Both retired
In 2014 we started both a new phase in our life. After the narrow escape from death by Irmtraud, she decided that she wanted to go in another direction. She had in the past written her dissertation about the Peace Treaty of Cambrai 1529 and she was still intrigued by the unusual life of Margret of Austria and was planning to write a novel about her life. For this purpose, she followed a course in writing novels. Willem had helped to create the Club Pati Barcelona which would defend the Catalan colors on inline skates in and outside Catalunya.
To participate in different events we were training hard on skates. Mateu, the trainer, introduced physical training which not all of us liked so much.
The weekly publication of funny fotos of the group had its consequences. Within a short time the number of participants in the training sessions and special events organized by Club Pati Barcelona increased very rapidly as the video below shows.
The Marathon in Dijon
I did some extra training on my new inline skates which were very stiff. I really had to adjust my way of skating on these skates and I hoped that I would be ready soon. Because I wanted to participate in a marathon for masters (above 50) in Dijon. We would go there with four: Xavier and his wife and Irmtraud and me. For Irmtraud it was also interesting because Dijon was in the past the capital of Burgundy which played an important role in the history she studied. Before going there I was training a lot on my new skates.
I did some extra training on my new inline skates which were very stiff. I really had to adjust my way of skating on these skates and I hoped that I would be ready soon. Because I wanted to participate in a marathon for masters (above 50) in Dijon. We would go there with four: Xavier and his wife and Irmtraud and me. For Irmtraud it was also interesting because Dijon was in the past the capital of Burgundy which played an important role in the history she studied. Before going there I was training a lot on my new skates.
There were many participants from many different countries. It was a colorful event. The atmosphere was also nice. We had to skate on one of the main streets of Dijon with at both sides a round about. Xavier and I were the only two representatives of Barcelona and our presence did not remain undetected. Already when we made a first training round we heard that people said "Look the Catalans also participate in the marathon."
Xavier skated very well but I was less successful. After 20 km I had so much pain in my feet that I decided to stop. The time to adjust to the new skates had been too short. But it did not matter too much, we had a very nice time in Dijon.
Xavier skated very well but I was less successful. After 20 km I had so much pain in my feet that I decided to stop. The time to adjust to the new skates had been too short. But it did not matter too much, we had a very nice time in Dijon.
The next event for the club was the championship of Catalunya, which was organized on the skating track where we were normally training. Our group did its best as you can see below and won several prices including me. I got again the first price for the 5000 meters for masters 60+ because there were no other skaters above 60 . This was of course celebrated again at the club as if Ihad realized a world record .
No scientific activities?
We were indeed in the mood to do at least one year other things. We had worked hard so far. That does not mean that nothing happened of scientific relevance. In fact a second edition of our book about survey research was published in 2014 but this was of course prepared before.
However, I did not stop writing, but this time I concentrated my writing on skating as well. Skating is so nice that I decided to make a website with stories about skating for foreigners. The original text is in English but there is also a Spanish translation which I made as an exercise to learn Spanish. My teacher helped me with this text. If you click here you get the English version of the website.
We were indeed in the mood to do at least one year other things. We had worked hard so far. That does not mean that nothing happened of scientific relevance. In fact a second edition of our book about survey research was published in 2014 but this was of course prepared before.
However, I did not stop writing, but this time I concentrated my writing on skating as well. Skating is so nice that I decided to make a website with stories about skating for foreigners. The original text is in English but there is also a Spanish translation which I made as an exercise to learn Spanish. My teacher helped me with this text. If you click here you get the English version of the website.