Meh...
And that's my official review.
/Mel
fredag, maj 26, 2006
torsdag, maj 25, 2006
Long weekend!
I love long weekends and this one if four whole days because my company has a "squeeze day" on Friday. Thursday is a public holiday and since almost no one would bother about working on Friday the company closes for the day. So four lovely days off for me and most of the country.
I have no plans for the day, maybe a walk if it doesn't rain. It's 11 am now and I'm having my second cup of breakfast tea and one of my favourite Swedish radio shows just came on. I know I'll be bored on Sunday but right now it's all good.
/Mel
I have no plans for the day, maybe a walk if it doesn't rain. It's 11 am now and I'm having my second cup of breakfast tea and one of my favourite Swedish radio shows just came on. I know I'll be bored on Sunday but right now it's all good.
/Mel
onsdag, maj 24, 2006
Invitations
You know what it’s like when you’re trying to get all your friends together for a party or a dinner? Someone is on a business trip, someone has planned a romantic night with their partner, someone is on a weird diet and can’t indulge, someone is low on money, someone has to see their grandmother and the basic jist of it all is that everyone would love to come but can we move it to another date?
I’m doing the professional version of the above and when I thought getting all my friends together around one table was hard it turns out to be about a piece of cake when setting up a meeting with guests from four different continents, six countries and twelve cities. I’m being swamped by excuses, bad ones. My inbox is chaos.
But it’ll be fun in the end.
/Mel
I’m doing the professional version of the above and when I thought getting all my friends together around one table was hard it turns out to be about a piece of cake when setting up a meeting with guests from four different continents, six countries and twelve cities. I’m being swamped by excuses, bad ones. My inbox is chaos.
But it’ll be fun in the end.
/Mel
söndag, maj 21, 2006
Congratulations Finland!
My friend feels personally insulted by Lordi winning the Eurovision Song Contest last night. I can only shut up and not tell her that I think it's great that Finland finally got to win it for the first time. And how they won it! The Eurovision certainly isn't was it used to be and it's a very good thing.
My personal was Bosnia-Hercegovina's song, I'm happy it finished third. The one that's stuck in my head the day after is Russia's contribution, bad mullet and all. The only problem is I couldn't hear a word he sung, despite the song being in English so I have no idea what the words are but it's all part of the charm really. It wouldn't be Eurovision without incomprehensible mumblings in bad English. It's cheesy, but I love Europe, I don't think want to live anywhere else. I only wish Australia was a bit closer.
/Mel
My personal was Bosnia-Hercegovina's song, I'm happy it finished third. The one that's stuck in my head the day after is Russia's contribution, bad mullet and all. The only problem is I couldn't hear a word he sung, despite the song being in English so I have no idea what the words are but it's all part of the charm really. It wouldn't be Eurovision without incomprehensible mumblings in bad English. It's cheesy, but I love Europe, I don't think want to live anywhere else. I only wish Australia was a bit closer.
/Mel
fredag, maj 19, 2006
The day I almost knew Bono.
Every Irish person you ever meet will have a U2 story and usually the person telling the story either knows someone who knows Bono/has met Bono/saw U2 perform before they were U2. My godfather, for example, swears that he was at the famous Community Centre gig in Howth back in 1978 when one of the band members left band mid-gig and Bono announced that the band had now changed it's name from The Hype to U2. Personally I reckon half of Ireland was at that gig if you believe all the stories...
Anyway, I too have a U2 story, part Irish as I am and once upon a time I almost knew Bono. This is how it happend.
In November 2004 I went to Dublin with a friend for a long weekend holiday. One day we went out to Killiney, a Dublin suburb by the beautiful Killiney Bay. My greatgrandfather had a big house there, my grandfather grew up there and my father and uncle went to boarding school in nearby Dalkey and stayed in Killiney during the holidays. My dad always told me about this fantastic garden they had there, boarding on to the beach, so I wanted to take the chance and go and find this house and have a look.
So we went out there and found our way down to the road closes to the beach. After a while we came to a large white house, just like the one my dad described, with a huge garden and a small pathway leading down from the mainroad, along the high brick wall of the garden, under the railwayline and on to the beach. This was it, it was just as dad had described it!
