You Get Me Closer To God

Another long overdue blog post coming up. The first weekend of July was spent in Arvika, as during the last seven years, with good friends and the Arvika music festival. Originally I had planned on not going this year, but the line-up had me sold quite early on, and even Richard had to break his festival virginity to catch what was to be three days of music madness in the Swedish forest.

As I am, as mentioned, a bit overdue with this post, some things have been forgotten and I will focus on the highlights. First of all, the company was excellent. In fact, the company was so good the music hardly would have mattered, but of course it didn't make things worse either :D

First up was Mars Volta, an act I never managed to like on record and they did not exactly get me much more convinced on stage. Quite on the contrary. However, good company got even better as we located Ståle and Makrellbekken (who no longer lives there and hence hardly earns the name, but still) in the beer area.

First up of the good stuff, however, was Röyksopp. They played in the tent, where temperatures got _very_ warm and clammy after a couple of songs. Hence, when the notes of the-nemesis-of-that-which-is-good-music Eple started penetrating my ears, I figured it was time to leave. Unfortunately this lead to me missing out on most of the tracks I actually love by the band, alongside several guest appearances on stage I'd have loved to catch. I did manage to get a NIN T-shirt before they sold out, however :)

Next up was Nine Inch Nails. I've been a die hard fan of Reznor's since 1998, when Eivind took my music taste under his wing and transformed it into something unrecognizeable. Trent... ok, I'll not let this post become a rant about the loveliness of this man, but let me just say that where he stood, looking like he was head-on challenging the whole world to just _dare_ to try to fuck things up even more, he was as much enough justification for me loving music as he has ever been.

I ended the night by watching some of Elegant Machinery, but they didn't exactly kick much ass after NIN, and they seemed to be painfully aware of it. Hence the night was cut a little short, but I fell asleep with a huge grin on my face!

Friday's music program started out with me hooking up with an old pop quiz buddy in the beer tent and jumping around to De/Vision. Not bad, not bad at all. It hardly got worse when Depeche Mode kicked off their concert on the main stage half an hour later. Oooh, Gahan is so the man, and if it weren't for Trent the night before this concert would have made the festival. Went home after, very tired.

On Saturday I was very lazy, and hence I missed Fleet Foxes (never liked them on record anyway, so probably not a big loss), and half of Thåström. I did arrive at the festival area just when he played my favorite, FanFanFan, though, so all was ok. Time was spent in the beer area, and I skipped most of DAF as I'd seen them before, but Korn turned out to be a very pleasant surprise on the main stage, and provided myself and Hanne with more than enough material for hours of drunken conversation on the balcony of our cabin back at the camping grounds.

All in all, a brilliant festival spent in the company of good people. I was in a very good mood throughout the weekend, and almost have a feeling of having been on speed when I look back on it... which would probably explain the extreme tempo of everything that happened. I think the arrangers will be hard pressed to follow this line-up with anything even remotely as good, but I'm looking forward to see what they come up with for next summer.

"You let me violate you.
You let me desecrate you.
You let me penetrate you.
You let me complicate you."
Nine Inch Nails - Closer (Downward Spiral, 1994)

A Place To Hide

I am so overdue with this post, but there has simply been too much going on for blogging to be high on the list of priorities.

Short on Croatia (the rest of it):
We didn't spend much more time in Croatia after the last post, as we left the country the next morning, heading for Trieste in Italy via Slovenia. Although the swimming was top notch I have no wish to return to the touristy parts of Croatia ever again. Perhaps if I could find a secluded island somewhere this country would be more down my alley.

Short on Slovenia:
Not much to report, I'm afraid. We took a wrong turn before exiting Croatia and hence entered the country a bit east of where we had planned, but it was easily corrected after a bit of fumbling around in a crossroads, and we crossed over into Italy within a couple of hours from entering.

Short on Italy:
I'd never been to Italy. Love Italian food, have always wanted to learn the language, have to admit to a certain weakness for the men... but had never been. And oh my, did it live up to expectations! The small shops, the narrow streets, the sensual language - ARGH! What am I doing in Finland again? We spent some time in Trieste before heading northwest in direction of our passage into Switzerland. Experienced a gorgeous rain storm that we could enjoy from bed looking out on the balcony in our room. I want to go back to Italy. ASAP.

Short on Switzerland:
Hm. Part 1 of this holiday's family check-up took us to Florentin's hood. We started out in Zurich where we hooked up with one of his girlfriends whom I enjoyed conversation with over beers while the young gentleman proceeded to get himself a little bit pickled :) The next morning we swam in the river that runs through the city, which I have to say was a thrilling experience! Mother, brother (x2) and father were visited over the next few days, and I met some brilliant people. We rounded it off with another night in Zurich where Florentin's friend Christian gave him a reprieve from the girlfriend while I worshipped Paul Auster in a local pub. Oh, and I found a dragon. And got a speeding ticket. :/

Short on Germany:
I've always liked Germany, but this time around we got ourselves into a bit of a spot as we entered the not-so-nice town of Kassel. If you ask me what was bad about it I'll be hard pressed to give you a concrete answer, but as with Moldova it rubbed me the wrong way in _every_ way. A big contributor was probably that we had been travelling for three weeks about this point, and were getting a little tired of it. We spent a night close to the Danish border in a town that was closer to the Germany I like, however.

Short on Denmark:
VROOOOM! Did we even stop in Denmark? Ah, yes, we had lunch at a roadside diner. Otherwise little to report, I had my eyes set on Örebro and Denmark is mostly flat anyway. Nice to see the windmills in the ocean between Denmark and Sweden, though.

