tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47504798643655677282024-03-14T04:02:48.685+02:00DDP on tourObservations of board games, entrepreneurship and family life on the road. What happens when a family and a company will spend a year all-around Europe participating in game fairs and conventions, living in a caravan.Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-61619602808984642172019-02-28T22:38:00.001+02:002019-02-28T22:38:37.407+02:00The Dazzling Land of Poetry<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmS5EqDeVYKouTLXRVfMNE_twJNccjtm7xkfuEDbi6Ed4WoWyriuzR2fZtqmIyEkBLCuwegSVEkRCJIDjTXAo_60idMdB1TmZH7G21uGahITJTqNx_9NYJoKGNPkoq1A7AetJpF52jApLG/s1600/DSC_3378.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1040" data-original-width="1600" height="129" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmS5EqDeVYKouTLXRVfMNE_twJNccjtm7xkfuEDbi6Ed4WoWyriuzR2fZtqmIyEkBLCuwegSVEkRCJIDjTXAo_60idMdB1TmZH7G21uGahITJTqNx_9NYJoKGNPkoq1A7AetJpF52jApLG/s200/DSC_3378.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Good start for a day:<br />coffee from a Moomin mug.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Facebook kindly reminds me of what happened in my life a year ago: there is a picture of a palm tree covered in snow. Oh, </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">day… I wake up, take my Moomin mug and have some coffee. It’s -10℃, sun is shining. I need to pack my bags and drive 120 kilometers to work.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have been at home 10 weeks. During those weeks we had the polar night, some freezing nights of -40℃, snowstorm, which almost blocked our front door with a pile of snow and now these dazzling sunny days of spring.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s only me and Väinö up here. Timo drove to Scotland in early January. He picked up the caravan from Germany where we left it, visited a couple of good camping sites we found during the tour and took the Eurotunnel across the canal. The caravan door handle broke completely. He had to duct tape the door close. And the caravan tires collected the two screws British people had left on the road. (The same procedure as last year…) Anyhow, he made it to sunniest city of Scotland, Dundee, and to the </span><a href="https://www.abertay.ac.uk/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">university</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;"> </span>on time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We learned there are palm trees also in Scotland. But they are not covered in snow. Timo is sending me pictures of blooming cherry trees and crocuses. February has been historically warm in Scotland this year. It seems something historical happens every time when our family is around - but assum</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">e it’s not the cause nor the effect, just coincidence...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been living the tour year again and again in my mind. Not because of nightmares, but because I have been sorting out the hundreds of pictures we took. As a part of the </span><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/509519175/quickstarter-help-us-to-finish-the-insane-tour-aro/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">Quickstarter campaign</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> we promised to make a picture book of the tour. You can still </span><a href="https://eu.dragondawnstore.com/product/printed-photo-book-of-the-insane-tour/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">order</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;"> </span>one if you want. I have also had three events in which I have showed pictures and told about our tour. It’s really difficult to squeeze up 11 months to two hours! You can take a quick tour with </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk582llElEdPmcjXtE_1WZA?view_as=subscriber" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">the videos</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I made from the pictures.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5G60T5pGmwZFhMpn7Z9udQ5_zjO-w-iOHkHUyS0gdQXhdjrVu_Gk65ZIulSN2fwltHCWRJTg8-m_YgEre2FAxN2MDhyJjpQB9f2TV4n0gZCP8zaSnDQj-9XCbFw3ILN_ntdArAxP85phh/s1600/2019-02-tour-wisdom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="935" data-original-width="1314" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5G60T5pGmwZFhMpn7Z9udQ5_zjO-w-iOHkHUyS0gdQXhdjrVu_Gk65ZIulSN2fwltHCWRJTg8-m_YgEre2FAxN2MDhyJjpQB9f2TV4n0gZCP8zaSnDQj-9XCbFw3ILN_ntdArAxP85phh/s640/2019-02-tour-wisdom.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Giving a presentation of our tour. <a href="http://www.tuulalampela.com/">Picture: Tuula Lampela</a>.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You could think we have stopped driving now that the tour is over. Well, Timo had to drive the 3800 km to Dundee. He stays about 15 kilometers away from the university, so he drives about 150 kilometers every week. Väinö takes the 18 kilometers bus drive every morning to go to school. I’m directing a poetry group and a theatre group in the city of Kemijärvi, which is 120 kilometers from our home. I go there twice a week. So, actually, we will be on-the-road more now. It’s just the same roads back and forth.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy Kalevala Day!</span></span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9cBVlhihmuQ0ytxmQWFs9wsXZsl8b8g8gaf0HSt-mL3TqAOQAOo14xSgrF2S1S6zXGV9wAw9zruMMgby6WCrq06iKko_kQbt_0nlBIDb-FcZW0qa85g8KeytXTSMPpxw7rzFa6PHB5qHX/s1600/DSC_3376.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1217" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9cBVlhihmuQ0ytxmQWFs9wsXZsl8b8g8gaf0HSt-mL3TqAOQAOo14xSgrF2S1S6zXGV9wAw9zruMMgby6WCrq06iKko_kQbt_0nlBIDb-FcZW0qa85g8KeytXTSMPpxw7rzFa6PHB5qHX/s320/DSC_3376.JPG" width="243" /></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The last day of February is the celebration of Finnish national epic <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala"><span style="color: purple;">Kalevala</span></a></b>. I love Finnish folk poems and have made several performances out of those. In the Quickstarter campaign we reached the stretch goal of a poetry video. That will be an old folk poem translated to English with a help of my British friends. I still need to practise my pronunciation for the video. I wrote poems to our board game Darwinning! One of them, for the fish, was made with the traditional rhythm and style of Finnish folk poems and Kalevala.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From the blue back of the waters</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From the white-foamed waves of ocean</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Arose the fish, golden, flaming</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bounced out the blazing pike</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To greet the neverending light</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To sing for the midsummer night</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s not yet midsummer, but ,man, it’s bright and light here!</span></span></div>
<br />Tinskuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01030858698507251331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-69704201374015583742018-12-30T23:24:00.000+02:002018-12-30T23:24:32.104+02:00Above the Arctic Circle<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The scenery is black and white. There is no sunlight, not at this time of the year, but the full moon is really bright. Trees are covered with frost and snow. The river is frozen. It’s quiet. So very quiet. I can hear only my breathing. Then sudden cracks, howling and wailing. It’s the river ice singing. A welcome song to me. It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m back home. Above the Arctic Circle.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, at home.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Friends, Farewells and a Ferry</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We were not in a hurry. We had planned our trip back to Finland so that we could, once more, meet some friends on the way. It was time to say thanks to those who helped us. Time to say farewells and give hugs to friends we might not see again in a long time. Every stop was one step closer to home. I tried not to think about it. Not because I didn’t want the tour to end but because I was afraid of some jinx Mr Murphy might still place in us.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Vuosaari harbour in Finland the morning we arrived.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We took <a href="https://www.finnlines.com/"><b><span style="color: purple;">a Finnlines ferry</span></b></a> from Germany to Finland. The ferry trip takes 27 hours. There isn’t much to do on the ferry, it’s not a cruise ship. But there was a sauna and excellent buffets. We got massages and played board games.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We spent some days in southern Finland since most of our relatives and Finnish friends live there. It was time to have delicious dinners and pre-Christmas parties with souvenirs and good stories. It felt strange to speak Finnish all the time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Insane Stats</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The tour took </span><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">334 days. We drove over 39,000 kilometres, through 17 different countries. We visited 66 different campsites and stayed over 50 nights on the roadside, in friends’ yards, in lay-bys and other weird locations. The highest place we drove our caravan was the Pyrenees mountains, 1,632 meters above the sea level. The lowest place was 115 meters BELOW sea level - through the Channel Tunnel.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We participated in 19 big board game fairs and 4 series of smaller events. These conventions had a total of 607,000 visitors! While on the road, our company ran 2 Kickstarter campaigns, one Quickstarter and 2 Spieleschmiede campaigns. We produced and published 2 board games and one expansion. We transported over 30 tons of board games all over the world.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reunion by the Arctic Circle</span></span></h3>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our car with the broken engine was in Lapland before us.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We stopped close to Rovaniemi, a bit south from the Arctic Circle. It was time to change cars. The Mercedes Benz we bought from Germany had done a good job, but it needed some maintenance. We drove to a our friend’s garage. There, already covered in snow, was our broken VW. The insurance company had towed it all the way up there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #282828;">You remember </span><a href="https://ddptour.blogspot.com/2017/10/"><span style="color: purple;"><b>Möhkö (good ol' Lump)</b></span></a><span style="color: #282828;">, the Suburban Chevy we were first planning to take on the tour? I’m glad we didn’t, because the roads in Italy and the parking in Spain would have been impossible with it. We moved all our stuff to Möhkö and found out the interior was way smaller than in MB. Luckily we had only a bit over 100km left. Some uncomfortableness was bearable.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #282828;">When we crossed the Arctic Circle, I suddenly realised I have never before been on the southern side of it for so long. The world is different on the other side. You learn that, once you cross it. You can follow </span><a href="https://abovethearctic.blogspot.com/"><b><span style="color: purple;">the life above the arctic circle in my new blog</span></b></a><span style="color: #282828;">. I will write new entries once a month, starting in January 2019.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy New Year!</span></span></h3>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This year was an experience our family will never forget. I hope you, too, have had some good moments with us. The year 2019 will give us new challenges. Timo is going to do his studies in Scotland. He is actually living in the caravan again for the next 6 months. Väinö goes back to normal school. I will continue working in our company and doing also my theatre work in Lapland.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has been a great year. Hopefully we left Mr Murphy somewhere along the way and the next year will be even better!</span></span></div>
Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-36015930057992157482018-12-14T21:52:00.000+02:002018-12-14T21:52:25.541+02:00Yellow Rebels<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Yellow vest demonstrators<br />at a road toll station in France.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Are they honking at us?”, we wondered, at a French road toll station. They have really narrow lanes, so driving through requires caution with our combination. The honking came from the other side of the road. There was a large group of people standing on and blocking the lanes. They all had yellow vests. Trucks were honking at them. To warn them, to vent frustration or to show support? No idea. “</span><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_vests_movement"><span style="color: purple;">Yellow vests</span></a></b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">” were demonstrating against high petrol prices. We had read the news about the riots in Paris. Now the demonstrations had spread all over France and to our route to Barcelona.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teenage Burglar</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I found a website with a map of France showing the known sites of these demonstrations. There were several on our route. We had planned to stay overnight at a motorway rest stop. Some of them, especially the ones with a gas station, were occupied and closed by “yellow vests”. We drove through France until very late and finally parked next to some trucks at a rest stop. These motorway “Aires” have toilets, even showers and sometimes some snack machines.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Looks ok, but just did not work...</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our plan was to have a quick dinner, go to sleep and continue on in the morning but we couldn’t get into our caravan. The door handle was broken. It had shown some symptoms of not-working-properly during the year, and now decided to quit working. I got a flashback to the moments when I had lost my keys during my schooldays and was standing in front of our home door with desperate thoughts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had some small metal poles for the awning. With those and a teaspoon we tried to force the door open. After ten minutes, a truck driver came to offer help. He thought the lock was frozen and offered some spray. When he understood what the problem was, he just wished us good luck. The task seemed impossible. All of a sudden we heard Väinö’s voice from the other side of the caravan: “Mum, Dad, the kitchen window is now open, if you are interested…” Our twelve year old had used one metal stick to open the window hatches (even if we had told him not to).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We pushed Väinö into the caravan through the small window. He opened the door from inside and our night was saved. I thanked our teenager </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">for not obeying</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> his parents this time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Turning Point</span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbajCcETl3w4Xf3TgP84xpiCtwHTxvO0yzTXtVEg9rBPWKm8vGsjEPE5B8rHr8xCzLK9egf48KJYsUJpy1anMS6coTTwgJfLmlUx6NQkr92I03yH757QIkGv6_Ct3UeU06_DjugDjlk9Q/s1600/_20181213_132555.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1225" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbajCcETl3w4Xf3TgP84xpiCtwHTxvO0yzTXtVEg9rBPWKm8vGsjEPE5B8rHr8xCzLK9egf48KJYsUJpy1anMS6coTTwgJfLmlUx6NQkr92I03yH757QIkGv6_Ct3UeU06_DjugDjlk9Q/s200/_20181213_132555.JPG" width="153" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">During the board game event <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DAUBarcelona/"><span style="color: purple;">DAU Barcelona</span></a></b>, we stayed at a <b><a href="http://www.camping3estrellas.com/en/"><span style="color: purple;">Camping 3 Estrellas</span></a></b>, just by the sea. It was also right next to the airport. For the first 3 days we just heard waves crashing on the beach. Then, I guess, the wind changed direction and airplanes took off right over us. Anyhow, we didn’t find that noise disturbing. After 10 hours at a fair, you sleep almost instantly no matter how many jets fly over you.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ9B_4HGdVKYdmsb38gfxIDC9kzhWnZmDzppgl3KY4OtllPJ6qyl7w32a9uvk3DOtnH1Uq5vRV7lAXVydWBteGP7nXU9uzkZhquOZ1sVJcc8pwJrk4aHB2U3IwHhfKS1FrABRcFc7oU6U/s1600/_20181213_132514.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="882" data-original-width="1600" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ9B_4HGdVKYdmsb38gfxIDC9kzhWnZmDzppgl3KY4OtllPJ6qyl7w32a9uvk3DOtnH1Uq5vRV7lAXVydWBteGP7nXU9uzkZhquOZ1sVJcc8pwJrk4aHB2U3IwHhfKS1FrABRcFc7oU6U/s320/_20181213_132514.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>DAU</b> is the biggest board game event in Spain. We saw many familiar faces among the Spanish resellers and game designers. It was also great to see <b><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inka_und_Markus_Brand"><span style="color: purple;">Inka and Markus Brand</span></a></b>, who were guests of honor this year. “These are the crazy Finns!” they introduced us to their Spanish host. We met also other Finns. Quite a lot of Finns move to live in Spain, at least for the winter time. After spending over a month in Spain this year, I totally understand. It’s an enjoyable country with good food and low prices.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">For us, Barcelona was the turning point. Our tour ended, no more fairs, just the long drive home. I watched the sun rising from the sea. A scene I will not see again for a long, long time. It was a moment of conflicted feelings: sad, relieved, proud, amazed and wistful. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Morning sun at the turning point.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">On our way back we drove to<b><a href="http://www.caravaninn.net/en/caravan-storage-costa-brava-spain/caravan-repairs-costa-brava/"> <span style="color: purple;">a caravan repair shop</span></a></b> to get the door handle fixed. Väinö had been climbing through the window every evening to let us in. It was clearly not a longterm solution. The roads had some weird lane markings: yellow circles with two tails, like ribbons. At first I thought they were some warnings for roundabouts, but there were no roundabouts. Then I saw the railings on a bridge covered with yellow ribbons. I finally understood: we were in Catalonia and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_ribbon"><b><span style="color: purple;">yellow ribbon</span></b></a> became a political symbol there in November 2017. Obviously, the opinions were still strong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our door handle was fixed, even though we arrived at the garage just before their siesta. I gazed at the amazing scenery, framed by mountains. During our stay in Barcelona, the Pyrenees had become covered in snow. The winter was coming, and we were heading north. At home, there would be a proper, white winter.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOAbkqU3Knq7zS0M6H7ionXfS4tgNvlqnQl0rFgTwk9Hz5TyanEU5UQ91t5rWnkIps5Ed2YwK2gNn-hYEygvKG4s9zgMn2h-XM2KLR_PJuZIBPRsb-jqlnmXsF1D9srE6gdxHWo8mdxS8/s1600/_20181213_132345.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOAbkqU3Knq7zS0M6H7ionXfS4tgNvlqnQl0rFgTwk9Hz5TyanEU5UQ91t5rWnkIps5Ed2YwK2gNn-hYEygvKG4s9zgMn2h-XM2KLR_PJuZIBPRsb-jqlnmXsF1D9srE6gdxHWo8mdxS8/s640/_20181213_132345.JPG" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bon Voyage!</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had to drive through France, again. Yellow vest demonstrators had blocked many exits. We saw police cars and warnings on the road information signs. We approached another road toll station. Every entry was manned by people in yellow vests. We stopped and carefully opened our window to talk with a man standing next to the payment machine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Good day, do you have your ticket?” he asked.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Timo gave him the toll ticket. He took it and smiled.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Have a nice trip!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We were a bit confused. The traffic lights at the toll were red, but all barriers were open. I had read on the news that these demonstrators want to let people drive for free. So we just drove (and saved 55€).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">There was a quiet moment in the car.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“We just participated in French civil disobedience.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> “Yeah. One more thing to remember from this year.” </span></span></div>
Tinskuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01030858698507251331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-35451321205658205192018-12-01T21:21:00.003+02:002018-12-01T21:25:52.110+02:00Roller coaster of Life<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.spiel-messe.com/en/"><b><span style="color: purple;">The Essen Spiel</span></b></a> starts the same way every year: you arrive in a busy hall filled with vans, forklifts and pallets. The aisles are filled with packing material and other trash. It takes several hours to get your booth ready, then a quick dinner and some sleep. The next morning is the “run and fight for your table” -competition in the novelty room. Every year over 1300 new board games are published, and most of them are presented in Essen Spiel. This year we presented <i>Darwinning!</i>, <i>The Revised edition of Perdition’s Mouth</i> and <i>the Hideout expansion</i>. My hands were shaking when I tried to set up all components for the press to wonder. I was sweating and cold at the same time. Once the novelty room set up was done, instead of staying at our booth, I went to see a doctor. The stubborn <a href="https://ddptour.blogspot.com/2018/11/spanish-flu.html"><span style="color: purple;"><b>Spanish ‘flu</b></span></a> was still making my life miserable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The doctor’s appointment wasn’t as smooth and quick as in Spain. I had to fill up several forms: permission for saving my personal data and an affirmation that I haven’t arrived in Germany just to get medical care. They photocopied my passport and made me wait an hour. This time the doctor did speak English, and after listening to my lungs, he wrote a prescription for the same antibiotics I got already in Spain. In addition to that, he prescripted several herbal products and an extra dose of zinc and vitamin c. In Finland, you never get any prescription for herbal products. I bought all the stuff and hoped they would help me to survive hectic Essen Spiel.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBRBwtkhjnV1x2vEfrOFD38nWP-oZ7YfvtZ0roDsIb1M2oPA5vfEFVoB0b5ow-04R1eWefAeA3orVwtyMnVFXl8OqB0DyIH723D5mCglwQ2_GRZySvPjWJBVnqwnKy7tCrQdqaLWOUesk/s1600/DSC_2886.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="1600" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBRBwtkhjnV1x2vEfrOFD38nWP-oZ7YfvtZ0roDsIb1M2oPA5vfEFVoB0b5ow-04R1eWefAeA3orVwtyMnVFXl8OqB0DyIH723D5mCglwQ2_GRZySvPjWJBVnqwnKy7tCrQdqaLWOUesk/s640/DSC_2886.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Our booth was filled with players during Essen Spiel.</i> </span></td></tr>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Novelty Trashes</span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMqf3tk8rMRuFsEryOGHaVnxUmtwDCc7kbm1-8qwd1gWbvuPT8U_JUvGXQNqzyGuZWTIUI0RUn7IcCDLMemlTtAQMeK9yY2X4NODpHl_GsCgVexir9sNl4qrgIoFhxwgfkh_HYbtU9amM/s1600/DSC_2893.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMqf3tk8rMRuFsEryOGHaVnxUmtwDCc7kbm1-8qwd1gWbvuPT8U_JUvGXQNqzyGuZWTIUI0RUn7IcCDLMemlTtAQMeK9yY2X4NODpHl_GsCgVexir9sNl4qrgIoFhxwgfkh_HYbtU9amM/s320/DSC_2893.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Lee is showing <b><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233783/dwarf">Dwarf</a></b> prototype for <a href="https://iplayred.co.uk/"><b><span style="color: purple;">I-Play-Red</span></b></a>.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I know that the best medicine for a ‘flu is rest. But that was not possible to arrange. This year our booth with six tables was filled with gamers, all the time. All of a sudden it was already Saturday, and I remembered our games were still in the novelty room. I was supposed to pick them up on Friday evening. I soon learned I was not the only one who forgot the deadline. On Sunday, after closing time, I entered the novelty room with some other publishers. We found a massive pile of game components, tablecloths, roll-ups and brochures. Novelties were just waiting for a trash bin. I was lucky and found our games at the very front of the pile, some components were a bit crushed but mostly ok.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWwqOhIEdL-zyx37J4iugAmiRWAqUFycqvn2BJ27TaVV3VlzVC5PliIL3FZXCrbTXTIeYzfy3Mw4JU4H66aUTsYqMxMhQSnbETWrt05NoDns4fKx8jzfTUqcFp6g5eYLwhyphenhyphen3nYkyHBYfk/s1600/DSC_2897.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWwqOhIEdL-zyx37J4iugAmiRWAqUFycqvn2BJ27TaVV3VlzVC5PliIL3FZXCrbTXTIeYzfy3Mw4JU4H66aUTsYqMxMhQSnbETWrt05NoDns4fKx8jzfTUqcFp6g5eYLwhyphenhyphen3nYkyHBYfk/s400/DSC_2897.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Novelties on their way to the trash bin...</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The room had been locked and not used after Friday. Why the organisers had just to swipe everything to a huge pile of trash? Is it really that difficult to create some system to serve exhibitors with a bad memory? On the other hand, if so many publishers just do not care about the material they put out to novelty room and don’t bother to pick it up, perhaps they should pay some extra fee. I felt awful when I left the room. I really hope <a href="https://www.spiel-messe.com/en/about-us/"><b><span style="color: purple;">Friedhelm Merz Verlag</span></b></a> would do something to improve the practical arrangements of the novelty room in Essen Spiel. Not only for the benefit of small publishers with a lousy memory, but also for the environment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Stop and Go Punishment</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Friday after Essen I was driving a German autobahn towards Leipzig. We had had a couple of relaxing days with a proper sauna at the <a href="https://www.camping-in-naumburg.de/"><b><span style="color: purple;">Camping in Naumburg</span></b></a>, which have become our second home during this year. All of a sudden the car started shaking, a lot. I thought a tire exploded and drove to an exit. On the ramp, the car just stopped. I tried to turn on the engine. Nothing.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXxfbdjXAbuEB_7CiTF2EWas_wVctK981GcisTRhe9Cg9v2oe7DP4LKxzjhNknr94sSRsseyAiFhYyBe_2GMt3rUhQ7CdY3x152zbNJviOF1XYvbZEW1pmcwdF2lGsTT0lDMEcOdcIYc/s1600/DSC_2916.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1172" data-original-width="1600" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXxfbdjXAbuEB_7CiTF2EWas_wVctK981GcisTRhe9Cg9v2oe7DP4LKxzjhNknr94sSRsseyAiFhYyBe_2GMt3rUhQ7CdY3x152zbNJviOF1XYvbZEW1pmcwdF2lGsTT0lDMEcOdcIYc/s320/DSC_2916.