Show & Tell: Halloween Groundhog Day

I'm off to Oslo tomorrow (part pleasure, part business trip) and had a full day today so this will be a brief Show & Tell post. I felt I wanted to write it now and not leave it for Tuesday since it's a Halloween theme after all and Halloween only comes once a year and that day is today.

If I had to wear the same Halloween costume every day, I would...

It's quite tricky this theme I've given myself and the rest of the Show & Tellers! It is possible to dress up as anything for Halloween so there's quite a range of alternatives. But I don't want to pick something boring, like "the costume of myself" or "grandmother" or "teacher", i.e. costumes that don't really require a costume. On the other hand I don't want go for the other extreme and pick "ghost" or "witch" either.

So I will have to choose doctor. And then I don't mean just the title, but the profession and that I would have to wear a white coat along with stethoscope and other equipment doctors have to carry around. I choose to be a doctor because at least people wouldn't be looking at me in the street (and in the winter I could wear a coat and "be undercover"). It would be a bit weird at work though since my colleagues know I'm not really a doctor.

I would also find myself in potentially tricky situations. For example, yesterday I was picking up some thai take-out food on my way home. When I entered the place there was an older woman on the floor and another woman (who turned out to be her daughter) sitting by her and calming her. Apparently she wasn't feeling well and had fainted and they were waiting for an ambulance. In that sort of situation it would be difficult to be dressed like a doctor but not really be able to help and have to hide in a corner. (I should mention that I left before the ambulance got there but the woman seemed to be fine and they had had confirmation that the ambulance was on its way.)

Okay, I'd better finish packing and get some sleep! Have a nice weekend folks!

My Balcony

Summer

Autumn

The Icing on the Cake

Last night I went to an ice hockey game for the first time in 15 years or so! My hometown team Södertälje played the Stockholm team Djurgården. Södertälje hasn't won a single game for the last six games (out of 15 matches played since the beginning of the series) but last night they won with 5-3!! I guess this means I need to go to all the games for the rest of the season since I clearly bring some luck! (Especially since they are still at the bottom of the league and need to win a lot more matches!)

Peter and his two friends who are Djurgården fans (though not huge fans; none of them had been to an ice hockey match for a while either) were not that happy of course but they still enjoyed the game since it was quite a happening one with lots of goals, beautiful play (mostly by Södertälje) and some action (read fights).

We were seated quite close to the Djurgården supporters and I must say that despite the fact that I had to cover my ears a lot for the shouting, it was quite interesting to watch as some sort of social study.

So a fun night for me and I may go again soon!

Show & Tell: If I Were a Time Traveler, I Would...

I got the idea for a time traveling theme for Show & Tell from the book The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger that I read a couple of years ago and consider one of my favourite books. It's about a man with a strange genetic disorder that causes him to unpredictably time travel, and his wife, who has to cope with his frequent absences and dangerous experiences. Because of his time travel he knows his wife throughout her life (almost) while she of course does not know that she will marry him in the future. He also knows when he is going to die. The book has been filmed - and will be out at cinemes in December. A must-see for me!

I also like the books about the literary agent (detective) Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde. The first book in the series is The Eyre Affair where Thursday Next is chasing a criminal by moving back and forth between an alternate 1985 and the pages of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Not really time traveling in the true sense but traveling between the real world (well, in this case the author's made-up 1985 and the years preceding it) and a fictional one. So far I have actually only read the first book but I have bought some of the others in the series and they are sitting there on my shelf waiting to be read...time permitting.

When I was little I had a recurring dream that I was sick in a hospital back in the 1920s or 1940s or something and my mum was a nurse in the hospital but did not have time to care (only) for me due to all her other patients. For some reason it took place in England. Probably it was just an effect of me dealing in my own little way with having a brother and having to fight for my parents' attention and devotion, but I like to think that perhaps there is a little chance that I had memories of sorts from an earlier life. I don't really believe in that stuff but at the same time I cannot see how I at the age of 6 and 7 could have imagined an English hospital. Or perhaps I had seen too many Forsyte Saga episodes with my parents...

