| and then everything happened at once... |
[05 Dec 2005|10:29pm] |
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ok. so four months since my last entry (bad, bad blogger) and I sort of find myself with a new life. It has been crazy! Within two weeks time, at the end of september, I learned that we got that nice big apartment and got a new job. Since then there's been lots and lots of work, day and night, weekdays and weekends, getting into a new job and moving in to a new place. But it's oh so sweet. Crazy boss no more!
The job is really good in many ways. It's a design position at a specialist paper for grocery retailers. It's a tabloid that comes out once every two week. The position is basically AD, but you do all the layout and photo editing and illustrating too. Of course the paper itself is not that interesting, and the rest of the staff is mostly older people, but it's so good for me to get some real AD and layout work experience. And I get the best vacation time – three weeks around christmas and five weeks in the summer.
The big move went really smooth. With lots of help from our strong friends and families, all our stuff from the separate apartments was moved into the new one within 3 hours! And the apartment was way nicer than we remembered it. We've been living here for exactly a month today, and are pretty much settled in. And very happy! It's such a nice and big and light apartment. It's on the second floor, but has big windows and the living room is overlooking a park, so there's no other houses blocking out the daylight (not that there's much of that right now).
Last week the first real snow came here – it snowed like crazy for a whole day, and everything was just wrapped in a thick layer of pure white. It was amazing! I was especially happy over it this year I think, since I missed out on it last year. I know this love of snow is only temporary though, pretty soon I'm gonna hate it again for being so darn wet and slushy and dirty all the time. And I'm sure I'm gonna wish there was only snow on the distant mountain tops...
anyways, here's some pictures from our new living room:
The church in "our" park
Our new christmas friends: Ebba the angel, The mean santa, Calle the snowman and Bosse the ginger bread man.
My advent candles with block candles, so I can leave them burning for a looong time, and clove and cinnamon, so it will smell like christmas all the time!
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| goodbye kitty |
[26 Aug 2005|09:59am] |
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I said good bye to my family's cat yesterday. We had to put our sweet Felix down. He wouldn't eat or drink anymore, and was very weak and thin. The vets said there was something wrong with his liver. They didn't know exactly what, just that his values were way, way off. It all came as big chock to all of us, he has always been so strong and healthy. He was 11 years old, but we didn't really think of him as that old. I thought he would live for many years still.
Felix has been out on an island in the archipelago with friends to my mom and dad all summer, while they were out sailing, and has probably gradually started eating less and less. We think he was already ill when he got there. When he came home again my mom noticed something was wrong and took him to the vet. He stayed there for a while, but none of the tests they took explained what was wrong. They just showed something was really not right with his liver, and they said he would probably not make it.
My mom and dad decided to take Felix back home and try to get him to eat and give him antibiotics and other medicines. He's been home this week, and at first he ate some fish and forced the cat door open when it was locked with tape. But then it got worse again. He didn't even want to touch the bits of cob he used to gobble up in a split second. Finally yesterday my parents decided it was time to let him go. He was only getting worse.
So yesterday evening me and my brother and his girlfriend went out to my parents house to say goodbye. It was hard, so hard. But good. I'm so happy I got to see him one last time. It was clear that it was time for him to leave. He was always a very lazy cat, but I've never seen him like this before. There was not much life left in him. It was like he was fading away. He just lay on the floor, slowly wagging his tail, looking at me, like a sad shadow of himself.
It seems like yesterday when he first came to us, as a tiny little kitten, begging for shrimps. He was our neighbors cat, but he decided to move in with us instead. We tried for a while to carry him back to them whenever he came to us, but he always returned before we knew it. They had three screaming kids that was always pulling his tail and chasing him, and he wasn't that kind of cat. So we adopted him.
And now he's left us. And it's very, very empty.
