Had a good day at work today – spent most of it teaching myself how to set up a SharePoint site. Without going into too much detail, SharePoint is a Microsoft product that lets you set up a web-based workspace where teams can (among other things) share documents. Anyway, I’ve been modifying an existing site for use by the new EMEA AD/Exchange team.
SharePoint is designed to be a ‘user managed’ website – no need for IT geeks to do fancy programming to get things working. It’s all click here, drag there. What I spent the most time trying to get right was access permissions. With a bit of trial and error (during which time I managed to somehow remove my access, essentially locking me out of the site) I eventually figured it out and got everything working the way I wanted.
Lunch today was a bit of a strange one. I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d ordered (less so than usual) but I thought it was something with pork and potatoes. In a way I suppose it was, except that the ‘pork’ was actually crispy fried bacon and the ‘potatoes’ were inside these savoury pancakes that were folded in half. This combination was served with a side of lingonberry jam – which is sweet like strawberry jam. When eaten all together the combination actually wasn’t that bad. Separately, the pancakes were average and the bacon tasted, well, like bacon.
The supermarket had mostly finished the renovations so I managed to get the diced beef I’d been looking for yesterday. Cheffed up an awesome Goulash. Cooked it for about nearly an hour and a half so the meat was super tender. Cooked enough for dinner tonight and tomorrow…
Jodie’s started training at her new job so timing our daily Skype has become a bit harder, since she now gets home after I’m already started work. Tonight we tried while she was getting ready in the morning. It was okay, but it’s hard to have a conversation when you’re doing your hair, taking the dog out, packing your bag etc.
Started watching a new TV show today – Community – about students at a community college in Denver, Colorado. The biggest name on the show is Chevy Chase, although he’s not the main character. IMDB gives it 8.6 and, based on the pilot, that sounds about right.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Day 38
There was a swan in the middle of the big roundabout at Landskrona station this morning. It was a strange place for a swan to be. There were no other swans around but there were lots of cars – it’s a busy intersection. I think he was lost.
Work was a pretty normal Monday – meetings in the morning; Swedish meatballs with gravy, lingonberry jam and boiled potatoes for lunch; work in the afternoon then home. The sun was still out today, but the sky wasn’t as blue. The mornings are still a bit chilly, the grass is silver with frost on my walk to work and the air has a bite to it.
I stopped in at the supermarket after work with plans to make Goulash. I’d written out my list an everything. It wasn’t even a long list – some potatoes, a carrot and diced beef. I picked up the veggies and when I got to the meat section I found cheese instead.
I discovered they were in the middle of remodelling parts of the store. The meats had been moved and when I tracked them down I found no beef. I think they were still in the process of moving things because there were lots of empty shelves. Suffice to say this killed my idea for dinner.
I went back to my nightmare of wandering the aisles, trying to come up with dinner ideas and find ingredients. After about half an hour I settled on some pre-packed potato salad and tomato sauce, which I had with some polpette I’d frozen and, of course, bisi in teccia.
Uploaded some photos from the previous week, then watched the final three episodes of Dexter – Season 1. It was good.
Crazy swan...
Work was a pretty normal Monday – meetings in the morning; Swedish meatballs with gravy, lingonberry jam and boiled potatoes for lunch; work in the afternoon then home. The sun was still out today, but the sky wasn’t as blue. The mornings are still a bit chilly, the grass is silver with frost on my walk to work and the air has a bite to it.
I stopped in at the supermarket after work with plans to make Goulash. I’d written out my list an everything. It wasn’t even a long list – some potatoes, a carrot and diced beef. I picked up the veggies and when I got to the meat section I found cheese instead.
I discovered they were in the middle of remodelling parts of the store. The meats had been moved and when I tracked them down I found no beef. I think they were still in the process of moving things because there were lots of empty shelves. Suffice to say this killed my idea for dinner.
I went back to my nightmare of wandering the aisles, trying to come up with dinner ideas and find ingredients. After about half an hour I settled on some pre-packed potato salad and tomato sauce, which I had with some polpette I’d frozen and, of course, bisi in teccia.
