337-365/365: I am done

So yes.. I just looked at my last post where I said twenty days to go and counted the new things I have done since. I came to a grand total that was over twenty. So I think it safe to say that I managed to do the 365 days.

You won't believe how much I look forward to tonight and not to have to think about that I still manage to fit something new in. Yes at times it really felt more like a chore. But if you would ask me if I would do it again, I would say yes.

In general I did a lot more food/drink tasting than I had planned or actually wanted to do. I always tried to fit something exciting in, but some days I couldn't because I was sick, sometimes I couldn't because I was too busy with life and sometimes I just couldn't be arsed. Could I have done more exciting things? Yes, but I am happy with how the year turned out.

I tried many many new things and I think it has changed how I live my day to day life. I especially notice it when I go to the supermarket. Before the project I had a routine where I would pick from a pool of about 30-40 products. Now I often go for something I have never had, even if I already had something new for that day. I really got into trying new things. Sometimes they are not as good as I hoped but sometimes I discover a gem and I go back and get some more.

I also like to think that I had experiences that I wouldn't have had without this project. For instance I am not sure if I would have ever went to a F1 race if the project hadn't motivated me. But most of all, I am happy because I met so many nice people over the last year. Especially with all the Couchsurfing events I organized, I got to know so many new friends that I wouldn't want to miss.

As already written for past milestonest, I think I have gotten a lot more spontaneous. In the past, if offered something unknown I would hesitate, and if that happened, more often than not I wouldn't do / try it. Now I say "yes" a lot more. I think it makes my life richer. I still have couch potato tendency but a lot less so than before. Getting out of one's comfort zone every now and then is great but it is called the comfort zone for a reason. It's comfortable there.. sometimes you just want to be comfy.

Even if this adventure is over, I still have other projects to finish. Still a year to go for my masters and I am still hiking across Switzerland.. got a few miles to go there. I don't think I will get bored anytime soon. If that happens. I will start looking for a new project.. so maybe the blog is back on soon.. for now, I will let it rest...

Thank you all for taking the time to come here and share the experiences with me.

Signing out.
Simon

336/365: Twenty Days left

Nothing exciting with twenty days to go.

I got a different variation of the green tea I had a few days ago and a salad that was labeled "new". Hey if they label it like that, how can I not count it towards my goal?

I liked the green tea but to be honest, I think the only difference is in the smell. It tasted exactly like the other one.

335/365; A Barrel Of Beer

This time the beer was not for me, neither did I taste it.

There is a little story behind this one.
One of our customers reported a problem in march 2013. After much blood and sweat we were still not able to solve it. Whenever I saw the ticket in my list I would cringe. Seriously, we tried everything. We even had external specialists come in for it.

Then about a month ago we hired a new guy in our ICT. He is a specialist in the field where we thought the problem originated from. We asked him to look into it. Soon afterwards he told me that he might have a solution. I was surprised but didn't rejoice yet. Many had thought they knew the solution and failed.

So I told him, if he really solved the problem, I would not get him a beer but a whole barrel... well, he solved the problem. I kept my promise and got him a barrel of beer. So that's how I came around to buy my first barrel of beer.

334/365: Beachcenter Bern

Volleyball...

..I didn't play it. I just went to drink beer.
We went to the beachcenter here in Bern for a department event. Most of the department went earlier and actually played some volleyball. I stayed behind because somebody needed to babysit the telefon till the office hours ended.

Still the location is really cool. It is especially good for events like we had it. There are indoor and outdoor courts so you can go in any weather.

333/365: Batanun Knäcke

Omnomnom

I bought some Knäcke (bread). I have no idea if there is a name for it in english and since this blogge probably only gets read by my mom, I am too lazy to look it up. Anyhow, first time I bought it. It was really good decision too because it was surprisingly tasty. It went really well with the salad I was having.

332/365: Kyoko Japanese Green Tea

This is my kind of green tea.

Chilled, unsweetened, just great. I saw this one for the first time this passed Monday so I went for it and I don't regret the decision.

331/365: Grizzlies Bern

The time of year without NFL is tough.

So to help me through that time I went to see a home game of the Bern Grizzlies. As it happens, they are really good this year. They are NR. 1 in standings after four games. Of course this was a very different experience to two games I saw at Wembley last autumn but it was still a fun experience. 

