introduction from Marie

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

 

 

 

Pat has recently made me one of the moderators of the group and I thought it

would be a good idea to introduce myself to you all.

 

 

 

I am Marie Rieuwers, 61, and I live in Haarlem in The Netherlands. I have

lived in Holland since 1998 but I am originally from Australia. Just in

case you are wondering how I ended up in Holland I will explain it all very

briefly.

 

 

 

When I lived in Australia and my children were in primary school our family

became friendly with one of the teachers. He had arrived in Australia when

he was 11 years old but his family was originally from Holland. We were all

quite saddened when, in 1990, he decided to return to Holland to live

because we didn't expect that we would ever see him again. We all kept in

touch with Hans on a very irregular basis and he wrote the occasional

letter. My first husband died in 1993 and Hans was a huge help to me and

the children at this difficult time. I can't really tell you if it is Hans

or me who is more surprised that we ended up getting married to each other.

I was DEFINITELY not looking for a second husband and I had never once even

given any thought to him getting married. I had always assumed that, at

nearly 50, he was a confirmed bachelor.

 

 

 

To cut a long story very short, I went to Holland for three months at the

end of 1997 to see how I would cope with a much colder winter climate than I

was used to and also how I would cope with homesickness and having to learn

a new language. After a great deal of discussion and thinking I decided

that I was ready to handle the big adventure so Hans and I married in July

1998 and here I am!!

 

 

 

Hans has been a vegetarian from childhood and I became vegetarian in about

1980. I started gradually by giving up red meat then later chicken and

fish. We are both ovo-lacto vegetarians but, due to fairly complex dietary

restrictions for medical reasons, I have become very used to adapting

recipes to make them suitable for us. I love experimenting with new recipes

and flavour combinations and, despite the many foods we can't use, we have

an interesting and varied diet.

 

 

 

Due to the time difference between USA and Europe I have the feeling that

Pat will still end up doing the lion's share of the moderation work. I

check the incoming mail each morning but 9 times out of 10 any moderation

needed has already been attended to by the time I see the messages. I will

try to help out as much as possible though.

 

 

 

As Pat has already mentioned, we got to know each other some time ago via

another . I sometimes have to stop and pinch myself to be sure

that the wonders of the Internet are actually real. I can remember the time

many years ago (in the late 1980's I think) when we got our first computer.

One of my children asked me if we were going to get an Internet connection

and I distinctly remember looking at him and simply saying " whatever for? "

I honestly thought it was just another fad which would die a natural death.

How wrong I was!!!! I can now not imagine my life without all the

possibilities offered by Internet and of course that includes all the

wonderful friends I have made though various groups. However I must admit

that the millions of recipes available on Internet have not managed to curb

my passion for collecting cookbooks. My collection exceeds 1,500 and the

only thing stopping me buying more is the lack of space - Dutch houses are

really tiny compared with Australian houses because there simply isn't

enough space in the built-up western parts of the country to build big

houses.

 

 

 

That's about all I can think of for now but please feel free to contact me

if there is anything else you would like to know.

 

 

 

Cheers for now from Marie