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.

Next Project is to MAME

I just got delivery of real arcade machine parts so I can build a 70s arcade machine game using the Rasperry  Pi and MAME.

Arcade bits assembled for testing

Dreaming and the Raspberry Pi

I took delivery of my new Rasperry Pi today.

My new Raspberry Pi2

The raspberry Pi is a very basic computer on a credit card sized circuit board. It was created by an organisation aimed at providing cheap and basic computer fundamentals training to all but particularly school kids. Its inception was spurred by tertiary institutions realising that coding skills/behaviours are lacking something compared  to those in people that grew up during the evolution of computers think 80s. The thinking being that the removal from this basic machine understanding has a cost.

I bumped into this and another such device the Audrino, through my exposure to the university research projects where these devices are popular in prototyping all manner of things. It rekindle so many fond memories of pouring over the latest copies of Electronics Australia or Electronics Today International when I should have been in class. I dreamt of owning such machines as the Mini Scamp, Dream6800, RCA COSMAC VIP, DSE Super 80, SinclareZX80, Micro Bee etc but couldn't afford them so just studied their circuit boards and schematics. (sorry got a bit carried away with my memories there)

The original Dream. can you remember this picture from the EA artical? I can

I thought going back to some of these basics might inspire me so I ordered the Raspberry Pi 2 and am now enjoying learning a bit of Linux and Python. I feel compelled to get back to breadboaring and controlling stuff if only to relive those early child hood feelings of exploration and excitement. Might have to drag out my copy of  "Sole of a new machine" also.

OS installed and ready for action

Summer in Denmark

Its summer here in Denmark although you wouldn't know it. We have had some gloriously sunny days but today is not one of them so no big adventures just little ones. Like, out with the camera and off to the coffee shop via  slotssøen (The castle lake)

Summer in Denmark

Frisør next door to my fav kaffe hus (frisør = Hairdresser)

Hard wired Daisys - Silkaborg

After much net surfing I finally deciphered the Garmin turn by turn route planning process. I have  now loaded my favourite twisty ride to date from several sources and my unreliable memory.

The sun was out so I headed north to test it. Yippee It worked perfectly and I rediscovered the incredible ride I found about a month ago but thought I'd lost forever. To celebrate I stopped in Silkeborg for a coffee. Mmmm very average latte for $8 AUD this coffee situation is dire

Silkeborg coffee stop

The route now securely stored in GPS

Børn to Grill

Finally the BBQ is set.

After lugging my rather expensive and very cool BBQ all the way from OZ it was a little disheartening to find all the gas fittings etc were wrong. So no BBQs or as they say here "grills"

It has taken a few weeks to suss this out but after many trips to hardware stores, caravan shops and servos I have been directed to a gas specialist shop about 35k away in Haderslev. So onto the Beemer and south to the industrivej (every town seems to have an Industrivej - street name meaning industry st) in Haderslev to find the Kosan gas centre. Well the guy couldn't have been more helpful. We spent some time trying to find correctly threaded adaptors with no success. We did however confirm that my regulator was equivalently spec'd to the DK ones. Finally we chopped off my old regulator and headed into kitchen to find some dish washing liquid and hot water to force fit the Aus tube onto a DK regulator. Success. After some testing and many hints on how to find cheaper gas and bottles across the boarder in Germany (remember this guy works for the gas company) I was riding north to Kolding.

Now for a gas bottle. This is another expensive step as the bottles here are very light weight fibreglass and see through so cost about $150AUD. Every service station or hardware person I talked to chuckled and quipped when I asked about buying the first bottle. At least after the initial reaming it's the same process as in OZ ie exchange for a full one  at any servo or hardware store for about $28AUD.

Now with the full bottle strapped to the back seat of the Beemer and the hardware guy giving me "nice knowing you" looks whilst asking if I had far to travel, I rode home for install and steaks.

BBQ post transplant

Chasing Daiseys - Fyn Helnæs

Today we decided to head to Fyn the central main island of Denmark. We bypassed the pulled pork burger coffee stop in the hope that a suitable coffee stop later in the day.

The destination today was Helnæs Light house. A tiny light house that sits on a tiny spit of land on the south west of Fyn. The round trip is only about 250km but with 80km/hr limits on most roads and 50km/hr in towns, of which there are shit loads, progress is slower than one perceives.

