Sonja enters the world

Posted on October 7, 2014 by jonas

Early Monday morning Sonja started to make her way out to the world. At 12:48 on 6th of October Sonja and Tanya succeeded together with some help of the midwives. My role was mainly to support with the pain relief during the labor.

Sonja is a healthy 54 cm long and 3630 grams heavy girl. All fingers and toes are in place and in our eyes she is obviously the most beautiful girl in the world.

Tanya and Sonja are still at Triemli hospital, where this blog entry is also published from, and I am here to visit when possible.

Tanya’s mother is staying at the hospital with Tanya and at home Sasha is currently assembling her bed so it is good team serving little Sonja.

image

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Small and big projects

Posted on September 22, 2014 by jonas

The last weeks we have done some smaller projects at home. The tap in the winter garden now works so it is possible to water the garden. We got some pictures on the walls. The bathroom windows have been replaced. Tiles on the path from entrance to garden. Bike rack in the garden. Bike hangers in the “server room”. Improved wifi coverage. New washing machine. New lightning in the garden.

In June I got the bluetooth setup working in the BMW X5 and yesterday I got some time to do the same for the 911. Both cars have a very similar setup. Since they both were equipped with CD changer it was possible to replace the CD changer with a bluetooth dongle and stream music or podcasts from the mobile. In both the front trunk in the Porsche and the rear trunk in the X5 it was possible to find 12 volt to feed the bluetooth dongle.

Now we are getting ready for a bigger project.

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Work holiday

Posted on July 25, 2014 by jonas

My two week holiday is coming to an end and on Monday it is time for work again. For the first time, I did not go anywhere for a holiday trip. We stayed at home to finish the various renovation projects. I have basically been working harder on my holiday than during normal work weeks. We have painted the winter garden on the inside (outside is planned for next year), finished the electric wiring, loud speaker, and light installations in winter garden and balcony, painted the shutters and the railing on the balcony, removed and put new terrace tiles in place. Except for the bigger projects I have also done some minor improvements throughout the apartment, like changing some outlets and installed some new light sources and hung up two bikes on the wall in the cellar.

But the holiday has not only been about working, my parents were here for two days and we did a tour to Thun on Monday this week. The road over Brünigpass and via Brienzersee and Thunersee is quite stunning so it was a pleasure to do that trip together.

A little side project during my holiday was to replace OpenIndiana with Debian Wheezy (7.6) on the file server. Open Solaris/OpenIndiana was decent during the five years I trusted them with my data but Debian is far more maintainable for me so it is definitely a welcome switch. This time I am giving LVM a chance and by combining RAID and LVM I think I will have a solution that won’t make me miss ZFS.

As a side note I today noticed that both Luanda and N’Djamena are in front, i.e. more expensive, of Zurich on Mercer’s annual comparison of the cost of living. I have heard that Luanda is expensive but I did not think that expensive.

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Social weekend

Posted on June 29, 2014 by jonas

We have had a social weekend including visiting friend, multiple parties and world cup football. Rasmus is visiting and we have been to two parties so it has been a very nice and social weekend, in bright contrast to previous more construction-work-oriented weekends. Okay, we did go to a construction market (Jumbo) on Saturday but in the evening we went to a samba party in Goldau. There were many Brazilians at the party and we watched Brazil beating Chile so we got a taste of how the world cup is in Brazil. Today we continued with the theme of Portuguese language and went to our Portuguese friend’s bbq party.

Today in the morning, Rasmus and I took the Porsche for a ride. It was raining a bit but not enough to disturb us when we were going Albis pass-Türlersee-Buechenegg Pass. We did not skid and collide with a single car/tree/cow and made it home without crashes or losses of human lives.

The last week we have finished the fake-brick-wall in the winter garden. There is still a lot of painting to do for Tanya but if the rain can make some breaks in the coming week, there is a chance that it will be finished soon. Next thing on my agenda is to remove the garden tiles and to prepare for the new ones. We have also received the cover boards that we will put in front of the radiators but there is some work to be done in order to install them. In other words, some progress but still a lot of head of us with the renovation.

Next week starts in a few minutes. Cheers for now.

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Air conditioner!

Posted on June 15, 2014 by jonas

Last year Tanya started a lobby campaign for an air conditioner. We had a company here to suggest a solution and after some weeks we got an offer. For about 7000 CHF they would install a solution and for some time we were ready to go with it. Then we changed our minds and worked on other projects. About a week ago, a heat wave hit Europe and we had temperatures around 32 degrees for a few days, which accentuated the need for a solution.

We made some more research and bough a rather simple but fairly powerful air conditioner. Yesterday we installed it by making holes in a book shelf and the winter garden door, plus slightly modifying the device to make it fit inside a book shelf. We have tried it for some time and it makes a big difference, even if the outside temperature yesterday was more moderate.

Short summary of other ongoing projects follows. We have made good progress with the wall in the winter garden and we aim to finish the brick decor today. We bought a longer ladder yesterday to be able to work with the top of the wall. Perhaps we can paint the wall next weekend. The painting of the winter garden itself is prepared but not started. Same goes for some details on the balcony. We have finished some small things in the apartment as well, like more interior (mirror and cabinet) and a Sonos speaker in the rest room and covering plates for ventilation. I finally got my bluetooth audio solution working in the car, as well as navigator and rear-view camera started automatically by ignition (and not always-on so you have to remember to unplug). I will check if I can repeat the bluetooth trick with the 911. The Saab has some noise from the gear box so I am afraid his days are numbered. I will check with a friend of a friend who is an Opel mechanic if there is anything else to do than to drive it to collapse. It is not worth letting a garage replace the gearbox.

