Anne-Claar: “We met at Canvas, an Amsterdam club on the seventh floor of the Volkshotel. I was 31 at the time.” Marijn: “And I'm 23.” Anne-Claar: “He said that too, but I didn't understand it because of the loud music. So I had no idea he was eight years younger. He also seemed older, because he was dancing super confidently. Very straight forward. I liked that.”
Marijn: “Afterwards we met at the Springhaver restaurant-cinema in Utrecht.”
Anne-Claar: “I was studying in Utrecht at the time. And then he said again that he was 23. This time I understood it correctly. Well, it's that we had already ordered the food at that point, otherwise I would have walked away! Yes, that's also because I wasn't that serious when I was 23. That's an age when you don't have to do anything yet and the world is your oyster. I was mainly partying at the time. So I thought: he's way too young for me, that's never going to work! But then I found out that Marijn was a completely different 23-year-old. He was serious.”
Marijn: “I already had my own electric scooter company at the time. I previously studied in Delft, at least forty hours a week. I did party, but less than Anne-Claar.”
Anne-Claar: “There is also a difference in character.”
Marijn: “We are extremes.”
Anne-Claar: “Marijn is more rational and down-to-earth. I am more temperamental and my emotions fluctuate a bit more.”
Marijn: “We live in Oud-West, a vibrant neighborhood in Amsterdam. We have twelve catering tents within baby monitor distance.”
Anne-Claar: “So then we can have a drink in the café, with our sons Koen (4) and Mees (2) on the baby monitor.”
Marijn: “If there is something wrong, you will be home soon to fix it.”
Anne-Claar: “We love the conviviality of the city.”
Marijn: “Sometimes we think that we could buy a much larger house outside Amsterdam for the same money. But I want to be able to walk into the city on Saturdays and experience the stimuli of shops and cafes.”
Anne-Claar: “Another advantage of Amsterdam is that we can both cycle to work. I work three days as a mental health psychologist at Kenter Jeugdhulp in Amstelveen.”
Marijn: “And I work seventy hours a week. I have been running a new company, Quatt, in hybrid heat pumps for two years now. That takes a lot of time.”
Anne-Claar: “So if we lived in the polder, Marijn would really be less at home. Now he can go up and down easily.”
Marijn: “My work is ten minutes away, on the other side of the Rembrandt Park. Mees' daycare is right next to it and so is my gym, so that's handy.”
French battle
Anne-Claar: “I do most of the housework. I think that makes sense, because I work a lot less. I'm not too perfectionistic when it comes to cleaning. I do it with the French stroke. Before you know it, the kids have made it dirty again.”
Marijn: “I don't do much in the household, except for administrative things such as tax returns.”
Anne-Claar: “I do enjoy cooking, although I always have to wait and see whether those two dragons will be okay with it. During the week I make a lot of pasta, at the weekend we cook together, often Ottolenghi-like recipes.”
Marijn: “These are unexpectedly tasty combinations from the Middle East. But we don't make it too complicated. We have Ottolenghi's cookbook Easy.”
Anne-Claar: “I love second-hand shops and enjoy finding things for next to nothing on Marktplaats. In the summer I like to cycle through the city on Monday evenings; that is bulky waste evening, people put beautiful things on the street.”
Marijn: “I walk along so she doesn't take too much rubbish with her.”
Anne-Claar: “If I see something on the street and we are in the car, he always gives extra gas.”
Marijn: “I do that on purpose.”
Anne-Claar: “So I won't ask you to stop. But when I'm on my bike, I take small things with me. Pottery, dolls, vases, toys.”
Spanish stuffy
Marijn: “Last year we went to Senegal for a week. Anne-Claar lived there from the age of six to the age of 12.”
Anne-Claar: “My father worked at the UN. I was born in Geneva and later we lived in Senegal. I have warm memories of it. Scents, colors, loving people, music. Very nice. I still have that love for Africa.”
Marijn: “A girl is on the way now.”
Anne-Claar: “I still have four weeks to go. And this time I'm taking four months of maternity leave. Last two times I noticed that I think three months is too short. But after four months I felt like working again. Then you spend all that time in diapers and you want the world to be a little bigger.”
Marijn: “I'm taking a week of paternity leave. Unfortunately, that's all I can do, I'm just too busy.”
Anne-Claar: “Marijn works every evening during the week and also during the day on weekends. But I like that he is home every evening with dinner.”
Marijn: “I don't work on Friday evenings.”
Anne-Claar: “Then he usually falls asleep on the couch at half past eight.”
Marijn: “Doing something fun, like going out for dinner, is usually on Saturday evenings. Then I feel a bit rested again.”
Anne-Claar: “We depend on the weekends to feel the connection. Then we want to do fun things.”
Marijn: “But we especially don't want to plan that.”
Anne-Claar: “That makes us tired of speaking Spanish!”
#39He39s #young #That39s #work39