Short on Sweden:
We pushed on a bit into the night to get to Örebro without stopping along the way, and yay! Back to the farm :) We spent a few days with my family, basically being lazy, going swimming, barbequing, drinking beer and simply having _holiday_! To say we both needed the rest would be an understatement. From there we drove on to Stockholm and took one of the party ferries over to Helsinki, where our roadtrip ended around 10:00 the next morning.

To sum it up, this road trip was a massive undertaking, no doubt about that. The reader stopped at 8 700 km, we used the spare tank of gas a couple of times, had a couple of rather hefty navigation conflicts, three and a half weeks with temperatures between 30 and 42 degrees C with very little access to water, mosquito bites de luxe, a sudden allergy attack that lasted for two weeks, and sometimes a definitive lack of relaxation and holiday. What we also had, however, were hundreds of hours spent in excellent company without conflicts, a car with AC and sunroof, great sights, good camping choices, good hotel choices, good food, good drink, functional systems, maps, loads of weirdness and a very, very good time.

Back in Espoo I'm now in my second week of being back to work, and since the end of April I have not only added 10 previously unseen countries to my list, I find myself living with a gorgeous young man and am contemplating getting my master's degree over and done with. Not quite sure yet how this came to be, but big thanks to karma for paying a lot of attention to me lately :)

"If I told you all the times that I'd done wrong,
could you bathe my soul and wash it all away?"
White Lies - A Place To Hide (To Lose My Life, 2009)

Kiss The Rain

I'm writing this from Rijeka, a dodgy industrial town in Croatia. It's likely that today will bring us out of this country, through Slovenia and into Italy.

Short on Moldova (the rest of it):
Not really my kind of country, this. The differences between rich and poor are extreme, and apparently the country has a trafficking problem unlike no other nation in the world. The roads were actually surprisingly ok, and the monastery was scenically beautiful, but otherwise I'd not recommend one goes out of one's way to get there. We rented an apartment in Chisinau instead of finding a hotel, and this I must say was a very pleasant surprise. We used the rental agency suggested in the Lonely Planet guide - easy to find at the bottom of the hill where Beer House is situated.

Short on Romania:
For me, Romania was pretty much the purpose of this roadtrip. I've been fascinated with this country since I don't know when, and have been talking about making it the destination of a roadtrip for years. I am very happy to say it lived up to expectations. The trouble is, I'll have to go back! We stayed in Brasov four nights, with one night of camping on either side. Monasteries, castles, good food, mountains, crap roads, ice-cold rivers, sheep, rattle-snakes imitating birds, mist, Swiss vampire wannabe's, milk-carrying and -distributing monks, in general a beautiful country with lovely people.

Short on Serbia:
The Balkans were not really plan of my initial itinerary idea, but as I had no real preference after Romania it was as good a suggestion as any. I had little relationship with these countries up front, so it brought a couple of surprises. First of all, crossing over into Serbia from Romania was a piece of cake. The countryside in the east was a bit boring after the mountaneous regions of the previous country, but Belgrade was quite nice and I think it grew on Florentin. We spent one night there, and the following night in a national park close to the Bosnian border. Spine tingling views, and a bit scary roads at night. People follow the traffic rules in this country!

Short on Bosnia:
The border crossing from Serbia was almost like being in the EU again. Ok, they did stamp the passports, but otherwise there was very little ado about the whole thing. Bosnia was gorgeous. I never realized how montaneous it was, and Sarajevo certainly left me wanting more. We only had a couple of hours there, well spent in a small restaurant called Club To Be Or Not To Be where a one-man chef/waiter/cashier impressed me no end with his ability to juggle his guests, make dinner for all and still look like he was just having a totally normal day at work. Drivers here are almost en par with the Latvians. The majority drive reasonably well, but there's a lot of dodgy passings and it's quite exhausting to navigate the narrow roads circling around the mountains.

Short on Croatia (so far):
Border crossing? What? The lady laughed and looked like she was pretty amused by the antics of tourists when we kindly asked her to stamp our passports. Croatian roads are pretty much like the Bosnian ones - meaning very few potholes but very winding and lacking of straight stretches. The ocean is _beautiful_. Most of you will know I have an affinity for the ocean along Norway's coast line, but I could be willing to throw Croatia into the competition. Waters are sparkling clear, and the water is cold enough to really cool you down even though the temperature ranges in the higher thirties still. There are, however, tourists _everywhere_! Having been spoilt with the solitude it gives to drop off the beaten track, this was not a welcome return to the Western world of money spending sun worshipers. They also create havoc on the roads, as the mix of different driving styles is nothing short of a health hazard.

Temperatues have been between 30 and 40 pretty much for three weeks straight now. Norwegians like me are not built for this kind of heat, so it was very nice to finally cool down a bit in the ocean. I'll probably blog a little bit again from Switzerland. Catch you on the flipside!

"Kiss the rain and wait for the dawn."
Billie Myers - Kiss The Rain (Growing, Pains, 1997)

Lost Highway

I'm on the road. Currently in Moldova, writing this en route to the Orhei monastery outside Chisinau. Up until now several countries have been undertaken with neckbreaking speed, and until I get to Romania I'm not really planning on slowing down anywhere. I could use a day with a book, my feet up and a bit of quiet, though, the contrast to how I usually travel is like night and day.

Estonia was a pure transportation stretch and hence didn't bring much of interest. After very few hours of sleep the night before I actually slept through most of it. Day 1 ended as we reached one of Latvia's national parks where we set up camp with the tent Deb and David so kindly bestowed on us (thanks you guys, it works like a charm!). The morning after we had breakfast with a stork. Seriously.