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| I'm trying to focus on work... |
[16 Aug 2005|03:52pm] |
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anthony and the johnsons |
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...but I'm failing miserably! I can't think about anything else than the apartment we almost have. Yes, it's the huge one! The girls that live there called yesterday, several days before they were supposed to, and said that they had made their minds up and that they wanted to swap with us! So right now we're collecting all the paper work that you need to send in to the landlords along with your application. When that's all done there's nothing we can do but wait and wait and hope they'll accept the applications. I'm trying very hard not to think about moving, painting and decorating. But at this point it's way too late, I'm already so excited I can't really sleep and I would be devastated if we for some reason couldn't go through with this swap. I so want to live there!
Unfortunately there's no pictures from inside the apartment, but you can take a look at the building right here:
http://www.olovlindgren.se/fastighet.asp?id=86
Keep your fingers crossed!
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| apartment swapping |
[11 Aug 2005|09:24pm] |
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rilo kiley |
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Peder and me have started to look for an apartment that we can both live in again. We decided to move in together when I was in Vancouver, and started looking once we got home. The problem is that there's not nearly enough housing in Stockholm, so you can't just go and find a rental apartment. There's years and years of queuing just to get an apartment in the less popular suburbs. People put their kids in housing ques when they are born, and even that won't get you something good. Sub-letting is huge, so is buying rental agreements illegally. You can also get an apartment through contacts. Or you get a big loan and buy a place. It's crazy!
So, after going through that to get your apartment, there's no way you can just let it go when you want to move on. No, you now have to try and exchange your apartment or apartments with someone else that also wants to move. The apartment exchange market is huge! There's websites where you fill in what you have and what you want, and then it automatically matches the ad's. And let me tell you, it's not easy! People are very picky. And change their minds a lot. And try to illegally sell their rental agreement to you. And so on. So we took a break over summer, but now we're back at it. And right now we have a chance to get a 90 square meters 2 bedroom apartment in our favorite neighborhood! I'm so very excited, but at the same time I try not to be, cause they will probably change their minds. But it would be sweet! We could have a work/play/sewing room! I could probably get lost. And we could play catch, dance and run around. My god!
Ah well. It seems to good to be true, so it probably is. Anyways, we have taken some pictures of our apartments and put up on the web for people on the swapping-sites to see, so now you can see how we live!
Åsa's apartment
Peder's apartment
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| old update #3: midsummer nights eve |
[01 Aug 2005|10:28pm] |
next up is: midsummer nights eve!
this is such a weird and truly swedish celebration. It basically consist of people gathering in the country side, eating lots of herring and new potatoes, of course drinking lots of snaps (along with the traditional snaps songs that you have to sing before you drink) and then, with your kids, or someone elses kids as an alibi, go dance around the Maypole. This is where it becomes very odd. You see it's not that you just dance – you have to, among other things, jump around and try to resemble a frog. Like this:
The song that goes with this "dance" goes a little something like this:
"Little frogs, little frogs are funny to watch. Ko-ack-ack, Ko-ack-ack, Ko-ack-ack-ack-ack-a"
Yes. It's all for the kids. But still!
Here's a video clip of another crazy song and dance
Another tradition on midsummer is to pick flowers and make girlands to put in your hair, and to decorate they maypole in. Here's my friend Karin making a flower girland:
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| old update #2: koala bears & animal babies! |
[31 Jul 2005|08:41pm] |
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rilo kiley |
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we had to go to skansen (the zoo) again. Not only did they have lots of animal babies, but two guest stars from the other side of the atlantic: Teddy & Freddy, the koala bears from San Diego zoo, is currently on loan to Skansen. (They flew business class over here!)
we were happy enough to enter The Aquarium/Terrarium when it was time for one of the koalas to be weighed – it was such a treat to get to see him up close like this:
With the extra entrance fee to the terrarium comes another treat: to walk among the lemurs. this is by far the most entertaining animal on skansen, they're always up to something funny looking and cute. like lying in a big pile hugging each other:
and of course, the lemurs had babies too:
this one was running around my feet like crazy. His tail actually touched my leg – sooo soft!
after staying way too long with these little creatures, we went straight to see the bear babies:
He looks so funny standing like that! and the one who sleeps, was really exhausted, his siblings were trying hard to wake him up, but he just kept on sleeping. He got up once just to soften up the ground a bit, and then went right back to sleep.
next was the lynx's:
such beautiful animals.
and they had babies too! They were hiding in a far corner of the habitat, we could hardly see them, but I cought one on a photo when I zoomed in a bit:
ahw!
