Freedom is Calling - Page 10 of 25 - Blog about following the call of freedom

Finally on the Road!

EW July 21, 2024

We spent our last night in Germany in a beautiful, secluded spot at the edge of a quiet forest of old oaks near the Danish border.

The northern Breakfast we enjoyed later was quite different from our accustomed Bavarian diet. You can see them both on YouTube.

Bavarian food (don’t get a culture shock): https://youtu.be/7_sTfkP3Ksw
versus fresh coastline specialities: https://youtu.be/bFc8Pa_zunU

See how we arrived in Sweden: https://youtu.be/yGSdeLAHCEY

Getting mobile internet in Sweden

They said it is so easy.

Unfortunately, the law changed two years ago.

So, whatever I researched before the trip turned out to be out of date.

Bummer!!! I needed a Swedish prepaid SIM card. Once they were available in most stores, but due to new and more strict regulations, most places stopped selling them. We were sent from one shop to another just to hear: “Sorry, we don’t carry them anymore.”

So, we strayed through town, admittedly a very pretty town, trying to find our way in pursuit of that precious litte piece of electronics. No card, no internet. No internet, no blog, no video clips …

We finally found a store of one of the cell phone companies. And lucky us, we arrived 15 minutes before closing.

Yes, I got a SIM card with enough capacity.

The hook is: you can activate it only via internet.

Out of luck?

The only coffee shop providing internet access closed right in front of our very noses.

My phone refused to read the QR code of the card. Additionally, it would not connect to the German internet via roaming.

My partner’s phone connected nicely to the German internet but the browser would not open the website of the provider for registering the card. Without registration, the card is useless.

How to solve the problem?

I created a hot spot with one phone.
That enabled me to access the internet with the other phone and install a new app that read the QR code and connected to the provider’s website – hurray!

Struggeling through the Swedish instructions with the aid of Google translate, I was finally able to activate the card – and – it WORKS!!!

Thanks to that, you can read our first blog articles and view our video clips from Sweden …

That’s it for now. More to come.

Be well and if you like share this post and

When Angels travel

GEF July 21, 2024

Is it just good luck or does the Universe guide us with benevolence?

We have been on the road now for four days. At this time of the year, the peak of summer school holidays, the German Autobahn is supposed to be a horror. Not for us, though.

Riding and sweating

Very rarely, we have experienced such a smooth ride all the way down from the Bavarian Alps to the Northern coastline. Just one big, unavoidable traffic jam close to the Danish border, probably due to an accident.

That one really made us painfully crawl along for three quarters of an hour and sweat at 41 degrees Celsius in Big Paul’s cockpit.

No – we don’t have the luxury of an aircondition in our old Postal Service van … But what the heck!

Traveling through Denmark was easy and joyful again. Especially driving across the spectacular bridges that connect the Danish main islands and the South Coast of Sweden.

You might recognize this bridge from our blog banner! And you can watch our little video clip: https://youtu.be/yGSdeLAHCEY

Exploring Sweden

Hej Sverige – here we are now! And we enjoy it so much! Big Paul seems to like it, too. He is just purring peacefully along.

So far, the weather has been awesome, and Scandinavia is spoiling us with those beautiful, almost endless days and extremely short nights that never get really dark.

By day, we explore the idyllic landscape on small countryroads. And somehow, we seem to have the right touch finding hidden places where we can spend the nights close to nature and way off the beaten track.

Now we really appreciate that we put a very comfortable bed into Big Paul’s loading space! So enjoyable!

Some of these overnight places let us experience total silence after dawn, a phenomenon so rare in our modern, noisy and busy world.

Nature delights us with special events

The early mornings are a fantastic time to watch nature wake up with the chorus of the birds in the background.

A little hare came by for a breakfast of herbs and flowers. And a colorful Admiral butterfly made itself comfortable on Big Paul’s roof to sunbathe a little bit.

Some of the creatures had a less peaceful start of the day. On the lakeside, two huge grey herons were fighting for a nesting tree. What a spectacular show!

