New York Tour

The good lady Wilde was on a world wide work trip that, amongst other places, put her in New York for 5 nights. So I purchaes a relativley (AUS dollar is crap at the moment) cheap ticket and off I went.

Having never been to the US I figured NYC was a good place to start. However, I'm not normaly a big city kind of traveller and my first preference for the US or any country is the natural wonders a place has to offer. 

Well, New York was a real blast. A cultural and sensory assault in a nice way. Im not sure I'd like to live there but what a place to visit (regularly).

Day 1 

I awoke to traffic noise, sirens, construction noise. Sleep was not an option with so much to see, just as well as the Hotel we were staying in was the worst I've ever experienced. I wont go into it but make sure you remove the Hotel Pennsylvania (Read rat and roach) from any future plans. Apart from being central its is appalling on all levels and not cheap.

Any way to day started a walk to Grand central for Bagel + cream cheese and coffee whilst watching the ants going about their business in this spectacular building. From there I walked to the UN, visited a tiny little garden sponsored by Catherine Hepburn, up to Central park including the first Apple store then the full length of the park and back to the Guggenheim.

WTF the G was closed so much for the city that never sleeps. So back I walked to the Hotel

16km, 3 blisters and 200 photos, priceless

Grand central

Just a wee peek at the Chrysler building

UN

Catherine Hepburns Seat in the Catherine Hepburn garden

The first Sotre

Central Park

West side from across central park

Saki bar in SOHO

Fifth ave

Times square + road works

No idea

From the long island ferry

Fulton subway station roof

World trade center memorial

World trade center memorial

World trade center tower

World trade center memorial

World trade center memorial

Rockerfeller centre ice rink

Flatiron building

Brooklyn Bridge an Engineers wet dream

Picaso sculpture exhibition at MOMA

Brooklyn - GENSPACE - BIOFABRICATE 2015 WORKSHOPS My my silk dyed by bacteria

Emipre state and lower Manhattan from the Roc

Manhattan Bridge

23rd st Subway

View sth from the Roc

Stranger - Subway

Home Built

I feel slightly Dansk now that I've mastered the art of pulled pork. A Finish friend of ours, Maryja, dropped in for a visit last night and we demolished this and a bottle of red.

Said Pulled Pork

Wee Down Under

My mate Leasky has a new toy.

After years of Triumph America joy Leasky has decided to join the adventure touring clan with a bright shinny new WeeStrom.

Check it out.

Leaskys New Toy

I look forward to our annual Tassie trip next summer where we can test its metal (and rubber) on the best roads in the world. Big claim, I know but don't trust me see MCNs reviewbelow

Lego Loop Suffers Snail Infestation

The weather was glorious today. Sun and clear blue Danish sky's providing a vivid contrast to the fluttering Dannebrog (Danish Flag) atop Koldinghus. I've got the 100km Lego loop wired now. Out and back to Billund with a coffee stop.

So out came the beemers. The ride was almost perfect except for the odd car ruining some of the better curves.

We stopped at what always looks like the only shop in Billund, the bakery. The coffee was passable but the snegl (snail) pastry was bloody superb. Yeah yeah its not paleo but I thought it would be silly not to have at least one Danish pastry whilst in Denmark. Yes, Theo I've weakened

Said Snegl

Lego Loop produces espresso but look out for the tractors

Sunshine, blue skys and a new 100km loop programed in the GPS.

Last night I had strung together a few of the roads I discovered yesterday into a neat little 100k ride with heaps of twisty roads and saved this as a route in the GPS.

Todays ride was brilliant. Tiny rural roads and several faster B roads with very few straight bits or towns. I even had the opportunity to do some off road although this was not by choice.

I was riding along behind a large tractor on a lane and a half wide country road. I had been behind him for a few hundred meters  and could see the farmers face in the tractors huge mirrors. H ahd moved the right had side of the road continuing this way for some time providing ample passing room. So I slowly started to pass him.  As soon as I was in line with him he decide the field looked inviting and veered left into me. My only choice was to head into the fresly ploughed field (read bog) to check out what he was so eger to see.

