My mothers birthday

Left2Right: Gilbert, Marjolijn, me, my father and my mother

My mothers birthday is actually on the 1st of July but because my sister and brother-in-law are on holdiday to the South of France that day they (my sister and brother-in-law) invited us for lunch two weeks earlier. Only I went (to give my wife Monling some off-duty time). We enjoyed a lovely lunch in Breukelen.

My mother and father at Restaurant Robert

Ten days later she (my mother) invited us at restaurant Robert in Hilversum. Monling didn’t know the restaurant and thought that they served some great food. I especially had some great vegetarian dishes.

Left2Right: My father and I

A few few weeks earlier (5th of June) I asked my parents to accompany me on a walk through the Vondelpark. I was pushing my wheelchair just in case I felt tired. We had tea in the “Blauwe Theehuis” and there I found a board you can see at fancy fairs (the kind with oval holes for heads). I invited my father to join me and asked my mother to take a picture. Hillareous!

Later I didn’t see the huge pile of dog shit (must have been produced by a St. Bernard) and instead walked with my new Italian shoes straight through that pile of shit! Not so hillareous! I had to ask my father to clean my shoes (a long time ago he would use his pocket knife for this dirty job, now he used a small stick). I must admit that we can’t do without our parents.

Members of the Czech team came to visit us

Left2Right: Mirek, me, Lenka & Robin

On Saturday evening three Czech ex-collegues and colleague (now all frieds) came all the way from the Czech Republic (one way is equal to 9 hours!) to see us. They were exactly on time thanks to the navigators (Lenka and an electronic GPS based). They brought us so many gifts: a wonderful album with printed pictures (which I started browsing through immediately), some batiked scarfs and a lovely tie, two bottles of Fernet (one of them filled with transparent liquid called “8000″), a bottle of Becherovka and a bunch of flowers. Unfortunately I  forgot to tell them that I can’t drink any alcohol in combination with the anti-epileptics (that I must take for the rest of life) so I’m afraid that I will have to give Mirek’s gifts away to other friends.

Why I was working in the Czech Republic in the first place you may wonder? I was ordered by my Dutch boss to setup a branch office in the Czech Republic (2001). I was appointed Director of this Czech branch office and was responsible for e.g. recruitment and finance. I numbered all my employees. I was number one and I recruited number two (Hana Jakobova, the Company Secretary). So also Robin and Lenka and Mirek. I guess they were respectively numbers 7, 15 and 5 and recruited by me. I remember clearly that we from time to time organized ‘fernet parties’ in the office where we used to mix coca-cola with fernet. I was often drunk these days :-).

Robin introduced me to moutain climbing. Although I was used to walking in the Swiss moutains with my parents (we visited Swiserland very often) to Robin that was kidsplay! We therefore first climbed to the summit of Mt. Snezka (real time webcamera’s can be seen here: http://kamery.humlnet.cz/en/videa/snezka/20090701 ), the highest ‘peak’ of the Czech Republic (1602 metres above sea level). Robin must have been impressed with my climbing so in September 2003 we went to the summit of highest mountain of the Slovak Republic: Mt. Gerlach of the High Tratras (2655 metres above sea level). You can find my Picasa (version 3) album here: Gerlachovsky stit

In the evening we went to restaurant Pieck in Haarlem. This used to be our favorite restaurant years ago because of the speed at which they serve you, the friendly ambiance and the quality food. Both ‘Pieck’ brothers are still running the show but don’t have their act together anymore. Pity. I wish we had dinner in the opposite restaurant Metzo instead. Dear friends, thanks for your visit!!

Birthday of my sister

Marjolijn

We celebrated the birthday of my sister in a restaurant on the other side of the Sloterplas (a lake located opposite from our house). I don’t feel safe to travel alone so my brother-in-law and my sister came to pick me up.

I felt quite uneasy. Not because of my brother-in-law’s driving (he sticks to the maximum speed, doesn’t “drink-’n-drive” and looks out for any lunatics that you’ll find in traffic). No, I’m feeling uneasy when I’m forced to face a situation where I’m not in control. Actually: I hate it when have to depend on others for performing tasks that I used to be able to do myself.

Anyway <sigh>: the food (lunch) was delicious though (my dearest sister spend her money on a three course lunch). Thanks Marjolijn!

Happy New Year!

A bit later than usually is the case: we wish you all a very Happy 2009! We wish you a healthy and prosperous life (whatever that means in your case). A lot has happened since my last post, now I finally have the time and energy to type it down.

At the end of last year we had to prepare ourselves for the transfer/closure of our two companies (Amergin and Snezka). In May 2008 we had already sold 50% of Amergin to my friend Eric Jan. My condition however got that much worse that I could spend 0% of my time to my company and my wife Monling was too tired to take care of the administration (to take care of a demanding and forgetful husband is a job itself).

My good friend Maurizio Calderone

We decided therefore that we had to inform the other shareholder about our decision: selling sell our 50% of Amergin shares to Eric Jan too and close Snezka Holding. It brought tears to my eyes to have to let my companies go. I hope that my successor turns Amergin and its shareholding in the Italian company of my dear Sicilian friend Maurizio Calderone into a success!

On the 2nd of January Monling and I had a lunch in a Chinese Restaurant. While we were waiting for the check I got a minor epileptic attack, limited to my right arm only. Monling called a taxi and when we reached our home I went straight to bed. Fortunately we had just finished our lunch! The day before yesterday (9th of January 2009, how time flies!) the same thing happened, the only difference was that it this time happened at home. That made it simpler: I could lie down on the floor (in the ultra busy restaurant Oriental Palace was no floorspace available ofcourse).

Bas and me

Bas has been back from his trip through Asia and on his way home he paid me a visit. We discussed my condition as well as his trip. He made such beautiful pictures! After dinner with us we took our laptops out to compare settings of “WordPress” (the “language of this blog”). Such lunatics we are :-)! I appreciated his visit so much. I can recommend his Blog by the way: Aspire to inspire before you Expire”. He posted all pictures from his trip.

Birthday of Monling

My wife had her birthday today. She got her presents (enough cosmetics to start a small drugstore) last week already so I just got up at 9:00am this morning, went to the bakery, bought fresh bread, ‘butter cookies’ and some pastries for breakfast.  We had a pretty easy going day and went to Haarlem (less than 30 minutes by train from our home) for dinner in a restaurant called “ML” (http://www.restaurant-ml.nl/).

We had a splendid evening while savouring the many courses that one after another were taken to our table: 2 amuses, 3 first courses, a main course, a collection of deserts and a kind of spoom. Wonderful food cooked to perfection with a grand dose  of creativity. It took us more than three and a half hours to finish it and we loved every minute.