That is a phrase I can use now.
Earlier today, I went for an apprenticeship interview at an international mover, based around 30 minutes from my home. Well, 32 minutes, to be exact.
On my way home, they offered me the apprenticeship, which I accepted!
That means I will have to leave home at the exact same time I am used to, and take the same bus as I usually do, which is absolutely perfect!
"But Philipsen, which countries do move stuff to?", I hear you ask? I'm glad you did. The company has established a van-line, which operates fixed services between the Scandinavian capitals and London every week. Scandinavian capitals means Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo. That means that once I have acquired my truck driving license, the company can ask me "Are you up for a trip to Oslo?", to which I say "sure, let's go!". During the interview, they also talked about a few trips they have had to Scotland, which, as you know by now, is one of my favourite places ever!
So now we just need to finalize the small details, like the start date and such. I am determined to make it there. I will work harder than ever to make sure, that I finish my education at that company.
The next step for me, in 11 days, is my Category B license. I am SO excited for that!
Before I started my education, I had set myself a goal: Do well, make all the school work I was required to do and show up every day.
Now it's the end of the first 5 months, which is the basic course. 20 weeks. 5 days in each week, making it 100 days. Of course, there have been days where I have been away, due to work experience and public holidays, so let's say 80 days of school. 80 days where I have had to sit and listen to a teacher explain something. Most times I have paid attention, but there have been days where I just wasn't there mentally.
At the end of the course, today, we had a small awards ceremony, where the best students were being celebrated. Three awards were given out: Best attendance, best fighter and an award for the biggest helper.
First up, the attendance record. It was close between two people, but in the end, only one could be the winner.
It was me. I was the winner. During these past 80 days, I have an attendance of 99.1%. 0.9% time away! The second place was 0.1% after me, at 1% time away.
The second award went to the guy in the class, who was hard at hearing. Deserved!
The last award, the helper of the year, went to someone in my class, who really helped others out, even when he wasn't supposed to.
What did we win? We won a gift certificate for a cinema, and a small toy truck.
For the first time in my life, I have actually won something!
Today, all I had learned up until now, would have to be put to the test. I was VERY nervous. This is my future livelihood at stake here. If I fail, then I will be a disgrace not only to myself, but to my friends and family.
Yes, I am very hard on myself.
Anyway, after some breakfast, it was time to pick the assignment. One of 3 categories, like I mentioned yesterday: Stowing, rigging and forklift. I was certain I would pick forklift, since it's the one I have the least practice in. If I picked that, I would certainly fail.
I drew my assignment. It said C. I went over to the table and picked envelope C2. Then, I took my place in front of a computer. We were then told to open up the envelope and look at the assignment.
On the bottom of the page, right there, it said "Stowing a trailer".
All my anxiety. All my nervousness. All my worries. Vanished. Like that! All because I picked stowing, and not forklift. I even picked the trailer that I had practiced on the most, so I was extremely thrilled.
I began to work, taking my time to do it right, but the teachers and the external examiner commented on how fast I was stowing the trailer. Then, one quick load securing later, the test was over.
Long story short: I passed!
I am SO happy!
Back on August 16 2021, I had my first day at school. My first day learning about a new field. Since then, I have made good friends, had some fun times and made some even better memories. I have been doing two different types of work experience, which I have both learned so much during. I have learned rules about safety, techniques surrounding securing loads to trailers, how to rig stuff properly and how to stow things inside a truck.
I have earned four certificates: First aid, forklift, ADR and van. I have won competitions, passed exams and made some pretty good assignments. I have endured good and bad times.
I have just been super happy about what I chose to do, and it has shown me, what I want to do for the rest of my working life.
Why am I summarizing it like this? Because tomorrow, at 8 am, I will have my final test, to see if I have learned anything. If I can continue with the education.
Tomorrow is my basic course exam. Am I nervous? A bit. Am I excited? Absolutely! I have my preferred thing to be examined in: Stowing. Mainly because it's the easiest one, but also because it directly corresponds to the area I am going to be educated in: The moving business.
You see, earlier today, I secured not one, but TWO possible apprenticeships, both at international movers. IF I pick stowing tomorrow, and IF I get an apprenticeship as a mover, I will be in a VERY good position! But that is all for tomorrow.
Right now, I need to brush up on certain things. I need to look a bit on route planning, but that's not going to be too hard.
Tomorrow, I will update you on how things went. If I passed or failed, and what I picked.
My exam on Wednesday can be one of the following: Rigging, stowing, load securing or forklift. I am pretty confident in three of them. One of them is still annoyingly tricky to nail. That is the rigging.
Therefore, today, I told myself that I would train my rigging methods. I trained rigging a gate, a barrel, a pole and a block of concrete. The external examiner is going to look after a few things: Is the item straight in the air, are the straps twisted and do I know what I am doing? Can I perform a lift safely?
