Jan surprised us with this at the office for friday-“fika”. It was a great success!

Was in a race yesterday. Didn’t know about it in the morning when I woke up, but at work I asked Linda when that racing thing was and she was like “Err.. Tonight!”.

It was a lot of fun. At first I had no idea what this event was, for a while I thought it was only a little company event for us Gtech G2-employees, but it turned out it was much bigger than that. I Had no idea it would be so many people!

Met up with Malin at my place, then she gave me a ride through town on her bike down to the place we planned to meet up the others. 

Before start, when we were all squashed together in a big pile, they decided it was an excellent idea to have everyone dance Sumba. I really enjoyed watching the instructors do the dance, I wish I could move my body like that! I enjoyed the others following the instructions far less, people stepped on my toes, elbowed me, kicked me.. I wanted to push them so badly, yet everytime they turned to me and apologize (repeatedly), I would give them the biggest smile and say “Oh, don’t worry about it”. I’m hopeless.

My plan was to take turns on running and walking, but running with Malin and Ingrid I just couldn’t stop. I ran the first four kilometers pretty much none-stop (except for the water stop). The last kilometer I walked. I regret a little that I didn’t run, I was fit for it after walking for about one minute, but I had already lost Malin and Ingrid so I just thought eh, why not walk when I’ve already ran so much more than I could possible believe I would! So over all, I am very satisfied with my performance. Did the five kilometers in about 34 minutes.

We got a little goodiebag and a medal for our effort, I totally deserved that!

Had quite the weekend! This despite the doubts I had due to work stress and the tiniest, by-me-supersized drama. The further I got from Växjö though, the better I felt. Don’t get me wrong, I really love it in Växjö, but sometimes you really need a break and you don’t know it until you’ve taken the time to do just that.

After my now-days quite usual 1½ hour drive to Kalmar I got spoiled with lots of well-deserved cuddling from my all super hot boyfriend, before we headed off to barbecue with a few really cozy friends of his.

After we’d finished off the delicious meat (which would’ve been a real success if only we’d brought some salt), I got to show off my amazing skills in kubb. And by amazing, I do mean amazingly lame. I’m just happy I didn’t actually break a window, or hit myself in the head with one of those sticks. I don’t know what is up with me and that game, we got along so well the first couple of years or so, but then suddenly I was just unable to throw those things like a normal person. But what can you do, you don’t want to be the boring, grumpy person who sits in a corner watching while the other kids play - all you can do really is to join in, do your best and laugh about it.. And hope the others can bear with you! We won one out of three rounds though, and we can say that it most certainly wasn’t thanks to me.

In the evening we joined a party held in one of the student dorms. As a former student on a more technologically focused school, I was surprised to see so many women in one room, but I adapted quite good and quickly I believe. It was good fun! Even more so when M&E arrived, allowing me to sneak off with E for a little while and just talk about dorky computer nerd stuff and feel a little bit less like an alien. You see, the hot topics among the people I’ve hung out with up to this point are computers, programming and games. What the people I now usually end up among more likely talk about is food, training and sex.. A slight difference we joke about quite a bit.

The next day we chilled a bit before making a four hour drive up to J’s parents. We arrived in the evening and went to bed quite early, which is kind of how we roll really. On Monday we would look through the fishing equipment, go shop for whatever we would need to complete it, including fishing license, and then go on a little semi-adventure - which actually means we went to a little creek and captured tiny water lizards and put them in a bowl. I felt like eight again! No worries, we let them out again before we went home. It was quite the adventure really, the part I loved the most was watching my man feel slightly embarrassed standing around with a big, purple butterfly-net while a fairly attractive young woman was standing next to us in line, or while we were walking through the village and meeting people he knew while carrying that.. :D

On this adventure I unfortunately encountered a far less pleasant creature.. As I was walking over to pick up the bowl I’d left a few meters behind me, I almost stepped on an enourmous, disgusting, fat, ugly snake.. And well, by that I mean a snake that probably wasn’t more than two centimeters fat and one meter long, but still, awfully disgusting and terrifying. Thankfully, it moved quickly away from me while I went running and screaming in the other direction, scarying poor J half to death.. Well, that’s what he gets for bringing me out on such dangerous missions! That was however not the last snake we saw, but the other one was far less intimidating and much, much smaller.. Still, I wouldn’t want it anywhere near me! And to think I actually patted 20 cm fat and 3 meters long snakes as a child and held tiny ones in my hands.. What was wrong with me!? Those creatures give me nightmares.. Just a few months back I had this awful talk with one of my friends about the most horrifying way to die - to be poisoned by a huge snake so you couldn’t move but still see.. And then be forced to watch while this awful creature swallow you alive.. My friend would calm me down by explaining that this case is extremely unlikely and tell me that the snake would probably choke me to death first. Gee, thanks mate! ;-)

Enough about snakes. The next morning it was time for the main event - the fishing premiere. We woke up 4 am, left home 20 minutes later and arrived by the lake 5 am. There were already lots of people, but we found a place for the car and a nice bridge to camp.

