8:12pm EAST
12:12 Swedish Time
Temperature : 7 - 11C (currently 11C)

Evening good people of Australia! Thought I'd give you all a post and a hoy before I head home to keep working...exams are in 2 weeks for me now (damn these 4 semester a year universities!)

OK, so yesterday I got back from a whirlwind tour of Helsinki via 2 14 hour boat trips. Now when I say boat trips, what I am referring to is a cruise on one of the transbaltic ferries that carry a few thousand people...they are a minature cruise ship! The one we were on was one of the largest...it had 3 nightclubs, several bars, heaps of duty free shopping, umpteen saunas, spas and the likes, a small lap pool, and many restaurants. Each way we threw massive parties (there were roughly 150 International Students on board) that left us incredibly tired at either end of the trip, and many with very very very sore heads. Luckily, I was not one of them! I had a ball. On the first night we had a huge buffet dinner with all kinds of food you could possibly imagine (M,D, Lach, Jack and Zan...it was akin to a Lindeman spread), followed by dancing until the very wee hours of the morning. The music was terrible, but no one cared! I started the trip home with a 3 hour spa and sauna session with Colin, Diego, Rossa and Duncan...seriously for me the highlight of the trip...I needed that because after all the dancing and hiking over the past few weeks my body is a wreck! A fit, healthy wreck, but a wreck none the less! The spa setup was in a glass house on the top deck of the ship, and we tripped between the various different types of spas, and the turkish and standard saunas.

Actually, a side comment is necessary here. Saunas are EVERYWHERE in Sweden, and they rock. The student accomodation at Råslätt has two, and you can never grow tired of them. I must say however, that turkish saunas kick their asses...they are basically steam rooms, but the steam is impregnated with spices and oils to relax you and to clear your throat and lungs...Dad, all I could think the whole time I was in there was think that we should have bought one of these when you had whooping cough...it is like living inside one giant vapouriser...awesome.

OK, so yeah then the rest of the night was spent partying a la standard style, with a dash of karaoke for good measure.

Helsinki as a city was quite pretty, and I could have spent more than 8 hours there. Scarily enough I am getting used to the cold, and I would have described the 9 degree temperature as comfortable and actually a tad on the warm side (I am earning a small reputation as a crazy Aussie hear because I still wear shorts from time to time. It is true that I don't really feel the cold on my legs, and whilst it gives the other ISs something to laugh about, they don't really know the truth, which is that I have been too busy to go shopping for some pants, and as such have only 2 pairs to wear in a standard week!!). Anyway, Helsinki (Helsingbor) reminds me a lot of Brisbane...it has quite a relaxed, slow to moderately paced atmosphere. Architecturally though it was destinctly Russian, which I must say is really pretty.

I seperated from my usual tourist group of Dave and Barbs who went with a largish group on a mission designed by Dave. I wasn't too keen on a mission, chosing rather to aimlessly wander the streets seeking out left and right turns when I felt. I did have one mission, which was to have a bath at one of the most famous bathhouses in Finland. From the front the building looks like an old appartment block, complete with one of those cool elevators where you have to close the cage (a la Cary Grant / Audrey Hepburn - 'Charades') . Then inside it is this amazing bathouse....beautiful.

So there I was, keen for a true Finnish experience. The reason that no one was joining me was because it was just that...a TRUE Finnish bath house...aka you go bollocks out for the world to see. And as the Peregian crew would know, I am always up for such a challenge. Bugger it all though, it wasn't to be. Men and women have seperate hours in the day to bath there, and I had missed the men's time by 15 minutes. Grr!

A second unsuccessful sight seeing mission later I threw the book in the backpack, and wandered a bit more. I stumbled on the 1952 Olymics site, and I have to say this was the highlight of Helsinki for me. I'll show the photos later, but it was awesome...went up the famous tower, sat alone in an empty Olympic stadium...it was great. I bumped into Dustin from the US and a few of his mates here and we even 'accidentally' found a way past a few locked gates (aka quick look around and then a well executed climb) to get up onto the roof of the stadium...it was cool. I'll show you the photos!

