2007 another remarkable year

My life and my 2007 low and high

• A terrible lost of a dear friend, Pelle
• Happy memories and remarkable moments from an outstanding man, Pelle
• Almost lost another friend
• It wasn’t his time luckily
• Enormous pressure and challenges of aiming to high
• Satisfaction of accomplishing many goals together with fantastic people
• Learned some interesting aspects of dealing with all kinds of pressure
• Friend who’s been turning away in disappointing ways
• New and unexpected contacts in my international network with very interesting people
• Moments of insanity like a Chinese on an unknown balcony with firecrackers flying around in the middle of a Sunday night
• 30 year anniversary with my original Jujitsu club
• 38 flights and some hours on different transits with lost luggage
• Accomplished an all time high seminar with 160 participants in December
• Walked on fire and Unleashed the Power Within
• Participated in my second “action movie” ………….
• Learned that values, expectations and safety on movies is different in the world
• Marks jet ski challenge in Thailand
• Chicken and rice in Philippines 3 times a day
• Marketing Diploma after 2 years of studying
• Remarkable hospitality in the world when you least expect it
• Another year to get to know myself, still some mysteries though………….
• Crazy 12 week physical training regimen 5 days a week with some spiritual moments
• House painting on a high ladder in the middle of the night, who’s Ozzy?
• Hosted our own “Prison break” at the office a couple of times

Sadness and happiness is yin and yang, you will have both as long as you live. Learn to accept that and keep growing.

It's easy to forget but life is wonderful !!

Training, Health and Myths

There are loads of myths about what you should eat when you train or want to be healthy. Personally I been on many of them myself but most of it is only business. So it's always cool when you see somebody who prove them wrong.

In Philippines I met John from Ireland. He was amazingly strong, bended nails, horseshoes and lots of things with his bare hands. And ate regular food but no meat, he wasn't on any special diet. Of course he took care about his body but not in an complicated way.

I did that quite often as I grew up because my mother was interested in vegetarian cooking. None of us where 100% vegetarian but we didn't eat a lot of meat some periods.

So after "Unleash the Power Within" they spoke a lot about health on day 4 and gave everybody a 10 or 30 day challenge to exclude all unhealthy food in our lifestyle. I took the challenge of course but not only because of that but also because inspiration from people like John and my mother.

But most importantly "I FEEL GREAT"

Time Zero

After a very inspiring and fascinating weekend there where a few hours to spend in London before returning to Gothenburg. Visited Tower Bridge, The Millennium Dom and the Greenwich Meriddian, it's been a long time since I visited those things and this day it felt all new again. The last week has been very strange, a loss of a close friend and at the same time some amazing emotions high and low all in once. In all it's beauty life is strange.

A dear friend and a true fighter is gone

Pelle Östman is not among us any longer. He's been fighting cancer for many years and friday the 22th june his body fell to sleep. For him it was a relief to end the pain, for us it's a loss of an amazing person and a friend. I'm sad not being able to meet him again but also very grateful for all those moments of fun and laughter in my memory, for myself and shared with others.

Pelle had 7 hard years of resistance and all reasons to be miserable but he choose not to. He lived with passion and always did more then other people expected from him. I remember a time when I went up the mountain with my son and Pelle was joining us. I didn't think about it and we started to climb, after some time it started to be more advanced and I realized that Pelle was struggling and I felt stupid for putting him in that spot. I asked him how he was doing and he said "I wish my doctor could see me now". We gut up to the top and down again and laughing about this comment.

He loved to prove the doctors wrong because they always said he couldn't do this or that and he wanted to live, not aim for the mellow.

He know that his day might come but we all know that and nobody knows when. So what Pelle taught me and many others was, choose who you want to be and what you want to do and don't let others decide for you.

Always in my mind

NEVER SURRENDER

I haven't been around since the trip in Philippines because everything has been crazy. There has been some serious struggling in all sort of ways. I expected a couple of tough weeks and hard work due to some final examination in the two year education I've been doing (which have been a lot of fun). But when people around you are in medical emergency your focus change right away.

A very close and dear friend is fighting cancer since 7 years, ha has shown tremendous will power and fighting spirit. He have kept proving doctors wrong over and over again and always made more than he was supposed to do. Since I came back his condition got seriously to the point where the hospital said "there's nothing more we can offer" which means it's over (give up). It was a shock to all of us and at that point it is very easy to just surrender and start to count down.

A couple of days before this though, we heard about some alternative treatments at different hospitals which we planned to find out more about. So then all of this happened we started to work for this with all we got and that was a real challenge. Because what we found out is that this big and ineffective machinery is very stubborn to new ideas if they don't come from the people of their own department. And you can't take no for an answer, because then they are right.

