Just a day in my life

Blog moved

2015-03-20T08:53:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone!

My blog moved a couple of weeks ago. It's now located at: http://chaurica.tumblr.com/

It allows me for prettier and more different types of posts. It's really surged me to show more of what I'm actually doing on a daily to weekly basis. Hope you join me there!

Team growth

2014-12-23T18:16:00.000+01:00

So, it's been a while. Sorry for that. It's been incredibly busy at work.

The talk for the CEO's I wrote about last time went really well and I heard that there is about 30 other organizations in the country that will be starting to work with the cliëntkompas or Omaha system next year as well. It will be the main digital patient file for district nurses in the country. They signed a contract for it, and I'm very happy to have helped accomplish it.

Our team grew by one member, but sadly we lost one as well. We lost our Chinese nurse, which is a really large loss for the team. Considering we are located and our main client group is a chinese community I was really worried this would impact our work and our relationship with them a lot. But luckily it hasn't! We have officially our own office in the building per the 1st of December and we are starting to get some people ask for help. Even if it's just a simple question about how to take a certain medication, they knew how to find us. Which is awesome!

It got even better last Sunday. There was a mid winter dinner and the entire flat was invited. That does technically include us, and so they decided we needed to be there. I am currently on my holiday and the all asked why I wasn't there and where I was.
The fact that they invited us as dutch people, as outsiders really made me very happy. We are completely integrated in the flat and that is awesome, because it's such a closed community and we are very much outsiders of course.

And now for the extra text with the image. We had a talk with the manager a couple of weeks back. Because of all the changes happening here next year we were quite worried we would not be allowed to hire any new colleagues. They are letting us grow though! So that's quite bad ass, even though there is little money they are allowing my team to hire new colleagues, however, we have to get the people out of our own network. So over the past weeks and the coming weeks I will be sharing this image a couple of times on facebook and other social media. I will hang it in several places and anyone that wants to help me share it I will be very very grateful!

Important things

2014-09-08T10:53:00.001+02:00

Later today I will be telling a whole bunch of managers, CEO's and other likewise important people about the new digital client file system we work with both at Buurtzorg and at Amstelring. About how we have worked to implement it and what it means for us as nurses to work with it and use it in our every day work.

I will be teaming up with a colleague from Amstelring and also a nurse from Buurtzorg, and together, the whole point of the day is to convince all the other organisations that it's a good thing and that they should aim to join in as well.
And all that is scary!! Yes, I know what I'm talking about. Yes, I think it's a fantastic idea to have every one in the country working with the same system. And yes, I know I can do it.
But I'm also still very tired from a very hard week of work last week. I've managed to get a bad cold and have a blocked nose and sore throat.
All that doesn't make talking any easier and especially not trying to convince other people. And eesh, they are managers and CEO's!! Yes, I know they are also just people, but they are the people with the power right now.
So I'm just very happy I have two brilliant nurses standing next to me!

Apart from all that today I have been working quite hard. Our team is running really well. We are getting a lot of clients, but we are also still with just the two of us. So it's a little hectic and a little too much sometimes. But we are working on getting some new nurses to help us out.

New beginnings

2014-07-21T16:08:00.000+02:00

Next Tuesday will be the last day I work at Buurtzorg. Last week and this week I have been busy telling all my clients, dividing all my tasks and clients among my colleagues. And we're planning a good bye lunch.

It's still a weird feeling though, to leave everything I know behind and start all over. All that networking that I've done the last three years will be mostly useless.

But I also have grown a lot as well the last three years. One of my clients told me when I told her: " Oh you came in so quiet and now you're yourself and talkative. I really hope you have fun in your new job and will be able to hang on to the way you're working now." I really didn't expect her to say something like that, so that took me by surprise but she is right.

Today I was for the last time at one of my clients. They were so happy with the way I delivered the care that they gave me a little good bye present. And his ex-wife gave me a hug and told me to let them know how I was getting on. I so didn't expect that, but all this has given me such a confidence boost!

Last Wednesday I did my first day at the new team already and it's so cool! I'm really looking forward to really kicking into gear there!

