I Made It To Austria.

By early November we discussed going back to the office in the Management Team since Covid 19 was on the decline. The number of new cases were consistently low (about 200) for the whole of Nigeria. Although the number of people tested were also low for a country with more than 200m inhabitants. Since most do not have the money to pay for a 50.000 Naira PCR test, when the minimum wage in Nigeria is 30.000 Naira. We decided for team A, B and C to be on a weekly rotational schedule. We also did off-site meetings and preferably outside. And it was great to see colleagues again. You realise how much you miss it.

Work kept me very busy in the last few months. We had our Annual Plan preparation. We did an investors call for Nigerian Breweries together with the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Every day there was a new crisis about something; no dollars, no raw materials, problems with packaging materials, etc. I did a breakfast session for Anderson Consultancy on Revenue Management, which was really fun. Our volumes were doing great, we really have the company on fire. So never a dull moment.

And my being back together with Viv was coming closer, day by day. I only needed to sort out which airline was flying to Amsterdam and/or Vienna. KLM was still waiting to get approval to be flying again. BA had very bad connections to Amsterdam. Virgin was ridiculous expensive, in the end I flew with Turkish airlines to Amsterdam. When checking if there were any specific rules for flying to Istanbul or Amsterdam or Vienna, I got totally confused. PCR test yes/no. For flying to Amsterdam it was not needed as Dutch National, but for flying directly to Vienna it was required. Or not if you live in Austria? Or yes, if you came from a risk country. So I changed my flights 3 times but in the end I decided to fly to Amsterdam and take the long way to Austria, by car.

When I arrived in the Netherlands I took a taxi home, where I briefly saw Jack. Since we needed to keep distance, we stayed outside in the garden to drink a coffee. Then I got in my car to drive to Austria, but first I did another coffee with my parents outside their home. Also here with face masks and more then proper distancing. But it was great to see them. Even if it was for short visit. And then I was really off: Austria here I come! The trip itself was strange. I believe I saw about 5 Dutch cars on the motorway in Germany and Austria. Roads were empty most of the time. Very different from the Netherlands, where I had the idea that everybody was on the road. When I got close to the border crossing it really became ghost roads. Entering Austria felt weird. I did not see a single car in front of me on motorway. I made great time and was on track to arrive earlier than I planned. This was really great since there was a weather warning for snow. But the sun was shining, so no Wahalla. And then I crossed the Tauerntunnel, sun when I entered and the first snow when I exited the tunnel. I had brand new winter tyres so it should not be a problem. When I reached the exit of the highway close to Millstatter See, it was really snowing. But almost there…. I almost made it. Unfortunately I could not make it up the last hill, a hundred meters for our house. So Viv Verstappen took over and showed me again the difference in our driving skills. Did not do much for my self-esteem, but it was better than carrying my suitcases up the mountain.

Noa, Vivienne, Hugo and Robin were all already in our home. We decided to call it the Backyard. It is great to be with (almost the whole) family again. We all see our mountain house as a dream house. Beautiful sunrises, magnificent views, clear skies, snow, fresh air, wonderful atmosphere. The Backyard has everything, but first I needed to do 10 days of isolation. But that was very easy with everybody there and enjoying the new house. I kept on working from Austria. At this moment due to the fact that we are everywhere still in lockdowns, this also means you can work from everywhere. Sometimes it gave a surrealistic feeling being in meetings, looking at mountains and pure silence which is always linked to snow and on the other side of the meeting my colleagues all over the planet but all working for the Nigerian Opco. I had team members in Mexico, Brazil, Canada, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, UK and Nigeria. Every disadvantage has an advantage, with all the bad things linked to the lockdown and uncertainty on health and safety, we all have much more quality time with our families!

The great thing was when I arrived it started to snow. It kept on snowing and snowing for days. It was so much snow that almost every day we woke up we were snowed in. Normally after 2 days we would be having the snowplough of the village passing by to clean our premises, but at a certain moment they stopped coming. When we met the driver in the village and asked him why he was not shovelling in our street anymore, he told us that there was so much snow he could not disperse it anymore.

