Exactly five years ago today was the day: Amyazine went ‘on air’. What we had been tinkering with in our attic room for months saw the light of day. The magnum bottle of champagne that Jort Kelder would sabre was ready. The production department even arranged a sabre. A wonderful skirt from Gucci, embellished with feathers and sequins, was ready for me (for which I had to fast for three days before I could fit into it), flown in especially for the occasion from Milan. On top, a top from the same brand. And oh yes, I could keep it, so said the note. As toi toi toi.

Our friends from The Building did our hair while the studio below our attic room transformed into a party scene. I still remember walking down the small spiral staircase and suddenly seeing a completely different world. There was a bar, a stage, a red carpet, there was security, there were camera crews... I toasted with our team and quickly took my place in front of the sponsor wall where all the friends came in. Leco, Harriet Calo, Eva Jinek, Merel Westrik, Fiona Hering, Winonah de Jong, Jort Kelder, Maik de Boer, Marion Pauw and Elle van Rijn, Micha Emmering and so on for a while longer.

In the meantime, we are twenty-four thousand eight hundred seventy-six posts further that have been read a total of seventy million six hundred ninety-seven thousand four hundred sixty times. I still remember that in the beginning I hopped with joy when there were twenty-two people on the site. I find that now, with 500,000 unique visitors per month and three million pageviews in my pocket, incredibly cute.

Because wow, you come by so often. And you respond so nicely. The personal emails, the visits to the editorial office... If there were a prize for the nicest female readers in the Netherlands, we would win that gloriously.

People have come, people have gone, people have stayed and can't be shaken off (DAAN! ANNICK! LIL! ADDIE! KIEK! BELLIE! TESS! LOT!), but that's also because I've tied them to their desks. Monday is the party because then we see each other again. We have the best parties, whether it's behind our desk or in a club in Paris. Everyone would want to be added to our WhatsApp group but to quote Linda de Mol: even if you drive burning nails under our fingernails, we won't tell anything about what is said there.

Amayzine, in short, one of the better decisions in my life. That I dared to make thanks to wind force 8 that was blown in my back by my beloved. There. That should be said too. And now champagne. And for fun and amusement, the video of our launch party.