The barrel first, since that is the most annoying one to rig. I nailed that in 5 minutes. Next was the gate. That was an even bigger pain in the rear, so it took about 15 minutes. Next up, the pole. Not the most tricky thing to rig, so that took just 5 minutes. Then, it was the concrete block. 5 minutes to rig that one. That meant, all four elements took me 30 minutes to rig, and I have 30 minutes to perform all 4 lifts. That means I will be able to make all 4 lifts, just in time. I need to shave off some time with the gate, which can be done.
If I don't rig all the elements, it's okay. As long as the external examiner can see that I know how to lift something safely, I should be okay.
I am pretty good on the stowing side of the exam. Load securing is also something I have nailed down. I am also pretty confident in the forklift, so all I really need to do is to train the rigging more.
If I had to pick one of the tasks to perform on Wednesday, it's stowing. I have 30 minutes to stow some cargo into a truck, and the last time I did it, it took me 16 minutes. It is the one thing I know I can do with my eyes closed.
We'll see how it goes on Wednesday.
I also have a possible apprenticeship lined up. I will know more about that tomorrow!
A few weeks ago, I was sent a message by SSI or Statens Serum Institut, kind of like the CDC. Anyway, they offered me the booster shot, but I decided not to accept it, because I didn't see the need for it at that time. Then, the government went "In order to get a valid and updated covid passport, you need to be vaccinated and boosted", so I decided to get the booster shot. I booked an appointment for earlier today, and I went there straight after school.
The vaccination site was very quiet. I front of me was a young woman. I was next to go, after her. I went in, and before I got the shot, I told the employee, that I was taking medication for the infection in my tooth ache, and I wanted to hear, if it was safe to take the booster shot, or if I had to wait until I finished with the medication. A nurse came down, and I showed her the pills I was taking. She asked me if I was experiencing any fever, discomfort or anything like that. When I said no, the nurse was quite happy with recommending that I proceeded with the booster shot.
I was directed to the waiting area, where I had to sit for 15 minutes. When nothing major happened, I left and headed home.
So now I have been boosted. So far, nothing major to report, other than some soreness in my shoulder, but that's common after a vaccination. My infection in my jaw is also rapidly declining, which is fantastic! One of my treatments is done on Tuesday, and the other is done on Wednesday. I can finally see an end to the nightmare that I have been through! I can even eat normally again!
Wonderful!
If all this tooth ache thing wasn't enough, I have also had to deal with a science exam. Tuesday was when I was given the assignment, and I was going to defend my assignment today.
I had three questions to solve. One with the area of a truck, one had to do with crane work and the last one was with batteries and power. Of those three, we were going to be tested in two of them. I secretly wished for area and batteries/power. What did I get? Area and batteries/power! I was SO thrilled!
I was the first to be graded. Everything went well. I took things nice and slow, and I got through everything without any form of mistake.. Well.. One mistake.. Quite a big one.. I had all my math in cubic meters and kilos. That means I have to get the result in tonnes, but I wrote kilos instead. Slight mathematical error, but nothing major.
After about 20 minutes, I was done. I was sent outside the classroom, and the voting began. A few minutes later, I was called back in. They told me I had everything covered pretty well, but there were some mistakes. They awarded me with a 7, which is a C, for all you Americans out there. I am satisfied!
Regarding my tooth ache, I am pleased to announce that the swelling is dying down, and my tooth ache is 99.9% gone! I need to keep taking the meds I was given, so I am not out of the woods yet, so to speak. But I am feeling a LOT better, and I can sleep without taking any painkillers! Progress!
That's the question that has been bugging me for a while now. I know I was born in Copenhagen, so that makes my nationality Danish, but I don't know where my ancestors were from. I have always wanted to know, so yesterday evening I bought a DNA testing kit, which I will have in my possession sometime next week.
I am still not sure how the DNA kit works, but the package will have instructions on how to perform and send the test. A few weeks later, I will get an email with my results.
I have always been told, that my grandfather was a ship builder in the southern part of Denmark, but I was then told yesterday, that one of my descendants were a deserter from the German forces back in World War 1, so it's possible that I have some unknown German family somewhere. Maybe, possibly further down in Europe. I am not expecting anything other than European. In fact, I am probably with 98% certainty a European, but you never know. I would, however, LOVE to have one of those "Well, I didn't expect THAT" moments.
We'll see once the results are in. I will, of course, keep you posted about the findings!
Those were the exact words my then-roommate asked me, when I told him I was moving out. I gave him two weeks notice, so it wasn't like I was moving out from one day to the next.
Let's rewind the time a bit, to April 17, 2021. At that time, I had been living there for almost 3 years, and I am amazed I lasted that long.
