Skate to Mistake

The other day I went longboarding with my hometown group I didn't even know existed. It's been probably 1½ years since I skated with people. And it felt so good.

When you're with more experienced skaters, they will have their eyes on you and guide you through your journey. They'll even make you do things that you wouldn't dare to- let it be the fear of physical pain or embarrassment of failing in front of everyone. When my moment came to do something I hadn't done before, I was thinking "are you trying to kill me?", though ironically the stunt was to ensure my own safety better.

But like so many times before, the more you postpone something the more stressful and intimidating it becomes. All those videos and live situations I've seen of people taking a  fall... Fuck it, it's now or never.

While laying on the ground all I could think of was that it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I lifted my head to see the others- they smiled and had their thumbs up. Let's do it again!

It was the first time I had fallen, which just means that before this no one, including myself, had really pushed me out of my comfort zone. Staying in your comfort zone is something that most of us settle for, but no wonder. I mean it's much easier and safer to do things you're already good at and spare yourself from any public humiliation.

Yes. Once others see you make a mistake, they'll realize that you're only a human being. So awful!

All those times you didn't raise your hand in the class room, because you weren't certain of your answer. All those times you take the same role in every project you do. All those times when you think way too much of what others would think.

Which one is worse; people thinking you're helpless, because you made a mistake or you being disappointed in yourself, because once again you didn't push yourself to become more knowledgeable, skillful, all in all better...?

One fall I took hurt really bad. I could have easily dislocated my shoulder at it, but thankfully nothing worse came out of it than an arm that I can't move properly and bad bruises. Despite my grins, I'm all happyhappyjoyjoy inside. I took a giant step forward in something that I'm starting to really love.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

-Socrates

i guess i won't be using these for my job interviews anymore

CSS @ Heaven, London

December 7th, 2012

Every week this one promoter company in London gives away gig tickets on their Facebook page. This time there was a chance to go see Brazilian band CSS, of which I've never heard about. Though when listening to their hit Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above, I thought "COOL!". I wanted to be truly honest in my answer, so I wrote I'd take my friend Linda with me, because her music taste needed (needs) improvement. And honesty paid off.

As we arrived to the venue Heaven, we decided to take our places from the balcony, and let others have more space closer to the stage. During the gig, regret was pretty much what we felt. Even Linda, who doesn't like to be in front. That's how wild good it was.

CSS gave a crazy all around performance with some crowd surfing, limbo and jokes, which cracked everyone up.

How many beers can you drink, before your breathe starts to stink?
We have Ginger Spice on the drums. (Their drummer having a Union Jack shirt on).

At the end of the show, when everyone was cheering and applauding, I remembered the band tweeting something about longboarding, so I told Linda to raise her board up. Then apparently singer Lovefoxxx went "Uuh a longboard!".

After the gig we definitely wanted to see if there were any band members around, so we could thank them for the awesome time. Little did we know that "thank you" would turn out to be beers at the backstage.

It was quite interesting to hear stories from their tour manager, who was into skating too. We also had no idea that their bass player is Swedish! Non-blonde hair can really confuse people. All of the band members were extremely kind and had a good sense of humor. Also, instead of us taking photos of them, well it just went the opposite. Guitarist Luiza took photos of us with her old-fashioned camera (btw we're still waiting for the photos ;)) and was wondering how old we were.

I guess wearing backpacks, helmets and ripped Union Jack banderas made us look younger. Click here to see.

In summary, on Heaven's stage EMA smashed a guitar, CSS did the limbo and lastly, I posed with a longboard. Entertaining moments.

When I find myself by the sea,

14.1.2012

in another's company, by the sea.

Just seeing the sea yesterday in Brighton I could not help thinking of those lyrics above.


The atmosphere, which the song has is the best way to describe how the atmosphere by the sea in Brighton was. Calm, relaxed..

Play the song again and check out these photos. Then you might know what I mean.

The complete opposite of London, in other words it was nice for once not to be surrounded by stressed, yelling, annoying, miserable people. In Brighton they were actually smiling.

It was a great feeling to just listen to the waves and have the sun shining on your face. The coast reminded me of The Hague in Holland. I guess Brighton is a mix of The Hague, Nice and Verona.

And the shopping street reminded me of Camden. Loads of record stores in a tiny street, from which I got some Bon Iver, Explosions In The Sky and Elliot Smith.

Lovely.

Pics by l.lundberg excl. panorama and pics of her.