söndag, juni 11, 2006

Helvete!

There is really only one word to describe tonight's fiasco and that is HELVETE!!

My entire Saturday night came to an abrupt end after 93 minutes. I'm still shocked but not surprised. It's not a "I told you so" moment but Sweden does have the uncanny ability to f**k up completly against teams they "should" beat.

How I'll survive to Thursday is a mystery...

/Mel

tisdag, juni 06, 2006

Nothing to say really...

I have no reason to post these two shots except I think they are nice. I took them earlier this evening close to home.



June 6th

I almost forgot...Happy Sweden Day to me and the rest of the country. I'm not sure exactly what we are celebrating but I've got the day off and that's good enough for me.

/Mel


Flowers again

The hibiscus are going mad in my sunny south facing windows. This one has a flower about the same size as the plant it's growing on. Not to shabby coming from a sad little plant I bought for 1 euro at the local Lidl.



fredag, juni 02, 2006

Yes!

HENKE LARSSON!

1-0....

Summer

It's June 2nd and it seems summer has finally reached even us.

As I went home from work today the bridge went up and one of the river boats went past. When I was little we used to go on these as day trips with my school. I have a vauge memory coming home with a very painful sunburn and being sick for two days. But I still wouldn't mind going on it again, it looks nice and I know the trip they take is beautiful.



I'm watching Sweden play Chile in our final warm up game before we play Trinidad-Tobago in our first World Cup game next Saturday. I can't wait for it all to start! But at the same time I'm really, really nerveous! I don't know how I'll survive the tournament if Sweden goes through the play offs!

I had a dream the other night that England will win 4-0 against Trinidad-Tobago and Owen will score the first goal. We'll see if I'm rigth!

Six days to go....

/Mel

torsdag, juni 01, 2006

No blogging

This week has been a bit crazy and I don't even want to think about the next two weeks. So many details need to be put together for the big meeting in about ten days time and blogging it's exactly my number one priority...

I had a discussion with a Brit the other day and she said the only thing Swedes aren't taxed on is time and that's why our free time is so holy and so cared for by our unions. And as she explained what she meant I realised that she's absolutly right. You can't really make money by working in Sweden, the taxes are to high so even if you work monster hours and get a monster pay the state is taking most of it back in tax, it just doesn't pay enough to work long hours because we're not paid enough to give up our free time. A CEO in Sweden makes maybe the double of his assistant, in the US that is five-ten times more than the assistant. Why take on the responsibility and the hours when you're not getting paid enough? Of course everybody who can will take off as early as they can. Especially if the weather is good.

The Japanese companies we deal with get angry when they ring up at 3pm and we say the person they are looking for has gone for the day while in Japan it's 10pm and they are still at work. But Sweden (and Scandinavia) has a really long and dark winter and a short summer. We have about three months of summer when it can be nice and warm, where we can actually be outside and be warm. It's only natural that we want to have as much free time as possible when the weather is good, when our country is actually livable for a few short months. In June, when the days are long and bright and it's warm, I want to be out on the lake in my boat, not stuck in an office.

I'd never thought about it that way before but I reckon she's right. I'm sure as hell not getting paid enough to waste my free time at work.

Today at 21:30


/Mel

Rain

I got home, locked up my bike in the bikeroom and went outside and realised that somtimes I actually am lucky.




/Mel