Can't help it but I got absolutely excited, thrilled and exuberant when they finally revealed the new organisation of my office. They are concentrating the activities and moving some units and departments and they are completely giving up the office in The Small Town!!!! That is so good!!!
All the politicians in The Small Town will be very upset and complain, but I am so happy and I think they don't deserve to have us there.
I have no idea where my unit will be or even if I will still be in the new organisation, but still things feel so much better. Now I know what to focus on and I know that on no account will I be living in The Small Town longer than to the end of this year!!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Obviously Alien
As far as I know it is not written all over my forehead that I am not from The Small Town, but it seems to be very obvious that I am not from here. Even when I go out in The Next Somewhat Bigger Town and meet someone I often get to hear as an opening phrase "you are not from here, are you?". Ok, I don't speak the dialect, but often I don't even have to say that much that people can tell, so I don't really know what it is.
What happened yesterday might not be so strange though, but it was still an interesting experience. Yesterday I managed to leave the office early enough to get down town before the shops close (i.e.18:00) and went to the watchmaker to have the battery changed in my clock. I also brought some wintercoats to bring to the dry cleaners. As I did not know where to find a laundry I asked at the watchmaker's. There were quite a few people there and they all looked at me and then one of the man said "Isn't he ill!?" and everyone looked at me as if I had asked when the next space-shuttle back to outer space leaves. Then they realised that it might not be common knowledge wether the laundry-person is ill or not and laughingly said "well this is a small town". Then they started to go on where it used to be "down by the traffic lights" and I started to wonder "what lights?" and "are there not more then one traffic light?". Then someone said "but isn't there one in XX-street?!" "No, he is dead" said another.
The conclusion was that there is no laundry in The Small Town. As one of the ladies said before I left; "well, as you see; we don't dry clean our clothes very often".
Then I felt it was about time to get out of the shop, I feelt like an alien again.
What happened yesterday might not be so strange though, but it was still an interesting experience. Yesterday I managed to leave the office early enough to get down town before the shops close (i.e.18:00) and went to the watchmaker to have the battery changed in my clock. I also brought some wintercoats to bring to the dry cleaners. As I did not know where to find a laundry I asked at the watchmaker's. There were quite a few people there and they all looked at me and then one of the man said "Isn't he ill!?" and everyone looked at me as if I had asked when the next space-shuttle back to outer space leaves. Then they realised that it might not be common knowledge wether the laundry-person is ill or not and laughingly said "well this is a small town". Then they started to go on where it used to be "down by the traffic lights" and I started to wonder "what lights?" and "are there not more then one traffic light?". Then someone said "but isn't there one in XX-street?!" "No, he is dead" said another.
The conclusion was that there is no laundry in The Small Town. As one of the ladies said before I left; "well, as you see; we don't dry clean our clothes very often".
Then I felt it was about time to get out of the shop, I feelt like an alien again.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Missing Midsummer again
I am soon off to Afghanistan again. We will be leaving on Saturday (if all goes according to plan!) and be away for approx 10 days.
I am not too happy about it this time as it means I will be away over Midsummer. It will be the second year in a row that I don't get to celebrate Midsummer and that is sad as I find Midsummer being the best holiday of the year. We do have an invitation to join the embassy staff in Kabul for their celebration, but I am not sure we will be able to do that either. This was very badly planned!
I am not too happy about it this time as it means I will be away over Midsummer. It will be the second year in a row that I don't get to celebrate Midsummer and that is sad as I find Midsummer being the best holiday of the year. We do have an invitation to join the embassy staff in Kabul for their celebration, but I am not sure we will be able to do that either. This was very badly planned!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Dead for The Small Town
I hate the Small Town!! And I hate and despise the people of The Small Town and I am not ashamed to say so!
Tonight was the fist game for Sweden in the European football championships and all of Sweden was quite excited. Therefore I and some of my colleagues decided to go out and watch the game in one of the two bars here that we knew would show the game. We thought this would be a nice thing, to do something social and to share something and some of us do not even have a TV. And as all of us come from other places in Sweden we thought this was quite a normal thing to do. In Stockholm I guess all the bars that have a TV were completely crowded. A couple of weeks ago I was in Stockholm when Chelsea and Manchester were playing the champions league, even then all the bars with a TV were full.
