Life in Sydney - Part 7

I don’t think that I still even realize how much I learned and how much inspiration I got out of my two weeks in Bali, so maybe writing it down will help me digest it better…

I was going back to a magical place. A place that was different, but where I could still feel comfortable and secure. I knew the streets, the beaches, the corruptible cops, the villas, the clubs, the people, the shops, the scooter rental prices and the voluptuous He-Shes.

The main reason for me to go to Bali, was to find interesting products. This is because our familia has started renting out so called “sales tables” at the new shopping mall in Helsinki. So after visiting around 100 different shops, driving ALL over the place with my scooter, saying “what is the business price for this” about 200 times and choosing products I like, we are ready to go ! We will have a funky little Bali table set up in Helsinki for the upcoming summer. Just a small collection of the great things you can find in Bali, such as bags, silver jewelry, t-shirts, other funky jewelry, incents, sarongs and other things that I can’t remember now. I hope we are able to get a good sense of where it could go from there and make some bigger orders of the products that seem to catch best. This was an exciting and fun task, of me finding beautiful products and play a game of “guess the price” in my head. What would sell, for how much, who would buy it, how it would be set up… I think this was the best thing that Bali gave me. The chance to forget all about this shoe/clothing mumbo jumbo and throw myself in the opposite role. The role of the buyer… That is SO MUCH FUCKING MORE FUN!!!

Is this business bullshit as boring to you, as it is to me ??

Anyways !!! To the point. The island, once again, inspired me to believe and go deeper inside my brick head. The yoga, the massages, the sea, the warm & smiling people, the crowd & music at my dj gigs, the cheap yet delicious food, my hair blowing in the air as my scooter took me deep into the sunset… All of these things constantly reminded me that the world has so much to offer and that worrying, feeling stressed or being depressed is really a complete waste of energy! Yeah yeah… I am aware that the whole world knows this. But at this time of my life, I needed Bali to slap me in the face and wake me up (before you go go). I really feel that I am on a new level of understanding.

I have already been in Melbourne for a week now and I can already say that I love it. I was lucky enough to get a room in a nice flat and a VERY good housemate. I got connected with him through a mutual friend from Sydney. His name is Paul… He thinks and acts very similar to me and is just an all around good guy, with a big heart. This has made me feel at home from day one. We have gone out, stayed in, ordered in, played playstation, been drunk, eaten pizza, talked about life, made future plans of millionarism, told funny jokes etc. I know that there is lots more to come…

Besides Paul, Melbourne has been very cool. The vibe here is completely different from Sydney’s. The all around style here is to have an edge and be a bit weird. I saw more weird things here in a day, then what I had seen in Sydney in three months! Tans really don’t matter around this place and being dirty is the thing.

I also love the realness of this city. Lets put it this way: If you have a bad taste in your mouth in Melbourne, then you don’t need to swallow it. You are allowed to spit it out on the street… I felt as if in Sydney I had to keep it in. Everything was so nice and dandy over there that I was scared of being arrested for doing dirty deeds. Melbourne gives you the opportunity to say whatever you say and act however you act and I really like that… Maybe these people haven’t experienced as many sunstrokes as the Sydneyans. The sun kills brain cells. Hmmmh, Melbourne is doing that to me as we speak. So I guess I am once again lost in my own plots and story lines of the never-ending wribbly gibbly of deep bullshit…

I will finish for now and continue sometime soon... I still miss you and think of you every day. So please don’t be strangers and stay in touch.

Peeeeeeace,
Oded

Life in Sydney - Part 6

Written on the 15th of March

Hello loved ones,
I am once again on a Singapore Airlines flight. I have Lauren Hill playing through the amazing entertainment system and decided that I should start writing to you again. I hope I don't get too emotional again, start crying and arouse terrorist suspicions.

First of all lets go back in time to Singapore. The food was really good, the crowd at the club was 95% gay men (and they all wanted me, naturally), the boutique hotel was beautiful, the humidity was crazy and the streets were still spotless.

The Ice Hockey finals of the Olympics were on, on the night after my gig (Sunday). Finland against Sweden in the Olympic Finals ! I dosn’t get any bigger then that and I HAD to see it. I obsessively called 10 different sports bars (ALL showing the same fucking Soccer game), the embassy of Finland (closed), random Finnish people through SiSu (Singaporen Suomalaiset) and emailed Finnish players of the Singaporean Hockey League. I tried to explain the importance of this spectacular event to many Singaporeans and they all thought I was an idiot. Idiots… At last I had to give it up and listen to the game through a web-broadcast on Finland’s national radio. I really wish I had that Star Trek machine that would ‘beam me up’ home for situations like this.

After only two nights in Singapore I was on my way to Bali.