Sun Dec 3 2023, 10:57:40 pm CET It's been a couple of days - from mid-week until the weekend. It's been on the edge of being too much at work for both of us, so being able to slow down and spend a couple of days together in our own pace was perfect. I took a recup-day on Friday and the master-plan was to start with the Christmas decoration (and not just decoration here and there... No, it the full-blown deal here) and prepare our garden for the season (having friends over, drinking mulled wine Read more about Glögg, Glühwein and svařené víno etc. on Wikipedia. in the nose-dripping cold with the garden heaters on). I am very happy with the result and it was satisfying working in the cold, moving things around and preparing the flowers and trees for the cold to come.
This morning we arranged a little surprise "Sinterklaas" breakfast Read more about this important especially day in the Benelux region. before we drove J's girlfriend K. to work.
Now we are all having a little bit of a Sunday-blues at the moment, as you have after cosy times. Like every year, I am downloading every "Julkalendern" episodes (from 1st of December we have 24 episodes to look forward to). We did not yet start watching it, but soon we will. Like every year, it is a tradition, together with tuning into the "Julkanalen" radio station (dedicated only to Christmas music) to get that Christmas spirit flowing.
In addition we had time for other chores around the house, the weekly call with my parents and we could also spend some quality time with the youth. The highlight for me was finding a great Christmas gift ever for my which is so satisfying. I find that being the best with Christmas, finding the best gifts. Fantastic.
OK, that will be it for this time. I need to head for the bed...
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sun Dec 3 2023, 6:24:14 pm CET Did you know that today is the international 3D Printing Day Read more about this IMPORTANT day here. Something Chuck Hull started one day in the early 80's...
Tue Nov 28 2023, 8:42:14 pm CET Last update was Friday, Seems like ages ago. A complete eventful weekend and one - just completed - working day thus. I left off in last post just before we were going to Brussels to meet up with J's godmother and boyfriend S. It was a really nice visit to the rainy and grey capitol. Just how I first experienced Brussels when I moved here a cold, grey and rainy night back in November 1997. Crazy madness that it's been 26 year in Belgium...already!
It was a very tough start of the workweek...it feels like I start every post about Monday's like that? But this time was it ...ehhh... challenging, to say the least. It is just very demanding when someone are using all the false and ugly tricks to get the attention to their issues. In they escalation it is mentioned how terrible the support is, how much they are loosing etc. Then, when you meet them in person, it is a different story; then you are their best friend and all of a sudden my team is the best ever. They chose an ugly approach...
I was just out in the garden (emptying some kitchen waste in the green container) and felt the cold. It's a different kind of coldness, you can almost feel the snow hanging in the air. I have one thing that I am looking forward to in the cold weather ahead. I have been researching and looking for interesting coffee that I can buy online. Back to the roots (the beans) of this site, back to the basic perks of life and a little bit like finding one of the core ingredients of this website - coffee. As simple as that. So, I think I found something interesting, this service Read more about Koffiemarkt.be on their website. looks promising and I have placed my first order with them to see if it for long-term.
OK, now it is time to enjoy our TV show after a wonderful dinner with J. A lot of nice talks and it was nice to be able to ...do some parenting . Advise from grown-ups seemed to have been accepted this time.
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Tue Nov 28 2023, 6:35:16 pm CET Did you know that today in 1895 is when the first American automobile race takes place over the 54 miles (87 kilometres) from Chicago's Jackson Park to Evanston, Illinois. Frank Duryea Read more about him on Wikipedia. wins in approximately 10 hours.
Fri Nov 24 2023, 11:16:46 pm CET 4 days later and we are all of a sudden only 1 month from Christmas. Yesterday it was the big Thanksgiving holiday in US and most of them also bridged today. Some of my calls were cancelled but still it was more than enough. Especially after the last days of drama Yeah, just forget about it. Too much shit to cover in a post... on a week's of vent... Let's just say that one never gets surprised about the stupidity of mankind. To conclude, too many empty and stupid people that we have to listen to!.