In a way this theme sits very well with this weekend since we (at least in Europe) are changing the clocks this weekend. I didn't know that back when I came up with the themes so it is really a fun coincidence. Spring forward, fall back is how I remember whether we lose or gain an hour though in Sweden they usually illustrate it with whether you're taking out the grill for the summer or putting it back inside :)

As I'm writing this I've just got back from a dinner with three childhood girlfriends. This particular evening we didn't talk at all about the past but some times when we meet that's all we talk about! The old days and common memories. One of my friends, Jenny, remembers everything; we call her our collective memory. Sometimes I wish I could go back to certain experiences, events or feelings, but most of time looking at photos or having an evening of reminiscing will do fine. I don't think anyone of us want to go back to those early teenage years when we had ugly haircuts - of course high fashion for the time - and pimples. The school photos from those days sure provide a good laugh!


I guess this post doesn't really answer the question what I would do if I could time travel but is rather a summary of whatever comes to mind when I think about time traveling, but it will have to do!

Images from Amazon and January Magazine.

Palin Tribute

Show & Tell: Time Traveling

If I were a time traveler I would go back to this morning and write today's Show & Tell post on time traveling.

But unfortunately I'm not a time traveler so I will have to take a raincheck and get back to you tomorrow :)

Mr President(ial Candidate), Sort Out the Healthcare System!

I've written on the issue of different healthcare systems before. I came across this article on the American health service in my saved items in my inbox and wanted to share it with you. It's a year old but it feels very topical.

America’s Lagging Health Care System (editorial in New York Times, November 2007)
Americans are increasingly frustrated about the subpar performance of this country’s fragmented health care system, and with good reason. A new survey of patients in seven industrialized nations underscores just how badly sick Americans fare compared with patients in other nations. One-third of the American respondents felt their system is so dysfunctional that it needs to be rebuilt completely — the highest rate in any country surveyed. The system was given poor scores both by low-income, uninsured patients and by many higher-income patients.

The survey, the latest in a series from the Commonwealth Fund, is being published today on the Web site of Health Affairs, a respected health policy journal. Researchers interviewed some 12,000 adults in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Given the large number of people uninsured or poorly insured in this country, it was no surprise that Americans were the most likely to go without care because of costs. Fully 37 percent of the American respondents said that they chose not to visit a doctor when sick, skipped a recommended test or treatment or failed to fill a prescription in the past year because of the cost — well above the rates in other countries.

Patients here were more likely to get appointments quickly for elective surgery than those in nearly all the other countries. But access to primary care doctors, the mainstay of medical practice, was often rocky. Only half of the American adults were able to see a doctor the same day that they became sick or the day after, a worse showing than in all the other countries except Canada. Getting care on nights and weekends was problematic. Often the care here was substandard. Americans reported the highest rate of lab test errors and the second-highest rate of medical or medication errors.

The findings underscore the need to ensure that all Americans have quick access to a primary care doctor and the need for universal health coverage — so that all patients can afford the care they need. That’s what all of the presidential candidates should be talking about.

Autumn Bliss

Show & Tell: If I Were a Celebrity, I Would...

...probably both love and hate it.

Pros

• People would listen to what I had to say (provided I wasn't a B-celebrity or was infamous rather than famous)
• As a result I would have power of sorts (and I wouldn't be using it in the wrong way)
• I would probably have enough money to live where I wanted and travel when and where I wanted, especially to secluded places to get away
• If my celebrity status was the same as my financial status, I would also have enough money to help both family and friends and people around the world and causes I found important. I would welcome invitations to participate in good things
• I would have access to the best designers, hairdressers, make-up artists, etc. and consequently look perfect all the time
• I would be invited to movie premieres and other exciting mingling opportunities
• I would have the chance to meet, and even be friends with, famous people and would get the trash first-hand and not from gossip sites

