Happy New Year

As most companies, my office organises a New Years party for all the employees, completely free of charge. Apparently such an event needs a long preparation as time, because halfway February can hardly still be called the real new start of the year, but this was in any case the moment when ours took place. The venue was San Marco Village, a large place which is decorated in Italian style, with even some kind of replica of the original square from Venice as the main hall. Dress code was relatively formal, which meant no jeans allowed, but no gala dresses needed either. (which in some way is a pity as I've always wanted a good excuse to buy a great fancy dress :P)

The party started well with free drinks and too many appetisers before entering the dining room. Too many, as I was hungry and couldn't resist taking each and every tasty piece of food that was offered, and like this spoiling a bit of my appetite for the real dinner. ;) Dinner itself was served in a private hall with big tables, as much wine as you wanted and a four course meal. Starters, soup, buffet and then really yummy deserts and coffee.

Having the first drinks and snacks and on the rights some colleagues and behind them the rest of the dining hall.

Around eleven the rest of the party moved to the San Marco Square where a live band performed for a couple of hours. There are better bands of course, but for the occasion an venue I think it was very nice and as a lot of very known songs were played it did seem most had a good time on the dance floor.


After the live band a DJ took over and I think the owners of the place presumed that most people by then would have drunk enough to not mind the lousy music. I drank a couple of glasses of wine, so it remained very funny, but the guy really was crap and played awful music at times, urging several people to the bar to get even more happy I think. :P
The entire evening was in my opinion a success anyway, I had a great time, the food was good, the people as well. Even the awkward moments caused by partying with all people from one office were funny, although Monday morning felt weird in a way. ;)

Dancing and me an some colleagues after too many drinks posing for a ridiculous photo.

Coming home wasn't so good though, as the first thing I saw was myself from afar in the mirror. Weird sport were visible around my mouth, which turned out to be purple when having a closer look. Damn that red wine... Water didn't erase it, my nails did, so in the morning the purple spots were replaced by red ones at the places where I had been scratching my lips. :P

Winter fun

Some days ago the first real snow of this winter came to Antwerp. So far it has been way too warm for the time of the year, but last week we had some days with temperatures of around 2 degrees which resulted in one great day. Being at work I couldn't really enjoy the snow as much as I would have wanted, but the enthousiasm inside the office was very obvious, to the annoyance of some lesser snow fanatic colleagues. I of course belonged to those who kept pointing outside saying how beautiful it all was and opening the window to get some of it inside. (and on top of some people. :P) Lunch break was spent entirely outside with throwing snowballs and making a walk, getting my no snow expectant shoes soaked. The rest of the day was spent walking around barefooted with my socks and sneakers on the heating...

Our garden that day
(there was more snow at the area where I work, no camera there though. :P)

In only two weeks I am leaving for Oslo. Last year we were also there in march and the incredible winter of then allowed us to try out some new things, like renting sledges and going on the "Korketrekkern". In English this would be "The cork screw" and this is a sledging track, about 3 km long on the largest hill in Oslo. It goes incredibly fast and through the forest with loads of scary turns and deep abysses next to the track. I think lots of accidents must have taken place there, but none of that could keep you from going down. Truly an amazing ride and the great thing is that you just have to take the metro in Oslo up, rent a sledge, go a little higher by metro and start your ride down. About three metro stations lower the track ends and you just take the next train up and go as many times as your body allows you. The result of some hours of sledging is an incredibly painful ass, a frozen face due to the icy wind when speeding downhill and a crazy smile due to the amount of fun you just had. Plus some liters of snow all the way up your trousers as breaking down with your the heels of your feet kind of sends some snow up through the bottom of your clothes. :P
Below you see a video made by sledging people which can give an impression of what it's like. It's a pity though that nobody seems to have made a video of the entire track. We tried making one last year but after the first 500 meters you just go too fast to control anything else with your hands but the sledge. Can't wait to go there again at the start of march! :)

Quality time on my bike

I am in favour of installing a new law which forces people around the globe to find a job about 30 minutes away by bike. Going by car is no longer allowed, public transport from time to time. Each day I ride my bike for about one hour and I find I have the best thoughts, reflections and discussions on it. Things that have been bothering me all day long come clear in my head by the time I am half way home, moments of anger disappear after some reasoning in my head and though arguments are won by myself whilst battling the windy and rainy conditions. People who have had a fight with me or even a small argument would almost all have to agree that I suck at it and always turn out to be the one with the weakest thoughts. The opposite however is true when riding my bike. Old and new discussions play in my head and suddenly I come up with the most brilliant ideas and indisputable points of view. My opponents (varying from friends, family, colleagues to truly annoying people) are blown away by me and eventually have to give in and see that I am right. I usually tend to believe that I am right about things, but I never find the right words to convince others about this. Sometimes I have thought out an entire discussion before it actually takes place, but then in real life I forget about all my great thoughts and eventually give in or just become too emotional to persevere my stubborn behaviour. So, all hail to the bike, a true ally when reality is left behind. :P

No pic of my Belgian bike, but I did love my Finnish one just as much...

My Heroes

Disaster struck a couple of days ago when I turned on my Viggo, only to find out I had no internet. So far my laptop has been performing perfectly well, with only one crash during the two months I have had it for. And even that one was caused by myself, as I have the bad habit of opening at least ten different windows, run my web cam and watch some video at the same time. So in that way it was quite normal that I sort of freaked out when something serious appeared to be wrong. After some hitting, cursing and despairing I however found out that my Viggo was sill the flawless laptop I had, but that the problems were caused by my wireless internet card. My father was so nice to immediately go and replace it by an newer and somewhat more expensive one, but of course that didn't solve everything. I immediately contacted Pablo, who after all installed our internet network here at home some weeks ago, and begged him to guide me through the re-installation of my Viggo's place in the network. At some moments the end of our friendship must have come near, as I am afraid I am not the biggest computer expert. Incredible how he held his nerve and didn't give up his attempts to give me instructions to find and open the correct files and enter the correct numbers and so on. After a two hour struggle he succeeded and became my eternal hero. :P Very kiitos again. (k)

My Viggo, with on the left the new wireless card

I have found some things to occupy myself with in the coming days. First of all the biathlon world championships have started this weekend, so far resulting in two golden medals for my favourite Norwegians. It'll be harder to keep track of the races when being at work, but I'll find a way. ;)
Furthermore I have finally taken a look at the second DVD Pablo copied for me in Turku, this one with 11 episodes of "Heroes" on it. Yesterday night I saw the first three and I intend on watching a few more today. I really am a wuss though, as I already got scared a few times. :P I doubt it is meant to be a thriller series, so that shows again my resistance to even semi-scary stuff on TV. ;) But I like it a lot so far, so in a while I will let the rest of the season be sent this way.