Em, at times slightly fearsome.

Gothenburg is covered by snow again, which explains my headsplitting headache last night, (Like an old crone I get a headache when the weather changes)
We got 'the horizontal' snow today. As opposed to the vertical snow that falls according to the laws of physics, there are times here when the snow almost goes upwards, I guess it's something with the winds. That, or the weathergod really hates Gothenburg.

People move with their heads bowed down, strafing sideways to avoid getting a face-full of wet snow. People talk longingly about spring, about warm days and light. They get a faraway look in their eyes when thinking about bright mornings and clear skies, unconsciously looking up into the ceiling as if the sunbeams would somehow magically come through it and shine on them.

One would think our summers are beyond fantastic since we go through an autumn/winter full of this crap, but come summer, people will speak about the rain, clouds and how it's either too warm, or too cold, and go buy themselves a week at Majorca instead.
Go figure.

The best way to cope with snowy days like this is to get a huge cup of tea, bring it to the desk, wrap a long (why not red?) scarf about 5 wraps around your neck and put on some good music while working. I'll go do just that. See, better already!

Books I never knew existed...

The Menstruating Mall
www.amazon.com/Menstruating-Mall-Carlton-Mellick-III/dp/0976631008/ref=pd_sim_b_3

Because, uhm, when a mall reaches a certain age... or actually no, I have -no- fucking idea.

The Haunted Vagina
www.amazon.com/Haunted-Vagina-Avant-Punk-Book/dp/097624988X/ref=pd_sim_b_2

...hahahaha! Ah yes, waking up next to "that" girl.

The Baby Jesus Butt Plug (which is now also available as paperback apparently...)
http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Jesus-Butt-Plug/dp/0972959823/ref=pd_sim_b_5/177-6918438-1981422

You know you want to see one.

Adolf in Wonderland, a homage to Lewis Carroll and Franz Kafka. Yeah, I bet they (would) feel really honored.

Sausagey Santa,
www.amazon.com/Sausagey-Santa-Avant-Punk-Book/dp/1933929561/ref=pd_sim_b_4
"It's the greatest sausage-spewing, elf-raping, zombie-killing, Transformer-fucking, reindeer-exploding, snowman-battling, adventure-rocking, bizarro Christmas story OF ALL TIME!!!"

I can has?!

Otherwise, the "new" fad seems to be vampires in love with mortal women, or the other way around, screwing at night, hiding by day. Heard it before? Yeah, me too. Bored now.

Yeah... so, 2009 don't seem all that much better from 2008. Meh.

And so somehow Christmas began, with a slight twitch of the eyebrow and a nervous glance at the computer.

Changes are coming once again, only this time without my doing. I'm following with interest what all this will do to my career. Either I will fail horribly in my new tasks, or I will manage to rise to the occasion and make something good out of the impending chaos.

I have been counting the days, wishing Thursday nearer, and further away at the same time. So much to do, so little time.

But I'm happy now that my beautiful V is coming in just a matter of hours, with her beau, carrying with her the spirit of x-mas and the little piece of me she always carries with her. Some of my friends are close to me, almost closer than family, and she is one of the few I trust implicitly.

There aren't that many people around, you know?

I probably won't write much before New Years, so I will think of a resolution right away.
I'm thinking I should try something new, losing weight and "remembering to not work too much" feels so 2000. My resolution will be... To learn how to sing opera.

Not a lot, just you know, grasping the fundamentals. You ever heard me sing? Yeah. You know you're in for a treat next time then. Bring earplugs.

So what is your resolution this year? Come on, surprise me! Inspire me!

I have bought all the x-mas gifts for this year. I am very proud of myself, usually I come to this point the last day before Christmas.

I thought buying things for my niece and nephew would be difficult, but the girl wants fantasy/sci-fi books, and when I called my nephew yesterday (he's 5 y.o) and asked what he wanted, he started hummin the Star Wars theme. The Star Wars theme!

The kid has taste, I give him that. My brother giggled and said his son had discovered YouTube.
He's seen the movies, and now he's seen clips, extra material, Lego star wars, and anything remotely resembling Star Wars on YouTube.

Do you think it's time for his first lightsaber? I think it definately is. May the force be with you young padawan!

"Create your Spotify account

Choose the user name you’d like. As one of our first users, you have a great chance to get the username you want. Feels much better than a long string of letters and numbers, doesn't it?"

Trying username: Mli
We're sorry, but someone else has already picked that username.

Trying username: Emelie
We're sorry, but someone else has already picked that username.

Trying username: Emily
We're sorry, but someone else has already picked that username.

Trying username: Caligula
We're sorry, but someone else has already picked that username.


... What the HELL?!

Snow!

