Category Archives: My life

Batan B – San Lazaro U.D. A

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Here we go again! Saturday, 09:00, on the field by 08:00 for preparations, so no sleeping in today. There goes half my weekend. The football season has started again, so it’s time to play. A few things have changed. Alan’s team has been revamped with some new players. The team name has also changed again, this year they’re called ‘Batan’ (last year it was ‘Inter Colonia’, and in the official listings it’s still ‘Atletico Fomento‘). They also have new outfits this year, but we’ll have to wait a bit for those. At least now (if everything went well), each player has their name and number on their shirt.

Results

Date Home Result Visitor
4 Oct, 09:00 Batan B 0 – 10 San Lazaro U.D. A

Batan B - San Lazaro U.D. AUf, the competition was tough, the kids were a lot bigger, and about one or two years older than us. The first couple of matches is going to be difficult, and then the matchs will be more equal. We’ll see.

The match schedules are all available online, but unfortunately, the websites that provide this information are complicated labyrinths, packed to the brim with ads, popups, cookies, and just about every bit of junk you can imagine. Every time you have to accept all sorts of things, and after a lot of searching, you can finally see the match lists through all the ads. Of course, while viewing the lists, you have to keep clicking away popups every 20 or 30 seconds, and you have to be careful to click correctly, otherwise, you’ll be ruthlessly redirected to a site full of ads, and it’ll take ages to find the list again. So I just made a brief overview myself, at least now I can see when, where, and what time Alan has to play.

Pro17 – Review

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My old phone started showing some issues after five years. The battery was getting worse by the day. The charging cable no longer fit properly, and I had to patiently insert it the right way or otherwise, I’d end up with a dead phone. The memory was full, and I could only install new updates after clearing out all my photos. I definitely wasn’t having an optimal user experience, so it was time for an upgrade.

After some thought I decided to go for the top of the line, and I got myself a crisp new iPhone 17 Pro! I have been using my new phone for about a week, and I am quite happy with it. Here are the key highlights.

The positive points:

  • One hand: I can still operate it with one hand. Some corners are a bit hard to reach, but I can do it. The missing button, compared to my previous phone, is not really a problem.
  • Speed and battery life: The phone is really fast, and it works a long long time with its battery
  • Design: It looks pretty good, I’m happy with the phone’s aesthetics, and inside its cover it doesn’t tip over when it is lying on my desk and I click the screen.
  • Screen: A bit bigger so that is good, although I really did not mind the smaller screen and the button that I used to have.
  • At night: Pictures really capture a nighttime image as it looks to me, with all the light sources and details. The phone knows when you are making a shot at night, and it tells you to hold the phone still a couple of seconds. My old phone simply shot a black image, where you would see nothing, which was always quite disappointing.
  • Favorite new thing: I love the dual mode video option, where you get a video with the both the front and back camera. Great for small youtube clips.

What I did not like:

  • Overly flashy: The interface might look good, but for me it did not work. I turned off most animations and turned off the always-on option, which I was looking forward to, but eventually just ended up frustrating me because it seemed like the phone would not turn off.
  • Hiccups: Sometimes things are not working right away (or I am doing it wrong). They were not intuitive enough, and that is exactly what iOS should be. I had problems turning on the flashlight and turning on the camera, both buttons available on the very first screen, and this should be simple, but frustatingly I did not get it to work every time I wanted to.
  • Redoing old stuff: I had to re-add all my bank cards to my wallet, and re-authorize all my bank apps. Probably to make sure it was still really me, but it was a bit troublesome because I needed passwords I had not used in five years. Another pain was that all my time based authenticators stopped working and had to be recreated.
  • Imperfect fit: I normally carry my phone in my pant pocket

Overall I’m happy. I feel like for the next couple of years I will have a good phone. It’s really very fast, but I doubt I really need this speed. My old phone was clearly slower, but it was enough for me. The best point is the new battery, I went for charging my phone three times a day to a phone that just keeps working for two days, and a quick charge is enough to keep it working for a day more. I did have to turn off all the fancy graphical effects, and turn on low-power mode, but that gave me exactly what I wanted. A phone I can use when I need it.

September ’25

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The month began with the final stretch of the holiday period. Fun, but also trying to keep increasingly bored children entertained. Godfather and honorary godfather Miguel came for a lovely visit, and we all went to Fuerteventura together. A really fun outing! After our short vacation, normal life resumed for the kids as well. Back to school every day. Extra English lessons, football, beach volleyball and tennis. A relief to have a steady rhythm again.

This month I also made some upgrades. A new backpack, because the old one was suffering from increasingly larger holes, and I pre-ordered new phone, because the old one was struggling with an increasingly poor battery. I switched from budget to expensive, just to see what that’s like. I’m not sure yet if it was the best choice, and it’ll probably be difficult to go back to a budget device in the future, but I’ll find out in the future.

17 Pro

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17pro!I started with my brother’s old iPhone 4 (2013), then switched to my first budget version, the SE (2016). After that, a slightly newer budget version, an SE from 2020. Now, five years later, the battery drains much faster. I can barely get a few hours out of it, especially when using navigation. Time for an upgrade, and I’ve thought about it for a long time, but I’m going for it. I’m moving from the budget model to the top of the line.