The plan was to knock on the door of the house, explain the visit and politly ask if it was ok to take some photos of the house. The problem was the house was surrounded by that high brick wall and the only way in was through a HUGE black solid gate which looked somewhat intimidating. There was no door bell in sight and the only thing on the wall was a small surveilance camera. No hope of getting in, the place looked like a fortress.
So we went down the pathway down to the beach and took some photos of the house from there. An old man was walking his dog and I went over and asked him if he knew anything about the house and if he recognised the name of my grandpa. He did recognise the name and his reply to my question about the house was "That white house there, why that belongs to that Bono" (all said in a very thick Irish accent).
At the prospect of being able to claim such close connections with Bono we rushed up the pathway again and had a closer look at all the graffiti on the wall. And it was full of scribbled messages Bono and U2 from fans who had come here from all around the world. It was pretty cool to think that my dad had grown up in the house where Bono now lived with his family. And with The Edge living just down the road!
And that's what I thought for about a week untill I got back home and sent the photos over to my dad. It turned out that the house we saw wasn't my grandpas old house. It was very similar to it and my dad used to know the boy who did live there and had actually been to parties there but still, not as cool as actually growing up there. My family's house was actually on that same street but a bit further down towards the railway station. With a bit of luck, maybe it's The Edge who lives there now days, I'll find out the next time I go to Dublin.
/Mel
Anyway, I too have a U2 story, part Irish as I am and once upon a time I almost knew Bono. This is how it happend.
In November 2004 I went to Dublin with a friend for a long weekend holiday. One day we went out to Killiney, a Dublin suburb by the beautiful Killiney Bay. My greatgrandfather had a big house there, my grandfather grew up there and my father and uncle went to boarding school in nearby Dalkey and stayed in Killiney during the holidays. My dad always told me about this fantastic garden they had there, boarding on to the beach, so I wanted to take the chance and go and find this house and have a look.
So we went out there and found our way down to the road closes to the beach. After a while we came to a large white house, just like the one my dad described, with a huge garden and a small pathway leading down from the mainroad, along the high brick wall of the garden, under the railwayline and on to the beach. This was it, it was just as dad had described it!
The plan was to knock on the door of the house, explain the visit and politly ask if it was ok to take some photos of the house. The problem was the house was surrounded by that high brick wall and the only way in was through a HUGE black solid gate which looked somewhat intimidating. There was no door bell in sight and the only thing on the wall was a small surveilance camera. No hope of getting in, the place looked like a fortress.
So we went down the pathway down to the beach and took some photos of the house from there. An old man was walking his dog and I went over and asked him if he knew anything about the house and if he recognised the name of my grandpa. He did recognise the name and his reply to my question about the house was "That white house there, why that belongs to that Bono" (all said in a very thick Irish accent).
At the prospect of being able to claim such close connections with Bono we rushed up the pathway again and had a closer look at all the graffiti on the wall. And it was full of scribbled messages Bono and U2 from fans who had come here from all around the world. It was pretty cool to think that my dad had grown up in the house where Bono now lived with his family. And with The Edge living just down the road!
And that's what I thought for about a week untill I got back home and sent the photos over to my dad. It turned out that the house we saw wasn't my grandpas old house. It was very similar to it and my dad used to know the boy who did live there and had actually been to parties there but still, not as cool as actually growing up there. My family's house was actually on that same street but a bit further down towards the railway station. With a bit of luck, maybe it's The Edge who lives there now days, I'll find out the next time I go to Dublin.
/Mel
New iPod list.
Anna Ternheim
Band of Horses (thank you Fishy)
Billie Holiday
Billy Idol (White Wedding never leaves my head when I go to a wedding)
The Black River Band
Coldplay
Cuzin D (naff name, good band)
Daniel Lemma (it’s summer again!)
David Bowie
David Gray
Depeche Mode
The Deportess
Gary Jules
Håkan Hellström
Jamie Cullum
José Gonzales
Kent (always in my iPod)
Leaving Rouge
Lisa Miskovsky
Louise Hoffsten
Manu Chao
Morrissey
Nirvana (I was 17 when Cobain died and I thought the world would end)
Norah Jones
Phoenix
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Robbie Williams
Shakira (not sure to list this, it’s only that “Hips Don’t Lie” song).
Shawn Mullins
The Smashing Pumpkins
Soulfound (listening to right now)
U2 (of course)
Weeping Willows
Band of Horses (thank you Fishy)
Billie Holiday
Billy Idol (White Wedding never leaves my head when I go to a wedding)
The Black River Band
Coldplay
Cuzin D (naff name, good band)
Daniel Lemma (it’s summer again!)
