stoff
I’ve been home for 6 days straight now. That’s more than I’ve been in the past 2 months. And I’ve had stuff to do all the time. Sometimes a bit too much. The normal Borg-efficiency have taken over and I’ve found myself doing three things at once. And as the old saying goes – “you end up doing neither very well!”.
Considering I’m on vacation I’ve actually been surprisingly busy, everything from cleaning, washing, stopping by my parents place, catching up with some friends and stuff. And this sunday I’m off to go south of the equator again and I’ve done everything I can to get a good seat on the 15 hour flight from Frankfurt but that seems to be impossible! Lufthansa doesn’t allow you to reserve the seats at the emergency exit until you’re actually there! So I’ll probably end up somewhere not so great with no leg-space what so ever not being able to sleep. Fortunately my MP3 player can play for 17 hours without re-charging it! But I guess I shouldn’t complain, I mean how many people get to go to Argentina for 10 days for free!?
And that was the funniest flight ever! From Vienna to Stockholm I boarded a little Focker, one of those that only takes 70 people. And 69 of them were Japanese tourists, maybe flying for the first time, I really have no idea but MAN it was hilarious listening to them during takeoff and the flyby of Stockholm! And that wasn’t it, the stewardess’ (who were as hot as they come!) turned that safety briefing into a comedy! The one at the front and the one in the middle did the usual “here are the exits” thing, but I was checking out the third one at the back who were doing all kinds of faces and things to distract the other two. And she was doing a pretty good job of it. And then, just as they were putting the lifevests over their heads the pilot decided to have some fun and hit the brakes so they both lost their balance, and that was it, you couldn’t take this crew seriously. And I didn’t. And not knowing were they were from I spoke english to them during the entire flight. Only to be greated by a swedish “hej dÃ¥!” as I disembarked!
You’ve heard that the record industry is now going after people like you and me, people who download and share our music over the internet, right? And here I am, in a former eastern state, looking for a CD but by god, over one week later and I still haven’t found it – the original CD anyway! I’ve found plenty of copies! Plenty of homemade versions with printed out covers, but I haven’t found the original CD. And in Singapore it was even worse – I went into a DVD store and found like 10 retail DVD’s, rest of the store was THOUSANDS of homemade VCD of movies (the VCD’s were homemade, not the movies!). And all this for profit. But I’m the bad guy, sitting at home downloading a track or two for personal, non-profit use?
Going home to Sweden today. Not a day too soon either! Although the staff here have been nice, as well as my two travelling companions, I can’t wait to crash in my soffa enjoying a couple of new DVD’s, eating a bag of OLW chips, drinking some SWEDISH Cola and be guaranteed I’ll get to see the new F1 race!
I usually don’t dream alot in my sleep. Atleast not that I can remember. But since I started on this project I’ve started to dream alot more and remembering them. Atleast for a while. And I don’t like it. I don’t like having my sleep disrupted at all! Most recently I had a weird dream that we were taking off from Arlanda in a Lufthansa Jumbojet but not having enough power to get off the ground so the pilot ditched the airplane in a field. And I, after insulting a stewardess (!?), ran back to the terminal to make sure I got on the next flight because otherwise I wouldn’t make the deadline for the new computer installation I was going to!? I don’t know if that is my subcionscious dealing with all the problems I’ve had at work or what. I do know it’s definitely telling me I’m taking my job a bit too seriously. And I’d never insult a stewardess (or whatever they wanna be called)! If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t get my sleep interrupted every 30 minutes with “do you want something to drink”, I wouldn’t get my knee hit all the time by a very robust cart, I wouldn’t have to listen to the satefy tips (let’s face it – noone knows what they’d do in an airplane free-falling 10 000 meters into the ocean! And would it matter if I knew where they lifevest was!?)… But other than that, I like stewardess’!
Wanna hear something frightening though? In about two weeks time, I’m actually boarding a Lufthansa Jumbojet flying to South America. But we’re not taking off from Arlanda so I’m not worried. I think…
This is a quote from the tourist guide we got, written by women : “March is generally known as the woman’s month because the weather is said to be as moody as a woman’s mood swings (cold harsh winter/warm and pleasant spring)”. I’m not making it up! And speaking of women, the women here are really nice, above expectations! And it’s mostly the “good looking? Who, me? Nooo!” or “I may be hot but I have no need to show it off” attitudes which is still much better then the “I’m so hot, you can even see my ribs, that’s how thin I am!”.
