Wealth Management, Indeed.

When I went to work yesterday morning I felt much less nervous than Monday, because I thought I already knew what was coming. Little did I know!
The woman who is leaving whose job I am basically taking over, and who is teaching me how to do her job so the bank (I had to sign a confidentiality agreement, and although only people I know read this blog I don't think I want to risk naming the bank I am working for. But it's a big Swiss bank, and most of you already know anyways.) doesn't kick me out, was at home, ill. When I came in at 9 I was told there was nothing for me to do, and I should just have a look in the computer and, well, nothing else, really. At half 10 I had a meeting with the woman I am actually working for (she does the bank's PR/Communication for the anniversary team, which I am a part of), and she told me to research some things for her, but all in all, I had an extremely slow and boring day.
Except for lunch. At about 12, the only people left in the office were me, the Italian Dude and German Man. Bossman was in Hong Kong, Bosslady was gone for lunch, Bossman's Assistant was ill, Man Who's Leaving Friday was gone for an unknown reason, and Woman Who's Leaving Tomorrow was ill. So, at about half 12, German Man came to ask me if I was hungry and I, thinking I shouldn't impose myself, said 'sort of'. He then invited me to have lunch with him and Italian Dude. Lunch consisted of smoked salmon, yummie stinky cheese (me loves a good stinky cheese), bread rolls, olives, and, last but not least, Champagne. Indeed. It was the highlight of my day. Which, to be fair, wasn't hard because all I did all day was look through boring books and the net, but still, it was an amazing lunch. And I got to taste a (only had one cos I am being good and not eating sweets) celebratory choccie from Sprungli (which is a really good chocolatiere here), which was good, too.
Today I had an amazing day: I finally know my role in the team, I have my own security badge, computer log on, email address, phone number and voicemail, and my own desk.... I am an official person, yay! I have been given some really good responsibilities (like preparing a press conference which I can't attend because I'll be in Reading), and I have two meetings this week already. I am definitely looking forward to Monday!!

I Am Very Nervous

I a bit less than two hours, I have a meeting with a lady who has a communications business, and with whom, if all goes well today, I will be working at a big bank here in Zurich. I'm so nervous!!! Thats all.
Oh no, it isn't: I finished The Railway Children today, and I have to say it is a very good book. I knew the dad was going to come back, but I still cried..... Made me realise my choice of MA has been good after all!

**UPDATE**
The interview (all in German to test my skills) went well, and I have the job! Awesome. No more news today. Buying suit with stepmum this afternoon. Feel very important and clever.

Goodnight

Tomorrow morning I am flying to Zurich. All I have left to do is pack up my laptop and go to sleep. It feels very final for some reason, I guess because I've spent two months with my mum, something I haven't done in about 5 years (since I moved to Germany).
I am spending a month with my father (and stepmother and brother), who has arranged three job offers for me; one is certain, the others will be confirmed or denied this week, and then I'll have to choose which one I take. So my rest is over: work and preparation for Reading beckon me....
I might not be able to go online as much in the land of cheese and chocolate, so see you all sporadically!!!

My Grandparents And Fajitas

After we left the zoo on Friday, my grandparents wanted to go to an italian restaurant they had been to before and quite liked. It turned out to be a lunch-type cafe that was closing as we got there (at about 6 pm). My grandparents, who do not handle a change of plan very well, got very grumpy so I decided to take them to a nice Mexican restaurant nearby to see if they wanted to eat there. They OK'd it and we all ordered fajitas (all with different types of meat). In this place you make your own fajitas, so you get the meat, extra stuff and tortillas all separately on big plates and put whatever you like in the tortillas, and leave whatever you don't like out. My grandparents had never had fajitas before, but quite enjoyed them and came up with the following verdict:
They both really enjoyed their fajitas, but they could do without the pancakes.

