Grandma Nel is visiting us for nearly two weeks. We played a few colonist games. Ate delicious paling, and lots of different Dutch treats. We visited the cave of Guayadeque. Observed Alan’s football match, observed Alex’ tennis training. We had fun with a balloon. We relaxed and enjoyed the Doramas park. A couple of days we had drinks at the windy park (parque del viento), we visited la Laja beach, sadly suffering a bit of damage, but even considering the damage we had a good time.
In Spain we celebrate fathers day the 19th of March. Sadly, it was not a good day for me. I did not get an ashtray, nor a macaroni necklace… nothing. I got nothing and that hurt. They used to make something at school, but this was stopped because some kids have two mothers, or only one parent, and to avoid confusion I got nothing on my day. Luckily I still had some beer bonbons from Grandma Nel to make me feel better.
This month we finished our first series of the year. Since January we have been watching all the
After grandma’s visit we had another visitor. The kids godfather and pan-godfather, Miguel. With Miguel we visited the Aldea, the ‘barranco de las Vacas’, the dunes in the south, the natural reserve Azuaje, and we had a fantastic experience at a teppan-jaki restaurant. We also watched all the Kung Fu panda movies, because the forth movie was just release and we went to watch it in the theater.
This month we are going skiing. For me it has been about 15 years since I last went on a ski trip. I’m not sure I remember, but I am sure hopeful I will pick up the pace quickly. Alex has had some indoor practice, and for Alan it will be an all new experience. Ana is like me. She is experienced, but her last trip was also years ago. There was some uncertainty about the availability of snow on the piste. At my work it lead to a couple of laughs and even involved some AI. A couple of days before leaving some snow started to fall, but it was not enough to have white snowy pistes. In the end only some pistes with artificial snow could be used.
Our apartment entrance is right next to an 
Keeping an agenda is a very simple and effective way to keep track of things you need to do. You make plans, and you write them down on the date for which they are meant to be finished. This way you can select any day and see what needs to be done on that day, because all the plans you made in the past are written down of the day the plan was for. Logical.
Friday, after work I pass by the supermarket near my office. I go to this supermarket a lot, so I work my standard route and get everything we need. I stand in line to pay and take everything home. That was the idea, buy paying was not so easy. Payment declined. Insufficient funds. Another card did work, so I loaded everything into the car. After loading everything I decided to check the bank app to see why I could not pay, and I got quite a scare. There was nothing left on our account. Everything was spend in Marceille, in France. Our entire account, with nearly 1500 euro was all spend in a single day.
Alan used to have a little crab as a pet. He kept it in his room in a nice crab environment with crab toys, water, plants, and some dirt so she could dig a nice hole. Sadly she kept getting older and older, and when we returned from our last trip she had passed away. To bad. Alan was in favor of getting a new pet, en we started to investigate. A walking stick seemed like a good idea, or maybe a new crab. Maybe even a hamster. The crab was nice but it spend most of its life inside its little hole in the ground. Only to come out to quickly get some food. The care for the little animal was also quickly allocated with Alan’s dad. That needed to change.
After three days spend in the artificial happiness I must conclude we really did have a great time. There were lots of things in Disney that were not very nice, but these are common to all theme parks. Waiting times, broken attractions, commerce overload, masses of people everywhere, conflicts and discussions between parents and kids. Disney is a great park to enjoy and experience, but I was personally very happy to leave the park after three day.
In a couple of weeks the waiting is finally over. We will head over to France, to visit euro Disney and Paris. Alex has been counting down the days for a couple of months already. I must admit I had big doubts. Before planning this trip I was convinced that Disney was a bit of a rip off. A place to avoid. A fake place, with abused workers in suits with a smile painted on it walking around the park. I felt it was a place where ‘undercover’ employees walk around to check on the ‘visible’ minimum wage workers, and where incorrect behaviour will not be tolerated.