Pim van Pelt
204cf8f57a
7.3 KiB
title, date
| title | date |
|---|---|
| Week 3, Tuesday: Adrianus and family | 2024-08-13T19:21:19+02:00 |
{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/firewalker.png" alt="Credit: FIREWALKER, YouTube" >}}
A great many years ago, from August of 2000 to about September of 2001, I worked for Freeler Internet, a rather novel approach to ISDN dialup and hosting services back at the pinnacle of the Dotcom boom. As a youngling, I worked with Rager Ossel at Intouch NV, an early ISP in the Netherlands. I have great memories of this period, where we stamped out dialup, web- and e-mail hosting, full services internet provider in record time. Freeler was pretty great, and the man who ran the infrastructure team is a guy called Adrianus Aad Warmenhoven. Together with a small group of network and systems engineers, we had a lot of fun and I learned a lot.
Aad and family planned a trip to Luzern this week and asked if they could stop by "for a selfie", a think I would gratefully oblige. I haven't seen him (in person) for a long time, and it was great to see him and the family. At around noon a blue car with yellow plates slides by the driveway: they're here!
We have a cup of coffee and catch up. In the afternoon we take off to Zurich to do a little walk around town. We get on the S19 train to Zurich, and I'm glad that I bought the whole bunch of travelers tickets, because we are about to get checked by SBB (the local train company) personnel. But, and this happens from time to time, some guy did not buy a ticket and is being written up for a hefty CHF 100,- fine. He's clearly not happy about it, beligerant, yelling at the two people who are following him (one of them on the phone). He's incredibly loud and rude, and ends up spitting food all over the train, it was pretty gross and the SBB employee was not amused. She took my and Marina's information for a report, and the S19 stops at Zurich main station, after which two security guards, followed by two policemen, handle the situation. We're walking up the escalator and see at least eight more cops walk down. It was an impressive sight, no half measures!
After the stormy weather yesterday, today again it is 28C or so -- for me not too hot but after a while walking in the bright sunshine, I have made enough vitamin D and could use some shade or cool water. We walk into the _Grossmünster church to cool off a little bit. I sneak a picture of what I think may be a [Johannus] church organ, and it's a pretty sight! From outside on the patio in front of the church, we overlook the Fraumünster church on the other side of the river Limmat, which is a beautiful aquamarine blue due to the minerals from the smeltwater in the Alps. I really love Zurich, it's so pretty!
We overheat a little bit and cool down at the Opera house (where not four days ago there was an enormous stage with 900'000 people raving!), and then make our way back through Bahnhofstrasse where I see a classic: some randomly parked supercar. Today, it is a McLaren, from the looks of it a 720S. It's orange, and it would look nice on this website :-)
We mozy our way up to Paradeplatz, where we sit in the shade of Zeughauskeller, also known as the armory. If you're ever in Zurich, take a meal here, it's really fun to sit at large tables and order classic dishes like Kanonenputzer (a Canon cleaner, which is one meter of sausage), eat hearty soups, and drink beer from a Stein. Which I do.
We go back to my place, and I suggest that we start the Hubble portion of Sandra's awesome lego Space Shuttle. We get through the first few baggies and chat. It's really warm though! Aad and I also form some baguette and boules for dinner, we're barbecueing tonight! We make some hamburgers, pork skewers, and a Limousin dry-aged steak: from our haul last week at Aligro! It's a prime steak for sure, and Adrianus' better half requests it "as red as you can". We both nom on a piece, and it's one of the best steak's I've ever had in Switzerland. Truly amazing! I also throw the second piece on, but I only eat half of it - the rest will go very nicely in a cold salad tomorrow for lunch. We're stuffed!
Aad and family take off back to Luzern at about 21:00 or so, and Marina and I walk off some calories by doing our Floof Chicken route. Of course, no floof for us today, because the sun is already setting and the chickens are in their coop. But we have a nice walk anyway, and the sunset is gorgeous today.
After that, we fail to install and use the 59mm stamping head for the pins I want to take to FrysIX barbecue and we're pretty sure one of the parts is misaligned. Before we go try to fix it ourselves, Marina sends an e-mail with a few pics and a short video showing the problem. But for now: no 59mm pins, yikes! Luckily, we still have three weeks or so.
I drink Sprite Zero today, and leave the Vino for another time. I'm pretty tired, and definitely got my steps in today. Aad: it was really great to see you!
Pictures of the Day
{{< gallery-category >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/takeover.jpg" caption="Takeover 2001, one of the first times I met Adrianus and the Multi Access / Freeler crew. I organized the Takeover demoparty from 1998 to 2001." >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/IMG_0628.JPG" caption="Aad and I, almost 25 years later, obligatory selfie-proof that we met!" >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/IMG_0629.JPG" caption="The inside of Grossmünster with a beautiful church organ" >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/IMG_0631.JPG" caption="A snapshot of the Fraumünster on the other side of Limmat, as seen from Grossmünster" >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/IMG_0633.JPG" caption="A McLaren 720S parked in the middle of Bahnhofstrasse. Someone has connections to the parking police :)" >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/IMG_0634.JPG" caption="The iconic building on the corner of Sihlstrasse and Bahnhofstrasse, one of the most expensive buildings in Switzerland, per square meter, that is" >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/IMG_0635.JPG" caption="Back in Brüttisellen, we play with legos, yaay!" >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/IMG_0637.JPG" caption="The first Limosine steak I make on the BBQ - it was requested bleu, and that is how the chef made it." >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/IMG_0638.JPG" caption="My Buurebrot (farmers bread) that I started yesterday, it came out really nice; I will store them in the fridge half-baked, and complete them over lunch" >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/IMG_0640.JPG" caption="The second steak comes out a little bit more on the rare side, but it has a nice diamond on it. It's a-ma-zing (well, if you like rare steak, anyway). Apologies, my vegan friends!" >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/IMG_0641.JPG" caption="Somebody left a cute looking tree trunk/log at the garbage bins, but I don't think it will be picked up, it's waaaay to big/heavy." >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/IMG_0642.JPG" caption="Our evening walk is to settle the BBQ meal in our stomachs. It's needed, I am stuffed! By the way, interesting picture quality, the 90s called, they want their compression artifacts back!" >}} {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-13/IMG_0643.JPG" caption="The sunset over the valley towards Dietlikon is very nice tonight, the picture doesn't quite do it justice" >}} {{< /gallery-category >}}
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