The Earthquake and Gollum Forrest

Warning, one more of those NZ stories. If you're reading the notes on my facebook they're automatically streamed and not at correct as my blog. Check out the page: http://isobelll.blogspot.com

I love adventure! So when I was hitching upwards from Wellington on the North Island of New Zealand in February 2009 I asked the driver if they had any idea of where I could stay that night. Any Cool Beaches close by? Waitarere was my answer. Sweet. A couple of hitches later I was at a camp site close by the beach and heard the story about this Forrest - it was suppose to be one of the places they'd filmed Gollum, not that I was to interested in finding the spots. That was not why I travelled New Zealand. (But I must admit that Mount Doom was pretty awesome!).

However my bankcard wouldn't work and the camping site was pretty expensive anyways so I went to the local store to get some cash out. As I asked the guy behind the counter if he knew anywhere where I could crash in my tent for the night without having to pay he look with huge eyes at me like he'd never heard of such a thing. But the lady, with a little daughter, behind me in line spoke up and said "Why don't you come and stay on our lawn?" Sure, sweet!

As we walked off she explained that her neighbour was out of town and I might just as well use his house, a couple of minutes later she said that she had a guest house - that they normally rented out for people on longer vacations - and I might just as well stay in there. Ha!! As we got to her place she quickly put a beer in my hand, said hi to her husband and started making dinner - vegetarian of course! They were really happy to hear my stories and said that they knew someone in Sweden who's stayed with them before.

After dinner me and the lady went to the beach, oh the beautiful beach, and checked out the sunset. Mm. We said our goodnights and I went to drink some tea, yeah! There was tea in my own little cabin with a real bed and shower. As I was writing up my adventures for the day in my Diary which I'd try to keep up to date the house suddenly started shaking. WTF?! I got real scared and ran outside after struggling ot get the door open. No one but me out in that dark night. And after a while it stopped. Shit. Is it gonna start again? Is there a big one coming on? What was the right thing to do? Why hadn't I researched this a bit better before coming to this Earthquake country? After a while I fell asleep, still scared but ok. Nothing, from what I know, got broken. But much later I found out that it had been a 4 on the Richter scale. Shit! Scary stuff!

Next morning I made my way into the Forrest and tried to find Gollum, or his remains. I never did but the Forrest sure was creeping me out. And I came up with the brilliant idea that I'd cross the low bushes that stretched about 400 meter from the Forrest edge to the beach. Couldn't be to hard could it? Guess again! With a narrow undergrowth and some thorns I soon understood why most, clever anyways, people stay out of these bushes. And as always I as way to stubborn to turn back. About an hour later I'd crossed, crawled, slide and climbed my way to the beach with a fair few cuts and bruises. Children, don't try this at home!

The Gollum Forrest

The 400 meters of Bush between the Forrest and the ocean,
doesn't look to hard does it?

Me on video in that Forrest talking about whats been going on.

And Finally, The Beach. Doesn't look to impressive on photo but fuck, that thing keep going for miles and miles in each direction and even though the water was less then "yay, lets go swimming - temperature" I walked along the shore for quite a while.

Today's Person: Everyone who invites a total stranger into their home and hearts. I'll be forever thankful for your help!

The old MJ T-Shirt

Fore those of you who read the automatically streamed notes in Facebook, this is my real blog address: http://isobelll.blogspot.com where you can actually see the videos. =)

Getting another cold, having my days again and all at once while I was suppose to be trying out a new job today. I called in sick. Not really being able to swallow. Can't taste anything. Drinking way to little. Watching the Michael Jackson memorial and missing him. I also found my old band T-Shirt. Or I did a couple of weeks ago actually. I was getting ready for that larp that I went to when I needed to have about 10 love letters with me that my character was suppose to have written and I hand no inspiration at all. So I googled old love letters and put on some heartbreaking old music that I used o listen to when I was a teen. Of Course Michael Jackson was a huge part of my lie when I was about 12 (?). And I've never stopped loving his music. So with "Will you be there" in my ears I finally got to write the letters.

