As I said, I’ve spent a few days in Finland (which is so close to Sweden it doesn’t even count as being abroad!). Anyway, I can really recommend this place called “Storyville”. If you just wanna hang around in a nice quiet bar and play some BJ, it’s perfect. But if you wanna hang around in an overcrowded bar with live blues & jazz music you just go downstairs and you’ve got that too. Really nice place and atmosphere, and the band on the night we were there was damn good as well. And it’s the only bar I’ve been able to order a “jägermesiter in red bull” without argument!
I used to think swedish women were the most beautiful in the world. Well, after spending some time here in Finland I think I’m ready to extend that to “scandinavian women” ’cause they are pretty beautiful here too! And you know me, I like to be proven incorrect and have my believes questioned a little now and then.
I saw a little clip on CNN from some european Jewish convention and heard this big speach about anti-semitism and how it’s a growing problem in Europe and it’s a big monster that must be defeated. Maybe it’s just because of the fact that I’m not jewish or maybe it’s because Sweden is a very tolerant country, but this was news to me! I’d like to think of myself as a pretty up-to-date kinda guy, the kind that watches the news daily, doesn’t mind having CNN or Sky News on for hours, checks out news websites daily. And I’ve never heard that this was a big problem. Atleast no bigger problem than your average short sighted racism and anti-“everything that’s not us” mentality. But apparently it is.
Don’t you just love “Evanescense” latest song, “My Immortal”? I’m loving it, and the video is freaking awesome as well! Thinking about adding it to my “songs to play at my funeral”-list.
Is it just me or has the weather this year been very schitzo, especially here in Sweden. Going from warm-cold, winter-spring all the time. I’ve been thinking about changing the tyres on my car but everytime it’s started snowing or something.
So after my little trip to Congo with my health problems, it sure was nice to get back to Sweden! Already at the airport it felt good. Picked up my car from the parking lot and started driving the long drive home… when it totally quit on me. Something wrong with the fuel injector, nothing to do but call a tow truck! Set me back some $300, and then we’ll see what the repair will be. My car has really been visiting the shop alot! Fortunately I got a pretty good salary last week so my economy will probably hold, but it wasn’t the way I was suppose to spend it! Oh well, going home to my parents for a typical swedish thing – advents fika 🙂
So that wasn’t just a case of foodpoison I guess! This was the worst week, healthwise, of my life! I know guys tend to complain alot when their ill, I don’t. I just say “I’ll live, it’ll pass” and it always does. In 20 years I’ve never been admitted to a hospital (I think anyway). I had a trip to Africa planned right after I got back from Scotland. That’s really the best way to get away – Africa! Only place I’ve been able to go without a computer for 7 days without giving it a second though. Anyway, I still felt bad on sunday evening so I went to our local hospital in Huddinge. They did some tests and weight me in at 113 kg. That’s all the beer I drank in Scotland. Anyway, they thought I was fine so off I went. Before I even landed in Kinshasa (Congo) I felt worse and a nice nights sleep at the hotel didn’t help and the night between tuesday and wednesday was so bad I was really starting to wonder if I’d ever make it back home. Seriously! I mean being in Africa feeling worse than you can ever remember feeling before, that’s scary thing. And 40 degree fever will do things to your head. So I had to go to a hospital. And going to hospital in Congo is nothing you really joke about, is it? They took some blood and I passed out. Not because I can’t stand blood (I am a blood donor remember!), but because of my temporarily terrible blood preassure. Then they weighed me in at… 107 kg! 5 kgs in 4 days. OUCH! After the testing the doctor quickly stated I must have one bad infection somewhere (which turned out to be in my throat) and gave me a ton of pills (all in all I eat 13 pills per day now!) and sent me on my way.