The Route

The ride out was pretty bloody great with several daisy diversions to some little country roads, large stately farm houses and tree covered lanes. Finally as we reached Helnæs the land fell away leaving only a little strip to access the island and we were suddenly surrounded by sea. The island itself was very small but had some nice narrow roads which eventually lead to the light house where we stopped to take in the scenery which today included included some tall ships rounding the point and of course get a coffee. Or so we thought, you guessed it in spite of the loads of visitors all walking around and taking in the scenery which included some tall ships rounding the point not a bloody cafe in sight. So we saddled up and took a more direct route back to Kolding for coffee and sustenance at my favourite cafe.

The spit of land to  Helnæs

Helnæs Light House

When in Denmark

Finally tightened up the Papillionaire town bike and pumped up the tires for her maiden voyage into town for a coffee. Boy these cobbles are bumpy. Now I know exactly how the Paris - Roubaix riders feel (apart from the whole elite athlete thing, 100s of Kms, excellent diet, training, speeds of 60kph etc that is)

Papillionaire outside Grev Axel Cafe Kolding

Danish 101 - The Summer House

Under Danish law you are only allowed to own one untenanted house, but you are allowed one "Summer house". Think Ozzie beach shack, UK holiday cottage or NZ Batch these are usually situated somewhere on the coast and usually small. The catch is you are not allowed to officially live in it and are only allowed to stay during the six months of summer. 

You can own other properties but they must be rented ie they are considered business investments. As far as I can fathom its basically designed to ensure rich bastards don't have five huge houses sitting idle and people with no home. It also promotes the time with family and take a real holiday theme by making a small (some are log cabin sized) holiday house more affordable.

Cool idea

Windscreen test

The sun is out and I'm over my man flu or more accurately Ebola Lite. Time to dust off the Beemer and tests this windscreen.

The route was a test of my ability to program my GPS with a downloaded route of the Daisey Route. I loaded the section I wanted to follow pressed go and headed north to Århus. The ride followed freeways at 110 and 130kph so gave a good test of the screen. 

And the results? Well it certainly takes the presume off the body but it buffets my helmet around and the once noiseless Scubert C3 now is drumming if I open the vents. The vibration is similar to my R1200GS stock screen when upright with the result being that my eyes jitter for an hour or so after the ride as my brain has got used to the vibration and compensated. For me (6 foot with longish torso) the design is may be 2 inches too tall and/or the rake is too steep. The turbulent zone is too deep at about 20cm when it hits the rider. The still zone is fine and the laminar zone is quite. Swept back screens tend to reduce the turbulent zone depth and allow laminar flow over helmet and have a high still zone, they do however provide higher pressure in where the thinner turbulent zone hits the rider (hopefully at shoulder height).

I'll keep it going for a bit before I piff it or take the jigsaw to it as removing it is too much hassle. Lets see how I adap. I may try the power bronze it looks like it is swept back more and also looks easier to trim down if needed.

The ride? Well more manual Daisey chasing I'm afraid as the GPS route stopped giving directions just after Århus (yes I know a first world problem) . I lost the route and road aimlessly through suburbs until I spotted a fellow motorcyclist that I hoped was heading somewhere nice. Sure enough, a daisey appeared, so for a short while nice curves at 80 following the coast northwards through villages and summer house areas. It even took me past the Rosenholm Slots.

Rosenholm Slots

This didn't last too long as I encountered the "Margueritruten special" an unmarked T intersection. Taking the wrong turn lead to some nice roads but mostly less desirable ones that didn't resolve to anything useful. I had run out of puff and needed coffee so hit the home button on the GPS and zoomed back to Kolding. 

On this coffee  thing. Denmark has many small villages but their adoption of the cafe culture and espresso machines is immature at best. So the destination coffee shop ride list is empty so far. You can go all day and not pass a cafe.

Good to be back on the Beemer.

New Screen

Took delivery of my new Wunderlich touring screen for the F700GS today. Took about 1 hour to install as tollerances were quite exact and headlight needed to be removed and re aligned. You can see result for your self but I'm a little concerned it maybe too large and/or not raked enough rearward. It certainly looks the part and purpose made for this Beemer. It gives the bike an overall bigger GS look. Now for a test ride.

Original

Wunderlich

Original

Wunderlich

Well Done

As in cooked.

Just got back from our first motorcycle tour on the new beemers in heat wave conditions for Europe ie 36deg here's the route.