There are lots of cool (?) punkers at my place most of the days, mainly cause two of them live here and amongst a lot of other thing they got their love for different band T-Shirts in common. And I didn't wanna be left outside so I found my old band T-Shirt which I've started to use and nightshirt over the last months and put it on. This was about 3 weeks ago. Then I went to the larp, way out in the Forrest without any connection to the outside world. It started at June the 25 where I turned of my cell and the modern world. As soon as the larp ended - the guy my character had written those love letter to - told me that Michael was dead. What? Nah! That can't be true.

It didn't hit me until last night when I watched the Memorial live stream via CNN. Shit, there's the casket. The living room - where I live - was once again filled with the punks playing some video game about killing zombies or rather one was playing it while the rest of the four were glued to the screen in amazement. And later on the homo-erotic boxing game at least made it possible for two of them to play at the same time. Not that I can understand why its so much fun Watching someone Else killing things. But hey, life's got a fair few mysteries left, don't you thing?

So as they were playing I watched the Memorial in my computer corner with headphones and as Michaels brother came on the show singing "Smile" tears stared filling my eyes. He'd touch many of our life's for the last 4 decades and it doesn't even matter if the accusations against him are true or not (but as an old fan I never believed them) I couldn't care less about his private life but I truly loved his music (even though Michael only did a cover on that song once). The evening went on and more and more of the old classics and lots of speeches, often way to long, were streamed into my laptop. It might have been my having a bad cold, getting my period and all of that mess but I truly cried. And as Paris, his 11 year old daughter said "Daddy, I love you" all of us (the fans) cried. So I guess, Thanks Michael for making great music. And even though I really don't believe in God I do hope that you find the rest you so deserved. Come to think about it it somehow already felt like he died lots of years ago, no offence intended. So when the body caved I wasn't surprised. I hope he had at least some happy years at the end. It must have been really hard for him. Ha, so now you know another (big) secret, I'm one of those old MJ fans - might not have been the first guess considering what I'm listening to now days. Or well, I think I've sort of come full circle and can appreciate lots of the old tunes, found my "Hip Hop Nerve" and love the sweet funk again.

Movie of the Day: Revolutionary Road - watched it a second time today, its a real good one! The Characters are well played and feel very realistic.
Song of the Day: Depeche Mode - Home
When that song came on live at Arvika Festival I finally "understood" Depeche Mode.

The Arvika Festival, Day 3

The pressure was on! Come on, give me the last day! And you failed? What? I fell asleep to "Anna Ternheim" who's real sweet but way to slow for a festival, didn't even bother going to Jenny Wilson cause I knew it was gonna be sort of the same. Then the third girl started singing with one of those cute voices and I almost went berserk. I would have if I wasn't so tired. Even to tired to go to "Mustasch" and I saw some of "Fleet Foxes" which was really nice but once again way to slow.

Thåström was really nice though, even if he was slow as fuck too.

Thåström on stage, with two left pary flags in the middle of the audience =).
Probably most know for his old song, I think in some other group, "Die Mauer".
But my favourite one is: "Fan Fan Fan".

After Thåström I went to go see DAF which were supose to be real good, but fuck no! Horrible! It might be that people don't know enough German to understand their lyrics but thas shit? Fuck no! With song like "I want, I want, I want that my heart will pump as long as it can". WTF?? And just as I got there he said something about going "right" politically or I felt like he was saying that jsut after I'd been to Thåström reminding us all how important socialism is. Two thumbs down for DAF - the horrible electro monoton boring band with brainless lyrics.

The end of the Festival for me was with the band "Korn" which I've listened to since I was about 14, not frequently but still. =) They knew how to pull of a show.

Korn, my favourite song: "Freak on a leashe".

