What is this site?
The unfolding story of my 2003-2004 sabbatical in Naarden, a village in the Netherlands.
Why am I leaving the US?
Actually, this is my fourth offer to work overseas.
1971 (!): A friend Michel offered to get me a job with him in Toulouse. I didn't take him up on it, and I've never forgiven myself for that.
1975: A college friend called me in the middle of grad school and asked if I wanted to program in APL (an old array-based programming language I knew), in Saudi Arabia. A few questions later, it did not seem like an altogether legitimate undertaking. Oil was the hot ticket then, and of course computers turned hot a decade later; that job would have been a head start on both. It might also have made me very rich or very dead.
1999-2000: When the head of Coca-Cola-Europe/Asia's chemistry group resigned, Coke asked me to go to Brussels and set things up there. (Coca-Cola had also had a little trouble in Belgium that you may have heard about.) I had resigned my position at Minute Maid, the movers had been to my Florida house, and I had already secured an office, phone number, computer, apartment in Brussels. A couple of Coke VPs changed their minds--poof the job was gone, and I've never forgiven them for that.
2002-3: Eight years as R&D chemistry section manager for the Minute Maid Company, working in downtown Plymouth, Florida, living in wonderful Winter Park. In 2000, 3 of my 5 people took retirement packages, and I had to replace all 3-- I'm still not sure what that accomplished. In 2002, Coke decided to throw Minute Maid to Proctor and Gamble, throwing all our jobs in jeopardy, then just decided not to. In 2003, Coke decided to fold us, Minute Maid (4000 employees) into Coke North America (8500 employees). Guess who loses. My people and I essentially had to audition for our own jobs. Enough.
In 2002 I stopped turning away phone calls on the employment subject. One of the companies was Quest International, a very smart Dutch/British flavor and fragrance company, the fourth largest globally. The Quest folks (both Dutch and American) and I got along tremendously well, I thought. What they needed was someone who:
- Knew citrus chemistry well,
- Knew chromatography well,
- Would move away from Florida (citrus country) to Chicago,
- Was probably American but got along well with Europeans, and
- Would relocate 1-2 years to a small town in Netherlands.
For better or worse, there might be 3-5 people on the planet who satisfy these requirements. The situation summarized: Quest needed a miracle...and I was probably going to need a job.
Quest's first call to me, a secret trip to Illinois, a nice accidental dinner in Florida with their scientists, an interview in Chicago and then in Naarden, and lots of paperwork. Done.
The rest of this unfolding story--and what I think about it, what I feel about it--is the subject of This Site
So...why am I doing this?
Sometimes I ask myself that.
After all, Florida--and particularly my town of Winter Park--can tug very hard. I have lived most of my adult life in Florida. My friends are in Florida. All year it is green, and all year the birds sing. The sky is always interesting.
But when you your life is at a dead end, it's strange-- you don't even see the greenery, bird songs only mock. You don't look to the sky much.
I don't have a wife, and I don't have a dog, and the housing market just now is rewarding to sellers (if this little war doesn't mess that up). If not now, when?
Why call it Downwind of Amsterdam?
- Naarden is 20 kilometers east north-east of Amsterdam. The Atlantic's strong prevailing bear out of the west or southwest. The math is not hard.
- Amsterdam's reputation of releasing to the wind all manner of psychotropic agents. By summer you should be able to tell if my writing suffers from its effects.
- Of course, the acronym DOA (dead on arrival) refers to jet lag. Ah well--think of the frequent flyer miles.
Won't my stay in the Netherlands be full of problems?
Not the problems you might expect.
First, Quest is a great company, doing the right things as far as I can tell so far. Yes, I will have to do without a home, or US phone number, or my piano, or a US address (or any permanent address), or direct contact with my US friends, and I'll have to sell my car.
Learning a bit of Dutch language is an interesting prospect. Their famous G sound nearly put me in the hospital, but in time it will come. Het gaat mij glad af.
Any problems are handily compensated for by having found my way to such marvelous people, in Quest's US and European sites, both. I feel lucky for the chance to live in such a lovely Dutch town and to do work I love, even if I will miss my home in Winter Park, Florida, and some Florida friends I've known for decades. But I'm going.
Why this online diary?
Everyone tells me to stay in touch. That will not be easy. I thought I'd try this; here's why:
- Phone calls to my friends and family in the US are complicated by 6-9 hours' time difference.
- E-mails could do the job, but peoples' addresses change, and at work they can't easily read e-mails sent to their homes. Plus, long e-mails are a drag, and anyway I don't care to be confused with a spammer.
- Paper mail: way too slow across the Atlanic.
- Now, this online diary--well, here you can read a blog anywhere you can log on, and you don't need an e-mail account or program. You only need a browser, and you can read it when you want to. You, Gentle Reader, can even post comments--just click "comments" below any entry!
The MAIN PAGE gives everything. Just read down to the date where you left off last time, and you'll be sure to see everything.
Categories?
Each post is one of three types:
- Diary: What I saw or thought that day. The core of this site, its reason to exist.
- A thought: Just what it sounds like. Sometimes I digress. Skip these if you like.
- Logolatry: Unreasonable worship of words. Comments on English language, and sometimes on someone's abusing it.
That's it! Now go back to The Main Page to get started.