Interview, filming for documentary and car work

We started off on Saturday by bringing most of our trip equipment to the garage. We figured it’s easier keeping it there and packing up the cruiser outside the garage rather than driving the cruiser to the apartment and doing it outside the building. It was nice getting the gear out of the apartment since it’s a bit chaotic there now with the ongoing bathroom renovation and things scattered all over the place. We’ve started packing up all our belongings in the apartment as well, preparing for the tennant to move in so it was nice creating some space. However, this is like half, or maybe even one third, of all the gear that needs to be packed into the car. How we’re gonna fit it all is another story.

We spent all of Saturday at the garage, working on the cruiser. Brian’s main project was to strengthen the bull bar, mine was to paint a piece of the tail gate to prevent it from rusting.

Brian added a few bolts to the mounting system of the bull bar, increasing its strength and stability. This was actually one of the last few big things that needed to be done on the cruiser when it comes to maintenance, so it’s just a whole bunch of little things left and that feels good.

The tail gate went from white and rusty to red to black and it turned out really well, you can’t even see the black patch much since the spare tyre and other things in the back block it. It will of course also be covered by a license plate.

Saturday night we scoffed pizza and watched a movie with our friend Ann. I woke up on Sunday wishing for another few hours of sleep but there was no time to waste. I was going to be interviewed by a reporter from DN.se over the phone sometime during the morning so I had to be up and ready. The interview is basically an introduction to my blogging for the newspaper and it will posted on their website just before I start blogging as we head out on the trip in a few weeks from now – I’ll let you know. (But it will be in Swedish though. If you’re nice I might translate it.)

The documentary film maker, Petri, happened to also be on his way to come visit and do some filming so this was really going to be a day with a documentation theme to it! He said that if he wasn’t there by the time the reporter called, we must rig the video camera ourselves and record the interview. So Ann and Brian set it all up and I mainly walked around giving orders sounding like a stressed celebrity, because I had psyched myself up so much for the interview. I’m just not used to be interviewed, I’m always the one asking the questions… It was a very weird feeling but quite fun at the same time.

The interview went really well. Except I have no memories of it. It was so unusual for me to sit there and answer questions – and about myself on top of that – that I found myself blabbering away about nonsense things. But apparently I did say some okay stuff as well because the article turned out really well as I got to read a sneak preview of it later during the day.

Petri arrived shortly after and Ann left us to focus on trip things again. Since Petri lives in northern Sweden we only have a few short meetings before the trip and then he will come join us on the trip either once or twice depending on how everything goes. In the meantime Brian and I will try collect as much footage as we can ourselves, which Petri can then use to put it all together for the documentary.

It turned into a long and intense day but it was a lot of fun. Petri is so laid back and discrete with his camera that you relax easily, even if Brian said it might take him some time to get used to being filmed. Petri spent some hours with us at the garage, since we had to finish what we had started the day before but it was also good to get some proper footage of the car work. Petri and I took a break and headed out to buy lunch and then we had almost like a picnic at the garage. In the afternoon we started talking about setting everything up, turning the car into a campsite so to speak, to get that on film. Brian and I got started and we soon jumped around the cruiser like two little excited kids, enthusiastically telling Petri and his camera what we’re doing. This was the first time we actually set it all up the way it will be and it was so cool! Since most modifications were done to the tent and the roof rack while it was on the ground and a lot of other things have been changed in the car since we got it last summer, although we have camped in it before this really felt like we did it all for the first time!

I will only give you a tiny preview now of what it all looked like because we happen to be planning on doing it all again in just a few days and then I will be able to take much better photos for you, so stay tuned!

But anyhow, this weekend was just great. Being interviewed just got me even more inspired to start blogging for DN.se, something I’m looking forward to like crazy and I have so many ideas at the same time as I’m of course gonna write about the unplanned and unexpected events of the trip. Working on the documentary was great fun and also very inspiring. And we got some more work done on the cruiser that really needed to be done. Less than three weeks now and still so many things to sort out! Are we gonna make it?!