English
Nederlands
2005-12-31
Cabaret and Champagne
No, I didn't say Cabaret Champagne, I said Cabaret and Champagne. For years and years that has been the way we spend New Year's Eve together. And this year was no exception. Tonight I went to visit Julia and so did our dear friend L.
As far as cabaret (Dutch word for stand-up comedians) is concerned, this tradition goes back much further. When I was a child, living with my parents it was already a yearly ritual. Watch the New Year's Eve comedy by Mr. Wim Kan. The champagne was added later, my parents do not drink any alcohol. And Wim 'kan' no longer do it (he died years ago). Others have taken over the stick.
Nowadays, the real New Year's Eve Comedy is done by Mr. Youp van het Hek. This year's theme was: "The more colorful the jacket, the sadder the clown." Youp was wearing a very colorful jacket and his story was very sad indeed! Particularly the (true) story about the guy who climbed a carnival wheel to end his life by jumping off it. The audience down on the street yelled: "Jump; go ahead and jump!" Terrible! But this kind of comedy in intentionally terrible: Humor is used to open your eyes to the evils in the World...
The three of us had a wonderful New Year's Eve!
As far as cabaret (Dutch word for stand-up comedians) is concerned, this tradition goes back much further. When I was a child, living with my parents it was already a yearly ritual. Watch the New Year's Eve comedy by Mr. Wim Kan. The champagne was added later, my parents do not drink any alcohol. And Wim 'kan' no longer do it (he died years ago). Others have taken over the stick.
Nowadays, the real New Year's Eve Comedy is done by Mr. Youp van het Hek. This year's theme was: "The more colorful the jacket, the sadder the clown." Youp was wearing a very colorful jacket and his story was very sad indeed! Particularly the (true) story about the guy who climbed a carnival wheel to end his life by jumping off it. The audience down on the street yelled: "Jump; go ahead and jump!" Terrible! But this kind of comedy in intentionally terrible: Humor is used to open your eyes to the evils in the World...
The three of us had a wonderful New Year's Eve!
2005-12-30
Interview
That poor journalist has to travel by public transportation! I hadn't expected that... So I have agreed to pick her up at the railway station. And we won't do the interview at a restaurant, as I had originally planned, we will do it at my place instead. Now that the cleaning team has done its work, the house looks acceptable again...
I am fifteen minutes early, so that just leaves me the time to drop in at Yves Rocher's. Is my daytime cream in yet? No, it is not! Very well, I'll buy it in my local drugstore from now on!
I jump back into the car and hurry to the railway station. Yes, there she is! Chilled to the bone of course, but in the car it is warm. We immediately get into a pleasant conversation. In a way we are colleagues of course: We both work for the printing press, but she does that as a reporter and I do it as a translator.
I am glad it is this particular newspaper. That guarantees a high-standard interview. Interviews with transsexuals abound these days, but not all of them are useful. We often get to see such interviews on TV. Those work more to attract viewers to the TV-station than to inform anyone about transsexuality.
No this interview has to be different. Depending on the space available in the newspaper on the day of publication it may become quite an elaborate article. This reporter used to work for one of the Dutch tabloids that is given away for free and in that job she was often very disappointed about what was published from her articles in the end. She used to dig into a subject matter and collect a lot of information, only to find a 100 word publication somewhere down on page 8 in the newspaper left of it.
It is nice to chat with her about numbers of words and numbers of characters and how much time it takes to write those, but soon we get to the real subject matter: My experiences in life as a transsexual woman. She fills up half a notebook with notes while I am sitting, standing and walking about and telling my story. During the interview I make us some coffee and a light lunch, consisting of two delicious toasties after granny Snel's recipe.
after that I take her back to the railway station, where she arrives just in time to catch the 2:08 train to Utrecht. The photographer will visit me in the beginning of January, but he will have to come to my workplace in Nieuwegein. So it will not be a glamour picture with lots of make-up and stuff, more like a full action picture, the way I really am.
At the end of the afternoon I am again struggling with my course assignment when Julia rings me up. Wouldn't I like to go shopping down town and have dinner in a restaurant? Well, I would... But I've got so much to do!