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| old update #1 |
[31 Jul 2005|06:57pm] |
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Richard Buckner - of course! |
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Ok. Let's start from the beginning. This is about a month ago. Me and Peder and some friends went to listen to Richard Buckner. I was introduced to his music by both Matt and Peder, and he's been in my walkman a lot the last couple of months. The concert was magical. He just kept playing without any intermission between songs for a good hour or more, and he had all these pedals to make different effects and record and replay parts of the songs. It was way cool!
Peder and our friend Peter met with him afterwards and asked him to write down what inspires him for their web zine, blaserad. It's up now on blaserad.com.
Because I was standing next to a speaker that I could put my camera on, I managed to get some good photos of the guy:
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| too much update |
[20 Jul 2005|04:18pm] |
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Khonnor |
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I've been a really bad blogger lately, I know. It's just that I have too much to tell you about, and loads of pictures I want to put up here. here's a tease: lynx kittens, lemur babies, bear babies, midsummer celebrations (featuring a small video clip with people dancing around a may pole), richard buckner photos and a video, and of course, croatia vacation pictures.
I promise I'll put it all up here soon. In the mean time you should look at this. It's a quite amusing little book on swedes – written by an american.
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| good life |
[22 Jun 2005|12:51am] |
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Antony and the johnssons |
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yay for summer! I've taken four weeks off from work and now it seems the office will most likely be closed for two-three weeks after that. Which means I'm looking at a six or seven weeks long summer break. so sweet! especially since peder doesn't start his new job until august so we can enjoy it together. sure, I won't be the richest girl around, but hey – I think I can live on sun and love.
to top things off we've had the best weather for several days now. It's been around 25 degrees and sunny, sunny, sunny. So now we're touring our own city: Yesterday we took our bikes out to the sea for a picnic and to swim. Today we rented a canoe and paddled around in a canal on the beautiful island, Djurgården in central Stockholm. Looks pretty nice, hey?
I must admit Stockholm isn't all that bad in the summer time...
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| nocturnal animal |
[13 Jun 2005|01:10am] |
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nothing... just the sound of the night |
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Finally I've taken a picture of my dear bike:
Isn't she a beauty? I named it Kitty after my first favorite pony. For me horses and bikes have always been connected. You know – you sit on top of both and make them move forward with your legs. And you have to have a helmet and there's a saddle.
Anyways, Peder's out of town this week visiting his family and I can't seem to get my ass into bed. He usually reminds me that I really should get under the cover and get some sleep or I'll be dead tired the next day. I'm such a child when it comes to that. I can't seem to find the motivation to get started with all the preparations you have to do before you're ready for sleep: brush your teeth, wash your face, use toner and moisturizer and since my apartment is only a studio we have to tidy up the coffee table and fold out and make the futon bed that we use as a a sofa in the daytime. It's a lot of work! Most of all I just think I'm a nocturnal person. There's something about being awake when everybody else is sleeping that I love.
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| hard competition to say the least |
[09 Jun 2005|03:03pm] |
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anthony and the johnsons |
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I e-mailed the woman at EA that interviewed me and asked her how come they chose the other candidate. Turns out the other girl had worked at EA before, only in another department. Not easy to compete against that!
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| ea reject |
[08 Jun 2005|08:30pm] |
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the shins |
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yes, EA rejected me for the second time – maybe I should take a hint? they called from ea today to let me know they're gonna go with someone else. apparently I was the second runner up, but I'm not sure that really made me feel better? at first I was pissed off cause the woman that interviewed me really led me to believe the job was almost already mine. but now i'm thinking it's all probably for the best. I wont have to commute for two hours every day to do a boring routine job for an evil employer and almost no money at all. and I can try to find a new job that I really want.
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| job interview |
[28 May 2005|08:35pm] |
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A couple of weeks ago peder mentioned that Electronic Arts Nordic's DTP department was looking for someone to help them layout their manuals. Actually the exact same position I applied and got interviewed for a year ago, before I went to Vancouver – before I knew all the bad things I know now about Electronic Arts. (read more in the ea_spouse blog). It didn't even cross my mind at first to apply for it again. Not considering how miserable Peder was working for them and how bad they treat Matt in Vancouver.
