THEY arrived

At least the first half of it.
Yesterday 3 out of the 5 pieces we've ordered have been delivered. Delivery was scheduled between 4 and 6pm. They called to say they would be late and indeed they showed up at almost 7:30pm. But they came.
We've received the coffee table, the little cabinet and the shelves.
After careful check under every angle, we found out that there was a mark and a scratch on the coffee table :( We told the delivery guys and wrote it down on the delivery sheet. On Tuesday when the shop is open we will call and ask for a different one.
Apart from that, everything is fine and looking great (Wolfram will provide pictures so I won't duplicate).
Strangely with the new furniture on top of the old ones, the room looks very packed. Won't last I know, but I remember when we moved in thinking this was such a big room and we will never fill it in. Well we managed to do so...

Lemon drop or the 1st cocktail prepared by Wolfram

Wolfram received some time ago the full equipment to make cocktails. So far, everything was nicely sitting in a cupboard. But tonight, it's different. Tonight is the night when Wolfram will make his very first cocktail (under the teaching of Yann).
Of course I thoroughly documented the event:

Step 1: getting the tools, the ingredients and the recipe

Step 2: squeezing the lemon

 Step 3: pouring the different ingredients, measuring with precision (i.e. clarify whether the line above or below that is the right dosing line)

Having the right vodka is key as this is a vodka based cocktail.

 Step 4: Adding the crushed ice.

 Step 5: Shaking until shaker is all frozen on the outside (in rythm with "Shake it, shake it, shake it like a polaroid picture"... if you don't get the reference, ask Wolfram).

 (and if your hands get too cold, use a towel to hold the shaker)

Step 6: Voila!

Verdict: excellent! So good we went for another round.

PS: Later on Wolfram also learned how to make Mojitos. I can already foresee cocktail nights!
PS2: Can't wait for the juggling... you know, like in Cocktail, the movie with Tom Cruise.

The magic of thermo-adhesives

After successfully installing the bar for the curtains, I had the curtains dry-cleaned and last night we put them on. Sadly they turned out too long :(
But luckily for us (i.e. people truly unskilled in the art of sewing), thermo-adhesives exist. The concept is simple: fold the fabric, put the adhesive in between, iron for 15s and voila!
The theory was simple, the application a bit harder as we had to take curtains down, carefully measure the right height and reproduce it 8 times (4 panels and 4 back panels).
2 hours later or so, curtains are up at the right length (or so) and we only used about 50m of the adhesives. I wanted to make sure they would hold :)

Mmmmh!

This week I non officially joined my new team for a global meeting held in Brussels. For 2.5 days I will learn about Air Care. As per the habit of every global meeting, a dinner was organized. For the first time I went to Mmmmh!
Mmmmh! is not a restaurant per se, it is a cooking school. Basically once you arrive you get explained the menu and what needs to be done and then 20 people go chopping, slicing, peeling, wrapping, stirring, blending, etc. whatever that needs to be done.
While I was not so impressed by the menu (to be fair with a starter made of mushrooms it wasn't starting well), the whole cooking experience was fun. I didn't learn anything specific cooking wise but got to know my new team, especially those who are based in the US or Japan.
Definitely an activity to recommend.

Peaceful song to finish the day

Belgian music artists are not so many and usually not very famous, but every now and then I discover one.
This time it's Amatorski and their song "Come home".

Shopping trip in Germany

Shopping and Germany are usually not a match from my point of view given that very few places accept credit cards (I still cannot believe it, but there is nothing I can do about it except loading myself with cash before going).
This said, Germany offers the Catsan Smartpack for cheaper than in Belgium so naturally, twice a year, we load the car with 10 packs so we're covered and save about 1 euro per pack.
The most interesting part of the day was not at Fressnapf, but in the shopping mall and later at Hornbach.

As you may know I love Christmas and every year I have a Christmas tree at home. This year, in a bigger apartment I envision an even bigger tree. I foresee to put it on around December 6th, Saint Nicolas. I like to put the tree early enough so I can enjoy it for at least a couple of weeks. That is very (too) early according to Wolfram's own family tradition. Life being made of compromises, Wolfram agreed to the xmas tree as early as I want but with one condition: no electrical light, only real candles.
Today one of the key objectives was to find the candle holders and the candles for the tree. Those are almost impossible to find in Belgium or France, given it is not the habit anymore. After visiting several shops we had silver candle holders meeting Wolfram's specifications and 5 packs of candles. Luckily for us, shops had already started to have the xmas decoration and accessories on shelf. This of course triggered the purchase of different decoration elements including a Santa Claus and a moose (you'll have to wait for xmas decoration entry to discover them :)).

At Hornbach (a do-it-yourself place), we found the perfect light fitting for the guest room which already made us very happy. Further down we discovered it was Asia week in the green house (yes, located right next to xmas decoration) and we bought 2 bonsais: 1 for Silke's birthday and one for our guest room.
And to make sure we will not kill it, here is a question for Google: how do you take care of a Fukien-Tee Carmona Macrophylla bonsai?
Re-designed guest room is ready for its first guests! (Joy?)

