hellocloud photography by Ken Lönnström » 08 australia

Have a safe journey

Ken — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:18:05 +0000

In seven hours time my friend Veronica is leaving from Stockholm on a well deserved vacation to Thailand. She will be gone for two weeks with one of her amazing friends. All of which made me think of this picture.

It is taken in Brisbane in September 2008, only a few weeks before my beloved came to Australia for the first time. I remember that it was one of those rare nights that seems to be filled with some sort of magic. With me, were my German mate mARTin and my friendly Irish room mate James. Both of whom I miss a lot. Quite a lot to be frank. We were just strolling around the park with our cameras, trying to catch some glimpses of the night life.

Isn’t it funny how some people you meet, only for a fraction of ones life, can make such a huge impact on everything? Honestly, what would life be without friends?

Truly a mesmerizing view

Ken — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:00:55 +0000

Contemplating, perhaps waiting for

Ken — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:00:40 +0000

Walked on for ages

Ken — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:00:35 +0000

Take a deep breath and close your eyes

Ken — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:00:41 +0000

Time just passes

Ken — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:53:44 +0000

The last two weeks we’ve had such a bad luck regarding our journey to Western Australia and with the preparations. Every day there have been new delays which we begin to find exhausting, mostly because we are not directly responsible for these time-pushers.

Just too many things to count really and some of them are still pushing the time, like a bulldozer moving rocks ahead of it through a very long tunnel.

I am however very happy to have such wonderful friends. The above picture was actually taken more than a year ago in Brisbane when out walking with one of my best friends mARTin, whom I miss dearly and think of daily. Click here to read the blog post from last year.

It will probably take us one more day before we go on our long road trip, because of – you guessed it – unnecessary delays.

Jaguars, that Brazilian guy and stupid Swedes

Ken — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:33:42 +0000

2008-10-03 On my way from Byron Bay to Brisbane

I met a lot of funny people during my time in Byron Bay. As I’ve said before, Byron is the place to be. A small surfer-hippie-new-age-city with no big food chains and no skyscrapers. One road with stores and then the beach. That’s about it.

Everyone I have met have said that Byron Bay is their favorite place in Australia, and those who says another city have in most cases not yet been to Byron Bay. The life style is just so relaxed. People are riding their bikes with surfboards attached. However I will tell you more about this place later since me and Jenny went there.

They have this very sleezy restaurant/pub/night club or just place called Cheeky Monkeys. This is where all the craziest things are happening since there are only backpackers and they/we are known to be roudy. At our hostel I met up with Lea from Germany, John the man from Canada, Sofie from Finland and then Moa – the Swedish Viking from Norrland. All of them are just amazing in all different ways, we were honestly a great group. And of course I had my comrades Martin the German game developer and Mark the Danish supermodel by my side.

One evening when we were on our way out, later on to Cheeky Monkeys, me and Moa went completely crazy. The Swedish Vikings went in front of the group, were a bit roudy, jumpy and screamy. Since we are sooo big and strong and represents Vikings very well. Ehem.

We had a great time at Cheeky Monkeys, of course, and we went there every night. It’s a place which can lower you since you see so many different things, in some aspects it’s more like a sexclub where no one cares about anything, anyone or who they go home with.

Yaddi yaddi! The day came when I were leaving Byron Bay for Brisbane to await Jennys arrival. At 07:00 I waited for the bus. It did not turn up for three hours, during which time we could not board the other bus going to Brisbane since we were not booked on that one. And I say we – because I met up with this absolutely talkative, funny and great Brazilian guy – Filippe.

He is around 29 years old, works here in Australia as a geolog since the last six months and I loved talking to him. There was not a quiet moment until we boarded the bus and both fell asleep and woke up a few hours later just 20 minutes from Brisbane.

We talked about everything between heaven and earth, about how corrupted Brazil is, how the integration works in Sweden in my opinion, and lots of other differences and we both told stories of things we’ve experienced.