During the presentation of the new iPhone 17 Pro, a few things immediately caught my attention. First of all, it’s not available in black. Strange, and a pity, because that would have been my preference. Now I’ll go for white, hoping it has the advantage of heating up less quickly in the sun. I also noticed that a square sensor is now used for photography. The benefit is that it doesn’t matter how you hold the device, vertically or horizontally, for photos. Well, it sounded like part of the image is always unavailable now. The camera lenses stick out, so I can’t lay the phone flat on my desk… also a shame. And finally, unsurprisingly, the device is terribly expensive.

Do I really need it? No, of course not. Is it a waste of money? Probably. It is nice to have something good. This phone it for now the best there is, or really close. Lets see if I adapt as well to this change, as my speedy adaptation to my first smartphone years ago.

August ’25

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Volendam!The children started the month together with Ana at their holiday destination. Alex also celebrated his birthday a little early there, he’s turning 14. After the Spanish holiday park, Ana came to the Netherlands with the children for a week. Ana had to return after a week because her vacation days were over. The children stayed happily with me for a few more weeks.

I spent the whole month in the Netherlands. It was a very pleasant month, and despite the unfortunate reason (Grandma’s knee surgery), I still enjoyed it. We did quite a lot. Visit Leiden and the Hortus. Castle De Haar, Volendam and Marken, Gouda and the cheese market, visits to friends in Ermelo and Wassenaar. Beach walks with kroket and frikandel sandwiches. Getting a smoked paling. Eating a herring with onions. A visit to Space-expo / ESTEC, a zoo with fun red-butted monkeys, ice cream at Likkie, and of course, playing football with some kids from the neighborhood. As far as I’m concerned, it was a successful vacation.

July ’25

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It was a strange month. The first two weeks I had time off with the kids, which meant lots of activities. Some of the highlights were Agualand, Elder, Climbing World, Palmitos Park and Sioux City. After that, I went back to work, and the kids went on vacation with Ana to the Spanish mainland, for a month of sun, beach, and the swimming pool. During the weeks I spend working hard I was even able to find some time for enjoyment, like going for some quality meat at Don Chuleton and visiting the Soul Festival.

After a few weeks of work, I traveled to the Netherlands. The plan was to go sometime in early August, but plans changed. Grandmother Nel is getting a new knee, a major operation, so I decided to head to the Netherlands a bit earlier to lend a helping hand.

Another wants bites the dust

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Wants left!I used a simple spray of water mixed with garlic and onion to spay over the plant… and just like that, the problem was history. My coffee plant is thriving again and growing like crazy!

As for the beetle (in Dutch, the ‘wants’)? It packed its bags. Apparently, it couldn’t stand the stench anymore and the leaves didn’t taste nearly as good. Mission accomplished!

Disconnect

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Vacation! Time for a different rhythm. No more of that boring daily routine, just a chance to relax. Sometimes you take it a step further and immerse yourself in a completely different environment. Traveling to destinations that are incomparable to your home situation.

Alan has now reached the ultimate level. No school, a new place, and it even seems like he’s diving into a completely different culture. Alan is going full tribal!

Soul festival San Agustin

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Soul Festival San Agustin 2025!This weekend I’m heading to San Agustín in the sunny south of Gran Canaria. Every year, they build an impressive stage right on the beach: the ocean on one side, food, drinks, and restrooms on the other. On Friday and Saturday, we’ll be soaking up the warm sand and enjoying the Soul Festival.

Soul festival 2025 – San Agustin – Friday, July 18:
19:30 Monterreina
20:30 JP Bimeni and the Black Belts
22:00 The Memphis Music Hall of Fame Band
22:10 Shunta Mosby, Dani McGhee & Candy Fox
22:50 Carlos Strong
23:50 Junte Mayon
00:30 Gran Final

Soul festival 2025 – San Agustin – Saturday, 19 July:
19:30 Calamity Jane
20:30 Gisele Jackson and the Shu Shu’s
22:00 The Memphis Music Hall of Fame Band
22:10 Shunta Mosby, Dani McGhee & Candy Fox
22:50 Lil Rounds
23:50 Jerome Chism
00:30 Gran Final

I’ve been to this festival several times, always with Diego. The last time was two years ago. We always do it the same way: two days of fun, Friday and Saturday. One day I drive, the other day Diego takes the wheel. No kids because we’re home alone while both our families are off vacationing somewhere far away. We stay behind as loyal wage slaves.

But this year we’re doing things differently. No commuting back and forth. We plan on sleeping in the car near the beach. Just a mat and a sleeping bag. That saves us a lot of travel time we’d rather spend relaxing in the sand. Friday: we leave, enjoy the festival, sleep in the car; Saturday: more music, another car night, then head home on Sunday.

Two nights in the car? Should be doable. We’re just going to give it a shot.

Update: The festival was absolutely amazing, but I couldn’t handle sleeping in the car for two nights. On the second day, I stayed completely sober and drove back home at night so I could sleep comfortably in my own bed again.