The Big Cashew Nuts Drama of 2012

Although stealing nuts and other snacks happens daily in Gib, this is normally a monkey's thing and is never done by people. Well, listen to this story...

It is Thursday morning in my company's headquarters. We are enjoying our breakfast when a delivery guy brings a couple of bags of cashews, pistachios and peanuts. Mmm, we think - that would be a nice snack for tea later!

 My colleague however, goes to a kitchen staff member. Conversation goes as follows:

Colleague: I'd like some nuts.
Kitchen Staff Member: I am sorry but the nuts will be served at 3pm for everyone.
Colleague: But I want the nuts now, not at 3 o'clock.
Kitchen Staff Member: Unfortunately, like I said, you cannot have any now.

 At this point, she is already walking out of the kitchen with a kilo pack of cashews. 2 kitchen staff members are chasing her down the stairs to our floor to take the nuts back. Many people have left their workstations to observe the happenings, attracted by the noise.

 Some time later, the nuts have been recovered and the peace somehow restored after this big cashew drama, it turns out they actually have thought that this is a real theft and not a joke. This is cleared out and we carry on working as normal.

 Rumor has it, this might as well be the theft of the century in our otherwise peaceful chunk of land at the end of the world.

 And since in the chaos I forgot to film, here is a Gib monkey stealing:

End of January on the beach!

This is why I love living here, in this tiny spot at the end of the world: because at the end of January it is so hot that the chocolate melts in the car, because you can sit in the sun and feel the incredible warmth touching your skin and because you can take long walks on the beach. Only wearing a cardigan. Oh yeah, life is good.

Sorry, I cannot blog anymore - I got a life now!

Just kidding, of course, and no offence meant to any blogger on the Net: I still admire you and your blogs and secretly wish to be like you when I grow up ;)

But it has just become difficult to find the right balance in life so I can actually find the time to sit comfortably with a cuppa and be able to write in peace. Especially now that our little family has grown with a little furry member (our pet dwarf rabbit Buttons, who by the way is growing fast so he won't be a dwarf soon), free time is really scarce. Do not get me wrong - I am loving every minute of it, work and Scouts and home time and all. But I do sometimes miss having too much me-time on my hands!Even as I write this, I am sitting on a window sill in our Scouts headquarters, waiting for Mr G. to finish his Explorer Scouts meeting!

There is one funny thing to mention here. When I first started dating Mr G., I was the Internet and laptop freak. I would get an anxiety attack if being offline for more than 12 hours. He would have a real life and maybe check his Facebook / e-mail once a week, sometimes not even that. He would not think of using Google but would phone and ask his friends / someone who might know. I would be online all the time, even blogging occasionally but with zero interest in page views, average time spent etc. whatsoever.

Nearly a year and a half later, we seem to have swapped roles. While I cook or am busy with my Beaver Scouts or am outside having a real life, he would be blogging and checking the traffic sources and the page views and worrying if his blog didn't get enough hits.

Am I contageous or has someone secretly swapped our minds?

Sharing is caring

Ok, I admit I am pretty shit at regular blogging, or so it seems - this time I have no excuse though so let's get to the point.

It has been a little over a week now that me and Prince Charming have been living together and I just wanted to share with everyone how wonderful it has been so far!

It's the little things that matter most now: Him being home when I come back from work. A cup of coffee in bed on a lazy weekend. Having him around to tuck me in bed when I'm not feeling well and kissing me despite my efforts to keep my flu-germs to myself ('Sharing is caring', philosophically says he and still kisses me!). Me and him sitting back to back (in our spare bedroom slash storage room slash office) while I'm working and he is playing computer games (the game is apparently Star Wars, not WALL·E, DUH! Big deal, if you ask me). Even now I find it cute that he is dying of curiousity and trying to sneak behind me after being warned he cannot read until the post is ready. The list can go on but just in case you are already bored with our little everyday things, I will cut it short here.

I am happy - it's a pure bliss with him.

Girl next door

Or in our case, the pigglet next door!

