7 Happy New Year, Happy New Country

Happy New Year! Last New Year’s Eve, we were jumping into the warm water of a swimming pool in South Africa. It was our annual New Year’s dive. This year, we were standing above the cold water on a bridge, enjoying the fireworks around the Big Ben and London Eye in The United Kingdom. It was a spectatulair view, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W4Plur00po

Our Lives'Pages haven’t been standing still. Just like the clock, we keep moving forward. We went through a lot, but we have also created amazing and adventurous memories that make us giggle when we look back. We are very grateful for the experience in London. A lot has happened between  those two New Year’s Eves! We have been very blessed in the UK. In this blog, I’d like to look back to year 2014.

World Map

Immediately after we got married, we decided to sit down with the world map in front of us. We were dreaming of different opportunities. With all our options open, we prayed, discussed with family and friends. We had peace about the UK, as a spring board to Europe.  So we exchanged our sun into rain, our Rands into Pounds and our slip slops into solid boots. We have had lovely, exciting, humourous and also challenging experiences in the UK. Who would think I would have the exciting opportunities to work for Jamie Oliver and for the British goverment! I was a supervisor at Jamie Oliver’s cooking class workshop/cafe and I have been doing some training at the Foreign Common Wealth Office, next door to the prime ministers’ office! Andrew had a little break from ministry to reflect on the last 20 years of full time ministry, although he continued to have the opportunity to preach at a few churches in London, build new ministry connections and be involved in our church. Stuart Lees, our pastor in London included Andrew in a few ministry trips and gave valuable input, care and support for which we are so grateful for.  Andrew had the opportunity to study Life Coaching and to use his Master in Business as he has been working at a top business consultancy for a while. This company was based in Bank, the heart of the London. And now… as I am writing this, we are traveling to the Netherlands.  It looks like God has opened doors back in my home country. I got offered a fulltime job in The Hague at a university and it seems that there are opportunities opening for Andrew as well. We are excited to see what God has in store for us in Netherlands!

Winter

January last year, I left South Africa by myself to pave the way for us in Europe. I still have this clear picture in my mind of these open arms of Andrew’s family, welcoming me in between a big crowd of people at the airport in London. I have stayed with them for a while, to settle in the UK. My family in law have been such an incredible support to me. A couple of South African friends were also living in London. They provided me with great help and advise too. They made sure I got to know the British culture by taking me out! I joined a church in the area we wanted to live in. They immediately invited me on their annual weekend away and in no time I got to know a lot of new people and started building friendships. I was ticking off my list of things to organise. I worked my way around funny constructions such as ‘for  a job you need a bank account and for a bank account you need a job’.  Soon there was only ‘finding a job’, ‘finding a home’ and ‘getting Andrew over’ left on the list.

My brother’s first baby was born in Rotterdam. As a surprise, I rocked up at the hospital. The Netherlands wasn’t that far from me anymore. This has probably been one of the most special moments of my life, to meet my cute little cousin for the first time. Back in te UK I kept applying for jobs and looking for a home. I received so many phone calls by recruitment agencies who found my cv online. They wanted me to work for them as a teaching assistant. After many job applications for Education Scientist jobs, I decided to swallow my pride and to register myself with one of those agencies.  I had to start somewhere to gain UK education experience. I really learned over the last couple of years that life is all about attitude and being content where you are, even if things are not fitting into your own planning or if they don’t meet your expectations.

Time went by, Andrew started to wrap up in SA and I kept moving forward in the UK. So we’d be twice as fast. By the time Andrew would arrive, at least I would have organised a place to live and one income. I had to go through loads of  unsuccesful applictions and unsuccesful attempts to find a nice and affordable place to live. I decided not to be discouraged. A ‘no’ is simply another ‘no out of the way’, on my way to a ‘yes’. And after a while… there was the first ‘yes’. I found a lovely appartment close to the river Thames in zone 2. The registration with this recruitment company took a while, so I decided to change my job hunting strategy. I walked along a vibrant shopping street close to our new appartment and walked past all shops, cafe’s and restaurants. There were two places that caught my eye, Jamie Olivers cooking workshop cafe/shop and a very exclusive cheese shop. As I kept applying for jobs behind the scenes of education, I thought why not do something completely different in the meanwhile. Funny enough both shops were recruiting.  I immediately got the part time job at an exclusive cheese shop. A lovely family from the church who are living in that area, offered me to stay with them.

