13 June, 2007 |

04-27 May - Joseth

Friday 04may2007; Finally weekend… although it starts later than scheduled, they’ve asked AnneMiek for some overtime (Christof is going to the Netherlands this weekend) but it turns out overtime till nine o’clock, and that is not nice after a twelve hour work day, a very busy shift, and still not recovered from last weekend. So back to the apartment, eat and straight to bed.

Saturday 05may2007; In the morning slept as long as I could, and did some groceries. In the afternoon packed my backpack with a thermo flask of tea, something to eat, something sweet, and a good book, then walked together with AnneMiek to Otterspool to sit on a bench and enjoyed the river. After tea (dinner) the two of us went to the cinema; to the film; ‘Next’ with Nicolage Cage, I think it was a very surprising movie, with a good plot.

Sunday 06may2007; In the morning finally to the gym, felt good… but I notice that I should go more regular to get the best of it. In the afternoon I walked through the city centre, and ate at ‘Burger King’. And then started at a new adventure…Today it is Sally’s wedding, a colleague from the micro department UK, so I’m going (a little bit nervous) with the car to Bolton. I haven’t driven much in the UK, and I’m not used to the names of all the villages which are mentioned on the signs, but I’m well prepared with a car map and the route description I’ve received from Sally, so there are no problems getting there. Lucky I know myself good enough, so I brought some CD’s, my book, a bottle of water and something sweet with me, because I’m an hour early, but I had a good time. Then I go inside, she looks lovely, and she is shining…it’s beautiful to see. Robert is not there at that time, so I liked it very much when she came to introduce him later on. It is very nice to be at an ‘English’ wedding, most of the things are the same although there are some small differences, and I keep my eyes open. It is nice to see Scott again, and just have time to chat with everybody (although some of the conversations are still going too fast), to see who belongs to who, and the buffet looked and tasted very good. It was a very successful evening…The way back home also went fine, with a thank you to Alice and Lisa from chemistry, it is nice when you can follow someone in the middle of the night when you are not familiar with the way to go.

Monday 07may2007; Today to the gym again, and very fanatic, this results in a very lazy mood for the rest of the day, a little bit at the computer, a little bit reading, and the day has passed…

Tuesday 08may2007; To work for ‘overtime’ I’ve been scheduled for some days to do ‘EMSS review’ this is review of raw data, and compare results which are put in the special environmental monitoring software, but at normal workdays there is almost no time to do it, today it worked fine, it is just when you can spend time on it without getting disturbed every time.

Sunday 13may2007; Mothers day, it is strange to be away from home…Last week I sent an E-card, today a text message, but it is not the same… Today I woke up late, did groceries with Christof and afterwards on the couch with a book. AnneMiek and Menno (who is here this weekend) are going out for a meal to celebrate their first wedding anniversary, and when Christof also mentioned he was going out for a meal, I decide to do the same. I end at the Italian restaurant which we’ve passed a several times. I enjoy my pizza, the red wine, and the people which pass running through the rain… Afterwards I’m going to the cinema, this time a movie with Anthony Hopkins; Fracture. This is really my kind of movie, not much action, but a very thoughtful murder, which is very predictable, but hard to prove. Only some parts were familiar to me, if I had seen them before…maybe in a trailer, or they used parts of other movies, I don’t know. It was a at least a succesful evening.

The rest of my weekend 14, 15 and 16may2007; I’m not in the mood to do a lot of things. I’m glad I have the gym, so I can get rid of some energy. I did not do much more than working at the computer; Translation for the blog of my weekend home, preparing my evaluation of the project which I have the 22nd, preparing some e-mails, playing Solitair, and thinking what is going on at home; Tim’s birthday, hospital visit, weekend away…  It is strange to say, I’m not looking forward to the next shift…all the business, but it will give me some distraction.

The shift wasn’t that bad; Jo came back from holiday, she didn’t take all days off, but also swapped some days, which means we have an extra person for two days, this makes so much difference… I like it to get everything sorted.

