Olle Eriksson’s weblog

People complain about the fact that I don’t write anything here. But I have realized it takes a certain kind of person to maintain a blog, and that’s not me. Writing interesting stuff seems to come natural to some people. I have actually thought about closing down the blog, but I’ll keep it around for whenever I have something to say.

It took me four bloody years to get back in the airplane to jump off it again. I did it this sunday, and it was much easier this time. When the canopy was appearing above me after my first static line jump I was thinking to myself was that all I had been so worried about for four years? It was nothing. And it was so fucking nice to be hanging there a 1000m above the ground, making hard turns with the canopy, and just enjoying myself. I didn’t think I would ever register any more jump in my jump log but I was wrong, and I could finally add three jumps today.

Here is a 26 Mb video clip from inside the airplane at jump run
The pilot did a really interesting thing on the way up to the third jump. He pulled up hard for a while and then levelled out, causing every one in the airplane to become weightless for a few seconds. I suddently found myself floating in the air above the seat I had been sitting on, and I had to hold on not to float away. Really really cool!

Alright, how is that for a blog entry? We’ll see how this skydiving stuff evolves in the coming weeks and months. Until then..

I digged up my old Atari STFM a couple of weeks ago and was able to rescue some of the first BASIC programs I ever wrote. I had been planning to do that for quite some time but the video cable I had didn’t work anymore so I had to read the disks from an emulator on my PC. Then I found a way to connect the TV and managed to get hold of the remaining BAS files.

Anyway.. it’s quite funny see how I wrote programs back then, way before object orientation and all this new fancy stuff. I’m sure a lot of people would recognize it. Especially one file is quite interesting too look at, with all the goto-jumps back and forth. I can identify so many bugs after a quick scan. :-)

Anyway, I couldn’t be bothered uploading all the BAS-files, I am not sure how to do that best here.. and the code is in Swedish anyway.. but here are some screenshots.

DrawMouse

DrawMouse_code

DrawMouse_splash_screen

Jokebook_code

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It’s been a long time since last update. I have been busy moving to Malmö and changing jobs. But everything is good. It’s nice to be back in the city after living for 5-6 years in the forgotten land. No, but seriously, I miss Ronneby for all my old friends and work at UIQ, but I couldn’t stand it anymore. Actually, I am starting to feel like Malmö is too small so we’ll see how long I will stay here. At least I’ve got an apartment for a year or so, a big beautiful apartment with a high ceiling. And I’ve got a fair rent too.

I had taken quite a lot of pictures with my mobile phone, and put them on a usb memory stick. I got one of those mini micro small memory sticks that fit into your wallet, but it turned out it was too small, because I lost it through a small hole in the side of my wallet. :-) These pictures below are what I have left. They’re of my new apartment, from the Malmö festival in september, and some city pictures.

I’ll be back soon with a new update. I’ve been able to dig up some old Atari floppy disks where I have been able to retrieve some of the first BASIC programs I wrote when I first starting programming back in the late 80’s. You wouldn’t belive the kind of code I wrote then. :-)

Oh and I am also looking into some ways to combine the article system on my website, the photo gallery, and the blog entries. So if you know of any good software that does that feel free to let me know.

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I’m back in Sweden now and has been working for a week in Ronneby. The next last week in India I had a holiday and went up to Delhi, and then the Indian Himalaya. I flew to Delhi, took the train to Haridwar and Rishikesh, and drove to Joshimath in the mountains, from where I went on a 5-day trek, which was absolutely incredible. You can read all about it here:

A short trek in the Indian Himalaya

Also, from now on I will probably not write in this blog anymore. I will let it be as it is though, and maybe continue some other time. In the meantime I will make news entries on the main page of my website.

I was in Singapore this weekend and I just fell in love with the place. People say it’s one of the cleanest and most effective cities in the world, I can really understand what they mean. I have never seen such a clean place before. But it’s not sterile and boring, it’s a vibrant and interesting city. Every building, road and roadside pathway is architecturally designed and thought through and it really makes it a beautiful place to be. It still feels Asian, with lots of little food stands and food courts where you can buy Chineese, Thai, Indian, Italian food and much more. And the people seem just as crazy about electronic accessories and mobile phones as you would expect from any big Asian city.

I didn’t expect the climate to be so tropical. On average it’s about 85% humidity and the temperature stays around 25-32 degrees pretty much all year round. It was about 28-30 degrees the two days I was there, so not that warm, but the humidity makes it feel hotter. I was sweating constantly except when I went into the air conditioned shopping malls. The rain shower in the after noon is apparently quite common.

The airport has got to be one of the most beautiful in the world, I was shocked when I stepped into it, coming directly from Bangalore airport which must be one of the dirtiest airports in the world. You can also drink the tap water everywhere in the city. The subway system is so clean and tidy it’s hard to believe it. I would have to agree that laws like the one that prohibit people from chewing gum really have a positive effect on the city even though it sounds strange at first. The high registration fee for owning a car makes it a luxury, and so you see basically only new and expensive cars driving around. India has a lot to learn from Singapore when it comes to following traffic rules for sure.

I can’t really say exactly what I liked so much about the city, it feels more modern than any place I have seen before, but also different and exotic, and it feels Asian. People don’t stare at you like you are an alien, the women are absolutely beautiful, the food is great, the climate is.. well.. exotic, and city just has a lot to offer in terms of shopping, coffee shops etc. There are lots of people (about 4 million) but the public transportation systems are so well built that it’s never a problem moving around. Singapore also has an active night life with lots of bars and dance places. I sat down for an hour in a Jazz bar at Boat Quay and listened to some live Jazz just before I took the subway back to the airport. I definitely have one more thing to put on my things-to-do-before-I-die list; live and work in Singapore.