Eventually I decide that going out for dinner is much more fun than working, so I go to Julia. Meanwhile it is starting to snow more and more heavily and the wind is getting stronger and stronger. I think in this whether only the polar bears would like to go for a stroll down town! S o we decide we will just have dinner together. This time at Plaza Futura. Julia is now living very close the city center and the restaurant is in walking distance, even in this whether!
Julia takes a Moroccan stew with lamb meat and I pick a fillet of pork in a savory sauce. We have so much to tell each other, but while enjoying this delicious food we fall silent now and then. Going out for dinner always was, and still is, one of our favorite hobbies!
I am fifteen minutes early, so that just leaves me the time to drop in at Yves Rocher's. Is my daytime cream in yet? No, it is not! Very well, I'll buy it in my local drugstore from now on!
I jump back into the car and hurry to the railway station. Yes, there she is! Chilled to the bone of course, but in the car it is warm. We immediately get into a pleasant conversation. In a way we are colleagues of course: We both work for the printing press, but she does that as a reporter and I do it as a translator.
I am glad it is this particular newspaper. That guarantees a high-standard interview. Interviews with transsexuals abound these days, but not all of them are useful. We often get to see such interviews on TV. Those work more to attract viewers to the TV-station than to inform anyone about transsexuality.
No this interview has to be different. Depending on the space available in the newspaper on the day of publication it may become quite an elaborate article. This reporter used to work for one of the Dutch tabloids that is given away for free and in that job she was often very disappointed about what was published from her articles in the end. She used to dig into a subject matter and collect a lot of information, only to find a 100 word publication somewhere down on page 8 in the newspaper left of it.
It is nice to chat with her about numbers of words and numbers of characters and how much time it takes to write those, but soon we get to the real subject matter: My experiences in life as a transsexual woman. She fills up half a notebook with notes while I am sitting, standing and walking about and telling my story. During the interview I make us some coffee and a light lunch, consisting of two delicious toasties after granny Snel's recipe.
after that I take her back to the railway station, where she arrives just in time to catch the 2:08 train to Utrecht. The photographer will visit me in the beginning of January, but he will have to come to my workplace in Nieuwegein. So it will not be a glamour picture with lots of make-up and stuff, more like a full action picture, the way I really am.
At the end of the afternoon I am again struggling with my course assignment when Julia rings me up. Wouldn't I like to go shopping down town and have dinner in a restaurant? Well, I would... But I've got so much to do!
Eventually I decide that going out for dinner is much more fun than working, so I go to Julia. Meanwhile it is starting to snow more and more heavily and the wind is getting stronger and stronger. I think in this whether only the polar bears would like to go for a stroll down town! S o we decide we will just have dinner together. This time at Plaza Futura. Julia is now living very close the city center and the restaurant is in walking distance, even in this whether!
Julia takes a Moroccan stew with lamb meat and I pick a fillet of pork in a savory sauce. We have so much to tell each other, but while enjoying this delicious food we fall silent now and then. Going out for dinner always was, and still is, one of our favorite hobbies!
2005-12-29
Little time left
Buzz, buzz, buzz, tidleedee, tidleedah!
Hmmmm?
Tidleedee, tidleedah!
O, today it is my cell phone! Luckily I am prepared for anything today!
Tidleedee, tidleedah!
I grab the phone from the bedside table and answer the call. It is the newspaper journalist. She wants to postpone our meeting to tomorrow morning... OK, no problem...
I put down the phone, roll over and sleep on...
By the time I wake up, it is afternoon already and I realize this is the end of my holiday. Today was reserved for the interview and tomorrow I didn't have a planning yet. Now the interview is tomorrow and I slept halfway into today already!
I don't make any use of my freedom! It is high time I did something I enjoy. So in the afternoon I go down town for some shopping. Finally I am able to visit Yves Rocher's again to get my tinted daytime-cream. But guess what? It is sold out! "Maybe tomorrow!"
And that has happened almost every time I wanted to buy it! I have had it with Yves Rocher! I decide tomorrow will by my final attempt. I can buy tinted daytime-cream in any drugstore...
