I'm back at work today, after a relatively quiet weekend. I actually took the opportunity to start tidying up the flat. I'm a bit of a hoarder, so I have a lot of crap hanging around. When I move next time (which will happen sometime in the future), I don't want to have to lug around quite so many moving boxes.
We actually went out for a walk on Saturday afternoon, as we were both getting a bit stir crazy; we took a tram into town and went to Järntorget (literally "Iron Square"), an older part of town, and onto Linnégatan. Then we just went home and watched a video.
On Sunday, we hung around and then drove back to Linda's for a walk and a relax. We hired a couple of DVDs out: Finding Nemo (which Linda still hadn't seen) and The Sweetest Thing, a chick-flick with Cameron Diaz. Oh my God. It's one of the most bizarre films I've ever seen. A third of the way through the song, they break out into a Fame-style song and dance, singing "Your dick is too big" to the tune of I'm Too Sexy. Then there's a "Movie Montage" where they dress up as film stars. Then they sing the tune to Armageddon while one of the girls is stuck in fellatio with her boyfriend (because her tonsils are stuck to his piercing). It's... just... wrong.
Anyway, after an uneventful train trip back to Gothenburg, I'm back at work, getting myself up to speed with everything. I'm left with an 80-cigarette-a-day cough though...
Monday, September 17, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
It's that time of the year again...
Yes, the transition between Summer and Autumn (or Fall) is when most people get a cold. Linda and I are no exception. Linda excused herself from work halfway through Tuesday. I suddenly started having that feeling - when you know you're going to get a cold - halfway through Wednesday, but I struggled on. I did a show as usual but I was really battling. Thursday morning, it had taken full hold of me.
Linda was still off work, so she managed to find a scrap of energy and drive down to mine, with Åke, so that we could be in pain and misery together.
It's Saturday morning now, and I've developed a cough from yesterday. I decided to get up at 8am, just so that Linda could have a few hours' decent sleep without me sounding like a 60-cigarettes-a-day smoker in her lughole.
I'm feeling a bit better today, which is good; today and Sunday should see me ready to get back to work on Monday, and of course, ready for the first Swedish lesson on Tuesday!
Linda was still off work, so she managed to find a scrap of energy and drive down to mine, with Åke, so that we could be in pain and misery together.
It's Saturday morning now, and I've developed a cough from yesterday. I decided to get up at 8am, just so that Linda could have a few hours' decent sleep without me sounding like a 60-cigarettes-a-day smoker in her lughole.
I'm feeling a bit better today, which is good; today and Sunday should see me ready to get back to work on Monday, and of course, ready for the first Swedish lesson on Tuesday!
Friday, September 07, 2007
Sign o' the Times
BBC News have just posted an item about a programme they're going to be showing on television, about citizens' opinions on whether the UK is in a "moral decline". Unfortunately, the summary shows that most people think so.
This is, of course, one of the reasons I left the UK in the first place. I was finding it more and more difficult to be happy in a place where nobody really seems to care about their neighbours any more, the government keep promising to do something about it, but they seem to be clueless themselves, setting up "citizen's juries" to find out what the "common person" would do - more ammunition to those who say that Labour are out of touch with the nation. Social integration is also deterioating between native Brits and immigrants, and it's my opinion that this is in no small part because of so much negative press in the daily "Red Tops" (The Sun, The Mirror et al). Of course, the press is always supposed to be neutral, but I've noticed they're very clever in walking the tightrope between comment and opinion, giving White Van Man (the average Red Top reader) subliminal anti-comments without being blatant.
I'm not saying Sweden is Utopia, of course. There's social integration problems here too (as an example, this item on The Local, Sweden's news in English). But the nation, in general, are a tolerant people in my experience, and friendly (once you get them over their initial shy silence). The taxes, although high, guarantee a first-class "cradle to grave" system where the government looks after you at certain critical points in life (their parental leave policy, for instance, is generous) and as an offset, renting / mortgages are cheaper, so not as much is drained out of your monthly wage.
I would be interested to see the BBC programme in full, but I doubt I can. If anyone sees it, let me know your opinions on it.
This is, of course, one of the reasons I left the UK in the first place. I was finding it more and more difficult to be happy in a place where nobody really seems to care about their neighbours any more, the government keep promising to do something about it, but they seem to be clueless themselves, setting up "citizen's juries" to find out what the "common person" would do - more ammunition to those who say that Labour are out of touch with the nation. Social integration is also deterioating between native Brits and immigrants, and it's my opinion that this is in no small part because of so much negative press in the daily "Red Tops" (The Sun, The Mirror et al). Of course, the press is always supposed to be neutral, but I've noticed they're very clever in walking the tightrope between comment and opinion, giving White Van Man (the average Red Top reader) subliminal anti-comments without being blatant.
