A little bit about us.....

Agnes and Henk started dating in 1962 and have been "a matched pair" ever since. So, last year (2013) they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary....

Agnes was born in the Netherlands in North Holland near Amsterdam and lived and worked there till she married Henk who - at the time - lived in Castricum on the North Sea Coast. The first couple of years of their marriage they spent in Landsmeer in an old farm house. Quite adventurous but not always very comfortable with the leaking roof. Soon after they moved to Castricum where they stayed till 1975. After Henk completed his law degree (Masters in Commercial Law - LLM) the couple soon moved to Hoogeveen in the province of Drenthe.

Most of his professional career Henk worked in the insurance industry in management positions, specialising in property and casualty business and reinsurance. After early retirement in 1994 he ran his own consultancy business until 1999, doing outstanding claims audits for reinsurance companies and mediating in personal injury claim settlement.

Agnes graduated as a teacher in the early "sixties" and after her marriage worked only part time for some years. But most of her life she did a lot of voluntary work in the local community and for amateur radio (see her amateur radio page) .

Agnes and Henk have two children (boys) and now 4 grandchildren. As one of the boys moved to Australia around 1995 they started visiting that country on a yearly basis. After Henk could stop working in 1999 they decided to move to Australia permanently. It is either living in the Netherlands and travelling to Australia every year or the other way round... And the climate in "Oz" is much better than in Holland (and even better than in Spain ....)

These days Henk plays with his radios, enjoys building web sites, takes pictures with his new SLR camera (Canon EOS 5D Mk III with a 50D spare) and keeps fit by riding walking their young dog Bindi. During the one before last visit from the Dutch half of the family (Christmas 2007) together with his dutch son they got on the road and trails in the new outfit of the Funibikers - a small group of Dutch ATB enthousiasts.

Already a member of Rotary in the Netherlands (R.C. Hoogeveen) Henk was invited to join the Rotary Club of Nelson Bay shortly after his arrival in Australia. Since then he served on the Board of Directors for several years and was elected President for the year 2004/2005. From 2007 - 2009 he is one of the bulletin editors and the club photographer. He was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship in 2008.