We finished with a quick trip to a massive fortress built on several small islands in the harbour. It was built by the Swedes (Finland used to be rulled by Sweden) to keep out the Russians, although that failed because they got their butts kicked. Very impressive fortress though, I must say.

Hmm, so that is a VERY quick summary of my Finland adventure...it'll be my last big adventure until November as I have a lot of work to get through.

I hope everyone back home is enjoying their week off...Good luck to Cadden at uni games, and also big good luck to everyone with assignments and exams, especially Fush, Sailor Moon and Goober...go hard guys! Missing you all heaps...email me to let me know how things are going!

Hej då!

9:32pm EAST
13:32 Swedish Time
Temperature : 0!! - 9C (currently 10C)

Hej Ppl! Just thought I'd say I will be away on a cruise ship to Finland until Sunday, so won't be doing much online :)
Haven't done much today except I managed to write a new song, so I'm a pretty smiley boy today. I know my photos are stil up but I had an artistic brain flash that I am sure will never eventuate, but I would like to design, and until then I won't put them up...soon though I promise!

My Postal Address for Mum :
c/o Wessen Familj
Norra Barrgatan 9
554 46 Jönköping

PS Jane, thanks for the postcard...perfect choice cause I am seriously missing the beach!
SWEDEN

Ooops...side note, the phrase 'situation' refers to a specific event - please don't take this to mean I don't want to know what's going on in Aus (Sorry again people who took offense!)...on the contrary I am seriously craving news (and photos) from my friends back home. Especially since it is now very cold and I can't drown my sorrows at the beach... :)

8:14pm EAST
12:14pm Swedish Time
Temperature : 6 - 11C (currently 9C)

Today I got up at 6am, did my exercises and then had an awesome breakfast consisting of a bowl of cereal, yogurt, a banana, a cup of tea, a glass of orange juice, 3 pieces of toast and a boiled egg. What can I say...but you gotta suck up and get your body in a good mood before you let it in on the secret that it's spending the entire day on it's ass studying... :)

Off to Helsinki this weekend!!!

OK, simple post - read it and take it in. I didn't want to use my blog for anything like this, but it's getting beyond a joke. You gossip mongers are pathetic. If I get one more f%#king email about the so-called 'situation' back home in Aus I am going to ignore every last one of you until the end of time itself. Don't you people have lives? Can't you leave people alone to their own devices? Seriously, if your life is that god damn boring that you have to f#&k with two other lives to get your rocks off, then for crying out loud, go get a gun and shoot yourself. I'll even shout you the goddamn bullets. But until such time as you do, leave them the hell alone. I don't like people messing with two of my best friends when I'm not there to put the boot in. And mark my words, if it continues, I WILL put the boot in. Get a life.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some shopping to do.

6:14am Swedish Time - rounding out the morning in fine scanner style with some classic Grinners...Mmmm...Tang

4:26am Swedish Time and I am scanning like a man possessed. 2 rolls down...4 to go...I got Rattle + Hum blaring, and I have a lecture at 8am...GO TEAM GO!!!!

Grrr. I got bugger all done tonight. I blame TV.

Top 10 signs you are likely to pull an all nighter in a swedish uni

10. It's 11:15pm and you have only just finally finished dealing with email,webcomics, etc.
9. Harry Connick & Fiona Apple be givin you funky lovin' tonight
8. Private lab. :)
7. You filled up early on a bab pizza the size of a WEAD Troy Black Eye Special
6. You have well and truely decided that to love the [VHDL] language you have to be born on the banks of the Misissippi.
5. So you don't ´look like an idiot this work has to be finished by morning
4. You turned down a free dinner for this. Now it's your duty to make sure that NEVER happens again.
3. You've heard that there is something strangely sexy about a man with dark circles under his eyes and a serious 12 o'clock shadow. I mean hey, it's worked for Paul Dempsey...
2. You've got 6 rolls of film to scan if you get bored with it all.

