Tuesday 21 October 2008

I'm being shown on webcam...


And I disapprove!!! Well according to Nijn her face ^^ Dad was kind enough to bring her upstairs in front of the webcam and in true bunny style she disapproved massively.
I do miss the little furball, she has been at my old place in Bussum many times and always enjoyed having her over. Well I say that now but at the time I was cursing her for the mess she made! Speaking about little bunnies, my sister finally managed to get her own Bumper. I know...but I wasn't involved in the naming of the little one ^^ 
Apparently Bumper is sporting quite the attitude and that will go well with her owner. You know what they say pets can look a lot like their owners *Only joking Nicole* So here for your viewing pleasure some Bumper pictures because she is cute and fluffy.




My first Flash™

It has been a while since I last used Flash... more then 2 years I haven't touched the program but one day I came into the office and there was the request to do a Flash animation. Ever seen somebody run and hide under a table? Well that was pretty much what I wanted to do, slightly stressed I got the brief and off I went. After long nights and stupid mistakes I finally managed to come up with this (look at pretty picture)

Not the whole side but the main animation in the big box on the left side. Now I know there are a lot of people out there who can actionscript this blindfolded and timeline animators who just fell off their chair laughing, but I don't care *sticks out tongue* The actual moving animation can be found at www.pepsi.co.uk



Friday 17 October 2008

The 'Oh damn I forgot to update in a while' - Post

Hello my faithful readers.....all 5 of you! Yes indeed it has been a while since I last updated, I can provide you with a number of reasons why but in the end I might just have been a bit lazy *shock*


So just to spoil you all I have a long post with lots of pictures and stories. This summer the 22nd of August one week after I move my Dutch butt to the UK David and I went to Reading Festival to enjoy some music like Rage against the Machine and Metallica! We had tickets for Friday and Sunday, cause Saturday's lineup simple sucked. It has been a while since I last went to a festival and I forgot how you seem to not notice the smell of sweat, stale beer and urine after a while and just enjoy the music & company. The weather was absolutely stunning so there was the need to keep well 'hydrated' :) It was good fun and we needed the monday to recover... am I getting old?

We also had a lovely break in the New Forrest I'll upload the pictures on my Flickr some day :) An amazing hotel and beautiful surroundings, really a nice mini-vacation.

September came very fast and before I knew it I was starting on my first day, and what a day it was! I fully enjoyed it and now after nearly 2 months I feel very much at home and don't mind to run the extra mile to get a project done. 
Everybody is so passionate about what do, it is very stimulating to work in! I really have missed that passion at previous places I worked. There it was just work here it is a philosophy. A quick peek of the place I work.

David had some fun news a fancy dress party! I have been waiting forever to get a good opportunity to wear my recently acquired Furisode, if you don't know what I'm talking about: kimono for unmarried women. It is a beauty but I was fearing the time it would take me to put it on. In the end 1.5 hours is not
too bad to look 'Iki' (go Google it). David decided he would go as something 'odd' and came up with a very cool outfit! There is a very handsome guy underneath that mask - serious!


So what did I do for exciting things today well every 2 weeks some from the design team has to do something creative and fun, today was my turn and I felt that I wanted to go back to my youth, only one thing is good enough for that: CLAY!!
Yes it was clay figurines madness, everyone was busy with creating weird stuff and hopefully we will make a stop motion animation out of it to have some fun! More on my Flickr account (see left) The black one is mine ^^ 


Well that will be the last pictures of this update more to be following soon, things are going well here in the UK, but I miss 'Pepernoten' around this time of the year in the supermarkets :( 

Sunday 17 August 2008

I am sailing!

Friday the 15th was the big day to move all my 'stuff' across to the UK. A friend of mine was up for a free holiday in return he only had to drive. Btw I really need to get my drivers licence... Anyway it all started at 5am. Time to get up and get everything in the rented van. At moments like this you find out that; you got way to much stuff!! Two hours later and all was inside (ofc I forgot a whole bunch). Off to Duinkerken to catch the 2pm ferry to Dover. Smooth trip and no trouble at customs, which I found strange since I figured that they would love to dig through my completely packed van, just to annoy the hell out of me. Customs at Schiphol seem to like me enough to do that, every single friggin time! But no, French customs rules! Ferry ride went well and 1hr 45min later we arrived in Dover. Ah, UK customs oh damn...but they rule too! 

And off we went to Berkshire country. Got a call from David to inform us we got some delayes on the M25, cause of some guy dressed at Batman was delaying traffic. Lol, turned out to be a protest for the right of fathers to see kids more after a divorce. Fortunately we arrived at Davids place in one piece, not thanks to me since I had a blackout in my sense of direction driving down a way I knew for 1.5 years :)

After a break we drove to my apartment and reached for that last bit of strenght and hauled the 34 boxes and other bits up the stairs into my apartment. Sorry David that I made you help :)
But finally everything is in my place and sorted, well now I got to start the unpacking business.
After spending the Saturday unpacking most of my stuff, remind you clearing 10 boxes was a lot of work.
My bedroom has a made bed and a wardrobe filled with clothing, kitchen has my pots and pans. 
Bathroom is clean and has a relaxed feeling to it....and I'm not going to talk about the lounge cause that place is filled with boxes :D

Anyway Sunday can and it was time for me and Patrick to return to the Netherlands... sad to leave, but will be back in 4 days. But on the boat my suffering was eased with Magners and a Curry .. mmmmm jummie!!!


