We the living

Long day today. Went up very early (considering it's Sunday and that I consumed quite a lot fo red wine with J last night) to go to Ikea with D and J.

It was a good Ikea round. Didn't spend a fortune and limited myself to things I REALLY needed. Like glitter, meatballs and Blossa rum glogg (my absolute favourite Swedish mulled wine). Ikea sells the glogg for an amazing £6 pounds while scandi kitchen shifts them for something like £12-14. Highway robbery. When done, we went back to J's place, where we ate some leftovers from the delicious dinner she cooked me and Mr D last night, and downed one of the bottles of glogg. After that we were very comfortably buzzing...

She also convinced me to get this amazing TV Tuner Stick, which allows you to view digital tv for free on your Mac (sorry PC users). And you can record, which is great. AND, you are exempt from paying for a tv licence.. hehe.

Ooooohhhh, and our plan for New Years is more or less finalised! Can't wait to have my three favourite people over from Sweden. It will be carnage, I tell you. In the best sense.

Now I'm too tired to think... Maybe some meatballs would help? I'll give it a try.

This in Swedish essentially means waking up in a bad mood. For me it wasn't so much that I woke up in a bad mood, it was just one of those weird mornings when breakfast didn't taste quite as usual, my outfit didn't feel quite... 'right', and I had a vague feeling that something was off. This coupled with grey rainy weather didn't exactly make a great Friday kick-off. It got a bit better though when I got to the office, made my cup of tea and snuggled up in front of my Sony Vaio. Ahh, there is nothing like the warm glow from a computer screen....

Tonight I have the option of going to another Aussie leaving do down by the river in Putney. But it's far away from home, and considering all the christmas presents I have yet to buy, I should probably have a cheap and quiet one.

Decisions, decisions...

Ok. I think I went a bit Ebay crazy there for a while... I hope my colleagues won't mind that about a dozen packages will be delivered to the office in my name within the next week. Half of my christmas presents bought! (And of course some things for me..) And without even having to set foot on the high street. Most were bargains too.

Tonight I'm gong to enter the details of my shopping spree in the spreadsheet I have prepared for my christmas shopping. I know, I am a nerd. But I love Excel. And it's always good to be organised... Again, nerdy.

Quiet evening tonight. Am going for a swim at York Hall. Am currently doing 2 km in 50 min. Not bad. Need to work on my crawl technique though. It really can't be healthy to swallow that much water...

Good stuff. Am having drinks in a bit with F whom I haven't seen in ages. Miss her. We always tend to come up with the most brilliant solutions to our respective problems whenever we meet. Even without alcohol! Love meeting up with her because she's one of my uni friends who decided to continue her higher education by doing a masters, which means we can talk shitty tutors and libraries, something I miss. A little bit anyway. Occationally.

Have a lovely evening

We're conducting them at work for a new positions that's opened up recently. I'm sitting in on the first round which is aimed at 'weeding out' any undesirables. Interviewing someone is tricky though.

Today we interviewed a girl who ended up getting a flat no, because she was too qualified for the job. Our boss sent her away with some good advise though, so  I think it was actually a good interview for her. You can tell that the jobs are drying up because of the number of highly qualified people that are applying for a simple administrative position. I think A received something like 70 CV's within 24 hours of posting the ad online.

I am very grateful for my job, I'll tell you that. And that I don't work in banking...

Today a guy peed next to me on the tube. Although he did it in a bottle and I didn't see him do it.

I noticed the guy get on, because he looked a little bit odd, dragging behind him a bag that looked like it contained everything he owned. I was sitting at the end of a row of seats, and for a while he stood next to me, before sitting down with all his luggage. About 10 stops later, at Tower Hill, they held the train on the platform for like 7 minutes, to every commuters delight, and started searching the carriages, paying particular attention to ours. Eventually they spotted the guy and asked him to step out to see the police (the police!).

They asked around, turning to me especially, asking if anyone had seen the guy pee. I stared at them in misbelief until someone confirmed it. Then in front of a whole crowd they framed and shamed the guy, who looked so scared and innocent. He eventually admitted to having comitted the heinous crime, but exclaiming to his defence that he 'didn't spill anything on the floor!'. The guy was showing clear evidence that he was either a bit behind 'flotet', or just not accustomed to...eh.. english tube bahaviour do's and don'ts.

