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!

Diary of a weekend

The winning paintball team!

Friday, 9.30 pm: Off to Lars' "See you soon" party.

Saturday, 6.30 am: I arrive home, still drunk. Dancing all night after a long working week is not a good idea after all. Off to bed at 7.00 am.

Saturday, 12.00 pm: Alarm clock goes off.

Saturday, 2.20 pm: We head to Sotogrande/Guadiaro to play paintball. Still slightly drunk.

Saturday, 3.00 pm: We are lost in the middle of nowhere, no signs and no clue where to go. Noone is picking up the phone either. Stressy.

Saturday, 3.30 pm: We already have the suits & masks on, that gun is heavy! I need a break before we start. Also, I am team captain and our strategy is: Shoot Joakim!!!

Saturday, 4.30 pm: My mask is steaming up and I can't see anything. I'll just shoot if I see movement. Ha, I havent been shot yet.

Saturday, 5.30 pm: I got shot on the head. I will sue the other team if it leads to brain damage. Let's go home?

Saturday, 6.30 pm: Starts raining like hell, thank God everyone else is also tired. Time to go home. We won btw. 5:0, ha!

Saturday, 8.00 pm: Baked a frozen pizza while showering. Now eat and go to bed.

Sunday, 11.00 am: My feet still hurt, I am dead tired and on top of it, I can't move my right arm. This gun sure is heavy.

Sunday, 12.20 pm: One coffee later the world seems like a better place. Some work, dinner with friends and early in bed!

See you all next week!

Only or already?

I realized I am getting older when instead of only I mentioned already together with the time. Walking back from work with N1vlem, we looked at the clock and the comments were: "It is only 9pm." and "It is already 9pm." He went home to play poker and stay up late, I went home to take a shower and go to bed with John Steinbeck's "East of Eden" and/or the latest episodes of House M.D.. Sad, I know.

At least the sun is back! That does make me one happy bunny! Let's see how long till it rains again - keep your fingers crossed for sun, please. The population of PokerStrategy.com in Gibraltar and I will appreciate it. No, honestly - we will.

On a side note - I have always (ever since childhood) been bothered by the fact that lollipops contain so much sugar that they are one of the worst things that can happen to you (health- and teeth-wise). Well, good news, everyone - there are finally sugar free lollipops on the market. Enjoy!

What are the odds

... of seeing a Bulgarian car (from my home town) just round the corner from my place in Southern Spain? Well, not high, I guess, so it made me smile...

... unlike the weather which has been awful in the last 3 months. Constant rain really lets these little depressed and depressing thoughts crawl into your mind and settle down neatly. Sun, wherever you are hiding, please come back to "sunny" Spain. We miss you!

Look at the stars...

...look how they shine for you...

Coldplay in the taxi to work 2 days in a row, and on the two days when I actually woke up early and was not in the mood for the usual flamenco/reggaeton/cheap Spanish music on full blast.

Work work work work work work in office.

Finally an owner of a tennis racket but also annoyed the constant rain which seems to never want to leave Gib.

Not too much time for anything else, especially sleep.

Will blog when something nice happens. Might not be soon.

Random

Just a few things I wanted to share...

...The Dutch word for English is Engels which apart from the language, means angels. Nice, isn't it?

...I usually speak German without thinking too much about it and without making too many mistakes. I recently noticed that whenever someone says anything nice about my German, I start trying (unconsciously, of course) to prove him/her wrong. I start making mistakes, hesitate and stutter. Weird.

...Limo rides are not as exciting as people think. I got champagne all over me (thanks, Melvin) & didn't enjoy it as much afterwards! However, Saturday was fun and it was good having Rogier, Twisted1984, TychoVe and Pinowww here! The Dutchier, the merrier ;)

Stroopwafels - nom nom

A few weeks ago I was bitterly criticized by my Dutch colleagues at work that I am obsessed with stroopwafels. One of the questions was why I am making such a big fuss about them since there is nothing special about a stroopwafel. Of course, all the logical arguments I provided as to why one should absolutely love this masterpiece of the Dutch cuisine were discarded immediately.

It felt like explaining to an Eskimo that even one word for snow would suffice - it was useless. Since then I decided to love stroopwafels secretly and not mention it at all. And I had forgotten all about it until yesterday - I was randomly clicking on stats on my Google Analytics page (which I started using recently and wow - someone in New York read me, yay!) when I discovered that someone clicked my blog after googling stroopwafels!

This just proves my point - stroopwafels ARE great! Ha!


// Image from: 101 Cookboks

It's one of these days...

... when you realize you don't want exciting things to happen to you so often. Even after you have thought for a while that nothing exciting happens to you. I do like my boring life, mind you. Exciting is not always good!

... when finally someone dedicates something to you (secretly but you still know it is you!) and it is only to tell you that you are a bitch. Well, I'm sorry I'm such a bitch.

... when you actually manage to have a whole (proper!) conversation about the weather in Spanish and then notice that the neighbour you have been talking to you is currently smoking a spliff. In the hallway of your apartment building. Has that helped him understand me?

... when someone you care a lot about says: I wish I were an animal on your farm on Facebook, then I would see more of you. I'm really sorry for that, mum!

Back to "sunny" Spain

I am back to Spain / Gib where the sun is supposed to shine all the time. Why else would this area be called Costa del sol? But surprise: it has been raining almost non stop since I came back from my holidays. It is also very very cold (or at least it feels like that because of the permanent tornado-like wind). Not impressed with the weather at all.

Anyways, turns out nothing stopped functioning while I was gone. Isn't that a shame? You think you make a difference but the world goes on with or without you. You think you play a role but it is amazing how easily you get replaced... *Sigh*

But enough thinking - time to cuddle up under my duvet and watch some Pushing Daisies (thanks to Ina for that - miss you loads already) and get enough sleep to prepare for another busy week at work (incl. training of some noobs - will be fun!). See you soon!

New Year's Dialogues

[00:22:17] Nadia Ivanova: happy new year
[00:22:18] Nadia Ivanova: :)
[00:22:52] xxxxx: thx
[00:22:54] xxxxx: not yet here though
[00:23:03] Nadia Ivanova: weell
[00:23:09] Nadia Ivanova: be bulgarian for a bit :P
[00:23:29] xxxxx: thanks, but no thank you
[00:23:29] xxxxx: :D
[00:24:14] Nadia Ivanova: :D
[00:29:38] xxxxx: so I probably seem like the biggest geek now
[00:29:45] xxxxx: since I'm at home at the computer :D
[00:29:49] Nadia Ivanova: du-uh
[00:29:57] Nadia Ivanova: where am i?
[00:30:12] Nadia Ivanova: :D
[00:32:55] xxxxx: yes
[00:32:58] xxxxx: but you are a geek
[00:32:59] xxxxx: :D
[00:33:04] Nadia Ivanova: well
[00:33:15] Nadia Ivanova: i am a soon-to-be-drunk geek
[00:33:19] Nadia Ivanova: that makes it a bit better :D
[00:33:27] xxxxx: hehe


Happy New Year, everyone :)