As a personal blog it’s useful to have a little about me, where to start though…

Location
Born and raised in The Netherlands in a Christian home I now live in the UK, happily married to Hayley (English) with two sons (Samuel & Joshua). Sam is from May 2003 while Josh is our latest addition from September 2006. We’re based in Hitchin Hertfordshire since Jan 2008 when we moved from Berkel (The Netherlands) to plant a new church in Hitchin, The Courtyard. Both the Berkel church -The Wijnstok gemeente- that we were members of and The Courtyard are part of Newfrontiers a worldwide family of churches.

Employment
I currently work as a consultant for nscglobal (integrator/out-tasking). Previous employers include Easynet Enterprise, Telindus and Getronics. While at Easynet I started my quest for the Cisco number, sadly however the funding ended after two failed lab attempts.

I have since moved jobs & country and as a result haven’t spent much time studying, rather I’ve spent my time settling my family and working the new job. CCIE is still on my radar though so expect more blog entries about that, sadly working for an integrator means I can’t blog about what I do at customers directly.

Looking to the future I’m hoping to start contracting as a Network Architect so I can get back to what I love and do best; designing networks and services.

For those studying for their CCIE have a look about my CCIE R&S pages for my notes and the CCIE R&S topic for any updates. I hope they prove to be valuable to you and please feel free to leave any feedback.

About the family
We have no pets other than the odd mozzy and spider which are killed or evicted on sight, amazingly there are a lot less of both here in the UK! Sam loves his ‘new’ big loft bed and school. Josh is ever happy and still sleeps during the afternoons, though the mornings are getting increasingly early *sigh*. We’re hoping to get the chance sometime soon(?) to buy a house here in Hitchin, though highly unlikely in this economic climate with banks requiring a 20% deposit.

We have a growing interest to go and see our large and growing number of friends all over the world (Australia, USA, UK, South Africa & India to name a few). Maybe when the kids are a little older and I’ve managed to do a few years of contracting… Only time will tell.

About me
Oh yes this was actually about me, well you guessed it I’m a family man. I love skiing, scuba diving and photography but who doesn’t?! I’m passionate about church and work. I love to travel; Hayley and I have a lot of catching up to do in that respect due to a number of circumstances.

You can email me at djerk@djerk.nl
My CV – 2009-11-16 (Word 2003 format)
I can be found on LinkedIn, Plaxo, Xing (former OpenBC) and I twitter too
(Last Updated :  19 Feb 2009)