I'm very glad I was unaware of his little toilet visit next to me. I can explain this by the loud music in my ears and a general tendency to stare vacantly in front of me on my way home from work.

Thank god for that.

Just saw an interesting ad on Facebook. 'Enter our competition and win £3000 in Primark vouchers'. What could one possible buy in Primark for that amount? The tills? Each piece of clothing in every size? Twice?

I got some objecting comments to my previous blog entry. I really wasn't trying to discredit relationships, or argue that in order to save ourselves and to avoid repeating past mistakes, we should stick to a life of solitude and one-night stands. I know a few of my friends think that these are the rules I generally live and die by, but it really isn't. I'm not against love relationships, not at all. I just don't want to be defined by them.

I know I whine, calling myself pathic and bitter, but to be honest, I'm quite happy on my own. I like living a healthy life enjoying my own company. It is possible, you know! Sure, like any single I sometimes miss the closeness that you get in a relationship, but I'm quite fine waiting for it.

'I have often felt that the sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his own room' -
- Blaise Pascal

Maybe not the sole cause, but the man had a point. When we can do that, I think we're ready for some company.

Also, I'm not alone. I have the most amazing friends for whom I would do pretty much everything.

Kisses to you all.

This is a really interesting article discussing why the divorce rate amongst couples aged 30 and below is so high. I can relate to many of the points myself. For example, being a 'divorce-child' (there are very few in my family that haven't divorced at least once) I don't really believe in the whole until-death-do-us-part malaky. I also think it's a very valid suggestion that many people in their 20s stick to the relationship they started at young age due to the sense of security it involves. Many people are terrified of the prospect of being alone. And then obviously there is the genuinly happy and content bunch. I do however, think they are very few.

It just seems more reasonable to stick to having fun in one's 20s and then settle down and become serious later on. So much happens during that particular period in your life, and today we're not forced by tradition and social customs to 'stick it out'.

Thank God for that.

Sigh, I wish I could afford to go food shopping at Waitrose everyday. It's clean, the fruit and veg is fresh and colourful, and not wrapped in 10 layers of plastic. It almost feels like going food shopping back home. Oh well, Lidl is pretty good too. If you like all things German that is. And they do sell a very ok Rioja for £2.98 a bottle. Good stuff.

Tonight me and D are having a budget soiree at her place with nice a dinner, wine and, my guess is, plenty of bullshitting.

Just what the doctored ordered.

Hey, more interesting stuff about chocolate. This time about a guy who'se managed to make it only with chocolate beans and water! Sounds good. I think i'll have to pay an expensive visit to Fortnum and Mason for a bit of that. Although that owuld have to be when I get paid, for right now I couldn't even afford a bar of Cadbury's...

Woke up with a headache, curtesy of the bottle of red wine last night... Days like these I'm quite glad I get to sit in a cosy office all day.

Farwell dinner tonight for Alice at a Vietnamese restaurant in Old Street. The lucky cow is travelling to India and Nepal before returning back home to Oz. I have a sneaky feeling she'll be back though...

Spent half the evening talking to J about our trip to Brazil in February. I CAN'T F-ING WAIT!! Carneval in Salvador is going to be awesome. She has worked with carneval since she was a teenager, which means she knows exaclty which parties to go to, which areas to get in to, where the good artist are performing etc. After carneval, Natal is going to be even better. Staying with her family, going to the best beaches, driving jeeps in the sand dunes.... And drinking LOADS of caipirinhas. And since her family is one of dentists and doctors I'm going for full check-ups. Brilliant. I hope I made all of you very jealous.

Had a rather awkward 'staff lunch' today at work. Our line managers at work has felt pretty bad about all the shit flying in the office lately, so they took us all out for lunch. The problem was that we thought it would be more of a meeting, where we discuss matters arising at work, and they apparently saw it more of a social thing. Hmm.. Well, the jokes got going after about 30 minutes and then it was less stiff. Next time maybe it would be in order to suggest that alcohol is consumed.

