Last bbq.....

Heyyy!
My life in Warrington is now coming to an end. (for den har gangen) ... ;)
Im returning to my home land to spend the summer with my family and friends and CAT!!!...Summer in svea is hard to resist sometimes with all the midsommar, summerhouse, skinny dipping in the sea osv..i just cant wait to take the bike to maln!!! Another thing i cant wait for is to get cosy with Lollos superfina mage and feel how life is full of miracles!

I am sure going to miss Warrington though, this house has so much awesomeness in it, and then im not talking about the furnitures....although they have supercomfy sofas and a kitchen with a space theme.....!!!

So, to make the most of these last days we have decided to have a Bbq, which I think is the best way to celebrate anything life! Mandy and Dave have been sweating in the kitchen making this mega new york cheesecake, i have made chocholate balls.....we all contribute in our own ways !


Now i am very hot and sticky so i will have a shower before people start showing up...dont know what time everyone is coming so better be safe than sorry!!!


See you soon
peace and love

The Vacuum Diaries...by dave.

Have you ever been in the situation where two elderly Swedish ladies are arguing about your ability to use a vacuum cleaner?..... No?....

Yesterday, I found myself in Ilsbo, a village in Northern Sweden close to Hudiksvall (the town i'm living in for the time being). Twas the first day of my summer job as a cleaner for a local cleaning company. It was the introduction day, and I was following Karina, the lady I will be taking over from whilst she is on holiday. She seemed to be in her fifties, and she was very sweet and kind. I sat in her car and she told me all about the history of area whilst driving to the house we would be cleaning.

The house was gigantic. Karina gave me the task of vacuuming, and was told that I should use the small white vacuum cleaner in the cupboard. I went to the cupboard and saw four vacuum cleaners. There were two small white ones. So I gambled and took the closest and lightest looking one. 

I started vacuuming, feeling quite smug given the simplicity of the task in relation to the pay per hour. I was soon to discover that vacuuming is not all what it seems to be.

The front door opened and the lady who owns the house had come home. Karina led me to the front door and introduced me. She seemed very nice, if a bit stressed. She appeared to be planning for a party. We went our separate ways and I continued to vacuum confidently. Not quite in a Freddie Mercury 'I want to break free' style, but pretty close. The lady came through the room I was vacuuming and glanced my way. She was clearly distressed and there was a tenseness between us for a brief moment. But it soon passed. I moved on to the next room and she returned. In a moment of madness she snatched the vacuum from my hands and proceeded to show me the correct way to vacuum her mat. I watched closely for the right technique and was even tempted to compliment her distribution. But I could still feel a tenseness in the air. All of a sudden she decided the small, white vacuum I was using was completely worthless and literally threw it into the cupboard it had once stood so peacefully. I felt for the little fella. She then brought out the big dog. A huge blue vacuum cleaner that seemed to have been bred in the depths of hoover hell. 

At this point I was feeling a bit of anger towards the lady, mainly for her mistreatment of the small, white vacuum. She took me threw the process of setting up the blue monster, which includes lifting the top section and filling its innards with water. Strange, i thought, but do-able. At this point Karina turned up with a complaint. She told the lady that I already had a lot on my plate, and that I was not experienced enough for the blue monster. The lady who owned the house exploded with disbelief. I didn't get a chance to interrupt and tell them that I was in fact capable of handling such a machine, but they had already locked horns. The lady who owned the house wanted to cancel the whole thing and couldn't believe a man of my age was incapable of using the blue monster. At this point I was desperate to tell the two of them that it was actually no problem, and that, to be honest, I couldn't really give a shit. 

I got my chance to speak and told the lady that it was OK, and I was happy to vacuum her mats with whichever vacuum cleaner she desired. Karina had stormed off by this point. I must have upset her by not acknowledging that she had defended me. I'd only been there fifteen minutes!

The rest of the day went smoothly, and although my self-esteem had took a slight knock, I was still happy to be making some money. 

I'll be back at the house in two weeks time, and once i've grappled with the blue monster, I plan to rescue the small, white vacuum from the awful life it must have in that god forsaken cupboard. 

Type in ‘What should I…’ in google.

