Coco orchid v2

Posted on by

Coco orchid trio!I am getting better and better at creating beautiful coconuts with orchids.

First step, prepare the coconut: Saw off the top, sand the edges, and lightly sand the whole shell. At the end, I rub a bit of oil onto the outside of the nut to give it a slightly darker, shiny finish.

Then I make the base. I cut a piece from a plastic bottle and wrap it with brown wool until the plastic is no longer visible.

Next step, look for a good piece of tree bark. Usually I simply visit a forest with a few trees that have thick, cork-like bark and collected a few pieces that are usually scattered around on the ground. At home, I brake the bark into small pieces with pliers.

Finally the orchid. A local shop was selling cheap mini orchids for Mother’s Day. They were a bit smaller than the normal small orchids, but I suspected they would look really good in a coconut, so I bought three for only 8 euros each. I took the plant out of the pot and gently loosened the roots. They were usually pressed into a pot shaped coconut fibre mass; I loosened this a bit so the roots could grow more freely. I also removed the sticks that kept the flower upright.

Coco orchid!Now assemble everything. First place some bark in the coconut, then place the orchid inside, and fill the sides with pieces of bark so the plant stand firmly. Then place the coconut on the base and turn it so the flower stand nicely upright.

I added a little moisture, and found a spot with plenty of light but no direct sunlight. That was it, quite a bit of work but totally worth it because I get a great feeling of contentment, and a job well done, whenever I see the orchid.

April ’26

Posted on by

April began with a nice outing. We visited Lanzarote and spent a few days traveling around the island to discover all the interesting spots.

I released two updates for Mushroom Mayhem. First version 1.4, which adds an in-app store and a statistics page. At the end of the month version 1.5, which basically simplifies the app. Less options more play.

This was also the month of my experiment.

April 0.0 – Results: A month without went surprisingly well; thanks to alcohol-free beer I completed this challenge easily. It took Ana about four days to notice that I had suddenly switched to 0.0. There were three situations where I would normally drink a bit, which made things challenging: our trip to Lanzarote, a farewell party for a colleague, and a dinner with the guys. In Lanzarote I switched to 0.0 perfectly. During the other two events I sinned a tiny bit, but in my opinion that fell reasonably outside the scope of this experiment, so it was allowed.

My coffee stop went unnoticed by my family, because I drank 99% of my coffee at work. I noticed it myself though, and quite strongly. I kept my coffee ritual exactly the same, but instead of coffee I grabbed water. Same cup, same ritual, that should be easy, I thought. During the first few days I had a slight headache in the evenings; on the third and fourth day I was genuinely surprised, because I had a strong headache the entire day, and after that it slowly got better again. I definitely hadn’t expected that.

The first week I had headaches, the second week I felt normal again, though I still occasionally had a strong craving for a cup of coffee. Monday mornings were the worst, and at the end of the workday I often felt like I needed a little boost, but I held back and stuck to just water.

The experiment is now finished, so I think I’m going back to my normal rhythm. I am going to drink less coffee, and maybe a few more 0.0 beers. I was actually a bit disappointed that there was so little to notice from changing my behavior. Apart from the headaches, the only real difference was a small social adjustment because I drank less, but that honestly didn’t amount to much.

Mushroom Mayhem 1.5

Posted on by

Version 1.5, the ‘less is more’ version comes with plenty of optimizations, and therefore not much new; worse even, the app now actually has less. I cleaned up the start screen. The ‘how to play’ has changed from a big button to an questionmark icon (‘?’) in the top left. The ‘custom game’ option is completely gone. Three options remain: the adventure mode, the daily challenge, and the quick game option.

The daily challenge now gets a stamp once you’ve solved it; you can still play the challenge, but the daily challenge stays the same all day, so now you can see at a glance whether you’ve already done it.

Note: you can set the difficulty of a quick game yourself by clicking the stamp in front of the button. Click the stamp to make the game harder. Keep clicking to cycle back to the easiest level after the hardest one.

The leaderboards have been redesigned. The game now uses your total score to compare your results with the rest of the world. There is a leaderboard for your total score per mode (adventure, daily, quick) and a combined total score.

There are also a few new achievements, and a few bugs have been fixed.

Get Mushroom Mayhem!

Guard of honour

Posted on by

Saturday we had another football match with Alan. Batan played against Viera, one of the best teams. The result: a very tough but brilliant win! We started badly with 0-1, then 0-2, but we fought our way back. 1-2, 2-2, 3-2 (Alan scored), 4-2. Halftime. Then 4-3, 5-3, 5-4, 5-5… and right after the equaliser, a goal straight from the kickoff: 6-5. Amazing. The spectators/parents went wild with joy. The kids even got a guard of honour as they left the pitch.

Don Quijalan

Posted on by

A Spanish masterpiece. Don Quijote tells the story of Alonso Quijano, a man so obsessed with chivalric tales that he reinvents himself as the knight Don Quixote and sets out with his loyal squire Sancho Panza on a series of misguided adventures shaped more by fantasy than reality.

At school, Alan had signed up a few days ago as a volunteer to read a page written in Old Spanish at the university. After a lot of practice, he was able to read his page perfectly today. We’re incredibly proud of Alan, who showed today that he really doesn’t mind being in the spotlight for a moment.

