Åmål Blues Fest, July 7-14

The best part of the Blues Fest just might be all the street blues in the day time.

I don't quite know for how many years I've been going to the Blues Fest, but I just realized that it is the only every-year tradition that I have going. For many people it would be Christmas with your family, but for me I've spread them between girlfriend's families and my own. For many americans it would be Thanksgiving, but we don't have that tradition in Sweden. For other swedes it maybe is a midsummers party or the annual crabfish premier. Or - god forbid - the annual premier of the godawful fermented herring, "surströmming".

And the sad thing is that I really appreciate these traditions, so I've always aspired to be part of them more. Well, I guess that is something that comes from never settling down with a family, instead swapping girlfriends (and with that more or less half of your friends) every five years?

Anyway, I guess that is why I like the Blues Fest so much, because it can not possibly be the music! :-) I've never been much of a blues fan, and even if it is always nice to listen to blues live, and even academically dissect it's part in pretty much all other types of mucic from jazz to hip-hop, it has never really been close to my heart.

No, the Blues Fest to me is all about family and friends. Meeting my kid brother, and probably for the only time in a year, having the time to sit down and actually talk to him (you see, he lives in Gothenburg, and none of us is very good at phoning...) is invaluable. As is of course since the last seven years spend time with his wonderful son Eric, my adorable nephew. Not too mention the rest of my family, but more about them later.

At times, I've even been able to trick a friend of mine to join me as well, and that's always been greatly appreciated, even though it seems like I don't have too many friends found of the Blues. Maybe I just need to tell them that the Blues Fest is not really about the Blues at all? :-)

Anyway, this year was better than most, since I had the company of my lovely Helena. I guess she understands that the Fest is not about the blues, because I have never seen any blues CD's at her place and still she came!? We loaded her car with the last of my belongings from Stockholm (I'm storing everything in Åmål while I sub-let the apartment) and set off on a wonderful summer day. Driving through a country gives you a quite good image of how beautiful it is, and Sweden - I love you!

As always, my mom had made excellent preparations for us, and I quickly fell in to the role of a kid again. It's strange, at the age of 41 you would think that I am a grown-up, but as soon as I come home to my mom, it's lke I'm 15 again. I sleep most of the day, I let my mother make breakfast and generally cook for me, and this year I think it actually turned worse: she even did my laundry! I'm planning to stay with her fo a longer period later in the year, and I'm a bit afraid: what if I get so used to being pampered that I won't move out? :-)

The Blues Fest in itself was pretty much like it always is. I really think that the best part is the street blues in downtown Åmål (downtown being a relative term in a city of around 10.000 of course) during daytime, where many of the bands are playing for free at street corners of cafeterias all over town. Maybe it's not the biggest names, but somehow it's really close to what blues should really be about...

Unfortunately I had a bad case of hay fever, so I couldn't join Helena for it. You see, what most people know about hay fever is the running noses and eyes, and the sneezing. What most don't know is that (at least to some of us) also gets our bodies in a fever-like state where you need 12 hours of sleep or so, and still is constantly tired and sweating. Really a big pain, and it even seems to get worse by the years. :-(

But I did go to the evening concerts, and it was good as always, although not spectacular. Unfortunately not too many people (something like 5000 I think) this year, and it seems like the Fest is in a downwards spiral now. Too few people -> less money for artists next year -> fewer people -> etc... I hope they can get better sponsorship next year to get out of it, otherwise I fear for it's survival.

One added bonus was that my uncle Mats had come to the Fest. I don't see him nearly as much as I would like to, even though he actually lives in Stockholm as well, and it was nice to go partying with him and Helena. It was really great to see you Mats, do bring the Harley next year!

After the Fest, Helena had to go back to Stockholm for a family thing, and I took the opportunity to further regress to childhood. All that was left for to regress completely was probably to fight my brother, but since he weighs 100 pounds more than me these days, I wisely decided not to do that!

Instead I mostly spent time with my mom and dad, we even took the time to go out on the golf course together, and I am happy to report that even though I haven't even seen a golf ball the last three years, I still had the fewest strokes! I didn't even whack a single ball into the woods so that I didn't find it, and that is the first time in my life! Hmm, I already missed the British Open I guess, but isn't the PGA championships in the autumn? I wish I had thought about becoming a golf pro before taking up all these travels on my year off! :-)

Another part of the Blues Fest tradition has been to celebrate my birthday - although it is less and less to celebrate each year! :-( I guess that some year I should actually arrange my own birthday party, but it's that whole regression to childhood again, and besides, mum and dad is doing such a great job of it! Even though it is always great to be celebrated (and the presents, don't forget the presents! :-)), the best thing is that it is a great opportunity to meet the extended family: my grandmother on my dad's side and her boyfriend Bengt, my aunt Maggan and her family, Björn, Linnea and Emma. Thanks for the presents guys, but most of all thanks for being there!

By the time my birthday came around, Helena had come back from Stockholm as well, and that I guess, was the best gift of all! We even took the time to visit my sort-of-cousin Cissi to try horseback riding for the first time! Well, Helena had tried it before, but since I am allergic to horses, I never really wanted to...

However, since I've been taking these allergy shots that is supposed to make me immune to to many allergic compounds, I thought this was a good time to try it. You see, one of the things I want to to in Kyrghyzstan is to go trekking on horseback, and that's really no good if you are allergic...

Unfortunately the experiment was something of a failure, and I had a fairly bad reaction. On the other hand, I was only wearing a t-shirt and shorts, and even hugged the horse, so when I get the chance in K-stan, I will try it at least. Long-sleeved shirt, long pants, proper boots, gloves, and I can even use my buff as a face mask - that should be enough. I have this dream about riding in to a small village on the horseback, like Lucky Luke in the comic, and at least I'm going to give it a try...

As I'm writing this, there aren't that many days left until I will get my chance either! The rest of the Habitat team is arriving to Bishkek tomorrow morning, and then we will be off to Barskoon to build the houses, as well as have some R&R, which is supposed to include horseback riding. It's getting really close now!