DutchGirl's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

First update on the new job: things are good. My colleagues are kind, I loved the atmosphere at the workplace last Thursday (but I've also been working from home on the other workdays so far, which I like a lot, too), and the work is something that is challenging now but that I feel comfortable about being able to do well in the future.

They do have a slight shortage of personnel. The upside is that that means my job is pretty secure. The downside is that I will have to protect myself from saying "yes" to every urgent demand on my time due to people out sick etc. Right now I'm still in training, so now the only thing that happens when too many people are ill is that they don't have time to train me. We'll see how that goes. I have always liked being useful, so I do feel that I can be useful here, once I'm trained.

Today I'm going to the job again and will meet up with a colleague that I haven't seen since the job interview. My impression of this guy was that he is a little bit of a nerd, I'm curious to find out whether my impression is true. If so, I'm happy about it and I'm sure that he can teach me some details that the other colleagues may not even know. (He might know how things really work, while other colleagues may teach me rules of thumb about what most of the times will work out).

UrbanHomesteader
Posts: 87
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 9:02 pm

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by UrbanHomesteader »

Best wishes with the new job!

I know what you mean about protecting yourself from demands on you time, I've struggled with that as well!

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Update on work: it's going well, and today I was allowed to handle some simple tasks on my own for the first time. I was checked by my colleague and got feedback and I believe I did well, and so I hope to soon be able to work independently. As I see it now, part of the work will be repetitive (but I'm quite a fan of that, actually), and part of the work will be ever-changing and challenging. My guess is 90% of the tasks is repetitive, but the 10% of the tasks that is not probably takes up like 40% of the time (and uses 80% of the brain energy, ha).

I'm looking at the recent "what do you do with your time, retirees?" discussion with interest. So far my extra free time has gone to:

1. Fun / nothing useful / recovery
2. More exercising
3. More cooking/preparing of healthier meals
4. Decorating a Christmas tree for the first time in years
5. Visiting mother-in-law for support & fun
6. Drinking coffee with friends
7. Decluttering the house (a few small areas are done, more to come...)
8. Some gardening (tulip bulbs are planted), and putting out winter food for the local birds
9. Library visits and book reading
10. My genealogy hobby

I've tried to up my fruit intake (which truly is lacking), and I bought a smoothie maker, but these two things have been neglected again for a few weeks now. Something to give another try, soon. And I do have a list of small chores around the house to do as well.

shaz
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Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by shaz »

That sounds like a great use of extra free time.

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

These last week saw some not so great use of free time, i.e. being sick and sleeping a lot.
We celebrated Christmas with my cute and sweet nieces and nephews, some of whom did have a cold.
We did discuss the risk beforehand (all tests showed that it wasn't COVID, all symptoms pointed to a "harmless" cold virus) and so we chose to celebrate Christmas with the whole family.
And we caught it. (COVID tests also negative thrice). But now things are much better again.

On January 1sts our gas/electricity contract for fixed prices has ended and our electricity price has gone from 20 to 40 eurocents per kWh, and gas from 0,80 to 1,45 euro/m3 . It does make me think about trying to keep usage low. On the "gas" side, we have seen some progress over these last months. I think in winter we used to set the thermostat to 21 degrees Celcius during the day (so 70F), and now it's at 18 (64.5F) to 19 (66F), a bit depending on the day and what we're doing.
These days we read here in the newspaper about people setting their thermostat to 15 degrees (59F), or just shutting their heater down completely and dealing with whatever temperature their house cools down to, just to avoid massive energy bills. My guy and I are not going to sacrifice that much, but I would like to keep the average monthly bill under 250 euros or so (coming from 150 euros/month last year).

I've continued to put out food for the birds, and today a spotted woodpecker visited our garden. That was pretty awesome. Yesterday it was a pigeon though, and it shat all over the roof of the bird house.