And the #1 reason you think you'll be pulling an all nighter : It's a 30 minute walk home, it's 2 degrees celsius outside, and YOU'RE WEARING SHORTS.

Thanks, it's been real.

ok...so I'll do some work. For crying out loud...leave me alone... :)

Fiona Apple is my goddess.

10. I Know
Words and Music: Fiona Apple
So be it, I’m your crowbar
If that’s what I am so far
Until you get out of this mess
And I will pretend
That I don’t know of your sins
Until you are ready to confess
But all the time, all the time
I’ll know, I’ll know
And you can use my skin
To bury secrets in
And I will settle you down
And at my own suggestion,
I will ask no questions
While I do my thing in the background
But all the time, all the time
I’ll know, I’ll know
Baby-I can’t help you out, while she’s still around
So for the time being, I’m being patient
And amidst this bitterness
If you’ll just consider this-even if it don’t make sense
All the time-give it time
And when the crowd becomes your burden
And you’ve early closed your curtains,
I’ll wait by the backstage door
While you try to find the lines to speak your mind
And pry it open, hoping for an encore
And if it gets too late, for me to wait
For you to find you love me, and tell me so
It’s ok, don’t need to say it.

Oh, and another thing - someone asked, and seeing as I am in another country and therefore largely out of earshot, I have posted 3 shitty recordings (Lis, don't bother, they were on Lisika:21) of some music I wrote just before I left. I make no apologies, only warnings - the songs were written pretty much as the recording occured, so there are some wonderful examples of flat singing, sharp singing, mumbled words and absolutely McF#@ked guitar moments. So don't say I didn't warn you. With luck and some serious kissing-ass-of-david I'll record some new stuff here a little bit more decently and post that in the place of the stuff already here. BTW, they are in MP3 format and aren't streamable as far as I know. Yes this was a deterant.

tb shipwreck christmas beatle

4:46am EAST
20:56 Swedish Time
Temperature : 7 - 13C (currently 10C)

This post is pretty much solely for the benefit of the members of the now defunct Secret Lab. Here in Jonkoping, just two blocks from the engineering building is a place that I'm sure at least Pato and Jimmi would refer to as 'the temple'. It's known as Evergreens and it is the home of the famous 'Kebab Pizza'. Gentlemen, I say no more. :)

6:00AM EAST
22:00 Swedish Time
Temperature : 5 - 17C (currently 12C)

Firstly, the obvious comment on the weather. 5 days ago it was 25 degrees. Yesterday it was 13 degrees at midday. My advice to you is thus : when someone from Scandanavia tells you that Winter comes on pretty fast, believe the bastard.

OK, so you may have noticed that I did none of the web updating over the weekend that I promised, however there are two simple expanations for this : The first is that FUJI decided to hold onto my photos for a few more days, thus removing the point of the major part of my work, and secondly 3 out of the past 4 nights I have slept on someone else's floor. We had a big round of birthdays over the weekend plus I have been jamming with James out at Råslät, so I haven't been in town to get to uni. But I do promise to get it up as soon as possible...most likely this weekend. Nothing out of the ordinary to report really...I get my first major project this Friday which will signal the definative end of my 'hard core' partying as it is about 50-100 hours worth of work and I have 3 weeks to do it in. Yay fun... I have been enjoying the fact that for the first time in many many semesters I have been able to socialise freely...it's amazing what cutting 30 hours a week of jobs can do for your spare time. This weekend will be another quiet one though. Some people are heading off to Norway, but they are doing it in a weekend and I wanted to spend more time on the fjords than their budgeted 4 hours...so I think I'll go next spring. Besides, everyone is going to Helsinki the following weekend, and that will be enough for me. I'm a bit out of practise on this whole social calendar extravaganza that the rest of you maintain in Aus :)

I didn't re-earn the nickname softus cockeratus over the past 12 months without a little bit of kickback :)

Hello to family...missing you all heaps...especially mum's cooking...even dad's webber episode. Part II of my 'damn this swedish food' commentary begins here with what I ate for dinner tonight. Now I'll grant the swedes one thing, they do try...but come on...

