My blue friend

When I left Nice at the beginning of Nice I rented a little van via Locauto at a good price. For this weekend I need to do the same however I am no longer in Nice so I need to find a rental company that provides the same service.

A quick search on the internet learned that Maggiore is the rental agent and they are based in Sanremo. Great, not too far. Even better all can be booked on the internet. Registration on the site, selection of the van, the right pick up and drop off times, click to confirm... Error message. This van is not available. Merde, I select the other ones and each van is not available, which either means they are very successful or their system sucks. Frankly, I believe the later part.

A quick call to them learned me that I wasnt wrong. All are available but the system doesnt allow vans to be hired through the internet. Basically you can go through the complete procedure but at the end you can confirm. I wanted to say that it might be better to indicate that straight but didnt bother.

I confirmed my booked and the guy replied; thank you for booking at Amico Blu. Excuse me? Yes, the van rental part is called like that.

Right, so Saturday I will be driving my Blue Friend to the heights of Seborga, a real adventure.

Headache V1.0 for Wii?

Yesterday and today I am at war with a splitting headache and sofar the headache is winning. I tend not to take to quickly any form of medication but I have been drinking the 1000mg dose as water. The headache has taken away the desire for coffee, which is strange cos generally you will get an headache if you dont take any, being slightly addicted ...

But when you sit behind your desk and dont move too much it is fine. However when you start picking up pieces of paper, running from left to right, taking and making calls, the effects feel like a Wii overdose.
Movements is great but while your brain is trying to leave its shelter it enjoyed so long, it becomes a bit more annoying.
This sounds indeed a bit like complaining but luckily I am hardly ever ill so maybe it was just a little test to see if I can cope. And men generally have a great pain
threshold...

So, I can honestly say, there wont be lost of Wii-ing at this stage and I think that the new Wii fit wont help either. That is a Wii bit annoying but I am sure it will be all over tomorrow.

Parents Holiday Facts

My family asked me if my parents are ok in this new part of the world... well I can confirm a number of things and add some interesting facts !

Reading books is fun, even more with over 300 pages.
Sun is the preferred weather for holidays
At their age you dont cook anymore you go to a restaurant, everyday!
Small trips are ok, but dont overdo it.
White wine is healthy.
Cookies, chocolate, crisps and panini's are yummy.
An espresso comes in varies forms and shapes, let's try them all.
Watching sport is fun, certainly with 50 village men in a pub.
The bed is so comfortable it should be used for lots of sleeping.
Shopping for groceries is fun and cheap.
Being not in Holland is great but why does Elma make headlines now?

Well, you get the point, there are having a good time and Bordighera for them is like a small Nice but more friendly with lots of good restaurants at good prices.
I guess they will never leave...

Flower Powerless

Yesterday the Bos family opted for a trp to Imperia to check out a famous flower decoration parade. This was big so we better take the train. In the whole of Bordighera there are only nice people the only not nice one is sitting behind a big window selling train tickets. First attempts we got two tickets for Genoa one way...and many no capito's. The three people standing in front of her asking for three tickets seemed a hard one.

Next phase taking the train, not easy cos all indicated trains work but not on a bank holiday or Saturday or when it rains or ...well you get it.
Finally we arrived at Impera at a little train station with no bus in sight we decided to walk. There was not a flower in sight and I started to worry. We entered the first bar to ask the lady who had never heard of the festival and mentioned that there is a second Imperia town 3 km further on. Interesting. We decided not to give up and than at least have a look at the dome. We struggled up the hill and arrived at the dome which was massive and very nicely decorated, worth the little walk.
A quick stop to get a lunch in a bar that was used to play cards or play slot machines eg LOTS of noise but fun.

Just before we left, my father gave a last attempts to get the info on the flowers and he came back with a smile, 200 meters from the bar was the start. Well that is a good surprise BUT the owner told us that they have started the work on it for tomorrow morning, about 50 meters but only 1 meter was actually done. A builders deja vu feeling came across me...

