Returning the keys

In the late morning I drove from the office to my old apartment. Today had been scheduled for the pick up from Les Petits Riens (or Spullenhulp), the charity I had donated my "leftovers" to.

In the last days the size of the donation pile had grown some more by a few more things we had decided to give away on top (you can see an intermediate view of the pile on one of the photos in this entry).

I arrived around 10:30 and ran into the guy who is currently painting the place. Shortly after, Edouard showed up, too. He had put aside my old vacuum cleaner and the ironing board which I both had earmarked for the charity, too, and he asked whether I'd sell them to him.
Sure! I threw in the pressing iron and one remaining bag for the vacuum cleaner and sold the pack for 25 Euro. I also offered my coffee machine, which he didn't take but which I then kept for myself. I think it's still good for 12 to 14 Euro on ebay.

And then Les Petits Riens arrived.
Naturally they scrutinized the huge heap and checked whether I was hiding something useless in there.

Boss of pick up guys: That's... in pretty good condition!
Leo: Of course!
Boss: And this goes, too?
Leo: Yep... I hope it's well enough packed?
Boss: It's really good!

I actually enjoyed the surprised expressions on the face of the guy (I admit I also wondered whether I should have tried to sell more of the things, but this would have been such a hassle. And somehow I felt good about donating all of this. The only thing they did not take was my old Gilette Mach 3 razor (but they took the blades).

Soon enough the three guys were loading the truck...



... and piece by piece parts of my old life were flushed away.

Once they were done, there was also no reason anymore to keep a set of the keys. I returned them to Edouard with a final handshake and left Sint Annalaan behind me.

Now it's really done.
I have moved out!

I finally got to see the keynote for Apple's iPad!

After seeing the keynote, I am still not being super impressed by the iPad, but I have to admit that its speed is pretty neat and the business model is actually quite clever.

The iPad is based on the idea that a device that is occupying the space between a smartphone and a laptop must be better than these at key tasks a normal user is performing, i.e. email, browsing, reading eBooks, ... and so on.

Steve Jobs: Now, some people have thought,
that that's a netbook! The problem is:
netbooks aren't better at anything!

(I'd agree.)

It is much more powerful seeing the iPad working versus just reading about it. This was the same with the iPhone, although at that time, the iPhone was clearly more revolutionary and the introduction of skillful multitouch gestures was simply more mind-blowing.

Still, the iPad will find its audience, especially because its price is very competitive and because the porting of the iWorks suite to a non-mouse environment is stunningly well done.

This being all true, I am still waiting for the new MacBook models...

"With a rusty knife and a spoon!"

While watching some episodes of The Simpsons I was nicely petting Muffin. You know: Muffin, our male kitten who is so horny that he sings little horny songs throughout the day.

While getting the works, he got all excited and turned on his back, exposing his little dick to me, which was all up and ready for some good ol' humpin'.

Gee - not what I was hoping for...
I stick to what I keep telling people now for weeks:

Leo: I will pay for neutering the guy!
And you know what?! I think I do it myself:
with a rusty knife and a spoon!

ebay wrap-up

This is what happened with all the ebay sales I wanted to make:

Photo bag
I have sent this one to the buyer with a friendly note about all the countries this bag as visited already, which I hope will be seen as interesting trivia. I am also happy with the sales price.

Laptop bag
Has been picked up. One day before the auction ended I had worked the leather with boot polish to improve its previously dull appearance, which came from sitting years in the closet. Worked great. Also a satisfying sales price.

Glass table
This one did surprisingly well in the auction. The deal did not go through, though, because one of the glass plates broke on the way back to the new apartment.

Griffin iTrip
Sold for a few Euro. Fair enough...

Belkin TuneCast
Sold for a third of what I paid a few months ago. Not very satisfying but overall okay.

Briefcase
Ouch! This one hurts! Even though I have not used it in 7 or 8 years, 2.50 Euro just does not sound right.

Washing machine
I thought this washing machine would be the most challenging one of the bulky items. Given its age it sold suprisingly well. I later learned, however, that the buyer is currently hospitalized and it is not foreseeable when he gets out to pick it up. I hence sold it to Edouard for 60 Euro as one of his employees is interested which elegantly solves the timing issue to get it out of the old apartment, too.

Hifi furniture
Unsatisying price and the most exhaustive of all the ebay buyers.

