Thanks for the gifts! Don't worry about being late. I think I missed about half the people I wanted to send gifts to. It's getting harder to spend time on here while having a busy adult life. I hope you're doing well! All the best for 2025!

You're welcome! And thank you for yours!

Ouch! That's a long time to be renovating! I hope you can get it sorted out in some way! I hope you can start enjoying having your own house soon! I was so so so glad I bought my house when I did. It was just before COVID hit, which means I could sit in my garden and watch the birds instead of being stuck in a dark attic with a single window, just below the slanted roof so you could only walk two steps before you have to bow or you'll hit your head. I had all kinds of paperwork which I brought home from work because my contact ended, but I hadn't finished my PhD thesis yet (which I still haven't finished and probably never will finish), so there were piles of paper on the ground everywhere, so you really couldn't walk around. In the summer it would be 36 degrees at 9 in the morning. It was such a strange feeling when I had breakfast in my new house for the first time. I had to walk 5 meters between the kitchen and the only table that I had. That was like 3 times as much walking as was possible in the room that I rented before :P

Oh no, that sounds horrible! I hope Astrid is doing better now! I can't imagine having to go through that.

Yeah, I think I can easily get a job elsewhere I guess, for more salary as well. It's just, when I was still doing my PhD in the hospital, the work environment was super toxic. And here, my colleagues are super nice. We can also work from home more than average and I can take days off whenever I want (as long as I have vacation days left ofcourse). So I don't quite want to leave yet.

Maybe I ate something wrong during New Years, but my digestive system decided it had to clear out from both ways. 😭 I'm back to normal now though!

Ah, yes, I know that company in Veldhoven! My cousin is a car mechanic and he has a friend who used to be a car mechanic too, but who's now working there as well. My cousin is thinking of applying too now because it seems to pay a lot better than his current job. If I have to look for another job, I think I'll try to find something within cycling range. My current job was in cycling range, untill the boss decided HE wanted to cycle, so our office moved to Amsterdam.

Ah, that's so nice! I'm glad you managed though, because it's sooooo nice to have your own place. Unfortunately you have to fix all of the problems yourself, but at least you don't need to wait for months before things get fixed and you can adjust everything to be exactly as you want.

How is Assiejj_x? I have her in my friends list on playstation. And she used to play a lot more than me. But a couple of years ago she suddenly stopped and now only seems to play every couple of months. I hope she is well!

Yes, luckily I can work from home most days of the week. Traffic is horrible. The work is still fun, but my boss has all these vague ideas, then budgets for 1 week. I finish the work but then things aren't how he wants them to be (because I obviously can't read minds) and then I have to redo part of it, taking another week, then I need to add new features to that which takes another week, and suddenly we're two weeks past budget/deadline! For example, we're creating an education module in our software. Boss: "Maartje! Create "teachers"!" Me: "What's a teacher?" Boss: "You have been to school, yes? So you know what a teacher is? Do it." Me: "Suuure, but what's a teacher? Is it a name, email address and phone number? What data should they be able to access? What data should they be able to edit???" Boss: - no response - I create whatever I think a teacher should be. Boss: "No! Teachers shouldn't have access to this, but should be able to edit that and they need to be linked to students so they can create chats!" Me: "I would have liked to know that a month ago when I started designing the database structure.... Now I need to redo the whole thing." Boss: "Why are we not ready at the deadline? Why are we above budget?"

Ugh! Oh well, I've had the past two weeks off. Got sick on new years though, still recovering. I wish I had another week off.

Are you still working at the same place?

i think i will hold off for now but thank you for the response!!