Starting into the winter season

Posted on Wednesday, 29 October, 2008 by anmara

Finally – Elisa is back home! This post comes a bit late as I got her already back on the 18th of October.

I was lucky with the weather – 10 Celsius plus AND sunshine! That is almost a miracle for this time of the year. Wrapped up in the boyfriend’s Yamaha snow scooter suit (made in Finland!) over the leather suit so that the cold air was kept out and therefore feeling like being on a bear hunt in Siberia (or even being a Grizzly myself) I made my way home, even halfway complying with the speed limits. That one does not necessarily do on a hot summer day – the faster, the cooler, the only way to not overheat in a leather suit in at least 30 degrees Celsius plus sun burning down unmercifully. Oh yes, that exists as well in Sweden. It is not just cold all year round, you know.

The workshop or better saying Sweden’s best Guzzi-mechanic Janne from the Italia Bike Center in Arboga did an excellent job. He even rebuilt the carbs completely as the sealings were too old and sucked in air. They were actually surprised that we made it to Arboga. Well, we refrained from telling them that the bike also made it to Helsingborg in Skåne and to Harjarö west of Stockholm, and to quite a few other places… Obviously with the same defect all way long. It clearly shows that the little lady seemed to be quite up for finally seeing the world instead of pottering around Motala or Linköping only… If we are lucky then she will also see a bit of the rest of Europe next year, but that is still far away yet from being planned too much in detail.

Back home, she got straight away prepared for winter. Emptying the carbs, closing the fuel tabs (my personal all time favourite when it comes to my own forgetfulness – opening or closing these little fellows) and some oil onto the cylinder heads against corrosion. Oh, and not to forget disconnecting the battery of course. Her motor block now sits on a piece of wood in order to keep the tires slightly off the ground, another essential part of getting a bike winter ready. Thanks to the service and judging by the final smooth ride home the rest was all in order and did not need any further attention. Elisa even got cleaned! Covered with her comfort blanket, a Guzzi flag (yes, I am a girl 😉 ) and a brand new bike cover she now sleeps against the wall of the garage till next year May. The season officially starts on the 1st of May. That means I will probably wake her up again some time in April so that we can start into our first proper season together!

Until then there will be some strict fitness training for myself. Why? Well, fitting into the leather suit a bit better than this year is kind of a crucial requirement for the next season – I do not want to swap to a new outfit and a custom bike next spring. Not to mention the lack of financial means for actually being able to afford all that 😉

MBC09 – bin dabei!

Posted on Tuesday, 28 October, 2008 by anmara

Da kann 2009 ja nur gut werden, wenn man gleich am Anfang so eine klasse Veranstaltung hat, auf die man sich freuen kann!

Im September haben wir angefangen, eine Suche auch für Micro-Blogs zu entwickeln. Diese soll ähnlich wie unsere bisherige Blogsuche mit einem eigenen Index funktionieren, also nicht wie andere Suchdienste wie beispielsweise SocialMention, die ich persönlich allerdings auch sehr gut finde.

Mit einem eigenen Index wären wir in der Lage, spezielle Features für die Suche anzubieten, so wie für unsere Blogsuche. Denkbar sind für die Blogsuche ähnliche Dinge wie etwa “Likes” oder verschiedene Möglichkeiten der Suchabfragen bzw. Möglichkeiten zum Sortieren der Ergebnisse nach Datum etc. .

Wenn also jemand Vorschläge hat, die seiner Meinung nach in einer guten Microblog-Suche nicht fehlen dürfen, dann bitte gerne unten kommentieren oder emailen.

Da momentan noch nicht 100%ig absehbar ist, wie weit das Projekt bis zur MBC09 gedeiht, wird es auf jeden Fall ein Status-Update zu dem was wir machen und was wir uns dabei gedacht haben. Und wer weiß, vielleicht mit etwas Glück sogar eine Vorstellung im Rahmen des Launches der neuen Search.

In jedem Fall freue ich mich schon jetzt darauf, viele alte Gesichter wiederzusehen, neue Leute zu treffen und bestimmt viel über Microblogging zu lernen. Ist ja nun wirklich kein kleines Feld mehr. 😉

“Buchhändleralltag & Kundenwahnsinn”

Posted on Wednesday, 22 October, 2008 by anmara

This blog expresses everything at its very best what booksellers go through. I am soooo happy that it actually exists! Why? Because I also am a trained bookseller or “Buchhändler”. The first four years of my professional life after A-levels prepared me for all kinds of human species that I would encounter again and again throughout my later career. And I would do this job again without hesitation, if it would only be paid a little bit better… Why that now? Booksellers, they read all day, don’t they? Ehhhh…. nope. During my time as a bookseller I actually started to read less, simply because after stressful days like for example in Christmas time you do not really necessarily feel the need for reading.

That however did not prevent me from filling my shelves with books that I would like to read – at some point later. That resulted in me still having LOTS of unread books left, almost 5 years after I swapped book paradise and Germany for England and the online world and now Sweden and the online world. Since I moved to Norrköping I read a bit more, though, so there is hope for all the unread volumes that they get de-dusted at some point soon!

Oh yes, and this one is a bit older version on paper but also very much worth reading if anybody fancies.

