about us

We met somewhere in the early 80′s on concerts in the south of Holland. We didn’t know each other well, we’d just greet each other or maybe chat a bit. We lived one hour apart and as we both went to less concerts over the years, our paths didn’t cross much anymore after a while. Until 1993. We both were a fan of the Dutch band Whistler-Courbois-Whistler and went to a lot of their shows – where we would run into each other again several times! We clicked on a different level this time and started a friendship that soon turned into more In December 1993 Marlies moved from Eindhoven to Heerlen to move in with Nico, in 1995 we bought a house and got married in 1996!

As you can see, we both love heavy metal and we love to go to shows and festivals. That kind of changed in 2007 – not that we stopped loving the metal (still very active online for one), but we had hardly been to shows and festivals anymore that year. All our energy (and money) went to our emigration plans. Registrations, visa, paperwork, exams and flights all cost a lot of money and energy! It was a long road that had our priority, and early 2008 we finally were able to turn our dream into reality!! On February 18th we moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada!!

Although we tried for a while, we have no kids, but we always had cats! In 2006 we had to say goodbye to the last one of our Dutch tribe, Robin, and we’d been catless for a year and a half. Horrible!! But with our plans of emigration we chose not to take in any new pets. Once we were pretty much settled in Canada (after 4 months in Tim and Cortney’s basement suite (eternal thanks, guys!) we had bought a house), we’ve completed our family again with 4 sweet cats!

Early 2009 we bought a bad ass motorhome (30ft!) and started exploring the provincial and national parks here in SK and AB. Most of our free time in the summer months we’re off, cats and all! In June 2010 we got our permanent visa. We also expanded our family again and now have 6 cats (5 plus 1 long-term guest )!