Guess what the scene was like in The fucking Small Town! There were ten persons in the bar! Me, my seven colleagues and two foreign hotel guests. Not one single local person!!! I am not saying that everyone have to go out and watch football in bars and drink beer. But not one single person!!! On the way home I passed the other bar and believe me; there were not more people. This town is so dead, dead, dead it only deserves to die properly!!
There is nothing more dead than this place on a Sunday; you will not even find a place to get a cup of coffee. But I thought football would if anything get them going, even if it is a Tuesday, but those boring small town people probably all sit at home in front of their flat sceen TV:s eating chips and getting fatter by the hour. Don’t blame us for not integrating and not trying to do our best. We are out there! We frequent those few public places available, although the food is terrible, the beer flat and expensive and the service non-existent, but there is no way we will meet the locals, even if we wanted to. As long as they do not invite us to share their couch potato life, we will continue to live separate lives. And I will be happy to do that!! I think I will already now start buying the champagne, so I will be sure to have enough to celebrate my move from this place.
Tonight was the fist game for Sweden in the European football championships and all of Sweden was quite excited. Therefore I and some of my colleagues decided to go out and watch the game in one of the two bars here that we knew would show the game. We thought this would be a nice thing, to do something social and to share something and some of us do not even have a TV. And as all of us come from other places in Sweden we thought this was quite a normal thing to do. In Stockholm I guess all the bars that have a TV were completely crowded. A couple of weeks ago I was in Stockholm when Chelsea and Manchester were playing the champions league, even then all the bars with a TV were full.
Guess what the scene was like in The fucking Small Town! There were ten persons in the bar! Me, my seven colleagues and two foreign hotel guests. Not one single local person!!! I am not saying that everyone have to go out and watch football in bars and drink beer. But not one single person!!! On the way home I passed the other bar and believe me; there were not more people. This town is so dead, dead, dead it only deserves to die properly!!
There is nothing more dead than this place on a Sunday; you will not even find a place to get a cup of coffee. But I thought football would if anything get them going, even if it is a Tuesday, but those boring small town people probably all sit at home in front of their flat sceen TV:s eating chips and getting fatter by the hour. Don’t blame us for not integrating and not trying to do our best. We are out there! We frequent those few public places available, although the food is terrible, the beer flat and expensive and the service non-existent, but there is no way we will meet the locals, even if we wanted to. As long as they do not invite us to share their couch potato life, we will continue to live separate lives. And I will be happy to do that!! I think I will already now start buying the champagne, so I will be sure to have enough to celebrate my move from this place.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Summer Blasphemy
I will now make my self guilty of committing blasphemy. I will say that I do not like the Swedish summer!
This is absolutely not accepted to say! All Swedes are supposed to love the Swedish summer as if it were religion. And I do love the Swedish summer! Maybe the problem is that I actually love it too much. I do love the long light summer nights, when it never gets dark. I like the sun and the warmth; I like spending time outdoor and love the more relaxed attitudes of the Swedes in summer. How could I but love all those things as I hate the darkness and the cold of the long boring winters?!
Maybe that is exactly the problem. I love it so much because I know what I have to deal with the rest of the year. What makes it a problem is that it is so precious and so short. The Swedish summer is, even when it is good, rather short, and too often it is not very good at all. Last year it was all rain and cold. So far this year it has been very warm and sunny and nice for weeks, but then immediately one fear that “this was it” this was all the summer we got, and I was working!! The shortness and unpredictability of the Swedish summer make it completely stressful. Every day that is sunny and warm that one do not use, which you don’t spend outside doing nice things is a lost day. And all those light summer nights make me stressed. They are so nice; I would like to stay awake and outside all night, but you just can not, you still have to get some sleep. It all just makes me stressed.
If one only could be sure that every summer had a certain number of nice days it would be easier to relax; now one has to live as if every nice day was the last one. Very stressful!! As I have always said; I find the change of seasons highly overestimated. I believe a climate like the Thai climate would suit me just fine. It is 30 degrees all year round, sometimes a little more rain and sometimes little less. And the sun rises at six every morning and sets at six in the evening. I think that would be perfect for me. Maybe it is just because my mood and my temperament is so volatile in itself that I don’t need any extra rupture caused by the climate…
This is absolutely not accepted to say! All Swedes are supposed to love the Swedish summer as if it were religion. And I do love the Swedish summer! Maybe the problem is that I actually love it too much. I do love the long light summer nights, when it never gets dark. I like the sun and the warmth; I like spending time outdoor and love the more relaxed attitudes of the Swedes in summer. How could I but love all those things as I hate the darkness and the cold of the long boring winters?!