In the evening I try to work on my course in C++ again. I haven't succeeded in completing it in November and yet, I am almost there. All I need to do is do one final homework assignment and submit it for correction. Unfortunately there is one complication: When I was working for my previous employer I could use Microsoft Visual Studio and I was fairly experienced in that. Now I have to use the five year old compiler from Borland that came with the course materials. That takes me all evening and now I haven't even really started on the assignment yet.
Hmmmm?
Tidleedee, tidleedah!
O, today it is my cell phone! Luckily I am prepared for anything today!
Tidleedee, tidleedah!
I grab the phone from the bedside table and answer the call. It is the newspaper journalist. She wants to postpone our meeting to tomorrow morning... OK, no problem...
I put down the phone, roll over and sleep on...
By the time I wake up, it is afternoon already and I realize this is the end of my holiday. Today was reserved for the interview and tomorrow I didn't have a planning yet. Now the interview is tomorrow and I slept halfway into today already!
I don't make any use of my freedom! It is high time I did something I enjoy. So in the afternoon I go down town for some shopping. Finally I am able to visit Yves Rocher's again to get my tinted daytime-cream. But guess what? It is sold out! "Maybe tomorrow!"
And that has happened almost every time I wanted to buy it! I have had it with Yves Rocher! I decide tomorrow will by my final attempt. I can buy tinted daytime-cream in any drugstore...
In the evening I try to work on my course in C++ again. I haven't succeeded in completing it in November and yet, I am almost there. All I need to do is do one final homework assignment and submit it for correction. Unfortunately there is one complication: When I was working for my previous employer I could use Microsoft Visual Studio and I was fairly experienced in that. Now I have to use the five year old compiler from Borland that came with the course materials. That takes me all evening and now I haven't even really started on the assignment yet.
2005-12-28
Cleaning team
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
OH NO! Not again!
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
Again I roll myself out of bed...
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
"If this is the same guy who called me yesterday, I will tell him..."
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
I manage to reach the phone in time...
"Would you open the door please? The cleaning team is here!"
Oh yes, it is Wednesday! Julia and our dear friend L. come here to clean the house every Wednesday. I quickly put on a dressing-gown and I stumble to the frond door to let them in.
I have to admit it: Such a cleaning job brushes up the house enormously. That is simply necessary every now and them and I don't have the time to do it myself...
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
OH NO! Not again!
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
Again I roll myself out of bed...
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
"If this is the same guy who called me yesterday, I will tell him..."
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
I manage to reach the phone in time...
"Would you open the door please? The cleaning team is here!"
Oh yes, it is Wednesday! Julia and our dear friend L. come here to clean the house every Wednesday. I quickly put on a dressing-gown and I stumble to the frond door to let them in.
I have to admit it: Such a cleaning job brushes up the house enormously. That is simply necessary every now and them and I don't have the time to do it myself...
2005-12-27
Order! Order!
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
"Huh, what?"
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
Ow, it's the phone!
Reluctantly I roll myself out of bed...
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
"Yes, yes, I am coming!"
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
Where on Earth is that thing?
I pick it up... But I am too late already! They have hung up... At times like this I would love to know the number of the caller. If I knew who it was I could ring them back and tell them exactly what I think about calling people out of bed and then hanging up before they are able to answer the call!
With my eyes half open I peek at the clock. A quarter to twelve! OK, in that case it is really time to get up. I'll first take a shower...
When I have finished showering, I look at the clock again. Half past nine? Oh no! I must have been mistaken: It was only nine o'clock! What idiot would call me on the third day of Christmas at 9 AM? Don't people understand I need my rest so badly?
I take a light breakfast and start on my TODO-list. The house is a total mess. Clothes from a whole week are everywhere, mixed with mail, forms, magazines etcetera.
Poutingly I start tidying up... But pouting is of little use when there is nobody around. And besides that: It is nice to create some order in this mess! For the time being I sort everything into stacks of things that belong together. That makes some difference...
Then I thought it was time of a cup of coffee, but... Oh no! I was out of filter bags. Now I had to leave the house, although I didn't want to.