Loudspeakers
The most satisfying sale with an unexpected package deal on top. 15 years ago these were discounted from 1000 to 600 German Marks (i.e. approximately 500 to 300 Euro) and I sold them now for 2/3 of the discounted price. Pity to let them go, but under these circumstances it does not feel too bad.

The 145% delivery

Some of the things I sold on ebay were rather bulky and I thus had requested a pick up from the buyer.

This was also true for the hifi furniture which sold for a pitiful 17,25 Euro.
I felt a bit bad to sell this nice piece for such little money, but then again, you cannot expect that a 15 year old furniture will do as well as 15 year old speakers, can you?

Anyway, the buyer was Paul.
And Paul was extremely communicative: he spoke a funky mix of French, Dutch and English and he just would not shut the fuck up when you say something. He would ramble on and on and on without a break and without acknowledging that you are actually there. Phew!

So, I talked to Paul beginning of the week and he confirmed he would pick up the furniture on the weekend. Quite a while into February given that I was supposed to be out of the place by Jan 31, indeed. But fine!
Two days later he came back with bad news:

Paul: I could not find a car... I do not have
one and I asked people. I first had one for
Tuesday, but this did not happen, and then
one for Thursday, but this did not happen
either. And 17,25 is not much money and
I know I should pick it up, that's normal.
I mean, I bought it and then it's my
responsibility to pick it up, naturally, but
without a car I cannot do it. I mean, I do not
live far away, but I still need a car to get it...

Like I said: it goes on like this forever if you do not put a stop to it.
I was pretty pissed off, on the one hand side, because I think it is pretty unfair if you purchase something on ebay which has to be picked up and then you do not have any means to actually organize the transport. On the other hand side, I wanted to close the bloody deal and clear out my old apartment.

So I said to Paul with the usual few minutes to get attention...

Leo: Paul. Paul! PAUL! Hello? Hey! Listen to
me! Lis... yeah... listen... listen... LISTEN TO ME!
Thanks. Look, I will help you and bring it to you...
Paul: Really?! Ooooooooh! This is so
nice! This is really great! I do not know what to
say. You are really nice.
Leo: ... but I will then charge you 25 Euro
in total, alright?
Paul: ... oh! ...

He seemed to be taken aback a little that I charged extra money, but he reluctantly agreed to the deal.

This morning we had another painful conversation on the phone, where I eventually gave the phone to Lamia to talk to him in French and get his address out of him. What he did, though, was telling her how I had to drive and that the road is really bad and that part of the street came down the other day.

What?!
I got a little concerned, but what can you do? After another few minutes of rambling attacks, Lamia had a chance to finally write down the address. Man!

After dropping Lamia at the station for her train to Paris, I drove back to my old apartment, disassembled the furniture (careful with those glass doors!) and drove to Paul's place.

Bloody hell! - the guy had not lied about the state of the street.
It was scary, even for Belgian standards! He lives in Molenbeek and the street in question is under construction, with potholes as big as a bath tub. The part right in front of his house had really caved in the day before (when I left I saw a camera team, presumably for the news).

Paul is maybe in his fifties and a person Lamia would call "Tier 3": half bald with a tousled, big full beard and tear sacs so big I could fit my whole Christmas loot from last year in there. A very nice guy - honest! - but with a talkativeness that'd put an army of women to shame!
I helped him carry the different furniture parts to the entrance of his house and he had of course many topics to cover: from me being German, to the places he has travelled to in Asia to the quality of the furniture to the talk he had with Lamia. Writing that my ears were bleeding is a friendly understatement...

Paul: This is really good service of you,
I must really say that! This is the nice thing
about ebay... I do this really for the contact
with the people...

No way! - I would have never guessed...

Ultimately, we had unloaded the car completely and though I was dying to get away, I did not forget to pocket the money. I bid farewell and escaped with screaming tires in a big, dusty cloud.

Phew! Another place I do not need to go back to, ever.

There's that new MacBook Pro...

I had been worried whether Edouard would make claims regarding the state of my old apartment. Not that I had a reason to worry, but though being a nice guy, Edouard is a business man in the first place.

I actually would have been pretty disappointed if he had given me troubles, considering that I had been through jackhammer hell for months and never complained with a single word.