It feels strange getting excited over snow, when you come from a place where it isn't at all uncommon during the winters, but here in Gothenburg we so seldom get it that people stare in wonder at it.

Well, for a while - then they get pissed off, as soon as it drops below -2 deg C the trams stop working, every year ;)

I'm going outside!

http://www.dumpalink.com/videos/Chimpanzee_on_a_segway-12h2.html

It makes me smile, and for some reason, makes me wanna smoke and drink. At 8 am. Must be a good thing.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HTN6Du3MCgI

London was awesome, as usual. V and M were the perfect hosts and made my stay wonderful, thank you sooo much! <3

V and I shopped our way through Camden, drank lots and lots of tea, had wine at The end of the world and laughed lots. It felt strange going home again.

I managed to get a free Priority pass from RyanAir, and thank goodness for that. The flight home was packed with people, and delayed because of the thick fog. There was pretty much a stampede when they opened up the gate and let people through, people running over the tarmac to get to the plane as fast as they could.

I'm not sure these unnumbered seats are all for the best...

I got home anyway, I picked up my bags, and I picked up a nice flu. I blame the plane, breathing the same air 170 other people have used can't be healthy =P
But that's what Ibuprofen is for after all. And I have some really wonderful tea V gave me, white strawberry tea. Besides, I'll need the money after all that shopping ;)

Today is the first day of my life without my uncle in it. And the world turned a bit more grey.

The only thing I regret, is not telling him how much he meant to me.

I am still going to London tonight, because he'd hate me to stay home being sad. He was always saying we should have fun in life, and embrace it fully. I'll do just that, and I'll drink a pint for you uncle, I'll see you later.

Has been:

Summer, such a wonderful summer. It's been warm, maybe 3 days of rain in Gothenburg in total over 5 weeks. I haven't been off from work for that long since... school. It was very much needed, and we didn't really plan that much, we just wanted to feel the total freedom of doing what we felt like on any day.

We swam in the sea, visited Asperö and took the boat to a secluded beach on one of the islands in the archipelago and dove from the boat. Not one jellyfish came close, and the water was warm, clear and blue.

www.flickr.com/photos/25485895@N00/2787503558/in/set-72157606888256204/

I went to my friends Brian's wedding, and it was so much fun! There's nothing quite like partying with the Irish!
Me and P went to Denmark, Läsö and Karlskoga. Drove, swam, ran, walked and bicycled. My brother visited a couple of times, and it was overall very relaxing and nice.

And I've never watched as much Olympics as I did this year (the weather in Denmark was decidedly worse see)

Is:

Back at work again, almost back to usual. I have a newfound love for high heels, and actually learnt how to walk properly in them. I blame all the weddings and other parties I've gone to over the past 5 weeks!
I get a few extra cm on my height, and that my friends, is a very welcome addition. Sure pretty boots are nice, but not even I am vain enough to wear those on a warm summer day.

So, the new *yay* in my wardrobe are the high heels!
The new *nay!* would be the extra few kilos I put on over the summer thanks to beer, ice-cream and not really working out as much as I promised myself I would. But I'm already working on that now, so yeah... ahem.

Will be:

Faster, stronger, harder.... scooter? We're currently saving for a trip somewhere, making an effort to not spend cash irresponsibly. The idea of a trip to blue oceans and cheap drinks is really very motivating. 

Some of the cash will be spent in london of course, I'm coming over (finally!) 24-27 September to see my beautiful miss V (and compare scars, but I think she'll win now, poor sweetie)
We've decided to be off somewhere as soon as she's well again, and the credit card WILL be with us. Hey, here's an idea, Dublin?

Work has taken a turn for the better, as of today. I said the right words to someone, and hey! New interesting things to do!

The future is looking bright and shiny, and I'm very happy. Even though I'm turning 30. ;-)
(My mom called and gave me a shouting about turning 30, being unmarried and not having any kids. She's the one having a crisis for me, I really don't really worry that much about it. "When I was your age I'd been married 8 years and had a kid!". The fact that she isn't married any longer failed to have any importance during the argument)

 

Besides, I'm spending my old age with V in a house in Spain, blue hair, drinks in the morning and a young, handsome poolguy to pinch with our old (and surprisingly strong) hands!

After 5 weeks of glorious vacation, it's time to have a date with reality. To start earning cash again. To make an effort.
Ideally, I would've been motivated, wanting to do my very best, having ideas of change and bettering mankind.

Mostly though, I'm just tired, And a little bit hungry. I just got myself a Huge Coffee. That's what I ordered at 7-11. A Huge Coffee.
"One of those mornings?"
"Uhuh."
"I'll get you the largest cup I've got."

I would've told her I love her, but it could be considered strange. (Not that being considered strange should be any problem, but I don't want to fall out with the girl giving me the drinkable coffee)
You know, as opposed to the coffee machine at work who is in a state on constant PMS (or PMT, whatever you wish to call it), delivering vile coffee with a mood.

