Zofingen Weichnachtsmarkt 2015

Hallo, wie geht's?

In Zofingen was a Christmas market at the weekend (4.-6.12.2015). My wife is crazy about Christmas markets, so we were there on saturday evening and on sunday afternoon. Weather was ok, temperature between +3 and +11. Sadly no snow but luckily no rain. Lots of people, as you can say in finnish "porukkaa oli kuin pipoa" straight translation would be something like "people were many as stocking caps".

And of course I had my camera with me. Dark late evening was a little bit of a challenge for me and for my camera. I don't like to use flash light, so i had to grank up my ISO setting quite high, but i got some nice basic Christmas market shots :-)

I'm sorry, i can't remember the name of this band,
but they played quite nice chill out music. And they had a long gig,
many hours during the days. You have to have a good lungs.
They were also selling their CD's.
I Didn't buy, I don't even have a CD-player anymore :-)
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (19:40)

And like always in markets,
you should taste and buy lots of different things.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (19:45)

One very famous drink is hot "Glühwein" (mulled wine).
Red or white, I liked more white.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (19:47)

Market was in the old town part of Zofingen,
which is looking very nice.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (19:47)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (19:49)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (19:50)

Bell DJ
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (19:51)

Stadtkirche Zofingen
5.12.2015 (19:52)

Open fire to warm up.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (19:54)

And some special things to buy.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (19:56)

A streetpub.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:01)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:03)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:03)

SOLD !
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:04)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:05)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:06)

I wanted to have these to our bedroom,
but for some reason I didn't get approval... Strange ?
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:19)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:20)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:22)

In Christmas markets you don't have to be with empty stomach.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:24)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:26)

Sausages and very famous meat sticks.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:27)

...And of course something to drink.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:36)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:38)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:39)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:40)

Realtime handcraft.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:52)

Nice work.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (20:54)

More mulled wine, we drank a lot of that.
You shouldn't drive a car after these markets.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (21:08)

Time to eat something. Tibetan food.
Restaurant Tibet Mutikdaktsang
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (21:09)

At least there's something hot.
They also have a small, nice restaurant in Zofingen called
Tibet Mutikdaktsang, Fegergasse 4
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (21:11)

Meat inside..
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (21:13)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (21:14)

Dessert
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (21:21)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (21:22)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (21:27)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (21:31)

Santa was also working hard
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (21:56)

Crepes, she was fast.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (22:03)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (22:07)

Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (22:09)

I had to come back and enjoy her working.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (22:10)

Warming up.
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Zofingen Christmas market
5.12.2015 (22:16)

After the market, we came back home after 2AM, after a few wine classes with our friends. Next day back to the market, but this time a little bit earlier.

Same band playing, I think they plyed the whole night :-)
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Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (15:23)

Wow ! I didn't see that coming..
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Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (15:27)

It's a good thing to start with a warm cup of mulled wine.
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Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (15:34)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (15:35)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (15:36)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (15:39)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (15:39)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (15:44)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (15:51)

Funny idea, Pieces of white bread and
a raclette cheese melted in an army cup.
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Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (15:53)

I ate a white wurst.
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Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (16:05)

My wife took something asian. Spicy.
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Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (16:06)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (16:08)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (16:25)

Old time handcraft.
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Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (16:36)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (16:37)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (16:44)

Old fashion games
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Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (16:49)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (16:49)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (16:52)

And a huge Christmas tree belongs
to a Christmas market.
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Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (16:54)

Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (16:57)

Street artist.
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Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (17:05)

More nice things.
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Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (17:07)

This kind of fish is so good.
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Zofingen Christmas market
6.12.2015 (17:19)

That was our Christmas market in Zofingen, we had to leave early, because we invited our naighbour family to a small snack dinner with our family to our home. I think we had enough snacks to eat, but there were thirteen of us, all very hungry, so you need to have something, and leftovers you can always eat on the next day. We had fun and all were happy with full stomachs. It's always nice to have a dinner together with your friends and family.

En guete !

Candies, cookies, chocolates...

Candles, mandarines, paprikas (pepperonies) , roasted peanuts...

Eggs, cheeses, bread...

Cold meats and tomatoes....

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First days with my Dell XPS13

Guten abend.

I've been using my new Dell XPS13 ultrabook now for several hours in about four days.

First impression: I love it. Not like I love my wife, but you know what I mean, I love it like a man can love a machine without being crazy :-).