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The membership of <a href="https://www.autoliitto.fi/en"><b><span style="color: purple;">The Automobile and Touring Club of Finland</span></b> </a>(ATCF) proved again to be worth every euro. The car was towed to VW repair store and our caravan to the other side of the street. Our not-invited travelling companion Mr Murphy had clearly thought to stop our tour by busting the car engine. How wrong was he! Already on the same evening, we had organised a rental car to pull the caravan. We created a <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/509519175/quickstarter-help-us-to-finish-the-insane-tour-aro"><b><span style="color: purple;">Quickstarter fundraising campaign</span></b></a> and asked for the help of the board gaming community. The community replied, and our campaign was funded within some hours.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Potato Peeling And Steaming Advocaat</span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRLWvHAtFA0j_SlYPmM62DdCsy-cCeVKg9-vvQ2RB1z7X8btvVwdgwOeDd0rhr9X01hCSzlKqDAqokIp8rzokm_jXEPb-rPteCL3KA3m-ZeujldfC3BeJ75rNs045dknS-jqLC_W1hDK8/s1600/container.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1275" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRLWvHAtFA0j_SlYPmM62DdCsy-cCeVKg9-vvQ2RB1z7X8btvVwdgwOeDd0rhr9X01hCSzlKqDAqokIp8rzokm_jXEPb-rPteCL3KA3m-ZeujldfC3BeJ75rNs045dknS-jqLC_W1hDK8/s200/container.JPG" width="158" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>30 tons of games arrived<br />after 6 days of waiting.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The following days were quite a rollercoaster, with events and emotions. Of course, we had allocated that time as vacation time. Instead of relaxing we ended up solving one problem after another. In addition to the car issue, we had 30 tons of games stuck in German customs, due to a missing hyphen in freight papers. When Kickstarter threatened to suspend our Quickstarter, and one promising car turned out to be a fraud, I sat by the kitchen table shedding tears and writing an update to campaign backers. I had to remind my self that I shouldn’t try to solve everything at once. A huge pile of potatoes can be peeled only one potato at a time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It’s important to ask for help when you need it. We contacted all our German friends with the car issue. They offered translation help and searched <b><a href="http://mobile.de/"><span style="color: purple;">Mobile.de</span></a></b> and other car sales platforms. Most of these friends we have met for the first time on this tour. Like Sven and his family, who we learned to know during the hot summer, at a beach by a German lake. When we had promised a place for a night with sauna in Lapland to Sven and his friend on their tour to Nordkapp next summer, we didn’t know how important that connection would be. During this crisis, we found out he is the most amazing, good-hearted man in Germany. He promised to help us with the registration of the new car.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We also had unforgettable, good moments during those days. We visited a spa, <a href="https://www.leine-bad.de/"><b><span style="color: purple;">Leine Bad</span></b></a>. They had several <a href="https://www.leine-bad.de/sauna/"><b><span style="color: purple;">saunas</span></b></a>. Unlike in many other spa saunas, these were unisex and still, people were naked. The only difference for Finnish sauna was that people were not allowed to throw water on the stove. It was the <i>saunameisters</i> task.<a href="https://www.saunabund-ev.de/index.php?id=45"> <b><span style="color: purple;">German saunameister</span></b></a> is a profession, and throwing the water is a half an hour show. We were lucky to experience one of these shows. The guy poured to the stove some advocaat mixed in water and spread the <b><span style="color: purple;"><i><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/l%C3%B6yly">löyly</a></i> </span></b>with a big fan. The seats were covered with red-faced, sweating and puffing Germans and some Finns, smiling widely and clearly enjoying themselves.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirWPxfhwWh0y8hfAuwvBV_rR13ZVZ3TnBMO-wjDaeAx_-G5PkLd9Ubf7jbpVNA-_4h3T9x4VLAjDIqzgN9H5JYptb9l3JjvBnNlhj54b8u_6ZUmy47bpyeC3fuSIiey85CfWA5i3XlFTw/s1600/vito.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1600" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirWPxfhwWh0y8hfAuwvBV_rR13ZVZ3TnBMO-wjDaeAx_-G5PkLd9Ubf7jbpVNA-_4h3T9x4VLAjDIqzgN9H5JYptb9l3JjvBnNlhj54b8u_6ZUmy47bpyeC3fuSIiey85CfWA5i3XlFTw/s640/vito.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Our new car and caravan at our warehouse in Leipzig.</i></span></td></tr>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />Anti-Stress Surprise</span></h3>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Väinö was teaching Perdition's Mouth<br />for boys his age in Spielwiesn.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ten days after the engine suddenly died out, we bought a car, Mercedes Benz Vito with automatic gears and 4-wheel driving. It is always risky to buy a used car, but we were really out of options. We filled the van with our games and booth equipment and drove to </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: purple;">Munich</span></b></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.spielwiesn.de/sw"><b><span style="color: purple;">Spielwiesn</span></b></a> turned out to be a great event with many visitors. Yet again, we were the only foreign exhibitor. Besides of boardgames and delicious snacks, the fair offered an exhibition of Lego constructions.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So many Legos, so neatly placed...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was explaining the rules of <i>Darwinning</i> at our booth when a woman came with a surprise present. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">She had read about our problems from <b><span style="color: purple;"><a href="https://www.spiele-offensive.de/Spieleschmiede">Spieleschmiede’s</a> </span></b>Facebook update and wanted to meet us and help us. She gave me a yellow “DDP” car and an Anti-Stress postcard. I shed some more tears, but now because of joy and sentiment. We are not alone on this tour. There is a whole community travelling with us.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl7OrOgvYT91oTEizoCkE-Yzt8dbkNJ_5KjGrw-XRdGYhSAz9246GWLe80l1lbHRUvLL20Sa_pLJumbKS3m_g-JwdndeXHFH8RHqwxRw7O07Dn3e_XXUiNlRKeMWbCG3RB64pQp9b2YF0/s1600/new-car.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1478" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl7OrOgvYT91oTEizoCkE-Yzt8dbkNJ_5KjGrw-XRdGYhSAz9246GWLe80l1lbHRUvLL20Sa_pLJumbKS3m_g-JwdndeXHFH8RHqwxRw7O07Dn3e_XXUiNlRKeMWbCG3RB64pQp9b2YF0/s640/new-car.JPG" width="588" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-38599369043623947662018-11-06T12:20:00.001+02:002018-11-06T12:20:29.658+02:00Spanish Flu<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiclgp7Q_uu4xBuqaBFhHFj22ciiC0RW_9afFKADBtiNM08VNZzvYpEiqlJhknln8BATJ-YyojX6GwpByWgXg5O5lzOjwXGzY92_YHLDQ4Z9dbYwW1ZUlyKfRi5BOmaYoXQgHHrsh5PXjc/s1600/DSC_2733.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiclgp7Q_uu4xBuqaBFhHFj22ciiC0RW_9afFKADBtiNM08VNZzvYpEiqlJhknln8BATJ-YyojX6GwpByWgXg5O5lzOjwXGzY92_YHLDQ4Z9dbYwW1ZUlyKfRi5BOmaYoXQgHHrsh5PXjc/s400/DSC_2733.JPG" width="400" /></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In September, we drove over the Alps, once again. Small hints of the approaching winter followed our trip. In the Brenner pass we saw some snow on top of the mountains. Austria had got 40 cm of snow the previous week but a new heat wave had melted most of it. In Italy the camping site closed their beach, only because the calendar showed the end of the summer season. For us, the +26c water of the Mediterranean sea was warm enough, so we drove to France where beaches were still open. Perhaps it was due to long days at the beach, or perhaps the onsetting autumn, but when we finally reached Spain, we all had ‘flu.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Spanish Champion</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It took me a while to find the huge packet of tissues I had bought in Switzerland earlier this year, but it was well needed. On the day we had to build our booth at <b><a href="https://jokos.es/en/home/">JOKOS convention</a></b>, I was feeling so ill the guys had to manage without me. Fortunately Ruymán arrived to help as during the fair, so I didn’t have to talk so much.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Väinö playing Half Pint Heroes.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The <b>JOKOS</b> event was very small and we were the only foreigners there. Väinö had time to look at other booths and learn new games. He’s a fast learner and arrived back to our booth with a free copy of a game: he had beaten the guy presenting the game on his first try. On the last day there was a </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/216578/half-pint-heroes"><span style="color: purple;">Half Pint Heroes </span></a></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tournament. Two Spanish men and Väinö were the only participants. After two rounds, it was already clear who would win. When Väinö got his prize I comforted the men that at least they managed to play the whole game and not lose in six rounds…</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip1EvVsxor9rUJEKY1QUkJV9_SH4FeVrZYbv0y_LAW9UWKKXtVfZWW6flGXaRflbBgmz2MeudrDCOB4Pu1mwRLkTB9vEwmVSCDjnR-vgoY9yhCvtqOf6By8qNEE0V_dK1oaNIMWfpxNIo/s1600/_20181105_222139.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="889" data-original-width="1600" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip1EvVsxor9rUJEKY1QUkJV9_SH4FeVrZYbv0y_LAW9UWKKXtVfZWW6flGXaRflbBgmz2MeudrDCOB4Pu1mwRLkTB9vEwmVSCDjnR-vgoY9yhCvtqOf6By8qNEE0V_dK1oaNIMWfpxNIo/s400/_20181105_222139.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Timo presenting Perdition's Mouth to Sandy Petersen in Cordoba. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Spanish Parking</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When the Northern parts of Finland got the first snow of this winter, we were sweating in +30c in Valencia. We met our friend Paco, and I was brave enough to cook paella for a Spaniard. Väinö had already recovered from the flu, but Timo and I were coughing badly. Paco got us some medication from the pharmacy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We tried to rest but a good night’s sleep with a cough is nearly impossible. So perhaps I wasn’t very patient that evening, when we went to present<span style="color: purple;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/149787/perditions-mouth-abyssal-rift"><span style="color: purple;">Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;"> </span>at a local store. We were running late and needed a parking place for our van. Eventually I found one and sent the coordinates to Timo, who was driving around the streets. While I was standing on the parking spot waiting, a Spanish man decided he would take the space. He almost drove over me, and when I refused to move, he called the police. At that point Timo arrived and tried to reverse into the space, but the other car was blocking his way. A nice local guy told the Spaniard there was another free space just up the road. His car would fit there but not our van. The guy just wouldn’t listen, though.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivlW_KTwLPY2kKGu0crJOlgtKeF2NysaU00SdMoiHW4Ev6Xp01HngBzCAPPs7FvfFeRbv3ZHXtoaJXYPeKveL7kpOY0_H_WcFmJSFfeZADO5XvgYu1Um14UM3Oz3OmF6WeJksUUigdD5I/s1600/parking.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="985" data-original-width="1600" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivlW_KTwLPY2kKGu0crJOlgtKeF2NysaU00SdMoiHW4Ev6Xp01HngBzCAPPs7FvfFeRbv3ZHXtoaJXYPeKveL7kpOY0_H_WcFmJSFfeZADO5XvgYu1Um14UM3Oz3OmF6WeJksUUigdD5I/s400/parking.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I couldn’t understand his behavior and stated that aloud, in my very Finnish, straight-talking, way. As I mentioned: I perhaps wasn’t at my best at the time. Dear Paco arrived to talk some sense to the guy but he was stubborn. Eventually he had to move his car, because he was blocking a garage driveway. We were able to park and go do our work. Paco stayed behind to talk with the police, who arrived a bit later.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I learned that reserving parking space is illegal in Spain. Anyhow, the police explained to the guy that these things happen every day with tourists and there is nothing they can do about it – and that they actually have better things to do than solving parking problems.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Spanish Health Care</span></span></h3>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The fair in Cordoba was held <br />in a medieval building with fountains.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Spanish ‘flu we got wasn’t as bad as the original, in 1918, but the cough was as stubborn and annoying as the this-is-my-parking-spot-guy. So, just before the<span style="color: purple;"> <b><a href="https://www.cordoba24.info/english/html/game_festival.html">Cordoba fair,</a></b></span> Timo and I went to see a doctor. The receptionist at out camping site pointed us to a ”</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Centro de Salud</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” of the nearby village. The clerk there didn’t speak any English. We had to call to Ruymán who then translated our issue to her.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After about 30 mins of waiting we got to a doctor. She didn’t speak any English either. We were prepared, though, and had our symptoms written in a mobile phone, using a translation website - <b><span style="color: purple;">deepl.com<span id="goog_2104931055"></span><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_2104931056"></span><span id="goog_2104931049"></span><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_2104931050"></span></span></b>. She listened to our lungs and gave us a prescription for antibiotics. We managed to explain that I’m allergic to penicillin. So she wrote me a different prescription.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHuUNycfkUPSSBasjbWT4yYOsRSUMUKlQMBFUmHCDzN0eNS5g7qW9E9N1OejoxGqfle_h5F9fdAjRtRfMVtokETBps6VNshr0Upb8qDBVIHjpuANAe9DsFZOQDE9ieqbG9_yUUwfy_WMo/s1600/meds.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHuUNycfkUPSSBasjbWT4yYOsRSUMUKlQMBFUmHCDzN0eNS5g7qW9E9N1OejoxGqfle_h5F9fdAjRtRfMVtokETBps6VNshr0Upb8qDBVIHjpuANAe9DsFZOQDE9ieqbG9_yUUwfy_WMo/s200/meds.JPG" width="152" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the pharmacy, nobody spoke English. They wrote the dosage on the boxes, in black ink: 1-1-1 for Timo and 1 for me. (Three times a day and once a day). I replied with a nod and the one word of Spanish I had learned: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">vale</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (OK).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The visit to the doctors didn’t cost us anything. We had our<span style="color: purple;"> <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=559">European health insurance cards </a></span>with us and that was enough. One more reason to like the EU: public health care belongs to all EU members.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Spanish Rats</span></span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Qxi2Og20mD126Xf0mLEXocXEjGVOFPojWgNgfRnDnAXD22KKYyS5RAG3wT8FJYXAdnkQ2OgQdYQqNsfIGct1hBpt_KWNmWX-LtYPH7B5mJiJjCihcJ-guLMIYEFQ3AQQSZsjFAICCU8/s1600/_20181105_222220.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="970" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Qxi2Og20mD126Xf0mLEXocXEjGVOFPojWgNgfRnDnAXD22KKYyS5RAG3wT8FJYXAdnkQ2OgQdYQqNsfIGct1hBpt_KWNmWX-LtYPH7B5mJiJjCihcJ-guLMIYEFQ3AQQSZsjFAICCU8/s320/_20181105_222220.JPG" width="194" /></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We had the honor to be part of the jury evaluating candidates for the Spanish game of the year. During one weekend, we played over 10 different board games from Spanish designers. We realised, not for the first time, how important a part of the playing experience a good rulebook is. You should always give your rules to someone who knows nothing about your game, for them to read. Before publishing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We found some very interesting games, like </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/239951/gretchinz">Gretchinz!</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Warhammer 40,000</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> racing game. The tiny cardboard cars were delightful. I wanted to blast other players’ cars for much longer than the game lasted. The best laughs, we had while playing </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/235513/mia">Mia!</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, It’s a simple card game but the rules have different variants.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Väinö liked </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/232473/ratland"><span style="color: purple;">Ratland,</span></a> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a lot. It’s a worker-placement game, where you collect cheese with your rats and try to grow your population. He was happy to find a store selling the game at the Cordoba fair and managed to swap one copy of </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/234920/darwinning"><span style="color: purple;">Darwinning!</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for it. The designer of </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ratland </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">was at the neighbouring booth, so he even got his box signed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Spanish Memories</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We spent a month in Spain. Our road back north, towards Essen Spiel, went through the areas we drove through at the end of February. This time there was no snow but we could see the damage left by a recent hurricane. When we approached San Sebastian, I suddenly realised the scenery reminded me of Finland: hills covered with pine trees.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have less than two months left on our tour but we will drive to Spain one more time, in November, for the DAU convention, in Barcelona. I will have a lot of unforgettable memories of Spain after this year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>PS.</b> After I wrote this our car broke. Engine stopped working while I was driving. We need to find another car so that we can finish this tour and go back home. <b><span style="color: purple;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/509519175/quickstarter-help-us-to-finish-the-insane-tour-aro?ref=user_menu">Also you can help us to solve this, pledge now, thank you!</a></span></b></span></span></div>
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<br />Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-20033253942553120482018-09-18T14:10:00.000+03:002018-09-18T14:10:37.757+03:0030 Tons of Games<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Revised Edition of</span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is ready. Gameboards, scenario sheets, cards and rulebooks are printed. Heroes and enemies manufactured. Punchboards are waiting for punching. We have been working on the Revised Edition for over a year. Even if the product is ready, the work is not yet finished. The games need transporting. Let me clarify: <u>the 30 tons of games we produced need transporting from one continent to three other continents</u>. Quite a task for a micro-company...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quality Time</span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZEPurPSAb3Q-16bMuKsHZnch3JzctzVEl5ehtMIqW9nrF3uydfXvNr8Ajfa6qaq7q8LZp6yJCNcOi-1vlpMZVXNHxFU34F6hvjEYiQMtsXyW4bFe8DdvWU6GNF8l_3cXYvdBtaPTDboA/s1600/printproofs1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1169" data-original-width="1600" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZEPurPSAb3Q-16bMuKsHZnch3JzctzVEl5ehtMIqW9nrF3uydfXvNr8Ajfa6qaq7q8LZp6yJCNcOi-1vlpMZVXNHxFU34F6hvjEYiQMtsXyW4bFe8DdvWU6GNF8l_3cXYvdBtaPTDboA/s320/printproofs1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Printproofs of Perdition's Mouth.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">It has been quite challenging to keep to our production schedule while we have been on tour. The hard part has been nominating a delivery address for physical print proofs and production samples. You know, an address where we knew we would be within 2 weeks and stay there over 2 days. There haven’t been many places like that. When the production samples got stuck in German customs for 5 days due to a not-so-accurate packing list, it really made our life difficult. A company can get up to 5 production samples without any custom fees. We got one package, but of 10 different products. So 10 samples, because the packing list had only one line ”board game sample”. Tiny, but costly error.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Timo and I checked all the products in the heat of the German summer. It took some hours to go through all the different language versions of PM:RE, to see if they had the correct sheets and cards, count all the miniatures, check the UPC codes... We also checked the packing and functionality of the new insert. We found errors. It is always frustrating at this time of the production, when you really want give the green light and get things rolling. When you are running out of time on the agreed schedule. Even if we know it’s better to find them at this point and not when the first customer sends you a request for missing parts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The quality is more important than the schedule. I believe all players are happier to get a decent game week or two later than originally assumed, than get a game on time but with flaws. Nevertheless, ironing out every small typo is virtually impossible. Something will be left in the final product and we know our fans will find those.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carton, Pallet And Container</span></h3>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Darwinning! is much smaller game.<br />The whole European shipment was one pallet.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once we were convinced the game box has all the components it is supposed to have, we allowed the manufacturer to proceed. We gave instructions of how many game boxes and items should go into a carton. I made an Excel spreadsheet with all pre-orders of each item and started to count how many cartons of each item we need in Europe, USA and Australia. Then we made a sales estimation for each area. Based on these numbers we provided packing instructions to the Chinese manufacturer and asked how many pallets to each location this would be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are different sizes for pallets. It took a while to establish an understanding with the Chinese of the correct – and cheapest – pallet size and height. Based on the numbers of pallets we got from China, Timo started to organise transportation. From China to Europe there are two alternatives: ocean freight or a train. The train is faster and not so much more expensive. We used it for PM:TG. We decided to transport a small part (just 4 tons!!) by train so we could have some games in Essen Spiel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We quickly learned that we need full containers for shipping the remaining part of our games. You know, those colossal metal boxes you see in harbours. After Timo had found a freight company with a reasonable price for 20ft containers, the Chinese gave us new numbers. Their first calculations were off by 10 cubic meters! We would need a 40ft container for the European shipment. The taller 40ft container.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hamburg harbour. Look at the amount of containers on that ship!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Trade War</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">When you think this shipping task couldn’t get any more demanding, the War begins. And now I mean the trade war between China and USA. Board games have been free of any tariffs. But as you know, the situation with duties can change as fast as Mr Trump can tweet. Due to the war, shipping prices from China to the US have risen radically: A container from China to USA costs double the cost of the same container to any European port, or more. Everybody wants to get their products to the US before any new tariffs are introduced. The latest news also suggests that toys from China will have a tariff. At the moment, nobody knows whether this will also affect board games.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">All we can do is ship our games and hope for the best. Typhoons, hurricanes, pirates and tariffs: stay away, Perdition’s Mouth is coming!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perdition’s Mouth Gameplay on Youtube</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many PM reviews have been filmed. It is a really good game for filming as it has quite a lot of fantastic looking components. You can even find some playthroughs of the introductory scenario. Today, we can now offer you something even better than that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTKlb1LWiB5G3pmdnWYa7JQ"><span style="color: purple;">HitPointsGaming</span></a></b> is a team of game enthusiasts, that record their play of various games. They already finished three (full!) Kingdom Death campaigns and many others. We are happy they agreed to film a play of </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">gameplay as well. And this time we do not speak about the well known 1a scenario, they started the campaign the hard way. The quality of their recording and cut is way better than the overall Youtube standard. <a href="https://youtu.be/WbgffOxQpLQ"><span style="color: purple;"><b>Just see yourself, right here!</b></span></a></span></div>
