Karl Stockholm, Sweden.

Cigars in the park! Last Friday the Stockholm office took a mid-afternoon to evening break to eat BBQ and drink Carlsberg. The sun was shining high and it was great to enjoy a Friday afternoon off, much like the good ol’ Australian tradition of beers at lunch! For more photos, view the post on Kontain.com.

We left here at about 9pm (sun still shining bright) and managed to make our way to to Seba’s welcome home gig at K2 in Södermalm. Not as many people as he would have pulled in Australia. I’d say we were amongst 50 of Stockholm’s only drum & bass crew (all very nice people, too!) who were there to give it all and have a great night. Seba’s music was as expected, deep, soulful and lots of bass. I didn’t get to catch up but I hear he is playing another gig in town soon! Woop!

From here, (yes, still on our way) we managed to find ourselves (thanks to Jonas) at a cave rave out the back of Liljeholmen. Now this was a special event of some sorts. Basically, these guys had found an abandoned train tunnel and decided to host a party about 500 meters deep. Behind that false wall is the true tunnel which stretches for miles. I think Johnny (pictured in the Seba paragraph) and I walked about another 500 meters before we realised how rediculous this was and ventured back. Needless to say we couldn’t see anything except for what light out iPhone’s were broadcasting into the dirt.

That was Friday.

Saturday I cooked up burgers and went to my work mate’s house party. I was heading off home at around 10pm until a few gin’s later we were heading off to another party on Liljeholmen, this time in an old office. There was some sort of animal theme going on and I met a cat while waiting in line for the bathroom. I was pretty tired from the night before but managed to hold out until the temperature was warm enough to go swimming in Trekanten pond… have a look at this!

Not bad for an early morning swim! The water was so still and warm enough to flap about in for around 30 minutes. We dried off in the sun and managed to make our way back home… only to return 10 hours later in the warmth of the afternoon to really enjoy the water.

On our ride back home, Liam (pictured with me) and I decided to stop for one last drink at Mälarpaviljongen which is a bar floating on the water between Kungsholmen and Södermalm. We stayed until the sun dropped drinking mojito’s and enjoying the summer time.

Oh, and everyday that the sun is out, so are the hot air balloons. Stockholm is a beautiful city to be in when it’s warm and sunny… if only it were like this for more than 2 months a year.

Nothing quite as large as last weekend for me this weekend, as I will be travelling to Arboga to meet my long lost relatives, but you never know… the week after that LONDON!

Hej!

Simply put, amazing. I have had it on repeat for the past 3 days. Do yourself a favour and buy it!

When I was in New York this March, I took the oppertunity to hit up the bargins on eBay.com. I found a second hand 2nd gen iPod Nano for US$19. Turns out the battery only lasts about an hour and a half, and, if you forget to charge it over night before your run, you’re screwed out of using Nike+.

Well, for those who are in a similar situation, or simply forget to track their run, this is the website for you!

Click the image for the large version.

This was supposed to be the “best day on the Swedish calendar”. Parties, people, sunshining and celebrating summer. But, look!

Hrmph.

Ah S:T Eriksplan. This is where I live. The first tall peach building, I’m somewhere around there. Shame you can’t see the miserable rain falling in this photo. I went outside to capture the essance of the Swedish summer. Nothing but rain. I think we topped 8ºc today. Boo!

This coming Friday is midsommar, and apparently it’s the biggest day on the Swedish calendar. I’ve heard countless stories of the city going crazy, but most, nej, pretty much all of my friends are leaving town to go to their parents holiday houses on the archipelago. One thing that I’m trying to understand is why the Systembolaget (the governing body of the alcohol monopoly of Sweden) is closed the night before and during the entire celebration. Thursday 7pm, no more booze until Monday 11am. What the hell! It’s a bloody public holiday. And, to further this, the employees of the Systembolaget are threatening to strike this week. It’s not as bad as I first thought, but who knows what else could go on.

Needless to say, people have already started to stock up. If it’s a beautiful weekend, people want to be in the park with a few beers and a frisbee, not kicking the doors down of the bottle shop.