My first couchsuring experience on the surfing side of things took place the following night, as we hooked up with American Jimi who lives and works in Latvia. He had just moved house with his wife, and showed an outstanding amount of hospitabiliy taking in a couple of unknown surfers on his first night in a new house (and WHAT a house it was!). We also got to hang out with the dog and Jimi's daughter, both lovely.

The next morning we started our career with police confrontations a bit sooner than expected when Florentin ran a red light (typical!) and was presented with the doubtful honor of receiving his first ever ticket. Since then there has been so much going on I'll not bore you with a step by step recollection of it all. A few key notes on the countries, however:

Short on Estonia:
Early morning ferry with already drunk Finns. Pancakes in Tallinn. A lot of road. Drivers starting to get a bit impatient. I mostly slept, but woke up as we passed a motorcycle passanger who had fallen off the bike. Aparently he seemed to be doing well.

Short on Latvia:
GREEN! They've had a bit of rain this summer, and I guess that explains the abundant greenery all over the place. Oh, and the gardens, they are lovely. It looks like the Latvians really put a lot of pride and love into the tending of their green spots. Storks are everywhere, as are speed-crazy drivers. Riga is quite nice, but has little on Tallinn in my opinion.

Short on Lithuania:
A little field'ier than Latvia, but still green and nice, and I got my first swim of the trip following one of many detours. We spent a night in a hotel in the centre of Vilnius, in the squeekiest bed ever - kept me awake most of the night (Florentin.. again!) - but the breakfast was good and we found a bookstore that sold Lonely Planet guides. Most important.

Short on Poland:
Another transportation stretch - we knew we wanted to get from Vilnius and as far down into Poland as possible in one day, with Lublin being the priority target. A day of driving later, we checked into a hotel in the old town that made up for the lack of good breakfast with excellent location, good service and a good bed. About here it started getting really, really hot. I almost had a heat stroke opening the car doors the next morning. Went for swim no II in a packed lake somewhere on the way to Ukraine. Insane amount of ongoing roadworks in this country!

Short on Ukraine:
The border crossing into Ukraine was a bit of a wild card. I was not one hundred percent sure we had all documents needed to get across, but as it turns out we were fine. A ridiculously young border guard asked me some questions about our camping equipment, listened somewhat half-heartedly to my answers before plunging into the core of the matter; "Any drugs?". When I could satisfy him with a clear "No!" in response, the rest was pretty much just paper work. And we got a stamp! Alas, by this time it was so late we ended up emergency camping on some dodgy backroad that set a new world record in the amount of potholes per square meter, and we got a zillion mosquito bites setting up the tent. First destination L'Viv took a while to figure out, but once we had it nailed this city became the first proper full-blown sightseeing session of the trip. As I am not the happiest of campers when temperatures are high and no water is to be found, this was all a bit too much for me. Sleeping arrangements were made on a hillside of a FSC forest that was supposed to hold bears. We saw none. The next day was spent driving to Kamyanets-Podilskyi, a smaller town in a natural park quite close to the Moldovan border. We spent a night in a hotel there, came across a Shell station (Yay!), accidentally reset the km reader for the trip (checking a fuse.. but we managed to calculate our way back to 2098 km so far), and again did a bit of sighsteeing in extreme heat. Ukraine became the by far champion country in numbers of nights spent as we were a bit time-confused the next day (reset the clock as well of course) and decided to go swimming and camping one more night instead of rushing across the border at dusk.

Short on Moldova (so far):
The border crossing was rather uneventful. Five desks where people wanted the exact same documents and answers to the exact same questions took about one hour, and the only unexpected event was a CO2 tax for non-Moldovian cars of 30 moldovan Leu, which we didn't have. Fortunately my relentless storing of money in all kinds of pockets turned up a 5 Euro bill in a jacket, which they accepted (even got change!) and we were free to go. Moldova has the biggest sunflower fields I have ever seen. They stretch so far all you can see is yellow. Beautiful.

As said, this is being written in the car while driving along one of Moldova's main highways as quickly as the endless potholes allow us. Roads have been pretty shitty since Southern Poland, but nothing like we expected when it comes to aggressive drivers. In fact, Latvia was by far the worst in that respect, since then it's been manageable (of course it helps to drive a car that accelerates ten times as quickly as the heaps of junk metal they drive down here (although there are really expensive cars around as well)). The road police has given us a couple of scares, as they are pretty much all over the place and will jump at the chance to squeeze some money out of a foreigner. After the first ticket we have, however, managed to get out of it with just being stopped one more time, also this deserved as Florentin made a dodgy left turn onto a main road. There's a first time for everything, including bribing police officers to let you go without a fine. 'Nuff said.

"Guide the cars, you've got the keys, farewell to mediocrity.
Kicking off the cruise control and turning up the radio,
got just enough religion and half a tank of gas,
come on, let's go!"
Bon Jovi - Lost Highway (Lost Highway, 2007)

Dream A Little Dream Of Me

Why are the things that should be easy sometimes so difficult? And, at the same time, why do the peaks that at first seem insurmountable sometimes turn out to be the easiest to climb? I guess if I did have that roadmap it would all make sense, but at least without one you never get bored, right?