The new job's going well, today I had lunch (everyone brought it from home or kept lunch items in the work kitchen with fridge and microwave) with a few colleagues that I had so far only met at the job interview. Nice to get to know them better in a relaxed setting. Today they showed me one (smaller) part of the job, and I found it very confusing, but I am wondering... It could be that I feel confused because they made the process more complicated than necessary. I'll have to think about that some more over the next days, maybe I can gently propose improvements if I really think they exist. It wouldn't save so much time that it threatens someone's job, but it would make things simpler, more robust and faster, if possible. I might also not yet fully grasp why it needs to be so complicated.

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Since December I've mostly been working Monday - Wednesday - Friday. At the beginning of March my training period is going to end, and then I'll be working Tuesday (8 hours) and Wednesday (4 hours). Plus there will be five weeks per year when I'll be on call (I heard it's supposed to be a few calls per day). Plus there will be weeks when I'll work extra days because I'm covering for a colleague who has a holiday or some personal time off.

I've gotten used to the Mon-Wed-Fri roster, it's quite relaxing to have Tuesdays and Thursdays completely off. And soon things will get even better, I presume, when I will have five-day weekends from Thursday until Monday.

I'll celebrate the end of my training period by taking two weeks of holiday in March :lol: . Hopefully I won't forget everything I've learned. We're going to Spain by car, and we'll be there for about ten days. We'll be in an area where my boyfriend spent a few summers as a teenager. He loved it there and is pretty convinced that we'll both love it there now, too; even though we're not quite that young anymore. We'll see. It'll be the first longer distance holiday for us since COVID, so I'm planning to enjoy the heck out of it.

I'm reading "Die with zero" and it has inspired me to start planning another trip. This one with my parents. My brother visited Paris last summer with his kids. He had already been there before, but he now wanted his children to experience it, too. Then my mother made a remark that she had never been to Paris. And I thought: what? That won't do! Paris is "only" 4 hours by car from where my parents live. That's nothing. They've traveled to London, to Schotland, to Norway, to Germany, to Barcelona, to San Francisco even... but NOT to that beautiful city that's right around the corner for them. And I feel like my mother will love that city with its history, culture and art.
So now we're planning a trip there, probably in May. It's likely going to be a long weekend (Thursday until Monday, because hey, I only need to work Tuesday and Wednesday!). Last year my dad had a total hip replacement and thankfully it worked well. So to me it seems like we should go while they're still somewhat able to enjoy it - they're now in their early 70s and pretty mobile and energetic for their age, but who knows for how much longer?
Maybe after going there with me they'll plan another trip all by themselves. We'll see.

So who is this woman and why is she spending all of this money? Well... The book has something to do with it. But also, seeing the good example of my in-laws who enjoyed the heck out of themselves in their 60s and 70s (father-in-law enjoyed an early retirement due to his career). Now father-in-law has died (at age 82), and mother-in-law unfortunately has mobility and memory issues, and thus sits at home most the time. But at least they had these decades of trips and other fun.
Then there is the genealogy hobby and you guys: none of my ancestors made it past 101! They all just... died! I come from generations and generations of people who eventually kicked the bucket. That says something about me, I guess.
And finally I've come to realize for myself that I will probably continue working for a while longer (albeit very parttime), creating more income and that together with my guy we will probably not be able to spend all of our money before we die.
So: time to spend some of it, on things that matter.

Still feeding the birds in the garden, still setting the thermostate to a maximum of 18 degrees Celcius, still making daily walks. I have read plenty of books so far this year and intend to borrow some more from the library (I also have access to the national online library and can download ebooks that way, pretty awesome!). I'm cooking most dinners these days, I learned a new simple recipe by Jamie Oliver and I'm perfecting my self-made pizza. On Monday evening I've started volunteering as a Dutch language coach; I'm helping a girl practise her Dutch. (Speaking of which, if anybody's reading this and wants to practise (business) English with my Ukrainian guests weekly, via Zoom or so, between 11 AM and 3 PM CST (which is 6 to 10 PM here), preferably for free, message me please).
Next Tuesday I'm going to go to a weekly choir rehearsal of a choir that I might join - they sing pop songs and musicals and I love that. I love singing, but when I tried choirs or singing lessons in the last decade, I would be called in to work like one out of every three times. That won't happen anymore with this new job, so maybe now I can join a choir again.