I'm slowly adjusting to the work pace. Checking mail. Starting Firefox. Finding bookmarks. Reading paper. Checking clock. Thinking about the next course of action. Like doing actual work.
I think I'll shuffle some paper while I try to figure out where to begin.

My thoughts are with V today, good luck honey.
 

Busy busy busy, sometimes I dream of distant countries (Like, uh, Great Britain) and white beaches with umbrella drinks (not Great Britain)

But I'm only a day away from 5 weeks of leisure, 5 weeks away from all things resembling work, 5 weeks in pure, relaxed bliss.
That's what I hope anyway. I've pretty much checked out mentally at work, as one does this close to free pastures. Sadly, I'm pretty much alone here, so I still have to work quite a lot, but in between I'm really just vegetating.

I'm thinking about getting a cheap ticket to Ireland, I hear Dublin isn't half bad?

Yesterday was "chick-day" and me and the girls went to get a few drinks and see "Mamma Mia". I wasn't really THAT interested in seeing it, but it wasn't too bad. The whole cinema was filled up to the last chair, and it wasn't even the premier.
I guess us Swedes really likes Abba (not that we're alone though). The girl next to me started singing along
 to all the songs, and even though she got a few weird looks, others soon joined.
People applauded, sang, laughed and cried in there, and there was no irritation what so ever (like there usually is when people are making noises during a movie)

Very un-swedish. Then again, there might've been more people with a few drinks in them apart from us ;-)

A feelgood movie if I ever saw one. It's also a shameful advert for Greece, so V, I wanna come with you guys. I wanna go to Greece. I wanna go to Greece. Veronica! Take me with you! Greece!

Ahem.

I just realized that my favorite club in Gothenburg has closed. That's a bloody shame. The (very) small pubs with electronic-music gets old really quick, with the same people coming there every time. Whether you wanna see them or not.
God I miss London sometimes. (although I could do without London's healthcare system, tubes and rents)

Busy busy busy, but with a lot of fun going on in between :)

Any of you good at HP Procurve 2524 and spanning-tree? Could use some help with syntax and that edge-port stuff right about now...

http://knuttz.net/hosted_pages/yt?L9eUBVpL0ZU

I went to a colleague to help him out with a program that wasn't working properly. We talked, and I noticed a bottle of tonic water on his desk. I'd never seen that brand before, and the bottle was pretty, so I lifted it up to have a closer look.

"Where's this from? Haven't seen it before?"
"Oh it's a new one, it's good! Try it!"
"Naah I'm not a big fan of tonic"
"Yeah, but this is good, have a try."

So I took a healthy swig of what I expected to be fizzy tonic water.

It wasn't.

It was alcohol. Vodka. I took a shot of vodka at 8.30 am, at work.

My eyes watered, his eyes too - but from laughter.
I smell booze. And I haven't even had coffee yet. Great way to start a Friday if you ask me! ;-D

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=128695&in_page_id=2

"A man who told police he had been raped by a wombat has, perhaps not surprisingly, failed to substantiate his claim in court.

In fact, Arthur Ross Cradock has ended up in the dock himself and been ordered to do 75 hours' community work for wasting police time.

Not only did he make up the wombat rape story, but the New Zealander also insisted the trauma of the attack had left him "speaking Australian".

The 48-year-old orchard worker pleaded guilty to a charge of "using a phone for a fictitious purpose", after calling police with the startling mesage: "I've been raped by a wombat."

Earlier on the afternoon of February 11, he had called police in Nelson, New Zealand, with a threat to "smash the filth" if they came to his home that night.

In a follow-up call, he made the wombat claim - and demanded immediate help from officers, only to call back shortly afterwards asking to drop the complaint.

He told the operator: "I'll retract the rape complaint from the wombat, because he's pulled out."

"Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know, I didn't hurt my bum at all," he added.

Despite police telling the court of Cradock's struggles with alcohol, his defence lawyer Michael Vesty said drink had not been an issue that day.

And Judge Richard Russell admitted to feeling bemused by Cradock's motive and actions. But he did warn the wombat-slanderer not to do it again."

 

Still not quite sure. There isn't a single band signed that would get me to travel to Germany for them. I love being at WGT, but it IS a music festival of sorts, and there just isn't any music there that's tempting (yet?). 

The whole feeling of being at WGT is hard to describe, but it's pretty damn nice. However, paying for WGT-tickets, plane tickets, hotel, food, and not looking at any bands at all (unless I see one while drinking beer) feels a bit... wasted?

I'll sleep on it.

If I don't go, we got a room-reservation at Radisson, which is fully booked at the moment, in case someone would like to grab it.