Spring

I got to know -and even better- taste hundreds of different types of cheese at the cute little cheese shop. Sometimes I really struggled to understand the British customers trying to pronounce the French cheese names with a British accent.  The most interesting people walked into that shop! I often ended up selling cheese platters for more than 60 pounds.  One day this lady with a very Dutch accent came to buy  some ‘Old Amsterdam’ cheese and I started chatting to her. I laughed as I thought of myself as Dutch girl in a cheese shop, only my funny hat and my clocks were missing. She told me that her children were going to a Dutch primary school and she offered me to put me in contact with the principal. A couple of days later, I had my job interview.  Soon I had my first part time eduational job secured! This job started in September. I also had my first interview at Jamie Oliver, the day before I would see Andrew again. Andrew and I both flew to Amsterdam to meet up again and spend a couple of days. On Kings day, we dressed up in orange just like every other Dutch person. It was King Willem  Alexander’s birthday that day and we met in real life in Amsterdam. Andrew also went to see my little niece for the first time, it was good fun to see her and her parents again!

Straight back into London I had my second interview at Jamie Oliver and we moved into our new apartment. Not long after that I heard I got the job and I started immediately. I really enjoyed supervising the shop, learning how to run a business, how to  deal with customers and staff, meeting lovely people and tasting lovely food. I probably enjoyed those very tastful prepared staff lunches and dinners the most! Andrew and I did a couple of Jamie Oliver’s cooking courses as well. I ended up meeting Genaro, one of Jamies’ famous teachers. He was offering a cooking course at my shop. Unfortunately Jamie himself never rocked up on the shop floor…. My parents, mother and law and some close friends did visit us and came to check out my new workplace.

Summer

Time to join the Summer festival at Hyde Park, thanks to our lovely friend from Cape Town who organised tickets for us. It was good fun! The underground, the red busses, our mountain bikes and our running shoes, they brought us everywhere. For example we would catch the red bus to Richmond Park to go for a run and watch the deers. We cycled to  parks to have picknicks… One thing we made sure of, was that we were enjoying what London had to offer us. Andrew was going through the same phase as I did -looking and applying for jobs-. He met with a couple of business men and had a job coach. In the meanwhile, he studied his Life Coaching and did some ministry and preaching on the side.  Unfortunately he had some health issues. When we registred at the GP, they wanted him to go and see a heart specialist as he had a athmorythm a couple of years ago. Aparantly he has never been followed-up in South Africa and they discovered ‘something funny’ with his heart in London.  We went to see a lot of GPs, specialists and doctors. Luckily in the end things were fine. There was a misreading on a machine somewhere. Anyway those ‘we-don’t-exactly-know-so let’s-check-over-the-next-couple-of-months, were a challenging season. In the meanwhile, I secured a part time teaching job at another Dutch school.

Autumn

After Summer I left Jamie to start working in education again. Andrew went to work as a business consultant and he really enjoyed every moment of it. I did some temporary work for a recruitment agency at schools and nurseries. I also got two part time teaching jobs at two Dutch primary schools. The one school on Saturday mornings, the other one on Sunday mornings. Poor children, because most of the them had an English speaking nanny, one Dutch speaking parent and one other non-Dutch background speaking parent. I remembered this little boy walking into the classroom, saying half sleepy ‘Monday English, Tuesday English, Wednesday English, Thursday English, Friday English, Saturday Russian, Sunday Dutch…. all the days of the week I have to go to school.’ How sad… On top of that he played the violin, played soccer and had another couple of hobbies. He was a very clever boy but did not have a clue what free time was. This was my first opportunity to teach primary school children, because I have only been teaching teenagers, students and adults before. Soon I  also started to teach Dutch to a couple of children privately. In the midst of this, I tried to find a fulltime job in education as all these jobs were just little ones on the side.  Someone approached me on Linked In to train British police officers and government officials Dutch language. These people were moving to The Hague to work for the British embassy there and needed to follow a fast track Dutch course. So off I went to the bus stop next to our apartment, hopping on the red bus, pushing the STOP button again opposite Big Ben. Making my way to through the busy crowd taking photos of themselves in front of David Cameron’s office with their selfie sticks. I made my way to the Foreign Common Wealth office. There was a very strict security check. As I was waiting inside there, I smiled back at the big frame of the proudly and friendly looking British queen. Some individual training sessions would last for 3,5 hours. so I had to make sure that I was well prepared. So who could be my gunea pig? Of course, Andrew! I brought some language books home from the Foreign Common Wealth’s office, such as ‘Dutch in three months’, ‘Dutch for beginners’ et cetera. So there we sat at our dining table at home, chatting away in Dutch. Haha. It was good fun to teach Andrew Dutch as well as the British people. especially discussing Dutch politics and cultural items, such as Sinterklaas et cetera. I also had to assess my students.

