Surprise from ASML

Again, long time no post. We probably already lost some fans because of our lack of diligence. I'll try to do better in the future :-)

The title of this post refers to a surprise job-offer ASML has made me last week. I went to ASML to say goodbye to my Veldhoven colleagues, but got offered a job in the process. Now, before anyone gets overexcited, it's a temp job, for about 6-9 months. And it's part time. Which, from my perspective, is a good thing. It is kind of interesting (to say the least) that two months ago, they said they didn't have a job for me, where now they ask me to help them out, because they are understaffed ... Tomorrow, I have another meeting about if and how we can make this work. Will keep you posted.
Last week, I met with some ladies of the Moms and Toddlers group in Veldhoven. It's a bit like the Hsinchu coffee morning, only a little more formal; with membership fees, regular outings and activities etc. Maybe an idea for the Hsinchu Coffee Morning? On Friday, they went to the Papegaaienpark (Parrot Park), right here in Veldhoven. I had never been there, so was happy to join the ladies. The Papegaaienpark is quite nice, with lots of parrots, but also several other animals, play grounds and a restaurant/cafe. Kids can (safely) feed the parrots and most of the other animals, so a garanteed hit with them.
Also last week, we found two nice playgrounds. One is walking distance from our current house, the other one biking distance from our new house. Once the weather warms up (it's still freezing at night!), I think we are going to like it here :-) Emma and Janne had their first experience playing with one of the neighbourhood girls and our neighbour's son cut our grass (for only 1 EUR). Slowly but surely, we are integrating in the neighbourhood and the Dutch way of life.

Emma and Janne both have been sick; Emma last week, Janne this week. Janne is still recovering and we might need to take her to a doctor to check a few things out.

The house is progressing nicely. A lot of decisions have been made, still several need to be made. Looks like there will be a two week delay, but not more than that. We should be in the new house before the end of July and before the summer holiday.
With Pieter's piano still in the container and me unable to work on the website or any of the photo albums, we watch a lot more tv than we did in Taiwan. It also causes us to snack a lot more than we did in Taiwan. Fortunately, the scale is also still in the container ...