Lyon & Pratteln

Ok, I am starting to feel sorry for the merch guy. He seems like a nice guy and he's really trying to do a good job. For some reason he just isn't able to do the job properly. We did a shirt count yesterday and today we counted all the other merchandise we have with us. In the end it seems like we're missing a bit over 1000€ or he has some of our merch hidden somewhere in the back of the trailer. I showed him the calculations and felt really sorry for him.

Yesterday in Lyon was good. I ended up spending the entire day at the venue doing the countings and stuff which was a total pain in the ass, but the venue was really good, food was excellent and audience was brilliant. We did again a bit different show than usual. At least Pellonpekko was out and Pine Woods was in.

Even though we spent awfully lot of time doing some real work we managed to find time to watch the good old Eläkeläiset DVD again at the dressing room. We sang some humppa karaoke and even turned the laptop 90 degrees right and watched the entire "Pystykuva TV" thing. That's like the anti-wide screen mode. You have to turn TV 90 degrees right and you'll get narrow but high picture, that you can fit a man in: "a screen mode for human beings". Hilarious. For some. Other bands stopped at the door every now and then but didn't stay long...

Today I did some laundry since the venue Z7 has the possibility. A Swiss-Finnish couple that we know also offered to take us to real Finnish sauna but I think Matti was the only one who went. I was in the middle of my laundry and then I was planning to go skating. Which I did. Twice. First I decided to leave the venue the easy way, not the uphill way. I managed to skate a few kilometres and ended up in the maze of dead ends and a highway. I got back to the venue and tried to get the guitar/stage tech Mon to join me but with no luck. I went the other way this time and turned right from the first corner. Wrong move. Street work ahead. The opposite way was pretty rough at first but then I managed to find some excellent streets for skating. That was nice. I had crossed a railroad once on my way there and while returning I crossed it again. Or so I thought. Only a couple of blocks later I hit the railroad again. I couldn't understand that. After a bit of skating I had to admit that I was lost and had to dig up the GPS from the pocket. I managed to figure out that the first railroad I crossed was the real railroad and second I crossed was just a tram line. I had managed to go around the entire tram line! Anyway, I found my way back.

Now it's 20:00, Alestorm is on stage and I should go and gather my skating clothes that are drying outside.