The Lack Of A Sea Cow In One's Life

Yesterday I spent the day at the zoo with my grandparents.
This is not a flashback story from when I was a little child. I, 22-year-old BA-owning woman, went to the zoo with my father's parents yesterday. And I really enjoyed myself.
We started at 10:30 and stayed until 17:20. In between we saw everything animal-related in Artis zoo except the aquarium (I'm scared of it because it is so dark and it has fish in), the nocturnal animals house (my grandad thought it was nonsense) and the insectarium (none of us really wanted to see it, it was filled with little kids and my grandparents proclaimed it 'not that good anyway').
It was ridiculously busy in the zoo, it being a nice warm day in the summer holidays, so we almost continually got bumped into by small children and had to listen to their parents make stupid remarks. As my grandad said: 'You're more surprised by the people than the animals'.
The animals were amazing, but I honestly don't know why people go to the zoo with small children, because they do not appreciate it. I can remember when I was a child all I wanted to know was whether I would get an ice cream/hot chocolate (we had a year pass when I was a child so went in any type of weather), whether the lions were still there and whether we could go to the Sesame Street show in the Planetarium. This, yesterday proved to me, is still the main concern for children these days, except you have to replace lions with playgarden (no idea what the proper word in English is) and ice cream/hot chocolate with ice cream, chips, hamburger and a sugary drink of your choice.
My grandparents and I spent the whole day actually looking at all the animals for more than 1 second each, and we had a lovely time. A lot of the animals had had babies, so we saw lots of cute little animals (the baby Margay being the cutest as he looked like a kitten), and lots of awesome looking birds. For some reason I never really pay attention to the birds, but my grandad loves them and there were some really nice-looking ones, including some quite big black birds with very pretty curly feathers on their head, whose name I cannot remember.
The one big disappointment, however, was the lack of Sea Cow. There are about three animals I think every zoo should have: Lions (check), Tigers (only one and they'd amputated her tail but still: check) and Sea Cows. Sea Cows do nothing other than 'swim' in the water and eat Endive, but to me they are the coolest animal ever. In Artis they have this strange kind of aquarium next to the Gorillas and the Hippo for the Sea Cow (I know, it's an interesting combo). From one side you can go down a staircase to look into it, and on the other side you can go up a staircase to look from up top and watch them eat their Endive. I gleefully walked down the staircase to look at my swimming friend, and saw, instead, a fish. An UGLY fish. It turned out they haven't had Sea Cows in ages at Artis (I haven't been in about 5 years), and they have replaced them with fish! I am still appalled and do not know what to do.
How will I cope without knowing my friend the Sea Cow is happily eating Endive in Artis?
I will have to go to London Zoo and see if they have Sea Cows, and make them my friends. Let's just hope their aquarium isn't too posh or well-lit, and that they do nothing but eat Endive. Although, to be fair, not matter how nice the prospective Sea Cows may be, my life will never be the same. Some people may realise life will never be the same when their parents make their old room into a gym. Others may realise the same when their favourite candy is no longer for sale, or has a different name. Yet others may realise the finality of the past when they have to explain their favourite TV shows to younger cousins who look at them like they are crazy.
For me, the realisation that I can no longer dwell on the past and need to move on came when I realised I will never be able to see my lovely friend the Artis Sea Cow (real friends don't need to know each other's names) again.
Childhood is over: all that is left is the dreary path to death. Without a Sea Cow in my life, this seems almost impossible to stomach.

My Brother's New Flat

In about two hours I will be going to my older brother's new flat. He's had it for a while, but I haven't seen it yet, so after I shower, do the dishes and find out where his house is on the map I am off!!! Oh, I've just realised I haven't got him a housewarming present yet, need to do that before I go, too.
The reason I am telling you this is because I am really happy with the way the relationship between my brother and me is going lately. We used to have a lot of problems when we were teenagers and stil living in the same house, but especially since I've started uni we've been better, and now we actually have fun and want to spend time together! This is a big change, and I'm so happy about it! People always used to say we'd be better together later on in life, but I never really believed it because I couldn't see either of us changing that much. Now that it has turned out to be true, life is good.
There is a picture that was taken of the two of us when he was about 4 years old and I was about 1 year old. We're in our pajamas, and he's holding out a peeled apple to me, and my mouth is wide open to take a bite. I've always really loved that picture, but I never really thought we'd get any of that closeness back.
I just wanted to share how happy I am that my brother and I are finally seeing the good things in each other again.