When we finally reached the place, plenty of women were decorating drawings on the floor with cut up flowers and different types of powder, legal stuff of course.
Interesting but not so interesting as we thought.
We took a close look at the 1 meter and discovered the tiny city further and decided to head back to see if we got catch a train.
Ours was at 18.35 but funnily enough we arrived at 17.25 and there was one at 17.41 although nowhere indicated.
It seems that the world of trains and flowers is still a mystery to us...

Flappy strikes back

Yesterday evening was of course the biggest night of the year in terms of the Champions league football final in Moscow.
For the first time two English team that reach the final and battle it out for the cup with the big ears. Unfortunately due to some business commitments I didn’t manage to see the match but I was lucky when at the 90th minute the score was 1-1 and 30 minutes needed to be added to decide the winner. Chelsea was of course the ‘local’ favourite thanks to the cheque book of uncle Roman (800 million euro spent) and Man United the international favourite (and they only spent 100 million).

The English fighting spirit was definitely present, although the majority of the team is cover a multitude of countries. I don’t really favour any of the teams (Ajax is my team although I now tend to be shy about mentioning that) but ManU had a slight preference for me simple because of Flappy ! Who? Flappy van der Sar, the Dutch goal keeper of ManU and previous winner with …Ajax. This old windmill is capable of keeping the ball out of the goal just by waving his ears and he is a nice guy.

So I did place my bet prior to the match and I predicted 1-1, overtime and penalties and ManU as the final winner. I placed the huge amount of 5 euros on it and ordered a Panini cos diner was forgotten a bit. In a thrilling final where the rain was pouring down, the English supporters drank all the booze available on the Red Square, it looked like it would be heading to penalties and THAT would be the best time for Flappy to sign!

Indeed, Erwin Hiddink was not wrong and penalties were taken with ooooppss Ronaldo missing for ManU, pretty strange after having scored 41 goals this season but thanks for the additional excitement. Than Terry of Chelsea thought it was nice to slide before kicking and things were tied again. Now it is one after the other and the first person to miss will loose it all, what a poetic justice…

And and, FLAPPY managed to grab hold of the very simpatico (not) Anelka and It was all over ! Flappy strikes again and he will be happy to get hold of a trophy that has even bigger ears than his !

Elma Holmes...

After almost 15 years and two innocent people jailed my little sister has just solved the biggest crime story in the region ! Ok, she had a little help from some blue wearing officers (no smurfs) and this morning they arrested the suspect and this afternoon, Elma took the stand. Organising the press conference, introducing the case to the journalist and even a meeting with Holland biggest crime fighter Peter R de Vries. The police has never looked so smart !
Soon there will be an Elma fanclub and I am looking forward to see her pushing that moustache...congrats little sis!

Check it out here

Eggs are creative too

At JuniorSenior we are always on the look out for new things, fun things, interesting things, basically things that make you say; cool ! fun ! nice ! Of course the majority comes from inside our company ;) but there are some other agencies that are taking up the challenges and this example is one I picked up recently at Sony and it is visually very strong and doesn’t need a lot to make its message clear, simple and well thought.

And a good message, we all need to relax now and than.

Delivery time, Peruvian style

Yesterday morning at 10.00 o’clock I received the long awaited delivery of the kitchen and many other stuff that I ordered in Genova. Unfortunately the delays of the work have made the access road rather Paris-Dakar and sliding down doesn’t seem to be an option, so you can imagine that I was slightly worried… A huge truck arrived and three tiny men got out of it.
Two looking like they played the flute in the street as part of the Peruvian whistle blowers that for long have graced our streets. Ooops, this looks like it will be difficult and I got even more worried when I showed them the access road and where it needed to be installed. They started straight to light a cigarette and discuss this among each other.

Than they opened the lift door and the started to unpack thing and the 2,50m fridge combination was staring like Goliath at two little Davids… But than my eyes almost popped out when the tiniest man turned its back on the fridge and carried, running down the steep access road, into the house!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes! They must have been doing Sherpa tracking in the mountains cos these two guys were unbelievable, asking each time to put more and more on their shoulders, head or back. Within 2 hours a huge trucks was empty and in between they cracked a number of jokes and managed to make several calls.