What are the odds?

Last night my earring fell. I don't know by which miracle I saw my pearl earring falling down and managed to pick it up. Somehow the little piece from the back was gone and the rest fell. I felt very lucky that I had at least still the pearl.
This morning the most unbelievable thing happened. As I was about to sit in the car, I  noticed a little something on the seat. Guess what it was? The little piece from my earring!
I cannot help wondering what the odds are that I would find back such a little piece? slim,very slim I would have said.

Cultural differences

Last night during the event dinner I was at a table with Russians, Romanians and Nigerians. At some point discussion was about vacations and one Russian told us about climbing Kota Kinabalu (yes, the one I wanted to do when I was in Malaysia but couldn't because there was no accommodation left) and one of the Romania about climbing the Kilimanjaro. Amazing stories as you can imagine.
While the Europeans were all about the adventure they experienced during their vacation, our colleague from Nigeria was puzzled. He nicely summarized it:
"There is a huge difference between Europeans and Africans when it comes to vacation. For us everyday is a adventure and therefore when we go on vacation we want a 5-star resort where we can rest, relax and not worry about anything. Completely the opposite of Europeans who try to get adventures during their vacation."
Once again an example of how things can be different depending on your background, environment, etc.

The best booth ever*

Every year, around October-November, all our Marketing colleagues from the region are coming over to Brussels to learn about the new innovation we've designed. Usually we're asked to prepare a presentation and the day last forever with each team going through endless powerpoint. Needless to say by the end of the day everybody is tired and hugely bored.
This year however the design was changed and we were to prepare a booth.
Preparation of a booth is obviously much more work than preparing a powerpoint. While on the one hand it's a lot more work and requires all your diplomatic skills to ensure everybody is aligned to the plan, it is more inclusive as everyone in the team gets to participate and help. So in a nutshell, more work but good team building.
For the past 3 weeks we've been designing the booth and buying all the materials needed. This took some of our time during the evenings and week-ends. Wolfram can tell you how we went to buy a carpet of grass or flower petals. We had to improvise a rose tree as it is not the season (i.e. we bought a small bush tree and plugged in roses). We borrowed the kitchen from the Dish department and a table from Luis' place. I won't even get started on printing kilometers of posters and banners. Millions of little things to gather or make but the end result was worth it: we had a kitchen and a garden.
I'm very proud of what the team accomplished. For sure we had the best booth*
*at least according to our team :)
I don't have the pictures yet as Nestor was in charge of documenting the event while I was involved in the role play. Let's see if I can get some without too much confidential material that I can share with you.

... and now I will go to bed try to catch up some of the sleep I've missed in the past couple of weeks.

THE man of the house at work

With patience and precision of course.

Stage 2 has started

Lately, i.e. since we're back from vacation, we've initiated stage 2 of the house: decoration.
We've re-arranged the guest room into Chinese inspired style. It took some moving of furniture and will need some more light fitting or small items but it's getting somewhere already. We want our guests to feel not only welcome but on top comfortable.
Wolfram surprised me after my trip this week by having hang the light fitting in the entrance.
Today we bought the bars to put the curtains in the living room. Once I have the curtains dry-cleaned we'll hang them. We also bought a curtain for the Velux in the room. In principle now, there will be less light in the bed room.
We've made up our mind and bought today a set of furniture for the living room. They will be delivered in 2 and 4 weeks or so. I can't wait to have them. It will give a soul to our living room.

Obviously there is still a lot to do but little by little this apartment is becoming our home.

Tempting

Last night we had dinner with Luis and Manuela. At the end of the meal, Manuela offered her chocolates she had made herself. She had just completed a 3-day training at the Chocolate Academy from Caillebaut. Apparently in 3 days you can learn how to make pralines and truffes and other chocolate wonder. The more I think about it, the more I feel like taking this class.

Things people ask because you are Brazilian

Thanks Thales for sharing.

Source: Pigs in Maputo

It was sooooooo good!

Tonight we arrived in Beirut and what can I tell you, it's very nice to be outside when temperature is 25C even at night. Naturally Zeina had picked a restaurant with a terrace for the dinner. After 3-month internship in Belgium she figured we would enjoy being outside.
 We met at the Movenpick hotel, right there by the sea. Location was so great we wondered whether next time we should stay there instead of a hotel in the center.
We ordered a lot of food from Bourj Al Hamam restaurant. Mohamed and I had been talking about this dinner in Beirut since 2 days at least so we treated ourselves with all the classics from Lebanon.
I am stuffed, feeling a bit (hugely) guilty because I clearly was unfaithful to my diet, but honestly there was no way I could resist. I'll just have to swim it off tomorrow, and Sunday, and next week :)

Traffic in Cairo

Traffic in Cairo is simply amazing!
Amazing because:
- they manage to create 4 lines where there are only 3... sometimes even 5
- they drive so close to each other you can touch the driver in the car next to you without stretching your arm.
- traffic lights are decoration elements
- despite the chaos, cars are actually moving forward
- they are very few accidents, mostly bumps.

