Still amongst the living

Dear Family and friends,

I am aware of the fact that it has been quite a while since my last message you have heard anything. However, I do not want to send weekly messages saying the weather is great, while you have a lot of rainy days, that would be just mean ;). I will not let you wait any longer and will give you a sum-up from the last couple of weeks.

I might, in my last message, have mentioned I was planning on visiting a tennis match, which I did. It took place the 16th and 17th of September between 2 Argentinean tennis players, Guillermo Canas and Jose Acususo, and 2 Spanish tennis players, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya. Both days two singles were played, and to win you should have 2 won sets. If the score was 1-1, a tie-break was played. Of the 4 matches I have seen, the first one was the most entertaining. This match was between Ferrero and Canas. Their play was very nice, however also fun to watch. E.g., after had a long rally, they were quite tired. Canas sat down on a chair of one of the line referees and gave his racket to one of the ball girls. He said to her she had to play with Ferrero instead of him, because he was exhausted! She was shocked and not quite sure what to do. Ferrero also insisted her to play with him, so he played her a ball. However, instead of the girl playing the ball back, she, at least this is what I think, panicked, the ball hit the frame of the racket and the ball went into the audience. That sure was a laugh! At least, for us it was. However for the girl? Probably not. As my seat during the two days wasn’t too bad, I was able to take a lot of pictures and also a couple of movies. Some of these are to be found in the picture file. One of the pictures is Canas and I. I have a picture with a well-known tennis player :D Unfortunately, I was not able to have my picture taken with Ferrero, as both days I was a little too late. The matches of Moya and Acususo were, unfortunately, a little less ‘fun’ to watch. Their play was great and very impressive, however, they played a serious match. No humour was to be found in it. Briefly said, they were happy when the match was over and they were able to go home. That was a small bummer, but Canas and Ferrero made it worth the while. In overall, Spain won the ‘tournament’. Another person who was present at the tournament was the ex-football player Maradona. The reason for him being there was he being a friend of Canas. He got a lot of attention, which was fun to see.

I am not only watching tennis, I am now actually also playing myself. I had 4 private classes from Jose, a man halfway in his 40’s. The first class he told my play was not too bad, however, my technique was lacking, and this I have to adjust, e.g. hold my racket in a different position for the volley, smash and service. Also I am not allowed to pull up my leg when playing a backhand anymore. At first this was very weird, and did not feel comfortable at all. However, the second, third and fourth classes it already felt better, and it went better as well! The training is quite exhausting, as I have to play more than 30 balls without any breaks. However, I do very much enjoy it. Two weeks a go, my teacher arranged a match for me with a young guy. I thought he was about 16, 17 years old. However, not it seems he was just big for his age and was about 14 years old! I kid could play very well, better than I, and because of that, unfortunately, I got my ass whooped. However, for the hour we played, both he and I were pleased with the result. Next to playing at the club, I play tennis on a weekly basis, with a guy from Finland I met here. He works and lives here. It is not a full-length gravel court we play on, it is more of a smaller hard court. This court is close to home and far less expansive than the courts at the club.

My tennis class is on a Wednesday at 7 o'clock. As it is closer to work than to my home I take my racket and shoes to work and take the bus from there. However, as David, one of my colleagues, needed to go that direction as well, he gave me a lift on the back of his motorbike. It was quite fun. However, was not able to see a lot as I was wearing an open helmet and had to protect my face from the wind. Even though I was not able to see a lot, it was a nice experience. Douglas also has a motorbike, two actually. These are Suzuki race motors. With him, I am also allowed to go for a spin! However, if I am to take him up on his offer, I do need to fix myself a closed helmet.

So far work is still treating me quite well. I am very much enjoying the work, and the people, my colleagues, as well. I might even be growing fond of them. They are really nice and friendly and I am even able to joke around with them. I am getting more and more familiar with not only the work I have to perform, but also the moving business in total. I must say, it is actually quite interesting. Next to the tasks I got from my boss in Holland, I am able to help out the guys at the office with e.g. selling of packing materials, being able to do more than answering the phone and connecting it through, but being able to actually help a client, up to a certain level of course. The marketing assignment I have to perform deals with giving the company more name recognition. Therefore I deal with the advertisement. As the old advertisement and brochure did not contain the correct contact details, and was in need of renewal, I contacted several designers to perform this task, and eventually picked one of them. The advertisement for the newspapers and magazines is ready. However, the brochure is still being worked on. I am also contacting magazines and newspaper for starting and/or ending contracts. This also deals with price negotiation. Not my strongest point, so I thought, but by batting my eyelashes and smiling very sweetly, I was able to get a discount and allowed to send in an article which will be published free of cost! :D SCORE! The article has been written by my roommate (who is now back in the United States) and if all goes well, will be published next week Thursday.

Life at my apartment is still fine. My room/flat mates are now undertaking more activities together, e.g. going to the beach, dinners, shopping, drinks, parties, board games, etc. The room setting in our house has changed a lot since the last message I sent. Heather (daughter of my house mom) left to go to art school and Scott is back in the U.S. I now have two new roommates, a 2 girl from Chilli who works here and a girl from Slovakia who studies and works here. We also had a German girl, who was on holiday, living with us for two weeks, however, she is also back home now.

When I finish work, I do not have any obligations in the evenings. Therefore, I started experimenting with cooking meals. I had a chat about this with two of my colleagues, Douglas (mover) and David (office). I explained to them I usually make easy meals with both rice/pasta and meat/chicken, however wanted to be a little more original with my cooking. They gave me a number of tips, which I put into use. The dishes I made so far are a lot more original and, surprisingly quite tasteful as well! One of the dishes I made was a rice dish with chicken en fresh vegetables. The rice I prepared with chicken bouillon cubes, I diced the chicken, added the vegetables (courgette, paprika and mushrooms) and to finish it off I added some nuts. To give the dish a sort of sauce, I did not take out all of the water of the rice. Mixed it all together, and voila, a not too bad meal at all! :D This is just one of my experiments. I must confess I might even start enjoying cooking!

Shopping in Spain is a lot of fun as the prices here are a lot cheaper than in Holland. Especially for the Spanish shops such as ZARA. What is quite funny is that the price tags have different prices for different countries. E.g. in Spain the price would be € 9,95, however the price for Holland would be €12,95. SCORE for Spain!

My fruit shop closed on me for two full weeks, because they wanted to go on holiday. I was not pleased with this at all, but what was I supposed to do? Luckily I was able to survive, by buying my fruit from the supermarket. However that was less tasteful and a lot smaller as well. Those who are familiar with my addiction to bubblegum and Chupa Chups, I am cutting back on those! Yes people I am capable of doing that! My coffee addiction is getting less as well. I only have three cups a day, two during lunch and one in the evening, Perfect!

Well, this is a long enough message for now. Enjoy the pictures and you will here from me again soon enough.

Adios!