Getting organized

it has taken me a while, but I guess I am finally pretty organised. It took me about three weeks to clean my living room. The biggest job was organising my desk. [people who don't know me, and are tidy and come into my room for the first time,will probably think it is still a great mess] but I am very happy. Now there is only my bedroom and the guestroom to go. With this heat I am going to wait on that a little bit. Although they promise it will get better at the end of this week.

it means having my desk cleared, that I have my homework assignments in separate folders, and I can see what I am doing again. I have made a schedule on the computer. I will be doing reading homework six days a week in the mornings. Three afternoons and will continue cleaning, and work on various writing assignments the other three afternoons and seriously going to look for a practice job. I have to do several hours of that the school. And it is a good way for me to network, and to find out again if I am ready to work.. My plan is to start with just a few hours a week in volunteer work. If you do volunteer work the pressure if I cannot keep up physically is less. I'm going to start with making a list of things that interest me, and searching what organisations there are around my home town that offer the things I like. And then I'm going to start writing letters to them. Hopefully I will find something by the fall.

I am still getting used to my diet. The strange thing is, I am not eating less, just differently and at different times. Basically almost no more sugar. The result is strangely enough, that I am hungry the whole day. Especially in the evenings. And lately I have started to dream about food too. And I was never somebody who cared about food very much. Hopefully I can negotiated a little bit miss my dietician when I see her again in two weeks time. That sounds like eternity right now.

But mostly life is going well. I'm filling my weekends doing things with friends. The headaches are under control, and the RSI pain is manageable.

Germany

I am back from Germany. Had a great time. [I will be posting photo's soon, if you want to see let me know]

South Germany is very hot this time of year. We had to take on a slower tempo because of the heat. And even Adalbert was affected by the heat.

from the start I was very pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere in the house I was staying. I am not religious myself, and here I was staying in a house with two Catholic priests Adalbert is a very old penfriend of mine from Rwanda. We have been friends for over 15 years and have met once before when he visited in the Netherlands nine years ago. Now he is studying for his doctorate in theology in Germany and will be there for six years. So one year I will go to visit him, and the other he will come to visit me. both Adal and Heinz the priest he is staying with where very kind and open. And I did not feel I was staying with priests at all. I felt very welcome.

What was also nice was meeting two of his friends from South Korea. For the first year he is doing a language course to learn German. And of course there are people from all over the world there. And I am always interested in meeting you are people and learning more about other cultures. Almost the first thing we mentioned was Guus Hiddink, the Dutch football trainer who made such as success with the South Korean team at the World Cup four years ago. That broke the ice immediately.

we visited a lot of nice places, and stayed close to Freiburg, there was enough to see there. Next time
we will go farther, and hopefully it will not be so warm.

I also went to church on Sunday, something I have never done. I think it was my first Catholic church service, very interesting to watch the rituals. And I have changed my views on the Catholic religion. It is much more open-minded than I thought it was.

quicky

Quickie
Current mood: excited

Just to let everybody know that I am going on a trip again. From saturday untill thursday I will be in Germany, in Freiburg. Visiting an old Rwandan penfriend who is now studying in Germany. I have met him only once years ago, so it is pretty scary, but exhiting as well. Lot's of nice things on the agenda, we both love visiting old churches, monestaries and abbeys. And we might go to Zwitserland and France as well. It is close to both borders.

And of course I need to take Orange stuff for the football!!!

Tomorrow is my birthday, not a disaster year. That will be next year :)
But I don't think I will notice it much tomorrow, I will hold my party on the 9th of July. That will be more like it.

week update

Hello there,

Me again. Busy, busy week. Very busy with homework. I finished the first draft of my treatmentplan for the exam of casemanagement july 3rd. Hopefully it is what they have in mind. Instructions are lousy as usual.
And I started reading the books for the coaching course that starts in September.

Wednesday I tried to drive again. It had been months and it went well!!! Drove for an hour. My arm was very painfull when I got out of the car and I could not do much for the rest of the day and thurday but friday I was almost back to normal. Very quick recovery for me!!!! Yeah!!!!!