I was really impressed because they also put everything in the right place, had all the paper work sorted out and were never complaining about the quantity the weather of the work. (try that with the guys at the SNCF in France)

At the end I was really pleased that they did so much work and so quick in a situation that was easy for them and a little bonus was in order.
Next time when I will see them playing their bamboo pipes I will give them an extra euro and might even go for the cd…although, I shouldn’t stretch it too far…

Orange is everywhere

The European Championships are approaching and some people might start to notice that The Netherlands is quickly turning into a place of Orange. Houses are being painted orange, cars will be kitted out with orange features, the mayonnaise is produced orange and with thanks to my parents…M&Ms are adopting the same strategy and have produced oranges ones.

Taste wise there is of course no difference and they still don’t melt in your hand, but when you crock one in your mouth you can almost hear 40,000 people shouting and singing.

As with every football championship we have the best players and the best coach and we will as usual put in a bad performance and loose on penalties but I am happy cos those M&Ms are keeping the dream alive and my stomach filled. Oufff I just finished 300 grams and it feels a bit strange, my mum thinks that I will soon turn orange… A bit early bit it might come in handy soon…

Bordighera is da bomb!

Today there is a huge party in Bordighera. The reason? I have no clue but they are not kidding when they are building a party area… This morning they have taken all the ammunition that was left over from the Iraq war and installed it on the beach front. A number of serious looking chaps have been building strange looking pipes and boxes and another number of serious looking policemen have been keeping an eye on things.

Obviously wearing the full uniform that must be 50 degrees by now and drinking an espresso. It looks like tonite they will put in a good effort to clean Bordighera right off the map and at least get rid of the ‘weapons’ that obviously have been laying around in somebody’s garage and he was cleaning up or something. They will set light to it at 22.00 tonite and that could be my last blog…if I will be too close. It has been a pleasure…

The garden pimp feature of the year

The new garden needs to get designed and for this the use of Bos Inc has flown in. They have already provide me with the kit to create enough havoc in the garden to last me a while…

But I clearly instructed them to provide me with something that is memorable and that is a real feature in the garden. They have gone through great lengths and found this rather exquisite garden gnome to pimp my garden. Have a look at the picture and you will agree with me, this gnome rules! He even has a sign for deaf people and has a macho way of being a gnome, you can almost hear him saying, hey, what’s up !
He even provides a source of light when soaking up the sun and is therefore environmental friendly too!

I personally think that I am off for a great garden and that this part of the pimping exercise is a real hit. Having said so… when we had a closer look, his cool arm dropped off…sheer gnome pressure.

Garden Survival Kit

My parents have arrived with about 60 kilos of additional weight to them. This additional weight was part of the present for the new house and involved several stages of revealing it.

The initial stage covered all the tool to dig up the earth, the second stage was more subtle, smaller version of the first stage. The follow stage was a more useful stage, 20 kilo of earth and 20 kilo of some other type. These bags were obviously only bursting open when they arrived on my kitchen floor. Than the decorative stage, nice baskets and a tray to pimp the garden even further. Final stages, plants ! Yes, even that came from Holland. Strawberries and lavender and some other plants with strange leafs…

All has been professionally been put together and ready to get shipped over to its new ground.
The next phase will be designing the garden area and that will be a bit more difficult but well if you are be able to take half the garden center with you from Holland, I guess that this is just a little challenge.

Where to watch the curling

My parents are soon arriving to assist with the painting work and installing bits and pieces in the house... Well, that was the plan! However the Italian Builder Gods have decided against this and another delay has made me prolong my stay at the rented apartment and even added a second for my parents. (this with lots of help from the real estate agent) The delay was quiet obvious since the access road was not even ready and the toilet was fixed, or bearly. After a heated discussion between the constructor and the real estate agent (I was not present to see this soap opera)

I got the report that said that they thought the house was ready to move in... The real estate had a right fit and kicked some builders behind to come to some kind of agreement. This agreement is still to be confirmed and the new date will be the 1st of June. Although the builder believes that it will be most likely the 19th of May. This would be good but still a bit late. As noted in my dads email, he was thinking that I invested in a big LCD screen and that he could watch a huge variety of sportevents from Seborga. With the Giro d'Italia, F1 in Monaco, the champions league final and of course the World Champion Curling in Kazachstan...