I didn’t even need to finish typing my question. I could just scroll down to it in the suggestions box. It seems most people are having this problem, no? Because everywhere I turn these days I see success. People fulfilling dreams and making careers for themselves has been all around me lately. I went for an ‘assessment day’ earlier this week for a graduate sales company called ‘BMS’ who made it quite clear to me that my future does not belong in that industry. I didn’t mind though. Wearing that suit and pretending to be interested in sales made me feel dirty. Being amongst people that are so willing to manipulate the vulnerable and spend there days striving to sell a mind-numbingly boring product made me feel physically sick. I was so shaken by the whole experience I was nearly run over by a motorbike walking home. The only thought that went through my head was, ‘Shit, I would have been found dead dressed in a suit. What a tragic thing that would have been.’

Well I had betrayed my own personal beliefs by even going to that ‘assessment day’. Quite frankly, I panicked. And here’s why.

I completed a Bachelors Degree in Drama in 2010 achieving a 2:1 for my efforts. Although this was one of the highlights of my entire life up to now, it’s fair to say that it’s a useless degree in terms of a career. An arts degree was always going to be like that. It was fascinating and challenging and memorable, but it’s given me not a lot of options post-grad and a huge amount of debt. I’m actually quite confused at how encouraged we are at the end of A-level to pick a University, pick a course and continue to study for yet another three years. We are very vulnerable as 18 year olds. How on earth is an 18 year old supposed to know for definite what they want to do for the rest of their lives? Unless they are completely certain, the overwhelming price of university must be reiterated to them at all of those form lessons when we spend all morning doing nothing but personal statements and UCAS.

Anyway,

After that I went to live in Sweden with my girlfriend. We lived in her hometown for two months where we started saving for a trip to Thailand, which we did, spending two months there in 2011. We lived in Stockholm for a year, saving again to fund a working holiday in New Zealand, which we did, spending over six months there with a two-week trip to Fiji of all places afterwards. I’ve grown so much as a person during these years. I have seen some of the most breathtaking places, met some of the most incredible people and learnt more about myself and life then I ever thought possible. I believe now that life is only about love and family and friendship and experience, and nothing to do with materialism and wealth and power. I couldn’t care less about any of that.

Until I returned to the UK, and had my unemployed, prospect-less panic attack that caused the completely unnecessary morning visit to the ‘BMS’ assessment centre. Which, as I mentioned earlier, was nearly the last day of my life. Can you imagine? My last day on earth being spent neglecting everything I had learnt in the past six years of my life would be a huge self stab in my own back. Maybe the speeding, leather clad biker that missed me by inches was my guardian angel, there to remind me that life is short, and I had merely been stunned by a capitalist smoke grenade that had temporarily blurred my new way of looking at life.

It was a close call and I couldn’t get my suit off fast enough when I got home. So I had betrayed my beliefs in a moment of madness. But on reflection I understood what had happened. It’s scary to be twenty-four without a career, not even knowing where you be living next month. All the success and dream fulfillment I am seeing should be praised, not envied, because who’s to say when my next near death experience will be? Now I know I have to try and get a lot of living in before that happens.  

Milford sound and good times in Queenstown

8^th of april. 

We arrived in Milford sound about 4 pm after one great taxi ride. The scenery was so beautiful. Such a shame I managed to sleep through half of it… I some how thought it was a 3 hour ride. It was only 45 minutes. Oh well!!! We checked in at the Milford Lodge and were positively surprised by the place, it had an awesome lounge and a little shop that we straight away bought crisps and chocolate from. We ate and ate and it was soooo gooood. And the nice receptionist turned out to be almost exactly from where we lived in Stockholm, Hagersten. Just one street below us. Small world ey! Had a nice Swedish chat with him. He had been there for 3 years!!

In the evening, after eating for about 2 hours…we thought we needed to go for a walk and we wanted to see a proper milford sound sunset. It was magical!! (Magical is a word I will use a lot in this post!!) After that we craved a big cold beer, so we went to a pub nearby called ‘the blue duck’. It was a good beer and a very nice pub! Life couldn’t be better, really, magical..

9^th of april. 

We woke up ready to kayak. Milford fjord here we come!! (We are told milford sound is misleading…cos its not a sound, it is a fjord…they just didn’t know what a fjord was back then.) Our guide was a proper kiwi, really funny and very passionate about his thing! We were only 7 people, a good group. The kayaking went amazingly well, me and dave had some communication issues at times but not major…(we shared a kayak)…hehe. All I can say is that Milford fjord is a magical place…and it has to be experienced! We were pretty lucky with the weather, the wind on our side and blue sky! Although the guide said there is no bad weather when it comes to milford, if it rains there are amazing waterfalls that you don’t get otherwise. But we were happy with the sunshine and we got to experience one powerful waterfall anyway that is always there no matter what. Magical.

