You know the drill, another year has passed without a blog post, so it is time for the traditional Anno year N+1 entry. For photos, see my Instagram, or wait until I feel like making a selection…
In January I took Willem flying, and for the first time when flying with a passenger, I did something new: we made a low pass at Brussels Airport (and also flew past the Atomium). Of course we visited a bunch of other interesting landmarks too, making it my nicest (and longest) sightseeing flight ever. At work I took over all responsibilities related to our backend systems, and I learned a lot in the process. In the middle of the month we had the biggest snowfall of the past years, followed by a couple of days of winter wonderland filled with beautiful walks under chilly, but sunny blue skies. At the end of the month I flew to Antwerp for the first time on a beautiful afternoon/evening.
In February I was sick for a few days, then we finally got an airco installed (living in an apartment building this was far from straightforward). We should have done this years ago, it made a huge difference (at least for me) during the summer. We discovered the restaurant Louvain d’Anvers, where we returned a few more times over the year. I requested and got my first Special VFR clearance at Charleroi, followed by an immediate return to the field (where I was offered a few patterns) as the cloud base was way too low for comfort. Liverpool won the League Cup with basically a U-21 team, which was a great watch. I took part in the qualifiers of the FAI World (Virtual Gliding) Championship (with one good result over a series of events, but not enough to progress to a further stage). I also started investing some money (which has definitely made more interest than my saving accounts since then).
By March I have been progressing consistently with an AI-driven cycling training plan, the weather was finally getting better (with even some rides in shorts), and we have been riding regularly over the weekends too. Unfortunately halfway through the month I crashed my pretty steel bike at a stupid railway crossing (with super confusing bike infrastructure). Both the material and physical damage was limited, but I had some pain/discomfort for a couple of weeks (bot not enough to really stop me from riding), and the first significant scratches on my one and only self-built bike were of course a bit sad. Sadly I have not ridden that bike outside since then, and it has been fixed to my indoor trainer continuously. The only positive of that crash was that I originally planned to take my fanciest (carbon) bike that day, but the batteries (of the electronic shifters) were low, so I made a last minute change to the steel bike. I am sure that the same crash would have resulted in much more significant (and expensive) material damage otherwise. I flew to the oldest still operational airfield of Europe (Bonn). After consistently practicing for a year (on a short-scale bass) and having a more clear picture of what kind of an instrument I would like to have, I bought a Limited Edition Fender American Ultra PJ Bass in a beautiful flamed maple finish – it was more expensive than my initial budget would have allowed, but it was love at fist sight, and I have been enjoying playing it ever since without a pinch of regret. It is possibly the nicest object I own, and when I am not playing it, I am happy to just look at it in the living room. Over the coming months I finished the exercises from the book I was following (except for the slap bass chapter), and started playing actual songs that I like (and not only Mr. Blue Sky).
In April I discovered that my endurance is not what it used to be, as a 136 km ride with Willem and Karel over Ronquières emptied my batteries completely. I flew to Oostende (and along the coast of Belgium) for the first time, meaning that I have now visited all the international airports in Belgium (although with “only” a low pass at Brussels and Liège, because I don’t have infinite money). From the airport I walked to Middelkerke to check out the new Casino building (as my love for architecture never fades). Halfway through the month the weather got good enough for the first bubble tea of the year (with many to follow). Then we flew to Valencia (this time as a passenger) to spend four full days walking around, enjoying the sunshine, and having tapas across the city. I loved the City of Arts and Sciences from an architectural standpoint, but somewhat unexpectedly much preferred the aquarium to the other musea otherwise. It was a very nice city trip, I would 100% recommend. After we came home we had a nice lunch at the EssenCiel on one of my free Fridays. Working 4/5th is still the best.
In May we got very lucky (unlike the previous year) with the weather, as our long weekend of cycling in the Vosges with Willem coincided with the only few days of warm and dry weather before mid-June/July (and if I remember correctly it was still snowing just a week earlier). We had 20+ degrees (Celsius) and sunshine every day, and at night we saw the northern lights for the very first time (it was an exceptionally strong geomagnetic storm). The frist day we rode over the three biggest climbs South of us (Ballon d’Alsace, La Planche des Belles Filles, and the Col de Servance), which went pretty well, then the second day I had to take some (planned) shortcuts and just send Willem up on a few extra climbs, as getting up the Grand Ballon just once was more than enough for me (which was followed by eating and stomach issues the rest of the ride, which made the otherwise magnificent scenery along the ridge-road less enjoyable than I hoped for). No matter how much I tried to recover after the ride, the next day I had no power in the legs, and I decided to turn back on top of the first climb. Still, I had a nice day relaxing in the house. Then in the evening we went to a nearby lake where Willem did some fly fishing as we slowly made our way around the water, and this experience kickstarted my own interest in fly fishing too, and as soon as we got home, I started my research into the topic. Initially I thought this could be something that I could do when we are on holidays, maybe a few times a year, with a very minimalistic kit, but – spoiler alert – things escalated rather quickly… On the 19th of May Liverpool had their last game under Klopp as a manager, and the farewell was definitely emotional. Towards the end of the month I had my first ever revalidation flight to extend the validity of my licence [actually my PPL licence is valid forever, but my SEP(L) rating needs revalidation every two years]; it was fun to fly with an instructor again.
