This year is flying. Can you believe it’s already June? I had two weeks in Mauritius and it was great. The island itself is beautiful. For the geographically challenged it’s next to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. There are lots of white sandy beaches with amazing turquoise water. We did the usual tropical paradise thing. There were a few lazy days at the beach, a fair bit of boating, a trip to the mountains, many delicious meals and one magnificent cocktail accompanied sunset. It was also quite nice to see Jarno again. Click here Mauritius for pictures. I dove straight back into the thick of things here in Holland.

Work is chaotic, but very interesting at the moment. My projects and colleagues are fun. Well except for one manager in my division. I had a run in with him last week. He’s still angry that women were allowed out of the kitchen a few decades ago and takes every possible opportunity to let me know. He took it a bit far last week by saying to me, “I can make your life very difficult, I can be a real a*hole”. Thankfully he’s not my direct manager. Of course I escalated it and now I’m living in political city. I’m glad I took that assertiveness course last year…

Socially things are great. There was a Canon sailing day last week. I know the idea of spending your Sunday with colleagues doesn’t sound so crash hot. It was fun though. Klaas also lives in Utrecht and we decided to ride our bikes there. For some reason it never occurred to me that 80km (5hrs) is a bloody long way. At least there weren’t any hills. I also did a Mozaic course with Colleen. I think I may have discovered my very well hidden artist within! When they said, “Start drawing your design!”, my heart raced as I flashed back to my high school art teacher.

She would always stand beside me while I painted and give me that sympathetic just keep trying look. With a little help from Colleen it turned out great. Click here Fun People & Parties I’m also still busy with Dutch and tennis. Jarno’s back on Saturday so I guess I’d better tidy up the place a bit too. I hope everything is well with everybody. Don’t be a stranger