IRL...

...but back IVL at least one more time because there is nothing else to do on my 11 hour flight from South East Asia back to Frankfurt/Copenhagen (prepare for a long post). Ever since our son was born almost 11 months ago I´ve become very cautious about putting my time only on things that in the long run brings value or allows me to use life fully in the moment. Spending time writing blogs might give some value to whoever will read it, but is not really something I´ve prioritized during the last year as you might have noticed. This may be the last post, or not, we will see. But I am really happy to spend 100% of my time IRL (in real life) rather than getting stuck IVL (in virtual life) with Facebook or blogging for hours every day, as some people do nowadays.But who am I to judge, as long as it makes you happy, then fine.

I´ve been visiting Shenzhen (China), Hong Kong and Taipei (Taiwan) over the last few days with work, and I can´t wait to get back home to Sara and Vilgot. Too bad teleportation doesn´t exist. I´ve been able to see some of the highlights in both Hong Kong and Taipei, but I hope to be able to go back for vacation (at least to Taiwan) in the future, because that country is just magnificent, and the people are the friendliest I´ve ever met (e.g. they opened the gym 1.5 hours earlier this morning for me to be able to run before leaving for the airport). However the best part of the trip was probably when speaking to Sara and Vilgot over Skype and I think I heard a “pappa” (or at least an attempt) for the first time, while he pointed at the computer screen where I was displayed. Very hard to understand how daddy could speak from the computer and that it wasn´t possible to give me a hug even though I was there (he tried to reach out to hug the computer)…

Adventure running in taipei...

The last 12 months have been the best of my life. And my silent and constant new years resolution to myself which I´ve had for the last 3 years, to try to make the coming year the best in my life (so far), has actually worked out so far. And I plan to make the coming year even better and hope and pray that this will be the case.

A few weeks ago we went to Nice for vacation. Since I had never been to France (other than in flight transit) it was a first both for me, Sara, Vilgot and Sara´s family. We stayed there for 9 days and had a really good time. One of the “objectives” of the trip was to complete Ironman France and try to qualify for Ironman Hawaii. Even though I missed my goal this time (of qualifying) there will be more chances, and I am really happy to have completed the Ironman race in Nice, because it´s one of the toughest courses for Ironman (crazy swim start with 2500 athletes, very hilly and technical bike ride, and a hot hot run) in the world. It´s also a very classical city for triathlon with one of the oldest races (started in the 80s, when Mark Allen used to dominate the dojo) in the world. I´m glad to have completed it, but I will not go back to race there again (at least not if I want to qualify for Hawaii). Next challenge will be Järnmannen in Kalmar for the 4^th year in a row, which is coming up in only 3 weeks. The goal is to beat my personal/club/Blekinge record from last year, but I guess the ultimate goal is to try to have fun in the meanwhile.

Half summer is gone already, but it´s been a good one so far. I´m looking forward to 6 months of paternity leave starting from 1^st of September. Something tells me I won´t have more time to put on blogging then so bye for now. And remember to live your life to 100% (which of course means different things to you than to me) because it´s the only life we´ve got. At least on earth.