It's Sunday evening 25 March 2001. Last night summer time started and tonight there is a full moon. I am standing in the kitchen in the most beautiful appartment in Kop van Zuid and suddenly I know the answer to my question. I AM GOING TO TRAVEL!!!

Why the name Jackie Turbo?

What is the highest point of fanaticism, cockiness and perhaps plain naivity? Collecting your first school rota as a twelve-year-old on Monday and knowing it by heart on Tuesday! As a consequence the undersigned did know exactly that the first lesson would be Dutch in room 107, the second Mathematics in room 104, etc. etc. As a result, after each lesson I would be the first of our group to walk to the next room and the others would be following me. So far it's still an everyday story. But imagine I was not yet at my current height of 1.72 metres (approx. 5'8''), but still only a tiny 1.36 metres (approx. 4'5''), and I was also already moving at a high speed (running, I mean). Within a week I had acquired my nickname: Jackie Turbo.

And this is how it started … (the dreams of the broken hearted)

After a period in which both my private life and work had been out of balance it was time for a change. Life is what happens when you're busy making plans, as John Lennon once famously said and that can be quite hard to accept. The ideal of having a nice house, partner and one day, perhaps kids had just been shattered for me and at work my value added tax had turned negative, too. The moment you realize this, you can do two things: start being unhappy for what you haven't got (anymore) or be glad with what you've got. I have chosen the latter. And what have I got is a lot of relatives and friends who have always been there for me (and although I often exaggerate, I am not exaggerating now), freedom and a little bit of money. What would I do if I had all the time and freedom I wished for (and until now had not dared to do)? That was my question. The answer can be found above.

Who's that girl?

When I was six years old, our family moved from Leidschendam to Monster. My father once took my sister and me to Hook of Holland Docks Station. There was a giant, long, grey-and-green train. 'This train,' my father said, 'is going to the other side of the world'. I was very impressed and decided I would once get on this train and travel to the other side of the world.

Since this day in 1975 a lot has happened and a lot has changed. I'm afraid the train to the other side of the world no longer departs from this station. Just like everyone else I went to school and just like many others I went on to study in Rotterdam. After this time full of possibilities, of total anarchism (if only in the mind), one day working life also started for me. At first you're surprised about such copycat behaviour at the central station. Then you start to wonder why you have signed up for the loss of your freedom in exchange for money. But everyone is doing it and you quickly get used to it. To be honest, I am the first to admit that shopping in places like De Bijenkorf suddenly does seem to offer many more opportunities (and so is much more appealing) than in previous years. Also, the number of holidays per year had increased, just like the number of hours on flights to the different destinations. The sky is the limit.

After some job changes (from Helpdesk Assistant to Consultant), of address (from 25 to 140 square meters) and of partner (you know how it goes), the year 2000 had become the Year of the Changes.
When I look back on the number of important experiences to learn from... Of course the 21st Century only began on 1 January 2001, so I made a new start. (I have never lived close to an airport, but I found it very impressive when I read in a newspaper that an F16 had made a new start on an airbase - Volkel of all places. Hence why.)

After that night in March many things have happened in dub speed. Life had become like a rollercoaster. Thank goodness, summer had started. On 30th April, when The Netherlands celebrate the Queen's Birthday, for me the time had started to 'enjoy-myself-without-a-sense-of-guilt' and to 'do-only-nice-things'. Ever since I have really only been feeling very happy.

When we left Rotterdam …

My journey really started on 1 July. With 50 removal boxes, two beds, two "antique" pedestal cupboards and my grandmother's sewing machine I moved house and a period of 12 years' of living in Rotterdam had come to an end. Where did I move to? During the past few months, I have changed address nearly more often than in the previous 30 years and I have become an ab-so-lu-te-ly all-round cat carer. (You can't teach me anything I don't know already about the addictive ingredients in tins of cat food, the lack of attention for cats who are older than 10 years [which is even worse than me], the limited sell-by dates of cat milk and cleaning cats' litter boxes. Besides, my parents' house in 's-Gravenzande, friends' houses while they are on holiday in The Hague, Nieuwegein, Benthuizen, Rotterdam (and soon also Amsterdam), were (and will be) all at my disposal. It was and is a relief and I am very grateful!!!

Life, love and labour are, according to an old friend of mine, the three anchors that give a person support. I'd already lost the first two and at the end of June I decided to leave the third one behind me, too. On 31 July I walked out of the new Berenschot office for the last time, with my little knapsack full of little presents and memories.

What to do with 23 holidays?

In August I am still entitled to the holidays I haven't taken yet. There are worse ways of spending your holidays. During the first week (from which now only three days are left) the themes were: hairdresser, beach and my brother's birthday. You see, what you normally used to stuff into one day, whether or not combined with working from home, now can easily be done in three days and then you still have to sort of hurry to be in time.

The following week there was quite a big single theme: coffees with friends. You mustn't underestimate this, because this involves travelling to Rotterdam, Schiedam, Kruiningen and Bilthoven (outside rush hours, of course!). After such a week you are really completely updated again on what's happening and that is also important: a human being is a social creature, after all, and I would be the last to try to change this.

The weekend will be busybusybusy, as I will be sailing in Friesland. It was high time we had some fresh air. So, on Friday evening about seven lease cars went to the Lan en Mar camping and there was even room left for a tent. Everyting came in large doses: sun, wind, laughter, food, drinks and even rain. In short, it was good!

The travel clinic, where I'm now a regular customer, can be just like a soap series. During one visit I almost slipped; which was more out of surprise and laughter than because of the vaccination. As an illustration I'll give you the funniest scene I saw there. A couple, man and woman, about thirty years old, have just had their vaccinations for their far journey. At the desk they are about to pay and the man swipes his card through the machine with the usual smoothness. The woman says, 'I think something is wrong', on which the man again takes a look at the litte screen on the machine. It probably says "amount paid", so he replies happily, 'No, it's fine!'. But it's too late: his girlfriend has just fainted and she is splashed out on the floor.

In the third week it's about time I bought a ticket. The office of the travel agency, NBBS at the Kop van Zuid, is a familiar place to me, so on 16 August I pop in. I wonder what all those people are doing in Asia; or can do, because one after the other flight turned out to be fully booked. I was finally able to book a neat single ticket to Delhi on 16 September. When I come back to pay for it a week later, the travel agent asks, slightly bending over her desk, 'I don't want to interfere, but I wonder what on earth are you going to do in Delhi?' 'That is where my journey starts', I answer bravely.

Another day of shopping with friends I've known since high school. Our annual day out this time takes us to Den Bosch. A lot of coffee, lunch and catching up. Very entertaining. They have given me a journal for the trip. The first pages have been filled with their messages expressing their concern and wishing me good luck. I think I need a bit of both.

Just when you think you've experienced everything you can with your 'year club' from university, then after 13 years they suddenly decide to organise a dinner for members WITH their partners. Why should they only now come up with that? After all, I had a partner longest of all. But of course it was a very cheerful evening and I was just 'Bee One'.