Stories that stay with you.

What made me happy today? Stories that stay with you.
Yesterday, it was Christmas. As we were having dinner at my parent's, my boyfriend and I were looking at some old pictures of my, my sister and my family. Thankfully, there weren't too many embarrassing pictures in there :-)
But leave it to my mother to bring up some stories from my childhood. Like the time Sinterklaas came to visit at my dad's office. We were there as well, as it was an event for the families of all employees. Sinterklaas asked my sister and me if my parents had been good all year. I shyly nodded, but my sister proceeded to tell him that our mom had, but that she wasn't so sure about my dad. This, of course, intrigued everyone. Sinterklaas asked my sister why my dad hadn't been nice, and my sister replied 'well, he snores so loudly our mommy can't sleep'! Que laughter from everyone!
Of course, there were also some stories about little me, being little miss smarty pants. I learned to talk quite young. So my after seeing a picture of me with my granddad, of whom I have no memories as he died when I wasn't even three years old, my mom told us this story.
My granddad loved to tease me. The summer before I turned two, my mom, dad and I went on vacation to the coast. (my sister hadn't been born yet) I was telling my granddad about the vacation we had planned, and how excited I was about sleeping over at the coast. But he said that that wasn't possible. So I asked him why. Well, he proceeded, your beds won't fit in the car. After which I apparently gave him a 'don't be silly' look, put my hands on my hips and said in my best admonishing tone 'But granddad, mommy and daddy have made reservations in a hotel!'. I honestly don't remember any of it, but my mom and dad swear that everyone almost fell out of their chairs from laughing too hard.
Those are the stories that will stay with you :-)

Check in!

What made me happy today? Check in!
I'm working in Roeselare today and tomorrow. As this means a very long drive both ways (2 hours to get there, and at least 3 hours to get back), my manager approved an overnight stay in a hotel. That means I don't have to get up at the ungodly hour of 4:45 tomorrow morning!
And I get a yummy hotel breakfast tomorrow. Or so I hope.
Plus, it's kind of awesome that I can do this. It really helps to reduce my stress levels. Now I don't have to spend three or more hours behind the wheel to get home, frustrated at how people here can't drive when it rains. And I don't have to get up that early tomorrow, as the hotel is a 5 minute drive from where I'll be working :-)
So yay for awesome companies that let you stay at a hotel! Now I'm going to check out what I'm missing out on by not having cable-TV at home ;-)

The royal treatment

What made me happy today? Being totally spoiled here :-)
Yesterday me and my colleagues wanted to make dinner reservations for this evening. So I went up to the hotel desk, to ask if they could please give me the number of the restaurant so I could call in the reservation. Instead of giving me the number, he called over his colleague who made the reservation for us. Talk about service!
I have a nice room with (for some reason) two two-person beds in it. I slept pretty good, especially considering it was the first night in a strange bed. Breakfast was great, so many things to choose from! Lunch was very tasty as well :-) And during the breaks we're being provided with tasty pastries, fruits, yoghurt and a huge assortment of teas, juices and coffees. They're keeping us well fed and hydrated here!
And we got some calls from important people from work, to thank us for the great job we're doing. Even the vice-president of the company called in for this! And we all got a gift, a travel bag with the study logo on it.
So I'm feeling a bit like a princess right now. It's a nice feeling!
But I have to add that I'm glad I don't have to do this every week, this whole meeting is pretty intense and tiring...