The grass is always greener…

Pwoohaa! Time flies when you’re having fun. Ending the school year, getting the kids to various camps, getting a new job, going on vacation, and before you know it, you haven’t posted on your blog for almost 3 months.
I don’t know where to begin describing all the things that have happened, but suffice to say that “these are good times”. Now almost in our second and final week of vacation in Croatia, with a new job contract signed, feels extremely good. At the same time, Marisca got her third promotion and may now call herself director at Vistaprint. Something we are all very proud of. Jessa ‘graduated’ kindergarten level and is now moving into group 1 of elementary. She’s fluent in 3 languages and does very well in class. More important: she’s happy and playful most of the time and seems to really enjoy life as she should. Maite is now much more comfortable with the languages, hard working and hard playing, quite the little woman already.
Grandfathers now declared healthy or on a good path to recovery.
In short, we have a lot to be thankful and happy about so no reason to hide it.

We celebrated all the goodness with a balloon trip above Igualada during a special balloon festival with 30 or so other balloons. A beautiful experience exactly around the birthdays of the girls. The little ones had their own birthday celebrations: one with sleepovers, the other with a water-party.

We are very excited to start the new school year but until that starts, we are enjoying a really good vacation in Croatia: one week of sailing around the Kornati islands with a “flotilje”. That is a group of boats with many families. There were many little girls and Maite and Jessa really enjoyed playing with them. It was quite the test for Marisca’s sea-sickness. Although it was endured rather than overcome, she had a really good time too. The second week is now in a far-off little bay village called Vinisce, with nice trips to Trogir and Split.
When we get back by the end of this week, another period is about to begin. I have two more weeks to fill with plenty of bike riding (I hope) and a lot of fun with the girls. Then we’ll have to find them new camps for the first two weeks of September until school starts, since both Marisca and myself will be off working. Luckily, are all time favorite nanny Sonia is ready to provide a helping hand.

An LG moment: Life is Good.

I forgot to blog about our fantastic weekend in Vienna, now 2 weeks ago. We went to visit Milo and Jacque. Not only the company was great, but everything seemed to work together to provide us with an unforgettable weekend in a wonderful, beautiful city. The weather was unexpectedly good, which probably helped in making it look even nicer, sweeter, prettier, sunnier. The girls were thrilled to see each other again (Bo, Nova) and had a great time as well. The city was bursting with activities, from the Nasch Market to the Kirchtage (church days) celebrated at the Rathaus (city hall) with some kind of Austrian version of a state fair. And then of course there is the Prater, with its permanent attraction parc and the highest merry-go-round in the world at 117m (about 350ft). And let’s not forget Schonbrunn, where Sissi used to live, with a beautiful view over the whole of the city. To quote one of its most famous citizens: “we’ll be back”.

Back home, the summer had definitely arrived. We now have days going between 24 and 30 degrees celcius, and coming July they will probably move above that as well. So this weekend, it was due to go to the beach, and just hang out, relax and enjoy the mediterranean live. We have BBQs almost every weekend. This weekend it wasn’t planned but when I invited a friend of Maite over for swimming on Friday late afternoon, we had a spontaneous BBQ when the parents arrived. I like those things in particular.

We can already notice that the school is about to close for the summer. The learning demands are deteriorating :-), the parties are multiple, and next week the kids have “colonias”, school summer camp.

For daddy it’s getting more relaxed as well 🙂 The winds are less strong and the temperatures are rising. An invitation to go out on the bike, of course. 
A few weeks ago, I also got invited by a friend to join him -with a rental- on a mountain bike trail. That was fun.
I got tired of doing the same routes all the time, so I started finding some new routes on wikiloc.com. But when I try to ride them, I loose myself at least a few times. So I finally bought a real GPS device, rather than my phone: a Garmin Edge 800 is now providing me with everything measurable about my ride and helping me stay on track. So I’ve already made a few rides in areas I had not been before. I especially loved the ride in the Penedes that went through vineyards and then later up on a mountain and down through a canyon. Absolutely stunning! Next week, since the girls are both on camp, I’m going to do a few rides in Roses, staying over with my friends there.
And Marisca,.., Marisca is just working hard 😉 Poor girl. But, so she says, she’s having fun doing it.