One story that had had impact on him and his life… In Brazil he travelled out in the jungle with a few men to do some work. One thing they had to do was to put a device in a big pool of mud (gyttja) where the mud reached up to the chest. Filippe didn’t want to do it but a man who lived in the area said that he would.

When this man walks through the chest-deep mud Filippe yells to him “Why are you smiling man, you know you are walking through a pool filled with mud that reaches up to your chest?” The man continued to smile, he has lost almost all of his teethes during his hard life, when he screams back still smiling “I have work, I have work!”

Amazing, huh? How ignorant we are most of the time. And how disrespectful we are complaining all the time about our problems. “Should I buy a Nokia or a Sony Ericsson? I don’t know, oh my, this is difficult… I can’t decide…” Do I need to say that when it was time for them to get the device from the pool of mud, Filippe himself went in to get it?

Except for this I was instructed in how to handle some dangerous animals if I ever go to the Brazilian jungle. For instance I know now how to deal with jaguars… And no, I don’t mean the cars. Filippe told me that he had had plenty of opportunities to train his skill during his work, defending himself against jaguars by getting them scared.

If I ever see one I should instantly put my backpack on top of my head. This makes me look much bigger, more of a threat. Then I should stare at the jaguar and make noises in order to show them that I will fight them til the death. It’s easier if there is only one jaguar he told me, haha. And that they might scare you if they come from behind and even if they bite you, you should put your backpack on top of your head and scream… no shit??

Oh… I had almost forgotten about him. Michael. When me and Filippe sat there talking, waiting for the bus, I guy from last night that we met at Cheeky Monkeys came to us. He was obviously on his way to Brisbane to.

Let me tell you like this… He wanted me. Yep. Although I’m straight and told him no. I realized when we were at Cheeky Monkeys and he asked me if girls like my tongue piercing. OH! I have forgotten to tell you about that… that’ll have to wait for a new blog entry. However, and I told him that I did not know since I had not kissed anyone.

Then – he asked me if guys like it. And he looked a bit horny. Very disgusting and disturbing sight. And I told him – “NO, I am not gay. The only ones who are supposed to touch my tongue are girls (Jenny) and my dentist.” He still wanted me. Moa and Sofie had to protect me all night so he would not dare to come near me again. (They sat on both of my sides!)

And now you might understand how I felt when he came to the bus station. Fortunately he had booked a later bus, which arrived maybe ten minutes after ours had departed. Although, he caught up with us at McDonalds in Brisbane. He found us. I said good bye to Filippe and went to the hostel – but not alone. He followed me there. And the whole time he kept talking about blow jobs and that he only likes sexy people no matter which gender they are and he wondered if I had ever given a blow job. “No, since I’m NOT gay!”

At the hostel I had an argument with the girl who worked there, whom I met and came along with before, the thing was that I had booked one bed in my old room so I could be with my old pals. She told me that they don’t make reservations into certain rooms, only beds, and I told her the guy I booked with confirmed that I were to go in my old room. Whereby she called me a liar and so on. No mistake had been done from them. However, it was a good argument since I didn’t back down. Now I knew she was an evil bitch. Michael got a different room anyway! Muhaha!

My new room was packed with Swedes. Yeah, well, three anyway. Two girls and one guy. And wow… At this point I realized why I don’t miss Sweden that much. They were so typical Swedes. Just complaining all the time on everything and anything. Such a contrast compared to Filippes story.

Unfortunately I recall everything they said but I will only tell you that they complained. And on the second day I got angry and couldn’t keep my mouth shut so I told them exactly what I thought and told them about Filippes story. And that I don’t miss Sweden, because of people like them.

That – was fun and relaxing. I like being honest – especially with myself.

The truth and nothing but the truth

Ken — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:21:04 +0000

Since I’ve been so bad on updating my blog for several different reasons – I now have to write everything from scratch and as good as I can remember. Probably not as detailed as before – but that may not hurt that much since I write about lots of rubbish. For instance – what I eat and yaddi yaddi.

