Sara Hammerzmith

Now it’s starts kicking in. It starts a little slowly with you sitting there, despite packing very very little, feeling like you should throw out everything because at this moment you don’t exactly feel that you will actually bother to use any of it, and then you start think even more. About landing in a new country and a new city all alone in the evening, on your own trying to get to your destination.

And the feeling of hopelessness. I gaze out the window at the rainy evening, or well, more like night now, and for a split moment I see the streets of Paris in front of my eyes, weather consistent and I lose my faith and the head is spinning, thoughts are telling me “no, no, no I don’t want to”. The feeling of not wanting to go, the hopeless feeling of losing your spirit over small stupid things, like the make up brush that has been missing since Powerwolf, or that the body I found on H&M’s website was not in stores, being bothered by the smell of the nail polish remover…

This, my friends, are the very essence of what I call “travelfever”. Of when you start getting nauseous before a trip, a lot of fear mixed up with excitement, the fear taking the lead in these days before. For once, I’m actually packed already – there’s a few small things that I forgot to pack that I’ll add tomorrow, but aside that I’m actually good to go, two days ahead of travel. It’s a new record for me, and feeling the travel fever kicking in I couldn’t be happier over that it’s already done.

I do, however, get very warm and fuzzy when I think about that I’ll soon be on the green island together with the best friends I have, and indulge in 110% Lorditime, and Lorditime is bliss. There’s something quite extraordinary about when we come together, a group of Lordi fans that at one point were simply usernames on a messageboard and now we are on holiday together in Ireland. I can’t wait for this.

// Sara

I can’t believe it’s only three days until departure. Until it’s time to go on one of those little longer tours, going through two countries and at least seven shows. I’m saying seven because I haven’t made up my mind yet about the 8th. Good on me, right? And thinking about that, I haven’t booked my bus home from Stockholm yet either… Silly me.

So today has been mostly about laundry and packing. I’m glad that I for once get these things done now, at a reasonable time rather than sitting there on Tuesday night freaking out about it. Hopefully I can close the suitcase “for good” either tomorrow or on Tuesday already, and just move on with my life, essentially.

Something I am absolutely obsessed with as far as packing goes, is getting everything into convenient bags. On the one side, it’s for organization reasons – makes it easier to find things in the suitcase, and you know you have everything on the spot, but also for convenience once you are there, especially when it comes to my make up and face/body hygiene bags.

The good thing about these two is the hook attached to them. So basically, whenever you arrive at your destination you simply open them and hang them and that’s the end of it. No need to unpack or move around, just simply hang it up. I have an additional bag for hairproducts.

Secondly, what I call my “airport bag”.

So this is a little bag I got in Australia, if it wasn’t obvious, and I call it my airport bag, or purse if you like. In this I keep everything necessary for the flight – my passport, iPods, phones, charger, and boarding pass. Basically, all the essentials for travel that I want to have easy at hands at all times, without having to shuffle with your carry on piece.

And lastly, my lovely cable bag.

I didn’t have too high expectations on this one after reading the reviews which said that the “pockets” were too small, and while I can agree – some of the pockets are really small, it works fine for me. I can fit everything I need for a trip like this in it – including the computer chord which goes in the second part of the bag, so I have no complaints. And seriously – I used this for the first time on the Powerwolf tour, and do you understand what a special kind of heaven it was to NOT find all of my cables in a big pile of mess in the backpack? That I just simply took this out and all the cables were neatly organized? HEAVEN I SAY.

So, these are some of my small travelessentials, who knows, maybe one or two of you found it somewhat useful. The cable bag I picked up on Wish, the others I found randomly in random stores a little here and there, so keep your eyes open in the beauty sections, and you might find one!

// Sara

Well, I guess that is literally what you could say about today’s arrivals. It’s funny, because I was literally, just an hour earlier, complaining to my mother about one of the things, that it hadn’t arrived yet, but finally it came! So what was in my million arrivals?

First and foremost, “Insurgent”. I have technically not even begun “Divergent” just yet, but I also know that once I start I’ll be hooked. Not only because of it being (potentially) good, but because of the fact that I always want to finish a book. And with that said, I want to have the follow up close to hand, so now I’ll have both “Divergent” and “Insurgent” with me on the trip, and saving “Allegiant” for later. I doubt that I’ll need to bring that one as well. Or perhaps I should? I’m thinking about my five hour hole in Oslo… my late nights in Paris… My flights all over… Perhaps I should bring “Allegiant” as well. In all honesty, the book I really wanted is “The Last Star”, but since I read “The Fifth Wave” and “The Infinite Sea” in Swedish, I’d prefer to read “The Last Star” in Swedish as well, so I don’t end up confused but GUESS WHAT. It’s not translated yet. Fuck my life, huh?

Second package contained some travelnecessities – a soap container to keep my soap in (I use hard soap, in case you didn’t know) and also a small travel mirror. I have a few of those lying around, but I always lose them. This one I thought I could put permanently in my red backpack.

And lastly, an album I have been awaiting for, well, what feels like, a long time. Sweet Creature’s “The Devil Knows My Name”

It was a little while ago I pledge for this album, or contributed on Indiegogo, I really don’t remember wherefrom. However, this is the new / side project of Martin Sweet, current bassplayer of Sister and also the guitarist in Crashdiet. So, trust me when I saw that I have really looked forward to hear this, especially with Crashdiet being on a break or so for now.

// Sara

Jesus, I haven’t been able to stop listen to this song since the album came out. Some day, I’ll sit down and properly listen through and review this album, but for now I’ll let songs like “Maximize” and “Fury” fuel my fire these last days before embarking on my big tour. Or, well, big and big, but it’s really… maximized, if you like. Many bands and shows squeezed in on two weeks together with some sightseeing in Ireland. We have sooo many things planned, it’s not even funny.

So, today, I have been running errands. The first set of them, actually. Today I focused on things I knew right away I needed – new face wash as I’m running out, travel sizes and refillments for body washes as well as new dryshampoo – all in travel size. I have this sweet little lepard bag that I showed you, and I want everything to fit in there.

What I also got today, is a new calendar. It’s that time of the year now, and it is yes still a bit early to get one, but tours for next year are already starting to plan out, and most importantly, we are going to plan the BIG tour, and a new calendar will be necessary.

Filling out all the tourdates gave me this fuzzy feeling. The fuzzy feeling of happiness as I watch all my months being filled with amazing things to look forward to.

// Sara