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.
-
22. November 2015

Cookies
-
29. November 2015

Table decoration with Advent candles
-
29. November 2015

Table decoration
-
29. November 2015

Glühwein
-
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 !

.

.

.

.

.