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So I finally went back to Nandi Hills. The last time fog and clouds ruined any chances of seing the view you come to Nandi Hills for. This time it was a totally clear day and it was much more magnificent than I would have expected. The sun is basically 90 degrees overhead now so it get’s pretty hot during the days. Anyway, a nice saturday all in all. You can have a look at the pitcures yourself.

I’ve only got a few more weekends in India now. A bit sad actually, but on the other hand guess I can’t be here forever. Nothing planned for next weekend. The weekend after that I fly to Singapore for a short visit, and then I have booked a trekking trip in the Indian Himalayas and a short stop in Delhi and Agra. After that it’s time for me time leave India.

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Here are some pictures of work and the apartment where I stay, on request. The first two pictures are of the view from the apartment, then comes three from work at Whitefield in eastern Bangalore, then a few pictures of the UIQ team room in the office and a few people in the team, then of the rest of the office, then one of the UIQ team room again, and finally three pictures from the inside of my apartment.

You’ll have to excuse the terrible quality of these pictures. I accidently forgot to reset the ISO setting on the my camera and happened to shoot in ISO 1600 mode.

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Another weekend in India, this time; Mysore, a 2,5 hour train ride west of Bangalore. I had been there before but just quickly and I hadn’t had time to do the tourist thing. It’s actually a very nice place, quite a lot calmer than Bangalore. We also slept quite long in the mornings and just took it easy during the weekend. We visited the Mysore palace, took a rickshaw to the top of Chamundi Hill to look at the view and visit the temple on the top, we visited the neo-Gothic style St Philomena’s Cathedral, and had a beer at the beautiful Lalitha Mahal Palace Hotel. Good weekend, very relaxing, met interesting people as always, and we got the perfect seats in the door of the train back to Bangalore, just in time for sunset. I sat there for over an hour watching the Indian countryside go by. See some pictures below.

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I found this hill station mentioned in the guide books, Yelagiri Hills, and decided to go there over the weekend. It’s a really nice place, a big oval shaped hill about 700m high and about 10 km in diameter, with several peaks. The guide books and the Internet says it’s a perfect place for trekking, and I would have to agree. It’s a secluded and very scenic place, perfect for a weekend trip. It’s also very clean, much cleaner than Ooty for example.

I arrived by train from Bangalore and then a taxi ride from the nearby Jolarpet, which is a big railway junction east of Bangalore. The train ride was about 3 hours, and was spent talking to people, answer the regular line of questions, such as where I come from, what I do here, if I am married etc. Oh and I got to do that thing you see on TV, hanging out the door of the train. One more thing off the checklist!

I met four other Indians at Jolarpet that I shared a taxi with up to the hill station. We found a hotel for Rs 250 (50 SEK) which was ok, nothing fancy, but cheap and perfect for me. I immediately went out for a walk in the hills and tried to find a trail that would lead to one of the hill tops. I met a kid on one of the hill roads that happily took me for a guided 1,5 hour tour through the forrest. We got back when the sun was setting over the lush hilly landscape. I took a little nap, had some dinner at a restaurant on the main road through the village. When I got back the friends from the taxi was sitting at the hotel, chatting away. So I joined them for a couple of beers and we talked about the differences between India and Sweden.

The next morning I had breakfast and headed for another village in the hills, where I could do some trekking. After some negotiation I finally got a rickshaw driver to take me there. There were several of them that seemed to think I couldn’t do that alone for some reason. The treak starts from the village Mangalam and some 1200 stone steps leads a few hundred meters to the top, where there is a view point and a temple. The first part goes through the farm fields and you see a lot of villagers and kids working in the slopes. I met two kids that just tagged along as I climbed the steps. One of them ended up following me the whole 1,5 hour to the top and then down again. I did the climb at around noon and the sky was clear blue as always so it was quite hot. The last part to the top went through quite dense forrest. The view from the top was absolutely magnificent and you could see far over the western ghat mountain range. When I came back down the rickshaw driver was waiting in the village and took me back to the hotel.

I met my friends for some food and a few hours later we got the bus down to Jolarpet and later that night a train back to Bangalore. All in all a very interesting weekend and I met a lot of different people. Everybody seem to want to talk to you, and I probably spoke to over 50 people during the weekend. See some pictures below…

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I can’t help myself. I went back to a place I visted breifly about a week ago that I just had to take a picture of (the first one below). Also, I had a look around the south parts of Bangalore, which are quite nice.

Picture no 1 - The Hosur Road, one of the main arteries into Bangalore.
Picture no 2 - Another animal risking its life on one of the busiest roads in Bangalore.
Picture no 3 - Two people waving down the bus on the Hosur Road.
Picture no 4 - A flyover on the Hosur Road leading into Bangalore City.
Picture no 5 - One of the many sources of air pollution in Bangalore.
Picture no 6 - Kids at a playground in Jayanagar in southern Bangalore.
Picture no 7 - A cool joint in Jayanagar in southern Bangalore.
Picture no 8 - The Silver Jubilee Park Road as seen from the Elevated Road just above the City Market.
Picture no 9 - Same, only composed differently. Tell me which one you prefer.

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