Really True?

This picture lookes more and more unreal somehow. Still it is so very real. Taken by myself with my own very simple mobile camera and no photoshopping at all. And it was my own reality just a little more than a month ago. Oh I whish I was back!! The winter never seems to end this year...

N.B. the white stuff is not snow!!

Part of the cooking...

Among my friends (and people I know) I would say there are more men who say they enjoy cooking than there are women. I haven't thougt that much about it, more thougt about it as a trend or sign of the times. I myself, would not like to say that I like to cook either. Not that I really dislike it, but it is simply not one of my favourite things to do.

The most obvious reason for my aversion to cooking is that I really don't like cleaning up the kitchen afterwards. Recently it struck me that there might be one of the reasons men still say they like cooking. They just simply don't regard cleaning up the kitchen as part of the cooking. They just seem to assume there are someone else taking care of that little detail....

Sun and Snow

Today it was somewhat of a chock waking up and see the qiucksilver standing at -33 degrees. Not too inspiring for a day on the slopes. However, we learned that today there was "inversion", meaning that dispite -33 in the village there was "only" -15 on the peak. That meant once up there we had a very nice day of skiing in the sun, not half as cold as yesterday and great slopes. Italian after-ski with prosecco and aperol! :-)

So not a winter-person!

So; went north for a week of skiing holiday with friends. Lovely!! How nice you would say. And it is. I do like skiing. What I don't like however is the cold! No matter how try to like winter; I am just so not a winter-person! Winter for me is just a matter of coping, endure and survive. I really wish I could like winter, I do! And I really try to, but it just don't work. It will never get abow the level of "ok".
As I said; I do really like going fast down a nice slope. The thing is there is just so many other things around it making it more of a hassle. And worst of all; it is cold. You have to put on such a lot of clothes and it just isn't comfortable. There's simply nothing comfortable about winter (unless you stay indoors!). Today we went shopping for some additional winter outfits and sometimes you are asked the question "does it feel comfortable?" But hey! There is nothing comfortable about skiing-boots, layer after layer of clothes, ski-goggles, helmets or thick gloves. It is all just a matter of trying to find something that works and isn't too uncomfortable or simply unbareble.
Ok, you do some nice things and get involved in plenty of physical activities, which is nice. But I can not help thinking it would all have been so much nicer if it had been 30 degrees above zero and sunny.

Happy-therapy

It is really amazing what the time in The Smal Town did to me! Not that I really can remember much of it, my self-protection system has deletet that file, but having moved avay from there has had a tremendeous effect. I am almost constantly happy since I moved away. Even now in winter and the last weeks when it has been freezing cold have I been in a very good mood and not even been freezing very much. Yesterday i was out walking with a friend who was freezing and complaining a bit. I was very happy and just went on about the bright, white, glistening snow and the beautiful view from the bridge. When I tried to convince my friend that it was not cold, but fresh and crispy, she finally told me to shut the f**k up. :-)

I think The Small Town could be the remedy for every negative and pessimistic person. Force them to live there for a year or two and only then let them move back to where they want to live.

2010!

2010 is here!! And it has started very well this far and I have good hopes it will be an interesting year. Looking forward!!

Happy 2009! Happy 2010!?

2009 is slowly coming to an end and it is time to make a summary. I must say 2009 has been a very good year for me. Looking back; one could even say that the 1,5 year in The Small Town almost seem worth it. It has made me happy every single day for almost a whole year, only because of the fact that I don't live there anymore. I hope it will last 2010 too. Right now it feels good and promising!

To be; or Not to be a Woman, That is the Question

One thing that has been fascinating me since this summer was the discussion that arose in connection with the world championships in athletics in Berlin about the South African runner Caster Semenya. After having completely dominated the women’s 800 metres there was a discussion about that she might possibly not be a woman at all. There was a lot about it in the media and although I didn’t follow it very carefully I understood that there were a lot of tests taken, gender tests, hormone tests, physical examinations and I don’t know what. Still people didn’t seem to be quite sure whether she was really a woman or not.

This was the first thing that fascinated me. Just imagine that there are so many things in our society that are completely based on what sex you are. Your name, your clothes, how you are supposed to behave, whom you are supposed to fall in love with, what kind of job you do, how much you earn for the job you do and the amount of power you get among other things. Yes, a person’s sex sometimes actually seems to be the most important thing about a person. Just think about how the first question asked about a newborn child is whether it is a boy or a girl. I know, many would (rightfully) object that many of the things mentioned above is not a matter of a persons sex but a matter of gender. In a way I agree, but still, the socially constructed gender is very much formed by the sex of a person. Therefore I find it very interesting that not even the state of the art of science can definitely agree on whether a person is a man or a woman. Can it than be so f***ing important!? Isn’t it about time that we start letting people be just what they are?!

