First day of AOW/Nitrox

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15 February 19:37

 

We gave ourselves no time to rest for this and I’m starting to think that our 30 year old bodies can’t really handle it. It feels unfamiliar. But we survived today. I wonder how tomorrow will go. Or the day after tomorrow.

We woke up to clear blue sky and had the most amazing view from our balcony. Breakfast was okay, but we had to stress it through to make it to the dive center at 8am. It was already 26C this morning and I started to question bringing a 5mm wetsuit. I was afraid that we would get heatstroke from just going to the dive sites.

The Thresher Shark Divers PADI dive center lies approximately 1 minute walk from the hotel. Super convenient. As usual when diving, we signed so many papers and met with our fellow course taker from China. We were told that we were going to do to two dives straight after each other; Peak Performance Boyancy at Laplight dive site and Underwater Naturalist at Dakit-Dakit. A refresher dive was included in the first one where we filled our masks with water and cleared it but also when we lost our regulator and how to find it and start breathing again. Easy peasy! That was the one part our instructor was impressed with. We wanted to do the refresher part but once in the water it felt so natural again. We were a bit spoiled at Blue Marlin on Gili Trawangan though where the Fun Dives were all prepared by the staff, so coming to this advanced course and not really knowing how to set up the gear was embarrassing. But we are alive so we did everything correctly at least, haha!

At the briefing before boarding the tiny boat, we got to know what we were going to do, and it felt easy enough. I understand why an advanced course starts with the buoyancy part, but buoyancy is tough, especially when you are performing specific tasks and trying to do it expertly. We all did okay, but I had some serious issues with staying neutrally buoyant vertically upside down. I just flew back up to the surface. No controlled breathing could have been stronger than that force. I am guessing that my new, extremely buoyant wetsuit had something to do with it. I don’t know how many times I had to retry. After a while, the instructor picked up another weight and put on my cylinder. It was better, but I still floated to the top at the end of the minute, Oh well.

Mikael did great on all parts except swimming through the square without touching. It’s hard to know if you’re completely horizontal or not. We did 4 one minute buoyancy positions: horizontal, vertical upright, vertical facing down and buddha. I don’t know how people manages the last one with the fins trying to reach the surface all the time. But I passed somehow, I think. Then was the square we had to swim through without touching and pushing things off the bottom with our regulator by controlling our breaths. It was a frustrating first dive.

The next dive was straight after but at another dive site. A bit bumpy but not too bad. Once we were there we were changing tubes to new ones and I started feeling really bad. I have had some seriously bad boat trips, but I’ve never thrown up before. I know that it feels better once you’re in the water, but I didn’t really want to rush getting that regulator in my mouth. Ugh! But once we were down it was all good.

Underwater Naturalists is supposed to make us aware of what we are diving with, so it was basically just a fun dive at Dakit-Dakit sanctuary with artificial reefs where the instructor pointed at things and we were supposed to tell her if it was a plant, vertebrae or invertebrates. Easy enough once you got the hang of it. We saw some really cool things! Huge bat fish, stone fish, can fish (I think? It looked like a box and swam backwards). I don’t know the words for everything, but there were lots of cool small things. Except the starfish, they were huge! Both blue ones but also light brown ones with white spots.

On this dive, it started to get cold. Even with the 5mm full wetsuit. It was not too bad, but I felt sorry for Tina who only had a 2,5mm shorty. Poor woman!

After the dive I felt so tired. I love diving. But today was rough! My mask was too tight and I got a piercing headache on the leftside of my forehead, I threw up, all the heavy gear, after not sleeping too well in a room that was way too much AC’d. Not too much good food eaten in the past days.

We asked for advice for lunch and went to an Italian restaurant, easy food. And super good! Angelina’s right on the “main” beach where the ferry comes through. Quickly though, because we had to be back at the dive center for the dry part of the Nitrox course where we learn how to analyze and dive with higher concentrations of oxygen. It basically lowers the risk of nitrogen toxicity, but you have to be super aware of how deep you can go with different percentages of oxygen. With our dive computers it won’t be hard. But it’s good to know why we have these limitations and what could happen.

It started raining after that, the blue sky gone and we went back to the hotel for a nap before heading out to dinner. We woke up, feeling weird and decided to stay in and skip dinner. Filled out our dive logs and will now go to bed. Because at 6am, the boat leaves tomorrow morning for two dives with sharks!