Friday the much awaited neurology appointment for my headaches. A biiiiigggggg let down. The examined me for two hours, prodding, poking, questions etc. Couldn't find anything alarming wrogn, which was good. But the solution was..... more fysiotherapy. I could have come up with that myself and I am not hopefull. But I will keep an open mind and will try it. The fysiotherapist who is helping me with my jaw problem is going to help me with this. I will discuss thing with him on friday. I was also surprised they did not adress my intake of paracetamol. I have been honest with them and they didn't say I had to stop or take less. Something I had expected.

Today saturday. Jaco came by for a cup of tea. I discussed my driving and he took me to an abandoned parkinglot to practice parking and backwards driving. [yes I am female] He has an automatic which takes a bit of getting used to but it isn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Things went okay, not too much pain and no prizes for beauty but I managed it. Then he talked me into trying the motorway. Which I haven't dared doing since before the RSI. I tried but on the on ramp I completely panicked. I couldn't see what I was doing so we stopped on the hard shoulder were I had a fit of hysterics and hyperventilating. Luckily he stayed very calm. So I know for sure that i need a couple of driving lessons to manage that again. Because I want to be more mobile again.

Football is here. Tomorrow is the first match for the Netherlands. I foresee a dissapointment. I don't think they are going to get far. Then the country can return to normal. Now everything you buy is orange [national colours] and all you see on the telly is football. I will be at a birthday party when the first game will be played. We will have the telly on though. Some are huge football fans.

It is finally hot here!!! Summer!!! Hope it stays this way for my trip to Germany which starts in 2 weeks time. [hopefully the dutch team will be home by then. Because I am going were they have their training camp LOL]

the last week

the past week was not bad, not bad at all. I have my new glasses now, and it still takes some getting used to. It is a big difference for my eyes going from - to +. But slowly I am starting to learn to live with it. And I really think it is making a difference with my eyes. Fingers crossed, and really want to get there is under control before the summer and start my training hours for school in a job after the summer when my new coaching classes begin. I am working on it very hard, beginning of June I have an appointment with a neurologist. And next week an appointment with a physiotherapist who specialises in jaws. The results wrong with my jaw muscles and that might also be part of the reason for my headaches and RSI.

Wednesday went to the wedding of good friends of mine. It was a long day with a lot of travelling involved, and I did feel a headache coming up during lunch that was able to suppress it for most of the day. Henceforward I had a great time, and it is good to see people who fits so well together having a great day and be so happy.

right now I have to be working on some papers for school. I don't like any of the subjects, so I keep putting it off.

Pictures, if you want to see photos I have taken during the wedding or those I took during my April holiday sent me an e-mail. And I will send you an invitation to view them at my wanadoo photo book

Holiday blog

Holiday England 2006

Thursday 20th April
Pieter picked me up around mine this morning, right on-time, a good start. We made good time to picking up Koen near Brussels, and we arrived in Calais with an hour to spare. The sea was very quiet and the crossing only an hour and a half, which went okay for me for a change. It is challenging to have to drive on the left and over, a lot of roundabouts, it was the first time for Pieter. We all helped watching traffic and he got used to it quickly. We had a very smooth journey until we hit the M1 driving to Northampton. There were traffic jams due to roadworks there. So it was only around nine o'clock when we reached the bed and breakfast. All three of us were very tired, so we decided to see Anders and Mel the next morning.

Friday 21st of April
Slept well, we had to get a very early for breakfast. Then around 10 went to Mel. It is nice to see where somebody lives, and to meet all the cats. And of course finally meeting Anders. We did some shopping before setting out to the cottage at Knightcote, which was another hour's drive. We were on a time limit as we had tickets to the theatre that evening. Antony and Cleopatra at the Royal Shakespeare Company. As always it was a very good production, with Patrick Stewart playing Antony. Everybody enjoyed it although the seats were not ideal for a show that lasted three hours.

