Yes, it’s that time again…

Another Visa run to Dubai.

As I sit at the hotel, waiting….

for the time to leave and head back to the airport, I thought I would blog a little.
Recently, my off rotation was spent in the Netherlands, working with one of the vendors on a project that has, in the past, gone horribly wrong. It was an opportunity that could have been passed up, but after talking to my wife, it was decided I should go and try to get her over for a visit before I came back to the desert.

I’m a software engineer by trade, and my main purpose in being in the Netherlands was to review what the vendor was designing and programming. Not a big deal, it’s what I’ve been doing on this project from day one. Finding their errors and trying to get them corrected. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to catch all of them and we’ve had some issues with bits and pieces breaking.

There were also issues with my entry visa, and it would require me to exit and return with only a week left in my normal rotation. So, the solution was to send me to the Netherlands earlier than expected. I was there for a total of 6 weeks and loved it. Except for the cold and rain.

Keep in mind, when I left home in August, it was hot, and I was going to the desert, so I took lightweight clothing. Here I am flying to Amsterdam in the middle of September. I have no jacket in the desert. Why? It’s the desert! I don’t need a jacket. was to meet one of my co-workers in the airport at close to 9 am. I land at 6:30. I’ve got some time to kill, so I go get my bags and the only option from that point is to leave the baggage claim and head into the airport. I actually went to the baggage claim area where he should have arrived and was going to read a spell to keep me occupied till he arrived, but as luck would have it, my kindle battery was dead.

After being seriously bored, I left the baggage claim and entered the airport with the rest of the ‘real’ people. I’ve never seen so many blond women in one place at one time as I did in the airport. Even blond men! Like ME!!! I thought to myself that I could fit right in. Then again, I thought that I might be a little overweight to ‘fit right in’. Then as I strolled over to a cafe for some coffee (please don’t confuse coffee shop with cafe… I’ll explain later), I was greeted in Dutch by the blond lady behind the counter. I didn’t think I looked Dutch. Come to think of it, this happened in Germany too. Not the Dutch part, but German… And I didn’t think I looked German either.

My co-worker finely shows up and we grab a bite for lunch at the airport. The city we are heading to is Hengelo, it’s in the western area of the country, close to the German border. Two hours by train, about the same by car. We take the train.

We arrive in Hengelo 2 hours later, me still with no jacket. It’s somewhat cool and rainy. We catch a taxi to the office where we will be ‘Guest’s’ of our vendor.

I think this is where I’ll stop and blog about Hengelo in a bit….. Basically, I need a short break.