Small Town "Service"

Yesterday we had another “Small town experience” at our local bar. We were out for some drinks and food. Some of my colleagues had ordered hamburgers and when they asked for some ketchup they were told the house was out of ketchup!!!! How can that be?!?! At that time the supermarkets were still open so they could very well have sent someone over to buy, but no, they rather preferred to make their guests disappointed. But that was only the start!! One of my colleagues got a beer that was flat and when she told the waitress and asked for another one, the waitress answered: “ok, but if that one is flat it means the next one will also be flat so you’d better change to some other beer”. Can you imagine!?!?!? Instead of just changing the barrel they will first try to sell the rest of the flat beer to flat customers who will not complain!! Another colleague arrived a little later and asked for nachos, he received the answer that “no, the kitchen is closed, we are closing now, I am taking the last orders”. It was not even nine and the place is normally open much longer why we all looked a bit surprised and asked how come, and what time they are closing. The poor waitress, who I already knew for not being very smart, it was the one with the “small big strong beer”, made it all worse. “She said we are closing as soon as you are leaving.” Of course we opposed that was just the whole ting, we were not planning to leave just yet, we wanted to order more! Then we asked again how come they were closing that early and she replied “because there are no guests” Yeah right!!! And the guests they had they were busy throwing out!! I mean we were more than 10 people at our table and some more were expected. At least we got to order one more round of drinks and Richard made a new try to get some nachos, asking if it was really not possible that the chef could make some, but then the poor girl informed us that the cook had just thrown out the minced meat. So I guess he would not have wanted to eat that anyway.

We all agreed that we have been going too often and too much to this place, they have become lazy and comfortable, it is time to stop going there and find some other place. Unfortunately that is not so easy around here, but we left and went to a hotel bar which recently got their license for serving alcohol back, after having lost it this summer. We don’t want to know the reason for that. However, there we could still have some food and drinks and nice service, albeit a bit slow. That is really the one thing that I miss the most living here, decent bars and restaurants. These places have a little of DDR or Soviet style service.

I have found some “friends” on the net, who also are discovering this side of Sweden, have a look at www.detsannasverige.com

I am back...

...from Peru.
But information about my trip to Peru you will not find here, but on my travel blog, http://goodrun-crazyworld.blogspot.com

Out of the ordinary

I don't really think this is something that fits in the Normal Life, not even in my weird Normal Life.
Yesterday at the party after the race, my boss shortly took me aside and asked me if I speak Spanish. I had to answer that unfortunately I don't. That's a pity she said, because if you did I would have asked you if you could co to Peru on Monday. But could you still go to Peru on Monday. And, well I answered yes.
So now I have been spending the afternoon at the office packing bags with all sorts of equipment, technical and personal for me and two more people who will be off to Peru tomorrow. The reason is of course to allieviate the suffering for the victims of the earthquake. We will fly in tents, blankets and tarpaulins etc.
At first the plan was that I would fly with a regular flight early tomorrow morning and arrive in the evening local time. Now that has been changed so that I will fly with the freight plane a AN 12 tomorrow in the afternoon. That will of course not be so comfortable, we will have to bring our own ear protection (ear plugs is not sufficient!) and our own food and drink. We will fly via the Canary Islands for a fill up, but then no one really can tell how long it will take for us to arrive in Pisco.
So I am up for a journey, that's for sure. I will be away for approx one week and don't think I will be able to blog during that time. But afterwards I might have something for my Travel-blog!

Day 0

And the race is over!
It was great!!! I am so happy with my race. Ok, we did not win of course. This is a race where some real freaks also participate. We did not even win among our colleagues, but came second of our mixed teams. But I am really proud of my achievement. Both me and Christian were really very strong, we just had a weakness in the orientation part, which turned out to be much more important and challenging than I thought. After the race of 5 hours and 3 minutes I still felt very fresh and not very tired at all. No part of my body was acheing, still not, and my colleagues were complaining I looked too fit and fresh. At the party afterwards though I felt I did not need too many drinks to feel a bit tipsy and now I think I will sleep very well!

At the party though I was talked in to to sign up for another race in september and also a cross country skiing race in march! I am crazy! Good night!

1 day left...

Today we stached up on material. Me and Christian went to the only sports store in the Small Town and bought a lot of things!!! All of a sudden we seemed to think material could save us. No, but we have our doubts about the wheather, it could get cold, windy and rainy and none of us had the right clothing for that as none of us normally would do outdoor sports in those conditions...
What worries me a little is that Christian only arranged with his moutainbike today and it still needs some adjustments before tomorrow and he also bought new jogging shoes... The day before the race!!! But hey, the man is cool, so I guess I should not worry either.

