Member in the spotlight: Albertine

1. What is your name and age?
Albertine van Walsem, I am 42 years old.

2. What does COC Haaglanden mean to you?
For me it means a nice meeting place for LGBTI people to come together in a safe environment where everyone is accepted and everyone can be themselves.

3. How long have you been involved with COC Haaglanden and how are you active?
I have been really involved with the COC since August 2022, when I started as a volunteer at the cafe. But I had been a regular visitor since 2017, back then as a regular visitor at Autiroze. Later I also started visiting the OOXO group, and then the rainbow support group. Then I found myself without a permanent paid job in 2022, but I still wanted to do something, so I signed up as a volunteer. I was able to get a job at the cafe. And since November last year, I have also been behind the bar at Autiroze every month as a volunteer. 

4. If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Hutspot, with white beans and 4 season pepper. 

5. How do you prefer to spend a day off?
With something fun that I can have nice and/or beautiful memories of, for example a museum visit, a zoo visit, or a fun/beautiful music event such as Wild Rooster Festival or, for example, Dordt in Stoom. I love music, animals and history, so when I have a day off, I like to spend my time doing those kinds of things. And I also have a cockatoo at home that also wants attention, so if I have a day of nothing, all my time is spent on my cockatoo.

6. What is your favorite dish: breakfast, lunch or dinner (and why)?
Breakfast: some baked bread with cheese and some orange juice and coffee, lunch: also something with bread and cheese and coffee, dinner: hot, as long as it contains meat, and something like pasta or potatoes.

7. What are you most proud of about yourself?
That as an autistic person I have taught myself a lot of things in order to be more social. I couldn't do that for years. Now a lot comes naturally. Oh, and my self-written song, Black Widow Girl, which can be listened to on youtube .

8. What is your favorite book and why?
The phone book, haha. I don't like reading at all, I don't like it at all. 

9. Who do you want to pass the baton to?
I would like to pass the baton to Maaike Frankena.