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<br />Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-27498765229782067862018-08-31T20:03:00.000+03:002018-08-31T20:03:07.853+03:00What Goes Around, Comes Around<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimp80FSyAjmn9-bYK2pZnfcnIQHOPiZPNGzODphNpnvP83oaQd9NcybdX3wfY-aK4Tyts6aGekufeHuOL6gK1dCh_SGcwbC3wiCSSci5vsJArUuynOQIT0x_1DpMn76KkT4Nl8S_rVxN4/s1600/ogre.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1174" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimp80FSyAjmn9-bYK2pZnfcnIQHOPiZPNGzODphNpnvP83oaQd9NcybdX3wfY-aK4Tyts6aGekufeHuOL6gK1dCh_SGcwbC3wiCSSci5vsJArUuynOQIT0x_1DpMn76KkT4Nl8S_rVxN4/s200/ogre.JPG" width="146" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many cars in Brussels<br />look like they have<br />met this guy...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s make one thing clear: Brussels and cars are not meant to go together. Period. No amount of history, no international atmosphere, no golden decorations at</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Place" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">the Grand Place</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> can fix that. The heart of Europe is suffering from lousy cholesterol, blocked veins in the form of traffic jams. It’s filled with road construction, one-way streets, too few parking spaces and the worst driving culture I’ve ever seen. If you don’t believe me, go driving in Brussels. If you are still happy after three minutes, I’ll buy you a beer. The beer there is good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">From Dawn to Dust<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://brusselsgamesfestival.be/en/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><b><span style="color: purple;">Brussel Game Festival</span></b></a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was a nice change from the normal conventions. It’s held outdoors, in</span><a href="https://visit.brussels/en/place/Cinquantenaire-Park" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">t</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">he Cinquantenaire Park</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The organisers provide small tents for booths and punters arrive at the place through a magnificent triumphal arch. That is, of course, if they know how to drive there…</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv51Kfg7_wF3W-CcNiAPAVju2_Ru5H0uaWWCRm-k_prqsHaZnfxBOVi3aX1KXZoc0SJWYRGh4FXYwbsiJFOj5kf-wcIh_ivmPwhIHYXvkK1aYdcz7IDOXcLKTgck9UhC03XgfVji43aho/s1600/BGF-booths.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="1600" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv51Kfg7_wF3W-CcNiAPAVju2_Ru5H0uaWWCRm-k_prqsHaZnfxBOVi3aX1KXZoc0SJWYRGh4FXYwbsiJFOj5kf-wcIh_ivmPwhIHYXvkK1aYdcz7IDOXcLKTgck9UhC03XgfVji43aho/s640/BGF-booths.JPG" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had our car packed ready, parking permission printed and coordinates for the car park. With the help of Google Maps navigation, we were driving to set up the booth. ”You have reached your destination” the navigator announced – when we were in a tunnel, under the park! After a lot of swearing, desperate zooming of the map, illegal parking and a phone call to the organisers, we finally managed to enter the park with our van.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJPQp0IIRspHhq9k-wqSIH8A4yfO3bAZ8D4fl0Qs3FeCaym8kwQ_4-H6RIPqcZOJcP4sIrhfApH5O3x9gd33JB3yA-PNJydd_jXiNMuCUE6d_oLAiXnAaZ2pXkkH7ug3vaj8-EqhgZiow/s1600/DSC_2610.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1050" data-original-width="1600" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJPQp0IIRspHhq9k-wqSIH8A4yfO3bAZ8D4fl0Qs3FeCaym8kwQ_4-H6RIPqcZOJcP4sIrhfApH5O3x9gd33JB3yA-PNJydd_jXiNMuCUE6d_oLAiXnAaZ2pXkkH7ug3vaj8-EqhgZiow/s320/DSC_2610.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Timo presented Darwinning! to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfB2RQ5S_uU" style="color: purple; font-weight: bold;">Boardgame Heaven</a><span style="color: purple;"><b>.</b></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The park seemed to be a lovely place for a gaming event until the wind got going. Fine dust from the paths of the park flew around and covered everything. Every now and then we had to chase treasure cards and brochures flying away. During the weekend we had several rain showers, during which we had to quickly collect presentation material together and move our tables further under the tent.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJcIY-zpBfrAvP19kJTkScssLeMq7kvkv6-SlURoDqu3bTUNDYE8uE1JARGn4yxawbt5vkvf6mok9zoTdIesvv1Vb6fcATq6wYJ-eagr1rAwkRXVF15_I5dm1jw4w3eSzupCcAmug1wyI/s1600/DSC_2621.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="894" data-original-width="1600" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJcIY-zpBfrAvP19kJTkScssLeMq7kvkv6-SlURoDqu3bTUNDYE8uE1JARGn4yxawbt5vkvf6mok9zoTdIesvv1Vb6fcATq6wYJ-eagr1rAwkRXVF15_I5dm1jw4w3eSzupCcAmug1wyI/s640/DSC_2621.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our booth was full the whole weekend.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Coffee Queue</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even though we had to empty our tent-booth every evening, the event was pretty smooth and pleasant to be part of. Except in the mornings. I need my morning coffee to wake up. Convention days are so exhausting that extra coffee is mandatory.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the coffee queue. They tried to keep me happy, anyway...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We got food and drink coupons from the organisers. For beer, there were three tents with several beer taps. For coffee, only two machines, which made one cup at a time. A long time. It’s not a very effective way to serve exhibitors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Finland, the organiser would have made 50 litres of filtered coffee in a large container with a tap. Pouring a cup would have taken 2 seconds. Don't tell me about freshly ground beans and sophisticated flavour. At the fair, in the morning, people are not looking for a barista experience. They need caffeine. Whatever liquid form you serve it in, they are happy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Touring Traditions</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We stayed in Brussels at the same place we were at during our February visit: the youth </span><a href="https://www.aubergesdejeunesse.com/Belgique/Bruxelles?currency=EUR&v1=adv&v2=adw&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuKyAlKOV3QIVQeJ3Ch2e2AMCEAAYAiAAEgIEEfD_BwE" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">hostel Aubergess des Jeunesse</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. If you ever want to torture yourself by going to Brussels with a caravan or a motorhome, I can recommend this place. The centre of Brussels is within walking distance.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Väinö came back from summer holiday and<br />started working right away. These players came<br />from Spain and we will meet them<br />later this year in Spanish conventions.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Getting out from Brussels turned out to be very difficult this time. The first route was under construction, and getting another option required three different satnav systems. And still, we took a wrong lane in a tunnel. But we decided to drive on, just to get out of the city. We didn’t have a clear plan about where to go for the next night. We have three weeks for a drive to Barcelona. Plenty can happen, many places could be visited.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All of a sudden, we noticed we were heading south, towards Luxembourg. You remember</span><a href="https://ddptour.blogspot.com/2018/02/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">February</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> when we accidentally ended up there… The only country during this tour where we didn’t stay overnight. So we decided to fix that and refresh our memories of Luxembourg. It’s good to have traditions: all roads to (and from) Brussels go via Luxembourg!</span></div>
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<br />Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-37782974325890065762018-08-04T13:30:00.001+03:002018-08-04T13:30:48.939+03:00Wall and Bubble<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">”We need to take the next exit,” I told Timo, raising my eyes from the satnav. ”Hmm… the exit seems to be on the other side of that wall...” We were driving along a German autobahn, towards Berlin. The road was under construction and we were driving in a temporary lane. We looked over the thick wall and saw other cars taking the exit. And the next one. After 15 kilometres the construction work ended and we were finally able to leave the autobahn. A small detour to the campsite.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cool Berlin Con<br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">Berlin Boardgame Con was held in a building called the ”Kühlhaus” - cool house. It looked cool: old brick walls, iron stairways and a 2 level high opening hall in the middle, with wide balconies on each side. Due to the heat bubble covering the whole of Europe, though, it was anything but cool inside.</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since we are now very professional participants of gaming conventions, we were well prepared. Among other booth furniture, we carried our portable fridge to the site. So during the hot fair days, we had cold drinks available. It also protected the Hunter & Cron chocolates, that we got from the organiser, from melting!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1jTw42Ou4pEPzuVKSAJxEyPaGDhW5lBwLwEVDBCsLtDqMP_63LFmLnQM76374uyA7IjYXeqixm7UEtMrkp2_hACtCdR5cMH3g1zBDoEqW8crIyP94AV6wOYK0pLdIp5uaYm7Dwy4heYU/s1600/huntercron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="847" data-original-width="1600" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1jTw42Ou4pEPzuVKSAJxEyPaGDhW5lBwLwEVDBCsLtDqMP_63LFmLnQM76374uyA7IjYXeqixm7UEtMrkp2_hACtCdR5cMH3g1zBDoEqW8crIyP94AV6wOYK0pLdIp5uaYm7Dwy4heYU/s320/huntercron.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Berlin Con was the fourth convention in Germany for us, this year. I don’t know if it was because of the warm weather, summertime or just the lively atmosphere of Berlin, but people there were really happy and relaxed. We had the very first copies of </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Darwinning!</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> there and the feedback was extremely positive. An overview of </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Darwinning!</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> can be seen soon on <a href="https://hunterundcron.de/"><b><span style="color: purple;">Hunter & Cron’s site</span></b></a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Heat and Flood</span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8oOIzPq-G0u0M0C1v561aMrwmlZ3685M693Ywdc5yqtaqfRXAH4PvEpYnkhWe2md1KnUJ-9mibSHoFwDH35o34Ww9QO_lXfM6a7FhZgVoL9l5AbrJ_4NYydsUSPa2qbI-9cC3rTyqSqc/s1600/butterfly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1391" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8oOIzPq-G0u0M0C1v561aMrwmlZ3685M693Ywdc5yqtaqfRXAH4PvEpYnkhWe2md1KnUJ-9mibSHoFwDH35o34Ww9QO_lXfM6a7FhZgVoL9l5AbrJ_4NYydsUSPa2qbI-9cC3rTyqSqc/s200/butterfly.jpg" width="173" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Butterfly reading Kindle with Timo.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The heat wave forced us to replan our schedules. We have been avoiding travelling and choosing camping sites with swimming pools. We don’t have air conditioning in the caravan, so during the daytime, it is really hot. It is difficult to work when your brain’s melting and the computer gets overheated.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpUpJHp_iS-nTaKwiyydU5Pe79J13UxHzMS6YXEspTfmKuymTGTx3C7q5kpwQvYCh2X-y3cGHxMbYdiNeIesabLoNoBjXevWdnFf-ZimeDoEiqeJhT7HaHawpIi-X0ZiW5eUYFCxQ1ifc/s1600/bikinis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="898" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpUpJHp_iS-nTaKwiyydU5Pe79J13UxHzMS6YXEspTfmKuymTGTx3C7q5kpwQvYCh2X-y3cGHxMbYdiNeIesabLoNoBjXevWdnFf-ZimeDoEiqeJhT7HaHawpIi-X0ZiW5eUYFCxQ1ifc/s200/bikinis.jpg" width="111" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Entrepreneur can<br />work in bikinis!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fortunately, the nights have been cooler. In the evenings it’s nice to sit outside and play board games. I bought <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/230802/azul"><b><span style="color: purple;">Azul</span></b></a> – the game of the year - from Berlin and so far I have lost all but one game against Timo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finland has also got its share of the heat and Lapland has had the warmest summer ever. My garden is there on its own. Our neighbour sent me some pictures, and despite the drought, it’s blooming.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAmOEVAnxtfDlGNwQqaZd_vqHn44jo5RBPvIsNPy3ej7WpO_LAWXecolljvYFaPZBfeXVnDNmqMT6KDM7olE4VlkE_dXtYsO06V98oD8U5N9p9vX_WirD5BOzbd-cl3l9djTChhYHkp84/s1600/road-fix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="390" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAmOEVAnxtfDlGNwQqaZd_vqHn44jo5RBPvIsNPy3ej7WpO_LAWXecolljvYFaPZBfeXVnDNmqMT6KDM7olE4VlkE_dXtYsO06V98oD8U5N9p9vX_WirD5BOzbd-cl3l9djTChhYHkp84/s400/road-fix.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lovely neighbours fixing our road at home.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">One morning, I read on the news that it had been raining at home. A lot. 27.6 mm in one hour and over 46 mm over the day. Just for reference: ”heavy rain” is categorised as 7 mm/hour. I asked our neighbour if everything was ok at our place (I knew the tenant was on vacation). The reply was two pictures from our courtyard road. Part of the sandy road had been washed downhill. Just like I had feared. Even before I asked for help, our neighbour sent me another picture - of them fixing the road. Some people are just pure gold!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_37ozmCkB7ek6Btjtc-rgyEwkcCBdNN_95eIxogZFc2D-dONEJfdf1tWOQ8gs_qEUrFfglOnHpWApxMXFjZX-hWm3KxGO8w5d-wejSe3cd7ArN2mj0RwxpgXnCqjrL4_hzJdnvt6kCx8/s1600/sunflowers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="927" data-original-width="1600" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_37ozmCkB7ek6Btjtc-rgyEwkcCBdNN_95eIxogZFc2D-dONEJfdf1tWOQ8gs_qEUrFfglOnHpWApxMXFjZX-hWm3KxGO8w5d-wejSe3cd7ArN2mj0RwxpgXnCqjrL4_hzJdnvt6kCx8/s640/sunflowers.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This summer will be remembered as the warmest and driest for decades.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">PS. When we left Berlin, we noticed one of the caravan tires had a screw in it… I’ve lost count of these. We used the same procedure as with the previous ones: Google the closest garage, get the tire fixed, continue. It delayed us for about 30 minutes. Like the autobahn wall coming into Berlin.</span></div>
Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-82736702432197834332018-07-24T17:31:00.001+03:002018-07-24T17:53:39.884+03:00Over, Under And By The Sea<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR0CxMuTTN2KR8qoxKCt2NT1ajlyC1bZeRxu38-oX8GPYGC63XYiR1IDmaoj9x2XwivQFNOkRviGVSXbgcdkR98O9B5k5M8fcudr6pAbg9bTQ-D1Upypz9_Xf36YS7diHTUSDxyV9JPtc/s1600/rhodo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="1600" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR0CxMuTTN2KR8qoxKCt2NT1ajlyC1bZeRxu38-oX8GPYGC63XYiR1IDmaoj9x2XwivQFNOkRviGVSXbgcdkR98O9B5k5M8fcudr6pAbg9bTQ-D1Upypz9_Xf36YS7diHTUSDxyV9JPtc/s320/rhodo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="http://blairdrummondcaravanpark.co.uk/" style="font-weight: bold;">Blairdrummond caravan park</a><b>, </b>rhododrendrons and a chocolate cake in the oven.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“That was some excellent reversing! I could never do that!” the man in the neighbour pitch announced after Timo had parked our caravan to the most beautiful camping place we had ever seen. Large rhododendrons were blooming all around us. “Would you like to drink tea or coffee?” his wife asked. I was quite confused. During the over 5 months of travelling, we had never had conversations with other campers. Just the polite “Good morning!” and that’s it. I told the lady I’m a coffee drinker, Timo drinks tea and our child likes hot chocolate. She disappeared in their own caravan and arrived after a while with three large mugs. What an excellent start for our holiday in Scotland!</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Left is the new right</span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwY-JuqGdFXdJnqbRN0PnAKHetBNrP7zJfki3gh8VH9yWbPMpvjk4KJDzKgIbl7__wz7QC9_bcQ7lvor2WwB_pY5WBA2LO0J4Qj7QAXAh1xZYmALCdTl4fLJKimAoFGOBlyja5YgCcFoM/s1600/humps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1319" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwY-JuqGdFXdJnqbRN0PnAKHetBNrP7zJfki3gh8VH9yWbPMpvjk4KJDzKgIbl7__wz7QC9_bcQ7lvor2WwB_pY5WBA2LO0J4Qj7QAXAh1xZYmALCdTl4fLJKimAoFGOBlyja5YgCcFoM/s200/humps.jpg" width="164" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We had planned to spend the whole of June in the UK after UKGE. We had several team members we wanted to see, and Scotland was an area that really interested us. I didn’t dare to think much of that month beforehand, because the left side traffic gave me nightmares.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We arrived in the UK via Eurotunnel, under the sea. Not the cheapest way, but very easy. Although, so far the only passport control we have had, was in Calais where police officers also checked our caravan. In Finland, there has been news about the illegal immigrants' attempts to enter the Eurotunnel, so we were not surprised by the strict security checks.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf-H0dojG3yMrwfNdY05NPbkq9JngkRpSlsbDTiK_p9pFKeoUohFhR91O5TAwKl_3m3xhlbBamOu1wp0KnFnffPKNHrh38iS-ZLZCgIChuBSKLhVHTTSTZNz3OCgkAZRGAYOUfWgoea-4/s1600/scotland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="1600" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf-H0dojG3yMrwfNdY05NPbkq9JngkRpSlsbDTiK_p9pFKeoUohFhR91O5TAwKl_3m3xhlbBamOu1wp0KnFnffPKNHrh38iS-ZLZCgIChuBSKLhVHTTSTZNz3OCgkAZRGAYOUfWgoea-4/s320/scotland.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The further north we drove,<br />the more amazing was the view.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The left side traffic did require some attention though. In all the crossings and roundabouts it was good that two people looked at where the other cars might come from and to which lane we are supposed to go.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The British Weather</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After the nice and sunny time in Italy and central Europe, we were prepared to have a bit cooler June, with a lot of rain. You know, the typical British weather. But as we learned already in March: there is nothing typical in this year’s weather!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdHixQWQaA-TwtCdwVOKyknHc18QiEU6T5Lx0oe82kCeoTFIG9x0kYtmmvZzJt2Otx_p4WGiXPo_lZ_jONycqANDvIofPldTPaUj3rKN32K1N3fBnUp0IBi9skwoQNHCix5QM58cCrfSk/s1600/hector.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="934" data-original-width="1600" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdHixQWQaA-TwtCdwVOKyknHc18QiEU6T5Lx0oe82kCeoTFIG9x0kYtmmvZzJt2Otx_p4WGiXPo_lZ_jONycqANDvIofPldTPaUj3rKN32K1N3fBnUp0IBi9skwoQNHCix5QM58cCrfSk/s320/hector.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Hector was here."</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The beautiful, sunny weather during UKGE continued for the whole month. OK, the Hector-storm went over us in Edinborough and dropped a 5-meter long branch of a tree at the camping site. Then it was raining for a day, but even the rain was warm!</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From island to another</span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLkHWSyufdao0qPd0T4Ets81WarcP3dhDS98qs0KEzEHPqU17mAA9J4Ju-5pqMYTixkcdjhxemvIeZchSkw8WUKl4-PaaXgba4swdxArjf5y0wVcZcn0GK0SFKl5YdrnHpXyT7S2MmYWE/s1600/fairypool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1071" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLkHWSyufdao0qPd0T4Ets81WarcP3dhDS98qs0KEzEHPqU17mAA9J4Ju-5pqMYTixkcdjhxemvIeZchSkw8WUKl4-PaaXgba4swdxArjf5y0wVcZcn0GK0SFKl5YdrnHpXyT7S2MmYWE/s200/fairypool.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The magical Fairy Pools.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The friendly neighbours at the camping site recommended us <a href="https://www.isleofskye.com/"><b><span style="color: purple;">the Isle of Skye</span></b></a>. We had been warned about the narrow roads in North, but they had been there with a caravan with no problems. The Isle of Skye has a special meaning for Timo. He has been playing for years a role game that happens on the island. So we decided to go there, to see <a href="https://www.isleofskye.com/skye-guide/top-ten-skye-walks/fairy-pools"><b>t<span style="color: purple;">he Fairy Pools</span></b></a> and other sights he has been walking for years in his imagination.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAstz7BkEtTyBxG2gKS57ibW0z9o7wRIz6pSGbfkW2khjHv8KZEzPsA5nakcSmnz7AgCE5neuq8MZtQSa1Wm4qpbfH9LYOMLy3vuEc-MEQu7beAM6o7tVter89QgfD6kphitVef9tDNr4/s1600/ferry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1461" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAstz7BkEtTyBxG2gKS57ibW0z9o7wRIz6pSGbfkW2khjHv8KZEzPsA5nakcSmnz7AgCE5neuq8MZtQSa1Wm4qpbfH9LYOMLy3vuEc-MEQu7beAM6o7tVter89QgfD6kphitVef9tDNr4/s320/ferry.jpg" width="292" /></i></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Our caravan on a ferry to the Isle of Skye.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We were supposed to take the new bridge to the island, but I forgot the tell that to the navigator. So we ended up straight to the ferry harbour. And of course, we couldn’t fit into the next ferry (we needed a place of 6 cars). Driving to the bridge would have taken 3 hours, so we just waited, had lunch and enjoyed the lovely sea view. Did I already mention, that it was sunny and warm?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDZt5apbixmXQABqZD8rd08rWl2gCU_5dRcbsAU__B0zncR2vAFn92QofBDV7HyoqUhCb7ISKDWN-ajX6m8kzNpMq8FsseIc7D2uRrVXyWoIdawkkgh8OhlAY40lyc8jVwWpgkuBvIQjU/s1600/yellowtree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1600" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDZt5apbixmXQABqZD8rd08rWl2gCU_5dRcbsAU__B0zncR2vAFn92QofBDV7HyoqUhCb7ISKDWN-ajX6m8kzNpMq8FsseIc7D2uRrVXyWoIdawkkgh8OhlAY40lyc8jVwWpgkuBvIQjU/s400/yellowtree.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>"So long as the gorse is in flower the kissing season is open."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>An old saying I heard, and learned the gorse blooms all year round.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I had expected Scottish hills to be covered with grass, moss, heather and rocks. Of course, those existed, but the number of blooming flowers was surprising. Not only the tree-sized rhododendrons but also other bushes and trees, covered in golden yellow. I saw irises and orchids, stonecrops and wild roses. Many of them similar to home. And my soul enjoyed every single one of them.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnuRcrYsyywSmjm5PIHcPnK5NWOwezf1-US842rAXWw77ucEvSje3_DLJqo5YfTffM9vpealIYdPF76hRHVf3LmDY0D73nfuEjPDl_PhZyiNRgzZSe0kwflwV16a0mi6dQhixBCohMR8/s1600/timo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="915" data-original-width="1600" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnuRcrYsyywSmjm5PIHcPnK5NWOwezf1-US842rAXWw77ucEvSje3_DLJqo5YfTffM9vpealIYdPF76hRHVf3LmDY0D73nfuEjPDl_PhZyiNRgzZSe0kwflwV16a0mi6dQhixBCohMR8/s640/timo.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Timo on the corner stone of the covenant of Talisker in Ars Magica. </i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Jewel Among the Slate</span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgujZynQJvoBXhpq3oK0AKDLN_UYGXir9hWE22J8UCwG6a4BtCK4Rh6msRfC42wEkDUb5wTr82b5M3gShkoEuqMqdtKMZ9bjByJ_DRXj7ar_rhOJ5CQiVTCGO2NONBJcg6gO1oUmFD2cLk/s1600/miner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1048" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgujZynQJvoBXhpq3oK0AKDLN_UYGXir9hWE22J8UCwG6a4BtCK4Rh6msRfC42wEkDUb5wTr82b5M3gShkoEuqMqdtKMZ9bjByJ_DRXj7ar_rhOJ5CQiVTCGO2NONBJcg6gO1oUmFD2cLk/s200/miner.jpg" width="130" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Väinö tried slate mining.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After an excellent week around Scotland, we headed to the Snowdonia area in Wales. There we had one colder and misty day, but we spend it underground <a href="https://www.llechwedd-slate-caverns.co.uk/"><span style="color: purple;"><b>in the old slate mine</b></span>.</a> The over 100 years old mine area provided many attractions to tourists. And due to that fact, that our home floors and yard is covered with slate (from Alta, Norway), I felt like home walking across on the grey stone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The precious jewel of our trip turned out the be <b>Emrys</b>, the owner of <b><span style="color: purple;"><a href="http://www.llysderwen.co.uk/"><span style="color: purple;">Llys Derwen Camping</span></a> </span></b>in Snowdonia. We left his campsite in the Midsummer eve, planning to have a barbeque in the evening with our friend at Silverstone. To make a long story short: wrong road choice, too narrow and going up to a steep hill, caravan tire exploded, reversing broke the clutch (again!), we got stuck in a curve and blocked the whole road.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The pretty red car of Royal Mail stopped close by. Fortunately, mailman's tour ended right before our caravan, so we didn’t stop the mail deliveries. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I asked the mailman our location and</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> contacted, once again, The Automobile and Touring Club of Finland (ATCF) for towing help. To </span><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Bwlch</b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. I had to spell it many times. Welsh names are lovely!</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOV-hnjQ2qlwWWzNxEIgYnSkzmd7E3c76hLAnVmuFGaqgo8DzYNySAVpmFC2bGW55Zl1rO-_zbe6pt7o7m404P18lRevO3ouNDJbKKsvMCzC8PGh_aIQQcYf6V6XdGasarvEyXaFsGMTI/s1600/traktori.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="938" data-original-width="1600" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOV-hnjQ2qlwWWzNxEIgYnSkzmd7E3c76hLAnVmuFGaqgo8DzYNySAVpmFC2bGW55Zl1rO-_zbe6pt7o7m404P18lRevO3ouNDJbKKsvMCzC8PGh_aIQQcYf6V6XdGasarvEyXaFsGMTI/s400/traktori.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Timo phoned Emrys, and he came to wonder about the situation. Before the British partner of ATCF even managed to confirm the request of help, Emrys had organised us a new tire, car towing and repair for the clutch and a tractor to pull the caravan back to his camping site. All this in the weirdly pleasant sounding Welsh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Grandma’s Stories</span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3rZeT5p7_1P7lBvh2BVSjW7Yh6XaFDWWzxhDys3UStDRbNEmfDMqBe6lfmaIODhqah8W0sQRCDuiS8pTfjMhUeVcHdvLCPxni81WdukgKtVEAYKxFxjGyTL4UX5mWhj8kUSEtYaslFoQ/s1600/flower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="685" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3rZeT5p7_1P7lBvh2BVSjW7Yh6XaFDWWzxhDys3UStDRbNEmfDMqBe6lfmaIODhqah8W0sQRCDuiS8pTfjMhUeVcHdvLCPxni81WdukgKtVEAYKxFxjGyTL4UX5mWhj8kUSEtYaslFoQ/s200/flower.jpg" width="85" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our family will never forget that Midsummer. I burned my neck spending hours in the sun, waiting for the towing on the hilltop, looking at the fantastic view of mountains and sea. Sheep, falcons and wild goats wondered of our caravan blocking the road. We had a great evening at Emrys’ camping site with other campers sharing our experiences and Scottish whiskey.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I bet when I later tell this story to my grandchildren, they will reply: “Don’t exaggerate grandma! We can believe everything else, except that it was warm and sunny all the time!”</span><br />