Next week I'll be going to Paris again. It's been more than a year since the last time I set foot in that lovely place, so I'm looking forward to roaming french streets again, with a slightly different mindset this time around. There shall be wine, there shall be flowers and there shall be fun. Hopefully also light, but sometimes when even God asks for that it seems nature is unwilling to comply. Finland has returned to the gloomy grey of late winter over the last week, with temperatures lingering around 5-7 degrees C. A bit too chilly for my liking, but I guess it'll pass.

My mind lingers on Iran. It seems everyone's going there now, except me. Not that I am complaining, I should be more than resourceful enough to get a move on myself, but it'll have to wait. For now. My mind is infected with travel bugs, and the multitude of possible locations is almost making me dizzy. How lovely would it not be to be a travel writer, or just simply unafraid enough to get up and leave? If my roots are not set, why am I so wary of pushing off and floating free? Ah, well, it'll come.

You know the version of Dream A Little Dream Of Me by The Mamas & the Papas (1968)? Well, the song was, of course, not theirs. It was written in '31 by a German called Gus Kahn who also wrote songs like It Had To Be You, My Baby Just Cares For Me and I'll See You In My Dreams. Although I love the wonders of the modern world (well, at least some of them), I cannot shake the romantic notion of an American Colonial porch in New Orleans with an old, scratchy record player transmitting the husky voice of Louis Armstrong. Perhaps we lived other lives in other times and that is why we have such unexplained affinities for certain phenomenon.

"Sweet dreams 'til sunbeams find you.
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you.
But in your dreams, whatever they be,
dream a little dream of me."
Louis Armstrong/Ella Fitzgerald - Dream A Little Dream Of Me (1950)

I Want You To Trouble Me

I did a lot of this and that over the last week and a half, shortly summarized it pretty much comes down to music, beer, laughter, travelling, training (and bruising of the brain), working, swimming, sun worshipping, eating, more laughter, friends, love and warm(er) air (than usual).

I have a couple of basic issues to report:
- 30 degrees C in Finland does not mean that the water is warm.
- Peacocks (even Brittish ones) make a hell of a spectacle when they start screaming at night.
- People who work in factories think that the creativeness of Sales&Marketing people is bizarre.
- I'm cancelling my summer holiday trip to South America as there's been a change of plans.
- There are no Shell stations in Romania.

I watched Constantine for the fourth time on Sunday. Although Tilda Swinton's rendition of Gabriel is worth the watch, the movie is _not_ all that good. Anyway, this was the first time I noticed that APC's Passive is on the soundtrack, and it made me a little confused as it doesn't really fit in there. Oh, and Gavin Rossdale plays one of the demons. I've never reflected on that before either. Cute, that one, and I especially like the sleeziness with which he delivers his "finger-licking good".

Matchbox 20 made a brief re-appearance in my life this weekend as I listened to their More Than You Think You Are over a couple of days. I had a massive crush on Unwell back when it came out, and Downfall is also worth a listen. It's a pity Rob Thomas doesn't quite live up to his potential solo.

Fundamental question:
When faced with something scary, do you stay and face it, or do you turn your back and run as fast as you can? Lamb for slaughter or cowardly lion?

Oh, and I can't believe they just _lost_ a plane. How does that happen?

"Be my savior,
and I'll be your downfall."
Matchbox 20 - Downfall (More Than You Think You Are, 2002)

...And The Day Has Been Beautiful So Far

Hm. You figure; "Well, there's no way Norway's gonna win Eurovision this year, being favorites and all we're gonna end up at the bottom of the pile.", so you might as well host a party. The party was a brilliant congregation of prettily clad people, so although the goal of clearing large amounts of alcohol from my shelves backfired in a major way the evening was an unmitigated success. Wine party, anyone? Oh yes, and Norway won. Yay :)

The Gothminister concert last Friday was good fun as well. Me and Kjersti ended up ditching the warm-up act to have beers with Bjørn & co backstage until their gig started. It was nice to see Bjørn again, and Glenn being there was a pleasant surprise. The concert was the best I've seen them do so far, and Lotta and her friend who joined us were also up in flames over it all :)

Monday and Tuesday we had our country managers visiting, and the working days were spent in the training centre in Vantaa. Me and Sanna got to do a little sightseeing in outback Järvenpää in the evening before dinner, before I left to the airport to pick up my returnee Swiss friend.

A couple of thousand years ago Jesus made the choice to go back to his father's farm on a Thursday. As this was celebrated by having a day off yesterday, me and Florentin went off on a road trip to Kotka, a couple of hours drive east of Helsinki. We quite randomly stumbled upon a Kotka/Grankulla IFK football game, the Kotka aquarium (which I had no idea existed), a lovely park area along the Kotka river basin, and taking multiple detours on our way back we came upon an area of giant's kettles (pot holes) somewhere close to Askola. Yet another beautiful day :)

Today I am going to see IAMX in concert, and tomorrow there's the World Village festival here in Helsinki. I have a couchsurfer inbound from Tallinn tomorrow morning who will only stay one night, but I am nevertheless quite excited about hearing his story. Next week I'm off to Cranfield for three days of training.

This is another one of those "first I did this, and then I did that, and then..." posts, but I don't have time to think through any deeper matters at the moment. Life is good :)

"I'm here with you, driving in your car,
and the day has been beautiful so far."
Bertine Zetlitz - Beautiful So Far (Beautiful So Far, 2000)

On Any Other Day

Blog silence is good silence!

Last Monday I welcomed my first ever couchsurfer into my home, and although I was a little nervous to begin with I must deem it an unmitigated success. A young Swiss gentleman called Florentin has been kind enough to enrich my life as what was intended to be a two day stay turned into one and a half weeks of integration into my social life and a spontaneous three day road trip to Oulu.

