BitsOfMyMind

July 24, 2017July 24, 2017

D’Europe vers l’Asie Centrale – Introduction

L’heure du grand départ a encore sonné, cette fois-ci pour 9 mois; le plus long de mes voyages entrepris à ce jour. Mon périple en Amérique Centrale avait duré quatre mois et demi, celui en Asie 5 mois et demi. Là, on passera la barre du 6 mois pour se rendre à 9 avec possibilités d’extension. Le moment ne pourrait pas être plus parfait, Audrey est entre deux emplois et mes études en médecine me permettent une pause (dûment méritée pour avoir fait le programme en deux ans plutôt que trois, je laisse donc mes collègues me rattraper).

L’objectif en somme est d’acheter une voiture en France, d’y passer deux semaines pour visiter le coin de Toulouse et passer du temps avec mon ancien associé et ami, puis de prendre la route vers l’Asie Centrale en passant un peu de temps dans tous les pays traversés (incluant la Russie). Ceci- fait, nous vendrons la voiture au Kyrgyzstan et poursuivront en transport en commun au travers du Turkménistan pour traverser la mer Caspienne jusqu’en Azerbaïdjan. De là, nous prendrons l’avion vers le Népal puis l’Inde, deuxième partie du voyage, où nous passerons 4 mois (une introduction viendra en temps et lieu). Pour cette partie, il n’y a pas encore de plans concrets, ce qui occupe notre esprit pour le moment, c’est le trajet jusqu’au coeur de l’Asie dont la logistique est plutôt complexe : l’achat du véhicule, les papiers, les assurances, les visas, l’équipement, etc. Justement, je quitte le Canada quelques jours avant Audrey pour m’occuper de la plupart de ces procédures.

Pour ce qui est de la voiture, les recherches avaient été entamées bien avant de quitter le Québec. L’idéal pour le type de voyage que nous voulons entreprendre est un 4×4, cela va de soi, mais le marché automobile en France n’est pas ce qu’il est chez nous, et ce type de véhicule est plutôt rare et coûteux. Il sera aussi probable que nous fassions affaire avec un concessionnaire, histoire de profiter de la garantie légale de trois mois et donc d’un minimum d’assurance de fiabilité. Autrement, les critères de sélection seront les suivants :

une marque allemande ou asiatique, car les autres européennes ne que peu représentées en Asie Centrale (confirmé lors de recherches sur le site de vente de véhicule usagé kirghize, cars.kg)
une familiale, pour pouvoir coucher à l’intérieur et/ou avoir suffisamment d’espace pour tous notre équipement.
préférablement ne pas dépasser les 2000 euros, car si la voiture brise au milieu ne nulle part, elle y restera probablement
à essence, car le diesel est de mauvaise qualité en Asie Centrale
avec une bonne garde au sol
économe, car l’essence est très cher en Europe

Idéalement, le départ de France devra se faire le 16 juillet, afin de pouvoir rentrer dans notre visa Russe, qui est à date fixe et d’une durée de 1 mois (août). Après le départ, nous irons rejoindre la mère d’Audrey à Florence en Italie pour partager avec elle notre trajet au travers des Balkans, puis deux semaines plus tard nous la quitteront pour poursuivre notre trajet.

Le plan est audacieux…

July 21, 2017July 29, 2017

The Canary islands

I visited those last march along with my girlfriend’s family. School prevented me from taking part in the whole two week trip, but during my stay, we visited the two main islands, Gran Canaria and Tenerife. Much of the days were spent touring around in rented vehicles to see the sights, which were mainly pretty villages, vistas and geological formations. Between this very busy schedule, I still managed to fit in a morning of diving with my brother in law.

In some respect, the Canaries are sort of the Fort Lauderdale of Europe: pleasant weather year-round, resorts, beaches and the kind of crowd that comes with it. The comparison ends there, the Canaries are much more varied and interesting in landscapes (I’ve never been to Fort Lauderdale, but according to my sources, Florida is flat…) and more importantly, they are in Spain, which equates to history, food and culture. Tenerife and Gran Canaria are both home to two large cities of the sort found in mainland Europe. Regrettably, we spend too little time visiting those, especially that some in the group had never experienced the old continent, but that’s just my opinion. Luckily enough though, some of us were brave enough to stay out on the first night and take par in Gran Canaria’s carnival.

On the whole, I can’t really complain. An all-expenses-paid trip to such a nice destination was a very much welcomed break from the winter.

The streets of San Cristobal de la Laguna

Snow storm in Quebec city later in the week, quite a contrast…

July 19, 2017July 29, 2017

Laminated plywood desk

For a long time I had dreamed of the perfect desk and finally last summer I got around to actually building it. Having come across pieces of furniture made from laminated birch plywood grain-side up, I opted to use that technique for the desk rather than making it from solid planks. Using leftovers, I also built a liquor cabinet in much the same fashion.

The surface features inserts of walnut, apple and padauk and the beams are held together by compression using threaded rods. Adjoining the desk is a side table also built using plywood but this time held together using glue. The side table has been made hollow to accommodate some computer parts in a fashion similar to that coffee table I built some years ago. To manage all the cabling, I simply reused a system I had put together for my first desk.

Now for the actual experience of making that projet into reality, it was much much more difficult that originally expected and ended up taking a lot more time. The surface of the desk is actually assembled using beams composed of three planks of plywood screwed together and then planed. Thinking that the beam would sit square once assembled by alternating the saw cuts to offset any errors, I omitted to joint the beams before planing them. In the end they didn’t and I ended up with many crooked beams and a wavy desk surface.

Plywood is not very rigid, that I was aware of, but it’s also quite compressible. In the end, my desk was not thick enough to account for that so once assembled and taught by the threaded rods, it would start bowing after a while. I managed to make the surface sort of straight using shims, but it’s still far from perfect. I’m also not exactly satisfied with the look of the legs, so I plan to revisit this project in the future to build metal legs and a frame to straighten it out.

In spite of all the challenges of building this desk, I’m still very happy with the way it came together. I don’t think I’ll be reusing plywood again for woodworking projets, but I certainly gained a lot from the experience.

July 19, 2017July 29, 2017

Liquor cabinet

Or rather a liquor table. It was built entirely using laminated baltic birch plywood with walnut, apple and padauk inserts. All the layers of plywood are grain-side up and held together using threaded rod. The table features its own lighting system for a spectacular effect at night.

The projet was meant to match my computer desk and was put together using leftovers from its big brother.

July 10, 2017July 29, 2017

The hook multiplier, another small project made from apple wood

For a while now, I’ve had a stockpile of apple tree wood from a tree we felled a couple of years ago. Normally, thinking of woodworking projects isn’t too difficult, but this particular essence of wood is unfit for most projects but the smaller ones (for example, wine bottle stands). However, what it lacks in workability it makes up in beauty. Some pieces are rather drab, but others, especially the ones that have been damaged by pest and water, can be spectacular.

A simple idea came to me upon seeing my girlfriend’s clotheshook overly crowed with scarves and coats. By expanding one hook into a column of smaller vertical hooks, we’d be able to free up some space.

Here’s what it turned into. The whole project took about an hour an half and I was able to put to use the most crooked but most visually appealing plank of apple tree wood (excuse the bad pictures, I could not get proper lighting).