Top 10: The most common questions people ask, when they hear about you leaving

1. Obvious: Where are you going to go?

2. Surprising: Did you think about this for long or did you just decide all of a sudden that instead of going to work next Monday, you are going to travel around the world?

3. Perfect: Can I come and see you?

4. Bland: Did you win a lottery?

5. The next best: Do we still have time to have a few beers one evening before you go?

6. Clever: Can I have your apartment?

7. Endearing: When's your farewell party?

8. Practical: How much is this trip going to cost?

9. Insightful: Can I write a feature article on you after you've been stoned in Goa for 11 months?

10. Random: What? Again?

Can I e-mail my blog entries to my blog? 5 remarks on blogging

Testing, testing...

If you can see this, the answer is yes.

How bizarre is the world of blogging! Here are some early remarks:

1. It feels so strange to pimp one's blog in blogging communities. I mean, how narcissistic is that for a person who's slightly too old (well, too old) to be part of the YouTube generation. And what ever happened to the whole generation discourse anyway? Did the X generation corrupt the concept's explanatory power by making babies, getting jobs and turning into their parents who were just as lost as the x-ers were when they were their age.

2. Blogging is so much fun you can easily let a Tarantino movie be on telly and not be distracted by it.

3. Shit! Quentin is about to turn into a zombie and this is a Robert Rodriguez movie.

4. One can add all kinds of widgets, gadgets and feeds into one's blog without having an idea what they are about. I would not have guessed this morning that by tonight I would have a feedburner account. And I'm still guessing what's it good for.

5. Getting a google analytics account for one's blog does not make one a dickhead. Or does it?

5 Random observations made the day after you told everyone you were going to leave - 7 weeks to take off

1. Recovering from a surprise hangover, drag yourself to your little neighborhood corner store right before it closes at 9PM. Reaching for a box of tea bags suddenly realize that you better not buy your normal super saver extra large box as there is no way in hell you are going to drink all that tea, unless you find your inner Englishman who has so far successfully managed to hide within your subconscious. Experience a strong feeling of finality.

2. As the online auction for your vinyl singles is approaching its deadline, learn that the punk rock singles bought when you were 15 and drunk out of your face16 years ago at a Midnight Sun summer festival in Lahti have become collectors items. Wondering how rich you would be if you had been drunk every day through your punky teen years between 13 and 17 marvel your prospects of making at least 450 euros out of just 4 singles for which you paid the equivalent of 13 euros in good old Finnish marks.

3. Holy shit! I get more money out of those singles than what my air fare to Delhi cost me!

4. Mothers like Skype from the minute they first try it, but they really should understand that the whole idea of an online video cam call is that you can't fiddle with your face. It looks stupid, mom (on the left).

5. Steve Toltz's A Fraction of a Whole might be the funniest book ever written and although The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga is an exhilarating read, the right address for the Booker prize 08 would've been Australia. Now Oz only gets to receive me. I doubt that will soothe the nation.

10 Do's Before Leaving Home, part I

1. Ride a tram through your old neighborhood just to know if it has changed since you moved out. Be sorry for the fact that the lovely oriental food store that used to be downstairs your flat is now gone but the office for the organisation for people with prostate problems, which used to be such a lovely welcoming to your guests in your single days, is still there.

2. Become a computer geek after purchasing a tiny Samsung NC10 for writing a blog. Learn to skype and to compare virus detection programs which you never had to worry in your carefree days as a happy Maccer.

3. Find freedom from materia by selling everything you can in order to increase your budget. After your enlightenment do look down on everyone who shops for stuff they are unlikely to ever really need and preach them about the effects on environment that their excessive consumption is bound to have.

4. Wonder if you've become a pompous hippy ass after blowing hundreds of euros on a new Osprey Waypoint W80 pack (it's amazing), hiking gear (seriously, I'm going to use that Haglöfs fleece and that Puma shirt will look nice when having a few beers after a hike (to the nearest bar?)), a new computer, vaccinations for the most unlikely but impressive sounding diseases (well, a hippy would never get vaccinated for Japanese encephalitis, that's why they are called hippies, right?) and so on. Decide againt it.

5. Meet all kinds of mindless trolls as you look for the perfect tenant to take care of your upkeep when you finally are on the road by submitting their rent on time every month. When you finally land on the perfect couple resist the temptation of asking them whether their sex life is satisfying since you don't want them to break up while you're gone. Get absolutely blasted after your voucher for a monthly income is finally signed.

6. Try to be as precise as possible when filling in the application form for a 10-day Vipassana meditation course. Don't even flinch when answering the question what are the exact quantities of alcohol you've consumed during the last two years and where exactly did you force that awful liquid down your throat.

7. Be pleasently surprised when you find out that your sincere answer "a few beers on Fridays after work every now and then" does not make you a reject for the course. Bless the Buddhists for being so open minded.

8. Use every single opportunity to see your friends even if it

means being in the presence of alcohol cause you are not going to see them for a while. (One of those nights in the pic on the right.)

9. Juggle #8 with not showing up hungover and reeking of alcohol every Saturday when you go see your mom, cause you're not going to see much of her either in the near future and don't want her to remember you by your park chemist's odour.

10. Oh yeah: working as much as you can, ploughing through LP's and online travel forums, seeing the dentist and the doctors you've done your best to avoid in the last few years, and being parsimonious when appropriate all contribute to your comfort once you're on the way.