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31 March 2009

Farewell party

Last tuesday we had our real farewell party. About 15 people joined at Bigoudi 13 for some tapas and then at La Galerie for a beer. Coincidence was the exibhition at the upper floor of La Galerie from 2 girls who crossed Russia and a bit of SE Asia by train. Thanks all of you and keep in touch.

30 March 2009

Life in boxes

All our belongings, except what is on our backpacks, are in those boxes:

29 March 2009

Business card

We are now professional travellers. Like for any other business we did our own card:

28 March 2009

Blog name brainstorming

These were some of the blog names that cross our mind during the brainstorm dinner Eva and I had together with a good bottle of wine:
Tworld [why? Two+World=Tworld]; Bananes frites; Double vision; World Unlimited; Le goût du monde; Direction: Planet Earth; Direction: Where?; Next stop: Where?

22 March 2009

Body Combat farewell

Next week it will be my last Body Combat class, after about 3 years instructing it. I believe I managed to arrive to a good standard, room is full (about 30 people) everytime, people and I enjoy that hour. The trick is: you need to love what you are doing. One instructor needs to show the passion and transmit to the clients. Next week I expect (too Swiss, forecasting) about 40 people, the room to be more than full. Back kicks need to be avoided like the jumps. I need to find solutions for the track 4 and 6. Otherwise, I'll try to present tracks I like the most (and I've the time to remind the choreography). Base will be still Body Combat 39, but hopefully I'll put track 3, 5, 8, 9 and 10 from other releases. After it, dinner with who wants to join. Below the poster I did.

19 March 2009

Second Life

I don't need to play "Second Life" on the Internet. I'm about to give a second life to nearly all my belongings.
Today I sold my sofabed - a huge thing I thought I would have to donate to Emmaus or so because nobody seemed to want it. Anyway, someone just bought it (for 10% of its original price... but in Asia this will be a lot of money). For me, this means a "crying eye" and a "happy eye" (as we say in german). It was my "oldest" piece of furniture, bought for me by my mother 11 years ago, when I was in a flatshare and wanted something to sleep and sit on. Later on it served as a sofa, and then was "banished" to the visitors room/office in my last 2 apartments, to host family, friends and couchsurfers. Now I didn't want to keep it anymore - too big, not practical enough.
Another page turned... later there will be room for a new sofabed.

18 March 2009

The Market for Lemons

"The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism" is a 1970 paper by the economist George Akerlof. More info at wikipedia and here.

This post is related to an email of an unhappy buyer of some of my stuff. I'm selling my furniture at half price from the cost, they have about 4/5 years of usage, mostly are in good condition. Half-price is something that people pay for getting something in second hand but, it is true, there are lemons and cherries. As in most of the cases, people in second hand market are not willing to pay more than the price of new in market (even if the old item is likely a cherry). Because of this I find my self in the constraint of selling cherries under priced and lemons over priced.

I'm sure Eva is selling much more cherries than lemons and buyers are very happy, but in my case is maybe half/half. Anyway, I'm not being a cheater and furniture I know not to worth the half price - mainly things I would change if staying here -, those I sell at 20% of the price (like my bed) or even for free. Others, like my microwave, I find difficult to find a buyer. It is a cherry and because of that is more expensive than some new items in the lemon market (of new stuff).

Well, enough of economics writing today. I hope not to make other buyers unhappy, but at same time market is based on making compromises. If it is not possible to sell my cherries at fair price, then I feel I should compensate with some lemons.

17 March 2009

Sharing country and city tips 1 - Vienna and Budapest

For sure we are not the first going to most of the cities we plan to visit, and certainly you, knowing us, can propose some good places to discover in our itinerary.

Most likely our first stops will be Vienna and Budapest. In Vienna we have our friend Jan to host us, but we are not staying long because both Eva and me already know the city and mainly because is out of our bugdet. Anyway, we were checking the tips at http://www.spottedbylocals.com/vienna/ .

After Vienna we might or not pass by Bratislava but the destination will certainly be Budapest. Eva has strong interest in the city. There we do not know yet where we will be staying and the tips we have are from http://www.spottedbylocals.com/budapest/.

So, friends, you have other tips or even hosts in Vienna and/or Budapest, please leave an entry in the comments of this post or send an email to nextstop@anjo.com.pt

09 March 2009

The giving away process - part 2

This time it was at my place!

03 March 2009

Farewell apéros

A mix of english, french and weather...

Current forecast:
- work colleagues - 19 march
- body combat - 25 mars
- voisins - 26 mars
- geneva friends - y mars
- lisboa friends - x mars
- coimbra friends - x+1 mars

Gipsy party to come. Maybe we will try to make more 'support a meal' events, at it makes funny to have aimed places to go.