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Back in Wroclaw

Posted on May 19, 2014 by jonas

I went to Wroclaw last time in November 2012 and this week I am back to visit my Polish colleagues. Since last time, Eurolot (part of LOT) has opened a direct route between Zurich and Wroclaw which made the trip much more comfortable. Since my last visit, the CS office has also moved to another part of the city, and they are now in process of moving once again since CS has built their own office in the city center. The weather is nice and my guys are progressing well so I have good hope for a pleasant stay without long evenings in the office like last time.

I am staying at SAS Radisson and would like to recommend it to anyone who is visiting the city. Comfortable rooms and a good breakfast buffet in combination with decent wireless Internet is a good combination.

Compared to Swedish and Swiss prices, living in Wroclaw is cheap. Maybe not dirt cheap, but for sure cheap. The most expensive dish you can find in a posh central restaurant in Wroclaw costs as much as the cheapest main course in an average restaurant in Zurich (around 20 CHF). To try to use the daily allowance of 90 CHF is a real challenge. I did not get close today despite going for a three course meal at a nice restaurant. Better luck tomorrow…

Time for bed. Dobranoc!

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Holiday in St Petersburg

Posted on April 28, 2014 by jonas

The last weeks we have been working on renovating the apartment. Tanya’s father has been helping us and even though there is still work to be done, a lot has been achieved. The small bathroom, the balcony and the winter garden are now substantially refurbished. Since the tempo will now decrease, when Sasha is back in Siberia, I think we will be busy until autumn to finish what we have started but there is no urgent work to be done since the rooms can still be used.

We went to Rome over Easter in order to get some rest after weeks of hard work. It was a 10 hour drive since there were no major traffic jam or other issues. We stayed at a bed-and-breakfast around 20 minutes of brisk walking from Colesseum. We did three days of serious sightseeing, basically visiting all the major touristic places that could be reached by foot in the city centre, including taking a look at the pope at his candle lightning ceremony on Good Friday. On the way back we went via the St Bernardino pass and at 2000 meters above sea level there was still a lot of snow and 3 degrees Celsius. 17 degrees difference compared to a few hours earlier in Italy.

When we came back to Adliswil, we had some more work, both for me at CS and for Sasha and Tanya at home, before we all three took a flight to Moscow two days ago. Sasha continued eastwards meanwhile Tanya and I took a night train in the opposite direction. Yesterday morning we woke up in St Petersburg and the weather was almost the same as in Rome. The streets are noticeably cleaner but the air has the typical St Petersburg taste of dust.

We are renting a central apartment close to Chernyshevskaya metro station and yesterday we spent walking around in the city and revisiting the famous landmarks. In the evening we went for some classic Russian ballet at Marinsky theatre. It was not bad and we could both enjoy the 3.5 hour show even though Tanya was able to follow the plot better since she knows the stories…

Now we will have a few days of further touristing and relaxing in St Petersburg before we return to Moscow on Thursday. It will be nice to rediscover Moscow as well. Nowadays I go to Moscow and Russia more like on a biyearly basis, instead of weekly. Taking airport express to Belarusskaya and then switching to the metro feels like an episode from a previous life and still so familiar.

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Ongoing renovations

Posted on April 13, 2014 by jonas

It’s been a while since the last post, which sometimes happens, and there is not much spare time at the moment. Tanya’s father is visiting us for a few weeks and we are doing a second round of renovations. This time the small restroom, balcony, and winter garden is given some attention. There will be some lesure as well though, since we have a trip to Rome around the corner.

I think that’s all for now, time to sleep…

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Weather and other things

Posted on January 6, 2014 by jonas

I usually don’t deal with such topics as weather in my blog but let’s make an exception since it extends beyond the topic. The news has reached Novokuznetsk about the ‘life-threatening’ and extreme cold weather in US. CNN reports that car driving is forbidden in some places if not absolutely needed. People should stay at home since it is cold outside and so on. Pray for those who are affected by -20 degrees Celsius…

It might of course be a problem if people and infrastructure is not prepared and/or don’t think or are homeless or so. But still. We have -26 Celsius here in Novokuznetsk at the moment and nobody is worried or acting in a different way just because it was -5 yesterday and -26 today. It is colder sometimes and warmer sometimes, so what? Take an extra pullover and make sure you have proper shoes when going out etc. People still go skiing down to -30 and the infrastructure works normally.

My point is not that Americans are weak and Russians strong. What is considered normal in one place is not necessarily normal in another place, and the differences do include other things than weather as well. There are many things which are different in Russia compared to US and Europe. When coming from Europe or US it is easy to come with a “western mind”, even when trying not to, when one is observing and discussing with people. Note to myself; try harder.

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New year celebration and first skiing session of the year

Posted on January 2, 2014 by jonas

During the afternoon we went for some quick cross-country skiing in the neighborhood. We are staying in Tanya’s parent’s central apartment in Novokuznetsk which is located by river Tom. There are skiing tracks along the river 5 minutes of walking from the apartment. There has not been much snow here until a few days ago but now it is perfectly fine for skiing, and that we did until Tanya’s feet started to feel unwell. There are pillars for electric light as well, but they have been broken for years and the city sadly does not seem to have money to fix them.

Tanya after the cross-country skiing

The new year celebrations were carried out according to tradition. Tasty food, including goose and caviar, and new year presents. The dinner starts late, at midnight, so there is no way you will fall asleep before midnight.

The day after tomorrow we go to Mezhdurechensk for two days of downhill skiing. It is not far away, about an hour and a half by car, but we will stay overnight in an apartment.

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