I've been tagged by Dennis van der Stelt.
So here are 5 personal things you might not know about me:
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My first computer was a C64. There was at that time nothing that could beat the C64. It was by far the best thing on the market, but I guess Apple users will disagree. I never liked the MSX and MSX-2 systems that came on the market a few years after that.
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Before starting a job as a software developer, I worked as a shopassistent in an audio/video retail store. Yep, I sold colour tv's, VCR's and audio equipment. But I fled the company when the started selling washing machines and refrigerators.
- I actually had my credit card ripped while living and working in Malaysia back in 2000. I bought a PS-One for my appartment and had it converted to be a VideoCD player. I payed with my credit-card and I assume they copied the magnetic strip there. I found out when my credit-card bounced on several occasions the next week. This was very annoying as I was about to take a weeks vacation and needed that credit-card to pay for the hotel. A call to the credit-card company explained it all. They thought my expense behaviour didn't match what they had seen in the months before and consequently blocked my credit-card. The guys that had ripped the card had already spent some 2200 euro's (aprox. US$ 2700) before the card was blocked. Fortunately for me, the insurance covered it all and Bas de Jonge, a friend and co-worker who would join me on that vacation, offered to advance me the money. I promptly repayed him when we returned. Thanks Bas!
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I proposed to my (now) wife at Cork International Airport in Ireland. We attended a wedding of a former co-worker of ours, Caroline O''Sullivan in Cork, Ireland. She married a guy called Geert Gielens from Belgium whom she met while working at Exact Software in Delft, my previous employer. After the wedding, we went on a trip around Ireland, enjoying the great views, visiting friends, etc. I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me, right in front of the whiskey counter in the duty-free shop, with people staring at us. Her answer was: "Come back when you mean it!". I was too surprised to respond. But during the flight I managed to convince her that I was being serious.
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My wife and me have a 15 month old daughter named Lisa. Lisa has a metabolic disorder called Galactosaemia. This means that her body is not capable of breaking down lactose in a proper way. She's has to stick to a lactose-free diet for the rest of her life. It's a rare disorder, only 6 out of 35000 children have it, and there's no cure. But fortunately, there are plenty of things she's allowed to eat and, as long as she sticks to her diet, she should be able to lead a fairly normal life.
Unfortunately, the people I know who blog have already been tagged. So no new tags from me.