Monday 21may2007; Christof and AnneMiek are at work today for overtime, so I have the day for myself… I start the day at the computer again, to finish my evaluation, and I’m lucky our illegal internet is working again; I love it to mail and have the time for it…This means it a little later than planned, before I go to the city centre for present hunting… there is not much time left, and it’s difficult to find suitable presents for everyone. When I’m at the apartment again, AnneMiek and Christof are already there, and have done the groceries, nice… After tea, made my sandwiches for the next day, and had a little chat with Christof about where I could find some presents I want to look for. To bed on time, tomorrow it is my turn to do overtime…

Tuesday 22may2007; Today I’m nervous… Today I perform an assay at chemistry to see if we can find some difference between the UK and Nijmegen. So I have to do work which I didn’t do for four month’s, in an unknown lab, and with different apparatus than I’m used to. And Jan Bohle (QC manager Nijmegen) is coming over today, to evaluate the project so far. It took a while before I found everything and ran the sequence. At the end of the day it seems I’ve rushed too much, when I look at the retention time from the calibration table instead of the actual retention time, but the actual retention time is 6 min. later, so out of specification. The test needs to be repeated…Lucky enough my evaluation goes very well, first with Jan to see what I want to say, and afterwards with James Wong (QC manager UK) and Steve Griffiths (Micro supervisor UK). We are all aware that maybe there were more possibilities, but it had benefits for everyone, (so nervous for nothing, although we didn’t go very deeply in to it). In the evening we went out for a meal at ‘Alma de Cuba’ with Jan, James, and David Foulkes (QC UK), it was a really nice evening… a lovely meal, and great fun…

Wednesday 23may2007; Today I didn’t do much, after breakfast I did my laundry and I want to find out some things at the internet, like the flight for my parents and their friends, but our illegal network is not availible. So instead I worked on this story, and of course some games of solitair. After lunch (dinner) to the city centre, first to Albert Dock where I did find the presents in the right size which I had in mind for Bas and Tim. Today is the final AC Milan – Liverpool… it looks ‘red’, of all the people, Christof and AnneMiek are going to watch in the city centre tonight, but I’ve decided to stay at home… on Thursday to work for overtime, and Friday my normal shift starts again. I’m going to the library for the internet, and because it is not busy (Strange isn’t it, everybody is drunk in a bar) I can add another hour. Afterwards I stopped at Tesco to get something easy to eat, and in the apartment I eat and watch the game, it is not really excitend… But I would have liked it when they had won, but they don’t

Thursday 24may2007; Today back to work to repeat the assay from Tuesday, it goes much easier and better than Tuesday… when the system suitability is running (this takes more than four hours) I prepare the rest and go to micro to do some EMSS review. At the end of the day the baseline is not very stable, but it meets all specifications, so I prepare all my samples, start the sequence and hope everything goes well…

Friday 25may2007; Today my normal shift starts again, although it feels I didn’t have a weekend…First do my daily work, so I can see if the assay passed, but it is already midday before I’ve time, there is less support from chemistry, Lisa has a day off and Alice is on her way home (people in normal dayshifts in the UK don’t have to work on Friday afternoon). So I fill everything as well as I can, scan some results to Nijmegen, and hope they can explain the purpose to me on Tuesday. Back to my normal activities.

Saturday 26may2007; Today is a good day, only Marie, Kay and I are in, although it is still very busy, and not everything goes very smoothly, because it seems everything we need is run out, so lot of things need to be sorted out… but it is much more relaxed at the weekend when there are just a few people. In the evening after tea (dinner) I cleaned the apartment, took a shower, and then watched telly… on BBC2 there is a rock program tonight with special attention for Pink Floyd, it is really good to see how they made their music, who inspired them, and performences from that time (also David Bowie and Roxie Music)… I’m glad they told me about this at work (the week before it was Jimmy Hendriks, should also be very good).

Sunday 27may2007; It is very early, I finish this story quickly, so at least there is finally a story on the blog… two and a half day to go, before I’ve weekend…Tuesday the three temporaries have an interview at Novartis, a similar company, so I make a few extra overtime hours, I really need to catch up some rest, I feel like a wet cloth…

For everyone a nice pentacost weekend, and speak to you soon (Note: the countingdown is started…)

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