This week the whole story got another interesting twist. Now the IOK and IAAF have come to the conclusion that Semenya is one of very few women that have extremely high levels of testosterone, more than ten times higher than a “normal” woman. This higher level of testosterone is suspected to give her some advantages over other female competitors. This high level is regarded as a medical problem that can be treated and therefore persons like Caster Semenya should go through treatment before they are allowed to take part in this kind of sports competitions.

But hey!! Isn’t there something very wrong here?! Isn’t this, what sport is all about?! That there are some persons who have certain physical features that make them better suited for certain kinds of sports?! Shouldn’t tall persons be allowed to play basket ball?? Should we first send them to some anti-growth-hormone-treatment?! I think this is completely sick!! And I also think it is very typical that this is happening to a woman, who is considered not to be “the right kind of” woman. And of course a woman who is not a “real” woman needs to be sent to treatment!

Shame on you IOK and IAAF!
Go Semenya!! Go Girl!!

Change?!

Well, as you might have noticed I haven't been writing much lately. The funny thing is, considering the name of this blog, that the reason for that is, that I believe I have had a very normal life the last couple of months. Normal life meaning I have been busy working at a job that I like, living in a place that I like in a town that I like and been seeing my friends who I like. So nothing much to complain and being frustrated about and no reason for escaping to strange places. And although I have had a very nice time and enjoyed myself, there hasn't really been anything to write home about.

Anyway, we are now approaching a new year. It might be time to sum up the past year and make predictions about the coming. My hope for the new year is that it will be one full year (12 months) of not moving and not changing jobs. That would be the first in over 10 years time for me!! I am not yet sure if I will make it and if the preconditions are the right, but I have good hopes they might be. Whish me luck!!

So if my life is not that exciting at the moment, maybe it is time for me to try to write a little more reflective texts. Maybe a little more about society and politics, matters that actually do interest me. Maybe, let's see...

My Christmas tree

A Monster in the Yard

As the work to finish the yard behind my house is progressing, there are small surprises almost everyday. Some better, some worse. This morning I discovered this monster.

I don't really know what this orange thing is supposed to be, if it is a piece of art or a toy for the kids, but anyway it is gross. Absolutely horrible. I don't know exactly what is under the plastic sheeting, but I think it has a mate as well..

To get a day at sea

Today I had a great day at sea! I was out sailing with a friend of a friend. It was not really planned at all but we met at an after work in a bar yesterday together with some other friends. When this friend said he planned to go sailing today I more or less invited myself to join. As I don't know him very well I wasn't sure wether he meant it or not, but indeed; we went sailing, togehter with his sister.
Some times it pays off to be a bit cocky. Today it gave me a great day at sea!



This September has just been fantastic!! So warm and sunny!! It feels like it is still real summer, only with a little higher air and a slight tone of red and yellow among the green. I hope it stays like this for a long time still. We were talking about swimming today, although we didn't, mostly out of laziness I think, I don't think the water would have been very cold.

Bad Planning

Sometimes I wonder what is really the driving force behind some spatial planning. Quite often you see parks or school yards etc where the paved paths are nowhere close to where people want to walk. And as people are generally lazy of course they walk where they want to walk and new spontanous paths occurs. Sometimes the park planners accept the fact and let the new paht get pawed, which I think is good, sometimes they start counter strike and do everything they can to prevent people to walk where they want. Mostly a rather futile fight.
Now I have a very near example of this rather bad planning (in my more malevolant moments I call it fascist planning). The house where I live is new and the yard is just being finished. From the yard there is the entrance to the bicycle room and the laundry room. For long there was no paved paths at all but as people had to walk there they had put some wooden boards to walk on, but now quite recently they have fiished the paving and now we just wait for them to plant some plants and bushes etc. When the paving was done I really asked how they thought when they made the plans!!



You enter the yard from the street to the right. If you then want to go to the bicyle room would you then prefer to take the straight (pink) way or the prescribed (yellow dotted)way?! I would guess the pink! Especially as the temporary wooden board that was there before the paving was placed exacly there. I just wonder what they were thinking.