Night night

In Sweden recently, the blogosphere has has taken up a considerable room in Swedish political debate. Internet-blogging has been hailed as a new form of ultimate democracy, where everyone can publish their opinion for everyone else to read. There are also sites such as knuff.se where you can track popular topics discussed on Swedish blogs, making it relatively easy to follow a debate despite it taking place on thousands of blogs and articles.

This week, Bo Rothstein, a prominent Swedish academic and debater, heavily criticised this new-found tool of democracy, by arguing that the debates on blogs in fact has a negative impact on democracy. His argument was that blog-posts have a tendency to be both discriminatory, racist and/or sexist, and often serve as a vehicle for personal insults. This kind of writing he argues, would never have gotten through the cencor of the debate pages in popular newspapers. When asked if the alternative, to remove blogs as a forum for debate, would be better, he replies that he has no interest in solving the problem, just stating that there is one.

Jesus. My opition has always been that a bad debate is always better than no debate. Maybe it is true that blogging has made people less held back in terms of their views, and less concerned about style, and the sensitive aspects of their content, feeling that they can express themselves as honestly and freely as they wish. And maybe this has led to below the belt attacks that hasn't been completely.. decent. But one has to remember that this kind of debating is still establishing itself, and maybe it will take some time before people get comfortable and find their place in terms of etiquette and responsibility.

And I also think that in Sweden, people are more sensitive to what they consider insulting compared to other countries. Maybe one just has to toughen up and answer back, and sometimes ignore comments, instead of crying saying that a debate that isn't cencored by someone clever at a published newspaper, is a bad one.

Check out Alpha Mummy's blog on Times Online. Hilarious.

Every year I buy all mine last minute. I hate doing it. Thanks to my extraordinary lack of imagination I always end up spending much more than I can afford. To make up for the lack of imagination, that is. I really don't mind the spending part, but then you sit there around the christmas tree, pretty excited anyway about your family members reactions, and there is always disappointment. Either because they just throw their presents on the pile after a stale 'aw, thank you', or becasue they give you a shitty present back. Esp when you get shitty presents back. Although if anyone in my family reads this, I should point out that of course they only give me lovely presents.

This year will be different though. This year I have already written my list of 'who get's what', and it's only cheap and (relatively) imaginative presents that are sure to be a success (they better damn will be). Also, this year I have decided to order most of them online. London Christmas shopping is a bloody expensive nightmare. Ebay and Amazon is the shit.

I have (again) rejoined the world after being ill for what feel like ages. It's weird, becasue after a while you forget the feeling of not being ill. God knows I've been bored. The only thing to do is to watch TV (or since I don't have one, DVD's) and eat. I have had to force myself to stop eating icecream and sweets.

Sugar addiction is scary. Before I got ill I could go forever without feeling the urge to eat something sweet, but now I get cravings every few hours. If you start looking at the nutritial table of the food you buy, you'll see that many have sky-high sugar contents. Even many things that are labelled healthy, like whole-meal breads, and yoghurts. I'm not pointing this out from a diet-perspective, but from a pissed off consumer perspective. The high sugar-content is simply there to keep us craving, and to get us to buy more. There is so much food that would taste equally great with less sugar-content, or with alternative sweeteners. Bastards.

Grrr...

Long live this place (on Great Titchfield St, London). They always send you away with a smile on your face. Even if you don't feel the need to stock up on Swedish delicatessen you should go there anyway to enjoy the wonderful cafe and for the brilliant Swedish customer service. Today I was given a snapps (swedish spiced vodka, drunk shot-style) when they found out I had a cold. There is no better way to keeping customers than giving them free alcohol.

Now I'm going to make some glogg (a sort of Swedish mulled wine served with almonds and raisins) for F and C who are going to get ready here for the birthday party I was also going to go to. I'm doing the wise thing by staying home though. Still have some flu to sweat out.

I wish you all a pleasant and drunken Friday night

Back in bed. This cold is one stubborn son of a b*tch. I was really looking forward to this birthday dress-up party tomorrow. The theme is tube stations, and I was going to go as Clapham North. Hams in my hands, clapping, with a raindeer hat on my head. Perfect. F thought I should do the ham thing, but go dressed up a as prostitute, and go as Clapham Common. Not my thing though. Maybe i'll drag my sick little self there anyway, clap a little ham, have a coke, and then head home. Just for the sake of it. Was really looking forward to seeing all the Cockfoster's and Angel's that were bound to show up.