Copenhagen

Today we rode north to Rostock at the top of Germany where we took a ferry across to Denmark and rode north to Copenhagen to visit my friends Ange Tim and Ella who were staying there for a week.

The ride was pleasant if not exciting and the ferry trip was 2 hours so I managed a little kip on the deck in the sun. By the evening we had arrived in Copenhagen and met up with my friends at the little apartment they had rented.

The next day (hot again) we decided to take the train north and visit the Louisiana Gallery that had an African exhibition on the go.  Louisiana is a spectacular gallery set within the rolling grounds of its sculpture park  featuring sculptures of Max Ernst, Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Jean Dubbufet and Joan Miró. All of this overlooks the coast with glimpses of Sweden on the far shore. This is a must see if you come to Copenhagen

We return to Copenhagen and decide that we had not had a good enough catch up so we stayed another night in the sweltering heat and I made nachos for all for dinner.

Next morning we headed out for the 3 hour motorway ride back to Kolding so Gerty could get to work.

Waiting for ferry to dock

Dog toilet on the ferry WTF

Louisiana Art Gallery

Ang Tim and Ella at Louisiana (Thats Sweden on the horizon)

The gang Just before goodbyes

Potsdam

 

We arrived at Potsdam and checked in to a wonderful hotel on the river just across from the University. 

As the sun lowered and the summer river swimmers had retired we wandered down the avenue  to find a restaurant. We wandered in an took a seat at a packed street restaurant only to find they served a  eye fillet steak with shaved truffle. This was one of the best steaks I have ever eaten and that include the Tassie Strahan hotels masterpiece.  Day two we toured the University's Human Interaction Design school and labs. Some really cool research going on and some great workshop/maker/hacker/fab Lab  set ups.

Day 3 was reserved for a visit to San Soucci Palace. I have visited this once before but its grounds and its situation is brilliant. This time we were lucky enough to tour the palace. These places always remind me of how small people were before improved diet and health caused a growth spurt. I expect I could handle the lifestyle of the privileged but hate to think of the middle and lower classes' plight.

We also had a formal duty here which was to visit the Hasso - Plattner institute in Potsdam University. We met with a colleague of Gertys, Patrick who is the Professor of computer science and chair of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Lab. He took us on a tour of the facilities and got to see some incredible research. See some of the research here I especially liked the "Haptic Turk" and the "Protopiper", brilliant.

The visited ended with Danielle giving a lecture to an undergrad engineer class. This certainly disturbed some of the students (Danielle would say constructively disrupted) and gave them a good shake up.

Oh, and one of my favourites is that lots of places in Europe seem to have robotic lawnmowers, and the one at the uni is priceless see below.

 

The Robot Lawn Mower

View from the hotel balcony

Good Lady Wilde outside our room in Potsdam

Sanssouci  Palace

Cant visit the palace without taking this one

Check this mini bar treat. A giant pickle in a can

Best steak in a long time. Fillet with red wine and some berry goop, topped with shaved truffle. Yep I ate the potatoes very un paleo

Weimar and Bauhaus

After much 160km-h autobahnstorming we  arived late in the afternoon in Weimar. A cute little town with a rich history. We checked into a boutique hotel and quickly got out of our sticky )40deg today= bike gear and sat on the roof top terrace for a bit before heading out to the town square for a feed and a well earned beer.

The reason for our visit was that the professor had to give a lecture at the original and famous Bauhaus University. We were treated to a tour of the facilities by one of the professors collegues. Not a pretty campus compared to some but it had a great feel. The history of the Bauhaus movement is well documented and a quick wiki seasrch will give you the details but for now I'll give you my take away.

It was an artistic movement between 1919 and 1935 that seemed to want to return function to form as a priority driven also by the modernism movement. Students of the movement we first grounded deeply in building things or "Making" in todays terms. This meant all students were first taught the trades inc carpetry, metal work, ceramics etc etc etc before perrsuing their "Art". Hitler put an ewnd to the movement as he saw it as a threat as too left wing and intelectual.

I was blown away by the workshops at the uni. Huge wood, metal, ceramic, plastics etc workshops as well as the more common making environments of today 3D printing, laser cutting and arduinos.

I loved the place. you may find the old schools output a bit harsh. but you can see its influence on Industrial design, architechure, and art today. The Maker culture of today would love it.

The Professors Billing

The original Bauhaus Mark

Rooftop terrace at our hotel sans G&T

A lazy Rodan lying around in the foyer