So, where should I start? I had the best Valentine’s date ever with Sabaton themselfs!
I was a little nervous since Sabaton has given med press pass to take pictures on the concert in Gothenburg. HOW COOL?! On Valentine’s day!
Pelle, my new found friend, picked me up at home and we went in his car down to Gothenburg. Pelle himself is a really well known celebrity photographer in Sweden, like the royal family eurovision and other big events and happenings so his knowledge was huge! My own Nikon felt so little compared to his big one. But he was so incredibly kind and lent a house with lenses to me, so all of a sudden I had two cameras to shoot with, plus my little video camera to do som vlogging from the concert. So fun and exciting and a little scary at the same time. But what a fucking camera he had! A Nikon D5. No need to say more. In Gothenburg we had a little trouble to find what way we could enter, but as soon as we knew where to be, I was calm. There were two support band, Amaranthe and Apocalyptica. Not really my music, but they built up a lovely atmosphere until Sabaton went on.
And then we have….. Sabaton themselfs. OMG. What a show, I was allowed in the pit for 5 different songs. I had to walk in front of the fence and take pictures. Stood there, completely starstrucked and all in love until Pelle poked me and told me to take photos. Hahhaha. If I’m ever going to have a freecard, it’s definitely going to be Chris. He also recognize from Gamescom and I was able to take some good pictures of him.
Don’t need to say anything else but; What a FUCKING AMAZING show with fire, songs and pyro. So much energy! They did both The Lion from the North and Carolus Rex, two of the songs that I listen to most. But also the new ones like Red Baron and Bismark.
I mean, these guys are incredible. They have great vocals, amazing energy and knows how to do a show. Ofc they also did Primo Victoria and the crowd of jumped.
I did some videos, and hopefully I can get that up on my Youtube during the week. Just need to learn this program I can use.
This year, as a CC, I was lucky to be able to get 200 boxes from Wargaming. A really nice gesture that I couldn’t wait to get home and open. Was busy on the Friday, but yesterday before my 5h stream, I started open them. And boy, I was lucky! Started out with 2.4k gold and 5.5 million of credit and 0 days of premium.
Started of nice with some different camos and gold, and credits. As before I already got the Progetto and the E75 TS (from Gamescom) but ofc I didnt have the two barrel tank Obj. 703 version II, or the SU-130PM (that I always wanted) so I was crossing my fingers for those. Just soon after starting to open the boxes, I got the movie, of a tank, coming full speed through the woods. What could it be?
I was really lucky, got the SU, and if that wasn’t enough, I got it 2 more times, so that ended up in 21k of gold instead. Opened alot of more boxes and suddenly, there was a new animation of a tank coming through the woods. That could only mean that a two barrel love would enter my garage!
There it was. The new tank that everyone is talking about. Yey!
When I opened all of my boxes I ended up with 121k of gold and I had about 14 million credits. And also 130 days of premium. And what did that mean? Even tho I was sober at the time, it was time to unlock the beasts that I’ve been longing to get.
Using a part of the gold I converted free XP and thanks to the blue prints I could easily get the heavy bad ass 60TP tier X and the laserboy Leopard 1.
All and all, I got a really good piece of ingame stuff and finally I have 2 new tier X which I love playing.
This also meant I could do my 5h stream on my own account because I could play the tanks I fancy the most.
A great and fun event every year, and this one in particular. Thank you so much Wargaming for the boxes, I’m really happy I got the opportunity to get those! Love you!
A few years ago when I visited the Swedish Tank museum, I got this tank cookie cutter. And yesterday when making gingerbread cookies, it was, as always, the perfect cutter to use. This year I even made a little hole in it, so I could hang it in the tree we decorated after the cookies have cooled.
And just for the record.. One of them accidentally became a little different. Let me present to you; the “Dick”er Max. Hahahhaha….
OMG! What a day I had yesterday! Went to the Swedish Tank Museum to be there to talk about the game and meet up with all of the visitors. Such an amazing day I had with a lot of people meeting up and a lot of very smexy tanks to take photos of!
The lovely Strv m/21-29 that turned 101 years old this year!The S-tank in its natural habitat. This tank is really something extra!The Centurion. Also known as the Sabaton tank – Primo Victoria. Chieftain itself!
The show itself was really nice and Stefan was telling us about all of the vehicles that was running around the arena. They even managed to get their Chieftain running after 8 years!
After the show we went up to the WoT suite where the Swedish clan Swedish Phoenix [SWEPH] helped all the people that wanted to play the game. Wargaming was very generous with sponsoring goodies for all the visitors and all of the guys in the clan did an amazing job to arrange competitions etc. It was great to be a part of the team to introducing new players to the game. I was even kindly invited to their clan and I promised to consider it.
And ofc, myself met so many followers and other people that loves the game, and it was such a pleasure to be a part of this.
