More (good) news

I’ve been quiet here for a few days. Sorry about that I just haven’t been in the mood to write much. Perhaps the construction works on the railway tracks between Zutphen and Arnhem are to blame. These cause me an hour extra travell time. Bah! Anyway…

After the job interview at Cibit last wednesday, I had another one at ISC last thursday. This was the third, and final round and they were going to make me a job offer. I was a bit nervous but luckily all went well. The offer is awesome: good sallary (approx 40% more than an offer I received from a company here in Deventer), 36 h/w (4 × 9), etcetera. I tried to contact them friday to let them know I was ok, but unfortunately my contact there was off for the day. Well, I’ll have another go at it monday. Then we wait for the background check…. which should come up empty

Since ISC is about 90km away from Deventer, and since it is hard to reach by train, I am finally looking for a decent car. I’ve had some advice from several friends. I’m definately looking for a diesel. Possibly a Focus station or Astra station or another big, second hand car.

Apart from the job interviews, life at work has also been busy busy as I wrote earlier. Things are progressing slowly but it seems that every time I solve a problem a new one pops up. Well, we’ll see… so far so good I guess

Friday evening was great. I’ve been meaning to practice a certain bridge bidding system with Serena (weak no trump, walsh, some nifty tricks with overcalls etc.). Friday it finally happened for the first time. I picked up Paul and we drove to Zutphen for an evening of bridge (actually untill 2am). Many interesting hands showed up one of which I’ll discuss shortly. Unfortunately we didn’t get a lot of weak no trump hands, or hands on which we could use the Walsh convention. Hopefully next week when we repeat the experiment Well, here’s the deal I mentioned:

The bidding started of when Serena (north) opened 1♦ and Michiel (west) followed 2♠, a weak jump. My first problem was what to bid. Double seems out of the question because I’d be in 4♥ in the blink of an eye. Instead I followed 3♣ which has the benefit that it is forcing to game. From north’s point of view things look up for sure now but 6♣ seems a long way off still. Either way, Serena bid 3♠ asking for a stopper. Being a “good boy” I responded to her question by bidding 3NT, showing (at least) one. Then the ball was back in her park. Pass? Slam try with 4♣? Tough decision… what would you do?

Yesterday we had yet another beautiful day here with lots of sun. We finally ditched Koen’s pacifier and gave him a present in exchange (we had promised him a present if he’d ditch his pacifier for weeks now). The first night was awkward for him, of course… so we had to get up really early. A bit too early for my taste. Well, I may sleep a bit in the sun this afternoon!