This one hurt !

Yep, it did ! I went to get my repetition for the vaccination of Hep B today. Lifting up my arm makes my shoulder ache already, so that's promising for tomorrow :-$
Next one is in 12 months, I guess I'll have gotten over it by then ;-)

Got myself a new phone today : I will cancel my number soon and I had some stars left (bonus you get with every invoice). The guy at the Mobistar Center seemed a bit surprised when he saw I had over 21500 stars. I got 215 euro off for the phone. Good deal.
All I need to do now is study the damn thing, because it's got more features then my portable computer ! Something to keep me busy when we are stuck in the compound again.

Tickets are here and safe arrival of the first 2 ...

Yesterday we (the 3 'leftovers') got the tickets ! It will be a long day for us though : starting in the morning we need to catch the plane from Brussels to Amsterdam. There we need to wait for more then 3 hours for the next flight to Bahrein. Sadly it's not a direct flight because there is a stop-over in Kuwait. We'll be arriving at a quarter passed midnight local time, then we need to make the trip to Al Khobar by taxi, which isn't so bad concidering we don't need to drive ourselves. Only customs can make our day more long.

This morning had another really nice lady from Interdean Moving Company visiting here at home to come pick up the stuff I wanna bring to Jubail. Only 2 small boxes, which surprised her since we are going to be there for 2 years.
 After I told her where we were gonna stay, she understood. We have all the accomodations needed to live like a prince ( king seemed a bit exagerated ;-)).
It took her only 30 minutes to load everything (didn't even have to help her pack, even after I asked her). A nice smile and a goodluck-wish for the trip and off she went. If any of you should ever decide to move abroad, I strongly suggest this company.

I also received an email from Mark this evening. Everything went extremely well-organized. All the paperwork was there, the pick-up driver was expecting them at the airport, the customs went well, everything was nicely prepared at the hotel. So if you are reading this too, mister David Welby, ... we raise our hat to your proffesionalism !
Only downside seems to be the ATM. Argenta cards don't seem to work there. VISA on the other side is working like a charm. The rest of us are eager to go there.

On the move ...

Today 2 of us 5 have received "green light" to go to Jubail tomorrow. Mark and Tom will take the train from Brussels to Paris CDG from where they will fly straight to Bahrein ... in business-class seats ;-)
Hope they will remember to check in first because there might be some seats available in first class.
All is scheduled already and by this time tomorrow they will have their first Saoudi meal in their stomach and they will bunk off in their Saoudi beds.
If you read this guys : have a good flight and see you in a couple of days !!

The state of affairs

It's been some days, but up to a couple of hours ago nothing really exciting was happening.
Just now we finally got the call that our visa are approved. That means we can slowly prepare to leave cold and rainy Belgium and trade it for the warm and dry KSA.
In a few days we will receive our tickets and off we will be !

Comments anyone ?

It's nice to see some visitors on here, but it would be more nice if someone put some comment in there aswell.
Feel free to comment at any time, make some suggestions, etc ...
Make this thing a little more interactive ...
The only thing I'd ask for is to keep the comments decent, that's all.

The "naughty"-house party !

Well, you have to agree : the "naughty"-house did get your attention, right ? Since I decided to make this blog in english, so everybody can read it, I do have some strange translations popping up in my mind. This is one of them.
Be honest, how else would you  translate " 't Pakhuis" ? ... "The Packagehouse" ? "The Boxroom" ? Not so imaginable, is it ?
Ofcourse, the word "pak" is only for dutch-speaking people understandable, so I apologize for any other readers.
Anyway, the service was good, the snacks were good and the drinks aswell. The wind outside was hurricane-worthy and eventhough all the doors and windows were closed, it still swept some people of their balance ... or maybe that was because of other reasons ;-). Ah, it was nice to see all those colleagues again. I hope everybody had a good time. I appreciated it a lot and I'm sure all 5 of us were moved in some way or another. Thanks to all for showing up and wishing us the best !

As for the "comment"-section : it was only available for members, which I believe to be members of the Blogger-website who already have their own blog. So I've changed it to "registered users" and I think the problem should be solved now. There's one more option, but then everybody can comment, even anonymous. And I always like to know whom I'm talking with, so that's not an option.

Some progress ...

This morning I got an email from the shipment company : they have received "green light" to finalyse the logistics. Things are starting to come alive.
Also, tonight we have a little "saying goodbye"-party for all the colleagues. Just in time it seems.
Only need to wait for the visa now ... and the tickets ofcourse. Walking would be a little too far ;-)

As for the greenhouse I talked about yesterday : seems the biggest challenge is yet to come. Damn, the wind is blowing really hard this morning. Haven't seen it quite so strong before. But it's (the greenhouse) still there.

Calm, sigh, breeze, gale, storm, hurricane, ... ?

Today I didn't hear anything about any progress to go to Jubail. I guess everybody is still in holiday-mode ... or drunk :-)
Not that it matters because for the moment I've got my work cut out for me already. The storm that passed our region last night (well, actually all day and night) tore up my green-house.
Okay, it's walls were made of plastic foil for the most part, which I now had to go look for at the neighbours, but still ... it did it's work.
Started this morning with some new "ingredients" and by 4 o'clock this afternoon I had a brand new greenhouse-wall in firm plastic boards. Let the storms come !! We're ready !!
Hope my confidence in my work still stands tomorrow morning ;-)

A little tuning

Didn't really know what to put on here today, so I decided to change the layout a little and play with some extra features. Hope you all like it.

A fresh start

Eventhough I'm not a big fan of all these holidays, it shouldn't keep me from saying the following :

May the new year bring these wishes to all of you
Warmth of love, comfort of home, joy for your children,
Company and support of family 'n friends
A caring heart that accepts 'n treats all human beings equally
Enrichment of knowledge 'n richness of diversity
Courage to seek 'n speak the truth even if it means standing alone
Hopes 'n dreams of a just world 'n the desire to make it happen
A light to guide your path
Helping hands to strengthen unity
Serenity 'n peace within your mind, heart 'n soul
Food for thought 'n soul, a hand to hold ...

That about summons it ;-)