Una vida Holandesa en Mallorca

We are back up and running. Childcare started, deadlines approaching. Of course Lucas sabotaged his first full day of childcare by vomiting in the car. Impressive, we were *almost* there but I ended up driving back covered in vomit, with an unhappy child (covered in...) and a stinking car. Let me tell you these childseats are not so easy to re-assemble after a good clean. But anyway, we went to the beach this morning. And we have seen friends for lunch, dinner and have more social ´commitments´ later this weekend. Life like before the summer. And the temperature is finally low enough to sleep. As soon as these summer thunderstorms have passed we will gear up for the excursion season:-)

Yesterday finally was the perfect day for fieldwork. No rain, not too much wind and from a favourable direction, no big waves. We went to Cala d´Or and entered from land so no letting zodiacs in and out the water (saving a loooot of time). A nice retired German resident lend us his private ladder to enter the water from the rocks and we found a whole lot of my animal of interest, Pinna nobilis so I was very happy:-) Minor flaw in the day: I lost a part of the exit valve of my dry-suit and water entered. But hey, everybody knows that a dry-suit is never completely dry........ And we were in time to eat lunch in a local pub on the terrace in the sun to get warm again. Yes, with a deserved beer, we are in Spain after all.

Finally the trhee kings have come to Mallorca (cavalcada, 05/01/09), we watched the procession into town. We actually did not even buy a present for Lucas, like the Spanish custom. Nor for Christmas (but his grandparents did), nor for Sinterklaas (Dutch custom). But he is too small to notice anyway. Guess I have been a bit overwhelmed by the recent lack of sleep, the little man has been ill and does not eat well, nor sleep well (see entry before). And together with the cold weather (remember, we do not have central heating) we have been forced to refuge again in part of the house, closing the part where his bedroom is. I am tired, continuously ill as well, and very stressed because I am behind with my work (childcare closed 23 dec-7 jan). But with the coming of the Kings, life has returned more or less to normal. Lucas does not have a fever anymore and the childcare is open so I am back at my desk at last. I still feel a bit lost (and stressed, and tired), but let´s see if I finally can make a bit of progress.........

Well. The 16 weeks of maternity leave are over. I would never have guessed that I indeed would prefer to stay a little more with the baby and work a little less. But there we have it: I would definitely prefer to work part-time. 4 days a week or so. But unfortunately this is Spain and my contract does not have that option (I even phoned Madrid to try to arrange something that is how desperate I am). I could have taken another month but that does not solve my problem so I went with the 1 hour a day off for a year. Not that that helps, I determine my own working hours anyway but at least I will not have to feel guilty if I leave before 19:00 (my usual leaving time). I feel very bad for having to leave my child 5 days a week with childcare, even if this is a very good childcare and close to my work so I can hop by to see him if something is wrong. I cannot stand the thought that they will see him more than me during the day and that he will smile his encanting smile to them and not to me. So I will try to shorten my working hours as much as I can until december so we can all get used to it. But then I really have to work as well, or who will pay the mortgage? Sigh*

Finally I managed to get a full day of work in my schedule:-) Before you say I am crazy to work during my maternity leave please take a look at the ´office´..... We left larval traps near Magalluf (hoping the drunk English will leave them alone) for which we needed to go on the water by boat. Did not go diving though, a bit too early according several reliable sources :-( Maybe next time. Snorkelling was also nice for now.

Zo, eventjes over gehopst naar the US of A voor een congresje in Florida. Eerst even een swimming-with-the-manatees-tour gedaan by Crystal River. 6am pick-up. das goed voor de jet-lag tenslotte. Gelukkig was het zeer de moeite waard!!!! Daarna 5 dagen congres op zijn amerikaans (8am-19:30) en nu moe, moe, moe en volledig uitgeshopt naar het vliegtuig toe morgen. Niks gezien hier behalve praatjes en shopping malls. Nis geen attractie parken, das voor de toeristen. Ben bang dat ik morgen de aansluiting naar Amsterdam ga missen in Philidelphia want ik heb 90 minuten en er is een tornado voorspeld. Zucht*

After the party of course I had to work. In Yerseke. But that is also finished now.... It was hard work, but done:-) Not all went as good as planned (actually everything went suspiciously smooth but the data does not look as I expected...) but not bad either. I am very very tired now. The ideal condition to construct this talk I have to give next week at the congres in Florida. Yes a bit of intercontinental flight will do me good.