Mik's (H)ob(by)session: 2013

Saturday, 28 December 2013

The best PR...

'fortuna est momentum quo occasionem convenit talentum'

So, preparation meets opportunity.

Well, who cares? I do care (unless there is any doubt about this in the audience).

So, one son of Imre Simon contacts me for a meeting appointment in Vienna.

He will come with his brother.

So.

For those of you who are ever going to meet family members of coffee machine manufacturers,

bring with you:

_ pen and paper,

_ a voice-recorder (with new batteries... i brought once one with empty batteries, funnily enough, during our first meeting with Mr. Simon's son, and it wasn't of much help. I can't thank enough the curator of the museum for giving me batteries on that day!),

_ a camera,

_ documents about the business,

_ artefacts... for me on this, day: 2 old coffee machines (and my wife asked why was i going out with a cabin-luggage to go to town),

_ questions... but be aware that in the most cases, you will be listening, not talking and most of the questions will have to wait.

Greetings, small talk, looking for a coffee... i spare you the details.

I pull a coffee machine out of my "luggage".

The eldest son takes it in his hand, inspects it and says: "It's as old as me".

And the younger son adds: "yeah, there is a picture of you as a baby with it!".

I felt like this picture needed introduction.

Enjoy!

Welcome to room 402!

I had this picture - that i wanted to show you some time ago - in mind about every time i went in or out of our hotel room.

But first, here are the door and key photos of our holiday room:

And here the picture i had in mind:

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

21.08.09 at 05:57 CET - AU $1.225,00

This is the auction result for a coffee machine

"La Sorrentina" (S.T.E.M.A.C. - Alfredo Robbiati, Milan).

Believe it or not:

One thousand two hundred and twenty five australian dollars.

4 years ago.

4 years later, for a unit price of 100 euro (AU$150),

you can afford either:

One Jug for a Robbiati Model A:

One rare sugar bowl for a Sassoon coffee machine:

One Stella Model 104:

Or...

Alfredo Robbiati's "La Sorrentina":

...and in 4 years?

Saturday, 7 December 2013

La dolce vita... alla milanese!

I am lacking words.

The emotion is too deep, including the feeling of having pushed the boundaries, of having done my best and tried everything in my power to research this fascinating history.

To give you a taste of what i live to see: here are the last words of my conversation in person with the daughter of Giordano Robbiati:

"Go away, Go away! Or else i call the police!"