22nd July 2009 – Weight problems. (As well as space problems.)

I have previously complained about the Göteborg shopping (in general) and the summer sale (in particular). Since then I’ve changed strategies and focused on funky small shops on obscure backstreets as well as small town shopping. And it turned out to be a very clever move. I have during the last week found lots of gorgeous clothes, mostly Scandinavian design (I had almost forgotten about all the really cool Scandinavian brands and I must admit that I’m actually quite proud of our fashion industry). I’m back at my original position claiming that shopping IS much better in Sweden than in Australia and I will bring this reestablished opinion back with me to Sydney and go on and on about it and bore you all.

Yesterday, which was actually the “Johanna Day” in Sweden, I peaked my consuming curve (so far) when shopping in Laholm, a small city 20 minutes from my parents’ place. There are two stores in Laholm (not counting the one for ladies over 70). And they are both actually pretty good. And they both had massive sales on. Well, I will say no more…
I guess everything would be fine if the story (and my consuming) ended here. I did indeed count on doing some shopping in Sweden, so I’ve only done what I'd set out to do. But on the way back from Laholm I went past my auntie’s house where my cousin Lotta had dumped about six bags of clothes that did not fit here anymore, and some of them ended up in my bag. And today, when starting operation “sorting out all Henrik’s stuff left at my parents’ place”, I realized that I had left loads of clothes there that I had completely forgotten about! So, the pile of “new” clothes to bring back home with me has now grown completely out of control. And I have not even started to look at all the extremely important things I have in the storage space in Göteborg!

So, I now put all my faith in Tim. I have told him he does not need any clothes in Sweden (Swedes are not too fussy about nakedness anyway) and I’m counting on being able to use some of his kilos when he flies back. What he might not yet have realized is the more long-term effect of this almost self-growing pile of clothes – they will not be satisfied with only arriving in Australia but will try to find their way into our apartment, into our bedroom, and finally into our wardrobe. I have now given Tim about 30x30x30 cm space in the wardrobe (should be enough for his four t-shirts one would think…) So, by bringing all these clothes back with me I am sort of committing (at least to myself) to buying a new wardrobe which suddenly increases the price per garment in a very unexpected way.

20th July 2009 – Heading south again

It’s now Monday evening and I’m sitting on the train heading south again, down to my parents place. I’ve spent my first vacation day doing mainly three things; travelling by public transportation, failing in all missions set for the day and doing some impulsive shopping in a desperate attempt to compensate for the failures and make myself happy again. (“Tröstshopping” in Swedish.) It worked remarkably well.

For the next couple of days I’m hoping for some quality time with my parents and the sun, which I really hope will have the courtesy of paying a visit. I need to work on my tan before my pale Englishman comes visiting. I will pick him up in Copenhagen on Friday and you will hear nothing more from me until he is gone again two weeks later. We have a busy schedule meeting all my very curious and indiscrete friends. Everyone is extremely eager to meat him. Eva and Linus have named their newborn son after him, Henrik Yngve traded his present screensaver picture of a not too dressed David Beckham for photos of a not too dressed Tim. (Well, Henrik does work in mysterious ways…) Tim is now referred to as snygg-Tim, and consequently joins an exclusive group in which already snygg-Jonas, snygg-Oscar and snygg-Christian (especially in pilot uniform) are members. As far as I know neither of them ever got the honor of being on his screensaver, though. So he definitely gets special treatment and has a lot to live up to when he comes.

19th July 2009 – “Four” go sailing

This weekend it was finally time for the very much longed for “tjejsegling” (girls sailing). The crew heading up to Fjällbacka north of Göteborg to board Matte and Lotta’s boat was Lina (who has never been on a boat before), Johanna (who has actually been on a boat before), Lotta (who at least owns a boat) and me (who do see a lot of boats from my apartment in Manly). We had made sure that all major incidents had been taken care of by the guys who rented the boat the week before (for example the rudder fell off and they had to be towed by the coast guard) so statistically our trip was to proceed extremely smoothly. And so it did.

Being four girls on a boat you do get a lot of attention when coming into a harbor, and our strategy was to be humbly disrespectful. (Or disrespectfully humble?) Lotta though blew it completely from the beginning by letting a guy show us how to make knots that we already knew how to make (pålstek – we know all about the rabbit and the princess and the dragon).


