Book-club evening

With home-made sushi, and family.

Joding didn't approve of the fishy taste of the vegetarian sushi. I think it was the nori/sea-weed wrappings that tasted a bit like fish. He instead made three sandwiches with caviar. Much less fishy, apparently.

Old book to the left (still 100 pages to read), and the new book to the right.

Shopping

In-the-sun-shopping with my mum in Malmö today. Brilliant weather, tasty ice-cream and pretty clothes.

Cute green top, with a dark-grey pattern. I think I'll be wearing something under if using this in some official business. But at home, and among friends, I think I won't mind showing off my breasts.

A lovely summery dress in red, with white flowers (I think hibiscus or something like that). Sporting my sisters Dior-sunglasses (a.k.a. the Fly-eyes), next to some pretty long-stemmed roses I bought Joding.

Guess what!?

"Infringement", I had prior to this letter never even heard the word. I guess this is one way of learning english. Expensive, and perhaps a bit stupid. But still!




Want to guess what I apparently did while abroad? The Victoria Police in Australia has caught up with me. And are fining me 134 AUD for speeding, whoopsy!

But I get style-credits for speeding on the left side of the road, have you ever done that, huh! huh! How cool am I!


No concession for coolness though, apparently.

What I do wonder is how they manage to come up with 65 km/h as "alleged speed". Who has allegedly said that? It wasn't me, I haven't even talked to them. It was apparently a smart traffic camera that caught me. So who alleged it? Many questions. Or at least one. I guess it is just to pay up.

Cute Cat

Who can avoid loving him?!

The downside...

...of buying pretty pretty new shoes. Joding thought it was a nipple when he saw it. It is not. Then I would have called the post "The perk of buying pretty pretty new shoes". It is my heal, and nothing else. And a big spongy blister.

But it is gone now. I just put on my old shoes, and played badminton. Now it is flat like a pancake. But probably not as tasty. I will not look further into the matter.

Haaard, work work

I have been carrying heavy stones from the pile of stones where we got them, on to the trailer, off the trailer onto the little trolly, and then off the trolly into a new pile next to the pond, and then into the pond. Intense, but good work-out! I have also shoveled gravel into the trolly, and then into the pond. Now all the water lilies are in their new location in the new pond, and their roots are hidden first with a circle of large stones, then covered in gravel. All to avoid having the fish dig them up. Now the pond is extended about 130%, and filled with water, and strategically placed big stones, and pete for the flowers to grow on! Just the flowers and the fish left!

After the hard work, we enjoyed the sun with a nice cup of tea. And actually (sofie!) I had two cookies my grandma had made. But to outweigh it, I used my new new pair of Nike+ shoes (found a pair that felt real good, but only cost 2/3 of the price of the other pair. This meant I could also afford some good shoes to use when playing badminton. Sofie have these kinds of shoes, and she swore they were perfect for working-out. She has them in blue, I wanted them in red, but they didn't have them in my size, so I took the black ones instead. To avoid being too much of a copy-cat. Cute Cat still liked both pairs of shoes, and the new shoe-box.

The more stupid one of the two cats (i.e. Obidobi) thought he could make a jump across the pond. He probably could have made it too, but half-way across his leash did not extend further, and a *plupp!* could be heard.

I also had time and energy to build a new shelf for our future balcony to hold some of the million flowers my mum have prepared for us. Only 79 SEK at IKEA, very cheap (+ it was made into a gift from granny to Joding!), and when mounting the shelves the upside down, they make perfect collectors of excess water. My mum took the shelf and installed in her green house, and talked about buying another one to hold more of her flower projects. I assume she'll buy us a new one too.

Fighting and resting

After violent cat-fighting, Cute Cat is taking a rest on the shelf, with his cute belly hanging out.

Pond digging

You can find really weird things when you dig out a pond. I refer to the rusty beer can, my parents were present even before the digging started.

It's a baby!!

Our fish have had a baby. It is tiny. It's the tiniest thing you've ever seen. If you can even see it in the pictures! But it's there, I swear. I have decided it's a boy. There is no way to really tell is there? In such case, you tell me!