Maybe that is exactly the problem. I love it so much because I know what I have to deal with the rest of the year. What makes it a problem is that it is so precious and so short. The Swedish summer is, even when it is good, rather short, and too often it is not very good at all. Last year it was all rain and cold. So far this year it has been very warm and sunny and nice for weeks, but then immediately one fear that “this was it” this was all the summer we got, and I was working!! The shortness and unpredictability of the Swedish summer make it completely stressful. Every day that is sunny and warm that one do not use, which you don’t spend outside doing nice things is a lost day. And all those light summer nights make me stressed. They are so nice; I would like to stay awake and outside all night, but you just can not, you still have to get some sleep. It all just makes me stressed.
If one only could be sure that every summer had a certain number of nice days it would be easier to relax; now one has to live as if every nice day was the last one. Very stressful!! As I have always said; I find the change of seasons highly overestimated. I believe a climate like the Thai climate would suit me just fine. It is 30 degrees all year round, sometimes a little more rain and sometimes little less. And the sun rises at six every morning and sets at six in the evening. I think that would be perfect for me. Maybe it is just because my mood and my temperament is so volatile in itself that I don’t need any extra rupture caused by the climate…
Sneak reading my e-mail
I am kind of upset about the way that the different internet platforms sneak read my e-mails etc. I am referring to the directed marketing on the sites. I find it kind of ok that the ad here on the blog somehow reflect what I write about in the posts, it is kind of part of the deal. But what makes me upset is when the content of my e-mails obviously is scanned to direct advertisement to me on gmail. Just take a few examples: while planning the wedding of a friend and through e-mails discussing what gift to buy to the couple, I noticed that the ads all of a sudden where about wedding presents. Today I received an e-mail about a available apartment from a landlord where I have registered on a waiting list. Then I noticed ads about apartments, moving and furniture etc. As gmail and blogger are connected I even think they “cross read” their clients’ information. I suspect this because there also was an ad about rental apartments in Rome on my gmail account. I don’t really approve of this!! Although I feel quite sure this is done automatically, it feels like an infringement on my privacy.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
My Poor Car
Having been away for a couple of days and having left the car at the same parking lot at the railway station as last time I was a bit worried someone would have done something to it again. But this time it was ok.
I managed to find someone who could help me get the paint off without having to repaint the whole door, so now my car looks fine again. But I don't want to have to do this every time I have been away now I don't trust this place at all anymore.
By the way, this week my car had the annually inspection, which she passed without any remarks. So she is now in excellent shape again.
I managed to find someone who could help me get the paint off without having to repaint the whole door, so now my car looks fine again. But I don't want to have to do this every time I have been away now I don't trust this place at all anymore.
By the way, this week my car had the annually inspection, which she passed without any remarks. So she is now in excellent shape again.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Poor News Value
It is amazing what makes it to the news. And sometimes I can not help wondering who the hell is interested. I can understand that the US primaries are important in a way, but it has just been going on for ages. And it is not even the real election!! Who can be bothered to take an interest in it?! It has been on the news in Sweden for I don't know how long. Now hopefully it will soon come to an end, but then I suppose the race for the real election soon starts. I am glad I am not American and don't have to pay attention to it. If I was American I would most probably not have been bothered enough to vote. But then on the other hand one might get stuck with a president as Bush...
One other thing that is amazing about the Swedish news are the absolutely unimportant and irrelevant things that make it to the news. It becomes all the more apparant when you have been out of the country for a while. (not that the Italian tv-news are that much better, but still they have more channels and hence more of a choice). The first thing I saw when arriving at the airport was the headlines of the two tabloids. Ok they are tabloids and as such maybe not worse than others, but once they actually wrote about things that happen in the real world. Now they only seem to write about things that happen on TV. After not having had any Swedish news at all for over a week I was a little curious to know what had happende. But the one had a big fat headline about "what happened after" to some participants of a TV-program. The other wrote about a commedian and TV-celebrity who apparently had to "flee" the fans at some party after the Eurovision Song Contest. Such a pseudo world!!
Today on the TV-news there was a report on a communal landlord who wanted to close down some of the laundry rooms in some of their buildings (back again to one of my favourite topics!) against a small decrease in the rent. There was an interview with one of the tenants who was explaining what a disaster this was for her as a mother of two children, now she would have to walk out of her house and in to another building in the same area. That was just impossible. Ok, I can understand that it is a problem for her. But who the hell thougth this had any kind of news value for the rest of the nation!!!