Since I took this picture they have now put some stands for bikes just exacly where all normal persons would want to go (the pink line), just to prevent people from walking there. Hence I believe those planners are more of the fascistoid kind.

Back in Belgrad and what's new?

Last weekend back in Belgrade was just great! The reason for going there right now was that I had a ticket for the Madonna concert Monday, but of course that was just a perfect excuse for going there again. I haven’t been back since October 2006, so it was a long time ago. As an extra bonus my wonderful friends had decided to arrange the now somewhat traditional boat party this Saturday, which of course was absolutely fabulous! The party and the concert are better described in pictures so that will come later, but one question I both asked myself and was asked to me several times is; what has changed since last time you were here?



On the first look it looked very much the same. Of course you see some new shops, others that have closed, some new restaurants and bars and even a few completely new shopping malls. Some housed may have been renovated, but many still look rather shabby, in their charming Belgrade way. But after a while you start to notice small differences. One new thing that I noticed in the streets and the parks, were the green boxes for dog litter and plastic bags to take it up with. With the amount of dog shit that used to be found on the streets this is really an improvement. (if they are used!). Another thing was that you now can pay with credit cards in almost every shop. They even had little terminals were you had to give the pin in even the smallest shops. Amazing!! I even thought the air was a little less polluted and that I saw less really shitty cars and more modern ones. All this taken together gives the feeling that Belgrade has become a little bit more modern and “normal”.



The most revolutionary however was the evolution that the men had gone through! I saw several men that actually were nicely dressed!! Not fancy, but maybe just a pair of nice jeans, shoes and a cool t-shirt or shirt. That is not so many sneakers-training pants and leather jackets as I remember it. That is really good. I mean the Serbian men could be really good looking and handsome, but they haven’t given a damn about trying or giving it an effort. They have just been dragging along in their probably very comfortable “uniform”, but comfortable is not reason enough. I mean how damn comfortable do you think the 10 cm stilettos are?! Not very, nor much of other kinds of women’s fashion either, but still we wear it because it looks good. So it is about time men make an effort as well. The most chocking experience I had this weekend however was that a Serbian man actually flirted with me!! That NEVER happened once in the year I lived here (nor my visits after that!). It was even a waiter in a café, maybe even more chocking!!

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! 

Sticky & Sweet; Belgrade

When we entered the arena we first did not realise that Madonna her self were actually making the sound check. When we realised it was quite cool to se her so close-up, relaxed and with no stage outfit or make-up. Felt kind of exclusive!





But then, after a long waiting, the show finally began!! And what a show!!

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.

Vive la France!

Had a absolutely fabulous week in France!!
I mean, how wrong it be with 20 really good friends that haven't met in a year in a great house in southern France, sunshine, a nice pool, delicious food, wine and drinks and nice activities?! But the best of all are of course the people, great all of them. And a really good thing about being so many as 20 is that you don't have to do everything together all the time. It works perfectly fine to have small subgroups and choose to go for some sightseeing, some canoing, horseback riding or just hanging by the pool. Perfect!!

Might post some pictures later.

France, here I come!

Now I am actually starting my one week of summer holiday for this year!

Tomorrow I am off to France for a week. Will fly to Toulouse and by car from there to a friend's family's house where I will spend the week together with some 20+ friends. It will be great!! So looking forward to that!

But the flight is pretty early so I should stop writing now and get to sleep.

Blogs..

For being a blogger myself, I guess I read very few blogs. Hardly any to be honest. But today my colleague and I started talking about blogs and why people read/write them. That made me surf around a bit and made me end up reading some blogs I haven't visited at all before. Some by people I know a bit and other by "celebrities" or wannabe-celebrities. Some by people my own age but the ones that really opened up a new world to me were the ones by teenagers. It is definetly a different world, although I can still recognise parts of it from my own youth. The only difference is that we might have written those rather pathetic poems and "philosophic" reflextions in a diary that we kept locked and stoved away somewhere secret. The pictures they post are definitly very different and making them more open and public don't make it all better I promise. However I wonder if making them public at all, really is a good idea for the writer. I wonder if those rather small and average problems don't actually get bigger and more permanent this way... But that is on the other hand just an other unscientific reflection.

More obvious is however how many really bad and uninteresting blogs there are out there! I wonder who can be intereseted in most of them. It also makes me seriously consider killing this blog. Or maybe just admit that I am just as pathetic as all the others...