Saturday 22nd April
The tiredness of the journey finally hit me and I woke up with a headache and not feeling well at all. Stayed in bed in the cottage most of the day. Thankfully felt a little better when Robert came over late in the afternoon. He could only stay for the afternoon and even that fell through because his grandmother was not feeling well. But at least I got to give him some stuff I had copied for him. Went to bed early.

Sunday 23rd April
Went back to Stratford. A special place to be there, Shakespeare's birthday. Although we did the touristy things and not the celebrations. Started with Nash's place a house from Shakespeare's time. After that the Birthplace. I have never seen it so crowded there. After that we did some shopping, hitting the book and dvd shops for the first time, grin. We drove out of town and visited Anne Hatheway's cottage. Were Shakespeare's wife grew up. Very nice at well. By this time I had a killer headache as well so as soon as we got home I went to bed again. Feeling a bit desperate by now.Pieter joined me later and I had someone to talk to and that made me feel better. It turned out to be something to cherish. We got to know each other better and it helped me over my low point.

Monday 24rd April
Still felt shaky this morning so decided to stay home. The boys went to Warwick I have been there twice and love the castle but I know it is very tiring. Mel was sweet enough to stay with me. In the afternoon I felt better and we went shopping in Banbury having a very nice girly day.

Tuesday 25th April
Better today. We started out for Blenheim palace and did the tour there. Afterwards had a very nice picknick at the lake. Then went to a falconry center in the Cotswolds. That was very impressive. They had bird shows we stayed there until it closed at 5.30.

Wednesday 26th April
we did not make a very early start this morning. The destination was Bosworth battlefield. A very special place for me. One of my big lobbies is history, and one of my favourite subjects is Richard the third. Usually I try to go to some place associating with him when I am on holiday in Britain. This time it was the battlefield where he was killed. They had a very good display there and you could walk the battlefield. After some difficulties we managed to find the spot. It was very moving to stand there. And also moving to see that despite the bad reputation he still has the most people, he is the only king were people always leave tokens. Mostly white roses, it was the same here at two places. Very moving, very beautiful. We took our time at the battlefield and the shop.... sigh, and were just too late to do another castle. Mel went home this evening to look after the cats.

Thursday 27th April
today would be a quiet day, no sightseeing, just playing games because tomorrow would be a tiring day again, getting up early and moving to London. We did some role-play, and then went shopping in Banbury, and in the evening another game.

Friday 28th April
getting up early, cleaning the house getting everything ready as saying goodbye to the two wonderful dogs Rosie and Peggy. I will really miss them, we played with them a lot throwing balls. The journey to London was not that bad, luckily we found the hotel easily. And we have the whole afternoon left to go shopping! We just visited five or six shops, yet all of us managed to part with a lot of money.

Saturday 29th April
the last day. Mel stayed in the hotel, I went to see the HMS Belfast with the boys. I had my bag back with me, which was not a good idea, because I got stuck on almost every ladder in the ship. We all did it at our own pace which was very nice. In the evening we met Katherine and Anne for dinner at Bond Street. We ate at a steakhouse and had a great time. Unfortunately we wanted to have the good rest before the early start the next morning, so we could not go out with them afterwards.

Sunday 30th April
Traveling again.Mel and Anders left even before us going to Manchester so we said goodbye in the early morning. We were very glad it was sunday as we went through London but at this hour and day it was not a problem. We had very smooth traveling and sailing all around. Home with mixed feelings. Missing Britain and my friends but good to be home again as well.


Photo's are at:
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/miekehaveman/album?.dir=/1f6ascd
Not sure if I have it open to everyone right now. If you have trouble let me know. Or make a yahoo360 page and I will add you to my friends :) Also if you want me to publish more pics let me know!

on holiday fromThursday April 20th untill Sunday April 30th

just a short notice to let everybody know that I will be on holiday starting Thursday morning and lasting until Sunday the 30th.

I will be spending time with international friends at a cottage in Great Britain. Meeting old and new friends. I will tell you are all about it when I return and of course, share pictures.

Until then.

Mieke