Big changes

2014-06-20T19:25:00.001+02:00

Well it's been a while, but in all honesty that is because once again there was not much to tell. Over the past few months I have been getting the occasional message from Karen and James with questions and updates about how they are doing in Cornwall. Still not too well sadly as it's still very difficult to get funding. But they are still working on it and last I heard there is quite some interest in district nurses working the way we do. So that is something right?!

As for myself I have been contacted by an old colleague. Aenne worked for Buurtzorg many years and had to leave sadly last November, since then she has been working for this other company, Amstelring. Since a few years their nurses have been educated and retrained to work in a similar way as we do at Buurtzorg. Before that they worked like any other old large healthcare organisation. Now you can barely see a difference, if anything they do better because they have been able to look at how Buurtzorg did things and improve on that.

In January Aenne contacted me, their nurses were going to use the same electronical patientfile system that we already used at Buurtzorg and she wanted me to teach their nurses! So I started on my spare Fridays and the more I did the more they wanted me to do and the more did I want to do for them. I love training and teaching so this is quite a fun experience for me!

However it started to become a bit much to work for two organisations all this time. In May I accepted Amstelring's offer to work two days instead of one, meaning I am now working 5 days a week. 3 at my team at Buurtzorg and 2 at Amstelring teaching. But with the weekend and other irregular shifts at Buurtzorg that means I need to work quite a lot of days in a row quite often. So a couple of weeks ago I started looking into their offers to work for them full time. And the end result is that I will sadly stop working for Buurtzorg per the 1st of August.

It is most certainly a bit sad too, leaving my colleagues behind. They taught me so much there and I am so grateful for that!! But it is also very exciting to see what I will be able to do with what they taught me. And I know that for me this is absolutely the best choice right now.
At Amstelring I will become part of one or two starting teams so I will be able to use my experience of already working in a self managing team to help them set up and get going.

Quiet

2013-11-12T19:49:00.000+01:00

It's been a while again since my last blog, but then there's been very little to write about. Everything is going on very nice and steady.

Every so often I get a message from Karen from Cornwall about how they're doing and how it's going. Which is also slow and steady, but positive. Tonight Karen and James (nurse and GP from Cornwall) will be having a chat with Jos (my boss), sadly I couldn't be there, so I'm pretty bummed about that. But well what is there to do about it.. I just hope it all goes well!!

I did make a nice little poppy for Remembrance day (same as the Dutch the 4th of May ceremony and 5th of May celebration, held on the 12th of November in the UK). Sue send me a pattern for a knitted poppy and this was the result!

Enthousiasm!

2013-10-10T20:38:00.000+02:00

It's been a little while. But after beating a major cold and a busy couple of weeks at work I finally have some time to make a post again.
About three weeks ago Karen and James came by. They are a nurse and a GP from Cornwall and super enthousiast about setting up something in their local area. Something that resembles Buurtzorg.

James, Jos and Karen busy talking

It were two great days! I took both Karen and James with me to do my rounds through the community. I showed them how Buurtzorg works and explained how the Dutch health care system works. Luckily they didn't have much trouble grasping the lack of an NHS like system and they made many comparisons to how they work in the UK. It was very nice and refreshing to see how much time and effort they had spend into preparing the trip. James even greeted me in dutch!


James and myself watching the Rollatorloop

The first day we spend visiting a couple of clients, and most of the afternoon we spend questioning one another and answering each others questions. I also managed to get a little bit of Karin's time to get her to explain a little about Buurtzorg T, the new mental health division Buurtzorg started in June.

The second day I had a couple of clients planned as well, but most of those cancelled which left us with little clients to visit sadly. But that's just how it is. And the clients we did visit on both days did show very well what kind of clients we generally visit and how we work there.

A view of the finish line at the Rollatorloop

And, as we all had had a night to think about the information of the day before, we had plenty of new questions for each other.

The second day they also spoke with Jos and I hope they got many of their questions to him answered. He also gave us a lift to the Rollatorloop as well. This race for elderly people who use walking frames or other similar tools to walk has been organized by a nurse from Buurtzorg. One of her clients had been complaining there was very little competitions once you get a little older, and the nurse came up with this idea together with the client. It's been very successful and it was very fun to watch and be part of. For the first time it had been organized in the old Olympic stadium and that really added to the atmosphere. The joy on the face of the people coming over the finish line was amazing!