Testing new shoes

When I was running in the lovely warm spring evening yesterday, my akilles tendon kept on bothering me. It wasn't painful, but I felt it everytime I hit the ground with my left foot, and everytime I lifted the foot off the ground. And considering how speedily I run, it was almost the whole time =). Today I went to the shoe store (with Joding's credit card) to find some new shoes for me. I found some pretty ones, and they were also comfortable. There were a cheaper pair, but they were so ugly I could never use them (with turqouise things on them). The guy in the store also said they were not as good, so I decided to trust him on that, because I wanted the pretty ones.

The selection was rather poor. So I might go to Malmö next week and look for more shoes, before I decide finally. I have these shoes on 14 days probation =). We'll see how it goes. They are Nike+, so you can connect them with a little transmitter to your iPod, to keep track of how long/far you've been running. Which is cool. If one has an iPod nano, that is. I have a regular one, and have borrowed a iPod mini from my sister. I am rather sure she wants to keep her iPod nano to herself.

I like the shoes. Cute Cat loved the box!

Party for my uncle

We had a lovely afternoon at my uncle's place, celebrating his 60th birthday. In the pictures; meta-picture of my nice cousin, and granny and mother in action.

Be bothered to turn your heads to see the pictures properly, I still haven't really figured out how to flip them with my computer. When I look at them, they are already flipped, but when I blog them, they are not. Stupid computers.

Care to venture a guess?

Well, what is this thing I've taken a macro-photo of? Guess!

Frustrated students, and teachers...

Thanks for the fun e-mail Katie!

Ties

I have so many new ties these days, so I wear them a lot! This is today's tie, from Joding's grandfather of course!

Strikingly accurate

www.xkcd.com

University magnolias

The very important magnolias at the University Building are in full bloom. Odds that they will still be blossoming when the Student Singers, according to tradition, welcome the spring on May 1st, are getting slimmer by each sunhour. But I don't mind. I won't be able to catch the spring-welcoming-ceremony anyways, and I love the sun and the warmth. I could bike home, without even being slightly chilly, even when wearing only a thin sweather.

I actually wore trousers too, but still!

Cute Cat likes me, a lot. Look at his sitting/lying-posture. All to get closer to my food. Well actually, we shared it. He loves chicken. He even tried to steal one big piece by using his paws. Very cute. And all you that gross out about this, quit it. I love my cat.

Cat destruction

He woke me up during the night. I was clear awake to the sound of Cute Cat licking the orchid leaves, in turn causing the leaves to scrape the curtain. I moved the plant, so he could (for whatever reason he has) lick the plant as much as he wanted to, without scraping the curtain so annoyingly loud. But I still couldn't sleep, the sound of leaves being licked was still too much for me. So I locked Cute Cat out of the bedroom. Or at least I closed him out of the bedroom. A few moments later, I again woke, to the sound of Kamikaze-Cat throwing himself repeatedly on the door handle, finally forcing the handle down far enough to allow the door to open, and himself to re-enter.

The picture shows the sad, broken fabric flower, once so proud, now so beaten. Cute Cat has taken the spririt out of it. Repeatedly.

Not again!!

Well, I've done it again. I think it is some sort of disease that has come over me.

I am sure most of you remember the Sofie-Sofie-incident, a.k.a. The Hazards of Technological Progress, published on the 8th last month. And now, I am forced to report, there are more hazards in the technological developent. Mishaps like that don't only happen when text-messaging (sending stuff to Sofie, Joding's ex-girlfriend - instead of Sofie, my friend), but apparently it can slip out while e-mailing too. At least I can make it work.

Two weeks ago we got an offer for a really nice apartment only two houses down. I got the offer on e-mail, and in my hyper-excitement, I just wanted to send it to Joding real quick (even though I was busy with other stuff). So I typed in his e-mail address, and wrote something like "wohoo, here's our new apartment!!".

I am sure you can all see where this is going.

Today I got an e-mail from Joding's namesake at the medical faculty. That's where I work, you see, so I have that @med.lu.se -e-mail ending imprinted in my fingertips, and apparently that's where I had sent this specific e-mail.

Joding, however, does NOT work at the medical faculty, he works at the Technical University-bit of Lund University, where one is supposed to end the e-mail addresses with @lth.se, if one wants them to reach the correct person that is.

Joding, the one at the medical faculty, had written something like "eehh, umm, I don't know anything about this contract".

