Owners' association and coding guidlines

Today was a busy “other” work day. First starting in my new role as backup webmaster. But since I still need to learn a few things about the different webmaster tasks it was a training morning for me. After that I came across some code again from the only one who claims to be senior developer that I took one of my old, or more forgotten, roles within the company more serious again. A group of developers used to be responsible for the code quality on our site. But it feels like fighting a losing battle. We have a coding standards guide which gives rules on how to do hour coding. Apparently a long forgotten document so today I and a colleague picked that document and are currently making it up to date again and add a lot more to it. As off next week we will try to have a short presentation in hour group meetings explaining parts of the document, to make it more alive again. We will try and make it fun as well, although it’s hard to find a good way to do just that.

Anyway, he liked the idea so much that we are really making another effort for it and his energy helped me feeling passionate again about my work and our product. I can’t come up with any good example to explain to you in “normal” words how important it can be for our work.

Tonight we have got the meeting with the owners' association. One meeting I’m not really looking forward to since some people want to make changes to their kitchen door and try to let me have the same done. It’s all about replacing one window for double glass and with a grid. I’ve got three issues with that.
- The wood work is of a poor quality and needs replacing as well.
- Why only one window and not all the windows double glass.
- Who is cleaning the grid in the window? Those things are not really fun to clean!
Yesterday the chairman came to my door again and asked me again why I do not want that window replaced and then told me I had no choice since if the association is going through I will have to follow. That remark is not true at all and pissed me of (to say the least). But just trying to make roux for a sauce I had no time to go into a discussion, and by all means I didn’t wanted to anyway.
Preparing for tonight’s meeting I went through the notes of the last meeting, and there it was. There would be an inventory held who needed new windows, nothing more, nothing less. So his actions where very aggressive towards me. And I do remember him asking me just after last year’s meeting where I told him that just a window is not enough for me and a waste of money.

Tulips, Tulips and more people………….

Earlier this week I met this guy online and ended up having a real nice chat. A bit about live but we ended up chatting about our hobbies. Mine might be obvious, photography and he likes to paint. So I ended up showing him some of my work which he loved. He could even see the deeper meaning in some of the photo’s which I found great. So we decided to share our ideas and maybe do some work together in the future. But since I’m rather booked the next coming weekends with other activities I decided it might as well be a good idea to ask him over on Friday evening to do a “get to know each other” photo shoot. From the time he walked in we were both extremely relaxed. Chat a lot and we took some photos. It’s a really nice guy with a creative and sensitive mind, so we are surly going to do more shoots.

On Saturday morning I woke up rather early, but not feeling too great. But I had to go and meet my English friends in Zandvoort who were over to take moms to the Keukenhof. They bought me a ticket as well so I had to join. I was taken there by other friends and after a coffee we split up and I went to see the Tulips. It was the day of the “bloemen corso” which is a big parade with flowers held every year. So it was extreme busy in the Keukenhof and I ended up more looking at all the different people. Taking pictures of the flowers was very hard to do, since there where German’s and Chinese everywhere. 20 Minutes before the parade would pass, we tried to find a spot along the route. Bad luck since most places where taken already. And moms not being that tall could hardly see any. The only problem we had where the dogs. In order to get them back to the UK they need to see a vet 24 till 48 hours before departure. So I made an appointment at 5pm some 20 minutes from the Keukenhof. In order to get there on time, fighting our way back to the car, we had to leave on time and ended up waiting for the parade for nothing. It was late and after waiting for 50 minutes we really had to leave.

Once at the vet, which was the weirdest woman ever who did not stopped talking, I got a ring from my friends who took me there. If we would like to have dinner at the beach? So they were coming over again and we arrived at exactly the same time. Had a few drinks before taking off to the beach. We found this really good restaurant and after watching the sunset we had a very good meal. Once home I was exhausted and went straight to bed. There was no need to sit in the living room anyway, since the studio was still there.

I just restored my living room to its original state, and am waiting for a friend from Sneek who is coming over. We have to deliver some materials but other than that nothing planned for the day. But it’s lovely weather so we will see what the day will bring. All by all, another great weekend! I might get the hang of it.