I know not all of you have such good weather, but I do hope you all have a wonderful summer.

I cannot believe this much time has passed already since my last post. Even the last days of the vacation were not included yet in the pictures. Maite bought herself some ear-piercings but then one week later, in the hospital, she had to take them out and they grew tight again. After having been released from the hospital, she had them re-opened. Ever since the operation, she has experienced a fast and steady recovery, so all well with that. She now already swims in the pool and everyday she’s less bugged by the wound.

Two weeks ago we went to Rosas to visit our friends Ernest and Lidia. They prepared a wonderful BBQ for us. The weather really helped so it was a lovely, relaxed afternoon on their terrace.
Then last week, again the weather helped, we had our good friends Eva and Nacho over for a first charcoal bbq at our place. Eva greatly helped out with salad and desert. I went shopping especially for some good meat. It was superrelaxed.

I’m continuing well with all my sports activities. Now that I can run again, it seems my km on the bike are suffering a bit, but it had mostly to do with the vast and steady wind we had last month. I prefer running with that much wind, over riding my bike.
Last week though, I already did 170km on my road bike and yesterday, for the first time, I went on a ride in the mountains with a (rented) MTB. I was invited by my friend Luis to ride with his group with a BBQ afterwards. That was great fun. Now I have to consider getting myself a new bike of course. The rental was a bit too small, LOL.

Like I mentioned before, there has been a steady wind this whole past month and, generally speaking, the weather hasn’t been very “Spanish”.  The pool is warm enough and when the sun shines, we love to go in. Last year though, we did that in mid April already. Strangely enough, we haven’t had much rain either. But I just saw they predicted about 10 days of rain ahead. Hopefully I can get on the bike between two clouds.

Meanwhile, we’ve been planning lots of fun trips. You’ll read more about them as they actually happen of course. Holland, Austria, Kroatia are all destinations between now and the end of summer. Horse riding and even balloon sailing are also on the agenda. And then of course, we’re expecting some friends and family to come visit us. So, as usual, more good times ahead.

It is sooo good to have Maite back home. On Friday morning we had an echo which, much to my surprise, showed a very clean stomach. At least that’s what he told me, I had no idea what he was looking at, LOL. It was to my surprise, because there were some indications that not everything was alright, but they turned out to be false alarm. I was relieved because of Maite but I have to admit, it was also a bit selfish: after 5 nights sleeping on a chair, I couldn’t stand that much longer. I don’t mind staying with my little girls while she is sick, but if you expect me to be there, you have to give me a bed. I don’t even mind paying for it. Well, at least, that’s my opinion.

Still, mostly happy that Maite is on a good road to recovery. Her appendix was a bit heavier than normal because the intestines were also inflamed.

Went out on a good 75km bike ride today while Maris stayed home with the girls. Now that my knee is working again, I stayed fit running this week. Actually, I’ve been doing quite a lot of running lately. But I think I like the bike even better. It’s quite windy though in this time of year, so running is a fair alternative.

 Jessa had been walking around the house the whole week asking us “What can I do?” in a whining voice. She was particularly happy that Maite was back and so big sister was in charge of the entertainment again: drawing and coloring, playing computer games, watching tv, playing in their rooms, like always. Maite still has trouble with fysical efforts but sitting at a table is not an issue.

The next week, she’ll stay at home with me . The week after she may be ok to go to school again. It has been quite the adventure.

During the vacation, Maite again had trouble with her stomach. At one point even vomiting 7 times during the night. The day after, with careful diet, she felt much better and all seemed well again. But we decided to take additional steps back at home. On Monday, still a day off, she felt bad again and we went to the weekend doctor (student replacement). Him and all of the previous doctor had checked for appendicitis, but the conclusing was always that that couldn’t be it.