Good things. See y'all next time!

chenda
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Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by chenda »

That all sounds good Dutchgirl. Enjoy Spain, its always a nice drive down there through the Pyrenees.

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Spring is here, spring is here... Life is skittles and life is beer ... :P

We got a pre-spring spring in Spain. We got really lucky with the weather, the week before we went it had still snowed, but by the time we arrived it was very nice spring weather with daily highs of 15-20 degrees C (59 to 68 F apparently). No rain, trees starting to produce leaves, flowers blooming, and things still green and not brown and dusty as they probably will be in a few months.

We had a really good time, a combination of days doing not much at all and days taking a short outing to a nearby town or village. We went to Barcelona too for one day, to give my boyfriend the first taste of it. My my, how Parc Guell has become so much more popular than when I was there in 2005! I thought in early spring it would be quiet, but no.

Next trip is a trip to Paris with my parents, planned for early May. (I see I already announced it in my previous post; well, I spent half a lazy morning in Spain to find a nice but not too expensive hotel near Paris for that trip, so now it's settled and we'll go).

Right before the holiday I had "graduated" from my training (hurray!) and was allowed to start working independently. The plan was for me to work one day per week for this organisation. But there was some bad news at work. The Sunday before my holiday the teamleader from work announced on whatsapp that my direct colleague who was on a skiing trip had had a severe accident and was in the hospital. Luckily, she is now home, but she is still recovering. So I worked on the first day of my holiday, from Spain. During that day the teamleader managed to find other people to replace my colleague for the rest of my holiday. Now that I'm home again, I'll work four days per week instead of one to cover some of my colleague's days, while there are still also some self-employed people helping out as well. My colleague is expected to recover over the next couple of months (!), so hopefully in two to three months I can work less again. We have a word called "vuurdoop" in the Netherlands, apparently English for that is "baptism of fire" - it has sure felt this way for me, because I've graduated from being a trainee to just being the main person who can do my job.

I do love how the workplace is handling it, though! Both the communication with my colleague (management has sent flowers on behalf of us all, and keeps us updated) and with me about maybe working more. But no pressure.

So instead of working two days per week I'm back to working four days per week. That's not completely what I wanted, but okay. Luckily it's still only during the day (not in the evenings or at night) and from next week onwards I should also be able to easily work from home for one of the days, so I'll have to go into work for three days and work in my pyjamas a fourth one. But still: no evenings, no nights. And I start at 9, not at 8 :-)

Before all this happened I had looked at singing in a choir. The first rehearsal was cancelled because the choir director had Corona. Then I went on holiday. So instead I visited for the first time last Tuesday. I had fun, time flew. What I liked most in the past about singing together in a choir was the moments when every voice group had learned their melody very well and the music came together almost effortlessly. I am quite happy when I can add my voice to those of others to create a beautiful sound. That was not the case for most songs on Tuesday - every voice group was still struggling to stick to their melody, so it sounded more like a fight, ha ha. Except... for the last song of the night. I guess the director saved it for last for that reason. Everyone (except me) knew that song (Freedom, by Racoon) by heart and could sing without hesitation. I will go back next Tuesday. What will be a challenge for me is that when they perform, they do so without sheet music. So far I've always had my sheet music with me to remember the details of the lyrics and the variants in how the notes go up and down. (Because sometimes in the first verse you will sing one melody and in the second verse you will sing another melody). So if I join this choir, I'll have to start singing from memory as well. We'll see.

That's it for now, see you guys some other time!

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Hello all, a quick update as I go into a long weekend (we're off to Paris today).

I love singing in the choir, and I learned that the singing by heart is only for a performance this weekend, and normally they do have the sheet music and/or the lyrics present. I also learned that I accidentally stumbled in right when they started rehearsing for these songs for the performance, so every practice since then we've improved. We're definitely not perfect, but that's okay.