Tonight I had what is commonly refered to as 'Blood Pudding', which, unfortunately, does actually sound better than it is, even when taken literally. It is the Swedish equivelant of Vegemite - high in vitamins, highly recommended for pregnant women (poor buggers), and absolutely no foreigner will stomach it voluntarily. Basically, what it is is coagulated fried pig's blood, with a sweet berry jam on top. I'm not joking you. That is EXACTLY what it is. And I ate it. And based on the response from my stomach, perhaps I shouldn't take such a liberal attitude to this whole 'exploring cultures thing'. The taste, for those who are interested, is actually not bad. It actually [scarily] tastes a lot like chocolate pudding. Heck, it was actually pretty enjoyable. I just couldn't convince my body that taste is all that matters...damn my persistence for wanting to know exactly what I was putting into my mouth. I would have thought nothing else...but nooooo...and as a result every mouthful was met with a carefully-concealed-from-my-host-family internal reflux/gagging motion. And what's worse, my host dad reveled in referring to it as blood as often as was humanly possible. The Queen would have been proud of me. I managed it all, kept a smile, kept my table manners, and even managed to keep up a decent conversation about the nuances and subtle differences in the Swedish and English languages that make them right royal buggers to learn.

Anyways, it's 10pm and less than 10 degrees outside and I have a 15 minute run ahead of me in with little more than a pair of cotton shorts and boxers to protect me from the cold. Eek.

Oh yeah, one last thing...we conducted a survey amongst as many of the 250 international students as we could as to where they were from and the result was that I was from the most tropical region of any International Student here. So ladies and gentlemen, it is no longer speculation, I have now been statistically proven to be an idiot. :)

Hej Då!

"Life is very short...
and there's no ti-ii-i-i-iime...
for fussing and fighting my friend....
I have always thought that it's a cri-ii-i-i-iime...
so I will ask you once again..."

Laboratory Karaoke. The Soul Train Has Arrived.

1:09am EAST
18:09 Swedish Time
Currently 19C

Oooh baby, I wish I had my [errr....I mean mum's] digicam here with me right now...I'm cranking it up in the labs at uni and baby the sight of this setup is enough to give any self respecting engibeer wood...it's late afternoon, there's a soft warm light flooding in through the window, adorning designer benches and furniture as it flows gracefully along; the automatic timer has killed the lights because I haven't moved enough, and all that remains is a solitary warm blooded mammal basking in the eery glow of 19 inch monitors, state of the art CROs and umpteen uber funky LEDs glowing from the test bench and funky silver PCs, Sony headphones cranking out the MP3s. All that's missing is a martini glass condensating quietly beside me...and you can be damn sure I'm going to rectify that situation before I hit this place again tomorrow :)

If it keeps up like this, it's gonna be harder getting me back to Australia than it was for Christopher Skase, and he went back in a body bag ;)

6:17pm EAST
10:17 Swedish Time
Temperature : 9 - 21C (currently 15C)

I feel so special...thanks so much to all of you for emailing me updates about life in Aus...although now I feel terribly homesick...but I'll get over it...eventually **sniff**

I owe a big thank you to Goober for coming up with my 21st birthday present...

Basically, the one thing that is absolutely shitting me here is that there is all this awesome countryside and bushland and I don't have a mountain bike. I keep nearly buying one, but the appeal of spending my money elsewhere (aka travel...spain and Gaudi here I come) is much greater. I also have my paniers here...which would have meant shiteloads of cycle touring...And now I have a solution. I expect you all to buy me this for my birthday :)

OK, back to work for me. My voice has almost returned...so I am a happy chappy.

Side note...I told my host father Magnus that based on the newspaper, the cold front was coming this Sunday. He enquired as to the temperature, and I said 17C, and he laughed. This scares me somewhat... :)

and this

Hej Hej.

