Manneken Pis chronicles

June 2010

The flat

OK, I know that nobody reads this thing anymore (apart from some geeks with RSS readers :p) but I've got these nice photos of our "almost-finished" apartment and want to express the joy of settled, finally-no-travelling life. Well, we do go to France in 2 days but this doesn't really count since I bet we'll be staying inside the house on a couch in front of the huge flat screen most of the time (or at the dining table staring at an oyster shell, quite nice time-spending as well).

Merry Xmas everyone!!!

The big move

I moved! After a whole weekend of carrying the bags, boxes and electronics all “crap” was brought to the new apartment. 5 hours in IKEA and new furniture added to a pile of stuff. Well, the boxes with the furniture. And plenty of screwdrivers to bring it to life.
However the most important news is that Magnus is back!!! After staying for almost half a year in Thionville he was brought back to meJ He’s very well, thank you. Very fat, furry and fluffy. If anybody wants to have trendy gloves from an exotic hamster fur – give a shout :p

Since the whole apartment looks like a big construction site now the pictures will follow a bit later… But I believe it’s gonna be beauuuuuutiful J

New Country

The main news is: I moved to Belgium! As of middle of August when I arrived here, or end of September when I decided to stay here or middle of November when I’ll be moving to the proper apartment right in the centre of Antwerpen :)

How did it happen? My former company (ITAB) offered me a permanent position in their Belgian office after my trainee program. It wasn’t the easy chose though because as some of you might have heard we were considering of moving to Singapore to the equatorial heat, fresh juices and cheap tickets to all Asian countries. But at the end we got a bit scared of such a big relocation step without defined living/working conditions (and a bit low salary as well) and here I am now – in Antwerp, the city of diamonds, fashion designers and great local beer De Koninck.
All in all by now I’ve been to Belgium for only a bit more than 2 months and it seems to be quite decent country apart from bad weather and horrible bureaucracy. The beer is very good (and relatively cheap also, especially after Sweden), chocolate fountains are amazing, there’s Yoshi Yamamoto boutique in Antwerp (not like I bought anything there :p but at least I can watch through the windows and admire…), so life is not that bad at the end here:)
Plus it’s only 2 hours of train and I’m in Amsterdam, or Paris or Germany (not sure though why would I want to go to Germany but it’s good to have options :p).

So as from 15th of November if anybody wants to visit me or just send a postcard or a present, just go ahead: Coppenolstraat 14, 2000 Antwerp :)

And as usual some random pictures:

I look a bit like a warrior here though I think. but I didn't know that a friend of mine was actually taking the picture
An annual flower carpet on Grande Place in Brussels. It's absolutely amazing, although I felt a bit sorry for all those flowers that were going to die on that square in 3 days...

Antwerpen. Ok, it's THAT common in here having camels wondering the streets but this city is quite unpredictable anyway, and that's why I like it :)

THE HOLIDAYS!!!

Yeah, yeah, I haven't posted anything here for more than half a year and most probably nobody reads this stuff anyway. But it's grey, rainy and moody here in Sweden, it's freaking cold in the office and I've got an enormous excel spreadsheet to analyse the sales statistics and it's...yes, boooooooring.

Thus I decided to entertain myself by posting few lines and pictures about our fabulous summer holidays in South East Asia this July.

1 month. 3 countries. around 10 different beaches. endless jungles. 40 plates of fried noodles. 1 elephant. 5 monkeys including 1 baby monkey. and much more....

Singapore - skyscrapers, good coctails and cheap food

Unfortunately we haven't met any crocodiles but did 12km trek in the jungles... I still have a little scratch on my face after that "adventure". Those warnings for kids of not going to the jungle - they're all true!
Gunung Mulu national park, Borneo, Malaysia. Canopy walk, 50m above the ground - yay!:)

Mulu Caves. Claimed to be the biggest in the world and can fit 5 Boeing planes. We didn't check though... To Mulu airport by boat:)
Petronas Twin Towers, KL, Malaysia. And we've been on the Sky Bridge :)
Turtle pond in some Chinese temple in Kuala Lumpur
Kayaking near Krabi, Thailand

Father monkey and a baby monkey :)

Elephant trekking, Thailand
Ko Phan Gang - the island of the famous Full Moon Parties. And yes, we've been to one, 19th of July 2008 :)

Ayuttaya, Thailand - the former capital of Thailand, the city used to have 400 temples and some are still out there, though in ruins but still contain some shiny Buddha statues and monks that are having a nap...

These are just the highlights, of course we've been to much more places during this month. Had great noodles in Bintulu bus station (Borneo), drink some coconut milk on Brighton Beach in Miri, got sunburnt on Sapi island near Kota Kinabalu, relaxed in hamak in Railay (Thailand), polluted our lungs with dust and gasoline smell walking around Bangkok etcetc.