After a lively JD Vappu celebration last week, we hit the road heading north. We took the coast route through Pori, Vaasa and Kokkola, with only one unintended detour and little traffic. The 800 km drive took us around 8 hours not counting numerous breaks, so we made good time considering the long and winding minutes spent behind trucks and trailers.

Oulu I must say was not what I expected. I can imagine it's quite a nice place in summer, and already now the weather was more than warm enough to enjoy strolling through the city. It does leave something to be desired with regards to an organized city centre, but along the waterfront there are plenty of cuteish hang-outs for food and sun worshipping. We spent half of Saturday there before we went on a roadtrip within the roadtrip, up to the Swedish border crossing of Haparanda and to the island of Seskarö where we consumed a bit of wild game and watched the locals posing for pictures on the beach. We were hoping to go swimming, but up north the ice has not yet broken and hence there was no chance to jump in the water (thank God).

Heading back from Oulu we took the inland route through Jyväskÿlä, Jämsä and Lahti. My oh, so clean car changed color from black to brown as we set off on muddy local country roads around Pihtipudas to locate a Shell station in Keitele (and as it turns out that station only caters to diesel trucks), and suffice to say I got my fair share of Finnish country side! The stretch from Jyväskylä through Jämsä down to Lahti is gorgeous, and much more similar to Norway than anything I've seen as of yet in Finnish nature.

All in all, we did close to 2000 km this weekend, spending around 23 hours in the car and listening to dozens of albums. Although this sounds like way too much it is possibly the best roadtrip I've ever been on, and I only regret not having time off to be able to continue down the Swedish coastline on to Stockholm and taking the car back by boat from there. It definitely gave me the inspiration to rekindle my thoughts around a Romania trip, although this year it's not likely to happen.

On top of the travel loveliness, I think I've learnt more about myself in the last days than the last couple of years combined. How do you react when a complete stranger inhabits your guest room, what do your instincts say, and are you able to fully understand and comply with them? I've experienced a mixture of maternal instincts kicking in, extreme honesty and need for trust and the kind of intensity that comes from having little time. I think I've gained a long-lasting connection from it all, and although I don't think I'm likely to find a CS match again that will be able to dig out the same amount of "spontaneous me" from underneath it all, I will keep it up and hopefully be able to learn some more about myself and the world in the process.

"I like where this is going,
yeah, cause I know where it's been."
Bon Jovi - Any Other Day (Lost Highway, 2007)

Someone Like You

I spent Monday attending our yearly dealer award event in Copenhagen. 23 degrees C in the sun, loads of happy dealers, and good food. Even the hours spent in aiports going there and back home could do little to dampen the mood of the day. Emilia was kind enough to lend me her copy of Eskobar's A Thousand Last Chances (2004) on Sunday, a record that went missing from my collection in April 06. The influence Love Strikes has on the splendidness of things cannot even be put into words. :D

Speaking of splendidness, I finally got around to actually buying a copy of Kings of Leon's Only By The Night (2008), and have just spent a full working day working on Terms of Sales documents with Use Somebody in my ears. If I could make everyone listen to this and Love Strikes, I think world peace might just be the result. In the very least the world would be a better place.

Tell you what, let's perform an experiment:
If you never take the time to follow the links in my lyric endings, please at least click this one, turn up the volume (I mean it, and if you have headphones where you are, put them on!), close your eyes (don't care about the visuals) and just _feel_ that urge to be alive and to love. Let me know how it made you feel. And then do it again! :)

Now, dinner with Kjersti (and, as it turned out, Emilia and Miia)!

"You know that I could use somebody,
someone like you and all you know and how you speak."
Kings of Leon - Use Somebody (Only By The Night, 2008)
(Link updated to their Brit Award performance, should now work in all countries.)

See The World In Green And Blue Pt. II

I am now officially all booked and ready for my summer trip to South America.

July 10th I will fly from Helsinki to Rio de Janeiro a few days before my actual trip starts, and stay there a total of six days as I want to break in the jetlag properly before I start hopping around. I hope some long days on Copacabana and Ipanema with a book and a coconut will shut work out from my mind right from the start.

From Rio I will fly to Iguazu, to see the Iguazu waterfalls from both the Brazilian and Argentinian side, and by this get my first brush with nature on the trip. Trying not to think about the spiders! From Iguazu I will take a night bus out to get to my next flight into the Pantanal wildlife reserve, where I will spend three days.

After this I am heading for Santa Cruz in Bolivia, which apparently might be somewhat difficult as the trains services are a bit unpredictable. It should take a maximum of two days, meaning I might, and might not, have time to spend in Santa Cruz itself before I enter the Amazon Amboro National park.

Have I not been eaten by spiders and/or piranhas, I am heading on from there to Vallegrande, the area where Che was killed in 67 getting a history injection. From there I go by bus to Cochabamba and from there on to La Paz. This should again take approximately two days, giving me two days in La Paz upon arrival. After adjusting to the altitude, I will continue on by bus to Oruro, and from there by train to Uyuni to see the salt desert, going on to Laguna Colorada and ending up in Laguna Verde where I will reach the highest altitude of the trip of around 5000 metres.

Having done Bolivia well and proper, I'll cross over into Chile, where I will spend a few days in the village San Pedro de Atacama, and from there on I'll go by bus to Santiago where I will spend a few days before flying back to Finland.

A whole month in places I've not seen before. I cannot wait.

