Family Guy Says it Better

The background story is pretty much irrelevant. Ben and I headed out to a private party at some club in London and neither of us was having too much fun so we headed home via some dodgey chicken place.

That was our mistake.

The next 10-12 hours was something like this:

The Montreal Crew Goes Christmas!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9616710837

ElfYourself™ : Brought to you by OfficeMax®
This holiday get what you've always wanted. The miraculous ability to turn yourself into an elf. And now you can cut the arctic rug with thewhole elfin' family. Upload as many as four faces, record a message, and send your holiday helpers off to a friend.

Thanks to Aly and Rosie for unknowingly getting ripped off by me.

London and Leeds

Been in London for a week now. Ben's been studying hard (ie. doing nothing, just not partying) so I looked elsewhere to entertain myself. At the last minute on Friday night I decided on to visit Alex and Simon up in Leeds.

While they live in separate apartments now the boys live with remarkable similarity to how they did in Montreal. Student-style housing with lots of boys living in the same house, partying as much as possible, watching a stupid amount of football and squeezing some study in from time to time. Not to mention having Australians living on their couch...

Traffic upped my bus-trip from 4 to over 6 hours which was a whole world of fun but I managed to find someone to talk to who complains even more than I do which managed to shut me up for the duration. I got in just after 11pm and practically had alcohol shoved down my throat. It was good to feel welcome.

We headed to a few bars and ended up in one of the more notorious clubs in town. Somehow I managed to find my way back to Alex's place while he slept soundly inside with the door locked and his phone turned off as I drifted off to sleep on the landing outside. Luckily I didn't stay there long as his roommates came home shortly thereafter and let me in. I re payed Alex's kindness by climbing into bed with him and proceeded to deprive him of further sound sleep by snoring his ear off.

The next night went a little better and to our surprise we got into one of the best clubs in town. Cheap drinks, decent music, hot tubs and general shinanigans. I don't think I got to sleep until well after 8am. Good night.

I made my way back down to London in a more timely fashion and got some rest. The next day I met up with Dad again as he is in town for the week. We went out to the Wine Bar with some of his friends and ended up at a Tapas bar until they ushered us out. It was interesting seeing Dad - or 'Oz' as he is called - in his own environment with his own friends. Clearly he too feels a little more comfortable outside of Perth. But then most people who leave do...

I have just booked my flights to Norway and it looks like I am staying put until early December before flying into Oslo. Ben finishes his exams today and we're heading out with Jared. Hopefully I won't end up walking home in the rain this time. It's a fair bit colder now than it was in May.

Saying goodbye is hard

Only a few weeks left here in Sweden. I am pretty sad actually. It is a fucking fantastic country. Sure it has its drawbacks but what country doesn’t? Sure people could be a little friendlier (at first at least) and the days could be a bit longer (it gets dark around 4 now). It could be a little cheaper (how’s AU$13.50 sound for a middie?) and it could be easier to find a place to live (did I mention I am still sleeping on a friend’s couch?) but I am going to be sorry to go. In many ways this has been an introspective period for me. Plenty of time to think about what the hell I am doing – not many conclusions have been drawn however. Ah well. The next stage in my adventures is imminent.

Two more weeks and then I am off to London to see the very hospitable Ben as well as Shirley, Fagberg, Muel and hopefully Lizze and Mitchell up in Leeds. Ben is preparing for exams so hopefully that will give me adequate cover to avoid blowing what little of my savings that survived the Norway/Car fiasco along with what’s left of my liver. I’ll soon find out. There I will stay until I fly out to Norway for the season. I will have just over a week or so there before I start the pre-season: plenty of time to get settled into my new place, strengthen up my knees and ease back into my snowboarding – I have a long winter ahead of me and I would like to stay out of hospital as long as possible.

At least I have decent health insurance.

Halloween is here and we are decorating the restaurant today for a big weekend of costumes and other shenanigans. We are sending off co-workers Quintin and Sandra as they head of on a 7month trip to South Africa and around Australia this Sunday and me and the boys are starting to line up our last few nights out together in Stockholm. This is probably one of the hardest parts of living the traveller’s life – you just start to get close to people and pow: off you go again to start it all over again. It’s a tough life but somebody has to do it.

You know what really grinds my gears?

A few months ago I wrote about a very interesting movie I had seen: An Inconvenient Truth – basically dealing with the facts about global warming, a subject that many people try to ignore, and have successfully done so for many years now.

I just finished watching another film that runs along a slightly similar vein. Following Roger and Me, Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 911- Sicko is Michael Moore’s latest documentary film that focuses on the health care system in the United States. Basically health care in the US is not free. You need health insurance- but what people don’t know is what this health insurance buys you. I highly recommend seeing the film- despite it being just another round of anti-US rhetoric that is so common-place these days.