Ayo could not go for his walks with us. The snow was so high in the street and he could not look over the snow, so he tried to jump through it. So every time we cleaned the street, Ayo could go for a pee, but by the time that it was night again, the street was covered with lots of snow again. When Robin and Armin came back on second Christmas Day we decided to solve the issue and Armin bought one of these snow blowing machines that spit the snow 5 meters further. What a relief and fun that was. We have about 100 meters of street to clean so you can imagine our happiness and Ayo’s. Due to the good snow qualities we had every day outdoor sports like skiing, cross-country skiing, rodeln, sledding and walks in the snow. Austria went in full lockdown again on December 26, however on December 24 the ski slopes opened. We did every day a few hours of skiing, of course with some

limitations. All bars and restaurants were closed, no apres ski, so it is only skiing. Ski-resorts are only open for locals. Since we live there, we qualified. The great thing was no queu at the skilifts, empty slopes and great snow.

In our garden we have a hot tub. We also have our own stream in our garden, we use it to fill the hot tub. The hot tub has a wood furnace that heats the water. We fit 4 to 5 people decently in the hot tub. There is nothing more relaxing than sitting in the hot tub under a starry sky, drinking Longero, Wine, Beer, cocktails with Viv and the children and listening to music in the background. What a life! I am looking forward to my retirement.

As one of our yearly highlights of the year we always celebrate Sinterklaas with the whole family. We do the whole Dutch thing; this means presents for everybody from everybody, a lot of poems and surprises. It is now getting custom that we celebrate this around Christmas. Jack was the last one to arrive from the Netherlands, Ailsa stayed with Zara in Zoeterwoude. He had just passed his driving license and directly after that he came to join us. When Jack arrived he remained isolated as much as possible. Due to the lockdown we could not buy presents in the stores so we had a daily delivery from Amazon, Bol.com and all kind of other delivery services dropping of presents. All the surprises were extremely good. However, my personal favourite was Mens Erger Je Niet (Frustrations) with beer bottles as pawns. Jack made a mini golf course in the garage for Hugo. He had to play with eggs and a left handed golf club. Every year there are some extra surprises prepared like this year we had our own beer brand, Noa who served us all night food and drinks, Unicorn balloons, great Christmas sweaters and Ayo getting some silly outfits too.

After Christmas some of our neighbours in the area started to arrive. Almost all of them have temporary residence like us and they come from all kind of different places. My first encounter with one of the neighbours was that I came back by car and parked in front of the house. When I got out of the car I heard a noise, as if something big had fallen. It turned out to be one of our neighbours. She tripped and fell over the rug when leaving. She said she was okay, but went home and called the doctor and ended up in the hospital doing a CT scan. Next day I ended working and came in the living room to find other neighbours there as well. They invited us for drinks a few days later at their home which was very nice. I believe we will have good fun with all of them.

During New Year we were with good company. Michiel and Annemiek came over from Vienna.

The new year had started, what will it bring us? Financial year close was starting, this also means that it's now time to go home to Lagos. Viv and I agreed that we would go back to Lagos with Ayo on January 14th. We also had booked the vet to have Ayo approved for travelling. The week before, on Thursday 7th of January, we were driving back to the Netherlands when we got an update on the Covid situation in Nigeria. It wasn't good, in a matter of fact it was really bad. Number of cases had multiplied by factor 10. One of our neighbours in our compound in Lagos called us and informed us that also in our compound there were now Covid cases. After I spoke to my boss and slept some nights about what we should do, we agreed it was better for Viv’s health that she stayed in Europe and I would go back alone. My new schedule will be 4 weeks Nigeria and then 2 weeks Europe, until there is a vaccine for Viv so she can finally join me.

Stay safe everyone, it's not over yet.