Friday after work I went to buy the new Iphone in Robina town centre. It was the australian release for the Iphone. At 5pm the Vodafone shop was sold out... But in the Three shop they were still available. I bought an Iphone with plan for 2 years. So I pay every month for it and what I pay can be used as credit to call. I am so happy with it.
On Friday night we could hear the rat in our room very clearly... :-( We went upstairs to ask for some help to catch it! Philippe and a friend of Isabelle were equipped with a box and a golf club. We pulled away the drawer behind which the rat was hided... They tried to hit it but it ran away. It ran under the door and went upstairs and we lost track of it.
At four am, we could hear the rat again... We pulled the drawer away again but we could not see it... :-( Half an hour later, again a lot of noise from the rat at the same place... so we pulled the drawer away again and no rat... BUT, we have a little ball (like a pingpongball but in rubber) in the room and the rat took this ball into his place! So he moved the ball for at least 10meters! And he was biting the ball in little peaces... For the first time we could also smell its wee... disgusting! After spending two hours trying to catch the rat, the sun had risen and we went to sleep.
Saturday, I went to Robina Town Centre to buy Rat poison. However, when I came home we decided not to use it as it will cause bleedings in the rat and I don’t want a room full of rat blood! So I went to another shop to buy big rat traps! Three of them. We have put peanut butter on them and we hided them in the room.
Philippe was not feeling well... He was a bit sick already since Thursday. At 5pm we decided to go to Robina Hospital. At 9pm we were still waiting... I went to buy some food and around 10pm I went home because I could not do much there. After 6.5hours waiting Philippe could go in.... they took his blood and decided to keep him there for the night because not everything was normal.
When I came back I uploaded a lot of Iphone applications with Denis. So much fun! When I was talking to Reece and Denis (housemates) in the kitchen... Reece suddenly saw a rat coming in through the door that was open for 10cm :-( And guess were the rat went... it could go everywhere... It went downstairs to mine and Philips room! :-(
SO I had to go to bed... no philippe in the room but a rat! I skyped with Philips dad and with my parents and at 3am I went to bed with music and with the lights on to keep the rat away. When I woke up in the morning, all the peanut butter was gone and the rat traps didn’t work! :-( HAAAATTTTTEEEEE it! It drives me crazy.
Around lunchtime I went to visit Philippe in the hospital. Philippe has a bag with cortisone and salted water. Earlier in the night they gave him Paracetamol and morphine. He has been transferred from the ER to another room at 7.30 in the morning. They found sth in his blood that could indicate that his anti bodies are damaging another organ than his thyroid which would prevent his adrenaline to circulate properly and therefore cause his fatigue, weakness, headache and fever. He has to stay for another night. He is going this afternoon for an Xray for his chest.
... I keep you up to date!
Jessie
update 8.21pm
In the afternoon I cleaned the whole room with Denis, a housemate. It smelled soo bad. We cleaned the floor with bleach. And we have put all the mess and boxed outside so that the rat cannot hide itself anymore. Affter cleaning I went to the hospital again with Denis and Laureen. Philippe was sleeping when we arrived. We played a card game and at 8pm we went back home. Phil had no more news from the doctor...
Bye!
Saturday 31 July 2010
Wednesday 21 July 2010
PhD stuff and national day Belgium
Hi all!
The deadline for my confirmation document is coming closer and the stress is increasing... I have 12.500 words at the moment which is 2500 too much. I have banned my books and articles away from my desk because otherwise I keep on reading and finding new references. However, sometimes I really feel the need to look something up... My supervisor Popi is giving me lots of feedback which is good! Today and yesterday I worked from 8am-6.30pm so the working days are becoming longer and longer.... One more week... Next Tuesday I will organise the lay out and my references with the Endnote program. Tuesday night = printing 6 versions so that I can hand it in on Wednesday.
Here some funny cartoons about PhD and I can say: they are not too far from the truth!