I would lie if I said it wasn’t cold out there that early in the morning, but god it was beautiful. You could clearly see the mist floating in from the forest and out over the sea, which reflected the trees so clearly. Not to forget the morning sun peeking in from behind the tree tops! Next time I really must bring my Nikon D40, I really missed out here..

We prepared the fishing equipment and got ready to start throwing out. I really wanted my fishing experience to show here and show him a bit of what an awesome and capable woman he has, you know.. A little bit of that magic.. But as I’ve hardly touched a fishing rod the past five years or so and not much at all the past ten, I did a few newbie misstakes that definitely wouldn’t go unnoticed. Lets just say I think I know how Joey felt in that episode where Rachel is supposed to teach him how to sail. Man! If only I’d remember his quote from that episode; “Alright, that’s it, you’re yelling and I don’t see you taking your top off. I quit!”. Okay, it wasn’t nearly as bad but still annoying, after my second throw I put my fishing rod down, and went to sulk on a stump. Shortly after I decided that since he’ve been looking forward to this, I shalln’t be a downer like that and give it another try. I put a smile on my face, picked up that rod and threw out again. I tried to do what he suggested, watched him to not make any misstakes, and.. The hook got stuck, and not in a good way. “Didn’t I tell you this would happen?”. There, I put the rod back down and went to visit Mr. Stump again for another round of sulking. We turned it over quickly though, so the rest of the morning was far more cozy and wonderful :-) We laughed about it, did what we could to keep eachother warm, and ate our delicious shrimp baguettes we’d prepared the day before. J even caught a big fish we ate for lunch when we got back home, oh boy do I love fish!

To summon up, it was a really nice trip and I’ll be looking forward to doing it again. Not only to see my gorgeous man out in the wild doing all that all manly stuff, but to have my revenge; to have a bridge to myself and capture more fish than he and show him how real Icelandics do it. Mark my words!

Just rewatched the Swedish movie “Jag saknar dig” (I miss you). I saw it for the first time on cinema in autumn last year, and by then I’d actually been looking forward to it for quite some time which is unusual when it comes to me and Swedish movies.

At the beginning I was so disappointed I actually considered leaving the cinema, but by the end it had successfully won me over completely. Rewatching it I was afraid to break the magic about it, but I only found it so much more powerful - from beginning to end. It’s a unique masterpiece, that truly reminds you of what pain feels like. Sometimes that’s a good thing.

AiluCrash’s music video for Turn the Tide features clips from the movie.

Dug up one of Daniel Gardner’s old vlogs from 2007, where he talks about the awkward lack of guidelines we have to fall back on when it comes to choosing appropriate ways of greeting people.

I suspect many people can relate to this, I think especially here in Sweden. Swedes are probably the most socially awkward people in whole Europe, and we know it. We write about it in our blogs and magazines, and it’s a common subject among our stand-up comedians. You’d think after all these years humans have walked the earth, we would’ve figured out how to appropriatly greet eachother - yet we haven’t!

Personally I feel slightly more conflicted; I’m a hug-loving, socially functional Icelandic, trapped in a shy, socially awkward Swedes body - and the Icelander in me is tortured by this! Let me explain.

In Sweden, we don’t like touching. We greet orally, on more formal occasions we might even shake hands. Some people hug, but mostly just their closest friends and relatives, and it takes guts. “Yeah, we’re huging - what’cha gonna do ‘bout it?”. In Iceland however, you usually don’t get away with a simple handshake, no. Prepare for the full on hug, including a great kiss on your cheek. And don’t be surprised if the person within 10 minutes have started calling you “darling”. Sadly, this wouldn’t be possible to do in Sweden without the person involved and everyone around you assuming you have a sexual connection. It’s sad though. It’s such a powerful form of greeting, so full of character!

The latest real greeting-conflict I encountered was this summer in Belgium. I was going to meet up with a new-found Internetz-friend and his wife, whom I’d never met before. As I was waiting for them to arrive to the place we’d decided to meet up on, I asked myself the question I always ask before this kind of meetings. “Do I apply the cold, Swedish handshake-greeting, or do I go for the proper, warm Icelandic kind?”. I figured the Swedish one was the safest bet, and wrong, wrong I was! When they arrive, I put my hand out there, infront of my friend for him to shake. For a mere millisecond I see the confused expression on his face, like “umm okay”, before he accept my hand and shake it. “Okay, screwed that greeting up. But what about her, I’ve never met her before, surely she must expect the handshake?”, I think to myself and move my hand over to her. She looks back at me with an even more concerned expression on her face, like “what’s wrong with you?”, slightly shakes her head and give me the proper, full-on hugs-and-kisses-greeting - and just like that she convinced me that this girl, she’s awesome.

Damn my Swedish blood! I don’t even like handshaking!