And of course, a TV crew was there as well to capture this bit of culture, and naturally the atypically blond Alan was chosen for a short interview.

Mushroom Mayhem 1.4

Posted on by

New shop!

Sometimes we all just want to take the easy route. The sneaky shortcut right through the middle. And now in Mushroom Mayhem you can do exactly that.
Before, you had to really get your hands dirty and play a bunch to gather edible mushrooms, the kind you’d later use to peek at a suspicious patch without risk. But those days are gone. Now you can skip the grind, loosen the purse strings, and simply buy yourself a handful of tasty mushrooms.


New statistics screen!Also, highscores! Now your scores are tracked in the app. For each game type you’ll see the highest score, the number of games played, the win ratio, the time played, and your total score which is all the points added together.

On top of that, some screens have been improved, both visually and in usability, and a few bugs have been fixed. Go get that update!

Get Mushroom Mayhem!

Mushroom Mayhem – Android test

Posted on by

[ The test phase is concluded. Soon you can find the app in the play store. Thanks! ]

Google changed the Play Store rules for new apps. Before an app can be published, it now needs to be tested by at least 12 people for a minimum of two weeks.

That means: if you want to help Mushroom Mayhem get approved and officially released, your participation as a tester genuinely makes a difference. The process is simple, safe, and only takes a minute to set up.

To test the current Android version of Mushroom Mayhem, follow these steps (on your Android device):

  1. Join the Google Group
    This step tells Google that you’re part of the official tester community. Without joining the group, Google won’t allow you to access the test version.
  2. Become a tester
    After joining the group, this link activates your tester status. You’ll see a confirmation message from Google Play saying you’re now a tester.
  3. Download the app
    Once you’re registered as a tester, this link will let you install the test version directly from the Play Store, just like any other app.

After installing, simply play the game whenever you like over the next two weeks. There’s no strict schedule, Google only checks that the app has active testers. If you encounter bugs or have suggestions, feel free to share them. Every bit of feedback helps polish the game before release. Thank you for helping

Lanzarote, a long weekend

Posted on by

Timanfaya!We visited Lanzarote again, this time with two families: five (5!) children and three adults. On the first day, right after arriving, we picked up the rental car and immediately started sightseeing. Our first stop was Mirador del Mar, with a beautiful view of the nearby island of La Graciosa. After that, we continued to the Cueva Verde, an enjoyable tour through a lava tunnel. Next we visited Jameos del Agua, a partially collapsed lava tube that’s home to many tiny blind white crabs found only on Lanzarote. The whole site was transformed into something special by the local artist and architect César Manrique. Finally, we headed to our villa, checked out the pool, and found two geocaches along the path near the little beach.

On the second day we drove to the center of the island, to the Timanfaya volcano. We had to wait in line for 90 minutes, but after that we could hop straight onto a bus for a stunning tour through the volcanic landscape. After visiting the volcano, we stopped to see some impressive rock formations, deep cracks in the terrain, a perfect spot for a few great photos.

La Graciosa!On the third day we went to the island of La Graciosa, which we had already seen from the viewpoint on our first day. A half-hour boat ride took us there. We bought some sandwiches and rented bikes for a long ride across the island. Getting lost was impossible: there’s only one clear route. At one of the beaches, Alex and I found some salt. It looked surprisingly clean, so I took a little with me to experiment with later. We returned on the last boat of the day and headed back to the villa.

On the final day we took it easy. Checked out, drove to the airport, and headed home. A tiring but wonderful little trip.

April 0.0

Posted on by

A month without alcohol, which in my case only means no wine and no beer because I don’t drink spirits anyway. Normally I only have a few beers during the weekend, so I don’t expect this dry month to be very difficult. I just wanted to try it and see if I notice anything.

To make it more likely that I notice something, I’m adding an extra challenge to this experiment: no coffee. On weekdays I usually drink about four cups a day, so together with the no-alcohol rule this will make for a bit more challenging month. I’m curious to see what the effect will be, and if I even notice anything.

The experiment still seems fairly simple, even with the no-coffee rule, so I’m adding one more twist. I’m going to do it secretly. Not in the sense of hiding anything, but simply by not announcing that I’m spending a month without alcohol and coffee. I’m curious to see if anyone in my family notices.

March ’26

Posted on by

A Dutch saying is ‘Maart roert zijn staart’, which translates to: ‘In March things happen’, but luckily this was not the case in this March. Just like February, March was a quiet month.

Alan has won a few football matches, complete with some really beautiful goals. Alex plays beach volleyball once a week, and he was invited to join a tournament in Fuerteventura. We were super proud, but unfortunately we couldn’t convince him and he preferred to stay home. Ah well, next time. I went out to a little restaurant again with the ‘dads’, this time to Casa Brito, to enjoy some delicious food and relax.

It was a quiet month, but it did have some very fun moments. One weekend that gave me a few amusing, atypical stories about a sheep and an ex. Another weekend was less fun, but more productive, I released a new version of Mushroom Mayhem! We also enjoyed a visit by Alex and Alan’s godfather Miguel!

Together with Copilot, I also gave my old app ezDatepad a technology update. I think I’m the only one who uses ezDatepad (for my shopping lists and for quickly jotting down ideas), but having an updated version is always a bonus.