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.

Another full on week – getting started

4/10/2015

Lots of things needed doing this week – we moved the packaging from our basement to the new facility in Knittelfeld, dad and I drove to Ulm, Germany, to attend a one day chocolate seminar, the new computer was delivered which I had to set up and return to the shop as we have some hardware issues, hundreds of small tasks had to be done, meetings with bank, tax advisor, bookkeeper, looking for and applying for an apartment in Knittelfeld and besides all that, the normal day to day business involving thousands of pieces of chocolates and pralines. This is how we roll! :-)

The one day course in Ulm was fantastic – Pascal Brunstein, a chocolate and pastry genius from France (first Meilleur Ouvrir France Chocolatier from 1991, and 1993 World champion pastry chef) did some amazing chocolates, truffles, pralines and chocolate bars. I brought back heaps of outrageously great chocolates! Long drive but definitely worth it! Ulm, the German town where the course was held, is quite beautiful too. My dad was great - he took it upon him to cut up the two interpretations of a “Sachertorte” by another world class pastry chef and hand it out to all the participants of the course. The only difference of these cakes was that one made with highest quality Domori chocolate, the other one just normal chocolate. I was able to taste and tell the difference and so were several other people there.

The master at work - the French tricolore on his collar is for him being Meilleur Ouvrir France Chocolatier

Interesting presentation of chocolates

Dad cutting cakes

Interesting interpretation of a Sacher torte - totally different than the original, but very tasty (and better than the one that I had in Hotel Sacher in Innsbruck by a million light-years)

A sculpture made of sugar - unbelievable

Some of the stuff Pascal made over the course of the day

Some of the stuff Pascal made over the course of the day

 

Downton Ulm - an Apollo camper (and I've seen a large number on them on my trip around Australia) on display!

The Ulmer Muenster - the highest church in the world, stunning 161.5 meters!

Found an apartment in Knittelfeld about a kilometer away from our shop, nice and sunny and currently being renovated. Should be able to move in by 1 November 2015. Yeah.

The great thing about my current occupation, beside a super steep learning curve, is that I can interact with so many positive people that are appreciative of the good and tasty things in life. Some of our clients sell many different specialties from the region – organic produce from farmers nearby, cured game meats, awesome cheeses, and a lot more. One of them, Hofladen Herk, have free range chicken eggs that are just amazing. The chicken have huge pastures, enjoy the sunshine, grass, fresh earthworms and whatever else they find out there – and the eggs they produce are just delicious.

A vending machine outside the actual shop so that you can get free range eggs and organic milk 24/7

On top of all that, harvesting fresh produce from our own garden is just a blast. The salad, tomatoes, capsicum, raspberries and all the other vegetables have so much taste, my taste buds are loving it! This is what I have missed for many years!

Fresh from our garden!

Many more things to do though, and we're getting on a critical time-line to open punctually beginning of November, getting business processes in order to survive the onslaught called Christmas season.

St. Nikolaus is coming soon to the people - already arrived in our basement though!

Some of dad's own creation, the famous Zirbenkugel (the green one - the one we produce most of with awesome Zirbenschnaps), Steirische Koestlichkeiten (5 different local specialities crafted into filled chocolate balls!) and Feinschmecker Kugeln (5 different filled chocolate balls without alcohol)

Roasted pumpkin seeds

Chocolates with cranberries, dark chocolate crisps and goji berries

One of my favorites - dark chocolate with cranberries

All 9 types - the bottom one with roasted pumpkin seeds dodged the photo

On the reading front I've started and finished Jesse Berings book 'Perv – The sexual deviantin all of us' on the train rides in Germany – a very insightful book about human sexuality, different orientations and a review of academic literature. Besides a lot of information and the most interesting perversions that you couldn't believe exist, it is nicely written, entertaining and flows really well. Was hard to put the book down at times to change trains.

I've also continued reading Benjamin Franklin's autobiography – great read and it shows how much the English spelling and the use of words have changed over the last 250 years. English school teachers would have crunched through many red pens to bring that one up the current spelling rules!

I've also started with Daniele Bolelli's – On the warriors path. Daniele Bolelli is an Italian-born writer, martial artist, university professor, and podcaster whom I've already mentioned a couple of times on the blog. The first few chapters were awesome, looking forward to continue reading it. Deeply philosophical but on an understandable level for people with an open mind, awareness and martial artists. Like his podcast, it the book is entertaining, thought provoking and inspiring at the same time.

Daniele - an awesome teacher who even answered my emails

Last weekend we had a  family reunion celebrating my return to Austria. I finally met little Lisa, my brothers cute little girl, who was born just after me returning to Australia middle of the year. We met up at a local Buschenschank - that's how the locals eat, only the best made fresh on the premises surrounded by vineyards. Have a good one!