Halloween and such

Our door bell has been ringing continuously tonight, trick-or-treat kids of all sizes and ages (I suspect some of them were university students). Maybe a little bit childish, but I wanted to have some fun too. So I borrowed a scary mask from little boy. And I was wearing one of my metal T-shits, as usual, with sculls and scary stuff ... muuhaaahaaah!

Every time the door bell rang I put on the mask. Then, with the mask on, I opened the the door with a quick move, and screaming out the most horrifying growl I could make. I thought that would scare the shit out of the kids ... but they just laughed at me.

It's not easy to scare the kids anymore.

The picture has nothing to do with Halloween, but I thought this might be a suitable day to post it. I took it this summer, on a black metal concert on town square with one of my favorite bands, Mayhem.

Black metal fans have Halloween every day >:)))

Cleaning up after the summer

I've been working in the yard this weekend. Boring, but necessary to do. The snow we got couple of weeks ago is gone. October-snow never stays.

I've taken down the kids trampoline and put it to winter storage, and removed the leaves on the ground. The different species of trees drop their leaves at different times, so this goes on continuously, from September to December. I was shaking the damn plum tree, but it still refuses to give up it's leaves (the plums were good though, eaten in September).

My old lady has been gone most of the time, on a sewing weekend with her friends. I've been able to make some progress on my novel too. She thinks my writing is just a big waste of time. If I sit down to write, it means I'm idle, having nothing useful to do, and available for doing all kind of jobs she invents. So, I mostly write in secret.

Today is Halloween. We don't have a tradition for celebrating it. First time I experienced Halloween was when we lived in Colorado some 10 years ago. But last few years it has become bigger and bigger here too. The stores have found another opportunity to sell all kinds of crap. Little boy is going to a Halloween party with friends tonight (older boy and his friends had Halloween party yesterday; that's because they drink beer, even though they're under age).

Now the trick-or-treat gangs are coming soon. I need to find the candy and make it ready. Then I think I'll watch the Antichrist movie by Lars von Trier, bought the DVD couple of weeks ago.

Enjoy your Halloween >:)

Defeat at Elland Road

In my country we’re crazy about English football (real football; some call it soccer). Most men and some women have their favorite team in England. Leeds united is my team. They had the best team when I was a kid, in the 1970s. You can’t change favorite team. Never. I still follow Leeds United, but not as enthusiastic as before. Now I'm more interested in skiing and science and literature and music. I don’t even know the names of the players anymore. It’s a shame, isn't it?

Anyway, this weekend I was in England to see Leeds United. In fact, we were lucky, and got to see three matches:

Saturday: Doncaster - Sheffield United 2-0

Sunday: Liverpool - Blackburn 2-1


It was cool to be at Anfield Road. We went up to the stadium two hours before the start of the match to look around, to visit the club store (bought a T-shirt for little boy who is Liverpool fan), and to see the Hillsborough memorial (where 96 Liverpool fans were squeezed to death on the over-crowded stand in 1989). Even a Leeds fan must admit that there’s something special about Anfield. The atmosphere is magic when the crowd sings “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.

When we got back to Leeds, I went for a walk around the quarter and ended up with a dark malty beer in an old bar with live jazz. Nice to get some music after all the football.

Monday: Leeds - Cardiff 0-4


This was our main match, the highlight of our trip. We were on the North Stand, with the hard-core Leeds fans. The club is short of money and has a crap team now, but the supporters are still enthusiastic (or fanatic). The F-word and C-word and P-word were shouted continuously, but only aimed at the referee and the Cardiff players. I didn’t hear a single negative remark about the Leeds players, even though they lost 0-4 at home. The Leeds fans are used to hard times.

After the match we were met by 200 policemen (and women), with helmets and shields, many on horses, some with barking dogs. I haven’t seen that many police ever. They wanted to keep the Leeds and Cardiff supporters separated to avoid fighting. For some reason they hate each other.

I don’t hate anyone, but I like English football >:)

Write Around the World guest post

Yesterday I was guest-blogging for Michele's Write Around the World series at Southern City Mysteries

I was a little bit nervous about this. It's my first time writing a guest post, and Michele has some really fabulous posts on her record. My favorite is the Literary Movement Series she wrote this summer.

Anyway, I'm doing my best. Please, take a look if you want >:)

First snow

It was all white when I woke up this morning. The mountains have been draped in white for a month already. Today was first snow in town. Before driving to the office, I changed to winter tires on the car. Damn boring to do, but now it's done >:)

In a couple of days the snow is gone, I guess. October-snow never lasts ...