My guess is, there were about 120-150 people attending the game. 

330/365: Not Getting Fined

Oh the luck.

I was sitting in the train home from school and my ticket got checked. I gave it to the guy thinking nothing of it. He looks at the ticket, looks at me, looks at the ticket again and then starts to clear his throat. He shows me the ticket and I realize it is not what I needed. Funnily enough, I had bought it at the machine like always when I go to school. I could have sworn I entered everything correct. I must have been bloody tired.

Anyway, he then proceeded to give me a ticket so that I had payed just what I would have needed to pay if I had gotten the correct ticket. I was taken aback because I was counting on a fine and I couldn't blame anyone but me. I have never had to not pay a fine when it was in order. Phew, lucky me. I must have looked good that day ;)

329/365: Kauffmann Butcher

Going all out right now.

I went to Kauffmann Butcher for the first time. In general it has been a while since I have been to a proper butcher. I usually go to a grocery shop and might go to the butcher that they have. Anyhow.. the meat was good. I will give them my business again.

328/365: Nestea Green Tea; Peach

A cheap and easy one

I had a Nestea Green Tea; Peach.  A bit too sweet for me to be honest. I like my green tea cold but without sugar.

to be honest, I am getting pretty sick of this blogging. I am looking forward to the end of the project :)

327/365: Anchor Steam Beer

Can't stop me now.

More beer, guess I will not change much before the project is done. The Anchor Steam Beer is another good entry into the micro brewery scene from america. Never shall I think again about beers like Budweiser when I think about America. This little beauty is from Frisco and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

326/365: All Out

I am running out of ideas, I admit it.

But then, I am at day 326. Can you rally blame me? Sometimes it is hard to believe a whole year will be done already. For this day I had dried strawberries, a new type of protein shake, bought a salad at a place where I had never bought one and tried a BBQ bread. Don't ask me what in the bread makes it a BBQ bread.

It all tasted pretty good I have to say. I am a fan of the dried strawberries. Such a great idea. Awesome for cereal, ice cream or just pop em in the mouth like that (it's what I did). Perfect light, healthy snack while lounging on the couch after a tough workout.

325/365: Moritz Aka More Beer

Another beer.

Seriously though, I could do this forever. My guess is, I could have tried a new beer every day for my project and not once would have had to drink the same beer twice. I am pretty sure though I would be fat new. 130 calories a bottle.. not good my friends.. nooot good.

The beer itself was unremarkable. I think it's Portuguese or something. One could think differently when seeing the name but I shit you not.

324/365: Beertasting; GPA Global Pale Ale

Beer!


And then some more beer. I had a GPA. It means Global Pale Ale. I am not writing more about this beer because it was just another beer. Deal with it.

323/365: Fireside Gathering @ Eevent Lan

I went to a LAN party.. it's been a long while since the last time.

A LAN party is something from my past. You get a bunch of people together. They all bring their computer and you waste the weekend away with binge gaming. Back when I went to a number of these events, another reason was to exchange movies and music (the internet was really slow back then) but I guess that is not a incentive anymore. 

It was cool to go but felt a bit weird. Maybe I just have to admit that I am too old. Then again, I have to admit that I wasn't there for the whole weekend. I only went for the Saturday and I only brought my Ipad. The LAN Party also featured a little Fireside Gathering and that was the reason I went. 

A Fireside Gathering is a little thing Blizzard invented for Hearthstone players. If you play a few games against players in the local sub-net, you get a special card back for your deck. Since I had just started playing Hearthstone a week prior to this event, it sound like a great idea to go. 

I was not wrong. It was great. There were around 12-14 people there that came just for the Fireside Gathering. It was cool to play against someone that was sitting at the same table.

They also organized a small tournament. I signed up of course, might as well if I am there anyway. I won one game of my first BO3 series aaaaand the tournament was over for me. Still, I felt good that I had actually managed to win a game. As I said, I had just started playing the game and had many things still learn, still have in fact. 

The whole thing was organized by Barcraft (look them up on Facebook) and I hope they will do something similar again sometime soon. I would really like to do it again. Maybe win more than one game.. 

322/365: Beertasting, "The End Of The World" Edition

No really, it was the end of the world..


