A discussion on the nuclear family, of which we have a few in our academy, elicited a wonderful, unexpected treat for us all from our dynamic PO. He took us on a whirlwind, armchair tour of Amsterdam, capital of the country of Erasmus, father of humanism and individualism. You see, he had just spent a week there with family members during the Christmas holidays, and he likes nothing better than a captive audience which he can enthrall with his vivid word-pictures and verbal mosaics.

Our staffroom became an outdoor skating rink where we slid about frenetically with children and adults alike. We encountered the dull, dour, sullen Dutch people. We enjoyed the fact that they were a people smaller in stature than ourselves and not quite so pleasing of countenance.

We cycled along in the bicycle lanes and admired the architecture of the old city with its tall narrow houses, and we moved out to the modern, but not so pretty concrete apartment blocks. We climbed the narrow stairs of our host's four-storey home, from basement office through living, dining and relaxing areas to sky-lit bedrooms. We dined with a Dutch scholar and philosopher, who has spent 15 years doing a thesis on Thomas Aquinas.

We listen to the Cartesian theory of cogito, ergo sum, Hegel's dream of reconciling science and religion and the Aquinian belief in the Divine Presence as first and always. We admired the avant garde art and statuary and marvelled at the enormous collection of CDs, classical and ethnic.

On New Year's Eve we all rushed out onto the street at midnight clutching bottles of wine and glasses to greet and toast the health of our now friendly, gregarious neighbours. We watched the fireworks display splendidly arranged by each family and we skated recklessly along the pavements, drinking each other's wine and welcoming in the New Year.

Next day we went for a long brisk walk in the very same park where years ago our beloved PO busked with hippies of all races. We met thousands of people like us walking off the previous night's excesses.

Remember there are 15 million people living in this country similar in size to the province of Leinster. We visited the house of Anne Frank and, of course, the Van Gogh Museum. We enjoyed all of this exciting and wonderful cultural trip while sipping coffee in our quiet, rural, remote staffroom. Lord, it's good to be here. It's the best of all possible worlds.