The Arvika Festival, Day 2

I woke up a 8 AM in a boiling tent, with sweet sunshine and a need for a bath. Our camp went to the close by sea and went swimming even though it didn't make a lot of difference - the water was 26 C!! Spent some time with my mum and ad a huge pizza =). As she left I started drinking and the first show of the day was Welle:Erdball. I'd seen them before but this time they were really good, the show was cool and it brought back lots of memories. And in the middle of the show they added lots of pink balloons that went bumping throw the audience - sweet!

Welle:Erdball and the pink balloons.
http://www.welle-erdball.info/
Youtube: Welle:Erdball Monoton+Minimal
Probably their most famous song.

Next concrete for me was "Bob Hund" which I've sort of heard on the raido but never really listened to and wow, they were great! Definitely one of my new favourites bands. Happy, jolly with dry Swedish humour and a lot of political messages.

The singer in Bob Hund - he was a real performer!
One of their new (?) songs: Folkmusik för folk som inte han bete sig som folk
Kinda translated: People's for people that can't behave like people.

Next one up was Depeche Mode!!! Wow, never thought I get to see them live. Just as Bob Hund I hadn't heard to much of them more then their hits but wow, the live show was great.

They really knew how to satisfy an audience.
And had some cool things to say aswell.
Their most famous song is probably: Personal Jesus



The surprise of the day was Fever Ray who I never heard before but sooooo goood!

Fever Ray had a real cool laser show.

This is a video of the concert but if you rather wanna
hear a good version of the song, look further down .

All and all - a perfect festival day! yay!

The Arvika Festival, Day 1

So I went to the Arvika Festival and - of course - had a blast. Not as I thought it would be but real good anyways. I stayed clear from almost all the flirting and concentrated on the music and my camp.

I was lucky enough to drive a small bus from Stockholm to Arvika which was great, only problem was that even though a guy knew that we were going the wrong way didn't say anything. So we made a D-tour that took about 2 ? hours? Gah! But once we got there everything was sweet. The bus was used as Depeche Modes transportation the following day =). But I didn't drive it.

So the Acts? Wow! They were great!

The Festival stated of with having a huge hug with my mum, drinking champagne and going to see one of my favourite bands "Detektivbyrån". Yay!

Mum and me outside my "new" tent I got for 75 kr at an odd shop so
that I didn't have to bring my good one along.

Detektivbyrån =)

Me filming one of the song where the band of three cute geeks
had taken three young local kids to play along with them. So cute!

And if you wanna listen to more Detektivbyrån, here is a link to their homepage.
http://www.detektivbyran.net

Second band of the day was "Röyksopp" a Norwegian electronic duo (?) which are pretty good but I was more in the mood for beer with Mum so I listened with half an ear and concentrated on my beer. Cause Nine Inch Nails were gonna come on stage soon. We'd bought some, which we otherwise never do, band t-shirts and had "NIN" written over out chests.

Nine Inch Nails were of course absolutely faboulus and played all my new favourite song "Dicipline" Yay! I really wanna build a larp character on with that song as an inspiration. Listen more to NIN right here and also download his new album and some other stuff. =) www.NIN.com They were also the best act on the festival!

Strong entrence and getting right to the point.
Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails.

Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails.

Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor again. He's a one man band who makes all the music and under the name of "Nine Inch Nails" tours with a band to preform his music.

My somewhat shaky video of "Dicipline", Nine Inch Nails.

Neither me or Mum could get anything else in our heads or hearts after that show so we went talking for a bit and on towards a good nights sleep. At my camp sight there were lots of people everywhere partying just like it should be on a festival and just as I was gonna crawl inside my sleeping bag some people placed a HUGE stereo outside my tent and started to dance frenetically to some sort of house. I thought I might have troubles sleeping or try to talk to them to move the that thing and their party somewhere else but hey, I can sleep throw anything. It just meant that I dreamt about dancing. =)

Youtube of the Day, a plead to Obama in 30 sec

Important and True but its also a plead to everyone else, you need to start thinking about tomorrow!

