Aussies in Holland

I’m from a truly multicultural Aussie family, with a Japanese mother and a German father, but born in Melbourne and raised in Ballarat. Much to my surprise, I’m already 41. I met my sweetie, Ad van Veen (a lekker ding, 11 years younger than me!) just after he arrived in Australia in 1997 on a working holiday visa. We ended up travelling right around Australia together for ten months, and then I came back to the Netherlands with him, late in 1998.
We now live in his home village of Boskoop, a village of 15,000 in Zuid Holland, not far from Gouda. Boskoop’s main “industry” is decorative tree nurseries, so it’s quite a pretty place. We live in a roomy flat with our three cats – Lulu, Gonzo and Franky (named after Frank de Boer, Dutch footy captain, as they both have reddish blonde hair and blue eyes and because, just like our kitten, the other Frank was missing his penalties).
I’ve had various jobs since coming here (including a few eye opening months at the Dutch Interpol office) and am now working part time for a Dutch design company (www.handedby.com) with a fun bunch of people, which still leaves me time for working on my ceramic mosaics, and for felting boots and shoes from wool. Ad and I plan to move back to Australia in a few years, hopefully travelling overland, and buy a farm somewhere in South Gippsland.
Other than collecting websites, my interests are wide. I love all sorts of arts, both passively, in the form of music, theatre, literature, cinema (mostly stuff out of the mainstream though) and actively (I do a lot of handcrafts, but don’t have any sales instincts at all!), food (both cooking and eating), travelling (passionately – I’ve spent about a third of my life travelling), animals and nature. Oh, and boots. I have a collection of about 40 pairs. Nothing kinky, but I do have a pair of Mongolian riding boots (yes, bought in Mongolia), some embroidered Chinese theatre boots in pink satin, and some “Middle Ages jester” atyle curly toed boots with bells. My latest acquisition is a gorgeous pair of traditional reindeer skin boots from the Laps in northern Finland.
I hope Aussies in Holland is of some use to you, and I always enjoy some feedback!