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<br />Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-72841635796001000282018-07-17T22:40:00.000+03:002018-07-17T22:40:33.683+03:00Did You Saw The Saw?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXfbrDv9B3KDT7lnSzoysmlEeHB6yUpupEgoAsHiD-eBNRmkHwMGo-XGqTKqo-J6IwJ9GFLe473TLb54bf9WWBeis3R98BQHLGBxIkd_GCAg9hI5RGJZ9udWR4ZBGvzzhwPUjlLj4BSk/s1600/Olazabal-IPlayRed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="469" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXfbrDv9B3KDT7lnSzoysmlEeHB6yUpupEgoAsHiD-eBNRmkHwMGo-XGqTKqo-J6IwJ9GFLe473TLb54bf9WWBeis3R98BQHLGBxIkd_GCAg9hI5RGJZ9udWR4ZBGvzzhwPUjlLj4BSk/s320/Olazabal-IPlayRed.jpg" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Olazábal and The Saw at UKGE.<br />Picture by <span style="color: purple;"><b><a href="https://iplayred.co.uk/">I Play Red</a>,</b></span> thanks!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was early morning. Olazábal was walking through corridors, alert, finger ready to pull the power button of her circular saw. She soon spotted a familiar, tall figure with grey hair. “It’s time to introduce The Saw to him..”, Olazábal thought. She approached the figure with determined steps. She pulled the trigger and The Saw started spinning with a hissing sound. “Remember me?” she asked, grinning and pointing at the guy, with The Saw. “OMG! What is that?” Rahdo asked with a surprised smile.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Making of Olazábal </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Perdition’s Mouth one of the heroes, Olazábal, is a female dwarf. She has a circular saw, powered by steam, as a weapon. For almost a year I have been preparing an Olazábal costume. The clothes and the beard were the easy part. You might remember her from the Kickstarter video of </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Revised Edition. The weapon was trickier to do.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>These machines are<br />just so beautiful!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A box in our car has all kinds of cogwheels and pipes for the saw but I had lacked inspiration for building it. I found the inspiration in </span><a href="http://www.technicalmuseum.cz/en/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: purple; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Technical Museum in Brno</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which had big, working, steam machines! The sunny days in Czechia gave me time to spray paint cogwheels, pressure meters and the shoulder pads I had bought from Modena Play. Of course, the lack of proper tools made the build a bit demanding and I ended up finishing the saw with duct tape (at least it was orange!).</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/SteampunkAndFantasy">SteampunkAndFantasy</a> had the latex wrench.<br />They also had some nice steampunk corsets<br />- but unfortunately Olazábal does not wear one...<br /></i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pyrkon and its great variation of handcrafts provided me with the one missing part for the costume: a latex wrench. Olazábal was finally ready to enter the crowded corridors of the cult of board gamers at UKGE.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Network With Faces</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good business networks are something you really need in the board game industry. It is not enough that you have a great game idea, perhaps even new mechanics to present. You need good graphics, previews, reviews, retailers and, of course, the buyers. UKGE was an excellent place to build our network.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Rahdo listening the idea of Darwinning!<br />This time I was without the beard.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I really liked meeting Rahdo. He made a preview of </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> when it was first on Kickstarter. He was very happy to see how far we had got with the game. I asked if he would have time to learn about </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Darwinning!</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. He noticed my lunch fruits and answered: “Only if you give me a banana, I need something to eat.” So he got his banana, and learned that there is a humorous card game coming that he can soon review.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Giles Pound makes reviews, podcasts and blogs on his site, </span><a href="https://bothsidesofmytable.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: purple;">Both Sides of My Table</span></b><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It is always nice to present games to people who really love gaming. It’s even better if you can provide them with something new. You can check </span><a href="https://bothsidesofmytable.com/13cs-of-cultist-blowpipes-and-critterly-dislikes-perditions-mouth/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: purple; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> what Giles has to say about </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">!</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Jamie Noble, the artist of<br />the original </i></span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Olazábal art.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After UKGE we drove north, to meet Paul “Catweazel” Tunaley. We really like his </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaSJQxYS1Is" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: purple; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">learn-to-play videos</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. During a nice dinner of Indian food we had a good talk about board games and upcoming videos</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKDmQRf5N0njJewuV2s2gjEyRA-HLLEKkAJKNhWeF9l8SLxPj-trBNIUba-3i9pkwBaTvUP-LVd2UOEPkP8DJQOBp4Y5hdMd9ojjjqgvunJ8jRoYO12GKMdHYjHP-eownQ_Jt7gMs7fw/s1600/tristan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1175" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKDmQRf5N0njJewuV2s2gjEyRA-HLLEKkAJKNhWeF9l8SLxPj-trBNIUba-3i9pkwBaTvUP-LVd2UOEPkP8DJQOBp4Y5hdMd9ojjjqgvunJ8jRoYO12GKMdHYjHP-eownQ_Jt7gMs7fw/s200/tristan.jpg" width="146" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tristan Hall has designed<br />new scenario for </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Olazábal<br />and her friends in PM:RE.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> </span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even though all reviewers are important for our business, really, I most enjoy meeting the players. The people who stop at the booth just to tell us “I’m your backer, I really like your games”. They are the reason why we are in this business. It’s great to meet those happy faces.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Come And Meet Us!</span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuG_Iz42NzHxKQpVZEPUZ1CPhUgXXz5etqLDLMsVdELbR57OjKO01NohIXybYBjJ7jvrkJ6y1mlibEjodZNCNrmD6Co89VqETa4ZqGw08PB_6IFrQPFP98ukfu3Twk8mBnRFdmpmsPGv4/s1600/olazabaljasimma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1403" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuG_Iz42NzHxKQpVZEPUZ1CPhUgXXz5etqLDLMsVdELbR57OjKO01NohIXybYBjJ7jvrkJ6y1mlibEjodZNCNrmD6Co89VqETa4ZqGw08PB_6IFrQPFP98ukfu3Twk8mBnRFdmpmsPGv4/s320/olazabaljasimma.jpg" width="280" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I dropped my pledge and I’ve been regretting that ever since. I came to fix my error.” A guy said to me at our booth, as he bought </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Yeah, that happens. If you have made such an error, or have missed our games and campaigns for other reasons, don’t worry! Our tour continues, just come and meet us!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our current schedule for the next few months is:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://hunterundcron.de/berlincon/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: purple; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Berlin Brettspiele Con</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">, Germany 21.-22.7.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://brusselsgamesfestival.be/en/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: purple; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Brussels Game Festival</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">, Belgium 24.-26.8.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://jokos.es/en/home/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: purple;">Jokos</span></a><span style="color: #1155cc;">,</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> Spain 21.-23.9. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(please don’t let it snow…)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Cordoba, Spain 11.-13.10.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.spiel-messe.com/en/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: purple; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Essen Spiel</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">, Germany 25.-28.10.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.spielwiesn.de/sw" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: purple; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Spielwiesn</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">, Germany, 16.-18.11.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">And some more... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">Do send us a hint if you know a good convention!</span></div>
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<br />Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-73725911161196277322018-07-14T15:23:00.000+03:002018-07-14T15:23:05.782+03:00Safe Sweating<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Sylvia presenting PM:AR in Pyrkon.<br /></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our booth is behind the crib</span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” I told Tomasz ja Sylvia from </span><a href="http://www.for2players.pl/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: purple;">For2players</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: purple;">.</span></b> They carried our game boxes to the booth. We had 15 minutes to set everything up before the doors opened to the public. The baby in the crib at the neighbouring booth was playing happily, while his mother and other exhibitors and retailers were setting up their displays. 15 minutes was all we needed. Soon the aisle was filled with fantasy creatures, pokemon, warriors and happy people offering “free hugs” on their signs. </span><a href="https://pyrkon.pl/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: purple;">Pyrkon</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, an amazing fantasy festival, had started.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Other Rulebook</span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOOJIC9MczsTNewmGir79hleyBjlsnSHQ_QcbGG6MAEr6i8whUYsKf2nkhi9c_xgqHqnPr9SvFndmub_F7ECx1CEeU_TCIiX4me34EDhajL40K-3gYuDcwjfVYu6PMNRj_MsVzRQvd1pU/s1600/UKGE-floor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1424" data-original-width="1600" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOOJIC9MczsTNewmGir79hleyBjlsnSHQ_QcbGG6MAEr6i8whUYsKf2nkhi9c_xgqHqnPr9SvFndmub_F7ECx1CEeU_TCIiX4me34EDhajL40K-3gYuDcwjfVYu6PMNRj_MsVzRQvd1pU/s200/UKGE-floor.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our booth in UKGE was<br />nicely located close to<br />our PM:RE manufacturer.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two weeks after Pyrkon we were carrying games to our booth in Birmingham, for </span><a href="https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: purple;">UKGE</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: purple;">.</span></b> Our son was stopped at the door: no minors allowed! I was stunned and the memories of </span><a href="https://ddptour.blogspot.com/2018/02/not-so-fair-toy-fair.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: purple;">Nuremberg</span></b><span style="color: #1155cc;"> </span></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">surfaced. I had re-read the exhibitors guide for UKGE just the night before to check set-up times and other instructions and hadn’t found any age limits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was in the other rulebook, the rules of the </span><a href="http://www.thenec.co.uk/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: purple;">NEC</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: purple;">,</span></b> which I hadn’t read since in March. That one had the age limits and safety regulations. I was soon told that we were breaking several of them. The worst thing was that we were wearing sandals, due to the nice, sunny weather. It was mandatory to have shoes that cover your feet. Luckily we had managed to smuggle most of our stuff to the booth in our sandals, so we just left the exhibiting hall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saved by Rubber Boots</span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGiXxJu3KZaOgzSHu7apLV5jbfNDkdQZ8EvtPchySnUHryQ8kjdjrF8WNjb0wnZzjwVcVjlCt0APKvacfgQ0AGE2iH3nNzPdIKVZ0z_RzxuuAaosTIJk6YqeolS4VhqMKanPcblcQVI0U/s1600/rubberboots.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGiXxJu3KZaOgzSHu7apLV5jbfNDkdQZ8EvtPchySnUHryQ8kjdjrF8WNjb0wnZzjwVcVjlCt0APKvacfgQ0AGE2iH3nNzPdIKVZ0z_RzxuuAaosTIJk6YqeolS4VhqMKanPcblcQVI0U/s400/rubberboots.jpg" width="225" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem was that the safety regulations of the erection phase extended to the area for the press preview. Väinö and I were supposed to present our games there within an hour for the large crows of press people. I managed to get permission for Väinö to enter, with proper shoes. All our other shoes were in our caravan at the camping site but the two of us had rubber boots in the car. So we put the rubber boots on and ran to set up our playing cards and flyers. I know that all the journalists didn’t have “proper shoes” when they walked around checking new games. Man, was I feeling safe sweating in the rubber boots behind our table!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">UKGE during the time when sandals were ok.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">At UKGE, any time other than the public opening times was considered “building and restocking time” = safety regulation time. So every morning our exhibitor son was forced to wait at the front gate for the convention to open and he had to leave the hall right after closing time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I remembered the baby in his crib in Pyrkon. We are in the EU - even the British are for a while - and one easily thinks we have the same rules. This tour has taught us, though, that each country is different. Each organization is different. Each board game convention is different. In some countries people can work and be safe with fewer rules.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In Pyrkon we were allowed to camp in the fair area.<br />That was nice - but noisy because the fantasy parties lasted all night long.</span></td></tr>
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<br />Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-84513616663317649772018-06-29T18:30:00.000+03:002018-06-29T18:30:15.917+03:00Bloody Business<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Something's bloody wrong here!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Something was bothering me, but I couldn’t find out what it was. We had received the first print proofs of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift Revised Edition </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from the manufacturer, </span><a href="http://www.longpackgames.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;"><b>LongPack Games</b></span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The table was covered with big paper sheets and original maps of PM:AR. At first glance the print proofs of maps had looked fine. But just to be sure, I checked every square and compared those to the original maps. It was the map ”Small Nest” where the truth finally hit me: the blood on the floor was grey!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We hunted the missing blood colour for hours. Eventually we found out that one specific effect in a layer in Photoshop files acted differently in CS5 vs. CS5.5. The error could be fixed only with version CS5.5, and only one of our team members had that. Fortunately he had time to help. Making the maps requires several technical steps and it took us two days to fix everything. Still, it was a relief to find and fix the error before actual production.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had busy May: development week in Vienna and then 3 conventions in 3 different countries. From Vienna we headed straight north, to Brno. There was a small gaming weekend in a local board game bar. One of our team members, David, lives in Brno, and it was great to meet him again. We had two extra hours before the event, and we used those in</span><a href="http://www.technicalmuseum.cz/en/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">the Technical Museum</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I could have stayed there the whole day after I found the computer with</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_Bobble" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">Bubble Bobble</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">! Oh, what a nostalgic moment!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was kind of nostalgic to hear the Finnish language, too. A Finnish couple stayed at the same camping place near Brno. They had a boy, a few years younger than ours, but also named Väinö. While the two Väinös were playing, we parents had time to compare traveling experiences and - because Finland is such a small country – to find common friends. The lady was Finnish sculptor</span><a href="http://www.heliryhanen.fi/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">Heli Ryhänen</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, she knew the artists of my home village and had taught my cousin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many people thought our problems with car and caravan ended when there were none mentioned in latests blog entries. The three flat tyres we had in Italy just didn’t seem like news. Mr. Murphy obviously agreed and created new tricks when we entered Poland, on our way to</span><a href="https://pyrkon.pl/en/about-pyrkon/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;"><b>Pyrkon</b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Polish roads are narrow, curvy and bumpy. A bit more bumpy than other countries. So somewhere in the middle of a Polish country road, we heard a loud crash. We stopped and found our 6 meter long awning lying on the road side. It required some geometrical appraisal and strong muscles to get that thing in the caravan. We found out that the distance from the end of our bed to the kitchen window is exactly same as our awning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">My dearest friend, Google, was again helpful. I couldn’t believe my eyes when my search gave me a 24/7 caravan repair shop just 40 km away in the direction we were going. Well, they didn’t speak any English there. And Google navigation directed us to the wrong place. But after three phone calls (mixing English and German), one false address and navigation based on a Facebook page, we eventually found the repair shop on a suburban backyard. There was an Ukrainian worker, no common language. He understood the problem after seeing the muddy and scratched awning on the kitchen table and the empty holders outside the caravan. It was soon fixed and costed less than 30 euros.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">So Family Multamäki beat Mr. Murphy again, fast and furious. Murphy made his revenge the next morning and ripped one mudguard off the caravan with the help of bushes at the campsite. But who needs mudguards, anyway.</span></div>
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<br />Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-65713970115796329462018-06-27T16:18:00.000+03:002018-06-27T16:18:37.973+03:00Rest rooms and rooms without rest<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was small, but totally in a wrong place...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The thunderstorm was a welcome surprise. We’d been suffering 30 degree temperatures for days, sweating in the car for hours, driving from Italy to Slovenia. Now it was raining and lightning was brightening the sky every now and then. We had found a nice campsite in a nature reserve near</span><a href="https://www2.postojnska-jama.eu/en/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: purple;">the Postojna cave</span></b></span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I run through the pouring rain to a toilet building. I locked the door, sat down and... saw a snake on the floor. It was staring at me, licking the air with its tongue. Thunder roared close by. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">”My life is a horror movie...”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tricky Toilets</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0sYbcXGulPTs3AM27s0gCEpv0h-fM7ycPZm-m_aP0wsOplHq-kgBQRdzdtr7a-rLzMc4Y9LN-Ib6CJbIw5892-QkweE0ze5lsJPv4HG3LOupT5OhI0522dlF91KlHVu0M4W5ywVvmok4/s1600/toilet.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0sYbcXGulPTs3AM27s0gCEpv0h-fM7ycPZm-m_aP0wsOplHq-kgBQRdzdtr7a-rLzMc4Y9LN-Ib6CJbIw5892-QkweE0ze5lsJPv4HG3LOupT5OhI0522dlF91KlHVu0M4W5ywVvmok4/s400/toilet.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Toilet at a gas station in France.<br />If you press the wrong button,<br />you might end up to space...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">During this tour I have seen a great variation of toilets. Even the ones in motorway rest places have usually been nice and clean. In Finland the public toilets often look like a health hazard. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Earlier this year, in France, I talked with a service patrol that takes care of the motorway rest places, ”aires”. They had noticed our Finnish registration number and wanted to congratulate us. This was during the Olympic games and Finland had just won a medal in skiing. One of them was dreaming of driving to Finland with a caravan. What odd dreams people have!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Campsites usually have toilets and showers. But there is a big variation of what that means in practice. Some toilets don’t have paper, at all. Or it is in big rolls outside the toilet. It’s something you learn to check. After the incident in Slovenia, I started to also check the floor and corners for intruders. Fortunately, I have only found butterflies so far.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our campsite in Modena had toilets without seats. You know, the type where you squat down and hope that you don’t pee on your pants. Only the handicapped toilet had a proper seat. So I decided to be one for a week. Don’t get me wrong. As a Lappish girl and after spending a lot of time on fishing or hunting trips in the wilderness, I’m used to ”bush-pee” while hundreds of mosquitos admire my butt. But in the civilized world I would like to have some comfort.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia-vaQSZNU6dpMnMSBczrDuhdmWAkKamM2jn07V0xgeNTxRcyco6nNbscBMC17dCllT-9Q48TXO6WvKrWQ3VDsYBnIcLgrKva1NJdfUnJcPYzwMdGtpd05FnNUnlWeSEWQ5MlcYth9N8g/s1600/DSC_1282.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="869" data-original-width="1200" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia-vaQSZNU6dpMnMSBczrDuhdmWAkKamM2jn07V0xgeNTxRcyco6nNbscBMC17dCllT-9Q48TXO6WvKrWQ3VDsYBnIcLgrKva1NJdfUnJcPYzwMdGtpd05FnNUnlWeSEWQ5MlcYth9N8g/s400/DSC_1282.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Restaurant toilet in St. Gaudens, France.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Five Star Shower</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijMfASlqgkDo4_GB2pUVPwiCq7Bm_f_G4ELg-9YnOfaUpvUXKju4BXaZ50cCHs5KmOY6OHmiyFAHk89eqzNumJFt0RKqasgtC86eT9F6DQjkyQV7z5nLYRAV1vWtOXGGqlvZS6qNM6ckc/s1600/DSC_1929.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="924" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijMfASlqgkDo4_GB2pUVPwiCq7Bm_f_G4ELg-9YnOfaUpvUXKju4BXaZ50cCHs5KmOY6OHmiyFAHk89eqzNumJFt0RKqasgtC86eT9F6DQjkyQV7z5nLYRAV1vWtOXGGqlvZS6qNM6ckc/s640/DSC_1929.JPG" width="368" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Five stars: Camping Bozanov.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many campsites charge for warm water, especially during the winter time. So you need coins or tokens to have a shower. Usually you then get 4 minutes of water, which might – or might not – be warm. I have started to really appreciate the ability to adjust the water temperature.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hate showers with movement detectors, because the movement detectors hate me. After desperately waving my hands in front of a detector I might get water for 3 seconds. In the Alps, the shower lights worked with a movement detector. So I ended up having a shower in the dark, no matter what kind of acrobatic movements I tried to do in that one square meter cubicle.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The most beautiful toilet and shower I have found in a campsite is in the Czech Republic, near the Polish border, at</span><a href="http://www.bozanov.eu/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;"><b>Camping Bozanov</b></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. When I went to take a picture of the shower room for this blog, there was a lady drying her hair. It must look weird when someone is taking a picture out of a shower. So I felt a bit embarrassed, and quickly explained what I was doing and why. ”I totally agree, this is 5 star class!” she replied and helped to keep a door open so I could take my pictures. She was British, worked in a campsite, but had taken a year off and was now traveling with her husband. What an interesting way to spend a year...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX3l6-ztcoHKGavzcLBluxAMZcBIq0zw_V-Js0bjDhfSzUgmn5uTGvGr5fMHki-N0wt80n_ZkujMRaIHhbOZkDaw8TZCe7oZ0tkSEAHGS7ZNTtz3_LeqWZ1rP_2I4PWZRCJaHoCH29o3A/s1600/fox.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX3l6-ztcoHKGavzcLBluxAMZcBIq0zw_V-Js0bjDhfSzUgmn5uTGvGr5fMHki-N0wt80n_ZkujMRaIHhbOZkDaw8TZCe7oZ0tkSEAHGS7ZNTtz3_LeqWZ1rP_2I4PWZRCJaHoCH29o3A/s400/fox.JPG" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Notice in a toilet, Camping Vienna.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">PS.</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I survived the Slovenian toilet without snake bites. I didn't even scream! (Because I was too scared even to breath...) When I told the receptionist about the snake, he didn't seem surprised. If you have a campsite in a nature reserve, you have to accept visiting animals also.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>PPS.</b> So many events and so little time to write. I try to catch up now that we have a summer break in conventions and both </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Darwinning!</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PM:RE</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in production.</span></span></div>
Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-68257369554648515832018-05-01T00:15:00.000+03:002018-05-01T00:15:20.264+03:00Sleepless in Italy<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL4yoxZj3WZDem4AD69vAaMK5vL14SB09XoVMkkA1-Uyj5S4YClsY4MxMUExLOHXZXVNfN_PWiOtsR1Y-hEzCJyKMvw1hxwOz677AE8301JEe-sIjt1i1Hv1MBEq1EDzSRjSfBMBYweKQ/s1600/_20180402_190923.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="797" data-original-width="1473" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL4yoxZj3WZDem4AD69vAaMK5vL14SB09XoVMkkA1-Uyj5S4YClsY4MxMUExLOHXZXVNfN_PWiOtsR1Y-hEzCJyKMvw1hxwOz677AE8301JEe-sIjt1i1Hv1MBEq1EDzSRjSfBMBYweKQ/s320/_20180402_190923.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our first stop in Italy, Dro and <a href="http://www.campeggioparetezebrata.it/"><span style="color: purple;">Camping Paolino</span></a>. </span></td></tr>
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<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Ding-dong.
I was lying in my bed and listened the church bells. Central and
Southern Europe is filled with churches and their bells make a loud
noice. Every hour, the most annoying ones every 15 minutes.
Ding-a-ling-clang-dong. Three times. So it was three o’clock. AM. I
can’t even count how many times I have woken up in the middle of
night because of church bells. No matter were we in Germany, France,
Spain or Switzerland. But this time I hadn’t woken up. I was in
Italy and at 3 am just about to go to sleep.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Boardgames
for Dogs and Robots</span></h3>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCBxxekDtL-VMchLAQ4nmtNErMq-5oNSaxOwJD-MEFKxAfYvlV9J7WWKCAFaTLW-mGUF314Ru-U0sWUV0Jcr36OGwj1TjwIYu5VVozwETzOYeucZ2-S1YsClFRmguZ3HZx_abH4EUou48/s1600/_20180408_135822.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1132" data-original-width="1600" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCBxxekDtL-VMchLAQ4nmtNErMq-5oNSaxOwJD-MEFKxAfYvlV9J7WWKCAFaTLW-mGUF314Ru-U0sWUV0Jcr36OGwj1TjwIYu5VVozwETzOYeucZ2-S1YsClFRmguZ3HZx_abH4EUou48/s320/_20180408_135822.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnu5sKgDN10TSoRmL_ZArNq9c6p24UzBPRbRffMgz5zHW7-X9wwRS-G62iQQ3RcmJL-_bDXOg7fLs-doyGGZ5Ga4eV0ZpFzzRdJeYDwXDkwZ6jNTGtwtgv8xmLFp9n4P1VAUkgsk2cSiM/s1600/DSC_1587.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="408" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnu5sKgDN10TSoRmL_ZArNq9c6p24UzBPRbRffMgz5zHW7-X9wwRS-G62iQQ3RcmJL-_bDXOg7fLs-doyGGZ5Ga4eV0ZpFzzRdJeYDwXDkwZ6jNTGtwtgv8xmLFp9n4P1VAUkgsk2cSiM/s200/DSC_1587.JPG" width="81" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">We
came to Italy for <a href="https://www.play-modena.it/en/"><span style="color: purple;">Modena
</span></a></span></span><a href="https://www.play-modena.it/en/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple; font-size: 11pt;"><b>PLAY</b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">.