So, apart from my 4 day week, I’ve actually finished booking my Europe trip coming up in 3 weeks. Above is the first image I’ve seen of Zurich. I have really no idea what to expect, but my good friends Al & Jules just returned from there and sang nothing but praises about the city and the surrounding areas. Yes, that’s the Alps you can see in the distance… a short train ride out of town and you’re amongst it. I’m looking forward to relaxing here after what is already drumming up to be a pretty big week and a bit in London.

I land July 10th and the next day I’ll be joining my good friend G at the TCR BBQ, and later that night partying it up on the Lot49 boat cruise. I can’t wait to catch up with my old breakbeat crew. I met so many great people during that period of my life, it would kill me if we didn’t keep in touch. I’m actually playing G in an online Chess battle, so we are keeping in touch, so to speak. I just wish he would let me win.

After Zurich, I will be flying to Paris to witness the final stage of Le Tour de France 2009. 7 laps of the Champs-Élysées should give me enough time to fire off some shots of the pelaton making their way to the end of what I imagine will be another tight and gruelling race. I can’t wait!

Speaking of Chess, if you have an iPhone, download the app “Chess with Friends”, install, and look me up (lynt). It’s the most addictive application on the iPhone. Constantly playing other people around the world. Keeping me occupied while I wait in line and on the train. It’s great!

I’ll report again after midsommar, bless!

Yesterday I tried to ride to Vaxholm. Vaxholm is one of the first points of the Stockholm archipelago, and is easy to get to by boat, and almost impossible by bike.

Stockholm in general has excellent bike paths, well signed with distances, wide and smooth. That is, until the council can’t be bothered anymore. Several times on this trip I ended up on dirt roads, industrial areas and peoples back yards. At point I was heading on to a highway. One minute I’m following bike path directions, the next I’m on the E18 heading to Oslo.

So I got frustrated and had to abort my mission. I was around 15 kms from my goal, which would have rendered me spending the afternoon on an island, drinking beer and having fun. Instead, I returned to Stockholm, and drank beer in the park with some friends.

It’s also nice to ride back to places I ventured to when it was snowing, this is a totally different town now. Summer is here, the rides are long and the beer is cold. Loving summer!

I think I had the Swine Flu. I just recovered from a week long illness. Serious business. I spent the entire week in bed, waking up in cold sweats, shiverring one minue, boiling the next, pissing every drop of water I drank. I was a mess. I missed a vital week at work, a Don Carlos concert, a pub orienteering event in Stockholm and some cracking weather. Stupid flu.

I now have the usual leftovers. Blocked nose, sore throat, coughing up flem and feeling tired all the time. Hopefully it doesn’t last too long, the weather here is incredible at the moment.

I just finished sitting on the windowsil looking out over Kungsholmen and the long summery sunset eating my thai chicken salad for dinner (home made, of course)! So again, sorry for the lame updates. It’s been hard to keep on top of everything when lying in a pool of your own sweat unable to move.

I also have a new found friend in this fellow, Agent Cooper! I finally finished watching Twin Peaks, I have to say it was the first time I’d seen it properly, I think the last time I saw it my parents were sending me to bed and it felt like the series went for years.

It was awesome to see it all the way through. My friend Patrick told me that if I start from the beginning, I can pull the story apart within the first episode. Well, I watched the pilot, and saw a few suspicious characters in some suspicious places doing some suspicious things, and well, I’ll leave the rest up for those who haven’t seen it all…

I’ve also been watching a lot of TED talks lately to pass the time, and I highly recommend you get your head around some of these. Here’s a list of my recent favourites:

• Ken Robinson says school’s kill creativity
• Sheila Patek clocks the fastest animals
• Bill Stone explores earth and space
• Arthur Ganson makes moving sculpture

Speak soon!

Chloe, you are what you eat!

My chat with Hostgator Support.

