Bloem Esther Lotte has been born to my good friends Jules and Linda. If you can’t read Dutch, you might still appreciate the photos.
Jules and I used to work together at Sonera (which has since abandoned its Dutch operations). When Red Hat later headhunted me, I arranged for Jules to be hired, too. We left for England on what we thought was a one month trip, but Red Hat reneged on the deal and required us to stay in England. I walked away in disgust, but Jules stayed for a full year.
I then returned to Amsterdam, where I met Sarah, which resulted in my taking a job with Linuxcare (now Levanta) a few months later. I was supposed to spend the first month in San Francisco, then return to Amsterdam. Oddly enough, Linuxcare changed its mind and asked me to stay in the US. Déjà vu or what?
The moral of the story? If you get offered a job with an overseas company that claims to be willing to allow you to work from your own country, be very suspicious. It works out perfectly fine for many people, but has yielded bizarre results for me.
Still, it worked out OK in the end and, after 5.5 years, I’m finally getting to return home, with my own little daughter. I’m hoping Wiesje and Bloempje will become good friends, just like their parents.
I can still remember the fun at SANE 2004, when you told me Sarah was pregnant, and Linda was three days late, and pregnant one month later..
Great to see you going back to Holland. I’m really eager to see ourselves holding one another’s daughters. I’m sure Wiesje and Bloempje will get along nicely.
Jules