9 modes of transportation

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14 February 23:20

 

We have arrived somewhere warm where we can hear the ocean from our hotel room, but honestly, we have no idea what this place looks like. But I’m pretty sure it feels like a paradise! We can’t wait to see what Malapascua looks like in daylight.

Traveling from the small big town of Gothenburg is bad. It’s an embarrassment to say that we have an international airport. Which is why, Mikael and I for the third time together goes all the way down to Copenhagen, Denmark to flee Sweden.

Let’s say that our day started at 8am Swedish time. At home. Excited for what’s to come. Mikael’s mom will borrow the car while we are away so we drove to the Central Station to meet up with her. Transportation mode number 1.

Öresundståget, mode number 2, the train going between Gothenburg and Copenhagen took us to Lund where we had to switch due to delays or something. Arrived a bit late to the airport, but still with plenty of time to work some more. Too bad the project I’m working in doesn’t take a vacation just because I am.

Transportation mode number 3 was the first flight to Doha. 6 hours short. Managed to squeeze in some reading, a little nap, food and that’s it.

I’ve never been to Doha’s international airport before, but it was big! So big that we had to take the electric metro to our gate. Number 4.

Gender neutral changing sign in Qatar.

 

The layover was a total of 3 hours, perfect! We barely had time to sit down. From the gate was number 5, the bus to the actual flight which was some distance away.

The last flight from Doha to Cebu was 9 hours. And I am surprised to say this, but we seriously slept through almost the whole flight! How is that even possible? We woke up in perfect timing with breakfast/dinner and had a very pleasant flight. Except that Mikael dropped one of his earplugs during the first nap, but actually managed to get it back from the guy sitting behind us. And also, for some stupid reason, when we were descending, my nose spontaneously decided to start bursting out blood. Not super convenient and no tissues very close at hand, no stewardess’ who could help. Insane. We did managed to find some eventually, but by then there was blood, haha! I really hope this doesn’t affect our upcoming dives tomorrow.

Okay, number 6, that was the taxi that drove us all the way from Cebu to Port Maya, a small harbor up north from where the ferry to Malapascua leaves. When we received the confirmation from the hotel about the taxi/boat, they had written Bremm. I corrected them, yet was still not surprised when the name on the paper read Alexandra Been. I have to admit though, Been is a first!

Okay, so we had finally arrived in our destination country, woho! But still many hours away from checking in, tired like never before. Similarities with Bali: there are no countryside roads, they are all lined with buildings, small shops and eateries. The cities blend together. And the traffic. WOW! So much traffic. But we reached the harbor after 3,5 hours which was not so bad. The driver was driving like a boss, probably a little stressed out because he had the boat crew calling him asking him where he was. It turned out that they had waited for us for 2 hours. Not our fault though.

Number 7, we are finally getting close to our final destination! The commercial ferry stops going to Malapascua after 17:30 so we had to get a private one. Not sure if the normal ferries are of this size and type, but it was a fairly big boat, and from what I’ve seen, the most common type used over here. Like the dive boats in Indonesia, but bigger. The conditions were great, otherwise the coast guard wouldn’t have allowed the late night private ferry. Another family was on it, German, visiting family for a month. Imagine having family on Malapascua to visit?

The boat ride took approximately 30 min. It was warm, the breeze was perfect, the occasional ocean splatter. A little bumpy made worse by the pitch darkness. But that pitch black makes the stars really pop out! I can’t remember seeing such a starry night sky before. I even got some decent pictures with my phone. Mikael was too tired to get his real camera up on the balcony. But I hope it will be a sky clear of clouds other days too, because this was just wow!

Okay, next thing, the tide was low, so this “big” boat couldn’t get all the way onto the beach so an even smaller had to get us the final distance. Number 8. There are no cars on this island and the only way to get things to it is by boat. And small boats at that. I was mighty impressed when they tried to move the scooter from the bigger one to the much smaller one. Impressive!

Shortly thereafter comes the last piece of this super long puzzle, the walking, number 9. It was a full 20m from the boat to our hotel where we were greeted and shown to our room with sunset view from the enormous balcony.