"Touch me,
take me to that other place."
U2 - Beautiful Day (All That You Can't Leave Behind, 2000)

Music For The Masses

The ridiculous amounts of good synthpop/electronic acts turning up in the Nordics over the coming months deserves some attention, rounding it off with the headline-heaviest Arvika there ever was.

Thursday 9th April @ Gloria - I am joining Dave and taking Hanne with me to go see Combichrist.

Wednesday 13th May @ Tavastia - I missed Client the two last times they were in town, so I guess it's about time I got going :)

Friday 15th May @ Nosturi - Bjørn & Co are playing Nosturi. Heaven knows I've seen Gothminister enough times to have served my friendly duty, but I guess I've never seen'em play in Finland.

Friday 22nd May @ Nosturi - I am going to try to get through IAMX without going all obsessed without Kiss & Swallow again.

Friday 12th-Sunday 14th June @ Seinäjoki - Provinssirock hosts Placebo, Editors and Nick Cave, and is a must for this summer. I have housing for this festival, so if it sounds interesting and you want to tag along, let me know!

Thursday 2nd-Saturday 4th July @ Arvika - Just when I had decided to miss this festival for the first time in seven years, they added NiN to their already very attractive line-up (Depeche Mode, amongst others), and I can not in any way defend not going. Project Pitchfork are playing the Lumous Gothic Festival in Tampere that same weekend, so I'm hoping they'll sweep down to Arvika as well.

Big names playing in Finland I'll be missing out on:
Metallica (sold out, but I've seen'em)
Korn (HAHA, THEY WERE JUST ANNOUNCED FOR ARVIKA :D)
Madonna (oh, I'll definitely survive. I would've loved to have seen her back in her Vogue days, though)
Kraftwerk (I'll be in South America)

"Will you take the pain I will give to you, again and again,
and will you return it?"
Depeche Mode - Strangelove (Music for the Masses - 1987)

Travel Just By Folding The Map

I am back in Espoo after a week in Seattle. And, I might add, not entirely happy about it.
It took me a couple of days to warm to the place. I mean, I am a little afraid of Americans, at least the crazy ones (and Seattle have a lot of crazy ones), and I was jetlagged like hell to begin with. Once I got over it, though, I have to say this is one of the best places I've ever visited.

My friend Quinn, who in December migrated back from Finland to Seattle after living and working here for a year, was kind enough to house me during my stay. From where she lives I was in walking distance to Capitol Hill and downtown, where I spent most of my week. I did a bit of seightseeing in her hood, but must admit the empty (completely dead in the daytime) streets lined with wooden houses with windchimes hanging on the porches scared the bejeezus out of me! Instant Stephen King movie flashbacks all over the place! Once I got over that as well, however, it was all sunshine and lovely :)

I went to the aquarium (I once wanted to become a marine biologist, and am still very fascinated with everything marine), and although it was not as neat as the London one it was good fun. Didn't have the guts to pet the starfish, but I did poke a lobster around a bit. I also went on a ferry trip to Bainbridge, one of the islands outside Seattle, and spent a lovely couple of hours rambling around in the tiny shops out there. The ferry ride was a nice change from the hilly streets of the city, and as I was blessed with sun most of my week I managed to get a bit freckly :)

Although I usually try to stay clear of the _most_ touristy places when I travel, the Space Needle lured me in with the promise of a great view of the surrounding mountain ranges in the clear spring weather... and I am pleased to say I was not disappointed. Even ended up having a long lunch and found a random bookreading talkative fellow on a neighbouring table to share a couple of beers with (as always with me when I travel there were healthy amounts of beer and books, the greatest travel combo ever!).

Quinn was a lovely hostess, and introduced me to several of her friends. It is very rare for me to meet people I instinctively want to attach my life to, but I was lucky enough to meet not only one, but four of these on this trip; Lovely Nicole and Mitra, Jesse and Kat will leave Quinn-friends shaped holes in my future. I hope my road will cross theirs again at some point. Also big thanks to Kyle, Mary and Dominic who kindly accepted me as their house guest for a week!

During my stay, Quinn turned 30, and this was celebrated in an artist's loft in SoDo, with formal wear (I was forced to go gown-shopping and accidentally ended up with five dresses, will upload pictures) and a lot of people. I hope to get access to some good photos from this event that I can upload, as it held a lot of gorgeous individuals in very pretty clothing :)

"I wish the world was flat like the old days,
then I could travel just by folding the map.
No more airplanes, or speed trains, or freeways,
there'd be no distance that could hold us back."
Death Cab For Cutie - The New Year (Transatlanticism, 2004)

Seasons In The Sun

Argh, this has been an insane week.

On Wednesday I weekly welcomed myself well into the early hours the next morning, enjoying good company in the new location - Cuba. It is amazing how I've been to this particular event so many times and never learn to go home early. It was good fun, though. Thursday Movie Night hosting went out the window when the maddest work week ever claimed another victim in form of the evening spent in the office, and Friday morning it felt like I'd never even left. Thankfully that was the last day of the month, so when my old Distribution team got together for Tori dinner and WGB beers in the evening the scene was all set to party and dance into the wee hours once again. How am I still alive to be writing this? I do wonder.

I wish summer would hurry up. Today has been a very lovely day in Finland, but I so long for the sun to add some warmth to this frigid year. Spring will be very welcome indeed.

