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English

Visit to the Citybanan tunnel

Today I visited the Stockholm Underworld again, first time actually after leaving my position with SL, the local transport company here in Stockholm, and it was quite fun. Citybanan is a huge train tunnel being built straight cross Stockholm city. It is to make life easier for the multitude of commuter trains that runs south to north and back again, basically covering the northeast, southwest, nortwest and southeast of the city with fast commute on the normal rail.

This excursion was an open visit arranged by Trafikverket who are having the tunnels built and it was a pretty good walk in the underground. And of course I brought the camera. Here are some pictures.

Clicking on any picture allows you to comment and so on.

The tunnel mouth

Going down the ramp into the tunnel here. About 3 900 people had visited before we got to go down. It was a lot of people everywhere but it was fun. A lot of kids liked it as well, but we saw one that did not want to go down the tunnel, after queueing more than two hours…

Going down the ramp

More moist here than I am used to in the tunnels under stockholm, probably because it is in construction still. Water is used to bind dust among other things, or to cool when drilling and so on.

Hjullastare / Wheel Loader

A pretty standard Wheel Loader for mines and tunnels like this.

Taking pictures

This gives an idea on the conditions in the tunnel. 

Long shutter time

Another picture with longer exposure. 

Twin lift

Another machine parked for us to take pictures of.

The drilling rig

This got to be the coolest machine in the mine. The drilling rig. Feel that power.

Underground

Different parts looked quite different as well.

Alien Tunnel

Entrance from Solna.

The exit of the tunnel

And about to get out the other end.

English

This summers Rosé Wine

Gris Blanc became my favourite Rosé wine this summer. Lovely half dry and refreshing, light on the palate when cold and flowery when it has warmed up a little bit. Not too expensive either, I picked up a full box, six bottles for €50 which I think is a good price.

For Swedish readers: Systembolaget nr 70419

The wine comes from Gérard Bertrand who also makes some lovely red wines. Its from Languedoc-Roussillon and I hope that it will be continued next year as well.

It is the most colourless rosé wine I have ever seen, it looks like a white wine with just a hint of rose in it and it immediately became a favourite for me.

The grape is Grenache Gris which can be found locally in the Tutavel district in Languedoc-Roussillon and is probably a mutation of Grenache Noir. The grapes are picked by hand and immediately pressed. Fermentation happens at low temperatures in stainless steel tanks.

English

Travels

Back home again, it has been three weeks on the road with really bad internet connection in most cases. Can’t belive how lucky we Swedes are with our networks, beats anything I have seen for some time. Even in the five star hotels you can be lucky if you get 128 kbit/s (paid service) and the complimentary is even worse.

Anyway, it’s been great fun as well. I have visited Los Angeles for some site work on a rail tunnel there and then off the same evening to Mexico City for two starting up two rather big coverage projects in television studios and then some other projects as well – coming stuff.

Off from there to the CTIA show in New Orleans which was a great show, lots of interesting people and not to mention Bourbon Street which really appealed to my Jazz nerve directly.

From there I had a short stop at home and then off to Dubai for the TETRA World Congress, a really good show this year, I met several old friends there and it was great fun alltogether.

Now I am resting and chillin’ at home kicking it back, probably gonna take a full day to get all the bills in order after this trip!

Pictures to come a little later.

English

Lussebullen

Lussebullen by ichimusai
Lussebullen, a photo by ichimusai on Flickr.

Yesterday was a terrible day, we had to put Lussebullen one of our cats down. He was old and started getting lots of problems and he fell asleep quietly in our arms.

But the sadness, oh, the sadness. We miss him terribly and keep seeing him in the corner of our eyes whenever we turn around. It has been a long and hard day. It is strange how much you get attached.

Rest in peace Lussebullen.

Me and the cat "Lusse"

English

Irony Pinot Noir 2010

Irony Pinot Noir

One of the best Pinot Noirs I have had the pleasure to be aquainted with. I just had it with dinner and some strong cheese afterwards. The cheese where cave-stored Gruyere, a well done Brie, Saint Agure and a piece of Chistera.

The best cheese with the wine was the Gruyere followed by the Saint Agure which made lots of flavours come through.

The wine is recommended for lamb, bird and pig dishes. The taste has tones of oak, plum, ripe strawberries, coffee, mint and chocolate and a faint tone of leather and caramel.

All in all it is an excellent reason why Pinot Noir are by some considered the noblest of all the grapes. I also believe you can store this wine and it will be even greater. I have another bottle that I will bring down in the cellar to store for a while and decant in another five years perhaps.

English

The Egg Timer

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My wife has got me a wonderful gift. I hate boiling eggs because I like them well done, so to speak, and the times people say never really works. And it depends on the altitude you are at, in the cabin at 450 m the time is different to when we are in Stockholm at 30 m above sea level.

So she’s got this wonderful egg timer for me. It is a piece of resin plastic that you put in the pot where you have the eggs that need boiling. As the warmth reaches further and further into the timer it goes white. There is a scale that shows how hard boiled your egg now is and so it makes it very easy to keep track of it.

This is what it looks like when put in before boiling starts

This is what it looks like after a minute of boiling

Eggses are now well done!

Oh and as you can see, one of the eggs cracked but did not spill. Adding a bit of salt to the water helps and vinegar also works for coagulating any spill if the egg cracks. Just a tip.

English

Iceland Penis Museum

According to this article both British and German  persons and organisations have been trying to aquire one of the worlds most curious museums on Iceland. It is known as the Penis museum that is being moved to a new location in Iceland from Húsavik to Reykjavik, the Icelandic capital.

Apparantly this lead to some interest and someone in Germany has offered more than 30 million Icelandic crowns for the rather unique collection. Las year the museums collections of Iceland-dwelling land mammal penises got completed as the then 95-year old Pàli Arason donated his penis to the museum.

Several foreign men have also asked to have their genital remains donated to the museum, and the proprietor, one Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson, have declined being part of a talent TV show saying that it isn’t really a talent collecting phalli.

English

The new job

Two days in the new job we packed up and went to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It was a very long time since I was there the last time and that was a completely different thing. Now that I am back in Sweden again and in the office and have had some time to think I realize how much more fun it is to work in a small company than a huge gigant.

Barcelona was great, 20-21C in the middle of the day, a bit chilly at night but not enough to prevent us from going to some really nice restaurants and having a good time. Couple of nights out was pretty late but mostly we got back in time to attend the booth at the fair the next morning without to dark bags under the eyes.

The picture is from Sunday evening, when the exhibition was not open yet and we were putting everything together before the show opened Monday morning 9 am. It was hectic and full of life and we had a pretty great time, met lots of interesting people and quite a few from Sweden (the RF business here is not *that* big really) and it was all fun.

I’m at Deltanode Solutions if you don’t know. Hey, if you need RF repeaters or Fiber-DAS, give me a ring!

English, Swedish

Mindxpander – Triumphant Return

Vänner på Amigalistan släpper en ny platta och den tycker jag att ni kan lyssna på och köpa om den faller er i smaken. Sådär 30 spänn är inte för mycket för en skön  platta med space-synth på.

Friends from the Swedish Amiga List have released a new album and I think you should listen to it and then buy it and download… About €3.50 is not too much for this piece of work.

Have fun!