Larping and partying

Me as Mother Tyra at the larp, Kalle Lanzt is the fabulous photographer!

I'm promising to report back later but the status right now is that I've come home from Tueonelas Port which was a larp, loved and hated it at the same time and am going - ridiculously early - to the Arvika festival tomorrow morning to see Nine Inch Nails, Depeache Mode and Korn amongst others. And NIN with my Mummy!! So I'm coming back to ya about everything later on, as soon as I'm back in town.=)

Today's Song: Pencil in the Wind Flight of the Conchords
Today's Person: Esa who made my larp!

Ayutthaya and the Elephants - A picture story about Thailand.

My third day in Ayutthaya I spent looking at a castle complex, rather boring even if there were some cool spots. To clean, to western and to neat. I wanna see the real Thailand. I rented a bike for the afternoon and checked out the Elephants.

Arriving at the Elephants, I'm no expert in how they're suppose
to be kept but I'm not to sure if this is the worst or the best.

They've got shade anyways. It takes me a while to decide if I wanna
support this place or not by me being there. No entrance fee only
50 baht for taking pictures, a fair deal.

Then the baby elephants came along and I couldn't resist any more.
Bought some food for them and was nearly pushed into a pond by
their wild attempts to get at my food.

Everyone drinks coke but me and the Elephant.

And the small ones run around the place,
eating everything they can get their "hands" on.

Lop Buri and the Monkeys. - A picture story of Thailand.

As I stayed in Ayutthaya I found out that there were lots of Monkeys in the next city - Lop Buri - about 10 baht and an hour away by train. Wow, I had to check it out!

Video of the Monkey Temple.

There actually are monkeys everywhere,
I later find out that about 3000 (!) run around the city
in different gangs that will regularly fight each other.

These were the first ones I saw.

And while I was busy taking a picture of this one...

This monkey was busy stealing my sunscreen,
luckily he gave up after noticing that it wasn't very tasty.

If you look closely you can see all the monkeys running around everywhere.

The picture every tourist had to take according to the guide
that came with the entrance fee of 50 baht.

I also bought sunflower seeds to feed the monkeys with,
never in my life did I imagine that I'd get to feed one of these sweethearts!

Trust.

Inside the temple it was dark, monkey free and filled with... bats!

Feeding more of these little furry friends. Its meant to bring luck too.

This little fella' can't be to old, seamed kind of lost too.

The guide/caretaker thought it was to hot outside today
so he bought the monkeys a huge log of ice which they loved.

And then he showed me how monkeys look when they're real angry!

And I leave you with this little fella' who took my sunflower seeds
and stole my heart.

Ayutthaya, Thailand

I had a quick one week stopover in Thailand between New Zealand and Sweden while getting back up to the Northern hemisphere. But I managed to see quite a lot, this was my wonderful stay in Ayutthaya, Thailand's old capital and filled with old temples.

From Bangkok its about 2 or 3 hours by local train to go to Ayutthaya. The prices can vary between 20 to 200 baht, so be careful where and when you buy your ticket. Never take the tourist bus, they are way to expensive. The trains are quite comfortable but don't take to much luggage, then you'll be ok. And buy some food + water before the trip, they'll be heaps of salesmen- /woman on the train but again - more expensive.

The train station in Ayutthaya, this is how they all look. Cute, nice and... simple?
Looking out of the window while one the train towards Ayutthaya.


They are selling food on board the train too but its more expensive.

Its so easy spotting other tourists/backpackers like yourself and often a lot easier and sometimes nicer to see the sights with them. I found two on the train, wanting to see all the temples there as well. Thailander's will always try to "fool" you into believing that you can't get across to the other side of the river without paying for the tuk-tuk. Or that it would take you way to long to see the sights by foot or renting a bike. But what the heck, they have to make a living and I know that I'll always find out after a while where the cheapest transportation is to get to my goal. So I paid 80 bath to get across the river with a tuk-tuk and to a sweet guest house called "Tony's Place". Where I barted, and flirted, my way into a room with a fan for 150 baht per night. Sweet as! My own room!!!

