Noémie

Tu nous manqueras, ma belle. Je ne sais pas ce qui t'empêchait d'être heureux, mais j'espère que t'as trouvé ce que tu cherchais.

You passed away too soon - only now I realize how little I knew you. You leave behind a group of people who loved you regardless, loved you for who you are and for the love you gave to all of us.

Rest in peace, Noémie.

HONG KONG

HONG KONG... I went on a holiday and came back with a job. If all goes according to plan, I should be living and working there by the end of February.

The story? Last month I went on a holiday to Hong Kong. The place had been fascinating me for a long time, quite a fez examples of world class contemporary architecture can be found in that city. Last June a friend of mine went and seemed to enjoy the place, so when I was told at work that I had about two weeks holidays outstanding I went to have a look at the ticket prices. Wasn' bad at all (335 quid return, long live Oasis Hong Kong Airlines!) so i booked. I knew that the company I work for was opening an office there, and one of the managers involved in the project was a Dutch guy I had been dealing with over the phone and by e-mail. So I sent him a message, told him I would be there and would love to see the office (hey, curiousity, you know how it goes!)

We agreed to go for lunch on monday, the day after I arrived. There Joris told me they needed more people, and asked me whether I was interested. I did like the position, but I had been in HK for less than 24h and I first wanted to find out whether I liked it or not. After lunch we went to see the office (33th floor, great view!) and it turned out one of the directors - a woman I know from being around in the London office - was there that day. She sat me down, gave me more details about the job, and then they asked me to tell them by friday whether I wanted to do it or not.

For four days I have been walking around the city asking myself if I could live there; I called my sister and a few friends in Belgium and London for advice; I met the other guys from the company who arrived on wednesday. And then I said yes.

So now the visa application is being reviewed by the company lawyers, and will be sent out next week. I will be working in my current position until January 18th, and then I get one more month of training before I move over there.

Exciting? Very! I am really looking forward to it, but at the same time I do get nervous sometimes. There is so much to think about and so much to arganize before I leave. Need to organize some sort of party or gathering for my 30th birthday as well, not sure whether I should combine it with my leaving due or not...

HONG KONG!!! Wooohooooo!!

Spot the similarity...

Thanks Peter, for pointing this one out...

OFFICE MOVE - THE TUBE

The company I work for has moved out office from Piccadilly Circus to Tower Hill. For those amongst you who don't know these areas: the former is in busy interesting lively Soho, the latter in dull boring dead Tower Hill. Yes, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge are right next to the building. I agree, these are beautiful constructions and definitely worth a visit, but... They don't have the same impact on my happiness as a large amount of shops, supermarkets, cafe's, bars, take places and restaurants. These are the things you need close at hand during the week. Plenty of them in Soho, right on your doorstep. Almost none in Tower Hill.

And then there is the Tube. Before I could take the bus to work, nice and easy, got to see something as well. Now? The Tube. IT IS A NIGHTMARE. I get on in Kennington, where the train is already full. The only way to get on is to press myself into the crowd and then bend my head so the doors can close (these trains really were built for midgets). What follows then is a ride from hell in an extremely un-ergonomic position, pressed between other victims. Sweating is unavoidable so I arrive at my desk with my shirt sticking to my back and my coat hanging open, thus catching colds as well. I'm not yet mentioning the mood it gets me in. I hate it with a passion you can only begin to imagine. As soon as my cold is better, I will try to cycle again. Keeps me fit and at least I have a reason to sweat then. Tube at rush hour? Horrible.

MYSPACE

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am no longer a Myspace virgin. At last I created an account, and even though there isn't much to it yet I am willing to explore. You can now become my friend on www.myspace.com/kitanlondon

SNAKE 'N SINGIN

As seen on the streets of London...

Met up with Anita on sunday, in Brixton. While I was waiting an old, half toohless black man came by, with a snake on his head. A living snake. Quite a sight.

Earlier that weekend I was waiting at the bus stop, and four men passed by. Four fully grown men, singing 'Tomorrow' from the musical Annie. They sang loud, full of confidence and in perfect tune. Gotta love London :)

A nice one from my collegue Jamie:

I am slightly sceptical about verbal confirmation.
In this day and age it isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Lunch

So funny when you see a guy coming out of one of the many sexshops in Soho and looking down to check whether he has a hardon, thinking no one has noticed :) As seen while i was walking back to the office after lunch with my collegue Anita.

Nice lunch break indeed. We walked past Prowler, the gay shop in Soho, and there was a really hot guy standing there talking on his phone. From the looks he gave me when he walked into the shop I could tell he was interested so I went into the shop with Anita. He smiled at me, we had an eeeeehm... nice conversation, and that was it :) I didn't get his number or name, but it still was an ego-booster and it made my day, hehe.

