Roll On 2020!

Janez and Juliana Vermeiren tell YOU why this hasn’t been a great year for them and why their upcoming holiday in Thailand can’t come quickly enough

- Franco Havenga

IT’S perfect weather for spending hours by the pool. The sun is beaming down and a gentle breeze prevents the day from being too hot.

The Vermeiren family are taking full advantage of it. Five-year-old Vincent and three-year-old Noah swing their bright buckets on the lawn while their parents, Janez (41) and Juliana (32), lounge on the patio furniture, looking like models in a glossy holiday brochure.

Janez has removed his shirt, showing off his impressive six-pack, while Juliana languorously intertwines her long limbs with his.

Relaxed they may be, but the couple are more than ready to wave 2019 goodbye. Janez gets quite serious when he reveals this year has been truly challenging.

“I just want to put it behind me completely,” he says. “Things haven’t worked out the way I wanted them to.”

Earlier this year he resigned after five years as co-owner of his production company, Cheeky Media.

“It’s been difficult. I don’t think there are many people who can say from a business perspective it’s been a great year,” he says. “The country has been going through a hard time.”

So it’s just as well they have a stretch of R and R coming up. The couple’s excitement is obvious when they start talking about their upcoming month-long holiday in Thailand, where they’ll spend Christmas and New Year’s.

“We did a lot of research trying to figure out where to go,” Juliana says, just days before their departure to the Southeast Asian paradise. “The beaches there are beautiful and calm.”

The family will spend most of their time on the islands of Koh Pha-Ngan and Koh Samui and health nuts Janez and Juliana are looking forward to exercising on the sandy white beaches.