EMAIL ME YOU SLACK AUSSIE CALL-YOURSELF-FRIENDS :)

I'm stuck at uni today doing some lab work and I would rather be reading email about what people are up to back home. So I'm going to start naming people...Matt, Aliska, Meredith, Simon, Goober, Fish, Dave R, Cadden,...I am actually missing some email addresses of some people...anyways, pick one of the following emails and please say hi...

is02maro@ing.hj.se
rt.marshall@student.qut.edu.au
kabzan-1955mgtf@powerup.com.au

:)

I know I also have loki@nakedbonsai.org, but I haven't set up the SMTP yet. Oh, and I like this

Wat...I know I said no more for today...but you HAVE TO SEE THIS COMIC. I know so many people that it applies to...and that scares me.................................................Jaymis ;)

8:44pm EAST
12:44 Swedish Time
Temperature : 8 - 20C (currently sunny and 19C)

**WARNING...LONGEST POST EVER...GET A COFFEE AND GO TO THE TOILET NOW**

Booyah!

OK, well I was all keyed up to make you all super jealous, thinking that I could claim the title of 'best weekend', but it seems that I have apparently been beaten by the QUT Engibeers...but that's their story to tell and will be linked from here in due course.

Now I'll tell you about my weekend, but first I apologise if it pisses you off because you are all studying/working hard...sorry! I hope your time comes soon, and I did have like zero life for the past many months to get here... :) This is a stupidly long post, so you aren't obliged to read it all...but I will write it all the same because then I can remember it all at a later date.

OK, so what is a 4 hour drive away in a convoy of 2 vans and 1 car with 22 of your new best friends?

The answer is Denmark. Or rather to be more specific, Copenhagen, and an AWESOME weekend!

We departed on Friday afternoon with Nicole, James & Sarah (Australia), Neil & brother, Duncan and Colin (England, although Colin is Irish), Barbara (Switzerland), Andreas, Andrea & Katryn (Germany); Dustin, Silvia & Katie (USA); Dave & Amy (Canada), Diego (Spain) in the vans and the portuguese in the car, and drove on Sweden's crazy highways (each way has 1.5 lanes, and you duck and weave from side to side into oncoming traffic to overtake...) to get to Denmark, where we promptly got lost in Copenhagen trying to find our hostel (Copenhagen's street signs are the least visible I have ever seen in my life, and will quite often be stuck half way up a building...).

We unpacked and went off wandering the streets trying to find a restaraunt and pub open near us at 11pm...eventually had some success. Actually, a side note is needed here...a few of us have been getting a tad sick of Swedish food...the Swedes are famous for being middle of the road...they even have a special word for 'just enough'. What this means is that you never eat bad food, but you never get really good food. Coffee is always just fine, and when you club, everyone dances moderately and in the same textbook style. So you can imagine our excitement to get to Denmark, which is renouned for being very anti swedish in everything (actually I advise you don't even say you passed through sweden...they will straight away start being rude to you...lot of history here...ask me some time...it's pretty interesting), and this meant that we found, shock horror, awesome coffee, really interesting arrays of food, and the COOOOOOOOLEST version of a Ric's Cafe & Nightclub you could ever get anywhere, and the danes were really cutting a rug after we got the party started! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Needless to say we all spent the entire night talking about how good a single cup of coffee was. This came after eating pizza in a park somewhere (the pizza guy was cool...re-opened for us, and then did the whole toss the spinning pizza thing...very cool). We got home early (sic. 2am). At this stage a couple of us got a bit irritated at the lack of decision making (in my usual fine logic style) that caused us to take an hour to leave the entrance of the Hostel, and we figured there was no way all 23 of us were going to get anywhere tomorrow, so I put together a crack team of hard core travellers to make a run for it at first light with one of the vans. The result was a success, with Barbs, Dave, Katie, Colin, Duncan, Dustin, Diego & I hitting the roads early, with a plan to conquer. We ended up seeing waaay more than we planned, which was nice because we didn't want a full day and had planned it lightly so that we had plenty of time and we were never rushed. We didn't try to do the whole 'see as much as you can in 10 hours' thing, and as a result it was a really nice day.