I'm not saying Sweden is Utopia, of course. There's social integration problems here too (as an example, this item on The Local, Sweden's news in English). But the nation, in general, are a tolerant people in my experience, and friendly (once you get them over their initial shy silence). The taxes, although high, guarantee a first-class "cradle to grave" system where the government looks after you at certain critical points in life (their parental leave policy, for instance, is generous) and as an offset, renting / mortgages are cheaper, so not as much is drained out of your monthly wage.
I would be interested to see the BBC programme in full, but I doubt I can. If anyone sees it, let me know your opinions on it.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
What Was That About "No Rushing?"
It seems very unusual for me to post two blogs in relatively quick succession, but I find it necessary in this circumstance.
I distinctly remember typing along the lines of "me and the lady are dating; no rushing". So, forgive me if I'm a little light-headed right now.
Linda ("the lady" in question) was in göteborg this past weekend, ostensibly to meet up with an old pal of hers whom she hadn't seen for a donkey's age. We talked about "maybe meeting up if there was enough time" but I had assumed that, because of the length of time between them seeing each other before, there wouldn't be much of a chance. That's fine, I would be seeing her this coming weekend anyway.
"Imagine my surprise," as they say in the Letters column of your dreary local newspaper, when I got a phonecall asking if I was free of a Saturday evening, and would I like to come over to a restaurant and hang out with Linda, her long-time friend and some assorted other people who didn't have other Saturday plans already in place. "Sure," I said. My Saturdays of late have been a regular sequence of listening to SLAY Radio, then going to Kville Biljard and playing pool with whoever was available. Enjoyable as it is, sometimes one would like one's Saturday evenings to be a little bit "different".
The evening began as any restaurant-based evening is wont to do: smalltalk, a few drinks, a meal after some time had passed. Replete from our plates of (admittedly very tasty) food, we carried on talking. However, at some point, Linda and I both noticed that we were really only talking to each other; the other guests were sitting next to us but had been blurred out by our minds. Then, "the moment" happened. We stopped talking and just looked at each other for a few minutes. "Why the hell did we split up", was the unspoken question.
A lot of the rest of the weekend was unspoken, too. Suffice to say that Linda and I are now back together, stronger than ever and [insert favourite "spend rest of lives" style quip, cliché, rhetoric or otherwise].
"Life is just a bowl of toenails," as someone once sang. Although I may have paraphrased slightly. And I've just started the previous sentence with a conjunction. And that one. Damn it.
I distinctly remember typing along the lines of "me and the lady are dating; no rushing". So, forgive me if I'm a little light-headed right now.
Linda ("the lady" in question) was in göteborg this past weekend, ostensibly to meet up with an old pal of hers whom she hadn't seen for a donkey's age. We talked about "maybe meeting up if there was enough time" but I had assumed that, because of the length of time between them seeing each other before, there wouldn't be much of a chance. That's fine, I would be seeing her this coming weekend anyway.
"Imagine my surprise," as they say in the Letters column of your dreary local newspaper, when I got a phonecall asking if I was free of a Saturday evening, and would I like to come over to a restaurant and hang out with Linda, her long-time friend and some assorted other people who didn't have other Saturday plans already in place. "Sure," I said. My Saturdays of late have been a regular sequence of listening to SLAY Radio, then going to Kville Biljard and playing pool with whoever was available. Enjoyable as it is, sometimes one would like one's Saturday evenings to be a little bit "different".
The evening began as any restaurant-based evening is wont to do: smalltalk, a few drinks, a meal after some time had passed. Replete from our plates of (admittedly very tasty) food, we carried on talking. However, at some point, Linda and I both noticed that we were really only talking to each other; the other guests were sitting next to us but had been blurred out by our minds. Then, "the moment" happened. We stopped talking and just looked at each other for a few minutes. "Why the hell did we split up", was the unspoken question.
A lot of the rest of the weekend was unspoken, too. Suffice to say that Linda and I are now back together, stronger than ever and [insert favourite "spend rest of lives" style quip, cliché, rhetoric or otherwise].
"Life is just a bowl of toenails," as someone once sang. Although I may have paraphrased slightly. And I've just started the previous sentence with a conjunction. And that one. Damn it.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Normal Service Will Be Resumed...
Well. That was quite a number of months wandering around in the wild.
It seems that I was a lot more depressed than I thought I was, looking back. But when you're there, you're kind of numb to it all. That's one of the reasons I haven't Blogged for so long.
Work was drying up, me and the lady had split up, and I was caught up in that horrible "don't want to see anyone but why doesn't anyone ask me out for a drink" Catch 22 situation. I was seriously considering being "yeller", packing my bags and moving back to ol' Blighty.
Then at the end of June, I got a job. A proper, paid, regular 9-to-5 job as a programmer.
