Postcrossing Photos

Here is a snap of the cards I have received from Postcrossing Members

Today I received a postcard from Genek in Copenhagen of Amalienborg Castle - Frederik's Church:




Yesterday I received a postcard from Annie in the south west of Great Britain in Weston-Super-Mare:



I have also received photos from Brazil and the Netherlands:


Thanks everyone for the great postcards!!

Postcards and more

Well, life has been unexpectedly chaotic here in Belgium. One nice upside is the great postcards I've been getting from folks via PostCrossing! Its such a great feeling to look in your mail box and have a card waiting in there! You jump up and down and go "woo hoo - I got real mail!!"

Was supposedto go to Zurich on Thursday, but its been postponed now for a few weeks thankfully! It gives me more time to prepare and check all of my reports and data. I really dislike being the only finance type person on the team and the only person who knows how to do data extractions from the systems! I will be happy to be done with this current role! I like the cnocept of the position, but the reality stinks and the expectations are set too high even for me! And thats saying something!

I will be searching for a new job the next few months and will wait and see what comes up!

Okay, its time for me to get some things done and then get my bootie out the door for home at a decent time for the first day in weeks!

Ciao!

Latino Festival

The sound of bongo drums and bells going off...all day long...what could it be??? Why simply a Latino Festival taking place right outside my window! They do seem to be a bit enamored of Gwen Stefani's Hollerback Girl as that has played about 15 times yesterday and today!

We went to the festival yesterday - we being Margaret, Zori, Elena, Oscar and myself! It was raining so the decision was made to go eat dinner at an actual restaurant so Oscar, Margaret and I went to Lucas - an italian restaurant on Avenue Lousie. Had a great time talking and eating - I once again was unable to finish my meal....not sure what is going on lately but its impossible for me to ever clean my plate! We went back to the festival and listened to the music, ate some empanadas, talked with other friends we saw there - Laura and Gil and then made it home about 1 this morning....it was nice to only have to walk one block for a change to get home! I had an interesting evening for text messages - not sure what is going through the minds of some of my friends....although the likelihood was that they were all drunk texting me which would explain some of the comments!

Funny thing happened just now! Normally when my friend Zori calls me her phone number comes up as "Private Caller" hers is about the only phone that does! So normally when she calls I answer the phone in my little bit of Spanish - "Hola! Que tal?" So I was sitting on my bed typing out this post when my cell phone rings. I look, it say private caller so I grab the phone, and say "Hola! Que tal?" only to here dead silence and then a guy going "Umm....hello?" It was a friend of mine, Ben from Croatia that I had not talked to in months! He was very confused and of course I could not help laughing as I tried to explain that I thought that he was Zori calling (he knows Zori - I met Ben last year about this time while out with Zori - we spent the night dancing with him and his friend Brian). I thought that it was amusing - just goes to show that caller id is not always fool-proof and that its a great idea to know who is calling before you start into a conversation on the phone!

Back from the Land of the Little People!

Well, I am back to work from my long weekend away! Both myself and Zori had an awesome time in Ireland. We always seem to get into too much trouble while we are away together! I am not sure even where to being on describing our trip!

We arrived on Saturday and checked into out hotel, which had only been open for 2 days!! We were the first to stay in the room we were assigned! So I took Zori to the Italian restaurant that me and Richie always ate at (for those who are new in my life, Richie is the guy I dated while in Dublin) and while it was still good, it does not compare in the least to my favorite Italian place in Brussels - La Piccola Mammas! I then took Zori to the one bar in Temple Bar that I like - The Quays Bar. We bumped into a group of Spanish and Italian guys who were over studying English. My friend Elena showed up an we decided to go to the club where her friends were at, so off we went along with the guys following behind us!

We danced the night away at the club and at closing time realized that the queue for the taxi was insane! One of the guys (Bruno from Italy - nice guy but too old for me,as was pointed out to me by another guy I met that night!) suggested waiting for a cab and waiting in his hotel lobby since my sweater had been stolen at the club. While in the lobby I talked a bit with the guy working in the lobby - Andrew. Very nice guy with a nice smile...hmmm.... Finally the cab showed up and away we went...With Zori getting the number for Oscar...the Spanish guy she was talking to!

Sunday involved a trip to the center for lunch at O'Neills carvery and then a stop for live music at the International. Zori asked Oscar to join us, which he did. While talking, an Irishman joined us and started talking to us. Turns out he spoke Spanish so away he went talking to Zori and Oscar. Not a problem....I understand only a little Spanish and I was busy texting away to my friend Russ in London. So, the guy, Liam insists on talking to me in Spanish.....lets think for a minute here! Its been said that I did not speak Spanish. I constantly repeated that I did not understand him. You think he would have stopped it and talked to me in English...but noooooo! He invited us to join him for dinner at a Spanish restaurant which was so-so food. On the way to the taxi rank, I stopped in to the hotel again and said hello to Andrew. He let me know that he was working again the next night after 11 and to stop by again to chat.

Next day - switched hotels to be closer to my work for Tuesday, and proceeded to do some major damage to the credit card that I just paid the balance off on! Both myself and Zori went a bit...ummm...wild with the shopping - oops! We then continued into the center where we met up with Oscar and one his class mates at the Brazen Head Pub. Had a gorgeous plate of Beef and Guinness Stew. I left Zo and Oscar at the pub and went back to the hotel (I felt like a stalker at this point - three visits in that many days, but since I was leaving the next day, it had to be done!!) Had a nice visit, Zori picked me up, back to the hotel we went. And Zori flew out that morning and I flew out after a day in the office. I was wrecked! I got home, changed and stumbled into bed at 9:45 until just after 9 - a weekend of sleep deprivation is not good! But I had such a great weekend with Zori and we both met some really great people so it was well worth it!

A few pics coming up...first from the plane, second the hotel on the last night - the SAS Radisson St. Helens and third me and Zori on the Liffey with the Ha'penny Bridge behind us:

To the land of the little people!

Well, here I go again! Another airport, and plane and yet its back to a place I know too well! I am leaving folks to go to Dublin! Okay, its not one of the unvisited cities from my places to go list but it is a place that means so much to me!

For years while growing up I wanted to visit Ireland and even had a dream about going to study there in University. That did not work out for me, so I graduated college and took a job thinking that perhaps I would be able at some point in time to go to Ireland for vacation. Well, a year after starting work, I was on a plane to live in Ireland for 10 months for work!!!

I had an amazing experience in Ireland that I do not regret in the least! I was able to meet my pen-pal from high school Adele up in Northern Ireland and all of her friends and family. I learned to love to drink Guinness! Yummmm! I made numerous friends. I had some great people come visit and tour around Ireland with me....I have kissed the Blarney Stone three times now! LOL I dated a really great guy while I was there - things did not work out between us after I moved back to America, but he is a great guy and some gal will be really lucky one day and find him!

So this weekend I am taking what seems to be my last trip back to Ireland before I move to back to America at the end of the year! I am going with my partner in crime, Zori, and it should be a ton of fun! 3 days of shopping, drinking, laughing, exploring...who knows maybe even some tears!

See you when I get back!!