And now it’s thursday and I’m starting to get back to normal. I’ve started eating again anyway. Funny how you can’t eat when you’re sick which makes you weaker and less able to fight off an infection which kinda makes you wanna eat even less and it just spirals down. And I look back at these past three days as a nightmare ’cause it was really really bad there for a while. Totally delerious and… well, sick. And this wasn’t really what I had in mind with my “let’s get away” thing, now I want nothing else then to go back home to my warm bed and mother’s home cooking!
Guess it’s true.. there’s no place like home.. or we could say “home is where the heart is” but enough clichés, I got 5 kilos to gain!
And I’m just back from that trip to Scotland to honor my sisters 30th birthday!
We began on wednesday outside the airport when Marina (AC’s best friend) & Christer (Marina’s husband) jumped her and scared her quite a bit. Atleast I think so, I was inside to surprise her when she got that far. And man was she surprised! And now she realised that we were actually gonna follow them on their trip to Glasgow. So off we went (btw, Ryan Air has the worst leg space ever!). And at the hotel – next surprise! An old neighbor of theirs had driven from Finland to paaaaartei.
And then on thursday when she was off shopping – there’s Paul’s (AC’s husband) sisters! And a couple of hours later… here’s AMY! I’m not sure if she was overwhelmed yet but we took it easy and went out clubbing. And on friday took it pretty easy, shopping and stuff and at 4 the party started again! By now we had gotten Paul’s parents, uncle with wife, our three cousines, aunt and just about anyone else who might know us and want a good time. And me and Paul saw everything we had made and it was good! Although I hadn’t met some of these people at all, some just once, others infrequently at family occasions, it didn’t matter, we all had a blast and although AC’s 30th was the reason we were all there, it turned out to be a real family event!
But on saturday, all our ammunition was spent so we just took it easy. And I guess I shouldn’t have done that because that’s when I got some weird food poisoning or something, felt like crap all the way back to stockholm, BUT SO WHAT, the weekend was great! Ok, I guess I could have gone a little bit easier on my body, not drinking beer from 11 am to 2 am without any breakfast, and perhaps I shouldn’t have had 5 red bulls with double vodka in one night, BUT SO WHAT, it was great!
Credit for the weekend goes to Paul for outstanding arrangement (with a little help from me), Lauder’s for letting us party in their Pub, Alec for just being Alec and everyone who showed up for showing up! Definitely once in a lifetime thing and she’s bound to remeber it for a long long time!
Now the big question is how to pull off Operation 3-0 CHARLIE in 19 months! Might not be so easy to surprise the surpriser 🙂
Operation 3-0 BRAVO : Haven’t been able to write anything here since I’ve faked being out of the country so my sister AC will get the biggest surprise when we’re going to Scotland! Remember in January 2001 AC and me went over for Operation 3-0 ALPHA which was to surprise my other sister. This time it’s our turn. And it’s set to be a helluva party! But she’s on the bus now and I’m off to start collecting the surprise party 🙂
I saw “Rock the Vote” on CNN the other day. As the name suggest, it was an attempt to be political and hip at the same time. A debate program with the 2004 US presidential candidates taking on the youth of America. One thing that surprised me was how they all agreed on how to solve the current problems in Iraq. If it’s a workable solution or not, I have no idea, but everyone agreed that the US should let the UN take charge in there. Everyone agreed that was the best way to handle it. The only one who still thinks it’s the best idea for US & UK to stay on top of it is… well, Bush…
Have we had enough Bush-bashing this week? Sorry, it’s just that when watching CNN so much it gets pretty easy.
UNREAL! “They” did it again! Read my update on April 26th… are you done? Well, the saga continued when it was appealed to our second highest legal institution, “Svea Hovrätt”. And guess what? “She didn’t appear too drunk or drugged out of her mind and the guys thought she wanted to have sex – with all four of them”. Unbelievable! But it makes what I said yesterday a little clearer. The weird thing is that the 5 that acquitted them were all women! Although 2 of them voted against the verdict, the majority wins. I’m ashamed to be swedish now.
