Storm's end

The storm "Ivar" has been raging the town this evening. A bit of damages here and there, trees fallen, cars tipped over, garbage bins spread all over the neighbourhood, bits and bobs here and there.

All the busses were stopped at one point, which was particurlarly unfortunate as I had planned to take the bus to the Red Cross house at that exact point. Well, ended up running home and taking the bike instead. I have yet to put on the studded tires on my bike, but I figured it would be fine as most of the ice melted away the last couple of days anyway. Biking was no problem, just a bit too much side wind at one point.

I must say, I love the wind. The way it tears at your body and makes you utterly aware of the powers of nature around you. Makes me feel very much alive. Also, it reminds me of Svalbard. Lots of wind there. Picked out some windy and weathery pictures of a few of the people that were in my geography class on Svalbard. 

127 seconds

Warning: long post ahead. You might have to actually read.

Ok, this is so typically me, posting about events way after they actually took place. I mean, still post post pictures from the Portugal holiday in 2011 and Svalbard semester in 2012. So considering this post is about events that happened in August this year, I'm almost early.

Aaanyway, tagged along to a couple of limestone caves, Ramsåsgrottene, with a friend. Went into the upper Ramsåsgrotte first, which is a wet system, with a stream running through it. Couldn't get all the way through though, there's a little waterfall you have to climb up and I haven't got the skills for that (see video below btw for the waterfall, I'm pointing at where we were trying to go, but it was a dead end). Now, this cave is really tight horisontally, but several meters high in places, and meandering. Moving along therefore ment going up and down and up again, and squeezing and jamming and climbing and crawling. It was strange, how the shape of the cave was just like the englacial conduits (read: ice caves) on Svalbard, the water has worked on the ice and the rock in exactly the same manner, only on different time scales. Nature, eh?

Now, as I've mentioned before, stamina is not my strong side, and I was pretty knackered and quite hungry on the way out. I took a wrong turn past some loose debris and before I knew it a big chunk of rock had fallen down onto my wrist and jammed my arm between the cave wall and the big rock. Stuck, properly stuck. Ow. I could wriggle the rock a little bit, but not move it on my own. What do we do? We panic. Start yelling for my friend and these flashback pictures from 127 Hours keep popping up in my head, and I start crying. See, this is exactly why I would never be any good doing extreme sports.

Friend (also called Ivar by some) goes to other side of rock and manages to lift rock just enough for me to get my hand out. Crawl out last bit of the cave, eat lunch, and all is well again now that my blood sugar is back to normal. We then went into and through lower Ramsåsgrotta, which is quite a lot easier to move through, and not as wet. Still, you can't really be much bigger than me to get through, there are a couple of passages where you have to shuffle along while lying on your back or belly. People have managed to get stuck in lower Ramsåsgrotta too, just look at this.

Dragging one self through tight caves does not fare well for whatever you're wearing. Both my jacket and and trousers were nicely shredded at the end of the day. And then I fell into the mud on the way back to the car, because that's what I do...

Might also add that all in all, I thought it well fun and would recommend it to anyone who hasn't got claustrophobia. And now I have myself little story to tell.

And yeah, I know, all the pictures are blurry, but it's all there is.

tight fit..

Movie time

Finally watching Touching the Void after it's been sitting on my harddrive for over a year now. Interesting stuff, extreme sports and the minds of the people who do it. Also watched Into the Mind earlier this fall. Visually beautiful movie, bit long though.

Personally I'm not there. I just haven't got the mental nor the physical strength for it, sometimes wish I did however. I would have loved that immense adrenaline rush. Now, at this point some might say go for it and you're capable of some much more than what you think you are. Actually, if something went wrong, and I was already tired and hungry, I would panic. I know this because I did panic, in a cave late this summer, my very own 127 Hours experience. Or rather, 127 seconds in my case. Oh yeah, totally comparable... But let's save that for the next post. It's adding up to be enough text for one post here.

Finishing off with som pics from one of my favourite places on earth, a trip to one of the ice caves inside glaciers on Svalbard. More pictures here. The girl is Katja.

Something

I am so fucking bored. With everything. Nothing in my everyday life is exciting. It's all just routine. Actually, it's not even routine, it's eating and sleeping and trying to find the motivation to get to school and the gym, while trying to tear myself apart from various television series which are all more exciting than my own life. Something needs to happen, now. I've got some travelling planned from New Year's, but where, how, to find the motivation to do anything before then?

Restlessness

It's a comfortable plus seven-ish degrees celsius outside, and I'm sitting inside desperately trying to find the motivation to study. I have a month of work to catch up on after my entire study plan kinda got flipped around. It's only one subject that I need to catch up on, but my vision is not brilliant after my lazer eye surgery and reading on my computer is tiring.

What I sould be doing the upcoming weekend is therefore to study, but I think I'd rather go hiking. It's been too many weeks since last I left town and I'm feeling restless. Curing restlessness has two viable options of solution: have sex or go on a trip.

Pictures are from fieldwork on Svalbard, in brilliant, and less than brilliant weather conditions. I miss snowmobiling.

nothingness

I have no internet at home at the moment, only on my phone. I'v just moved, so all I've done lately is pack in and out of boxes, i.e. nothing to blog about. Let's add a picture and call it a day. Bah.

Kakemonster

Here's another question: why can't I stop eating chocolate cake? I had chocolate cake today, yesterday, the day before that, and the day before tat. Plus a couple of days last week. And I wonder why I can't loose weight... Pff! Bollocks.

Wine and games

Missing Svalbard and the five wonderful people I shared a kitchen with. We were the Wine and Boardgames kitchen. It could be three in the morning, couldn't sleep, and I'd go sit in the kitchen. A moment later other non-sleepers would have heard my footsteps and pop their head in the kitchen door, I'd say "game?", and then we'd play Carcassonne or Cribbage.

Other times we'd sit and knit and crochet.

Svalbard

Went rafting today in Driva, with friends. It was well fun! Want to go again. No pictures from it though, couldn't find my waterproof camera and I have no GoPro. But then again, I do already have a huge database of pictures not yet featured on any blog.

Let's go back to Svalbard, where I spent spring of 2012. That's another place I want to go back to. Follow these links for posts about Easter on Svalbard on my previous blog, The low quality blog.


This is from the top of Nordenskiöldtoppen.