Of course I also need to make room for some nice activities in this holiday, like working on my blog. I am six weeks behind in my entries. I had to postpone publishing for a while because I was in the middle of so many exciting developments and I couldn't write about those before I had some idea of what the outcome would be. But it is an awful lot of work to get back up to date now.
And I want to add new features: A better way to find past entries. People have complained that they couldn't find old entries in my blog. But everything is still there! The only problem is that it can be difficult to find the entries because of the limited facilities Blogger has to offer for that. So I made something myself. Here is a sneak preview: A complete contents of all 2004 entries!
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
"Huh, what?"
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
Ow, it's the phone!
Reluctantly I roll myself out of bed...
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
"Yes, yes, I am coming!"
RRrrrrrrrrrrriiinnnngggggggg!
Where on Earth is that thing?
I pick it up... But I am too late already! They have hung up... At times like this I would love to know the number of the caller. If I knew who it was I could ring them back and tell them exactly what I think about calling people out of bed and then hanging up before they are able to answer the call!
With my eyes half open I peek at the clock. A quarter to twelve! OK, in that case it is really time to get up. I'll first take a shower...
When I have finished showering, I look at the clock again. Half past nine? Oh no! I must have been mistaken: It was only nine o'clock! What idiot would call me on the third day of Christmas at 9 AM? Don't people understand I need my rest so badly?
I take a light breakfast and start on my TODO-list. The house is a total mess. Clothes from a whole week are everywhere, mixed with mail, forms, magazines etcetera.
Poutingly I start tidying up... But pouting is of little use when there is nobody around. And besides that: It is nice to create some order in this mess! For the time being I sort everything into stacks of things that belong together. That makes some difference...
Then I thought it was time of a cup of coffee, but... Oh no! I was out of filter bags. Now I had to leave the house, although I didn't want to.
Of course I also need to make room for some nice activities in this holiday, like working on my blog. I am six weeks behind in my entries. I had to postpone publishing for a while because I was in the middle of so many exciting developments and I couldn't write about those before I had some idea of what the outcome would be. But it is an awful lot of work to get back up to date now.
And I want to add new features: A better way to find past entries. People have complained that they couldn't find old entries in my blog. But everything is still there! The only problem is that it can be difficult to find the entries because of the limited facilities Blogger has to offer for that. So I made something myself. Here is a sneak preview: A complete contents of all 2004 entries!
2005-12-26
Rest at last
A few days off from work, my 29th. column sent to Gendertalk just in time, the next deadline for my translation work not until January 9th... Is it possible to find some rest now? An opportunity to sleep in and...
Oh, yeah! Work on my blog, finish my course, clean up the mess in my house, open the stacks of X-mas mail, pay the road tax, pay the speech therapist, ask for reimbursement from the health insurance, go shopping tomorrow, answer several emails and...
Oh, yeah! Find a place to live in Utrecht, write to Elektor that I still want to do interesting articles on E-blocks, do an interview with NRC (a high-quality Dutch newspaper), maybe do another interview and...
Oh, yeah! Shall I send out postcards to wish my friends a happy new year? I don't know yet...
Oh, yeah! Work on my blog, finish my course, clean up the mess in my house, open the stacks of X-mas mail, pay the road tax, pay the speech therapist, ask for reimbursement from the health insurance, go shopping tomorrow, answer several emails and...
Oh, yeah! Find a place to live in Utrecht, write to Elektor that I still want to do interesting articles on E-blocks, do an interview with NRC (a high-quality Dutch newspaper), maybe do another interview and...
Oh, yeah! Shall I send out postcards to wish my friends a happy new year? I don't know yet...
2005-12-25
Twenty-ninth Column
This December was a very difficult month for me and I found hardly any time for posting entries to my blog yet. But of course "The show must go on". I need to post an entry for Gendertalk every two weeks. So here it is...
Tonight my twenty-ninth column was broadcast in Gendertalk #542.
You can find the complete program in the Gendertalk archive.
Or you can find just my column at:
http://eveliensnel.com/audio/BLUE01.mp3
A full transcript of the text is below:
Blue Christmas
Yes it is Christmas Eve. There is no point in denying that. Most people have put up a X-mas tree and some have even decorated the outside of their houses with lights. No matter what station I tune into on the radio I get to hear X-mas carols. And Santa Claus is ringing his bell on every corner of every street.
