seems and see into taking it. But alas, we've not got an extra £ 450 a month spare. 


Dan's tinnitus is staying pretty the same. He's noticing it less during the day when he doesn't have a headache, but at night it's still annoying when he's trying to sleep. He's also using a lot less painkillers compared to last week, so that's a good thing at the very least. Last Monday he had a hearing test, but that was all fine. The GP said again that there's nothing she can give for it, and that we've got to contact her if he's getting nauseous in the morning or when it gets worse. 


The knitting is going good by the way. I'm about half way done with the right shoulder part of the back piece. Then all I've got left is the left shoulder piece and then I'm done with the back. I bought a crochet-hook to be able to properly do the pattern. That took a little getting used to, but now it's going quite fine and a lot quicker too. 


And of course last Friday was Dan's birthday. On Wednesday my mom and sister had already come by for it. They got him a necklace for the ring he got of Nan. We went to buy that on the Wednesday which was a lot of fun. In the morning I had also made brownies, this time with an extra bar of chocolate in it in little pieces. Which was a huge success!
I got Dan two games: Portal 2 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, which still has to arrive from Play.com. I also got him a new mouse, since the old one was starting to break. 
He got a card of aunty Kathleen, one of Margaret, Alan and Steven and one of Sue and Tom. The card of Sue and Tom also contained money for a gift which we went up to the center of Amsterdam for. With the money he got of Sue and Tom he got some funky glasses shaped like toxic waste barrels, space invader ice-cube mold, a comic book and two movies. 

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

First week of coaching

This week was a fairly boring and normal week. We did have some stress over the fact that I got paid far less then expected. I should still get the money, but they have some weird way of paying in advance and completely miss guessing how much I would work or something.. Which made me end up with less then a weeks pay for the entire month. Does mean we'll have some extra for the next month, but still, that doesn't help paying the bills this month :S


I've started on the last minor of my study, coaching. It's promising to be a very fun and good period I think, apart from the one and a half hours travel to Alkmaar once a week and the ridiculous days.. We start at 8:30 in the morning nearly every week and have to go till somewhere between 15:00 and 18:00 as well. Just because they are trying to fit it into one day instead of two. If they would just make it two normal timed days out of it we would have some time to work on the project before or afterwards as well, but well. 
There's one super boring teacher who just gives examples with everything and further reads of the powerpoint presentation.. :s Also, all the projects have to be handed in on paper and aren't allowed to be handed in just digitally, luckily we're in a project group which contains a few people from Alkmaar as well, so hopefully they won't mind to hand it in without us having to ride all the way down to be there as well!


I've finally had enough time to finish off Dan's scarf as well! The last bits were pretty tough, but well, I got it done. Of course it could have been a bit longer as well, but Dan said that after I finished it :P


But here are the pictures of the scarf. On the first one it's laying folded around and double on the sofa.

The second is Dan wearing it. He's not looking very impressed, but I think that's more because of me taking the picture while he's playing a Xbox game :P

Two days of typing

Well, considering I've been typing for the last two days pretty much non stop I figured I may as well put up my blog already. I had to make a massive project for a lesson that basically goes entirely to try and make you think about what you want, what kind of job and what future plans you might have or want to make. They told me to start a few weeks ago, but silly and student like as I am, I started yesterday! So, now I've written 32 pages all about myself in about 2 days. Well, I have to say I'm impressed with that. Finally having Office installed on my pc, and not having a tree of papers I need to look at all at the same time means I didn't have to sit on the bed with the laptop and get a sore back so I actually managed to write that much in so little time. I can't even remember the last time I wrote that much in such a short amount of time. 


Today we got a letter of Sue which included some job offers from a Welsh newspaper, it was supposed to be for looking what kind of jobs are around for Dan, but it contained a very good job in Cardiff for me. Very happy to see they're still looking for nurses even in the recession and with the NHS changing so much now.. I've also been looking around on UK job search websites and they are indeed still looking for nurses, and I'd be getting a decent pay, pretty equal with that I'd be earning here. 


Due to all the schoolwork we've had the last week or two, as it's our two testweeks last week and this week I've not really had much time to knit, so the scarf is still equally long as last week. Which is still pretty long! I've also found a nice pattern for a pillowcase which I'll probably be making next.