Uploaded some photos from the previous week, then watched the final three episodes of Dexter – Season 1. It was good.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Day 37
It’s official - I’m now more than half way through my Swedish adventure! It’s scary to think that I only have four weekends left before I come home…
Spent most of Sunday morning on Skype catching up with the Nonni; Dan, Amy and Leia; and my wonderful wife Jodie. It was the first time since leaving that I’d seen my little niece and she was looking gorgeous. It’s only been a bit more than a month but she’s already bigger than I remember and looking more aware of her surroundings – I swear she looked right at me and smiled (or maybe that was gas?).
Needed to get some food for lunch so decided to walk into town and see what I could find. Ended up at City Gross so picked up some essentials – more cordial, some corn chips and Pringles for snacking and, most importantly, some sugar to have with the pancakes I’m going to cook tonight for dessert. I’m excited about the Pringles – Sea Salt and Black Pepper flavour!
Thomas and his son, David, picked me up around 2.30pm and we headed into Malmö. The Malmö Stadium is a relatively new building with a capacity of 30,000. We were sitting in row seventeen, almost level with one of the goals so we had a good view of the game. I’m sad to say the home team – the Malmö Redhawks – lost 2-1 in a close game.
The final score came with 20 seconds left on the clock. The Redhawks had called a timeout and came back on the ice minus their goalie, choosing instead to field six regular players. Unfortunately this backfired big-time – they lost control of the puck and the other team made an easy score against an empty goal.
Thomas, David and I all had a good time – even though we didn’t understand what was going on some of the time. I understood the rules better than they did, but couldn’t understand the Swedish announcements telling people what was happening. Still, I managed to explain what ‘icing’, ‘hooking’, ‘offside’, and ‘power plays’ were so they weren’t completely lost.
Home about 7pm. Tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches for dinner – followed by crepe-style pancakes with butter and sugar. Mmmmmmm…
Spent most of Sunday morning on Skype catching up with the Nonni; Dan, Amy and Leia; and my wonderful wife Jodie. It was the first time since leaving that I’d seen my little niece and she was looking gorgeous. It’s only been a bit more than a month but she’s already bigger than I remember and looking more aware of her surroundings – I swear she looked right at me and smiled (or maybe that was gas?).
Needed to get some food for lunch so decided to walk into town and see what I could find. Ended up at City Gross so picked up some essentials – more cordial, some corn chips and Pringles for snacking and, most importantly, some sugar to have with the pancakes I’m going to cook tonight for dessert. I’m excited about the Pringles – Sea Salt and Black Pepper flavour!
Thomas and his son, David, picked me up around 2.30pm and we headed into Malmö. The Malmö Stadium is a relatively new building with a capacity of 30,000. We were sitting in row seventeen, almost level with one of the goals so we had a good view of the game. I’m sad to say the home team – the Malmö Redhawks – lost 2-1 in a close game.
Malmö Redhawks vs AIK
The final score came with 20 seconds left on the clock. The Redhawks had called a timeout and came back on the ice minus their goalie, choosing instead to field six regular players. Unfortunately this backfired big-time – they lost control of the puck and the other team made an easy score against an empty goal.
Thomas, David and I all had a good time – even though we didn’t understand what was going on some of the time. I understood the rules better than they did, but couldn’t understand the Swedish announcements telling people what was happening. Still, I managed to explain what ‘icing’, ‘hooking’, ‘offside’, and ‘power plays’ were so they weren’t completely lost.
Home about 7pm. Tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches for dinner – followed by crepe-style pancakes with butter and sugar. Mmmmmmm…
Day 36
Slept in until 10am this morning then talked to mum and dad on Skype for almost an hour. They told me about the ‘freak’ storm that had hit Melbourne today so I spent the next hour looking at youtube videos people had taken of the rain, hail and subsequent flooding. Pretty amazing, wish I’d been there to see it.
Before I knew it, it was midday and I was still in bed. Got up, had a shower then had some breakfast cereal and a couple of left over polpette. The sun was shining outside but I couldn’t think of any reason to leave the apartment so I watched some Dexter instead.