It got me thinking about the US though. The film clearly outlines a certain apathetic mentality that exists all over the world; especially concerning environmental issues, health issues, unemployment, child care, education etc. You know, the usual issues that make you roll your eyes and steer the conversation (or change the channel) to something more interesting; travel, music, parties, drugs, celebrities and sex. You know, INTERESTING topics. - I would be surprised to see how many people actually make it through this blog entry! - I am no less a perpetrator of this than anyone. In fact I am probably more guilty than most.

With regard to these subjects, the government (both in the US and many other western countries) can do pretty much whatever they like. As long as they keep people entertained… who cares? I am not going to relay all the things the film much more convincingly, articulately and concisely covers. Essentially, from my experiences with America (particularly the shitty, rip-off ones in Florida) along with what I can gather from film and television it seems like Americans are experts at making themselves look good; both outwardly and inwardly. On television, Americans seem to be completely and blindingly certain that they live in the greatest nation on earth. As soon as someone moves away from this conviction and lose faith; they lose their voice. And so the avalanche continues.

Honestly, ‘as long as the people are afraid’ I think America is beyond hope. But it scares me a little that Australia’s government makes no secret of following in the US’ footsteps. Careful Johnny.

It’s interesting that films like Supersize Me, An Inconvenient Truth and Sicko are using the US’ most powerful tool against itself; but even if enough people watch them and become informed… then what? At the end of An Inconvenient Truth the credits rolled alongside a series of energy saving tips. I was waiting for the credits of Sicko to roll alongside tips on how to overthrow a media-driven totalitarian system. Any ideas? Ah well, in the meantime I had better get back to my traveller lifestyle - listen to some music, go to a few parties, take a couple of drugs here and there, meet my share of celebrities and so on.

Miss Adventure Part II

The next morning I woke up and had a very nice and very early breakfast at the hotel. From there I made my way towards the train station for the 8am train to Geilo. I called Linda from the train and explained my situation and told her I was going to be a little late but make it there eventually. I was greeted at the train station by Thore and driven to the Ski School on the other side of the valley. I spent the rest of the day being shown around the town, taken out to lunch, having dinner bought for me and generally treated very well. They offered to sort out my visa, a place to live, free gym access, very good pay (and an advance if I need it) and they even offered, if I take the job, to pay for the extra expenses I incurred getting there. They made it very hard to say no. So I didn't. I guess that hard work back in Canada actually paid off. I took a train back to Oslo and then an overnight bus back to Stockholm. Alex’s car is still in Drammen.

As ashamed as I am to admit it… it turns out I had fueled the car with ethanol instead of gasoline. In my defense it isn’t clearly labeled as ethanol here and when I pulled up to a pump that gave me a choice between diesel and E85 I thought “well I know it doesn’t take diesel!” I was actually pretty lucky the damage wasn’t much worse. It could have eaten away at the whole engine and basically screwed the car completely whereas I escaped with replacing the fuel pump, draining and tank and flushing the engine which I expect will ultimately leave me out of pocket something like AU$2000 instead of AU$20,000

That is a pretty rough blow to the financial situation all the same but ultimately, I look at it like this: I have a sweet job in Norway starting in a little over a month. I have handed in my resignation at the Hard Rock Cafe, booked a flight to London in 3 weeks to get my board bag (and to catch up with Ben of course) and right now I am on my way back to Oslo to get the car.

Miss Adventure is a cruel woman. Things have a way of working out in the end though.

Miss Adventure

Miss Adventure is a tough gal. She seems very appealing at first: promises to take you out, show you a good time and maybe even give you what you want at the end of the night. But no: she is a gold digging evil harpy who takes all your money and leaves you stranded. Last night I went on a date with Miss Adventure.

I set out on my tour of interviews across Scandinavia with promises of gorgeous countryside, paid hotels and generally warm welcomes all around. Alex was kind enough to lend me his late-model, series 5 BMW with iPod adapter -the most important factor of course- I took the whole weekend off work and left school a little early on Friday afternoon (after getting my monthly test result back with a comfortable 84.99% - yay me!). Thus I set out towards Oslo. I made one or two wrong turns (note: heading AWAY from the biggest city in the area is a little more difficult than heading towards it- on one occasion I was involuntarily heading back towards Stockholm) but generally I was making pretty good time. A few quick, yet very expensive, petrol/food stops later just after sunset I was heading across the Norwegian border to be welcomed but some sort of strange language that looks like a phonetic version of Swedish involving lots of ##0##'s.

In an effort to avoid traffic and confusing streets I was doing my best to avoid actually going through the city of Oslo on my way to Geilo, but with a very general map of Norway and severe darkness having set in, I was forced to head towards the next biggest city in the vicinity: Drammen. Now I haven't mentioned that shortly after crossing the border the car started giving me a little trouble. Nothing major: almost as though a few of the cylinders weren't firing when going up a bit of a hill. I pressed on but kept it in mind.