For me, the size of this computer is just perfect. 13.3 inch QHD+ screen is naturally small, but the picture quality is just incredible. I have in my old HP laptop 15" non-touch full HD display, and when I'm now editing pictures on Dell using Lightroom, I can see a huge difference in sharpness. Even if the screen is smaller, I like to use Dell more for editing. I'm not a professional, so I will just give you my own real life feelings and experiences comparing to my old computer.

In a high resolution displays, there might be a few problems with using some software. I also bumped into some problems first. In my old version of Photoshop (CS5) and Lightroom (5) were just impossible to use in my new Dell, because all the texts and thumbnails of the menu options were so small, that you could barely read those without a magnifying glass. In Windows 10 you can adjust text, apps and other items all the way up to +300%, and you can also change only font size, but because those are effecting also to some other programs which doesn't need to be fixed, you really can't use that setting. I'm using now +175% and I like it that way, but still for old Photoshop it's too less. And there's no easy solution for that problem with Photoshop, or maybe there is. Some guy named Dan Antonielli in his website will offer "a solution", but for a normal users it's maybe not so easy to do. I didn't try it. But many people online says that it's an easy solution and it's working and many are wondering why Abode is not doing an update. Adobe doesn't help at this moment, their solution is to buy a new version of Photoshop and Lightroom. I'm using the latest version of Lightroom CC without size problems. Except with latest version of Adobe Bridge (CC) this size problem still exist.

Comparing to my old laptop, Dell is silent. Even if sometimes those fans are blowing in full power, it's very quiet. And in normal basic use, like right now when I'm writing, no sound at all. That's something that I like very much. It means that I can use Dell also in the bed when my wife is sleeping next to me, without being worried that a noise of loud fans will wake her up and blow her hairs to the wall.

Battery life is not that good, and I knew it when I was choosing my model. But still I think it's OK for a small, high performance computer with these specs. Dell says up to 18 hours of battery life, but I don't know how they did that, naturally with first basic model and maybe in a sleep mode :-) I did a real life test, twice. From full battery till the end, Lightroom CC, 50% screen brightness, which is enough for me at home for editing, wifi on, and bluetooth connection for my mouse. I managed to do picture editing about 3.5 hours in both times. It's about double comparing to my old laptop. At the first time I was also charging my Logitech MX Master Bluetooth mouse at the same time through USB port, and I didn't see much difference in battery life because of that. Nice feature is also a backlit keyboard. You can choose two different brightness, and lights are automatically shutting down after about ten seconds if you are not writing anything and coming back, when you touch something in the keyboard. Charging the battery is quite fast, under two hours, said the screen, when I plugged in the charger, I wasn't timing if it's true or not.

What else ? Dell XPS13 is faster than my HP. Both are running Windows 10 and inside my HP is also Intel i7 processor, but older 4th gen. version and 16GB RAM like in my Dell. For example starting Windows is so much faster with Dell. One big reason why my Dell is faster is SSD hard drive. SD-card reader i'm using all the time because my camera is saving pictures to SD-card. Thanks to Matt Granger I bought an external SSD hard drive Samsung T1, and it really is fast through USB3.

Problems.. During four days and in many hours I've been editing (and downloading to my blog) about 1000pics with Dell, basic things like cropping, sharpening, straightening, colors etc. Three times in the middle of editing, I got a blue screen which said that something is wrong and we have to restart your computer. It did it first time quite in the beginning, after that I updated my Graphic card and it was working quite long after update. but still so far it happened two times after that. I don't know if its a hardware or a software problem. Few times I had to restart Lightroom, because it just stucked. And two times my Bluetooth mouse lost connection. I hope in the future after some updates those problems will be gone, I also have to check my settings in Lightroom.

But after all and after these four days, I 'm very happy about my new computer. Four days is not a long time, but sometimes first impressions are the most important. I will use my Dell almost everyday, and soon I'll have some outside of the house experiences, because I started to write a blog of our two weeks in Hong Kong in 2014. I'll write it mostly in the trains. And I won't use picture editing, only writing, so I will get also some info of a battery life in different situations. And I will get to know how it's working on my lap or on the table of a restaurant or on a very small table in the train. And if my previous 2008 HK story was long, 2014 will be crazy long, over 900 pictures and (lots of) writing, is that a blog anymore or something else ? :-) It's not coming out tomorrow or even next week, but i'm working on it.

Tschüss !