Claire randomly popped up on Skype at like 12.30am Melbourne time so we had a good catch up. It was great to speak with her and find out how things have been going back home. I promised she’d get a mention on the blog today, so Claire – you’re welcome…
Went round to Johan’s for dinner tonight. He lives about a 10 minute walk from my apartment in Landskrona. He’d cooked up a fantastic spaghetti bolognese which we washed down with quite a few Carlsbergs. After a while we ran out of beer. In Sweden you can only buy alcohol from the System Bolaget – a government run bottle shop. The stores are open until 8pm Monday to Friday, until 2pm on Saturday and closed on Sunday. Basically this means you have to be prepared for the weekend – no last minute “Hey lets get some beers and have a BBQ”.
To get around this, Johan has a ‘smuggler’. Not only does he get the beer cheaper, but the guy delivers! Apparently these smugglers get the beer in Germany (for about 60 krona) and he buys a slab for 150 krona. If he was able to buy from the System Bolaget it would cost upwards of 200 krona for the same amount. Yeah, it’s criminal to buy alcohol on the black market, but you could argue not having a bottle shop open on a Saturday night is kind of criminal too!
Spent the evening with Johan and one of his friends, watched some of the Melodifestivalen (competition to decide the Swedish entry into the Eurovision song contest) and ended up watching heaps of Bill Bailey and Stephen Lynch clips on youtube. Funny shit, had us all in stitches.
They walked me back to my apartment around 12.30am and then headed on to Tages. I decided to give it a miss – two nights in a row is a bit much for an old fart like me.
Before I knew it, it was midday and I was still in bed. Got up, had a shower then had some breakfast cereal and a couple of left over polpette. The sun was shining outside but I couldn’t think of any reason to leave the apartment so I watched some Dexter instead.
Claire randomly popped up on Skype at like 12.30am Melbourne time so we had a good catch up. It was great to speak with her and find out how things have been going back home. I promised she’d get a mention on the blog today, so Claire – you’re welcome…
Went round to Johan’s for dinner tonight. He lives about a 10 minute walk from my apartment in Landskrona. He’d cooked up a fantastic spaghetti bolognese which we washed down with quite a few Carlsbergs. After a while we ran out of beer. In Sweden you can only buy alcohol from the System Bolaget – a government run bottle shop. The stores are open until 8pm Monday to Friday, until 2pm on Saturday and closed on Sunday. Basically this means you have to be prepared for the weekend – no last minute “Hey lets get some beers and have a BBQ”.
To get around this, Johan has a ‘smuggler’. Not only does he get the beer cheaper, but the guy delivers! Apparently these smugglers get the beer in Germany (for about 60 krona) and he buys a slab for 150 krona. If he was able to buy from the System Bolaget it would cost upwards of 200 krona for the same amount. Yeah, it’s criminal to buy alcohol on the black market, but you could argue not having a bottle shop open on a Saturday night is kind of criminal too!
Spent the evening with Johan and one of his friends, watched some of the Melodifestivalen (competition to decide the Swedish entry into the Eurovision song contest) and ended up watching heaps of Bill Bailey and Stephen Lynch clips on youtube. Funny shit, had us all in stitches.
They walked me back to my apartment around 12.30am and then headed on to Tages. I decided to give it a miss – two nights in a row is a bit much for an old fart like me.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Day 35
Finally – some snowboard action!
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.
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.
Had another great night, shook my booty on the dance floor and collapsed into bed around 2am. Phew, what a day!
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
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Day 34
Another early start this morning – got to work around 7.10am. We had Riek Lassig from Germany visiting Landskrona today. He’s the IT Infrastructure Manager for Central Europe. I walked down to the station to pick him up when he arrived – the Australian picking up the German on his way to visit the Swedes.
Had a fairly long meeting with him, myself, Jens and Niklas to discuss upcoming and current projects. He’s been appointed the team leader of the AD/Exchange migration team for EMEA and is involved with the Belgium and Netherlands data centre migrations at the moment.