But I don't really feel like celebrating X-mas this year. It is a typical family thing to celebrate. Not very nice for those who are living all by themselves, like Julia and me. These are the days when you feel you have separated most strongly.
We are doing fine, both of us. Julia is now living in a very nice apartment very close to the city center and I am still living in the house we used to share. We both enjoy our freedom and we know we have made the right decision. But it is not always easy.
We knew that. We knew we were not making the easy choice. But sometimes a girl has to do what a girl has to do. And of course for me it is not only the separation but also the new job I have started on December 1st. Every day starts with a fifty mile traffic jam to get to work. And when I get there I need to perform at my best, especially during my probationary period. But it is going very well. I feel totally accepted amongst my new colleagues. They do know about my past, but the big difference with my former job is: Very few of them have ever known me as a man! I think there is a bright future ahead of me with this company.
So there is reason enough to celebrate and I will do that. Tonight, while you are listening to my column, I will be at a kinky party in Amsterdam. And I will be dressed up! For me dressing up is no longer dressing as a woman, that has now been everyday routine for me for more than three years. I will be dressed as a female Santa Claus in a bright red mini-dress, white stockings with suspenders and Santa's jacket and hat. I don't think I will be wearing the beard though. I hate beards!
HO-HO, HO HOOOO!
For Gendertalk, this was Evelien Snel from the Netherlands, wishing all of you a Merry X-mas and a happy new year and hoping to join you again... In two weeks!
Tonight my twenty-ninth column was broadcast in Gendertalk #542.
You can find the complete program in the Gendertalk archive.
Or you can find just my column at:
http://eveliensnel.com/audio/BLUE01.mp3
A full transcript of the text is below:
Yes it is Christmas Eve. There is no point in denying that. Most people have put up a X-mas tree and some have even decorated the outside of their houses with lights. No matter what station I tune into on the radio I get to hear X-mas carols. And Santa Claus is ringing his bell on every corner of every street.
But I don't really feel like celebrating X-mas this year. It is a typical family thing to celebrate. Not very nice for those who are living all by themselves, like Julia and me. These are the days when you feel you have separated most strongly.
We are doing fine, both of us. Julia is now living in a very nice apartment very close to the city center and I am still living in the house we used to share. We both enjoy our freedom and we know we have made the right decision. But it is not always easy.
We knew that. We knew we were not making the easy choice. But sometimes a girl has to do what a girl has to do. And of course for me it is not only the separation but also the new job I have started on December 1st. Every day starts with a fifty mile traffic jam to get to work. And when I get there I need to perform at my best, especially during my probationary period. But it is going very well. I feel totally accepted amongst my new colleagues. They do know about my past, but the big difference with my former job is: Very few of them have ever known me as a man! I think there is a bright future ahead of me with this company.
So there is reason enough to celebrate and I will do that. Tonight, while you are listening to my column, I will be at a kinky party in Amsterdam. And I will be dressed up! For me dressing up is no longer dressing as a woman, that has now been everyday routine for me for more than three years. I will be dressed as a female Santa Claus in a bright red mini-dress, white stockings with suspenders and Santa's jacket and hat. I don't think I will be wearing the beard though. I hate beards!
HO-HO, HO HOOOO!
For Gendertalk, this was Evelien Snel from the Netherlands, wishing all of you a Merry X-mas and a happy new year and hoping to join you again... In two weeks!
2005-12-11
Twenty-eighth Column
Tonight my twenty-eighth column was broadcast in Gendertalk #540.
You can find the complete program in the Gendertalk archive.
Or you can find just my column at:
http://eveliensnel.nl/audio/POOR01.mp3
A full transcript of the text is below:
Poverty
Last week I got a very surprising email from someone I have never met in real life. I have only met this person online. The first time I met her was twenty years ago. That was long before we all had access to the Internet. Back in 1985 we did have computers and we did have modems to make these computer communicate over telephone lines.
In those days, people who were interested in electronic communications used their modems to dial in to Bulletin Board Systems. And I was running such a system in my own den. I was very enthusiastic about electronic communications and even then I realized that this was a way to publish the things I wrote to the outside world without having to find a publisher interested in my writings.