Now we had to focus on getting back to Queenstown where our friends Steven and Cecile were waiting for us to celebrate…loads of things…but mostly that Cecile is getting married to Mark in 13 days!!

It was a wonderful night with pizzas, beers, dancing, a man in a club who voluntarily stripped for Cecile (hahhaha) and more dancing!! So much fun!!

Routeburn track.

HEY! Im going to give english blogging a go for all our english fans out there ;) It wont be perfect but hopefully it will be understandable.

Its the 5th of april....We have packed everything, played a last round of the german card game 'Geshenkt'. We are now saying goodbye to Omarama and our lovely friends...although not forever. In 5 days Steven and Cecile will meet up with us in Queenstown for a celebration, yey:)!
Before we step on the bus towards Q-town we can see that the first snow of the year has settled on the mountains...like a symbol for an end of an era. But this is also the day we have so long been waiting for, the day before we starting the Routeburn track. Our big adventure! We have no idea what to expect but we know its going to be something special.

First day of the track.
We got on the shuttle bus to Glenorchy and the starting point. Its very early in the morning and i want to say that we were full of energy and excitement, but the tiredness from a sleepless night(too excited to sleep) was undeniable...To make it better we sat next to this american old couple on the bus, who talked and talked and talked, loud...usually i think its fun to listen to other peoples conversations on buses, but this was something else, and again, very early in the morning haha.
As soon as we jumped off the bus we luckily felt less tired and more excited. The adventure could begin. The first people we met on the track gave us their walking stick...a great stick!! Didnt know then exactly how much that stick was going to help us. Which was loads!!
After an hour of walking we stopped for our first fika in a beautiful area next to a river. Crackers cheese and salami was on the menu! It was sensational.
The last 2 hours walking before we came to the hut was very steep and hard work. Sweat was pouring down in our faces. Felt good to finally be able to sit down and just relax in a very cosy but cold hut. We went up on a hill in the evening to watch the sunset and drink some baileys. Life was good.

Second day.
Didnt get a lot of sleep cos of a heavy snore-chestra + freezing our arses off in our 'summer sleeping bags' that we borrowed. Hehe. Didnt research our sleeping bags ability enough. Oh well the weather was beautiful, and we had a spectacular walk ahead of us this day, the best bit they say!!! And it was AMAZING. We stopped too many times to take photos and to take everything in but it was totally overwhelming so i dont think my brain absorbed even half of it all. Lakes, mountains, dave with his backpack and the stick which made him look like Gandalf, oh god, too much!
We also did an extra climb which was very icy....we stopped half way up and gave it a second thought, i was not convinced to keep going... could not understand at all how one could get back down alive...but we are both too stubborn to give up. It took us 2 hours return, and i must say the view was well worth it. We saw all the way to Milford sound. Breathtaking. And we got down alive by using our bums a lot. After this dramatic part it was a very even and beautiful walk, and we could talk properly to each other as we were not out of breath all the time, felt nice.
Our cheese and salami tasted just as nice today!! And the coffee of course.
When we got to our second hut after about 6 hours of walking, we were not so fresh...so we went to a nearby lake to have a wash. It was ice cold but very refreshing.
After that we had soup for dinner and some chunky bread. We made some friends on the way that we spent the evening with talking laughing and eating their amazing chocolate...
Then the man of the hut came to talk to us about what we had seen this day and some practical stuff. He was very funny and spoke about anything you can imagine...he drifted away from every subject and probably told us way more than he was supposed to, it was more like a stand up show than an information speech. We also had a beautiful evening and the sky was bright pink. After that we went to bed with gloves on, hats, socks, 3 layers and a big smile on our faces...and we had a nice and warm
sleep.

Third day.
We started early cos we had a bus to catch from the finish point, the bus to milford sound.
Weather was good, we were eager to finish our track and get to milford..there was still loads of nice scenery to enjoy but we were eager... It took us 4 or 5 hours to walk the last bit. And the feeling when we reached the goal was a feeling of victory. WE DID IT!!! Our legs and backs were in pain, but we were in heaven,,hahah. Thank you stick. thank you weather. thank you new zealand. thank you coffee. thank you legs for not giving up, sorry for putting you through so much pain.

