September ’24

Alex and his first star!We had an easy start of the month. Alex went with his godfather on a city trip to explore Bilbao. A great adventure and a perfect opportunity for Alex and his godfather to strengthen their relationship. It also provided a couple of days of serenity at home. Spending time with only Alan meant there were no more daily/constant fights and it allowed us to get some quality time with Alan.

Alex had a blast with his godfather in Bilbao. They stayed at a very nice hotel, visited museums, the football stadium and even went to a restaurant (Ola) with a Michelin star!

Alan also had a good first week because he spend three days camping with his friends in the south of the island. They had a nice apartment with a pool, the beach nearby and they had lots of fun in the Holiday World attraction park.

Both kids should be ready and fully relaxed to start the new school season. With the new school year the ‘old’ routine also started working again. School days were all similar, weekends similar. Maybe it is boring, but at the same time it is a very easy routine to follow. Soccer, tennis, (still no) English, Bandama, La Laja, a weekend camping trip, birthdays, etc. Once again our routine where everything everyday is almost the same as always.

Camping and filming – Lessons learned

Camping, llanos de la pez!Well, my first video that was basically centered around me got me quite a bit of comments. It also taught me quite a bit. First the lessons I learned myself:

– Batteries. Lots of video means you need some way to charge a battery, or have a replacement ready. In the two days camping I spend the battery of my good camera the first day. My phone was empty around noon the second day, and the two gopro clones I had did last a bit longer, but had a terrible image and sound quality.
– Interaction. It was difficult to film people I did not know. It felt like I would invade their privacy, so I did not film anything while I talked to others. People in our group also showed some restraint when appearing, so I also kept these interactions to a minimum. The result was a movie where I am almost the only person to appear.
– Clean. The video needs to be ‘cleaner’. I don’t know the correct word, but a lot of my sentences end in gibberish no-one can understand. I need to speak clearer. Some parts of the video show the ground, or my feet, or my shirt, and are not focused correctly. I needed to keep some of these parts to avoid breaking the monologue I was having.
– Information. I need a bit more of background information, so I have something to say when there is a dull moment.
– Editing. Cutting away boring parts is not so easy. I was talking a lot, and sometimes I had to leave bad parts to not cut my sentence in half. Sometimes I had to remove big clips, because I repeated things I had already said. Shorter sentences and a small pause before changing topic might help a lot to do the editing afterwards.

My family also had some comments. Quite a lot of comments actually, but most are covered my the issues I found myself.

– Focus. There is no clear goal for the movie. I was told nobody would be interested in seeing only me talk (and drink). It the focus is a family movie we see to little family. If the focus is transmitting interesting facts, I need to include more information.
– No interaction. The same as I already stated, but my family told me it was not all on me. The participants to the video should participate more, without being scared of the camera. This will probably be hard to achieve, because I told everyone I would be making a video, and everybody thought it was a good idea, but still almost nobody wanted to be filmed.

Conclusion: I liked filming and thought the video was not so bad, and maybe even a bit funny, but after all the criticism I have changed my mind. It is not a good video, and it would take a lot of effort to make it better. Will there be a next video… I´m not sure. We don’t normally go camping, so maybe I can make a video when we do something more often, and I need something to talk about. I’ll see, but for now my motivation is a bit low.

Camping – Llanos de la pez

About two years ago we discovered two YouTubers that really inspired us. First ‘Bald and bankrupt‘, who made really great videos, like the one I like most, where he visits an off limits Russian production facility to the one of their last space shuttle like rockets. The ‘Buran‘.

The other YouTuber is ‘Kurt Caz‘ with lots of good videos, but the one I like best is where he visited a family in the middle of nowhere, they invited him to some food, and he then did a fundraiser for the family in Haiti, and returned later to give them some money. The family uses the money to buy a motorcycle, to help them with a better future.

We went camping recently at a site called ‘Llanos de la Pez‘, in the middle of Gran Canaria, and tried to make our own video, inspired by these two great YouTubers. See for yourself how it turned out!

The educational aspects of the video, that maybe remain a bit in the background:
– We are camping in a forest that is representative to Gran Canaria a few hundred years ago
– At that time the entire island was covered with forest/trees
– Roque nublo is the place where the original inhabitants (the guanches) used to meet, to discuss important issues
Maybe the video is a bit over the top, but we laughed really a lot during the production, so even if it is not the best video, we can only be happy with the result.

If you want to go camping yourself, then here are some more info and guidelines for your stay. Ask for permission to camp and spend the night. Walking routes available in the area.

