Mongol pop: NMN

I felt it was time for some mongolian pop again. Not many people in the west is aware of the great vibes on the mongolian pop scene. It is quite something different from its Chinese or Korean neighbours, instead drawing much more on eastern european vibes combined with some great steppe melancholy. I don't know much about NMN than that she has a voice that I love hearing more of.

• Zorigt ft NMN - Special
• Lego ft NMN - I do
• NMN - Bi gantsaaraa bish
• Orgil feat. NMN - Ene Udaa
• Tsetse ft NMN - With You

Trip to Korea and Japan: Day 2 - A whole lot of Lotte

(This trip from the start, yesterday or all trips)
As I hadn't gotten my luggage yet, this day's main target was fixing that. To my surprise I actually managed to sleep almost 7 hours to 06:00, even though there is a seven hour time zone difference from Sweden, but then I had been preparing by rising earlier for a week (at 4:00 in the end) so it may have helped then.
I went to the airport and ate breakfast/early lunch at 7:45. I had prepared for bus travel, and new the bus stop, route, and where to get of. What didnt work was paying, when entering the bus and showing my money, the chaffeur just waved me on. I saw people using some kind of prepaid cards or such, but I ended up going for free. On the way back the same thing happened again, and even though I hade asked at the information desk that you could use cash (which they said). It wasnt much money really, something like (9 SEK/1,5 USD), but still strange. The food was very nice, for the price of 9500 WON (65 SEK/11 USD) you got this excellent pork cutlet with soup, kimchi, and some more stuff:

They said they would call me in the morning (well not really, probably wishful thinking) but at 9.30 i got tired of waiting and went to help desk and they checked upp on thing and promised to send the luggage to my apartment when it arrived,w hich would be late this evening or more probably next day. WIth that I returned to the apartment for som mid day rest.

What to do while waiting for the camera parts, considering that the only clothes I had were much to warm for moist 30 degree sunny weather? Well, I knew the hotel was relatively central and I had spotted a Lotte department store on the map. They are one of the Harrods equivalents (Swedes: think NK) that I have encountered in Seoul, and they are actually a bit to upscale for the tourist on a tight budget. Still, there are a lot of fun stuff to look at, and Korea having aquired the same taste for fashion and modern stuff while stile having quite a different outlook than in Sweden, it is quite fun to see all the fresh stuff you have never seen or at least not in this form. I loved the book/childrens store at the bottom floor, where there was also lots of food stuff (like in Harrods), both eateries, groceries and presents to give away.

Le Creuset I only knew for pots and such, but there were lots of other kitchenware here.

I must buy one of these. Oxford is a quite nice LEGO copy from Korea that makes those war models LEGO haven't got the guts to do ;-)

Micro blocks is another LEGO alternative with building blocks, yes, extra small.

An open competition where people tried to get a ball to the top with a water hose.

Funny bench in front of the Lotte store

Lotte usually has a accompaning cinema, and that was the case here too. If you have been following my blog, you can see that from my visits to Tokyo, Seoul and Budapest, its a rather discouraging experience in many countries to, like in Sweden, find movies that isn't dubbed. But when I went and asked, they told me a movie called Red 2: The Legend was OK, so I had a go. And, damn was it nice. Pure fun and action, with a whole bunch of experienced actors. Evidently, Red and Red 2 are alla bout having lots of elder (ie 40+ i guess...) actors in the movie use their charms to lift the movie, but this one actually has the settings, effects and pace, and acting ofc, to make it something more than a parade of salt-and-pepper household names. I can't recommend it enough for those who likes uncomplicated but well done action without dumb violence but lots of intelligent fighting and ironic dialogue between cars exploding and the heroes doing their job with flair. Here is my ticket and some promotional leaflet:

For fun, lets have a look at how easy Korean letters are. The white text is :
례디, 더래전드 .
So, each sign consist of a number of letters, broken down in individual ones we get:
ㄹ ㅐ ㄷ ㅣ ㄷ ㅓ ㄹ ㅐ ㅈ ㅓ ㄴ ㄷ ㅣ
which translated to its latin counterparts is:
r  ae d  <filler>  d  eo l  ae j eo n d <filler>
ie - red the legend
Simple as that! ^_^

And to end it all in an even more positiv tone, my lost luggage was waiting in my room when I returned home for the evening, hurray!
(For the next day, go here)

Donken vs Entrecote, Bio vs WoW - vilka vinner?

Det är lustig hur det ibland kan bli fel när vi tänker på priser och tycker att det ena är dyrt men det andra billigt, fastän det kanske egentligen inte är så enkelt. Låt mig ta två exempel från den egna erfarenheten.
1. MacDonalds vs Entrecoté. Hamburgerkedjor är för mig ett sätt att snabbt och billigt få i familjen en måltid. vad kostar det då numera med tre barn som börjar närma sig fulla menyer? Ja, det går i alla fall på c:a 300 kr. Jämför detta med den lokalt producerade Entrecoten som jag handlade i Västerfärnebo igår: Kilopriset får mig normalt sett att rysa, 298 kr/kg, men när jag väl tittade på vad fem bitar kostade kunde jag komma under 300 kr utan problem. Visst, jag får laga dem själva, men har jag den orken så blir det ju en helt annan upplevelse.

2. Biobesök vs World of Warcraft/Pettson&Findus. Ett biobesök kostar numera uppåt 80-100 kr. Samtidigt brukar en del haja till när de hör att onlinespel som World of Warcraft kostar 150 kr i månaden ("Va, *varje* månad?!"). Detta är lite konstigt med tanke på att istället för två biobesök kan du få en skön spelupplevelse varje kväll i en månad. Eller som med iPad-appen Pettson & Findus uppfinningar för 15 kr som alla recensioner jag såg kallade för underbart spel, men samtidigt var alla missnöjda att det bara varade i en timme. Det är kanske dyrt per timme för en app, men med tanke på hur kul spelet är, jämför med priset för att åka karusell i 5 minuter eller att köpa en film, så är priset inte alls speciellt högt.

Djurskydd urholkas om inte krav ställs i upphandling

I förra omgången av forskningsskolan i Geografi vid Uppsala Universitet skrev Lars Arvidsson i sin licentiatuppsats "Från Mål till Måltid" om hur det i stället för mål om en viss andel ekologisk mat i det offentligas inköp är viktigare att vi ställer krav att hela processen är hållbar. Det fick mig att tänka på när Stefan Hellstrand var på besök i Ransta och föreläste om just hur bristfällig märkningar som "koldioxidneutral" kan vara. Nyligen skrev också riksdagsledamoten Staffan Danielsson om att det är viktigare att ställa höga krav på miljö- och djurskydd än att det är ekologiskt märkt, eftersom det är det som utmärker och fördyrar svenska mat. Om vi inte har dessa krav med i upphandlingen, vilket är tillåtet i EU, drar vi undan mattan för svenska bönder. Som även Ola skriver så ger Miljöstyrningsrådet oss kött på benen  om vilka möjligheter som finns. Det är upp till bevis kommuner och landsting, helt enkelt.