Alas, it was an appendicitis, and when we finally found  out when Marisca took her to the hospital last Friday, it was a perforated appendicitis 😦 She got operated and Marisca was next to her bed all night. In the morning she came home and me and Jessa prepared to visit poor Maite. When I got there, I got to hear that Marisca shouldn’t have left just like that and that someone need to be at her side at all times, 24 hours. Interesting, I think we have a culture clash here. I don’t think an american or dutch hospital would ask that, which are of course, my references. So yes, our friends confirmed and I’ve seen that whole families stay in the patients room during the whole time (luckily Maite is alone but there are two beds!). In our case, that is going to be a week long! And Marisca is going back to work, and we don’t have grandparents or other family who we can ask to step in (I don’t even think I could ask my family if I were back in Holland 🙂 Coincidently, I’m not working, but what if I were? Hm, I wonder if this is yet another example of why the Spanish economy isn’t producing like it should, or maybe ‘could’, because it is also an example of that the Spanish always have time for each other and for their loved ones and I very much like that aspect of their culture.
In the meantime, we need to figure out how the **** we’re going to do this during the week.

But of course, back to the more important matter: Maite is doing relatively well. I mean, she’s been operated, sedated, and generally in an unhappy state but we are confident she’ll feel better soon and all will be fine. The scar is very small, despite the amount of work they’ve had on her. The wound still seems to protest a little bit. But I’m sure it’s just part of the healing process. We’ll keep you posted, probably while sitting in a hospital room. Oh yeah, they do provide free wifi. That’s something, although I’m not sure they provide it purposely, rather than accidentally. LOL

6th Day today on our Malaga vacation. As unlucky as we have been with the weather, we seem to be lucky in everything else:

• Camping restaurants turn out to be little culinary surprises.
• On several occasions already, the weather seems to take our schedule into account and provides us with a break when we need it: either walking up San Nicolas hill in Granada, have a lunch in Estepona, or riding our bikes in Marbella with a nice lunch in the sun.
• A parking spot for our motorhome on Gibraltar, right near the cable car ride to go up the hill. It didn’t officially exist and I believe we were lucky not to be fined.

So all in all, we’re having a blast with our little girls. We’ve seen Marbella, the Nerja caves, Motril, Granada (didn’t get inside the Alhambra), and Gibraltar. We have now arrived in the ultra relaxed area of Tarifa. The camping isn’t much but there is a little restaurant across the road that provides great food for a ridiculous low price, breakfast, lunch or dinner. Let’s see if the horse ride we planned will happen in the sun as well.

Took some great pictures in the caves of La Nerja and of the apes on Gibraltar.

We spent the weekend without Marisca, who went to Holland for work but of course took advantage with an early start and left on Friday already. Spring is starting really early and the weekend was fantastic. We had a party of Jessa’s class (when they have a party, the whole class is always invited) and I went with Maite to the nearby Intersport for a new set of skates. 2 Hours later, I picked up a red faced Jessa who had the time of her life -again- with the ropes, slides and ball-tanks (don’t know how to translate “ballenbak”). So of course the next day, we had to go skating with -for what it seemed- everybody else in Castelldefels. Anyway, Jessa is one year older now and was determined not to let her big sister pass her all the time, so she learned for real this time within a few hours.

Monday and Tuesday I did some heavy training. After 2 years, it seems my knee issues are over and I immediately went out to run and take long hikes. So Monday I took one hike of over 10km and I am really happy that that is possible again. Tuesday I wanted to show off on my bike and tried a decent 80km. Not bad this early in the season.

Today is Wednesday and it was great to pick up Marisca from the airport yesterday. She had a great time in Holland. Of course it’s nice to be back in Holland where we know our way around so well. The project at work went great too and she had fun engaging with her Dutch colleagues. Tonight, we’re still opening all the presents from the grandparents and from the HEMA (famous department store).