I needed to skip two rehearsals because of toothaches and the necessary dental visits (that could be done in the evenings), unfortunately. I also ate a lot of porridge and soup because I would have pain when chewing. These last weeks were not so fun because of that. But now it seems like the problem has been resolved, so I'm very happy about that.

At work, things are busy but fine. I have nice colleagues who will help me out and I try to do the same. I'm getting to know one of my closest colleagues (whose job activities interconnect with mine the most). She works in the office on the same day as I do (I just go in one day per week now). I'm just now realizing that perhaps I should switch my office work day for a few weeks to also get to know the other close colleague who works on the days when I mostly work from home.
I did learn that there is the possibility that this organisation will soon(ish) merge with another one, but details are not known yet. For me this could mean that my job disappears or is reduced in hours, but I do not care so much. I've learned new skills that are probably in demand. I could find a job all over the country and work it from home most of the time. For my colleagues it is a different matter, as they often have worked for this organisation for twenty years or more and had hoped to work there until retirement. (I do guess this is an extra argument to save up some money all throughout your working life). So that makes things a little bit tense sometimes.

Finally, I heard that recently my colleague who had the accident was still declared completely unfit to work, so that's a bummer. I was hoping that over the next month or so she would slowly start working (from home?) for a few hours per day, which would slowly reduce my extra work hours that I'm doing now. I don't know the details about her state, but that is probably impossible, at least for now.

Bye for now, I'm going to get ready for our trip.

UrbanHomesteader
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Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 9:02 pm

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by UrbanHomesteader »

Enjoy your trip!

rube
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Location: Europe (NL)

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by rube »

It seems that it difficult to stick to the plan(s) regarding work. Hopefully you'll be able to work soon the hours and in a way you want.

How was your trip?

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

rube wrote:
Sat May 20, 2023 8:27 am
It seems that it difficult to stick to the plan(s) regarding work.
Yeah, it is. What I'm doing now is a bit more like what I was used to in the last couple of years, but it's something that I didn't want to keep doing going forward. There is some progress though. After April ended I was shocked to find that I had worked 34 hours per week on average, that's not what I wanted. (Also not very smart of me to only look at the hours afterwards when I had to send in my hours to HR - I could have checked in every week or so). In May so far (see, I'm learning) it looks like I'll be working 27 hours per week. Still much more than what I had planned, but better.

The trip was good. Beforehand the weather predictions hadn't been nice, with lots of rain predicted, so imagine our luck as the only rain fell during an afternoon when we had booked our Louvre tickets and were inside the museum, and on Sunday afternoon when we were too tired to go out anyway after spending time in Paris from Thursday onwards. We walked most of the time, and my parents (at age 74 and 75) could do it easily. I think we all had a good time. It was fun to see my parents' first reaction to the Eiffel tower. (Of course they'd seen pictures, but they hadn't realized the size of the thing).

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

At work the managers and I talked about the future. My colleague who had the accident is experiencing a very slow (and painful) recovery, and it will take some time for her to return to the work floor. My managers know I wanted to work parttime, so they scheduled a meeting to ask me how it's going and what my plans are for the near future. So we've agreed on me continuing to work my current hours up until September, and going back to 12-14 hours per week in October. That will give them some time to see how my colleague is recovering and to find other replacement(s) if necessary.

I'm happy about this plan and I think I can manage the higher workload (oh poor me, 20 hours per week!) until October.

I also looked at the implications for my portfolio and this change will mean that this year I will not be taking money from it (which I was expecting, originally I'd have about a 1.5-2% withdrawal rate this year), but will be adding a few thousand to it (a 1-2% addition rate). So my plans to try withdrawing from my portfolio and see how that feels will be put in storage for 2024 or so, although expected expenses in 2024 will also be lower than in 2023 (we're putting up solar panels this year which costs money and will save money from the third quarter of 2023 onwards).

