NP.com

Alot happening on the natalieportman.com side of my life (changin servers) but not alot else happening. Enjoying the summer and being in sweden and actually getting my life back together. This site may go down and up over the next few days because I’m changing stuff but that should only be temporary. Don’t worry – I’m a professional… “a professional what?”..

Euro2004

As usual I’m not nationalistic or patriotic in any way, but when big championship comes along that changes. All yellow and blue! And today was the big day for swedish soccer in the Euro2004. Versus Italy. Noone expected it to be much of a match, but hell it turned out to be the best one yet. And Zlatans equalizer… guess I can’t say “he’s not that good, he’s just hyped up by the media” because that was a helluva goal. Or to quote Irene Cara – “oh what a feeling!”.

Not 20 anymore

I’m so not 20 anymore! Picture this – I limp back to the hospital to return the crotches and decided to donate blood. After that you get iron supplement pills. The day after I go out having a couple of beers (more like a dozen) with some friends and wake up today TOTALLED. With lack of blood and the mess in the stomach that iron supplement causes, added with alcohol and OUCH today is not a good day to do anything at all.

Physical

As I mentioned in yesterdays update I did my annual physical in may and last friday me and the doc went through the results. I was expecting her to say stuff like “you REALLY need to cut down on the fat, lose some wight and start excercising”. Which she kinda did. She said “you really need to cut down on the bad fat like fast food, chips and candy and get more good fat like olive oil. And it wouldn’t hurt to lose a few pounds”. As if I didn’t know that last part! In christmas of 2002 when I hit 110 kilos I got an excercise bike from my parents. And yes, it was on my short “all I want for christmas”-list. And I actually used it alot and was down to 104 when I started travelling and stuff and didn’t have time for it. So now I’m up to 112 kilos. And since I’m not gonna be travelling anytime soon I can’t use that as an excuse.

Too bad I busted my ankle 🙂

Donating blood

Today I did something I haven’t done in over a year. Donated blood. I haven’t been allowed to do that since I’ve been to “malaria infected countries” which results in a 6 month ban from giving blood. And obviously they have read my entry about me not being able to donate blood at Huddinge hospital, because now I can. Unfortunately, their computer systems aren’t connected to the ones at the donor place I used to go to so I had to fill out all the forms and take new blood tests to ensure that my blood is clean. They didn’t trust me when I said I had my blood tested twice in may -03 (blood donation & pre-vaccination), august  -03  (pre-vaccination), twice in november -03 (once for malaria and once in nigeria), december -03 (trying to diagnose salmonella), january -04 (pre-vaccination), may -04 (annual physical) and once just two weeks before when I busted my ankle (still don’t know what one has to do with the other!). I had to take one more blood test to be sure. So I’ve REALLY made up for never having my blood tested before that and now I’m so positive and reassured I’ve got no bad things in my veins.

Sick leave

You’d think that when I’m on sick leave I’d have some time to update this site with more updates and stuff… yeah, you’d think! But I’ve had stuff to keep me busy all the way which makes me kinda worried what it’ll be like when I actually go back to work next wednesday. But then I won’t have weeks of Star Trek to catch up on or a Dead Zone DVD box to watch. Or this good weather!

Day After Tomorrow

Saw “Day after Tomorrow” today (thanks sis!). Liked it. Alot. I’ve always liked catastrophe movies. And I always like US of A getting their asses kicked in movies. And I’ve always liked Dennis Quaid ever since “Innerspace”. And I’ve always liked Sela Ward. But there was just one minor teeeeeeny little detail that got me upset – again they portray the US president as a nice, decent and righteous dude.
[Stop readin now if you don’t wanna be spoiled about the movie!] The role of the asshole is the VICE president who later in the movie becomes the president and all of a sudden he becomes a good guy. So vice presidents can be assholes but not presidents? Why? When we all know that it’s George-boy we’re talking about and bashing, why not go all the way? Little disappointed over that.

In Sweden

You know how “they” say that your health takes a dramatic turn for the worse when you hit 30? I’ve heard that it just get’s worse and you have a much easier time getting sick? I guess I’m a little bit ahead of schedule. Cause one year ago I had never been on sick leave (not once!) and had never been to the hospital since my little operation when I was a kid. I was going on almost 20 years without going to the hospital (and no, visiting someone else doesn’t matter). But then BAM, 3 times in 2 weeks in november and now once more unto the breach! Got off the Arlanda-parking buss and my foot just gave away. I guess there was some rock or there that just made my foot go all wrong, but that doesn’t matter cause the result was the same – busted ankle. So now I’ve been to the hospital for x-rays (rather that than limping for the rest of my life) and been on sick leave twice – in the past 6 months alone. And I turned 29 yesterday so it must be that. Or bad luck.

In Hague, Holland

Oh no, it’s that time again. That time of the year that you’re reminded of just how fast time flies. Which I guess is a good thing since that usually means you’re having fun. Which I totally am. But I don’t want another birthday. Thank god I’m out of the country…AGAIN!

Unfortunately this is the last trip I’ll ever do for this government project. I’ve done my 15 or so embassies, and we were 7 techies so that about covers them all. 🙁