Karl Stanton

Rain, rain, go away…

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!

Runs and Chess

That was going to be an embedded map of my run, but MapMyFitness has let me down. I may have to write my own, damn it.

This is one side of Kungsholmen that I run down, lovely, hey?

I’ve been running in the mornings, and I’ve noticed that I’m much more alert for longer. My sleepiness is drowned out by the jog and by the time I get to work, I feel like a million bucks. I’ve been running around Kungsholmen which is about 9.5km’s long (even though Wikipedia say’s it’s 8.9km’s). I am planning to run the whole distance twice a week and half the distance in between. This means that I’m not riding to work as I will kill myself, but I’ve been using the weekends to do mega rides as I posted earlier.

Apart from my runs, I’ve also been exercising my mind with chess. I recently upgraded to a pre-paid mobile plan with mobile internet, so I have been spending my waiting periods playing chess with people on the internet, a really geeky thing to do but I enjoy it… there, I said it. I’ve got a battle with B.L.I.M happening at the moment, so results of that as time goes on.

This coming weekend is a long one with celebrations for Första Maj (1st of May, Labour Day). I’m not sure how many people will be celebrating though as I have heard it’s a time for protest and pagan tradition, I’m in two minds about taking a ride on Friday as I’m sure there’ll be lots of great photo opportunities as people fill the streets… I think I’ll ride on Sunday.

I’m also thinking about buying a small GPS unit for my bike so I can track my rides more accurately, as well as help me find out where I am. I tried to get an iPhone 3G however I need to be a Swedish resident for over 8 months before I can sign a contract, so I have to settle with “Locate Me” on Google Maps, if anyone feels generous enough to buy a GPS Unit, this is what I want…