Crowded

Oh well, never did expect to sit in this chair anyway. Don't know what's up with crawling in under the furry blanket, fur on fur? It does look nice and warm though.

A potential threat

There are streets you hard ever walk in your own city. One street, which is inofficially called hair dresser street (frisörgatan) is that kind of street. People might use it as a short cut, and there's more hair dressers in that street than anywhere else I think. I visited my hair dresser today so I happened to walk on this very street which has now been blessed with what could be a huge potential threat to my personal economy. A French bistro.

Sure, we have some bistros of that kind, but there's not a lot of them. Especially not in that part of town (city center, shopping district). I have not seen this very particular one before and after hooking up with Matt, hungry as always, I suggested we try it. Ma cuisine. Owned and run by Jeff who speaks French to us. I don't understand a word except for Beaujolais when he gives us the wine list tour. I'm really not gonna bore you with details, if you live in Göteborg, just go. The service is half the joy, the food is superb and Jeff and his staff are friendly and efficient. He kisses my hand as we leave and I'm seriously thinking of putting myself on their black list. For my the well being of my economy.

It's 8 pm and look. Spring IS here. Downtown Göteborg, close to the harbour on our way home after dinner.

Tic tax

I love paying taxes. Once a year I do at least. Today is that day, when you with a satisfied smile can log on to skatteverket.se and digitally sign your tax papers in less than three minutes. What's not to love? It's easier than making a grocery list.


A typical non-tax payer who couldn't care less.

Another thing I might come to love is the Google desktop I discovered today. I sometimes surprise myself not having a clue about things I expect myself to have a clue about. Anyway it's neat. User friendly as most google thingys and with features I really appreciate and find useful, both for work and play. I print screened mine below, it contains some world clocks that are useful, todays weather (VERY important to the Swedes), a wiki search (great for a wiki-fan like myself), currency converter (love that one) and default features (which can be removed of course) like a notepad and photo slide show.

Get it here if you haven't got it already. It's really just a sleek looking sidebar meny which is almost fully customizable.

Click to get a full size view of what a google desktop can do for you ;)

Soon, soon

Dear readers,

This blog is approaching its 2 year birthday. There will be some nice birthday surprises for all of you. I promised this a while ago, I know, but hopefully most of you forgot all about that. I decided to make it a birthday surprise instead.

Any comments, questions or suggestions you might have on the forthcoming of this digital nest of cat hair should be e-mailed to necesse(at)gmail.com. Thank you for reading.

Peace.

The reason I took Dutch

Through the years, whenever I choose to reveal my darkest educational secret, people have asked me why oh why did I ever take Dutch as a language course at the university? Good question. I really don't know. I was bored, I liked the Dutch and enjoyed Amsterdam? No good?

Well, today I discovered the true reason to why I managed six months of Dutch at Göteborg university. Close to the office there is a little cheese shop called "More than cheese" (Mer än ost, Olskrokstorget). The owner is a very tall (of course) Dutch guy who's obviously really into cheese. He's knows his way around old Goudas and always give me advise on what wine to enjoy with my newly purchased Klaver. I like the guy and he's part of the whole cheese buying experience. The neat part of it is not the guy or the really sweet Gouda though, it's the wrapping around each piece of cheese.

Conclusion: if I had NOT taken Dutch I would NOT be able to read the cute little instructions on the wrapping on how to cut your cheese. Sure, I can look at the drawing since I'm not visually impaired or anything, but the small joy for me is to be able to read, pronounce and actually comprehend the content of the instructions knowing that most people can't. Because they didn't take Dutch at the university. ;)


Chibi prefers the really old Gouda, Klaver comes in second place.

Function in a junction

I, like many others, enjoy driving a car. I truly do. There's just this one thing called round-abouts. Don't mind round-abouts in general, and I'm sure every city in the world has their own favorite nightmare round-about. I started thinking about what makes Göteborgs worst (according to me) round-about Korsvägen so not likeable. As short as I could possibly, here goes:

- you must give way, not only before entering the RA but also when you're already IN the RA because...
- there are no more than six different street car lines that pass the RA in six directions
- add about ten bus lines to that in four directions
- and then of course they had to put cross walks all over the place and pedestrians, no offense to them, have preference.