Heart pounding and still upright I was OK but now truely bogged with my street oriented tires spinning uselessly in the mud. The farmer jumped out and walked over and started babbling in Danish. I understood the appology word but the rest was incomprehensible due to my ear plugs, helmet and weak grip on the laguage. I'm pretty sure it was the danish rendition of that timeless clasic "Sorry mate I didnt See you". Anyway, the framer gave me a push out and I was on my way again albeit with a little slice of Denmarks finest agricultural land coating my engine.

I was surprisingly unphased by the whole thing largely due to the extremely low speed that it all took place. I didnt let it ruin my enjoyment of the remainder of the ride to Billund.

Billund is the home of lego .. and pretty much nothing else. The town seems to be here for Lego and its airport. Its main street (Centrum) is small really small but it did have a bakery that served espresso. I ordered a latte with my now standard request that they use half the milk they were intending to use and sat out side to enjoy the sun. The late arrived still having twice the milk of an Australian latte but hey, it wasnt bad. I'll definitiely come here again but with frimer instructions to the staff.

After refreshements I rode back to Kolding via more great roads some retraced from the outward journey.

Great Day

Lego Loop

A bakery with OK coffee, bloody miracle

First Light

Sunny today after a very average weather for some time so took the GS out to test the new Powebronze screen. I rode around aimlessly for a while but eventually ended up finding some pretty good (for Denmark) new curves between Kolding and Billund (Lego Headquarters). I´ll include these in a new GPS route tonight.

The screen, Well its better than the wunderlich in that there is no drumming from the chin vent in my ultra quiet Schuberth helmet. The air stream now lands just at shoulder height due to the comparatively increase rake of the screen. It would be even quieter if the top were say 4cm shorter and/or raked even further back, a mod I will consider in the future. All in all its great, it looks better and is much quieter than the Wundelich with only a little extra turbulence sneaking around at waist and shoulder level.

Looks like tomorrows forecast is good so I'll test ride of my new Lego loop tomorrow and see if all the Lego money has cause an espresso vendor to brave it and make real coffee.

Wet and Wild(ish)

Today looked like the days of rain and or visitors were finally clearing. So I was poised for a ride. Alas although it seems clearing this afternoon the wind is horrible.

Off I trotted to my coffee house for Kaffe and cryptic. When I arrived I found a beer tasting festival in the Town square that had been going since 6pm yesterday. Beer stalls for tasting, Danish/Irish bands on stage and of course rain.

The Danes don't let the rain come between them and beer or for that matter anything. Its kinda nice as they are always up for any out door activities or events regardless of weather. Just as well as the Kommune seems to have arranged events almost every week.

Anyway I had a couple of coffees and then hung around listening to the bands in the rain. I think the following sums it up.

Beer waggon taking punters from tasting to tasting

Here's hoping for a ride tomorrow where I can also try out my new screen.

New Screen

I think I mentioned the screen I bought for the GS was causing buffeting. Well to day I took delivery of a new  Powerbronze tall screen and as the weather was again very average I installed it today.

It certainly looks better than the Wunderlich. It's shape seems to fit the combination of curved and angular lines of the F700GS. It is also more swept back, curved and looks less door like. Hopefully it will spill air onto shoulders and leave the helmet in cleaner air.

On the down side it is not as wide and it uses existing 4 mounting bolts. So it looks as though it will wobble more than the Wuderlich which had an extra support mount.

Keen for some fine weather to try it out.

A little slice of Australia

I have been training my favourite coffee shop in the art of the typical Aussie burger.

They make great and tasty burgers here but I miss the simple and glutenous pleasure of the Aussie burger with the lot. Today he chef, Agnes,  has cracked it.

We have been experimenting over the recent weeks slowly converting one of their burgers into the Aussie burger by adding and subtracting various ingredients. The first challenge was convincing them to include pineapple, then egg but they slowly came around. The bigger challenge was the inclusion of Rølbeder (Beetroot) pronounced "rrolllbelller". The Danes are not that big on beetroot so it has taken some time to convince them. I ended up just nipping out to the supermarket and buying it myself.

The final trick was to simplify. Most of their burgers have lots of different and shredded ingredients this is just slabs of simple stuff.

See the finished product below. It was glorious and the Grev Axel crew loved it especially the simple colourful layers. This will likely become part of the menu along with replacing  "god dag" with "ooroo" as the standard farewell to customers.