August ’24

Witte kerk!The month started easy for me, while the kids were celebrating their holidays in Torrevieja and later in London I was back home, working. The second week of the month it all started for me. My official holiday finally started and I went to the Netherlands with the kids. We spend two weeks there staying with grandma Nel. We did all the usual stuff. Playing with Grandma, beach, lake, bitterballen, frikandellen, Alex’ birthday, niece, nephew, uncle and aunt, friends. Avifauna, the juliana toren, a kid oriented attraction park, the flower corso on the boulevard of Noordwijk. De kinderboerderij, an illegal trip at 22 meters from the ground. BBQ’s, Indonesian food. A soft-ice sprint, Gijs and the list goes on.

For me it was a very nice holiday, and for the kids it was again a big contrast with their partyweeks with around 40 neighborhood kids in Torrevieja, or their week of discovery in Londen, but still they were happy with their Holland adventure.

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July ’24

July is a strange month. The first week I had a small holiday. The kids were also free, so we did quite a lot of activities. Ana had to work the first week, but later she took off almost one month. Ana and the children have gone to Torrevieja for the holidays, and I stayed behind to work. We don’t have enough vacation days to go on holiday together. Ana spends all her days with the children in July and part of August, and then I do the same in August, so that together we just have enough to bridge the vacation period of the children.

Besides my work, I no longer have to attend to all the extra activities of the children. Alex had monday: music, tuesday: English, wednesday: tennis, thursday: English, and friday: tennis again. Alan had monday: football, tuesday: English, wednesday: football, thursday: English, and friday: football. Together, Ana and I could just manage it, but it was all very tightly planned. It’s a relief not to have that this month; suddenly I actually have free time. It feels as if I’m the one who is celebrating a holiday.

A month off gave me plenty of time to get things done. I still had to go to work, but with the afternoons free I was able to get lots of things done. My health got a big boost because I went to run almost every day between 6 and 8km. I worked on hobbies like the coco insect hotel. I invested time in my future by finishing a couple of iPhone apps that I started years ago, but never had time to complete. I did a big spring cleaning, and renewed my wardrobe. It left me in a much better emotional state. Just the results expected from a vacation.

Ana and the kids were at the beach for three weeks. They had an experience similar to the movie ‘Groundhog day‘. All their days were similar. Wake up, breakfast, beach, swimming pool to clean off the sand. Lunch. A couple of hours relaxing, Swimming pool again, shower, diner, playtime with all the kids in the same holiday park; the same kids they see every year, and finally sleep. The exact same day over and over again, but in contrary to the movie the kids probably hope it would never end.

June ’24

The highlight of the month was at the end, but we also started the month pretty nice with a healthy dose of creativity. We made a couple of beautiful coco-orchids. One for each kid, and they turned out spectacular!

The kids started their summer break! First they will spend two weeks near home where they will spend one week doing a canoe course. The weather during the canoe course was not the best, and a couple of days there was even a bit of rain.

Ed Sheeran concert in Tenerife 2024!It was also a month filled with birthdays. First Ana, than me. This time my birthday is extra special. It will be my last birthday in my 40’s. Next year I will start with my fifties. Time is going so fast! To celebrate I planned a weekend in Tenerife, where Ana and I will visit the concert of Ed Sheeran! First we will fly to Tenerife, where we will arrive pretty early. After arriving we will go and check out our hotel and leave our bags. Get some food and relax a bit, then we can go to the concert. After the concert we spend the night in the hotel, and the next morning we have to wake up quite early to fly back home.

Fujin

Since a couple of years I like to browse Kickstarter to see if I can find any fun projects to support. Kickstarter is a platform where you can take a small risk and you can help someone or some organization in developing something new. The idea is simple. If you have an idea, but you dont have the money, you make a plan to create something, calculate what it will cost, and publish it on the site. People who like your plan can pay first, and if there is enough interest, you make your product and send it to the people that supported you. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. When there is enough interest you get the money, and start your development. Normally it will take a long time, and there are almost always delays. There is also a risk. If you did not calculate everything well enough or thought everything through, maybe you fail, and the money disappears. I bought a couple of things through Kickstarter. A robot, a thinket, a super nice towel, a stress relief toy, some books, and the last thing to be delivered on my doorstep was a Fujin.

Fujin wrist!Fujin is the Japanese god of the wind, but also a mechanical watch. The watch was developed as a kickstarter project, and it somehow got my attention. I never wear a watch, so it was an atypical project for me, but the project kept revolving in my mind. Eventually I decided to just take a gamble, and go for it. I made my pledge almost a year ago, and the watch has finally arrived. First thing I noticed is that it arrived in a really big box. It got me all excited, but since it arrived a few days before my birthday I made the choice to wrap it up, and let my kids give it to me. It will be a great gift for myself.

Finally on my birthday I got to unpack the Fujin. It’s a beautiful watch and it fitted my wrist like a glove. I was very happy. After using google translate to read the Japanese instructions I was able to set the correct time, and ever since it just works great.