My first own room with a bed for... I can't even remember how long.


Tony's Place, my guest house.


Our Tuk-Tuk driver for the day.

Afterwards we, the two guys I meet on the train, and the tuk-tuk driver went to check out the old temples. The coolest one was the first and were we actually paid the 50 baht entrance as well. We saw some other too but didn't wanna pay any more cash to see them up close. The tuk-tuk costed about 200 bath in total and the boys paid for their trip back to the train station while letting me out at my guest house on the way back. Not to expensive but a lot more then taking the local boat which I found out the day after, taking you to the train station with a few minutes walk on each side for about 4 baht! I knew it!!

My first temple in Ayutthaya.

Something old, something new.

Everyone needs a bit of clothing.

The cool Buddha head that was INSIDE the tree.

And then it started raining but it didn't matter, +35 degrees any ways.

The local boat, Ayutthaya is surrounded by a river.


One of the markets in Ayutthaya with so much food! And way to much meat.

More Beans

I LOVE beans! Since I became a veggie I've really started to dig into these goodies and even though people say they aren't that tasty I say thy juts don't know how to cook them! I just need to brag a bit about the bean spread I just made which took about 3 minutes - without a mixer!

Favourite beans or chickpeas
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
Oregano
Salt


Mix everything with a fork and enjoy or make up your on combinations.

And Oh, you're so right! I should really get back to work. But I needed to have some food with this weekend. And I'm totally mindfucking myself... Recorded my own voice while I'm reading everything about the larp I'm going to tomorrow which I'm now listening to. Gah! Try litsening to yourself while running around and panicing (Don't Panic) about the packing, its an interesting experience to say the least. Welcome to my world, or should I try to get the world of Thule to welcome me?

Ok, you got me. I'm blogging instead of working.

Going Native

Only Problem? Fuck native, or no, fuck medieval native. I've been a fan of these Fantasy larps for years but I've totally lost my love for them. All these props and costumes, can't we just focus what's really important? The social game time between us? Gah! Well, I signed up, I paid and now I have to do the work. It will be fun in the end, or so I keep telling myself. Also it seams like I've lost lots of my stuff, somewhere around the country. Fuck.

No succses in finding a job, a room, a volunteerplacement or life for the next couple f months. I'm currently waiting for my boss to call me - at any time - to say that I can start working. Gah.

Going back to "Stress-chaotic-tomorrow-is-larp-mindset". Like I said on my facebook status, I've seamed to have lost my motivation. If you know where I left it please tell me! And I really really badly need it, like a penguin need to fill up o salt for the ocean while skidding around the ice blocks of Antarctica. Not the easiest thing finding a 24/7 shop around there is it?

This is me ages ago, I think it would have been back in 2001? I'm down on the right side screaming my ass off and saying something like "All Hail The King", or that one but in Swedish. Its actually the same campaign that I'm gonna be visiting again but not as the same character, nope. I'm really sick of playing soldiers but having said that, I'm not to keen on playing the priest that I'm gonna do now either. Well, as long as I get there it will be ok. It need to be ok!!

Todays music: Anything with medieval feeling to it, gotta get into shape! But oh, I miss my dubstep. Or please just give me some good hard NZ Drum&Bass...

Midsummer

We've just had midsummer here in Sweden which means that we're all sitting and freezing, no one remembers that it wont be warm for another month yet but who the fuck cares? The tradition makes everyone blind to anything else. The Swedes wrap flowers around a pole, straiten the thing up and hope that no one will notice that its a giant cook and not a Christian symbol which most people forget anyways (it just to be a huge cook anyways, nowadays everyone's forgotten just about everything). They will now dance around the "thing" singing "We are the little frogs, we are the little frogs..." while drinking huge amounts of strong stuff not forgetting - eating rotten fish. No need to say that I don't participate in this foolishness. I spent my midsummer's eve in a sweet little collective, eating vegetarian dumpster food, listening to weird and very nice music wile discussing politics and having a free shop where I got a couple of good new shirts - me like! The rest of the weekend was spent with other friends too. =)

Messy place & The Cute Danish Guy

At the tivoli in Copenhagen, last month with Charles.

