July is a strange month. The first week I had a small holiday. The kids were also free, so we did quite a lot of activities. Ana had to work the first week, but later she took off almost one month. Ana and the children have gone to Torrevieja for the holidays, and I stayed behind to work. We don’t have enough vacation days to go on holiday together. Ana spends all her days with the children in July and part of August, and then I do the same in August, so that together we just have enough to bridge the vacation period of the children.

Besides my work, I no longer have to attend to all the extra activities of the children. Alex had monday: music, tuesday: English, wednesday: tennis, thursday: English, and friday: tennis again. Alan had monday: football, tuesday: English, wednesday: football, thursday: English, and friday: football. Together, Ana and I could just manage it, but it was all very tightly planned. It’s a relief not to have that this month; suddenly I actually have free time. It feels as if I’m the one who is celebrating a holiday.

A month off gave me plenty of time to get things done. I still had to go to work, but with the afternoons free I was able to get lots of things done. My health got a big boost because I went to run almost every day between 6 and 8km. I worked on hobbies like the coco insect hotel. I invested time in my future by finishing a couple of iPhone apps that I started years ago, but never had time to complete. I did a big spring cleaning, and renewed my wardrobe. It left me in a much better emotional state. Just the results expected from a vacation.

Ana and the kids were at the beach for three weeks. They had an experience similar to the movie ‘Groundhog day‘. All their days were similar. Wake up, breakfast, beach, swimming pool to clean off the sand. Lunch. A couple of hours relaxing, Swimming pool again, shower, diner, playtime with all the kids in the same holiday park; the same kids they see every year, and finally sleep. The exact same day over and over again, but in contrary to the movie the kids probably hope it would never end.

The highlight of the month was at the end, but we also started the month pretty nice with a healthy dose of creativity. We made a couple of beautiful coco-orchids. One for each kid, and they turned out spectacular!

The kids started their summer break! First they will spend two weeks near home where they will spend one week doing a canoe course. The weather during the canoe course was not the best, and a couple of days there was even a bit of rain.

It was also a month filled with birthdays. First Ana, than me. This time my birthday is extra special. It will be my last birthday in my 40’s. Next year I will start with my fifties. Time is going so fast! To celebrate I planned a weekend in Tenerife, where Ana and I will visit the concert of Ed Sheeran! First we will fly to Tenerife, where we will arrive pretty early. After arriving we will go and check out our hotel and leave our bags. Get some food and relax a bit, then we can go to the concert. After the concert we spend the night in the hotel, and the next morning we have to wake up quite early to fly back home.

The month started with a weekend all-in in the south of the island. It was mothers-day so we booked a nice hotel with a couple of friends. Ana got a really nice tide clock and a couple of smaller heartfelt gifts. We only spend one night but it was a very enjoyable stay.

As easy as it gets… Well, I do think there are a few aspects that can and should be made even easier. My passport will stop being valid in a couple of months, so I needed to get a new version. For this I needed to travel to Madrid, and make an appointment with the Dutch embassy. After creating a new account on their website I could print a form, which I needed together with a couple certificates and some photos. With all the paperwork I can travel to Madrid, and ask it they can send the passport to my home. That will save me from taking another day off and buying another ticket to Madrid. Then after going home I will need to send in my old passport and then wait nearly two months for my new document to arrive.

Combining tedious/mandatory tasks with a bit of fun is one of the enjoyable things in life. Simply ‘making the best of any situation’ is a very important ability. Once mastered it allows you to greatly enhance the feeling of happiness in your live. This trip is a perfect example. Instead of thinking about wasted holidays, wasted money for tickets, and wasted time I will spend the weekend with Miguel, my kids godfather, pan-godfather and a very good friend. This is bound to be a happy weekend.

It was probably not the smartest impulse I have ever had, but I did it anyway and signed myself up for the Bestial Race. I am going to try and finish the ‘6KM – Hell’ category. I am grateful that I have until December to prepare myself.

In April I had to flame. At a business run I ran 10K with some colleagues through Las Palmas. I had been training for the last couple of months, so the actual running went very well. I was aiming at finishing in less than an hour, hopefully close to the 50 minutes mark, but that depended a bit on the traffic at the start of the race. Sometimes it takes a while for the masses to disperse, which makes it hard to run the first few kilometers. In the end I was very happy with my time. I finished in 45:39 (in part because the distance was a bit less than the advertised 10K, according to my own measurements the track was almost half a kilometer to short) :D.

Our friend Begonia and her partner were visiting Gran Canaria with their boat. They were docked in the harbor, so we had a perfect reason to visit. The kids loved the ship and all the stories of adventure. Later at home we watched the documentary that was made about their previous ship, the ‘Gandul’, and the adventure that lead to it sinking in the middle of the ocean.

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 Orville‘s. We had some great times relaxing on the couch with some popcorn, watching all the adventures. There was only one episode that was maybe a bit to scary for the kids, the rest was great. In our home we now frequently hear phrases like “Can you open that jar of pickels” and “You! Be silent!”.

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.

Alex likes working with his tablet to make things. It gets even more attractive when various pieces of equipment are involved. This time he has produced a timelapse. A small Lego car (his brothers) was disassembled and rebuild, but now while making a picture every couple of seconds. This way the construction goes really fast. Alex did the building and the post production editing on his tablet. Add the intro, add a couple of images, fix the sound, and some music, Alex knows what to do and how to do it really well. This is the result.

I like eating my daily dose of vitamin C. I trust in the positive health effects even though I have absolutely no proof that the vitamin is actually a benefit to my health. Still, my mind clearly tells me that taking vitamins is a good thing, and it makes me happy.

In Spain it is very hard to get vitamin C pills that you can take without first diluting them in water. I want something that will dilute in my stomach, because it is much easier. In holland this used to be my normal routine. Take a pill with some liquid, and done. One day, one pill, healthy me. It cannot be more simple.

In Spain the routine would be: Get a glass of water. Get a vitamin C pill. Put the pill in the water, and stir. Keep stirring, because in cold water it does not dilute very well. Keep stirring. The vitamin pill is now like a small pile of dust on the bottom of the glass. Either keep stirring, or drink it all and hope that you get all the vitamins from the bottom. Add more water to the glass to get everything. Stir again, and try again. You don’t want more water, but you force yourself to drink it to avoid throwing away the vitamins. The same thing happens! Give up, put the glass with the traces of vitamin still on the bottom and on the sides of the glass in the dishwasher. A terribly frustating way to start the day healthy.

Luckily I go to Holland every now and then, and now I found a great solution. At the kruidvat they sell huge pots with 500(!) vitamin C pills. Each pill has one gram of vitamin C, which is more than enough for me.