Bulletin Board Systems were the state of the art at that time. They enabled people to create a user profile and exchange messages about any subject they liked. It is similar to a forum on the Internet. My system has been online for about seven years and there were more than one hundred regular users who dialed in at least once a week.
The email I got last week was from one of those users and it brought back a lot of memories to me. I suddenly remembered that this user sometimes called himself Peter and sometimes called herself Petra. I can remember I was suspecting this might be a man who had an urge to act as a woman. Well, I had no problem with that. I was even secretly thinking: "I wish I had the courage to do the same!"
From her email I finally learned the full truth about this person. She is indeed a transsexual, just like me. Only she had her operation done twenty years ago! I was so amazed! And initially I was very jealous of her. Imagine me struggling to live as a man for twenty years while she was able to live happily as a woman all that time!
We proceeded to tell each other the stories of our lives in some more emails and I have found out that there is no reason to envy her. Oh yes, there are many similarities in the way we feel and in many more details. But again I have learned that in this life the cards are not dealt in an honest way. My friend has never known her real parents and was raised in boarding-schools. Her foster parents have never believed her story of being born in the wrong body, because "God does not make any mistakes".
All those twenty years while I was going to university, got married and built up a successful career, she was struggling with lack of acceptance from her environment and unable to find a decent job! So when you listen to my columns and start to think: "I wish I were living in Holland, where there is so much more acceptance", think again: It may have to do more with the difference between rich and poor than with the difference between the USA and the Netherlands.
You can find the complete program in the Gendertalk archive.
Or you can find just my column at:
http://eveliensnel.nl/audio/POOR01.mp3
A full transcript of the text is below:
Last week I got a very surprising email from someone I have never met in real life. I have only met this person online. The first time I met her was twenty years ago. That was long before we all had access to the Internet. Back in 1985 we did have computers and we did have modems to make these computer communicate over telephone lines.
In those days, people who were interested in electronic communications used their modems to dial in to Bulletin Board Systems. And I was running such a system in my own den. I was very enthusiastic about electronic communications and even then I realized that this was a way to publish the things I wrote to the outside world without having to find a publisher interested in my writings.
Bulletin Board Systems were the state of the art at that time. They enabled people to create a user profile and exchange messages about any subject they liked. It is similar to a forum on the Internet. My system has been online for about seven years and there were more than one hundred regular users who dialed in at least once a week.
The email I got last week was from one of those users and it brought back a lot of memories to me. I suddenly remembered that this user sometimes called himself Peter and sometimes called herself Petra. I can remember I was suspecting this might be a man who had an urge to act as a woman. Well, I had no problem with that. I was even secretly thinking: "I wish I had the courage to do the same!"
From her email I finally learned the full truth about this person. She is indeed a transsexual, just like me. Only she had her operation done twenty years ago! I was so amazed! And initially I was very jealous of her. Imagine me struggling to live as a man for twenty years while she was able to live happily as a woman all that time!
We proceeded to tell each other the stories of our lives in some more emails and I have found out that there is no reason to envy her. Oh yes, there are many similarities in the way we feel and in many more details. But again I have learned that in this life the cards are not dealt in an honest way. My friend has never known her real parents and was raised in boarding-schools. Her foster parents have never believed her story of being born in the wrong body, because "God does not make any mistakes".
All those twenty years while I was going to university, got married and built up a successful career, she was struggling with lack of acceptance from her environment and unable to find a decent job! So when you listen to my columns and start to think: "I wish I were living in Holland, where there is so much more acceptance", think again: It may have to do more with the difference between rich and poor than with the difference between the USA and the Netherlands.
2005-12-03
Work and Work
The T&T-evening had a slow start this month. I was already hoping we wouldn't have to work too hard this month at the bar, but as the evening proceeded it did get quite busy and we had a very good turnover in the end. Julia and me were both on duty this month, I was behind the bar and she was at the cash register. Fortunately that kept us both in different corners of the room so that we were not too much confronted with each other's presence. After all that is a bit difficult to cope with after only a few days of separation.
