In Finland we have this thing that you are supposed to dress according to the time and season of the year and NOT to the actual weather. In the summertime it feels like there would be a law that you have to wear shorts and a t-shirt even if it’s fuckin’ freezing outside, which it is most of the summer in Finland… I’m sure you get the my point. Then we come to spring, which again you are supposed to put your winterclothing to storage and start wearing light springclothes that are way to light for the weather, which is cold. As for today it has been around 5 degrees celcius and I have been freezing my ass of so I’m breaking the rules of Finland and I’m still wearing my furcoat, which you are allowed to wear only during the coldest days of the winter when it get to -25 degrees celcius or below and even then it’s way too nice, expensive, flashy, stylish, colorful, powerful, happy, cool, trendy and too show off to wear a furcoat even if it keeps you warm from the cold and if you dear to wear it when it gets “warm” in the spring you become a 100% selfcentered showoff.
I have gotten comments like, isn’t it to warm to wear your furcoat… Well, I’m not going to freeze my ass of just because people have a problem with it and even if we have these unwritten rules in Finland, I’m going to wear my furcoat and stay warm. And if I feel like it I will wear it in the middle of the heat of the summer and it should not be a problem for anyone.
People seem to have issues with success and when someone stands out from the crowd
The same comes up when you talk about cars in Finland. You are not supposed to buy a car other then for practial reasons, and even if you do buy a car for practical reasons it has to be the cheapest possible and it cannot be a luxury car.
In my own life when I bought my first new car with my own money that I had earned after I started my business. It had been 4 years since I started and I worked hard and I did not give up and I also had some luck with me. So I decided to buy a nice car as I have liked cars ever since I was little.
I bought a BMW, the blue one, which was expensive, but at that time I could easily afford it. What kind of feedback did I get? People thought I had become a materialistic self centered asshole and only thing that mattered to me was money and my status. Just because I bought a car, yes I was an asshole and bought a car, which is at the end a pile of metal with some tires under it. And because of this I became a materialistic self centered asshole.
Well not everyone thought that, some people saw me as the way I am even if I succeeded. My really good friends wife once a couple of years asked me if I knew what my friend, her husbands says about me. She said that even when I had millions (didn’t have millions in real, but compared to them it felt like millions to them) I was still me, I was the same dude and my success didn’t change me.
This is one of the greatest compliments I have received in my life. I won’t write the names of my friend and his wife because it’s not relevant, but I know they will read this and recognize themselves so I just want to say, thank you <3
Please comment if you feel like you have it in your country where you live too as I would love to hear about other places too! 🙂
Boldly go where noman has gone before
When travelling I always recommend going off the path. Why? Because that way you truly explore and experience the beauty of nature and other cultures and places. I went to see the famous Hindu pilgrimage temple Pura Tanah Lot, which is a very popular tourist attraction in Bali. When you get there you pay an admission fee to get into the area, which is ok I think, but when you walk from the maingate to the temple itself you have to walk through a purely selling anything you can to tourist market place, which I didn’t like that much. Well let’s not get into that, lets talk about going off the path.
It all started with getting there, I didn’t get a paid travel tour to the temple with guides and drivers, I just took the my motorbike, put some water and sunblock and my camera in my backpack and drove away without a hurry, stopping everytime I saw something nice and took pictures.
So once I get down to the temple, I took a couple of photos of the temple and a selfie with the temple in the background and here is where I made a choise of taking another path from most tourist. It seemes that for most tourists it’s enough to get some pictures of them posing in front of the temple, but for me, that’s not it, that won’t give me kicks or won’t make me smile. What I get kicks out of and what makes me smile is going exploring, so I went off the path. I saw a nice cliff further down the coast, but still close enough to be able to walk and climb there.
The path to the cliff was exciting as I stumbled on a crab colony, and litterally stumbled upon it as the crabs are very well camouflages withing the nature they are in, so at first I didn’t see any of the crabs, but all the sudden something jumped, yes jumped over my foot, first I got a startled as I didn’t see what it was, then I saw the crabs small and big. The smalles where around just 1 cm and the big ones where around 20 cm in size, and they can actually jump.
After going through the jumping crab colony, walking through water and climbing some rock I got to the place and the view was breathtaking. I’ll let the picture do the talking.
On my way back from the cliff I meet an old woman who was gathering seaweed for eating.
Now would you have seen amazing view from the cliff? The crazy jumping crab colony? Or meet a true local old lady gathering seaweed for food if I had stayed on the path like most tourist?
Go off the path, and like Captain Kirk from Star Trek said, boldly go where noman has gone before.