Just outside Drammen I hit a bit more of a hill, not talking a mountain or anything, just a bit of an incline. And she just died, couldn’t go on any further. With a few cars backed up behind me; I wasn’t the most popular guy on these narrow roads. She only just made it to the top of the hill and started to roll down the other side.

Shit.

By some miracle I managed to roll into a gas station at the bottom of the hill. I had been driving through complete darkness for a little while now and all I could see was darkness and a few lights off in the distance. This thing was like an oasis in the desert. With a combination of poor English (Norway’s English requirements aren’t quite as high as Sweden’s) and poor Norsk-Swedish I managed to get some help from the guy to call a nearby garage… that was closed. After lots of worrying and waiting I got towed to the garage, diagnosed as “I don’t know” and dropped off at a hotel in the city about 20 minutes away - A hotel that I soon discovered had no vacant rooms. On the plus side I had plenty of time to think (read: freak out) as I wandered the streets of a random Norwegian city, very poorly dressed in -1ºC. Awesome huh? On the way in I had somehow noticed another hotel and somehow managed to find my way back there. Another oasis in the darkness: a very nice hotel with a soft bed and a very lavish breakfast the next morning. This place was very nice and tasteful, a shame I wasn’t there under better circumstances really. As I drifted off to sleep I thought of the very empty and very company-paid hotel room waiting for me in Geilo, did I mention how expensive Norway is?

In between my random wanderings the night before I had slipped into the train station and committed to memory the next train to Geilo and set my alarm to continue my courtship of Ms. Adventure. As I sit here on the train reading through my acres of parentheses, watching the millions of pine trees shoot by; overlooking a vast network of fields, forests, lakes and rivers… I wonder how part II is going to unfold.

Pappa Thorpe's Visit to Stockholm

Dad came in on Friday night and we went out for a bit of a walk and dinner at an Italian restaurant on Kungstradgarden. Pretty nice. The next day we went for a pretty long walk after a nice Swedish breakfast at the hotel and ended up at the Vasa Museum at Djurgarden.

The Vasa was a massive ship that the Swedes built hundreds of years ago: truly an amazing sight: elaborately decorated, fully loaded with cannons and sails - designed to impress. This ship was the culmination of all the world's knowledge of shipbuilding put into one vessel. The expectations where high and all of Stockholm rolled out to see her off. The cannons were one of the most impressive aspects- 72 cannons in all on board. They wanted to show this off and set sail with the cannon ports open...

Just a few minutes after launching a gust of wind caught the sails, the ship leaned a little and the sheets were cast off to allow the ship to right itself as the gust past. Shortly afterwards another gust caught the ship and she leaned even further to port. The lower cannon ports drank up the ocean and she sank straight to the bottom of the ocean like a rock - 120 meters from shore.

Years later, sometime during the 60's the ship was recovered by the King and put up as a monument of Swedish construction... and embarrassment.

This museum is pretty impressive and definitely worth a visit if you are ever in Sweden.

We also checked out Skansen: Sweden's biggest outdoor museum, but I got the feeling it totally sucks outside of summer and is generally targeted at kids anyway.

That night we met up with some friends from work to watch the rugby and drink a few beers. A few beers turned into a barrage of cocktails and champagne and two generations of Thorpe's showing their dance moves one after the other. The next day Quintin remarked that "James has the craziest father in the world". I think it was intended as a compliment.

Or-re = Are

Aside from the usual progress with school, working a lot and general party scene in Sweden there hasn't been a lot to report of late. Until this weekend.

I actually got out of the city and did a bit of shinaniganing> I have been looking at other employment options here in Sweden and came across the possibility of working at a Ski resort in the north of the country called Are. I got myself signed up for a group interview package and jumped on an overnight train there. It was just under 9 hours on the train before we all arrived. I would guess about 150 in total all there for the weekend. Interesting...

We had some breakfast, checked into our rooms and split off into our respective groups (application types). We had some group activities, games etc. You can imagine the typical team building exercises people go through... in Swedish. I understood most of the exercises and got by ok, except for one that I had no idea what was going on. People were lying down head to toe and saying all these weird numbers to each other. Right towards the end of the exercise, having looked very confused the entire time- I figured out the point was to try to figure out, as accurately as possible, the distance between two points. Everyone was taking into account how tall they were and using themselves as measuring sticks. "Ahhhhh. That's what the hell they were doing."

The rest of the weekend was filled with bus tours, presentations and information sessions. I understood generally but when everyone started laughing, most of the time I had no idea what I just missed. I met loads of cool people though and we got up to some pretty cool stuff.

