Let me start by saying … I have way too much stuff! Seriously. I made some very tough decisions about what I’ll be taking back to Belgium in my trolley and what will be left behind for Ricky to take when he drives up to Belgium. Then I put the rest of the stuff in a box. In a gigantic box. The box is full. And that’s just my clothes. There’s a seperate box with three pairs of shoes, and a bag of handbags. I still need to sort through my jewellery and toilettries. I almost had a ‘minimalistic’ moment, thinking I should just purge my closet and declutter. Then, thankfully, I came back to my senses. But I think I might need a bigger closet.

I also picked up some gifts yesterday. I still need three more things, I’m gonna pick those up tomorrow. This evening I’m going to Belgo for the last time with Davina. It’s Matt’s birthday tomorrow so we’re gonna have a bbq. It’s supposed to be good weather, but here, you never know.

I’m not sure what to do about Friday. I do want to have drinks with the people I’ve met here, but I don’t know where, and I don’t know who will show up … Davina and Thao are going clubbing in Camden but I don’t think I’ll go along. I wanna be able to do stuff Saturday morning. I kinda need to decide soon though, time is kinda running out. I’ll ask the girls in the office if they know someplace good.

I have stuff to do so I’d better sign off. And I’m feeling that post lunch slump coming on. Coffee time!

I’ve been a bit of a busy bee.

The British Museum was very interesting. I forgot how imposing the building itself is. I managed to take some pics with my cell phone. I saw lots of cool things, including the Rosetta Stone and lots of ancient bling I would so totally wear.

Friday was quite busy for me. I was helping the MICE department with something really boring and then I also had to create a poll on our Facebook page. I totally forgot to do my interview with the director so I’m gonna do it this afternoon. Note to self, DO NOT drink too much wine at goodbye lunch!

Friday evening I had sushi and drinks in Camden with Matt and Ricky. It was the only time (besides Ministry of Sound) that we all did something together. It was fun, and yummy .

Saturday I lounged on the couch and did a bit of work on my paper. Saturday night I went to Matter with Davina, her colleague Vanessa and her friend Amanda. It was interesting. The music was late 90’s early 00’s, the people seemed to come from the same era (flashy hot pants with furry boots, bikini tops, flourescent make-up, …). We did manage to have fun though, being silly and dancing. I danced so much, my legs are still stiff today.

Sunday I had a nice breakfast with Davina and made the treck home. I had to take a tube, wait over half an hour for a bus (in wind and rain), then get on the full and stinky bus. Then figure out what stop to get off at (not the same one as the stop on the way there) and take another bus. Neadless to say I was glad to be home. I watched TV and read a bit, but I was in a bit of a mood. I was really cold but I couldn’t put the heaters on cause the guys weren’t cold. I also had to endure a lot of Ricky’s typical comments. We made dinner (I didn’t really enjoy it, it was quite fatty) and then I went to the room to watch Gladiator on my computer.

This morning, as I was walking to work it hit me that it really was the beginning of the end. I was happy and sad at the same time. I’m glad I’m going to Scotland and eventually home, but I’m also sad my little London adventure is over. I’m gonna miss the city and my colleagues. I’m also kinda excited about finding a job, and of course scared of not finding one.

It’s my goodbye lunch today. We’re going to a wine bar and restaurant in Soho called Champers. It seems quite nice.

I still have quite a lot to do before I leave. Get the last of the souvenirs, pack, … It’s gonna be such a pain to have to choose what to bring again, especially cause i’m not sure when Ricky will be able to bring the rest to Belgium.

Lets start with the barfing… I had dinner with Davina at a Chinese restaurant and then went for a drink afterwards. Every thing was fine. I got home and went to lie in bed straight away, I was feeling really tired. I finished Dr Zhivago and I started to feel worse. My stomach was really upset. To make a long and painful story short … I barfed. I did feel a bit better after that, but I still didn’t sleep all too well. So Iwas really tired this morning.

So now for the bad, the phonecalls just keep on coming, and it wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have even worse work waiting for me when it’s finished.

And for the good … two things actually.
1) The Coast, Ostend and Gay pages are all up and running … Woohoo!
2) I got 18/20 for my internship grade .
Jacky was very positive about me, apparently she really didn’t have anything negative to say, but ofcourse the school insists on saying at least a few negative things so she said i sometimes made mistakes between american and british english and I could be more confident. Jacky also said that she would definately hire me if they had the budget for it and if there ever is a position free I’ll be the first one to call. She also said I was the best intern they ever had. I just love all this stroking of my ego. I’m all smiles. I also had to sit alone with Vlecken for a bit. He just basically told me all the wonderful things Jacky said about me and my grade. He also asked why I made a mock up of the coast pages on Power Point and which CMS system we used to update the website. He then wanted to see my desk … a bit strange but whatever.

