Just a slight difference.

 

Last week at some point,  and it seems to me it was on the Friday,  Travelling Companion got a note from a gentleman in the Canadian Division of the Company that Cannot be Named,  asking her if she wouldn’t mind giving him a call?   She had worked with this fellow previously,  but these days the word is that he’s been elevated to the level of  “Grand Fromage” on that end of things.

Hey, whatever.

Now,  maybe it’s from living in Europe for four years, we’re not sure,  but her immediate reaction to such a request was basically a sense of dread.  Sad but true.

“What does he want?”,  was her first line of thinking,  but after the appropriate time had passed on Monday (you need to wait until mid afternoon if you plan on calling North America) she sucked it up and called the guy.

Know what he said?  “Oh, I just thought I’d ask what we can do for you.” 

(Editor’s note: Are you f**king kidding me??)

 

Of course,  I think there might have been just a second or two of incredulous silence on her end,  but she managed to put her brain in gear in spite of her utter shock and mentioned that she’d be bringing her computer, but that she'd need a phone.   “Oh no problem then,  we’ll get you a smart phone.”

Just. Like. That.

“And we’ll have an office ready for you by the time you get here as well.”   I’m paraphrasing,  but it was something to that effect.

Again, are you kidding me?    You mean to say it’s possible to have a few things ready for an executive when they’re transferring overseas?  What… a ….concept!   Not like when we came to Europe and she had to borrow a phone,  in spite of the fact that I can walk out my front door here,  into any number of shops within 50 metres and have a working phone in under an hour.   Chimps.  

I suspect that Travelling Companion’s swan song will be like a breath of fresh air.  Unless of course,  it’s just some devious ploy.   No, let’s not think like that.

I do realise she is going back to the “home land”, so to speak, so perhaps that has something to do with it.

Canadians have to do things like prepare for winter every year, and stuff like that, but that shouldn’t have anything to do with the idea of ‘being prepared’.  Really.

Oh, and by the way,  he’s not in HR. One rarely hears a peep from HR.  HR are the most useless bunch you could ever have the misfortune of ever being subjected to.   Just my opinion of course.  If you happened to work in HR, I’m sorry.   But if I were you,  I wouldn’t talk about it too much.  Tell everyone you’re a Fireman,  or even a Caretaker.

It reminds me of a car I saw in Burlington when we were home that belonged to the City of Burlington.  It had “Engineering” written on the side.  See, you may as just well write “Idiots” in its place and be done with it,  since that’s pretty much everyone’s opinion.   It’s right up there with “Building Department”.  

Personally, I’d be too embarrassed.

Just when I think I can’t come up with a segue,  speaking of cars and being slightly embarrassed, have I ever shown you one of these?

 

 

I took this Monday morning.  Note the white stuff. 

This folks, is a “Moped”.  Yes yes, I know,  I always thought Mopeds had only two wheels,  and that you had to pedal yer arse off to get the thing going.  It wasn’t until we moved to the Netherlands and I was given a Driver’s Handbook (whole other story) that I learned that they come in a vehicular form.  Crazy, huh?   They sound like they have a two-stroke engine,  are limited to 45 kph,  and my impression is that you don’t need much in the way of a licence to drive one, if at all.

I could look it up but really,  who cares?

Every so often there’s some bit of wackiness over here that makes you do a double take.  Kind of like when Travelling Companion got her Dutch driver’s license, and she was suddenly qualified to operate a scooter.  Heehee!  Right.  Like that’s going to happen!   Oh Gawd!

Mind you,  we have seen some absolutely gorgeous scooters, and there was temptation.  But T.C.?  I’m not saying that it would be an absolute impossibility,  but the learning curve would be,  say we say? interesting?   Let’s just leave it at that.

Anything’s possible.

 

Speaking of slightly awesome.  I saw this this morning.

 

 

Talk about practical.   It doesn’t quite look right to our North America sensibilities,  but you can fit four burly guys in there (or gals I suppose,  to each his/her own)  AND throw a skid of plywood on the back.  AND take it off from either side.   Man oh man!

I’ve had work vans and pick-up trucks,  and neither of those combinations were all that ideal.  With the pick-up truck,  you can never take anything out over the side,  for fear of scratching the crap out of the paint,  and well,  the vans I had were pretty bare.  But that was my own choice.  There was no third option like the one above.

 

Muggins here has the car today,  and I’ll be off shortly to pick up T.C.,  since there’s a Dr’s appointment scheduled for later this evening.  No big deal,  just a regular sort of thing,  but the lack of parking is such that it’s best that I drive and drop her off at the door.  I keep my cell phone handy to do the retrieval when she emerges.  It’s life in the big city.

Of course,  this makes “Cooking with Bob” a bit of a challenge,  but I made a bean salad last night,  and I’ll pop a frozen pizza in the oven when we get home.  Easy peasy.

 

I should have got the smaller can of white beans,  ‘cause it’s looking a bit too white there,  but it’s fine.   It’s supposed to have “garbanzo beans”  or “chick peas” if you prefer,  but I’ve never seen them here.  

I can do without them.

There was some grumbling last night about the amount of oil I used (not enough apparently) so I may have to rectify that this evening.  I’ve been known to “overdo it”, so I guess I was compensating.

 

Watch those carbs.

 

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