These last couple of weeks were quite busy with being on call (which happens like four weeks per year) and with preparing and doing a presentation, so I'm looking forward to some more relaxed weeks hopefully. In May I worked on average 23 hours per week, which is still a bit more than the 20/week that's in my contract (and no worries, they will get paid out), but closer to it than April.

DutchGirl
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Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
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Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Yesterday I had a nice dinner with some colleagues from my previous workplace. First they asked me how I was doing and I explained what my days look like. The rest of the meal was spent on updating me how my previous workplace was doing. It's not going so well, I think. They had created a special role that needed about 25 people or so around the country to fill them, with a slightly higher salary (like 10% higher) but also more responsibilities - something like cooperating foreman. So far, 5 out of 25 positions are still not filled 8 months after starting this, and 1 person who started the role has already quit it. There's a lack of employees (I wasn't the only one leaving). They don't have enough people to do the day-to-day work, so one second-level manager has started to work the shifts that nobody else can work (the work at his level should be about managing employees and projects and maybe some preparing for the future). I hear he's not really good at doing the day-to-day work (why would he be, he has been out of it for so long), but at least it's a warm body in a seat so this KPI still looks good. For the work tasks that are a level above the day-to-day work like reacting to complaints or adapting work protocols, a huge backlog now exists. Nobody has time to devote to these tasks.

Also when they talked about the manager and the manager-of-the-manager, I came to the conclusion that when I started working there we had a total of four levels: boss of the company, manager of the department, manager of the division, and the workforce. Now they have boss of the company, manager of the department, manager of the division, regional manager, cooperating foreman (the new role) and then finally the workforce. And... less gets done.

My conclusion is that I'm very happy to not be working there anymore. It was a good decision to leave. Back in the day I tried to change the trajectory or at least have the higher-ups listen to us so that they would change the trajectory, but it didn't work. I think I did more than I was obligated to do... and now I'm out. This week I heard also another ex-colleague of mine is leaving for likely a better job, so hurray for her. Of the colleagues I spoke to yesterday, two are close to retirement age (1-3 years out), so they have apparently decided to just stay put, and for the others I do hope that they will start exploring other options some day. But of course, it's also true that some people can handle working in a dysfunctional organisation for longer than others, depending on your character, health and circumstances.

Looking at my current workplace, the two managers scrambled to find someone to do the day to day work when my colleague had her skiing accident, and then after they had the first week or so covered, they started to think about the longer term and how to make sure the work could go on. And they talked to me and others about what we could possible contribute and then thought about how they could create a temporary construction until my colleague has recovered. And two months in they talked to us again now that it looks like my colleague will take longer to recover. I think that's part of what a first-level-manager should do. Of course things aren't perfect, what is a bit worrying is that we're also looking at a shortage of employees that seems hard to combat given that there's a shortage of employees nationwide, unemployment is low. We'll see.

Before the dinner yesterday I had a one time training day with my choir. A trainer taught us more about how to use your body when singing. It's not only about the vocal chords, folks. It was fun to do this together and it will probably help us produce nicer sounds when singing. I also concluded that I really should spent some time on learning the melodies and lyrics by heart, as it is hard to focus on producing the most beautiful sounds when you're also still trying to make sure you know what note to sing next or what the next sentence is.

At home we still have our Ukrainian guests. They are really nice people who try to be really good roommates to us. They're really considerate. The guy found a job here in the Netherlands a few months ago, so now they are ready to move on and find their own place to live, but it turns out that right now it is pretty hard to find a rental for not toooo much money in the The Hague area (where his job is). We already warned them about that, but in the last couple of weeks they have experienced it. They're trying really hard to find a place, but no luck so far. From July onwards they have been offered that they can housesit an apartment in The Hague for two months. For us this means we'll have our full privacy back for at least those two months, and maybe during that time they will find an apartment to rent on their own, who knows. If not, they're welcome back at our place for let's say a few more weeks.