This was the tenth time </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">PLAY
was arranged. The event has grown a lot, but has managed to maintain
a relaxed atmosphere. What was surprising to me, was the opening
hours. In Italy, most of the activity begins after 6pm, so the fair
is open until 8 pm. On Saturday the fair was open 11 hours!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">From
the very first day it was clear that Italian gamers like cosplay. We
soon got used to gladiators, faeries, robots and stormtroopers that
kept passing the booth. Unlike in any other convention, the doors
were open also to four legged friends. You had to be careful when
moving in the crowd not to stumble on a labradorian retriever laying relaxed in
the middle of an aisle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">We
met many of our Italian gamers and </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">the
</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">reseller</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">s</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
we have been working with. It was also great to meet <a href="https://marcovaltriani.wordpress.com/"><span style="color: purple;">MarcoValtriani</span></a> who is one of the quest designers in <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameversion/370211/englishgerman-revised-edition"><span style="color: purple;">Perdition’s
Mouth Revised Edition</span></a>. And also our dear friend Dagmar de Cassan
– this was the th</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ir</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">d
time during our tour!</span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGrxTNJ9OIaoVYL8UZCSusbqdvjsPcV2Df9vXA8F9rVie-slIEg7G8nMTl44rt2Xjw27c0isITG5M5P5vDuE3lvJKRs4IeCI7_K_PG1m3XU8sOiHOn-7KKDo0SoRii-djdbvfY0CYkVpQ/s1600/_20180409_184014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1384" data-original-width="1600" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGrxTNJ9OIaoVYL8UZCSusbqdvjsPcV2Df9vXA8F9rVie-slIEg7G8nMTl44rt2Xjw27c0isITG5M5P5vDuE3lvJKRs4IeCI7_K_PG1m3XU8sOiHOn-7KKDo0SoRii-djdbvfY0CYkVpQ/s400/_20180409_184014.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Marco Valtriani and Timo in Modena PLAY.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Midnight
Hobbies</span></h3>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBFMO2BdYYHaL_d5veWAwTtgMEGIctwb3nu7mTpRoxnHWjVEDodAvTGedXnpJXMJcVY2NpZAub_7Hzp8bk-WhYm-l0p3XnYOoIwirZfcItb70XQqunqxurvxi71MC-0S-sS3YkScpbXkg/s1600/DSC_1664.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBFMO2BdYYHaL_d5veWAwTtgMEGIctwb3nu7mTpRoxnHWjVEDodAvTGedXnpJXMJcVY2NpZAub_7Hzp8bk-WhYm-l0p3XnYOoIwirZfcItb70XQqunqxurvxi71MC-0S-sS3YkScpbXkg/s320/DSC_1664.JPG" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pietro played Darwinning with a dragon<br />- a special Kickstarter species<br />designed by Dagmar de Cassan.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">After
PLAY we had two weeks of gaming events booked with local gaming
clubs, thanks to our translator Fabio and to <a href="https://www.bigcream.it/en/"><span style="color: purple;">Pietro
Cremona</span></a>. Pietro and his players were one </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">of
</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">the
many play test groups for Perdition’s Mouth. We wanted to get their
opinion of Darwinning, </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">too.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Of
course we were also</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
spreading the happy news of </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">soon
available </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Italian
version of Perdition’s Mouth Revised Edition.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">These
gaming events were in the evening. In Finland that would be ”soon
after 6pm”. But in Italy, it meant ”starting after dinner, at
9pm”. In the first evening I was too tired to join in, so Timo and
Väinö went together. I woke up half past midnight, and they were
still not back. It was pouring rain, so I was a bit worried and
phoned to Timo. I heard they had just left the event– and it would
still take over half an hour for driving. After second evening we
noticed that these evenings were too late for Väinö. Even if we
didn’t have to wake up early in the morning, this changed schedule
was tiring.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">It
was the third evening, when I got in bed at 3am. Even if we were
demoing the introduction scenario of Perdition’s Mouth, the plays
took many hours. I honestly can’t understand how our Italian
players were able to wake up to work after these hobby evenings. But
I’m starting to understand the afternoon siesta…</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Missing
Sauna and Speed</span></h3>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPoG_UVU_QcGl8YX4W5MvFBUUY2JLzmHZcQNpzRsN7Xs1TmcaPBZ2pl7Ns2piUmRjIhwKtYdTRtfPYByHahqpUmD9vf008vbOsSon9IkpwPjowMwBT3LTOh80DZkRDY_6hQPC89RGNPFo/s1600/DSC_1608.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPoG_UVU_QcGl8YX4W5MvFBUUY2JLzmHZcQNpzRsN7Xs1TmcaPBZ2pl7Ns2piUmRjIhwKtYdTRtfPYByHahqpUmD9vf008vbOsSon9IkpwPjowMwBT3LTOh80DZkRDY_6hQPC89RGNPFo/s320/DSC_1608.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Adjusting
to caravan life has been surprisingly easy. I mean, I haven’t
really missed anything. Except </span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_sauna"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple; font-size: 11pt;"><b>sauna</b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">.
Surprisingly we found one at a camping place next to Lake Garda. It
was heated just for us, no extra charge. It had nice temperature of
+80 C and we were allowed to throw water on the stove. The only minus
side was, that the water in the bucket had some eucalyptus drops in
it. Way too much eucalyptus. We changed the water twice, rinsed the
bucket, and then it was possible to have proper ”löyly”.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">In
Italy we have also missed proper internet. Most of the camping places
do not offer wifi, at least not for free. And even with money, the
speed of data transfer is depressingly slow. There are data limits
for the free roaming. When we have two games under production and a
lot graphics to transfer, the lack of fibre optic is really
noticeable.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4mVBjKM4XDisPBWvwysxd1HRQANd8ex_DRAvUXAo1B2NGlvm6ubFDEyDPhMwI7Oe5N07DNrdjGQtEq5KFWtGlnPMOgsC4TdvaCSeJmbPEH5wopoTYcVMj6KTSIbuUWL8LQC97etSsYZk/s1600/DSC_1596.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4mVBjKM4XDisPBWvwysxd1HRQANd8ex_DRAvUXAo1B2NGlvm6ubFDEyDPhMwI7Oe5N07DNrdjGQtEq5KFWtGlnPMOgsC4TdvaCSeJmbPEH5wopoTYcVMj6KTSIbuUWL8LQC97etSsYZk/s640/DSC_1596.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lake Garda.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Cheers
for Sausages</span></h3>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">We
had also booked a vacation in Rome. In our case, vacation does not
mean ”time when you do not have work”. It means ”time when you
can relax a bit more”. Timo’s parents came also to Rome and
offered to accommodate Väinö in their hotel. So me and Timo were
able to spend some time together.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUnzjC3lDPMzSm9qyZN7dowi7U2dCzaLmbZqsEvi2-21ySRr8ZIItAyrLFqfPx7Ue05hr-4BtYuV45tCUZ1yTiZFcsEjYqE-eUWg9s735J4OyNqTZyY5VqxQsPd8y3n0vbMYtLWyhQgnA/s1600/DSC_1718.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUnzjC3lDPMzSm9qyZN7dowi7U2dCzaLmbZqsEvi2-21ySRr8ZIItAyrLFqfPx7Ue05hr-4BtYuV45tCUZ1yTiZFcsEjYqE-eUWg9s735J4OyNqTZyY5VqxQsPd8y3n0vbMYtLWyhQgnA/s320/DSC_1718.JPG" width="180" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">It
was sunny, temperature nice +25. We bought a barbecue, an outdoor
mattress, some sausages and </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">good
rucola salad from Lidl. We opened up a bottle of champagne. A proper
champagne, that Timo had got as a present almost 20 years ago. We ate
our dinner from plastic plates, under the sun roof and listened to
extremely loud pigeons. That I would a call a proper vacation!</span></div>
Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-60914777894938508232018-04-06T15:30:00.002+03:002018-04-06T15:30:58.808+03:00Old and New Boardgames<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEbsXzdDO_GjPei2YeIt7xFVzOBHu6ivKnQEWj-R9-djgzK2GDPxREmJRLuKNTA2idmVMJYMf3DlnUAA0nWtyt5WHmKIHibv2hcf74NyvY4Rc-Kpt_yhIEdiIBnUHtwnKp2VEVEzQGnm0/s1600/_20180318_135810.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="1000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEbsXzdDO_GjPei2YeIt7xFVzOBHu6ivKnQEWj-R9-djgzK2GDPxREmJRLuKNTA2idmVMJYMf3DlnUAA0nWtyt5WHmKIHibv2hcf74NyvY4Rc-Kpt_yhIEdiIBnUHtwnKp2VEVEzQGnm0/s200/_20180318_135810.JPG" width="197" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I
fel</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">t</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> thirsty. For
the last hour I ha</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">d</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
been talking non-stop, </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">as w</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">e
</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">were having</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> the
final livestream for <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/509519175/darwinning-card-game-evolve-to-rule-the-food-chain"><span style="color: purple;">Darwinning!’s
Kickstarter campaign</span></a>. During the </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">two
campaign</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> weeks we made livestreams from 5
different countries. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the end, w</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">e
got 101 backers and managed to succes</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">s</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">fully
fund the game. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Big thanks to all backers!</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I gave
a small piece of paper to a bartender. In the paper there was text
”bon boisson” and I got a small plastic cup of wine. We were in
Switzerland and the organisers of Ludesco had provided us a nice pile
of ”bon boisson” papers. In Finland you couldn’t have had an
event for the whole family with alcohol drinks. At least you couldn’t
walk around with your wine mug and minors (or alcohol drinkers) would
have had to be segregated behind a fence... </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yet,
during the Ludesco weekend I didn’t see any drunken persons. Even
if there was beer and wine available all the time. In Finland that
wouldn’t have been possible, either.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqUY6dYGwyeOWeKZSlKVe1uIILQmTAgO5JM4naanNIIK8IeDNIbEPG1L7YjF2wKEGiRQv_rQCDDN_L0vUS-bRiHtx0rX2x40KdH2Mv1teBG6FwdUIT9-Y3UQNLn5PWoZjPUvjC5kHLrgQ/s1600/DSC_1351.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1169" data-original-width="1600" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqUY6dYGwyeOWeKZSlKVe1uIILQmTAgO5JM4naanNIIK8IeDNIbEPG1L7YjF2wKEGiRQv_rQCDDN_L0vUS-bRiHtx0rX2x40KdH2Mv1teBG6FwdUIT9-Y3UQNLn5PWoZjPUvjC5kHLrgQ/s400/DSC_1351.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ZfX7k2Ptj696AaqfNd1cfgFCXfEx1s9m6Wmi1WB16n3BJBv-q29c_-_NBDs0ACtwEi_2eukFXHtV4-7Hcg4HQE8i67f1028k_arXDIEmf8A7QbzLJe4j8EJsxnPf_PxVUD6V0YCZlvM/s1600/DSC_1448.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Donkey
Alarm</span></h3>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.ludesco.ch/welcome/"><span style="color: purple;">Ludesco</span></a>
</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">was</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> a well
organized gaming event with tournaments, game library and prototype
presentations, </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">held in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Chaux-de-Fonds"><span style="color: purple;">La
Chaux de Fonds</span></a></span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. We had a named contact
person, Nils, whom I had met earlier in other conventions. He is half
Swedish, so I was able to use my Swedish skills when solving issues.
It felt really weird: to be in French speaking part of Switzerland
and ”prata svenska” with </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">local.</span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL_XFemDGz006U3d5kCwEJGobdUpk7qdk-F-eNKmmqCE3OtWluKwq7reFrXyBToKVn9bA8UyVT3MKqssA6r65GT2-ev93sPPOX0ojXfr1uJSbd97z9KccqYNKbtPopUMB8UqIKMrRlB78/s1600/DSC_1370.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1032" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL_XFemDGz006U3d5kCwEJGobdUpk7qdk-F-eNKmmqCE3OtWluKwq7reFrXyBToKVn9bA8UyVT3MKqssA6r65GT2-ev93sPPOX0ojXfr1uJSbd97z9KccqYNKbtPopUMB8UqIKMrRlB78/s200/DSC_1370.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
had also two our team members, Andrea and Sebastien, with us. They
helped with all the other locals, who didn’t speak </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">any
</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Swedish or English. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
accommodated them in our caravan at a camping place close by. (I have
told you, it is a BIG caravan!) <a href="http://www.centrelacibourg.ch/"><span style="color: purple;">La
Cibourg</span></a> was a small camping area with a fairy tale style
decorations. We didn’t need any alarm clock because the owners
donkey woke everybody up at 9 when demanding breakfast.</span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During
the weekend it started to snow, again. Not so special when you are
high in the mountains, but still something that was not in the
forecasts. I seems the clouds just keep following us – let’s see
if the pattern continues through out the year.</span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gaming
from Generation to the Next</span></h3>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcs5b4DwyhiIIRUsHnrmoISuQvj6D6IRD8BHPy32VHYgj8kFKhUqM5v4aYOi3z__hpylLNxmFp_jlV8fXxmEK1Y6G8C7yqMHJUpfTSh5K6Q87cYsZx6x6Jxwp3QOt_L9_0F_s7mwaSVIw/s1600/DSC_1404.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcs5b4DwyhiIIRUsHnrmoISuQvj6D6IRD8BHPy32VHYgj8kFKhUqM5v4aYOi3z__hpylLNxmFp_jlV8fXxmEK1Y6G8C7yqMHJUpfTSh5K6Q87cYsZx6x6Jxwp3QOt_L9_0F_s7mwaSVIw/s400/DSC_1404.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After
Ludesco we drove to Germany to <a href="http://www.stadt-ratingen.de/spieletage/"><span style="color: purple;">Ratinger
Spieletage</span></a>. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another whole family gaming
event. Actually it felt like a whole town gaming event! So many
people in different ages kept walking by and stopped to play
</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/234920/darwinning"><span style="color: purple;">Darwinning</span></a>,
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/149787/perditions-mouth-abyssal-rift"><span style="color: purple;">Perdition’s
Mouth</span></a> and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148282/black-hat"><span style="color: purple;">Black
Hat</span></a>.</span></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkESGE9eHGNX6l5hT6hzTIbk_WDNVjVHSnydbwsgWZ7CpkjDObI7KUTcmuD8wusF02vTv8fJ5Mb_7h9rDXodwT_ruCMpoMgdCP7_-9XQfUmQVQ7eDuM4wcE1fCQPKuUPw0-DrFpFzz2NM/s1600/DSC_1408.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1039" data-original-width="1600" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkESGE9eHGNX6l5hT6hzTIbk_WDNVjVHSnydbwsgWZ7CpkjDObI7KUTcmuD8wusF02vTv8fJ5Mb_7h9rDXodwT_ruCMpoMgdCP7_-9XQfUmQVQ7eDuM4wcE1fCQPKuUPw0-DrFpFzz2NM/s320/DSC_1408.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
This
time we didn’t have any German speaking team members to help us.
Luckily most of the people understood English. We offered, of course,
also Finnish guidance, more or less as a joke. I guess we were rather
surprised when one father told his kids would prefer that! We found
out that Ratingen has quite large Finnish speaking community and even
a school where Finnish is taught as one subject. Nokia had a factory
there earlier, so many Finns moved to live there.<br />
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMVS2hb4zAeYcVtgg-AqYiMVK2lViZbWo7aItXtwavqYfqsjC5n6JMzUiB4rNnMlFvOa-5r-O65XWR707GC1uHb3vpoY0BD5Lrt8xPQnXla7pex5VlQJJsyyG3-MMMjbADF-XospECYsM/s1600/DSC_1414.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMVS2hb4zAeYcVtgg-AqYiMVK2lViZbWo7aItXtwavqYfqsjC5n6JMzUiB4rNnMlFvOa-5r-O65XWR707GC1uHb3vpoY0BD5Lrt8xPQnXla7pex5VlQJJsyyG3-MMMjbADF-XospECYsM/s400/DSC_1414.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
On our
way towards East, to our warehouse, we stopped for a history lesson.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saalburg" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple;">Saalburg</span></a> used to be on the north border of the imperium of Rome. This
rebuilt fortress provides a lot of information of Rome’s history
and has a small museum with surprisingly many artefacts. In the
museum we saw an ancient Roman board game. Even the ancient Romans
knew how to best spend their spare <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">time!</span><br />
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5eOPptIVOAWKqpeIN6Lud4wMr9BO_Ozqq1pmeKAjGLOMk-yI876B8oHPvQ2945lcR6hY5QRED0WNQbCa9Uk7EhwQ4IdNccQZLrrF7wOIz6Lwp4r8khxaCIQWlA30CCAub4bAPjHzECWE/s1600/DSC_1422.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="762" data-original-width="1600" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5eOPptIVOAWKqpeIN6Lud4wMr9BO_Ozqq1pmeKAjGLOMk-yI876B8oHPvQ2945lcR6hY5QRED0WNQbCa9Uk7EhwQ4IdNccQZLrrF7wOIz6Lwp4r8khxaCIQWlA30CCAub4bAPjHzECWE/s640/DSC_1422.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pit-Stop
and New Records</span></h3>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAc9-JVQz5qMhOa1vhJo5iBsFa8EwtGGKytGmiZCg9_97csqF6lOAJnzJAF1vZu9OOebmPIiyDlQZKG2tX7arnq-NpO20dqEXmVby0ewNQAlwRnnJvcpTySE8ccNID2vZZrg84sCpYDg4/s1600/DSC_1446.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAc9-JVQz5qMhOa1vhJo5iBsFa8EwtGGKytGmiZCg9_97csqF6lOAJnzJAF1vZu9OOebmPIiyDlQZKG2tX7arnq-NpO20dqEXmVby0ewNQAlwRnnJvcpTySE8ccNID2vZZrg84sCpYDg4/s320/DSC_1446.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the warehouse waited a parcel from Finland...</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We went
to our warehouse in Leipzig to change winter clothes to summer
clothes and winter tires to summer tires. We had booked a time for
tire change at a caravan service – two weeks in advance. But when
we arrived, the obviously-too-stressed-out-worker announced they have
no time for us. He told that in German, but the message was clearly
understandable. Customers service point of view felt still a bit
neglected, though.</span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We had
to get the tires changed because we were heading south and usage of
winter tires was no longer allowed. So we kindly asked for a jack –
and got one. Have you ever changed tires to a 2,5 tons caravan? Well,
luckily Timo had had some experience when the tire went of... We
spent 2,5 hours on a parking lot in a sunshine, sweating. It was not
as fast as in Formula 1 races, but damn it, we made it!</span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ZfX7k2Ptj696AaqfNd1cfgFCXfEx1s9m6Wmi1WB16n3BJBv-q29c_-_NBDs0ACtwEi_2eukFXHtV4-7Hcg4HQE8i67f1028k_arXDIEmf8A7QbzLJe4j8EJsxnPf_PxVUD6V0YCZlvM/s1600/DSC_1448.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ZfX7k2Ptj696AaqfNd1cfgFCXfEx1s9m6Wmi1WB16n3BJBv-q29c_-_NBDs0ACtwEi_2eukFXHtV4-7Hcg4HQE8i67f1028k_arXDIEmf8A7QbzLJe4j8EJsxnPf_PxVUD6V0YCZlvM/s400/DSC_1448.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In
Portugal the Happy Shops guys, Frank and Sven, kindly asked us for a
visit. Their company premises are in Merseburg, close to Leipzig. I
immediately fell in love with the meeple shaped garden lamps in their
yard! We had a nice couple of days with business and board games.
About the business I can tell you that we have now a </span><a href="https://www.spiele-offensive.de/Spieleschmiede/Perditions-Mouth/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">SpieleSchmiede</span>
campaign</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> for the German version of </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://perditionsmouth.com/hideout/"><span style="color: purple;">Hideout
expansion</span></a> to Perdition’s Mouth</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">! And about the board
games I can tell that they lost to an eleven year old. Three times.</span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It felt
good to meet same people again. When the scenery keeps changing all
the time, a little repetition of the old and known is only good.</span></div>
<br />
Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-67662410236211709412018-03-20T14:50:00.002+02:002018-03-20T14:50:26.715+02:00Under and Over the Mountains
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<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: purple;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somport"><span style="color: purple;">The
tunnel</span></a> </span>was many kilometers long. We don’t have many road
tunnels in Finland and none of them are in Lapland. Driving
underground has been a new experience. This time we had the <span style="color: purple;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrenees" target="_blank">Pyrenees</a>
</span>on top of us. We had decided to leave Spain while the weather was
still good. Forecast promised rain and more snow to no</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">r</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">thern
Spain during the weekend.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">When
the tunnel ended, I was again able to see the mountain wall climb
high on my right side and… nothing on the left side. There was a
railing though. The road even had two lanes, but it was still narrow.
We were in a S-shaped tricky curve, when a truck appeared. We
couldn’t pass each other – the road was just too narrow for our
caravan and the truck.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The Spanish truck driver jumped out and started yelling. He determined
that we need to back up. Uphill, in a curve, with a caravan that
barely managed to fit in the curve. No way. The smaller cars behind
the truck had also stopped and reversed some meters to make way. I
listened the Spanish yelling for some minutes, lost my temper and
replied in Finnish: </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">peruuta nyt pari metriä, niin me mahdutaan
ohi</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">. That worked. The guy returned to his vehicle, reversed a
little and we managed to pass, thanks to Timo’s good driving.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHwir5h05nOqiq7Hx-nuIK6ximPi7b54jzTkZQMb3GnoGirGAvTGHStjIhoBoy_bCwXoxLEJ4TMm3tBDP6ZrEp3cZOU0O48hGu2s9BlUVR-XOiC1DYmk6mM5Tn6KK27guaCvBJxverZmY/s1600/DSC_1241.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="882" data-original-width="1600" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHwir5h05nOqiq7Hx-nuIK6ximPi7b54jzTkZQMb3GnoGirGAvTGHStjIhoBoy_bCwXoxLEJ4TMm3tBDP6ZrEp3cZOU0O48hGu2s9BlUVR-XOiC1DYmk6mM5Tn6KK27guaCvBJxverZmY/s640/DSC_1241.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The
Fourth Opinion</span></h3>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4fefZB4PKeQ5GTN5mMM1LCQnZ-cog2F5njWp5EhUwOdI6PO8Q5wFfb5By03HLzGv_eBpAsGbLDliIMz_FTzMUTOxfSDUPstiVuSiL6s1EmiY54aX7E_Y6NaTkfQIklshgh4TMNb2Gin0/s1600/DSC_1215.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4fefZB4PKeQ5GTN5mMM1LCQnZ-cog2F5njWp5EhUwOdI6PO8Q5wFfb5By03HLzGv_eBpAsGbLDliIMz_FTzMUTOxfSDUPstiVuSiL6s1EmiY54aX7E_Y6NaTkfQIklshgh4TMNb2Gin0/s200/DSC_1215.JPG" width="112" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Statue in Zamora.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">We
had returned the rental car in Spain after </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">1599
km </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">trip
to Portugal</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">.