I just had a huge platter of sushi to celebrate my fab grade and I am absolutely stuffed. I’m gonna make a coffee in a bit to give me a kick start cause I’m practically falling asleep at my desk. I’m gonna try to finish all the calls today. I’ve finished all the restaurants now. So tomorrow I’ll probably be doing all the menial lil tasks for the MICE department.

After work I’m gonna swing by The British Museum. It’s opened later on Thursday and Fridays. I hope I have enough time to visit it all. I’ll probably get there by 18.00 and it’s open til 20.30. I’ll just eat something afterwards.

Time to get a cracking.

Hahaha! Hadise is on Go Fug Yourself . They did a line up of the horrible fashion during the rehearsal show. Thankfully she’s representing Turkey and not Belgium so our reputation is somewhat saved. I don’t even know who’s representing Belgium. I don’t really care either.

I watched The Hills on my lunch break. The weather is so crappy, it’s just depressing. It’s grey, raining and super windy. And it’s gonna stay like this for the rest of the week and the weekend.

Btw, I just heard that the Jubilee line will be partially running on Sunday so that will make it a bit easier to home from Matter, not much though. I just need to book my ticket now. I didn’t get around to it last night.

After work I’m having dinner with Davina in the Chinese area around Soho. I quite looking forward to it. The windows always look so good.

I’m over half way through my calls (I did 48 of the 67). I can’t do it all in one go cause it’s so dull, so I do calls for about an hour and than I do something else for a bit. When I’m done with the calls I have to go help out MICE. So not looking forward to putting folders in the correct file and updating her database. I really hope the website comes through tomorrow so I can skip out on it.

Speaking of tomorrow, I don’t know if I already mentioned that my school mentor is visiting. It should be interesting as I’m sure my mentors won’t like eachother. Hehe. He’s coming at 11:00.

It’s been quite fun in the office today, lots of chat about random things. For example the Ghent Veggie day that was on BBC News. It’s strange Ghent didn’t feel the need to mention this to us before it was on BBC. But that’s often the problem with the cities, they send us the most random information, but never the important stuff.

Did I mention my goodbye lunch is next week Monday. They didn’t know where we were going yet, but they assured me it would be somewhere ‘nice’ .

Time to get back to work.

I’ve already had 50 posts here. It seems like so many.

Today was rather mundane, more phone calls and restaurant checking. I also helped Camilla bring some boxes to the post office. We got an apple donut afterwards, it was very good . Although it will mean at least another half an hour on the cross trainer in June. I still need to send out some info on Ghent and I should make some more phone calls, but I really don’t feel like. And I do have other stuff to do.

Next week Monday we’re all going out to lunch to “celebrate” my departure and someone’s birthday. I don’t know where yet, but they said it would definately be somewhere nice .

I’m wondering if I should do a goodbye party thingy. Some people have asked if I was doing one. But I wouldn’t really know who to invite. Thao, Ebrahim, Sabrina, Davina, the girls from work. And that would be it. Not much of a party. But I supposed I could do after work drinks or so.

I might go to Matter (a big club at the O2 arena) this Saturday but the Jubilee line (the only line that takes me home) will be completely shut down. Normally I’d just have to get on, stay on for about 45 minutes and I’d be home. But now I’d have to take 4 busses and it would take 2 hours! Insane!!! I could sleep over at Davina’s place, but then I’d still have to get home the morning after. Seriously, there hasn’t been ONE weekend where the Jubilee line ran normally. There’s always been some part to be shut down, now it’s the entire line. So typical. And I’m quite far out so I don’t have many other options to get home, besides busses, but yeah, those take forever.

This will be my LAST weekend in London. Next weekend I’m going up to Northampton on Saturday. I definately have to go to Matter then. OMG. It’s just dawned on me that it really is the end. But there’s still so much I want to do. I have a feeling I’ll be bored in Antwerp. Wow, I need to do some serious planning for next weekend if I want to fit everything in. I could still see some sights on Saturday and next Saturday.

Anyways, I’ve been slacking off long enough, time to get back to work.

So sorry for being lazy and not updating. I’ve had better things to do :p. Picknick’s on the square for lunch being one of them.

