Day 8 - Saturday, the voyage home
The day after… The horrid day after, as I call it! I often get a hangover, no matter what or how much alcohol I drink, only the degree of nausea varies. Everytime I talk to someone who says they almost never get a hangover, no matter what or how much alcohol they drink, I curse in my mind and pretend that I’m slowly roasting them over an open fire! They do not know the agony I go through after every party!
But not this time. I had a mild head ache, that’s it. Felt great. Wonder what I did differently!
The party lasted to 2 am, and at 3 am I pulled the cord to the lamp in the guys bedroom. That’s when the lights went out for me too. I slept till 10 am, I think. The strange thing was that Pär is usually up before everyone else, but this time I couldn’t see him. It wasn’t until half an hour later that he came into the common room. He had walked 12 km to the store and back to buy a newspaper. Gnfffff!
We ate our last breakfast together and after that we cleaned the kitchen, the common room, the bedrooms and Pär took care of the dojo. After that the departings started…
First ones to leave were Christina and Zafer. Zafer was going to take a train at 1 pm from Karlstad, and Christina would drive through there, so he hitched a ride with her. Hugs were administered, goodbyes were said, promises of being in touch were made and then they were off… 
for atleast 20 meters before we could hear Zafer scream ‘AWEEEEEEEEEEE’, from the car window, one last time!
Do you remember the plutt-game? I wrote about it in the entry for day 4. I managed to call up Zafer from my mobile and hiding my number and asking if it was Zafer I was talking to, in a phony accent, and he answered ‘yes’, which, of course, immediately lead to a plutt! I was soo happy to manage to pull off another phone-plutt! The last one was several months ago on Staffan from Halmstad.
The downside is that he finished the conversation with ‘You’re awesome, Mika!’ to which I replied ‘Yes, I know, but it’s good to hear now and then from someone else!’ (a phrase I’ve stolen from Jenny), and that, of course, immediately lead to another plutt! Ooo, the humiliation! My great moment, stolen! 
Oh, one of the best things before breakfast was that Claes managed to do a kaeshi waza (reverse technique - when you respond on an aikido technique done to you with another aikido technique) plutt! Marias said ‘Claes?’ (to try to plutt him) and Claes replied ‘Maria?’ to which Maria answered ‘Yes?’, which of course got a ‘plutt’ from Claes. That’s pure high-class entertainment right there! 
After that we packed me, Patrick and Claes into sensei’s car, while Martina was shipped off in Eva-Karin’s car. Hugs, goodbyes, promises and a last ‘AWEEEEEEE’ from me as we passed Eva-Karin, Martina, Maria and Pär.
On our way to the station in Torsby we drove over a bump in the road that we uchi deshis have named ‘Torsby guppet’ (Torsby bump). And we also developed this habit of building up a tension just before the bump and at the moment of driving over it yelling ‘AWEEEEEEEE’ in high pitched voices! This we’ve done the whole week, since we passed the bump every time we drove into town. I hope we didn’t pierce sensei’s ears 
The voyage home was quite uneventful. I had company with Patrick and Claes to the station in Karlstad where we parted ways. More hugs, goodbyes and promises and then off to Linköping!
I ran into Erik, a friend, on the last part of the trip (Norrköping->Linköping) and we chatted some. He asked if I wanted to follow them (him and his girlfriend, another good friend of mine!) to go swimming, but I felt that I had some catching up on zzz, mail and being alone to do.
Thus ends my week away from home! 
Jenny J wrote,
I think I would hate that plutt game. Having to stay sharp the whole time and never forgetting about it, ick, I’d lose for sure.
Your week sounds great though, I think I’ll have to be uchideshi in Torsby too sometime.
August 20th 2007 at 14:17 (2:17 pm) — Using
Internet Explorer 6.0 on 
Windows Server 2003
Mika Perälä wrote,
Hehe! Yeah, that can be a problem. Or you do as I did, get plutted a million times!
