Friday, February 27, 2009

In Case You've Been Wondering

I've been learning how to save the world at a climate and energy conference in London. Looking forward to catching up on my blog reading!

Monday, February 23, 2009

A Challenge, Literally

I've been challenged by my cousin Emma.

Rules: This is harder than you think! Each answer must begin with the first letter in your name! All answers must be real; don't make up words! If the person who tagged you have a name that starts with the same letter as yours you cannot give the same answers as he/she has. You are not allowed to write the same answer twice or use your name as an answer (except for the first question of course)! Good luck!

1. What's your name? Anna
2. A word with four letters: Able
3. Girl's name: Aurora
4. Boy's name: Amadeus
5. Profession: Accountant
6. Colour: Atracit grey
7. Clothing: Anorak
8. Food: Artichoke
9. Thing in the bathroom: Antiperspirant
10. Place/city: Arctic
11. Reason to be late: Accident
12. Shouting: Act now!
13. Film: Apollo 13
14. Drink: Amarula
15. Band: A Camp
16. Animal: Abyssinian cat
17. Street name: Artillerigatan
18. Car: Alternative
19. Song: American Pie
20. Activity with more than one participant: Arguing

It was indeed harder than I thought! I challenge whoever wants to give it a try!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Show & Tell: Coffee

Today's theme - from Simone this month - is coffee. With not so much time today to write or take pictures of colourful coffee beans or cups with steamy cappucino, I was wondering what I could blog about. But then I came to think of my first experience of coffee. It was actually in pre-school. The last year of pre-school, i.e. when I was around 6 (school starts at 7 in Sweden, well, now 6 if you count the so-called "pre-school class"), we had a few hours a week of school preparation. But it wasn't only about letters and numbers and stuff; it also covered other things we could usefully learn. Like drinking coffee.

No, don't worry, it wasn't like we were gulping down litres of coffee every day but I think their idea was that we were allowed to try things we were curious about, in a controlled and structured setting. One thing we did was to learn how to light matches. This both took away the excitement of something forbidden and taught us about the danger of fire. Another thing I remember is that those of us who wanted to got to try coffee. I remember I had mine with LOTS of milk and sugar :) We probably did a lot of other things in the preparation group but I actually only remember the matches and the coffee, come to think of it!

On a completely different note, or actually, kind of related at it is about taking risks and trying things, I heard a saying that I like twice this week: It is easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

Have a nice weekend!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Wednesday Recipe

Girls' Dinner
5 friends
Nuts, crisps and dips for pre-dinner nibbles
A main dish of your choice
A salad or side dish of your choice
Wine and appropriate equivalent for the preggos and drivers among you
Cake, biscotti and sweets for dessert
Talk, chatter, giggles and laughter

Mix all ingredients and enjoy!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Me Want!


But why does it have to cost so much (€120 for a pillow through Inreda)?!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Show & Tell: Close to Heart

This week's Friday theme is close to heart or "closest to heart" if you translate the Swedish "närmast hjärtat". I could write about Peter and my family but the person most on my mind at the moment is a close friend, one of my three best, best friends, who's ill at the moment. It is not life-threatening (as far as we know) but she's been very ill for six or seven weeks now and the doctors don't know what it is. They think it is a very, very mean virus, but in the worst-case scenario it could be a chronic disease that will come and go all her life. Luckily the bad stuff has been ruled out, such as cancer. She remains in good spirits but it's of course tough not knowing what it is, being in pain all the time and not being able to work or do stuff.

She's probably not reading this but I just wanted to say anyway that she's in my thoughts and prayers. I don't really care about Valentine's Day but I did send her a card this year. She needs all the encouragement and getting well-wishes she can get.

New Career?

This morning I went for the annual health check* my employer pays for (well, I should say will pay for because it's a new benefit just introduced). It didn't start out well as I had waaaaaay too much wine to drink at a girls' dinner last night and as a consequence was not feeling my best this morning, a condition that wasn't helped by the fact that I wasn't allowed to eat anything before the check. Anyway, turns out that despite being hungover I have the eye sight of a fighter pilot!

* Very thorough examination including blood analysis, ECG, height and weight, vision and hearing, etc.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Wednesday Recipe: Mustard Surprise

You will find this week's recipe post here. Enjoy!


A Night at the Ballet

Went to see the famous Cullberg Ballet on Monday evening. I was a bit sceptical about the whole thing the first ten minutes or so (talking to Peter afterwards he told me that he had been thinking exactly the same) but then it picked up or perhaps we simply got used to the style. For those of you not familiar with Cullberg they put on very modern interpretations of famous ballets or their own very special repertoires.

The second scene (or whatever you call it; there were no proper breaks but you could tell there were different parts to the story...if there was a story) was very dramatic. The music got faster and louder and heavier and the dancing got more hectic and chaos-like. It was very emotional and I felt like my heart was going to beat faster and faster. I was thinking that someone in the audience is going to have a heart attack or a mental breakdown soon. It reminded me of the time I went to see the Kristina från Duvemåla musical and someone in the audience started screaming "help" and "turn the lights on" in the middle of a dramatic scene where Kristina almost dies during child birth. It was a woman screaming so I thought she had perhaps experienced something similar or had a post partum depression or similar, but it turned out to be her husband who had collapsed. They had to stop the show for about 20 minutes while the ambulance came. Fortunately it didn't seem to be life-threatening, as he was conscious when they took him outside.

