Grindstone

Staying late at work to get a project done is sometimes the greatest reward. Granted, me and the two guys I have working with me have been staying late every night this week (wouldn't have been able to get close to what we've achieved without them...!). But I don't mind, it's through the coming together of the project that makes it all worthwhile... My boss is happy with the outcome thus far as well. The whole project seems to have taken on an energy of its own, stimulating all involved. I love that kind of effect.

Starting off the Week

Yippie! I got the apartment with Andrea! I'm getting excited to move. I've packed some of the bathroom stuff and the drawers of misc papers and stuff already. Now I plan to eat as much food as I can so I don't have to carry as much over and pack my large suitcases full of clothes. I know it's still a couple weeks away, but this kind of change is good.

There are a slew of graduates who are taking a tour of the bank, and two of them started in the department I'm in and will be there for a short while. I get to delegate tasks to them in Brian's absence and this is exciting. They seem eager to learn and help and come up with ideas, which is really nice to work with people of that mentality. So, it should be a good time over the next few weeks.

Now, I'm off to watch Friends and then to Table Tennis!

Keinohrhasen

This weekend has been a great one...!

On Friday, I went to look at another apartment, and it was quite nice. It's located in the same general area, just 5 minutes from where I'm at now. The guy who's renting the other room, Andrea, seems really nice. He and I chatted for a half an hour before I left, which was nice (another place I viewed on Thursday, the girl was a chatterbox, and I couldn't get a word in edge wise! So a two-way conversation was quite a pleasant change! ;-)

Later that night, I met with my friends for Anthony's birthday party -- he invited just a handful of people, which was nice, nothing crazy and wild, actually quite a good time and relaxing. Anthony and his girlfriend Sophie just moved into a new apartment, so I got to see their new place, and we all just sat around eating pizza and chatting. It was really great. I lost track of the time, and before I knew it, it was 3 am, so I figured I should head home and get to sleep...! Funny thing was, I wasn't even tired!

The next day, Andrea, send me a message asking if I wanted to come with him and his friends for a coffee. It sounded nice, so I agreed to go. We all had a really nice time (had a coffee in Cafe en Seine, which is a really cool bar, and we talked for around 4 hours). Then we decided to buy some food in the supermarket and cook a meal together (it's so much easier to cook with 4 people helping out!!). We'll see if he picks me to move in, I think we'd have a good relationship, as in not awkward and I'd feel comfortable living there (unlike now where I feel confined to my bedroom all the time). And it's just 5 minutes up the road from where I am now, so it'd be a perfect location still. Time will tell -- if nothing else, Saturday was a really fun day with him and his friends.

Today, I woke up really early (4:30 am) for some reason (my internal clock must be all messed up at this stage...!), and watched a great movie. It's a German movie called Keinohrhasen (Rabbit without Ears) -- 2007. I really enjoyed it, I laughed and cried and smiled. It was about a guy who instead of going to jail for crashing a wedding (by mistake - the glass roof broke and he fell on the cake while he was trying to take pictures from above...), he was given 300 hours of community service -- helping at a daycare. The kids absolutely adored him, and he looked like a great guy. However, he used to make fun of the girl running the daycare when they were kids, so she was determined to make his life miserable...! But when she starts to kind of like Ludo, things change. It's just a really good, feel-good movie. Go rent it if you can! :-)