After almost six years in The Netherlands, we are about to relocate back home to Calgary, Alberta. The packers arrive to box up our goods tomorrow, and the container should be loaded and on its way to Canada on Wednesday June 28th, with an expected arrival in Calgary of late July. We have spent the past several weeks clearing out closets, selling off appliances that will not work in Canada as well as the cars etc..The TV went out the door last night leaving the living room looking quite bare as we sat amidst the various boxes and goods we were sorting through. I will be shutting down the home computer network later today, and disassembling the various bits and pieces ready for the packers tomorrow. It will be a bit strange to be ‘off air’, but no doubt we will survive the experience !The time we have spent here on assignment in Europe has been a great experience, and I would recommend it to anyone. Both our sons graduated from high school here, and have gone back to attend university in Canada after having been exposed to a very different way of life. In the years ahead it will be interesting to see what the longer term effect of the experience on their lives will have been – my hope is that they will be better world citizens, but children are their own people and develop in ways no parent can really foresee.
For ourselves, my wife and I will be leaving Holland for the ‘last’ time July 9th – I say for the last time as I will be back regularly for the next year or so on business and no doubt my wife will join me occassionally. We go from here to Beijing China where I will be attending a conference, and from there to Houston where I have another meeting. We will be in Calgary July 22nd.
With a bit of luck, the house in Calgary will be ready – we have been having some repairs done as six years of renters was not kind to the place. We did consider selling it and buying elsewhere, but we really like the location and so decided to renovate which has made at least a few people happy – mainly our interior designer so far, but we are hoping the final result will be a good one !