So after really hard work and loads of phone calls his girlfriend managed at least to get him on this program. Now we pray it's not to late...

Amazing idees create amazing results

In 1995 someone decided to rebuild a trading ship that was touring from Göteborg to China in the old days. On one tour it wrecked outside Göteborg, but in modern days they made a new copy of the original. And then they sailed it to China and back in 20 months. I think it is an outstanding act of dedication, management and guts.

There has been many hick ups and challenges on the way, but they "Improvised, Adapted and Overcame" as they say in the movie "Heartbreak ridge".

At the return it was a big celebration day and some of the guys from the club did a "pirate" exhibition and joined the fun.

Back in Business

After a long flight and another portion "CHICKEN AND RICE" I'm back at the office. It's been a very special trip in many ways. Especially with the movie making and all that. Fighting and shooting with warm clothes in 40C is challenging if you are supposed to look sharp.....
I also met a lot of interesting new friends and contacts and got to some new insights in life.

If you're looking for problems you will find them, and if you're looking for friends you will find them, so you have to understand what you really are looking for and why, that's understanding!

In one way it's very obvious but I realized this when a group of people from different parts of the world with different backgrounds and different values tried to have a meeting together. Sometimes this is impossible (normally ends up in war) and sometimes it is so easy which made me curious why. It can be a communication problem when people don't understand each other of course, but I seen so many examples when people can override that easily. The conclusion is that the intention is more important then the interpretation.

Peace Love and Understanding

A good day at the office

Training day with Gm and a nice break in the sea. The day ended with some barfighting for movie number 3. Life is wonderful.

Chicken and rice

Today it was a really nice training day specially with the power breakfast of cereals and milk. All the other days its chicken and rice three times a day and sometimes rice and chicken... Mabuhay

Perfectemundo

Here you see some of the souveniers of training in Philippines. Cut and swollen hands and feet plus a few we probably dont know about. Calm unstable and smile everything is cool.

Hinegaran

During the festival we ended up on a discoteque where amongst other events a traditional dance show was held. /Fredrik

Parade in Hinigaran

After the morning training we prepared to join a parade in the closest city, named Hinigaran. We rode on the back of trucks around the city under the hot sun for what seemed like hours. An endless caotic circus! Priceless! /Heikki

Sunset in philippines

Its been siesta day today. After all training and filming it was really nice. Tomorow its training and festival day. Looking forward to parade in full uniform in this cold climate. Positive things happens to positive thinkers.

The end

After the training and lunch we finished the movie of Kombatan. A lot of fighting scenes for us all. Great fun. I love my work

Long day

After a full day with training and filming Master Jan Jan and I do the last swings of day. Cant be any more sweat left.

Relaxxx

Frederik is recovering from the morning training and prepare himself for the afternoon class. Its not possible without a power nap. I think a lot of people should be better off if they could do it regulary in this stressful world. Over and out

Sweat bruses and heat

Today was another great day with a lot of training and some teaching as well. The ended with a well deserted swim in the sea. Mabuhay

1, 2... Action?

Shooting a film in the Filipines is quite an adventure! A long hot day ended at the beach, in the darkness, when the villagers found an injured pirate... Your three favourite actors from Sweden are of course in the film. Do not miss this film, soon in your DVDplayer!

Moviestar

After a soft but sweaty start at the camp, Heikki is working hard to get himself into one of the prime productions to be shot the following days.

A shaky night and a shaky flight

Finally we arrived to Negros ready to rumble in the jungle. Its really hot and today everybody tries get used to the humidity. Training starts tomorrow. Magandan ang araw ngayon

A Thrilla in Manila

After a long long flight Im back in Philippines have had an exciting day with film preparations to baptism party and met some new training friends. Mabuhay from Manilla

Excuses and Asses

Excuses are similar to asses, everybody got one but nobody want's to hear it.
They are both full of s___t. The diffrence is that the ass fills at least one funktion and can be flushed, the excuse is wast of time and energy and it still smells. Don't even let it out and you make everybody a favor especially yourself.

Get rid of your excuses and take control of your life and the sun will shine on you.

I know this won't be any famous last words but it's true.

2006

The year of contradictions and failure

Last year I told myself to take it easier then the year before, I just realized that I failed completely. I've never been so busy and never ever had more obligations and responsibilities.
So this year I will cool down slightly.............

Contradictions I accomplished 2006

Got a fine for illegal poostering - got an reward for catching a pair of punks robbing a lady

A serious knee injury slowed me down teaching - I never taught more seminars than last year

I promised to be more at home - I never spent more days travelling than 2006