Had the most wonderful dinner at Heidi’s apartment tonight. She’d invited me, and the couple that stay in the apartment next to me – Tina (a Landskrona local) and her boyfriend Martin (from Argentina). They’re both in their early thirties and have spent the last five or six years working on cruise ships either travelling to the Caribbean and back, or within the Mediterranean.
They’re a lovely couple, and Heidi was the most gracious host. She had prepared the most amazing dinner for us – a salad with rocket lettuce, Spanish ham, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and avocado; salmon with roast vegetables; and fresh raspberries, blueberries, chocolate ice cream and cream for dessert. Delicious!
We had wine from Verona, Italy and Scotch Whiskey. The conversation was interesting and the soundtrack varied from Mozart to Jazz to Blues. All in all a great night. It was great to finally meet the people who I’d heard coming and going from their apartment for all these weeks.
Heidi’s apartment is awesome, took some photos so I hope they turn out. Another early start tomorrow – half day of meetings then off to Vallåsen again with Jens tomorrow for another go at snowboarding. Fingers crossed we have more luck this time.
Had a fairly long meeting with him, myself, Jens and Niklas to discuss upcoming and current projects. He’s been appointed the team leader of the AD/Exchange migration team for EMEA and is involved with the Belgium and Netherlands data centre migrations at the moment.
Had the most wonderful dinner at Heidi’s apartment tonight. She’d invited me, and the couple that stay in the apartment next to me – Tina (a Landskrona local) and her boyfriend Martin (from Argentina). They’re both in their early thirties and have spent the last five or six years working on cruise ships either travelling to the Caribbean and back, or within the Mediterranean.
Me, Tina, Martin and Heidi
They’re a lovely couple, and Heidi was the most gracious host. She had prepared the most amazing dinner for us – a salad with rocket lettuce, Spanish ham, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and avocado; salmon with roast vegetables; and fresh raspberries, blueberries, chocolate ice cream and cream for dessert. Delicious!
We had wine from Verona, Italy and Scotch Whiskey. The conversation was interesting and the soundtrack varied from Mozart to Jazz to Blues. All in all a great night. It was great to finally meet the people who I’d heard coming and going from their apartment for all these weeks.
Heidi’s apartment is awesome, took some photos so I hope they turn out. Another early start tomorrow – half day of meetings then off to Vallåsen again with Jens tomorrow for another go at snowboarding. Fingers crossed we have more luck this time.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Day 33
Got to work about 7.15 this morning – not the first there, but nearly. Jens said he’d heard on the news today that the winter just finished was officially the coldest in Sweden since 1987. I feel kind of lucky to have been here to see some of it. In true spring fashion the sun was out and the sky was blue all day today.
Five of us walked down to the local pizza joint for lunch. Although the weather was beautiful it was still freezing outside. The ‘restaurant’ was cute (even if it looked a little dated) – it had booths with fully upholstered seats and an all-you-can-eat pizza bar (complete with little Swedish flags on top). As well as pizza you could also get hamburgers, kebabs, chivapcici and fried chicken. I went for the pizza bar. The pizzas were deep-pan, like Pizza Hut and tasted pretty good.
Before I left work I wrote out a list for the supermarket. I decided to cook polpette with bisi in teccia and mashed potatoes. On the list was mince, breadcrumbs, Italian herbs, cummin, frozen peas, potatoes and garlic – easy right? Kind of.
The mince, herbs, potatoes and frozen peas weren’t too hard to find. The garlic was okay once I thought about where it should be, but the breadcrumbs? Forgetaboudit! Spent about 15 minutes scanning every aisle for something that looked like breadcrumbs with no luck. Spent another 10 minutes walking around trying to find someone that worked there to ask. Eventually found someone and, once she figured out what I was asking for, was able to track it down – right there with the rice crackers and biscuits… sure, why not?
The preparation was okay – no potato masher so had to use a fork, which was actually way easier than I thought it would be. Had to look up a conversion of cups to dls (whatever that is) for the breadcrumbs. 1 cup = 2.3 dls in case you were wondering. Peas were done in the microwave with garlic, salt, pepper and water. Hardest bit about the polpette was finding a dish suitable to use as a mixing bowl. Decided on a kind of shallowish rectangular serving dish. It worked, barely.
