Mostrar mensagens com a etiqueta Playing the Tesla-wife. Mostrar todas as mensagens
Mostrar mensagens com a etiqueta Playing the Tesla-wife. Mostrar todas as mensagens

segunda-feira, 25 de setembro de 2017

EV Mobility in Arruda dos Vinhos

This post could look like one of John Oliver's Last Week Tonight episodes. It isn't but, just like in Oliver's case, it's about a last week event: the Tesla-Aficionado's performance at the beautiful Garden Room (Sala Jardim) at the Morgado Cultural Center in Arruda dos Vinhos. In celebration of the European Mobility Week, the Aficionado was invited to give a talk on the advantages of going electric and about his/our experience while transitioning from one mobility paradigm to a new one. From the screen the electric-mobility-Geek showed (based on our TV moment, you can check it here), you can see I played no mean part in the whole scenario (and scenario is quite the apt word).
It was a really great evening and I was positively surprised at the interest this subject seems to be raising. Lots of questions from the audience left us in convivial discussion and, before we knew it, it was well past midnight.
I would like to thank Arruda's Municipality for organizing this get-together and for the warm welcome: our Mayor André Rijo, the City Council Representative Mário Anágua, the Cultural Planning Coordinator Ana Correia and all those involved in the organization and promotion of this event. Last but not least, our thank you to all the people who gave their time and shared their interest by joining us on a fine September evening.

sábado, 3 de setembro de 2016

Day 2: Test driving the Model X

I thought it was going to be just five minutes for a couple of pictures at the Houston-North Tesla store where we had been last last year, right? Wrong! Turned out the store opened some minutes after we arrived at the scene. Turned out the nice, wonderful Susan MacHenry was there and remembered us (I mean, how often to you get to meet a Tesla-obsessed geek from Portugal?). Turned out she proposed test driving the Model X. You don't have to say that twice to the Tesla-obsessed geek from Portugal!
Before I knew it, I was standing under the (in)famous falcon wings of the Model X (boy, are they huge!) and the Tesla-obsessed geek from Portugal was in for a joyride! O joy!
To find out more about what's it like to cruise a Model X (and have the tech lingo to go along), please visit here, and here. I'm just the Tesla-wife not the Tesla-geeky-expert.

quinta-feira, 1 de setembro de 2016

Day 2: Where in Houston?!

Ok, it kinda made sense: last year we ended our all-American roadtrip at the Houston-North Tesla Store and you may guess I conceded in going there (again) as a kickstart to this year's trip. It was Sunday and we got there real early. I was safe, I thought. The store would be closed, there would be no one around. It was just a picture for the records and we'd be gone in a nick of time. Easy, hum?
Not quite...
We did take the (our) usual pictures. I even managed to take his photo right between the ICE we were driving and a white Model S that was charging and that looks like his. It was all going great for me and I already anticipated the wide open road, the deserts and all the Tesla-free places we were going this year.
It was all going smooth (for me). Too smooth...

sábado, 20 de agosto de 2016

Our 7th

In the midst of packing for yet another stretch of our US coast-to-coast, we decided to commemorate our 7th anniversary (time flies, sheesh!) and Tesla-drive we went to a nice, little restaurant in an old palace in the village where we live.
Inevitably, conversation ended in the usual:
"Would you believe we'd be here seven years later?"
However, this year there was a twist to the also usual:
"No, I wouldn't but I'm so glad we're here."
The twist was, as it had to be on a year so obsessed by Tesla (and no this is not a Tesla Motors sponsored blog):
"No, I wouldn't and neither would I imagine we'd be making conversations about Tesla all the time..."
Cheers, mate! You know I love you even when and if you talk Tesla to me.

sexta-feira, 13 de maio de 2016

Elon Musk Twitted OK

So, it seems Elon Musk twitted a caps block "OK" to the Portuguese Tesla enthusiasts asking for a Tesla Service Center. I say: Alright, let's wait and see...

quarta-feira, 11 de maio de 2016

Truth be said

When I arrived at the Tesla Model S gathering last sunday, everybody was already there (I mean, there's only so much Tesla a Tesla-wife can take at a time). Never, ever had I seen so many Model Ss together. Never, ever had I seen such Tesla enthusiasm.
It was as windy as windy goes (and chillier than my comfort zone allows, which did not deter those Tesla enthusiasts from sharing their enthusiasm). And when I left they still remained happily doing whatever Tesla enthusiasts do which is basically a work of preaching to the Gentiles the Gospel of the new world of electric mobility. Of course, my Tesla-husband stayed...

