Memories from Lapland, hello 2007

Hello to everybody, or the very few readers that this blog still has. Actually, since everybody thinks this blog is dead, this is now a phantom blog. I wanted to write the epitaph for the blog to start the 2007 without having to think about blogger.com anymore. However, I had good times during the summer writing here, so I have decided not to kill the blog definetely. It will continue being a phantom blog for the moment. It has been a bit since my last post because I didn't have time to enjoy the last version of blgger.com, which by the way, it does not cause me the image uploading nightmares I had this summer. Anyway you don't care about this... I think I will update the blog maybe every 1st of january, or every month, or.....

2007

Things that I want to do:
1)Find a good job (this is more than prioritary in my life).
2)Find a job that I really like (I guess this is the same as point 1 right?)
4)This is not a prioritary issue but it would be nice to have more stability in my relationships with the opposite sex than in 2006. Last part of 2006 has been a bit too crazy for various reasons......although I think in general I can't complain, well, if not for...ok next number,
5)Lets stop finding things for this year....so the next one is having more fun than in 2006. This is a wish that I have every year. However, you can't have steadily more fun forever. This is not possible. Standard deviation is everywhere, and in the long term I think no one has managed to improve her fun every year, otherwise you would die from an laughing attack after 40 or 50 years of continuous fun-improvement. Aaaanndd,I do not like having fun all the time. I also enjoy the serious and quiet moments, and sadness is also part of our life, which makes the fun moments even better right?. Ok, just the minimum sadness for this year so that it can be considered a fun-improvement year.
6)Health for my family (this is a permanent one and number 6 is symbolic). Considering our recent years I think this will be pretty easy to achieve in 2007
7)Give up smoking. You may think I am the guy with less credibilty in the world. Well, let me tell you I have been 6 days without smoking since new years eve, and (this is true), since I consider myself as a smoker, never achieved that before. Ladies and Gentleman, I am commited now......commited to see if I can manage to continue not smoing I mean.
8)Winning the MBA Olympics. I think we can altogether make this one possible. I was going to say finish the MBA succesfully but I think I am veeeery close to that and can be considered almost done.
9)Repeat an amazing trip next new years eve just like the one I had this year to northern Finland!!! I hope I can do a trip like this one next year. If it is in a beach location I would not mind also, although my love for the white powder is confirmed and increased after being in Lapland. I would be more than happy to tell my grandchildren that during 2007 I changed my addiction from niccotine to snow. That, in fact, makes sense.
10)Point 10 is hat you readers of this blog have an awesome 2007 as well.

LAPLAND WAS AMAZING. The trip to Finland and the polar circle has been one of the best trips of my life I think. We went there to Juha's place, a Finnish friend from the MBA, and more than 20 of us slept in his amazing wooden house close to a town called Akaslompolo, around 5 hours distance inside the arctic circle. From the trip, lots of activities: snowmobiling, cross-coutry skiing, snow walking in a lake and a mountain, sledge downhill races, good time with good friends, reindeer riding (I mean that someone ride a reindeer while I was lying in a sledge with a finnish girl ;) That is the finnish version of the venice gondolas I guess. Very romantic if not for the fact that reindeers are a bit smelly animals, it is too cold, and you see the back of the animal all the time. However, absolutely worth it).

Ohh, and another unforgettable thing were the sauna conversations with cold beers, and the snow bath in the cold snow before comming back inside the sauna for another beer at 100ºC. That is basically a short run you do naked straight from the sauna outside the house to jump into the snow, then you turn fast to put your ass in the cold white as well, and then you run into the house again because you don't want your intimate parts to freeze too much. The number of beers you drink inside the saune increase your resistance time in this activity. However, mediterranean people, please, do not try to compete in this activity with our northern friends (in both the beer and the sauna-snow taking), otherwise you can notice a kind of dizziness during both activities. Same advice applies for peole from Nepal (right Pradeep?)

So thank you Juha for making that trip possible and to all of you that came to Finland to enjoy the transition to what it will be a very good 2007. I am sure it will be a good year, we have the blessing of the lapland spirits for that.
Good bye and an awesome new year to everyone!!!

Here the trouppe ready to experience a bit of polar circle before visiting Santa Clause house (a pretty good marketing house with few bottlenecks in the money colecting process)

Forget about swiss-german....Sunni is sooooo complicated.....

mornig walk. George and Annastina.

In Santa Clause home. Huy, Noelle and un servidor.

Walking in the snow

Fernando alonso....who?

after being blessed by lapland spirits.

Sauna time......oh yeah!

Having fun in the morning, or midday, well, you can't really guess from the light, believe me.

Knight riders Marc and George (con la moto fantástica)

Cross-country ski. We had a really good local teacher. I tried to follow la femme fatale along the route but she was quite fast in front of me all the time. By the way, cross-country ski is a very complete sport, more than I thought.

Me in the lake

Helsinki. Last day in Finland. Then I took a couple of flights to Barcelona with Noelle. One of these two options is possible: either the bus driver to our lufthansa flight was driving in circles or Frankfurt airport is the biggest in the world. well, maybe none of them is the right option, but that was a long ride to a plane.
Mañana vienen los reyes magos.........a ver a ver. Yo creo que este año me he portado bien, aunque ya tengo lo que había pedido....quien sabe....Habrá que ir a dormir temprano....ehemm