Cons

• People would take my photograph everywhere I went and I would be followed around by paparazzi, especially if I were an American celebrity. This would be especially hard on me if I was dating a new person or had children
• I would constantly worry that someone would kidnap my children (perhaps not as much if I was "just" famous in Sweden because here celebrities tend to be left alone and can live more incognito)
• There would be a higher risk that I got a divorce. At least it seems that way in the celebrity world*. I would have to work hard on making my marriage work, especially with all the rumours, gossip, paparazzi, etc., but also because I assume I would be working quite a lot some of the time (see Why I would be famous below).
• I would worry about how my family and other people close to me were doing. Life is difficult anyway: relationships, marriage, having enough time for your family, etc., and as a celebrity it must be even harder with so many more people involved in your life in a way. It must really wear and tear on you.
• I would be asked to participate in numerous TV shows such as Stars on Ice, Let's Dance and cooking programmes
• People would ask for favours and want things from me

I guess my conclusion is that there are more disadvantages to being a celebrity than vice versa, at least when it comes to the stuff that counts.

The Swedish actor Eva Röse appears to have a sound attitude to celebrityhood: she goes to her own premieres (obviously) and does interviews in both print or broadcast media if it is related to her work, but she does not participate in game shows or Let's Dance or similar types of TV shows with celebrities. Many people call her boring and unpleasant for it but she asks why should she use precious time that for most people is devoted to family and friends, to do those kind of things, and for what purpose? An attitude that is to be commended in my view.

Why would I be famous - I'm not very good at singing or acting so to be realistic it would probably be because I was a politician or a successful business woman. Who knows, maybe it was because I had a very read blog hahaha! Blogging is in many respects an ego thing. Not that I want to become famous for my writing here - actually I quite enjoy knowing that many of my friends and colleagues don't even know I have this blog - but of course I enjoy having people read what I write. But about 200 visitors a week is sufficient for my ego needs!

But if I were a specific now living famous person I would apparently be

What celebrity would you be if you where famous? Angelina Jolie You are two people at the same time: the stophisticated, goodhearted spirit and the wild soul that wants to have fun, and live a crazy and full life. You would be like Angelina Jolie if you went famous (concidering your personality, it would probably happen over a night). you would feel responsible for the whole world, and give a lot of time and money for charity. Thoughyou'd sometimes act irresposible in your OWN life, wich can lead to some trouble... Personality-Emotion Quizzes

* I think it is very sad that Madonna and Guy Ritchie are getting divorced. After having been married for over seven years I thought they were on track to be in it for the long haul.

Nobel Guy

I was happy to hear yesterday that one of my favourite economists, Paul Krugman, won the Nobel Prize in Economics. I like the way he blogs about winning the prize, ""a funny thing happened to me this morning"!

Lists & Careers

Can't remember who challenged me but this list floated around in the bloggosphere a couple of months ago.

CLOTHES
1) Lace - In bed, or perhaps on a skirt
2) High boots - Yes, I have high boots and boots with high heels and flats. I saw a pair at the shoe shop the other day that are exactly like the ones I bought last year, but with a strap instead of laces at the top back. But I couldn't get an almost identical pair, could I?!!
3) Ancle/wrist length skirts - No, not my thing, I like them knee-length
4) Baggy jeans - No, I prefer them more slim or tight-fit
5) Dressed fashion - I assume this means office wear and yes, I like it. But lately I have gotten a bit tired of it and am wearing jeans to work more often (we can do that if we don't have any meetings). And dark jeans with a nice top and a jacket can look pretty dressed up too.
6) Toe-showing shoes or open shoes - Sandals (if I can find any that I like), flipflops or very dressy shoes for a party, but otherwise, no. And no crocs! Horrific things!
7) Wedges - Nope. Don't really have any but am not completely opposed, it depends on the rest of the shoe
8 ) Cape - Not sure what that is which must mean I don't have one. I do have a little cape-looking knitted thing that I wear once in a while when it's not cold enough for a coat. But does that qualify as a cape?
9) Leopard pattern - No! But they did offer some lingerie and badrock for purchase at the hotel we stayed at in DC this summer
10) Coats in bright colours - Yes, I have a bright red one. But I also have a black longer one I use much more.
11) Check pattern - Skirts and shirts, yes, but it depends on the pattern
12) Vest - Yes, I don't have one but I would like one. I have some knitted ones - I mean sleeveless tops to wear over shirts - but I would like one of a more dressy kind
13) Hat and other headgear - I like hats but I haven't found one I look good in yet. And I'm not sure what kind of occasion I would use it for - I don't go to English weddings too often. But a stylish one for the winter would be nice. I have some nice winter hats (mössa) for the winter though

