MFN member Arend Barkhuis

Paul's remark during our semi-annual meeting to provide some content for our club magazine gave me the idea to tell something about myself.

I am Arend Barkhuis, born 12-07-1959 in Zwiggelte (Drenthe, Netherlands). I married Jannie in 1987, and we have 3 children and 6 grandchildren.
After years of being employed as a roofer / building supervisor / branch manager, I took the step towards entrepreneurship in 1999 and started my own roofer company. At the moment we are with 7 men / women staff.

My hobbies:
I have done motocross for almost 20 years, but unfortunately had to end it early due to a serious injury.
Subsequently, during my work in the Antilles (Curaçao), I obtained a motorcycle license (at that time still nicely cheap, that is different now).
Back in the Netherlands I immediately bought a touring motorcycle. I enjoyed that a lot, until I had to put an end to this in April of this year. Due to balance problems, I no longer felt confident on the bike.

In addition, I have been on the road for 22 years with my son who practices the mountain bike and cyclecross sport. Since 2017 I have been running my own off-road cycling team with 8 riders (male & female) together with 2 partners.

The GROOTS-Barkhuis-Alpha cycling team, with at the far right (with blue shirt) Arend

Collecting:
I have been collecting stamps from the Netherlands and the rest of the world since I was 15 years old. There were also motorcycle stamps amongst them, and that is how the interest arose to continue with this. I did this with some intervals where I stopped collecting, only to continue later.
Following the story of Jan Termaaten (founder of the MFN) in Moto73 in 1987, I registered with the MFN. After that the collection expanded considerably and regarding stamps became fairly complete, so I started looking for other items such as FDCs and postal stationery. Despite the fact that collecting Netherlands stamps is an expensive hobby, I also continue that, and I can say that this one is also reasonably complete from 1852 to the present. In this I only collect the stamps and FDCs.

As if that was not enough (as my wife Jannie says) I also started collecting tin motorcycles, the older models of brands such as Mettoy, Schuco, Arnold, Technofix, Tipp&co and the like.

In addition I also have the complete collection of TT tiles, except 2 years (1949 - first year of issue, and 1951). These tiles are given every year to the drivers and volunteers.

Due to my work and after seeing the collection of an Englishman during one of my visits to the Great Steamfair in Dorset, England, my interest in petrol/petroleum torches also started. In the meantime, this collection has also been expanded to almost 300 torches from Sievert, Optimus, Barthel and the like.

By this story you have an idea of who I am and what I do. Furthermore, I think it would be nice if one of you, fellow members of the MFN, would follow this initiative and tell us something about yourself and your hobbies.

Greetings, Arend Barkhuis

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