Feelgoodmusic if there ever was one.
Rock Tartu voolu nillis
This one will only make sense if you speak Estonian but damn it’s funny :)
Ma tean küll, et see on aasta vana, aga kuidagi on minust ringiga mööda läinud.
Holly Lodge Estate – place with a view
Went on a stroll yesterday with Otto and as often before our route took us through Holly Lodge Estate near Hampsted Heath park. It’s a gated community (which I dislike) with impressive views on central London (which I like). Sunny day and Pro HDR iPhone app resulted in these snaps.
Rubbish bag in a bag. In a bag.
In October I flew with British Airways from London to Amsterdam. They served us something unmemorable (tea?) but with this something came an intriguing packet that contained:
a) a napkin
b) a plastic stick thing for stirring sugar and milk
c) a bag
d) another bag within the first bag
I just had to take it home with me.
New year, new bike
Rule #12 / The correct number of bikes to own is n+1
While the minimum number of bikes one should own is three, the correct number is n+1, where n is the number of bikes currently owned. This equation may also be re-written as s-1, where s is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner.
Got to follow the rules and moving to a new country helps. For about an hour now I’ve been an over excited owner of a new lover bike. I had a suspicion back in November when I found out that Condor shop is just around the corner from my office, that one day I might end up giving them chunck of my money. That gut feeling, as always, ended up being being correct.
Condor Baracchi Cross 2008 55cm
Frame: Condor Baracchi Alloy with carbon rear stays, 55cm
Fork: Carbon Cross
Groupset: Campagnolo Veloce Silver
Brakes: TRP Euro-X Silver
Chainset: Veloce Compat 34/50
Wheelset: Campagnolo Khamsin
Tyres: Continental UltraGator 28
Bars: Deda Zero 100, black, 44cm
Stem: Deda Zero 1, black
Tape: Condor Cork
Saddle: Fizik Pave
Seatpost: Condor Carbon Uno
This being a 2008 model has probably a lot to do with the fact that it had been marked down £400 from its original price but I’ve always bought “old” models and saved a ton. That pic is just a placeholder until I take a better one.
It’s a cyclo cross bike so I might have to take up a new version of my favorite sports…
Business canvas and blog idea brainstorming
Week 1 of 2012 and I’m keeping to my plan of attending at least one event each week. Thanks to fine gentlemen by the names of Philipp Moehring (did his usual Seedcamp dog-and-pony show), Salim Virani (Leancamp), Rob Fitzpatrick (The Startup Toolkit) I had an enjoyable evening playing with business model canvas and brainstorming ideas for Flattr blog.
One of the first things I jotted down was a big question mark about how to get our co-founder Linus to start blogging on regular basis. Gut feeling that this will be much harder challenge than turning all those 30+ other ideas I put down into proper blog posts…
I especially liked Rob’s bit as I’ve been in a blogging funk for a while and it was just the right kick in the brain to give me a new angle into producing topics. And it was as simple as asking questions like “What questions have partners/clients asked recently?”, “Biggest mistakes you’ve done?”, “What I should have known?” Simple questions are powerful.
Rob’s “Blogging for your business is worth it even if you get no traffic” is a glimpse into what he shared with us. Add lots of pacing back and forth and waving of arms :)
Four things I’m doing in 2012
Start blogging in English
This is something I’ve mulling over for a while now. I haven’t blogged in Estonian much for years (the occasional travel post doesn’t count) and I feel that the stuff I might want to say could benefit from being in a language understood by more than medium size city in the US. It’s write better and more or die trying type of thing.
Attend at least one event every week
This is what started the list. With moving my life to London there really isn’t lack of events to go to every single day. However, it’s equally easy to bury yourself in the day-to-day work and dedicate the rest of myself to my family. Reading “Why In-Person Socializing Is A Mandatory To-Do Item” reminded me that inspiration comes when people collide. So I’ll make an effort to go to at least one event (it could be a startup meetup, local hobby group get-together, stand-up comedy) each week to bump into people I don’t know.
Be a good dad
That’s a no brainer yet sometimes being a dad can be testing. Patience, sacrificing time that was “me time” before Otto came to our lives, remembering to be an active dad, put away the modern gadgetry that steals your soul away from family…
Stay healthy
It’s hard to find extra time for sports when you’re raising a son, want to have a healthy relationship and try to build a startup at the same time. Commuting in London eats up way more time than I expected so regular exercise hasn’t been a top priority. And I’m one of those people who function better when they can exhaust themselves a few times a week, feel the sweet pain of muscles aching.
I’ll leave the “simplify” and “start coding” things, that seem to be popular promises with the enterpreneur/startup crowd I follow, for the future. Really not that simple if your home looks like the photo above all the time :)
Meie pere pägalad e. Browni liikumise algpunkt
Eleen (3 a.), Otto (10 k.), Iti Mai (7 k.), Marta Emili (6 a.), Marin Emma (4 a.), Luisa Maari (1,5 a.)
Foto: Kdri
