Ouch!

As I wrote a while ago, cycling in the city can be dangerous. Today that was confirmed. On my way to the office today I had an accident. I am ok, especially considering that it was a quite nasty fall. I am a bit bruised and blue and sore all over and have a big bump on the back of my head (I know I should have worn a helmet!). A biker in front of me very suddenly breaked to awoid hitting a pedestrian just stepping out in front of him. I breaked very hard to, but still ran into the bike in front of me, my bike got hooked on the other bike and then flew together with on the side. Luckily this was a separated lane for bikers and hence no cars coming, but I was actually quite close to falling into the water instead.
It is amazing how irrational one first reacts. First I was most upset and angry over that one of my favourite dresses got all messed up and when the people who rushed to help me asked how they could help me I was only asking for help to get my hairclip out of my hair where it had got stuck... I was also still very convinced I should continue to the office despite everyone telling me to go home and relax or maybe to the hospital. But I was so convinced I should go on. Not even when they were making me aware of that I was bleeding on my foot and hand and probably in a state of chock I changed my mind. Because I was so stubborn to ladies helped me to remove my bike and park it and one offered to walk with me to the office. Only when I started walking and felt that my back hurt I started to think that maybe I shouldn’t go to work anyway. After that I also started to get more sad than just being angry and started to shiver and cry. I also got more aware of how I looked; bruised, dirty and with a bleeding foot hand and elbow and a thorn dress. So I realised that at least I should go home first for a while and then maybe go to work. I called the office and the woman helping me called a taxi and sent me off home.

I am feeling ok now, I am a bit sore and bruised and very tired, but ok. It is amazing how the body reacts to things like this. I guess I had a real adrenaline rush first that made me not feeling pain and then the chock came with a whole range of strange reactions. I think it also the chock that made me feel so tired now. Good it is Friday and a nice coincidence that my mother was coming here today anyway. Will soon be nicely looked after! 

Back at work and its dangerous

Today was the first day after the holidays for many Swedes. That was very obvious when I was cycling to the office this morning. I have been working most of the summer, except for last week, and I have been cycling every day. The last 5-6 weeks the city has been almost empty and the way to work was very smooth. Today was completely different!! It was dangerous!!
I often get the question if I don't find it is scary or dangerous to cycle in the city, but I have never felt that before. Today it almost was a big scary, much worse than before the holidays. I suppose people are back in town alright, but not really mentally back and also haven't gotten back into the normal everyday routine. Today there were cars, bikes and pedestrians coming from all directions at the same time. Completely chaos! I hope I will survive the adjustment period.

Disappointment at the gym

Today I was attending a spinning class at the gym, a class where you are connected to a pulse metre and can see your result on a screen at the front. I have a pulse metre and a pulse-watch of my own and use it sometimes, but have always had a feeling that there is something fishy about it. I haven’t measured my max-pulse only used the recommended estimate. According to the recommendations one should exercise at medium intensity of 70-80% of max-pulse most of the time and over that one can only work out very short periods. My problem is that I almost always exceed that limit. It is not at all unusual that I work out long periods on over 90%.

I have asked about this but never got a good explanation and therefore I of course came up with an explanation of my own, or rather two explanations. Either it must mean that I am extremely fit; or that my real age is actually at least ten years less that what’s written in my passport…

Today’s exercise showed the same result, i.e. I work out at a very high pulse level. Afterwards the leader of the class noted that some had of us had very high levels which could mean that the level was not correctly set. Maybe the max-pulse needed to be adjusted. Then she added that the level given is really only an estimate and that some people simply have a higher max-pulse and that this is genetically motivated, it doesn’t have anything to do with how fit you are or not. I am very disappointed…

Disaster Management at the Office

As my job is connected to disaster/crisis management it seems logical that there is a disaster-film-club at the office. The films shown by the club should be disasters in double meaning, i.e. be about disaster and be disastrously bad, i.e. real turkeys. Today they showed Rymdinvasion i Lappland (Space invasion in Lappland) from 1959. The film is Swedish but the dialogue is in (bad) English as it is a Swedish-American production. However I am not surprised it did not make it in Hollywood. In fact I don’t think it made it anywhere. The film is disastrously bad and hilariously funny! If you like turkey-films. It made me think of Plan 9 from outer space. The story, in case you can call it a story is incredibly thin and there are plenty of long scenes of skiing on the mountain and some completely unmotivated scenes of skating and a lady in the shower. It is just funny and simply impossible to describe.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0053232
www.vujer.com/filmer/rymdinvasion_i_lappland_1958
www.russin.nu/filmview.php?filmid=1151

To add to the somewhat surreal atmosphere at our show the sound only worked the first three minutes on our copy. There was no way we could make it work, but since we had all gathered and started drinking some wine and as the film had subtitles we decided to watch it anyway. When we got tired of the silence one of my colleagues started adding music that he streamed from Spotify. I must say he did a terrific job. He started out with some Bond-music, which worked splendidly! We realised this must be the original Bond!! Then he changed into such different tunes as Thriller, Fly me to the moon and Det är så hälsosamt och stärkande i fjällen. It was a long time since I laughed that much. The comments from the audience also added some extra touch as we interpreted it all from a crisis management perspective with jokes that maybe only we could understand.

There was also a somewhat funny interlude to the show. The film club had promised some drinks and popcorn. I don’t know exactly what they did when they wanted to pop the popcorn, but all of a sudden the fire alarm went off and there was a terrible stench in our corridor. It seems they had burned the popcorn so badly all three microwave ovens were completely destroyed. As we very rapidly could establish the reason for the alarm and the smell we did not evacuate but continued working. Someone called back to SOS Alarm to inform them about the reason and say they did not have to send the fire brigade. But obviously it was too late or rather they had to come as it was an automatically generated alarm and we all had to evacuate. This was actually a bit embarrassing but also funny. Our office is really right in the centre of Stockholm and it is rather big so when all the people gathered in the street and then of course when the fire brigade came, it caused quite some attention. I can imagine people would find it quite amusing if they knew what happened and who caused it.

Technical Adivce Wanted

Right now I feel the need to modernise the technical standard of my home (life!?). Partly because I will be moving into my new apartment and partly because some things I don’t have or the old stuff I have is not working very well any more, but to no extent whatsoever because I am interested in new technical stuff!! Therefore I really would appreciate if anyone out there hade some good suggestions and tips on what to buy or what to think about when buying:
• Dishwasher
• Camera
• TV
• Vacuum cleaner
• Lap top or at least upgrading the old one

While at it I could also appreciate some good advice on insurances and how and where to keep your savings at times like these…

Skiing

Today I actually took advantage of living in the middle of nowhere. Both today and yesterday were fabulously beautiful winter days, with white glistening snow, blue sky and sunshine. Therefor I went for a spontanous skiing trip on my own. Just a short drive and three hours skiing in the afternoon. Not bad!! Good for the first skiing of the season.
While skiing though, I remembered that the last time I was skiing was not last winter, but this summer. Indoors. In Dubai. Weird!

Wednesday 10 AM in The Small Town

Today I had another experience that showed me who detached from The Small Town we, my colleagues and I, really are.



I woke up with a headache and had to go to the pharmacy and get some migraine medication before I could go to work today. Going down to the centre on a Wednesday morning at ten was an interesting experience. The place was full of people!!!! There was some kind of market on the main square and the pedestrian zone and loads of people. Of course still none between the ages of 20 to 60, but still people!! And at the pharmacy too!! There was a queue of people!! Still mostly old people. So this is what people do here!!! They hang around town at ten on weekday mornings!! I asked my colleagues if they knew anything about a market, no one did.

Something new for dinner..

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