Things have definitely changed in the month or so. I see my colleagues every day - human contact at last! Working for yourself - especially in the kind of job I had - tends to make you stir crazy, which in my state a while back compounded the problem. I've also just enrolled for Swedish lessons, something I should have done a long time ago. But in September, I start learning the lingo. It's an intensive 6-week, 2 lessons a week course, held at folkuniversetet. All being well, after the course I'll take a little break, then sign up for the follow-on intermediate course.
Oh, and me and the lady are dating again. No rushing, just taking it nice and slow.
Yep, it was pretty bad, looking back. But now I'm looking forward again.
It seems that I was a lot more depressed than I thought I was, looking back. But when you're there, you're kind of numb to it all. That's one of the reasons I haven't Blogged for so long.
Work was drying up, me and the lady had split up, and I was caught up in that horrible "don't want to see anyone but why doesn't anyone ask me out for a drink" Catch 22 situation. I was seriously considering being "yeller", packing my bags and moving back to ol' Blighty.
Then at the end of June, I got a job. A proper, paid, regular 9-to-5 job as a programmer.
Things have definitely changed in the month or so. I see my colleagues every day - human contact at last! Working for yourself - especially in the kind of job I had - tends to make you stir crazy, which in my state a while back compounded the problem. I've also just enrolled for Swedish lessons, something I should have done a long time ago. But in September, I start learning the lingo. It's an intensive 6-week, 2 lessons a week course, held at folkuniversetet. All being well, after the course I'll take a little break, then sign up for the follow-on intermediate course.
Oh, and me and the lady are dating again. No rushing, just taking it nice and slow.
Yep, it was pretty bad, looking back. But now I'm looking forward again.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Huzzah!
Well, it took 'em almost 5 months in total, but I finally have a telephone line and ADSL!
I received a call on my mobile yesterday afternoon at 15:00 from the engineer, saying that he had fixed the ADSL. Apparently he had been there since 9:00 in the morning trying to fix it. Whoever had been appointed to switch my line on in the first place had botched the job up so much, that this engineer was a little surprised that I actually had a phone line at all!
I celebrated this fact by sitting on Slaygon's sofa and carrying on working, not wanting to come home and find that said engineer was actually lying -- not that he would want to, just that I have become cynical about this whole sorry situation. But as soon as I finally plucked up the courage to come back here (about 18:00), I found that he was in fact telling the truth, and I celebrated by broadcasting an impromptu show on SLAY Radio!
So I'm sitting here in my robe, looking out of my own window and noticing that it's snowing here in Gothenburg again. I have to visit Slaygon's flat with by backpack, to bring my laptop back... but I think it can wait a few hours!
I received a call on my mobile yesterday afternoon at 15:00 from the engineer, saying that he had fixed the ADSL. Apparently he had been there since 9:00 in the morning trying to fix it. Whoever had been appointed to switch my line on in the first place had botched the job up so much, that this engineer was a little surprised that I actually had a phone line at all!
I celebrated this fact by sitting on Slaygon's sofa and carrying on working, not wanting to come home and find that said engineer was actually lying -- not that he would want to, just that I have become cynical about this whole sorry situation. But as soon as I finally plucked up the courage to come back here (about 18:00), I found that he was in fact telling the truth, and I celebrated by broadcasting an impromptu show on SLAY Radio!
So I'm sitting here in my robe, looking out of my own window and noticing that it's snowing here in Gothenburg again. I have to visit Slaygon's flat with by backpack, to bring my laptop back... but I think it can wait a few hours!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
+++NO CARRIER
My ADSL connection was due to be switched on last Tuesday (13th). But, as you have probably guessed, it wasn't. The line has been connected, but they have neglected to "sync the modem", whatever the hell that means. I've been phoning them since that day, and basically they were saying that we have to wait for Telia's engineers to do it (Telia "own" the phonelines themselves).
But thankfully, something positive is being done now. I got through to a guy who was just as annoyed as I was, and promised to raise a Support Ticket. "Unfortunately," he said, "it looks like it is definitely a problem at the local exchange station, which means you'll have to wait another few days while we assign a local engineer". But at least he was being honest with me. We tried a few things that I could try with my modem, but to no avail. What gave me the positive vibe was that he actually phoned me back about 15 minutes after our initial conversation, to confirm that he had assigned a Support Ticket for me, and gave me the reference number so I can track it.
So, I'm still hot-footing it to Slaygon's every day while we wait another few days. Still, onwards and upwards eh?!
But thankfully, something positive is being done now. I got through to a guy who was just as annoyed as I was, and promised to raise a Support Ticket. "Unfortunately," he said, "it looks like it is definitely a problem at the local exchange station, which means you'll have to wait another few days while we assign a local engineer". But at least he was being honest with me. We tried a few things that I could try with my modem, but to no avail. What gave me the positive vibe was that he actually phoned me back about 15 minutes after our initial conversation, to confirm that he had assigned a Support Ticket for me, and gave me the reference number so I can track it.
So, I'm still hot-footing it to Slaygon's every day while we wait another few days. Still, onwards and upwards eh?!
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