Is this me?!?!

I just had a look at my chinese horoscope on Facebook, according to which I am a Metal Dog. I am rather sceptical towards astrology and now I will be even more so. Or what about reading that I am not easy to live with!?!? Or maybe I then can use that as an excuse..
There was also a section where they combined the chinese sign with the western. I don't know if they actually combined MY two signs or if they picked the equivalent western sign and it just happend to be an Aries Metal Dog, but this is one of the things it said about "me": The Aries Dog
These Dogs are self-confident and independent. They won't settle down too early because there's too much to do.

Hmm, does sound a bit familiar...

Normal life??

Just to write that I have absolutely nothing to write!
Just feel very empty and uninspired... Is this the real normal life?!
All of a sudden I feel I have a lot of work and unfortunately find it very difficult to concentrate in the office.
At the same time autumn is getting really serious, cold, wet and dark... Fear the winter!!

Fascinating Facebook

After some initial hesitation and even some aversion against Facebook I have now given in and started taking more active part of it. There is still a lot of junk and applications that I just don’t understand the point of, especially the ones where you “send” stuff to people, like hugs, spanks, drinks or small fish or gifts etc. But it is a nice way to get in touch with people you have lost track of and also to stay updated on the ones you have less frequent contact to.
But I have also discovered another, probably unintended side effect. It is also a way to lose friends or at least to get confirmation of that someone who used to be your friends isn’t any longer.

It does not even have to be an active rejection in the way that you refuse to accept an invitation, it can also be the very passive, silent refusal of sending an invitation. You notice when you see that you and this person have a billion friends in common, but still you don’t have that direct link, not even though you are the one who basically introduced that person to the rest of the gang. Before it comes to that point you have probably already guessed that something was wrong, when you go from nearly daily contact to no contact for months, but there are of course a million reasons for not calling or sending a message, mostly lack of time, but on Facebook most of the reasons aren’t valid anymore. So then you would guess that there has to be another reason, but would it not be nicer to tell it straight out?! Of course you sometimes have to break up with friends too, but wouldn’t it be odd to confirm a break up on Facebook?

Well, if someone has decided that she does no longer want to be your friend anymore, it is not much you can do but to accept it. And anyway, I don’t need "friends" like that…

To Move Or Not To Move

Been thinking about moving. Am not happy with my apartment, especially not the neighbours. Saw two other apartments on the net today, bigger, closer to the centre and seemed to be in a nice house, but then it means they are also of course more expensive. Still not expensive though, but not as cheap as my present one. SO, the question is; is it worth while going through the hustle of moving again? Will I feel happier there? Is it worth paying a little more or will I still be unsatisfied but only have less money left to spend on other thing??

I don't know! And I guess I should have cancelled my present contract today then...

Town of the dead?

Just came back from a sunny and warm Stockholm to a rainy and grey Small Town. I think, however, that is more symbolic for how I feel about the place than a mere meteorological fact, the weather is actually quite good here and I think often better than in surrounding places...

However, I do think there are more dead people here than alive!

Very close to where I live there is a HUGE cemetery. It is very beautiful and park like, but it is really huge for such a small town. I kind of assumed that would be the only cemetery in town and hence that big, but today I saw from the train, that there is another one, just next to the church and it was also very big. And it was also very neat, tidy and well kept, so it seems the town cares more about the dead than the ones alive, let alone the ones really living...

Now I am off for another "night on the town". I am meeting some of my colleagues in a bar, we'll see what will happen this time...

Community action

Just to let you know that I am not only whining about The Small Town-misery, but also take some action against it; I want to inform you that I just sent an e-mail to the town council complaining about the parking ticket policy. Not my personal ticket, that is under my dignity, but I just wanted to inform them that this little shitty town actually can not afford being that rigid about these things. If there is one thing this place have more than enough of, it is empty spaces! So why the hell charge people at all if they want to park the car there and try to see if they can find anything worth spending their money on in the few shops!!??

So, now it feels a bit better!

Hating The Small Town

Today I just felt I hate The Small Town! I took the risk of staying here over the weekend. I will do my best to avoid that in the future!

