This and That

It's past 11 PM and I'm sitting in my living room. I woke up relatively shortly after falling asleep. I think I was lying on my right hand or something, and then there was this pain in my hand. Strange.

Anyway, I've been on sick leave. My chiropractor urged me to slow down. He is right. It has been impossible for me to fully recover from my pain, as I always went back to full-time work too quickly. Plus they haven't exchanged my office chair yet, which is giving me this pain. The foam is too hard for me, since I have no natural padding (i. e. body fat on my buttocks).

But nothing to worry about. In fact, I really look forward to part-time work this coming week (the doctor said I should work only half days, and then slowly increase). From December on, I will have every Friday afternoon off from work. Yes, I'm going to be on a 90% regime. I think this was the best decision I could have ever taken. Of course I will earn less money, but it will be so worth it. My health is more important than money after all.

On Friday, I saw my dentist. He relieved my tooth pain (just by removing some bacteria which got "trapped"), and then I ended up having an interesting conversation with him - about health and the NEWSTART concept.

On my way to his office, I went through a park.

That's a normal picture in Brussels. Actually, at this time of the year, you see them rather lingering at the metro stations, because it's warmer there.

Only about five minutes away from that bench is the Berlaymont building, the main Commission building, were all the Commissioners and their cabinets are housed, as well as the Legal Service and the Secretariat-General. My friend Agnieszka, an Adventist from Poland, works for the latter as an administrative assistant. On Thursday, I met her and two of the other "EU/SDA workers": Jana from Slovenia, who has been here for a little over a year; and Emma von Romania, who just arrived in June. She is a legal adviser at the EEAS (European External Action Service). This is the newly founded diplomatic service of the EU, headed by Barroness Ashton from the UK. On the picture below, she is the one left to President Barroso (front middle man). The one left from her is Vice President Almunia, the one who is in charge of competition matters. I still haven't met him, but I hope to be able to meet him soon.

Then I went to the metro. There was a group of controllers on the stroll. They look really scary. They always catch a lot of people without ticket. That's interesting, because in Germany they are always in ciwies when they control the passengers. Thus, nobody can flee from the bus or tram, because they don't notice that somebody is going to control them.

Anyway, I'm still not sleepy enough to go back to bed, but I hope I will be soon!