To leave this place was hard, as always. The Museum itself is always such fun to visit and take photos of, but the events that they arrange is really something that everyone should take part of. It’s a lot of planning, sweat and passion that they have put into this day. Amazing people that creates amazing adventures!
And ofc, you can’t go from the Museum without some tank mudd on your shoes. And with my heart full of new memories I went home to my normal life, and normal job. I love the difference between these events and my normal life. It really brings something extra to my heart and mind. And to meet all of these beautiful people makes me smile. Love you all!
Okey, so let’s see how Gamescom itself looked like. When I arrived on thursday Mr. Kubrick messaged me and asked me where I was. I said I just arrived to the hotel. He dropped the bomb that Sabaton still were hanging around on Gamescom, so me and John quickly jumped into a shuttle that took us to hall 8. What a sight for the eyes to walk into this amazing event! The pictures doesn’t really make justice to everything, it had to be seen with your own eyes!
Wondered around a little, checked out the streaming area and suddenly I saw them in the VIP for WoT, Sabaton! I literally ran there like a little nervous school girl, but I had one time to do this, because I knew they were leaving really soon. So I had a quick meet up with almost all of the group, and I got to do a quick interview with two of them. Really down to earth guys and I just love them even more after this meeting. I have a concert to go to in February too, so even if I missed the concert at Gamescom, I have a new chance next year!
(The short interview will come, I just need real life to stop spinning first before I can get some energy to fix it) After meeting them we went back to the hotel and went outside to drink some wine and beer. Found a lovely spot over the road that was busy. I love people watching and with Wreck it makes it even better, because we notice the same stuff.
Friday started with a big breakfast that I showed you before. With my belly full of honeycomb I was ready for first long day on Gamescom!
And then there was the streaming. As always I’m getting treated like a rockstar and Wargaming fix everything they can get to me. Spoiled streamer – me? YES! I’m so happy and pleased they invited little me with the big boys of Daki and QB.
Fotocred: Wargaming
I had so much fun and in the end Bremer came to surprise me, he drove all the way from the Netherlands to visit us for a few hours. Such a nice surprise. A very funny clip about that is visible here
I streamed for 4 hours and I wanted to go further, but the Wargaming party was waiting so I went home and had a good shower and took a Uber to the party. Amazing party with free food and free wine! They also installed pc in the bar where you could play WoT! That must top the parties I ever been too!
Sunday stream was even more amazing with so many viewers and followers, and after Gamescom I finally hit 5k followers. It was the best weekend in a long time, I’m so happy and thankful for being picked to do stuff like this. I do love to entertain and I have so much fun with you guys. Thank you so much Wargaming and thank you so much for all the support you always give me. It definitely helps now when life is spinning and draining me.
On Sunday a visit to the Swedish Tank museum will be the destination! And it might even be a stream from the car! WHOOP WHOOOOP! Love you all!
I cant believe that the best weekend in a long time already is over and I’m home again in my house, writing this a week later. I will have to split the blogs in seperate parts because the hotel itself needs its own presentation! Gamescom 2019 was my first Gamescom, and I’m so pleased I got to be a part of Wargaming’s schedule. First of all, we got to stay at a 5 star hotel. Let’s have a look how it looked like!
What a AMZAING hotel! They did everything, fixed the room several times, brought new sheets, gave me a gift on the room. I’m sure if I used the room service they would probably come and wipe my… behind if I asked them too! Never stayed at a hotel that was so serviceminded, and I’ve stayed on a lot of hotels.
AND THE BREAKFAST! Holy mother of fucks what an amazing breakfast!!!
The most beautiful thing wasn’t only that they served champagne at breakfast, for a ASMR-girl like me, they had honeycomb! It’s really hard to get in Sweden so when I saw that beautiful golden piece at the breakfast I had to try it. AND OMG, the taste of honeycomb is soooo sweet (but not as just normal honey) and with a lovely texture. It was a amazing adventure to stay at Excelsior Hotel Ernst and I’m so happy I got invited!
My blog (and some videos) will be up to the weekend. I even got to meet Sabaton!
So, what do you do when it’s raining and the temperature suddenly dropped from 30 to 12? Well, you take your kids, and lure your parents to take their car to a military museum ofc! I even got my uncle to join and talk about how he was a part of that history with building bridges for tanks etc.
Just about 90 minutes from where I live we have miliseum.com, a museum filled with information about the military history around the area of Jönköping, and Sweden itself. It’s located on the Artillery Street in the middle of a big military area that is still in use, Skillingaryd Camp.
I must say, for about 6 euros for the entrance, it was a very clean and informative museum that we all loved. You can find history that runs over centuries but also more recent. Different sections showed different times and themes.