A right shame of course! Even worse, he doesnt know that the rented apartment doesnt even has a television and he therefore is obliged to visit the region, dressed up in white trainers and a hawaii shirt and taking pictures of cultural things.
Mr Bos has to become a tourist instead of a sportist. Well, I hope that the house will be finished soon before the European Championships football start, I guess you need to have goals in your life...

Toilet not Yet

One of the most remarkable things missing in the house for the moment is the toilet and sink. Two elements that really are essential to increase the comfort of your own home and although (as you can see) they were delivered a while ago, nobody seemed to be bothered by them and certainly there was no intention to actually nail them to the wall. I was willing to give it a go but after a quick look in my Marketing books, I was not be able to find anything that relates to toilets.

But surprise surprise when I paid yet another visit to the site at around 20.30 in the evening. There was just about enough light (natural light) to notice that the bathroom had been pimped with a sink and a toilet on the first floor and a toilet and bidet on the second. Fantastic, they only thing was that it had not been hooked up properly nor fixed to the wall, which I reckon will take yet another 10 days or so... But it is funny to notice that the simple sight of a toilet can make you happy!
Now I just have to hope that I dont feel the urge to....because that would complete things a bit further.
Hurayyyyyyy for toilets !

Artful Mess

When you are on site it is quiet annoying to see what is wasted. The number of metal frames, tiles, wooden cases, plastic bits and pieces are scattered across the ground. Some will end up in the ground being buried by the builders ( I spotted this before and manage to get 25 kilos of metal frames removed afterwards) and others will be taken away and dumped somewhere.

I still find it strange that there isn’t a company that deals with these things and takes care of builders waste. ( I am not talking about the numerous beer bottles) The environment is mostly likely to suffer from this and I don’t like to stick my hands in the ground while gardening and ending up with my hands sliced by some left over parts. Since getting rid of the waste is expensive it is hard to actually convince them to do so. On the other hand, have a look at the photo and see how arty cut off terraces tiles are ! I am sure that Damian Hirst would be able to sell this at a top price and so solving the cost problem of getting rid of waste in a proper way.

Paint Faint

When your house is being built and the only thing your are adding to it is basically …Money, it is nice that you get the opportunity to do some else and painting is just that.With 30 liters of paint for the 1st and 2nd layer, plenty of brushes and other useful tools, the painting process started. The worst possible start is always the ceiling, that is tough to do and the 1st layer always seems to take forever. But with a fresh summer breeze and plenty of non smelly paint the ceiling got his first layer as well as the walls. Rewarding to see it being virgin white and with the left over paint I walked upstairs to do the staircase and the bathroom.

Sometimes it is good that the parquet floor and toilets are still missing, so that I can mess around with the paint without causing any problems. Although the bath room was challenging with the new tiles and bath, you need to be an acrobat to paint.
About 40m2 is done now which means that there is still plenty to do and it became clear that the living room and its ceiling will be the worst thing to do. The sheer size makes it a tough job that will take an amateur painter as moi very long so I guess this needs to be outsourced to somebody that actually knows what he is doing.
It is nice to contribute to the finalisation of the house but in the end…paying somebody to get it all sorted isn’t a bit thing either.

Sherlock Builder

Normally I was allowed to move in on Saturday providing that the exterior of the house still needed to be finished and I was therefore very happy to accept my delivery of electronic appliances on Saturday, after hours of waiting.
In the meantime I continued to scrutinize the house for the progress and things they have put in place since the last visit. Of course they know me by now and know ways to cover up but this time I came prepared! I dressed up as filter unit (as you can see in the picture) to blend in with the building equipment and to Sherlock my way through the two floors.

