A Christmas update.

Hi there. 

It was a long time since I wrote something here and that because of more than one reason. First the obvious one... Time... I have had allot of things going on. For one thing I have been editing the photos from a trip to a really nice place where me and my friends went swimming in a river, and then I have been busy with my Chinese. It really is quite hard for me to learn all these characters of theirs. 

The most important reason though... MY EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE MESSED UP. I cant access my photos. My computer keep asking me to format the hard drive. All my digital photos I have ever taken are on that hard drive. The first photos are from when I sailed from South Africa to Australia with this bad boy (photo from the Internet since all my photos are gone)

The photos from the last trip were also on there... so... Well I went to a repair-computer-stuff place. I hope they can help me. 

Here in Taiwan the legislative yuan (the part of the government that makes up new laws) is reviewing equal marriage rights. Most people I have talked to personally say "gay is OK" but they think that other peoples views are negative, this because of culture. The most negative people, sadly to say, are to the majority Christians. A couple of weeks ago they held a huge demonstration against gay rights. 

Yesterday we who are for equal rights had a kind of demonstration of our own. 

A-Mei, a Taiwanese singer and  superstar had a free concert for which she payed for herself. She told us (I was standing in really close to the stage, next to the base speakers) that she told her producer (or something) that she wanted to hold a free concert to promote equal marriage. He asked when during next year this concert would be held. Next WEEK she answered. The decision came so fast that her hairdresser and makeup artist didn't have time of to help out. 

Here is a video clip from yesterdays concert. (22nd of Dec 2013)

The concert was amazing. About 20.000 people gathered outside and all the lyrics were posted in the bottom of the big screens. It was like a huge Karaoke party. 

Well, its time for me to study my Chinese characters. 

I say happy holidays (no matter which one you celebrate, be it Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan or any other holiday) with my favourite Christmas song, performed by Swedish singer Tommy Körberg. 

Stay awake

Love Ove

Tourist in HongKong

 Saturday we decided to see some sights. 

We started by going down to the waterfront. 

 Disney have one of their worlds in HongKong, and at the waterfront they have a small venue. 

This is Jason's Christmas card.

This is mine. 

A little but further on from where Jason is standing they had a walk of fame. Like the one in Hollywood, with stars, hands and stuff. 

I didn't recognize a single name.

But still, this is kind of cute right? 

One guy I did recognize though. 

To walk and walk and walk and walk gets so me, so we had a short break. 

Jason had a coffee. 

I had a Chimay.

A Trappist is a piece of art. 

Sitting there enjoying the sights of HongKong, we came across one of HongKongs more famous vessels. 

At the consulate I saw an ad about a Swedish store. Well we found it. 

The Fish balls (Abba) will be our Christmas dinner. The Djungelvrål is my Christmas present to myself. 

The Pärlsocker (special Swedish sugar) is used for baking Swedish Cinnamon Buns. And the Cheese.... Well its cheese, it doesn't need an explanation. 

After that we had a short rest at our hotel.

Then we went for a second walk. Some markets, and than the waterfront at nighttime.

There were street performers. 

And Disney at night.

And Lights. SO many lights. 

Artistic Lights. 

It was really beautiful. 

Then we went to the other side. By boat. 

We had a great time in HongKong

This was posted all over a building facade and just as it reads, I wish you a great Christmas season. 

Well thats all from HongKong.

Stay Awake. 

Love Ove 

HongKong 2 - The engagement.

After the interview we set out to get a hotel room. 

We went to the subway station, and there we bought two 3-day passes that included a return ticket with the speed train to the airport. Now looking back, that was a really crappy decision. We totally payed to much. If we had bought single tickets we would have saved allot of money.

We went to the subway station named Jordan, and there we started looking around. The first place wanted 750 HongKong Dollars. Said it was as cheap as it got in HongKong. Then I went to another place. A really shitty one, but they only charged 350HKD. But when I say shitty, I really mean shitty. It was the kind of place that rented out rooms BY THE HOUR...

We found a different place and there they showed us a room with 2 single beds. When I asked for a double bed, the woman gave us a short questioning look, but she didn't say anything. She gave us a room with a double bed. 

Now to the second reason of this trip.

THE ENGAGEMENT

We went to the Peak Tram station and from there we made it to the top. 

Hungry as wildebeests we went to the cheapest place we could find. Burger King. The chicken burger did taste good, but as an engagement dinner, maybe not the most impressive. 

After the food we walked to a spot where we could overlook HongKong By Night. It was amazingly beautiful, and that's when I went for the ring. 

(Here I must explain the difference between a traditional engagement, and a modern Swedish engagement. In Sweden these days most engagements is an agreement of deeper commitment, and both parties knows about it. Its a day set by both, and there is no "down on one knee" kind of thing. Quite unromantic many of you might think. Well in Sweden we have this, AND the down on one knee thing. There will come a day when I will go down on one knee for Jason, but this wasn't that day)

So.. I put the ring on his finger and he put my ring on my finger. All kind of hidden out of view from people. The engagement kiss... Well as discreet as possible so that no one would see. 

And for the photo. 

I asked a woman to take a photo of the both of us, and she smiled when she took the camera. Then when I showed her my ring and told her we just had gotten engaged, she took a fast photo with a disapproving kind of look upon her face, and when she handed the camera back to me, there was no congratulations, no smiles, no nothing. She just turned around and walked away. 

