Who is this?

Make a guess: who is this pretty girl? And how old is the picture?

Camila preparing for Amsterdam Winter

Friday Camila will be leaving for Amsterdam. Room has been arranged, Freek will pick her up, and she looks very much forward to it! But it's very, really very cold ... Last days at night it was about -20 C ... So, last evening we bought warm stuff like sweaters. As temperature here during daytime is around +30 C chains like Zara don't sell a lot of the more wintery clothes, except to Camila yesterday ...

Mumbai Marathon 2012

Today was the Mumbai Marathon. The day started early (out of bed at 4 am) and nicely cool. The start was at 5:40 am. After 5 km I catched up with the 4:30 bus (a group lead by a pacer to finish in a certain time), I started 2 minutes later than the group (the puntual start surprised me and I still had to undress my extra t-shirt).
The bus was perfect and driven by the incredible pacemaker, we ran continously around 10 km/h. Until 30 km all was fine, at that point I slowed down to have a drink and couldn't move forward anymore because of my knee. Even walking hurts ... No other option then to continue walking, stop for icing, a sad experience after such a good first 30 km. Time: 5:23 :(

Medalist ...

After finish, Victoria Station in the background

Victorious on Azad Maidan - Mumbai's holy cricket ground

Happy New Year

For all of you a very Happy New Year, may all your wishes come true in 2012!

The Christmas holidays started in Mumbai with decorating the tree (doesn't it look great with the angle in top and Henk's 7 grasses in the background?). Christmas and New Year we spent with many friends in Soest, enjoying Krijn and Heleen's marvelous hospitality and their beautiful Christmas tree!

Christmas tree with angel

Christmas tree with angels

No parking in front of the gate

Time for a marathon - time for donation!

On 15 January 2012 is the next editon of the Mumbai Marathon. Just like last year we will have a group of IDBI Federal Life Insurance particpating and running for a good cause. Because running is not a goal in itself and the Mumbai Marathon combines the running efforts with supporting fundraising for good causes.
One of them is Swayamsiddh, a NGO at Aurangabad that runs a special school and boarding center for unprivileged children. It is the first mother-parent trust in India and has won national award for its excellent work. You can know more about this NGO at Swayamsiddh's website. At IDBI Federal we decided last year to start supporting Swayamsiddh. In the first year we had 26 runners, this year 90!

Swayamsiddh is a great cause, started from a parents' initiative it can have all our support to continue their work and reaching out for groups where the disabilities of these kids are not easily recognised. Your contribution will be of help for Swayamsiddh and it will make me run harder in the 2012 edition of the Mumbai Marathon! To donate (from anywhere in the world), just click on the link ... And I promise to run faster than last year.

Homecoming Princess

Melissa was elected Homecoming Princess at IMG. Doesn't she look great with the tiara?!
And of course we are very proud of her. First pictures: