Friday, July 31, 2009

time for bed

Lying in bed newly showered and with new bed linen. Isn't it just one of the worst feelings?

Thursday, July 30, 2009

indian for home delivery

Apparently I am now discovering all the food places around here. My last month here. Why did I not start earlier? Today I tried out this EuroAsian place where I tried the butter chicken. Why oh why did I not check out all these places earlier? I have some catching up to do. Good food too. And very decent prices. The best part is that they have delivery for only 20 DKK. Awesome.

(Perhaps I should just skip mentioning the fact that the place is only a 5-10 min walk away from here but I preferred paying 20 DKK for home delivery. Blame it on my lazy fat ass? No I blame it on being busy cleaning the apartment... hmm...)

laundry day

Actually managed to be a bit good today. Maybe not as good as I hoped, like always. My plan was to get up at 9 am. But I got up at like... noon... I kind of got to bed late yesterday.

At least I got some stuff done. Laundry. Vacuuming. Tidying up. Now I just have the dishes left. And to fold all put the clothes away in the bedroom. Still have some hours left of the day so I should manage. Want to have it all done today.

So I can go shopping tomorrow.

No, I am not going to waist the salary on a whole bunch of shopping now when I am unemployed. Just want to check out some second hand stores. And you know, that is cheap stuff. So I am practically saving money.

cranking up the toto with mango butter

Probably my favorite intro to Scrubs. Loving the end.

known stranger

Don't you just hate it, when recognizing someone and you cannot for the life of it remember who it is. I saw someone on the flight to Copenhagen today from Stockholm. An older (middle aged?...) man that I think is famous for something in Sweden. Or at least know if not famous.

The first thing that came to mind was that he is somehow involved in politics. Then Bosse Ringholm was the only one popping into my head but it was not him. Because I know how Bosse Ringholm looks like. This was not him. But he had the greyish hair and glasses. Still, Bosse was the only one keep popping into my head. Damn, who was he?

It is not like you can start googling it when you have no idea where to start. And it will haunt me. Til forever. Well maybe until I fall asleep and tomorrow morning I will have forgotten all about it. Then I will remember it again at some point and it will start haunting me til forever. And we do the routine all over again.

Hopefully I will see him in the papers or something so it do not have to haunt me. Til forever.

tomorrow

I am back in Copenhagen to enjoy my last days here. To enjoy this apartment. Living by myself. Having a couple of minutes only downtown. Shops around the corner. Food around the corner. Living by myself. (Yeah, it is worth mentioning twice.)



Although I forgot in what stage I left my apartment in. It is an utter mess here. Ground zero. Chaos. Disorder. Clutter. Turmoil. Whatever you may call it. It all fit to describe how I left this apartment two weeks ago. Started by watching some TV. Then I ordered and picked up some sushi. Then I finally got around to fold some clothes. Then! Then... I popped myself some popcorn and watched some Scrubs.
Damn.
Tomorrow!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

are we there yet?


Sitting in the train heading to Stockholm. 36 minutes with the train is not that bad, but them you also have to remember the 15 km car ride you have to take to the station. So all in all it takes approximately 1h which is quite long, and it costs 80-90 SEK round trip. I am so going to love living out here again. Good times it was when you got the bus card from school and you could go into town for free. But anyway, it is worth paying to get into Sthlm. And now I am also meeting up with J and J for some shopping and dinner.

voice mail

I had the alarm on my phone this morning just because I did not feel like wasting the whole day. And since I kind of ended up in bed quite late I decided to do it this way, otherwise who knows when I would have woken up.

My phone rang, or the song since I have a song as an alarm signal. Being really tired, and the volume disturbingly high when being really tired, I just pressed a button on the phone to make it stop. Make it stop as soon as possible.

One second later I realize: hey wait a minute, that is not my alarm ringtone. That is my normal ringtone. Crap, I just pressed away someones call. Sure, if it was just any other day I would not have cared because who calls that frickin early (it was not really early but anyway...). But I expected a call. From the guy from the recruitment firm my beloved former employer is paying for. Damn.

I am lying in my bed deciding what to do for some seconds. I should go up and call him. Then I get a text message saying I have a message in my voice mail. In the text message there is a phone number for the voice mail so I just press it to call. Then I hear the oddest message (in Swedish): 'Yes this is Gustaf. Hello? Hello? Hello?'. Is this man stupid or what? is my thought, did he not hear that he recieved the voice mail? I know Danish can be tricky (I do not have a personalized voice mail message) but come on, it must be obvious that you reached voice mail. He then hangs up. He finally realized it, I think.

Then it hits me. For crying out loud. I did not call voice mail. The phone number in the text message was Gustaf's phone number and NOT the number to voice mail. Damn.

Now I am wide awake. In a sense, but my head is still up in the clouds somewhere trying to realize what just happened. So I run down the stairs to get hold of a phone and I call Gustaf from the land line. And it was okey. It felt okey. Because what can you do? It is not like I was going to excuse myself and start telling him all kinds of excuses or stories of what happened. Better just to let it go and act as if nothing happened and that the connection was bad on my cell phone.

It is funny what you can do when you are sleeping, half asleep, or barely awake.

Monday, July 27, 2009

pay your taxes

Coming to think about Punk'd in the previous post I remembered my all time favorite Punk'ds (apparently Mr Kutcher's as well). It was the one with Justin Timberlake where he gets all his possessions seized by the fake Tax Enforcement Agency.

It is that good. Very emotional. (I also read that he supposedly was high from marijuana during the prank)

Check it out, about eight minutes into the episode.

the beauty and the beast

Since I have been in and out of the country the latter years I have not seen several of the Swedish TV shows that have been created and aired. So today there was a rerun of the show 'Ett herrans liv' where Swedish celebrities are interviewed. The celebrity this time was Bert Karlsson who is known to be very upfront and says what he thinks about everything.

They made a sketch with him in the show which I laughed so much at. The intention was to fool Bert Karlsson but it was switched to fool the interviewers instead. Hilarious.



My infatuation with these kind of scenes bloomed with Punk'd. Loved that series on MTV. And of course it did not hurt that the host was Ashton Kutcher. My secret crush. Well, it is not that secret. I must admit that I have a small handbag that says 'Ms Kutcher' on it that I got as a goodbye gift from my friends when leaving USA. I have worn it everyday since, together with my 'Ms Kutcher' earrings.

One day...

where are the buildings?


This view I had a few seconds ago. I am being good today as well taking another walk at "rundan", a path our neighbor created for training his horses. This one is just across the road from us, so yes, I did really grow up in the countryside.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

sneakers on

This unemployment thing is not a good thing for my health. Now when I do not have a routine when it comes to food, I have gained some weight. When working I always had breakfast and lunch at work. It was easy to eat good and healthy food since they had a big buffet and salad and all. Now? I guess I have been enjoying the unemployment and freedom a bit too much.

So now I have finally decided to be on a more restrictive diet. No more crap, I ate so much crap after I was laid off. I had too much time and then you start nibbling on all sorts of stuff. The nibbling is the dangerous stuff. And now I am just about to go for a walk and my luck that the sun just chose to appear. I just hope that my tailbone (from my falling of the swing) does not hurt that much. Usually I do not have a problem with it walking around. So the sneakers will go on in a few seconds and I will head out for a walk.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

my home?

This has been a long, long day. We arrived at 6 am this morning to Stockholm with the overnight ferry from Turku in Finland. It feels strange going up that early because already at noon if feels like many more hours should have passed. And it is different compared to going up early for work since then you are actually doing something.

So back in Stockholm. Well, not really Stockholm since this home, my previous home, my parents home, is located about 50 km north of Stockholm. In the countryside. I have noticed that I cannot really call it my home anymore, I always refer to this place as my parents place these days. I moved away from here six years ago (oh my, has it been that long? I feel old...) and at that point it stopped being my home. It is my childhood home and I will always refer to it as some kind of home. But it is not my home. And my home, who knows where that is.

But this place will now be my home for some time now, but only temporary. It is funny though, because this I will really only see as temporary but I also saw my home in Copenhagen as temporary. But now, moving away from Cph I realize it truly was more than that. It really was my home and I truly am going to miss it. I never thought. I am going to miss the town, I did really like it. I am going to miss the people, my friends. It is always sad leaving a place, knowing you will never have it back.

However, I am not sure I want it back. Since I did only see it as temporary at one point and now I am probably just idolizing it since I have to move back home. There is some other place out there for me, that will feel more like my home. I am sure. I just have to find it. And if living at home for a while is one step in finding it, it is fine by me.

Copenhagen was just - I would not call it detour, but another path to get there. To my home. Perhaps next place will not be my home either, but then it will just be another step in the right direction.

Somehow there is something exciting in not knowing where my next home will be. I just hope it does not take months and months to get there. But I cannot expect the same flow as one year ago and how easy it was to get my first job. One can hope, but with this situation I am not counting on it.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

in the land of thousand lakes

It still hurts. It is like the time at had the back surgery and I always had trouble getting up from a sitting position. Also tricky to get into the bed since I have the top bed in the bunkbed. But I am surviving. It would have been better if there was not all these clouds in the sky so I could have lied outside in the sun. It is quite warm but all these damn clouds. That is why I am now sitting here in front of my uncle's computer. Something to amuse me with. Reading news and blogs that I have not read in one week.

It is funny how you become totally unaware of what is going on in the world when you are on vacation. Something major can happen without you knowing about it. Maybe you hear about it from someone else who have been in contact with the outside world and then transfer the news to us.

So maybe I should give up the internet now and switch the reading to my book. I have finished two books in one week now, so I am know starting on my third one. Either Pope Joan or 1984. I will see what I am in the mood for.

Monday, July 20, 2009

my back and ass says ouch

Right before dinner I sat on down on a swing we have hanging outside from the roof. Was not swinging since I was about to get off. Before I got the chance it all loosened from the roof and I came crashing down. Not the nicest feeling to come crashing down on your ass, especially with my back. You immediately worry that something could have happened. I lost my breath at first and could just lie there trying to catch it again. Damn it hurt falling down. My ass and my upper part of the back, it still hurts. So now I am just lying in the sofa trying to move as little as possible. I hope nothing happened so it will get worse so I need to go to the hospital. I am just going to take it easy reading my book and eat some salmiakki filled chocolate.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

i am sorry


I promised myself it would never happen. Since they are hideous in my opinion. But it did last summer and they are actually comfortable. At least I am not wearing them in public and that would never happen. I am just wearing them here in the forest. I am ok with that and will never take them home. And now I am letting people know here that I am one of those know. At least here in the Finnish forest.

the yearly visit


On Wednesday evening me and sis took off for Finland. Flying to Helsinki we stayed one night at our uncle's place before we drove up north on Thursday. So here we are again for our yearly visit in our cottage in the middle of nowhere. I am hoping that the weather will be nicer than last year when we barley got any sunshine. So far it has been decent and I think I even improved my tan today. Since there is not much action here you find other things to enjoy yourself with. Like feeding bread to the duckling family with seven kids. Solving crosswords. Checking the net for fish. Reading. Borrowing sis' Nintendo DS. Eating stuff (always happens to sis and me when we get bored, unfortunately). Also you find grocery shopping and going to the hardware store strangely amusing. Oh, and every other day we of course go to the sauna. Although I have not been into the lake yet, it has not been warm enough. Will see if happens thoug I am known to be a 'badkruka', i.e. someone who has trouble getting into the water. Well especially if it is cold. Lets cross our fingers for some got weather tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

sun where are thou?


I made it to the beach! However, after leaving a bit late and doing my errands downtown it is now a bit cloudy. Just my luck or what, when I finally manage to get out. Although I see some cloud free sky coming up soon. Crossing my fingers for some sun! By the way, I am taking advantage of my new phone and the fact that I can blog from everywhere. Like it.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

how efficient day?


Hmm... so exactly how efficient have I been today with my chores? Yeah, if you know me and considering my start of the day: not so much. I have indeed done my laundry. I did pick up a few things from the floor. What I have not done: the dishes, folded that huge pile of clothes on the floor in the bedroom, vacuumed the floor, watered the plants. Is that it? Let me get back to you if I come up with something more I have not done. And to my surprise when I looked at the watch it was already quarter past midnight. Man. What did I actually do today? This evening: watching way to many Scrubs episodes. I never learn.

observing from inside

It has been really nice weather today. Which sucks. Why? Because I had to stay inside and to my laundry and some cleaning. This since I am leaving already tomorrow evening to Finland instead of Saturday as previously planned. Now I curse myself for being so lazy and not doing the laundry last week when it was bad weather. It would have been a perfect day for the beach today working on my tan. Instead I have been inside not doing as much as I would have hoped.

At least now I have some clean clothes and underwear for Finland. It has been a while since I did the laundry. It is not because I am disgusting, but now I have been using the other part of the wardrobe that does not consist of working clothes. It feels good. No more wearing slacks or looking businessy. Not that I really looked that businessy in my skirts and dresses with patterns and colors. But still.



This is how much I could enjoy the weather and the clear blue sky today. Through my window. Maybe I can go to the beach tomorrow for one or two hours. But it all depends how good I am today in doing my chores...

Monday, July 13, 2009

new gadget

The mail guy woke me up by ringing the doorbell at 9 am this morning. I was kind of tired since I ended up going to bed quite late. But it is great now when I am at home in the morning and can receive the package at home instead of going all the way to the post office. (Because it is all a 10 min walk away...) In the package was my new cell phone!

Been thinking of buying one for a while now. Since I also need an mp3 player I thought I should just buy a good music phone. So of course I had to go for another Sony Ericsson cell phone. It is my fifth Sony Ericsson.


swedish chocolate


Of course I bought some candy from Sweden this weekend. I love the 'kex choklad' and really like the new 'plopp' with liquorice filling. Yummy.

Friday, July 10, 2009

comfortable?

I just could not stop laughing. Some people come up with the most ridiculous inventions.

your song is my song

Your Song must be one of my absolute favorite songs. Just love it. I also fell in love with the song - once again - when Ewan McGregor sang it in Moulin Rouge.



When I was younger I played the piano and once my dad gave me a music notebook with only Elton John songs. I guess he wanted me to become as good as Elton John, but there was not really any motivation for that with my music teacher and all the stupid songs she made me play. Sometimes I wish it had been different and that I could actually play a bit more of the piano. But you cannot have everything. So we just had to listen to Elton John playing instead.

involuntary free of tv

My TV just stopped working. Might have something to do with the rain of cats and dogs and thunder that was happening outside my window. So now I am watching the war of the ants. Is that a sign that I should be packing instead of sitting in front of the TV and Mythbusters?

There are plenty of things I could do. But I am not really up for it. So instead I am sitting here with my computer in my lap listening to Spotify. Which I totally love by the way. I got it when I was in Sweden since it does not work in Denmark yet. With Spotify I am rediscovering all kinds of old music as well as discovering new music.

barely summer

Man, I was going to the post office but dragged it out a bit since I started skyping with sister. Now it has started raining. What is that all about? Rain.

It is supposed to be summer with sunshine and clear blue skies and eating ice cream and lying at the beach and swimming and getting a tan and drinking cooling drinks and wearing sun glasses and walking barefoot in the grass and...

Oh yeah. I live in Scandinavia. Where we barely have summers.

tuesday full of goodness

Okay, it is Friday today but I was going to tell about my great Tuesday. Decided to meet up J for one last after work drink (or after doing nothing drink for me) since people are leaving town to head for their semesters abroad and not sure when I will see them again. We headed to Skuespilhuset since they have happy hour and a really nice place outside on the dock. In the sunshine with a view over the water and with a 2-for-1 deal on really nice cocktails. Perfect. Have to go there again since the drinks were really nice.

Since it was J's last chance to have a Halifax burger (best burger in town) for dinner, who am I to say no, we had a great meal after some great drinks.

We were supposed to see José González playing (it is the Copenhagen Jazz festival this week), however, apparently it got cancelled due to personal reasons. And this we found out too late when we had been running in the rain to the venue. Then it was time for some more good byes with some other friends and we went to Ruby for another great drink. One of the nicest - probably the nicest - cocktail bars in town.

When leaving and watching the clock I was really surprised that it was already 1 am. The time flew by. Good thing that I did not have to work the next day. Now I can enjoy late nights any night.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

garden leave

At this time one week ago, my boss asked me if I could come for a talk. I walked with him to a meeting room where another guy sat, which I recognized as I had seen him come to our corner of the office just minutes before. We sat down and my boss started talking. I heard these sentences coming out of his mouth and did not really know what to think. I did not know how to react, so I just sat there listening trying not to care and not to show any emotion.

How are you supposed to react when your boss says that your position have been made redundant and they do not need you at work anymore? One year ago I had my third and final interview with him and my manager and already the next morning they called and offered me the job. Just as easy to get rid of me I guess.

I wonder if my boss would be surprised if he knew what I was thinking at the point he told me I was made redundant. Never at one point during the talk did I have a feeling of sadness or worry. The feeling I felt was relief. If you have been following my life and my thoughts about the job then you understand why. I kind of had a down period where I just had no motivation at all for my job and did not do it well for a couple of weeks. I even told my manager about my lack of motivation, I wonder if it played a part in the decision.

After they told me I just wanted to leave the building as soon as possible. My boss asked if we should tell the rest now or at a later stage. I could not really think but I guess it was just better to get it over and done with, like ripping of a band aid. Although I hate people feeling sorry for me, perhaps I should have left so they could get the message with me gone already. My colleague came up to me after and then is when I get tears in my eyes. I can handle it if no one feels sorry for me, otherwise I can so easily start crying.

So we just walked off to talk a bit and I did not want to show my teary eyes to all the rest on the floor. Oddly though, I do not know why I was crying since I was not sad about it. The only thing I felt was that now I am free. I have my freedom to do whatever I want. Just what I wanted. I wanted vacation. Mornings to sleep in. Days at the beach. Doing whatever I feel like.

I do not have to go back to a job that made me unhappy. To use a cliché: they did me a favor. People said that to me already the first day since they know about my feelings about the job. That I eventually will think that maybe it was all for the best. But it did not take weeks for me to feel that, it took me only a couple of minutes.

I must say though, while working and as soon I had time off I just wanted to do absolutely nothing. I could just spend time in my sofa watching TV and enjoying being off from work. Now, when I have all the time in the world to do nothing, I feel I should do things and I cannot just spend time in the sofa watching TV. It also feels strange to not have a routine. I had my routine before and now I have no plans, the future is completely open and anything could happen.

The good thing is that I could leave only minutes after they told me I was fired. I do not have to stay the three months of termination which feels great. I could go on a so called garden leave and will get my last three pay checks plus an additional one for being made redundant. Then I can focus on searching for a new job and having 'vacation'. Perfect timing with the summer and all and since I only had a few weeks of paid vacation.

It is vacation. Because I will only be unemployed in three months, when I do not have a pay check coming into my account. Unemployed. I am one of those now. At least I am in good company in this financial crisis. Sure, it is not the best time to be unemployed but I will figure something out.