.. that is the name of the beer. Well to be exact, it is in french; "La Fin Du Monde". Quite a strong beer it was with 9%. I liked it quite a lot but probably wouldn't drink two during a normal week day. One of them is quite enough.

319-321/365; Ooopsy

I messed up

Just the other day I spent some time cleaning up pictures from my phone. Mainly food/drinks pictures that made it on the blog in the last 320 or so days. From the looks of it, I was a little overzealous. I had a copy of the pictures on my work laptop but since it needed a fresh reset too, well those were gone as well. 

This leaves me with the situation that I don't have pictures for days 319-321 and since I am about two weeks late with posting, I have no idea what I did for those days. Still, I make the rules and I decided that they will still count. I am 100% sure that I did or tried something new, I just don't have proof or any recollection of it... 

So this post will have to do for the days 22.04. to 24.04.2014. 

318/365: Strawberry Fanta

It was an interesting day.

Yes I did try a strawberry Fanta and I liked it

But also this went on outside my apartment:

Never a dull moment in Bern.

317/365: Beertasting; Juniper Pale Ale, Rogue

It was a Hearthstone, mom is coming for a visit day.

So I went the beer way again. The beer way is always a good way.
I really liked this one. It is another american craft beer.

316/365: Smelly Cheese

You know what they say, the smellier the cheese, the tastier it is.

This is very true my friends. Also if it is so runny it is more like a liquid, it's also a good sign. I had this cheese for the first time the other day and it was really good.

315/365: Hearthstone

Damn you addiction.

On green thursday, the day before easter friday I made the mistake to download Hearthstone for the ipad. What is Hearthstone? It is a trading card game from Blizzard. Oh boy is it addictive. I am realllly bad at it bad I have been playing it whenever I found time over the last two weeks. I think I spent 3/4 of the time over easter playing the darn game. I only stopped when I had guests over (luckily quite often during those days).

It is easily the best game for the ipad and really a lot of fun to play. I like the fact that a game usually takes around 15min. So it can be played even if you don't have a lot of time on your hands.

You can buy card packs for real money but you don't really need to. You can buy packs with ingame gold. You have to be prepared to grind a long time to get the necessary gold though. You can get gold through three wins (10), daily quests (40-100) or playing in the arena mode. If you want to get anything worthwhile from the arena though you need to win at least 5-6 games.. I am not yet able to do that. You have to win a few since it costs 150 gold to just play in the arena. So when one pack of cards costs 100 gold, you can see that it can take quite some time to get them.

It has to be said though that you can win in the game even without spending any money on it. It is easier if you do spend money but many streamers have demonstrated that you can do really good with "free decks".
So far I think I spend 6.- on the game. I am trying to not spend more but hey, if you enjoy your time with it and spend many hours on it, why not invest some money in it?

I can really recommend you pick it up. It is also available for PC and MAC. Here is a little video from a guy playing it for the first time. Really gives a good introduction:

314/365: Piri Piri Hot Sauce

Another one of those; "let's just go to the foreign food section and grab something".

It looked like something spicy so something I would like. So I grabbed it. It is a "Piri Piri" hot sauce. I generally like it but it is a little too salty for my taste. Actually now that I think about it, it is very similar to Sambal Oelek just different in the consistency.

313/365: Dar Vida; Chocolate Au Lait

Chocolate and full grain?

A dream come true! I can have chocolate and still feel like I am doing something healthy. Now where did I put the final two??

312/365: New Migros

The title is a lie (so is the cake).

The Migros I went to on that day is not actually new. It was just the first time I went to that one. Going to a new grocery shop, even if it is from the same chain you are used to, is scary. Everything is a different place. The arrangement makes no sense. Why is everybody staring at me? You know the feeling.

After I found, more or less, what I wanted. I found the exit and was able to leave.

311/365: Lemonaid

More drinking. Drinking is good.

I had a Lemonaid. It is a lemonade (who would have thought so?) that claims to help people or stuff, or both if you buy it. I am always for helping other people so I bought and drank it. I felt refreshed afterwards.

310/356: Bad Taste Party

Wow, 40 days left. That is just a little over a month to go.

This is what happens when you don't post for a while. You forget that you actually did something on that day and go ahead to talk about the "safety" new thing you did that day. Yes that is actually a thing.

