What's next? – Blog with Coffee

( Part 43 )

What about Hector?

Coming back to Hector, as it turned out later, it wasn’t so bad. Hector got on very well. He had a friend flying in for the weekend, so he had support. They even went on a trip to the ‘Rainforest’ that had overtaken us earlier, and this time they even managed to climb to the top of some mountain in the forest. They were very happy because at the top of that mountain they were, as my son called it, in the clouds 😉. Good that they at least managed to go, because we didn’t try a second time. After staying with Hector, the kids were happy, Hector was fine, so I was relieved too. He even recommended himself for the future 😉.

The big unknown

It’s been six months since we moved to Puerto Rico and slowly the routine started to get to us. And inside, something was telling me that something big is going to happen in six months. And exactly in the middle of December. I didn’t know what, but I had this 1000% certainty that something big is coming. We thought about it many times, at the same time there was also a lot going on in our home country. A lot came to mind, but nothing that gave us certainty.

Offers

From July onwards, we started looking around for the next challenge for my husband. Already at the beginning of July, an offer came for the Kimpton Hotel in the Cayman Islands. Unfortunately it was the same position, and we found that we needed to move upwards and now only accept higher positions. How many times can you be an Assistant Director, well no 😉.

The next offer came in mid-August. This time from the Kempinski Hotel in Dubai. We decided that we weren’t moving to the next end of the world, as our dog would not make it to the end of the journey. Too short an interval and too great a distance to stress the dog in such a short time. It would be too complicated move mainly because of him. He hadn’t yet recovered from the first long flight, and he would have had a second one in no time, with a connecting flight or two for so many hours.

A wonderful reunion after many years

In July, we also had a “family” visit from Canada. They flew in for a week. We were very pleased to host them after 5 years since they hosted us. I wrote about it in the post “O Canada!”.

Nearby beach, Dorado

We explored the nearby beaches, which they were delighted with, and they said that the water was as warm as soup, where for me, it was cold 🤷‍♀️

Totoverde, Puerto Rico

We also went to the Totoverde Rope Park, which I also took advantage of. I can’t hide the fact that I was terrified of those ropes hanging from the tops of the trees and that distance between one and the other, not to mention the speed. Probably the most thrilling for me was to see an attendant, on a single rope, go down with three of my children at the same time 😬. The views were amazing and so were the impressions. Overall, after a day in the treetops, everyone went home happy.

You can see literally just a few pictures in the Gallery, in the Toroverde album, because I can’t find the rest.

In August, we decided to visit Puerto Rico, more specifically Old San Juan.

Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

Where is it?

The next job interview came in the second half of September. This time no longer from the other side of the world, but from Anguilla. Yes, yes. You see correctly, from Anguilla, not England. Also, our first question was: “And what is Anguilla?” and “Where is it even located?”. It turned out to be a small dot, not even a dot, in the Atlantic Ocean. If you zoom out on Google Maps, you can’t even see it. You have to zoom in for a long time for it to show up at all. Why this offer? I am already in a hurry to explain. A colleague, with whom my husband worked, used to work with the General Manager of the Belmond Hotel in Anguilla, in another hotel. When she found out that they were looking for someone for the position of Director of Food & Beverage, she immediately thought of my husband. She sent his CV, and they got back to him.

After a few interviews, only my husband and one other candidate remained. From what we know, the General Manager was very much leaning towards the other one, because he used to work with him, and he was young, but in the end he chose my husband. I, for one, believe that employers who choose my husband as their co-worker never regret the choice. Which is confirmed by the subsequent relationship with them 😌.

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