To be honest. I’ve been feeling quite bad because of this whole blog thing. Let me tell you some of my thoughts. For instance, which language am I supposed to write in? Swedish or English? The language which most of the world understands or the language only Swedes can read? And I like writing in English, since in my opinion English is more beautiful. Of course it depends on what you write.

I’ve decided however to write in English since I’ve gotten to know lots of people from here who might go in and read my blog and writing in Swedish feels kinda disrespectful to be honest.

There are two more major reasons why I haven’t written on the blog. One of them is that I don’t like the layout, nor do I like the way I upload pictures and have to do lots of things manually which sucks, since it’s more of an effort that way. Not as easy as for aunt Vexy (vexy.blogg.se) which blog I love. That is just a much better blog-design, blogg.se instead of blog.com and so I have figured about changing blog since I don’t like this one.

Believe me guys, I want to upload lots of pictures so you can see everything. But it haven’t been the “easiest” way. And now… I have 4500 pictures I’ve taken since I came here. Yes, oh my god. And I don’t think it’s that nice to photoshop-pictures and so on. Today I have been trying to organizing them.

And the last reason is that I have not been in the mood of doing anything since Jenny left. As you might (or might not) have understood, me and Jenny had the most awesome time a couple could ever have. You could almost say it was magic, more dream than reality.

Of course I have been sad since she left. Really sad and a bit lonely. My feelings have been mixed together with joy, since I now am together with this wonderful and just… wow… woman.

And now, more for my sake than yours, I am going to try and recall everything I’ve been through since the last time I wrote a proper blog entry. Which is quite a lot. And it’s important for me to remember all my different encounters with people from all over the world and ranks, rich or poor, brasilian or Canadian or for instance how a real aussie house and family looks like. Or how amazing traveling with Jenny has been.

So, now my story continues.

Ett löfte är ett löfte

Ken — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:36:49 +0000

Ärade läsare som jag försökt trolla bort med hjälp av ett långt hopp i mitt bloggande: hej! Något mycket mer komplicerat än detta kommer jag inte åstadkomma men kan väl uttrycka mig som att jag inte riktigt vet i vilken ände jag ska börja berätta från.

Och dessutom har jag ett dilemma. Själv vill jag skriva på engelska. Dock har andra uttryckt sina önskningar om blogg på svenska vilket sätter mig i en svår sits för jag känner fler som inte kan svenska. Detta är tyvärr en situation jag brottas med och som jag inte orkat ta ett beslut kring. Också en bidragande effekt till varför jag inte skrivit, för jag vägrar att skriva långa inlägg på både svenska och engelska. Hah!

Fan. Nu blev det ett komplicerat och längre inlägg iallafall. Jaja! Vad jag ville skriva är: Vexy jag saknar dig. Självklart inte enbart, ni vet vilka ni är. =)

Bamsekramar!

PS: “Ken gillar tjejer, Ken gillar tjejer…” Ulf din knasbom. Ken gillar Tjejen, Ken gillar Tjejen, ska det va. Och fröken Vexy, jag höll vår agreement för jag skrev nämligen allt detta efter vi pratat men sedan la nätet av. Dumt va? *skrattar*

Sailing in the Whitsunday Islands

Ken — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:00:04 +0000

Hello to everyone,
Me and Jenny are having an awesome time! Even undescribable. We have been out sailing and snorkeling for three days among some of the things. It was a bit creepy sometimes and that Jenny I’m with tried to drown me a couple of times but hey – it’s only healthy swallowing salt water huh?

There aren’t really any words to describe everything right now. Think it has to sink down into my memory first but lets say that we have been sailing, snorkeling, went to Whitehaven beach which is made out of white sand. Or it’s not really like sand, but silica. One special thing about silica is that it doesn’t get warm unlike sand.

We have looked at the night sky, almost full moon.Yesterday we landed on an island called Black Island which we had for ourselves. Only 18 people stranded on this island for a couple of hours. Totally amazing.

Tomorrow we’re on our way to our next big thing, more of that in a couple of days.

Must go now, take care! Hugs and kisses.