Walking and writing

I walked around the town center this evening. It doesn't take long. It's a small town.

From the quay I can see our house, in the hill, on the other side of the bay, the house that we rented when we lived here. It was a nice place to live. The view was fantastic. In the summer we had sun in the backyard for 23 hours a day. It just dropped behind the mountain peaks for little a while. I took the picture in May two years ago, from our backyard, right after midnight.

It was great to live here, and I would be happy to move back some time. The summer was fantastic. I liked the dark winter too, with the northern light. It's not that dark. The sun is completely gone for only eight weeks. Then it rapidly becomes lighter.

Now I'm sitting in my hotel, writing on my so-called novel. I've written 550 words to night. That's not very impressive, is it? I have to speed up >:)

Winter is coming

I'm back in the north. I haven't been here since June.

I took an early flight this morning. First, one hour on a big jet. Then another half an hour in a small propeller plane. Before take off they moved some passengers to the back seats, to redistribute weight, and stabilize the plane. That's normal, they often do that on Six Flags Airlines.

The trees have dropped their leaves. The birch forest is gray, with spots of flaming red from the berries of the rowan trees in between. The mountains are white, but in town there's less than an inch of snow. Right now it's snowing outside.

Winter is just around the corner. Great!

I don't have my commute apartment here anymore. Now I'm sitting in a down-town hotel, writing on my so-called novel ... sorry guys, I have some fun work to do >:)

Super yachts and communists

Last week, when we were in Nice, down on Cote de Azur, I picked up the September issue of the free monthly magazine “That’s Nice”. On page 8, there was an article with this headiline:

"Super yachts are back on the shopping list"

Here are some highlights from the article (I inserted the conversion sfrom meters to feet):

"When the global financial crisis hit, the luxury yachting industry took a major blow ... Yachts are once again the must have toys of high society... 108 super yachts - yachts over 24m (80 feet) - were sold between January and June this year... And it’s the sale of really big yachts - 50 to 70 meters (160 to 230 feet) – that have seen the most dramatic rise... It appears the endless supply of cash is back and perhaps the big business people aren’t feeling too bad this year about lashing out on luxury goods..."

Personally, if I had enough money to buy a super yacht, I would feel better if I bought just a regular yacht, for instance a 2nd-hand 44-feet Princess at $400.000, and gave the excess money to the Salvation Army.

My first thought, when I read that article, was that these business-idiots didn’t learn a damn thing during the financial crisis in 2008. But maye that’s what they did? They learnt that the next time the stock market and banking system breaks down, the US president, and the EU leaders will save their asses once again. In the mean time, let the party go on, in Nice, Cannes and Monaco and other crazy places.

Last Saturday, in downtown Nice, I happened to observe a big demonstration coming down Avenue Jean Medicine. It was a protest against the French government, and their proposed changes in the retirement system, organized by the French Communist Party and the workers unions. The news in TV said it was 10.000 people participating, the organizers claimed it was 30.000.

It was great to see this big demonstration. In a place where people have super yachts on the shopping list, they definitely need a strong communist party to keep things in balance.

Magret de canard

Fall is the time to fly south, when it’s cold and dark and rainy in the north, before the snow drapes the hills and mountains in white and the skiing starts. Last week we went down to the French Riviera for a few days, my old lady and I.

We explored the narrow streets and alleys of old Nice, had lunch with rose wine on Place Massena. We hiked around Cap Ferrat, and visited the old castle with the Picasso Museum in Antibes.

It’s pleasant to stay in southern France, and it’s always entertaining to watch the Frenchmen, when they’re riding scooters with designer suits and tie, and when they play boule in the parks, arguing intensively about who wins.

In the fall, when the days are warm and evenings are chill, the Frenchmen are never too warm and never really cold. They’re always something in between. When they’re half-cold, they carry a yellow or read wool sweater over the back, with arms tied loosely around the neck. When they’re three-quarters-cold, they hang a jacket over the shoulders, but without putting the arms in. That’s the way the French do it, no one but the French. To me it only looks awkward, and I have to smile every time I see it.

Then there is the food and the wine. In France you get the most hyped food, stuff that tastes like shit and costs a fortune, for instance frog legs and snails and duck liver. But there is delicious dishes too, like magret de canard (steak of duck), with orange gravy, or with honey and pepper gravy.

And I read some good books of course. This was my read:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Teriible story, great prose.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Great story from Afghanistan.