Fables and Reflections

Happy Birthday esteliel 

Have a wonderful day and another year filled with lots of smutty little elves !

I've managed to lock my own cellphone and now I cannot unlock it.  I've just sent an e-mail to my provider. 
Yes, go ahead, laugh all you want.  It is kinda funny in a way.  (well at least it still is at the moment)

*head-desk-head-desk (repeat endlessly)*
Argh!  Damn! How could I have been so stupid and forgetful.  I've had the opportunity to download 10 songs or an entire album legally and for free every two months this year, courtesy of my internet provider.  But off course I kept forgetting about it until I recently mentioned it to my niece. 
So, 1 week ago I finally started downloading some random songs, ended up with a saldo of 10 credits.  (I need 99 credits per song or 999 credits for a whole album).  And after downloading those songs, I discovered an album I would so love to have (I own it's vinyl counterpart).  Well, I thought no big deal, I'll just wait for my credits to get back to 1000.  So this morning I have a look at the site; nope - no change in the amount of credits; still only 10 credits.  And then I see that this promotion only lasts until the end of this year. 
Argh ! Argh!
*hopes maybe her provider will extend the promotion with another year - crosses fingers*

Ai and my brain must look like swiss cheese (with lots of holes) at the moment. I was planning to go to town this afternoon, since I needed some photos to be printed. So off I am to the tram and once there I get on. I start checking my bag to see if I have everything I need. Guess what's missing... the film off course. Grrr! Well I got off the tram and went home. I'll get into town tomorrow, instead.

Look who attended the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent last friday.

( Read more... )

Yesterday night was the premiere of the "last" Star Wars movie : Star Wars, Episode III : Revenge of the Sith.  The midnightscreening was a huge success: apparently more than 17.000 people attended the movie.  That's more people attending one screening than there are attending 4 screenings during a whole day for a 'regular big american production'   Earnings for one midnightscreening of Star Wars : about 112.000 Euro gross.  Compared to that Kingdom of Heaven 'only' made a mere 100.000 Euro in a whole day.   Not bad either, I would say.  Well I still have to go and see the movie.  'Kingdom of Heaven' that is.  And since I am not that big of a Star Wars fan I will probably just wait for the movie to get out on dvd and rent it at that moment.   A thought just crossed my mind : When the last LOTR-movie Return of The King came out in the movietheatres, they held a Marathon-session, showing all three movies one after the other.  And now I'm wondering whether they might do that for the Star Wars movies as well : all three or even all six movies.  Guess that would really make the die-hard fans go crazy. 

Last weekend I bought the first season of 'Charmed' on dvd.  I really love that show and was recently wondering when it would be out on dvd.  I did stumble onto it quite by accident.  I hadn't attended that particular shop since ages, actually I hadn't been shopping in town for ages either.  Before, I used to go window-shopping in town each and every weekend. 

On another note, I am going to Sweden with my niece, this summer (about 10 days) for the holidays.  Anybody having any recommendations as to (relatively cheap) accomodations, sightseeings, catering, ...  I went to Stockholm a few years ago with a group and stayed there for about 3 days, but we would like to go traveling about Sweden or at least a part of it.

Well I intended to write this entry yesterday evening since it all happened yesterday, but I was too tired. (still am now by the way)

So yesterday-morning I'm dragging myself off to work and when I arrive at the bus/tram-stop, the tram departs right in front of my eyes, but no worries since there's a bus and I jump on that one.  I take a seat and the ride goes ever so smoothly.  Suddenly the busdriver stops.  Huh?!  Why does he stop here? There's no busstop here and the traffic light is several metres ahead of us.   Come on! Come on! Get moving please, I am already running late for work as it is.  Finally the bus starts moving and then I realise what's been holding us up.  A barrier, a f***ing barrier, put up there to prevent the cardrivers from using the bus-lane.  See at the moment they have started the second phase of the rebuilding of the Ring, which means traffic-jams everywhere.  Public transportation has its own lanes so they can get around smoothly everywhere without too much hassle.   But the cardrivers get stuck in those trafficjams and off course some of them are too impatient and try to use the bus-lanes.  When that happens a barrier goes down.  Okay I can understand the reasoning, but surely not when people need to get to the office in time.   Anyway I did make it on time, it was around 8.57 and I have to be there before 9.00. 

The rest of the day went well and then I suddenly had the bright idea, to tackle a little project.  I'll quickly do this one and get it over with, I told myself.  Yeah right!  Oh the input in the computer didn't take that long, I used some copy and paste, but then the lay-out.  Jeezes?!  I have tried several times untill I finally got it right.  It was around 1930 when I left the office.  