Part of the charm of being out sailing is that you are allowed (actually almost required) to look slightly dirty and disheveled (ah – finally I got to use this word that Tim has taught me. I do not think he has ever used it correctly when referring to himself, though…) and so we did when we ended up creating us a little After Sail party dressed in very non-breathing rain clothes and lifted the roof at a semi-dodgy pub in Grebbestad where two Irish guys (talented, I must say) played hilarious covers with us as self-appointed choir singers and front dancers. And it was actually appreciated, I would say. Probably not for our artistic interpretation, but we did spread a lot of joy.
At half past eleven we finally rushed back to the boat to get changed (“piffade”, in Swedish) and in the pouring rain we headed to a club to get that party going. And so we did… Saturday night turned out to be the best party night in ages and we all awoke the next morning with huge grins on our faces.

Sunday actually offered some five hours of quality sailing with good winds, a little bit of rain and a little bit of sunshine. (And yes, it turned out both me and Lotta can actually sail.) We ended up at Hunnebostrand, where we decided to have a quiet evening in the boat cooking and chatting. Monday morning me and Johanna had to head back to the city and so we left Lotta and Lina to their fate…

17th July 2009 – Gothenburg, I came back to you…

I have during the two and a half weeks that I’ve been working from the Göteborg office been staying at Matte and Lotta’s place in Majorna, and they have completely embraced me as a third family member (occasionally referred to as the pet). When I first arrived Matte told me of his magnificent ideas of starting a collective out on the countryside, maybe buying an old farm with several dwellings, sharing all boring duties in order to maximize everyone’s free time. He was really excited about it. Since such an arrangement would require some planning and rules I’m quite sure that I would not be an optimal member, but I have been very happy to be part of the smaller prototype at Ostindiegatan. Matte has been in charge of the breakfast smoothie. I have been doing the washing up and as a second task I have (self nominated) tried to keep track of Lotta’s keys and occasionally her other possessions as well. (In any future collective I would though recommend each individual to have their own key.) I have spread my stuff(s) all over their living room and filled their hallway with my shoes. And still they have liked having me there. At least so they say…


During the evenings I have mostly met up with old friends. Last weekend the collective went on a quite improvised road trip driving back and forth in the rain over the island of Tjörn (seeing lots of cows, horses and small red cottages) and finally ending up in Ljungskile, where we had a great eating/drinking/playing boardgames night with some friends of Matte’s until the sun rose at four in the morning.

Being back in Göteborg has of course been a long walk down memory lane. I went past our old house and saw through the glass of the gateway that they have finally managed to build the balconies that we planned for. The 7Eleven at the corner of Andra Långgatan/Linnégatan has changed owners and done some internal rebuilding and does no longer make the best brownies in town/the world. They are out beaten even by the 7Eleven some hundred meters further up on Linnégatan, which used to be much, much worse. The Sorrentina at Vino Pasta at Plantagegatan was not as good as I remembered, but number 41 at Bombay at Andra Långgatan is still in the game. And my taste for salty sweets has completely changed and my new obsession is with Dumle Lakriskola, which is surprising. Well, well, everything changes, although it stays the same. I guess…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG64DmsSQH4

3rd July 2009 – And it’s all coming back to me now…

I have during the last days realized that my brain has been quite selective when it comes to remembering certain aspects of Sweden. I had for example totally forgotten about the mosquitoes. I cannot even remember them liking me very much before, but now they are all exited about the new blood in town and feast on me all they can. Maybe it’s all the antibiotics in my blood that makes them mad about me. Or they just prefer me older and wiser. Which is understandable.

Summer is not only mosquito time but also the time for building and rebuilding things. Swedes just seem to love doing that. A true Swede always has a façade to replace or an approach to pave. Since most Swedes are off on vacation in July most cities (especially Göteborg) take the opportunity to work on roads, tram tracks and train tracks during this period. I guess we are assumed to withdraw to a remote island or go sailing. We are definitely not assumed to stay in town. So, the city goes ahead and changes all the tram and train routes and redirects every second road which makes going anywhere even more confusing than it normally is in this city of one way streets.

I might also have slightly glorified the shopping in Göteborg. For a year now I have been constantly complaining about how impossible it is to find nice things in Sydney, and been bragging about how much better it is in Sweden. My master plan was to go back with an empty suitcase to be able to do some SERIOUS shopping. And so I did. For about 30 minutes. Then I panicked and headed home – disillusioned and confused, trying to avoid getting hit by every bus, tram and car in Göteborg on the way (they drive on the WRONG side!) – and ended up borrowing clothes from Lotta instead to solve the situation. It seemed I had completely forgotten about two small summer features; SUMMER SALE and TURISTS. Combined they turn every shop in Göteborg into a burning inferno. How could that slip my mind?

