Some of you have kindly reminded me that I haven't updated my blog in a long time. Which, when I think about it, is true. Thankfully, the fact that I haven't written anything new is not because I haven't done anything nor had nothing to write about, quite the opposite. It's been a very busy spring and I couldn't tell you what I've been up to before first looking back to see where I took my camera since visiting good ol' Austria in March.
This may also be a good time to warn/inform you all that there will be some more music available on The Full Loads' Myspace page shortly.
Right. A quick Picasa consultation reveals that I've not been outside Europe so far this year. After Kufstein (and between all those little job trips to Oslo) I went to Denmark and Wonderful Copenhagen (I think it's called) where I up with my cousin Mikkas again. Unlike my last visit to Denmark, which involved Champions League football and an underground house party, this was quiet and mainly business.
As far as work trips go, the one undertaken in late April was a highpoint; Paris. Another newspaper conference, same venue, but the weather was vastly better than in February 2006. I don't think I've ever been as cold as on that Saturday morning in Montmartre. This year, however, it was 28 degrees, with humidy to suit, and it wasn't especially comfortable to wear a black suit in the métro on the way to the conference. I didn't mind the suit at the gala dinner at the French Senate, though...
Like last year I decided to spend the weekend there, only this time Jenny was in Berlin with her job. But I didn't have to experience Paris alone. Since I'd already seen most of the must-see sights last year, I decided Versailles would be worth a visit this time around, and it certainly was. After strolling through the many sitting rooms, bedrooms and several other larger rooms - an amazing sight by the way - we paid the garden a visit. Anna, who was there with me, and I rented one of those golf carts and sped off into all corners of the garden, literally. All the paths in the garden are one way streets and you have to drive a certain route which we of course missed at the earliest possible opportunity. The park is huge and the cart drives at just over walking speed so this mistake cost us something like a half hour. When finally visiting the northeastern corner of the park we naturally messed up again and ended up doing a major detour. The sun was setting, it was 19.15 and the cart was due back at 19.
A few weeks later work sent me to Amsterdam, a place I've never visited before. My hotel, or at least the reception, was not in the red-light distric but my hotel window had a perfect view of a pub, a coffee house and several decent dildo offers, and a sweet warm cannabis smell to match. You hear a lot about Amsterdam so I had to check it out. The first meeting with the city didn't give me the best impression, as there was a lot of road and construction work going on around the railway station. But as soon as I walked towards the hotel, seeing the neat canals, it turned out to be a very nice place after all. Assuming that the customer I was meeting for dinner later in the evening wasn't interested in the red-light distric, I decided to see it for myself so I wouldn't have to return without having seen it. It took me some time to realize I was actually in the right area but when I did, I saw prositutes everywhere. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen them before, they were all over the place, and on a regular Wednesday afternoon at that. I refused every single "offer" on my way through the area until I got tired of it all and decided to see where Anne Frank had been hiding instead. It took me a while to find it (I'm sure a map would've helped), but I did in the end, not far from the Homomonument. Naturally I got there too late to get in but I could overhear some impressions of the place from some fifty-odd German schoolchildren who were standing outside.
Only a few days after returning from Amsterdam I was going, also for the first time in my life, to Trondheim. I was invited by a costumer there to watch Rosenborg vs Strømsgodset from the vip stand, including lunch and "entertainment" by old footballer Mini Jacobsen. As it turned out, Godset won the match which gave me the pleasure of being the only one in the stands actually enjoying myself :-)
With barely the time to unpack after Trondheim I took Jenny with me to Drammen for her to experience 17.mai.
The Swedish national day, June 6th, gave us the opportunity to take an extended weekend in Finland. This way, too, we can spend our summer holiday in Stockholm and elsewhere since we've just been in both Norway and Finland. The weather in Finland was very fine indeed, allowing us to relax outside and even play a first golf round of the season. For those of you who care, I scored 31 stableford points. We also went on a boat, took a few beers along the Esplanaden in Helsinki and met up with some of Jenny's old friends. For me, the highpoint was the trip to Turku, conveniently on the way back to Sweden, where I met two old friends from my Erasmus year in Germany and Spain, Laura and Magnus.
By this time, of course, both Jenny and I had had our 30th birthdays which was celebrated with friends and colleagues here in Stockholm. We even went out on the town, meaning we can afford to wait until hitting Stureplan again :-)
And just to bring you all very much up to date, I attach a few pictures from our rooftop walking on a building on Riddarholmen, the tiny island next to Stockholm's Gamla Stan.
