Alan finished his first official football competition. His team reached the forth place, out of eight. Very good for his first time. We are all very proud.

This month we also celebrated ‘Semana Santa’, a two day holiday everywhere in Spain. Miguel visited us! Alex’ godfather and Alans pan-godfather. The entire family always enjoys the visits from Miguel and during each visit we try and do something new. I think Alan had the most enjoyment this time. Miguel took the kids to an Argentinian restaurant with a Michelin mention. Alan was extatic for days about the food he ate, and I was told in detail all the plates they ate, and all the things that happened during dinner. A lasting impression for sure. Alex was also very satisfied, but it was not his first culinary adventure, so for him it was less impressive.

For my last post about vitamin C I did some research just to be sure I wasn’t giving any incorrect or unhealthy advice. However, I realized that I was taking a relatively low dose! I was taking a dose much higher than the recommended dosage but it was still much less than the safe maximum. This month I started with a new double dose. 2 Grams a day. As of now I notice very little effect. I had a cold this month, so it did not help in avoiding this. I do notice that sometimes I see things clearer. More clarify then I look around, but also more clarity in my thoughts. All this is hard to prove, and I suspect a lot of this is simply my imagination. I’m going to keep up with my new dosage, to see if something happens.

We have a new housemate! A hamster named ‘Pelucita.’ It’s a Russian hamster, but fortunately not imported. Our hamster was born on Spanish soil. We built her cage ourselves—a nice spacious cage with plenty of toys, a hamster house, a running wheel, and her food and water. I think our hamster is very content; during the day she’s calm and plays cheerfully with the kids, and in the evening she goes completely wild and seems to be running a 10 kilometer marathon in her wheel.

Carnival! A celebration on the island. A few family members from Madrid came to visit, which resulted in two weeks of fun outings, but unfortunately also some extra pounds gained. Luckily, with some extra running sessions, I managed to lose those extra pounds again.

I take a large dose of vitamin C every day. Out of habit because I’ve been taking my pills for over 30 years, every morning. But also because I believe in the benefits. I know that vitamin C dissolves in water, and that whatever your body doesn’t need gets flushed out. The advantage of this is that it’s highly unlikely to take too much vitamin C and face negative consequences. The downside is that many people think the extra vitamin is essentially a waste of money since you just pee it out. I’ve heard that argument several times, but I feel differently.

Water is also something your body can easily get rid of. You simply urinate it out. If you drink a lot of water, you need to go to the bathroom more often, but that’s not the whole story. Drinking lots of water means you might urinate more frequently, but your body can efficiently carry out all functions requiring water. Water is used almost everywhere in your body. All your bodily processes benefit from good water availability.

If you drink only a little bit, water becomes a resource your body must handle more cautiously. Your body is incredibly good at using the resources it has efficiently, but why make it harder on yourself? I like to drink an extra glass of water because I believe in its advantages.

It’s the same with vitamin C. If it’s available, it can be utilized. If there’s an excess, well, then you urinate it out. What the optimal availability is, that’s the question, and the answer varies for everyone. I believe that much more of the vitamin I take is used compared to relying only on eating oranges. I believe my body adopted to a high availability of vitamin C by slowly removing self imposed restrictions it had for its use.