</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">On
our way back w</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">e
had stopped in the </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">old</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
city of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamora,_Spain"><span style="color: purple;">Zamora</span></a>.
Timo had booked us a hotel room. </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">We
found it was a hotel with a </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">single</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
room. Actually just an apartment. But it had shower, washing machine
and </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">WIFI</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
– exa</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">c</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">tly
what we needed.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Due
the car repair we had to skip our planned vacation in Valencia. We
had agreed a business meeting on the French side close to the border
for next week. Even though the car was thoroughly fixed, the brakes
in the caravan did not work properly. Perhaps something had been
damaged during the towing? Thanks to the long tunnel, crossing the
mountain area was surprisingly easy. Anyhow we needed to get the
brakes working as soon as possible.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3N86GGbDWhPrKTcP7xHuXIGst7gbEsQDBjOU8u_jyr8sGk9HO0OK0eSwqWkSI3z1nT3pJyZ7WZTmRZpjk9uu_y5hr10JvqZkL1Ce03Sm5QO0aizC6FKd4xSqOkCVFd4_66dFxCts_fC0/s1600/DSC_1301.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="862" data-original-width="1600" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3N86GGbDWhPrKTcP7xHuXIGst7gbEsQDBjOU8u_jyr8sGk9HO0OK0eSwqWkSI3z1nT3pJyZ7WZTmRZpjk9uu_y5hr10JvqZkL1Ce03Sm5QO0aizC6FKd4xSqOkCVFd4_66dFxCts_fC0/s320/DSC_1301.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">For
important issues it is always good to have several opinions – just
to be sure. For the brake problem we got many. First place noticed a
bent bolt on the caravan coupling. That might prevent the brake
system in the stabiliser coupling for working. But fixing it requires
an expert. So we went to see caravan repair guy who announced the
whole coupling needs to be changed. It would take two days and cost
nearly 1000 euros. We didn’t have neither, so I googled another
place near Toulouse. They noticed that the bolt had nothing to do
with anything – it was not physically connected to anything! They
tested the brakes (read: pumped the caravan to the back of the car
several times) and announced that the coupling itself was ok, but the
brakes not. They didn’t have time for fixing, but booked us a time
to a caravan garage near Lyon, for the next morning.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhfh1OjD71uhBWcAkr-FdZCKOrZBEl0fTKAPKOZ7C8PMZefE-mVLndjzBBvdYNJQsggjP_cNMTy2IHVZsuKHwXQc5o9AOXyguI2mVXji3MHEqcISVGFf4E08OCS1OnNthZWcCzH3rowTo/s1600/DSC_1302.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="775" data-original-width="1500" height="103" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhfh1OjD71uhBWcAkr-FdZCKOrZBEl0fTKAPKOZ7C8PMZefE-mVLndjzBBvdYNJQsggjP_cNMTy2IHVZsuKHwXQc5o9AOXyguI2mVXji3MHEqcISVGFf4E08OCS1OnNthZWcCzH3rowTo/s200/DSC_1302.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">So
we drove</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
600km </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">through
the <span style="color: purple;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massif_Central"><span style="color: purple;">Massif
Central</span></a>.</span> We spent the night somewhere between. I woke up during
the night because my nose was cold: we had run out of gas – again.
Come on Mr. Murphy, we dealt this already! Caravan batteries and
electricity heating kept us warm even the night was very cold. In the
morning we had to scrape the car window!</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqNMiPoz7r4b1cfZA4OSg0MHH0U_EWATCjtpcis8CSfHJMvx0PxfcyC9fQqYzC2fIDDboeTq8WOM9V2HBxlLQSNdcB7q_Y-elCZNx9CA494nIFdnio0WJ-DgOKoVYJanzCBx3bZXPxM10/s1600/DSC_1305.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="1600" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqNMiPoz7r4b1cfZA4OSg0MHH0U_EWATCjtpcis8CSfHJMvx0PxfcyC9fQqYzC2fIDDboeTq8WOM9V2HBxlLQSNdcB7q_Y-elCZNx9CA494nIFdnio0WJ-DgOKoVYJanzCBx3bZXPxM10/s320/DSC_1305.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Our
navigator didn’t recognize the garage address, but with Google Map
we made it there – just 10 minutes delayed. So – in French
culture that would be just in time. We left the caravan there and
went to buy food and gas. The supermarkets in France are amazing
combinations of services. You can find bakery, gas station, and
laundry machines in the area. This time we found also a circus with
lions, a tiger, monkeys and a zebra.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDahyIMJdpDwvoIeHBUGqBZyo42Pxdkt4CARbos-8IL31_jxrrjW6hPcrj6TwkgGvvaxAEOzdNJrSZTHUA3S8g1FONsdadUNALYryjpGqlECQOo51jVXXbUtA7VG9mgxXuOc-KWjkiJKU/s1600/DSC_1320.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="642" data-original-width="1600" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDahyIMJdpDwvoIeHBUGqBZyo42Pxdkt4CARbos-8IL31_jxrrjW6hPcrj6TwkgGvvaxAEOzdNJrSZTHUA3S8g1FONsdadUNALYryjpGqlECQOo51jVXXbUtA7VG9mgxXuOc-KWjkiJKU/s400/DSC_1320.JPG" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZgppK7T_mnGr_4KsS-Fgc0SunCCAcKajUPt_hBxZIEkiVc_7dmQtP7TGmq9qW8iYtEr2jkYsaLtAu1v-M1pIG67Ub1v__PQ-etFSTQP4HSKBPvW6-jE9iWE6fnD3X-knwXCW0NnFzIGs/s1600/DSC_1321.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="601" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZgppK7T_mnGr_4KsS-Fgc0SunCCAcKajUPt_hBxZIEkiVc_7dmQtP7TGmq9qW8iYtEr2jkYsaLtAu1v-M1pIG67Ub1v__PQ-etFSTQP4HSKBPvW6-jE9iWE6fnD3X-knwXCW0NnFzIGs/s200/DSC_1321.JPG" width="133" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwnES3yutG9KVfA5wyEjpBIiC9XQ1kl2OcFOO_FOhvkH6ZBXbR92leFO7aVTW8cBtEdF168_1YBG6IYeikMqlQmqys8k7wnIl9U5VeYLjhGJA7GV7GJ-3IHBcqno1xlIr1_xDCO7EGxi8/s1600/_20180314_134101.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1155" data-original-width="1591" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwnES3yutG9KVfA5wyEjpBIiC9XQ1kl2OcFOO_FOhvkH6ZBXbR92leFO7aVTW8cBtEdF168_1YBG6IYeikMqlQmqys8k7wnIl9U5VeYLjhGJA7GV7GJ-3IHBcqno1xlIr1_xDCO7EGxi8/s640/_20180314_134101.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">After
two hours the caravan was ready. I paid 78 euros and we were back on
the road. This time heading to east, to Switzerland, </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">to</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Chaux-de-Fonds"><span style="color: purple;">La
Chaux-de-Fonds</span></a> where <a href="https://www.ludesco.ch/welcome/"><span style="color: purple;"><b>Ludesco</b></span></a>
is held. </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">And
afterall, it was not the brakes that were at fault, but the brake
cable support strut had bent during the towing in Spain.</span></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">1-2-3...</span></h3>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
”<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">We
have plenty on time, it takes only one hour to drive there.” Timo
announced when we started next morning from a camping place. It was
pouring rain. He soon noticed a weird sound. The car didn’t feel
right. Could it be that one of the brakes is jammed? Or worn out? He
seemed very worried so googled the closest garage – only 1,5
kilometer ahead.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTvQ8XtwJWZo1BJWkPbRWQh6lvMpkwpTflI9fFshvmfx2n6RTg29xuZ6xwC5LDlVDtVmYNi_Zkl8m__2Efo486cJrT4eHiGf9uHdXnJekrM3EGDaBOYxZfYvnp0QS8i49gFBGLWiKb3aA/s1600/DSC_1330.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTvQ8XtwJWZo1BJWkPbRWQh6lvMpkwpTflI9fFshvmfx2n6RTg29xuZ6xwC5LDlVDtVmYNi_Zkl8m__2Efo486cJrT4eHiGf9uHdXnJekrM3EGDaBOYxZfYvnp0QS8i49gFBGLWiKb3aA/s320/DSC_1330.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">We
stopped in a tiny village. Right after we stopped, a truck was
honking a horn and the driver yelled: ”It went off about a
kilometer ago!” And then we noticed the caravan had only 3 tires
left. I stared at the empty place. There was still some marker paint
after yesterdays repair. They must have forgot to tighten the bolts!
It felt surreal. Yesterday, after the repair I drove us to the
camping. On a highway. What if this would have happened then?</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">We
disconnected the caravan. Timo and Väinö drove back to look for the
tire. My job was to explain to the carage owner why we had blocked
his yard with our caravan. I had to use hand signs and my theatre
skills because </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">no-parle-angle</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6qUwNXd5cyfUk1U8qhpxPsYInKNsSY7zy-N4FcFbBSJeyt45McjxTno-CTLtwCtD3g_D6NKHzFhNJVSjfXQuCd83xaAfDla8ywkxi-TVb81Z6G0ThdhPr8QNBRqja3X2az8VKbv9SevY/s1600/DSC_1332.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="1600" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6qUwNXd5cyfUk1U8qhpxPsYInKNsSY7zy-N4FcFbBSJeyt45McjxTno-CTLtwCtD3g_D6NKHzFhNJVSjfXQuCd83xaAfDla8ywkxi-TVb81Z6G0ThdhPr8QNBRqja3X2az8VKbv9SevY/s320/DSC_1332.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">It
feels stupid to repeat in situations like this that ”we were
lucky”. But we were. Timo found the tire, intact. It hadn’t hit
any other vehicles or people. The only misfortune was that we didn’t
have any bolts to install the tire. Two wise men – some local road
workers – came to help: take one bolt from all the other tires, so
you will have 3 bolts in each. Solutions for tricky situations can
sometimes be simple!</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Murphy
Go Home!</span></h3>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Next
bigger village had a garage which sold us the missing bolts. They
also checked the brakes of our car. Now that the vehicles were
working all right and had all parts with them, I was able to relax a
bit and enjoy the scenery. The road we were driving – from
Pontarlier to La Chaux-de-Fonds – followed a small river. It had
eroded an amazing canyon to </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jura_Mountains" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: purple;">Jura
mountains</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">. All of a sudden Timo stopped the car. There where
signs to a cave.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmQzAbOfyzudGKfndfRPly2fMeZAEZiJPbLaSSpiFPBTvyKmpUHXXk8pVDA6T-QB5_Cm1Lh30JlR_E1UcQFhvRjaoICr7etuFRU02TnvolAWk-_UXD0rk7F54iJcSbVsr8jZ_l-02cLpQ/s1600/_20180318_140929.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1059" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmQzAbOfyzudGKfndfRPly2fMeZAEZiJPbLaSSpiFPBTvyKmpUHXXk8pVDA6T-QB5_Cm1Lh30JlR_E1UcQFhvRjaoICr7etuFRU02TnvolAWk-_UXD0rk7F54iJcSbVsr8jZ_l-02cLpQ/s320/_20180318_140929.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The
cave was quite large, eroded by water. There were several small
waterfalls in it. Signs announced it was a holy place. It served as a
chapel. To whom, I don’t know. We were in the middle of nothing.
There was only one restaurant next to the parking place.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">I’m
not a religious person. But after all these events I’m convinced we
have several guardian angels, -fairies and/ or -dragons with us.
Obviously very much needed. I thank you all for sending those to us.
Could you also please call Mr. Murphy back home?</span></div>
Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-11198677975818666482018-03-09T00:57:00.003+02:002018-03-09T00:57:57.297+02:00All-inclusive Relaxation<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After snow in Spain I wasn’t expecting any sunshine in Portugal either. Weather forecast promised constant rain and heavy wind for the whole weekend. In this case, it was just one more good reason to stay indoors and play board games. That’s what </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/LeiriaCon/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LeiriaCon</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is all about.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz0-n6DNcEKbRFrpa4XEjsgwfygBxBL7G6FdV9NUUPAmCG92TiHdVgpGedn89Rpjv1jDdvOMoKczfiB0knZF13FKxJmw1VsbaHjJQkcI3SBtciq3a5Q1Sy97WU2j5BcQE9vO8BDSfgkfM/s1600/DSC_1177.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1500" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz0-n6DNcEKbRFrpa4XEjsgwfygBxBL7G6FdV9NUUPAmCG92TiHdVgpGedn89Rpjv1jDdvOMoKczfiB0knZF13FKxJmw1VsbaHjJQkcI3SBtciq3a5Q1Sy97WU2j5BcQE9vO8BDSfgkfM/s200/DSC_1177.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Me and Paulo.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because of the broken car we had to quickly do changes for the weekend. We emailed Paulo, one of the organisers of LeiriaCon, that we would need accommodation instead of a big parking place. I packed clothes for all of us, but It was a bit tricky because we only have one small suitcase with us. Väinö packed his stuff to his school bag.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We checked the fridge and emptied the trash bin of our caravan and moved game boxes from our car to the rental car. It was Thursday morning, LeiriaCon was starting in Portugal, and we had 800 kilometers to drive. Nevertheless, without the caravan, we should make it there for the evening.</span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fire & Water</span></h3>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The rental car was also a VW van, but it lacked many of the nice features we had installed to our car - like navigator. Fortunately we have a good navigation app downloaded to Timo’s phone. Only tricky part during the way was the Portuguese road toll system. I highly recommend travellers to check different payment options beforehand.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZqj7mifOFqXuGeSWAPJxr7ruJVNJ9NYbHDUSAwO5UrDwIeSioE5_nUC_EVzMPG1vuwBGNCppcp-WrISA_2WANGTi4Pbs4T4crY2NsCfYsrLKxtV-rlV64i4suC6hhg8O54_Lxq0BzNhE/s1600/_20180306_182402.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="806" data-original-width="1500" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZqj7mifOFqXuGeSWAPJxr7ruJVNJ9NYbHDUSAwO5UrDwIeSioE5_nUC_EVzMPG1vuwBGNCppcp-WrISA_2WANGTi4Pbs4T4crY2NsCfYsrLKxtV-rlV64i4suC6hhg8O54_Lxq0BzNhE/s320/_20180306_182402.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we were closing Leiria, the scenery turned spooky. We were driving thru the areas that had large </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/17/wildfires-trap-2000-people-in-macao-village-in-central-portugal" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">forest fires</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in 2017. Black, charred trees stood silently on both sides of the road. In the heavy rain we were driving, it was difficult to imagine the draught and hotness there must have been just a bit over half a year ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All of a sudden the Atlantic ocean was again in front of us. High, whitecap waves crashed to a long beach. Wind was gathering small dynes of sand to a sidewalk. Right there, by the beach, was the </span><a href="http://www.hoteiscristal.pt/hotel_cristal_praia_resort/en/hotel-overview.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">Hotel Cristal Vieira Resort Praia & Spa</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> where LeiriaCon was held.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dress Code: Lipstick </span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6NYqoMOzXEVm_Fo0iYg0oq1pI7TdD3chGggobJDRYrtaS_GHspE_OWDLjcLHXo-LXTYfammTTHjNjtaNpnAGReSxCITL-duUeGtK8SHFyTt9zROUPZDL-duUE03fLmRRX_4XP4QgAcx8/s1600/DSC_1188.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6NYqoMOzXEVm_Fo0iYg0oq1pI7TdD3chGggobJDRYrtaS_GHspE_OWDLjcLHXo-LXTYfammTTHjNjtaNpnAGReSxCITL-duUeGtK8SHFyTt9zROUPZDL-duUE03fLmRRX_4XP4QgAcx8/s320/DSC_1188.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Starters, main course and deserts. Drinks included. I love LeiriaCon!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We made it just in time for dinner. Unlike in normal fairs and many other conventions, in LeiriaCon you can get all-inclusive participation: accommodation, all meals and 24 hours in a day for board gaming. What an excellent concept and very welcome change for fair days without any food!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkyLbJc7J4PVVxlc4hjr6-BYF3GgawVx5amBliwEvrCIG30F-rREqWiOKPpqOd4ROxdCnF0kLwpTVDGomYyj958NJHvZhg4i5o2kkFYn_MZ4N-1PdmCbcTYVGjL7Gs-7kHx_SJpBOLfLk/s1600/DSC_1173.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="850" data-original-width="478" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkyLbJc7J4PVVxlc4hjr6-BYF3GgawVx5amBliwEvrCIG30F-rREqWiOKPpqOd4ROxdCnF0kLwpTVDGomYyj958NJHvZhg4i5o2kkFYn_MZ4N-1PdmCbcTYVGjL7Gs-7kHx_SJpBOLfLk/s200/DSC_1173.JPG" width="111" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We carried our stuff to the hotel room and I wanted to quickly change clothes. I was still wearing the same outfit I had dressed for yesterday’s driving day: comfy, grey college pants, long woollen socks (it was so cold!) and sweatshirt. I unpacked from the small suitcase a new shirt and trousers for Timo, clean shirt and socks for me and… well, that was it. Several shirts, socks and underwear, but NO trousers for me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I clearly remembered thinking of packing my jeans. But obviously that thought was never accomplished. I’m sure at least all female readers can imagine my feelings at that moment. Timo comforted me: “Come on, this is a relaxed convention for board game nerds, nobody cares what you are wearing.” There was nothing I could do for the situation, so I just combed my hair, put on some lipstick and went for a dinner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Friends For Life and Laundry </span></h3>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Frank, Mauro and another game I liked and lost.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMmiTJ7QO4arllN3vZy0Zf0sn5cH57mOX5Me8zpRASM-U_6wQwCBi-7CF-i8gMOqjbYv7t88qhhh3QwMqTMpvgLJRNAWCnL01tX3JyLfeZ_9OG5TmzL7RT0jVKPzhyphenhyphenv-S6CgF7mAiVobE/s1600/DSC_1171.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="844" data-original-width="1500" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMmiTJ7QO4arllN3vZy0Zf0sn5cH57mOX5Me8zpRASM-U_6wQwCBi-7CF-i8gMOqjbYv7t88qhhh3QwMqTMpvgLJRNAWCnL01tX3JyLfeZ_9OG5TmzL7RT0jVKPzhyphenhyphenv-S6CgF7mAiVobE/s640/DSC_1171.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They liked Darwinning! I'm sure you will, too. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/509519175/darwinning-card-game-evolve-to-rule-the-food-chain/description" target="_blank">Pledge now!</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The rainy days of LeiriaCon were filled with good food (especially the deserts…), nice people and hours of board games. We, of course, played Darwinning with many Portuguese groups and promoted our <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/509519175/darwinning-card-game-evolve-to-rule-the-food-chain/description" style="color: purple;" target="_blank"><b>Kickstarter campaign</b></a><span style="color: purple;">,</span> but we had time to test other games also. Väinö learned to play </span><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/201825/ex-libris" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">Ex Libris</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with <span style="color: purple;"><b><a href="http://www.inka-und-markus-brand.de/" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple;">Inka and Markus Brand</span></a>.</b></span> Yet another proof of his much improved English skills. Sven and Frank from </span><a href="http://www.happyshops.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: purple;">Happyshops</span></b></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> had several prototypes with them. I enjoyed playing all of them, even though I lost most of my games. This was the first time I had a chance to give feedback of other designers games and give ideas for the future development.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The atmosphere was really relaxed and positive. Nobody mentioned my grey college pants. Nevertheless, on Friday after siesta I sneaked out to the quiet, rainy beach village to look for a clothing store. Most of the stores were closed due the low season, but I found one store with handcrafts and clothes. There were only one type of trousers available: black college pants. I bought those and knitting needles for Väinö. He must knit mittens for school and I forgot to take the needles from home.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdU1tTUGpDsF936PHcnwC_FAhY2iwyDn60FJaVvK0MitCcWMhgO3lVx7-aR2Q1VBn4Eh3VwiOd5tcMv8F5Ft_yVPcewjrcJzTfwn1yngOuwY8CEDcRzm1unWrMhJWD2oVaO9MgtLFWdjs/s1600/DSC_1184.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1511" data-original-width="850" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdU1tTUGpDsF936PHcnwC_FAhY2iwyDn60FJaVvK0MitCcWMhgO3lVx7-aR2Q1VBn4Eh3VwiOd5tcMv8F5Ft_yVPcewjrcJzTfwn1yngOuwY8CEDcRzm1unWrMhJWD2oVaO9MgtLFWdjs/s200/DSC_1184.JPG" width="112" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif-LsElEEwI2fDIYyNe1SpK4oyJ7LNcM7T8CQ9mBTRY6MYiwKxWXHcrY_APKLML6IZ1F8SvcHshV1BLLfPYD3zYkl76jkC00YLbCshd7hI9vqxbEcOxTZuiRyPIvJ0P0VXG1KWoMuw2Y8/s1600/_20180306_182443.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="850" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif-LsElEEwI2fDIYyNe1SpK4oyJ7LNcM7T8CQ9mBTRY6MYiwKxWXHcrY_APKLML6IZ1F8SvcHshV1BLLfPYD3zYkl76jkC00YLbCshd7hI9vqxbEcOxTZuiRyPIvJ0P0VXG1KWoMuw2Y8/s200/_20180306_182443.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Early Sunday evening, when the event was about to end and I had lost two rounds of </span><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/230802/azul" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">Azul</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">,</span> I took an hour of my own time. The spa offered a relaxation massage, and after all the events of previous weeks I really needed one. I also needed some quietness and time alone. During the past month and a half that we have been on tour, I have met more people than I usually meet during a whole year. I have seen three oceans and climbed higher than I have ever been. There have been moments and experiences I will never forget.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">This tour is also about networking. I have got many new <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tiinaliisa.multamaki" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple;">Facebook</span></a> and <a href="https://fi.linkedin.com/in/tiinaliisa-multam%C3%A4ki-57114b3" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple;">LinkedIn</span></a> contacts. But what I really liked about LeiriaCon, is that there you can really get to KNOW new people. It is not only changing business cards.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyxDD1PmLGC0GLeed2rSLcQTHE21spleo5OuB71kFVUy5x6X3a_eXhENdmpoVoCy_RzFwgGZQQA3cCYsbeCEGuRPth1dAcoOK1wZTkTbicqXYZ4SAK2iIaVrXFiU3wY83T6G0Thz_r8UA/s1600/_20180306_182133.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="1000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyxDD1PmLGC0GLeed2rSLcQTHE21spleo5OuB71kFVUy5x6X3a_eXhENdmpoVoCy_RzFwgGZQQA3cCYsbeCEGuRPth1dAcoOK1wZTkTbicqXYZ4SAK2iIaVrXFiU3wY83T6G0Thz_r8UA/s200/_20180306_182133.JPG" width="149" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do you know you have made new friends? Well, they invite you for a visit and offer to loan their washing machine. </span></div>
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Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-568757531866488802018-03-03T13:06:00.000+02:002018-03-08T20:01:52.010+02:00Palm Trees and Snowflakes<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWui7s-KxhJZPC4CmfKbZctl67FNQdam-EyPF_M86dIqClDavRDkqXSIJ8XIna8rKscaZXhu-aDjdRUHv6M4psiFVqlFZNTxywnC1TVcKjWFAfkSXXK_QRpnL93OU8DfiYmllT4Fguinc/s1600/boules.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="749" data-original-width="540" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWui7s-KxhJZPC4CmfKbZctl67FNQdam-EyPF_M86dIqClDavRDkqXSIJ8XIna8rKscaZXhu-aDjdRUHv6M4psiFVqlFZNTxywnC1TVcKjWFAfkSXXK_QRpnL93OU8DfiYmllT4Fguinc/s200/boules.jpg" width="143" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I woke up because Timo was moving in the caravan and checking our heating system. I crawled out of under my warm cover and noticed that the caravan was chilly. We had run out of gas during the night. Luckily we had bought another bottle just before we left the Alps.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Timo changed the bottle, but we couldn’t get the heating working. We had bought butane instead of propane. We learned that the heating system couldn’t use butane – and that butane does not like the minus temperatures there had been during the night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">”OK, so no heating. How is the tire?” I asked Timo.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The Cannes Game Fair was about to start in 5 hours at 200 kilometers away from us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr. Murphy On Our Tour</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the Alps someone had broke the left side mirror of our car on a parking lot. Local car repair managed to change that. While we drove south from the Alps I googled for solar panel repair services, because the charger of that system had stopped working. I found a good place and we spent 7 hours there. We drove until midnight. When we parked for a night, we heard hissing sound from one the caravans tires.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now the tire was totally flat. Luckily we had stopped at a service station, so we were able to fill up the tire. We drove 6 kilometers and stopped to check the tire. Still round, let’s continue to the closest tire repair. Yet another interesting googling task for me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have got the feeling Mr. Murphy is traveling with us. Or then we are just extremely lucky, because so far we have managed to solve every problem there has been. After we got to the repair place, the flat tire was fixed in less than 30 minutes. There was a screw in it. We got our car in a camping place and arrived to the fair only two hours delayed.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh536OjJcpsmK4u8QAyKtan5j8ekCdDqkJRyZdoxrR1hUjRb7fNvgB_s1bSt0MGLkb4IwqSQTNSoKWK37Ak7I-6ljB70M0Lax1gF0t0ygUCU3EL-v1R4a_zwWfGJBYj4sJl35OpUkXn3cg/s1600/DSC_1071.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh536OjJcpsmK4u8QAyKtan5j8ekCdDqkJRyZdoxrR1hUjRb7fNvgB_s1bSt0MGLkb4IwqSQTNSoKWK37Ak7I-6ljB70M0Lax1gF0t0ygUCU3EL-v1R4a_zwWfGJBYj4sJl35OpUkXn3cg/s320/DSC_1071.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;"><a href="http://www.festivaldesjeux-cannes.com/" target="_blank">Cannes International Game Fair</a> </span>is a big event with over 100 000 visitors. In this case ”international” means ”French”. There where some foreign exhibitors, but most of the information is available in French only. Where Nuremberg fair failed to tell what all information they needed, Cannes fair had a good web-portal with deadlines and forms to fill in. Only in French.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I needed to sign a paper for that somebody can else can work and build up our booth. I entered the birthdays of all our exhibitors to the portal. No complaints about Väinö’s age. Even during the check-in I was reminded of one form, which was ”really important, must be at your booth all the time, show this when somebody asks”. When I asked what it was about and what I needed to fill in, the check-in lady couldn’t answer. So I kept the paper safe and threw it to the trash bin on Sunday.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many families visited our booth and played Darwinning. Väinö has learned to teach the game in English. Sebastien, one of our translators, was presenting the games in French. I also found out the we have exceptional fans: Matthieu, one happy owner of Perdition’s Mouth, stayed at our booth several hours just explaining the game in French to others.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPvQMCrCKgWBoC_otVEpz1ykREnOZUf_hEYfdv8J6-BqOOAdJLoKZvTjpyDpWRFbYLZOsuj_ScguuAsh-dZBs9NJpfHDnGtqRVaOb1dzX0DJyqKHjvgYx0SJEPi5Mc6eR53EbHVBayplc/s1600/DSC_1063.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="850" data-original-width="638" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPvQMCrCKgWBoC_otVEpz1ykREnOZUf_hEYfdv8J6-BqOOAdJLoKZvTjpyDpWRFbYLZOsuj_ScguuAsh-dZBs9NJpfHDnGtqRVaOb1dzX0DJyqKHjvgYx0SJEPi5Mc6eR53EbHVBayplc/s200/DSC_1063.JPG" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">As usual, I didn’t have much time to look around other booths. But I happened to notice one interesting game: it was called Finnish pool. Combination of pool and Finnish outdoor game <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6lkky" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple;">Mölkky</span></a>. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9S7i0XcJsqCtjdLKdwuhkLpcdcovlyk89msllp4kc6ll2BNr5NhqtaQFVzGPg2BtycCJivfVzet7yWBTMn5fenRfel5sjU7ZOWzHqUNs7hIeciMnBvWR6RCN7h61xZIs58cEk-ot9qz0/s1600/DSC_1120.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="854" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9S7i0XcJsqCtjdLKdwuhkLpcdcovlyk89msllp4kc6ll2BNr5NhqtaQFVzGPg2BtycCJivfVzet7yWBTMn5fenRfel5sjU7ZOWzHqUNs7hIeciMnBvWR6RCN7h61xZIs58cEk-ot9qz0/s320/DSC_1120.JPG" width="303" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The morning we left Cannes it was snowing. A lot. It was weird to look at palm trees and snowflakes at the same time. We had a long drive ahead: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LeiriaCon/" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple;">LeiriaCon</span></a> was starting on Thursday in Portugal. We had one stop at a parking lot under the oak trees and next day a booked camping place near San Sebastian in Spain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were driving the road N-634 along the coast of Atlantic ocean. It was less that 10 kilometers to the camping place. The road was blocked. Stones – or actually a part of a cliff – on the road. There was a sign to a detour. The scariest detour I have ever been. Going up and down on very a narrow, curvy mountain road. The type we were hoping to avoid on this trip.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even the camping area was located on top of a steep hill. Not the most practical location, but the view was magnificent. At the reception I told about our long and difficult drive and snow in Cannes. The lady in reception was very understanding and told the forecast promised snow in the area for tomorrow. Snow!? And we were in Spain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the Winter Came</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you know <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Dark_Tea-Time_of_the_Soul" target="_blank">Douglas Adams’ book ”The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul”</a>? There is a truck driver, a kind of a rain god, forced to drive in constant rain. I started to feel we have a similar curse with snow. In the morning everything was white. From forecasts we found out there was a snowy front between San Sebastian and Cannes. The worst part of weather was around us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We decided to wait two hours. Temperature would go higher, roads to be cleaned – or at least some of the snow could have melted by then. We had a proper shovel with us and Väinö cleaned the roads and stairs at the camping area.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even though there were not many other camping wagons, we didn’t have much space to turn our caravan. I have already learned the camping areas are not designed for the largest vehicles. The front wheels of our car dropped to a slippery ditch. The engine howled. For a moment a though we would never get out. But eventually we did get out and to the motorway.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglfedL7nSd34HHFLrMmvXzGpRvfvmXD_7BeVNzufzVoSrS7_rmAbKvi5iDv0hc5o7qmxU5TOZ6LGzyXmrQTTXnfeV1SbcSYWfDoPY2eajLaHn7YVifOnMMAfIhxPZVP9qlGiQeaLUDxB0/s1600/DSC_1156.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="850" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglfedL7nSd34HHFLrMmvXzGpRvfvmXD_7BeVNzufzVoSrS7_rmAbKvi5iDv0hc5o7qmxU5TOZ6LGzyXmrQTTXnfeV1SbcSYWfDoPY2eajLaHn7YVifOnMMAfIhxPZVP9qlGiQeaLUDxB0/s320/DSC_1156.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The engine didn’t sound healthy. After some driving we were barely moving. We managed to get our combination away from the motorway and stopped on a road side. We have been for years members of <a href="https://www.autoliitto.fi/en" target="_blank">The Automobile and Touring Club of Finland</a> (ATCF). I phoned to their emergency number.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Within an hour a towing car came to get our car. It would take much longer for them to organise towing for the caravan thou. Whole Spain was in chaos because of the snow. Towing cars were busy. Timo went with the car, Väinö and I stayed in the caravan. A security woman from the close by industry area stopped to ask if we need anything. I told we are fine, but would have to wait for many hours.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">It had started to rain. Hard wind was shaking the caravan. It was chilly. We couldn’t put much heating on, because the gas was running low. Fortunately we had still our winter jackets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">”Now we would have time to play Darwinning!” Väinö said. ”I could teach you the two player rules.” What a clever boy!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>PS.</b> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana"; white-space: pre-wrap;">We played Darwinning and made dinner while waiting. Eventually we got the car to repair and caravan to a safe place. We were accommodated to a h</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">otel. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ATCF phoned the next day to check everything was fine. Everything was fine, we were on our way to Portugal – but that’s another story.</span></span></span></div>
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Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-54362031988070578352018-02-21T12:57:00.001+02:002018-03-08T19:48:40.239+02:00Two weeks, five countries<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The days after Nuremberg Toy fair were allocated for having our car serviced, some relaxation, meeting friends and doing laundry. We had booked a service, for our car, in Koblenz. Our plan was to stop in Cologne and experience German karneval.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We drove along a narrow alley towards a camping site in Koblenz. Instead of a nice place for the night we found a dark area behind a high metallic fence. It looked like the camping site didn’t even exist. Luckily, in front of the fence was a parking lot big enough for our caravan. We were by the river Mosel, and on the other side we could see the lights of the old town of Koblenz. Camping site or not, we had to stay there overnight.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Night in Koblenz.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Destructive and healing water</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the morning I saw men working behind the fence. They were cleaning paved roads in the area which looked like a camping site. Up high, on top of metallic columns, were two buildings: a restaurant and a reception. What a weird place for the buildings, I thought. A man knocked on our door. We were told to move, so that they could clean the parking lot as well. I learned that they were cleaning and fixing the destruction from a flood earlier this year. The camping site will be closed for several weeks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">So we moved our caravan to a Volkswagen garage. During the car service, Väinö and I went for a walk and had an outdoor school lesson. We learned that Koblenz is located on the confluence of the Mosel and Rhein rivers and that it is known for its wines. Close to the VW garage was a local wine store. It is always nice to buy products straight from the person who has made them. You get a good representation of the quality and you know the money goes directly to the person who has done all the work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Later that day, when we still had some hours driving left, I called a camping site in Cologne – only to find out it was also closed due to flood damage. It was time to make some quick changes to our plans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We ended up at Aachen. The only thing we knew about the place beforehand was that it had an open camping area. Väinö did some Googling on the back seat. He told us that Aachen is a very old town, known for gingerbread, thermal spas and Medieval coronations. Immediately, we decided it was time for a good bath. I have to say: 2,5 hours in hot water, a whirlpool bath and steam sauna finally provided the relaxation we all needed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Karneval days and working days</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the road many everyday issues, like laundry, requires some planning. You need to have several hours stay in one place with a washing machine. Camping sites usually have washing machines and even a dryer. With 2-5 euros you can do your laundry. Bigger cities also have public laundry houses, where the washing is cheaper. We found one of these in Aachen. While the machines were rolling, we had time to look around the city and German karneval.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglFqb1oLUYP_D6WKKa7V8d4ZH2kgfPlkbW7bZpdqXWHZHJiXzvUkX2HT6Fp2QTLpJ1u7xNFLJK3ECSIpDSfGyoZcK6eqvSdEeP_uBybv7tH-GtJKM76ZoRuOvgYBpFfZRPhZAsXLefovE/s1600/DSC_0930.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="850" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglFqb1oLUYP_D6WKKa7V8d4ZH2kgfPlkbW7bZpdqXWHZHJiXzvUkX2HT6Fp2QTLpJ1u7xNFLJK3ECSIpDSfGyoZcK6eqvSdEeP_uBybv7tH-GtJKM76ZoRuOvgYBpFfZRPhZAsXLefovE/s400/DSC_0930.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIGVGseB3FaHQAlz4rj_W6jxN1FWehrnG4K8Bb_QCjyX4n9oj98684ro11mSMM7DyzoWc8RqC_E8MBx-iyzjKZZ0UkobY2ZEZWcno6GRR1IKLDSBfnPSCzKQVEogHtDasLLaUXuBXnUZk/s1600/_20180213_193729.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1295" data-original-width="850" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIGVGseB3FaHQAlz4rj_W6jxN1FWehrnG4K8Bb_QCjyX4n9oj98684ro11mSMM7DyzoWc8RqC_E8MBx-iyzjKZZ0UkobY2ZEZWcno6GRR1IKLDSBfnPSCzKQVEogHtDasLLaUXuBXnUZk/s320/_20180213_193729.JPG" width="210" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">During karneval time the locals wear funny costumes. Stores and services are open or closed apparently at random. Advertising the special closing time is not very common. This lasts a whole week and the festival time might vary in different areas. So as a tourist you might end up in funny situations. For a week, we tried to ship one packet. We Googled for DHL post offices and found several of them, always closed, no matter what day or what time. It just happened always to be ”a karneval time”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Finland, stores can be open 24/7. In the village where we come from, grocery stores are open every day. I mean EVERY day. Many postal services are inside grocery stores, so you can send and receive packets every day. Sunday was the most common shopping day for our family. It takes time to adjust to different opening times.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During our tour we hope to meet the many team members and partners around Europe who help us to make our games. We visited Brussels just to meet Ruymán, a co-designer and translator in our team. We stayed in</span><a href="https://www.aubergesdejeunesse.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">a youth hostel - Aubergess des Jeunesse - in Brussels</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. In addition to hostel rooms they also had parking places for caravans. Just 15 mins walk from the center of Brussels.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">During our arrival we had already noticed that the streets of Brussels are not designed for large vehicles. The construction works and many one way streets did not make our driving any easier. Even without the caravan our car is quite big, so we thought about other alternatives to get us to Ruyman’s party on the other side of the city.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Timo and Väinö had their bikes with them. During our drive I had seen some city bikes, so I asked from the reception how to get one. It is rather easy, with only 1,60€ you can</span><a href="http://en.villo.be/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">rent a bike</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for half an hour, extra time costing just a few more euros. There are many places where you can pick up and return your bike. But I warn you: Brussels has many hills and you need to drive among the cars. Still, this is an easy way to get to know the city. And now I have been cycling in front of the EU Parliament.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Väinö and Dualo.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Along with his other other talents, Ruymán is a musician. His party had an international band with many interesting instruments. So we managed to get another music lesson for Väinö. He played drums, "Timple" - a quitar from the Canary Islands and a new, Kickstarted instrument called a</span><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/63006320/dualo-the-new-musical-instrument-for-all" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">Dualo</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Brussels we saw many soldiers. Väinö found that a bit scary. We had talked about terrorism and attacks in Europe already at home. But now all that discussion become a reality. I didn’t tell him that the metro station we used was a target of the latest attack. We cannot live in fear, we must live.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good friends, good food</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we left Brussels we were very careful with our satnav. On our way into Brussels we had taken a detour via Luxembourg, because we had entered a wrong destination (well, the writing looked similar…). Our route took us through Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany and finally to Switzerland.</span> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ-W76Y6h2iYpSFzyLVpM0Si9g9FIc841KRDetY_LRoR46NGbScFI_Xcs6FIV8tdlwuu0fxzY8R1Msy6xI7ZhLaB2ykzR-Rh5JuVg6sx7RQPt_BTMGLX8i3QMZep3YrMh7RFp0F1KeDQI/s1600/_20180217_090445.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="850" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ-W76Y6h2iYpSFzyLVpM0Si9g9FIc841KRDetY_LRoR46NGbScFI_Xcs6FIV8tdlwuu0fxzY8R1Msy6xI7ZhLaB2ykzR-Rh5JuVg6sx7RQPt_BTMGLX8i3QMZep3YrMh7RFp0F1KeDQI/s320/_20180217_090445.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the land of chocolate and cheese we stopped at</span><a href="http://www.matthias-catrein.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">Matthias Catrein's</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> home. He created some of the illustrations for </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift</span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> – but most people probably know him from his work on </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dominion</span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. We soon found out that in addition to board games, both of our families liked cooking. Matthias’ wife has her own mobile food service.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So while playing </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Darwinning!</span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> we talked about food and tasted Finnish salmiakki (salted licorice). The next day we visited a nearby chocolate factory. I now have a kilo emergency box for bad days.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our tour now takes us towards southern France. It is the Cannes Games Festival this weekend. You can find us at booth 06.10. A bientôt!</span></div>
Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-31039346293581657282018-02-05T23:01:00.000+02:002018-02-05T23:01:48.299+02:00Not So Fair Toy Fair<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzsM0PfVNmH21Dto5spFUCkeWHKMEUiD6_gUB_TgNoa6eneVXE5V9-x46XlN3NS6MqIOUTVEkEgF5EMAx1AYMD7-B2WWUMhPhvqhv5XCmHCxkHRLLX505gVb6z-zi6rvziFiYdsm-4Ll0/s1600/_20180204_124339.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1375" data-original-width="1600" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzsM0PfVNmH21Dto5spFUCkeWHKMEUiD6_gUB_TgNoa6eneVXE5V9-x46XlN3NS6MqIOUTVEkEgF5EMAx1AYMD7-B2WWUMhPhvqhv5XCmHCxkHRLLX505gVb6z-zi6rvziFiYdsm-4Ll0/s320/_20180204_124339.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I rushed along long corridors filled with cardboard boxes, plastic wrappings, pallets and trash. I had already walked through three large halls. Hall 10, where our booth was, was still to be found. Eventually I found our 3 meter x 3 meter spot: behind an almost meter wide column, which blogged the entrance and visibility to the booth. “<i>This can not be true...</i>” I picked up my phone and called to the contact person for the Toy Fair. He soon found out what my opinion was of being charged a full price for a booth in such a location.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">So our first impression of the Nuremberg fair wasn’t the best one. Part of it was due to the fact that I hadn’t got time to read all of the information material the fair provided on their website. Now that I have read those, I still haven’t found all the information we would have needed beforehand to avoid all our trouble. It seems, maybe due to the long history of the event, organizers cannot see it from the first timer's point of view. When I compare the communication we got with, for example, <a href="http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple;"><b>UK Games Expo</b></span></a>, it is like night and day. From UKGE I have got a personal service, from Nuremberg I have got mass produced emails with irrelevant information. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We managed to find a reasonable solution with the organizers concerning the entrance blocking column but the biggest obstacle was still ahead. In the morning, our son was not allowed to enter the fair. The fair has an age limit of 16 years. I had talked about our son’s participation earlier that week with the organizers' representative and got the impression it should be ok, because he has an exhibitor pass. I had also visited the fair service office during the assembly day with him, but nobody had said anything about his age and possible difficulty to enter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can imagine how furious and frustrated I was. It took three hours of negotiations to get one form filled in and an approval from high up. Eventually I got an A4 sheet with a signature and a stamp. With that, Väinö was able to enter and start working. He gave an interview in English and charmed many customers on the first day alone.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Timo and Väinö interviewed by Eric Martin from BoardGameGeek.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Professional or passionate</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I kind of understand the age limit. Nuremberg Toy Fair is a business-to-business event. Nobody wants to have children around playing. The fair has a system where young Toy Experts must have a permission to enter. They are, however, obviously not very keen to promote and use that possibility. This year, our son was the only minor at the fair.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">For three months I have been deleting emails which offer hired models for various tasks at our booth at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. During the fair I saw those models, professional in looking good. What I don’t understand is how a model just smiling in a pussycat costume can be seen as more professional in a game fair than an 11 year old presenting a game he has designed.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brain teasers designed by Constantin</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even though we were expecting a b-to-b event, we didn’t expect it to be so stiff and formal. People in suits were selling toys, games and funny costumes. But they didn’t seem to enjoy it. There was no enthusiasm, no passion, just profit expectations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our booth neighbour was a nice exception.</span><a href="http://www.constantin-jean-clau.de/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;"><b>Jean-Claude Constantin</b></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> designs and produces wooden puzzles and brain teasers. Beautiful, almost art-like toys which are very hard to solve. It's also a family business, but their son was old enough to work at the fair without extra hassle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We also met a nice couple from Brighton. They were the very first visitors with whom we could talk about gaming itself and the passion of playing.</span><a href="https://iplayred.co.uk/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;"><b>@iplayred</b></span></span></a><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tested Darwinning! and liked it. Can’t wait to see her review.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Far away</span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH_oKAEGkvjcHfxUIZR2dOeTpjTgGXXuoOzfzNKcyoN04pLe0zmmsTFLOULqZERudeB-vPOOIBJ_aNuAFAewAwBJJmx1I8vzCOqLuuH0bEk0Dq4Ntqzxnde5S_3-5wQuuHmhpgWTIsJ0g/s1600/_20180205_151549+%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="942" data-original-width="1600" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH_oKAEGkvjcHfxUIZR2dOeTpjTgGXXuoOzfzNKcyoN04pLe0zmmsTFLOULqZERudeB-vPOOIBJ_aNuAFAewAwBJJmx1I8vzCOqLuuH0bEk0Dq4Ntqzxnde5S_3-5wQuuHmhpgWTIsJ0g/s320/_20180205_151549+%25281%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">After a couple of days, the half a kilometer route from caravan to booth became familiar. Across fallen oak leaves, over the big road. Past the concierge in funny costume. Then through the halls: first remotely controlled cars, an atrium filled with miniature tractors, then outdoor toys with trampolines and bikes. Pyrotechnics, balloons and party equipment, carnival costumes and insane variations of demonic contact lenses. Some chess boards and jig-saw puzzles and eventually: our booth behind the column.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">On Saturday morning it snowed a little. I phoned my mother. I had had my morning coffee from a mug my recitation group gave as a farewell present. It has a winter scene from Lapland. I felt a little home sick, but when my mother told it was still -20 degrees celsius, the feeling eased a little bit.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFADj1TFzaX5a7-SNsfZyvhA1qpL8XjRz13oVHhAzhTqiQNgkvvSJo4m3bENl5Uk5ONRO8anYdSbQc-aNHM-S-ES6-lmMlV97UhXNcnGNSMIqI_YX7_Bv8YDdDRmnq3A4UV_a695FuNHc/s1600/_20180205_151631.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="822" data-original-width="1600" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFADj1TFzaX5a7-SNsfZyvhA1qpL8XjRz13oVHhAzhTqiQNgkvvSJo4m3bENl5Uk5ONRO8anYdSbQc-aNHM-S-ES6-lmMlV97UhXNcnGNSMIqI_YX7_Bv8YDdDRmnq3A4UV_a695FuNHc/s200/_20180205_151631.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Nuremberg Toy Fair was the first of over 20 conventions we are going to participate in this year. Here is the list of events and cities where you can find us for the next 4 months:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">8.-9.2.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cologne, Germany</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">10.-14.2.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Brussels, Belgium</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">23.-25.2.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Cannes Games Festival, France</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">1.-4.3.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">LeiriaCon, Portugal</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">9.-14.3.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Valencia, Spain</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">16.-18.3.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Ludesco, Switzerland</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">24.-25.3.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Ratingen Spieletage, Germany</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">6.-8.4.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Modena Play, Italy</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">12.-22.4.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Venice area, Italy</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">24.-27.4.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Rome, Italy</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">30.4.-9.5.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Vienna, Austria</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">11.-14.5.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Brno, Czech</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">15.-17.5.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Krakow, Poland</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">18.-20.5.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">PyrCon, Poland</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">1.-3.6.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">UK Games Expo, U.K.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">4.-26.6.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">around U.K.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">So far we have travelled over 3,000 kilometers. And as you can see, we still have a few ahead. I hope to see many of you on our tour!</span></div>
Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-39703254169856618142018-01-30T22:26:00.000+02:002018-01-30T22:26:08.029+02:00Police and MacGyver<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDz0p1-VQpfm2m5B39JDWI9vYlSi9weX0Ls2PUWZFGMoQYaLvrswH0ZUy8gyoKxTbDZeJ6QM5b0I-p7cpkfY3ZQqkJgcNqcY6Ho6KZNXEXzHnKds2gSvEA-nV2IhEIP7DDk8l11kEU6HI/s1600/teippi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="840" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDz0p1-VQpfm2m5B39JDWI9vYlSi9weX0Ls2PUWZFGMoQYaLvrswH0ZUy8gyoKxTbDZeJ6QM5b0I-p7cpkfY3ZQqkJgcNqcY6Ho6KZNXEXzHnKds2gSvEA-nV2IhEIP7DDk8l11kEU6HI/s320/teippi.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Duck tape did not solve the problem.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We parked our car and trailer on the roadside, in Kiel. It was time to say goodbye to Nikolas and his wife Flora, have a cup of coffee in their apartment, and move on. We had found out that we have to be Nuremberg a day earlier than we thought, so we had a lot driving to do. As usual, we checked the caravan and the car. This time around, annoyingly, we found that everything was not OK: the cable that connects our caravan to the car was damaged, badly. It is too long and part of it had dragged on the ground, so part of it has just disappeared. Not good. The lights in the caravan still work, so we’ve decided we can still go on. After our coffee.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sleepless on a motorway</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We drove several hours after the coffee I got in a Moomin mug (Oh, how much I miss my Moomin mugs…), eating a Döner on our way. Around 8pm, somewhere on autobahn number 2, we turned to a “rastplatz”. Germany is full of good parking places by the road, some of them even have toilets and places to cook. There are usually many trucks - I think this is the only way to tell if the place is any good. Our parking place had no facilities but we just needed a place to sleep.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our heater didn’t work. The temperature in the caravan was 13°c and the night was going to be cold. Timo checked the batteries. They were ok. We still had gas but not that much. Had the damaged cable had any effect? We had no idea. I was ready to sleep under extra blankets, but Timo wanted to find a new gas bottle - or a place with electricity. So we started up again, Väinö half asleep on the back seat. Half of the lights on the caravan were out, and of course it was raining.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We stopped at three different gas stations with no help. I tried to Google all possible locations that might be helpful. We took a turn into a caravan site, just to find out it was not open. I was getting desperate. Right then we spotted a police car. In a dark and otherwise empty parking-lot of an Aldi supermarket.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Police inspection</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We drove up next to the police car and I went to talk. The policeman on the driver’s seat opened the window and I found out I was disturbing their evening meal - Döner, of course. The police officer talked rather good english and suggested we should go to a gas station near by. That place had a huge parking space for trucks, and it was open 24/7.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We drove to the gas station and Timo went to ask for gas, electricity or any kind of help. Soon I noticed that the police car had driven to the same station. Perhaps they had noticed the illegal lighting - or lack of it - on our caravan, perhaps they were just friendly or had nothing else to do. They came to check that we got help.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh20SeKQY72XOUmNcc3L95iri0E9_4XJZLQgL8C-A9XmTAiaDyNtnB0XGuZoY9cGyjFeoYcvwTqjT2DPgk_FP5dLJzldRTWnFtJF9IyqmT4rWlUYPbFC8VmVQrKz91qN-M6hIX4IzujWFw/s1600/fuses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With help translating from the police officers, we managed to buy a new gas bottle. While Timo was installing it, I showed the caravan to the officers. Because they asked, and you don’t say no to a policeman. “It is soooo big!”, they said. I’m sure they had a memorable night shift.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My darling MacGyver</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The new gas bottle did not help with the heating, though. It was way past 10pm. I was exhausted. Timo checked all possible components with a multimeter. If you go on the road for a year, you MUST have a multimeter. And some knowledge of how to use it. We also have the manual for our heating system. With their help, Timo discovered that a fuse in the heater was out. A tiny little tube of glass.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At half past eleven we were able to go to bed. On a parking-lot of the gas station. A noisy motorway next to us. At least it was warm. And we were in our own beds.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The only downer was that I had lost my tablet. The one where I read my morning paper and nice book in the evenings with the Kindle app. I hadn’t used it during the day. We searched everywhere. The only strangers we had in the caravan were the police officers. I don’t think they took it. It is just misplaced.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I downloaded the Kindle app and our family library to my phone. One chapter of wizard Dresden’s adventures (Butcher’s Dresden files, highly recommend) was exactly what I needed after a day like this. His life is also quite messy. But he doesn’t have foreign police officers as friends, and a clone of MacGyver as a husband. </span></span></div>
Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-63824761233067365512018-01-22T14:49:00.000+02:002018-01-22T14:49:10.936+02:00Pit-Stop For A New Start<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">I woke up to a beeping noise. It was the computer UPS: we had lost electricity. Or I had. Timo and Väinö were at the Umeå swimming hall. I was having a nap due a bad migraine. My migraine and not-so-nice snowy weather were the reasons why we had stopped in Umeå instead of driving 300 km further to Sundsvall, as we had planned. I sent a WhatsApp message to Timo: “Electricity lost, don’t know what to do”. We had a similar issue previously but I just couldn’t remember how he fixed it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, this would happen when I’m alone. It’s Murphy’s law. The very same reason why our mail server decided to stop working right when we left Finland. We seem to be Murphy’s favourites right now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was a memorable moment when I locked our home door knowing it will be almost a year before I open it again. I shed a few tears when driving - south, below the arctic circle, to a whole new way of living. On the last morning I woke up at 6, gathered the last few items in a pile in one room, collecting the random stuff I thought I might need during the year into some bags and threw them into to van. I phoned our tenant and apologised that we didn’t have time to clean up. Later I got a picture from her of a fully organised collection of spices. Our house will be in good hands.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Voting for a president before leaving the country.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">We stopped in Rovaniemi for some final repairs to the caravan. And to fulfill our civil duty: voting. In Finland we have a presidential election at the moment. In the Finnish parliament system the candidate who gets the most votes wins. (Unlike in some other countries...) If there will be a second round in this election, we will not be able to vote. We will be at the <a href="https://www.spielwarenmesse.de/language/1/" target="_blank">Nuremberg Spielwarenmesse</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we crossed the border to Sweden, the snowing started. Have you ever tried to drive while towing a 9 meter long caravan on an icy road? The draft from cars overtaking your slower vehicle gives some interesting wobble to the van. I usually have low blood pressure, but I can assure you, there were some really high peaks then. I know where the migraine came from.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There have also been other sources of stress lately. While we were packing everything for the tour, we also had to finish materials for the Kickstarter campaign of </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Darwinning!</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The hours we had in a day were not enough. We ended up doing just the mandatory stuff. Not everything we knew was needed, not everything we are capable of doing. We hoped for the best, and right after the Kickstarter launch we knew that hope was false.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">The electricity loss in Umeå was easily solved: the fuse of the electrical outlet was blown. My migraine eased with medication. We repacked the caravan to get better balance and the wobbling decreased. After two days of driving I was able to relax in the car. But I let Timo do the driving.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What we were not able to solve on the road was the mail server issue. We are still not sure what is broken and why. We cannot read company emails and that is a major problem. It was necessary to make big decisions. We cancelled the </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Darwinning! </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">campaign because it obviously needed more marketing and at the moment we don’t have the resources to do that. We will make a fresh start with </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Darwinning!</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in February.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">We did eventually reach Stockholm and we parked up at <a href="http://angbycamping.se/en/home/" target="_blank">Ängby Camping</a>. Nice, small place with a surprisingly large number of caravans, obviously in use for full-time living. We will stay here for a few days. </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I have time to investigate what on earth I threw in the bags before leaving.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Luckily we have a friend in Stockholm with two laundry machines and a sauna! Even though we have been on tour for less than a week, this pit-stop is really needed. It is nice to have dinner in a kitchen were two people can move at the same time without walking into each other.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">But our son voiced my thoughts during breakfast this morning: this caravan is starting to feel like home.</span></div>
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Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-47707192409488658772017-12-07T21:41:00.000+02:002017-12-08T19:24:07.694+02:00Wrapping up Pieces of Life<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I could tape two Christmas calendars together and use that as The Tour Calendar. We are running out of days! We have been planning the tour over a year now. There is still a long list things to do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We knew October and November will be hectic. There were weeks without free days, nights with too few hours of sleep. We keep telling to each other that next year will be easier. We have actually booked some weeks for vacation during to the tour! Life will be simplifier because we concentrate only to the tour.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkacj0Hew2oASwV5grFaqXqnXQCXoIf6Lb0ldaC4kYtTtNCKGL1frZFARr53miUqTzzxc0kzK-q6Dy3c2C_WRlnXeDyqKFArUl-G7Kame24t2uEhTPcHgSextw-NNaR2nwyzOC7fQzpd0/s1600/louhistiina-korsetti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1477" data-original-width="1181" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkacj0Hew2oASwV5grFaqXqnXQCXoIf6Lb0ldaC4kYtTtNCKGL1frZFARr53miUqTzzxc0kzK-q6Dy3c2C_WRlnXeDyqKFArUl-G7Kame24t2uEhTPcHgSextw-NNaR2nwyzOC7fQzpd0/s200/louhistiina-korsetti.jpg" width="159" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">During this year, in addition to board game business, I was directing several art groups. Within a month there have been a final show of a historical theater play, premiere of a short film and performance of my recitation group. Every now and then I have been on stage with my own show of bawdy Finnish folk poems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I thought everybody knew about the tour because I had told about it in Facebook and on this blog. But it was only after the local newspaper wrote about our short film and told “there will be a break because the director is travelling next year” that </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">everybody </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">started to talk about it. “So where are you going?” I get asked at the supermarket, in the post office and by the guy who is emptying our cesspool.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know I’m going to miss directing other people. The moments of perception and understanding, analyzing impressions and emotions, working together towards unforgettable experiences. It is good to have some time with myself though. Hopefully I will get some inspiration for new performances. I have packed my collection of Finnish folk poems, English translation of old Finnish spells and Shakespeare’s Hamlet in original language. Yes, I have an idea, and I hope the month in UK will help me with that...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">One major problem of the tour got solved when we finally found the car for towing. We decided to leave Lump at home. Instead we bought VW Multivan, with four-wheel drive and manual gears, 2,5 litre engine and 5 cylinders. (Everything I didn’t want to know about cars, but have been forced to learn). One main reason for this choice was “if it breaks, spare parts are easily available”. So it is a reasonable choice. I also like the interior of the Multivan. It’s designed for long rides. Good chairs, plenty of room for legs and a lot of pockets and places for cups, papers, napkins, solar glasses and chocolate bars. One does not get claustrophobic in that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Also the solar panels are finally installed to the caravan. Just in time before the polar night begins. So I have no idea when and where we will have enough sunshine to actually test the system. But I’m convinced it will work. We got the panels and instructions from our dear friend </span><a href="https://icecarousel.wordpress.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple;">Janne “The Ice Carousel” Käpylehto</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. He’s a jolly good propeller head, specialized to renewable energy solutions and innovations that makes life enjoyable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a project this vast, the amount of minor details gets enormous. And it’s the minor details that gives you a headache. Booking a booth to ten different conventions is not a problem. But because they all have a different setup for what’s included in the booth, it takes days to make sure you have walls, carpets and electricity in all places. Every fair center has also its own regulations. I was a bit surprised when receiving a kind remind from a french fair center that “safety shoes are mandatory during the setup and dismantling”. During setup I need to hook a three meter wide canvas - weighs like 200 grams - and open up the handy sales desk case. Hazardous business, so I MUST have safety shoes. Mother-in-law promised to loan her pair of safety shoes for our tour. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thou shall not mess with safety regulations!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The idea of having a mobile home for the tour seemed handy. We could stay overnight where ever we like. Europe is filled with nice camping areas. Except that they are not open during the winter… February and March will be interesting. I know we can manage in the caravan where ever we can park it. But will the caravan manage where ever it’s parked while we are at the conventions? There is no point to worry beforehand. All I can do is to get good insurances.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which leads to another “minor detail”. We have had continuous travel insurances for years. One could assume “continuous” means that it’s valid all the time. But in the small print you find out the maximum length for one trip is three months. A minor problem if you are not coming home for a year. I quoted for travel insurance for a whole year. Price tag had four digits. Per person. I have two months time to find a reasonable solution. I need chocolate!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our son liked the Multivan, because it has a table at the back. “I can do my homework here!” We can be proud of a son who actually likes studying and understands he has to do that also while we are on the road. With the school everything has worked out fine. Our son will do home schooling. He will get some tests from the school twice during the semester. We have his schoolbooks and each teacher will think about some special tasks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s surprisingly the non-theoretical subjects that requires more planning. We must have sports every week. This will be useful for mum and dad, too. For art lessons he has his drawing equipments and he’s prepared to visit art museums with me. For hand crafts I have packed material for needlepoint and other embroidery.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">This year he will start his Christmas holiday a bit earlier. We will visit our relatives and friends in southern Finland. They will get this year second hand presents, as we are trying to get rid of extra items. Each wrapped up with love and kind thoughts. It’s time for celebration and farewells.</span></div>
Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-62877880120246726182017-11-06T21:01:00.000+02:002017-11-06T21:01:23.933+02:00Demons and port wine<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">Each child should have their own demon for day dreams</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">” my child announced at the age of five. He was going to daycare with his toy Cthulhu. The green, fluffy monster, with tentacles, was his favorite at the time. Yeah, demons can be cute and cuddly too.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have never liked monsters with tentacles. I learned that when I watched </span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(film)" target="_blank">Alien</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I like science fiction, action and horror films. Usually I can sleep well after the films, or even during them, but slime and crawling creatures make me feel uncomfortable. One might say that is the point of horror films: to be a bit scared and uncomfortable, from the safety of a couch.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ5jAu1hxcbNhN6a9iV0i0y8U6ENwjIIZXOkEE4dH9Qzs4qPkUFJE5wjXaOC4YltYK7tP7mbLCxl5X_buQlPjWWNCR39gRt5SC1KhSp37RL9a500eGtd8YZVYVI61OIXkwiPO8G9BfiUQ/s1600/Demon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1368" data-original-width="1500" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ5jAu1hxcbNhN6a9iV0i0y8U6ENwjIIZXOkEE4dH9Qzs4qPkUFJE5wjXaOC4YltYK7tP7mbLCxl5X_buQlPjWWNCR39gRt5SC1KhSp37RL9a500eGtd8YZVYVI61OIXkwiPO8G9BfiUQ/s400/Demon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have to say, that I didn’t think of Perdition’s Mouth as a horror game until I watched</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r78Nd7fLqj8" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #741b47; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rahdo’s Final Thoughts</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of the game’s prototype. He loved the game, but said that his wife will not play it due to the horror aspect.</span></span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-cc962e0b-91e9-f3ec-3ff8-9eb08beaf167" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OK, there are monsters. Some of them even have tentacles. The Demon in <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/149787/perditions-mouth-abyssal-rift" target="_blank"><span style="color: #741b47;">Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift</span></a> is not cuddly. It’s a nasty, spiky formation of evilness from the Abyssal Rift. For me, it reminds me of a butterfly or a moth. And those remind me of the</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silence_of_the_Lambs_(film)" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #741b47; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Silence of Lambs</i></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. So OK, agreed, it is a bit scary, especially if you imagine it as life-size.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">There is violence and torture. In the first Kickstarter campaign we got several comments about the victim miniatures. Especially about the girl in a cage. ”</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s humiliating!</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">” Not the imprisonment, though. But that it was a female. Nobody cared about the male figure strapped up to a spiked wheel. I understand that not everybody likes the victim miniatures. They are cruelty made visible. But hey, this is fiction. Try and watch a documentary about the Syrian war. At least our victims can be rescued.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">Could you remove the blood from the maps?” </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">A sincere question from a backer. I know some people might faint if they see a drop of blood. I don’t like to see blood either. But to have a dungeon with evil monsters, to fight in there for your (make-believe) life and not to have a single drop of blood visible would be… fake.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">We have found that the realism in Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift – not only in graphics, but also in the game mechanisms – is the real horror aspect. My hero does not get better, just the opposite! They’re wounded, they’re slower, they have fewer action points. At the same time, the monsters get worse, bigger, nastier. Not fair, you think? Well, as Rahdo said in his video: this is not high fantasy, it’s fantasy horror. You might survive this dungeon, but you will be bleeding.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">During one game session we accidentally spilled some port wine on the game map. Luckily the map is good, thick quality. No real harm done. There are still some red stains though. They blend in with the graphics. You can’t really tell what is blood and what is port</span></div>
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Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750479864365567728.post-41323338127570731272017-11-02T12:41:00.001+02:002017-11-02T12:41:32.912+02:00Unforgettable Essen Spiel<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One taxi driver after another shakes their head as I approach their cars at the Düsseldorf airport. Finally, Mr. Shabani has a car big enough for my luggage. ”Do you know the way and the right entrance?” he asks, when I tell him I want to go to Messe-Essen. This is the second time I’m participating in the world’s biggest gaming convention </span><a href="http://www.merz-verlag-en.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Essen Spiel</span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Of course I know the way. You never forget your first time in Essen.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the past it has usually it has been Timo who traveled to gaming conventions. But right now he has his right hand and thumb in a tight plaster packet after surgery. Nevertheless, he can move nine fingers and uses those to comment on and update our ongoing Kickstarter campaign of </span><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/509519175/perditions-mouth-revised-edition" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift Revised Edition</span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. We got the amount needed for funding within 21 hours. The campaign still requires constant work though: answering questions and organizing marketing to get more pledges.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Friendly faces</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguG-8Zl5spyx1zZzJYNGLfI_Y_pLM0tvJ0ecdKyS_Ay-JnBWcr-6ZKPXxglyTlmhYcdD0bKxkqCL8XCKenIDf2GeVv2i9eOWv0WndM3BVC1RpfgIXFU-VFWmM_CwVlXB6jgZf1ShIXuvs/s1600/tiski.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1030" data-original-width="1600" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguG-8Zl5spyx1zZzJYNGLfI_Y_pLM0tvJ0ecdKyS_Ay-JnBWcr-6ZKPXxglyTlmhYcdD0bKxkqCL8XCKenIDf2GeVv2i9eOWv0WndM3BVC1RpfgIXFU-VFWmM_CwVlXB6jgZf1ShIXuvs/s400/tiski.JPG" width="400" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I dragged my 50 kilos of luggage from the taxi to hall number 2 and immediately found friends. Jouni and Tomi from </span><a href="https://dized.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Dized</span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> were struggling with IKEA furniture. I smiled. This year I would not spend hours looking for missing screws and struggling with heavy shelves. My luggage included our new sales desk. This very handy Desk&Case solution will be very useful on next year’s tour. In only five minutes the desk was set and, with the company’s new logo emblazoned on it, it looked great.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Essen Spiel is a truly international event. It gathers game publishers, manufacturers and retailers from all over the world. Boardgamegeeks travel long distances and queue hours to get the game they desire. It was very useful that we had our foreign team members at the booth. We were able to present our games in English, German, Spanish, French, Czech, Swedish and Finnish.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRA3sxSJKnW6xV1X9f69YJNVoglDgGlJOXwQhD5ChbVa_91wMUC6_sH-DsTlqKUBPF4mUAyOFEyOWxisc-DWsabf0japxoxjxtt7wsOToqCwTQ29viEpux8faUqqb0Q4n8DVVmc3diwhM/s1600/dagmar.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1445" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRA3sxSJKnW6xV1X9f69YJNVoglDgGlJOXwQhD5ChbVa_91wMUC6_sH-DsTlqKUBPF4mUAyOFEyOWxisc-DWsabf0japxoxjxtt7wsOToqCwTQ29viEpux8faUqqb0Q4n8DVVmc3diwhM/s320/dagmar.JPG" width="289" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dagmar de Cassan and Jouni Jussila</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was the first time I met some of our team members. We have written hundreds of messages on our virtual platform, shared ideas and worked together for a common vision. But have never met. Finally aliases had faces. I learned more of where they come from, saw pictures of their children. I even found out one of them was half Finnish!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For us, the Essen week also means pizza with our dear friend Dagmar de Cassan. She has an amazing collection of 30,000 board games in her </span><a href="http://www.spielemuseum.at/wordpress/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #741b47;">board game museum</span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. While enjoying our dinner (and the distinctive service traditions of the pizzeria) we discussed the future of the collection. It needs a new location and funding for the maintenance. I truly hope a solution will be found for this soon.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How can you tell you have been in Essen?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First of all, you have lost your voice due to four days of constant talking in a noisy hall. You have explained the main features and basic rules of your games over and over again. This year we presented, in addition to our existing games </span><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/149787/perditions-mouth-abyssal-rift"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Perdition’s Mouth</span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148282/black-hat"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Black Hat</span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the prototype of </span><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/234920/darwinning" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Darwinning!</span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This was the first time we presented it to the public and the feedback we got was excellent. Our team’s brainstorming for the name of the game proved to have been successful. </span><a href="http://thenobleartist.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Noble Artist</span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> had managed to make a logo that raised an instant interest in the game.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We thought we designed a family game. So I was surprised to see a group of older women stop and playtest Darwinning! The tradition of trick-taking games in Germany and Austria is long. People are used to playing them and want to find new variations on card games. We had many hilarious moments with </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eXOcDBG1RQ&feature=youtu.be"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Darwinning!</span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: amebas eating a dinosaur, an elephant with a hard shell and birds using tools. We will continue developing the game based on the feedback and ideas we got at Essen. In January 2018 you will have an excellent trick-taking game on Kickstarter!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxn3nfb5RBtTgqOw9iQbl5uk14KLSHCWX5kL0J9yoX45CVG2ceaH7a5NpCbGtFjtFBrKH7Ed8w3kwzDidy_TABUQk8NndgL19jkJmoxSH1HOiDzyqruWzV0647zRmlPE-Gvb99a7D4xik/s1600/naiset.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="894" data-original-width="1600" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxn3nfb5RBtTgqOw9iQbl5uk14KLSHCWX5kL0J9yoX45CVG2ceaH7a5NpCbGtFjtFBrKH7Ed8w3kwzDidy_TABUQk8NndgL19jkJmoxSH1HOiDzyqruWzV0647zRmlPE-Gvb99a7D4xik/s400/naiset.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Time spent in Essen can also be counted by the dirty t-shirts with a company logo. I usually have one t-shirt for each fair day. This year some of them came home unused. Our order of new t-shirts for the whole team became a sad example of deliveries gone wrong. After two weeks in ”out-for-delivery” -mode, DPD finally managed to deliver the package to my hotel during the second day of the fair. Yet again, this reminded us why we should not use DPD, as this has happened with over half of their shipments to us. Perhaps I should feel lucky: every year there are companies in the fair whose games are stuck in customs or just not delivered.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Also your bag is filled with free samples from Chinese manufacturers, who have eagerly explained their factory sizes and showed miniatures, punch boards and dice with a big smile. They all have better quality than the competitors and they have all produced the best games ever published. It’s not easy to find a trustworthy manufacturer. My most important meeting during Essen was with our current manufacturer - <span style="color: #741b47;"><a href="http://www.longpackgames.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #741b47;">LongPack Games</span></a>.</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We had a long list of minor details for the ongoing production of <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/509519175/perditions-mouth-traitor-guard-expansion" target="_blank"><span style="color: #741b47;">Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift - Traitor Guard</span></a> and for future productions. We looked up card samples, talked about packing and shipping, ideas for inserts etc. Small things, but important for our integrity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Winter is here</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every year during Essen Spiel the winter begins, in Finland. Temperatures went below -20°C and we had 10cm of snow.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Iranian taxidriver in Düsseldorf had relatives in Sweden. He knew it is a cold country, and that Finland is even colder. Dark and cold. I have to disagree. With the river frozen and snow all around, it’s like millions of diamonds shimmering.</span></div>
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Louhistiinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09912749456739901989noreply@blogger.com0