Went to see W with D last night. An interesting and amusing film, but hardly something to base you're opinion of 'Bushy' completely... What was up with Condolezza Rice though? I could see that her character was presented a form of comic relief, and that they made a point by hardly giving 'the most powerful black woman' in the US (the keywords here being WOMAN and BLACK)  any lines at all when in the room with 'the boys', in order to poke fun at the whole thing. But did they have to make her sound and look retarded? It was either that, or Thandie Newton is just a terrible actress. And does Laura Bush EVER stop smiling?

I really liked Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell though. The depiction of his part in the build-up to the Irak war makes sense now, with the knowledge that he endorsed Obama in the election. Also, if you like Jeffrey Wright, you should really check out Angels in America, the mini-series about HIV in the US. It's brilliant.

Also, while being ill I've had the time to watch quite a few movies. And I have to say that after some careful deliberation, I have decided to put Richard Gere up there with both Clooney and Pitt. He ages just as gracefully. Delicia.

For the past couple of months I have had a habit of checking the online version of the New Yorker daily for interesting essays and commentaries. Recently most have obviously been on the American presidential election, but also on the current financial recession, and other topics like the differing attitudes towards pre-martial sex between the republican and democratic camps in the US (I linked to this on Nov 4).

It is an unfailing liberal publication, delightfully intellectual and international. I can especially recommend articles and blog entries made by a guy called George Packer, a journalist and author who's written, we are told, famous articles on topics such as the Iraq war, politics, ideology and now the recent American election. I've added his blog to my links here. Check it out.

One of his main arguments is that conservatism and a blind faith in the unregulated market has swung, hegelian style, towards a time of liberalism, and a faith in a government of social welfare. One has to keep in mind that he talks about this from an American perspective, where the idea of public health care used to evoke dark images of 'Big Government'. And nothing embodies this change more to him than the election of Barack Obama for president. The 'tide of liberalism' as he discusses it would hardly be such a big shift in Europe. The pendulum swings more gently here one might say.

He's also reported from Burma, from the very relevant perspective of a journalist from a free country visiting colleagues in a country not so free (see the link in my previous entry 'Back ache').

Now I'm going to blow my nose, and crawl into bed with my latest favourite book. 'Farmhouse Cookery, Recipies from the Country Kitchen'. I will, by the time I go home to Sweden for Christmas, have mastered the skill of making pies. Proper English pies.

Night night.

I'm back in the office today with runny nose and red simmery eyes. I think my coworkers wished I stayed away for fear of catching whatever bug it is I have.. I had to get out of bed though. My back is actually hurting from lying down too much. I can totally see why old people get bed sores. I also realised last night that I had to do something about my miserable state after catching a whiff of my own havingspenttwodaysinbedandnotshowered-smell.

I might leave early though and do a couple of hours work at home instead. For the saek fo my colleages, of course...

Also, have a look at this article. Disturbing to say the least.

Now lunch

A place I won't be leaving today. I woke up with a horrible headache, a sore throat and a bunged up nose. Lovely. I'm thinking a Jane Austen movie marathon might be suitable for my condition today. And ice cream. For that I would have to leave the house though... hmmm...

I blame my apparent cold on the storm me and F had to struggle through last night, in order to get from her house to the Cat and Mutton on Broadway Market, where were were going to say hi to lovely C who was working. While F carried the cake (I baked the most amazing walnut cake yesterday. Recipy in swedish here), I took charge of the huge umbrella, which ended up forcefully pulling me, Mary Poppins style, in various directions, the grande finale being me, flat-faced on the ground, in the middle of the road. I was pretty soaked after that.

Got a message today by a friend who just had the best sex of her life. I'm really happy for her. Or rather, happy to hear that someone is getting something in these days of rain and credit crunches. I'm sure as hell isn't.

I have faith in the future though.

Now which movie should I start with? Mansfield Park or Sense and Sensibility? Johhny Lee Miller (aka Sick Boy) vs. Hugh Grant and Alan RIckman...

Hahahaha.... Hittade precis den har artikeln pa SVD's hemsida. Hysteriskt roligt. Tycker jag. Fast uppenbarligen inte mormor.