The deadline for my confirmation document is coming closer and the stress is increasing... I have 12.500 words at the moment which is 2500 too much. I have banned my books and articles away from my desk because otherwise I keep on reading and finding new references. However, sometimes I really feel the need to look something up... My supervisor Popi is giving me lots of feedback which is good! Today and yesterday I worked from 8am-6.30pm so the working days are becoming longer and longer.... One more week... Next Tuesday I will organise the lay out and my references with the Endnote program. Tuesday night = printing 6 versions so that I can hand it in on Wednesday.
Here some funny cartoons about PhD and I can say: they are not too far from the truth!
The acknowledgements... always the first part that is done in my paper :-)
VERY applicable!
Not me :-).
Yeps! Reading an article that can be sooo important, and at the end realise that you actually can't use it...
Tuesday, I played tennis with Christian, a friend of our housemate Isabel. It went sooooo well!!! It was a long time ago that I played like that. The result: sore muscles today!
Wednesday... National Day of Belgium and also at Bond this is celebrated! The Belgian flag at the roundabout and a Belgian meal at Bond Cafe.
In the evening we went to play volley ball.
Bye!
xxx
Monday 19 July 2010
Jessie's riding progress!!!
I am sincerely impressed with Jessie's ability to ride. It's has been about a month that she has her license. Hence, she ride a Yamaha super sport FZR, which is an old very sporty bike. The acceleration is not progressive and you need to rev it a lot to get power, when you do that she has about 40 horses power. which is decent given the weight of her bike.
Anyhow, she makes no mistake, she rides in a safe perfect way knowing exactly what to do with this bike which is not a learner friendly one. I was so proud of her, when we went to Byron Bay (about an hour away), she was going at a steady 110km/h (speed limit here), dared to passed Trucks despite the strong wind disturbance they produce. She was in control. You might think that she is all stressed out in her helmet but not at all, it was a confident ride for her.
-Phil
Anyhow, she makes no mistake, she rides in a safe perfect way knowing exactly what to do with this bike which is not a learner friendly one. I was so proud of her, when we went to Byron Bay (about an hour away), she was going at a steady 110km/h (speed limit here), dared to passed Trucks despite the strong wind disturbance they produce. She was in control. You might think that she is all stressed out in her helmet but not at all, it was a confident ride for her.
-Phil
Saturday 17 July 2010
Byron Bay
Friday night it was hard to fall asleep... because of the mouse! Before we went to bed, we saw the mouse running and it went under the door of the storage room. In the middle of the night we could hear the mouse scratching against the door as it could not go under the door anymore because we had blocked it with some wooden panels. When we turned on the light, the mouse stopped doing it. We decided to put a desk lamp in front of the door, to make light and to make sure the mouse didn't make the noise. Unfortunately it began again after a few hours. We decided to move away the wood and to put some mousetraps close to the door. When we were both half sleeping we heard one of the mousetraps... but no mouse in it :-(
So after a sleepless night, we got up around 7h30, and prepared our journey to Byron Bay. Byron Bay is around 80km south from were we live and it is the most eastern point of Australia. It was a lovely winter day! Blue sky, almost no clouds and around 22degrees. After an hour of riding and passing the border of New South Wales, we stopped at a McDonalds to have breakfast.
When we arrived at Byron Bay, my bike with its little tank needed gas.
We went to the lighthouse at Byron Bay and it was beautiful! Here some pictures:
From the lookout points we could see some wales!!! :
Unfortunately we didn't see this... and is this just a picture from the internet. What we could see is this:
So, if you look carefully in the middle of the picture, you can see some black dots and some white splashes from the wales... :-)
After the little walk around the tower we went to Woolworths (shopping centre) to buy lunch. We went to the beach to have a picnic: baguette and french cheese.
After lunch we laid in the sun, we slept, watched people on the beach... relaxing!
When it was getting chilly on the beach we headed back home.
It was a lovely day!
Greetz,
Jessie and Phil
Friday 16 July 2010
Stressful week reaction Jessie
Hi everyone,
Just a little reaction on Phils latest post.
The mouse was really big and it was not little! I really hate to know that that thing is running around in the house now...
Philippe's Sushis are delicieux!
