Of shorter working hours and longer swims
Dear followers and readers,
This summer I accomplished two important personal milestones.
I spent a month away from Amsterdam, together with our two beautiful kids for the whole time and with the whole family for 3 full weeks.
I was lucky enough that the plan of reducing drastically the hours of work during that period actually ‘worked’!
This is the most valuable aspect I can think of as a freelance. Huge respect to all those parents and caregivers who work during the whole summer holidays period.
Secondly, I completed the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Swim, a 26.3k long swim in the lake of Zurich. (link)
Planning for this accomplishment took almost 2 years — as last year’s edition was cancelled. I am still over the moon.
Swimming for 10 straight hours (yes, it took longer than expected) has been a unique experience: both challenging and rewarding in unexpected ways.
So many people helped me — from the boat on the day of the event (thank you forever, Martin!) and ahead of the race, directly and indirectly: there is hardly a personal achievement that is not a team effort, I reckon.
On top of that, the swim made it possible to gather more than 2.000€ for cancer research (2023) and almost 800€ for supporting a Dutch hospice (2024).
This would have not been possible without all the donations of the last 14 months. Thank you to you all!
And do not forget! It is still possible to donate until the end of August (see link in comments section).
