Or vacation was not filled with activities. Hanging around the pool and a few short trips with the car. Still we had a nice adventure. A hedgehog came to visit our apartment in the middle of the night.
Hedgehog
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The south
Gran Canaria is a small island of about 40 kilometers. The capital of the island is Las Palmas and, surprisingly for such a small island, this is one of the 10 biggest cities in Spain. The strange thing about Gran Canaria is that the island is divided in two distinct parts, north and south. Las Palmas is in the north of the island and here it is often a little clouded. The south is the domain of the tourists. Here you will find lots of hotels and the best beaches. The area has the most sunshine of the island. The weird thing is that the inhabitants of the island actually refer to ‘the south’ when they talk about the tourist areas.
The passed Easter weekend we enjoyed a holiday in the south. Together with some friends from Madrid who were visiting the island we rented an apartment. We were three couples, three babies and one pregnant girl so basically what we did was bath in the sun (Alex beneath a parasol) and stay near the apartment because it is difficult to make plans with one baby.. but making plans with three babies is an impossible task.
Alex enjoyed his holiday a lot and even applying factor 50+ sunscreen did not seem to bother him. He slept very well and got used to being around other babies. At first he was a bit scared of all those strange new people around but he adapted quickly to his new surroundings and to the new people picking him up. Alex even had a surprise for us, after the holidays he is suddenly talking a lot more! He keeps muttering and a word we hear a lot is ‘tit’. He’s just like his father.
Coffee harvest
It is not much, but still. The first year of owning a coffee plant resulted in exactly half a bean. De rest of the beans dried up, deteriorated beyond consumption or just disappeared.
Hopefully the next year will be better. Right now the coffee plant is without any leaves and it looks pretty bad. Hopefully the plant will survive its first year with me and will deliver a bigger harvest next year.
Mirror mirror
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most beautiful baby of them all?
The mirror did not reply, but for us the answer was clear.
Demonstration
Yesterday Spain was in protest. A lot of people were on strike the entire day (a day that gets subtracted from your paycheck) and during the evening there were protests. The reason for the strike is the deterioration of employee rights. Shortly it will become (much) easier and (much) cheaper to fire people. The politicians think that this will stimulate employees to employ more people, because getting rid of people will be easier and cheaper. Employees simple fear unemployment. The fixed contracts and job security will loose its value. More than 8 days ill? Fired. More then three month loosing money? Fired. Fixed contract? Fired with a small compensation.
In Las Palmas the protesters started their march around 6 o clock and there were a lot of people! A protest with a lot of noise and chaos. I estimate around 20.000+ people were protesting and this is quite an achievement for an island where the people usually just wait and see what happens in the Spanish mainland. Now we wait and see the aftermath of this protest, but usually the end result is a quiet acceptance of the changes.
Godfather
What a nice surprise. Today I received a phone call from ‘down under’ and just before starting the weekend I was asked if I would like to be the godfather of little Jack and of course I gladly accepted this great honor. At the moment Jack is in Australia with his family. He will be baptised next week and then I will be presented as his godfather.
Father’s day!
Today it’s father’s day in Spain and for me it is my first father’s day ever. I’m so curious… I already got a few emails from friends and family but what will my son give me. He was a bit sad today crying every now and then, but in a quiet moment when we were playing on his little mat he gave me the best present he could. His first roll-over!
Tasty, a beef hamburger
It’s always nice to eat a tasty homemade hamburger. We bought some buns and a package of hamburgers. The hamburgers were all beef, because pig is bad for you. But what’s in a hamburger except for the meat? I looked at the list of ingredients and knew directly that checking the ingredients was a mistake.
Our hamburgers contain beef, but they don’t specify how much beef. In addition they contain grain, rice and oranges (!). Together with some additives for flavor, color and smell. It does explain the low price, and the burger tasted okay. Still, next time I will think twice when buying this ‘meat’ and probably get real meat.
On the shoulders
Although I need to hold him securely it is safe to say Alex has a new activity he really likes. View the world from the height of my shoulders. He loves it!
Folding bike
Being Dutch driving a bike is as normal as walking. It is a part of my heritage. A part that I neglected a little bit here in Spain, but finally a perfect excuse arose. My work moved to a new office and the new distance was to far for walking. I immediately thought a bike would be the perfect solution.
The only problem is that in Spain the average car driver does not take into account the existence of bikes. They are not used to bikes and a bike path is very rare. This results in a high risk when you move around on a bike. Luckily a campaign is going on to rise awareness about bikes and they even prepared a couple of bike paths.
I’ll just go ahead and give it a try. I bought a folding bike so I can store it without to many hassle inside the office.