White Christmas

Unfortunately I have been missing all the great stuff of winter here. Sinterklaas and zwarte piet arrival to town, Christmas fairs and exhibitions… All I got to do was a snowman, and damn… did it feel good! But I have a cold for 3 or 4 weeks now, I don’t know anymore… it been going on and off… I’m so sick of it!
As a result I have been trying to escape from cold, I don’t get out much, I go shopping for groceries by car… but it’s seems to be not enough to avoid the flu… I miss my bike!!!
After two weeks with a cold I couldn’t stop coughing and decided to go to the doctor. He observed me and gave me some cough pills, I took them for about five days. They actually worked; I got back to work as soon as I got better and stopped the pills. Two days later I had a cold again! I guess it was from running from one transport to another and the big difference of temperature from inside and outside. This time I tried some household medicines and teas with Vick, my doctor was on holidays...

 I was better again, got back to work, this time by car, so I wasn't exposed to such differences of temperature! After a few days I was sick again, in fact, I had to leave work in the middle of the day because I was feeling really bad; I actually threw up from coughing so much. This time (3rd) I'm feeling much worst, I even have fever. I called the doctor again, he was still on holidays, I explained the situation, I wanted an appointment with whatever doctor was available; instead, they told me to go to the pharmacy again to get my recipe: more cough pills! Five days taking those pills, all I did was measure my fever, fall a sleep and try to eat. I have to be quiet or else I feel like if my head is going to explode. Today is the last day of the pills, tomorrow it’s Monday, I’m going back to work, lets see how that goes…

Wish me luck!

Taking the train in Holland...

Definitely you need to be careful when you take a train here. 

The other day I was taking the train to Rotterdam. I was waiting at the platform when a voice announced something in Dutch (and people still ask me why I bother learning…). Everyone was going away, so I had to ask what was going on, basically the train to Rotterdam was now in another platform. So I went to the new platform and there were two trains on the same track. Someone told me which one was going to Rotterdam and entered the train, but I looked to destination on the train and it wasn’t the right one. 

Surprisingly enough everyone was confused because the destination of the trains was switched! The right train was actually the one indicated by the stranger. We had to ask the driver which was the one to Rotterdam, but do you think they even bothered correcting their info? No, they were too busy being Dutch, hehe!

New Year, old posts…

I’ve been so busy with my new job… Sure it’s just 9 to 17 but commuting time can be from 40 minutes by car when there is no traffic to 2 hours with traffic. Obviously the only rare times there was no traffic was on Christmas holidays (and I wish I wasn't on the road that period also, but no holidays for me…).

Because my car as no snow tires and traction is on back wheels I can’t drive to work when it’s snowing because he slides all over the place… So to get to work I have to walk to the train station (or get a very careful ride with Carlos), take a train, then 2 subways and a bus, when the bus runs... Because the bus has no driver and is dangerous in slippery road!

Sometimes I wonder… I never really wanted to live in Lisbon where Carlos lived before, because people there have crazy lives: traffic, stress, waking up at 5 am to go to work… I moved to The Netherlands to have a better life and what I get is a “Lisbon life”? So I struggle to see the difference, and that is mainly that my job is really 9 to 17 and I don’t have to think about it when I go home, plus I can work from home and hopefully I will be working from home at least some days per week in the near future. So it is still a better life! :)