Next week my next period of school starts, and I'll have to go travel a lot again. Because there's so little students left they've combined the schools in Amsterdam and Alkmaar (a place close to my parents, an hours train ride away from here) and for this period the group from Alkmaar had to go to Amsterdam. But that does sadly mean that for the next period we'll have to go to Alkmaar and travel for over an hour and a half... For some reason they also put the days too full as we've got to start at 8:30 quite a bit and go till around 15:00 or even later a few times! :(

New job

Well, last Friday I started at my new job. I very much like the fact that I keep on getting the same route if I work a few days after each other. I actually have the feeling I get to know these people now, and I get to know the route, which makes it go a lot faster. That was something that annoyed me about being a flex.

The first day was a bit painful though, because there was a person ill, which meant that one route had to be split up and be done by all of us. But because my route is in the end of the area we cover I had to do quite some extra biking. On top of that I had to search for the way I had to go as well of course as it was a bit of a new area. So all in all I had barely had time for dinner and to do a lot of biking, so my legs are like really painful now :( But after the muscles stop hurting every thing should be fine again :)

The knitting goes quite well, I'm about half way through the third ball of yarn and it should be long enough when I'm done with that one. So hopefully I'll be able to finish it somewhere in the next two weeks! Just in time for the nice weather to kick in again! :P

Visit to my parents

Well, last Thursday it was the birthday of my youngest brother, he's turned 18 now.. My little brother... 18!! My little brother... an adult! That alone just makes me feel old now, he's supposed to be little, but he's like a big boy now!

Today his birthday was celebrated and at first we thought we couldn't go, but because not a lot of people were coming over my mom decided to pay our tickets and we could come over anyway! We got him a jar of sweets with a refill because not everything fitted in the jar and he liked it. So that's one thing already.

Other than that we had a really good day. I joined my parents and my brother and his girlfriend for a game of The Settlers of Catan. Yes, I put a link in there for the people who don't know the game ;) The game was very fun and we actually finished it for once too! While I was playing that game Dan was playing some Tetris on his DS and actually set a new high-score of over 2.6 million!!

After that we had a very nice chat with my mom about moving, which was very relaxing which is something pretty rare at my parents place! We did that while admiring the new study they made for Dick's new job and my mom's new therapists home practice.

All in all it may have been a loud day, but it certainly was a very fun day!

Other then that not a lot happened this week. We did however get our project back and the hospital is quite happy with it, we don't need to change a lot and they had quite a bit of positive feedback, which is always nice of course! So now all we've got to do is some minor changes, put the feedback in there and then hand it in on Monday.

Well, I don't really know what to add any more and I'm pretty tired too. It's not going to be fun to have an hour less sleep tonight! :(

Late!

Well, I'm a bit late with writing this time, but that's because I've been plagued by headaches the entire weekend. It feels very liberating to finally be able to move my head without it going absolutely crazy at me for moving!

We've found out that we can actually complain about loud music with the complex manager now :) They seem to have changed the rules and he's already doing his bestest best to get some people out of here because they're too disturbing! :D

Also, the interview I went to last week, I got the job and I'll be starting on the 28th of March! :D I will have a zero-hour contract till the 5th of December this year! By then we should be moving, and they took no objection to me leaving earlier if necessary either! :D

The project is going good so far too! We've done the interviews yesterday and are now ready to all write our 45 page essays... Not very much looking forward to that though! :P And the other project we should be getting back this week from the hospital with feedback :) The ethical discussion project we have to do is coming along just fine as well. The biggest problem or obstacle with that is that it all sounds sooooo vague! It's all just opinions, and the teacher even said he can't really make us not pass unless we give the wrong reasons for our opinions... Which just sounds so odd considering normally we have to keep our opinions to a minimum and only use proper articles to base our conclusions on!

The scarf is coming along very good! The second ball of yarn is nearly fully gone as well! I'm already looking for a next project, which is most likely going to be a pillow of some sort, but I'm not exactly sure what yet! I can't really find any good patterns on the web for one sadly :(

Stress!!

Pfff... So much work to do! Well, that is for school-work, the job is still not really doing what I expected :(

Next week we have to hand in the project at the hospital so they can give their feedback, so we need to finish it pretty fast now! Which was a bit of a struggle because we all had to write a lot of stuff, but we should have it done by Monday now, and in that case our teacher has offered to print it for us. Which is pretty cool because we need it twice and in colour and he doesn't really have to pay anything for printing at school!
This is however just one of the three projects we have to finish, so we've still got quite some work to do in the last three weeks of this semester..

