Week of reunions

This week, it's fall break. After finishing Janne's room, Pieter is now painting Emma's room. The combination blue-green in Janne's room turned out quite nice, the pink in Emma's room is a bit brighter than expected. Maybe the red will tone it down a bit. I ordered the curtains for their rooms, which will be finished 5 weeks from now. You think that is long? Although our bed was delivered, as promised, after 12 weeks, we'll have to wait 4 more weeks for our dining room set to arrive ... And, needless to say that our kitchen is still not finished! But, it's nearing it's completion, even I can see (and believe) that now :-)

Well, now for the title of this post. Because this was indeed a week of reunions (if such a plural exists). On Sunday, Pieter had a High School reunion, HBS in this case. Of the possible 180 attendants, 160 showed up! That's an amazing percentage! That was probably also one of the reasons why the reunion was such a big success; they were all there! Pieter is still talking about the people he met, the stories he heard and the memories he re-lived with all his old friends. Lots of forgotten memories came back during the day and for Pieter, it's a 'shining pearl in his memory'. For most of people present, it was 40 odd years ago since they last talked to each other. It must be a very special experience to see all your old class mates after such a long time! And from looking at the 600+ pictures on the reunion website, I learned that at this day and age, at 62, a person is NOT old. Those men and women really still look great, with hip glasses and hairdo's (the women a bit more so than the men ... ) and fashionable outfits.
Pieter then and now

For me, there were two 'reunions' albeit on a somewhat smaller scale. I went to see a high school friend, whom I hadn't seen for 10 years. Except for our high school reunion in 2006, where I talked to her for a total of about ten minutes. We took a little bit more time this time around. While her son played with Emma and Janne, we talked, talked and then talked some more. It's kind of a cliche to say, but it did seem like we talked to each other last month, instead of ten years ago. The funny thing is that we didn't talk very much about the past ten years, but more about the present. Our current jobs, hobbies, plans, the kids. It was really great to see her and we will definitely see each other again in the near future. Starting this Saturday, because I left Emma and Janne's winter coats at her place :-)
My girls, her boy

The other long-time-no-talk visit was from a former Philips co-worker. Actually, she worked for a consultant company and did a project for us (Pieter and me) at Philips. We hadn't spoken to her in at least ten years and also with her, the years melted away and we had the same 'seems like yesterday' feeling. Because she also has a technical background and has always worked in a male dominated environment, she's kind of a role model for me and a greatly admire her entrepreneurial and strong personality, her intelligence and her empathy. Also now, I asked for her advice with regard to my applications and, as usual, she had some great inputs. It was another wonderful reunion. We'll see her again mid November.

Emma is now staying with my mom for two days and we will pick her up on Saturday. It's a bit quieter around the house, with only one little girl. Janne was quite disappointed that she couldn't go with oma as well, so I'll take her to the movies tomorrow and maybe we'll go swimming. All in all, it seems like we're re-integrating nicely; this week's agenda is totally full, as every self respecting Dutch family's agenda always is :-)