I am so embarassing, I have to stop this thing, now! Before something really bad happens. I mean, I am happy it was "only" the apartment contract, and not some e-mail-sex letter, or I don't know, something even worse. Not that I have ever written stuff for e-mail-sex (or even know if it actually exists) but if I ever start, I better make sure I send it to the right address.

SJ = slow journeys?

(Joding's waiting for the train in the cold Alvesta spring)

There is a company in Sweden called SJ. They own all the bits of railway laid down in this long country. And they charge you plenty to travel with them. And then, it seems, they are only very rarely on time. Does the acronym perhaps stand for "slow journeying"? Stuck in Jello? Seldom Justified (delays)? I wonder.

Apparently they ran out of electricity once arriving in Emmaboda. That was the information given. Is that really information? When it arises more questions than actually are being answered. How do you "run out of" electricity? Do they mean a power loss? Is it just SJ that has run out of electricity, or is it the entire Sweden that suddenly ran out of it? So will we ever get home riding an electrified train? Will the doors open when there's no electricity (the answer is a clear NO).

Well this is what we heard. Thankfully we were not on that low-power train, that apparently had to be diverted to buses in Emmaboda, only to have the passengers be returned to the trains half an hour later or so (still stuck in Emmaboda), when they thought the trains would start running again soon. Our next seat passenger told us this. A very nice young woman, with a difficulty to walk, relying mainly on her wheelchair to take her places. Sounds like an adventure to anyone, especially to her.

Our train was "only" cancelled, replaced by buses (obvioulsy full considering the holidays about to cease), 1.5 bus to stupid Alvesta (where one always seem to end up on these obscure days). When arriving in Alvesta, the bus driver informed we had to go into the SJ-office and rebook the tickets, in order for us to get home. This is when a woman uttered the lovely sentence "detta är barockt!". It made me laugh, at least quietly to myself, fearing to wake the anger of the primitive people around me, all full with hatered, stress and annoyance. The train came, finally. The train that had left Kalmar 2 hours before us, had finally arrived! It was jam packed, obviously. We got some seats, talked to the nice girl (with the wheelchair), did some crossword-puzzling, and arrived only 35 minutes after orignial schedule. But man, it was an annoying trip. And an annoying evening, especially since I had to work 1.5 hours upon returning to Lund. I ought to sleep now, but my days and nights have gotten confused during the lovely break. I guess they'll have to set themselves straight tomorrow, when the alarm goes of 6.45, all in time for us to do some laundry. I can't explain how much I look forward to that. Or how much I enjoy the use of irony.

All that annoying travel, and we won't even be able to get our money back now, since the train probably broke some kind of speed record travelling from Alvesta to Lund. One needs to be at least an hour delayed in order to get the money back. Or you don't get the money, of course. You get SJ-vouchers. So you can ride with them again. Because you enjoyed the last trip so dearly. I'm not bitter.

Actually, I am happy. Tired, but happy. I really need to sleep more, but I have just not been able to the last few nights. I have done some napping during the afternoons instead, but it's so not the same thing. Tomorrow will be great I'm sure, I get to look at some absolutely marvellous cells I have stained. They are too pretty to grasp, can't wait to have the pictures published in some cool scientific journal. It will probably be another year or so, but still!

How it all began

I was trying to fall asleep for an hour or so, but deemed it impossible about 2 minutes ago. I decided to blog something. Sometimes I have this strong urge to write something, anything, just to get it out of me. If I don't write it, I feel I will lose it forever, never remember it again, and that it is something decisive, something I just ought not forget. It is similar to a pre-anxiety-attack-feeling. The feeling of something just needing to get out, and you don't know if you should scream or run, or what to do with the feeling. It's just in you, and you have to get it out, now, and quickly, otherwise you probably won't be able to breathe for very long. That's how I, more or less in periods, feel about writing.

I have so many ideas about things to write. I want to write something like a book, something to scare people, and something else more personal. Perhaps about myself, but not like an autobiography, more something semi-fiction, semi-real/self-lived. I know stuff, and I feel stuff, that I feel I need to tell others, people must know about these things. But in particular, just to get a breathing-hole for that feeling of needing to write.

I love the scientific piece of my world, I see it as a chance for myself to learn things, and in particular to write it down so others can know. Must importantly, to write it down. I can spend hours thinking and writing about things concerning my tiny little branch, or branch-ette, of knowledge. I hate how people can blow it out of propotions, and think that I am super-smart, and be scared or reluctant to talk to me, because they immediately judge that I am too smart, too good, to important, to superior to them. Which is absolutely bullocks. But this is a whole other story. Which I perhaps can write about in my thesis acknowledgements.