So what’s been happening lately. Went to Belgo’s again. Went to Favela Chic a couple more times. It’s always fun. Met a nice Swiss girl named Sabrina the other weekend. She’s quite busy so we don’t hang out that much though. Davina is often working weekends in the evening so I haven’t been partying as much as I would have liked to. We went to Favela Chic last Thursday though. Thao and Ebrahim (two Germans) were also there. The party itself wasn’t all that great. But we ended up having a really good time. The next day was not all too fun though. I was super tired and had a bit of a hang over. I fell asleep at 8 that evening :p.

This weekend I went to Westfield. The largest shopping  mall in Europe. It’s very very nice. They have the main mall area with all the general shops. But then they also have “The Village” with the higher end shops like Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, Gucci, … There’s also a champagne bar and really cool chandeliers. It reminded me a bit of the Stadsfeestzaal, I’m not sure who copied who, but I think Westfield has been around longer. I only got there around 2.30 and before I knew it, it was already 7.00 and time to go home. I could have spent so much longer there though. I think I only saw half of what there was to see. I did get some pretty good stuff though. I got a pair of jeans that fit me perfectly from the petite section at Next, I got a nice white long sweater from Mango (great for balmy summer nights, hopefully we’ll have some), two really cute bracelets from a Spanish store called Blanco and some cute red wedges from the same store. I also spent ages in WH Smith, a book store. There were so many books  I wanted to buy, but there’s no way I can get them all home. Especially now that I know that Ricky will only be driving to Belgium in July!

I booked my ticket home for Sunday 31 May. My flight is at 18:45. Ruben’s gonna bring me to the airport. Sunday 24 May we’re leaving to Scotland, I’m really looking forward to it. I just hope the weather is good. I can’t believe I’m gonna go camping again, after 10 years .

Speaking of things that happened 10 years ago. This Sunday me and Ricky visited Ruben and because it was nice weather we decided to go on a walk to the forest. It turned out to be quite the trek. With bugs, swamps and climbing up hills on our bellies through branches (Ruben said it would be a shortcut, we ended up having to climb/slide back down a bit further up). I felt right back in the Ardennes, the only thing missing was mushrooms. The kids loved it, except for Bo, she was a bit scared. Fabian was quite the little adventurer.

Work is hitting a bit of a low. My main job (the website) is pretty much finished. Everything for the new pages is with the design agency so I have to wait til they’re finished with it to do the last bit. I’m also way ahead with the eNewsletter.  So now I’m stuck doing random jobs. For example, calling up a database (starting with 40 companies) to see if their information is still correct and up to date. Such fun … not! Then I will also be doing some filing, updating another database and some research on chocolate in blister packs (I’ll be receiving further information later). What other fun stuff have I been doing, updating lists of group hotels and restaurants in Flanders. I’ve already done all the hotels and most of the restaurants, just the ones for Mechelen and Ypres are left. So yeah, I’m sure you’ll understand I’m not exactly looking forward to going to work in the morning.
My school mentor is coming this Thursday for my final evaluation. I wonder what he’ll say.

On a brighter note, I finally got started on my paper. I’ve already done one interview, I just need to set a date for the one for my mentor and director. I’ve also done a bit on my tasks. I think the hardest part will be the self-evaluation. I’m not very good at blabbing about myself, at least not in a formal paper.

I basically have 2 more weeks in London and I really need to start planning. The things I definately still have to do: Buckingham Palace & Big Ben, Portobello Market, Burrough Market, British Musuem, and that’s it, I think. Any suggestions? Oh, I still need to get souvenirs. Any requests?

It’s time to get back to work, back to all my lovely phone calls.

Toodles.

As much as I hate the song, that’s exactly how I feel now. It’s such nice weather outside and I’m stuck in an office, writing an article. :’(

It’s so frustrating to know that when office hours are done, there are only so many hours of sun left. And it’s gonna rain tomorrow.

At least I can go out over lunch.

This weekend is looking good. Favela Chic tonight with Davina, Thao and Vanessa (I think). All fun girls. Then tomorrow is some festival for St Georges Day on Trafalgar Square. I hope it doesn’t rain too much. If it does, we can always escape into a pub :p.

Weather like this reminds me of romantic afternoons by the Schelde . Sigh.

The article is starting to get finished. I just have to do it in blocks. My inspiration runs out pretty fast today. I’m counting down the minutes til 12.30.

I have this weird urge to buy shoes. For some reason I’m dreaming of soft dove grey pumps or cute white summer heels. Must be the weather. I was browsing Sacha’s website and I saw quite a few shoes that I’m itching to buy. I really think I’m starting to have a bit of a problem again. If I ever won the lottery, I’d probably shop all my money away.

