Assume, a colleague has no place to stay. Well, she did, but she chose to rent part of a room from me, as temporary accommodation and agrees to pay (part of) rent and bills.

Now, guess what happend after said colleague moves out and is presented with the bill. A bill, I might add, does not reflect what she really owes. Being the nice guy I am, I took money off the amount she owed….. Dis she pay the remainder? Did she heck. What she did do and continues to do, is slag me off in front of my friends. That’s gratitude for you. I should maybe have left her on the streets (where she belongs)

Shame really. When I was still useful to her, we actually had quite a bit of fun.

But, it doesn’t stop there. I borrowed a set of speakers to her ‘boyfriend’ (ooops, no, not boyfriend of course, they just enjoy each other’s company for days on end and they ‘understand’ each other). Instead of returning said speakers, the ‘boyfriend’ decides to take them with him to his new house…about 100 km away. Honest mistake? You be the judge. He didn’t have them when he entered this country and consciously took them away. A further 20 euros it has cost me.

Just to make things clear: all the above is not about the money per se. It’s about honesty and decency, of which they are both lacking and quite honestly, I’m disgusted at their behaviour. At my previous place of work, both of them acted all high and mighty and knew exactly what people should and shouldn’t do. In actual fact, and I hate to say it, they are about the most dishonest, disloyal and unpleasant people I have come to meet so far, I’m usually a good judge of character, but missed the mark by miles with these two.

If you meet them and you have the choice, I would say, quite honestly: avoid. It may seem and smell like roses in the beginning, but the rotting process starts soon after. See this as a warning and, with the above in mind, make your own judgement. Just be careful.

p.s. To the person (we both know who you are) searching through Dutch google: when searching, please spell Shannon correctly (two n’s not one). I mean, how hard can it be, you’ve lived here for nearly 6 months.

It looks like I have hit a nerve somewhere. One of the culprits (the, well, let’s call him male, for sake of argument), sent me quite a threatening sms last night. He has now admitted to stealing, sorry, taking without consent, my speakers. How sad can you be. Stealing a set of speakers, of which one of the satellites don’t work. What point are you trying to make.

Back to the threats: he threatened to come over and sort out the differences. I will upload a screenshot of the sms later. What he wants me to do, is make the tags disappear. I can do that. The post will still stand and most likely, it will still be indexed by Google. Only one way to get the post removed and that’s to return my set of speakers on my terms or better yet, transfer the money owed for the speakers into my account.

See below for the threat (yes, I alerted him to his spelling mistake):

(last updated 23rd March 2012)

So far, I have done around 200 job applications in about a year or so. Apart from the odd automatic replies you seem to get, around 90 – 95% of companies I have approached never sent me a (more or less personal) reply.

Of course, I can call after a week of sending the application, but do I really want to work for a company that doesn’t seem to want to adhere to basic common decency? I mean, first impressions go both ways, don’t they? I have to present myself in the best way possible; is it too much to ask from me to be treated in kind?

TBC……

Recently, there have been shootings domestic and abroad. Sadly, quite a few lives have been lost. Most high profile recent shooting was the one in Norway (Utoya, Anders Breivik).
Of course, this warrants a kneejerk reaction. One of the Dutch websites has done a little survey of mayors of the 30 bigger cities in the Netherlands. Lo and behold, they thought it would be a good idea not to store weapons at home, but instead to save them in a storage location at the gunclub.
Yup, correct, this will prevent people who are determined  to kill people to think again and not shoot. In this Utopia we live in, there are no means at all to get a gun, when you really need to…yes sirree, no chance to get a gun at all.

My thoughts on the latest shootings is  that storing the guns at the club will not prevent anything. Usually, when someone is deranged enough to pick up a gun and kill people, they will get a gun anyway. Furthermore, the club people are a member of, should ‘see’ if someone has a problem. I have been to a few clubs recently and what I saw, is that the members know each other and know what’s going on.

Now, in order to have a gun stored at home, there are quite a few rules people need to abide by. First and foremost, people need to have been a member of a shooting club, for at least a year and have 18 rounds of shooting as a minimum. After this first year of probation, you can go out and buy a gun. This gun needs to be stored in a safe place in a safe. police can come and visit at any time they please and ask for the gun-owner to show where the guns and ammunition are stored.
For now, I don’t think there’s a psychological review of the person applying for a permit and that should be enforced, even applauded.