Today, a colleague of mine at work went down to the garage for his morning cigarette and spotted this little cutie on the other side of the fence:



When I first saw it (first on photos, then in person), I couldn't stop thinking: something like this can only happen in Gibraltar, where the main road to the continent crosses a runway, where stray dogs are replaced by stray monkeys, where it is cloudy on one side of the street and sunny on the other one.

Anyways, back to our little neighbour. Not long after we discovered the pig, pork recipes started circulating in the office, together with the occasional: Awwwww! Me, being most concerned about his well-being, soon figured he is a pig and since pigs are always hungry, he is hungry. He seemed to agree and eagerly ate all the bread I gave him. He left with a full tummy and a happy Oink! and I left with a new little friend. Yay!

The house is new, so the fun is new too!

We finally moved to the new flat in Gib and are still settling down. Though moving itself is no fun, living with Robert and Andra seems to be quite funny ;) And living in Gib is indeed a great relief for us all!

I will not bore you with more moving details but will share just a few dialogues ;)

Me: Robert, what are you heating in the microwave?
Robert: Ice cream.
Me: What?
Robert: It's too cold.
Me: *facepalm*

Robert: Why is the microwave not working? It was working last night!
Me: We unplugged it from the power socket since we needed the UK to EU converter.
Robert: I'll fix it with a spoon. (Here he takes a metal spoon from one of the drawers and tries to shove it in the electrical plug. At this point I'm already in full dismay and leave the scene.)



Fun fun fun! :D

Battery full!

The weekend is now over and for the first time in a while it feels like I have managed to recharge for a busy week ahead.

Now just a few shorties before I go to sleep:

* The summer arrived and as a result I have one red half of my body - tanning/sunburn never seems to be even!

* Farming on Facebook is now apparently a full time job. Took me an hour to accept 1/3 of all the received gifts. Had to expand the farm, sell so many decorations and got bored.

* Season 5 of How I Met Your Mother is brilliant. I just wish my Internet were faster and I could download it all :(

* Moving to Gib in a month. After some drama and us going to real estate hell, we finally have a place in Europlaza to call ours.

* Summer holiday (or at least a part of it) is now fully booked - arriving in Sofia on June 25th and staying till July 6th with a bit of work inbetween!

* I am a proud owner of an iPod touch. My bank account suffers a lil from that - who knew that the iTunes store is sooo addictive for apps!

Now have a good night!

Hunting season is over!

Flat hunting is exhausting. Flat hunting is also very boring and stressful. Flat hunting is something I would not want to do again for a very long time.

Thankfully, we finally found a flat in Gibraltar. The two weeks of constantly running around the whole place (Ok, I admit, it is a small place but nevertheless!), calling agencies, pretending you are not disgusted by the place you are being shown or crept out by the "lovely" view over the Hebrew cemetery in a designer living room are finally over.

Right when we were getting desperate (me especially since neither of my 2 future flatmates liked the flat I fell in love with because of a lovely 2 level, very princess & fairy-tale-like room which would have been mine), we found The place. It was the last apartment we had to see and none of us had any hope. But Bam! We are moving in in a month! Great locations, beautiful view over the marina, spacious rooms, what else can one ask for...

Now I can finally relax and sleep ;) Good night!

Nice to meet you or...

What do you say to someone you have known and worked with for a year but you have never seen? Is Nice to meet you appropriate, since you already know each other? Or should you say Nice to see you? Or just Hi? There seems to be no social protocol for such occasions - when you finally put a face behind a person you have been in touch with online for a while, or I can't seem to find any that matches and does not sound awkward.

Well, whichever it is - it was lovely meeting a colleague from the German office today. Have a safe trip home, Bjoern!

Robbery at the EPT in Berlin and a video

This weekend was full of events. First we had a welcome party for the new starters in the company on Friday - it was a huge success and I am not saying this only because I organized it ;)

Stefan also made an awesome video from the party! Look for the rabbit (yes, I am also appearing a few times):



Then while we were sleeping undisturbed after the party, there was a robbery at the European Poker Tour in Berlin! Noone got hurt but it did scare everyone who was present in the casino at this point.

I was peacefully shopping in Marbella at that point so thankfully I did not worry too much for my friends who were there but I am hoping for less action at the coming poker events this year.

Bank holiday in Gib tomorrow and movie time now - later!