One other thing that is amazing about the Swedish news are the absolutely unimportant and irrelevant things that make it to the news. It becomes all the more apparant when you have been out of the country for a while. (not that the Italian tv-news are that much better, but still they have more channels and hence more of a choice). The first thing I saw when arriving at the airport was the headlines of the two tabloids. Ok they are tabloids and as such maybe not worse than others, but once they actually wrote about things that happen in the real world. Now they only seem to write about things that happen on TV. After not having had any Swedish news at all for over a week I was a little curious to know what had happende. But the one had a big fat headline about "what happened after" to some participants of a TV-program. The other wrote about a commedian and TV-celebrity who apparently had to "flee" the fans at some party after the Eurovision Song Contest. Such a pseudo world!!
Today on the TV-news there was a report on a communal landlord who wanted to close down some of the laundry rooms in some of their buildings (back again to one of my favourite topics!) against a small decrease in the rent. There was an interview with one of the tenants who was explaining what a disaster this was for her as a mother of two children, now she would have to walk out of her house and in to another building in the same area. That was just impossible. Ok, I can understand that it is a problem for her. But who the hell thougth this had any kind of news value for the rest of the nation!!!
Monday, June 02, 2008
Four Years again
I wonder if I am ever to really grow up!
Now I have a knee like a four years old again. I believe women my age should are not supposed to have wounds and scares all over their legs as I have. It makes it difficult to look very elegant and ladylike in a skirt! Normally I just complain about the scares and see them as a reminder of the past, but I do still scrub my knees every now and then too. Today I fell off my mountain bike when the pedal hit a stone and back I came all dirty, bruised and bleeding. It is not as bad as when I had been playing rugby though. And it was good fun to be biking through the woods.
I guess some of my eating habits also do not qualify for many adult points. When I got back from having been jogging for 6 km and biking for maybe 10 km, I ate a bag och chips and drank a beer. Maybe I should try to market that as my special fitness diet...
Now I have a knee like a four years old again. I believe women my age should are not supposed to have wounds and scares all over their legs as I have. It makes it difficult to look very elegant and ladylike in a skirt! Normally I just complain about the scares and see them as a reminder of the past, but I do still scrub my knees every now and then too. Today I fell off my mountain bike when the pedal hit a stone and back I came all dirty, bruised and bleeding. It is not as bad as when I had been playing rugby though. And it was good fun to be biking through the woods.
I guess some of my eating habits also do not qualify for many adult points. When I got back from having been jogging for 6 km and biking for maybe 10 km, I ate a bag och chips and drank a beer. Maybe I should try to market that as my special fitness diet...
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Welcome to The Small Town
Just had a fabulous week in Italy, but I will tell more about that later, and was not too happy about having to go back to The Small Town. I even jumped off the train in panic just two minutes before it should leave Sthlm on my way back, to stay on an extra hour and take a later train.
When I got off the train in TST I was at first happy and relieved to see that my car was still there and with no ticket, although it had been standing ten days on a seven days parking lot. When I came to the driver's side that changed however. Then I saw that some bastard had sprayed silver paint on the door. Damn bastards!! I got so pissed off!
This is what poor Smulan looked like when I came back from my holiday.
I can understand if kids growing up here get bored and frustraded and need to get it out somehow, but not on me or my belongings!! Of cause I know these things happens in other places too, but it would have been at least one argument in favour of small tonws if these kind of things did not happen here.
By the way; while in Rome I learned that even the city of Rome is planning to remove all parking fees!! Think about that you greedy Small Town politicians!!!
When I got off the train in TST I was at first happy and relieved to see that my car was still there and with no ticket, although it had been standing ten days on a seven days parking lot. When I came to the driver's side that changed however. Then I saw that some bastard had sprayed silver paint on the door. Damn bastards!! I got so pissed off!
This is what poor Smulan looked like when I came back from my holiday.
I can understand if kids growing up here get bored and frustraded and need to get it out somehow, but not on me or my belongings!! Of cause I know these things happens in other places too, but it would have been at least one argument in favour of small tonws if these kind of things did not happen here.
By the way; while in Rome I learned that even the city of Rome is planning to remove all parking fees!! Think about that you greedy Small Town politicians!!!
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