All Hail Bop

My (our) cat (name: Bop. Bobbie or 'the Dog' to family) proved today that he is a MAN.
How he did this: we have a ledge outside the window that he chills on (we have no balcony). Today the window was open, and just as Bop went to sit on the ledge, a pigeon bumped into the closed part of the window, and thought it safe to rest awhile, on Bop's ledge. Of course, Bop quickly sprang into action, chasing away the pigeon, which left quite a few feathers behind in the process.
My cat is a MAN. No doubt about it.

All Is Fair In Love And War

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the grass was soft to sit on. Bernard and Claire were sitting on a picnic rug which was buried under the remains of a very satisfying lunch. Looking at his girlfriend, Bernard knew he was happier than he had ever been before. Claire smiled as she leant over and gave him a long kiss. She swiftly cleared the rug of their lunch and they lay down next to each other. "The park is deserted," whispered Claire, "no one will disturb us.." and she slowly took off her shirt. As Bernard moved to kiss her again, the birds started to sound louder and less charming, until Bernard realised that the incessant beeping came out of his alarm. He should have known, really, because in reality, Claire had never been around long enough to actually finish a picnic lunch. In fact, the last time they had tried to have a romantic picnic, in the period that Bernard now called the 'unhappy time', some kids had recognised Claire and made her sign autographs all afternoon, which she had of course agreed to do because she truly loved her fans. "Kids..." Bernard grumbled, "Bloody pests."
The children, for Bernard, had done it. For the gentle man he was, he had a surprising amount of hatred reserved especially for children, and these children were, unknowingly, ruining his chances of spending some precious time with his already heavily engaged girlfriend. The one time a week he could really spend time with her, Bernard believed, she should understand he wanted to spend some alone time with her, but to her, her work and her fans would always come first. Not being able to break up with Claire because he knew he could not live without her, he chose a far more secretive and devastating - as well as slower - way of making sure their relationship would never be the same. Of course, at the time, he had thought life would become simpler and happier, but he had not accounted for the damage his actions would do to Claire's body and mental state, nor how much the guilt would change him.
As he stepped into his uniform and got ready to go to work, Bernard thought of Claire, or, as the whole world knew her now, Awesome Lady, and he sighed. The beautiful, tender feelings he had so carefully and unintentionally changed into guilt and - through the denial of this guilt - hatred consumed Bernard, or as the whole world knew him, Rubbish Man.
"I must have her!" He thought, "I must have her all for myself!" As he stepped into his Rubbish Van, ready to spread menace and pain, Rubbish Man started to form a masterplan, a plan that would be almost as terrible, and certainly as painful for Awesome Lady, as the plan that had destroyed their relationship so many years ago.

I Am A Despicable Human Being

Or so I am told. Well, not in so many words, but I was told off for not updating soon enough, so I'll relate my weekend to all of youse.
On Thursday, my two brothers and I had pancakes with my uncle, at his place. It was a lot of fun, and my uncle was very happy to have all three of us together again in his (new) house, and even talked about starting a tradition. I was incredibly full when we left, also because of the huge fruit salad we had for pudding.
Friday I went to my friend Merel's house (she's real, no one ever believes me but she really is!! I would post a picture of us here if I thought she wouldn't kill me if I did) and we hung out. I chatted with her and her mum, who has become about as good a friend as Merel is, we've known each other about 9 years now and I've been at their place so many times I feel weird taking the front door, so I never do. Anyways, we sat in the living room talking and watching tv, and I got a (belated) birthday gift!! Yay. Then we had... pancakes for dinner!! Teehee. We went to bed ridiculously late and kept talking till about 4 am, and woke up at about 12 the next day.
So Saturday, we did nothing whatsoever and then I went home for dinner.
Sunday I went to my aunt's birthday party at her girlfriend's new house in Nijmegen. My aunt lives in Germany, so with all the different countries we live in (her girlfriend used to live in Rome) we hardly ever get to see each other, and to have almost the entire family there was great!! I gave her a cookiemonster balloon (which she loved) and a book she already had as presents, so now I have to come up with something new...
Anyways, Monday I did laundry and sat in my pajamas watching tv all day.
Today I have to do lots of things and then go for dinner with Merel (same Merel) and Boris! Maybe we'll go see Superman.

