It's lottery day

Today, a lot of people in Spain have become a little (or a lot) richer, thanks to the drawing of the yearly Christmas lottery.
It is supposed to be the biggest lottery in the world, with a prize money of 2.023.000.000 euros this year. Mind you, not all of this money goes to one winner. There are 2210 winners all over Spain today, and the biggest prize is 300.000 euros.
The chance of winning is 1/85.000, which is much higher than in other lotteries. That's why this lottery is so popular, and every Spaniard spends on average 70 euros on it.



The drawing of the winning numbers takes 3 hours and is considered a special event, as the drawn numbers and corresponding winning amounts are sung by little children.
When the big prizes are drawn, the little children get all excited and start singing faster and louder. It's a funny thing to watch.
My lottery number wasn't one of the winning numbers. So I better get back to work.

Breathe in

One of my favourite albums of the year is the debut album 'Breathe in' by the young British singer-songwriter Lucie Silvas.
She got famous in Spain thanks to her live performance in the popular television program 'Operacion Triunfo', and for re-recording her first single 'What you're made of' as a duet with the Spanish singer Antonio Orozco.
Her debut album contains 13 songs that are all of an outstanding quality, the way any album on the market should be.

Therefore I was surprised not to find her name in the Belgian charts when I was in Belgium last week. My surprise got even bigger when I couldn't even find her album in the Belgian music stores.
In Holland however, her album is one of the best sold albums of the moment. Strange. Apparently her album didn't get promoted in Belgium.
Anyway, If you don't know her music, check it out. You're in for a nice surprise.

Home again

I'm back home, in Spain, after spending 8 days with my family in Belgium.
I had a very nice trip, and it was great to see my friends, family and the newborn babies.
It's incredible how fast time goes by when you're busy, as it seems that I have only spent 3 days in Belgium instead of 8. Although Mónica won't like me saying this, because for her those 8 days seemed to last an eternity.
But that's probably because she was alone at home, waiting for me to return. I'm sure I would have felt the same way if I was at home and she had been gone for a week.

The flights were luxurious (nice work, Iberia), the weather was cold and foggy, the Belgian food and beers were delicious, my little niece was absolutely adorable, the friends hadn't changed a bit and the newborn babies smelled like Johnson's baby powder.
And of course I had to fix computers and digital cameras and help my mom put up the Christmas tree (nobody can arrange the lights in the tree like I can).

Now I'm off for a weekend of complete relaxation. Although another Christmas tree is still waiting to be decorated. But now I'm on a roll.

Holiday!

Today was my first and also my last workday of this week.
Tomorrow is a holiday in Spain, so I will have plenty of time to pack my bags, maybe even put up the Christmas tree and spend my last evening together with Mónica.
I'm sure it will be hard for us, having to miss each other for 8 days. Mónica will be crying tears of grief while my mother already cried tears of joy because she will see me again.
I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends again. And those 8 days will fly by in no time, I'm sure.
Too bad that it's so cold and dark in Belgium these days. I'm not used to that kind of weather anymore.
I got myself a new and bigger memory card for my camera, and I'm planning to use it at all times.
And during the evenings when I'm bored, I might even post a little update here.
If Dorien or Tine have some time to get together someday, they can leave me a comment. I'm in town until December, 14.

2 years ago today

2 years ago today, I arrived in Spain, nervous and not knowing what the future would bring.
Today my dad sent me an e-mail, telling me that my mother was feeling sad this morning, because I had been gone for 2 years.
So I gave her a call this afternoon. She was all emotional and started telling me that they hardly ever see me, and that I live so far away.

So I decided to tell her the news that I will be visiting them next week.
I said: 'Well, you can come and pick me up at the airport on wednesday, if you like'.
She first thought it was a joke. But once she realized I wasn't joking, she was all excited.
She said: 'Now I have to finish the Christmas decorations before you come!'.
I think I just made her day.

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.

We learn every day

After I had received a few phone calls from customs about what was in the package that was coming over from the States, I started realising that maybe I was going to have to pay some import taxes. I just hadn't thought of that before.
So I called Mónica's mom (they were going to deliver the package to her place), to warn her that she was probably going to have to pay some taxes, but that I would refund her later.
I thought it could never be more than 4 dollars. Until I got the message that the package had arrived, and that the taxes were an amount of 44 dollars! That is more than 1/3 of the price of what I bought!
So I did some research on the internet, and found out that what I have to pay are customs duty and goods and services taxes.
You better keep that in mind whenever you buy something on the internet.

And to demonstrate the effectivity of Spanish couriers: It took 2 days to get the package from Dallas, Texas to Madrid. And it took another 2 days to get the package from Madrid to Asturias (5 hours by car).

Tracking the shipment

Oh, I'm a real technology freak. I love gadgets, and I am aware of all the cool new things that are being invented around the world. I read about them every day.
So now I bought myself a little early birthday gift on Amazon. It has to be shipped over from the US, because apparently it is not for sale in Europe (I hope it will work here though).
You know what is great about UPS shipping? That you can track your package online across the globe. And it's sooo addictive! So now I'm checking my tracking number every 15 minutes on the internet to find out where my package is.
On monday evening it was sent in Dallas, Texas. On tuesday morning it was received in Louisville, Kentucky and sent to Cologne in Germany. And this morning it arrived already in Madrid! So I should get it by tomorrow. Woohoo!
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's UPS.