I wonder what the next step ought to be. Send mails to upper management? Send some mails to various media? I don’t know…. For now, another tweet is called for. I hope bol.com understands the power of social media (well, they should, seeing as they have various accounts on twitter and facebook).

If all else fails, I may need to go to an arbitration agency (to which they subscribe).

Granted, I paid the bill, when a reminder was sent. That’s where it went wrong. For my convenience, they combined the two initial bills into one new bill (for one, easy payment, I assume). I paid this bill on time. This was acknowledged on my personal page. What they forgot to do, was book the one payment, against the two outstanding. Instead, they sent the two (already paid) bills to a collection agency. This collection agency then sent me a letter (with nice red lettering on the outside), with various threats and the demand to pay up. The annoying thing here as well, is that after they have sent the information to the collection agency, bol.com claim they no longer have my information (uhuh, of course, they remove me from their ordering system straight away after non-payment) and keep sending me to the collection agency
I explained to the collection agency that I already paid and please leave me alone. Of course they wanted proof, which I immediately provided. They acknowledged my payment and I thought that was it….

…..WRONG !!!

Even after all the above, I wanted to place another order for a few books. The order went through and I was set to patiently-waiting-mode, for the arrival of the books. This was quickly scuppered, when an email arrived from bol.com, to tell me the order was cancelled, due to non-payment.

WHAT !?!?

I contacted them via mail and later via Twitter. They asked me for the order-numbers, which I provided (although my name would and should have been enough). I thought they would have all this sorted within a few minutes, but no, I’m still waiting for the all important mail, stating that all had been paid and apologies for your inconvenience… This last part has taken a week now.

Sigh…

Experiences on the job-market have been mixed. A few recruiters have been excellent and followed up, even if after a while, most haven’t.

Below is a list of job applications I have been doing for little over a year. I have removed the names of contact persons. I will also not name and shame who did and didn’t follow up, as that fits no purpose, it’s just a list for demonstration purposes.

Now, I can understand, getting a job last year would have been a bit tricky, with the economy at a low point. Going on the various sites and even finding a suitable job, was a depressing exercise.
The market slowly picked up as did the opportunities presented on the aforementioned job-sites. I felt that from about August 2010 on, I would and should be able to find a job. How wrong was I. All feedback I got were the standard ones: ‘we have had to make a choice’, ‘your profile didn’t fit our demands’ etc.. One company even told me flat out, applying for any future openings would end nowhere, as I was too old (I’m 42). Another offered me a job, but they had to ‘manage’ the finances to be able to pay me. After I asked how this ‘managing’ would be done, I never heard from them again. Yet another put up an advert, I applied and gotr a ‘sorry, you didn’t make the cut, as there were better applicants’ mail. A month later, the same opening appeared on the job-site, so apparently, the ‘better’ candidates weren’t that good after all. I re-applied (without mentioning my previous application). Same mail received. I have asked for further clarification, to which I suspect, I will not get a reply.

I have part added part of my CV to this post (omitted contact details). As you can see, I have been busy in the past decade(s). I’m just wondering why employers don’t even invite me for an interview. Is it age? Have I been unemployed for too long? Is there really a surplus of applicants? Something else? It certainly isn’t my work ethics, motivation, ambition and enthousiasm. It’s just that I don’t get the chance to display those features of my character.

I am now in the middle of qualifying fro CCNA and ITIL and hope this will get me a job. I have simply chosen those courses, as I can do them at home and are, relatively, the cheapest options (I’m paying this myself).

If there’s anyone who can tell me why I’m not happily employed by now, I’d be happy to hear it.

CV:

Job experience

___________________________________________________________________

01-2010-Today

Job Title: Freelancer
Employer: ZetArt, Hoogezand
Description
Freelance work. Amongst others: setting up a Windows 2003 SBS server, network maintenance, setting up and maintaining a client-database, etc.

