After a neatly sorted out November things went into a bit of a hyperdrive and suddenly I no longer felt the desire to update this blog, nor had the time to do so even if I wanted to. After having sacrificed many a free evening on the altar of driving school during the past autumn, in a feverish and at times ridiculously remote hope of someday acquiring a proper drivers’ licence, things finally reached a conclusion of sorts as I actually got one just before christmas and was smacked on the face by the brutal fact that I now was entitled to drive a real motorised vehicle in a genuine traffic environment, on an open road, among other cars! All this before I had reached my forties!

So I went out and did what I now was entitled to, and continue to do so on a daily basis, boldly facing up to insanely demanding challenges like changing lanes smoothly and finding my way to my actual destination, without the engine dying every single time the lights go from red to green and I release the clutch without revving the engine enough, and without driving 20km per hour slower than everyone else all the time. Herculean efforts I have only partially succeeded to overcome so far, with the aid of my dauntless and tenacious 2008 Suzuki Swift 1,3 GL, pictured below stuck in a snowbank on my doorstep.


I have also actively rehearsed with two bands these past several months. Sinisthra played a gig in Helsinki a few weeks ago, to the general satisfaction of many of the people involved I’d say. It’s still roaring, it’s still writhing and it’s still reasonably full of fire, with just enough songs good enough to make up a show long enough to keep the listeners happy enough to stay and maybe nod appreciatively. It’s good to be part of something like this. Here’s some pics by Tina Solda. On some of the pics we occasionally look like a real rock band that plays gigs regularly, releases records and might even be interviewed by music press, instead of a bunch of oiks from Lohja who strum their tunes in constant fear that someone spots out how wobbly it all sounds and how unlikely it is that we all finish the song at the same time. The magic of photography.


The other band is my old punk band L.A.M.F., of which nothing much exists in the internet to link to. We put out some albums back in the 90’s, did the rounds with variable success for a few years, and then it all sort of imploded. The times changed, the personnel changed and the overall interest waned. Now we are resurrected, at least temporarily, and it feels mostly good to be back. We’ll be playing a gig at the end of this month in Helsinki, and maybe more gigs later on. I’ll write more about this later if I happen to feel like writing more about this.