I received and installed the TV that I mentioned in the earlier post and it is really great. The picture quality is great, the WebOS Read more about it on Wikipedia. software is snappy and responsive with great features. It really opens up the media capabilities that I already have in place! Watching movies (Netflix, Prime or from our network) at least in 4K is new to me. We are really enjoying our series and TV shows on a different level.
OK, tomorrow morning we are going to Brussels all 4 of us - J. with girlfriend K., H and I. We have been invited to meet up with J's Godmother and her boyfriend S. at his place followed by a visit to a nearby art gallery . I am really looking forward so see them at S's place. He is doing business in smoked salmon, importing different kinds of wood and, more or less as an hobby, beekeeping on the roof of his townhouse. I am really wondering how he lives. It will certainly be nice to see J's Swedish godmother S. again who's not seen J. in a long time. For her to meet with his girlfriend will also be a nice experience!
It's been a really rough week, tough on all of us. J. received one unfortunate result back from his exams (which needs to be followed up on) and H. and I both have had a challenging week at work. Anyways, we are all happy the weekend is here and we really enjoyed the extended aperitif followed by the fantastic home made lumpia's. More of that, enjoy the small yet true luxury in life!
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Fri Nov 24 2023, 7:19:03 pm CET Did you know that today in 1877 is when Anna Sewell's animal welfare novel Black Beauty Read more about it on Wikipedia. is published.
Mon Nov 20 2023, 10:11:12 pm CET Today was a very heavy start of the work week. First, a Monday, but that was really not the worst. Little did I know what was in store for me. Not sure what is going on lately, but it is like there is a rabies pandemic going on or something. People are reacting so strange and it seems that the goal is to make it difficult for as many people as possible is the thing these days. SO much negativity, egoism and counterproductivity in the world today. In my case, I am dealing a lot of conflicts and challenges, but recently it really turns ugly and it seems that the higher you get in the hierarchy the worse it gets. I will leave it at that as I am getting irritated just by thinking about it...
There have been a couple of days before I posted last. What can I say, there has been a lot of things going on. Thursday, we had friends over for dinner. Friday we were invited to J. and K. in K's student apartment for aperitif and later to dinner at a really nice Mexican restaurant. Super nice! Saturday we were invited to the ladies M. and D. next door. We had a wonderful time. It reminded us about the good old days again. Really close and special time!
Sunday was time to recover (the little energy I received however was used up today), we did some small things around the house. J. and K. spent Saturday and Sunday at K's family's place.
The coolest thing today was that I made up my mind and went and bought a new TV . I can go and get it tomorrow and I am really excited about that. The nicest thing today however was that J. arrived home. OK, now it is time to zoom out, watch a series and go to bed in time.
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Mon Nov 20 2023, 9:47:10 pm CET Did you know that today is the National Absurdity Day Read more about it, a very fitting for a day like today....
Sat Nov 11 2023, 6:35:59 pm CET It's been a focused workday today, in the sense that I only had 3 calls. Perfect opportunity to focus on other administrative tasks, I did a lot emailing.
J. arrived home this afternoon to stay over for the next coming days. It is always very nice to have him around, we can talk, align and plan in a different way. There is more time to connect. Also, he is not feeling 100%, perfect for him to get spoiled at home...
I managed to do one 3D printing today - the Watering bottle cap It actually turned out great on my Creality Ender 3 v2 3D printer.. It was a quick, just over 2 hours, practical 3D print job. It turned out great and I also took the opportunity to record some video clips to try out making an OpenShot I have just updated OpenShot to version 3.1.1 (from version 2.5.1 and I added it to Chocolatey as well) and it looks great! project again. Last time I used it was for the Solar Panel drone inspection Read more about it in my previous post here... video clip. I will publish that one on my iamprinting.xyz My fabulous 3D printing site that I recently recently re-designed and moved to Cloudflare and developed it with the brilliant Hugo framework. Still under development but it is a really exciting project! website.