01-2009 – 01-2010

Job Title: SAP Support Employee Philips IT Applications (1st line SAP Support)
Employer: AAME, Delft
Description
Troubleshoot and problem solving (SAP R/3 and Windows related)
Assigning and maintaining of authorisation roles in SAP R/3
Collecting and providing evidence for ICS/SOX control
Requesting userid’s and printers for SAP R/3
Tracking and follow up the progress of issues
Answering and solving Windows related questions and issues on an interim basis

01-2006 – 01-2009

Job Title: SAP Support Employee Philips Research (1st line SAP R/3 Support)
Employer: Michael Bailey Associates, Eindhoven
Description
Troubleshoot and problem solving (SAP R/3 and Windows related)
Assigning and maintaining of authorisation roles in SAP R/3
Collecting and providing evidence for ICS/SOX control
Requesting userid’s and printers for SAP R/3
Tracking and follow up the progress of issues
Answering and solving Windows related questions and issues on an interim basis

07-2005 – 01-2006

Job Title : Helpdesk employee (2nd line)
Employer: B2-IT, Roosendaal
Description:
On Site activities for Essent Network through IBM.
Preparation and distribution of hardware to various locations.
Second-line support
Asset database maintenance
Initiation and support of major IT-projects

08-2001 – 07-2005

Job Title : Helpdesk employee (1st and 2nd line)
Employer : Shell ITI, Manchester, (United Kingdom)
Description:
Answering incoming phone calls consisting of technical questions regarding Shell IT hardware and software (English and Dutch)
Answering of ‘how-to’ questions about, for instance: Office, Outlook, SAP, Shell Business applications, software, printers, accounts.
Technical Lead; supporting colleagues, maintaining Solution Database
Supporting transition from Windows 95 to Windows 2000

01-2000 – 08-2001

Job Title : Helpdesk employee (1st and 2nd line)
Employer: Gateway Computers, Dublin (Ireland)
Description:
Helpdesk employee
Answering incoming phone calls consisting of technical questions regarding Gateway products (hardware and software related).
Supporting of local hardware staff
Senior Technician
Replacement of Team leader, when unavailable

06-1999 – 01-2000

Job Title: Helpdesk employee
Employer: City Council Hoogezand-Sappemeer
Description:
Helpdesk activities
Installation Management
Inventory IT assets

1989 – 1998

Various jobs: Mover, Production assistant, Warehouse-employee, Business administrator, Freelance employee in a Desktop Publishing company.

Education

___________________________________________________________________

2004
Certified Cisco Network Administrator
CCNA1 and CCNA2

1999
Praktijk Diploma Informatica

1994 – 1995
Business Administration (CVV)

1988 – 1990
Agogisch Werk
MDGO-AW

1985 – 1988
Havo

1980 – 1985
Mavo-4

Language skills
__________________________________________________________________

Language        Speaking                    Writing

Dutch                 Excellent                     Excellent
English              Excellent                     Excellent
German             Knowledge

Drivers license
___________________________________________________________________

A (motorcycle)  B (car)

Job Applications

Four months on and still no papers. So, see this post as a warning:

If Pedro van der Meijden, from Sleeuwijk in Holland, sells you a car, make sure you receive the papers as promised, in person, or you will do without. I have no way of checking if all the repairs etc. he claims that have been done, have actually been done.

A link to his Marktplaats page

He advertises (so far) under the following names on Marktplaats:

pedro
van der meijden auto,s
PIET

The phone-numbers he’s using:

0615340024
0652176902

06-15340024
06-52176902

E-mail addresses used:

bo-oot@hotmail.com

KVK (Dutch Companies House) number: 51554658

Full details, to make sure there is no mixup with people having the same name (these are the details I was given and the actual place where the car was and he lived):

Pedro van der Meijden
Berkenlaan 20
4254 AM  SLEEUWIJK

As you can see, he has a bit of an aversion against capitals, but when he overcomes this, he goes all out. Apostrophs are also quit alien to him.

I shall see if I can do more about this updating lark. First port of call: get an interesting life

(translated: you’re looking very gloomy at me)

Laura walks off to talk to God. Her brother died and she wants to take his place, so her parents can have a son (again). She meets an older guy (Jonathan I think) and eventually tells him what she is up to.

Now, I don’t know if it’s me, but what I keep on thinking is: older guy, young girl (12 at a guess). Something is about to happen. Then I remember it’s LHotP and of course, it’s all wholesome.

What worries me about this, is the realisation that I seem to have been conditioned in thinking that when an older guy and a young girl are alone in the woods, he must be up to no good. I’m probably not alone with these thoughts and I think it’s a shame.