My major concern is not to find a new job, it is to figure out exactly what I want for myself. I do not want to end up with another job that makes me unhappy. I need something that challenge me and I can feel good about. Do not ask me how I plan to figure that out. Because I do not know.

Now I am just going to enjoy the summer. And the freedom.

Monday, July 6, 2009

the road trip

I am back from a lovely weekend! We had a great road trip touring Denmark in two and a half days. The small rental car that turned out to be smaller than expected. With only two seats in the back and we were three that had to fit. So it was just to squeeze in our buts but we made it. The same had to be done for the trunk, squeezing and prioritizing what we needed to bring along. Think it is the smallest trunk I have ever seen. Some blankets and pillows had to stay at home. Eventually we got the trunk closed and we could head off for our first stop: Aalborg.

Reaching Aalborg we stopped at A's friends place to drop of our stuff and head for a party. Then it was time to see the famous bar street Jomfru Ane Gade. With plenty of bars to go through but we only manage to fit in three but it was plenty of fun dancing the night away.

After waking up in an extremly hot apartment with five other people and sun coming through the windows, it was time to continue towards Skagen. We had clear blue skies and drove as fast as we could to reach the beach in Skagen. We finally reached Grenen which is the northmost point of Denmark and the beach that surprisingly enough barely had any people. Lovely. We settled down on the white sand beach and enjoyed the perfect warm weather with a light breaze. Then it was time for the first outdoor dip of the year and to my surprise the water was quite warm. I usually have trouble getting into the water but not this time.

After plenty of hours at the beach we headed to town for some food. Then it was time to find a place to sleep. I.e. find a camping ground where we could put up our tents. It was a long time ago I was out camping but I do not really mind it at all. We put up our borrowed tents and settled down to have some wine and chips before getting some sleep.

I will never ever sleep on a sleeping mat again since I woke up basically every hour during the night. Next time I will for sure use an air mattress. After some breakfast consisting of juice and bread with nutella it was time to contine the trip back south and the 500 km to Copenhagen.

On the way back we made a stop in the nice town of Århus and a good dinner at an Italian restaurant. We had some time to enjoy the city but were mostly tired and just relaxed in a really nice park enjoying a bit of sun. It was Sunday evening and time to drive the last few hours back to Copenhagen. On the 15 km bridge back to Zealand we also got to see a beautiful sunset. A nice ending to a great weekend.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

errands in the humidity

Was thinking of going to the beach today but never made it there. Had to do some errands. I picked up a sleeping bag at Jysk where they have a sale. But it was very empty, all the air mattress were gone so have to try to find one tomorrow somewhere else. It is not nice running around town doing errands when it is this hot and humid here. The humidity is not nice. At least when you are not used to it.

Since I still have some errands to do tomorrow, my plan is to get up early to get it all done. Then I might have some time for the beach. However, we are planning on leaving at 4 pm so not sure how much time I actually have for the beach. I am a time optimist and usually it does not work out in the end. We will see how efficient I can be.

road trip!

It is on! Road trip. This weekend. I am really looking forward to it. To get out and actually see something of Denmark.
The plan is to pack four friends and myself into a rental car and take off. Friday afternoon is the planned take off and destination is Aalborg. There we will stay with a friend of A and visit the 'famous'(?) and long street with lots of bars. Then we plan to continue further north to Skagen where there is supposed to be some sort of festival this weekend. I remember being in Skagen when I was about 10 years old perhaps. Playing at the beach, building sand castles and kite flying. Then we might make a stop in Århus on our way home or whatever floats our boat. We will just take it as it comes and see what happens. Oh yeah, Saturday evening will be spent in a tent. So tomorrow I need to obtain a sleeping bag and preferably an air mattress. Camping. That was a long time ago. But I do not mind it. It can be fun.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

forced to change

The daily routine has changed. It feels strange. The free time I have now feels different compared to before. Now I feel like I should be doing things. And I cannot really enjoy the free time. I guess I should just start doing some things. Get more active. Keep myself occupied.