After that we went back to my team's office and they gave the team and myself a fantastic thank you card and they also gave me a brilliant sculpture of their local lighthouse, made out of a natural uncommon stone. It got a nice pretty spot with the rest of my statues!

The last day Karen and James were in the Netherlands I wasn't there. They visited another team, one somewhat more rural then Amsterdam. From what I gathered they had an awesome day there as well, and the nurse that took them with her really enjoyed doing so.

All in all I think it was a very successful visit, organized and prepared very well from both my end as well as their end. I really loved doing it, and though it was exhausting it was also fantastic to do!

I have also expressed my wishes of moving to England to them, and being willing to help them set up as I know Buurtzorg and they know the English system and the NHS very well. Karen said she'd love to work with me, so hopefully something will come from this. However, some funding needs to be gotten first. They have talked to a local MP, so hopefully that will yield some results.

And in the mean time I'm looking into starting on my drivers license again. It will be a shame all the savings money will be gone once more, but I suppose being able to drive will have it's merits too, maybe not so much where we live now, but in England it would certainly help.

Preparations

2013-09-03T14:33:00.000+02:00

It's been busy the last few weeks. Dan's pc broke the other night, so he currently doesn't have any sound on his pc, and his skype got hacked we think. So that's all a little frustrating.

I've also been very busy sorting out my papers to go to England. A good bit got sorted, although I'm currently waiting for people to respond to me. Very frustrating to not be able to make it go faster :P

And last but not least I have been very busy with organising a visit from a district nurse and a GP from Cornwall. This is the first visit that I'm completely organising myself and I'm quite happy with it. After all it was me that invited them over as well. And I'm just extremely happy that at last there is people, nurses and GP's, that are interested, that see the benefits. Because I do believe it would make the healthcare in the UK better for it. And I'm extremely excited to meet these people and show them what we do!

New hope

2013-08-12T16:25:00.001+02:00

Well, there might be some hope after all, maybe. Last week I got contacted by a district nurse from Cornwall.

I guess she read the BBC article and googled my name. She added me as a friend on facebook, telling me she's very interested in the Buurtzorg model and wants to know more. After the news from Jos that I had to wait, at least with a Buurtzorg like company, this seriously made my day. The fact that we had reached actual district nurses after all, and more so, that they were enthousiast about the idea! Since, so far I had a district nurse teacher and some researchers (maybe high standing researchers, but researchers non the less) show interest and come over. And that's great, because they can promote it and use it to get other people enthousiast, but they are not district nurses, or even nurses themselves. They cannot help me with a plan, they cannot set something up themselves.

It sounds like this nurse, Karen, is very enthousiast and working very hard for it though! She's got the interest of the GP she works with and the local politicians are paying attention too. If there's anything that I suspect will change Jos's mind, is if I can team up with this nurse, I with my knowlegde of how we work here, of the vision of the company and Karen with her knowledge of how it works in England. And well, if she can attract the attention of a local politician, then she must be doing something right :D

And even if all of this doesn't work out, if I have to sign up with a regular health care company, even if it's just for now, I will stay in touch with Buurtzorg, so maybe in a couple of years I can be useful. Because if other nurses are interested, enthousiast even, that must mean there is room and space for improvement.

On a small side note, I finally got my papers from the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council), so I should finally be able to carry on with my registration as a nurse in England!

Waste of time

2013-07-31T14:43:00.000+02:00

Well, it certainly feels like I wasted a lot of time, energy and efforts with all this. Setting up Buurtzorg in England like it is in the Netherlands will not be possible. Main reason: the NHS..