Walking the distance from the office to the busstation, I get on the bus as it drives away.  Some moments later we turn around the corner to a busstop and there's a car parked right on the buslane.  The driver gets out and walks inside the building.  Meanwhile some chinese lady wants to get off the bus but the busdriver keeps the doors shut.  she goes to the front hoping to get off there, then he opens the back-doors.  She gets off the bus and we're all stuck in the bus since the driver makes no move to depart.  A few moments later the cardriver gets out of the building and as he walks over to his car, the busdriver starts the bus and drives along the car, ripping of the leftside mirror and nearly crushing the guy's toes.   He looks at the damage, comes up to the bus and says to the busdriver: "You're gonna pay for this"
"Nope" said the busdriver "You are going to pay".  So they both start to make calls, to whomever it is and there's a police-station just around the corner.   So I'm sitting there waiting and turning backwards now and then to see if another bus passes by which can take me home as well.  Yes! there it is and I run off the bus together with two other girls, wave at the driver who is nice enough to stop a few metres ahead.  I jump on the bus  and thank her.  The rest of the ride goes smoothly, I go to the library and return the cd's I rented and go to the local burgerrestaurant for a burger and some fries. 

Then I finally head home.  I open my letterbox and find the usual trash  (publicity and so) and an envelope from the company I work at.  I know it cannot be my resignation, as it is not registered mail, but still I am a little apprehensive.  We've had some new rules at work, like a dress-code and other stuff.  So maybe it's to tell me my clothing doesn't fit company standards?  Arriving upstairs, I open the door of my apartment, release my cat from the room she spents her day in, throw my bag on the couch and open the envelope. 

What?! Yahoo!!,Am I reading this right?  I'm getting a payraise without having to ask or grubble in the mud for it?  Yeah! oh and a bonus as well.  This makes my day off course especially since I did not expect to get a raise at all.  And here I was thinking all those extra hours went unaccounted for.  Seems management does notice and appreciate after all even if they don't always show it.   This is the first actual payraise I ever got in my life.  I still cannot believe it, but I have it on paper.  YES!! YES!! YES!!

I went to the hairdresser this morning for a haircut and to have my hair dyed for the first time in my life as well. They cut some 20 cm off my hair, which is a whole change. But then it was really getting too long. - Hum, I am typing this with my cat sitting on my lap. - Anyway since it was the first time, I had my hair dyed, I didn't know they dyed it first, then washed your hair and afterward cut it. I can understand the reasoning as in if they wash it and cut it first, then dye it, they would probably have to wash it again to fix the dye, but still it seems a little strange to me to dye parts of my hair that will be cut off afterward anyway. Well I went in at 8.30 am and got out at 12.00 - three hours and a half! it took me three hours and a half to get my hair done. But then it took the girl, who did my hair, 45 minutes just to apply the dye to my hair and then I had to wait another 40 minutes for it to settle. The girl, who did my hair came from Russia. She commented on my speaking dutch really well, so I told her I lived here for 34 years already and told her she spoke quite well too, especially since she was only living here for 5 years. She said she thought dutch to be a difficult language. Well I wouldn't know, since I am used to speaking it, but I suppose it must be.

Anyway I am really tired (got up at 6.00 am this morning) so I think I'll be going to sleep. tomorrow I am going to the fitness, since I didn't go last week.

Today I went to the snow- and ice-sculpture-exhibition in my hometown with my parents. The central theme was Rubens (the painter) and there were some really nice sculptures to be seen. Those depicting animals and buildings or objects were slightly better than the ones depicting people. Also the icesculptures seemed to keep longer than the snow-sculptures. It was - 5 degrees celsius in there, but I'm guessing with all those people visiting breathing hot air, it probably affects the sculptures.

Near the exit there's a snow-sculpture depicting two naked men together (no slashy scene though seeing that there are children visiting the exhibition) and my mother looks at one of them and tells me it is good the exhibition is only going for one more week because by the end of the week his "family jewels" will probably have melted off. *lol*

I went to the store today where I bought my ROTK DVD to exchange it. After clearing a little misunderstanding at the reception desk,the woman behind the counter thought I had only brought the disc with me, she gave me a voucher and told me to go see one of dvd-salespersons. The guy at the dvd-booth was really nice, he immediately took out a new dvd, opened it and we both checked each one of the discs to be sure everything was alright. I have checked and rechecked them at home and couldn't find any scratches on them.