When I came to my old place tonight the first thing I found was that they had started to paint the place already. Wow! The aisle was done and the damaged wall in the sleeping room had been worked, too. Not bad.
When I went downstairs to talk to Edouard, we had an easy chat and he even signed the document to unlock my rent deposit account. And this even though I kept one set of keys so I can let the guys from the charity in next Monday and also close the sales of the bigger, to be picked up items I sold on ebay.

Very nice.

And the handsome amount of money I will receive from the rent deposit will translate nicely into a new MacBook Pro, once the new models come out...

Moving-in-101: The Joint Account

Beginning of the year Lamia and I opened a joint account with ING. Now, here was a chance to be creative, because ING lets you personalize your debit card.

So we brainstormed an awesome photo of the two of us, took it, ordered the card and - finally - I got it today.



Aaaaaah, patriarchy in its utter beauty: the little housewife prepares the food, while the master of the house browses through an Aldi leaflet for the latest bargains.

Real life captured in perfection.


ps.
Interesting privacy rules at ING, by the way:
This became apparent the day I opened the new account for the two of us. I told the clerk the new address and he changed it. Not only for me, no!, but also for Lamia without her explicit permission. Hum...

And when I wanted to pick up the debit card today, it was gone already. They had given it to Lamia the day before, just assuming this would be okay (which it was, of course, but this is not the point).

This could make you wonder a tiny little bit about how secure your data and your money is with ING...

Geneva

The last days I spent in Geneva for business meetings.

I stayed in the Geneva Mövenpick hotel, a pretty good place. And if you forget about that, the hotel bill will remind you for sure.

And gosh! - this crowd of Marketing folks from the US is really an entertainment bunch! Big fun and gay in any sense of the word. We had nice food in the evenings (yes, including a classic Swiss cheese fondue) and even a little guided walk through the bloody cold city late in the evening.
The meetings went reasonably well, we met the big guys and even squeezed some useful directions out of them.

Anyway, long days and short nights but all in all a good trip.

Blogger is ceasing FTP support

I got an email today stating that Blogger will stop supporting the FTP services for blogs. This is a bit concerning, given that I belong to the apparently only 0.5% of users who host a blog through FTP on their own domain.

I am not exactly sure what this will entail for my blog, but the email claimed there will be a way to maintain the blog under my own domain, and this will be shared end of February.

If this move will improve the convenience of writing and maintaining my blog, I am all for it, but I do worry that at least parts of the huge work I have spent on this blog in the last 5 years is at risk.

Keep your fingers crossed...

Closure

It's done!
I have finally managed to get all the things out of my old apartment that had to get out! This is a much bigger deal than I would have initially thought.

One thing is, that it always takes longer to clear out an apartment than you think. And even in the last hours, when you think this should be quick, there is always something that gives you trouble. And in my case these were the lamps on the ceiling, namely the one in the living room and the one in the dining area.

The one in the living was installed by an electrician when I moved in and soon after it didn't work anymore. Due to the wicked wiring (it actually has to get electricity through a connection with the wires of the lamp in the dining area), I never bothered to check what was really wrong with it. Until tonight when I learned that the thing that was wrong with it was simply a burnt-through cable. Quite a straight forward reason, but I also do admit that discovering this black cable in the lamp enclosure was a bit creepy.
Even worse, however, was getting that fricking thing off the ceiling. The electrician had done a solid job but two of the three screws in the ceiling were missing their profile. It took me nearly 1 1/2 hours and lots of cursing like a sailor to bring the bloody thing down.

And once I was done with this one, I worked the one in the dining area, which is simply a darn bitch to remove when you are on your own. You need basically three hands: one to unscrew, one to hold the enclosure with the three lamps and the three counterweights (heavy!) and one to hold the plate that is connected to the ceiling.

Don't ask me how I made it.

The rest of the work was easier, but it still took me until past 10 pm and I had to call Lamia to bring her car for the very last transport of items (not to mention unloading at the new place).

This is how the living room looks now:



The stuff under the plastic cover will go to a charity organization which will hopefully pick everything up in a week. The hifi furniture sold for a pittance on ebay tonight.

Then you have the dining area:



As reported already, the speakers were picked up tonight. The rest of the things went to the new apartment to be sold later.

Here the kitchen, ...



... the study...



... and the sleeping room.