I don't mean to disrespect Hanger Lane junction (inspired this post via the factoid blog and voted Britains no 1. most frightening junction) in ANY way, but Korsvägen is not a happy place to be. I suppose I'm lucky to have taken my license here, being able to practice in the RA. But no people, underground, think below surface next time!

Spagetti junction in Birmingham got beat by Hanger Lane, but makes a way cooler impression!

Runners high

I don't care much for treadmills, makes me feel like a sick dog in rehab, running and not getting anywhere. No change of scenery, no wind in your hair, only sweaty people next to you panting heavily trying to manage the control panel during the interval hill program.


So it goes without saying that a typical Scandinavian winter is not really for me. I'm a hobby runner and I get cranky if the thermometer goes below 3 degr. C. Real runners of course run all year, rain, snow or frost. For me, below 3 is my cue to stay in.
Today however, the temperature was over 10 and that has not happened in MONTHS. I have never put on my shoes so fast before and you'd have thought I spent the winter in prison seeing me leap out on the street with a big, silly smile on my face.

I just kept smiling the entire way and a complete feeling of euforia came over me when I got back (even took a detour). I have not had that kind of running experience before and definately not been close on the treadmill.
Weather gods, whatever it is you're doing don't stop now. I forgive you for the long and cold winter OK, just keep up the good work.

Cheesy not cheesy

or Sweet dreams are made of cheese.

Could as well be but it's not the tagline of my highest gourmet fantasies, it's a neat little club in DT Göteborg. A glass of red, some Morbier and hours of great music by Cazuma, a half jap DJ here in town. A completely acceptable way to end one of the busiest weeks at work so far. And then I slept. Just crashed when I got home and slept for a whole seven hours. Haven't slept by default in a long while, feels good.
Tonight a goodbye party awaits, a friend is leaving us all for behind to live the good life in Tokyo for some time. Really not fair at all.

Parrot warning

I apologize for sounding like a repetetive parrot, but really, northern winter is a never ending story of bad and/or unpredictable weather at least half of the year. When driving home from Denmark yesterday just before entering Göteborg we witnessed a car making a 360 flip on the highway into the ditch just in front of us. Instinct of course had us pull over and assist, and instead of being home ten minutes ago I arrived home almost an hour later.

Don't get me wrong. I love snow as long as it snows during the traditional winter months. Now I'm just tired of wearing my winter boots. I'm tired of freezing my socks off every morning and I desperately need to see some green grass and tulips. So stop snowing already!

Taken from my office window this afternoon.

German border spirits

When Scandinavians (often Swedes) need to get hold of a lof of booze the nearest place to get it inexpensively is at the German border. But let's face it, even alcohol-politically spoiled Danes are cheap and enjoy being the neighbour of Germany. With hardly any quantity limits and no customs shopping is easy. So we took a day-trip to the German border, and leaving the island means taking the ferry again. For some reason the weather gods are on our side when it comes to taking the ferry. And with a fellow devoted amateur photographer close by, there will be photos. Just for you.

Smörrebröd etc.

What stereotypical Danes we are. Put all of us together and we'll drink schnaps, eat smörrebröd, drink some more schnaps and add some beer to that, and say 'skååål' (cheeeers!) every five minutes. The Danes are quite simple and easy going folks. Really, just give us some cold ones and we'll get along no matter what. I haven't seen some of my family for five years or so, and yet my cousins are just as silly and funny as always. I mean, the only change you can actually notice are their kids growing up, part from that they're the same people.

Smörrebröd, traditional multi-topping sandwiches.

Left: Gathering in the kitchen. Right: me and the familys no. 2 foreigner, the Dutch guy.

Left: Dad in the kitchen. Right: Granny (impressive 89 years) with my silly cousin (right) and his lovely wife.

Cold start

Windy, cold and sunny, typical island weather in March here on Aeroe. Traditionally the islanders (and Danes in general I think) make a dough, wrap it around a stick and bake over open fire during Easter. Usually done on a field or by the sea, but it was freezing today so I refused to go longer than just outside the house. You'll have your bread with sausages and eggs, and of course a cold Easter brew to wash everything down with.

