Cobra Caught

This afternoon after sightings for over a week they finally caught the cobra which was flaunting around Windmills in for a snake some ver public places. All our kids had been playing in this same area  during touch rugby this morning, only a few hours earlier.

The bad news? There is still a 2nd one on the loose….

(ps someone else from the compound took this picture. Fortunately none of us have been up this close)

First tooth out in the Jorritsma household

It happened, our big boy is really a big boy. He lost his first tooth….. 

It wobbled only for a few days, Rick struggled a bit with some foods and showed everyone, 

and then Saturday morning, before Kaat's party he lot it in a sandwich. He realized quickly enough what hat happened that he could save the tooth instead of swallowing it. And Rick was so so so proud that he literally was beaming with happiness for 3 solid days after. And you know what was really very cool, to find out that Rick's dear friend Mees had only lost her first teeth days before.

Rick is still sweet and cute and we think of him still as our little big boy. Yes he still very innocent, but little…. not really. He is breaching 1.20m!

Kaat's Kids Party

Despite the Big Birthday Weekend las weekend, we were not quite partied out and also had organized a party for the kids from Kaat's class. This mainly because we do not actually know the parents of some of her new friends at school and so they were not around last weekend.

By now we get quite good at the Birthday parties for kids. So with little stress and limited preparation we entertained 17 kids for 2.5 hours. We learned by now that people do not really respect the start time on the invite and so we started after 20 min with part of the group making cookies. Well actually more decorating fabulous cookie dough from the local hotel such that good taste was guaranteed and any sickness avoided -;)

 After some dancing we moved on to a duple tower building contest which was a huge success. With lots of laughter, enthusiasm and all kids participating at least a bit.

Then we went outside for a few more games.

 And a treasure hunt to find the lollipop broom of the wicked which of windmills

 And off they went!

 Racing around the place in their princes dresses

 Duuk had the honor of opening up the giant lollipop

 as soon after finding it the other kids where too distracted by the playground.

 We almost, sort of managed a group picture.

 And then we raced back him was it was too hot outside already and we wanted to eat snow cake.

A cake with Olaf from Frozen!

 After the cake the kids just entertained themselves.

 With the princess dresses all gathering at the trampoline. 

 The giggles where a joy to listen to

 And the birthday girl also had a fabulous morning.

Belated Burns Night

In Scotland on my Birthday people celebrate Burn's Night. A dinner usually where Haggis is served and Robert Burns 'Address to the Haggis;' is recited and often the many other good things of Scottish life are celebrated. Many Scottish expats celebrate Burn's Night wherever they live. We had not attended one since leaving Aberdeen, but in Bangalore we were invited by friends for the event, together with a few other dear friends, many of whom lived also in Aberdeen or Scotland at some point in their lives, and most of whom were not actually Scottish, but like us enjoyed many things about living there.

So we all dressed up, and spend a fabulous evening eating Haggis, Stovies, Sticky Toffee pudding, droning whiskey and gin tonics, dancing some ceilidh and sining songs. Fabulous!

It was a very happy night, with lots of laughter and many happy memories returning.

Duuk's Assembly

Duuk had been at school a whole 7 days and had his first assembly! It meant coming to school dressed up, doing  2 min dance/song, and then trying to get the parents to socialize a little before they all left for work. Duuk was kind of neutral about the whole thing and was more a spectator then a participant, but at least he was not screaming his head off and the only kids really doing show time where the 3 year olds also still in Nursery class. The whole thing was actually really funny, and quite impressive. They got ~ 25 toddlers (2 - 3 years old), to all stand up, dressed up, in a line for 2-3 minutes.

 

After the show and the networking there was time for a class picture. That proved too much to ask. What is clear that despite being the youngest, Duuk is not the baby in the class, and is easily assertive enough to look after himself, and already he also has attracted the attention of a cute 3 year old girl (next to him) who also looks after him. Still the Radja!