Another feeling we had after finishing the track was....we want more of this!!! Kepler, you are next!!!
In a few years...

The last week in Omarama :)

So we finally finished work at the Heritage Gateway (to hell) Hotel. I topped the last shift off by accidentally opening a large bottle of champagne for a guest who only wanted a small bottle. The kitchen guys were happy though cos the rest of bottle got shared around! The boss on the other hand wasn't too happy. But WHO CARES! We were so happy when we were done that we even opened another bottle of champagne back at the house. This time just for us two. Then the flatmates returned home and decided to open more champagne. So much champagne! Everybody got pretty tipsy to say the least. We also had a ‘farewell house party’ to plan for the next night, so we made sure to sober up before bed. The next day felt amazing. FREEDOM! No more making beds, cleaning toilets, folding sheets, or carrying bags for little old Chinese ladies who seemingly didn’t leave anything at home. My back will never be the same again.

So we headed to the shop and bought loads of food, cakes and beers in preparation for the big night. Cecile even bought balloons! But we were to discover that they were actually water balloons (which were pretty fun after everyone had had a few drinks!). We got the house ready whilst I fired the barbeque up. Johanna made a chocolate cake and Cecile prepared the dance floor. Everyone came bit by bit and eventually everyone got drunk enough to dance and do the limbo! It was a great night. Everyone had fun. Can’t be better than that! It finished with us all chilling round the fire eating cheese and hummus. 

Gonna miss everyone in Omarama. It really was a job sent from the gods and gave us the ability to do everything we wanted to do. We were truly lucky to have lived in such a beautiful area. We will definitely come back to visit little Omarama in the future! 

MT COOK

HEJ!!

Efter mer an 2 manader i denna lilla by(eller stad, men liten som en by, men de har tydligen inte byar i nz) med endast en timmes biltur fran det statligaste av fjall, Mt Cook, fick vi till slut, en ledig vacker dag, chansen till att lana en bil. (Stort tack till vara legendariska rumspolare Mark och Cecile). 

Vi tvekade saklart inte en sekund pa vart vi skulle nanstans. Det var Mt Cook for hela slanten, annars fick det va.

Det var en helt underbar kansla att satta sig en bil tillsammans med Dave och bara kanna sig sadar fri och att man ar pa vag mot ett spannande aventyr! Vadret var perfekt. Vi hade massa gofika med oss. Kaffe i termos. Kameran! Vi var redo att bestiga toppen. Nej, men iaf redo for en valdigt vacker promenad kallad 'Hooker valley track'. 

Pa vagen till mt cook stannade vi till vid Lake pukaki som ar en gudomligt vacker sjo. Tog nagra kort som sa manga andra turister, sen bar vidare mot the one and only mountain. 

Hela dagen var magisk. Det tog cirka 3 timmar att ga hooker valley track tur och retur. Sa roligt oxa att en gubbe var tvungen att kommentera att han minsann inte sett nagra hookers pa hela vagen, ha ha. Kan iaf inte forsta hur vackert ett fjall kan vara. Det ar nog det mest statligaste jag nansin sett. Maktigt vad naturen kan producera. Korten vi tog gor det absolut inte rattvisa. 

Internet ar segt sa ni far se bilder en annan gang. den som vantar pa nat gott...

Pa vagen hem stannade vi annu en gang vid Pukaki, och denna gang fick vi uppleva sjon i solnedgangens vackra ljus....:) vi hittade en fin stenstrand att stanna vid, inga turister...bara vi, kaffet och kakorna. Det var ett mycket bra avslut pa dagen ma jag saga. 

Och vet ni. Inte nog med att vi fick se mt cook fran sa nara hall pa mark. Vi fick for tva dagar sen se det fran luften ocksa...vi fick turen att flyga med var van Ash som jobbar som pilot men aven som bartender pa var resturang:) Han var otroligt proffsig och den flygturen maste vara bland det maktigaste jag nansin upplevt. Han gjorde aven nagra loopingar eller vad det heter. Rejalt adrenalinpumpande...kandes som magen satt i halsen. 

Nu kanner vi oss iaf redo att lamna Omarama. Nasta torsdag aker vi soderut till fjordland dar mer aventyr vantar....

Hoppas alla mar bra hemma! 

Och ett till grattis har till sebbe som fyllt 21 ar!! :) trodde jag var 21...

love and peace

//de stora aventyrarna.