Its a messy weird place, up there in my head. I just wanna quite and run away again. Is that's way I love the road so much? I've got no clue. I just know that the weather, the people and the sofa I call my home isn't quite where my heart is. Even though I've got no fucking clue where that is. I need something new. I need to know whats gonna happen next, what I would like to do when the leafs turn red. I need to know what happens when I've run out of favours and money all together. What the fuck am I gonna do about money? Or am I gonna be able to pull it of like Dylan has, totally without? My head is a messy fucked-up place when my heart has gone to sleep.

I ran around in the rain yesterday, made cartwheels and felt the cold water licking my feet as I jumped around bare-feet through the puddles. I was happy then, excited about the small things and my future, I guess I should know better then to trust people. And I should know better then to run around in the rain, I'm 26 and should also know what I would want to do with my life. But most importantly I should know that if I'm really happy my fall with be so much bigger. But last and the thing I should be listening to, its not all that bad. I know its just one of my mood swings and nothing to get all worked up about. Chill.


Song of the day: Tina Dickow - On The Run (live acoustic)
Which I heard the first time at a concert in Copenhagen with Charles. (The Cute Danish Guy)

Oh, and I did fall that night. But I got "sober" again just a few days later and realized that all "Men" are idiots. And are just to be kept as friends. But I had a sweet tie that night, at the Tivoli in Copenhagen.

We stumbled upon a show that was so cute! These guys made us laugh so bad but were so good!

The cute Danish Guy, Charles. Posing for my blogg.

Ps. I didn't steal your blog title Mr Smith, it just happened to be the same! ;P And yes, this is all a part of my "gah, what the fuck am I gonna do with my life"- crisis and nothing to worry about, not really.

Empty

No, not at all. A lot has happened. To much to talk about, I've been out on the road again and am now in Stockholm living on a friends couch. Don't know how long I'm gonna stay here or what I'm gonna do. Got a job but don't know when they're gonna call and say "please work now". Got things to do but no fucking energy. I really just wanna sleep, crawl into my little cocoon and let the world go on without me for a little while.

And I've found a new addiction - The Sims 3. Horrible. Makes me sit for hours and look at other people having commitment issuers, huge houses and lots of trouble - which is not my own. Ok, I might need to confess something, I'm in some sort of "what the hell am I doing-crisis". I've got no clue. I just know that certain things aren't what I want them to be and others are more or less a good idea on paper but in practice? Well, I don't know. Making no sense? Welcome ot my world.

I've confronted my "spring trouble" crushes, like the one on The Cute Danish Guy who's name is Charles and noticed that he's really cute and all and I'd love to stay friends with him but the bubbles are gone. Which is great! I've got another one of my sweet boxes of memories after leaving Denmark - or in fact - I like the box better when it was just from Norway. Or do I? I don't know. It was good that I confronted myself and took the challenge of actually going to Denmark and finding out. Good on ya mate! And I had a good time too besides the thing of "I'm a guy and get cold after sex". Gah! Seriously?! I don't want anything esle, but talk to me?

So the second one? Well, as I came back to Stockholm I meet him at a party - his party. Which was really nice, we had a good time and all. But was it a good idea? Well, in the end. Maybe not. I don't know yet. And yes, if you're reading this and am as confused as I am then its all in right order. I don't know either. Don't worry. I just know that being intimate with a heterosexual man might not be the right way to go for me, which I've known for a while but sort of forget from time to time. Hmm, I'm not making any sense am I? Ah, fuck it!

Song of the day: Bush - Machinehead


ps. if you were wondering - yes, it is my time of the month and the world sucks.