I had a very stressful week. The deadline for the confirmation document is coming closer and I have still heaps of work. On thursday I stayed at the library with Philippe till 10pm. Philippe helped me very well! Thanks to Philippe's dad I have learnt how to use pivot tables and vlookup functions which make it easier to measure the tennis success of countries and continents.
On Friday I went to a workshop about "how to turbocharge your writing" which is very applicable as I am struggling with my confirmation document. The speaker gave some very useful tips to improve your writing. So next week for example I am not going to check my emails when I arrive in my office! I am not going to check the weather and the Belgian news first... but I immediately start writing. She said that one of the most common "illnesses" for PhD students is 'readitis' and I think I am suffering from it. Readitis is the belief that reading one more article will solve all your research problems. :-)
Tomorrow we are going to Byron Bay and on Sunday I will WRITE for my confirmation document!
Jessie
Just a little reaction on Phils latest post.
The mouse was really big and it was not little! I really hate to know that that thing is running around in the house now...
Philippe's Sushis are delicieux!
I had a very stressful week. The deadline for the confirmation document is coming closer and I have still heaps of work. On thursday I stayed at the library with Philippe till 10pm. Philippe helped me very well! Thanks to Philippe's dad I have learnt how to use pivot tables and vlookup functions which make it easier to measure the tennis success of countries and continents.
On Friday I went to a workshop about "how to turbocharge your writing" which is very applicable as I am struggling with my confirmation document. The speaker gave some very useful tips to improve your writing. So next week for example I am not going to check my emails when I arrive in my office! I am not going to check the weather and the Belgian news first... but I immediately start writing. She said that one of the most common "illnesses" for PhD students is 'readitis' and I think I am suffering from it. Readitis is the belief that reading one more article will solve all your research problems. :-)
Tomorrow we are going to Byron Bay and on Sunday I will WRITE for my confirmation document!
Jessie
Stressful week
Monday night I could not go to beach volley as I had too much work for entrepreneurship. Jessie and Denis went to play and formed another team with other players and won! It looks like they have a tendency to play better without me...
On Tuesday my presentations went well. I had lunch with jessie at the sushi place and we managed to sit in front of the cook who taught us how to make sushis. Tuesday night we went to Aldi to do some groceries and went to a Japanese shop so that we could get all the ingredients necessary to make sushis. When we were in the shop a guy poped in and asked who was riding the Genesis bike. At first we didn't know what he meant. (I ride a Honda VFR 750cc and Jessie rides a supersport Yamaha FZR 250cc "Genesis".) He asked how much Jessie paid for it because he had been looking for it for ever and he really loves the bike. Jessie was really happy and flattered. We exchanged phone numbers for the case Jessie would be willing to sell her bike.
Wednesday night we went to the beach volleyball training and it was a blast. We played over time. We practiced the set and spiking (smash) and in the end we played a game.
Thursday night I went to the library to help Jessie as she is stressed for her confirmation. We worked 4hours on some complex excel features. We measured the tennis success of countries in the women's and men's top 1000 and top 100 in 2009, 2005 and 2001. I was happy to see that France overall is one of the most successful countries. I was impressed about how much Jessie knew about Excel.
Friday I tried to make the sushi's with the new ingredients we bought, I was quite happy with what I made!
When Jessie came home and she went to the room, and suddenly screamed extremely loud because she had seen a small harmless mouse running across the room. So we took the mouse traps with a bit of cheese on it and are hoping they will be hungry soon. On friday night Jessie and I stayed home and watched Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson, it was a great vengeance thriller against 'big companies'.
Tomorrow we are heading to Byron Bay on the bikes!
-Phil
On Tuesday my presentations went well. I had lunch with jessie at the sushi place and we managed to sit in front of the cook who taught us how to make sushis. Tuesday night we went to Aldi to do some groceries and went to a Japanese shop so that we could get all the ingredients necessary to make sushis. When we were in the shop a guy poped in and asked who was riding the Genesis bike. At first we didn't know what he meant. (I ride a Honda VFR 750cc and Jessie rides a supersport Yamaha FZR 250cc "Genesis".) He asked how much Jessie paid for it because he had been looking for it for ever and he really loves the bike. Jessie was really happy and flattered. We exchanged phone numbers for the case Jessie would be willing to sell her bike.