'Ackompanjerad av tung rapmusik hotade 85-åringen att "döda alla grisar".'

Jag antar att 'grisar' ar en referens till poliser, och inte djuret gris. Annars kan jag tycka att pojkstackarns straff ar lite val hart.

I have finally decided to get one. My contract with vodafone has FINALLY expired (hate them hate them hate them hate them), so next month I will sell my old Ipod touch and join the future. I am a bit obsessed with gadgets, and foremost Apple ones. They are just so damn functional. And pretty. Go to this website and check out the guided tour they have. I promise that you will want one too.

Depending on the size of my Christmas bonus (if I get one at all this year..) I would also love to start putting some money aside for a new MacBook. But considereing that I will have to start repaying that bloody student loan in January, that is not very likely, bonus or no bonus...

Tonight I'm thinking about going to see the new Bond on my own. My date has gone to France for some sky diving, and my regular movie partner D, is ditching me for her books. B*tch. We are watching Dubya next week though. I read a review somewhere that Stone has, despite harbouring quite a lot of resentment for the man, managed to make him a pretty likeable character. In a pathetic sort of 'we feel sorry for you' way I assume.

"Ica drar tillbaka 27 Ton köttbullar"

Translates to 'Ica (The Swedish equivalent of Sainsbury's) recalls 27 tonnes of meatballs'.

27 tonnes!!! Is it just me who reacts at the masses of meatballs that this must be? And all for a typo on the packaging!? What typo could have been so bad that they had to do that? 'These meatballs contain: Meat, Mad Cow Disease, Salt etc'?

Madness. And what a bloody waste.

... to wake up to! I haven't yet seen McCain's concession speech  myself, but here is what James Surowiecki at the New Yorker has to say about it.

Obama's win must be a sore stick in the eye for most McCain supporters, and even more so Palin's. Hopefully Obama's presidency will lead to a levelling out of the, in my view, far too conservative values, and not incite them further.

Now, the pressure's on. After that huge voter turnout, Obama has a lot of expectations to live up to. Hopefully he won't let people down.

So, tomorrow morning we will wake up knowing whether Obama has won the same landslide victory as is predicted today, including by Bush's former chief strategist Karl Rove. However, I don't like yelling 'hey' before I've crossed the river (a very bad translation of a Swedish saying) , so so far I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that he's right. 

Comparing the general Republican with the Democratic profile across the US is enought to convince me that Obama has to win, irrespective of any disagreements I might have with parts of his policy. The average Republican is, and call me an elitist if you'd like,  less likely to be educated, very likely to be very religious and thus less for basic human rights like abortion and, what should be considered one, gay marriage, and pro silly things like teaching creationism in school, than a Democrat. Eight years of that really was enough.

A very interesting comparison between the two camps and their respective opinions on pre-marital sex and marriage, and what effects this has on the community, can be read here. It's a long article, but if you have the time to spare, I can really recommend it.

Fingers crossed now.

Am tired today. Wish I could be home, on my sofa, eating cookies and watching movies. Had an eventful weekend. The Halloween party on Saturday was a blast. Everyone had made an effort to dress up, and there were drink and food in abundance, and a a music collection put together especially for the night (think ghostbusters, thriller etc..). And my tail proved to be a great success.

Ida, do you remember that time when you said that you would love to have a tail, and we all though you were a bit strange? Well, I am completely with you on that now. Brilliant body part.

My date yesterday was great. He's a lovely guy. Funny, cute, interesting... everything in one package. I felt there was something missing though, so i doubt it will move past friendship. But as long as that's ok with him, who cares? Am quite happy being by myself at the moment anyway. I just makes life easier. The story behind the date is quite fun. We flirted one day on the tube, and a few days later he caught up with me at a different station (what is the likelyhood of this happening?) and asked me out. Simple as that. We should all be more forward I think. There are some nice people out there.

Back to work

Tail, check. Mask, check. (homemade) Cat ears, check. All the ingredients to make outstanding vodka lime and soda's all night, check. Two vodka lime and soda mixed and drunk in order to warm up, check.

Must try not to become too sloshed tonight though. Date day tomorrow. Mucho exciting. We're going for a sunday roast pub lunch. I figured that would suit my condition post-halloween celebrations.

Ok, I'm off to N's house party.