 

To say that this was a long day might be an understatement. I’m not even sure how many days have passed since we dragged our luggage through a snowy Gothenburg. Door to door: 31,5 hours. Can’t say yet if it was worth it. But it feels like it! I think it’s around 30C right now, the waves are rolling in on the beach right beneath us, it’s humid and our AC works wonderfully well.

 

One thing though. NO INTERNET ACCES WHATSOEVER. We didn’t see where we could buy sim cards at the airport but thought it would be fine on the way or once we got to the hotel. 7 Eleven did not have sim cards. We didn’t yet ask the hotel manager if there are any for sale on this tiny 4,8sqkm island, but will do so tomorrow. And also, since we have the room furthest away from the lobby where the router is we assume, we don’t get any signal here. No one knows we are alive except my mom who at least knows we landed (when I briefly had WiFi for 5 minutes). That’s tomorrow’s problem. Otherwise, this will be an unconnected holiday with just focus on sharks and beautiful beaches.

 

HAPPY VALENTINES!

Review of “The Two Towers” by J.R.R. Tolkien

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Title: The Two Towers
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Series: The Lord of the Rings #2
Narrator: Andy Serkis
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 20 hours 47 minutes
Published: 2021, HarperCollins (originally published 1954)
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs. Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin—alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.

 

MY REVIEW

The Two Towers is as good as The Fellowship of the Ring. The story goes on seamlessly and focuses mainly on Merry/Pippin and Legolas/Aragorn/Gimli in the “fourth” book and only on Frodo and Sam in the fifth. I like that it was so separated. It made it easier to follow along in the story instead of focusing on trying to figure out which character this chapter is following.

The writing, worldbuilding and general feeling of the bok is the same. It feels real with descriptions and dialogue. And I was surprised at the humor. Gimli’s and Legolas counting contest at Helm’s Deep was in the book. Merry and Pippin greeting the rest of the company after the battle of Isengard an Gimli’s funny responses. That surprised me a lot.

This is the second book of a trilogy, which makes it the transport story. And it definitely is. But not for the reasons I remembered from when I was 12. The Ent Moot is not what is dragging this story out. The Council of Elrond is. I think that was at least four hours of the whole book. I kind of wish I would have paid more attention though, because a lot of ancient history was told there. But in general, things are constantly happening, even if the might be a little flat. Or perhaps even is a better word? Andy Serkis is so very passionate when he is narrating and it’s super intense at the fight with Shelob, but it’s over so fast. The same with the battle at Helm’s Deep. It’s over in no time. These battle scenes seems like a neccessity for the story and not something extraordinary that is visually beautiful as it was portrayed in the movies.

And when it comes to comparing the movie with the book, which is impossible when reading the book 20 years after the successful movie came out, the scenes described in the book gives so much more background. It puts perspective unto scenes in the movie that I wasn’t aware of before. It is also scary how accurate and exact some scenes are. It’s almost ridiculous. I wonder what people thought when reading this before Peter Jackson came into the picture. One major difference though is Frodo’s acting towards Gollum. He is not being nice and understanding at all towards the creature and is not as naive as he is portrayed in the film.

It is a transport book, for sure, but still so excellently written and narrated. 5 out of 5 possible!

Review of “The Well of Ascension” by Brandon Sanderson

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Title: The Well of Ascension
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: Mistborn #2
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 578
Published: 2007, Tor Books
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

“Description contains spoilers for previous book in the series”

The impossible has been accomplished. The Lord Ruler—the man who claimed to be god incarnate and brutally ruled the world for a thousand years—has been vanquished. But Kelsier, the hero who masterminded that triumph, is dead too, and now the awesome task of building a new world has been left to his young protégé, Vin, the former street urchin who is now the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and to the idealistic young nobleman she loves.

As Kelsier’s protégé and slayer of the Lord Ruler she is now venerated by a budding new religion, a distinction that makes her intensely uncomfortable. Even more worrying, the mists have begun behaving strangely since the Lord Ruler died, and seem to harbor a strange vaporous entity that haunts her.

Stopping assassins may keep Vin’s Mistborn skills sharp, but it’s the least of her problems. Luthadel, the largest city of the former empire, doesn’t run itself, and Vin and the other members of Kelsier’s crew, who lead the revolution, must learn a whole new set of practical and political skills to help. It certainly won’t get easier with three armies – one of them composed of ferocious giants – now vying to conquer the city, and no sign of the Lord Ruler’s hidden cache of atium, the rarest and most powerful allomantic metal.

