Hi there! I have been active a little while here, and the frequent readers will know me a bit by now. Due to being more than busy, I never took the time to introduce myself properly. My name is Maarten (not Martin!) Vermeulen. I was born in Nijmegen, a city close to the German border in the Netherlands, on the 12th of may 1975. Since my birth I have lived in the same old and little village I still live now. Me and my sister have found houses near to my parents, and it's nice to live in walking distance to each others. I'm happily single, and a proud oncle of two adorable nephews, born in 2000, and 2003. My passion in life is flying in Glider airplanes. (yes, the ones without the motor!) Besides flying gliders I do a little motorised flying, but that is limited due to the high costs per hour. I am educated in computer science & process technique, and have worked as a computer Engineer a few yers. After that I've worked for an American company where I did two jobs. I started out as an Engineer on machines used in the Semiconductor Industy. My colleagues and I were traveling all over western Europe, installing, maintaining and repairing those machines. I went for training to the states for two and a half months, and I felt realy welcome in Minnesota's country side. (I've been back to meet my friends there again one and a half year later, and we are still in touch) My second job in that same company was as a Facility Engineer in a small factory. I was involved in the building process for this new factory, and later on I had the responsibility for all the Equipment, and the building itself. It was great fun, and I've learned a lot! A little over a year I now work for Underwriters Laboratories, the safety company of the USA. They have several satelites in Europe, and I visit manufacturers to see if their products produced meet the safety standards. It's a very nice job, since I am in touch with many different kinds of techniques and see how things are produced. Most of the times I travel to german manufacturers from my home, near the border. My interest in the Czech Republic has grown over the years. My first encounter with the country was in 1997. We went there with roughly 80-100 dutch persons (pilots and family) from my gliding club. We stayed for two weeks in Hodkovice, roughly 100 Kilometers (60 miles) NNE of Prague, in between the towns Liberec and Turnov. I've been back at least once a year to the same aeroclub, and I have some real friends there now. (Two friends of my club in our club two seater glider behind a tow-plane in the CZ. I've made the picture from the Tow Plane. You are looking to the south-west from Liberec) A few months ago I joined a similar board like this one, but in Dutch. I am a moderator there, and a lot of my time goes into that site. Moderating is usually nice, but sometimes it's a pain in the b.tt. I like being just a member here, so I can speak free and don't have to consider what the other admins / moderators of this board would think of my messages. (not that I intend to irritate them, it's just nice to be myself here) My native language is Dutch, and besides that my English is quit good (If I may say so) I make some mistakes, and ask for your forgiveness. German is a language close to Dutch, and I understand, read and speak it well. Writing is a different story, but since I work for an American company I can write all my e-mails in English I will seriously start to learn proper Czech this summer. It's a process that will take a lot of effort and time, but since I'm interested in it, I think I will do fine in a couple of years. (now it's mainly reastaurant talk) Below you will find a picture of me in a Czech made Two Seater glider, at Letiste Hodkovice in the Czech Republic. The funny hat and glasses go with the sport. That's all for now folks