Then my friend karin made me rethink the whole situation. She works with me now and reminded me exactly how horrible our boss is. She's not bad like bosses sometimes are – she is the boss from hell! No kidding. She'll call me at 11 pm and proclaim one of my co-workers total incompetence in designing a folder and beg me to come in at 8 am the next day to fix it – when she's the one who decided exactly how the whole damn thing was supposed to look! And that's just one of her frequent outbursts. We are all constantly tip-toeing around her like she's a freaking nuclear bomb. There's no way EA could be worse. At least not the DTP department. Also it's only a temporary position for six months. And it would look real good in my resume too.
So. Ultimately I decided to apply. Peder put in a good word for me. And last friday I had an interview. Which went really well! She told me that I was the best for the job of the applicants she had met so far and that she thought I would fit in well. The only problem now is that they're not sure there is a position available at all. Or rather: they have two openings. But they also have two persons that has been working there before that may want to come back. Then there's a possibility that one of the guys working at the DTP department today get another temp position within EA. In that case they would need a third co-worker. So now it's basically just pure luck. Good thing I have this lucky kitten!
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| spring is here! |
[27 Mar 2005|03:14pm] |
the long awaited spring has finally arrived to stockholm. just in time for my easter break! on good friday me and peder went to skansen, an outdoor museum and zoo in central Stockholm. it was a gorugeous day - just perfect for a long walk around the zoo. all the animals were a bit spring crazy too - running around playing with each other and showing off.
it's hard though because it's so double. i love watching the animals, they always manage to put a big smile on my face. but at the same time it makes me sad to se them in such small enclosures. i just hope they're not too miserable...
sunbathing lemurs
big kitty
peder and stockholm
i won this stuffed lion (in a win every time lottery, but anyway). kind of looks like me with the glasses on, hey?
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| a palm tree in winter land |
[24 Mar 2005|11:39pm] |
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the arcade fire |
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I bought my very first plant the other day. my mom used to bring me plants and then they died and she stopped. and I bought some fake plastic flowers. but now i have a small palm tree in my window! the lingering winter here made me desperate for some greenery. and he reminds me of california. i named him abbott after the founder of venice beach in LA. isn't he a very good looking little palm tree?
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| extreme shopping |
[26 Feb 2005|05:33pm] |
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So, today I managed to do the most efficient shopping ever! I needed some new pantyhose
for this diesel fashion show/party I'm going to tonight (yay - free drinks!) so after playing
mario sunshine for way too long I made myself go to the local shopping center. Turns out
all the stores had special offers of the "take-three-pay-for-two" kind and I totally fell for
it. In one hour I bought three pairs of pantyhose, three panties, two pairs of jeans, a cord
blazer and a pair of black velour gym pants. In one hour!
I'm so exhausted.
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| stuck at work with nothing to do |
[23 Feb 2005|05:08pm] |
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Kings of convienience |
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I hate word.
I've spent the last two weeks trying to layout a research report in word.
I don't think i have to tell you it has been hell! and to make matters
even worse my crazy professor of a boss falls in love with diagrams that
don't really fit into the text and now my more sane co-workers have to
rescue it by changing everything. phew!
anyways. I had a job interview yesterday at one of the bigger tv channels
in Sweden - Channel 5 (Kanal 5: www.kanal5.se). the job sounds awesome
- it's graphic designer/production artist for their marketing department
it went well, but the competition is real hard. I was picked among seven others
from 40 applications. I'm trying very hard not to get my hopes up - it would be
too good to be true that i actually got the first job i applied for since i got home.
but boy, do I want it!
it stopped snowing. it has been coming down since yesterday morning.
everything is so white and fussy and quiet. & I love the sound of it under my soles.
now all I want is to go home and make an avocado and mozzarella salad and play
some monkey bowling with peder. I haven't seen him in an awake state since the
day before yesterday.
damn word & crazy professor!
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