So I am trying out a new app for my iPhone and plug in for the blog. It will track my route via the gps on the iPhone, then email me a file that I can imbed below which will show the file as a google maps map and link! Pretty cool hey…………. (tumble weeds roll by)
So here goes.
So its now been a little over a month of being in Amsterdam, things have been going pretty well. We have had a fair bit of snow as well so its been pretty cold and difficult to get about so I haven’t been out that much.
I have settled into my new room and finally met my other house mate, he is Spanish and was home for 3 weeks over Christmas. He seems nice and his cooking also seems really good, so hopefully with india and spanish influences I will pick up a few cooking tips.
Work is starting to get a bit more involved and the guy who will be my boss in a month or so has started and we seem to get on well which is always nice! Although I will miss working for my current boss as he is pretty cool and been a really good boss. (I might send him a link for my blog;) )
Hopefully going skiing soon, I will be taking the train, which although expensive should be more relaxing and much more environmentally friendly…….. Although this might not happen if the stupid weather doesn’t stop snowing.. never thought I would say that!!
So it’s been 24 days of employment at TomTom and 26 days living in Amsterdam. It’s been good so far, the extreme cold has ment I haven’t really been out much, but a few work partys and “meetings” (I watched a slideshow and drank free beer) have meant I think I have built a fairly good relationship with the team I am currently working with, so that’s good.
I have now moved into a new room, it’s a house share with 2 other guys, I have only met one of them so far but he seems nice and gave me a lift with my stuff in his car so I didn’t have to use trams to get it there. The only issue there so far has been how cold the house is. I think that might also be related to how cold it us generally at the moment!
I’m currently sat in the airport on my way back to the UK for xmasday and boxing day then flying back again Sunday. The airport is much quiter than I thought it was going to be and there has been very few flights cancelled today expect where the planes couldn’t leave the airport originally, so it all looking good!
So happy Xmas, or Qmas as they seem to call it here!
So it’s been a couple of weeks now that I have been in Amsterdam. Things are going ok, I am still looking for somewhere to live, although think I have found a solution till around March, but that should give me time to find something a bit more permanent. If I’m definitely staying after that I will look at getting an unfurnished 
place and get a few bits and pieces to go in it, there is allot of people moving about here so you can always find a house sale of someone getting rid of almost everything. The place I am looking at is about 2mins walk from an indoor ski slope as well… how good is that!?
So what else has been happening? Well not allot really, I have had a few things to sort out, boring stuff (although actually quite exciting) like getting a sofi/BSN number, kind of like NI number, without it I couldn’t open a bank account or get paid. We had a guy meet us who sorted it all out, was very good, taken in a car to the tax office, in a different town as they had appointments, then to the bank and with the details they had I could open an account and apply for a credit card (no spending except in emergency’s I promise mum & dad!). So that’s all done in a morning and I emailed the HR girl, so I get paid this month! Woohoo!
Also in Holland we had ‘The Feast of Sinterklaas’ a festival that celebrates 
Sinterklaas coming to Holland and giving presents to good children and whips bad children with willow branches. Well I say he does it, its actually his helpers, Zwarte Piet. That’s black Peter…..
To give a little back round Sinterklaas lives in Spain (of course) and comes to Holland on a steam boat with his 2 helpers. Also all the children get a chocolate letter of their name and sweets and also presents, meant to be wrapped to camouflage what they are and with an individual poem.
Also this week I have lost both my hat and gloves, punctured a tire of a bike I borrowed and caught the wrong bus and ended up without public transport an hours walk from the next tram home 
Here are a few other pics.