My first time to go to a bad taste party. I was hard pressed to find something to dress to the occasion. I had ordered something very cool but it didn't arrive on time so I had to improvise. I just tried to dress in as many bright colours and humanly possible. Have a taste:

Oh and the thing I ordered, I will wear it to go to the Gurten festival. But that will be after those forty days, which sucks for you.

309/356: Mississippi Mud

Another poker night.

And what does poker involve? Well beside lots of cursing, losing money and fun, usually alcohol of some typ. Let me tell you though, a large beer like the Mississippi does not help your decisions at all. It was good though and I had a fun evening. What else do you want?

Winning is overrated anyhow.

308/356: Gatorade

Damn it, damn it, damn it all. I am so far behind with posting it's not even funny.

I was very close to just giving up on posting. Just the posting though. No way I am giving up the project so close to the end. Buuuut then I thought better off it.. mainly because, without the blog I have no idea where I am with the days.

So here it is, the post from, well, 14 days ago? I shall see as I get closer to yesterday's new thing.
I had a Gatorade to keep me hydrated during workout. The waterboy would not approve.

307/356: Skate Wheels And Ball Bearings

New and old stuff.

I have had this skateboard for ten years now. I used to use it a lot but in the last few years, especially since I moved to Bern, it didn't see much use. I then came up with the idea of using it for one of my firsts (more on that later). Before I could consider using it though I knew that I had to get new wheels and ball bearings.

This is the first time I got these things for my skate and god was it a good decision. the wheels are much better than that last one's and I guess I don't have to tell you what wonders new ball bearings can do. Such a great experience to ride it now.

306/356: Börek

New food!

I have been to a Döner Kebap on my occasions. Most places over something else than just kebab's and falafel. Those always seem a bit dodgy though. I get this impression that everything else on the menue is there for ages because everybody just takes a Kebap. So I never tried anything else they have even though I would have liked to.

A few days ago I took the plunge and got a Börek. I have to admit it was really good decision because the Börek was delicious. Maybe a little oily if I want to be picky but beside that nothing I can complain about. I got it cold and just put it in the oven for a few minutes. I will definitely get another Börek sometime soon.

305/356: Beertasting; Früh; Kölsch

Yes! Beer!

I went for, what I suppose is, a german beer. I really liked it but there is nothing special to say about it. I am all out on beer talk.

304/356: Belvoir Cranberry Pressé

Right, another drink.

I have to admit I am coming to a point where I am looking forward to end this year. There are just over 50 days to go and I kind of lack the energy to look for something great to do every day. I think the issue is not that I don't want to do something exciting but that it is really hard with day to day stuff going on.

So on this day, again I just tried something new to drink. It was a Belvoir Cranberry Pressé or from what I understand, a Cranberry Soda. It was only slightly sweet though. I really liked that fact. I also liked the design of the bottle.

303/356: Somersby Apple Cider

Another cider

Instead of beer I opted to go for cider one more time. I was a little disappointed the last time I tried one. This one was more what I would expect from a cider. Still it tasted a little weird. Maybe, in my old age, I have finally come to like the taste of beer. Miracles do happen I hear.

302/356: Mini Doughnuts

I had mini doughnuts. Nuff said.

301/356: Ricola Blackcurrant

I feel so swiss for doing this one.

Ricola is worldwide recognized as a very swiss brand. I had their Blackcurrant cough pastilles for the first time. They are tasty and moderately good against the cough.

300/356: Food Variations

A combination of three variations makes one new thing in my book. 

I had three things for dinner that I have had before... many times actually.. but since they were all variations/brands that I didn't have before I conclude that this equals at least one first. 

And yes, they were all very good. 

299/356: Another Secret

Psst don't tell anyone.

This is the second time within 299 days that I have done something that I won't talk about. The post is here to let you know that I didn't forget it. This new thing was too personal to post about on the internet though. And yes, even if you contact me in private, I won't tell you ;).

298/356: Black Sesame Dressing And Falafel By Blini

Ignore the beer in the picture.

On this day I had the black sesame salad dressing and the falafel by Blini. Both variations of stuff I have had plenty of times in my life so nothing exciting to report. For this reason I won't linger with this post and move on.