The reason for staying here was that I have been away lot lately and felt tired and just felt like relaxing and sleep late in the mornings and then I also felt I really had to do some cleaning and organising in my apartment as well as work a bit. When I woke up however I thought it could be nice to go out for a while first, as the weather was quite nice. I also thought I could take the chance to go to some of the many flee markets in town as they are only open Saturdays. As I slept late and had a long and relaxed breakfast it got a bit late before I got out, but I could not see that that would be a problem. It was; I realised! ALL the flee markets closed at noon! They are only open Saturdays 9-12!!! My God!! Is it so strange and weird to sleep late one day of the week?!!? But maybe it is only the old, crazy, disabled, mad and unemployed here that go to the markets anyway…

After that I was a irritated but still wanted to do something, so I parked the car and went strolling through the city streets and the few shops. It did not take long, but I also talked on the phone and went through a park and along some nice houses before I went back to my car. Only to discover I had been given a parking ticket!!! Apparently I was a little late; the time I had paid for had expired. Seven (7!!) minutes after it expired I was given the ticket! I completely freaked out!! Especially as this town has absolutely no parking problem. My car was the only one in a huge parking lot, and still they have to fine me for being seven minutes late!!! In this ugly, disgusting, horribly boring, shitty little town they feel they have to harass people who are seven minutes late to their cars!?!? And then they wonder why people don’t want to live here. I was so frustrated and angry I just felt I had to get out of town.

I had found a brochure of a manor house not far away. It looked very nice in the pictures, a big white house in a park by a lake and with a restaurant and a café and a conference centre so I decided to go there and have lunch or at least coffee. At first I also had plans to stop in one or two of the towns I had to pass on my way there, but when I saw them I realised they would probably be like The Small Town so I kept driving. Once I came to the manor house it was as beautiful as in the pictures. But of course it was closed!!

I am so tired of this place! I really don’t want to live here!! I think several of my colleagues are going through the same at the time. And I am really worried for what it will be like in the autumn and winter. I hate winter in Sweden anyway and I don’t think it will be better here…

Time reference

Sometimes I feel I have difficulties to realise how old I am. Today I was in Oslo for a meeting and after the meeting I had one hour before the train left back to The Small Town. I used that hour to walk around Oslo centre and the harbour. I was thinking about the last time I was in Oslo and realised that it was almost twenty years ago!!! That is scary!!! Especially as I - at least at that time - thought of myself as a grown-up then. At the very least I was definetly not a child. That is scary!!

I remember a time when I was not even aware that I was alive twenty years ago!!
But I guess that time will probably come back again. Hopefully not so soon! Or maybe it will then more be a matter of not remembering what happened 20 minutes ago!

Facebook explosion

What has happened??!! The last weeks Facebook has formally exploded in my environment!! I don’t really remember when I first got the invitation to join, but I did not pay particular attention to that. After some time I did reply to a request and opened an account, but did not do anything further. Then a couple of weeks ago almost all my colleagues started talking about Facebook and also more and more friends seemed to have it and I have received more invitations. I have signed up for yet some, but still haven’t done much about it. I realise it would probably be a very nice and useful thing for me as I have this strange habit of moving a lot and finding it more and more difficult to keep in touch with friends. But on the other hand; when would I have the time to maintain it?! I feel the thing with it is that you are supposed to spend some time on it regularly. I find it hard enough to maintain my blogs! Ok, maybe Facebook could replace the blogs or at least complement them, as it is more interactive, but still every now and then I feel like writing more than suitable for Facebook.

But is it not interesting how things spread over internet?!?! All of a sudden some things just get this hype and people all over the world are busy reading, editing, checking, yes simply doing more or less the same thing!

Back again!

Been away for a couple of weeks. In Stockholm for a two weeks course. I did not think that would stop me from writing some things for my blog, but yeah was I wrong!! It has been two very intense weeks. Long days full of lectures and after that lot of group works and case studies that we had to work on and of course also a lot of social activities!! Unfortunately the group that I was in did not work very well together. In the beginning I thought it was just because we took more active part in the socialising than some of the others, but later I realised that we were just a very dysfunctional group! So did the facilitators and then they made us elect a leader for the group, which we of course should have done immediately, and unfortunately that was me. It almost made me crazy!! All the participants were great people, but it was just impossible to get everyone working together! At last we managed to create some kind of presentation, not a good one, but at least we did not have to stand there and say nothing. I can not say that our case study taught me a lot about our case, but a lot about working in a multinational environment. In our group we were two Swedes, one Brit, one Italian, one Nigerian, one Sudanese and one Indian and that is some cultural mix!!

The course also contained some practical exercises in weapons destruction by use of saw and oxy torch. Good fun! Pictures enclosed.


An automatic gun after being cut by an oxy torch, simply melted away.


A Rambo for peace!!





As the course took more time than I had expected I did not get as much time to see my Stockholm friends as much as I had hoped, but still got some time for them. That was nice! I miss living in a city!! It was not very nice having to go back to The Small Town. I have realised though that it might not be my noisy neighbours that are the problem here; it is the fact the town it so very silent! I do prefer to hear traffic sound than the sounds of my neighbours!

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!