Being a good bookseller also means that you need to be passionate about what you are doing. You need to love books of course (and maybe calendars like I did and still do) but even more importantly you need to love dealing with customers and also to do quite a good range of things that come with working in a shop. No day is like the other, and if you think a day will be in a certain way then you can be sure it turns out to be entirely different.

And all that in combination was (and still is) to me the beauty of that profession.

In Germany you actually do have proper professional training in form of a 3 years apprenticeship – which by the way is not the case in England or Sweden or other European countries.

Maybe something for “Sonntagmorgen”?

Posted on Tuesday, 21 October, 2008 by anmara

This one is possibly on other blogs already, however – it is so cool that I cannot resist from posting it.

I do know two things for sure:
1.) This is exactly how some Mondays can feel
2.) Sonntagmorgen has the power to prevent the really really baaaad end of it… or – just keep it straight up, guys! And Congratulations!

Weekend = time for Grythyttan again!

Posted on Friday, 10 October, 2008 by anmara

Like a colleague said “You go there very often, don’t you?” Yes, true. Partly because my partners mom lives there and her being over seventy means that she needs some help with getting everything ready for winter, stuff fixed etc.. Apart from that it is a beautiful landscape out there. Just nature and right now in all autumn colours you can imagine. It is like being in a whole different world where different things matter – something along the lines of computer, ipod, blackberry getting swapped with saw, hammer and screwdriver.

This weekend however, there is a whole different challenge. Swedish countryside meets technology. Even if gadgets are pushed into the background as described, one needs techie stuff out there in order to have a good connection to the outer world.

So we will be – installing broadband, yes. The telecom company digged the wholes, laid the cable and established the connection into the house. Now we will have the fun of laying the cable inside the house. Last weekend we had fun with the measure tape and planning. We will need to drill a whole into the ceiling to the upper floor, luckily all made out of wood. That inclines that one better makes sure that 1. the drill comes through at the right point and 2. no other cables get damaged ;-).

Already in the morning today my beloved has the challenge of finding a long drill – 45 cm length should do… and Bauhaus will hopefully deliver what we need. Apart from that about 40 m cable will be involved. So this should keep us busy until Sunday afternoon. Lots of Fika breaks with tea and kanelbullar included of course.

Apart from that it is time for – winter tyres! So hopefully we also get an appointment with the tyre shop for the little car. Changing we could easily do ourselves, but we also want to get the wheels balanced. Here one has tyres with studs – means little metal parts that give a better grip on ice and snow, better than any average winter tyre. In Germany with warmer winters than here, studs got forbidden already a long time back. Reason: it seems to kill the road surfaces. However, Germany being much better covered by “Winterdienst” which clears the roads, might not need these little helpers. Although maybe people in the Alps would prefer to have these in addition to snow chains. However, in Sweden and most of the country being proper countryside, studs are definitely much needed.

Weekend joy, here we come 🙂

When will I see you again, Elisa?

Posted on Tuesday, 7 October, 2008 by anmara

Finally, after a lot of work notes a personal one again. What it is about? Well, it has something to do with motorcycling. The season is definitely over now and I even missed the end of it, which is a pity really. The reason? I decided to leave Elisa (yes, a motorcycle can have a name, and this one has) on the 13th of September with a specialist to give her a very good check up. That was much needed as I did not have any record of when she got looked at by professional eyes last time. The two previous owners did not ride her much but fiddled much with her technical set up – and it was the question whether they really got all buttons and wires right.

As I know already, the carbs need to be totally rebuild and also a lot of small seals need to be replaced. So the latest news from last week was, that finally parts from Italy have arrived! So the work hopefully started this week. It would be great to have her back the coming weekend, as given good weather and not immensely low temperatures it would be possible to ride her to the winter quarter – and not carry her home on a trailer…. sigh. So, we shall see! Important is however to get her back and have her fit for next season!

In the meantime it is good to read the books of Lois Pryce – an immensely enjoyable writing style. Also, watching Ewan and Charley doing their trips help feeding the desire to learn about motorcycle trips. Lois’ is an adventure, especially the one down Africa. Ewan and Charley’s trip is a walk in the park in comparison.

Also it is now the time to think how to contribute a bit more to the forum of the Swedish Guzzi Club – winter time is building time.

1st of May 2009 the fun shall start again :-).

“Twinglyfy your blog”

Posted on Tuesday, 7 October, 2008 by anmara

Wie kommt man am besten in unseren Index und bleibt dort? Am besten mittels automatischen Pingbacks, wie hier bereits erklärt.

Es gibt dann aber auch die Möglichkeit, quasi jede Suche als Widget für Euren Blog zu kreieren. Baynado hat dies einfach mal gemacht. In seinem Twingly Widget erscheinen nun alle Blogposts, die das Wort Baynado beinhalten und sich somit in irgendeiner Form mit ihm auseinandersetzen.

Auf dem Twingly Blog kann man ebenfalls sehen, wie wir unsere Widgets verwenden, um Usern Zusatzinfos zu geben.

“Recent linking Posts” listet beispielsweise alle Bloglinks, die auf unseren Blog verweisen.

Am besten einfach die Suche auf Twingly.com eingeben, verfeinern mit Optionen in Drop Down Menüs und
dann rechts auf “Get as widget for your blog” drücken.

Auf der Twingly Search Homepage gibt es nun auch die Möglichkeit, die Blogsuche einfach in den Browser zu integrieren – unter “Add Twingly search.com to your browser”.