Living in Holland
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I'd been working for SIA in London for three years when the company decided to open a branch office in Holland. A salesman, Keith, and I were chosen for the task and we began a series of monthly trips to Holland to explore the new turf. In August 1979 we moved permanently to The Hague, and opened a small office in Schiedam. But first both Neil and I took a holiday; I went to Greece where amongst other things I had my first attempt at windsurfing.
Within weeks of returning from Greece I had a brand new Dutch girlfriend called Marianne, who lived in a tiny bedsit with her Alsatian and a parrot. Marianne worked for the police in some sort of admin role and used to work odd hours. Often we would go down to the pub at 11pm and stay until 2am - on week nights!
Holland was big into windsurfing and after my initial exposure in Greece I was keen to continue. I bought a windsurfing rig and since Marianne had a car we travelled down to the lakes in the south-west where we took formal lessons. I soon discovered that Scheveningen (the beach at The Hague) had a thriving windsurfing community, so I transferred my interest to the sea. I describe this further in my windsurfing history.
In February 1980 I decided to take Marianne back to meet my family in South Africa. I took her on a road trip up the Garden Route and generally showed her the highlights. But being a very liberal Dutch lady she hated Apartheid and declared she could never live here. As it happened I was offered a lecture post at UCT and since the business in Holland was not working out, within six months I was back in South Africa for good. I didn't particularly enjoy living in Europe and had remarkably few regrets about leaving Holland.