Different riding gears from very early on…
This is a
They also had a vehicle part of the museum with amazing history. Here is a simple (!!!!) Haubits m/1917. 21 cm.
Sweden bought 12 of these from Germany after the peace treaty of Versailles 1919 (same year as my grandfather was born). It was used as a support for the army. A few were also donated to Finland during the Winter war of 1939-40.
It weighs about 17,5 ton and if it had to be moved, they split it up in 4 pieces and moved it with a total of 28 horses. This Haubits was in use until 1939, and at 1984 they did a huge restoration of it. It looks absolutely amazing.
Here you also see the difference with the shell to my 4 year old son.
They also had other vehicles and a stall with tank mines.
My uncle told me how they used them when they where in training. Some of them were wrapped around trees to make the road non usable for the enemy tanks. So interesting, and amazing to have a person so close in my family that has a lot of experience about that part of the Swedish Military.
When we had spent the time in the Museum we where allowed to drive by the big military area to see the houses that used to be filled with people during training (and is still used a few times every year) and how big the Skillingaryd Camp is.
All in all, it was a great time to spend together with my beloved family, and I learned more about “my own” war history, that always makes me more humble and grateful for the life I live. So if you do have the time and you are in close buy, don’t hesitate to go there and visit!
Woke up to a bright sun and a calm sea. I swear, I could wake up like that forever. The sun and the fresh air does stuff to you. Makes you feel happy and that you don’t have any problems in the world.
Before breakfast I went outside and had a chat with Sig who was sitting outside. I could feel how hot it was going to be already then, and it was only 8.30. Needed breakfast this morning; Prosecco last night with a coming hot day, energy was very needed. The hotel made a full English, and how abnormal it is for me to eat this for breakfast, it went down really nice. And no, beans is NOT for me.
Right after breakfast the taxi turned up. Two full taxis on our way to Tankfest! Finally! Daki was nice to bring the VIP-band so we could just pass through the long crowdes, and we went straight too Wargaming to say hi to the faces we recognised!
A good big booth of Wargaming stuff, a lot of nice people and a big area for streaming. Plenty of goodiebags to be given away too! And then we had the tanks! So many tanks showing this year! The sound of a tank starting up next to you and makes your heart vibrate is just pure love.
And ofc, a meeting with my “husband”, the Shitbarn!
Had an amazing pulled pork burger at the food stand, I mean, HOLY FUCK. Moist and so tasty! Love street food, and I could probably spend a hole day trying out all the food that was there, but that wouldn’t have let me do the other things I wanted to do. Haha.
And I met so many people again! I finally met Mr Cowboy himself (aka Benji) that travelled all the way from Texas, I met Gnome, Slimez, WotBoys (That gave me an amazing gift I will show you soon), Nikoli and other amazing people.
After a few hours in the heat it was time for a movie-shoot. Don´t really know exactly what it was for, but several of the CCs did it. It was fun and something I really haven’t done before, but definitely can do again. Will be amazing to see the end results!
Last part of the Saturday I was up for streaming with Circon. When I was shooting for the film, I got a message from Wargaming that they had some problem so we rushed back. Apparently Circon was to sick to stream, so we had 3 options. 1. Cancelling (never gonna happen) 2. I stream myself (Would be weird but no problem at all) 3. John and me streaming together (YES!) I screamed that me and John needed to do it, but he chickened out, and ofc I understand it. Last minute Orzanel showed up, and he was kind to help me. So yet again we were the couple to end the World of Tanks channel stream, just like in Berlin. I like Orz, he can take the trolling and he is good at the game. Myself was in pain tho, because of the heat all day and I couldn’t really focus, but wanted to stream ofc.
The stream had to stop a little earlier then it was supposed to. One of the gas cylinders at the food stall was burning and they had to evacuate. So all we heard was a voice in our ear that said: “We need to stop the stream, there is an emergency outside, something is burning and we need to leave now” Nothing else to do, we just left and made sure we where out. On the way out I talked to a lot of people again and got a picture with the legendary The Chieftain!
We went back to Weymouth after a ok from Wargaming, to get a shower and some food. Traditionally its curry on Saturdays at Tankfest, so a group with about 16 people went to the restaurant, and I had different kinds of prawns. With the dehydration and the curry, I was really sick the night between Saturday and Sunday. Tankfest Sunday was a little more chilled in the morning, and I was really greatful for that. Spent some time in the back to talk to Eekeeboo about the game show we were going to take part in.
And due to Circon still was sick I was paired up to Harkonnen, the amazing CC that is the owner of The Daily Bounce, the website that updates everything about World of Tanks, and thanks to him (He really carried my ass!) we won the game show over The Awesome Epic Guys, also CC for WoT. All of them took really good care of me when I felt really sick, and they where all so understanding and calming. Also ofc Ph3lan, Mr. Kubrick and Eekeeboo were all understanding, and helpful. I always get treated like a rockstar and I really enjoy all the time I get to spend with all of the people there.
