Valentine's day surprise

I knew something was cooking as Wolfram asked me to stay in the bedroom while he was hiding something in the guest room. I chose not to open the locked guest room with the other keys in the house to preserve the surprise.
And surprised I was.
This morning, I found behind the door a huge balloon that.... sings when you press it! "How sweet it is to be loved by you"
What I had not anticipated was the 2nd surprise, waiting on my desk.

In a nutshell, all the women in my department were jealous and saying how lucky I was to have such a boyfriend.
The men however didn't like this idea much as "it sets high expectation with women".
I really don't see where the problem is.

Finally

After a month of almost daily calls to my insurance company since the expert's verdict, I received a letter this week and the money on my account this week-end.
6761.50 euros, that's what my car was worth based on the expert minus the franchise I had to pay.
File is closed.

Afternoon nap

It's so nice to spend the afternoon napping with your brother/sister :)

My mother was right

When my mother was over for New Year's Eve she did some of her magic on our orchid (the one Alex and Silke got us, that by some miracle was still alive but just leaves) and instructed not to move the plant from one specific spot. It will bloom, she said.
Skeptical, I kept the orchid where indicated, watering every now and then. And guess what?
My mother was right!

It looks like we will get flowers soon.

Nice letter

These days all the letters I receive are bills. With emails people rarely send mail, i.e. write a letter or a card and send it across. So when I found an envelop from the US tonight, I knew it was special. And indeed, it was the card announcing Laura's baby!
I knew already as she shared the news via email, but it's always nice to get the announcement.

What's even better, is that thanks to a timely business trip I will be there for his baptism. All of a sudden a trip to Cincinnati is much more appealing when I get to visit my friend and her family on the way to and from there.

Metro - Boulot - Dodo*

* Subway - Work - Sleep
Except for the fact that I'm taking a car to go to work and not the subway, my life this past 2 weeks has been pretty focused on work. Lot's of work ahead in the coming months, lot's of travel :) as well but at the same time, it's a new category for me and I have to learn a lot.
This translates into long hours and being exhausted at the end of the day, thus not doing much outside of work, thus limited activity on the blog.
Hopefully as I get back on the road and find my marks in my new role, I will have soon interesting things to write about on my blog.

27min

27min. That's how long it took me to bike from work to home this morning.
My bike has been sitting on the parking lot at work for quite some time now. Every now and then I would talk about bringing it back home... but it never happened.
Until today.
I don't know if it's the fact that I don't have a car anymore and want to have one extra way of transportation at home. Or maybe it's because of the campaign at work around biking to work.
Whatever the reason, this morning, I drove to work with Wolfram. We ensured there was enough air in the tires of my now rusted bike (yeah, yeah, made in China is not built to resist Belgium weather) and I left.
Biking turned out pretty easy. There is a biking track most of the 8.3km so I can bike safely.
It was tough when going up hill, especially with frontal wind, given my bike doesn't have gears. My bike is pink, with a basket at the front and a lovely bell... but no gear. Clearly it's not meant for heavy biking but it fulfills pretty well its role.
27min after I left work I arrived home. My bike is now sitting proudly in the garage, right in the middle of our parking spot.
I'm not sure I would consider biking to work on a regular basis but every now and then it could be nice. Still, I need to shower once I arrive and on top of carrying the computer bag I need an extra bag with clothes etc. With 10-15kg extra load on the bike, not sure it will be so easy.