Because of the way they organise community care. They buy nursing care from other organisations, they let them bid and the highest or I can imagine in this case the lowest bidder (the lowest because they will be the cheapest) will be allowed to give care to an entire county (25.000 to 1.000.000 people) for several years. No other organisations will be allowed to deliver nursing care in that period of time. This means for the patient that they are not able to choose which organisation they get care from, which I think is bad, but the least of the issues here.
More importantly it means that new and innovative companies, like Buurtzorg, but many others as well, are not able to start up or settle because they will not be able to get a contract or deliver care to such a big population in one go.
There were a couple of other options, but my boss deemed them not good enough I suppose because he told me to wait for a better opportunity. Not very happy with that, but very little I can do about it.

One thing though, I will not wait until this might happen, because it will likely never happen at this rate. At the end of the day it's dependant on a government to do something useful and decent. So we will move when I see an opportunity. And even more so after another report about Staffordshire Hospital I'm getting more and more determined to show that it can be done better and cheaper. Just not entirely sure how yet..

British visitors

2013-07-21T22:08:00.000+02:00

Well, it's been a while, but that's mainly because I've been quite busy. First Sue came over and we had a lovely couple of days together. We visited the zoo and spend a lot of time out and about in the city.

Then straight after my holiday I had more visitors from Britain. The 9th and 10th of July I had a district nursing teacher from Scotland over at work. She followed me two days as I was doing my job, while at the same time asking a lot of questions. Most of those I answered, there were a couple that I couldn't answer though. It was very fun to do, although also exhausting. Constantly translating and trying to figure out her accent.

And last Monday and Tuesday I spend with Thomas and Cathy from Reform. They are doing some research into better ways of giving (community) care in England and heard many good stories about Buurtzorg. They were also the ones that set up a conference that Jos (my boss) spoke at in January in London and which was also what pitched the BBC's interest.
On Monday we spend most of the day in Almelo. Mainly telling Thomas and Cathy about how Buurtzorg works, how it is organised and how it was started. But also about how the dutch healthcare system works. Later we went back to Amsterdam and had dinner there. It was quite a busy day, but very interesting and fun. I certainly have done my best to show what Buurtzorg is like and I think it's pretty clear to them how it works now.
On Tuesday I took them with me to a client. They loved to see her and her daughter and the family loved to be host to them. It was quite nice and they have now met one of our clients, just to show what kind of care we deliver.

All in all it were two very fun and interesting days. I heard a lot of new things. Quite a couple of helpful things as well. So, now it's time to brainstorm again and see what I can use. And of course I have expanded my network of contacts again at the very least.

Catch up

2013-06-07T13:55:00.000+02:00

Well, it's been a while since my last post. And for the biggest part of the time nothing much of interest happened. However in the last few weeks some quite interesting stuff happened. So join me on this awesome adventure!

First about two to three months ago my colleague suggested I talk with my boss about starting up a Buurtzorg like company in the UK. So I did, because working in a hospital is just nothing for me.. It sounds interesting to do all the awesome crazy difficult stuff, but there is such a gap in the care for the elderly people. And I do very much enjoy and feel like I make a difference here. So while working in a hospital could be cool, I don't actually see myself do that again. The pressure from colleagues, time and doctors is just nothing for me.

Basically my boss (Jos de Blok) said that there is interested parties in the UK, but he needs someone to actually set stuff up. So I asked my colleague (Aenne) for help, because I wasn't sure where to start. So she started me off a bit and continuously carries on to support me as well. Mainly by helping with a lot of connections and networking. Which is very awesome :D

So a couple of weeks ago Aenne contacted me that the BBC had contacted Buurtzorg because they wanted to go with one of our district nurses and do an interview with them as well. She asked if I wanted to do that. And of course I did! I regretted it a bit in the morning of the interview because I was just that nervous! But in the end I really enjoyed it!
I got interviewed by Adam Brimelow and I took him with me to one of our clients as well. The day was really cool and ended up being really relaxed, even though I was very nervous in the morning. I also met Jos for the first time, but luckily he wasn't there for the interview itself! Imagine your boss sitting next to you while doing a radio interview.. So scary!
He also took some pictures and told me there would be an internet article about it as well. He also gave me his business card and said to me that when we were setting up a similar company in the UK he'd love to interview me again about that.

