don't fight it...

yep, they kicked me out of NL - as an aussie i'm allowed 90 days out of 6 months in schengen area countries in the EU...the company i was working for kept extending my contract, which was initially 3 months...saying that i'd be ok to stay past the 90 days...right up until the 90 days was about to expire, then their position changed so i had to get out quickly - within 3 days of meeting with their HR department. not great news when you've started seeing someone - that kind of knocked the wind out of those sails...so i jumped on the Eurostar train from Brussels Zuid station, through a bit of France, under the English Channel tunnel and got off at the first stop in the UK - Ebbsfleet, to be picked up by Benny and Poppy - Lou was out on a Hen's night for Nicole...

a couple of nights near Strood, then a bus with Benny up to London, tube out to Heathrow, Singapore Airlines business class out to Singapore...and here i've been for the past 5.5 weeks

Don't Fight It - the name of a song from The Panics latest album, which i'm finding a bit of comfort in at the moment - and which may end up being a Dirty Scooter Crew cover in the next couple of years - basically the way i take the lyrics is - there's invisible things in your life that you end up fighting against with your emotion and energy, but that can be exhausting...and i've been fighting for the past 5.5 weeks and i'm exhausted - letting it go and realising it feels kind of energising

...and another line which i'm quite liking - "with God as my witness" - not going to make any pronouncements about converting to this or that...but it also kind of helps when i think of my actions under the notice of someone who knows everything but won't judge me - bringing my actions/ thoughts/ emotions into the light helps too

where does that all leave me...in Singapore for another 6 days then heading North to the UK and then Venezuela til mid December...then ?????????????????????

Don't fight it :)

crossroads...Gent/ Belgium...they're gonna kick me out...

i'm now coming up to the end of my contract...and my Schengen visa here in NL...i'm not really sure what's next...options = UK to Guatemala to UK, UK, India, Australia, Singapore or more time in NL...this will all get sorted, one way or the other, or the other in less than 3 weeks...

since my last post, my middle bro Benny, his wife Louise and my 6 month old niece Poppy Mae came for a visit over the UK Bank Holiday weekend...we spent some good time in my flat here in The Hague...a great day in Amsterdam with the highlight the Van Gogh museum - with around a third of his original works and great info on his life and contemporaries...with a brilliant research program which is uncovering more and more info on his life

since then there's been some a heap of work...but some good times with people from the project - a load of Aussies - Ash from Melbourne, Mary from Adelaide...then the locals - Serafine and Melajnia from Belgium, Dirk from Germany, Charl from South Africa...most of them are in the previous post from the Limoncello session

Serafine and I have had a few sessions swimming in the North Sea...i didn't realise when i agreed to go swimming that she's an ex Belgian national champ, with a great tan...next to the fluouresent white Aussie, it's pretty funny...and Serafine dropped me in Gent last weekend, on her way out to Tunisia. Gent's a beautiful city in Belgium, some amazing buildings and such a cozy atmosphere...the weather was turning - good enough to have some good strolls round the city, but cool enough for cozy evening beers in some great old pubs...one i went into was almost completely dark - not sure if the power was out or they were aiming for ambience - it was nice either way :)

the train back to Den Haag, via Antwerp and Rotterdam is great...for someone who loves cities it's nice to spend time or pass by some of these great European ones...

now, back in Den Haag, working...with 3 weeks til my visa expires and wondering where my next stop will be :)

just add limoncello...

...and forget the rest. the NL summer evenings are great for dinner, so some folks from the project I'm on are taking off once/ week to enjoy it while it lasts...

this week was Limon - a tapas place in one of the more expensive parts of town. i was keen to get out, we're in full on training mode at the moment, so busy, stressful...there was a break in the schedule last wednesday...a couple of beers, nice food, surrounded by Belgians and Dutch, not having much idea about what was being said...there were a few aussies there...

i should have stopped at a couple of beers...but it's so easy to keep going with daylight til after 10pm...next stop was an italian place that we've been to a couple of times...and my first experience of limoncello...probably my last...like my photo, things got a bit hazy after that :)