Last night I was contacted by a friend I have not seen in what must be close to five years. Apparently, he's coming to Helsinki on Wednesday for a day of work, and I sense Bar 9 chicken, Cuba drinks and another tired Thursday ahead. Saturday I board my flight to Seattle and will be free of all work related shackles for a full week :)

"Now that the spring is in the air,
pretty girls are everywhere."
Terry Jacks - Seasons In The Sun (single, 1974)
I realised _after_ publishing this post, when humming in my kitchen, that this track shares the above line with the song that titles my last post. How funny, I have to figure out if was intentional from PR's side. Also, I _am_ aware that Terry Jacks was in fact not the creator of this piece of music, but this is the version I subscribe to. Kiitos :)

See The World In Green And Blue

My summer holiday request has spent three weeks on my manager's desk, and today he signed it. I've not had more than two consecutive weeks of holiday since 2004, but this summer I will have four, in South America :)

"Reach me,
I know I'm not a hopeless case."
U2 - Beautiful Day (All That You Can't Leave Behind, 2000)

A Song From The Wrong Side Of Town

My 08 summer holiday took me to London for a week. In December. Well, better late than never, right? :)

I had plenty of chances to hang out with friends and my brother who lives there, and I had enough alone-time to be sufficiently introvert for my liking. Still, I can not help wish I'd stayed at home instead, because most of the time what I really wanted to do was to sit down in peace and quiet with a book and some good music! That said, I had a lovely time.

Definitive highlights were football and ale in Stanhope Arms Wednesday evening, beer with my brother and Mike in Ye Old Cheshire Cheese on Thursday, and expensive lunch in the best Italian ever on Friday. I only got around to find one open knitting shop (I Knit London), and apart from a lovely, bulky merino/cashmere blend I did not find much of interest. Also, the staff was a right disaster and I'd not recommend people to go out of their way to seek the place out.

I stayed in the Gallery Hotel in South Kensington, my standard area of residence whenever I go to London. I've never been to this particular hotel before, but it was good, clean and quiet, and fit me perfectly.

Before my trip I spent a couple of days at my mother's place in Porsgrunn, which was nice as I hadn't seen her for a while. We had some good food, and I finally brought her up to speed on how to use her internet banking. Coming back from London I've spent three nights at Holmen in Asker, which has more or less become my second home over the last months.

Sunday evening I was taken to see Monomen and Ladytron in Rockefeller as a belated birthday present. I've never seen either on stage before, and didn't really know what to expect. Monomen (think Joy Division, Interpol or ILYBICD) have been widely praised for their onstage performance, whereas the experience of watching Ladytron has been likened to "watching paint dry". I can easily sign off on Monomen, they were exceptionally brilliant and it's a right shame they were only the warm-up act. Rumours have it they'll be releasing a new album next spring (they played a new song, and it was _excellent_), so I'll definitely seek them out in concert again.

Ladytron were not at all as bad as I expected. One of the leading ladies did a weirdo Eastern European chant thing that turned me off completely, but the other one was quite all right, and all the songs I actually like by the band she performed well, if a bit still-standing. It was their last gig of an 8 month tour, and that might have helped on their willingness to give a bit more than usual. I don't know, but it was a good evening and I had fun.

Today Finnair will take me back home, and I have to say I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and rummaging around my own bathroom. Funny how, however ambivalent I might be at times with regards to living in Finland, home is still home and there is no place like it.

The Passenger Seat

Day 2 of Elektrostat was not quite en par with the first night, but still very good. Highlights of the evening were definitely In Vein, with great sound and a new song, and Front 242 who rounded off the evening. We were all very grateful to Henrik for providing such a good line-up on his birthday ;-p

Sunday I finished reading The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne in Gardemoen airport, and man, was that a bad idea. Cried my eyes out and proceeded to board the plane looking like shit had hit the fan in a big way. Exceptionally good book, however, I found myself hoping and hoping so hard throughout the pages that things would turn out well, and the storyline takes several surprising twists. It is narrated by a nine year old boy whose family gets relocated through the work of his father, a commander in Hitler's Germany. It's also coming out on the silver screen soon, but I'd strongly recommend you read the book. It's a quick read that will stay with you.

I'm on a good reading roll in general, just finished reading Paul Auster's The Book of Illusions last week. It's about a writer who loses his family in an airplane crash, and how writing a book about a silent movie comedian from the 20's takes him out of his comfort zone and brings him back to life. The dialogue is brilliant, and written in a way I've not seen done before. At first glance it seems a bit difficult to follow, but the characters are so extremely well defined in your mind that the story is easy to follow. A truly brilliant piece of story telling that really gripped me, and I found every inch of me screaming for it to end well.

Am now reading We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. It's been standing on my shelf for more than a year, so it's about time I got started on a proper reading spree again. So far it is not really what I expected, without that being a bad thing. Will review further once I've finished it.

My CD listening project is going rather well, although I am now stuck on Tori Amos and have been for a week or so. Alphaville also kept me busy for a number of days before that. To complicate things I've just received the latest Snow Patrol record from Amazon, and expect to be sidetracked by that one for a while. Not easy, this focusing on one thing business!

The last couple of weeks were in general horribly depressing and shitty, but things are picking up. I saw The Lake House on Monday, with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, and although there was a serious logical flaw in the ending it was surprisingly good. Tuesday brought lemon chicken in Bar 9 with Deb and Quinn, and last night I went for Chico's dinner with Lotta. Today I'm taking Movie Night to see the new Bond movie, which will hopefully be a treat, and on Saturday I'm heading off to Tampere again, this time with Deb and a bunch of knitters.

Next week takes me to Oslo again for two days of work, and that'll go on for the overseeable future. I'm taking the first week of December off work to go to London and hang out with my brother, and am hoping to hook up with some friends and drink lots of ale while I'm there.