Sunday 10 August 2008

Just add water...

Well in a few days time I will be moving all my stuff to the UK, finally! All the boxes in my house are getting to me, and my eating habits haven't really improved since all my plates and cutlery have been packed away. The key to may new place have been picked up on the 08.08.2008 by my lovely David. Great help and support with a lot of things, including getting my BT connection sorted. 
It is amazing how much hassle you have to go through to get a simple phone line connected. Now I can understand BT wants some money in advance, since I have no credit rating in the UK whatsoever. But when you want to pay that £50 by your own Visa card... not a chance! You can pay with your Visa in the smallest mountain village in Tibet but not a chance you can pay BT with it. So David if you are reading this....thank you :)

Anyway I have also started my final week of World of Warcraft *shock* My computer will be moved as well and I don't have internet at my new place yet so I will not be online for a while. I'm wondering if my guild will live through it all. It is summer and general the raiding is not so good then.

I have sold all my furniture, I don't even have a fridge to store milk for my beloved morning dose of Brinta, Google or Wiki it if you don't know what it is.  I must admit that doing my shopping this weekend has never been easier, hence the picture of the pot nooddle.... just add water ^^ 

Saturday 2 August 2008

The new apartment comes with KITTEH!!!


Well Friday was the big day, I was able to check out my apartment for the first time. Had to wait for a little while for the estate agent to show up but I was being kept company by (what it seems) the downstairs neighbors cats. Very friendly and cute kitties ^^

Anyway the apartment itself looked absolutely gorgeous, and the pictures I have seen of it (see photostream on your left) didn't do it justice. Much more spacious and 'gezellig'.
So the 15th I'm going to move over my stuff to the UK and see what I can squeeze into my new place. Looking forward to the housewarming and the remaining summer days in my new place. 
Oh, and the cat in front of the stairs is not dead :D

Tuesday 29 July 2008

Here we go....

Well I finally pulled it off the 1st of September I'm starting at my new job! Excited? You bet!
It has been a crazy few weeks but I manged to get the apartment I wanted and I'm off this Thursday to sign papers and have first look at the place myself.

So this blog is for the peeps in the Netherlands, to make sure I'm still on one piece and having a good time in the UK.
This blog will feature pictures and video's , using my ancient digital camera, to show what life is like for a Dutchie who is only 45 minutes away from NL.

Monday 31 March 2008

Are we finally getting somewhere?

Besides the fun of seeing The Cure at Wembley, discovering the little unique stores in the streets of Oxford or just crashing on the sofa and watch a very bloody gangster (Eastern Promises) movie with a special Irishman. I actually received word that two companies were interested in meeting me. Actually the third managed to finally get my details to their HR people after 3 months - so who knows maybe another email their way to see how that is coming along?

Anyway turns out that one company had a design team (2 people) and the other nothing that remotely resembles a design team at all - which was where I would get in to sort that bit all out.

So where am I now? Well still doing the waiting game and in the middle of it all still browsing for new jobs. Hmmm - how about a bet? I bet you all that I can be in the UK, working, living, eating curry at the beginning of May. Which should be in 1 months time-ish, now you would ask what is in it for me?I will actually not play World of Warcraft every night and whip up something creative for you - how's that?

Right now it is sort of time for bed, it suck having a cold cause you keep waking up - ugh, nearly 3 am. Weltrusten all!!

Sunday 9 March 2008

Testing

Well you know how it goes ... you got a new Blog and you need to test how everything looks.Well this is pretty much some incoherent ramblings from me at about 1am on a monday morning.Where are actually should be in bed with my hot water bottle (since it is bloody freezing here ) but I decided the digital world was a lot more interesting then my dreams.


So Still no word if I ever gonna get a job in the UK and to be honest with you all it is starting to annoy me that no company is willing to hire such a motivated and slightly mad person like myself. But who knows today it is monday and new possibilities might find their way to me. Think I should get to bed now before I get myself into a soapbox mode and nobody would want that, well you might but I'm not up for it now ;) 

Oh and I tried to use Magenta in my blog so I probably get the hell sued out of me by T-mobile ... no offense guys but you cannot claim a color, cause if you can then I think I'm going to copyright black for my own personal pleasure and style. 
Right still need to find a way to pimp this blog up a bit... went for white instead of black for a change, which is  shock cause most people know me as a person who loves black.
What am I trying to do now is come up with something nice that will give me some own feeling to my blog ... or I can just keep it like it is now and not bother with it and wow you in a few weeks with a new layout *if I ever find the time*