elliotlewis.dj: Midsummer

I'm in Sweden. I hid while Karin let herself into the house, and popped out and said 'hi, how are you..?'

She got the shock of a lifetime, but it was hilarious and mildly euphoric at the same time. She walked around the house for about 2 hours following this saying 'I feel tricked, you all tricked me'. Which we did, everyone knew about it except her.

Joking aside. I've been here close to 2 weeks now, the language has improved dramatically, I didn't realise how much I'd forgotten until I sat at the dinner table and couldn't keep up with the conversations. I suppose it's a matter of getting used to thinking that way again. I mean, I hear all the words, but getting my mind around the meaning of them all without having to translate in my head and then try and keep up with the conversation is the hard part.

We celebrated Karin & Carlo's silver jubilee on my first weekend at Askasträdet, which is the name of the street in Yngsjö where they've bought a very traditional looking cottage. The cottage was once home to eel farmers, eel being the local delicacy. It's in a state of ruin at the moment, but they're renovating and hopefully will live down there in years to come. It's abut 800 metres from Yngsjö beach, which, if you're from Australia.. is not a beach. Patch of sand next to the sea is a closer approximation. Anyway, with some luck I'm going to be helping renovate over the summer. I've bought myself a MIDI controller for mixing live which I'm going to take down there, stay a few nights and chill out in the middle of nowhere..

On the flip side of that week, we celebrated Midsummer. Pickled herring, potato, chives, schnapps, rum, beer, goon-sack. Need I say more? No. We celebrated at the residence of a friend of Karin & Carlo in Åhus. From the house you can clearly see Åhus main beach, you could literally piss onto it from the balcony, but manners in mind, you wouldn't. Passed out on the couch by 7 pm, missed out on strawberries and cream, but woke up for cheese. Played celebrity heads with the gang, who in the spirit of my presence picked John Farnham (They call him Yon Farn-Heim.. I was nearly in hysterics. We're not gonna live in silence, We're not gonna live in fear..) and Paul Hogan.. The Crocodile Man. We sang 'Love Me Tender' (Lavv Mi Tänder) as a midsummer song, except the words were all written in phonetic Swedish, and because 'th' sounds don't exist in Swedish, it was all 'f' or 'd'.. like little kids before they learn to speak properly. Golden time had by all, another classic midsummer memory, of sorts, to chalk up!

I also spent the night in a small part of Åhus called Äspet. It's right across the river from the Absolut factory, and it's where my second host family lives during the summer. Cilla is an amazing cook, and Swedes aren't shy with the booze. So after bruschetta, chicken, potatoes, wine, beer, prosecco, strawberries, coffee and whiskey I walked with Caroline's boyfriend, André, to the local pub where we sat by the water and sipped on G+T's while the sun sunk slowly behind the fortress of Absolut Vodka.
Fun had by all.

So now I'm sitting contemplating the next month of activities. I'm going to head out into the forest next weekend for a bush-doof called 'BaseCamp', which is a Swedish trance label from Stockholm. They're celebrating their 5th birthday in style with a 4 day doof including some of Europe's and indeed Sweden's finest progressive and psy DJ's and producers. Weather permitting, it's gonna be fuckin' dope. Then I've been invited to spend 16 days on the archipelago north of Gothenburg cooking in the kitchen for a summer camp. No TV, no FB, no phone reception. Escap-e..