Wednesday night we went to the beach volleyball training and it was a blast. We played over time. We practiced the set and spiking (smash) and in the end we played a game.
Thursday night I went to the library to help Jessie as she is stressed for her confirmation. We worked 4hours on some complex excel features. We measured the tennis success of countries in the women's and men's top 1000 and top 100 in 2009, 2005 and 2001. I was happy to see that France overall is one of the most successful countries. I was impressed about how much Jessie knew about Excel.
Friday I tried to make the sushi's with the new ingredients we bought, I was quite happy with what I made!
When Jessie came home and she went to the room, and suddenly screamed extremely loud because she had seen a small harmless mouse running across the room. So we took the mouse traps with a bit of cheese on it and are hoping they will be hungry soon. On friday night Jessie and I stayed home and watched Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson, it was a great vengeance thriller against 'big companies'.
Tomorrow we are heading to Byron Bay on the bikes!
-Phil
Saturday 10 July 2010
Busy week
On Monday night we won our beach volley ball game because the other team did't show up! We could play 3-3 against another team and it was fun. We could not get enough of it, so we (Philippe, Denis, a Swedish guy and me) played 2 against 2. We were surprised about how big the court was when you are only two. It was exhausting.
On Tuesday Sebastian, a German friend of Phil came over to have Mojito's and to hanged out.
I had to prepare my presentation for the SMAANZ (Sports Management Association of Australia and New Zealand) postgrad conference. I have to say; I was stressed! I don't like to present something that is not ultimate yet. Preparing the first presentation about my PhD (literature and methods) was not easy! I have read a lot of literature but I have the feeling that there is much more to read. On Wednesday morning Popi picked me up to go to Brisbane, Griffith University. On the way to Brisbane we found a good way to avoid the heavy traffic by taking the carpool lane (T2). T2 indicates that every car with 2 persons or more can use this lane. It is astonishing to observe that the vast majority of people are alone in their car. Therefore we managed to travel at maximum speed whereas the other cars were bumping into each other. We had some interesting presentations and it was very interesting for me to hear about the experiences of other PhD students who are further in their research. It showed that I am not the only one who is struggling with research objectives and research questions... It looks so easy, but it can be so confusing! It was only a small group (8 PhD students) and 4-5 professors, but this way we could have good group discussions. During the sessions I realised that I still have to read some very important literature.... The presentations finished early. In the car back home I was discussing with Popi (my australian supervisor) about the objectives and research questions, and I changed them again. Philippe was surprised that I came home as it was planned to stay at Brisbane.
On Thursday morning I changed my research questions and objectives again in the car :-). It is sooo hard... and the other PhD students told me that they will keep on changing... I was the second to present and I was nervous. 15 minutes presentation and 15 minutes discussion. The discussion seemed to go on for ages... so much comments and feedback. But it was very useful! I had some good feedback for my confirmation. In spite of all the remarks, I got a lot of compliments about how far I am in only 6 months of time! Other students told me that they were not able to present after 6 months because the research was not clear at all in their head... Also the other presentations were very interesting! After the conference we went for a drink at the campus. Then I went home by train. Unfortunately I haven't had time to visit Brisbane and do some sightseeing, but we will go back once. I took a few pictures:
When I came back from the conference I was exhausted! Information overload!
Friday was a normal day, back to work. When I came back from home the little children were playing on the X-box:
Philippe and Denis were so concentrated on the game that they didn't notice I was making some pictures.
In the evening we had dinner at a Thai Restaurant. We walked there (15min). Then we saw a movie (Love Happens). Today we did our groceries and we worked a bit. Laundry, dishwasher, cleaning the house, doing groceries... Time goes fast.
Of course we are following the worldcup, but we cannot manage to get up at 4 in the morning... Philippe was disappointed to hear that the Germans lost their game against Spain. So now he is supporting the Netherlands. HUP HOLLAND HUP!