Sometimes to me it's funny how this started out as a vague idea to try to help, and how then in reality you end up with these two specific people, and one day you talk about the war and the future, and the next day you talk about the best place to buy strawberries. It's really nice to have met them, and I hope they can find a place in the Netherlands to stay from where they can redevelop their own life.
For the foreseeable future we will not take in new refugees. I would maybe still be inclined to (if the organisation that matched us can make another match that looks reasonable), but my guy doesn't want to do it anymore, and we both have veto rights on this topic, of course. But maybe someday.

Last weekend I did absolutely nothing because it was way too hot to care about anything. I'm glad the choir training was this weekend, and it was fun. Today, Sunday, I don't have anything that needs to be done, which means I can pick and choose. Nice. See ya!

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

A random update.

Last night my guy slept with a monitoring medical device to see whether he suffers from apnea. He thinks not, I think there's a good chance. He has been suffering from lack of energy for like ten years now, getting up tired and needing a nap somewhere between 2 and 5 PM to keep functioning. Tiredness is quite typical for sleep apnea, AND he snores, but is it truly what's happening and will the registration (a "watch", an oxygen sensor on his finger, and a movement sensor on his chest close to his neck) have caught it? Or at least enough to support the idea of further research in a sleep lab?
I have been telling him for years now to go see the doctor about this, and finally he listened. Maybe because he also got really grumpy and I called him out on it. Now I'm hoping that we get an idea of what's happening and that it's treatable.
Results will be known in about a week.

At my work I'll start training a new colleague July 17th. This will be more work in the beginning, but hopefully, hopefully less work once she gets the hang of it. My old colleague, the one who had the skiing accident, is hoping that she can start working again in September (first for just a few hours per week), but things are not looking good. Her recovery has stalled somewhat, somehow.

I started ordering relatively healthy meals from a company called "Uitgekookt". They mostly cook meals for the elderly, the meals arrive on your doorstep refrigerated and you can keep them for a few days in the fridge before you prepare them in the microwave or the oven. They are healthier and they taste better than the microwave meals that you can buy in the supermarket. They are also slightly more expensive, around 8-9 euros per meal. I'm ordering four meals, two for each of us, per week. So I'm cooking like three to four times per week, ordering in one time per week (at a cost of like 20-25 euros for the two of us) and two days are taken care of by these meals.

Our solar panels will be installed this week, I'm looking forward to that. I hope they will start working well without hiccups. But we'll see.

We had the last rehearsal before the summer holiday of the choir last week. It was fun. Sometimes when I go I'm tired, but I always come back energized. We'll start again at the end of August and I'm already looking forward to it. Meanwhile it's also nice to have the evening off for a couple of weeks.

DutchGirl
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Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Yup, severe apnea is the diagnosis for my guy.
And now on to finding the best possible treatment. And then, who knows, trying to keep up with him when he's fit instead of drowsy and tired all the time. Fingers crossed.

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

The solar panels have arrived, and are working just fine so far. The installation cost about 2-3 hours (for 8 panels, 4 x 2 on one roof area). And since then, we produce more electricity than what we use. Over the full year we will probably produce less than what we use, though. These were pretty sunny summer days. And that's okay. My estimate is that they will cover 50-67% of our electricity needs and the rest we will still buy from the energy company. I do really really like watching the graphs. Well, that's no surprise I guess :-)

My new colleague has arrived, and so far so good. I was scared that I wouldn't have any time to teach her things due to needing to keep "production" up, but over the week I've managed to have a lot of time to educate her. And of course, you never know for sure how eager or lazy someone is, but for now she makes a good impression, so that's good also. Next week she should be able to do some easy tasks by herself (saving me and some of my colleagues some time), and then we'll move on to teaching her more about the tasks that are difficulty level 2 (this job goes to level 4 :-) ). Then when she can do level 1 and level 2 tasks, she will save me a lot of time which will help make time to teach her level 3 and in time level 4. Level 4 is rare, so if she can do 1-3 she can do like 95% of the daily work.