All applicants were given access to the Holiday Club facilities, pools, bowling, minigolf etc. but my personal favorite was Sauna World. A big area with all kinds of crazy things: An ice cave, 5 different saunas of different temperatures ranging from 35-75 degrees. Ice water: a chamber of water around 6degrees that has just enough room for you to drop into over your head and then get the hell out before your body goes into shock and then hit the sauna again. Apparently its really good for sore ski-worn bodies/circulation but this way it was just a bit of fun.

After a reasonably big night out on Saturday (the clubs were packed full of locals even in the off season... pretty surprised actually) I had my interview late Sunday morning. I went in an explained to the interviewers, in Swedish, that even though I can speak Swedish- it's important to convey one's personality in this situation.Personality-wise, mine is somewhat stilted when speaking a second language and as such I would speak English for the rest of the interview. I told them they were welcome to keep speaking English if they wanted: not really expecting them to take me up on my offer.

Despite this it all went pretty well and I left with a good feeling about it. Wish me luck people!

Sunday afternoon I spent a few more hours at Sauna World before getting back on the train home. A few of us from the interviews got together in one of the carriages and set about single handedly drinking the restaurant cart out of alcohol. Next thing I know I am waking up in Stockholm with very little idea of what happened. I texted my friend who was there the next day and he didn't remember either. I'm sure we had fun regardless.

So here I am, back in Stockholm again waiting news from the resort. Realistically my chances are pretty slim, effectively there were 11 people applying for 2 spots. And while my snowboarding qualifications are pretty good and I have the advantage of being a foreigner- in a small resort like Are- the flexibility of being able to both ski and snowboard is important and never having skied puts me at a significant disadvantage. But I can dream right?

Update

It's been a long time since I have written on here. Doesn't seem right to write a travel journal when I haven't done any traveling for close to 3 months. >Sweden is starting to feel like home, except the whole not having a home thing. Semantics.

Alex is coming home soon and I will effectively be homeless. Looking for a place to live here is ridiculous. Seriously ridiculous. I call up an ad placed on the net 2 hours later and they've had 30 phone calls before me and they sound stressed and don't really want to talk to anyone. This place wasn't exactly exceptional either.

I still have high hopes and I am going to keep looking.

Work is going well and I am starting to feel comfortable there. It's a great bunch of people and 95% of people are a close-knit group. I finally know what I am doing most of the time. I am even getting cocky from time to time and not writing down orders at all. That almost bit me in the ass bigtime once but I averted disaster with a bit of smooth talking. Who am I?

School is going well and I have just finished my 7th week of classes. It is hard to say how good I am though because it really depends on who I am talking to. Aga's friend Anna for example: we talked for a solid hour entirely in Swedish. Other times I can't even work out if the shop clerk is asking me if everything is ok. Accents and dialects run rampant here just to mess with you. Crazy Swedes.

Summer is fleeing quickly. I am trying to be a stubborn Australian by walking around in a t-shirt regardless. But that is getting a bit unrealistic of me lately. I wonder how long I will last here in the winter? I am keeping my options open in case I decide to make a quick getaway.

Last weekend Ben stopped by for a visit. We knew we were going to be a bit silly, me off work and all. And we lived up to our expectations. We started off our first night going to a few bars with some people from work but they couldn't get organised so we pushed on by ourselves. It was a fun but largely uneventful evening. The next day I had intended to drag Ben down to the amusement park here in Stockholm: Grönalund. He wasn't all that keen. So we headed down to Hard Rock and had some food and a few beers.

Later that day we met up with Aga, a polish girl Ben met several years ago: the last time we were in Sweden together. But that is another story. Aga, Swedish friend of hers, Ben and I met up and had a few drinks at Debaser. A few guys from work stopped by and it was pretty sweet for a while. Then we ended up in some random clubs and things got weird. Sunday we stopped into work and had a few more drinks. A few too many I guess because my bosses didn't seem to want us there anymore.

Ah well. No harm done. Ben was practically comatose by the time we were discussing where we should go out that night. So he borrowed a couple of hundred krona and took his leave of us headed towards the airport for his early morning flight. He tried to go by bike but quickly realised this particular mode of transport was missing a couple of vital elements. It took me a few days to recover from that weekend... But he's my friend you know. How could I take it easy?

The irony of me saying this is that Peter Kennedy just called me. He's in Ireland right now and his brother told him that I was in Sweden, so he thought he might drop by for the weekend.

Except this time I have work and school the whole time he is here.

I have a bad feeling about this. Lets just hope he and I don't end up rugged up in blankets at a bar around the corner from my work discussing whether he should keep drinking or sleep at the airport waiting for his flight home. Personally I hope one of two things happens. Either Peter is harder than Ben and choses option a) or I soften up and go home. Then again Peter isn't that soft and some things never change...