The job I've got is just plain horrible... I've not been asked to work for two weeks in a row now.. This is going nowhere, so last Tuesday I sent a mail out to the place where I worked last summer and I've got an interview on Monday! :D Hope that goes fine and then we might actually get a stable income again! :D Can't wait for that..

The knitting is going very well! I had made a picture last week, but it's nearly twice as long now as it was then! In fact I'm nearly through my first ball of yarn! :D And it can nearly wrap once around Dan's neck, so there's progress! :D Though it's much longer now, I'll post the picture anyway!

Birthday!!

Today is my 22nd birthday! Jay to me! :D
I also had my first driving lesson today, just came home from that. My parents have been over last night and today a friend will come over and stay overnight.

First things first though: first driving lesson!
As a present of my parents I got a driving lesson, just a first one, no obligations afterwards luckily! It went very good, of course did some beginner mistakes and did not really keep myself to most of the rules!! Like going 70 km/hour where the maximum is supposed to be 50 km/hour, or not indicating when switching lanes etc. The instructor did make me do everything in the end, from steering, to changing gears and braking. Also, just straights, corners, roundabouts and crossings. About changing gears, very annoying, I kept on accidentally putting it onto 5 from 2 rather than 3..

Other presents I got from my parents is a magazine with some very nice knitting patterns and some different types of yarn needles.

Of Dan I got the X-men trilogy, the first season of Death Like Me, an absolutely awesome book on aquariums and aquarium fish and the best hat ever! Which is the one on the picture! You can't even see the best thing of it, it's got fluffy balls on the bottom of those small cords :D

We also received something that was called by Steven 'the food-parcel', it's absolutely awesome! It contained 6 packs of mini crème eggs! :D

Holidays

Well, I've had a week off this week. Well, that is from going to school.. All the other responsibilities still carry on of course, still had to work, and still had to work on the project as well.

My new job isn't as fantastic as I hoped, out of the total of six days that I have been available the last two weeks I've only been able to work three and I've still not been asked to work at all for next week.. It's starting to worry me a bit, because we do need a bit of a steady income if we want to safe for the move at the end of the year..

The project isn't exactly going fantastic, for the project-plan we've got a no go, and it doesn't make sense to any of us..
On the feedback it says we are missing all this information which we think we actually put in there and before sending it off to the assessor we made our teacher check it twice and put his feedback in there too..
On top of that, the person we're working for is making a fuss about us not signing contracts just so we can have personnel-cards and be insured and thus them covering their ass.. Oh, and of course sending all the unhappy emails to our teacher and assessor as well!

The knitting is going well though.. Restarted twice, but now Dan's scarf is starting to take shape, it's about 25cm long now and actually starting to look like the end of a scarf :)

Last weekend was very fun too! My brother came to visit as he was home alone, because the rest of our family had gone on a winter-sport holiday. We played some games and went through he Firefly series and Serenity after that. I'm pleased to say he's got taste :)

Oh, looking forward to next weekend by the way, it'll be my birthday and my parents will come over and a friend will sleep over as well :) Is going to be fun! :D

Jobs and Chocolate!

I've landed myself on a job again this week.. Was getting really tense with money, but finally after waiting for nearly two weeks on getting interviews done I've had a try-out last Wednesday and they liked me and I liked it, so I'll be a home nurse in Amsterdam for the next while. I hope it's going to work properly though, as it's a bit of a funny system. Basically any of the offices for home care can call me up and ask me to work for them on the days that I'm available. In theory it means that I can work all over Amsterdam, although I've been able to give up preferences as close to our area as possible.

Also, today we got a package from the UK with chocolate!! :D It contained Cadbury's Wispa's and some Cadbury's Wishes. I hadn't had Wispa's yet, but it turns out I really like them :D To which Dan said he knew for sure I would like them!

Oh yea, I just started knitting as well. Just got some needles and made Dan pick a colour of yarn, so now I'm making him a scarf for trying it out.. Pretty fun so far, although it's not going very fast at the moment yet!

Well, that's all I can think of for now, so I'll leave it at that.

Something new

Well,

It's been ages since I last wrote something. In fact nearly 4 years.. Reason: I started on a study.
Before I also wrote in Dutch, because then I was trying to keep my family up to date on how I was doing, but now I also have non-Dutch speaking family and friends, so the language has to change I guess :)

Well, as said, I started a study, Nursing. In Amsterdam. Moved there as well and now I'm actually almost done with my study there as well. Having big plans to move to the UK later this year. I really hope all that works out! But hopefully more of that over the course of 2011..