Reflections on our 15th Year - Part 1

It’s hard to believe that we’ve lived in the Netherlands for 15 years as of November 22! Once again, the four of us couldn’t be together. Nor could Jimmy and I even consider following our tradition of eating at La Laterna in Scheveningen where we ate on our first night all those years ago, because restaurants nationwide have been closed since mid-October. For the first time, we had a “virtual” dinner together. I made salmon lasagna for me and Jimmy, while Veronica made homemade pizza for her and Brett, and Ashlynn had frozen pizza (she had just arrived back in Glasgow). So we were able to make the list of our highs and lows over the last year together. As usual, here are our lows first:

• No idea when the four of us will be together again
• Having to cancel our family holiday to California for Grandpa’s 80th and his and Grandma’s 40th anniversary due to coronavirus
• Political train wreck in both the US and UK
• Anxiety over life uncertainty
• Continuing collapse of biodiversity, natural ecosystems and the climate that sustains us!
• Horrors of George Floyd's death amid systemic racism
• Jimmy: best analogy of work situation—juggling ever more balls but instead of catching them, still getting hit in the head; brand new iPhone11 being stolen in Paris; having to escape from the US due to COVID-19 before seeing Buddy and Debbie; cancellation of FEATS and panto
• Melissa: being so far away while Grandpa battles cancer and Leigh got divorced; inadvertently causing Brett to be named Moist Incest in Paris
• Veronica: two broken Nikons; academic burnout; not being able to see friends; missing aerial class
• Ashlynn: missing spending Christmas 2019 with our family; having to cut Vietnam trip early; having a long-distance relationship means having to say goodbye over and over; uni being 100% online; not being allowed to have visitors in residence hall
• Melissa/Jimmy: hash weekends in Holland, Belgium and Slovenia being cancelled; not getting to bring Ashlynn to University of Glasgow; cancellation of Election Breakfast; Jimmy working most weekends since April