We started at Louisiana, Denmark's premier museum of modern art, and basically there is no way to describe how amazing it was...we spent 4 hours there and I could have stayed the weekend. Just go here and get an idea of what I am talking about. I was really embarrised, because I got into trouble to for taking photos at the museum, even though there were no signs (apparently this is supposed to be understood as the rule...but come on...I was photographing a cactus for feck's sake...who ever copywrited one of those???). Anyways, they didn't take my film, and the buggers can get shafted because I took a few more all the same...it's not like I can travel there any day now is it!!

After that we went looking for lunch, and I suggested a bakery, with the aim to chase down a real danish. Anyway, we tracked one down and I went inside...they had these danish's that were 20x50cm long, and they were 45kr...a pretty fair price by any standards. So I thought I'd be nice and buy one and split it so we could all have some. The girl then informs me the price was for two...unreal!!! 2 minutes and a photo of this cute shocked danish baker girl holding a metre of danish (and thinking to herself 'bloody tourist') later and we were all outside gorging outselves on the best danish ever, and knocking back smirnof ices and watching games of bocce in the park. Uber fun.

From there we went to the first of two castles we thought we'd drop in on. The first one was not very impressive, and we weren't allowed in because the Queen was currently staying there. There were guards with funny hats though, although no comments were made too audibly...they were afterall carrying operational and loaded AK47s...

Mini story...after leaving this palace, we had to stop for a train to go past. Dave had this great idea that we'd all pose with a moving train going past (they go past slowly and look impressive), so we all jumped out of the van, leaving the doors open (much to the amusemend/shock of the nine cars behind us), and got our photo (I wasn't ready and as a result look stupider than usual). We then made this mad dash back to the car so we didn't hold up for the traffic. We all jumped in the car, save Diego, who was just getting in when James just took off, however Diego's bag was caught and he was just running along beside the car. James couldn't see this, and we were all shouting WOAH! WOAH!, which he took to mean GO GO!!! and began to gun it. Diego absolutely dives in through the open door and it was crazy...James felt really bad, but in the end we all were laughing and making jokes about Diego keeping his arm inside the car. Scary that became fun.

The second castle we decided to visit on a whim. The locals didn't seem too phased about it, but we had some time to kill, so we dropped in at Fredensborg. OK, now this thing was bloody huge. As in the grounds of the castle was several acres of manicured gardens, hedges, fountains, several lakes, and many 'small' but very impressive guard houses. Then we saw the castle, and it was massive. We all spent 10 minutes taking photos and enjoying the view, and then we looked at the map again...and realised that it was the SIDE of the thing...a 5 minute walk later revealed it to be 5 times bigger than we thought, and came complete with a huuuuge moat, an underground lake entrance, and all manner of amazing statues and things...It was my first real castle and I was understandably very excited! I won't say much more on them and you will have to wait for the photos.

We then headed back for Copenhagen and had a quick boat tour around the canals which was nice, before heading back to the hostel. A short time later we tracked down a mediterrainian vegetarian smorgasbord restaraunt. These style of restaraunts are part of Scandanavian culture, and if you can locate a good one, you can eat yourself stupid for 50-70Dkr (roughly $12AU...about the only time you eat cheaply). At this stage we were trying to work out where to club, and once again there was pandemonium. Dave, Barbs and I were planning to faction and find a cool Jazz & Funk club we'd heard about, but everyone else wanted to go to another big club called Rush, and to avoid getting too seperated, we decided to go to. We got lost again, and after driving through rail yards and all manner of weird places we eventually (almost an hour later), stumbled on Vega, another night club, and decided to go. MAJOR score!!!! The bar Dave, Barbs and I were searching for, aptly named 'ideal bar', was NEXT DOOR!! This was cool...the three of us walked in and in 20 minutes had everyone up dancing...this continued for 5 hours through many songs and the odd tequila shot and martini (it's funny, but all the top shelf drinks here are backwards...tequila is the cheapest) before finally getting home at 5 in the morning...seriously the best 24 hours I have had in a bloody long time.