And, a couple of weeks ago, on the 27th of May the piece aired and the article got aired on the Health section of BBC news. Sadly the radio piece is only able to be listened too for about a week, so that is now not possible to listen to any more :( However, I do have the article :D
The radio interview was only about 5 minutes long and I was on for about 2 of those 5 minutes. It was really short and quick, but I got so many positive reactions! So many people said they wanted to hear more, so luckily there is the article, that goes a bit more in depth about the whole story! So, here is the article. It's not just about me or Buurtzorg, it's actually about the way we do our district nursing here. It includes Radio Steunkous, a radio station organized by Buurtzorg nurses and and also some notes from one of the biggest health insurance companies in the country.

I didn't even know of this article until yesterday, because I got another email from Aenne asking me if I would be okay with taking a Scottish district nurse with me for a couple of days. She had emailed our company saying she read the article and wanted to see how we manage and deliver care by going with one of Buurtzorg's district nurses. And of course I said I would do it. I don't really care that it's a nurse from Scotland instead of England, at the end of the day it's all in the UK and if something kicks off in Scotland due to it it's only positive sounds and promotion for the rest of the UK as well!

And the last note for today is that in July there will be two guys coming over from the UK. They work for a company that wants to help us set up. So I have already written down some questions for them and it will be really cool to see what they want and what they can offer!

Zoey

2012-10-18T20:10:00.000+02:00

Well, it's been a while since the last blog. Mainly because we've been really busy with all kinds of stuff. From moving in the house to building two awesome new pc's. But also we've got a cat now!!

And for all you people interested in some kitty pictures I've selected a couple and put them up here.
Get ready to meet Zoey!

First of some pictures from the very early beginnings. The picture at the top is on the day that she arrived. The same day she went on our laps to sleep and even slept with us on the bed that night. It was the only night that happened so far!

And on the side is Zoey laying on the bed with Dan. She nodded off for a bit as well, but she was mainly just looking at what shenanigans I was doing with the camera.

Then it really became summer in the Netherlands with temperatures of up to 35 degrees Celsius. And after Zoey had gotten all of her vaccinations she was allowed on the balcony and had a whole new space to investigate. This resulted in some chilling with us in the sunshine.

The sunshine also made it very easy for me to grow some catgrass. The tub below I grew in a weekend! And there's still some left of it. She absolutely loved and loves it!

Zoey likes to sit, play, sleep and live on the desks a lot. We use the pc's a lot and she loves being close to us. So when we put a hoodie or something else on the desk this is a fantastic new toy. And she loves to hide.

And then she started to venture to places she shouldn't go, the counter, fridge and bookshelves. Also her old scratch-post started to go a tad bit wonky. So we got her a new one. It's only a tiny one, honest!

Well, okay it's not. But it's still only one corner of the house that's for the cat, the rest is ours. And she absolutely loves it. She sleeps and plays on it. And most importantly she uses this instead of our furniture to scratch.

She still loves to sit on our desks and the closer the better. While I'm writing this she's gone from sitting in front of Dan's monitor to sitting in front of mine and even laying between my keyboard and monitor. But she also loves to lay on my mouse-pad. So much even that I couldn't use it or my mouse any more. So I bought a bigger one. And as you can see, she still loves to lay on it and take it completely over.

She also loves hiding! In the most unconventional places if possible. So in the sofa is a good contender! We actually lost her the first time she did that. She was completely under the blanket that's on there.

Moved!

2012-03-10T19:42:00.001+01:00

Well, we've moved most of our stuff now. Just the dinner table, clothes closets and the bottoms of the beds left at the old place. Which was sadly due to running out of time :(

And of the beds we do have the matrasses but well the sofabed is quite comfortable as well.. We have kind of nested in it for the moment while watching tv :) As seen on the picture below. More pictures will follow soon when I can find the camera and batteries back :p

Keys!

2012-03-01T17:39:00.001+01:00

Well, today we've gotten the keys to our new apartment! I'm soooo happy!! I was until now constantly expecting something to go sideways still.. But no, it's really ours! :D
So, here come the promised pictures!

This is as we just got the place. So it's nothing too fantastic yet, but very good for it's age as it's not too young any more! From 1979 to be exact, so ten years older than me! :P

So, at the top at the left is the front door and at the top at the right is the outside. Nothing too special about that though.