I’m now heading down to my parents’ place on the west cost 160 km south of Göteborg. The plan is to do a lot of nothing for the weekend. There will be no sale on since there are no shops. There will be no trams and hardly any cars. There will be no mosquitoes. Hardly any tourists. If I just stay put and not divert too much towards Båstad there will be nothing but family and food and ocean and a little bit of forest. And that is exactly what I need right now.

30th June 2009: Still somewhere between Hong Kong and Helsinki

Bored as I am without any battery in my camera I have arranged a little competition between today’s airlines. Ten extremely relevant categories have been carefully selected and the performance of the two airlines has been evaluated in a…scientific way. Sort of.

Food
Winner: Finnair
Well I’m not at all culturally biased here but any airline serving crumble pie with vanilla cream and cinnamon buns will get my vote. I felt back in Sweden already somewhere over China. The best Asian food ever!

Serving…material
Winner: Finnair
Scandinavian design, what more is there to say? The striped Ittala dinner set makes me feel at home. I just love it!

Movie selection
Winner: Cathay Pacific
Although I did not really see that many movies since I slept most of the SYD-HKG flight I must give this one to Cathay. There were quite a few that I would have liked to see. (Finnair only show films about women in their forties having relationships with teenage boys.) However, due to Cathay’s poorly planned flying (we arrived half an hour early) I did not manage to see the ending of the movie… Minus for that!

Snacks
Winner: Finnair
They gave me Fazer Salmiak pastilles! That is the closest to salty sweets I have been in a year, almost. (Which actually says a lot about my terrible situation since they are not really salty at all. But at least they are black. And salmiaky.)

Size of TV
Winner: Cathay Pacific
Well, it was just bigger. And closer.

Jet Engines
Winner: Finnair
They are blue. What more can I say...

Chairs
Winner: Qantas
(Eau, here Qantas entered the competition as a Joker. Who would have thought that?)
In addition to the fact that the Finnair business chairs cannot be folded down all the way there just isn’t any star trek feeling at all to the Finnair chairs. With Qantas’ egg-formed sky chairs you can at least imagine that you are on a journey to some far away planet, but with Finnair it is pretty clear that you will not leave Mother Earth. Those chairs simply would not handle the journey through the stratosphere.
Cathay has small individual cubicles heading sort of sideways. Very confusing not sitting in the direction the plane flies, at least at start and landing. I cannot really make up my mind about them. If the plane would crash it is however good to know that there is an airbag on the side facing forward. I felt extremely safe.

Travel kit
Winner: Finnair
The black case was esthetical yet functionally designed with an inside hanger. And inside – lingonberry products! (And I have lived my life up to now not even knowing of their existence!) As well as shoehorn and a protective bag for my new camera (How could they know? They are so good…)

Language
Winner: Finnair
Finlandssvenska (Finnish Swedish). Just sounds wonderfully funny.

Flight crew rostering system
Winner: Finnair
Well, it was me designing it a long time ago. Call me partial, but it just must be better.

Seems to me that Finnair won the first round. We'll see if Cathay gets a rematch on the way back...

30th June 2009: Ten hours on a flight between Hong Kong and Helsinki

I have during the last couple of days thought about buying a DSLR camera and two minutes before boarding the Sydney to Hong Kong flight last night that was exactly what I decided to do. Without the thorough internet research I know most of my (male, at least) friends would do (as well as the guy in the shop who did give me quite a patronizing look when I answered him that “No, I have not really checked out all cool features of this camera on the web”, when he asked) I had decided to go for the Canon 500D – purely on recommendation (by people who do not have this camera but love spending money on electronics) and my female instinct. (The latter possibly to be better trusted than the former.) So, I went into the shop, told the guy working there what I wanted, took the box without checking it (looking back this maybe was slightly risky, but it all turned out well. I think.), boarded the plane, put it in the storage space and slept for eight hours.

In Hong Kong I bought a memory card and as soon as I was seated on the Helsinki flight I started the mission of getting acquainted with my new friend. Now there are quite a limited number of things to take photos of on an airplane, especially if trying to avoid making unfriends by harassing fellow passengers while doing so. So I ended up taking landscape pictures of China, testing the focus points settings on clouds, taking portrait pictures of jet engines and waving my feet really fast to check out the shutter speed settings on moving objects. (When getting down on the floor to catch an interesting angle of my shoes people did start looking strangely, though.) I kept saying yes to everything eatable offered to me just to get new motives for my study and since I felt a little bad about not eating the food I had ordered I ended up much too full and feeling slightly sick.

Finally, somewhere over Irkutsk (where the hell is that?) I ran out of battery. I got a little more than half way through the manual. So, with this valuable opportunity gone there is a risk I will now never learn about white balance or lens peripheral illumination correction…