Making plans

What a weird experience it was when I was in the Mediamarkt store of Oviedo on Saturday evening and suddenly the name 'Hasselt' (The name of the town where I was living when I was still living in Belgium) was shown on the dozens of televisions on display in the store.
It was the start of the Junior Eurovision Songcontest that was being held in Hasselt. We taped the show on video and saw it on Sunday afternoon. I was impressed by the beauty of the hall and the stage they had built.
And before every singer was introduced, a few images of Hasselt were shown. But the images were shown way too fast. At times, we had to stop the tape and rewind it, because we had not recognized what they were showing.

Later last night, we started talking about Belgium again and I suddenly realised that it was already 8 months since we visited Belgium and my family for the last time, while we normally would go every 6 months. If we were going to wait until April before going again, it would be a whole year.
I still have 5 days of vacation to take before the end of the year, but sadly, Mónica has no right to take a holiday from work.
So after talking about it, we decided that I should go alone for a few days in December.
So I started checking flights and rates today, and I already booked a flight to go to Belgium next week. How weird that we started talking about this last night, and I already will be going next week.
I haven't told anybody of my family yet, and I'm thinking of keeping it as a surprise. I could take the train from Brussels airport to Hasselt, and just show up at my parents's house and shout: 'Surprise'! I like the idea.

Experimenting

Thursday night is Big Brother night. So while Mónica watches 10 fighting weirdos that are frustrated of being locked up in a house, I have got some time to play around.
Last night, I got all creative with my camera. I tried out some new things like cloning and skywriting, and I discovered that the closet mirrors created a nice effect as well.
I feel like I should experiment more often, because it seems that I haven't discovered all the possibilities of this camera yet. I had fun.

I'm popular

I haven't got a clue about what is happening here, but over the last 3 days I have received at least 12 telephone calls and e-mails from people asking me if I am interested in a job.
I have a nice job with an attractive salary, so I'm not thinking about changing soon. But it's comforting to know that if something suddenly should occur, they are still looking for people with my profile.
Although I must say that the job they offered me in Barcelona sounded quite tempting. Especially the salary of 6000 euros a month! Holy sh*t.

About last week

Yes, my birthday was last thursday. But since I had such a busy week last week, I didn't have the time to post anything about it. I'm Sorry.
I had this course at work every day of last week, so I had to stay until 20:00 in the evening. I didn't even have the time to finish the work that I was supposed to be doing, so you can understand that I didn't have much time to post.

By thursday evening I was already really tired, so we didn't do anything special after all. And I didn't really mind, because I'm not really fond of my own birthdays.
Mónica had written me a beautiful letter, explaining to me how much our story means to her. And she got me the best gift of all gifts: this watch (It is more beautiful than it looks here).
Also, my 2 year old neice called me on the phone to sing 'happy birthday' to her uncle in Spain.

On saturday the weather was nice, so we decided to go shopping in Oviedo. It's so nice to wander around town now that the Christmas decorations start showing up everywhere.
Everybody was obsessed with THE soccer game of the year: Real Madrid - Barcelona. All the people in the bars were watching the game, and even in the television department of the shopping center 'El Corte Ingles', dozens of people were following the game on the televisions on display.
I got a haircut while we were there, and after a quick dinner we went to see the movie 'Flightplan'. And although the 'plan' of the movie is a little hard to believe (How could nobody have seen the kid?), we enjoyed watching it.

On sunday, I felt like a mess. My nose didn't stop running and I had a headache all day. I was afraid to feel completely miserable today, but in fact I'm feeling a little better already. Gonna take some vitamins later just in case.
Now it's back to work.

brainstorming

I know I haven't been updating a lot lately.
This week, I'm having an intensive course at work, which means that I don't have much time to blog. Hell, I don't even have time to do my work.

I have been sleeping very bad the last two nights. I am busy brainstorming, and I can't stop thinking at night.
You see, some guy made about 600.000 dollars on the internet in a few months time, with an idea that could easily have been mine.
The idea and the realisation are so ridiculous, that I have been brainstorming about my own ridiculous idea.
I have read and learnt a lot in a few days time, and today I have started a new internet project. I'm not going to reveal anything yet, because I want to see if it works first.
Another project is almost ready as well.
I won't be making 600.000 dollars soon, but just maybe something can come out of it.
We'll see.

Feeling down

I'm feeling a bit down lately. Must be autumn. Mónica seems to be experiencing the same thing.
Nothing seems to happen, we are both bored as hell, the days seem to last forever and the evenings are cold, dark and rainy. How I hate autumn.
Oh, we do have a new hobby. It's called Stepmania, and if you haven't heard of it before, maybe I will tell you about it someday. We're dancing and jumping our nights away. We're two little kids, really.

And how I wish I had the money to buy myself a Canon EOS 350D. I am trying to experiment a little with my camera, but the results are pathetic. Well, what can you expect from a just-push-the-little-button-because-everything-goes-automatic camera.
A few days ago, I discovered the work of Rebekka on Flickr, and her experimental work amazes me. And she only started making pictures in April of this year. What a talent.

Lucky me

I just heard that I will have to follow a course next week. No problem.
Unfortunately, that means that I will have to stay 2 hours extra every day of the week.
And thus I will be home only around 20:30 on my birthday. Lucky me.

What day is it anyway?

It feels like Monday, but it's already Wednesday. Well, at least it will soon be weekend again.
It seems that the end of the daylight saving time last weekend has also changed the weather. The temperatures have dropped a lot and the weatherman is already talking about snow when it was still 23C/73F last week.

On Monday, the Spanish princess Letizia gave birth to her first child, Leonor. The Spanish constitution will probably be changed soon, to make sure that Leonor can be the future queen of Spain.
But also my Belgian friends Tom and Louisa became parents on Monday morning. They had a baby girl named Emma. Too bad I can't visit them and see the baby.
My other friends, Liesbeth and David, a Belgian couple that got together thanks to my intervention, are expecting their firstborn in 9 days.

Yesterday, Mónica and I visited the grave of her grandfather, together with her parents and family. Afterwards, we all went to a shopping mall together. How strange that the shops stay open in Spain on the 1st of november.
Mónica's grandmother impresses me everytime I see her. She is 83 years old, but she is in great shape, has an incredible memory and a great sense of humor. She talks and laughs all the time.
What a great way to grow that old.