Bizar news I read today, Fred Durst is getting married. Talk about a blast from the past, I didn’t know he was still relevant. But the ring he gave his wife was quite nice.

Crap, my boss just walked in while I was typing. My heart jumped. I hate being “surprised”. Everyone who walks in can see right on my screen. Not so good when I’m on wordpress, or perez (even worse!).

Okay, spent the last half hour talking about movies. Now just 1 hour and 15 minutes til lunch . My colleague talked about ‘Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day’, it’s with Amy Adams and it seems really nice. Set in the 1920’s and about a governess who ends up taking care of some young silly celebrity. I’ll have to start looking for that one.

The deadline for the article is this evening so I don’t have to feel too rushed. Thank god. Although I do feel a bit bad about being so lazy. But then again, I worked on a Sunday so I deserve some lazy time.

And again, it’s been a while (que the Staind song). I used to be so good with updating this thing. I guess I have been having lunch outside the office quite often lately.

Quite a lot has been going on. I went on a work trip to Ieper and the coast. It was good. Very full on and tiring, but a good experience.

The weekend before I went to a birthday party where I didn’t know anyone, not even the birthday boy. I went with Thao, one of Davina’s colleagues who I had met once in a bar. It turned out to be really fun. Even ended up going to a club with one of the guys afterwards. But don’t go getting any ideas. It was all very platonic. He was fun and all, but I was just not that in to him.

Last night I went to the opening of the Mathew Williamson collection at H&M. The lines were insane so we went for dinner first. We went to the Dutch pub around Picadilly Circus. We stayed a bit too long (and had a bit too much wine), so getting back to the H&M was a bit hectic. We went the wrong way and ended up taking a taxi for 5 minutes. But we did arrive on time to do a bit of shopping and have a glass of champagne. Everything was 25% off. I didn’t get any of the Matthew Williamson stuff, it was all very 90’s club scene. A wee bit too colourful and psychadelic for me. But I did find some nice stuff in the regular collection. A very basic black cardigan, but a good fit and in a nice material. A short sleeved blazer, something I’ve always wanted, but never got. A turquoise top with ruching on the bust, very cute for going out in the summer. A work blouse with purple grapes on it, it sounds disgusting but is actually rather cute. I finished it all off with some turquoise bangles.

It’s nice and sunny outside and I have lots of chores when I get home. So I’m gonna sign off.

Don’t have much time. But I had a great Easter weekend. Slowing getting back into work mode. Things are still tense, but a bit better. Trying to tie up all the loose ends of new Coast and Gay pages and finish all the updates for the website. Also preparing for the workshop to Ypres and the coast. I’m already leaving this Saturday evening! It came up so fast. When I get back I’ll only have one month left.

I’m going for dinner with Davina tonight. Nothing special, just PizzaExpress. Haven’t been there yet and it’s supposed to be very good.

I’m rather busy today so don’t have much time to be lazy.

Last night I went for drinks with Davina at Roadhouse. It was nice, their cocktails are so good. I had Raspberrylicious and LA Walk of Fame . It was happy hour so two cocktails equaled four .

This morning was a bit tense. The press clippings were supposed to be scanned by Friday, but obviously that hadden’t happened so me and Camilla got a not so nice talk from Dawn, and apparently Dawn shouted at Chloe. So Chloe was not in the best of moods. I feel kinda bad cause I was supposed to do it, but when could I have done it. They weren’t in the office all weeks so I had to be around to answer the phones. I could have done them Friday, but I didn’t realise the deadline was so soon, or that it was so important. So yeah, I scanned all the articles in the morning. A photographer came to take the company pictures, and at the end Dawn asked me to come upstairs so I could also be in a picture. That way I’d have a souvenir of them and they’d have one of me. Kinda sweet. For lunch I went to McDonalds with MJ and looked around some shops on Carnaby Street. I found this one really cool shop with cute t-shirts an pj’s and stuff. I’m gonna check out their website later. We didn’t really have enough time for a proper shop.

This afternoon I’m gonna do some more updates to the website. So far already 85% has been changed.

I was gonna go to the cinema with Davina today but I won’t have time cause I need to pack, help Ricky with his school work and burn some CD’s so we have music to listen to on the drive to Belgium. It’s gonna be quite the trip. We’re leaving Neasden at 19.00 and probably arriving in Antwerp at 01.30. I hope Ricky doesn’t mind if I sleep :p.