Flying Sick

A few of my friends go: Oh that's totally like my second home, when they arrive in a country they've spent some time in. I go just like that when I arrive at airports. It's a strange homey feeling oozing out of these air harbors  After all, the similarities are much bigger at airports than in society in general. Saying this I am not trying to cover up the many annoying experiences of the many crappy airports out there. Yes there are a whole bunch of them. The Swedish ones that I rank as these are Skavsta and Nykopings Ryan air airports. But I won't get started with my carrier bashing in this post, too.

The thing I wanted to highlight that I so often forget is the importance of being comfortable in a flight. Pillows, blankets and candy is not what I'm talking a bout here. It's the importance of staying warm and rested. Why? Well your health.

Feeling like I'm getting down with a little something the only place that I can think of with abundant sneezing and sniveling in a confined space was my flight to Paris. So If you are ever planning to fly with a low cost carrier or any carrier that likes recycles the air a godzillion times and puts the air conditioning on freezing to save glod. Bring warm clothing. And maybe also one of those Japanese moth guards surgeons and Japanese subway commuters weir.

Culture Shock Cure

As a visit to my home country of Sweden approaches I face a small boggle of mine. After spending most of my time speaking other languages than Swedish my language has become, well non default. When meeting Swedish people or Nordic people while traveling I tend to automatically switch away from Swedish. So what to do. Well as I aim not to alienate people nor lose friends when I come back to my beloved "svedala" I have a remedy to fix this. Inspired by my friend Abinash in Kuala Lumpur I have a diet packed with Swedish online tv shows. Yes everything from Linda Rosing (Swedish crap C-celebrity) to humor shows like breaking new. Having less than 24h until deadline I feel it's going my way. This despite the problems of watching Swedish tv online. For some reason they like to make it annoying by restricting access to Swedish IP numbers. Anyway last batch of Swedish before departure will be breaking news tonight at 22:00. Je vais l'empoter!

Punished for pleasure

One of the things one is punished for in the Islamic region of South East Asia is alcohol. Quite natural as there are abominations in the face of Islam. Hence they are taxed with a vengeance. Flying from Kuala Lumpur to Paris I now get to enjoy the satisfaction of good wine for a small buck. My first taste was a Beaujolais. I bought it mainly based on the visual presentation but it is kind of a special wine. Every year there is a new version and on the first day of the release major gatherings around the stores are common. It's trying the new Beaujolais day! The 2009 edition by Jean-Paul Brun which I bought in a small supermarket was balanced and sweet to my satisfaction.
In comparison to my experience in food (mainly eating it) I know noting about wine. This should be changed. But how to I go about getting to know wine?

Urban Survivor

One of the last things I did before I left Kuala Lumpur was to watch Robinson (The Swedish precursor  to Survivor). Here in Paris I'm overwhelmed with the changes that comes with the continent swap. The age of buildings, the blue sky and flaky weather, the clean streets and the good quality food. Yes yes, some might object and say that there is good quality food in Malaysia too. But they are wrong. When I'm talking about food I'm not talking about the extremes that one might find after large about of energy and/or money spent. I'm talking about the readily available options every day people choose and value. Here the food culture if much more focused on the simple, organic and quality of basic stuff. Although I have to say the Italians might be the best at this concept of complexity and simplicity in one. The french are definitively up there and has it's own angle to it.  But! this is not what I wanted to talk about. It seems that whatever I start thinking of it's an inevitability that the topic will change to food. There are other things with the same symptom of inevitability. On e is the fact that all free forums will eventually turn into a mating forum. Yes meeting people with the end result of pairing up or mating. This is especially true for online forums. That is also a side topic I'll deal with later. What hit me after the initial chock of coming over here was the homeless people in the streets. I'm not sure what I was expecting but there are a whole bunch of em here and many are surprisingly young. My awareness of this problem seem to have taken a dip as the surge of things dirty in Asia seemed to have washed away the shadier parts of my European memories.

Well that or that I've once again forgot how few homeless people we have in Stockholm.  But when I think back upon the number of encounters with people needing money in Asia the homeless seemed to make less of an impression on me way out east. True, the pure numbers I've seen over there easily triumph the ones here but these ones seem to stick out more. Over there it fitted in in the surroundings of dirty and ghetto rigged as a way of life. Here they stick out like sore thumbs in the midst of historical buildings and "bobo" cafés.

