Well hello from us and Christmas greetings to you,
As the famous loon, the Crocodile Hunter, might say: "Crikey!" We’ve just about seen another year slip by meaning that we’re all older and wiser right? Well, of course not. Naturally we’re older (it pains me to admit it but, I turned thirty in July and it still hurts) but wiser I really can’t claim that with any honesty. What I can honestly claim though is that it has been another exciting and varied year with plenty of change and a good deal of cheer. So sit down, pour yourself a glass of whatever you fancy and let us share with you the past twelve months.
Not remotely surprisingly this year began in January, that bleak old month when thoughts invariably turn to those of the what-can-I-do-to-brighten-my-day-today type. In a moment of blinding inspiration I asked my boss to come and share some junk food for lunch with me. While we were stuffing the best part of a pound of scrap "beef" down our throats I said something along the lines of: "So then boss, what would I have to do to wangle a transfer to Europe?" He could barely conceal his joy that he might be able to get rid of me but he said "Just let me make a few phone calls and I’ll drive you to the airport myself" Or something similar anyway. A couple of weeks later I was interviewing with the head of European operations and plotting a swift move back to the Olde Worlde for Heide and me.
Heide meanwhile was still popping down to sunny, though I should also point out, rather smelly and smoggy, Southern California. She was working as a Project Manager and racking up the air miles for future jollies. Taking a cue from the Cassidy lad she decided to take her boss to lunch (though no junk food in the consulting world) to see if she could arrange a transfer somewhere exotic, failing that how about The Netherlands? All went smoothly for, well, literally days. Then in a stunning negotiating stance, or really bad gag, her fine organization offered her a 40% salary cut, no chance of a return to the US, a demand that she be fluent in Dutch by Valentine’s Day and that she start voting Republican. Fat chance all round there. Still they were offering her use of a computer, which in the IT field, makes a very attractive proposition. After much deliberation the "offer" was rejected. Can’t think why. The contingency plan would have to be activated. Heide gave her notice, or at least notice that her notice would be forth coming.
In February Heide turned 30. (Yes she did, I know she’ll claim that she was born in 1975, and yes, perhaps her passport does support that assertion, but I’m no cradle robber.) To celebrate this coming of age we went north to Anchorage, Alaska. Pretty smart move that Alaska in February. Still, despite the loss of several toes to frost bite it was great fun and a price well worth paying. Lucky for you February is a short month so I won’t dwell there any longer, besides we’ve only covered the first six weeks of the year and it has accounted for half a page. Please keep on going, I promise it gets better. "Obviously it has to." I hear you shout.
March came and we went to Eindhoven, a delightful city, full of canals, medieval architecture, fine cuisine, picturesque windmills and quaint natives who wear clogs. If you’ve ever been there please don’t tell anyone that the for last few lines I took some artistic license. Anyway, I went to the European factory that was to be my new work place. Everything was just fine and with a new contract in my back pocket we tiptoed through the Tulips all the way back to Seattle. We were moving.
Err not so fast. By April (I’m already a quarter of the way through the year now so please push yourself to stay with this drivel) the signed and sealed deal was unsealed and unsigned. Hmm, problem. Now I can’t say exactly, or even roughly, what the problem was but it was a problem. Luckily Heide had only given notice of her notice etc. So, we weren’t going to be destitute. Also luckily my position hadn’t been filled and remarkably I managed to talk them out of filling it. So the status quo remained. We then headed back to Europe for a few days of pomp and circumstance with a splash of militarism as my wee sister was given a gun and told her time at the army academy was over. Good party they put on! Upon my return I was to find that I was still loved and they really did want me in Europe after all. So that was it. Time to quit for real.
May came and went without too much to report; other than a mild dose (well 3rd degree) of sunburn and not so very mild case of Montezuma’s Revenge -- super momentos from Mexico, you really must try it. Actually it was my fault for drinking my own body weight in Margarita’s (keep the smart comments like "that would be about three drinks then" to yourselves) Heide probably had an iffy quesedilla to account for her incapacitation.
Heide had given her notice for real but not one with a definitive finish date, so we racked up a few more air miles and continued living something like the highlife and took a weekend break in Albuquerque. There was no particular reason for going there other than the fact that I always thought that anywhere with a name as odd as that must be worth visiting. They’ve got a rattlesnake museum so I suppose it is. By the end of June Heide was done with working, but God bless her firm they saw the merits in paying her for a further three months. No arguments here. The only bleak spot of the summer would rear it’s (his) ugly head in late July. My big bro came to play. We did the full tourist thing in and around Seattle, which was useful to us, well me anyway, as I’d never done any of it. Great place actually, even if it doesn’t have a rattlesnake museum. Paul loved it and it was good to see him (Heide made me put that bit in)
Ahh, the dog days of summer. August. Great month. Unless, you’re planning to move to Europe and haven’t got a place to live there, a definite plan of what to do with the house here in the US, no idea of what to do with the odds and sods, you know the furniture, car etc. Still Heide was home and I could skulk off to work and leave such trivial matters behind me. Probably a good thing too; otherwise nothing would have been done with my usual elan.
September, and the big move dawns. Miraculously we, well ok, Heide, had organized everything on the home, soon to be foreign, front. In as long as it takes to fly from Seattle to Amsterdam we became the Van Der Cassidy’s. I started a role in the European purchasing arm of the company I had worked for in the US. The job was similar to what I had done back in the US; except that the hours were miles shorter and the holidays miles, miles longer. Yep that’s more like it.
As many of you know the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the US is both deeply scary and bureaucratic. Well in the Netherlands it’s not too different, only they speak Dutch. That said you can’t say that the Dutch government is inefficient; on our first day in Holland we were daft enough to park in front of our new apartment. Twenty minutes later there was a little yellow note on the window telling us we were 40 Euros poorer than we had been not half an hour earlier. Ha ha!
In what can only be described (on Heide’s part) as either insanity or a display of the patience of a saint, Heide and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary in early October. To mark the occasion we spent the weekend in Brugges, Belgium. Remember, about seven pages ago, all the nonsense I attributed to Eindhoven about canals, fine cuisine, etc.? Well it’s absolutely true of Brugges, go there if you can. Tell them we sent you! Not sure it will get you much but try it anyway.
November, and you’re all beginning to sigh with relief, it you’ve made it this far. Heide has been interviewing with a frenzy not seen since the Whirling Dervish first discovered herbal dietary supplements. At the time of writing the right job hasn’t come along but I feel confident that it will do so within weeks. Besides it’s fun having her at home rather than at work all hours. We returned to Seattle to enjoy Thanksgiving with her family, bloody good time it was too.
And here we are. December, Christmas and only 365 days or so until you’re next subjected to another letter like this from me! I applaud you for having made it all the way to the end. That puts you in the minority, I’m sure.
We heartily wish you and yours a really wonderful Christmas and prosperous and exciting 2003. As they say in the land of clogs, tot ziens! Cheers and that’s all folks!
Heide & Mark
