A Summer North of the Arctic Circle

This place is now dead…

parboman — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 20:41:36 +0000

Or it has been for a very long time. But since I’m not using it anymore, it will be moved away from parboman.com

If you check that address soon it will contain something slightly more static.

Reinventing myself in Oslo

parboman — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:05:38 +0000

A new year is here and I’m back in Oslo. I live in a really cool house out in the forest (Nordmarka, if you know Oslo geography) and are trying to reinvent myself.

I’m applying for various jobs, thinking I want to change industry, mainly in retail. Retail feels most natural in this case, the importance of good service, which I usually excel at, and a new challenge.

The blog will soon be slightly changed and hopefully there will be plenty of posts to follow. Maybe even video ones again.

It is time to get moving

parboman — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:16:10 +0000

After a few weeks back home, nice in many ways, but too much like it always been, it is time to get moving. Planning to travel up to Norway by bus tomorrow, just need to sort out the flat, laundry and a few other things.

Not really sure what I’m doing in Norway. Looking for something to do, a new job or a new life. Don’t have much money but enough to survive on for a while. Might head over to the UK at some point, and hope to visit my old school in Flekke as well. And hopefully earning some money along the way.

I need a new adventure, I need something to happen, I need to figure out what I really want.

/Pär Boman

The summer is over…

parboman — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:07:42 +0000

and I’m back in the south. It has been great but now I have to figure out what to do next. Looking at some really cool jobs and hope that one of the will work out. Will keep you updated as things move along. Will probably be temping a bit again to make ends meet until something more exciting turns up. Might head over to Scotland soon.

Pär Boman

And so the summer is moving on…

parboman — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:52:51 +0000

The end of this experience is coming closer. On the 30th of August I work my last shift, this time all the way down to Östersund.

An although the job is still great, living up here is having its toll. Cabin fever I will be great to get back to civilisation again.

This blog hasn’t really worked out the way I hoped, but the video entries have been fun to make. Haven’t been able to formulate my thoughts and experiences the way I wanted but there is always hope for the future.

Have baked bread every week all summer and now it is time for another batch.

Lots of love,

Pär Boman

YouTube – Adventures in the North

parboman — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:52:37 +0000

YouTube – Adventures in the North.

And yes I know that it would be better to use one type of effect instead of all of them. But I can’t help myself.

A Week In the North

parboman — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:54:40 +0000

Finally the video is done! For password email me@parboman.com

YouTube – Inlandsbanan – åtta timmar räls – Sveriges svenskaste jobb!

parboman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:55:31 +0000

YouTube – Inlandsbanan – åtta timmar räls – Sveriges svenskaste jobb!.

Finally solved my technical issues with my video so a new movie should be posted tomorrow. Meanwhile here is a movie from two guys who have a really neat summer job, they get paid to travel around Sweden. And a few days ago they were on inlandsbanan. Video is mainly in Swedish but some nice shots.

Life’s good, bought some fishing equipment today so might try my luck tomorrow. Have another two days and not very much planned.

/Pär Boman

Video test

parboman — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:01:55 +0000

North North North

parboman — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:06:44 +0000

Sitting at an outside table at Jokkmokk station and pondering over the last week. Have quite been able to write until now, needed time to process the experience.

Arrived in Gällivare Thursday midday after a quite enjoyable but incredibly long train ride from Helsingborg. 22.5 hours all in all. Checked out the office at the station and tried to figure out what to do next. The day past fairly quickly, although the place is surprisingly quiet. Met Ulrika at the station when the train got in, she had plenty of stories to tell but I could feel the nervousness building about the following day.

Slept for a few hours and got dressed for work. I do really like the uniform, casual but still official looking. Slightly nervous still but less so than expected. Just a few passengers from Gällivare, but in Porjus we picked up 12 musicians taking part in Inlandsbane festival. A colorful bunch they made sure the trip got more interesting. The guiding part went quite well, no Germans on the train so could focus on getting the Swedish and English version working. Can’t do it without the manual but that should hopefully change soon. The day went well, slightly chaotic when changing train in Sorsele to head back up north, lots of passengers (well not really but more than on the trip down) and managed to mess up the food order for Vaikijaur but Maggan sorted it out when we arrived. Exhausted after the first day but feeling quite good about the experience, it was fun!

Second day was mostly good although I messed with seat reservations when we changed direction of the train in Arvidsjaur. Got a call from the office about a complaint on that, but I think that it will be better next time when the routing starts to work properly.

Got a proper place to sleep on Sunday, so nice with a real bed! Spent most of monday in bed relaxing. On Tuesday Lena lent me her car so I got a good look at the area and got some shopping done.

And yeah, we also had a train derailment on Monday, nothing serious and no one was hurt, trains running again the next day. But Lena had to work on bus for her two shifts. Let’s hope that’s the only time this season!

Today was the start of my other project that I’m doing in my spare time. The plan is to write a new guidebook for Inlandsbanan that’s interesting to read and available in English and German. So headed down south to Porjus with the train. Arrived very early and everything was closed, but after a few hours of walking around the small town I got a guided tour of the old hydro electric power plant. It was the first day for the guide and I were the only customer, she was very nervous but all in all managed quite well. I do know how the first day feels like! There is not much to do in Porjus so walked up to the viewing spot and got a lovely view of the area. It is really beautiful up here, in particularly at the top of a mountain. Could see snow on the mountains at the horizon.

But Porjus is not fun enough for a full day so catched a bus to Jokkmokk where I am now. Been walking around town and checking the place out. Probably need to structure myself more if the guidebook is actually going to happen. But it is a start. Luckily since I started writing it hasn’t begun to rain, a wet laptop is not much fun. The train back to Gällivare is arriving in about half an hour. Life is good.