Obviously, one was the „owner“, the other an offender. So, they jumped into the battle, one in hot pursuit of the other, to and fro all the time.

In one second, they sky-rocketed in a steep curve, just to take an abrupt nose-dive again, shrieking and cawing and flapping their wings at each other.

I did my best to catch up with them with my camera at the risk of totally blurring the shots. Moments like this make you love your digital camera – you can take loads of photos and have a good chance that one of the shots will do.

The herons‘ battle reminded me of the old saying: „Nobody can live in peace if the nasty neighbour doesn’t like it.“

Well, we keep avoiding „neighbors“ and go, where the „normal campers“ don’t go.

That’s it for now. More to come.

Be well and if you like share this post and

When you think you are done …

EW July 14, 2024

… something comes up.

Last week I installed a power station in Big Paul. And – lo and behold – it needed ventilation where I did not plan for it.

So, I had to make some adjustments as you can see on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2kQReQeMISM

Minor Fixes

As the oil change was due, I had the mechanic also change the worn out hinge at the driver side.

Okay, it’s not painted, yet. That’ll be a job for later.

Imagine 14 years of postal service. Every day only a few yards drive, then door open door closed to deliver the mail. I figured the door was used at least half a million times.

With the new hinge, the door fits again smoothly into its frame as you can see at the fuel door.

Well, yes. There is still a lot of rust. I’ll take care of that after our trip.

That’s it for now. More to come.

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A Solopreneur’s Learning from a Soccer Game gone wrong

GEF July 14, 2024

Woohoo – the European Soccer Championship 2024 in our country will end with the great finale in Berlin tonight.

Tomorrow, the jolly and good-tempered international league of fans will pack their bags and we can go back to normal.

Drama, Baby, Drama

Yes, I feel sorry for the German team that didn`t survive the round of 16. They performed great in the group stage of the tournament.

But in the first match of the knock out round they narrowly lost against the Spanish team „at a flip of the coin“, as international commentators said. Tough luck!

A comforting thought for the German team: They lost against one of the finalists – and maybe the next European champion.

Anyway, it was great entertainment all the way through: “There was incredible drama right to the end, you could not take your eyes off it“, another commentator said.

Both teams met on eye level, but the exciting all-or-nothing contest not only created nail-biting suspense. It also revealed strengths as well as weaknesses of the players in a very obvious way.

Business is business, with or without a ball

The dramatic match made the whole stadium vibrate. Watching it all the way through, I realized it was a practical example and an object lesson for what really matters, if you want to successfully run your business and achieve your goals.

In Europe, soccer is big business. It’s all about stardom and money. Tons of money.

The deciding factor for clubs and players is the success curve in important tournaments. You have to be top-notch, make the media and please your audience with spirit, effort and drama not only once, but all the time, if you want to get a substantial piece of the pie.

Losses and defeats are part of the game, but the fans want to see their heros stand up again, dust themselves off and jump into the next competition.
As a famous German soccer coach once said: „After the game is before the game.“

The obvious lesson

As a solopreneur, you may not be known to the broader public and rarely move billions of Euros or Dollars around. But the principle is true for you as well:

Be „famous and loved“ by your target group or in your special little business bubble, be visible and approachable for your clients, create magic moments for them and get paid for your special, valuable impact, not for your working hours.

Another important factor for you as the captain is staying in control. And when you perform, you need the right mix of individual skill and clever, effective and loyal teamwork.

When the German soccer team met the Spanish, it was abvious they had the skill and the will. But they lacked precision. The Spanish, in contrast, had a kind of „somnambulistic“ perfection in their team play.

When passing the ball, no matter what situation, the sender almost always reached the right recipient in the right way, which made their offensive extremely effective and „dangerous“.

Their problem, however, was the finish. A lot of opportunities, most of them clearly missed. But in the end, Lady Luck was on their side. They scored the winning goal literally at the last minute.

Being a solopreneur, you will also depend on luck every once in a while. However, it will shine on you more often, when you got your fundament right.

As the Roman philosopher Seneca put it: Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.

That’s it for now. More to come.

Be well and if you like share this post and