It reminded me once again that allot of people think we are disgusting and that we shouldn't exist. 

This is the photo she took.

I took some by myself.

.... 

Well, the evening was, despite of this, a great evening, and every time I saw the ring on Jason's finger, I felt 10feet tall. 

Stay awake

Love Ove 

Traveling to HongKong, The not so easy way.

For Jason to be able to live with me in Sweden, we have to go through an immigration process. He has to apply, answer a whole lot of questions. I have to answer the same questions. Then one part of the application process is an interview at a Swedish embassy or consulate.

We chose HongKong because there isn't one in Taiwan (due to that the Swedish government doesn't have the courage to recognize Taiwan as a country) ... Anyway...

So.. I bought the flight tickets, and I forgot to write my middle name on the ticket. After spending about 3 hours on the phone, I had fixed this little glitch..

On the day for the travel we got up very early. At 6.30am we were at the bus station and close to 8am we was at the airport.

We wrote in the ticket number and the result... Talk to a service counter personal.

Well we talked to one, and that's when we discovered that I had miss read the ticket info. The plane was leaving in 15 minutes. I had read the landing time as the takeoff time. We missed our flight.

This is Jason being quiet and irritated with me.

I can understand him being irritated.

They put us on a standby list, but they informed us that ALL the tickets to HongKong that day was sold out.

We didn't make the next flight and after talking to the Swedish consulate we had until 4pm before it would be to late for the interview.

I was felt really really bad and that's when I came up with the idea to buy a new ticket for Jason so that he could go to the interview by himself. 

We found 2 tickets for the price of 21.000 NT. (Taiwanese dollars = about 4800kr = 480 €)

That plane was delayed 40 min. Arriving HongKong we had to circulate above the airport for another 20 min. At this time we had about 1 hour to make it through security, take a high speed train to HongKong Island and from there to take a cab to the consulate. 

We were sitting as far back as we possibly could have, so when they turned off the seat belt sign, everybody was before us. 

Security... about 750 people before us. 

Taxi line... about 5 people before us. 

On the street... A traffic jam.

Eventually when it was 5 min past 4pm, the taxi driver says - it´ll be faster if you run. 

So we payed him and then we ran. 

Well the consulate was close by. I ran past it, but Jason saw it and into the building we ran. Elevator up to the 22th floor. 

Arriving we see no one at the front desk.  I ring a bell, and I ring it again and again and again. A grumpy looking Swedish woman, about 50 years old, passed in the corridor and then a Chinese woman comes. You are here now. You can relax now. 

And so they started to interview Jason and asked me to stay at the reception room.  

It turned out I had written my own address wrong in the application form. But I could explain it to them, and in the end the woman thought that our chances were good. 

Just before leaving the consulate I was an ad about a Swedish store in HongKong. I so wanted to go there. Maybe they would have salted Licorice.

Stay awake

Love Ove

A very steep mountain - Final Part.

So when I did make it to the top that first day, this is what I looked like.

The 4 steps of reaching a very high mountain top. 

1) Falling stomach down on the ground, trying to get oxygen into your lungs.

2) Noticing the other hikers happy and untrained faces. 

3) Eating allot of chocolate and nuts, to gain some strengths back. 

4) taking happy photos with characteristic Asian hand signs. 

I will remember that mountain top, and I will remember this waterfall.

I will remember these 2000 year old trees.

I will remember the steep climbing.

I will remember how green the color green can be. And I will remember all the different shades of green as well.

All this I will remember.

And I will remember all the great people I had the opportunity to get to know on this remarkable hike. 

To ALL who went to this trip

Thank you. :) 

Now some other things that has been on my mind lately. 

First my favourite song at the moment. It´s all thanks to Gregory in the Netherlands. He sent me some photos from this last summer to me along with some music files. 

Amongst all the songs (which most of them I didn't particularly found being my cup of tea) I found this one.

... and yeah... It`s in ICELANDIC

and I would also want to share this link to a series of videos about money, currency and the international banking system.

Episode nr 4 is especially interesting.

Well until the next time. 

Stay awake

Love Ove

A very steep mountain - Part 3

So... Here we are... Back on the mountain...

... and the White vail Waterfall.

The man in the photo is Mars.

And here we have me hiking down the muddy track.

Even though the water was quite cold (even for a Swedish guy), it was well deserved after a strenuous hike. (the most strenuous part of hiking to the waterfall, was hiking back up though).

I made it to the waterfall. 

This is the Devil Tree. If you look closely you can see two eyes, a nose and an open mouth.

This is not "Näcken"

(The Scandinavian näcken, näkki, nøkk, nøkken, strömkarl,^[5] Grim or Fosse-Grim were male water spirits who played enchanted songs on the violin, luring women and children to drown in lakes or streams. Wikipedia ) 

This is Jin.

The waterfall might be the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The feeling when it revealed itself in the jungle can not be described in words.

Some steep hiking. JUST LOOK AT IT. ITS INSANE. :)

Well... Thats it for this time.

I end it with this photo of Mars and Jin.

I just want to share a video with you concerning something I feel very strongly about.

It´s well worth watching.

SINCE I SHARED THIS VIDEO ON FACEBOOK, 

I CAN NO LONGER SEE MY PREVIOUS STATUS UPDATES THERE. 

I HAVE BEEN CENSORED.

STAY AWAKE. 

LOVE OVE.