The thought of writing a thesis, I mean especially 'writing', is very attractive to me. To write something, about what I know. To tell others. At least to a few other people that are either forced to read it, or actually interested. But still, what I put in there is rather strict. I can't put fiction there, just facts. Or at least mainly. In the discussion you can always squeeze in some fictioneous part, about your interpetations or beliefs concerning the facts you've found. But when it comes to the acknowledgement, the word is free. I can write anything I please. I guess you are supposed to stick to thanking people that has helped you in one or another way to write/accomplish the work leading up to the thesis. But come on, people thank everybody in there; their babies, some people they've just said "hi" to in the hallways of the lab, and other random people. Now, I am absolutely not saying this is wrong. It's good, as long as you really feel those people actually made a difference. But what I really think, and what I am convinced I'll do, is to just write whatever I feel like. Perhaps a short-story, perhaps the Soup-recipe, perhaps just ignore all boundaries, and write an acknowledgement as long as the scientific part is. Who will stop me, it is MY book. Right. It is what is the most attractive about writing the thesis sometimes, that I'll be able to write down whatever I feel like I need to say there, and people will for sure read that part. Few read the scientific bit, but EVERYONE that gets a thesis in their hands, will check the acknowledgements. The personal bit, the clue to learning more about that person behind the lab coat and vials. It is the brilliant part of the thesis.

My problem is the self-esteem. I can start writing something, perhaps also finish it. But once I am done, I feel this; "I am pathetic, this is utter crap, who'd ever think THIS is good reading, why would anybody like this, who am I kidding, I can't do this". And more often than not, I cast it aside.

Like when I rode the train to Kalmar on wednesday evening. I had casually surfed the internet at the lab (after giving up work for the day), and found that a show on svt.se (swedish television) had a competition called "Slutet på historien" (the end of the story) http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=66786&a=781683. 6 more or less famous swedish writers had written a 2000-word start to a short-story, and you got to pick one of them, to write a 1200-word finish. I wrote a 2000-word finish, that I am sure I could scale down, and retouch to be a rather good piece to enter in the competition. But my self-esteem is currently in the way. I feel how I suck, how I can ever think that I can write something good, that others would like, and this inhibits myself to like the writing I've accomplished. I am trying to bring it down to reality, to how as long as I have written no more than 1200 words, it is good enough to enter in the competition. But my pressure of brilliance when performing will, I believe, stop me from even daring to enter the competition. I hope not, but that is my very real fear at least.

Hopefully, a few more rounds of argumenting in my head might make me realise and fully understand, that I can do it, I can try, and that I am no worse a writer than the next guy, and I have nothing to lose from trying. I guess we'll see. I have until the 16th of May to get my act together.

If I succeed in entering the competition, this might also give me enough 'roll' to make a schematic draft of the other writing project I have in my head. The semi-fiction/semi-self-lived thing. Perhaps. Maybe.

Writing something, anything, just to get it out. The true passion and feeling of happiness it renders me, that is what made me start blogging. I enjoy it, plenty.

Barbecue in the forest

I went with Joding's family to a very nice forest nearby, to make a small fire and barbecue some sausages. I also barbecued my cinnamon roll, since it wasn't fully thawed. It was pure success. Great afternoon outing. I smell of fire now, but it was worth it!

Partyparty

My new pretty dress, and a really good curly hair-day.

Barbecueing, wearing winter coats, and lots of Easter candy and games. A pretty brilliant evening at Freeedrik's place.


The game of picking up a paper-bag from the floor, without touching the floor with anything but the feet. For each round, the paper-bag's height was decreased by half. Very funny. Me, Joding and Christoffer could all three pick up both the bottom of the bag, and a plain A4 paper, straight off the floor. Lots of fun. Especially since Joding took his trousers off for the last few rounds, to be able to stretch down better.

Can you find your boyfriend by just feeling his feet and the lower part of his legs. Look at cute Joding, his feet are very very ticklish. I found Joding, without a doubt. Another girl chose Joding's feet too. Interestingly enough, for the round of 'find your girlfriend by just feeling her hand', Joding chose this other girl as his girlfriend, not me. Should I be worried?