MY HOME
5 things in my freezer: leftover food in little Tupperware boxes for work lunches, chili chocolate ice-cream, hot dogs buns that are a bit old, quorn in different shapes (filets, mince and cut up pieces) and ice
5 things in my wardrobe: clothes, these clever transparent shoe boxes, gifts for family and friends, our bed cover (it probably spends more time there than on the bed) and pile of clothes that need mending
5 things in my bathroom cupboard: face peeling from Kerstin Florian I should use more often considering the price, a very empty deodorant (forgot to buy a new one today again!), thin floss from Oral B, YSL Elle perfume, day and night creams from Oriflame AND LOTS OF OTHER STUFF!

FIVES
5 places where I lived: Södertälje (hometown), Pittsburgh, London, Oxford and Brussels
5 jobs I have had: paper and mail delivery, supply controller (logistics), political campaigner, consultant, desk officer
5 things in my handbag: access card for work, log in thingy for Internet banking, purse, umbrella, lip balm, keys
5 things in my car: FM radio transmitter for mp3, CDs, napkins, change and umbrellas

Then to the SHOW & TELL from Friday which I haven't managed to produce yet even though I'm the hostess this month at all!

If I could change careers, I would...
I haven't actually thought that seriously about this as I'm pretty happy with my choice of education, qualifications and career although I have to confess I constantly think about changing jobs, albeit within my field. I think I have mentioned this before but my boyfriend calls me the most disloyal employee since I always think of where to go next! That being so, it doesn't mean that I don't give every job 110%. But I do think a lot about the future and where I would work next. There are so many jobs I would want to do and so little time to do it!

But if I changed paths completely I would:

• Train to become a police officer. My boyfriend looked at me strangely when I told him but it's true, I have thought about it somewhat seriously. What appeals to me I think is partly the "doing something for society" and partly the being out and about meeting people. Or perhaps it's the gun and feeling authoritarian in uniform, I don't know! What doesn't appeal to me though is the three-year training. However, when I see police in the streets in Sweden I feel reassured that they have such thorough training - in the UK it only takes two or three months to qualify!
• Start my own consultancy within my field of expertise. Well, I guess this wouldn't be a change of career completely, but I would imagine that running one's own business is quite different from being a "regular" employee. I have tried the private sector already and I wouldn't mind going back after a 20-year career in the public sector. I would do something where I could mix the two sectors, i.e. political consulting or helping companies apply for public funding; the latter is what I did as an consultant. In the interface between the public and the private sector.
• Open up a café. Self-explanatory I guess. Would be fun to run it with a friend who really enjoyed cooking and baking. I would do the running of the business part and my friend the actual work hehehehe... We would also - although this has been done thousands of times before - promote local artists by displaying their works on the walls and selling them to our customers.
• Rent out prams/strollers/pushchairs at airports. This is an idea that a commentator over at Skolfröken's blog mentioned and I can't believe no one has thought of and/or realised it before (or perhaps they have but I don't know about it?). I don't have any children yet but I have many friends that do and I've heard them complain about how they don't like the travel with pram because they often get broken in the handling. So why not offer a pram rental service at the airport! Just book online as you would with a car and pick up by bagage. Return at the same or another airport!

Mensa Next?

Clip for my friends Swedish bloggers abroad, and especially those of you blogging from the Unites States.



(Clip from Aftonbladet and Mitt klipp).

US Road Trip Part 3: Washington D.C.

We arrived in Washington D.C. around 2.30pm and were very happy to see our stylish hotel, the Palomar, located by Dupont Circle. We had managed to find a good price for an executive room, almost as much as a regular double room.

As you can see I look pretty happy and I also match the interior pretty well! :)

The bathroom was not too bad either!

Old restored colonial houses towards a modern background. There is a name for the neighbourhood/street but I can't remember it or find it - anyone knows?

