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.

If you want a quick wedding - taken i Las Vegas...of course...

Las Vegas by night

Highway One South

After todays activities in the exhibition area and a meeting with MySpace I joined David for a ride along Highway 1 going south. It´s probably one of the worlds more famous and spectacular roads, following the coast all the way from the north of California, through San Fransisco and all the way down to LA. We drowe for one and a half hour and reached Santa Cruz before we turned back. The surroundings were just awesome.

Interesting food day

It has been a long and fruitful day in many ways. Intersting meetings and some new contacts made in the exhibition area. But what I will remember from today is not the exhibition CTIA, but rather the interesting food experiences I made during he day.

After a long morning run, I was pretty hungry, so we went to a typical american restaurant where I ordered a Lumberjack meal (only that should have scared me off, but I was so hungry ;). They played american classics like 'Rock around the clock' and other old goodies. I actually managed to finish the Lumberjack meal, which was basically one big steak of ham with fried potatoes one one of the plates, and two fried eggs with two big, thick panncakes and honey on the the other one. I was so full for several hours so I only had a smoothie for lunch.

Tonight I went to a place called Sushi Boat. The name was fitting, because you sat around a bar disc with the chefs working in the middle, putting small plates of different kinds of sushi on small boats that floated round and round. So once you saw something that looked good you just grabbed it quickly from one of the boats. I had 6 differerent small plates. That was great fun, there was just one thing missing ;( SARA!!!

400 Horse Powers through Napa Valley

My collegue David has rented a convertable Corvette during his stay in San Fransisco. When we were done in the exhibition area today he asked if I wanted to go for a ride...I thought sure why not...

...so we went over the golden gate bridge, and across to the countryside of California north of San Fran.

It was very cool to feel the warm wind and all those smells that you normally don´t feel when you are in a normal car. And acceleration was massive (400 HP), not to talk about the deep noice the engine was making when he pushed the pedal to the floor. Luckily for him, gas is very cheap here...

...We went all the way up to Napa Valley, famous for it´s big wine yards, where we had dinner at an Italian restaurant with an annoying waitress that asked us maybe 5 or 6 times during the meal if the food tasted good. Well it did, so guess that´s fine...she was just being over-polite I guess. So long...

Long run in SF

With a map, my phone, and some energy gel I went for a long run through San Fransisco. The best part of the run was to cross the Golden Gate bridge, even though I don´t want to think of the amount of exhaust fumes I inhaled in the process. I also re-discovered (more painfully this time since last time I was here I experienced the city in cable cars and a rental car) the hills of SF. Finished my sunday off with a big steak and now it´s time to get some sleep...back soon.

First day in San Fransisco

Arrived to San Fransisco after 23 hours of travelling yesterday night. After a quick shower I found something to eat, and then I got stuck in the Virgin Megastore for an hour until they closed. Even though I had been up (except for a few hours of sleep on the plane) for 27 hours I wasn´t that tired.

This morning I went for breakfast at Union square, where they obviously had had the start of a Nike Marathon earlier this morning. Unfortunately the finish was not at the same place so I never got to see any runners ;( There was a huge Niketown next to the square, 4 levels of Nike stuff, where I probably spent 1 hour, even though I didn´t buy anything.

After my Nike stroll I walked for a while over to Chinatown, where I spent a few hours walking around. Compared to Chinatown in Bangkok it felt very spacious and clean, but still the same feeling and the same strange smells :)

Later today I´m gonna go for a long run through a big park leading up to the Golden Gate bridge. More nice photos to come from that later.

Still alive...

Vad säger man när man får ett mail som detta från SAS??

Information från SAS
Du är en av våra kunder som flitigast har utnyttjat de flygningar som trafikerats med flygplansmodellen Dash 8-Q400. På grund av de två olyckorna i Ålborg och Vilnius har SAS beslutat att inte flyga med Q400 tills vidare.

Antar att man ska vara glad att man fortfarande lever :)

Cambridge - old college buildings, lots of japs, rain and ARM conference

Come with me, come with me to Helsinki...

After a long day of delayed flights, taxi rides, meetings and dinner at a Seafood restaurant I enjoyed Helsinki city walking around with an icecream for an hour by myself. Found a cool cathedral with a statue of Alexander 2nd in front of it.

Sauna Market - only in Finland

Watching budapest from my room...

Kölle allaf - carneval in cologne

A lot of crazy germans.

Me and elmar at the parade

Avi and richard at the karneval

Cooking course in bonn...

...with the whole gcu team...thai food :-)

Anders and toni

Peter and chris

Peter siepen