Remember when I was talking about the old swedish tradition of honking your horn at the trucks with students celebrating their graduation? Well they seem to have a similar tradition here in eastern Europe – honking your horn at newly weds and their entourage! Seen (and heard) it in two eastern countries.
There doesn’t seem to be much to do in this town. And I’m not only talking work-wise, we’ve tried to go out but there just doesn’t seem to be anywhere to go. But I’ll give Sofia this – plenty off taxis! Seriously, just go out to any corner and within 2 minutes you’ll have a cab! This weekend the girls I’m going with on this trip are gonna go off on some tourist-thing but I’ll probably be working…
Have you seen the movie “100 Girls”? When I first read about the movie I thought it sounded kinda shallow and “seen it!”. But I was happily surprised. It made the usual “boys vs. girls” banter, but it covered so incredibly much more then your average movie. Highly recommended, but you should probably not bring a date or you’ll spend the rest of the night “is that really true”-arguing. I particularly like the character of Patty! But then again, what guy wouldn’t…
Well this was bound to happen. After all, it’s such a huge operation that slip-ups like this is bound to happen. I am where I’m suppose to be, but all the stuff I need to do my work is stuck in Vienna. So my timetable is pretty much ruined. Isn’t that swell? Kinda “kick-in-the-crotch, spit-in-your neck fantastic!”? So I’m gonna take it easy for a few days, then I’m gonna have to work double-time to get it all done.
You know I love Jewel, right? That she’s in the exclusive bunch of people who can do nothing wrong (atleast in my world!). Then I heard Intuition. And although I could clearly hear it was her… I still couldn’t believe it was her. It was such a different track, different style, kinda Shakira meets Aguilera. I was actually kinda thinking “sellout!” there for a while. Then I saw the video. And it all made sense! Still can’t do nothing wrong!
But I’m not sure it’s a good thing that you have to see the video to get the point. Or perhaps I simply wasn’t listening to the lyrics…
I’m about to hit the bed for a couple of hours sleep until I have to go to the airport (AGAIN!), but I felt I had to write this before I forget it. I spent my only really free day here in sweden (sunday) watching the first season of “Babylon 5”. I’m not sure how many people saw it during the 90’s, I had trouble following it since it’s built like a 5 year novel. Which is why it’s so great on DVD! Anyways, that show was truly awesome! Some bad acting at times, sometimes the CGI effects were TOO CGI, but one thing that always had great standard was the writing. JMS did an awesome job with that, and also getting the continuity for a 5 year arc that accurate was nicely done! Not to mention the great moral lessons we get from it about stuff like consequence, responsibility, “one person can make a difference”, “who watches the watchers” – those kinds of things. Really great show and I hope another one like it comes pretty soon. Cause the new Star Trek show seems to do everything right. Except the writing…
Well, I’m off to a former east state in a while and I doubt I’ll be able to get any updates up. But I’ll do my best!
And I barely got to enjoy Sweden before it’s time to go away again – Bulgaria. That sounds like fun, doesn’t it? I already know the hotel is gonna suck, but as long as the office, and the staff, doesn’t suck I think I’ll have a great time!
