Another busy and very diverse week

11/10/2015

Another busy and very diverse week – I guess that is the pleasure of working in a small company.

From delivering chocolates, to designing and printing new labels for an awesome chocolate with Jamila coffee, from having tradesmen in the new shop to fix things, from planning the interior design of the shop to offering products for Christmas to companies in which I know people. Apart from that I did two short training courses, one about food labeling (all these rules from the EU!) and one on hygiene in regards to food. Both of them were conducted by a state food and hygiene inspector. Some of this stuff is quite onerous. Also joined the annual meeting of the Meisterwelten, a marketing cooperation of many different companies with master tradesmen. Quite interesting to talk to other entrepreneurs – met some great people there.

I've finished reading Daniele Bolelli's - On the warriors path. Great book which I can totally recommend to anybody interested in pursuing growth and perfection in their own life and people interested in martial arts. I intend to give it to Gunther next week to read, he is a second degree black belt in karate and the trainer at our local karate school. I also read a translation of the short book called 'The book of fiverings (Go Rin No Sho)' by Miyamoto Musashi, written around 1645. Quite interesting to read too, very much of a 'no-nonsense' approach to martial arts, both in duels and battles. Miyamoto was probably one of the most dangerous and efficient swordsman in his times, killing over 60 master swordsmen in duels with this two bladed technique. Again, very interesting book which is still being studied today, even by management.

Started to get back into sports again – rejoining my old table tennis sports club (and straight away beating some of the people playing there despite me not playing much for 6 years), going for runs (hell it hurts when you start again after a long break!) and did a karate training in my home town only to find out how stiff and slow I got by not doing any martial arts in 10 months. All of them were great and I was sore every morning after the training – a good sign! The latest run today was the first one in cold rain since ages. Luckily Christine pushed to go running despite the rain – I'm not sure if I would have gone on my own. As that was the third run in the last 8 days, I could see my form improve already a bit.

We visited a small wool manufacturing farm yesterday as part of mum's birthday present. Quite interesting to see how sheep wool is manually being made into various items. As part of the little tour we made a key ring pendant using a felting technique.

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There are more than 54000 sheep held in my state in Austria, ranging from wool sheep to meat sheep, from sheep that like flat lands to the ones that can be up in the mountains (in summer!)

Felted lamp shades

The name of the place is 'Wollgenuss' - roughly translated into 'wool pleasure/enjoyment'

Little Lisa

My sister and grandma spinning some sheep yarn

Colorful sheep wool, which we used for the felting

Afterwards the whole family went for lunch at a typical rural village restaurant and afterwards we ate a super tasty birthday cake, professionally made by dad, because of my sisters birthday earlier this week. Great to spend some time with all of them, including the two little ones!

I love dad's handwriting, especially in chocolate on a cake!

Lorenz and the birthday cake

During this week I got confirmation that the apartment that I intend to rent which is currently being renovated should be completed by beginning of November. Fingers crossed!

Furthermore I sold my camper van in Australia, thanks to Lucille's help by showing it to a nice couple from Albany. Great to see it go to a couple that will enjoy traveling with it too and despite having to drop the price, I'm relieved to have it sold and hence off my books.