We had a little break in the Netherlands and Belgium, to meet up with my family again. I showed Andrew some places that we haven’t visited yet. I met up with family and friends. Back in the UK, we reflected on our lifes in London, and the job opportunities. Although I had a lot of jobs all together, I really wanted to progress in my career as an Education Scientist rather than teaching.  Andrew felt he was ready to back into his calling: ministry. We prayed and decided to broaden our horizon to the Netherlands. On that day, we also went to see Caro Emerald, a Dutch singer. She performed at the O2 arena. Absolutely fantastic!

Winter

Time to join the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. This would be Andrew’s first ‘cold’ Winter. Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet came to visit both Dutch schools. At one of these schools, I dressed myself up as Zwarte Piet. Walking over the streets  of London on my way to the Dutch school was a bit funny, because ‘the Brits’ were looking at me and wondering what on earth I was doing. Haha. ‘The Dutch’ were really enjoying the Sinterklaas party at both schools, especially the adults. I also went to a Sinterklaasborrel that was good fun, with over a hundred of Dutch people in a Dutch pub celebrating Sinterklaas ‘ birthday. The party was sponsered by the brand new HEMA store in London. Bitterballen, pepernoten, chocolade letters, marsepein, way-to-sweet-mice sweets, stroopwafels, banketstaven, speculaasjes….. and Sinkterklaas himself and a couple of Zwarte Pieten came in to order some pints in as well. It was good fun with the Dutchies at this Dutch pub! In June, Andrew and I dressed up in orange to go watch the Dutch soccer team at that same  Dutch pub. Little did Andrew know that the learning Dutch, the dressing up in orange at kings day  and for the World Cup was all part of the preparation to move to the Netherlands!

I started looking up jobs at universities and funny enough it was raining jobs in my field on the other side of the North Sea. Soon I got a job as a thesis assessor at a long distance university and as I was to visiting the Netherlands to do some training fort his job, I was invited for a couple of interviews. Exciting times ahead.  In the midst of all this, Andrews’ grandmother passed away so he immediately left the UK to help his family with the funeral. He traveled to SA, I traveled to NL. I had another couple of interviews in Den Haag. My mum went to meet up with me after one interview as a Graduation Coordinator. As we sat down at a famous coffee place close to the univeristy, my phone rang. It was the university. I answered. My mum was looking at me… and and and? And… my thumbs went up. We were hugging and dancing at the coffee place. People around us might have been wondering ‘what on earth is going on here!’ I whatsapped Andrew, he was having a drink with his parents at the beachfront in South Africa. He immediately send me a picture with him and his parents celebrating, saying ‘cheers’. Time to move to the Netherlands!

I had to start this job immediately in The Hague. By the time Andrew got back  to London from South Africa, I had already  been working at the university for a bit. We both traveled back to London to celebrate Christmas together and to spend some time with my parents and younger brother, as they came to visit us for the last time in the UK. Soon after watching the fireworks on the bridge, we zipped our red suitcases and off we went to the Netherlands. A lovely Dutch family who we are very close to, offered us to stay with them for a while until we are settled. They came to visit us in South Africa a couple of years ago. We are so grateful fort heir kind offer, as everything has been a bit of a whirlwind.

As I am typing my blog, we have almost arrived in the Netherlands. When I look back to the UK, it was a good year of exploring who we are and what we can offer this world and what we love to do best. We are amazed by Gods’ favour upon our lifes. I stand in awe how doors have opened for me in den Haag and we are praying for doors to open for Andrew as well as he is already building a ministry network there and in Europe. The Netherlands, here we come!