2021-06-17

A valuable life lesson from pickled eggs and elderflower syrup

It took me a long time to get to it and make pickled eggs and then, a few weeks later, some elderflower syrup. That’s when I learned that I didn’t need time to make them, I needed time to find out making them takes no time at all. Does that make sense?

I made my first batch of pickled eggs when I got on garden leave and started my personal/professional “reboot”. [Read More…]

2021-05-19

Watching Animaniacs can spur you on to learn

Apart from a slew of hilarious gags (many of which are indeed timeless) that appeal to young and old, the genius of Animaniacs lies in what you can learn from it – if you are curious and put in the work.

The first season of Animaniacs already features an impressive list of guest stars. These include (but are not limited to) Albert Einstein, Rasputin (no, not the song), Aristotle and Moby Dick. When I first started watching Animaniacs, I was excited about the sheer number of historical and cultural references the show featured. [Read More…]

2021-04-30

Our backyard took a couple of evolutionary leaps

Over the years, our backyard has gone from being a child’s playground to a next-level outdoor gym that everyone can enjoy. Oh, and we have bunnies.

Yes, bunnies. Their names are Wakame (female, brown and white) and Alfred (male, black and white) and we keep them in a hutch that my daughter and I built last September. [Read More…]

2021-01-01

Fairphone 3: Fair, ecological and fully, fully functional

The new range of Fairphones work great and will leave you feeling like you are doing something good for both the planet and society.

Often, when you buy a product with selling points like “sustainable” and “fair”, you have to sacrificed others like “usable” and “functional” and “attractive”. Luckily, that is not the case with the Fairphone 3. In short, the Android smartphone just works. [Read More…]

2020-07-14

What are those poems you see in German villages?

Go hiking in Germany, and you’ll eventually end up going through at least one small village. There, you will often see short(ish) poems painted on houses. Some sound like blessings for the houses, others like toasts. [Read More…]