Moving Office
Well, after 7 years, my office in downtown Brussels is moving. It's sort of a bittersweet move. We are really close to the heart of things down here - a few blocks from the heart of the city centre. We are moving to an office park structure off the highway on the way to the airport. Charming.
I will miss being able to step outside and shop Rue Neuve (behind my office block) any time I want. I will miss having lots of lunch choices within a few blocks. I might even miss the bells that peel every quarter of hour outside my window.
There are definitely a lot of things I won't miss though....
Working in an office on the 5th storey walk-up of an old, non air conditioned building
The 6-stop metro journey that seems to take forever - and is stinky - (Of course, they just put new metro trains in this week...)
Being in the red-light district - or as I am apt to say 'Near the boobie bars' (Strangely where The Plaza Hotel and chi chi shops like Hugo Boss are located too...)
The throngs of Gypsies, vagrants and huge gangs of North African youths who troll the shopping district clogging doorways and escalators
Pickpockets in the subway at De Broukere
The grime, cigarette butts and gum on the office doorstep
The long and crazy lines at Inno, Exki and a hundred other shops where the staff goes on break at the busiest times of day
The misconception that this area is up-and-coming.....I agree, it's always changing. But it seems to be regurgitating rather than improving.
If I didn't work on this block, I likely wouldn't ever come down this street. I would stay nearer to the charming Grand Place and the cool restaurants and bars near Place St. Gilles or Place St. Catherine. I certainly don't need to visit all the sex shops near my office and if I did, I would have a hard time deciding which one to go to!! I would never intentionally come down here for shopping. The weekends must be insane with bargain shoppers with multiple baby prams and extended families in tow. The grocery stores are perfect for the urban dwellers - No value packs, short on variety, short on freshness. (Save for the Asian supermarket which is splendid).
Luckily I travel for work quite a bit. Because the daily trudge down here gets pretty glum after a while. A lot of the buildings are impossibly black from soot. Desperate construction is going on every 10th building in an effort to transform this block into a hip area. (Yes, it's a kick ass apartment, but there's still a night shop and an all-nude dance club next door!) In the winter, it's a bit creepy to leave the office late since it's so dark so early. Strange people hovering close to the front door of the office. No one watching the street.
Now, I will be closer to home - as the crow flies. I live in Woluwe and it's just a few blocks to the exit leading to the airport. The new office is located on a slip road across from the dual carriageway that NATO is on. Wind down the slip road, past business hotels and nondescript office parks until you get to our new offices. Should be OK though - I will have a door on my office - (which I don't have now - but then again, I have the whole floor and no one ever comes up to my floor - too far up!!).
So, we will give up lively and crazy and dirty outside our office door for the tranquility of outer-city planned space. Plain little walkways, trees, bushes, grass, car park. Road. I will resort to bringing my lunch to the office (did I just say that???) Carrefour and Ikea and lots of other shops that offer good selection, clean vibrant aisles and freshy fresh fruit and produce are on the way home though!
Here's to the office move! - Downtown is for weekends anyway :-))
Fa fa faaaahh
I was in the States last week. Had a conference to attend at my work HQ near Detroit - the conference was great. However, I am still dragging my tired bum around after a 4-day trip over there. Seems I didn't get enough time to acclimate to the time over there and worked very hard (and partied) - so - not enough sleep - and then came right back. My bod' is still wondering why it's not lunch time at 3 am.
The travel back to Europe was a nightmare. I hate when corporate does my bookings - it always comes out terribly.
Starting with the 100% heat and the 'mini-van' that took a small group of us European employees to the airport for the transatlantic flights which leave for Europe in the evening. The 'mini-van' was actually a party bus. You know, like something a group of Essex girls would hire for a hen night to go pub crawling. It had pleather (plastic leather) booth seats wrapped around the interior with little bar areas in between each banquette area. Strobe lights, dvd player, radio, coolers, arm rests - but no seat belts and no air con. A miserable hot, sticky and uncomfortably topsy-turvy hour-ride later - we arrived at the airport.
4 of us had to stand in line for over an hour and half to check in! All of us routed through Frankfurt. Colleagues going to Istanbul, Munich, Zurich and myself to Brussels. There were only 3 Lufthansa agents - 1 of them was for business class and slower than molasses so she never took on any economy check-ins to help out. The agent who finally served me smelled of liquor and moved like a slug. We barely made it through security and to our gate before boarding time was to start. The British Airways gang of colleagues had checked-in and gone to the bar at the Westin hotel 5 minutes after we got to the airport. Snots. Panting and hungry because we hadn't time for dinner, we rushed down the long departure halls and got to the gate in time for boarding - which of course was delayed in 5 minute intervals over a period of 30 minutes with requests to stay close by. Dang. (looking for the linty mints stashed in my purse at this point)...
My flight back was torture. My seat in row 42 - the airplane equivalent of nose bleed seats at a ball park - was so tiny and cramped it was practically folded in to itself. I had an end seat on the group in the middle row of 4 - except our row only had 3 seats and instead of directly facing the passenger in front, we faced between the two seats in front. We were to look at the monitors to the left seat in front - slightly uncomfortable - and awkward. Mine didn't work anyway....of course. I couldn't raise and or open/close my tray unless I politely requested the person in front to put their seat-backs up. I pinched my index finger in the folding contraption to store the trays and boy did it smart. Some steward named Rolf or Ilmar or Ludwig dropped a salad on my head while serving. You know - torture. After a long night with only 25 minutes of sleep and a severely bumpy flight - we arrived in Frankfurt and parted ways.
I spent a good half hour going around in circles looking for Terminal A - and bumping in to colleagues doing the same - looking for their own terminals in the poorly signed airport. Finally by the time I made it to my gate I was in a daze. I didn't care that the flight from Frankfurt to Brussels went through a thunderstorm and shook the small plane to it's core. I laughed wickedly at the businessman next to me hanging on to his arm rests with white-knuckled grips. Nothing can save you now!!! ha ha ha ha aha aha aha aha - going crazy.
Home late Friday evening and everything was normal again. Bunny dog had been delivered from his camp on time and he was happy to see me. Saturday I managed a cardio work out to try to sort out my jet-lag. Sunday I took Bunny dog to the woods for a run - I twisted my ankle quite badly - it hurts more a few days later than it did then.
Anyway - am back at work - catching up on the whirlwind of customer problems that blew threw my office last week. Thousands of e-mails - OK - a slight exaggeration. Lots and lots of e-mails!!
And I need something to look forward to - and guess what - THERE's loads to look forward to. Aside from friends coming to visit and trips to take. There's a fun party for a friend's 40th birthday - this Saturday. To be held at Havana - a Cuban (obviously) club near the Palais du Justice Downtown. Invitations and all. Date sorted and the only thing left to do is get a great party frock!
So Fa Fa Faaaa dahling!