The Big Fish and the moment of eternity
The Big Fish was planned to be on the first snowboard coming from the Alien Snowboards factory. But because of me struggling in life with the loss on an innocent angel, I was not able to get the Alien Snowboards factory going.
Years went by with me fighting through hell and after beating hell I planned to go on a pilgrimage to Bali. I wanted to make a dream come true that I had since I was a little boy, surfing, and at the same time just stop for the first time in 5 and a half years.
All started to go bad when we lost our little angel and nothing mattered to me anymore and my path through hell began. While fighting I got to points where with different kind of encounters meet me in my struggles. One thing that kept me going was that I kept the dream of Alien Snowboards alive, even if I knew in my heart that my own factory might never start production. But to me the dream was a thing that kept my hope of surviving hell. By accident through a friend I got to know a woman that is an amazing artist and designer. I asked her to draw a graphic for the first board that would come out of the Alien Snowboards factory. I told her my story and gave her total freedom to draw my story the way she thought would be good.
When I first saw the graphic I was speachless and tears ran down my checks as it was so beautiful, it told my story in a beatiful way and at the same time the drawing gave me hope and stregth to fight forward.
The snowboards with the graphic have never been made, but the graphic kept me going and gave me hope and now when I finally got through hell, I asked her if I could put the graphic on my custom surfboard for my pilgrimage to Bali.
She replied that it would be just fine to do so.
Then I contacted Pinguino Surfboards and told them the short version of my story and they agreed to shape me the board.
Today when I woke up it was raining, it felt like the sky was crying and helping me let go. Even if I’m still a beginner in surfing and still learning and I’m not able to catch waves with my own board yet, I wanted to take it out, just to paddle around with it and let it connect with the waves and the ocean. I was out there for a moment that felt like eternity, I finally seized the moment. After getting back in I just sat on the beach for a while with the board by my side and felt the tears coming.
Our little angelchild is turning 5 years old today on 21. of January and is always with me and leading the way for me.
This is how Satu explained the symbolic story behind the graphic:
The koi fish that has white lillies and arum flowers (both flowers symbolize death) wrapped around it’s tail symbolising the chains of the past. The fish has gotten away from the chains with the help of the birds cutting them. The little feather of an angel carried by the little bird coming out the flower is guiding the fish towards hope and showing that it is possible to brake free from the chains of the past and at the same time guiding the fish towards hope. The fish symbolizes a flow or curent, traveling, fearlessnes and the fish is also able to swim against a strong current, and when you just let go and ride The BIg Fish you will go far.
Thank and all the love to you Satu, for drawing it and giving me hope.
And a thank you with love to Pinguino Surfboards for making hope that Satu drew a reality.
Meet The Big Fish
What is the meaning of life?
Today I had lunch at a great burger place in Helsinki, Naughty BRGR, and talked with the waitress about my trip. I told her that she can follow it here on my blog. She then told me that she would love to follow my blog as it gives her a view of my life and my trip which helpes her to keep smiling whilie she is working TWO jobs to get by. She got my total respect and this kind of feedback inspires me to keep on going with my blog. Thank you for the feedback and a delicious burger! 🙂
I planned to write about my day, but her feedback inspired to write some thoughts about life itself, so here goes:
My trip is closing in on me like a storm, but instead of hiding from the storm I pull out my surfboard and ride the storm while it covers ground fast as lightning. The feeling of beeing able to ride the lightning is like freeing your mind and soul, I can feel the wind in my face while the storm carries me towards my dream.
There is always a way to see good in even a scary situation, most will just hide or run when a storm is coming, my idea is to stand in front of the storm, confront it and ride it out, this way you might end up living and finding the meaning of life.
What is life and what is the meaning of life? That’s the eternal question of mankind, we all ponder what is the true meaning of life? Does there have to be a true meaning of life? What about if we just take it back to basics and just feel the moment, really feel the sun on our skin, feel the wind in our face, really inhale the smell of the moment?
In my opionion we are not really living before we are able to to that and really feel everything to the last cell of our body.
How can we achieve this? The first thing to do is to be in the moment you are in at any given time, not rushing towards the future not worrying about the past, but just inhaling the moment with everything it has to offer, from feeling the ground under your feet to seeing the world around you.
This also applies while being with your friends, kids, pets. Put your cellphones away, stop doing something else, concentrate on being in the moment, really be there when your see your friends or play with your kids! Really be in the moment when your are throwing the ball to your dog.
I’m happy that you are reading my thoughts and my blog, but please, don’t let it take time away from your loved ones.
Just breathe and love life.
