First Swedish swim of the year was…refreshing. Kind of like Lake Washington in Seattle last summer, the locals shook their head but the Swedes are different. As long as there is a sauna nearby there’s no good excuse not to plunge in. Except for plain sanity of course. The air temperature however was very pleasing and stayed throughout 27 during the evening. The little island of Burö with four houses and only accessed by boat or wading served a spectacular sunset and ocean front view from … practically where ever one stands.

I made my burger, took some photos, had a cold one, two swims and a great evening came to an end. Thanks Olof and Jan for having us.

Next up in my camera bag will be the previously mentioned Gorillapod with weight bearing properties of 3 kg, which should be sufficient even with the 1,5 kilo telezoom. I never tried this kind of tripod, anyone have experience to share?

Then I’m considering a macro lens and was recommended the Sigma 105 mm f/2.8 of Åsa, the team member of the photo group that makes the rest of us look bad. Other useful equipment would be a wireless remote control, a portable reflector, polarizing filters and a lighting tent. If anyone have any of the above for sale or know where to find a good deal let me know.

Happy weekend!

PS. These are the places I’m looking at : Scandinavian Photo (lens, filters), Kaffebrus (remote control, tent, filters), Fotovideo (gorillapod, on its way.)

Yesterday I learned the challenges of shooting a car. Today I learned that I completely lack green intuition. My mother asked me repeatedly during our shopping tour at Plantagen, a big green-house chain, what I thought about this flower, that color, that shape etc.

I was lost. I have absolutely no feeling what so ever for botanical aesthetics. So I just pushed the metal cart around until I hit something I actually DO know. Herbs. Suddenly images and scents pop up in my head and I start gathering thyme, mint and oregano, a suitable container, gloves and the right soil.

I can’t wait until my mint grows up to be the body of a perfectly made mojito.

My German tiger and its sister Scirocco (Sciroccos owner would probably say it’s the other way around) teamed up for a beauty shot in the after warmth of the sunset at Hinsholmen yesterday. It’s harder than you’d imagine to shoot cars in a flattering angle, the right light and a dramatic composition. Here’s the first try but by the look of it my first investment this month will be a gorillapod. Kissing the tarmac is the key.

Yesterday. Smithska Udden, again. But this time with company :)

Smithska Udden yesterday and “livsnjutarna” some meters away.

I’m a happy kid in GTI heaven.

Some reading and test results for the (G)Tiger for those interested in The Car of The Year 2009:
http://www.svd.se/naringsliv/motor/artikel_2975003.svd
http://www.bilsport.se/news.php?id=67152
http://www.automotorsport.se/news/18258/tv-vi-provk%C3%B6r-nya-golf-gti/
http://www.alltommotor.se/2.149/2.150/2.203/1.11349
http://www.topgear.com/uk/volkswagen/golf-gti/road-test/mk-vi
http://fwd.five.tv/cars/small-family/volkswagen-golf

Mind, chassis and soul. To be continued.

The past week has been exiting. To a degree where sleep felt unnecessary, food meaningless and life sparkling. All because of a key and what it unlocks.

To be continued…

I must admit that I several times a week indulge in my instant Ho Fan noodles with fried tofu and pak choi which takes less than ten minutes to prepare. Yes, I’m lazy. So I invited my good linguist friend My over to share some over a bottle of bubbly that’s just been sitting in my fridge forever looking sad. How a rainy Tuesday became so much more enjoyable. And made me feel less lazy.

I still don’t understand how this happened but let’s start by jumping back to Friday the 5th June. Also known as the day the kingdom of Denmark became a constitutional monarchy in 1848. Naturally this must be celebrated in true Danish manners: Smørrebrød (open face sandwiches) and chilled some Carlsbergs for lunch. Various danish music was playing loud in the office spaces all day long. It was a good day.

Then it became worse. The 6th June is Swedens day, the rivaling country of Denmark in which I have been residing since…forever. But this isn’t the bad part. I decided to go to STCC, Göteborg City Race to smell some burnt rubber, listen to the engines roar and enjoy the speed of racing Carreras. Being…me, of course the Nikon had to come along. I packed the tele, a fish-eye and left home confidently knowing my battery this time was fully charged. Only…it didn’t make it into my camera bag.

