“There were customers with a bill of 6,000 to 10,000 euros at the end of the evening. They also pretended nothing was. A good evening can also be a monthly wage. Those were crazy times. When I was twenty I got into the hospitality industry, first into nightlife. I started out as a dishwasher, but worked my way up very quickly to become a VIP waiter. That was at club Noxx. If you’re in that world yourself, the money goes through it quickly. I started partying in the Netherlands or Germany. It quickly became a zero operation.”

“I sometimes worked three nights in a row from 10 pm to 7 am. That was physically demanding. I went to work in the catering industry on the Groenplaats and then also in the Seef brewery on the Eilandje. Now I work in a coffee bar. That’s a lot quieter. Everything has calmed down in recent months. I will take in May. We gave a drink outside for fifty people, that was all that was allowed then, but it was a beautiful day. We didn’t want a big party.”

“I would love to open my own coffee bar now. My sister starts a pastry shop, we want to open something together. We are two hands on one stomach so that should work.”