Managed to get up at 8am to do it all again,although by now I was completely silent (voice == dead) and was wandering around still dancing from the night before. We had breakfast and headed off to the most cultural stop of the trip, Denmark's famous Museum Erotica. Now I know what you are thinking, but I didn't go alone...all 20 of us did, and it was nuts. The first 3/4 was all about the history of pornography and prostitution (Copenhagen was the brothel capital of the WORLD I swear...they had over 50 brothels within 200 metres of each other). The final quater was modern porn and was not for the faint hearted...the first section was much more interesting, and they even had this cool section on the Hollywood stars of time gone by. Make no mistake, this is not somewhere to take a grandma, but was definately worth seeing for a look and a laugh (Goober, I picked you up a card...couldn't find the aforementioned discussed item...you know...the one from Austin Powers...sorry mate...j/k!)

After this rather interesting start to the morning (hey pat...never too early mate), we decided a change was in need, so after a short bask in the sun on the steps of yet-another-bloody-statue we headed to one of the many churches :) It had an external church spire stare case, so we climbed up it and took photos of the city. Hey dad, you would love it...100 metres up a 700 year old wooden structure, standing on a small platform looking out over an amazing view. More stories here, but we'll leave it at that.

The last stop of the trip before we headed home was a quick visit to Christiana, which quite honestly makes Nimbin seem like the Noosa Heads RSL Club. Begin history lesson now. It was originally an isolated island exclusively to house the Danish military. However, it was abandoned several years ago, and was taken over by squaters. So many squaters in fact, that they declared their own independance in the face of the Danish government. After many arguments and several fueds, it was decided to accept this 'blind spot of the law' as a social experiment. And man, this place is crazy. They have only a handful of self governed laws : No stealing, no killing, no HARD drugs, something else, and finally NO photographs. Now here is where it gets interesting. It's a pretty large area, maybe almost as big as UQ St Lucia campus, and whilst still technically under Danish law, there is a spoken agreement that Danish law is ignored there. And when I say ignored, I mean ignored. You walk down the streets, and the roads are lined with Marajuana (yes, it is VERY illegal in Scandanavia) plants. Everywhere. AND I MEAN EVERYWHERE. Then you go to the market. Tables and tables of compressed hash, open in plain view in semi permanant shops. And whilst this doesn't interest me too much, a few of you might be interested to know that a standard blunt cost roughly $3 AU, and you could buy a sold compressed block weighing about 1Kg for not much more...a footlong 1 inch wide J was about $20AU. Seriously crazy. And the place stank of everything and anything. I had to laugh though, because the place was absolutely full of these blonde haired blue eyed Danes sitting around wearing rasta hats and listening to Bob Marley. Completely nuts, and I wish I had a photo...Museums are one thing, I can take on a granny attendant with a cane, but here you get beaten/knifed for it...so I obeyed the rules.

So after all these and many more shinanegans (I'm serious when I say this has been a 'brief' description) we headed home again. I'm pretty sure I'll visit Denmark again soon though.

I'll leave it here and post a few photos when I get them back next week.

Despite all the fun I am really missing everyone terribly...please email me to let me know how things are going in your world and good old Brisvegas.

One final thing, appreciate just how good the food & coffee scene is in Brisbane, even though it is 'poor'. At least you can get a good cup!

Hej Då!

Hmmm...quick one because I am on a mate's computer...Copenahagen was insane...so many stories, so much fun...I'll tell you more later...but oh my gawd...went to everything from cathedrals and castles to modern art museums to the erotic museum of Denmark. Crazy. REALLY crazy. And I have lost my voice...like completely...I can just squeek every now and then...errr...

heh heh...bet you are all pissed off it didn't happen at some time where you could actually take advantage of the unusual silence!