Update 5.12.2015

I thought that I made an update to my graphic card after the first blue screen problem, but apparently I didn't, for some reason it didn't update. Last night I checked again, that would there be a new update to my graphic card, and there was. I installed it and now I just hope that there will be no more blue screens.. Fingers crossed...
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My first Christmas present of 2015

Grüezi mitenand !

Today in the morning, not the Santa Claus but UPS delivered my first Christmas present 2015. It's from me to myself : -)

For a long time I've been looking for a small laptop. I'm not an Apple guy, so I didn´t want to buy a Macbook Pro or something like that. I know that Macbook Pro is really good, but also one reason not to buy, is that I already have a lots of expensive programs for Windows, like Photoshop, Lightroom, Office etc. And another, more important reason is that my wife won't let me buy an Apple products : -)

My old computer, 15" HP Envy dv6 is about three years old, and it's still working very good, and I like windows 10. There´s a few reasons for an update. One problem along with big size and heavy weight is only less than two hours of battery life. To me in my situation now, when I'm sitting a lot of my time in trains and buses, i need something more compact. It have to be small and light, but it also have to be powerful enough that it can handle big graphic files in Photoshop and picture editing with Lightroom should run without lagging. I also like sharp screens with big resolution, and I'm a big fan of touchscreens. At home when I'm working with large graphic files, I'm using my 24" screen for that.

I was waiting for Microsoft's new models Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, specs are great but I think that Surface Pro 4 is not so good to use in my lap, and the price of a Surface Book rised too high for my budget. After many days searching and comparing, I finally choosed DELL XPS13. It has everything I need and it also looks very good :-). I choosed a model with 13.3" QHD touch display and i7 prosessor. I know that with these specs battery life is getting shorter, but that will be still double, or even triple comparing to my old laptop. Actually in many trains in Switzerland, they have power plugs which you can use while you are travelling. But for me a small size and light weight (and how it looks) are the most important specs. Also with these specs price is getting higher, but i´m sure that now I have a computer for many years.

Time will tell how it's working in my use, and later I will post some info of that. It's always nice to have a new gadgets, I can't wait to open the package and start the computer up, but sadly I don't have time for that now, because I have to go to a German language school and first I have to do some homework.

Bis später

First Sunday of Advent

Hallo

Today I experienced a new tradition, First Sunday of Advent. For me it´s a quite new thing, in Finland I never really had anything special at that day. I can´t remember, if we had something like that when I was a child.

Now here in Switzerland, for my "new" family, Advent has been a small tradition in many many years, for them it means spending time together and doing something together, like Christmas decorations, cooking, eating etc. And I like the idea that even when childrens are getting older, they still have that tradition. Yesterday and today we baked different types of cookies. Maybe I can´t really say we, yes, I tried to help, but I´m not sure that did I do more harm than good :-) But it was fun. And my wife said that that´s not all, not even close, more cookies are coming before Christmas. Today evening we tasted some of those cookies with mulled wine, in Switzerland you would say, Glühwein.

Some winter decorations in our livingroom.
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22. November 2015

Cookies
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29. November 2015

Table decoration with Advent candles
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29. November 2015

Table decoration
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29. November 2015

Glühwein
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29. November 2015

For me, Advent tells also that Christmas is coming soon, and that means in our family, like in many other families, Christmas presents. And that´s always hard for me, what should I give to my wife ? Of course nothing too expensive, but it should be also something useful. I can´t buy clothes, I´m very bad in that, I can´t even buy clothes for myself, so how could I buy clothes for someone else ? I can´t give jewels, because I´m also bad to choose something like that. Once I really nailed it with jewels, when I bought to my wife a pair of earrings and a necklace from Finland and they were also made in Finland, she´s wearing those a lot, so I think she likes them. But that was a lucky shot. I could maybe ask some hints of my wife´s sister, but I think that´s kind of cheating. I could easily give something like electronics stuff, gadgets etc. but my wife is not so interested about that. And it´s really not helping if my wife is all the time saying, that she doesn´t need anything... Luckily I found something small and nice from the Zürich airport few days ago, but even if my wife won´t read my blog, I can´t tell you yet what it was. But still I would like to give something else. I´m taking a German language school in Luzern twice a week, and there is lot´s of nice shops, I think I will find something from there. Few weeks ago I saw something very nice behind the window of a small shop, but I was too slow to decide, because now it´s not there anymore, I think it was kind of a unique piece, and that was the only one :-( But I won´t give up yet, I still have time. Tomorrow i will go again to Luzern, and I will find something !

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