Conservation Of Greatness

It’s about a month since I got back from Paga. Haven’t touched a disc since. I guess I’m still in the wake of if all. Mixed practice today. Grass. Just not the same.. I entered Syndromes to the Polish Sandslash tournament in August, but since the connections was quite bad, I decided to pull the team out quite shortly after entering. Might go to Bull’s Fat Hat instead.

About leaving the Barge: Everyone did, but some came back. Al, Wolfie and Filip went to the Paga party at the pier. When that place closed, they went back to the Barge. When the Barge closed, they took a stroll on the beach towards the hotel, watching the sun rise. Plastered. When I woke up, I noticed that the other bed in the room still was unused from last night, and no one was in it. That meant that Filip either slept out side the door, in someone else’s room or just got lost. I was hoping for the second possibility. Coming down to the breakfast room, there was the the Three Musketeers, giggling along, and still very drunk. Ordered Filip to go pack since we had to leave for the train in 20-ish minutes.

Filip crashed into REM sleep quite fast, and the rest of us (me, Marcus and Ben) created a fort-like wall around the young lad. I COULD post a pretty picture of a passed out Filip sleeping with his eyes half open, but instead, I’ll give you an example of beautiful Italian women at their best. The train was packed as usual. Got into a cab to take us to the airport in what felt like a major detour. I was expecting getting ripped off for sure, but when we arrived, the meter was at the same price as going into town the week before. Arriving at the airport, me, Marcus and Filip were quite early since we accompanied Ben for his earlier flight. The idiocrazy started when they wouldn’t let us drop our luggage off at the.. baggage drop. It didn’t open until two hours before boarding. What’s the use with a baggage drop if you can’t drop the baggage off..? Another hour or two waiting to board the airplane and another four hours at Schiphol, Amsterdam. I later found out that Marcus got hit by stomach problems and lost about two kilos in the same run. Can’t remember if I slept on the flight up north, but I was quite happy to be picked up in our car by my girlfriend, she’s nothing less than awesome.

From here on now I can’t really see me playing as much Ultimate as I did back in 2007, it’s all down hill from here. But hey, other stuff will pick up, I’m sure.

Written by Foggy - Visit Website
______________________
EAT. SLEEP. LAYOUT.

As usual, the pre-travel packing anxiety started to show during the early Thursday morning. Did I pack everything? I decided that I had. Arriving at Arlanda, it became clear to me that I hadn’t checked in on-line beforehand. I had overlooked the E-ticket number. Got an aisle seat, dropped the baggage off at something that, even though stating “Baggage drop-off”, didn’t come close to being just that. Didn’t have time for the customary beer before take-off. Off I go, towards Amsterdam. After killing a couple of hours at Schiphol, I finally got some travel company. Marcus, Filip and Stina joined up from Gothenburg and together we got onto the next flight towards Bologna. I kind of dislike the approach to and take off from Schiphol. The turbulence is quite severe most of the time. It’s not that I’m scared, but it’s just.. unsettling. Guess it has to do with the closeness of the ocean. But since I’m writing this, everything went according to flight plan, in all directions.

Well in Bologna, we split a cab into the city center and step out into the 15-20 degree sunshine. Ben informs us that he’s firmly on the ground and is on his way. We get tickets for everyone and wait. And wait. The most informative text message arrives: “Shit.” It was quickly decided that if Ben would miss the train, he would still pay the €17 for the train ticket we bought him! We left the Italian hobos outside and stepped into the shadows, underground and up onto the platform, meet up with Annelie and her team mates. Ben is lucky. The train is delayed. Ben shows up, we wait another 5-10 minutes for the train to arrive, get on the train and can actually sit down in seats since we managed to get tickets with just that. We share one of the 1,5 liter Grolsch’s I picked up at Schiphol. Not super cheap, but cool bottles none the less. Blunt force trauma anyone?

We obviously arrive later than expected, so we run off to the hotel, dump our stuff, get my light disc and more or less jog down to a packed welcome party. We are met by the usual goo of people yearning for plastic, even if it’s only for delaying and stalling. A lot of faces are recognized and saluted. The urge for The Barge washes over us and soon even more acquaintances are seen. Scandal and Los Tigers roam the bar feeling the need to hydrate. Car bombs, Scandal bombs, Paganello bombs. When will the stupid fishes of the Adriatic have their revenge? You will have to wait and see.

Written by Foggy - Visit Website
______________________
EAT. SLEEP. LAYOUT.

Right after midnight, a mail slid into my mailbox. It was from Jumpi. The subject line said “Party theme and others”. I became a bit excited. What supercal.., meh, idea did they come up with for this year? As I wrote back in January, this year Paganello is dedicated to “Amarcord“, Federico Fellini’s Oscar-awarded movie from 1975, so I was a bit right about the party theme: “The Oscar Night: Movies and red carpet”. I just felt  a bit “bleh“. There was a movie theme back in 2007, and there was an actual Oscar award on the freestyle arena held by a Swiss or German team (I think), with hardwood manikins painted in gold. We’ll discuss whether we’re going for some kind of costume or not for the Saturday party. I guess a bit of red carpet glued to a fake tux teeshirt would do?

On a happier note, but still talking tops, the mockups for the Paganello 2010 edition jerseys is complete and will start printing today in Seattle by Five Ultimate! The logo will spread across the chest, about 33 cm in total. And the cost is unbeatable compared to the other big companies as far as I know. Can’t wait to put it on!

Since this years Paga is named Amarcord which means “I remember”, here’s some  questions for you:

• How many times have you attended Paganello?
• What themes have you experienced?
• What’s your best Paga experience?
• If you are playing this year, what team are you playing for?

Written by Foggy - Visit Website
______________________
EAT. SLEEP. LAYOUT.

We can just wish for the same weather as back in 2007. Paganello is a week earlier this time around, so hopefully it’s only a degree colder or so. The forecast for next Thursday (it’s as far as The Weather Channel dares to tread) is rain and 9C/49F. The Norwegians at yr.no thinks it’ll be partly cloudy and 6C/42F. Swedish SMHI says cloudy and 5C/41F. For first time in a while I hope the Norwegians win.

It seems like the Paga site got a bit of the Cut & Paste Hick-up. I wonder if there’s something else that should be there or if it’s just a filler. Either way, the 100 teams from 25 countries are probably just as eager to get to the beach as me. The open division contains 40 teams from 13½ countries (the half category being “International”). I recognize most of the teams from previous years and I’d prefer not playing against UTI, 45 Giri, FSL, Tailspin or Stinks at all, just for the sake of variation. The teams I WOULD like to play again is:

• Super Mannschaft (three is a charm or three strikes?)
• MILF (beat us in 2007, love at second sight?)
• Black Panthers (same as MILF)
• Inglorious Basterds (to get a speed check of the Polish Ultimate scene)

Since we’ll have Alex from Ukraine on the team and he’s the only one (as far as I know) with a connection to another team, I guess we will cheer a bit extra for “Dyki Krali” in the womens division.

Facebook links to check out:

• Stockholm Syndromes Fan Page
• Ultimate Fan Page
• 1,000,000 for Ultimate in the Olympics
  (The intent is good I guess..)

And for the final..

Do not fuck with a guy holding a disc. From Hard ticket to Hawaii (2.7/10).

Written by Foggy - Visit Website
______________________
EAT. SLEEP. LAYOUT.