Before the evening started I dreaded having to work another evening, just now that I am so busy with my new job, but actually it was quite feasible this month. And there was a great plus: The community center has bought new furniture, so we don't have to carry those heavy tables into another room any more.
Being the barmaid is fun. And I have enough space to dance any time a like: A private, six by twenty foot dance floor, what more do you want?
Previous T&T-evenings: November, October, September, July, June, May, April, March, February, January, December, November 2004, October 2004, September 2004, August 2004, July 2004, June 2004, May 2004 and April 2004.
Before the evening started I dreaded having to work another evening, just now that I am so busy with my new job, but actually it was quite feasible this month. And there was a great plus: The community center has bought new furniture, so we don't have to carry those heavy tables into another room any more.
Being the barmaid is fun. And I have enough space to dance any time a like: A private, six by twenty foot dance floor, what more do you want?
Previous T&T-evenings: November, October, September, July, June, May, April, March, February, January, December, November 2004, October 2004, September 2004, August 2004, July 2004, June 2004, May 2004 and April 2004.
2005-12-01
The first day
I got up at 6 AM so that I would be able to leave home a 7 o'clock. The A2 freeway was as I had expected it: Traffic jam, traffic jam, traffic jam... Fortunately I managed to reach my new work place just before nine, as agreed.
I hadn't met my new boss yet, not even during the job interviews, but fortunately it turned out immediately that we can get along with him very well. I will be in one of the two support teams, that was the position I would like the best as I had indicated in the interviews.
In the hierarchy there is one more person between this boss and myself, a team leader, and he turns out to be an old acquaintance of mine: I have been on stage in a theatre play together with him! So he has known me when I still was a man, but at the time I was already very much aware of my female side and was not hiding it. So it must not have been a very big surprise for him to meet me again, but now as a woman.
I have been introduced to about a hundred people today, that is nearly all the employees of the company. Of course I have forgotten most of these names at once, that is the way it goes on a first day in your new job. I hope nobody will hold that against me.
The plan is I will be working on "the process", i.e. the way of working. But I will also have to know about all the technical details of the system. So what are those? I hadn't told you about that: We make software for the Dutch railroads.
Some numbers:
After this heavy day I returned home by the A2. Traffic jam, traffic jam, traffic jam...
And when I arrived, there was a surprise for me: All the lights were on and Julia was waiting for me with a delicious meal! She may have moved out, but today and tomorrow, she will still have dinner with me. This was very nice! Now there was someone I could tell about the events of the day. And I also enjoyed my dinner very much!
I hadn't met my new boss yet, not even during the job interviews, but fortunately it turned out immediately that we can get along with him very well. I will be in one of the two support teams, that was the position I would like the best as I had indicated in the interviews.
In the hierarchy there is one more person between this boss and myself, a team leader, and he turns out to be an old acquaintance of mine: I have been on stage in a theatre play together with him! So he has known me when I still was a man, but at the time I was already very much aware of my female side and was not hiding it. So it must not have been a very big surprise for him to meet me again, but now as a woman.
I have been introduced to about a hundred people today, that is nearly all the employees of the company. Of course I have forgotten most of these names at once, that is the way it goes on a first day in your new job. I hope nobody will hold that against me.
The plan is I will be working on "the process", i.e. the way of working. But I will also have to know about all the technical details of the system. So what are those? I hadn't told you about that: We make software for the Dutch railroads.
Some numbers:- 226 stops
- 79 cargo yards
- 251 stations
- 61 bridges
- 88 connections
- 7000 train movements a day
- 2000 miles of track
- 7588 switches
- 8915 signals
- 3848 tracks
- The software has approx. 75.000 I/O-points
- The software consists of about 1.000.000 lines of code
- Everybody talks in abbreviations, there are hundreds of those
After this heavy day I returned home by the A2. Traffic jam, traffic jam, traffic jam...
And when I arrived, there was a surprise for me: All the lights were on and Julia was waiting for me with a delicious meal! She may have moved out, but today and tomorrow, she will still have dinner with me. This was very nice! Now there was someone I could tell about the events of the day. And I also enjoyed my dinner very much!
Labels: trains
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