All in all the meal turned out well and tasted delicious. I don’t think I’ve gone this long without mashed potatoes before!
Five of us walked down to the local pizza joint for lunch. Although the weather was beautiful it was still freezing outside. The ‘restaurant’ was cute (even if it looked a little dated) – it had booths with fully upholstered seats and an all-you-can-eat pizza bar (complete with little Swedish flags on top). As well as pizza you could also get hamburgers, kebabs, chivapcici and fried chicken. I went for the pizza bar. The pizzas were deep-pan, like Pizza Hut and tasted pretty good.
Before I left work I wrote out a list for the supermarket. I decided to cook polpette with bisi in teccia and mashed potatoes. On the list was mince, breadcrumbs, Italian herbs, cummin, frozen peas, potatoes and garlic – easy right? Kind of.
Kind of over-did it with the potatoes...
The mince, herbs, potatoes and frozen peas weren’t too hard to find. The garlic was okay once I thought about where it should be, but the breadcrumbs? Forgetaboudit! Spent about 15 minutes scanning every aisle for something that looked like breadcrumbs with no luck. Spent another 10 minutes walking around trying to find someone that worked there to ask. Eventually found someone and, once she figured out what I was asking for, was able to track it down – right there with the rice crackers and biscuits… sure, why not?
The preparation was okay – no potato masher so had to use a fork, which was actually way easier than I thought it would be. Had to look up a conversion of cups to dls (whatever that is) for the breadcrumbs. 1 cup = 2.3 dls in case you were wondering. Peas were done in the microwave with garlic, salt, pepper and water. Hardest bit about the polpette was finding a dish suitable to use as a mixing bowl. Decided on a kind of shallowish rectangular serving dish. It worked, barely.
All in all the meal turned out well and tasted delicious. I don’t think I’ve gone this long without mashed potatoes before!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Day 32
The sun was shining all day today. It was still on or around zero degrees outside, but sitting in the office looking out at the blue skies and green grass felt good. Apparently we’re expecting some cold weather come this weekend, but for the moment it’s nice.
Jens and I are going to try and give Vallåsen another go this Friday, so it’s early starts for me for the next few days (to make up for leaving early on Friday). There’s no more school holidays and the sun should still be around, so hopefully I actually get some downhill action this time.
Had a good lunch today – pork medallions with pepper gravy and, of course, boiled potatoes. I’ve never really eaten much pork at home but I quite like it. It’s certainly much more common here in Sweden than it seems to be back home. At the supermarket there’s always a big section of pork, as big if not bigger than the beef section. Lamb, on the other hand, is hard to find and very expensive.
The sun was still shining while I was making my way home so I got off the bus a few stops before mine and walked home. Finally tracked down that windmill I can see from the bus each day – right in the middle of a bunch of houses. Stopped past the old cemetery as well and got some shots just as the sun was disappearing behind the houses.
Spaghetti for dinner tonight, no sauce – just butter and parmeasan cheese like we used to have as kids. Made plans to go to an ice hockey game on Sunday in Malmö. It’s the last game of the season: Malmö Redhawks vs AIK (from Stockholm). It’s not the top league, it’s the division below (kind of like the VFL), but should be fun all the same. Going with one of the guys from work and his son – they’ve never been to a hockey game either.
Just finished watching ‘The Tournament’ (5.5/10) and about to hit the sack early.
Jens and I are going to try and give Vallåsen another go this Friday, so it’s early starts for me for the next few days (to make up for leaving early on Friday). There’s no more school holidays and the sun should still be around, so hopefully I actually get some downhill action this time.
Had a good lunch today – pork medallions with pepper gravy and, of course, boiled potatoes. I’ve never really eaten much pork at home but I quite like it. It’s certainly much more common here in Sweden than it seems to be back home. At the supermarket there’s always a big section of pork, as big if not bigger than the beef section. Lamb, on the other hand, is hard to find and very expensive.