But back to the ballet. Some of the other scenes were equally interesting but in different ways. While that scene hit my emotional buttons I interpreted the rest of the scenes to be about - though I could be totally wrong of course - modern life. There was one that seemed to show the stress of modern life, how we run everywhere, both in terms of things we want to accomplish, and literally, from work to pre-school to pick up our children. One scene seemed to be a fight between four men (or two against two) and another one about the competition in the work place or in business - about how we either support or fight each other or go it alone.

There was also a interesting snogging (making out for the non-Brits among you) scene where the couple danced and kissed at the same time. It was pretty cool how they were able to dance and stay mouth-to-mouth so-to-speak the whole time (almost). That scene started with each cast member kissing the guy, either on the cheek or the mouth, before the woman he made out with entered the scene. My yet again amateur interpretation of that was that the others were all the people that pass through your life before you meet the right one.

The title of the ballet was "Positions of Elsewhere", which made me think of how we humans sometimes want to be elsewhere or aspire to things, or think the grass is greener. That reinforced my interpretation of it being scenes of modern life.

Walking home I told Peter about all my theories and it was interesting to hear that he hadn't really tried to understand what it was about or interpret anything. He had just enjoyed the movement and the dancers' skills, the art form if you like. But he said that of course I could be right :)

I enjoyed the dancing too of course. I mean, this is one of the best ballets in the world and it's not just because of the modern choreography, etc. The way they moved their bodies and how they interacted with each other was amazing. There were several scenes, or parts of scenes, where they either worked with shadows on the back wall of the stage or had one dancer acting (dancing, I guess) the other person's shadow, which was pretty cool (well, the shadow dancer was not as good as she could have been but the idea was good). I also liked when in one of the scenes two or three people rolled on the floor and another one "walked" over them. It was syncronised so well so that it looked so natural, like floating. It's hard to explain it but hopefully you get an idea of what I mean.

We also loved the ceiling lamp that was the only decor on stage and we want to make a miniature copy for ourselves! I wish I could explain what it looked like...well, I'll try. It was like circles within circles and the circles moved so that sometimes all circles were aligned at the same level but most of the time the circles were all different and sometimes more up on the left side and sometimes on the right side. The lighting came in different colours and strength. We would obviously not be able to have an electronically controlled lamp but we could have cables or strings that we could adjust once in a while. Any lamp designers out there who can help us?!

The Cullberg Ballet is only in town this week so if you want to see them, you'd better hurry up! Tickets from Dansens hus or Ticnet.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Saturday Ponder

Was listening to "Forever Young" on the radio while I was baking some cookies earlier today and was struck by what it actually sings about - the prospects of nuclear war.




This made me think about other songs from the 1980s and early 1990s that had a clear political significance for that time in (albeit recent, but important part of) history. It doesn't feel like that there are any songs of that kind anymore, or? Maybe it's because we haven't had such a historic change in the world since then? There is of course a lot of important change, both negative and positive, for example as a result of globalisation and climate change, but maybe it's too much of a gradual change to generate songs of the same calibre so-to-speak? Or maybe there's just too much music in general these days so "political" songs go un-noticed? Or perhaps I just don't listen to the lyrics as much anymore?

In addition to "Forever Young" I was thinking of Scorpions "Winds of Change" (original video version here).

Is This Real Life?

Meet 7-year-old David who's had a bit too much anethesia at the dentist's.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Wednesday Recipe: Japanese Sauce

Anna's Japanese Sauce (for fish)*
4-6 servings

1½ tbsp sesame oil
1½ dl sugar
1½ dl water
1½ dl rice wine
3 dl Japanese soy sauce
2 dl rice vinegar
½ dl lemon juice
3 garlic cloves
3 tbsp ginger
Maizena (cornstarch) or flour

Just mix all the ingredients and you're all set. Goes very well with tuna (and probably salmon too) and mashed potatoes. We used some of it as a marinade as we like our tuna grilled and the rest of it as sauce. Yum!

* Well, it's not mine from the beginning - can't remember where I found it, whether it was in a cookbook or online - but after having recommended it to friends, it has now taken that name :)

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Recent Headlines

Good news

  • - The EU bans pesticides (well, not all but a substantial number)
  • - Obama ends Bush's ban on funding of abortions in the developing world
  • - Obama starts tackling all other damage caused by Bush. Hopefully this will also be undone.
  • - Ericsson freezes salaries - Ericsson has frozen its 200 top managers' salaries as the outlook for 2009 is uncertain and profits fell drastically last year. CEO Carl-Henrik Svanberg believes the company has survived well in the tough times but that it is unreasonable to think that the company would be unaffected by the economy in 2009. The company also wants to cut the workforce by 5,000, of which 1,000 are in Sweden and lower dividends to shareholders.
  • - Sweden does well according to the Sustainable Society Index

Bad news