nuzzaci - an online journal

Great. Wonderful. Remarkable. Really nice. Really well. Really nice. Really easy. Better and better and better. Smarter and smarter and smarter. Better and better and better. Really nice. Really great. Easier. Great. Great. Great. Awesome. Really nice. Really wonderful. Really fast. It’s wonderful. Really cool. Really nice. Very nice. Amazingly. Awesome. Great. Really outstanding. Jeff. Really easy. Really easy. Really easy. It’s that easy. It’s that easy. Really easy. Easily. It’s really easy. Just as easy. Really great. Fantastic. Amazing. Priceless. So beautiful. Really nice. Thanks Jeff. Phil. Absolutely incredible. Incredible. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Incredible. Beautiful. Great. Remarkable. Amazing. Great. Beautiful. Great. Amazing. Amazing. Great. Beautiful. Incredible. Great. Incredible. Great. Great. Just incredible. Great. Great. Great. Great. Really cool. Great. Great. Great. Great. Really cool. Great. Great. Great. Beautiful. Incredible. It’s amazing. Incredible. Incredible. Absolutely incredible . Amazing. Amazing. Just amazing. Really great. Amazing. Incredible. Just incredible. Amazing. Great. Great. Unbelievable. Amazing. Incredible. Incredible. Incredible. Amazing. Incredible. Incredible. Amazing. Incredible. Aright, next. Amazing. Great. Easy. Easy. Easy. Useful. Absolutely gorgeous. Back to Steve. So. Incredible. Incredible. Great. Amazing. Incredible. Great. Great. Great. Great. Beautiful. Awesome. Beautiful. Stunning. Great. Cool. Great. Incredible. Great.

That’s what we have for you today.
Thanks for coming, and we’ll see you soon.

Last weekend we had the pleasure of getting a visit from Matthew, Ali and Daisy Grey. I got introduced to Matthew (aka Tig) via Simon Waterfall 5 years ago as they were starting up their fashion label Social Suicide; lovely suits done by lovely people. The Greys came over with a campervan with the intention of driving around Scandinavia for 2 weeks.

The same weekend as they were here we bought a new car. A red Fiat Bravo 1.9 JTD from ’07. So when we sat down looking at where Tig, Ali and Daisy were to go next, we kind of got coerced into following along.

Unfortunately Willow already had other engagements, and I was planing to fly down to Italy the following weekend. But as the days passed I just felt so reluctant to once again take the buss to the airport and once again fly (would be something like the 15th flight in the last couple of months), so, as the weekend grew closer, we decided to throw the tent and sleeping bag in the back of the car and catch up with the Grey family in Norway! We left Thursday at 7pm and passed the border before midnight the same day.

Above is a screen grab of the route we ended up driving. see map here, or here: http://bit.ly/16O74u.

The car was a pleasure to drive, so we covered the first stint with ease and met up with the Greys in Åndalsnes already for lunch on Friday. Besides the Greys, I also ran into a few distant relatives to me, Mr and Mrs Troll.

The day after, we drove Trollstigen together. Trollstigen is not far of being a car version of the Milford Sound Track in New Zealand.

After Trollstigen Willow and I left the Greys to continue south while we headed north to do the Atlantic Road before dropping on our way to meet up with our friend Maria Berge in Trondheim.

All in all. Lovely to meet up with the Tig, Ali and Daisy. I loved to drive the new car. We enjoyed being after the late season, and we will definitely visit Norway again very soon to do some walking.

And, next time the Greys are here on a visit, we decided to spend a few days kayaking around the Stockholm archipelago.

Willow was in charge of the camera, so befriend her on flickr to be notified of when more photos are available.

Quite a few times already I have mentioned that we have bought a house, but in August we actually moved in. Due to a very busy schedule, though, we haven’t managed to find time to decorated it with furniture. We have all the basic stuff, but all the extra cosiness is something we are working on. Within the next 2-4 weeks the sofa will have arrived, the kitchen will have a nicer lighting, floors will have mats and the projector will point towards a projector screen instead of a sheet.

So, for now, the outdoor furniture has moved in with us, too.

This summer, Willow and I have attended four weddings. It’s quite amazing how such a pre-sturctured event can be so different and nice in so many different ways all depending on what sorts of people the bride and groom have “collected” over the years and chosen to bring together. Generally, though, I have to admit, that personally I find weddings a but odd. But this doesn’t mean they aren’t all lovely! Neither that I wouldn’t have my own someday.

Mark & Wendy

Mark and Wendy are Willow’s childhood friends. I had never meet them before the wedding, and Willow hadn’t seen them for 7 years. The story goes that Mark, Wendy and Willow used to hang out all the time. And, eventually a sparkle sparked between Mark and Wendy and the rest is history! Their wedding was in a castle in Otterburn south of Edinburgh, UK.

Adam & Jen

Adam is Willow’s older brother. He lives in San Francisco and his father (not same as Willow) lives on Maui Hawaii. So this wedding was held in a -12 hours timezone and required 3 flights going and 3 flights coming back. But it was worth it. I think the only thing missing to tick all boxes on this wedding was to add slow motion to the waves hitting the stones behind them as they were getting married.