And this could mean that while my colleague who had the ski accident is still not capable of working, the new colleague at some point can take over some of my extra work hours and I can go back to working less. That would be pretty awesome!

After some thinking, my boyfriend will try a CPAP machine for the obstructive apnea, it has now been ordered over at the healthcare organisation, and hopefully they will contact him at the beginning of the next week to lend him one. Apparently the mask that goes on your face needs to be right for the face, so someone will come and fit one on him? We'll see. And then they always let someone try it for three months apparently, after which the decision has to be made on whether or not he continues using it. Right now it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon here and he went for a nap after being grumpy for an hour or two, so for me this machine can't arrive quick enough. I'm hoping for a rebirth and a well-rested boyfriend right after the first night with the machine... But okay, maybe I should not have my hopes up that high.
I am a little pissed off that he doesn't acknowledge that I WAS FUCKING RIGHT that his tiredness wasn't a normal level for someone age 45-50 and that he needed to go see a doctor to get some tests, and he is still not fully convinced that the registration was correct or that the apnea causes the sleepiness... but I am a bit scared that if I fight with him over this, he won't give the CPAP machine a fair chance. And if he hasn't had a good night's sleep in like five years, perhaps I should consider him of not sane mind right now. So I hold my tongue and really really hope that he will feel a difference and become motivated by himself to continue treatment for the apnea.

Yesterday we had dinner at an aunt of mine. She's 63 and she has now received a small inheritance of her parents who recently died at pretty old age. Now she is considering not taking on any more projects (she's an independent contractor), and to cover the gap between now and retirement age (66.5 years) with the inheritance. (NB you won't get social security at an earlier age than 66.5 years here in the NL, not even a lower amount). And then at retirement age social security and her pension plans will kick in and she'll be okay. At the very least after her current project has ended in a few weeks, she will take a long summer holiday. It was fun to talk to her about this, and she assured me that she won't be bored with all the hobbies that she has. I'm pretty confident that she'll enjoy it, too. Or maybe in a year she'll just do one more fun project, but that's totally up to her.

radamfi
Posts: 143
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2014 5:46 pm

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by radamfi »

DutchGirl wrote:
Sat Jul 22, 2023 12:01 pm
I am a little pissed off that he doesn't acknowledge that I WAS FUCKING RIGHT that his tiredness wasn't a normal level for someone age 45-50 and that he needed to go see a doctor to get some tests, and he is still not fully convinced that the registration was correct or that the apnea causes the sleepiness... but I am a bit scared that if I fight with him over this, he won't give the CPAP machine a fair chance. And if he hasn't had a good night's sleep in like five years, perhaps I should consider him of not sane mind right now. So I hold my tongue and really really hope that he will feel a difference and become motivated by himself to continue treatment for the apnea.
I presume this means he doesn't read this thread! :D
DutchGirl wrote:
Sat Jul 22, 2023 12:01 pm
(NB you won't get social security at an earlier age than 66.5 years here in the NL, not even a lower amount)
Isn't that the same in all countries? You write this as if NL is unusual in this respect. I thought it was universally understood that you have to work until your country's retirement age unless you can live off your own savings.

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Radamfi, as I understand it, in the US you can take social security "early", but then you get a lower amount per month for the rest of your life.
As I understand it, in the US currently you can start taking at age 62 but with a reduced amount, you receive your "full amount" at about age 66, and you can receive even more if you wait until age 70. So that is why I specified that you cannot do such a thing in the Netherlands.

chenda
Posts: 3289
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:17 pm
Location: Nether Wallop

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by chenda »

DutchGirl wrote:
Sat Jul 22, 2023 12:01 pm
I am a little pissed off that he doesn't acknowledge that I WAS FUCKING RIGHT that his tiredness wasn't a normal level for someone age 45-50 and that he needed to go see a doctor to get some tests,
Haha I think would be as well. They say men are often reluctant to see doctors as they don't routinely go.

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