Chat Start Date: May 6 2009 4:07:52 PM

(4:12:14 PM) Taufique No: has entered the chat.
(4:12:22 PM) Taufique No: Hello, welcome to HostGator Live Chat.
(4:12:25 PM) karl: Hello, my domain has no hard drive space left. I get this every once in a while.
(4:12:25 PM) karl: Warning: Unknown(): write failed: No space left on device (28) in Unknown on line 0
(4:12:49 PM) Taufique No: One moment
(4:14:07 PM) Taufique No: Can I have your cPanel password?
(4:14:27 PM) karl: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(4:15:23 PM) Taufique No: One moment
(4:17:14 PM) Taufique No: The password doesn’t seems to be working
(4:18:04 PM) karl: Can you please fix my hard drive space
(4:19:26 PM) Taufique No: Can I have your cPanel password please?
(4:19:31 PM) karl: I gave it to you
(4:19:34 PM) Taufique No: The password your provided doesn’t seems to be working
(4:19:38 PM) karl: It works
(4:19:40 PM) karl: I just logged in
(4:20:46 PM) karl: Main Domain niceproduce.com Home Directory /home/xxxxxx Last login from 213.xxx.xxx.xxx Disk Space Usage xxxx.xx/999999 MB
(4:21:31 PM) Taufique No: Let me check
(4:22:00 PM) Taufique No: The password isn’t working for me. Can you reset the password?
(4:22:05 PM) karl: No
(4:22:10 PM) Taufique No: Or try logging out and try to log back in
(4:22:12 PM) karl: I require it to be consistant
(4:22:15 PM) karl: I just did
(4:22:17 PM) karl: it works fine
(4:24:14 PM) Taufique No: The password still doesn’t work. I won’t be able to login to your account to fix it until I have the correct password
(4:24:29 PM) karl: Then I will have to speak to somebody else.
(4:25:04 PM) karl: I’m on a shared host, and obviously the disk is full
(4:25:40 PM) Taufique No: The disk isn’t full, or else we would be getting complaints from other clients as well from the same server
(4:25:58 PM) karl: Warning: Unknown(): write failed: No space left on device (28) in Unknown on line 0
(4:26:06 PM) karl: No space left on device.
(4:26:27 PM) karl: Warning: Unknown(): Failed to write session data (files). Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct (/tmp) in Unknown on line 0
(4:26:50 PM) karl: Is /tmp full or moved or has had it’s permissions revoked?
(4:27:07 PM) Taufique No: The password is incorrect, before I make any changes, could you verify the last four digits of your CC?
(4:29:12 PM) karl: The password is NOT incorrect
(4:29:16 PM) karl: I just typed it in
(4:29:19 PM) karl: It works 100%
(4:29:28 PM) Taufique No: I can’t login Mr Karl
(4:29:36 PM) karl: What username are you using?
(4:29:58 PM) Taufique No: And I would need the last four digits of your CC anyways before making any changes on your account
(4:30:34 PM) karl: The password has been the same for over 5 years
(4:31:34 PM) Taufique No: That’s correct. I’ve been trying the same username and password you provided
(4:31:54 PM) karl: I didn’t change anything.
(4:32:04 PM) karl: You must have mis-typed it.
(4:32:39 PM) Taufique No: I’m copying and pasting it
(4:39:58 PM) karl: Is it fixed?
(4:40:45 PM) Taufique No: I’m waiting for your response
(4:40:53 PM) Taufique No: The password is not working Mr. Karl
(4:41:08 PM) Taufique No: And to fix the issue. I would need the last four digits of your CC number
(4:43:05 PM) karl: (4:31:34 PM) Taufique No: That’s correct. ?
(4:43:08 PM) karl: It just worked for me
(4:43:10 PM) karl: I don’t understand
(4:43:38 PM) karl: Try to type it in and not copy and paste
(4:43:43 PM) karl: Maybe you are copying some white space
(4:43:54 PM) Taufique No: I said, that’s correct (the information, I’ve been trying)
(4:47:30 PM) karl: Did typing it in work?
(4:49:23 PM) Taufique No: Where exaclty do you see the error message?
(4:49:31 PM) karl: On my website
(4:49:38 PM) karl: http://niceproduce.com
(4:49:40 PM) karl: At the bottom
(4:49:41 PM) karl: Any page
(4:49:45 PM) karl: I’ve seen it before
(4:49:50 PM) Taufique No: It’s working for me
(4:49:52 PM) karl: I’ve had tech support help me before
(4:50:05 PM) Taufique No: I see it now
(4:54:35 PM) Taufique No: I’m working on it
(4:54:37 PM) Taufique No: One moment
(5:08:00 PM) Taufique No: It should be working shorlty
(5:10:18 PM) karl: OK, looks fine now
(5:10:55 PM) Taufique No: Perfect!
(5:11:02 PM) Taufique No: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
(5:11:08 PM) karl: No, thanks
(5:11:20 PM) Taufique No: No problem