I didn’t think I could run as fast as I did at the run event in IJsselstein two weeks ago, but I did it again! Thanks to the perfect weather (not too warm and light rain) I ran a new personal record: 10 km in 50:43 minutes.

My finish position at the 10 km run is great! I finished as 49th out of the 653 women, and in my category I finished as 23rd out of 332. My average speed was 11.83 km/hour and I ran at the 5 km point in 24:38 minutes, so that’s the fastest I ever did!

The soy comes from Brazil. Many rainforest is gone because of the soy plantations. Most soy is produced for Europe, and especially the Netherlands. We use the soy to feed the many pigs we have in our country. When the pigs are fed and fat we eat them. So the tropical rainforest in Brazil is gone because Europeans want to eat pig! When I saw this part of the movie I was very happy that I don’t eat meat that often.

The shrimp we can buy at our supermarket is from the Philippines. Many people there try to live from the export of seafood like shrimp, but the huge fish tanks of the rich people disturb the sealife. It’s getting harder for the poor fishermen to catch fish and for the fish it’s harder to survive in the polluted sea. Within one and half day the catched shrimp is in our supermarket. Like it’s fresh shrimp from our own sea, instead of a sea on the other side of the world.

The beans are produced in Kenya, again by rich people with large bean fields. These bean producers need a lot of water to get the best beans. In Kenya it’s not easy to get a lot of water, but the bean producer in the documentary found a way to get the water. He gets it from a small river not thinking about the consequences for the (poor) people who live further along this same small river and who need the water too. The bean producer gets so much water out of the river that there’s almost no water left for others! It’s unbelievable how these beans grow for export, while the people (and animals) in Kenya don’t have enough water to stay alife.

Fortunately most supermarkets sell more and more green products, but there are still so many products from far countries in supermarkets. What can you do to stop these horrible ways of producing food?
- Buy seasonal products, like strawberry in the summer and kale in the winter.
- Look at the label of a product and find out where the food is produced. Is the product from a country for away and is the product not expensive? Don’t buy the food; choose a green product from the same country or buy a similar Dutch product.

My run went great! I ran 10 km in 51.07 minutes, which is 4 minutes faster than my last 10 km run. Of the women who ran the 10 km, I ended at the first 12% with an average of 11,8 km/hour.

(Pictures taken by Hardlopen.nl)

Everyone entered the location of the book launch on a red carpet with many kids’ toys laying around on it. It was a fun way to create the right atmosphere.

Several Dutch celebrities joined the book launch and it was nice to be a part of it for once.

Jarre is staying with me and Mauwerd for two weeks. I think it will take a couple of days before Jarre is the cool cat he normally is. At the moment he’s scared and living under my bed. Mauwerd didn’t even notice that we have a visitor..

To be continued.

I found a website of a realtor who offers rent houses and apartments. One apartment did look good, so I sent a message to the realtor to tell them that I’d like to view the apartment.

On Monday I got a call from the realtor. I was a bit surprised, because it happens often that you don’t hear anything from agencies like this. They told me about a viewing on Wednesday with other people who are interested in the apartment. It was perfect for me, as Wednesday is my day off from work.

On Wednesday I went to view the apartment. There were four others (two couples) and someone from the realtor agency showed us the apartment. It looked good, so I decided to call the agency to tell them I want to rent the place, as soon as I came back home. I was the first one who called, so the agency told me they would ask the owner of the apartment if he’s okay with me renting the place.

On Thursday I got a call from the realtor agency; it’s okay by the owner, so I can rent the apartment! We made an appointment for the next day to sign the papers.

On Friday morning I went to the realtor agency to sign the lease and pay the first month of rent, the guarentee (one month of rent too) and the agency costs. The paperwork is done!

On August 1st I will get the key of the apartment.

… and joins a traveling circus. Jacob works as vet at the circus and he has much contact with the boss of the circus August and his wife Marlena. I won’t say too much about the movie, but the contact isn’t always that good. Jacob helps Marlena with a new circus act and unexpected things happen.

Water for Elephants is a very good movie that makes you laugh, cry and mad.

I didn’t run a personal record, because that was the first 10 kms I ran last September (54:48). But I am happy with 55:12. My finish position at the 10 kms run is half way, so that’s good. And looking at my finish position for women who joined the 10 kms run I finished as 310th out of 1087.

The next 10 kms run I join will be in June.