Handpresso: The Only Thing Better Than A Passenger

Once in a while when a new product makes an appearance and your first reaction is, “It makes perfect sense” it usually takes someone with great vision and passion to make it happen. In the good old days, even today, the only way to have freshly brewed hot coffee on-to-go is to either stop by a cafe or keep coffee in a thermal flask. Handpresso uses coffee capsules and you all know I’m no stranger to espresso coffee capsules. One time, I even concocted setting up my Caffe Tiziano machine in the car and power it via an inverter — not unthinkable and the only reason I haven’t pursued it is lack of passion unlike the folks at Handpresso.

Visit Handpresso for more information on their innovative portable espresso

A revolutionary machine preparing a premium quality espresso in the car! Handpresso Auto helps you optimize your coffee break wherever you are.

The man behind the vision and passion is late Henrik Jul Nielsen and Handpresso says this about their visionary founder, “We owe the Handpresso story to Henrik Jul Nielsen. Being a big espresso lover, it was on one of his many trips that Henrik invented the portable espresso. Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s quotation “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”, it was Henrik and his R&D team that made the small portable espresso machines see the light of day. Henrik was a visionary, an innovation fan, full of ideas on how to improve daily life, but left us all too quickly. The Handpresso story will live on with his team in France and internationally.”

Simple and easy to use, Handpresso Auto can be placed in the cup holder. Just plug the espresso machine into the 12V cigarette lighter, add water and a E.S.E. coffee pod of your choice. Then press the button, wait for the 3 beeps and the espresso is ready!

Photos © Design Nielsen Innovation with permission from Handspresso

EARTH HOUR 2010 BRUNEI DARUSSALAM

Throughout this school holiday, more electricity are used because more computers are switched on and they stay powered a lot longer than usual. So on Earth Hour morning, my wife and I had periodically reminded the kids that we’d be showing our support for Earth Hour knowing that their nightly online indulgence would be interrupted but for a good cause. My wife accompanied me to the location where I had chosen—Brunei Shell Petroleum’s Oil and Gas Discovery Centre (OGDC). I figured that it would be highly symbolic and relevant to showcase the country’s largest and most significant energy and petrochemicals company’s support for Earth Hour and its commitment to environmental conservation. Joining us at OGDC were two other photographers Azri and Gavin who also showed their support for this global cause along with the larger community turnout at the official Earth Hour Brunei landmark (Hi, Maurina!)

Lights go off at Kampong Ayer | Sultanate’s participation ‘Special and Inspiring’ | Which Brunei icon will ‘shine’ on Earth Hour | In tune with Earth Hour ‘Experience’ | Earth Hour is just the first step

EARTH HOUR Official 2010 video

Earth Hour 2010 Brunei Darussalam Oil & Gas Discovery Centre

As torch bearer (yes, I was the only one who brought a torch light) I learned that in life we have to sometimes step out of the box to make a difference (it’s easier to stay home and not bother) even if it’s a very small one. The Earth Hour initiative is about the collective efforts of countless individuals across continents on planet earth and sometimes we have to do the opposite to do what’s right—politically and socially—such as writing the words “Earth Hour” backwards. Like most challenges in life, it took a few tries to get it nearly right!

Azri had me in bulb mode as I wrote the texts in reverse using my multi-coloured LED torch light.

One of a number of earlier 'writing with light' attempts captured by Gavin after power had resumed.

When we got home, we were grateful to have learnt that not only the kids turned off the computers and non-essential lights in the house, they had done so fifteen minutes earlier and had decided not to turn them back on having found non-electrically powered entertainment to pass time. It also helps to have the kids educated from an early age about wastage such as food and electricity.