Weekend

My weekend was great. It does not happen too often, but last week I was really looking forward to this weekend.


Friday after work I went to the pub as normal. It’s more like a ritual at the moment to meet up with two friends on Friday after work. Normally they are there around 6pm, but when they still not showed up around 7pm I started calling. My mate did not wanted to come, which is his good right, but never the less I missed him. I can be around him 24/7. My other friend just left work but was on his way, so I stayed and waited for him. After a few drinks and going out for diner we went home.

Saturday I went to Amsterdam with a friend from Sneek. He wanted to have a look for some gothic fabric for a coach he is repairing. Good moment for me to have a look for some fabric I wanted for a new table runner, and I wanted a new tracksuit. I ended up with very cheap but nice boat-shoes while my friend couldn’t find anything of his likings. But with the sun shining it was a lovely day anyway. After shopping we went to Dobben for some food and did our normal pub round back to the train. Whenever we take the train though, there is something wrong. So nothing different on our way back. No train to my place from Amsterdam Centraal. We had to take the subway to Duivendrecht and the train to Amserfoort from there. Alright, some food again first and then we walked to the subway which ended up to be extreme busy. But we ended up having a nice chat with the people opposite us. Finally we ended up at my place, some time later than planned. He took a cup of coffee and went home with one of my chairs. It was broken and he is repairing and giving it a new fabric. It’s my birthday present, the other three he will have to do very soon. After he left around 10pm there was nothing on the TV, so I went for a drink to the pub. It’s was quit there, but there were a few friends so it was alright. Went home on time, since I had plans for Sunday as well.

On Sunday I went back to Amsterdam again for a party in a club. I wanted to go there for some time now, but never had the nerves or energy to go there. I told a neighbor about it and he got curious and wanted to come along. Saturday afternoon he send me a text that he didn’t wanted to go. I decided to go anyway and got over my nerves of being alone. I ended up to be a very nice afternoon and I got back home at 8:30pm. Something to do again. I wrote the whole experience on paper, but that is too much to share.

Today was a lovely day again. I solved a lot of issues and felt super. The sun was shining and it was warm outside. One thing that did me very good last year was coming home and sit in the sun on the balcony just to rest for an hour or so. Now it’s a bit early in the season and I’ve got the sun on my balcony from 3pm till 4:30, so I asked if I could leave early and make up for the time later this week. And that is what I did. Went home, changed and sat down on the balcony to write yesterday’s story, which all by all took me the 1 ½ hour in the sun. Just finished writing when the sun went behind a tree when I got the long waited message from England. They booked a holiday for us three.



YEAH, I’m going to the sun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What goes up...

What goes up must come down. And there I was hanging 11 meters high in the sky.

A friend of mine who owns a sailing boat tried to change one of the lines in the mast, but that did not go the way they wanted it to go. It got stuck, and there for either the mast had to come down, or somebody had to go up. Since the latter option is cheaper and easier somebody had to go up and try to fix the problem. And since I am the slimmest of the group, it was me who had to go up.

I thought I would be nervous and the bus trip to the harbor did not do me any good as well. But once there I was feeling pretty relaxed. We had a lovely day with over 20 degrees Celsius. After a smoke they tied me up in some kind of harness, which looks like swing. Then they started to hoist me, which wasn’t as easy as you thought it would be, by the looks of it. I couldn’t really help them, even though you want to. But slowly I went higher and higher…. And higher. Once you’re half way it still looks all normal and alright, but the time you passed that point it all becomes scarier. Once I reached the top I got to do the repair, which on its own is a difficult task because you’re hanging in a weird position. But I managed to get the job done. I had my mates camera with me to take some pictures and by that time the nerves started to kick in. Really 11 meters in a mast is high! But time for me to slowly come down. Did some cleaning on different parts on my way down and even dropped the can of oil in the water. But the job was down, and after another smoke I managed to relax a bit in the sun. In the afternoon I cleaned the inside of the boat while they were putting the sails in.

Once at my friends place we made some dinner and got to babysit the next doors dog. All in all a lovely day, and next time when somebody needs to go up I will not hesitate. I might just even go up to take some pictures if we are in a nice location to do that.