Damn! I just erased a couple of entries...can someone please check their cache for an old copy...I know accessing this page overwrites, but they were the 3 that I did without backups....damn damn damn

0:20AM EAST
16:20 Swedish Time
Temperature : 9 - 22C (currently 22C)

Sorry i've been a while in posting...been doing stupid things. For instance, I am having issues with Macromedia Dreamweaver because all the menus are in Swedish and it is making life interesting trying to get my website up to scratch.

Courtesy of Jaymis, who is not only a legend but also an incredibly attractive and single man, I now have control of www.nakedbonsai.org

Oh yeah baby, I have an org. As soon as i can get the fucker working, I swear the splash page is going to be 99% linkage to Jaymis. Entry to my section will be via the little Pi sign in the bottom right hand corner, to the turn of a reworked heavy metal mozart piece and some flaming guitars.

So yeah. You can pop on over to to have a look, (right after you visit Jaymis's page), but at the moment it isn't going to give you much loving unless you have a 19" monitor set to full screen. Go there, by all means...I hope it works.

I have put my first lot of black and whites there, so you might be able to get some loving. If that does fail however, I've made a semi backup here.

OK, now on to other stuff.

What are you doing this weekend?

I'm not doing anything interesting really...just driving to Denmark for a weekend in Copenhagen with 17 of my bestest international buddies!

Europe rules, for the simple fact the entire thing pretty much fits in the same travel-time scaled zone of SE Queensland. If I felt like it, a return trip to London from here costs AU$80. Seriously...what the hell is going on in Australia? I mean for crying out lout, it costs more than that one way to Sydney, and it's a HOLE. :)

Sorry to rub it in folks, but it does seriously rule here.

Mind you, winter is rolling in and pretty soon it will be very cold...why oh why did I cut my freakin' hair??? This week I have been trying to get my uni life in order...the system over here for normal students is that 60% of the coursework is self assisted...aka minimal lectures, maximum study. I was stupid enough to sign up for a masters subject, which is more in the order of 90% self assisted, 10% Understanding Swedish Lectureres. Mind you, their english is a whack load better than the damn QUT lecturers...kinda sad really. I am a bit nervous though, because they only run each subject for 7 weeks, and I'm two weeks in and a bit lost...normally in Aus this means nothing...no one starts working until week 4 at the EARLIEST, but here it means I fall behind the eight ball in the five minutes I miss of a lecture to take a pee. eeeeek!

This week has been minimal on the social scene, mainly just the odd drinking game...oh, and we found a jazz bar! Yay! Jazz! 5 minutes from my house! Every Tuesday night! It does however clash with my gymnastics...so I'm going to have to do some thinking.

I got some more photos back this week, and I am convinced that Kodak are a bunch of retards. I am trying desperately to find a FUJI developer here, because all my photos come back from kodak all speckly...they suck ass. AND the bastards ruined my Student Water Event film, and I was pretty much the ONLY person there with a camera, so everyone wanted to get copies. Plus there was no way I could explain the thing to you all without photos. Damn.

But the really annoying news is that some f&#ker from Gula Villan not only STOLE my tea, but also completely RUINED my favourite shirt. The prick took it out of the washing machine and left it in a pile of washing detergent, which bleached all these huge marks into it. And no WAY is the tie dye look coming back in any time soon. Bastards! It was my favourite green YD shirt that Merri gave me last year...I'd barely worn the damn thing. Grr. And now that leaves me with my only my two fall back shirts to wear out in, and let's face it...I just don't feel relaxed in them. They have no personality...

The good news, however, is that I bought my overals yesterday. They are so cool. You will all be completely weirded out by them when I wear them to Great Court next year (except Dave...he will love them and want a pair for himself...no worries dave! I can get you a set for 260Kr ($55 AU).

OK, well I have mega rambled, so I will go now. Please please email me, especially the boys, cause I have no idea who is winning the mountain biking...!

One last thing, my host family are super nice, and even want me to go skiing with them. Free transport and accom their private Chalet for a week!! Yay yay! And the kids are really nice...Clara (7) is a climber...and drew this :

No silly comments from the gallery please! :)

Wish you were all here!
Hej Då!