As the siege of Luthadel tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.

 

MY REVIEW

The Well of Ascension was different in so many ways from The Final Empire. Well, not in writing really, it is the amazing same, not when it comes to world building either. But content-wise, focus of the story and pace differ a lot.

After finishing The Final Empire and that incredible ending, I just had to know what happened next. Yes, you learned what happened next, them trying to figure out how to rule a kingdom while being under siege from not one, not two, but three armies. What disappointed me a little bit honestly, was that we didn’t get to learn anything of the lord ruler. The first 90% of the book was all about politics, not much action. Things still happened, the story went on, it was easy to follow (not like some other fantasy that focuses on politics, George RR Martin for example). It was captivating and on a good enough level of complicated. One thing Sanderson managed to keep interesting was situations where you as a reader could be certain of the outcome, but somehow he managed to make the opposite and super u likely outcome seem logical. It’s like he’s manipulating us with his writing. It’s amazing!

Sure, war is something happening, but as soon as that 90% part of the story was over, it was like a new book. Those last pages and how it all ended. It was even worse than the ending of The Final Empire. The ending made you rethink the whole first book. That’s a feat!

I cannot say anything else than that Sanderson is my new favorite author. This was the second book of a trilogy, the pace is supposed to be naturally slower. But it builds up suspense, you never know which direction the story is going which the ending clearly show. For a “journey” mid book, it’s good. It’s really good! Easy 5 out of 5. Please read this series if you haven’t already! It kind of feels like I’m the last one to find out about this amazing author, haha!

Review of “The Final Empire” by Brandon Sanderson

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Title: The Final Empire
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: Mistborn #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 537
Published: 2006, Tor Books
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the “Sliver of Infinity,” reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler’s most hellish prison. Kelsier “snapped” and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld’s elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Then Kelsier reveals his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel’s plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she’s a half-Skaa orphan, but she’s lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

 

MY REVIEW

I think I said this in my review of Elantris, but Sanderson is definitely one of my favorite authors! The main reason being his ability to come up with amazing and captivating stories that you really become a part of.

The Final Empire has: a great story arc, a new imaginative magic system, and a world you really find yourself in. I at least see very clearly everything that is happening. Even the fighting scenes which I usually only see blurs.

I wouldn’t say that Sanderson is using an easier way of writing, but his writing is easier to follow. I don’t miss details like I can do in other author’s style of writing (I will leave a small comparison to Robert Jordan here for example).

This book doesn’t leave you as the reader to think for yourself, which I think is a good thing. When I am really engulfed in a story, I don’t want to end up having to put the book aside to think about what certain things mean or not. I want a flow where I can continue to read and still be surprised when plot twists arise for example. And that’s how The Final Empire is. You can just continue to read in that flow and be completely inside the story.

The story is amazing. Something is always happening. Something good in the right direction, some setbacks, some more setbacks until you are questioning if things really are going to work out, which makes you understand why there are two more books in this trilogy. But then comes the ending. And you understand why there are two more books, but for other reasons than you previously thought.

Brandon Sanderson does it so well! The last part was so intensive that I couldn’t put the book down! I started The Well of Ascension straight after. 5 out of 5!

Review of “The Fellowship of the Ring” by J.R.R. Tolkien

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Title: The Fellowship of the Ring
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Series: The Lord of the Rings #1
Narrator: Andy Serkis
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 22 hours 38 minutes
Published: 2021, HarperCollins (originally published 1954)
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.

 

MY REVIEW

Wow! Is that enough for a review? I feel like it kind of is. But at the same time, no of course not. It has been years and years since I read the Sweidsh translation of The Fellowship of the Ring. I think I was 12 years old. Still not too bad to even try to read these ones at that age. But I was too young to truly appreciate them. I’m not sure how I would appreciate them now if I had read them properly, but I can say that I am the complete opposite of dissappointed after listening to them. I did the right choice in waiting until the Andy Serkis versions came out on audiobook platforms in Sweden. Because just wow!

I remember the long prologue and backstory of the hobbits. Serkis made it swoosh by. The history of hobbits was so interesting and it was impossible to zone out. Great start and the whole book was over in a flash!

