NATO's in town

And it is a hassle! Half the city is closed down, in order for a few ministers to be able to drive through... Poor Fedor nearly arrived late to work yesterday after ending up on the wrong side of the road and not being allowed to cross the road for ten minutes! Anyway, they should be leaving today, so I hope thing will get back to normal.

Oh, and guess who else was in town? The Queen!!! But since it was raining a lot this week, most of her programme went down the drain (haha). I am enjoying the Schadenfreude, because Fedor and I had wanted to go the official reception at the Embassy, but there was a lottery and we lost. So I am happy she got rained on! Anyway, that is not going to stop us from going to the Queen's Day Reception of course, because who can say no to free booze and Dutch snacks? Particularly because, for the first time, I actually received an invitation without having to ask for one: they sent it to me without prompting! I am particularly looking forward to the oysters and the fresh stroopwafels.

Anyway, before that is happening (in 2 weeks), we still have two more weekends, full of family! This weekend, Fedor's father is coming and next weekend we are going to have my parents, as well as Fedor's mum (+man). So lots of fun is going to be had!

For the rest, this week has been fairly quiet. Lots of worries about the new management possibly wanting to close the department, which causes some anxieties among my colleagues, but the danger seems to be waning now... I have been sending out a bunch of applications again as well on four different continents, so let's see whether anything comes from it. The problem with many of these applications is that the recruiting periods are incredibly long. I mean, the World Bank's YPP and the EU recruitment both have cycled of about 12-15 months, which is simply crazy, but even many other jobs take months to decide anything! Oh well, like I always say: let's wait and see!!!

Tschüßi,
OJ