The sun was still shining while I was making my way home so I got off the bus a few stops before mine and walked home. Finally tracked down that windmill I can see from the bus each day – right in the middle of a bunch of houses. Stopped past the old cemetery as well and got some shots just as the sun was disappearing behind the houses.
Gotcha!
This 7 foot tall angel statue is carved out of wood...
Just finished watching ‘The Tournament’ (5.5/10) and about to hit the sack early.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Day 31
Good day today - my back’s better, my cold’s better and I made it through my first month without turning into an ice block. Although I’ve missed everyone at home (my lovely wife especially), being away by myself hasn’t been as tough as I thought it would be.
Cooking for one has been okay although finding ingredients has sometimes been a challenge, as has the lack of an oven. Dishes I’m used to doing, and it’s much easier to wash one person’s dishes than two’s. Clothes washing has been done by my landlady, so that’s been a piece of cake. It’s weird to think that I’m thirty years old and this will be the longest that I’ve ever lived by myself…
Only one thing worth talking about happened at work today. At exactly three in the afternoon a siren started sounding over and over again – kind of like a ship’s horn. This lasted for almost 5 minutes. When I asked Jens about it he explained that it was just a test of the ‘emergency alarm’. I pressed him for more information and what he told me was amazing!
Apparently there are about 5000 of these sirens all over Sweden and they are all tested at exactly the same time – on the first Monday of March, June, September and December at three o’clock on the dot. It’s supposed to be used to inform the public of some kind of life-threatening danger such as a big fire, or explosion (or war I guess). If people hear it and it’s not at 3pm on one of those days they’re supposed to get inside, lock the doors, shut-down the ventilation system and turn on the radio or TV. Crazy stuff right?
He said it’s happened once that he can remember, when they had some kind of chemical spill/accident somewhere near Helsingborg. In the office today no one even seemed to notice it, so if you’re thinking about invading Sweden – do it during one of these tests.
Had what I thought was going to be beef stroganhoff at work today. I got the stroganhoff part right, just not the beef. I had to ask someone what the meat was – it was strips, roughly 5cm by 1cm, of sausage. The pieces were kind of floppy but if you ate it quickly enough it was bareable, just.
Tonight I tried my first ‘microwave meal’ - a mexican pizza. A bit of a cop out, especially after talking about cooking and cleaning for myself, but I really couldn’t come up with anything while I was at the supermarket after work. Turned out surprisingly tasty.
Cooking for one has been okay although finding ingredients has sometimes been a challenge, as has the lack of an oven. Dishes I’m used to doing, and it’s much easier to wash one person’s dishes than two’s. Clothes washing has been done by my landlady, so that’s been a piece of cake. It’s weird to think that I’m thirty years old and this will be the longest that I’ve ever lived by myself…
Only one thing worth talking about happened at work today. At exactly three in the afternoon a siren started sounding over and over again – kind of like a ship’s horn. This lasted for almost 5 minutes. When I asked Jens about it he explained that it was just a test of the ‘emergency alarm’. I pressed him for more information and what he told me was amazing!
Apparently there are about 5000 of these sirens all over Sweden and they are all tested at exactly the same time – on the first Monday of March, June, September and December at three o’clock on the dot. It’s supposed to be used to inform the public of some kind of life-threatening danger such as a big fire, or explosion (or war I guess). If people hear it and it’s not at 3pm on one of those days they’re supposed to get inside, lock the doors, shut-down the ventilation system and turn on the radio or TV. Crazy stuff right?
He said it’s happened once that he can remember, when they had some kind of chemical spill/accident somewhere near Helsingborg. In the office today no one even seemed to notice it, so if you’re thinking about invading Sweden – do it during one of these tests.
Had what I thought was going to be beef stroganhoff at work today. I got the stroganhoff part right, just not the beef. I had to ask someone what the meat was – it was strips, roughly 5cm by 1cm, of sausage. The pieces were kind of floppy but if you ate it quickly enough it was bareable, just.
Tonight I tried my first ‘microwave meal’ - a mexican pizza. A bit of a cop out, especially after talking about cooking and cleaning for myself, but I really couldn’t come up with anything while I was at the supermarket after work. Turned out surprisingly tasty.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
