No, it wasn’t the bugs that were my new, exciting challenge! They were merely a bonus, even if a grand one at that. No, what managed to capture me in that book shop, was a beginners course in Tai Chi. It was something that I had found myself thinking of on and off lately for no apparent reason, and wherever I went I seemed to hear or see something about it over and over again. Weird coincidences filling my life as so many times before. So I guess you could say it wasn’t my own choice really. I’m sure I was “supposed” to run into that course! Destiny had only used the bugs as bait to lure me into the shop in the first place. Know your victim. Clever trick, I’d say…


The first time I watched the cd I was very close to falling asleep. It’s a pretty calm sport, let’s put it that way. But when I gave it a proper go and concentrated as fully on every move as would ever be possible, it began to intrigue me.
The thing is that when you’re focusing on one single thing, you’re emptying your mind of everything else, which is why it works so great for reducing stress. In a peculiar way it almost felt like an indulgence, allowing your mind to let go of all its preoccupations and possible worries and just letting your body and soul unite and develop together. I found it had a similar effect on me as meditation, which when done right also tends to give you a sort of enhanced feeling of awareness and control. And clarity, I guess. At least I found it was easier to reason with myself and make decisions just after a session. I’m genuinely happy I started doing this! Am going to join a group practising in the park! :) And, well, it isn’t exactly a problem that the instructor is a virtual look alike of David Duchovny…

I used to do ballet for quite a while a long time ago, and for some reason ballet is one of those things that somehow gets programmed into your DNA after you’ve learnt it. Even if you wouldn’t have danced for half a century and then spent three more being frozen in a laboratory in order to be reborn in the future – you would still be able to get into the main ballet positions or do simple pirouettes within minutes after woken up. You don’t even have to think, your body is just doing these things by itself.
So when doing something vaguely similar, as in Tai Chi, it’s quite hard for me not to use the basic ballet movements, turn my hands in certain ways, look in a specific direction in relation to my ankle… These things are just automatic.
It’s a bit like learning new language. Since you’re new at it, your own language shows through when you speak in the shape of an accent. So I guess in a way I’m doing Tai Chi with a bit of a ballet accent… :)

I think for me the best time to do this, or any other vaguely spiritual exercises, is in the morning just at dawn before the sun has come up properly. It’s still so quiet and it feels like the world is yours alone for just a little while.
I normally put my alarm on 07:25 (and no, that doesn’t always lead to me waking/getting up straight away. Since you asked..), but this week for reasons unknown, I’ve continuously woken up way before 7 to some of the most extraordinary sunrises I’ve ever seen.
It’s seemed as if the whole street, my curtains, me had been wrapped up in huge silky apricot drapes for something that seemed like ages. I guess if you try to find spirituality - it finds you.

Since I’m sounding like a hippie now anyway I might as well take the opportunity to tell you about my latest “invention”. I came up with it in Portugal but didn’t have access to the internet at the time.

You know how something you see or hear suddenly can remind you of something, maybe an emotional memory or experience, in an instant. It can be a photo, some old ticket or odd piece of paper or a certain melody. And it can bring back some pretty vivid images in your mind straight away. But I thought to myself that that mostly happens even more intensely when it comes to smell! To me every town or city has got it’s own unique smell.

When I was little, me and my family used to go travelling for quite a while every summer. And every year when we came back, always late at night, I could always tell immediately the minute we drove into Malmö even if I’d been asleep and still had my eyes closed.
I think it was something about the trees since there are so many big lush trees framing the roads and each of the gardens along them around where we live. If I try, I can smell that same scent within a second, wherever I am and whenever I want, and it means so much more to me than any picture.
I’ve got so many examples of nostalgic personal memories of scents throughout my life that I could go on for hours. Probably weeks.

The thing is that people always use their other senses for various ways of stimulation or entertainment, but never their sense of smell. People go museums to watch works of art and they call them beautiful. They go to concerts and listen to music and let themselves get completely absorbed in the experience. We go to restaurants to enjoy our sense of taste and we hug and kiss each other, or our pets (and some people even trees!) to share a sensation of touch. But the sense of smell seems to be completely overlooked!

Pretend there were an equivalent to a museum only or partly based on smell! Imagine entering small completely dark rooms with mixtures of scents from specific places around the world that allows you to freely use your imagination of how it feels to be there, right then and there.
It wouldn’t have to be dark though, it could be accompanied with light effects or pictures or various sounds. Even the temperature of the rooms could match the smell!
If you’ve been to the London Dungeon you must realize what an important impact the smell has got on a place like that. It really smells of a rat infested dungeon filled to the brim with disease and death. It makes up for a large part of the fear. Makes it so much more real.

But smell could be used in so many other ways than just help you fear for your life. Even just simple concepts could work fantastically! Like a room with a strawberry field. Or a room full of wet dogs. Or one with the sound of a gentle spring rain with a matching smell. That’s some serious aroma therapy!

And just imagine how much money you could do if you’re in marketing. Let’s say you put sensors in a shopping centre that occasionally spray a mild scent of Fanta into the air. Surely it would work in the same way as subliminal pictures do when they trick our brains into believing we’re thirsty? Probably works even better! You’d go buy a Fanta! You really would!

One day it will happen.