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.

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.

A short but good month. I bought a new laptop. I ordered the laptop in the beginning of this month, but I’m still waiting. It has been lying at the customs office for around a week already, and depending on how busy they are I hope to receive my machine in about a week or so. Maybe I will need to fill out some import papers, but I will probably get notified about that. I don’t know.

Alan won quite a few football matches (thanks in part to intense encouragement from Alex).

The extra weight I had picked up at the end of last year, is slowly going away again. I’ve gone down from 78 kilos to 75. Just a few more kilos off and I’ll be completely healthy again. My target for the end of the year is to weigh around 70 kilos, but luckily I still have quite a few months to go.

The first month of 2025 has already passed by. This month we are back to our usual routine after all the chaos of December. Of course, I am curious about what 2025 will bring. A major event is my personal milestone. This year marks my 50th birthday. That’s something. I still feel reasonably young, but that feeling doesn’t seem to match up with my biological age. A strange sensation. Fortunately, I have a few more months to enjoy myself before I reach this milestone.

We start the year with renewal. Both children received a beautiful display cabinet, to place their trinkets in. Ana has purchased a new Dyson. With the new Dyson v12 vacuum cleaner, even the children are now enthusiastic about cleaning the floors. While the novelty might wear off soon, I must admit that using a green laser to find dust gives an entirely new dimension to vacuuming.

I also started something new this month: a trip with ‘the guys’ to Don Chuleton. Here, together we devoured an enormous portion of meat, accompanied by a delicious bottle of wine. As far as I’m concerned, we have a new tradition.

This month Alan celebrated his ninth birthday! He is growing up lightning fast. We had a few celebrations and Alan received a huge amount of cool gifts. He got a new tablet, a semi professional metal detector, a bike, various football accessories, and quite a lot of cash. We celebrated his birthday twice, first with a barbecue in the center of the island with family and friends, and the next day playing a laser-game with his schoolmates.

I suffered this December because I made the mistake to take part in the Bestial race. It resulted in a couple of painful days, but I will try and remember it as being a spirit building exercise.

Right before Christmas we got a taste of the real Christmas spirit because we went ice skating. Half an hour on the ice and afterwards a massive amount of rain made me feel like I was almost at the north pole, well, maybe not exactly, but it for sure did not resemble a tropical island. Ice skating was fun. I was amazed I managed to stay on my feet but I did.

We ended this month visiting family in Madrid. During our stay we also visited Mago Pop (Wizard Pop). My kids had seen his performance before, but for me it was the first time, and even being quite skeptical about magic I was pretty amazed.