The one on the right is the kitchen, with room for a gas stove, and a proper vent too :) The empty space on the left is for a fridge, but we're not sure ours is going to fit due to the heater and it's pipes just straight in front of the door..

The one on the left is the rest of the living room, no idea who came up with the colour scheme by the way, but they do not have taste if you ask me... Baby blue and light green?... No thanks :P So the green walls will end up white-ish later :)

Then on the right is the bedroom, very spacious :) Will have plenty of room for our stuff, and we'll be able to walk around the bed! How luxurious will that be!
Below is the other side of the bedroom, again the green and blue :s ... It also has a door straight to the bathroom from the bedroom as well as from the hallway.

Next up, the bathroom. Very nice. Could do with some more storage room though, but that will come over time :) It's got a connection for a washing machine, which I think is just plain awesome! On the picture to the left the connection fall just off it. But once I get the washer in I'll take another picture anyways :)
The washer is actually a birthday present of my parents, complete surprise! We also have a bath now! That is going to be nice now and then :)

Then we also have a nice little balcony :) It's pretty much completely out of the wind, but will get sun most of the day :) It wasn't a sunny day today though, so that will have to wait a little bit for now.

Then the view of the balcon is just FANTASTIC! As said, it wasn't a clear day, so we'll have to redo these pictures again on a clear day, because you can see nearly twice as far then! But due to being on the 7th floor, we can see pretty much all of the south of Diemen. The pictures are arranged as the view is. The first picture is when you look to the right, the middle one when you look ahead and the last one when you look to the left. All standing from our balcony.

We also can't wait to take some pictures at night, as we can imagine this will look absolutely fantastic then as well!

I have no pictures of it, but we've got some ground floor storage space as well. When you enter it's like soooo odd, it's almost a building change. It is small and damp and the numbering is all over the place. So, Dan and I have started to dub those the catacombs from now on, as even the guy from the estate agent didn't know where our storage box was. So we all ended up just running around down there, just about not getting lost :P

Either way, this is all I've got for now. I will keep on posting as we continue to work in the place and move in over the next couple of weeks.

Got it!!

2012-02-22T14:57:00.001+01:00

We have got it! The new apartment! It be ours!!
I'm signing the contract on Friday, and then a week later, we can move in :)
I'm so incredibly happy we did! It is a shame it means we won't be moving to England for at least another year, but I really don't mind that right now :)

Obviously pictures will follow :)

Housing update

2012-02-21T16:05:00.001+01:00

Today I've had contact with the estate agent again. They don't know yet when they will hear something. They are hoping to hear something today or tomorrow, but they are not sure if they will..
So we will just carry on doing what we've done before and the only thing we can do.. Wait.. And try to not get too hyped up..

In the mean time I've continued with trying to get another place. Reacted on a couple more decent places but it's really difficult and expensive most of the time :(
Sometimes so much that single rooms go for more money than this appartment does.. That is more then € 500 for a room and then you have to share the livingroom, bathroom, toilet and kitchen..

The other thing I've noticed is that it seems like it's calming down.. Since we have viewed this appartment it seems like there is less places offered then before we viewed.. With the very big possibility that we don't get this apartment I have continued to look just as much as before the viewing, so I don't think thats the issue

Viewing

2012-02-13T18:08:00.000+01:00

Well, last Friday we've had a viewing... together with about 30 other people..... But it's a very nice apartment, and I still fit all the requirements, so that is nice. Today I've filled in all the forms and I hope that we'll get something from this because this apartment is just IT! It looks nice, is the right size and the right price!

Sadly it was so busy I haven't been able to take any pictures but it's got a very nice floor in and some wallpaper on the wall that isn't too great (light green and light blue) but it's wallpaper anyways. It's got a nice little balcony that's pretty much entirely out of the wind and rain so for good use. And because it's on the 7th floor it's got an AMAZING view! It's got a bedroom with an actual door in it and a bathroom with a bath and the connection for an actual washing machine! That would be heaven! :D The kitchen is an open kitchen and has plenty of storage room and room for our current fridge and stove.