Granny were dogsitting the Madsen dogs while the cousins and boys we're making their set of grilled dough elsewhere, she's on the side of the family that are not cat-people. Their dogs are great though, friendly, small and easy to be around.

Running out of gas

It took us from 8.45 am to 5 pm to get to the island. We drove through the whole spectrum of weather conditions, from raging snow, to pouring rain, to smattering hail and finally upon arrival, sunshine! And no queues or traffic jams. We even caught an earlier ferry. But that's where our 'luck' ended. For some reason cash is king in Denmark and my VISA was not useable to pay for the ferry, no one of us had thought of withdrawing any Danish cash. So we rode the ferry for free (we'll have to pay at the town ferry office tomorrow though), realizing when arriving on the island that we had completely run out of gas and there was no gas station to be found. Our navi guided us to what seemed to be a Statoil station. Problem was that is wasn't. There was ONE lonely gas pump on the concrete in the harbour and a machine that took 20 DKK coins and 100 bills. Coins? Haven't ever seen that I think. No money, no gas, national holiday and a town so small it hardly qualifies as a town.

How did it go? The truth is so much more boring and it'll make a better story without it! Enjoy my mobile pictures instead.


Top: view from the sun deck. Low.left: Crossing the Store Bält bridge, low right: Sister and her BF on the sun deck.

First day of spring

If consulting a calendar this might be correct. The first day of spring is on the 20th March in Sweden (in the US too I learned). However true it might be in the calendar reality could best be described as the complete opposite.

My thermometer says 1,5 degr. C and the traces of yesterdays snowfall ARE to be found everywhere. I'm sure you'd find some very surprised and equally disappointed snowdrops underneath there. On top of that the weather man warns for even more snow and icy roads. We have a good six hour drive tomorrow plus one hour ferry in the holiday traffic down to the southern part of Denmark. The island, (on which I was born, album from last summer here), is only accessible by ferry and it does not run very often.

But I won't be bitter. Look, I even posted a nice spring picture although it's completely not equivalent to the truth. Again, I wish you a happy Easter. Go easy on the eggs now.

Easter etc.

Easter. Talked about it with my dear co-worker Lisa and she informed me, politely, that Easter falls on different days each year. I strongly objected to this until I looked at last years calendar and of course, as usual, she was right. And not only by a day or two, but almost two weeks. No wonder I felt it all happened so fast.

I'll be going to Denmark during the holidays and I'm looking forward to some nice food and cold Easter beer (picture). Oh yeah, and meeting the entire Madsens of course. They just became so...many lately. Seeing them less than once a year makes you loose track of what's really going on in their lives. But one thing I did notice, they only give birth to boys, my cousins. Only boys. All blond little Madsens. And then me and my sister; the foreginers, the black sheep of the family, the SWEDES as they call us. "Oh, did you have trouble getting through the border in Copenhagen? I mean, didn't they stop you when you showed them your passport?" Someone needs to browse for new racist jokes because jokes DO get worn out you know. ;)

By coincidence I found this quite funny site on Denmark, from the US. Ignore the 1995 layout and code, and enjoy the clichés of the Danes! Happy Easter!

Signs of...spring?

Um..waking up to this on March 17th is just not right. I mean, it's hardly snowed all winter and the moment all Swedes agree that now, NOW spring must finally have arrived, lets change to summer tyres and mowe the lawn for the first time this year, that's when is hits you. The siberian snowstorm. No fair. What's up with that?

Oxia @ Nef

Preparty at our house before going to Oxia's (FR) set at Nefertiti. Great preparty, great set!

Äntligen ute!

Nu finns den ute, "Faktoider" av Peter Olausson.
Köp den online.
Välskriven, kul och annorlunda bok som passar alla vetgiriga som vågar utmana sina egna föreställningar eller kanske få dem bekräftade!

More Seattle

Images from Seattle, courtesy of Bas Roeleveld. Thank you Bas!

Mobilder - Seattle

T.v. den sk. 'Gum wall' utanför improteaterscen i Seattle. Folk i kö har satt sitt tuggummi här medan de stått i kö in. T.h. Typiskt amerikanskt övergångsställe.

De äldre kvarteren i Seattle.

T.v. Stadsbiblioteket, Seattle. T.h. Klippning och försäkringsteckning, gärna samtidigt.