21/9 - Time for a change again.

September could be a lovely month. On the good days you can enjoy the clear and crisp air on a calm morning, take nice long walks along the water and still feel the warmth from the sun when you leave the shady parts. However, a September weekend could also be described with the words: Essen, Germany, canoe polo, camping, 11 degrees, rain, wind and a constantly wet towel. In other words, a whole weekend where the main objective was to avoid getting: 

a) Pneumonia. 

b) Bladder infection.

c) A nasty cold that would stick until spring arrives. 

d) All of the above.

Or, if trying to look on bright side, an exercise in optimising the procedure of: 

1) Take your Gore-Tex boots, woollen socks, Gore-Tex pants, jeans, long johns, woollen underwear, Gore-Tex jacket, sports jacket, woollen jersey, thermal shirt and hat off. 

2) Put your wet bikini, wet neoprene shorts, wet rash guard, wet neoprene west and wet neoprene socks on. 

3) Run to your kayak and put a wet spray deck, wet life jacket and helmet on. 

4) Get on the water as quickly as possible to get warm enough to be able to throw a ball without ripping every muscle fibre in your shoulder apart.

Of course, the reversed procedure was included just as many times as well in the optimisation exercise, with the extra challenge of trying to get dry enough with the soaking wet towel to put your woollen underwear on. Conclusively, after that weekend of blue lips and constantly being cold, it felt like just the right time for the Southern hemisphere again.

For the record, Denmark gave me some payback for the miserable weekend. After moving the last box to the storage place, returning the rental van at Enghavevej, sweeping the living room floor one last time, leaving the keys in the kitchen and zipping my massive bag up (have no idea how I always end up with so much luggage), September showed me it’s best side: Sunshine, a walk along a deserted beach, fresh – but not cold – air, a windsurfer geared up to the max and people making their yachts ready for the winter in the harbour. Thanks Henrik, for the company during the last few hours in Scandinavia, just a shame I didn’t bring you and your professional skills to Paris.

Até amanhã...or so I thought.

2/5 – Good reminder and appreciated change of plan.

The plan of having a weekend with only watching canoe polo, sitting in the sun for a bit, perhaps go for an easy paddle or run and drinking the odd beers, was quickly revised to a weekend of playing myself. I barely managed to arrive at the club yesterday morning before the guys were on the mission of finding me a kayak, which I would fit in and with some descent footrests. And as in the rest of the world when it comes to kayaking equipment, and most other sports and hobbies as well, there are not many things that cannot be sorted with duct tape. And if it can’t be fixed with the silver wonder, it’s really broken…for sure. A few minutes later I was suddenly lined up to play for the team with players from all over Brazil, the Renegades, the keen ones who don’t have any teams at home but still want to play, just like me. More than six months with hardly touching a polo ball and with hours in my kayak, which would be easy to count, I felt anything but ready to take on the Brazilian champs for a game. Can’t really claim that it was my best game in history, but probably not the worst either. Most of yesterday and today was thus spent in a kayak, playing games with a bunch of Brazilian guys, I have no idea why quite a few cameras seemed to be directed towards the female blonde among the lot. Great fun of course, and luckily it also gave me a good reminder of why I love the sport so much. I have a tendency to suppress how much I miss doing things, if I can’t practise them where I am at the moment. If long enough time passes without me being busy with it, it’s like my brain turns on this self-protection function so I won’t miss the things I cannot do anyways. Ice yachting is probably the best example of it, was so long ago that I probably need to write it down somewhere to remember how much fun I think it was…is. Canoe polo was scary enough seeming to head that way after the last few months of boxing classes and kite surfing. And I honestly thought that I would be happy with just watching the games this weekend, without getting on the pitch myself. But the second I saw the goals, the glass water and the people warming up on the side, I could have done a lot of things to get on a team. Luckily, I didn’t share those thoughts with anyone, but got a spot anyways.

So to summarize, this weekend was exactly what my canoe polo part of my brain needed at this stage. And if the Brazilian rock stars need a water girl in Milan, I’m at their service.

Photos to come…just need to figure out how to transfer them from my borrowed camera…you would think it was only to plug the cable in, but apparently not. - check, PC required. Thanks so much for lending me your camera by the way Deep, very much appreciated.

May 2010 photos

Romantically glistering on the hillsides from a distant at night, scary, rough and a bit ugly from the outside, full of normal people trying to live normal lives from the inside. They’ve got the best view in town and are often overlooking the poshest areas of the marvellous city. However, they are also totally left to keeping their fingers crossed and wish for some luck when nature, the police or the big guy feels like it.

30/4 – Bonfires swapped for Brazilian Canoe Polo.

Once again, I’ll miss being in my hometown on last of April, it’s always a good day to be in the city of Carl von Linné. Even though I probably haven’t had a traditional Uppsala style Valborg since 2000, it still feels like that’s the way it should be celebrated. With dear friends of course, lots of champagne and beer, watching the students, first fight with their rafts in the freezing river and then run down Carolinabacken while waving their hats. The first BBQ of the year should also be planned for this evening and don’t forget the not-putting-on-enough-clothes-because-you-think-it-should-be-summer factor for the day. That’s part of the deal, to be cold most of the day, and spend the following week sneezing with a runny nose and sore throat. If you’re hard-core, you’ll sign up for a 1 May dinner party with at least a seven courses set-up and the longest speeches of the year at one of the student pubs for the day after. We did well back in 2000, Pontus!
Instead I’ve made my way to Londrina tonight. A city, which I know nothing about, some 800 km from here or so in the state of Parana. Sort of go towards São Paulo and keep on going westwards from there, and you should get within the near vicinity of the city. The information I’ve got about the place so far, stretches to that it’s only four hours away from Paraguay, and therefore possible to drive across the boarder to buy some cheap(er) electronics. Not planning to go shopping, but hopefully, I’ll get to experience some South American canoe polo. My strongest perception of the Brazilian version of the sport is from 2002, where the Brazilian players kindly laughed at the Swedish teams when we were off loading our (not so) brilliant Gecko boats in Essen. During the rest of that tournament, there weren’t many quiet moments around the samba players. Not only had they brought their canoe polo gear, but also the drums and the singing and dancing spirit. For sure, I wouldn’t mind some of that this weekend.

In other words, no Valborg, bonfires, forsränning, champagne breakfast, white student hats, fireworks or even a Koninginnedag in orange today. Have to aim for a proper Midsummer weekend this year instead, which would be the first time since 2000 as well if I manage.