After the game show I was finally feeling better again and felt for something that could give me some energy back, so I got some donuts, and a really cheesy plate with tortilla crisps.
John had a burrito with beans (everyone has beans in their food, how?!) and other stuff. Was sitting in the shadow of a tree and felt how good life was. Being with my best friends from all over the world and just have a happy time. I’m so blessed to be able to do this from time to time. Before we left I had a bit of the show to watch until it was time to leave. Filled with a little bit of sadness that the best weekend of the year was ended, we left Bovington for this time but I promised myself to be back next year ofc.
A amazing weekend was ended, with a lot of people. Thanks to all of you that made this happen. Thank you for all the amazing company of all of you guys, and a special recognition to the lovely man Craig Moore that started the journey for me, when he contacted me about doing stuff for the Swedish Tank Museum. A really great man that I finally got to meet in person on the Sunday. He has his passion and his heart on the right spot for tanks, history and museums. I also got to meet his friend John Osselaer, a important name, he is a new publicity officer of the Belgium War Heritage Institute (Bastogne Barracks – Brussels Military Museum- Gunfire tank Museum).
So that’s a wrap for Tankfest 2019. Again, thank you everyone for made it possible this year. All of the pictures are taken by me (except the pictures Im in that John took, with the exception of the last one, which I’ve got from Craig Moore).
I cant stop longing for next year! This was my second year at Tankfest and it will definitely become a tradition!
What a weekend! Tankfest 2019 flew by so quickly and now I’m sitting at home, thinking about how fast 4 full days already can be over. So many friends and people I’ve met! This year I was invited by Wargaming themselves, and had a slot to stream on their channel on the Saturday afternoon. But let’s look how the Friday was, shall we?
Meeting at Stansted is the first thing and we all go down with two cars to the south of the U.K. According to the S3al-guys, a breakfast is always needed first, before the long drive down to Weymouth. Just as last year we stopped at the Travelodge to get some food, except for me, I only had coffee.
And Baz fixed me 2 little bottles of Prosecco, so sweet! Just as he promised.
And then 3-4 hours of driving went past pretty smoothly. This year we had AC, finally, so we didn’t have to melt before we arrived to Weymouth. I booked and payed the trip long before I was a CC, so had a room there instead of at the hotel in Bournemouth where Wargaming was booked in. And OMFG, the room I got. A room with a incredible view – CHECK!
Must have been the best view I ever had and I could have the big balcony doors open all night and fall asleep to the sound of the sea. Last year I was trapped in a single room in a backyard with no air, definitely a step up this year! When I was settled down, John asked me if we should take a walk to get something to eat. Ofc! The other S3al guys would already be having beer at the pub, but wanted to see Weymouth a little more this year.
Finally got to try bubble tea! We dont really have that in Sweden, so when I saw the little shop, I instantly needed one! I’m all about the textures and when those little small bubbles pop in your mouth, a flavour explosion happens!
Oh, cockles! Since last year John always been going on about cockles! So this time I did it! You eat them with some pepper and vinegar (and I needed salt too, Scandinavian thing ofc!) with a fork. Just like that!
And after a few hours in the sun it was time for some bar hanging ofc. Plenty of people meet up to eat, drink and talk about the community and everything else that is worth talking about. This year we had even more meeting us there, people that came up and said hi!
And I took some selfies that’s not really a good quality, but still worthy of putting in here because of all the amazing people ofc.
Didn’t stumble home until a little later, full of Prosecco and happiness of having such amazing friends all over the world! So this was the Friday, Tankfest itself will come soon!
I can get really sick of the weather here in Sweden, I don’t do well with the cold and the darkness that comes with this country. I’m living pretty near to the west coast too, and the rain is a big part of the daily routine. So waking up to sunshine on Swedens own national day, is just luxury for me, and I couldn’t resist of taking a long walk in the morning (it’s a bank holiday). And this is what makes the darkness so worth it, the sun and the summer and all the green that comes with it.
The 6 of June is Sweden’s national day, and a part of the celebration goes way back to 1523 on this day, when Gustav Vasa was chosen to become the King of Sweden. So I decided to go to an old military place that is barely used these days, to have a long walk in the sun. This place was very crowded back in the days with military training and big events. One time back in the days I was even working here at a weekend, I played a victim that was hit by a car and the military had to train like it was a real car accident. Loved the military already back then, when I was a teenager. Those were the days.
Haven’t been walking here since I put my dog to sleep 5 years ago, so it was really nice to be back and it gave me 8k steps before breakfast. Time for the gym soon.
So happy national day Sweden. Please keep treating me with this weather, I love you for it.
SwedishLadyC 