Is the american jury system better with “normal people” deciding guilty or not? Although I’ve never experienced it myself (and hope I don’t!) I wouldn’t think so based on all the TV shows and movies I’ve seen on the subject. ‘Cause in a country that executes people that are found to be guilty of murder in the first, I’d REALLY want the people deciding to be competent in the legal field, not Jeo-blow!
Well today I did something I’d never thought I’d do – I went out to join the Hash House Harriers for a run in the african jungle. Yeah, you heard me, I was actually running in the african jungle! Seriously, who would’ve thought it 1 year ago that I would be running…
And like a month ago when Anna Lindh died, I’m not even in the country to attend a memorial or anything. Although I’m terrible at those things, I’d still like the option of attending.
So Bush have done it again. Come up with a great quote that might have sounded good in… well, somewhere like in an empty head – “no civilized democratic country would develop weapons of mass destruction”. Says the man in charge of the only country to ever have used Da Bomb. For military purposes anyway.
Do you watch CNBC? I very rarely do since it’s 99% financial news and I’m simply not that into it. But I accidentally flipped it on on thursday and heard what may be the best quote this year. “Hurricane Isabell closes Washington and shuts down the federal government… will anyone notice?”. I thought that was hilarious. And if you’re wondering why I’m not updating as much as I used to… recent events have made it less fun posting stuff here, hopefully that’ll pass and I’ll get into the spirit of things again.
So no to the Euro, huh? Damn, was kinda hoping that somehow all the polls would be wrong and the rest of the swedes would actually say yes to the Euro. I’m a trekker and hence for all attempts of globalization and in the wonderful world of Star Trek money isn’t an issue. Not to humans anyway. So discarding one global currency would be a lot easier than trying to get every country to discard their currency. Byt anyway, to snap us back to today, what will this mean for us swedes? Well, it can’t make things better, right? No anti-Euro person ever said having the SEK would make things better, just not worse like they thought Euro might be. Me, I’m a gambling man so I’d rather take the chance of getting things better than stay the same.
And oh yeah, we get to keep control of our economy here in Stockholm instead of down in EU HQ Brussels. And here I thought one of the lessons of 2001 was that the financial world is intertwined and what happens in the States will affect us here in Sweden. And everytime there’s a price increase for gas here in Sweden they blame it on the dollar, but yeah, I’m glad we get to have control of our finances here in Stockholm. And noone will dismantle our great social security net that the anti-Euro people were talking about. And here I thought our social security net was more a state of mind, more bread into the Swedish consciousness than it was bound to our currency. Thanx for destroying that illusions on a “might”/”if”/”perhaps”.
Soon shopping at Arlanda airport will be like shopping in Copenhagen airport – you will be able to shop with both the local currency and the Euro only to confuse the customers left and right.
But what do I know, I’m just a good little worker ant.
Today I did something I knew I had to do but didn’t think I’d get the chance – visit a concentration camp! “Schindler’s List” is one of my favorite movies and “Surviving Auschwitz” my favorite book so I felt I had to see one for myself. And just outside Gdansk is Sztutowo with the “Stutthof” camp. Very emotional just being there! Most of the place had been tored down but some of it was still there, a few barracks and ofcourse the gas chamer and the cremation building. And I have to disagree with whoever said the holocause was one of mankinds biggest mistakes because to me, mistakes are acidental and not pre-planned. And places like this was the very opposite of that, very cold calculated brutality. Definitely mankinds darkest hour though.
Not only is it the 2nd anniversary of what happened in NYC & Washington, now September 11th will be a day of mourning here in sweden as well. One of the few politicians I’ve had the most respect and admiration for passed away after being stabbed yesterday. And she might not have been the best politician around since she was so… good, decent, well mannored and alot of things politicians shouldn’t be. And she would have made an awesome prime minister one day already having worked up the respect of international politicans. But because she decided to do what alot of other people take for granted – just going out shopping – we’ll never know.
Anna Lindh – here’s hoping you’ll atleast get to rule heaven.