It's all nothing special, but so much better then what we've got now :) So hoping and praying that we get the place! :)

Just a short update

2012-02-07T10:00:00.001+01:00

I figured I would post a little update on how things are going :)

I'm currently corresponding about at least four apartments, all pre-furnished and on the west side of Amsterdam. Would be cool if I could get something on that side as it's the side my work is on. Depending on the amount of furnishings we might have to put some of our stuff in storage but with some luck and cleaning up it won't be too much :)

The biggest question about all of these apartments is whether they will allow us to live in it together as they are meant for one person. But of course as soon as I know something more I'll post mor again ;)

Edit: I looked more into the four apartments I was going on about and it turns out the emailaddress I have been given is owned by a scammer.. So that won't do..

Snow!

2012-02-03T13:53:00.001+01:00

Well, it's been quite a while since I wrote anything. But I have to start at some point again. I will try to keep it to a weekly or two weekly posting.

So far we still don't have a place in Amsterdam, and due to that the moving to England has been postponed. The other thing to that is that I've still not passed my driving test, so that makes moving to England a lot more difficult as well. For the driving test I'm going to change driving school as my old instructor was not a very nice person and not teaching me much any more :(

Also it has snowed today!! This fell in a little over 3 hours...

Trial test

2011-10-21T16:32:00.000+02:00

Well, time for another blog now :) About time as well, as it's been a couple of weeks already again.
Anyways, last Tuesday I had the trial test for my drivers licence. It's completely like a normal test, other than that you don't hear whether you pass or not, you just get asked what you thought went good and bad and well the stuff you need to work on. This is fairly new, but it helps keeping the amount of people not passing down due to having experienced it already once as well.
My test didn't go exactly fantastic though sadly. Then again no body expected me to drive fantastic yet I guess since then it would have been the final test and not another two weeks of lessons and all. It didn't go exactly fantastic because I was seriously nervous and started making more and more mistakes towards the end of my lesson (I had an hours lesson before the test). To which my instructor started moaning an moaning harder and harder and thus even before the test even started I had no confidence left already..
However, it was not all bad, because apart from knowing how the final test will be there's another pro to taking the trial test. It's that if you pass the special manoeuvres you had to do during the trial test, you don't have to do them again on the final test. This part of the test went good and thus I at least don't have to do any parking, turning and other shit like that during the test but only driving :)
The parts that still scare me are highways, sooo fast! And I need to do all the things at the same time, like speed up and look and keep the steering wheel straight and all that.

Something else that's been happening often and fast, so far without any result though is checking houses. I'm now getting emails, with places that fit our searches, every day. Of those we pick the ones we like, if there are any at all and forward them to Sue. She then contacts the company to see if they can arrange a viewing but so far that's not been possible yet. They always wanted rid of the houses in the same week, which is of course way to quick for us sadly. But Sue and Tom are going to take a look around this Saturday, so hopefully they will be able to find something semi decent :)

I have also send the form that needs to filled in by the Dutch government to them. So hopefully it won't be too long before they sent it back and I can sent all of it to the UK.

Also, I've changed the look of the blog. First there was another look I liked which made me lose the old one I had, so then I came up with this. Pretty nice I think :)

Anniversary and more

2011-10-02T10:59:00.000+02:00

Well, it's been a while already again since my last post. But that doesn't matter! This is a whole new one, with pictures! :)

First of all last Thursday Dan and I have been together for four years already! Four years.. Doesn't seem that long at all really.. But well, we decided to have a little day out together as there was still a couple of things we wanted to do here in Amsterdam. One of them being a canal cruise through the centre of the city. Another was to actually visit the palace at the Dam, but sadly that was closed until later in October, so we'll be coming back for that later in the month most likely :) The canal cruise was awesome. It was fantastic weather, if anything a bit too hot, but well, on the water that's not too bad. Took a couple of pictures too, which I'll litter around this little post :) First the one to the side is when we took of with the boat, just a couple of cool looking houses with a seagull sitting on a pole in front of the brown house.