Model: S-Meister, Fujin SM-DVBK-P-KS
Movement: Seiko Epson YN71
Case: SS (BK), size: 42mm, thickness: 14 mm, lug width: 22 mm
Face: Platinum leaf
Cover: Sapphire glass
Strap: Cordura Nylon, 9 cm including buckle / 7.7 cm for belt only at 12 o’clock, 12 cm at 6 o’clock

Fuji nightstand!The watch is heavy and big, you are easily reminded you are wearing it, it transmits a feeling of quality. The size of the watch was one of the things that worried me. I though a too big of a watch was uncomfortable, and would maybe look to much like I was calling for attention, which I wanted to avoid. In the end the watch is quite sizable, but it is an acceptable size, and it looks pretty good on my wrist, without being overly big.

The watch face is created basically a black area covered by a very very thin layer of platinum. This super thin platinum foil really does look a bit like something representing the wind, so that’s really nice. The watch face has a hole to see the inner workings of the watch, and it feels like looking at the watch’s heartbeat. It is only a small piece of the movement you can see, but it is amazing seeing extremely small pieces moving around so fast you can hardly make out what is moving around.

There are three dials. One very thin dial for seconds, and two dials with little points that light up in the dark for the minutes and the hours. The dials look really nice, and the glow in the dark feature helps for reading the time when you are in a darker environment. During the day the silver dials, on top of the platinum foil can be a bit hard to read. You need to look well so see the dials and know the time, at night or with low light it is much easier to tell the time, thanks to the little dots of illumination.

The back of the watch is also made of sapphire or maybe its just glass, I’m not sure. It shows you a different part of the movement, and it shows the way the watch generates its energy by using your movement to move a big piece around which I suspect charges the watch. The watch can be charged using the crown, or by simply wearing it. The little book that comes with the watch explains that wearing the watch for around 8 hours a day is enough to keep it running for 24 hours.

The strap is black on the outside, there is a very small black leather part where the holes are located for fixing the buckle. The inside is made out of a light brown leather, and feels comfortable. The strap is a bit though when new, but I feel like it will adapt to my wrist in time, and I feel like the materials used will be comfortable for using every day.

The only down-side of the watch is that is can be difficult to read the time, and for a watch that is obviously a pretty big inconvenience, but still I am very happy with my very first mechanical watch. It looks great, and its weight and size make it feel like something important is on my wrist.

Coco orchid

Coco orchid!Step one was a coco box with coco cookies. It was a great project, the cookies taste great and the coco box was a nice decoration. Still, I had the idea that we could improve the concept. After some mind-storming the coco orchid project was born. There are three parts. A coco that we use to hold the plant. A base to hold the coco, and a pretty mini orchid to provide some stunning beauty.

1. Cut/saw the top of the coco. Clean the inside and let the coco dry.
2. Smooth the edges of the coco, and smooth the outside and the inside with some sandpaper.
3. Lightly oil the inside of the coco, with a little bit of oil, to make the coco a bit more water resistant.
4. Make the base, cut a piece of plastic from a bottle, and wrap it with brown wool. The brown wool combines well with the color of the coconut.
5. Buy a mini orchid, and transplant it into the coco. Add some additional material to surround the base of the orchid to it does not move around, but there should still be lots of air/space around the roots.

Enjoy!

Mini orchid: 16 euro, coconut: 1.50 euro, water bottle: 1 euro, a ball of brown wool: 1 euro. Total: 19:50 euro
Enjoy a beautiful orchid every time you come home: Priceless!

May ’24

The month started with a weekend all-in in the south of the island. It was mothers-day so we booked a nice hotel with a couple of friends. Ana got a really nice tide clock and a couple of smaller heartfelt gifts. We only spend one night but it was a very enjoyable stay.

As easy as it gets… Well, I do think there are a few aspects that can and should be made even easier. My passport will stop being valid in a couple of months, so I needed to get a new version. For this I needed to travel to Madrid, and make an appointment with the Dutch embassy. After creating a new account on their website I could print a form, which I needed together with a couple certificates and some photos. With all the paperwork I can travel to Madrid, and ask it they can send the passport to my home. That will save me from taking another day off and buying another ticket to Madrid. Then after going home I will need to send in my old passport and then wait nearly two months for my new document to arrive.

Combining tedious/mandatory tasks with a bit of fun is one of the enjoyable things in life. Simply ‘making the best of any situation’ is a very important ability. Once mastered it allows you to greatly enhance the feeling of happiness in your live. This trip is a perfect example. Instead of thinking about wasted holidays, wasted money for tickets, and wasted time I will spend the weekend with Miguel, my kids godfather, pan-godfather and a very good friend. This is bound to be a happy weekend.

It was probably not the smartest impulse I have ever had, but I did it anyway and signed myself up for the Bestial Race. I am going to try and finish the ‘6KM – Hell’ category. I am grateful that I have until December to prepare myself.