I could feel the tension in the air after my covid diagnosis. Almost like he was looking for a reason to kick me out. I decided to beat him to the punch and find something else, before that happened. I told him, that I had found a room that was cheaper, but smaller, and in a different city. At this point, he began to ask me "I think that's very rushed. You need to pack down your entire room, everything of yours in the kitchen and on the bathroom. Are you sure you can pack it all in a few days? What about internet? Do you know how fast the speed is there? Do you even know the type of internet you will get? You will not be able to play online games or be on Discord while he is using the internet. I know he will not be as good at network stuff as I am. He will not be as technical as I am. He will not be remotely as nice as I am. I predict you will have a lot of problems with him".. He was one of those people who loved to show off with his educations, his money and his stupid PS5 that he "was the first in Denmark to receive".
I had to shout "hang on, you don't even know the guy, how can you know all these things?". He looked at me and went "Trust me, I know these things. I am an educated IT engineer". I also had to explain to him, that I didn't have much anyway, and that I would be finished packing within three hours. He didn't believe me, so I told him "Time me. From when I say go until I am finished. I could see on his facial expression, that he really didn't believe me, so he said "Fine, I will time you. If you cross the three hour mark, I will let you know. Begin".
Two and a half hours later, I was done packing the room.
The day before I was going to move, I had agreed with my then-roommate to haul the boxes into his daughters bedroom, that was located next to the room I was renting. I wanted to haul everything down the stairs, so it was ready to move out, once my sister and her boyfriend came to help me. My then-roomate was out, so I asked him if I could just haul the stuff down and place it in a way, that they would be able to go into the kitchen to get food and drinks. "No problem," was the answer, so I hauled everything down.
You can probably see where this is going.. When he came home, he flipped a switch and said it wasn't what we agreed to do, and that there were no space for them to move around. That I should have waited for him to get home, before I hauled the things down.
At this point, I was done. I decided to just let it go in one ear, and out the other. I only had about 12 hours left there anyway, so I sucked it up.
When my sister and her boyfriend arrived, I wasted little time and began to haul all my stuff down to the parking lot. I didn't want any help from my then-roommate, since I didn't want any of his help. Fifteen minutes later, the trailer was packed, and I was off to the new place.
However, before I left, I went into the living room and said the following: "I will come and clean the room next weekend. When that is done, there is to be no more contact between us, until I decide to contact you. Please respect that".
"Alright.", was his final word to me. With that, I closed the front door, went down the stairs and out into the car, that was waiting.
A few days later, I bumped into his mother and brother. I told them that I had moved to a different city. The brother was very surprised, and asked why. "There's history there. That's as much as I'll say on that". He respected that, and we parted ways. I then took the train to my new home.
Then my phone rang.. The caller ID was my former roommate..
Yesterday, it was one year ago since I was tested positive for Covid, and I entered a three week period of sickness.
I remember it vividly. How weak I was feeling. How much I slept. How much blood I lost, because my nose decided to start bleeding. I was one of the rare cases where covid provoked nose bleeds. How my dreams were terrifying.
The first six days were spent in bed. Not a lot to eat, and not a lot to drink either. When I did eat, I ate multi-grain bread, and when I drank, it was either water or OJ/apple juice. No soda. Mainly because I didn't have the strength to open up a bottle or a can. Yes, I was extremely weak. I had to get my brother to do my food shopping, and then place it outside my front door, for me to come and collect it when he was at a safe distance. During those six days, I also developed diarrhea. 99% of the time, I would make it before it went bad, but 1% of the times, that weren't the case. I also experienced my first ever fever dreams. I wish I hadn't. The majority of them were terrifying. I am not easy to scare, but those dreams were.. Well, they were scary. They all started the same - in black and white. With a voice calling my name. In one of the dreams, one voice said "The next time you fall asleep, it will be your last. We are waiting for you."
A few of the dreams involved my family, where they were out to kill me with knives. It was so unpleasant, that I really didn't want to sleep, because I feared that I wouldn't wake up again.
Thankfully, a few days later, I was over the worst part, however I developed post-acute sequela. I was beginning to feel stronger, though, but I was still dizzy, and when I breathed in deeply, my chest hurt. I called my doctor and explained the symptoms, and she told me, that it was normal to develop post-acute sequela after a covid infection. I had to relax, and take it slow. The sequela would go away, but my doctor wasn't able to say when. It would be weeks before I was feeling back to normal.
This is where the blog gets a bit personal.
The following days were spent getting better. I also cleaned up after myself, because I had so many things on the floor, because I was too weak to go downstairs with them. Clothes were on the floor. Bowls were filled with bloody rags and underwear that had to be thrown away. Whenever I came back into my room, I had that distinctive metallic smell of blood in the air, so I decided to open up the window. Two weeks of not opening the window a single time, really made the air smell bad.. When I say bad, I mean baaad! A mix of blood and fecal matter. I was embarrassed by myself. It was the lowest I had ever felt. It got so bad that I just sat down on my bed and started to cry. I had just experienced two of the worst weeks I have ever had. A few minutes later, I pulled myself together, and I wiped my eyes, collected all the trash in a bag and placed it by my door.