That was it,
Cheers,
Jessie & Phil
On Tuesday Sebastian, a German friend of Phil came over to have Mojito's and to hanged out.
I had to prepare my presentation for the SMAANZ (Sports Management Association of Australia and New Zealand) postgrad conference. I have to say; I was stressed! I don't like to present something that is not ultimate yet. Preparing the first presentation about my PhD (literature and methods) was not easy! I have read a lot of literature but I have the feeling that there is much more to read. On Wednesday morning Popi picked me up to go to Brisbane, Griffith University. On the way to Brisbane we found a good way to avoid the heavy traffic by taking the carpool lane (T2). T2 indicates that every car with 2 persons or more can use this lane. It is astonishing to observe that the vast majority of people are alone in their car. Therefore we managed to travel at maximum speed whereas the other cars were bumping into each other. We had some interesting presentations and it was very interesting for me to hear about the experiences of other PhD students who are further in their research. It showed that I am not the only one who is struggling with research objectives and research questions... It looks so easy, but it can be so confusing! It was only a small group (8 PhD students) and 4-5 professors, but this way we could have good group discussions. During the sessions I realised that I still have to read some very important literature.... The presentations finished early. In the car back home I was discussing with Popi (my australian supervisor) about the objectives and research questions, and I changed them again. Philippe was surprised that I came home as it was planned to stay at Brisbane.
On Thursday morning I changed my research questions and objectives again in the car :-). It is sooo hard... and the other PhD students told me that they will keep on changing... I was the second to present and I was nervous. 15 minutes presentation and 15 minutes discussion. The discussion seemed to go on for ages... so much comments and feedback. But it was very useful! I had some good feedback for my confirmation. In spite of all the remarks, I got a lot of compliments about how far I am in only 6 months of time! Other students told me that they were not able to present after 6 months because the research was not clear at all in their head... Also the other presentations were very interesting! After the conference we went for a drink at the campus. Then I went home by train. Unfortunately I haven't had time to visit Brisbane and do some sightseeing, but we will go back once. I took a few pictures:
Friday was a normal day, back to work. When I came back from home the little children were playing on the X-box:
In the evening we had dinner at a Thai Restaurant. We walked there (15min). Then we saw a movie (Love Happens). Today we did our groceries and we worked a bit. Laundry, dishwasher, cleaning the house, doing groceries... Time goes fast.
Of course we are following the worldcup, but we cannot manage to get up at 4 in the morning... Philippe was disappointed to hear that the Germans lost their game against Spain. So now he is supporting the Netherlands. HUP HOLLAND HUP!
That was it,
Cheers,
Jessie & Phil
Sunday 4 July 2010
weekend
On Saturday morning we went to play tennis with Isabel, our ever smiling house mate from Equador. It was good fun! Philippe and Isa against me and they still did not manage to win. Today the weather was good! A nice sunny winter day: 22 degrees.
After tennis I went on my bike to Robina Town Center! Love to be independent on my bike! I bought some groceries and the ingredients for mojito!
Saturday night we went to a Sushi bar at Robina Town Center where they have a sushi train! mmmm. Then we went to the movies: Grown Ups! Funny movie!
On Sunday I have been marking all day... So boring to read 25 times the same! Philippe went to Bond to study. He got the results of his midterm and he passed!
Sunday night we went to church again! Today the message was that you are more blessed to give then to receive... After church we talked to a few people and then we went home for a couple Mojito's!
That was it for this weekend... No trips because of the work....
Wednesday and Thursday Jessie is going to a conference in Brisbane at Griffith University... Still have to make my presentation...
Cheers,
Jessie and Philippe
After tennis I went on my bike to Robina Town Center! Love to be independent on my bike! I bought some groceries and the ingredients for mojito!
Saturday night we went to a Sushi bar at Robina Town Center where they have a sushi train! mmmm. Then we went to the movies: Grown Ups! Funny movie!
On Sunday I have been marking all day... So boring to read 25 times the same! Philippe went to Bond to study. He got the results of his midterm and he passed!