That morning it was even clearer than in my denial phase…I would not be able to set foot in this for a number of weeks. With no parquet floor, fuse boxes hanging out of their sockets, no actual electricity, hot or cold running water and no inside painting and this was just the inside.

The outside access was now a big long grave that had welcomed a number of funky coloured tubes but still not sure for what. The toilet etc had arrived but was still sealed on a pallet in front of the house. I got in the car and drove back to prepare myself for the Abfab wedding.

When I arrived home I got a text message of the real estate guy confirming my worst fear…the builder has come clean and admits that they are well behind schedule and that the 1st of May isn’t possible and that the 1st of June is more likely. Fantastic… with deliveries scheduled, parents flying in, painting in full progress etc I now need to be more patient again.
On Monday I will meet with the builders to get compensation for the 1 month rent and I will ask them to paint the inside too, which seems fair because they had confirmed a fortnight ago that it all would be fine. Let’s wait and see what will be the next surprise.

I guess that the disappointed only is stronger when you can actually see the finish line but in any case the line has not disappeared it merely moved a bit further.

Wash up Man

With Superman, Spiderman, Batman and of late Ironman, there are a lot of superheroes around that are helpful! However the majority are just men dressing up in silly outfits and trying to save the world. But the AsterCorperation has come up with a complete new superhero that is useful and can be purchased in every respectable Supermarket.

It is the Wash Up Man ! A powerful Michelin like man with a pointy hat that when you squeeze him the right way, will produce just about enough of green liquid that does marvels when it is mixed with water. I tried it on plates, knifes, cups and saucers and the result is amazing. Finally a Superhero that I can appreciate and that delivers results ! And that for a price inferior of that of a ticket to see Ironman! Wash Up Man coming to a sink near you soon!

Operation Goat

Creative people have creative ideas and when you need to get a present for creative people we tend to go through great lengths to be creative too. At JuniorSenior this is no different and when we needed to decide to get AbFab a wedding present, the team decided that this should be two goats. Yes very creative indeed :)

So, just a couple of days before the big day I receive an email explaining me the decision making process and the end result and basically I was voted to find them the goats. Well, as everybody know, the Goat d’Azur is very well known for its goat population and there are Goat ‘r Us Shops on every corner of every street…
First stage, Goat Google. Results quiet limited and very often not really related to the issues, although the closest I could find was Goat Kebab, not really the shape nor form I was planning on giving them.

The second stage, getting the info from experts, on the phone, per email etc
A kennel had two but didn’t wanted to sell them. Another person might sell them to me but I needed to drive for 4 hours and wasn’t sure that they would have the right ones. I mean, they needed to look like the new owners…
I visited all the possible Animaleries on the Cote d’Azur, wearing a suit and asking for goats made people suspicious and on numerous occasions I was given a real Gestapo interrogation.
Be careful because they need to be milked, they will eat everything and destroy your land, the have special needs for food and shelter, be careful that you don’t stress them etc etc.

But still goatless! I was then referred to the Agricultural Cooperative in Antibes that sells to companies and farmers and as everybody told me the last possible option. I parked my car in between some tractors and asked the lady at the reception that let me wait for 10 minutes discussing the program on last nights television. When I explained the problem she has one simple answer, sorry we don’t have those. But my bad luck was about to turn when all of a sudden a strange looking man popped from behind a pair of shelves asking me The question; Are you looking for some goats ? Yes, Sir! Well, I have them! Fantastic, two please. But I wont sell them to you! Oh, that is helpful. The guy (at closer observation) was covered in goats number two and probably cuts his hair while wearing a flowerpot, seemed less of a savour. But he said, I know a place where there is a bulletin board and I think I have seen somebody that wanted to sell goats. Great ! Lets go. We ended up staring at a board with no goat adverts on it but just a Brebis, which I forgot …but is the female sheep. That will do! I called the guy, got the usual 10 Questions to get a pseudo goat and scored 10 out of 10. I was be able to pick them up (with the future owners) and a big cheque cos the supply and demand and the subprime crisis is apparently also hitting hard on the goats market.

Now I hope that the couple will like them, cos otherwise I am obliged to take them myself, although I could make kebab…