Almost the same time we arrived at the hotel, members of my extended aupair family arrived as well (they live in Virginia Beach, about a three hour drive from D.C.), and we headed out on the town with them. Here's me with Amy and her children (from the left) Ella (10 years old), Kyle (15) and Jack (12). Amy used to be married to my aupair mother's brother so these are the cousins of my aupair children. I have known them since Kyle was 3 and Jack newborn and Ella wasn't even born, and Amy and I have become close friends! Amy and Kyle visited me in Sweden about five years ago and the last time I met up with them was in October 2004, which as the last time I was in the US before the trip this summer.

We walked A LONG WAY that afternoon, from Dupont down to the White House along the Mall past the Capitol and up to Union Station where we took the Metro back to the hotel. The kids didn't complain a single time, well, towards the end when they were getting tired and hungry. The 15-year-old talked to Peter constantly throughout the 3-hour walk while Jack kept to the side - as illustrated by this photo. You could tell he was listening but he's in this (pre-)teen mood.

I think the Capitol is such a beautiful building.

Capitol detail.


This is one of my favourite photos from the trip (taken by the Capitol lawn).

Ella was so funny taking photos with her mobile phone constantly - and concentrating hard!

Animal life in the capital.

In the evening, after dinner at a Thai restaurant, the grown-ups had a few drinks in the hotel var while the kids watched a movie in the room.

The next day we jumped on one of these hop on-hop off sightseeing tours, which took us past National Cathedral (pictured) and through Georgetown where I have never been before.

The trolley also took us down a street in D.C. that houses almost all embassies, for example one with a statue of Winston Churchill - guess which one! :) We also passed by Sweden House, which is not in the ambassadorial street but down in Washington Harbour (I didn't manage to take a picture of it though).

We also went past all the sights we had seen by foot the day before - the White House, the Capitol, etc. - but I'll spare you another set of photos. A new building for us though was the US Supreme Court of Justice. A grand building that was unfortunately covered by scaffolding when we were there.

We got off the tour bus in "museum street", the road that runs along the Mall and has all (or most of) the Smithsonian museums. Peter went to the Air and Space Museum (and for example saw the capsule that landed the astronauts from one of the Apollo spaceflights back on earth) but the rest of us had been there before so we went to the Holocaust Museum instead. It was actually Kyle and Jack who wanted to go there, otherwise I hadn't even known about it! Unfortunately we only had two hours there as Amy & the kids had to get on the road again, otherwise I would have stayed three or four hours. I think that is what you need to really see it all. It's one of or maybe even the best museum I have ever been to so if you're going to D.C., it's a no-miss!

After Amy & kids had left, Peter and I hopped on the trolley again and saw the Jefferson Memorial from afar...

...and went past the World War II Memorial (there is also a Vietnam memorial as well as a Korean War memorial but I have seen those on previous visits so we skipped them).

The Lincoln Memorial is a must of course!

And a visit with President Abraham Lincoln himself! He sure was a tall man!

Here's the view of Washington Monument and the Capitol from the Lincoln Memorial. The picture is pretty dark but the weather wasn't as bad as it looks, it was just very grey and we did get a few drops of rain later in the early evening when returning to the hotel.

The final stop on our tour of D.C. was Arlington Cemetery where many American soldiers are buried. Initially all Americans who had served the country were buried there but as they were running out of space they changed the "rules" so that only those killed in battle are given their final rest in this cemetery.

Presidents qualify as well of course. This is - I dare to say - the most famous grave at Arlington Cemetery, that of John F. Kennedy, where an eternal flame burns.

Jackie Kennedy and two of their children (those that died as infants) are buried next to JFK.

One of JFK's famous quotes.

Another well-known tomb, that of the Unknown Soldier.

That evening, our last of two in D.C. we met up with my friend Nonna (whom I met at Oxford), at Kramer's Café Kramer's café. I hadn't seen her since November 2004 so that was fun!

Kramer's had some fun drinks on the menu but we were too full to try one :(

After Kramer's we went to a pub where we saw this funny sign.

The next morning we got up at 6am to drive up to New England! To be continued...