Hive of Entertainment Automation

Why the epic price difference in movies. Seeing as digital distribution and digital equipment for showing these movies are available at modern cinemas and heck, even back in my old student dorm. Well back then we just called it downloading HD movies. But still the technology is out there and it's being used. So what then warrants the monstrous price difference in movies across the globe. For example. Here in Malaysia I can watch a movie with student prices for something like 6 Malaysian ringgit, 12 SEK or 2$ US. Back home in Sweden it would cost something like 120 SEK or 13EUR. Since we could (at lest in theory) render almost all personnel redundant it's no longer a matter of wage differences. Still Cinemas back home are struggling economically whine the ones over here are doing just fine. Could it be that the prices are so high and the viewing experience so much worse that we just don't value watching movies in cinemas any more. Well I know it's not the experience. I've watched like 10 movies in a couple days. Given those days where spread out on the times I've dropped by KL but still.. Must have cost me a fortune now that I think about it. something like 100 Malaysian Ringgit in total. That would be something like 200 SEK or 20EUR, roughly.
So when will we see the first totally automated around the clock cinema in Sweden? Well most likely after it becomes a reality in japan. After all they love their vending machines. Why not a cinema vending machine with baby vending machines inside?
An Epic hive of automation!

Middle Aged Teen Angst

I'm not sure if you remember the days when girls and boys around you where filled with angst and emotion swelling over and well annoying the shit out of at least me. Those days where junior high school and high school I guess. But not everywhere. In these lands on the south east it's still flowing well in the late twenties. And it's mostly girls. After traveling around here for a while I've befriended quite a few people, on Facebook..
Let me tell you the Facebook life here is something else. Not sure if it's because it's the only outlet of emotion in communication that is allowed or if it's just such a convenient way of saying what you think in a alone against the world fashion that was never available before online social networks.
Either way. Every day I face the horror of emotional outreach towards the world and sadly towards my notifications and mailbox too. Is it just me? Is it just me that think filtering out all a persons messages and post is the only solution left to avoid tidal flows of teen angst from scorns of Asian girls in their "way to old to be writing this"
Ok you might be arguing that it's a bit late since they are all kept at home by overprotecting parents until they are married off and then the parents live with their kids anyway..
Well it's not a uncommon fact that women well in their middle years still fret over uncommented posts, messages and Facebook statuses here. Yes many a time at my office and others have there been intrigue in the air and bewilderment over unjustified neglect in Facebook response... And then comes the teen angst flowing out on the digital tides we all surf on. Personally I think it's one wave to big and too not concerning me to handle but who knows. Maybe it is everyone's duty to listen to this, or filter this shit out.

Cheap flights

I have this problem. I'm flying to pairs and not this is not the problem. The problem is that I'm flying from south east Asia equipped with only flip-flops and beach wear. As I'm not made out of money or have a income at all in fact It's time to figure out how to not spend to much changing a wardrobe. Shopping! Well in that case I should do it here. Or a quick flight back and forth from Sweden. That would surly cost me at least 1500 SEK or 150 EUR plus another 500 SEK or 50 EUR for small expenses in Sweden. Question is. What can I get for that amount of cash circa 1000 Malay Ringgit. And what do I need?

Well long pants would be nice. Shirts, a suit, some shoes and a jacket would definitively not be out of line. Also it would be nice to get some of my little gifts for people back home to a more convenient location. Specially after loosing a bag of stuff including paintings for my mum in Bali.

So "Pros" and "Cons" of shopping versus flying. 

Flying

Pros

• I know exactly what I have at home. No energy lost on finding stuff.
• Swedish food
• Friends and family
• Board-game time with brother and friends
• Leave the stuff I currently have
• A renewal of insurance periods

Cons

• Wasting time where I could be working or looking for work in Paris
• Time consuming
• Having to search through the jungle of cheap flights
• minimum cost of circa 200EUR 2000SEK or 300 USD

Shopping

Pros

• It's fun
• New stuff

Cons

• It's tedious
• costly
• I'm not sure what's out there
• time consuming
• Cost circa circa 200EUR 2000SEK or 300 USD

Sometime the pure thought of filtering through budget airlines if a horror or joy in itself. I'd say it depends on the mood one is in. Maybe the worst part if doing it right now as the Starbucks I'm currently using as my little office is occupied by babies and their guardians. Oh screaming little parasites how I loath you near me. The second most annoying thing must be all the hidden fares of budget airlines. Knowing that one must add 20EURx2 if one flies with Ryan Air just for bus transport to and from Stockholm. Adding another 15 EUR x2 if one flies to Paris with the same company. I have to give Norwegian airlines a pat on the shoulder here for sparing us this waste of time and money. Anyway then there are the cost of paying with a card when it's the only option and another bunch of hidden fees. Basically add 80-100EUR to any flight in sheer non optional additional cost.

Yes hello back SAS, suddenly your prices and services don't seem so bad after all. At least Airasia haven't come down with the hustling of Ryan air, yet..

Oh yeah and it looks like Flying will be my preferred option. Well at least of yesterdays dip in the Swedish Krona didn't bring prices up even further for flying.