domingo, 8 de maio de 2016

To Mr. Elon Musk, CEO at Tesla Motors

Dear Mr. Elon Musk,

Our numbers are swelling here in Portugal. Still, we are a Tesla no-zone. Today, coincidently the 90th birthday of that stellar guru of naturalism, Sir David Attenborough, we gathered to call for your attention. We wish for inclusion. By this we mean, we need a Tesla Service Center since the nearest is 1,200kms (745mi) far from us.
I am a Tesla-wife among many, a Tesla-wife whose husband fulfilled a dream when acquiring his Model S. However, without a Service Center, the promised Tesla superchargers to ease our mobility and a Tesla Store this is a kind of bitter-sweet fulfilment (you can see him doing his best to get the picture right so you understand our polite request).
Five hundred years ago, Portuguese caravels set sail from this spot to discover the unknown lands beyond the horizon. We too wish to embark on the journey represented by the dawn of a new era when mobility is powered by electricity. Do help us reach the horizon. Thank you.

quarta-feira, 20 de abril de 2016

What happens when I say "Stop!"

It takes one good dose of nerves of steel to be a Tesla-wife. Mid-way on a Saturday drive around the country and I say: "Stop! What lovely scenery". By "lovely" I, of course, imply the lush greenery of the valleys and hills that we watch from a vantage point on a winding road in a high slope. what follows is superbly illustrated below. Keep scrolling down.
 Wind turbines, a Tesla-wife and the Tesla.
Wind turbines, a Tesla-wife and the Tesla.
Wind turbines, a Tesla-wife, no Tesla and a tiny bit of scenery.
Wind turbines, a Tesla-wife, a fragment of the Tesla and some scenery. I sometimes forget that in the scenery versus geek battle, geek gets the upper hand... So much to look at and it's the wind turbines that catch his gaze (those and the Tesla).

sexta-feira, 15 de abril de 2016

Arriving in Texas

It is big. It is huge. It is beyond hot when we arrive. My brains seem to melt under this heavy-weight, insufferable heat. Cowboy hats: now I get it! They're a vital necessity and not some country music singer's fancy, trademark accessory.
We cross the state border coming from Louisiana and the change is immediate. Gone is the bayou, the stifling humidity, the sense of being in true Dixie. Now it's the lone star, the desert-like heat. Most unexpectedly the ever-present "Watch for gators" signs that have been a constant presence since Florida, through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana give way to a more frightening "Watch for snakes". It does make me uneasy to think about biting crawlies lurking in the grass.
But it's the great state of Texas and I couldn't be happier. It's the entire imagery of Texas that comes to mind once you find yourself crossing the border. It's Ewing-Dallas, the desert, the oil industry, the frontier, cowboys and saloons. And, of course, with such grim warning as the "Watch for snakes" sign, it's rattlesnakes that take up the imagery. Texas, indeed. And the self-evident notion that "everything is bigger in Texas" as the proud motto goes.
As soon as we get to Houston, what's the very first stop?
See what the trials and tribulations of a tesla-wife entail?

sexta-feira, 5 de fevereiro de 2016

My first time...

Curb your enthusiasm! My first time, yes... behind the wheels of the Tesla-Creature. Sunny day out and off we went. I thought that, with the geeky husband, I was in for a painful day back to driving school. Guess what? He was geeky alright (how could he not?) but his was geeky amazing. And after all, my o my, so easy Tesla-driving. So darn easy! Reverse. Drive. Park. And the Creature does everything on its own.
We're not talking automatic gear. No, Sir. We're talking major autonomous driving... The future is not around the corner. This is the future now.

sexta-feira, 29 de janeiro de 2016

Spending my time

It's just like Roxete's song but instead of "watching the days go by", I watch the minutes go on the display saying how long it will take until full charge. When I see BWM i3s on the highway, I pity BMW's meagre 60miles (100kms, give or take) range. How can you beat Tesla's 248miles (400kms, more if you drive sanely)? Ludicrous!
And yes, I spend my time charging with nothing better to do than playing the Tesla wife... Read on, gal! Read on!