Yay! You have to be there to fully appreciate both the training and the setting of the dojo. Mmm… I really want to go there right now. Unfortunately it probably isn’t a good place to have winter training in… Have to wait until next may…
August 20th 2007 at 14:50 (2:50 pm) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.6 on 
Windows XP
Martina wrote,
I agree it was hard to say goodbye
But the plutt game was fun and I actually manage to plutt maria last wedensday in the car on the way home 
Take care! 
August 20th 2007 at 21:40 (9:40 pm) — Using
Internet Explorer 6.0 on 
Windows XP
Claes wrote,
And lets not forget we manege to teach the plutt-game to Lasse-sensei aswell., he earned atleast one plutt throughout the week,
So…now I have both given him a kidney shot (I felt guilty a whole week afterwards
) and a plutt…I wonder what will happen the next Uchi-Deshi…I do indeed =)
August 20th 2007 at 22:36 (10:36 pm) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.6 on 
Windows XP
Maria wrote,
The plutt game is evil I say, EVIL! I pretty much give it up since I’m way too absent minded - as you know I actually managed to get a kaeshi-plutt from Claes…
What can I say? That’s humiliation! 
August 22nd 2007 at 16:56 (4:56 pm) — Using
Internet Explorer 7.0 on 
Windows XP
Mhwc wrote,
Argh. Too many smilies!
August 24th 2007 at 17:26 (5:26 pm) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.6 on 
Windows 2000
Mika Perälä wrote,
Martina:
Well done!
Claes: Oh! You gave him a kidney shot? I missed that one!
Maria: Hehe! It is! Very evil!
Mhwc: Muahahahaaaa! Yep! Actually… they’ve become almost too many, but if I remove some, the older post’s smileys will disappear. I’ll think about pruning.
August 25th 2007 at 01:41 (1:41 am) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.6 on 
Windows XP
Mari wrote,
NOOOOOO! More smilies to the people! Or at least me.
August 25th 2007 at 09:11 (9:11 am) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.6 on 
Windows XP
Bengt wrote,
im thinking of doing it again next year. I wonder when the latest safe date to decide…
August 25th 2007 at 22:42 (10:42 pm) — Using
Firefox 2.0 on 
Linux
Mari wrote,
Anyone else that suspects that Mika’s gone missing in Biltemas sytems? He’s sitting in a dusty corner somewhere, hugging a wrench, crying and wondering if he’ll ever be found?
September 17th 2007 at 09:36 (9:36 am) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.6 on 
Windows XP
Mika Perälä wrote,
Mari: Haha! Okay, I’ll keep the smilies
Bengt: Soon! Lasse is thinking about moving it to beginning of June instead and have a camp with Hans Goto, 6:th dan, we’ll have to see if it’ll happen!
Mari: Hehehe! No, sorry, I’ve been hooked up with http://www.facebook.com lately! Been lazy in updating my blog!
September 17th 2007 at 22:17 (10:17 pm) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.6 on 
Windows XP
Mari wrote,
Oh Goddess, do I have to get an account at Facebook as well to keep track of you?
September 18th 2007 at 11:00 (11:00 am) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.6 on 
Windows XP
Mats wrote,
We’ll keep track of Mika for you. He won’t get lost in Facebookland.
September 18th 2007 at 16:41 (4:41 pm) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.6 on 
Windows XP
Mari wrote,
Thanks, just the thought of displaying my face or my books more than necessary (practically not at all) on the net makes me queasy. *imagine queasy smiley here*
September 18th 2007 at 22:54 (10:54 pm) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.6 on 
Windows XP
Anna wrote,
For over a month now, I´ve been greeted by a horrible smiley, poking another horrible smiley in the eye with a stick every time I enter your site, which accidently happens to be daily. I can´t take it anymore! Pretty please with sugar on top, do update you blog… Facebook let´s me know you´re alive, it´s just the poking that makes me uneasy.
September 26th 2007 at 22:57 (10:57 pm) — Using
Internet Explorer 6.0 on 
Windows XP