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:

Diving at the Andaman Islands

Melissa and I spent 4 days diving at Havelock, one of the Andaman Islands, a group of islands in between India and Thailand (though much closer to Thailand and Burma). The Andamans are very prestine, beautiful islands with white coral sand beaches and cristal clear water. The diving was fabulous, every day we made two dives, up to 30 meters deep. We saw a lot of fish (Baracudas, Lion fish, Sweetlips, Tuna, Clown fish, Napoleon Wrasse, Giant Garupa, and many many more) and turtles. The resort was a quiet and gentle place next to the beach, and the diving school is right at the resort. We were lucky with the weather, though it rained sometimes, all days were nice sometimes with abundant sunshine.

Mumbai blasts

A little while ago there were three bomb blasts in Mumbai, we are all fine and reached home relatively easy.

Melissa won tournement in Leusden

Last week Melissa played in Leusden and won the tournament. Very good, congratulations, Melissa! Yesterday was the price ceremony and Melissa gave a winner's speech.
A good warming-up for the (stronger) tournament she is playing in Loosdrecht right now. And her first match here she won, a good start.

Winners in Leusden

Serving on clay again

Melissa is in Soest and played last Sunday in the open tournament at Soest-Zuid. Back on clay ... it must feel very strange after 4 years!