Stabbings

Things are heating up in London... Earlier this week a woman got stabbed to death at the end of my street in Vauxhall. No reason, just a random attack. This took place only a couple of hundreds of meters from the spot where some months ago a 15yo boy was stabbed to death by a gang of youngsters, also without any reason.
When I went to work this morning, the street where I work was blocked off by police. Apparently someone had been stabbed to death just outside the door of the building where our office is. About a month ago, someone got stabbed to death in front of the door of our other Soho office.
It seems like these random outbursts of violence are becoming more frequent. Very exciting, but worrying when you think about it too much. In the context of a city like London, these things seem to blend in and are pushed to the dark corners of your memory rather quickly. In a country like Belgium, less eventful, they linger on for a long time and people actively remember them for much longer.

Cornrows

After I put my picture of me with cornrows on the internet I started to get messages from black guys calling me a wigga. Yes, it’s a ‘black’ hairdo, but does that mean only black guys should have it? I don’t understand how on one hand the same guys are saying they are second class citizens and they are not treated in an equal way by society, and at the same time they try to separate themselves by opposing others who take over or flirt with their style or traditions. Put it this way: this is London 2006. It’s a city where so many people from so many different cultures and backgrounds live together. Isn’t it normal there’s going to be some crossover? Isn’t it even desirable that will happen?

one of these days

Got this by e-mail from my collegue Anita this morning, got me in stitches.

And...
Less than four hours til lunch;
Less than three til bathroom break;
Less than two til coffee break;
Less than one til boredom sets in….. ooops, too late - boredom has arrived early this morning :-)

TopTip Nr.1

... don't go to Starbucks for takeaway coffee while wearing a white jumper. G&@"#!!!

Belgium - well, back in London

Here I am, back in sunny London. Came back on the Eurostar yesterday morning and went straight to work. Had to get up at 545am (445 GMT) in order to catch the 7am train, little surprise I was pretty zonked. Fortunately I could stay in Brussels with one of Ola's friends, otherwise I would have had to get up even earlier.
--> Un grand merci à Tcheko et Lika pour leur hospitalité!! Faut qu'on se revoie, c'etait un plaisir de faire connaissance. Venez à Londres :)

The weekend was nice though. Saw my family and friends (Paul, Johan, Aimé, Brad) in Antwerp, saw Ola after about two years of living in the same city and never meeting up,... Nice to catch up.

One more month and I am on a proper holiday again... can't wait.

Bornem

Bqck in Belgium for the Easter Weekend. It's always nice to come back. Get decent food. Go to a pub at 11pm and stay till 130 or later without loud music pumping in your ears. The neighbour calling for his homie pigeons to come in. The fruit trees full of white and pink blossom.

Margaret Cho - after

Margaret Cho was so funny. I really enjoyed her show, and so did Jurgen. She did only one show in London on this tour, and everyone came out to see her. Dawn French, the guys from Little Britain, Amy Lamé,... and half of Soho, hehe.

Margaret Cho

Jurgen managed to get us tickets for Margaret Cho at Her Majesty's Theatre tomorrow. Definitely looking forward to it, she must be one of the most funny women on this planet. We're in the third row, not bad at all ;)

http://www.margaretcho.com/

The first entry. Me, and my mum.

Here we are. Lunch break at work, friday, it's all good. Finally some tme to write about me. There is no need to introduce myself, after all I am only planning to give the link to this blog to my friends and people who are dear to me. It wil be just me. Thoughts, stories, experiences, opinions.

I was thinking this morning what I could write. Could write about my mum having her second session of chemotherapy today. She texted me to say it went all ok, but she knows it takes a couple of hours before the treatment kicks in, and she will probably be sick all weekend. Earlier this week she started loosing her hair, it's coming out by the handfulls when she showers or whenever she touches it. She has orderd a whig to be made and that will be ready on tuesday. Which is ok, cause this weekend she is most unlikely to get out off the house anyway, she will be recovering from the chemo session.

I'm sure she will be fine after the treatments are finished, after all they discovered the cancer before it was even large enough to be seen on a mammogram. She's been a very lucky woman. I dread to think what would have happened if she wouldn't have gone for the MRI scan, but just for the regular mammogram. The cancer would not have been discoverd, so it would have continued to grow until it was large enough for her to feel it. Thank goodness it was discovered and removed way before that.

I'm thinking about it a lot, and about the impact on the family. It is a shock to find out your mum has cancer. My dad is so stressed because of the whole situation, I really feel for him. I am miles away here in London, the distance provides a buffer in a way, but my sister and my dad even more are there every day, they live through it with my mum. It must be tough.

Two sessions done, four more to go. Three weeks between the sessions, so another three months. After that, maybe radiation but that is not sure yet.

FINALLY

and now it's all about me, me, me.... :)