And this weekend (on thursday actually) Helena got married. If you don’t know who that is, check my update about this time last year and you’ll see. She’s the pro dancer with a boyfriend called TIMMY!!! Naturually I wasn’t invited, for the obvious reasons that a) we were never that close (which really is my loss!) and b)… well, I was barely in the country. I say barely ’cause I landed on thursday morning at 1 am and just stopping by and take the first plane to Gotland… nah. And c) I don’t do these kinds of things that well. I either go overboard and become a bit too friendly or I end up sitting in the corner feeling “I wish I’d meet someone that would make me look as happy as them”. And we don’t want that, now do we!? But I got to see the video anyway, looked like a blast and that Timmy seems to be a righteous dude so I wish both of them the greatest of luck in the future! (and in the back of my mind I’m singing “Another one bites the dust”.. but that’s a long and personal story…)
Finally back in Sweden! They had an interesting mishap at the airport. They parked the airplane at the wrong gate 🙂 And it was easier for “them” to change the gate-assignment then moving the actual aircraft. But man did that create problems for “people”. Ran around like confused ants when all they had to do was move 30 meters to the left. “A person is smart but people are dumb” indeed. But now I’m back. And working ofcourse. And tomorrow I’m going to my folks to “celebrate” midsummer’s eve. Problem is I don’t really celebrate it since it kinda marks the “if you think your allergies are bad now, just wait, we just got started!”-season. So not a good reason to celebrate. But what the hell, get to meet my family again 🙂
Today we went north of the town to small little place called Szantandre, about an hour north of the capital. VERY nice place! Nice people, nice atmosphere, nice things to buy, nice everything. After 5 hours there (two of which was spent drinking beer) we took a boat back to town and here I am, awaiting the start of the F1 race from Canada!!! I’m pretty impressed that I’ve always been able to see the F1 race, no matter where I’ve been. As a matter of fact, had I been in sweden I might not have been able to see it live!… and just as I was writing that sentense, Rai Uno went all blank here. All other channels ok, just Rai Uno. Isn’t that typical. But I guess they aren’t allowed to broadcast the F1 races internationally like this…
Today we took a tour of the city. Buda to the west, and Pest to the east. Pretty educational, lot’s of history and nice things to see. Well worth the two hours and the money it cost. Then we strolled around town, the girls did some shopping, I did some beer-ing. Then we found this nice little place by the Danube that we just sat down at and had some beers. That’s what life is all about 🙂 And then we went back to the hotel for the same old story with the bitchy bartender.
The hotel doesn’t seem to be the only one that sucks… work-wise this has been the worst one yet. Lot’s of problems and the people at the office aren’t helping that much! But what the hell, it’s only a job 🙂 I’m really starting to enjoy this city. The casual style, the heat, the park, the food, I could get used to this! But we have the worst bartender in the history of bartending. We go down for a beer or two and all of sudden she decided to close it down. So we politely leave only to find out she’s suppose to have it open ’till 11. So next day we do the same thing, and so does she. And when we point that out to her… not appreciated!!
This was the suckiest hotel yet. I don’t even know the name of it, but it sucks. The first rooms we got didn’t have air conditioners, and it was pretty hot so we changed rooms (again!) to more way more expensive rooms (well I’m not paying for it!) that had AC… but it still sucks. Nothing on the TV … EVER! Small room, and the two beds is just a bad chiropractical joke! But the city is really nice! We had dinner tonight at a pretty popular restaurant/bar. And the women here are… I think exhibitionists is the right word. Really, REALLY tight and revealing clothes. And most of them have totally got the body for it, so I’m not complaining. But I already miss sweden…
I’m really starting to enjoy the legendary german efficiency! Frankfurt airport has that down to a science. They even managed to get my bags from one side of the airport to my connecting flight on the other side in less than 50 minutes. Most impressive.
And just as I was starting to really enjoy myself in Sweden… I’m off to Hungary. This time the job is in Europe and, more importantly, in the same timezone as Stockholm. That helps alot since some stuff needs to be synchronized and done at the same time in two places. And this time I’ll be going with two women as well. But don’t worry, both married with children. They always are…
I don’t know if I’ve been out of the country too much lately or why, but today I enjoyed Stockholm and Sweden more than I have ever! Although I had to work a full 4 hours (meetings and reports to go through), the weather, the atmoshpere, everything was absolutely amazing today! Another thing that helped to make it great was that it was graduation day for alot of high schools here in sweden. And one old tradition is for the students to board trucks and any other big vehicle and drive around town honking the horn. And everyone else honks their horn in a “congratulations, kids!”-manner. It’s probably one of the few times I can honk my horn at 18 year old girls without feeling like a dirty old guy 🙂 Check my pics for… pics…
And I don’t know what happened to the updates I had written over the past week, I’ll try to find them…