Hand clap don't hold back coz i-rock that

Just got word that (thanks to a little promotion from Lisa W.) my photos of grey nurse sharks are going to be used by the National Parks Association as evidence in an upcoming court case about habitat protection. Cool.

Friday night was the double-finnish-birthday-party, the theme was Sami (indigenous people of northern sweden, norway and finland).

My camera battery died early on, so only a couple of pics, but the party went until sun-up and was generally speaking a pretty wild night.

The birthday girls, Annika (who blinks in every photo) and Marjukka, both in traditional Sami clothing. Mandy, if you guys ever actually make it up here, these two lovely lasses (and another one Kukka) will be serving as tour guides and/or accommodation for the Finland leg.

The Umeå-Australia connection. Me in my cardboard reindeer antlers and Mary from Wollongong, who didn't really know much about Sami culture, so came as a generic indigenous person. That meant: feathers in the hair, wearing a supermarket bag as a shirt, pyjama pants, no shoes, and drinking hard liquor straight from the bottle.


Marjukka with the man of her dreams... well, a clipping of him from a brochure.


My antlers were a hit, in fact I was awarded a fridge magnet for my efforts! Here Michael gives them a bash.


In Annika's corridor, in the shared kitchen, people leave notes for one another on masking tape stuck on that person's cupboard. I couldn't resist leaving the old favourite for some lucky random. (Credit I think goes to Matt S. for that one)

Couple more pics c/o Amanda C:

For some, "Sami" was taken to mean "Gangsta thug".


Ermm... it must be Sami, it's got red wool? Garnet the victim of belgian attention.