Welcome at my website! I became somewhat 'known' because of my appearances in glossy magazine Weekend and on television (2,4 million viewers), both nationwide. Nevertheless, let me introduce myself to you. You even can hear me sing. Enjoy!

Bernard Holtrop

My full name is Bernardus Holtrop, but everybody calls me Bernard. I was born in a small village near Heerenveen, The Netherlands. We, my three sisters, my two brothers and I, grew up there at my fathers dairy farm. We didn't have warm water and it froze heavily in our bedrooms in the winters. But we experienced a warm and joyful childhood on the wonderful Frisian prairies.

My father became ill in 1983 and could not cope managing his farm anymore. My eldest brother succeeded him in 1985 and the rest of the family moved to another village nearby.

A few years later I got invited to live and to study with some friends in a joint household. I accepted. We studied at the Dutch Van Hall Institute (undergraduate) and got a legendary time at school. I graduated in 1995 in the fields of environment, soil, water and agriculture, with a heavy accent on ICT. The graduation entitled me to use the title 'ingenieur' in front of my name.

My father died in 1997.

I moved a lot from town to town and got all kinds of temporary jobs. I thought it was stimulating, but when the years gone by I found myself longing for a more steady life. I got myself a wonderful job and grew ambitious and somewhat attached to my by then new neighborhood. I live alone in a comfortable house and met the best neighbors of the world. I wake up with the sounds of whistling birds and the whispering wind alone.

I am widely interested and have a lot of hobby’s.

job

I graduated at the Dutch Van Hall Institute in 1995 and by then became an 'engineer' in the fields of environment, soil and water, with a heavy accent on ICT. During the years after my graduation I went through many temporal jobs to learn and to orient. I was widely interested.

Currently I am active in the role of soil sanitation-technical and environmental engineer at Consulmij Milieu BV, a Dutch environmental consultancy. In that responsibility I provide professional advice in projects concerning contaminated soil. This includes the writing of reports, the authoring of field and laboratorial research and the monitoring of data streams in several soil information systems. Occasionally I draw maps in AutoCAD and ArcGIS as well. We work for local governmental organizations mostly.

I am building. Earlier this year I followed the course Environmental Impact Assessments. Next months I am scheduled to follow different courses to broaden and deepen my views. Personally I think this job is a wonderful chance for me to learn. I'm happy to work in a very sociable team too.

But it didn't make me forget my plans to explore the world. I'm full of plans. In time I want to reinstate my aim at inspiring tropical challenges. Interested? Download my Dutch CV, my English CV, my Spanish CV.. or read more..

sports

I love swimming and equitation. I worked for many years with trotters as a stable boy, trainer and attendant at the now legendary racing stable Tjitse Smeding at Oudeschoot. I owned two horses myself, but sold them when I got busy exploring other hobby's. Unfortunately I got my knees injured at my mountain bike. Nowadays I ride my sisters mare sometimes and like to swim several times a week.

traveling

I love to travel and to meet other cultures. The idea to move to some exotic tropical region has always appealed to me. View photo's from holidays, photo's of internships in Finland and Portugal, and more. Read more about my ambitions..

ICT and politics

I have a strong affinity with ICT and I am very much interested in politics also. Those two interests drove me to pickup the voluntary job of webmaster at GroenLinks Ooststellingwerf, a local left-wing political organization, in 2003. I take care of the monthly newsletters too.

making music

I play a little guitar and like to sing along. Because I learned to play, just to be able to accompany myself singing, I never really turned into a guitar hero. I recorded a lot of songs during the past years. At home. With guitars alone at first. Later on I started experimenting with digital background music too.

Those recordings were recorded in my living room. I remastered them myself in 2003. It's hard to sing inspired, without an audience, in my living room with a microphone and an ordinary audio set, and with the thought that the neighbors are forced to listen, even when I need to record 10 takes. I learned a great deal recording and remastering media files. Currently I have plans to record some work of my own.

listening to music

Perhaps my collection of records belongs my most important possessions. Core words in my fast collection are: Bob Dylan, Maria Callas, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, expressive, lots of inspiring lyrics, mostly original albums, protest songs, Wolfmother, Gert Vlok Nel, Kula Shaker, Om Kalsoum, Nina Simone, Marianne Faithful, Calexico, Paco de Lucia, Chris Hinze, classical & opera (Callas, Pavarotti, von Karajan, Kathleen Ferrier), Salif Keita, Tom Waits, Amalia Rodrigues (amongst others), no digital albums on hard disk, hip, of great personal worth, alternative, underdogs, artistic, temperament, not the latest news, assertive, emotions and reveries. I do appreciate a minor key.

to draw

I like to draw (mostly portraits and animals) at large papers, because I like to work quickly, less detailed. I work with charcoal or red ochre often. View of my work the ape, the sparrow, the old man with beard and the halcyon.

making movies

In 2008 I got interested in a new hobby too. I started creating movies. 13-9-2009: Today my first Youtube-movie raced through the 100.000 viewers barrier! Others are accelerating in its wake. I love my Youtube!!

sociable evenings

I still like a social evening with a friend in a cafe. My legendary time as a student characterized it self by intense sociability, hands full of nice, constantly available friends and acquaintances, sparkling parties, cool student houses, student society Abundia, blues cafe 'de Brouwershoeck', memorable foreign training periods in the foreign and the grateful steady part time job at Koopmans Meelfabrieken. I have seen it coming, the years to come wouldn't be as good as the years I had. I moved from town to town, changed jobs four times a year, but silted up eventually nevertheless, in rut and grayness.

more fields of interest

Furthermore, I am interested in soil, water and environment, development work, people, good intentions, ethics, nature, philosophy, social matters and movements, the ancient world and the world around me. I keep an open ear when anything comes by about it always.