I wasn't aware 2 months had past since my last scribblings. As you can guess, I have been very busy. First I spent so much time contacting my former colleagues from North Sea Ferries and put up old pictures on the facebook event page I set up. This started out others going through their photographs and even looking up stuff on the internet and I really enjoyed seeing new facebook friendships grow and everybody connecting again and I really felt good about this. Many of you probably saw some of the going ons on fb. After my last post here I kept going. At first I was a bit worried that it would not be a succesful reunion because it took some people a long time to confirm their attendance, But 2 weeks before the event some 70 had confirmed, some couldn't make it on the day, so we were 63, and 46 of us actual ex NSF. On the day of the reunion, I was very nervous. But there was no need for that. My sons and their friends did a splendid job serving the food and drinks and it was such fun to see everybody in a great mood at renewing friendships and catching up on what everyone had been up tosince 2003 and how their children were doing and if they had grandchildren. It was great and there was not nearly enough time to talk to all of them. They all brought so much Potluck, I still have some chips and nuts left, even after I gave away half of it and used some myself on my birthday and at Christmas. One of my dutch friends, and it was great that so many of them drove all that way to join us, had prepared a wonderful power point presentation with lots of pictures and videos from 'the good old days'. It is amazing that even after such a long stretch of time, you immediately feel at ease again with old friends. Afterwards I realised how I had missed this familiarity, and it is maybe a bit sad but on the other hand : it was great back then and I have all these funny and happy and some sad shared memories. After the reunion I did still spend time posting pictures and mailing pictures to the ones that are not on fb. A lot of time spent on my computer but rewarding. After that, I was looking forward to the arrival of our American friends. They arrived on the 20th December and I collected them from the airport. It was great to see them again. On my birthday, 21st December, the supposed Maya end of the world, I took them and son Niels and friends that helped out at the North Sea Feast with POtluck out for dinner to thank them for helping me out. We had a wonderful evening with them. I had some offtime from work and Christmas dinner to prepare. I did a lot of cooking, and eating I might add, over the past 2 weeks, but enjoyed having all the family here even though we had to move some furniture around and 3 champagne glasses were sacrificed. On New Year's eve we went to my brother and had a great dinner and evening there. Wednesday our American friends had to go back home. And now well : I am teary eyed and snotty nosed, not from crying but from a cold I seem to have caught. The New year comes with new challenges, losing some kilo's I seem to have gathered over the last month or so (that is not really a new challenge), selling our parental house (that may not prove to be the biggest challenge - emptying it of all it's contents will prove far more difficult I'm sure) and last but not least : planning a holiday that is a bit out of the ordinary, but I guess nobody woul call that a challenge but rather a wonderful propect.
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