Sunday night we went to church again! Today the message was that you are more blessed to give then to receive... After church we talked to a few people and then we went home for a couple Mojito's!
That was it for this weekend... No trips because of the work....
Wednesday and Thursday Jessie is going to a conference in Brisbane at Griffith University... Still have to make my presentation...
Cheers,
Jessie and Philippe
Friday 2 July 2010
Friday night
It is winter over here in Australia, I thought the weather would be warmer, it get as low as 5degreesC at night which is not suppose to happen on the Gold Coast. This type of weather pushes us to stay at home, Jessie is working on her research as Reece (roommate) and I are playing Street fighter 4. It is pretty much the same thing than on a nintendo back in the days, they improved the quality of the animation, faithful to the 90's the game still features Ryu, Ken, Chan li, Guile.. I could not help pressing all the button on the remote but soon enough had to give up cuz Reece kept winning.
It's 12 am, and the game between Brazil and the Netherlands is about to kick off, of course we are supporting the dutch as Jessie is flemish, (half dutch on her father side). Although ultimately I'd like Germany to win the World Cup!!!
Who do you think will win between Ghana and Uruguay?
Cheers,
Phil
It's 12 am, and the game between Brazil and the Netherlands is about to kick off, of course we are supporting the dutch as Jessie is flemish, (half dutch on her father side). Although ultimately I'd like Germany to win the World Cup!!!
Who do you think will win between Ghana and Uruguay?
Cheers,
Phil
New URL for blog and photoshoot!
Hi everyone!
Today, Phil and I decided to change the URL of the blog into www.jessieandphildownunder.blogspot.com. In the last posts I was always using "we" and it would be nice for Phil's friends to be able to follow our adventures too. So from now on, the blog will be mainly in English but I will post some posts in Dutch too, so don't worry Belgian people who don't understand English well.
When you go to the old blog URL you will find a link to the new blog. The easiest is to add this link to your favourites.
A few weeks ago I had a photo shoot from the faculty of health sciences and medicine to promote the buildings and equipment of the faculty. Today I could pick up a usb with the photo's. They are really nice. These are some of them:
The pics are very nice as you can see (more pics on Facebook).
On monday we went to the beach volleyball competition. For the first time we won our game! After our game we played another game as there was a team that didn't show up. On wednesday we had the volleyball clinic which was cool too! We were only with 6 people so again we learned a lot, smash today. It was very interesting as the teacher explains everything really well and he always explains how to move in the sand as this is different from a hard surface.
Today we went to play tennis at Bond Uni. At the time we were on the tennis court, I realised that I was on my motorbike boots.... very smart. Phil went back home to get them. We played tennis for half an hour and it was fun, but we had to stop because it was raining too much... Tomorrow we play again, so hopefully no rain!
Cheers,
Jessie and Phil
Today, Phil and I decided to change the URL of the blog into www.jessieandphildownunder.blogspot.com. In the last posts I was always using "we" and it would be nice for Phil's friends to be able to follow our adventures too. So from now on, the blog will be mainly in English but I will post some posts in Dutch too, so don't worry Belgian people who don't understand English well.
When you go to the old blog URL you will find a link to the new blog. The easiest is to add this link to your favourites.
A few weeks ago I had a photo shoot from the faculty of health sciences and medicine to promote the buildings and equipment of the faculty. Today I could pick up a usb with the photo's. They are really nice. These are some of them:
On monday we went to the beach volleyball competition. For the first time we won our game! After our game we played another game as there was a team that didn't show up. On wednesday we had the volleyball clinic which was cool too! We were only with 6 people so again we learned a lot, smash today. It was very interesting as the teacher explains everything really well and he always explains how to move in the sand as this is different from a hard surface.
Today we went to play tennis at Bond Uni. At the time we were on the tennis court, I realised that I was on my motorbike boots.... very smart. Phil went back home to get them. We played tennis for half an hour and it was fun, but we had to stop because it was raining too much... Tomorrow we play again, so hopefully no rain!
Cheers,
Jessie and Phil
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