The pictures above and below are a clock tower called 'Malle Jaap' or translated to 'Crazy Jack' by the very British sounding taped tour guide. It got the name due to the fact that for years it was unable to keep the time. Also you can see that the base looks different then the top. This is because the tower was first lower and only hundreds of years later the top was put on.

To the left is a picture of the smallest house of Amsterdam. It's just about a metre wide. If you look at the doorway, it just about fits the door and that's it. For you who aren't sure which one on the picture it is: yes, it really is that small green and white house that's already much much lower then the rest of the houses.

The next picture is one of a couple of very traditional looking houses on the 'Herengracht' (Gentlemen's Canal as translated by the guide). I thought they were looking all pretty and renovated there together with the three of them :P

Then the tour took us through the old harbour and behind the Central Station, that's the train, bus, tram and metro station for the city. It's one of the biggest stations in the country if not the biggest. Also, you can see a 'small' bike storage stand too.

After that the boat turned back into the town centre and we got off again. All in all it was quite a nice hour of seeing and hearing stuff about Amsterdam :)

But before we went on the boat trip we went shopping as well. And we bought, among other stuff, some leather Magic the Gathering deck boxes. As seen on the picture below :) It's even got a magnet in it's flappy top :)

On a completely different note, Rachel told us last week about this awesome small washer thingy. So I went to look for it on the interwebs and it turns out they are available in the Netherlands too :) So I got us one. Which means I've now been writing this blog while waiting for the washing to be done! I can do washing at home!! :D To the left is a picture of it in it's first use :)

Theory test again

2011-09-13T21:13:00.000+02:00

Well, some stuff happened again over the last couple of weeks.
First of all my nursing registration for Holland got sorted. And I've now started on getting the one for the UK sorted. It's just not going very fast, you know how governments work :P I had gotten a form that needs to get signed by the Dutch body that gives the registrations, but there I saw an option to get a letter send. Which I thought would be the same. But well, it's not. So now I've got to figure out how to get that signed.. But last week was so crazy busy that I've not exactly had the time to yet.

Secondly: I PASSED MY THEORY TODAY!! With which I was very pleased as I didn't think I would do it today.. I am just having a bit of a period that I'm totally fed up with it all. But apparently so has nearly everyone. So I guess it'll go again. But I passed it anyways! :D

And that's pretty much all that's been happening. Well that is other then waking up early to go to work :P

Theory exam

2011-08-22T13:09:00.001+02:00

Well, today I've tried the theory exam for my drivers licence for the first time. The first part of this blog has actually been written on the mobile app while waiting in the building :p

I was pretty nervous before hand and not expecting at all to pass. Mainly because the book I had was from 2007 and the cd from 2009 and they changed a lot of rules in 2010. So I already was afraid there might be questions that I wouldn't know or gave the wrong answer because the rule got changed. On top of that while doing the trial tests on the cd I did indeed notice that some questions I answered wrong even though I gave the right answer according to the book. So before I even started on the test I kinda expected not to pass..
On top of all that I developed a terrible cold last night and this morning. That didn't leave me feeling much better about it of course..

My feeling before hand was pretty right because I failed with just 3 questions too much wrong.. Funny thing is, there was a couple of questions where I first gave the right answer and then started to doubt myself and change to a wrong answer.. So if I would.have actually trusted myself for once..

Still I'll be booking a new test as soon as possible. Since I also know now what to expect :)

Busy but not much news

2011-08-06T20:14:00.002+02:00

Well it's been a while since my last blog. Mainly because not much has been happening other then me working.
I did however start on my drivers licence last week. Yesterday I had my third lesson and I'm still much enjoying it. It's also difficult though. So many things I need to pay attention too and do at the same time. Yesterday we even went on the ring road for a little bit, which was quite scary considering it was only my third lesson!!

I've been busy with getting the required registrations as well. For the Netherlands I've sorted it almost completely, I just have to send in the papers.
For the UK I send in a form that should get me an application set.. So now I'm just waiting for that :)
We have also been thinking of moving a little later because the NMC (Nurses and Midwifes Council, the body that sorts the registrations in the UK) is going to take up to 12 weeks to get my registration sorted..
The preferred time of moving has now changed to the beginning to half December. That way I'll also be able to finish working the entire month of November.