We win again! The first match was lost, but ever since we are winning. Alan scores almost all matches, and he dominates the game. He is fast, he looks around and sees opportunities, he scores, but also helps others to score. Overall I’m starting to warm up to the game.
| 1 feb | Inter Colonia B | 2 – 1 | Alcotán Canarias |
| 25 jan | Atlético Isleta B | 4 – 7 | Inter Colonia B |
| 18 jan | Inter Colonia B | 2 – 4 | Muelle Grande |
Win! Our first win.
| 25 jan | Atlético Isleta B | 4 – 7 | Inter Colonia B |
| 18 jan | Inter Colonia B | 2 – 4 | Muelle Grande |
Lost! I was never a big fan of football. Even though both my parents were trainers, and my brother played pretty well, the only reason I visited the few games I did was to collect grass for my rabbit.
With Alan this changed. In the beginning the lost a couple of matches, some resulted in scores like 35 – 0, but now the team found their place in the competition, and the matches are more equal. Too bad, we did not win, but Alan did score a goal!
| 18 jan | Inter Colonia B | 2 – 4 | Muelle Grande |
Wow, the day of the Bestial race I was mentally disconnected while Alan was celebrating his birthday with his class mates. I remember they went to play with lasers in Hangar 37, but I don’t remember any specifics. I remember arriving home, going to bed and just sleeping. The next day my muscles hurt. They hurt while moving around, and while standing still. An annoying pain that simply was all over my body. I decided to simply take it easy. The next day was a Monday, so I had to head over to work. The pain I experienced yesterday had somehow doubled. Another day of suffering, hoping that the next day would be easier. Still wondering why I did it. I found out my time was 1:29:31, but it felt like the entire trial took a lot more time.
I made a couple of videos before and after the event, and Alex took some videos of me starting with the trails and when I arrived at the finish. so there was enough material for a new YouTube video!
With a colleague, I did the Bestial race today. He convinced me, and I actually assumed I would beat him easily, thus having a fun story for the coming months. The race took place in Arucas, a nearby town. 6 KM running and a few obstacles. At the start, it immediately became clear why my variant was called ‘hell’. Directly through pits and small hills, holes with mud, crawling under low bridges, jumping and diving, pushing tires while crawling, etc. Before the running started, I was already exhausted. The running afterward also turned out to be uphill, with wet shoes and socks, along a small path. There were also a few obstacles here: carrying a 20-kilo stone ball over an extra route, carrying a jerry can with 20 liters of water over yet another extra route, climbing over a two-meter wall, and several obstacles where you had to grab objects with your hands to avoid touching the ground and still ‘climb’ about 6 meters forward. Super difficult. Right before the end there were another two huge containers with water, and a lots of other obstacles, and then we finally arrived at the finish. What a relief. We did it!
After the race we rushed to another event, a birthday party for Alan. I was physically present, but I can’t remember much of it. I do remember being dead tired wondering why I never realised that ‘hell’-difficulty must be something pretty difficult and undesirable. I wondered why I ever signed up for this…
I remember that you used to be able to collect cards from famous players and teams. Fun for the fans, and something that could quickly turn expensive. To get all the cards you needed to buy lots of little bags and make an effort to exchange all your repeating cards. You could place all the cards in an album, and needed to keep collecting until it was complete.
At Alan’s soccer team (before Fomento, but now c.d. Inter Colonia) they thought of something new. They are going to make soccer cards of themselves. It feels like a good idea to take some money of the parents, and make a nice profit for the club. I made a quick concept card to see how Alan’s card might turn out, but for the actual cards I suspect we need to be patient.
This month we are going skiing. For me it has been about 15 years since I last went on a ski trip. I’m not sure I remember, but I am sure hopeful I will pick up the pace quickly. Alex has had some indoor practice, and for Alan it will be an all new experience. Ana is like me. She is experienced, but her last trip was also years ago. There was some uncertainty about the availability of snow on the piste. At my work it lead to a couple of laughs and even involved some AI. A couple of days before leaving some snow started to fall, but it was not enough to have white snowy pistes. In the end only some pistes with artificial snow could be used.
Skiing was fun! We started out in ‘La Molina‘, and visited ‘Marsella’, and ‘Les Angles’ in France. Skiing was like swimming. Almost right away I remembered how to do it. I was afraid I had forgotten, but the memory was still there. The kids also learned a lot! Alex can now safely go down a red piste, and is starting to ski in paralel. Alan can now easily go down green and blue pistes.
Hobby
I am a big fan of the game where you need to push big piles of coins from a plateau. A so-called ‘Pusher’. I have thought about buying a game a couple of times, but I always resisted. A pusher game is expensive, and it take a lot of space. I thought of a new approach. I bought the plans for the machine, and ordered the pieces to be laser cut. When they arrive I will only have to put the pieces together, and then I can do all the hardware myself. A small computer that drives a small motor and some lights, and manages some bells and whistles. If it works out I hope to improve the plans, and maybe make a transparent pusher.
The stress! We can feel the tention at home, the excitement. All these emotions, and the match is still a few days away. For Alan it does not matter. His spirit is up! High up, his thoughts are of victory. He is focused on only one thing. Every night we train football. Every visit to the park we need to bring a football. Every visit to a park with an area with grass we need to take Alan’s special football shoes. On wednesday is his first official match with his new team ‘Formento’ against another team!
He is sooooo excited, it look like it is a contagious feeling. We are all cheering for him of course. We all hope Alan’s team will win, but if for some weird reason this is not the case, that for sure we will be able to find some outside reason. A bad field, the ball was too soft, foul play by the other team, maybe missing a star player?
The soccer gene is completely lacking in my. Father Kees and mother Nel were both soccer trainers with various youth teams at VVSB (The local team from Noordwijkerhout). My brother Bert was also a player. I was sometimes forces to visit the games and watch, but I prefered to spend my time picking grass for my rabbits. The game was not interesting to me, and I still don’t care for it.
Well, the gene is back! Alan has a love for the game that amazes me. Alan is part of the Las Palmas youth team of ‘Atleti Formento‘. Now, every night we play a game of soccer in the hall (with a soft ball), every visit to the park he spends playing football with the kids there, every weekend we go to the park what Alan tries out his new soccer shoes. Once a week he goes to training.
I will become a coach. The date we have to focus on is Saturday the 19th. The event is the Kids Race 2022, in Maspalomas. Alex and Alan will have to perform then. Alan will run 300 meters, and Alex needs to cover 1000 meters. The kids have developed some nasty habits for the weekends where they quickly get bored, and often the situation deteriorates rapidly into fighting. I hope to change this behaviour by focussing on something physical in the mornings. We will do a couple of training sessions, just like the real deal.
Usually we go to these running events without any preparation. The distances are so small that the kids can easily run them, and just participating is much more important than actually winning. This time I want to try and get a good result. Finish in the top 10. We need to approach this professionally. Evaluate the distance. Find out a good speed. See how much sprinting they can do. We have two weekends to prepare and train. If we go on Saterday and Sunday we have 4 sessions available. If they both try their distance twice it should be more than enough preparation. If they train in the morning they don’t even need to change their weekend routines (hopefully with less fighting).
The plan
Objective
The results really are not so important. If the kids have a good time that is the only important thing. The preparation is more meant to stimulate the kids and to prepare them a bit. If they reach their goal of finishing with the first 10, well, thats great! It will boost their self-esteem, which is great. If they just finish that is also great. They will have prepared for something, and gave if their best try. This is also something to feel good about.