Phew!
The thing is: though I have to take the red-eye to Geneva tomorrow morning and will thus sleep less than 4 hours tonight, I feel like a massive load has been taken off my shoulders.
Yes, I will still have to go back to the old apartment for the remaining ebay sales and the stuff for the charity. I also have no idea whether Edouard will be happy with the state I left the apartmen in or not. But after all, these should be all small fish compared to drawing the line under a previous life.

It's a big step and this won't change.
But somehow things feel a little easier now than before...

Impulse Purchase

I must say my speakers sold surprisingly well on ebay tonight. Though I am not a big fan of ebay, I do admit I followed the last 3 minutes of the auction live through the ebay application on my iPhone with growing excitement.

3 minutes before the end, the highest bid was around 170 Euro. Then nothing happened until the last 30 seconds, when the price was pushed to the final bid of 212.50 Euro.

Not bad for 15 year old speakers.

The buyer called me tonight shortly before 9 pm because he wanted to pick them up right away. Given that I was anyhow still busy in my old apartment, and given that I was interested in getting them out quickly, too, I obviously had no problem with that.
The buyer was a likable dude, maybe 25 or so. Really a nice guy. After he had checked the speakers and was satisified with what he saw, I tried the following:

Leo: Do you need anything else?
You know, I also have a Denon amplifier
I would like to sell...

I didn't have time to put the rest of my hifi equipment on ebay, so this was worth a shot.
The amplifier is as old as the speakers, but likewise in great condition. It hence only took a little bit and we agreed on a package deal of 300 Euros for speakers and amplifier.

That went well... he didn't want to buy the CD changer and the record player, though.
Anyhow, I was more surprised that he actually had 300 Euro in cash on him...

This is what cracks me up about service in Belgium...

After some more work in my old apartment (doing all the finishing touches), I met with Lamia at Le Pain Quotidien in Wemmel for a quick bite.
Coming to the end of my dish, I discovered a little piece of plastic film in my food. Hum, I wasn't sure what to do, because this wasn't a big deal. But we decided we should let them know at least.

So I tell the girl, she takes my plate to the kitchen and comes back with it, confirming what I already had assumed: the plastic was part of the wrapping for the ham on my sandwich.

Kindly enough, she offered both Lamia and me a dessert or drink as apology. Lamia went for a hot chocolate and I for a Cappuccino.

So far, so good.

I got my cup and what did I find?
Yellow fibers of some sort inside the cup and more stains on the outside. The same on the spoon. This means worst case that the dishes have not been washed, best case the dishwasher didn't work properly.
While I didn't mind so much about the plastic film, this was really disgusting! So I beckon the girl to our table, thank her for the coffee but point out the stains and food residues.

And what does she do?
Apologize?
Making an excuse with a smile?

No, that would be obviously too appropriate. She takes the cup away with an annoyed "Okay!" and dishes out a new one without any further comment, making me feel like a bloody beggar or someone who is trying to take advantage.

Unbelievable!
Does she think it is normal to have dirty dishes?

Given that they only make it worse when they adress a complaint, next time I'll just ask for a verbal apology!

Still not clear what to think about the iPad

I tried to get a better idea of the iPad tonight by watching Steve Jobs' keynote. The internet connection I can use here is so poor, however, that there was no way to watch even the smallest stream in decent quality.

Still 2 weeks to go until we (hopefully) have good Internet access.
Man, that sucks!

And another Flemish exam

Phew... since September I am taking Nederlands 2.4, the next level in my Flemish classes. It's only once per week and hence takes a full year (and not half a year like the previous classes I attended to).

Tonight I had the intermediate exam, which was both in writing and orally.

As in the last cases, I did not have time to study, but like then I managed the written part just fine.
I was struggling a bit more with the oral bit, but I guess it was good enough to serve as a solid base for the final exam in a few months.

It's not really important how I pass these exams, but I still feel like a little load has been taken off my shoulders. As of tonight, evenings are back under my control...

iPad, huh?

With only poor access to the world due to a missing strong Internet connection, I could only read about the iPad and could not watch any of the videos... Hum. Looking at it and thinking about what it does, I am not too impressed, especially given all the hype before.

I guess I will need to see the iPad doing stuff and I of course have to see the video stream of the keynote... after all, I was not impressed by the iPod either, and boy was I wrong there.