As one who have seen the movies countless times, I can’t help but compare of course. They are so similar and Peter Jackson truly got the spirit of the story and did such an amazing job. And I see the brilliance of the movies even clearer now. He used the dialogue, quotes straight from the books and scenes that were exactly the same. But, there differences as well. I think every Lord of the Ring fan out there, no matter if they read the books or not, have heard of Tom Bombadill. What a weird character. And such a long part of the story. Another major difference is that in the book, everyone knows what’s going on from the very start. Information is not withheld from any characters for the sake of suspense which it does in the movie. Or newer books for that matter. It felt refreshing, even if the book was 70 years old.

Do I even need to say anything about the worldbuilding? It’s extraordinary. The world comes alive through thorough dialogue and extensive descriptions. Some parts are too long, like the council of Elrond. I think that one scene might have been four hours long? And I also think that Andy Serkis is a great reason for bringing all the characters even more alive than the storytelling itself. He reads all the characters with different voices and they sound so much alike to the actors in the movies. You can really tell when it’s Pippin who’s talking. I don’t have any memories of him reading Gollum as the movie voice though. Strange? Gollum is not a big part of this story though.

There are several scenes which are not really contributing to the story and I do understand why Jackson kept them out of the movie. But they do add some more worldbuilding. Not that it is actually needed, but it fills out.

Listening to The Fellowship of the Ring narrated by Andy Serkis was the best decision I could have made. Just wow! You should do it as well! 5 out of 5, easily!!

Nordic Ink Festival Day 2

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A full day in Arena Nord has come to its end and I have to say that it was a pretty great day. Mostly because I could see how much Mikael was shining when he walked around tinkering with his camera, finding the right angles and talking to people. He met two established photographers with whom he talked to a lot. One from New Zealand but lives in Gothenburg and the other from Finland.

My part of this trip was just to be a cute sidekick. I sat by the podium, playing Pokemon GO and reading my book. Every now and then talking to Mikael or walking around a bit. The Brew Festival didn’t open until 14:00. But when it did, we had Bao bun street food. They never go wrong! We got beer glasses and pollettes to buy beer but we bought anything but beer. Hot shots and drinks, hehe.

We saw some amazing tattoos getting rewards and we both of course got inspired. Mikael got one just a week ago, but I hadn’t gotten a new one in 3,5 years. It’s just that my idea will take me off the beach court for a bit, so I haven’t really wanted to actualize this yet. But there is a natural gap during Christmas?

The ferry home left at 20:00. We walked quickly from the fair with a stop at the hotel on the way to pick up a bag. We weren’t really stressed but we walked quickly and also managed to keep warm in the chilly October night air.

As soon as we got onboard, I started to feel real funky. I thought I was drunk at first, but I couldn’t have been after just one drink (the shot was much earlier in the day). Then my brain slowed down, I couldn’t process words and definitely not connect names to actual people. If I didn’t recognize the symptoms, I probably would have been scared that I had a stroke. But just a mild version of the aura migraine I got the first (and only) time in 2018 after a work week of hell. I was “out” for only 2 hours. But I was sad that I couldn’t spend that dead time reading. Trust me, I tried, but I couldn’t for the life of me understand what I was reading. So weird. I hope migraines won’t be a recurring event for me now.

All in all, a very nice weekend with my other half in our neighboring country on a super spontaneous trip to a tattoo fair.

Nordic Ink Festival Day 1

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So, Mikael and I did something super spontaneous. His new photography hobby took us all the way to Fredrikshamn in Denmark for a tattoo festival where he will do some photoshooting.

The plan was for us to get here today at noon so we could have some time to tourist around this town. But late yesterday we received an email from Stena Line telling us they rebooked our ticket to the 15:45 ferry. They sent us the email too late so we couldn’t call them and ask why. Apparently, we could have gotten tickets if we rebooked with a vehicle. Like what? So weird!

Anyway, we had already taken time off work for today, so we spent it eating brunch in Gothenburg which was nice as well a random Friday in October.

On the ferry, we got great seats right next to the bar. I played a bunch of Pokemon, but then people around us started to get too drunk so Mikael listened to a book and I listened to music while reading. Not too bad.

We checked in at Best Western at 19:30 and walked over to Arena Nord where the Ink, Beer and Dart festival was held. We got our wrist bands, started walking around for a bit and eventually found Think, where Mikael got his second tattoo a week ago. We had talked to them about going to this festival to practice a bit before doing a job for them at their studio so they can get some cool shots and video footage to promote their studio.