A few days later, I was given the all clear to go outside again, so I took the trash bag by my door and threw it away. My phone buzzed. It was my then-roomie. "It's your brothers fault that you infected us all with covid".. I had no time or desire to deal with it, so I wrote him a reply back.. Admittedly, I probably went a bit OTT, but I wrote back an answer. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was along the lines of "Listen, what happened happened. If you were able to see past your own nose, you'd probably see that others were having it worse than you were having it". I probably wrote something more than that, but I have deleted the messenger thread, so I am unable to see the exact wording I sent to him.
It was after that, that I began to look for other accommodations, and less than three months later, I moved. If you think that went off without a hitch, think again. But that's a story for my next blog.
Today, I am feeling better than I ever have before!
Hello, and welcome to the show! I'm your host, Philipsen. Before we get started, please note that this is my own personal list, and it might not reflect what you are thinking. Anyway.. Let's get started!
The first award is known as "Douchebag of the year". This award is given to the person, who I think deserves to be named DB of the year. There is only one nominee, and therefore, the winner.. Obviously.. Anyway, the winner is my former roommate.
I decided to award him this honor, because he's just a massive douche. If you need a reason why, go through my past blogs, but in order to save you some time, the main reason why I award him this award, is because whenever I did something, like leave a coke can on the kitchen counter, brush a fake plant with my shoulder or open the fridge a certain way, I was greeted with a mile long message about how expensive all his stuff was and how I need to take better care of his things.
The next award goes to Album of the Year. The nominations are: Slaughter to Prevail - Kostolom, Ingested - Stinking Cesspool of Liquefied Human Remnants, Gojira - Fortitude and Tremonti - Marching in Time.
This is a tough one, because all these albums were KILLER! But I decided to give it to Tremonti. Fantastic guitar playing and fantastic song writing makes this album so good!
The next award is for the luckiest racing driver of 2021.
This award goes to Jack Aitken, who crashed during the 24 hours of SPA. Video attached
His injuries were only a fractured vertebra and a broken collarbone. Insane!
There is still a few more awards to give out, so stay tuned!
Up next, we have the award for the single most stupid people in the World. It's us, the Danes! A few days ago, a story broke, that Danes have spent 450 million Danish kroner, that's $68.766.300, on fireworks this year. Yes, 68.7 MILLION USD on fireworks. It's only been on sale since the 27th, so for four days. That's $17.1 million PER DAY! It's absolutely insane!
Moving on to the best science application of 2021. It's the covid vaccine!
Next up: Best late night host of 2021. This is a tough one, and three people have been nominated: Stephen Colbert, Seth Myers and Jimmy Fallon. I thought long and hard on this one, and I have decided to award this award to Stephen Colbert.
That leads me into the worst late night host of 2021. That's easy, it's Jimmy Kimmel.
Moving on - nuttiest politician of 2021. Three people have been nominated. Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar. I'm gonna give it to them all.
We are now at the final award. It is for the weirdest collection of people out there. You know, the people whom you go "Are you well? Do you need medication? What is wrong with you..". Drumroll please... And the winner is... The Anti-vaxxers!
I decided to give them this award, because they are just.. Well, they are a bit nutty, aren't they? For the life of me, I can't see what benefit they are. They are actively trying to stop something that will end up saving a lot of lives! I really do not get it. Can someone please explain it to me?
Anyway, this concludes this years awards ceremony! I hope you had fun, and I hope to see you again for the next one, at the end of 2022!
Happy New Year!
For the past three days, since Christmas Day, I have been dealing with something in my life, and today, I finally accepted defeat. It was quite good for the first few days. I guess with everything new, there is a period where everything is good. Where everything is perfect, and that you wouldn't want to change anything. Then, a few days in, you begin to wonder, if it's worth it. Worth the long nights, the lack of sleep. The rage inducing moments. and the moment where you go "Maybe I bit over more than I can chew".
"But Philipsen, what has made you think this?", I hear you ask..
Well.. I borrowed a 1000 piece puzzle off my sister. What puzzle, you might ask? Well.. This..
It's from the Netflix show Money Heist, and it's quite possibly the single most infuriating puzzle I have ever had the unfortunate honor - if you can call it that - to put together. At first, I was "Yeah, that? It'll be done in two days".. Fast forward to the third day, and I was halfway there (woooah.. Livin' on a prayer), and I was just looking at the pieces. I then decided to put it back into the box, and put it as far away as possible..
F this puzzle, man.. I wish to never see it again!
On a brighter note, Merry Christmas!
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