Scheviningen

...yeah, i still can't say it properly either :) It's the beach most easily accessible from Den Haag on the North Sea, or Nord Zee as these Dutch folk say...I've been down there a couple of times, on the right day it's so nice that it seems like half of Holland gets down there. I caught the number 9 tram down there from Centraal, out to Scheviningen along Nieuwe Parkplaan then walked up to Westbroekpark - a massive, beautiful parkland where the other half of Holland comes on a nice day. The tram was crammed full, so was Nieuwe Parkplaan...but it's worth it for the beach and the late evening sunsets over Nord Zee to the west...

BHP Billiton First XI

...working here in the Hague with BHP Billiton, a big mining company with Australian (BHP) and South African (Billiton) roots. they have a team in a local cricket competition played after work in the long Dutch summer evenings once/ week. I met one of the aussies organising in the lifts when I first started here and last night I made my debut. Our team was made up of Aussies and South Africans...and Eric Smuts Senior and Junior...Eric Sn works with me, Eric Jn is his 10 yo son, who's a young star in the making

We played at Voorburg Cricket Club, a really well maintained ground on a perfect evening...despite having 10 players, we got up for a win in a 20 overs/ team format. I added about 16 with the bat before being bowled by a slow, straight one and did pretty well at mid off in the field...

afterwards the other team put on Heinekens and a bit of tucker...brilliant!

jetlag, sleeping in and big splifs

...a really comfortable flight over from Houston to Amsterdam - funny thing about the US, they make a huge fuss about you getting in to the country, but make it exceptionally easy to leave...maybe not so funny really...

5 days after my flight, i'm back in my Dutch groove...last 2 days i've slept in til about 11 - combination of the jet lag and a hectic few weeks of joining the project, getting up to speed with what's going on, delivering training and travelling a quarter of the way round the world...it all caught up with me this weekend...

i went up to a really cool courtyard cafe for coffee yesterday...there were these 2 blokes at the end of my street (Nieuwe Molstraat), both coughing heaps...one moreso than the other, they were passing a huge joint between themselves - middle of a busy street, round midday on a Saturday...up in Amsterdam on Friday night was the same deal - someone pulls out a joint and fires it up. Amsterdam was pumping - it is Pride weekend and the city was really warming up to it...it was my first night out in Amsterdam, definitely not the last - i jumped on the train at Den Haag Holland Spoor, and, half an hour later I was at Schiphol, to meet a friend of a friend I'd made in Mysore...then another train to wander round the city...back home by midnight...then a couple of massive sleep ins...and now...Sunday coffee, followed by some Sunday arvo yoga...then work looks a lot slower for the next couple of weeks...

i'm 1 month into a 3 month contract...no indication yet as to if the contract will be extended - everyone's way too busy to try to meet the go live date = 1 September, it's now August 2, and the project's launch has been delayed twice...when they're spending US$1 million/ day on this thing, delays are quite costly...so busy and stressful...

given all that, i'm not sure where i'll be next, tho the FOF i met in Amsterdam said Diwali is on in India in October...and our German manager is suggesting Oktoberfest as a celebration for getting through our work...could be a very good couple of months :)

ciao Houston

at the KLM lounge on the way out of Houston. bought some sunnies at the duty free store, the lady there was not so friendly. i'm trying not to take these personally, find that when i get to a new place i'm very inclined to take things personally...til i get into some kind of comfort zone...

on the bright side i then met a very nice girl who loves her job, who works in the KLM lounge...so, what's the answer to being happy?

i'm happy to be heading back to The Hague. Eric and I were booked to head out to Capital Grille last night. A return trip after Eric had the best steak he's ever had there. I must admit to eating more red meat than i have in ages. My vegetarian exploits ended about a year back.

Instead, we ended up at Houston's with a bunch of other folks from the project. some serious workaholics in that group.

I'm sticking to my guns on the quality front...despite my gen y friend Alex's opinions on the consequences of quality...maybe that's part of what makes me happy

i know, a random, ill conceived post...but that's me today :)