I spent the first of my four hours quietly cursing and being in very grumpy state until I decided to enjoy the race regardless of the four kilos of useless camera equipment. Ah well. At least some made it to my iPhone. And the day ended even better by finally settling which of the two rivaling neighbors was the better of two really crappy soccer teams. It all went down with some friends, home made burgers and me and my sister singing “..og det er Daaanmark, og det er Daaanmark” when the whistle blew at 94 minutes.

In the early days of this blog I was (somewhat) young, (slightly) confused and (very) inexperienced. Since then, nothing has changed really. Apart from the “not getting any younger” part. Most people like the new Monologuer. Others think that I’ve lost the personal touch. To me that’s an improvement but I understand as I have family and friends as readers. And considering the fact that I left the friendly monitoring service aka social networking platform Facebook makes me consider to at least once in a little while add some notes. On the personal side.

So here goes. Last Saturday, minding my own business usually demonstrated with ear-phone,s I was approached by what seemed to be an outlandish, well dressed and polite tourist asking me for directions. To the nearest drug nest of Göteborg. Because obviously I have “drug dealer” written all over me. Totally understandable. After I equally politely but confused and utterly surprised told him I didn’t have a clue he thanked me for my kind concern. Then I discovered that this entire little sequence was secretly captured on camera. It seems however that the drug thirsty guy spotted the photographer long before I did.

All this while waiting for my friends at Valand, a typical meeting point where trams cross, taxis hang around and, apparently, subconscious pushers loiter.

Moving on. Deportees is a cute little band from a small town called Umeå up north. The only thing I heard of them have been occasional songs on the radio. So it was a pleasant surprise to hear how truly good they were live. If you have Spotify, listen.

1. Live Twittering 2. Deportees 3. Car talk, boot space in Audi A3 vs A4.

All images in this post are props of miss K, thanks for being in charge of documentation.

Note to self. When your web host tells you that there is 1% free space on your server it’s really a code for “You’re way past your limit, punk, since we for some reason allow that. We will now commence spying on the content of your server while we shut it down and chop one finger off for every folder name we don’t like”.

Seriously though I do have my digital digits intact but the problem remains. Integrity. Now I’m a really open-minded person who’d gladly submit my finger print to a database if that meant hassle free traveling at say… the airport. The mere fact that you CAN exceed your MB limit is not the issue rather than your web host snooping around to see what’s what instead of telling you, a paying customer, like it is.

So apart from the fact that I’ve done nothing illegal or wrong other than taking up a bit more space than allowed I’m being treated like a suspect at a crime scene where the police searched my house with a standard email warrant. Sigh.

A while ago, mostly as a ploy, I created a Facebook group called White Balanced for some of my equally enthusiastic photo friends. With the sole purpose of mutual admiration. However the intention of this group took a different turn and people actually seemed to took it seriously. So eventually we’ve had different outings, more or less crowded show-ups but we do it with spirit, be it midwinter, nightfall or rain. So I’ll keep you posted on what we’re up to. Last time you saw us was in the botanical garden in April. This time the four of us (Hellman missing but she makes the rest of us look bad anyway) we went for a spontaneous and surprisingly ugly sunset down at the Opera and the marina.

Yours truly - punctual and first at the scene waiting for the others.

Svanfelt & Fürst.

Svanfelt, the Fly-Fighter

Bonebjär, Nagano & Fürst shot with my small IXUS70 on a tripod and on self.

The others, cleverly equipped with wide-angle lenses and fully charged batteries, promised to let me publish their pics on Monologuer. Stay tuned.

And sell them on a stand in Slottskogen. Brilliant. Where can I get these in Sweden? Only found them on Amazon.

Photos:http://courtneyphillips.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/steady-sticks-for-wine-at-the-beach.jpg
http://www.amazon.com/SteadySticks-Tovolo-Wine-Glass-Holders/dp/B0001RT4B8/ref=pd_bxgy_k_img_b