Even If You Know Me

Ah, fuck it. I'm in an airport, which in itself is nothing new in this live-out-of-a-bag existence of mine, but this time everything just sucks. I declined going to Tallinn by helicopter as I was worried the weather would be bad, and on the way here everything went fine. Finnair was on time, I was on time, everything in its' right order. The way back, however... Well, Finnair was on time. I was not. I should have flown out of here 17:55, but instead I'm now waiting for the 21:15 flight. My travel companions that went by chopper were home at six.

ARGH!
Ok, enough with the bitching. Deb had a birthday yesterday. *flowers and fireworks*

Am thinking of going to Tampere on Saturday, to check out local yarn (or rather record) stores. Friday I'll be going to check out the not yet opened café of the ever so lovely Tiia, and am quite exited about it :)

Will now try to close my computer before the battery dies and fucks up everything I've been working on. Catch you on the flipside!

These Flowers Will Always Die

Between you and me
it's hard to ever really know
who to trust,
how to think,
what to believe.
The Cure - Bloodflowers (Bloodflowers, 2000)

I'm closing the month again. Funny how life suddenly seems to skip from one month's end to the next, the time between passing in the wink of an eye and barely registering before the pressure is suddenly on again. One of my colleagues is leaving us for new challenges in Russia on Wednesday, and although we have our differences I'll miss him sorely from a brainstorming and discussion partner point of view.

Ventured out of the Helsinki region to explore other parts of Finland this weekend, taking the Qashqai on its first road trip. Turku proved to be quite the dump, but the church was worth it times seven. Lucky as I seem to be on my time off these days, they were arranging a Saturday night of church music, and hence I got two hours of lovely compositions in the stunningly beautiful tuomokirkko.

Spent the night Sat/Sun in Naantali (the city of Muumin) and went sightseeing there before returning home via Salo and Ekenäs yesterday afternoon. All in all a very, very nice and relaxing weekend. Didn't get any knitting done, but almost finished Nausea by Sartre, and will have to stop there before I continue with Auster, as I have my first exam deadline on Wednesday and hence will be busy reading school stuff over the next couple of months.

In Turku I, in addition to the lovely church and a couple of rather boring yarn stores, located a brewery with very hyvä beer and a brilliant music shop! Returned home with twenty something titles, and whatever spare space I had left in my CD shelves is shrinking rapidly. Amongst other things I finally replaced my long lost Bloodflowers by the Cure. I know it's unconventional, but it is my favorite the Cure record of all time, and I'm very happy to have it back in my life.

Other business... Oslo on Wednesday is cancelled, but I'll be travelling there a lot anyway over the next couple of months. Otherwise I think I have a rather Helsinki based month ahead of me. Was originally planning on having my summer holiday in October/November, but it looks like it'll be moved. I haven't even written here about the extremely good, but surprising news in the little brother department, but I will shortly and suffice to say it means I'll be seeing more of London in the years to come :D

They Are The Eggmen

My calendar reads September 8th, and my how time flies! August seemingly came and went without much notice. The end of the month was as always busy, but it didn't at all get personal like July did. Since then I've been re-forecasting TIV, brainstormed with our full sales staff and enjoyed a weekend with good company, both latter activities taking place in Tallinn.

Wednesday morning last week I got up before the sun, packed my bags for a five day worktrip, and boarded a flight for Stockholm. Spent the day there before flying to Tallinn in the evening, and proceeded to have a calm and quiet night. Wait. Go back. Was stopped in a random passport check in Tallinn, only had my drivers licence and was screamed at by an Estonian female border patrol guard for one and a half hours, before she went on to fine me 150 Euros for not having proper travel documentation. She looked almost as scary as Quinn does in this photo.

Spent two nights in a luxurious kick-ass hotel in the Old Town, and had the heaviest dinner of all time with the sales people. Then had Deb, David, Quinn and Veera join me and Sanna for a weekend of Tallinnism, and it was all good. Have eaten and drunk a bit too much, and feel tired and super heavy, but happy :)

Tomorrow I'll see R.E.M. and the Editors in Helsinki, but otherwise the workdays to come will be spent entirely in the office. Friday I'm joining my previous team in Distribution for Sebastian's belated leaving dinner in Tapasta, and after that I'm going to try to resume my personal life after ten days a bit outside the norm.

Today I have a very bad feeling about people who as managers make decisions and, instead of sticking to them, leave their employees feeling like they haven't performed if the grounds for the decision were completely unrealistic. Leading the way and setting good examples also when it comes to admitting mistakes is part of what we're freaking paid to do! A pox on the eggmen leaders of the world!
(Please note that I'm not referring to my own manager, he's still reasonably level-headed, as much as that is possible in this industry :))

In Her Room

So... I mentioned I had bought a TV, right? Well, today they delivered it and it's HUGE! 42'' sounds much more manageable when it's not sitting in your living room! Am actually a bit terrified by the size of it, but I guess movie watching will take on a different format from now on which will be a welcome change from the miniature black box I've used the last two years (thank you, Miia :).

Am trying to figure out how to spend my holidays for the coming year or so. Really want to go to Peru, and have previously talked this over with Lotta. Might be difficult to go through with, though. The alternative might be going somewhere over Christmas and New Year's, as this gives me a bit more time to play with. New Guinea, maybe? Also, I'll need time to do at least one US road trip next year, and that's bound to tie up some weeks. And whatever happened to Romania? I even have a small hope that my chances of having European road trip company might be looking up.

Today I am going home to cook dinner and watch a movie. Garden State, I believe. Fun and good times for all :)