buen8 / wall
26 photos
Tulips in our garden decided it's time to blossom.
It's a long, long way till we have a bird- and insect-friendly garden. But this simple and cheap bird feeder is a modest first step towards this noble goal.
Malene brought me these socks from London, and they sum up how I'm feeling about work pretty nicely.
I've been feeling a bit down, but thankfully the weather improved and I could do some gardening — the best way to lift my spirits.
ME: I can't imagine it can get any worse than the 12m/s winds we had today. /checks forecast for tomorrow FUCKING HELL!
Ahhh, the joy of being a freelancer. You get up in the morning, and spend hours researching, compiling, 3D printing... what exactly? A [Bongo Cat](https://makerworld.com/en/models/1654522-bongo-cat-mini-monitor-animated-esp32-display#profileId-1749680). Why? Because why the heck not?
That was actually a pretty convincing attempt at Bock beer. Then again, it was brewed with German hops, so no surprises there.
Immortal Pizza Alas, it didn't live up to its name. The business is very much dead, and the sign says "TO LET".
I spent this morning working on the cabinet. It turned out that wood filler is all but impossible to apply evenly. But the result is good enough for me (no one would see it anyway). The most important thing it stops further damage. Also, the wood filler tube says "Brown color". Some needs to have their eyes checked.
From the "I snatched victory from the jaws of defeat" department: Naively, I thought I could simply replace regular flour with whole-corn flour. I set out to bake another batch of bread rolls, but this time with whole-corn flour. I mixed everything, but to my horror, the mixture looked more like soggy porridge than sticky dough. To solve the problem, I added two handfuls of regular flour, hoping this would make the mixture more dough-like. Surprisingly, it worked! Next time, I should probably use a 50/50 mix, though.
This cabinet is a perfect metaphor for our house. We found the cabinet in our local charity shop. It was old, relatively cheap, and it looked decent. There were a few issues, but nothing that required too much work. Or so we thought. When I started cleaning it, I discovered that the rear panel was loose because, apparently, someone had tried to pry it open using brute force (vandals!) and torn it from the attaching clips. The veneer on the right side of the cabinet is chipping away at an alarming rate, and I need to get wood filler to fix that before the problem gets worse. One of the shelves has visible stains that I’d like to mask. So now I also need to get special oil for that. In other words, as with our house, I need to put some work into the cabinet before I can use it. On the bright side, I felt unexpected pleasure working on the cabinet. I guess I can see myself in it: we’re both old and worse for wear. But with a little bit of TLC, there is still useful life left in us.
Bumblebees are already hard at work in our garden.
Today I've discovered that there is no better way to start the day than baking bread. I used [this recipe](https://www.leckerschmecker.me/daenische-haferflockenbroetchen-a-d-kneten/63743511508212) to bake bread rolls this morning.
My first ever loaf of bread. It's actually better than I was expecting from my first attempt at baking bread.
Oxfam in Frankfurt am Main was where we stocked up on books. We didn't expect to find a similar -- let alone better -- alternative to it in Denmark, and definitely not in Bindslev. But the local _Blå Kors_ surprised us in the most positive way. Not only do they have shelves upon shelves of books, but the books there are also way cheaper. To wit: the books in the attached photo cost us around €13.
First signs of spring in our garden.
Today, we biked 6km to the nearest place worthy of being called a town. A bike tour through a desolate landscape, gray weather, and strong gusty headwind -- I hated every fucking second of it. On the bright side, I'd like to revise my previous statement regarding finding good bread in DK. We've found a bakery that has really good bread at reasonable (by Danish standards, that is) prices. (OK, it's still not quite as good as German bread, but beggars can't be choosers).
One of the first things we did when we moved in was to order a washing machine, a dryer, and an induction stove. All Bosch, because we want to support the German economy. I'm quite fascinated by the washing machine: it has so many genuinely useful features, and its display appeals to my inner geek.
First modest success It's hard to describe how filthy and disgusting a ventilation hatch in the bathroom was. I thought I could easily replace it with a newer one, but it turned out that the modern standard-size hatch doesn't fit the older frame. After wasting hours trying to figure out how to fit the hatch into the frame, I decided to just 3D print my own design. As my 3D printer can't handle larger prints, I had to split the design into several parts, and then glue them together. Not the most elegant solution, but it will do for now.
The moving company was way behind the schedule, so instead of afternoon, they arrived at 22:10. Chatty and super friendly movers unloaded our entire household in 75 minutes flat. Welcome to our chaos!
Our household is still somewhere around Hamburg, but we already have internet and red wine in our new house. Priorities!
Welcome to Northern Jutland!
Arrived to Aalborg Airport. This house is jumping.
I swear we're not trying to dispose of a body. It's our cactus. That's the story we're sticking to, anyway.
Current progress
It's still not a foodie blog... ... but we stumbled upon a Korean street food joint, and we had to try Korean corn dogs. They taste exactly how they look--totally over the top.