Aussie Burger with the lot ( Paleoish, as in excuse the cheese)

Prototype Hits the Slotssøvejen Arcade

I now have a SDU (Syddansk Universitet) Gæst ID card and key to the Uni workshops. Now I can use all the equipment (Laser cutters, 3D printers, Wood and electronic shops) for both my projects and helping out who ever is making at the time. Most of the time is spent fixing the MakerBot T18 printer (big one in the corner) Its rubbish, if your looking for one look elsewhere.

3D Printers and lazzer cutter

Electronics

Wood and Metal

To acquaint myself with the wood shop I created my prototype Arcade interface old school style as the laser cutters lens was buggered.

Controller prototype (Scramble featured with Mac as screen and Raspberry Pi as MAME Machine)

I'm enjoying this nerding up business. But I fear that my Danish classes that start tomorrow will now dominate.

Sprogskolen - Hjælpe mig

In Australia all our sprogs(kids) go to school, so what's so special about this one.

Well Sprog = Language in Dansk. So yes I'm off to language school to attempt to learn Danish.

In Denmark it is law that all Kommune(local governments) provide danish lesson to residents for free. So this is where the taxes go. So i emailed the school and set up a preliminary interview where they enrolled me in the stream (No3) designed for those with second language already and/or those with degrees. My class size is about 10 students to one teacher and classes run from 8am to 1:30 pm Mon, Thu and Fri. Here goes.

Its been about 25 years since I've been in  a real class room (endless corporate and business type training aside) and its is somewhat daunting. It is my first day but its the third day for my class mates as I enrolled late. Missing two days was a bit of a pest as I was immediately bombarded with Danish and when I questioned or just looked as if I was in pain the teacher would explain "don't worry we  covered pronunciation the other day" same for vowels, numbers, days of the week etc.

What have I got myself into? out of the six hours on day one i think I was enthusiastic for about 30 mins. We switch between Grammar, pronunciation, reading , speaking, writing with such speed that I'm struggling. The bits where I felt enthusiastic were when I realised I knew more than some of my class mates from having spent some time on Duo Lingo (an ipad app for learning danish and other languages). I found out the the teachers all recommend this app as it is a very simple way to learn without any formality.

The grammar parts are interesting but difficult for those of us (ie Australians) that were never taught the language and terms of grammar (ie possessive, third personal, genitive, conjugation etc etc).. The Australian education departments have a lot to answer for deciding to exclude this. It makes learning other languages harder. I suspect the reason for this exclusion its just curriculum change for the sake of it just to keep the academics and bureaucrats feeling in work and feeling important. After all if there was not constant change of approach and opinion what would they do? Or possibly more likely none of the teachers understood it so they thought "lets get rid of it" and now its impossible to go back as even the teachers haven't been taught it.

Oh and the coffee is so bad at the school Kanteen that many go across the road to the Servo (Petrol satation) for coffee, WTF.

god aften

ROMiniscing

All this tinkering has got me misty for the late 70s machines of my child hood. I thought I'd share my timeline for those of you for whom this may resonate.

It all started with pulling machines apart at every opportunity and a fascination with my fathers Odhner mechanical adding machine.

My first electronic project the crystal radio

Then I saved up enough for a modular kit from my piece work paper route

The first micro computer I coveted the mini scamp, a binary input machine.

Next fascination was the Drean 6800, a hex machine code input machine with TV screen RF connection

RCA COSMAC, this wasnt easily available in OZ  but had a cool case and was quite polished

It was about now that a rich bastard brought along a Trash80 to CUBs (baby scouts in OZ) to show off. This was a polished beast compared to the machines I had been looking at. But it certainly had me browsing the catalogues and stores.

The Sinclair really wanted one of these. I think it was Daid Reid electronics in York st Sydney that had these

Then the Dick Smith Super 80 single board Z80 machine

The real dream the Microbee I was very jealous of my best friend James who had one of these and built his own language and compiler. Tape drives were the storage of the day.

The first computer I actually owner IBMXT 8086. Bought this in 3rd year Uni during engineering degree. I was was fortunate that my sister worked for an IBM sales company so I got this with Colour screen and whopping 10MD hard drive for $1500 AUD. This was better that the machines at uni.