If you don't look to the front focusing on the side view and let the driver manage, you can have a very nice drive throughout the city without worrying at all.
Now if you start looking at the front, I'm sorry for you but there is nothing we can do for you. You'll grow a few more white hair or wringles.
It's a question of trust: trusting the driver that he knows what he is doing :)

The world can be upside down sometimes

At the airport today, I was standing in line for check-in together with loads of people. In front of us, 3 counters. The joy of flying economy I guess and when you fly Egypt Air, it's even more chaotic.
I thought I'd be there for hours but actually it took only 30min. The lines were moving surprisingly fast.
What was not moving at all was the queue in Business where Moustafa was waiting. He only had 4 people ahead of him and I ended up being done before him! 3 men had too many / much luggage and blocked the whole line.
I find it scary when economy goes faster than business as it means that the benefits of flying business disappear.

I'm tired, it's official

In an effort to share the load I offered to Wolfram the following:

"Give me one and I'll take the other"

I seriously need some rest...

Finished!

Took quite some time. I had to rework quite given the kittens enjoyed breaking it apart. But finally, it's done.
Well almost as in the fight with the kittens, 4 pieces got lost :(

Now it's time to buy a new puzzle :)

Little by little we're getting there

Lately we've put on eBay our unused furniture and others to free up space. We've also spent some good time exploring the furniture shops of Belgium. Each week we ask our friends or colleagues where they buy their furniture and on Saturdays we go have a look. So far we've been pretty unsuccessful.
But today it was different.
Today, first shop was in line with the others... some nice pieces but insanely expensive for what it was. Next shop maybe...
Today in Porte d'Orient, we've found a collection of pieces from Indonesia that could very well fit in the living room. We saw it once. We went back after checking out another place and measured to make sure everything would fit and look nice.

The table here shows the style we're interested in.

We'll go back next week to talk with the manager to see if we would give us a good price. Let's see.
Today at Maisons du Monde, we didn't find any furniture for the living room but Wolfram spotted 2 small tables that we could use as night stands. And he was right. They simply fit in :)

Before

After

 After being desperate of ever finding what we needed and liked, today brought back some hope. Can't wait next Saturday to (maybe) buy the pieces for the living room.

Unbelievable!

Gap changed its logo! and people hate it... and when you see it, you understand why. It's really a bad logo, non-inspiring at all.

Brandchannel.com nicely described that change:
"But ditching the classic logo, recognized by everyone, in favor of whatever that new monstrosity is, demonstrates a prototypical brand panic move. With things not going in its favor, the brand decides to change the one valuable element it has going for it"
"Ironically maybe, the new logo is perfect for the brand. It communicates exactly the values currently embodied by Gap: A sense of being lost and a lack of clear vision and creativity"
See full article here.

They are back

This morning when I pushed the shower curtain, I found an unexpected guest in the bathtub.
It was black.
It had 8 legs.
It was huge.
It was a spider!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My heart stopped.
Wolfram was still asleep so I grabbed all my courage and the shower head and poured water on top of the beast.
Of course it tried to escape by running but I had endless supply of water. Eventually it drowned.

Naively I thought by not living on the ground floor anymore I had escaped from them. Clearly this one was telling me the opposite. I'm sure it was even mocking me :(

The wind of change

Freshly back from vacation, the wind of change dropped a job offer at my feet. After careful consideration and intense consulting I decided to apply. Who knows...

Yesterday I learnt that I had the job :)
It's not such a big deal given I was the only one who applied. That's how our internal system works. When you look for someone you publish the job but also head-hunt the people you know and leverage your network to find the perfect or so match. Luckily for me, I was in the radar screen of that person and there was not many people with the right skills potentially available ;)

There is still some debate as of when I will start the new job - any time between now and December I guess - but soon I will be working for a different category of products. Bye bye laundry!

PS: a big thank you to Wolfram who wrote in 200 words why this job was made for me. I'm sure that's what convinced them.
PS2: after 5 years working in Laundry, I have to admit I am excited about discovering a new category and broaden my horizon. Let's see how it goes.

SkyRider airline seats pack fliers into 23 inches of space

Scarry.
Soon we'll be travelling standing. Don't tell me she is comfortable.
see details here.

Summer is over

Fall (if not winter) has arrived.

Last week-end it rained non stop for 2 days. Last night it rained so hard I wondered whether I should trade my car for a boat.
This week temperature in the house dropped from 21 to 19.6C. Soon we'll start the heating.
Inevitably I ended up switching the clothes in my wardrobe. Bye bye T-shirts and shorts, Hello sweaters and wool.

The good thing though is that with winter coming it's the beginning of the soup season ;)