Small Town Crime

Yesterday there was another “school-shooting” where ten people were killed before the perpetrator shot himself. This time it was in the small Finnish town of Kauhajoki. And as always when anything terrible happen there are interviews in the media and there are people saying they find it unbelievable that anything like that could happen “in this small town” and that they never thought anything like that could happen in “such a small town”. I guess it is natural not to expect things like that to happen to you, anyone you know or anywhere close to you. But if there is something we ought to know by now; it is that these things do happen, and to me it seems they happen more often in small places than in big cities. Ok, I haven’t checked this statistically, but of all the places I can think of where things like this have happened recently, none of them is a major city or capital. I am sure that on a per capita basis this kind of mad-man-crime is more prevalent in smaller towns and communities. So maybe it is really about time we stop romanticise the small town life.

Friday night in The Small Town

I am staying in The Small Town this weekend and tonight some colleagues of mine had a party. They live some way from where I live so I had a bicycle ride of ca 10-15 minutes back to my place. I left at around 1.30 and on the whole way home I did not see one single person or one single car!! On a Friday night!! This town is just soooo dead!! Can not wait to get out of here!!

Something new for dinner..

Today I found some really nice looking mushrooms. I think I will make a stew. Or maybe a risotto again... :-)

The Real Normal Life

Had a great weekend in Stockholm! Nothing special happened, it was just a nice weekend with friends, it was like life is supposed to be.

When I complain about living in The Small Town I sometimes get thrown at me that I can not expect life to be a constant party full of extravagant happenings. Although I don’t really understand why it could not, that is not what I expect. This weekend there were no extravagant party, it was just a very nice relaxed weekend with friends. I was in Stockholm already on Friday for a meeting. Therefore I went there already Thursday and had dinner with a friend. Friday morning I walked to the meeting in the sun. Just walking to and from the meeting and looking at the people you meet in the street and realise that there are still beautiful people in this world, (and handsome men!!!) was great. You never see that in The Small Town!! Just imagine being able to flirt during lunch!! Ok, I remember September is generally a good month for that in Stockholm, but nevertheless…

After work I met with some friends for a couple of beers, which was very nice. Nothing special and not late at all, just very nice. Saturday I played golf, after that I passed by some other friends who recently both moved and became parents, very nice!! After that I met up with other friends for some beers and food and watching a football game in a bar. Again it was nothing extravagant and it did not get late this time either, it was just very nice. As it did not get late it felt very ok to get up early Sunday for another round of golf, or two actually. So, really nothing fancy only very normal and very nice, spending the weekend with friends and enjoing a hobby. I feel that is what life should be like. Not sitting in this god forgotten place and rot!

A New Life?

Well, now I have decided to try something new. Not only did I join a book club, but connected to that I have decided to try a diet. Well maybe not really a diet, but I actually bought a book with a month’s GI-menus and today was the day I wanted to start cooking from the recipes. Not that I really believe in any of these diet-things and I actually don’t think I need to lose weight either. The thing is just that I am so fed up with trying to come up with things to cook and I am so tired of always eating the same dishes and tired of pasta and salads, so any book telling me what to eat would be fine. At least a substitute until I can have a service like “Middagsfrid”. And this food actually seems rather healthy and “normal”. I am sure I will not follow it very meticulously, if I feel like eating something else, I surely will. This is for all those days when I don’t know what to eat and therefore risk ending up not eating at all or munching a bag of crisps.

To start I had to go and buy some stuff, some of it things I never bought before, a lot of nuts and seeds and such stuff. It is amazing how expensive it is to eat this healthy! But on the other hand I now bought things for quite a few days. Who knows, maybe this more planned shopping after a list will actually cost less in the long run. I somehow feel I have collected quite a few adult-points today!! I even made my own homemade müsli!! (in some vain hope it would be as good as the fabulously delicious müsli they served at the Safari Lodge Hotel in Victoria Falls)

Sleepy

I don't know if I have got some mysterious disease or if I just have found myself a new hobby; sleeping.

Lately I seem to be constantly tired. It all started before my holiday and then I just assumed I needed the break, but the thing is it did not get any better after the holiday. Every morning it is a fight to get out of bed, I am just so tired. It does not get much better during the day. As soon as I get home I just want to lay down on the sofa or go to bed. And still I go to bed much earlier in the evening than I normally do, but it does not seem to help. I try to eat healty and I do excercise, but still I just feel tired and want to sleep all the time. I really look forward to go go bed. Very strange!! And it is still only September, were will this end??

Local Drugs

Maybe I would have understood The Small Town if I would have read the local paper more often, but I really don’t think so. Today I actually went trough it at lunch in the canteen at work and got absolutely amazed and flabbergasted over an article. It was about the spread of “spray-abuse” among the pupils of a school in another small town in the area (might actually be even smaller!). I just did not understand it at all. What the f..k is spray-abuse?? What kind of spray? And how do they abuse it? Even though I read both articles on it I did not really get it, but obviously the kids bought the spray in the supermarkets and it seems they were sniffing it. From the slang word the kids use for doing this “glading” I assumed it might be these room refreshing sprays (from the brand Glade).

I found it absolutely hilarious. I am not sure my colleagues around the tab quite appreciated what was so fun about it. But come on; the paper treated it as a very serious problem, and maybe it is. But I have never heard about it from anywhere else, so just imagine the lever of boredom, frustration and imagination too for that matter, for those kids in this little God forgotten place to go and buy room scent and sniffing them high on that. My God, they can not have any sense of smell left after that!! Welcome to country side Sweden!!