Soon we'll enjoy the dinner with the 3 of us talking as a family about what happened the last couple of days but also what we have planned ahead for J. and K. are planning another trip this January, this time it is to Narvik. So now they can add Narvik to the list of destinations - Barcelona and Marrakesh already booked.. It's always fantastic to be able to have those moments together.
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Tue Nov 14 2023, 6:07:08 pm CET Did you know that today in 1851 is when Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville Read more about him on Wikipedia., is published in the USA.
Sat Nov 11 2023, 6:35:59 pm CET We have just completed a fantastic dinner with the youth - a hamburger buffet. I prepared the hamburgers and the glazed onions. Perfection, if I can say so myself! Everything else - breads, salad, sauce and atmosphere was prepared in ordinary fashion by my second half.
It was an evening with great conversation with our youths about everything in the minds of the youth and the parents. Interesting topics and thoughts about travel plans as well, the train from Stockholm to Narvik is very interesting. The orient express also came up, oh when does dreams and imaginations turn into reality?
...and with that I am heading to bed now. Funny how little time we have at our disposal on a Sunday...
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sun Nov 12 2023, 9:50:34 pm CET Did you know that today in 1954 is when Ellis Island Read more about it on Wikipedia. ceases operations.
Sat Nov 11 2023, 6:35:59 pm CET Not really sure what happened today, well I know what happened, but I am not sure where the time went... J. and K. left this morning with friends to the amusement park Efteling Read more about it here on the homepage of Efteling. in The Netherlands. And then 2 hours later our friends A. and P. from The Netherlands were here at around 11 for a Brunch, an EXTENDED breakfast thus.
We had a very nice time with our friends A. and P., we could really catch up and enjoy each others company. Like true Dutch, they informed us that they have finally bought a mobile home. It is really nice for them, for a long time they have rented one every season and now they had the opportunity to buy one and now they did it. I am really glad for them.
Yesterday, after a very busy and hectic workday, we could enjoy an evening out with my brother in law and his wife. For my 50th birthday I got the "restaurant package" at the restaurant Fiskeskur. The concept comes a little bit from the Danish name, but it is not really Danish food. It's very much vegetarian and fish oriented. I had a fantastic dish called Masala Squid as an example. India meets Greece with a touch of Denmark. Does that explains it? Anyway the food is great and the location in Antwerp is really cool at the docks. But before we came there, we went to the Seef Brewery, the brewery of one of my favourite beers, just a few meters away from the restaurant. It's such a cool place in a very cool location - industrial harbour area. Really, really nice architecture and cool vibe!
We are enjoying our cosy evening (with the open fire lit as it is getting colder in the evening) waiting for the youth to come home from their day trip. The dinner is cooking in the oven and we are enjoying a nice wine...
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sat Nov 11 2023, 6:38:01 pm CET Did you know that today in 1572 is when Tycho Brahe observes the supernova SN 1572 Read more about it on Wikipedia..
Thu Nov 9 2023, 7:36:25 pm CET It's been a while since last time I posted, 4 days to be precise. Much too long, that is. We have to transition from weekend feeling into a busy workweek. When I left off last it was the birthday of my older brother, upcoming fiber installation/placement and also some updates to be done within my home lab...
One new thing that I am trying out the the app called Duolingo I am trying out Duolingo together with about 61 million other users... and I am learning Japanese. It is so cool! It is not just learning the language - a la school - it is also takes the aspect of Japanese culture into consideration. Very cool! I am just starting out; the 3 different ways of writing Japanese, starting out about ordering food specifically. I am starting within water, tea, Sushi and rice... I guess it is the survival for dummies.
Other things... The fiber has been "dug down" in the street outside... little did I know, it is a 3 step process apparently (not sure why we had to fill out the "driveway plan")! We had to park the car somewhere else and live without our street for 3 days without anything... I have to wait now for the next step of being asked to be connected to the fiber network.
It was also the birthday of neighbour lady D. and we could decorate their home before they arrived home after their excursion celebrating the 70th birthday. It was a very nice and successful stealth operation...