David Bowie
David Gray
Depeche Mode
The Deportess
Gary Jules
Håkan Hellström
Jamie Cullum
José Gonzales
Kent (always in my iPod)
Leaving Rouge
Lisa Miskovsky
Louise Hoffsten
Manu Chao
Morrissey
Nirvana (I was 17 when Cobain died and I thought the world would end)
Norah Jones
Phoenix
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Robbie Williams
Shakira (not sure to list this, it’s only that “Hips Don’t Lie” song).
Shawn Mullins
The Smashing Pumpkins
Soulfound (listening to right now)
U2 (of course)
Weeping Willows
torsdag, maj 18, 2006
Eurovision
Tonight was the Eurovision Song Contest Semifinals. Since there are so many European countries who want to be in the big one they have to have a semifinal. There were 23 (I think...) songs in the semifinal, ten went on to the final on Saturday and and I think the final line up contains 24 songs. If all the songs were in the big one we'd have to listen to almost 40 songs...
Anyway, this year is a big deal for Sweden. Sweden is a big Eurovision nation, we take pride in Eurovision ever since Abba won the whole thing in 1974 with "Waterloo". Last year Sweden did so badly we had to qulify to get in to the big final... All winter there were competitions in Sweden to get the right song down to Athens (where the final is this year) and the slogan has been "The right song has to win". I think we had four semifinals and one big final, we've combed the nation for the right song and right artist. In the end Carola was voted as the one by the Swedish people and luckily, for her, she got through to the final tonight. So at least the Eurovision following part of the nation will be glued to their sets on Saturday night, including me. Yes. Yes. I'm a Eurovision follower. Don't ring me on Saturday night ok?
My personal favourite for this year is Bosnia-Hercegovina, it's lovely, sweet little ballad. And I liked Ukraine too, sort of like Ukraine's answer to Britney Spears early years. She was wearing an MTV version of the Ukraine national dress I think.
Barcelona won the Champions Leauge last night, that's football Christy, the European version, and Champions Leauge is as big as it gets.
And this summer is World Cup summer...I'm nervous now! I don't know how I'm going to survive the Swedish games, I know I have to watch them but at the same time I'll have butterflies all the time.
It's late now, should get to bed. Night, night.
/Mel
Anyway, this year is a big deal for Sweden. Sweden is a big Eurovision nation, we take pride in Eurovision ever since Abba won the whole thing in 1974 with "Waterloo". Last year Sweden did so badly we had to qulify to get in to the big final... All winter there were competitions in Sweden to get the right song down to Athens (where the final is this year) and the slogan has been "The right song has to win". I think we had four semifinals and one big final, we've combed the nation for the right song and right artist. In the end Carola was voted as the one by the Swedish people and luckily, for her, she got through to the final tonight. So at least the Eurovision following part of the nation will be glued to their sets on Saturday night, including me. Yes. Yes. I'm a Eurovision follower. Don't ring me on Saturday night ok?
My personal favourite for this year is Bosnia-Hercegovina, it's lovely, sweet little ballad. And I liked Ukraine too, sort of like Ukraine's answer to Britney Spears early years. She was wearing an MTV version of the Ukraine national dress I think.
Barcelona won the Champions Leauge last night, that's football Christy, the European version, and Champions Leauge is as big as it gets.
And this summer is World Cup summer...I'm nervous now! I don't know how I'm going to survive the Swedish games, I know I have to watch them but at the same time I'll have butterflies all the time.
It's late now, should get to bed. Night, night.
/Mel
Today is not the day
Some days are just not meant to be. It rained as I rode my bike to work. The server was down so I can't access my mail. And some all important invoice got lost on someone elses desk but I'm the one getting yapped at by the advertising agency.
But the day may be better yet. This afternoons big company kick-off should be fun and tonight is Eurovision night so it's crisps, sweets and buckets of coffee with a good friend while we cheer for Sweden.
/Mel
But the day may be better yet. This afternoons big company kick-off should be fun and tonight is Eurovision night so it's crisps, sweets and buckets of coffee with a good friend while we cheer for Sweden.