The medical coordinator at our office promised to bring the compulsory first aid kits also for us, but as he is also our main competitor and the instigator to this whole thing I am not sure we can trust him, but on the other hand, I am not planning to get hurt either. According to the instructions for the race one should also bring a water protected mobile phone, but what the heck, should that really be neccessary?!?! On the other hand the orientation part really worries me. And still we have not decided on who will sit in the back or front of the canoe. I think I will have to call Christian later...

Shit! I am nervous!! I know it is only for fun, but I am such a bad looser. I hate to loose and it would be terrible to be the last among the colleagues. And it is also a very long time ago I did any kind of sports competition.

Now I will start some carbo loading. Pasta!!!
Then I will motivate myself with watching Kill Bill I think!

Whish us luck!!!

2 days left

Today we had a crash course in how to handle and read a compass. We kind of thought we knew, but after discussing it a bit we realised we had some different views on the matter and as it actually is more important that we agree than that we really know, we had to ask a colleague. Some other colleagues overheard the conversation and got a bit worried that we would get lost in the woods, but then remarked that we do not only have access to our own ambulance, we also have professional Search And Rescue teams!

The plan for today was to develope our paddling technic, but due to the bad rain we did some spinning instead. Was ok, but I still don't know what's wrong with my pulse watch...

3 days left..

well, now it is onlyt three days left until the race! Training is going fine. Yesterday we did some paddling again, followed by jogging and that felt fine. Today I did 15 km on my mountainbike which also felt fine. Today we also secured that we can borrow a compass from a colleague, who also gave us some good advise on paddling, which we might need. Now Christian only has to arrange for a bike and then we are ready to go. I suppose you could say it is a bit late, but what the... better late than never....or?`
Unfortunately my digital camera seems to have given up so I am not sure I will be able to post any pictures. But I am sure you can see it in the papers and on tv etc... ;-)

Neighbours!

I do have an issue with my neighbours! The single mom next door really needs to put some grease on the hinges of her front door; the squeaking is making me crazy. I have been thinking about offering her to oil it for her, but am worried she might take it as a critique, which it also is in a way… Maybe I should sneak out when she is not at home or at night and put some oil on it. The little shit under me now has bought a hubble bubble, well to be honest it smells better than the normal cigarettes, but on the other hand this will probably mean that all of his disgusting friends will hang out here even more. Today they pushed it a little further still. They have for some time been using the lawn as an extra entrance and been driving their mopeds all the way up to his terrace entrance, but today there was a car driving across the lawn all the way up and parked right under my balcony, on the grass. Bloody spoilt kids!
On my way to tennis lesson I was almost stopped by the neighbourhood kids who were holding a “flea market”. Now I know how come this whole town is full of flea markets and “antique” stores! On the way back from tennis I saw what the neighbour with the Hyundai has done to his car. It is a black car but now he has put bright neon yellow windscreen wipers and bright neon yellow grating on the front of the car. It is a grown up man!!! What’s wrong with these people!?!?

Something's wrong

I was just going through the summary of my first experience of training with a pulse watch. Yesterday I was out jogging and to test it I just ran my normal 5 km round at my normal pace of 5 min/km. Ok, I had to slow down a bit at the end as I felt the pain in my right hip that has been bugging me for a while, but nevertheless I made it in 27.37 min, which is ok. I felt good and not very tired afterwards. But looking at the summary of the results afterwards I was confused. The watch told me that I had been running at an average HR of 165 bpm, which would mean 90% of my max HR. That does not make sense! Something has to be wrong, but is it the watch or is it me? Or is it simply that I have the physique of a 20 years old?! :-)

I am open for any suggestions on what could be wrong as I am not very experienced in these things. Now I will make a second test. This time I will try to run at 70-80% of max HR and see what that will do for the pace and the distance.