For the rest, it's really been a busy week with focus on trying to combine work- and private life schedules. Tomorrow is Friday and I will see if I have the time to go to Brussels office. I doubt it since I have a very early start and strange schedule tomorrow with a lot of dependencies to other things going on... In the evening, we are invited - for my 50th birthday - to a very special restaurant by my brother in law. More to come about that. Son J. and girlfriend K. will be on a birthday party...
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Thu Nov 9 2023, 6:32:56 pm CET Did you know that today is the World Freedom Day Read more about it on ...well, here. It's a very cool day to celebrate actually. I can recommend reading about it...?
Sun Nov 5 2023, 1:01:02 pm CET Today is the birthday of my older brother J who was born today in 1968. We are all getting old, almost grownups all of us.
For the rest I have prepared for the work in our street (and the driveway) that will start tomorrow morning - let's see how the work of getting fiber into the house will progress. I am very curious.
OK, that was just a little quick update so far. I will have to do some 3D printing (to surprise someone) and finalizing another backup routine (using Rsync) that will synchronize the files on NAS to an external USB harddrive. Recently I have had a lot of issues with it...
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sun Nov 5 2023, 1:01:38 pm CET Did you know that today is the gunpowder day Read more about it here., the bonfire night Read more about the bonfire night here. and the Guy Fawkes Night Read more about him here and what the relation to gunpowder is!. All in the sign of fire and gunpowder...
Sun Nov 5 2023, 12:03:58 am CET Today was one of those day when it feels like you never really wake up. Just grey, rainy and windy outside - fitting weather matching the mood perfectly.
I was trying to get the NAS safety backup job to run successfully, but for what ever reason it is running endlessly until it completely hangs. The only way to revive it is a proper hard reboot; pulling the plug thus. I have been peeking to a new solution, either building my own or buying a new one or, the third option is a hybrid of both of those options (buying an old rack server and modify it). Not sure just yet...
Another very exciting thing today was the latest Polestar car update, the P2.12 was successfully installed over OTA (Over-the-Air). It's the first update after the regular service appointment that I had some time back, I was hoping it would work after that (or if I had to go back to the garage to get it). It didn't just work smoothly, I see that I received it VERY early. So that's great!
Ohhhh, I almost forgot, we are getting fiber next week. Today we received the message that we have to clear out the street, the driveway and inform them (meaning the internet, phone and TV provider company) where they can dig for the fiber cables. The electricity- and phone cables, gas, water and sewer tubes are placed is not the easiest to know were they are located. We check all the plans and drawings, but it is not mentioned anywhere. One would think that THEY would have that information, especially since they are the ones doing the digging...
With that uplifting and inspiring posts, I will retire to the comfort of my bed to enjoy a good book.
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sat Nov 4 2023, 5:55:59 pm CET Did you know that today in 2008 is when Barack Obama Read more about him on Wikipedia. becomes the first person of biracial or African-American descent to be elected as President of the United States.
Thu Nov 2 2023, 3:12:33 pm CET Yesterday we arrived back home again after a few wonderful days in Prague. It is an absolutely beautiful city and I enjoyed every second being together with the best travel companions one could wish for. I took loads of pictures and recorded a lot of videos of the beautiful Prague and everything we did there. I have not yet had the time to look through it in detail as we arrived yesterday evening and I was back to work this morning.
Work... at first, it was difficult to get back into it but coffee made it certainly easier; ensuring a little energy boost and inner warmth. Oh, that was the poetry of the day.
The weather is absolutely terrible, we are having the worst storm here at the moment. It is especially stressful for someone having solar panels on the roof. Every time there is a gust, I am just waiting to see a solar panel passing by my window...
OK, now I have to return to my office, a call is about to start...
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Thu Nov 2 2023, 3:09:23 pm CET Did you know that today in 1947 is when the designer Howard Hughes Read more about him on Wikipedia. performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the "Spruce Goose").