Delivering on a 15 year old commitment

When Eelco and I just started dating Eelco was asked at work to enroll in the Institute of Materials such that he could make work of becoming a Chartered Engineer and an official MIM (member of the institute of Materials). Particularly in the UK, and hence in international oriented engineering jobs, becoming a Chartered Engineer can be a useful additional qualification to have as it will add formal weight to your discipline title. All CE programs are somewhat different but for IM you need a personal sponsor, need to submit cases that demonstrate experience, do an assessment etc to get the qualification. Eelco promised me within the first year of us dating (1999) that he would obtain the qualification.

Not for lack of capability, nor for the fear that he did not have enough appropriate experience, neither for the lack of sponsoring from employers and colleagues, but purely for the fact that he could not be bothered to submit the paperwork, Eelco never got his CE.

In the meantime I joined Shell in 2003 and was asked to get my chartered status through the institute of purchasing & supply chain management. I actually had limited relevant experience with an MSc in Engineering and work experience in business development, but completed my last exams to receive my qualifications in May 2007 - i.e in the 4 years listed for the qualification program which mainly consists of lots of exams.

It became clear that me threatening to Eelco I would get my CE before him was not effective either. Finally though this summer, several 'grey hairs' in Eelco's discipline have moved to Bangalore, and in order to support the professionalization of the Bangalore office (which is very young and new in the Shell business and hence still has to earn some of its credibility), everyone who could easily qualify for his or her CE in discipline engineering was asked to do so.

Hence, after 15 years, Eelco has finally made good on his promise to me that I would "soon be dating a Chartered Engineer". So, Eelco's definition of 10 minutes is usually around 45-60 min. Eelco's definition of 'Soon' is 15 years -:0

Good news is that we had a nice evening with Eelco's colleagues at our house to celebrate.

Jewels, Treasures &the 40th floor

Not long after coming back from Christmas break I was back on my way to Dubai. For a long and difficult meeting on a Sunday of all things, giving up my first weekend back! What made it somewhat better is that I got to stay in the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel (quite posh and nice) and that they then put me up on their 'ladies only floor' which is on the 40th level (yes and that is not even the top, apparently it is the 48th tallest building in the word, and the 3rd tallest hotel in the world), and this all ladies floor is sponsored by Watch and Jewelry top Brand Chopard.

This meant that my floor was littered with glass cabinets showing nice watches and that we got a catalogue in the room, with much to expensive items inside, but also some nice soaps and a voucher for a gift to be collected in the store etc.

 Above the 40th floor are only big suites and restaurants and cocktail bars etc. So 40 was good enough for me. I could see very far, and there is no lack of tall buildings in Dubai but I was clearly already quite high up.

 The tower is a triangle and is hollow for a big part so you can look quite far down (think what you see it the 8th or 7th floor with the business centre. It is not the lobby.

 As you can imagine kind of scary to take a picture, especially if you are as attached to your phone as I am -:)

 From my room I had views at the Burj Khalifa and all the other big stuff on Sheikh Zayed Rd.

 And the royal racetrack and the dessert

I never went to the Chopard store in the end. I went to my favorite jewelry store, and spend the 2014 holidays I did not manage to use, and hence got paid out to me in cash, on a fabulous new pair of earrings.

 As it was the 20th Dubai Shopping Festival all the stores where open till 1am so despite the long meeting I did have the chance to stock up for all the birthdays. It was just my Dutch bank who was somewhat suspicious of me shopping jewelry after midnight in a Dubai mall and (temporarily) blocked my card. It was a reasonable haul, as I unfortunately did not make it to the supermarket and hence did not bring back pate for Duuk, rice cakes for Kaat, Salami for Rick, Raisin Snack boxes, smoked sausage, nice grated cheese, trash bags and dishwasher tablets…you know, the usual things one imports -:0

 More meetings followed the day after, fortunately also some where we had quite some fun, and then it was time to head back home late in the evening, stocking up for easily 70 Euro's of chocolate in Duty free thanks to orders from at least 4 different friends and neighbors. So I arrived home literally with a bag full of treasures.