Marcus & Elin

A unique location on a peninsula in a nature reserve in the north of Sweden. The wedding followed a eco theme where everything could be recycled. Dinner tables on the beach with sand between your toes followed by dancing under a clear sky and full moon. No. It wasn’t a movie.

Tobias & Åsa

Tobias is one of my oldest friends. He has always had the ability to put me in positions where I’m outside of my comfort zone. His wedding was no different. They asked me to sing Today by Joshua Radin for them in church. Like most times, it went well and I’m glad he asked and that I forced myself to do it. And it was a perfect ending to the 09′ wedding-athon.

The last 4 to 5 months have been really hectic, to say the least. It’s been a bit like a crescendo in activities. The list includes: 2 concerts (AC/DC in London and Metallica in Stockholm), moved twice (from the house in Gustavsvik into the city and then out to the house in Ingarö), 4 weddings (Edinburg, Hawaii, Bjuröklubb and Bureå) resulting into 4 car rentals and 12 flights, 2 journeys to London, a business trip to Dublin, a road trip to the Norwegian fjords, on 4 different occasions I’ve been on day trips out to islands in the archipelago (Sandhamn, Grinda, Finnhamn and Söderöra), we’ve bought a house (which includes it’s fare share of tasks from a-z), we’ve bought a car, I’m still trying to import our existing car, and have had family and friends visiting on 4 different occasions.

Work wise I’ve also been busy. The work over summer resulted into new business for the company and with me in a parallel lead role (both pretty much required full time attention) for 2-3 weeks. I also managed to squeeze in two 10-15 days freelance projects.

Yeah… try to fit all that in within 4-5 months. Even a year would be difficult. To be honest — I don’t know how it’s been possible. I’m sure there have been occasions during these last couple of months when I haven’t been my normal me me and I. If you have been affected. I’m sorry.

I’m now one and a half weeks into a much needed 2 weeks holiday. And for my own health I’m now sitting here with my laptop in my lap, glass of red wine in my hand, reflecting on the past hysterical couple of months and writing a summary. For you and for me.

A good friend of mine, Daniel Norberg, phoned me a few days before the Metallica concert and asked if I had any plans since he had a spare place left in the VIP room.

My imitate thoughts where, “Child on the way? No. Wedding? No. Funeral? No.”, my answer to Daniel was an badly imitating James Hetfield, “yeeeeaaaah!!” (as in, no, I don’t have anything planned).

But. First time around, Mr Hetfield managed to be sick; had eaten some Asian food and got food poisoning. We only got to see the warm-up acts, drink 2 beers and then head back home. Extreeeeeeeeeemely disappointed.

All of us were very gutted. But as we left the VIP room we quickly put everything in context and realise how lucky we were. Most people there had actually paid for their tickets and traveled from far away. I almost ended up saying sorry to teens as I walked out.

Second time around. Everything went as planed. As a gift to everyone Metallica had printed special t-shirts that they gave away for free. It was a extremely ugly black t-shirt with neon print showing Mr Hetfield being sick.

Na, the big gift wasn’t the t-shirt. It was the amazing show.
They were absolutely great.

I am a huge fan of Mr Hetfield presence on stage. I had never experienced it live, but I have during my own music career tried to re-invent his presence and make it my own. I like to think that when I play live I’m a mixture of James Hetfield, Chuck Berry, Angus Young and Dave Grohl. Don’t think I pull it off, but know people appreciate me trying.

They played a collection of old and new. As always, you wished it was more old and less new. But the new songs do work really well with the mix.

The latest member, bass player Robert Trujillo, fitted in nicely and definitely added to the show. Hetfield lived up to his expectations, Kirk Hammett was anonymous as usual and I think we all wished Lars Ulrich would accept the fact that he plays the drums…

I brought my camera to the concert and have some photos on my flickr page. All photos in this post, and more, can be viewed here

Photograph captured by Timm Nüchter

In April this year I flew over to London to see AC/DC. I didn’t manage to get tickets for the Stockholm gig so I decided a trip to London could be justified by combining the concert with picking up stuff in the London flat and visiting some friends.

I have seen AC/DC twice before (Stiff Upper Lip tour) and am a huge fan. They are living legends. Even if you don’t like it, you should almost appreciate it. So, yes, any AC/DC review by me is biased.

But. They do have an achilles heel.
The school uniform of Angus Young.

They are getting old. Brian Johnson, born 1947, being the oldest and Angus Young, born 1955, being the youngest. This doesn’t mean that they still don’t put on a show like no one else — they do — almost just makes it more remarkable.

But unlike Brian, though, who seems to be like a fine wine and just gets better and better with the years, Angus, is facing an uphill battle jumping around in a school uniform at the age of 55.

You might hate me for saying this, but I would almost prefer it if for the next tour they made an active decision and amended the show so that Angus doesn’t have to jump around like a crazy old man rocking at 120mph 3 hours straight. This could hopefully give them a longer shelf life and prevent them from stopping touring when Angus’s ageing catches up with him.

Yeah, we should let Angus grow old.

I’d rather have a less energetic AC/DC than no AC/DC.
But, whatever the case. Whatever they do.

I salute you.