Merilly Merel Or Merely Merel?

Okay, so a few people have talked to me about the title of my blog, and to try out a new, non-selfdeprecating me, I thought I'd change my title to Merel-y (Merrily) Merel and see how I (and you) feel about it.
In other news: Awesome Lady will make a comeback soonish, I am just working out her background.

Awesome Lady: An Introduction

As Awesome Lady was walking to the supermarket to pick up some wholesome foodstuffs for breakfast (yesterday's crime fighting had left her to forget her empty fridge and cupboards), she picked up a signal on her danger radar. She quickly flew to the source of the signal to save the little girl that was being held high above the morning traffic from a rooftop by Awesome Lady's Arch Nemesis: Rubbish Man.
Rubbish Man, as his name suggests, was the exact oppposite of Awesome Lady: a petty little man who saw bad in everything and was out to ruin the life of anyone taller than him (which was everyone except babies and garden gnomes), but his special goal in life was to ensure Awesome Lady's downfall. He frequently set up situations that he thought would cause Awesome Lady to fail, but, as her name suggests, Awesome Lady very rarely did.
'So, Awesome Lady, we meet again... And this time there will be no escape: marry me, or the girl gets it!' Awesome Lady rolled her eyes and answered: 'Bernard, haven't we been through this enough? I am not going to marry you, and you're not going to kill that little girl.' For a minute, the little girl's eyes lit up and she let out a little cheer, but this was soon punished by Rubbish Man dropping her Teddy into the traffic. The sight of her beloved toy's mangled corpse silenced the little girl and the light in her eyes grew dim.
'You get one more chance, Awesome Lady; promise to marry me or the girl gets it!!' Unfortunately, Awesome Lady's powers prevented her from promising something she knew she would not do, so she had to rely on her persuasive skills to prevent Rubbish Man (or Bernard, as only she knew him - her soft spot for him always prevented her from calling him Rubbish Man to his face). Even more unfortunately, Rubbish Man was, after four years of similar scenarios, quite immune to her non-physical charms, so Awesome Lady knew she had to work hard, and that on an empty stomach.
'Bernard, you know I cannot marry you, stop being so silly and leave that poor little girl alone so I can have some breakfast!' (It was obvious that the lack of breakfast and the fact that she had to repeat this conversation on an almost weekly basis had their affects on Awesome Lady's persuasive skills.) Unsurprisingly, Rubbish Man wasn't convinced, and, knowing he'd not get her to consent on an empty stomach, he dropped the girl. As she quickly saw the rush hour traffic approaching, the little girl let out a heartbreaking scream, which tore through Awesome Lady's heart, and even made Rubbish Man doubt his actions for a nano-second.
Awesome Lady knew she could not save the girl by catching her in flight as she was already too close to the oncoming traffic, so she quickly changed into her alter ego, The Fluffinator, and changed some of the cars directly underneath the little girl into pink fluff. As the little girl fell into the pink fluff, Rubbish Man, seeing yet another of his evil schemes foiled by the love of his life, climbed into his Rubbish Van and flew off in a huff.
After the cars had been changed back and the girl handed back to her grateful mother, Awesome Lady decided she had deserved a treat, and she set off to the nearest bagel place.
As she ate her mozzarella, tomato and pesto bagel and sipped her Earl Grey, she thought back fondly to the time, years ago, when she had met a kind short man full of dreams and ideas who she had fallen in love with. Today she had seen that same man (or rather, a vague shadow of that same man) attempting to kill a little girl just to get her back in his life. Where had it all gone wrong? And would she ever be able to get the real Bernard back? Awesome Lady stared into her now emtpy cup, but found no answers.