Monster Ru

for 2006 (or Lesson from the Icehotel)

I know this is a couple of days late, but Happy New Year, my friends.

I haven't blogged much of late, but the fact is that in the last 3 weeks, much had been done.

We went to the Icehotel, and this is a photo of one of the rooms there:


room
Originally uploaded by monster-ru.

These rooms can actually be warmer than the outside temperature, because it's only about -5 degrees celsius in the Icehotel. The coldest it got when we were there was -25 degrees celsius, which was the day we went on a dogsled, in the fucking cold. It does get a bit worrying when you realise that you are slowly unable to feel your fingers and toes anymore, and that this remains so for a long while more.

This photo below shows the temperature the day after:


thermometer
Originally uploaded by monster-ru.

Still pretty fucking cold if you ask me. The law in Sweden is such that, if you want to have a fag, you have to go outside. This sometimes means that you have to think a lot harder each time you feel like having a cigarette.

The most important thing i remember from sleeping in the Icehotel is this: Just do it.

yes, yes, you may be thinking - cliché leh! or, "We've heard enough from Nike!" but truth is, when you need to go to the toilet when you wake up in the middle of the night in one of these rooms (assuming you fell asleep in the first place), the best thing to do is to get up and run to the loo! This, i assure you, is no easy feat. You go in what little clothes you have on, because you can't sleep with much on in a sleeping bag. (Reason being that if you sleep with too much on, it gets too hot in the sleeping bag and all your perspiration will remain in the bag, making it wet and then cold! Yes, all you boy scouts out there, you probably know this already...) And it is also pointless putting clothes on to go to the loo because all the clothes you might have with you that are not on you will be cold anyway. The more time you waste putting cold clothes on, the colder you will get. And no, there are no toilet facilities in the Icehotel itself. You have to stuff your feet into your cold shoes (because trying to run on icy snow is just - well - slippery!), make your way down the corridor, pass the other rooms (our room being located at the end of said corridor), through the hotel "lobby", and out into the cold before you get to the warm luggage room where the toilets can be found. So "no-hesitation" here is very very good advice. Not only will this help you stay warm(ish), but it also means that you don't have to put up with the agony of trying to fall sleep in order to forget the cold whilst you are trying to convince yourself that you are not going to piss on the ice. and am i glad i didn't ignore this simple advice!

and so, no resolutions for me in 2006 - not that i made any in 2005, or remember myself making, but i will remember and try to apply this precious advice from our guide at the Icehotel in 2006: Just do it!

"All of last year's blooms have gone and died,
Time doesn't give a reason."

- CC, High Life, TDL.

oh - and for those who might be curious, the 20D works in sub-zero temperatures. Just not when you are on a bumpy ride, at -25 degrees celsius, with wind chill factor.

posted by 儒 @ 00:47