Jeffrey: “Aviation, airplanes: I’ve always thought that was cool. After graduating from high school I went to study aerospace engineering in Delft and in my spare time I got my pilot’s license. My flight instructor at the time was also a captain at KLM. When we pushed the plane back into the hangar after a practice flight, he said, why don’t you come fly with us? You are very good at it and we need people. Phew, I thought that was quite a bold move. Oliver was just born at the time, the KLM Flight Academy lasts two years, it is located all the way in Groningen and costs a lot of money. There is a financing arrangement for that, but still.”
josiane: “You felt it didn’t fit the picture at that moment in your life. I just thought you should go for it. Wouldn’t it be a shame to spend your whole life in the office if you actually like this more?”
Jeffrey: “This choice had such an impact on the family that I didn’t want to jump into it overnight.”
Josiane: “In the end we saw it as a fun two-year project. In 2019 we moved from Voorburg to Assen, close to Eelde airport where Jef had his practical lessons. At the time, I was working on a job at ProRail that I was also able to perform from the office in Groningen. Soon we went through corona towards working from home; that made it even easier.”
Jeffrey: “As far as flying was concerned, things didn’t look as good at the time. Before corona, you graduated on Friday and could start at KLM on Monday. The lockdown created a waiting list, so at a certain point it was expected that I would have to wait three to five years for a job. That was a bit scary. Fortunately, the waiting list has now shrunk again. I graduated in the summer and it is expected that I will be able to start work around February.”
Josiane: “We have to see by then how exactly we fill in with care for the children, because Jef is always away for a week.”
Jeffrey: “At KLM you receive your schedule four weeks in advance, so you can plan accordingly. I am not afraid that in thirty years I will be out of a job because flying will be extinct by then. How else are we supposed to get to the other side of the world? Yes, flying has an impact on the environment, but we are also working hard on more sustainable solutions.”
Josiane: “How nice is it to be part of the change in the sector?”
Anyway back to the Randstad
Jeffrey: “In the end we lived in Assen for almost three years for my education.”
Josiane: „I had never lived anywhere other than Voorburg and thought I would always stay there. But I turned out to be able to live somewhere else just fine! That was an insight.”
Jeffrey: “We really liked Assen. There are only two things that are missing: family and Schiphol. That is why we are going back to the Randstad at the beginning of December.”
Josiane: “Our new-build house in Waddinxveen will be completed at the beginning of December. Finally. We had to wait a long time for the heat pump that was not delivered. That is why we have been in a chalet at a holiday park in Voorburg since April. That’s just taking a little too long.”
Jeffrey: “It is logistically quite a situation. Oliver is already at school in Waddinxveen, which is a twenty-minute drive away. The youngest, two-year-old Lauren, also goes to daycare there. So we have to be in the car by 7:30 in the morning to Oliver’s school, otherwise there is no parking space. Then I take Lauren to the shelter and drive on to my rented workplace. I now still work three days a week as an independent data consultant. At half past one I have to leave again to pick up everything and bring it home.”
Josiane: “It’s all a bit different than usual now. We will soon be living a five-minute walk from the school and we are on the waiting list for more days of childcare and after-school care. We long for a little more rest.”
Jeffrey: „The good thing is: Soos and I got to know each other as colleagues, so we can work together very well. When I come home with the groceries, she automatically picks up the cooking. And when I whip a child into the shower, she’s ready with a towel. We never have to explicitly agree on that.”
Trains and planes
Josiane: “We got to know each other at Ordina, an ICT service provider. I still work there. I mainly do change management there. Where Jef is on the planes, I am on the trains.”
Jeffrey: “For example, she did the implementation of NS Flex.”
Josiane: “That was a nice, tangible project indeed. I studied business informatics and have always been a bit of a computer geek. But I now know: no matter how well you have IT in order, it is ultimately the people who have to change. That is where my most attention goes.”
Jeffrey: „That nerdy is because Soos went to see if the domain names were still available when we came up with the names for our children. So now olivernolan.nl and laurenlotus.nl have already claimed.”
Josiane: „In terms of work, I have quite a lot of dreams and wishes. In the future I would like to run my own coffee shop someday.”
Jeffrey: “In the days that I am home from flying, I can bake the cakes for the coffee.”
Josiane: “But I also really love my job! So I don’t know when it will happen. In a few years we will have at least two school-age children and hopefully a less intensive life than now. Perhaps there will be room for other things.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of November 5, 2022