Woke up feeling very ordinary this morning. It may have had something to do with all that red wine we drank last night. Forced myself out of bed and made it into the office by about 7.30am. For the fourth day in a row the sky was blue and the sun was shining. Of course it was still minus 6 degrees on my way to work, but what can you do?
Made it through the morning and was ready to leave at 11.30am. Just as I was about to walk out the door my desk phone rang. Spent a few minutes on the phone with a guy who wanted to speak with Magnus Roos about Microsoft Exchange licenses because Niklas wasn’t returning his emails. Of course, Magnus hasn’t worked for ASSA ABLOY for about six months but eventually we agreed that he would call Niklas directly.
My train to Helsingborg was leaving at 11.38am so I practically sprinted 1km to the train station with my heavy-ass backpack, stuffed full of snow gear and – of course – my laptop. Made the train with about 30 seconds to spare. Spent the whole 15 minute ride trying to catch my breath and realising how hopelessly unfit I am.
Jens and Elsa met me at the train station and 40 minutes later we were at Vallåsen. The car park was much less crowded than last time and we only had to wait three numbers to get our rental gear then it was off to the slopes.
The weather couldn’t have been better. Along with the sun and blue skies we had not a scrap of wind – perfect snow weather. We made it to the top of the lift, took off for my first northern hemisphere run and fell right on my butt after about 10 meters - talk about an ignominious start!
The snow was pretty average – a thin covering of powdery snow on top of ice. My boots were incredibly loose and my board was, well, a rental so let’s just say it wasn’t the most relaxing, cruisey day I’ve had. However, anyone that loves skiing or snowboarding knows that it’s kind of like like pizza – even when it’s bad it’s still pretty good.
The three muskateers!
Apres ski at Jens’ place again. Märta had cooked a wonderful tomato and vegetable soup which we had with little balls of mozzarella. Hung around to watch ‘Amigo!’ with the kids (a Friday night ritual at their place) then caught the train back to Landskrona.
Buggered as I was when I got home I stuck to my original plan and met Johan at Tages nightclub around 9.30pm for a ‘Reggae’ night. He’d been filling me in during the week and apparently Reggae music became hugely popular in Sweden a while ago and still has quite a strong following. The Swedish version of reggae is a bit more up-tempo and has more of a rapping style to the vocals.
We saw a local Ska band from Landskrona and a Danish reggae band (all white, but the singer sounded full-on Jamaican mon). The highlight of the night was the third act – ‘General Knas’ from one of the most famous Swedish reggae bands, Svenska Akademin, performed a set with the Danish band. It was amazing to see all these young Swedish people singing and dancing along to reggae music.
Svenska Akadamien - Swedish Reggae
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