/Mel
onsdag, maj 17, 2006
Work
I've been working a lot latly. I started a new job about a month and a half ago. It's within Marketing & Communications and it's fun. It's a good set of people, to some extent very much marketing people (take the stereotype and tone it down a bit) but fun to work with. English, Russian and French are the three languages we use mostly. Well, I stick with English except for the odd "Parlez-vous anglais?" thrown in. It's an international enviroment and I love it, it's a breathing hole even though I'm back in Sweden and not sure it's where I want to stay. The fact that it's May 17th and still +6 and horizontal rain outside doesn't help. I miss Australia...
/Mel
/Mel
Bill
I really hope Bill doesn't mind me putting up this shot of her but I love the accidental composition we got here. We have no idea who the girl with the Strix bag is, she just popped up. Bill did what she usually does in front of my camera and looks really quirky cool. And the sign in the background reads "curious".
The shot was taken in Stockholm's southern parts, not very originally named Söder wich means "the south" (it's been even less originally nicknamed "SoFo", South Of Folkungagatan, after London's SoHo district).
/Mel
The shot was taken in Stockholm's southern parts, not very originally named Söder wich means "the south" (it's been even less originally nicknamed "SoFo", South Of Folkungagatan, after London's SoHo district).
/Mel
Oddity again
Ok, so maybe not as odd as the first one but still pretty odd... I never did find out what it was about, but the eggs were sitting on top of a lamppost right across the water from the Swedish parliament.
/Mel
/Mel
Skies
I've had a thing for taking photos of skies lately. It's hard to get it focused though.
This shot I took with my little digital camera, I took about forty shots and only a handful came out usable, this one was the most dramatic.
The clouds are retreating in front of a setting sun after the first thunder storm of the season (wich I got out in thank you very much...).
/Mel
Kusligt
This shot looks like it could be on the cover on the album of one of my favourite bands, Kent. Unfortunaly it's a bit blurry when it's at full size but it doesn't show to much.
The trees are just ordinary pinetrees near my flat with a rather dramatic January sky above. The white mist on the right is my breath, cold night...
/Mel
Mr. Tumnus
This photo is taken in the same spot as the one below but this one makes me think of a remake of Narnia. When a modern day Lucy meets Mr. Tumnus in the woods by the lampost in a 1960's housing project rather than in Narnia's forest.
/Mel
Winter evening
This photo I took in Sweden in January I think. I went out as I got home from work so it would've been about five in the afternoon. The past week had been strange, very misty days but bitter cold, it was often around -20C in the mornings. That kind of weather builds up large ice crystals around everything outside, every branch, twig and needle is covered in a thick layer of frost. I prolonged the exposure on my camera and used a special type of film, (yes, film, good old fashioned film) ISO 100, wich takes good photos in dark conditions. And a tripod of course.
/Mel
Blogging
I am pretty useless at this whole blogging thing. I find myself writing lots of things on other sites but nothing here. It's probably because when I write on other sites I'm always replying to other people's thoughts. Here I have to think of something myself.
Anyway, I'm thinking I'll try and update the blog every second day at least. The problem is my life is not that exciting, there just not enough to blog about every single day for it to be worth while. Some bloggers are so good at alway thinking of new things but I guess I just don't have the energy to sit down and think of something really good to write about.
The Hibsicus shot proved impossible to upload as I took the photo with my the camera on my phone. I'm going to upload some shots I took this winter instead. I just got them back from the shop.
/Mel
Anyway, I'm thinking I'll try and update the blog every second day at least. The problem is my life is not that exciting, there just not enough to blog about every single day for it to be worth while. Some bloggers are so good at alway thinking of new things but I guess I just don't have the energy to sit down and think of something really good to write about.
The Hibsicus shot proved impossible to upload as I took the photo with my the camera on my phone. I'm going to upload some shots I took this winter instead. I just got them back from the shop.
/Mel
tisdag, maj 02, 2006
Hibiscus
My favourite flowers are Hibiscus flowers. They are intense, their buds grow for weeks, slowly expanding in to a large cone-shaped bud and then open up overnight, only to flower for twenty-four hours. Then they close and die. I have four Hibiscus plants in my flat (and three begonias, one orchid, one tiny cactus and one unidentified fat-leaf thing). Two of them flowered today and I got a photo (with my mobile phone camera). They are beautiful flowers. The point is to actually show the shot here but as Blogger is being an arse right now it won't load my photo. I'll try again later...
/Mel
/Mel
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