August, 1991

It was the summer of 91. One of the hottest summers I can remember. I was 17 years old.
My dad ordered me to mow the lawn, cut the hedge and paint the garage doors, like he would every summer. He couldn't stand the idea that we didn't have to go to school for two months.
I was working in the garden, when he suddenly came up to me and said that I had to stay home that afternoon, because someone was coming to see me.
When I asked who, he said that a man was coming to talk to me about a holiday in France, to learn French.
My heart skipped some beats. I was stunned. He wanted to send me on a boring holiday in France to learn French?? And he never even talked to me about it until now?? He'd better think again, because I wasn't going. Nope. Nuh uh. Never.

When a guy in a suit showed up that afternoon, sat down at our livingroom table and presented some papers for my father to sign, I realized what was going on. It had all been decided already behind my back. The papers were ready to sign, and I could just as well start packing my bags. I hated my dad for not even discussing this trip with me. I was sure that I was going to have the worst time of my life.


A few weeks later, I was waiting for the bus to arrive on an abandoned market place at 6 o'clock in the morning. The bus would stop at different cities throughout belgium, to pick up other people of my age that were being sent to the same hell in France.
In my town, only the first two victims had to get on the bus, a girl and me. She was very extrovert, came to sit next to me on the bus, introduced herself and started talking very spontaneously. We got along quite well. Later that day, other participants had the idea that she and I had known each other for years.

We were all staying with local families in Tours, France. We had to attend classes in the morning and would go on excursions in the afternoon, visiting castles and vineyards. On some days, we would have the afternoon off.
A small group of participants became very close in just a few days time. We were young, wanted to have fun, and were decided to make the best of this holiday.

My French parents were very modern, very trusting. They told me that the Belgians had the reputation of going out all night. So who was I to break with that tradition.
And so some of us came together every night and went to the clubs until they closed at 3 in the morning. Afterwards, we would buy a few bottles of wine and gather at the banks of the river Loire. By the time the baker started working in the morning, we would knock on the door of his workplace for fresh bread, and when it started to get light again, we would walk home for a few hours of rest before we had to go to class again.
We had a great time. We got drunk at the vineyards, drove from one club to another in cars of total strangers that we didn't understand, mislead our supervisors by getting into cabs and getting out again at the end of the street.

When we got back to Belgium two weeks later, some of us broke down in tears while saying goodbye. For many of us, it was the first time that we had experienced independence. And although I may not have learned a lot of French during those two weeks, I DID learn a lot about myself.


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1 year

Happy birthday, blog!
Yes, it has been 1 year since I wrote my first post on this blog, although the URL and name were different at that time. My nosy colleagues forced me to go undercover a little while ago. Too bad, because the number of visitors declined with it.
Or that could also be because of the level of my posts, of course.
Anyway, I will be back at full force as soon as things at work slow down a little.

The Matrix

Proof that I am living in a virtual, controlled world:

- All the wishes that I did on the falling stars of the Perseid meteor showers that reoccur every year in August, have come true.

- I finished two college degrees successfully, despite the fact that I was partying all the time, and only started studying and copying notes two weeks before the exams started.

- I was offered a job in Spain after one 10 minute job interview on the phone, only 6 kilometers from the city where Mónica was living. Spain is BIG. I had been looking for a job in Spain for less than 2 weeks. I was still living in Belgium.

- I went to Spanish classes twice a week for only 3 months before I moved to Spain. I started working in a team of Spanish people and the language was never a problem for me. Now I speak Spanish fluently.

- Mónica and I moved in together, after only meeting each other 5 times in 10 years, on holidays that lasted less than two weeks. We are having a great relationship.

Does your life sometimes seem strange to you?

Thank god it's Friday

Thank god it's Friday. And unlike last weekend, I will finally be able to rest and relax for two days.
I really need the rest after this tiresome week of showing my parents around in Asturias.
They arrived on Friday afternoon last week with a few hours of delay, and until they left on Wednesday morning, we have been travelling around constantly. We showed them Covadonga and the lakes, Oviedo, Gijon, Aviles and Salinas.
We were especially lucky with the weather. It felt like summer all the time they were here. It started raining a few hours after they left for Belgium on Wednesday, and it hasn't stopped since.
My parents seemed impressed by the beauty of Asturias, and the pride and traditions of the people that live here. My mom kept saying that we're living in a great place.

Family visit

My parents are coming over today to visit us for a couple of days. It is the second time that they are coming.
That is if they get here, because I hear there is a big strike in Belgium today, and part of the airport staff doesn't seem to be working. My mom will probably be nervous already.
The next couple of days I will be guiding them around, showing them the nicest places of Asturias. The last time they came it was february, and freezing cold. So they didn't see much then.
But now it seems we are having luck with the weather, with temperatures up to 24C/75F and sun.
I will be taking my camera along. The result will be up around next thursday.
See ya.