We had a smooth weekend, starting with Jessa’s class’ parents dinner on Friday evening, which was quite the success. Good dinner and plenty of nice company is always good of course.
Meanwhile, the girls had gone with Sonia, the nanny, to the animated movie about the life (and death) of copito de nieve, snowflake, the big white gorilla of the Barcelona Zoo.
Saturday we had a surprise for the girls as we booked Disney on Ice again. The last time was still in the States. A bit unfortunate that it was the exact same show but I don’t think the girls didn’t remember that. After the show, we decided to do some shopping and follow up with dinner in the Cerveceria Catalana, one of Marisca’s favorites. We were just in time for a decent wait of only 20 minutes, which we passed in the adjacent Vodafone shop. (Marisca was admiring the Nokia Lumia 800, which is free, versus the iPhone 4S, which cost her over 175 euro. In the end, she decided her old iPhone 3 is still working. Good girl! 🙂 ) Again, the restaurant didn’t disappoint. Perfect day out.

On Sunday, we were married for 7 years. Although I typically prefer to celebrate the day we chose for each other, later this month and 21 years ago, this time I definitely did take care of a nice surprise as I arranged for a balloon flight with the whole family. Scheduling still needs to happen though and I hope to do that  later this week and set it for early July when there is a balloon festival in the area (an internationally famous balloon factory is housed in a nearby village). So anyway, we took some time sitting in the sun outside. Temperatures hit 20 degrees celsius today but will drop next week to a more normal 14 degrees. Then we went to the large nature parc called Collserola, behind the hills of Barcelona, for a nice 90 min hike followed by lunch/comida in San Cugat. Again, perfect day.

Now we have to rent a car for the rest of the week. After more than 6 weeks after the burn-out we still don’t have our car back from the garage and to be honest, I’m quite fed up with that. Got a nice week ahead of us full of planning for sports, holiday, visits, little trips and other fun activities (like job applications 🙂 ).

Last week was all about carnival preparations, with Jessa dressing a different costume every day. The big party on Friday afternoon was quite the success. The girls wore their best dress-ups, Maite as “mago” or magician, Jessa as ‘hada” or elf. Since I’m in the parents committee, I came to the school to make pictures of everything and everyone. Check out Maite’s face when she finds out her dad dressed up as well! My “devil” paint job on my face got plenty of comments. It was fun. The girls did great and had a wonderful time.

Straight after carnaval, we went home, had some sandwiches, and left for La Molina, a small ski resort at less than 2 hours drive from here. We had rented an apartment for 3 days. Although the area has hardly had any snow this year, the snow canons made sure that we could at least use the slopes. The weather was cold though, which was good, and the 3rd day we even had a thin layer of extra snow. The girls had 2 hours of class each day and they loved it. The afternoon, we hit the slopes as a family. It was great to see how fast the girls progressed.

Extremely busy at work, and not easy either.
Meanwhile, Marisca was working her climax at work to a Friday night party. The theme was the future, which, funny enough, can be interpreted in two directions: 1) what will the future look like or 2) what will you look like. Marisca and her co-workers were going for the first – so much prettier 🙂 – and they had a blast preparing themselves. The party itself was quite the success as well, although at a steep price 😉

Alone at home with the girls on Friday evening, I prepared some pancakes / crepes followed by a movie that all 3 of us love (Meet the Robinsons, Walt Disney :-). Needless to say I won the prize – best daddy of the world – again. The next morning, since mammy needed some more time, I took them for a hike up the mountain. It was a beautiful day!
In the afternoon, we had lunch at our favorite xiringuito at the beach. And the next morning, we decided to go…

Skiing! Yes, we hit the slopes at Masella, a 2 hour drive from here. The girls loved it and they skied great! The weather was perfect. The snow was 100% canons-powder but that didn’t mind one bit. We had such a wonderful day it was just perfect. Because conditions aren’t perfect yet, there wasn’t much of a crowd either, even better. We’re thinking of going again next week.

I went out several times on my bike this week, twice with a group of about 10 and unfortunately, I stayed a bit behind. It’s hard to follow the lightweight Spaniards up the mountains 😦 boohoo. Have to loose weight and train even harder. To take it positively: I trained a lot this week.