SE Asia is a definetely great place to be! Viva las noodles!

next stop - UK

Finally our big bosses made their minds and released our destiny for the next few months and according to this from January until end of March I’m going to work in a rainy Britain, and more specifically in a wonderful place (=village? :s) called Hemel Hempstead - half an hour away from London.
Must admit that I’m pretty excited about it since I’ve never been to UK yet but mostly that finally after almost 2 years people around me are gonna speak the language that I actually understand and able to express myself… And especially after 4 months of working around Swedish people speaking their “lovely” Nordic language all the time, I consider it as a total blessing – UK being my first work destination.

Besides obviously I’ve already got plenty of exciting plans, trips and meetings to do. Curly Katya was planning to go to London straight after Russian Christmas, Pavlik promised to pay a visit during Chinese New Year (hell knows when is it, February? :ss) and as Paris is just 30min away by EasyJet Nico’ll visit me during the weekends as well (right, right, right?!:).

And now about my Xmas holidays plans! Sometimes it could be quite nice to work for a Swedish company as I have more than 2 weeks of holidays for Christmas.
So me and Nico are leaving the fabulous village of Jönköping on 21st of December to start the exciting journey to the cheaper and sunnier countries. The plan is to drive by car all the way down to Paris having stops in Bremen&Cologne&Luxemburg for sight-seeing and in Thionville for getting some oysters and Christmas spirit.
26th – 30th of December – oh, Paris…..!!!!!!!
30th December – 3d of January – hola, Madrid J)) We’re gonna crash into the hospitable house of Cabronsito (aka Jesus) to eat 12 grapes during NY Eve and explore Madrid’s nightlife.
4th – 7th of January – back to wonderful Paris – cheese, wine and blinking Eifel Tower J
7th of January – Paris -> London -> Hemel Hemstead – back to working life….

So if anybody’s going to be around those cities during Xmas – give me a call ;)

And some pics from Pierre’s visit to Stockholm few weeks ago…
Xmas market in Gröna Lund
Night in GK
Wirströms – old and lovely Irish pub in Gamla Stan – and most of the crowd is French – can you imagine how scared I was?! :)))

Coutryside girl

Jönköping.... "It is a city in Småland in southern Sweden with 84,423 inhabitants. It is the 9th most populous city of Sweden. Geographically the town is situated by the southern end of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern. With a sandy beach running through Jönköping is considered a very beautiful city..." ...well, at least according to Wikipedia:)
Einstein used to say that evrything's relative in this world and in this case it's the same. If you judge Jönköping as a 24 year old born in a city with 2 mil people in a country where almost everything's opened 24/7, moving to Jönköping is like changing a skyscraper to a mongolian jurt. However, if you think about it as a proper Swede it has only advantages: calm unstressful life in a countryside city which although has evrything necessary for normal living: shopping malls, bars, restaurant, clubs, museums and a huge beautiful lake.
So at my 1-month-living-in-Jönköping aniversary day I came to the conclusion that Jönköping is a beautiful provincial Swedish town with very nice and friendly inhabitants (unlike in the capital) and very good bus connection to Stockholm:)
Some facts to be proud of my new home:
a safety match - it was invented here and the city has The matchsticks musseum - the only one in the world!
the Cardigans - "love me, love me, say that you love me" - you definitley know them. And yes, they come from Jönköping!!!

Now short facts about my work for those who still doesn't know: since 17th September 2007 I am taking part in Trainee management program in ITAB Shop Concept (one of the European leaders in shoppitting manufacturing). The company's based in Jönköping, Sweden (see above), however it operates around the whole Europe including Russia and Ukraine. The trainee program is 1 year long. During this year we (3 trainees) are going to work on different projects within several corporate areas such as: finance, supply chain, sales, logistics etc.etc. Until Christmas 2007 we are staying in the mother company in Jönköping, and after fabulous New Year holidays (see later) we're going to outside world to travel for 9 months between different dauther companies.
3 trainees are me and 2 Swedes: Catherine and Marcus (who's my flatmate at the same time).
Me&Marcus live in a big 3-bedrooms apartment right in the center of this fabulous town, so as we're just 2, there's one guest room waiting for YOU to visit me here until 21st of December!;)

As for the rest: I live a totally happy lazy life now, coming home after work in the evenings, watching movies and TV series, playing with Magnus (my birthday present) and eating some chocolat. And during the weekends: hello Stockholm!:) However this weekend we are planning a Göteborg trip...

cheers to everybody
I'll try to post here more often than once in 6 months :p