The City that God Forgot

Today I visited the village that God forgot, or at least that the people left. My sister just bought a motorcycle in a town/village not too far from here and I drove her there to pick it up today. She told me already before that the place was really depressing and everyone I told I would go there said the same, but still I was not really prepared for what I saw. The whole community has grown up around one big industry. The town is in a mining area and the factory was somehow connected to mining and steel industry, although I don’t know exactly what they produced there.
Anyhow, the factory is now closed and the whole place is withering down to nothing. At the entrance of the town/village you see the deserted factory and it is so depressing, empty and broken windows, overgrown grass and rusty steel works everywhere. As you then follow the main street that runs through the village you see a lot of empty houses and closed down shops everywhere. Nowhere much sign of life. It is a ghost town! The people who sold the motorbike where now also leaving. Very symbolic!!
I wanted to make some pictures to post here so you can see what I mean, because unless one has seen anything like that it is hard to believe, but unfortunately my digital camera seem to have broken down all of a sudden! But there is supposed to be a book about those “closed down industry towns” in Sweden. Right now I don’t remember the name of the book but I feel quite sure that this place is in the book.
After this little excursion it even felt quite good to be back in my Small Town!

Turning Sporty?

A little late maybe, but now training for the race has started. Thursday I and Christian did some paddling, and then we jogged down town, to the gym for an hour of spinning and finally walked back. Of course the distance was nothing in comparison with what awaits us on Saturday, but it felt really good. Yesterday I bought a lot of new jogging and training clothes. That is also important! And today I bought a pulse-watch and sport drinks “superior glycogen filling” so here we go!!

Team sport

Time is flying and August the 18 is approaching rapidly. That is the date for the multi sport event I have been tricked into. Some colleagues started teasing and challenging each other to sign up and somehow I got involved too. It is a team thing and we decided to sign up for the mixed version so I am competing together with my colleague Christian. This far we have not been training together once! Tomorrow we will do some paddling which might bee good as that is not one does everyday... The running and cycling might work anyway, although it also involves orientation, which I don’t know if any one of us is very good at. In total it is a race over 31 km but with a few misses on the orientation part and the race can get much longer… (about the race see: www.adventurerace.se)

Some of our other colleagues, who are not participating in the race, but only in the party afterwards, came up with an idea that they probably found brilliant. They will bring the ambulance! Our specially equipped Medical Emergency Response Team ambulance! They thought it would be good PR to show it, but I am not so sure what kind of PR it gives to the teams participating! Bringing our own ambulance….!?

Good things in The Small Town

All of a sudden I felt bad! And felt sorry for all the negative things I write about the Small Town. Actually I don't mean to be negative, I am just fascinated and write about the things I don't understand, but I can understand that this might look negative, so therefore I will try to write about some good things about The Small Town too(especially as I want people to come and visit me here!)
I will start by writing that The Small Town has a very nice art museum (for being a small town). It is very nicely situated by the water, has a nice café/restaurant and good muesums shop and seem to have ambitious exhibitions. This far I have only seen one, but it is very good, about Swedish and Norwegian pupils of Matisse, very interesting!


http://www.kristinehamnskonstmuseum.com

Cars

Since I moved to the Small Town, the word CAR has a new meaning. In the office CAR means Central African Republic, but generally cars seem to be a way of life here. I have already written about the young guys entertaining themselves by racing around the roundabouts on a Tuesday evening and though I never really paid much attention to what their car actually looked like, I know exactly. This is the place for homemade custom Volvos!

You see them everywhere. Old Volvos 740 or 760, from the 80:s or early 90:s but looking nothing the way the car looked when it was new, still not like the real fancy custom cars you can see on TV or in magazines or on exhibitions. No, these are really homemade stuff. Among the standard equipments are of course low profile tyres on aluminium rims, spoilers and some new fancy colour, preferably bicoloured. Then there can be all kinds of extras, no limits! It is soo obvious that there is some young guy who bought the car cheaply and then spent a lot of time and money on it to rebuild it. So it is probably not a matter of money, with all the money spent I am sure they could have bought a newer and cooler car if they wanted but that is not the issue here. To me this is completely incomprehensible!

Even more incomprehensible to me is what one of my neighbours is doing. Almost every day I pass a garage in the area where I live and every afternoon one of the garage doors is open and there is one person and often two or three others are there chatting with him. To be honest I don’t know exactly what the man is doing but he seems to be working on a car. As this man is in his 50:s and seem to be spending all his spare time in this garage I felt pretty sure that the car had to be some very cool old classic veteran car or something like that, and I somehow thought I could understand that you could have that as a hobby. Until the other day when I had a closer look in the garage as I passed and saw that the car is a Hyundai!! How cool is that?!?!

Not even now when I am a car-owner myself can I understand the fascination in cars as such. How you can have cars as a hobby (and then I don’t mean driving!). I am trying not to see my car as just a waste of money and hence an impediment on my oversee travels and therefore I have given it a nickname, to try to personalize it and try to build some kind of relation to it, but I am not sure it works. I am just not a car-person!