I used to have a girlfriend with whom I used to spend a lot of time sitting on a bench near the water, talking about future plans in life and just talking about life in general. She called the place Tussenland, meaning the place between what's real and what's fantasy.

After I'd broken up with her I'd gone to teaching school, and while still being heartbroken, I was given the assignment to draw whatever came up in your mind while some piano music was played. All I could think of was that bench near the water back then, and I remember my drawing being quite different from what everyone else made.

Back then no one knew about my personal life, and everyone was kind of surprised at what I'd drawn. I took the drawing home, finished it up and wrote Tussenland on top, in the same font used by the Efteling, a Dutch theme park. The Efteling had been the last place where we'd both been truly happy together. I intended to send this picture to her along with a bunch of stuff but never got round to it, and now it's just somewhere stored in a box with the rest of pictures and memories.