December 1997

Dear friends,

We hereby wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Let's hope that 1998 will be just as nice as 1997.

In 1997 we have met many of our dear old IAAS-friends that we haven't seen for years. In the spring we had a one day visit of Ana Soveral Dias. We went to TIVOLI. Thomas won a peacock-feather which he gave to Ana. She asked Thomas to keep it until she returns. Already by now he is quite nervous about the condition of the feather so we hope that she will come back soon.

In the autumn we went to Italy and visited Paula Pellegrino who now has a boy-friend with a name that is fairly popular this month - Nicola. We also stayed some days with Domenico Lanera in his agri-tourism-farm. Finally we spent one week in Rome doing a lot of tourism. It was a very nice holiday that we will remember for a long time.

Also this autumn we had a visit from Brazuca (Ana Christina Carvalhos). She works for a Danish company (Maersk) and was being transferred from Rio de Janeiro to South Africa via Denmark. It was really nice to have her in the house.

Now let's get to ourselves and the family.

Thomas (7 years old) is in school and has learnt to read quite well. He is also a boy-scout but we don't know if he will stick with that as he is a very comfort-loving boy who complains a lot about the harsh conditions of scout-life. Furthermore we should mention that Thomas loves to bake cakes, so if you come to visit us we most probably can offer you a fresh, home-made cake.

Mathias (5 years old) is still in kinder-garden. He's a very energetic boy and a good foot-ball player. He likes to play computer games.

Kirstine (2 years old) is in the same kinder-garden as Mathias. She is also very energetic and has her own mind (female hysteria perhaps?). Of course the problem could be that she is very spoiled (by her big brothers).

Susanne (xx years old) has changed her job-description but is still working in the ministry of finance. In Denmark it is possible for the authorities to ask a persons employer to withhold a part of the persons salary if that person owes money to the authorities. I am trying to have a computer register made that will co-ordinate this withholding of salaries. The project is scheduled to last 1,5 years and will end medio 1998 (or so we hope). It is very interesting to work on a project like this were you have to make many different parties co-operate.

Per still works for the ministry of agriculture and mainly with organic agriculture. He often goes to Brussels and once in a while to Canada.

The house

This spring we built a fence for hens in the garden. Unfortunately it was not strong enough, as the fox bit a hole in it and took all our 6 hens while we were at the office. We have now installed a "dolphin-fence" outside the "chicken-fence" and bought 6 new hens. It seems to be strong enough - at least we haven't had any dolphin attacks since - and we hope that the fox has also given up.

The Danish former IAAS'ers are still going strong. René and Stig are still unmarried. We still go on canoe-trips in Sweden during whit-sun - and there is still an open invitation for any other former IAAS-member for this trip.

This is all for now - hope to see you in 1998 - once again: MERRY CHRISTMAS

Love Susanne and Per