So tomorrow, we will be there at 10am when Sanna, one of the artists there has a full day client. I will be there for support 🙂

We also took a tour in the beer hall where we ended up talking to one of the organizers who offered us a “hot shot” but not exactly a hot shot. More spices and a break from all the beer there. It was good. He said it was thanks for us giving him tips on what to do for a student field trip to Gothenburg in March. Super nice!

We walked back to the hotel, I already got blisters on my feet from my several years old winter boots. But since it’s the beginning of the season, the blisters are there…

Review of “The Color of Magic” by Terry Pratchett

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Title: The Colour of Magic
Author: Terry Pratchett
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 287
Published: 1985, Corgi Books (first published 1983)
My Grade: 2.5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION 

In a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There’s an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE of the planet…

MY REVIEW

I’ve heard so many good things about Discworld. That it was supposed to be easy-going and witty fantasy. Maybe I started with the wrong book (I’ve heard so many different theories on where to start, but I always like to start in the beginning), but I am not impressed. I even had to re-read the first 80 or so pages because I couldn’t understand what was going on. Maybe it was just so different from anything else I’ve read. But I couldn’t really get into it.

It wasn’t necessarily bad, but the story didn’t really feel like it had a purpose. Things happened but the different sections of the book didn’t really lead anywhere and didn’t feel connected. But maybe that’s the idea? Rincewind is not supposed to be a hero and the story is not a hero-story. It might make sense. But I didn’t quite get it. For me, it just felt incoherent and just a straight line. No definite ending, the story just rolled along.

It is funny and the world-building is cool. And I think I should give Discworld another chance one day. But not right now. The first book of Discworld gets a 2.5 out of 5.

Review of “Depphjärnan” by Anders Hansen

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Title: Skärmhjärnan (The Happiness Cure)
Author: Anders Hansen
Narrator: Anders Hansen
Series: –
Genre: Nonfiction
Length: 5 hours 26 minutes
Published: 2021, Bonnier Fakta
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

As a species, we’ve never had it so good. We’re living longer and healthier lives than ever before; the sum of human knowledge and endless entertainment are only ever a few clicks away.

So why are we in the midst of a mental health crisis?

The Happiness Cure offers a radical new way to think about fulfilment. Blending neuroscientific research and empirical breakthroughs with stories of ordinary individuals, leading psychiatrist and viral TedX speaker Dr Anders Hansen reveals that by adopting an evolutionary take on life, we can re-set our perspective on happiness to find longer-term meaning and lasting contentment.

MY REVIEW

This was good! I kind of feel like I am already going in the right direction here (wisdom that has come with age), but it was so necessary to hear it. Five and a half hour read by the enthusiastic Anders Hansen himself while driving through Europe was exactly what my boyfriend and I needed.

This is the third book by Hansen that I’m reading and I love that even if they are supposed to be three individual pieces, it feels like they follow each other and intertwine.

So, what makes this book of his so great? He explains everything very thorough and several times in different ways so his words really stick with you. He also uses great analogies and explains our history in such a logical way that makes you say: Of course! That makes so much sense!

I won’t spoil anything, but the general idea of his meaning is that we are not programmed to be happy all the time, we are not programmed to be happy at all, because all our brain wants is to survive. And most importantly, evolution is SLOW, our society and technological advances are WAY TOO FAST for our evolution. We are not made to live in this world. And all of our anxiety, panic attacks and depressions are normal. Those are signs that our brain is functioning as it should. It still sucks! But that’s just how we as a species work. I will also try to remember that our memories are not something written in stones. They are meant to change to ensure our survival. Which justifies me taking photos of things I know I will eventually forget the details of, haha!

I’ve always thought that I was cynical and more and more carefree the older I got. But it is reassuring to know that my inexplicable downs that happen every now and then are completely normal. My depressions are normal, and it is okay! It is okay to not be happy. I mostly am happy and feel happiness which probably means that I unconsciously have accepted this. And it feels even more reassuring having heard this from a doctor. Anders Hansen is great and I did not take this read as something depressing which I think some people can interpret it as. It’s just the way it is.

It was a great short listen! I highly recommend it! Five out of five!