Making Up For Old Sins

Since I have been neglecting my blog lately, due a new-found love, eh...addiction, to Facebook, I feel like I have to post twice in the same day.

Today's Friday Four - Theme: Current Opinions

What do you believe/think/feel about...

1) ... Paris Hilton getting out of jail?
I don't care too much except that I'm glad she had to go to jail like a non-celebrity would have had to do, had s/he been guilty of drink driving (wihout a license!). It felt rather short though but hopefully she learned a lesson and will never do it again.

2) ...Spice Girls temporarily getting back together for a reunion tour?
Great! Probably the tickets will be impossible to get and/or obscenely expensive, but it would be fun to witness it. I once saw them in concert back in...1999 I think, just a little bit before they split up. Didn't really plan it but a friend of mine called me 3 days before the concert and asked if I would go instead of another friend. We pulled up the average age in the arena by far but it was fun!

3) ...the release of iPhone in the USA?
Fun for those who want it but I don't care. Don't think I will get one this year. I would never queue for days for anything.

4) ...that it seemed to have rained so far this summer?
Well, lately it has but before that it was pretty nice. Even 30'C for a while. I don't complain too much about the weather - hot or cold, dry or wet - what's the point? You just get annoyed and stressed in vain.

Is It Just Me...

...or aren't Gordon Brown and Monty Python member Terry Jones really the same person?!

High Up In the Sky

Luckily we had our adventure already a week before Upp & Ner really lived up to its slogan "go on the adventure of your lifetime"! (For those of you who don't understand the Swedish in the article, the balloons were caught in sudden bad weather) Our trip went really smoothly, we hardly had any wind even and made it 2 km in 1 hour! But it was fun anyway, everything from having to put the balloon together to the view from 400 metres up in the sky!

When Is It Going to Be Summer?!*

Theme: Summer feelings

* The weather has been very autumn-like lately

1) Do you feel bad if staying inside on a sunny day?
Definitely! I have to take a walk, at least. It's okay if I'm at work but on the weekend I get very anxious.

2) When does summer begin and end according to you?
Summer starts around this time. I can't really go after when I take summer vacation because that's towards August. I like to take vacation towards the end of the summer because there are so many holidays in the spring anyway, like a Friday or Monday off here and there. In autumn there are none so taking vacation in August is perfect. Usually the weather in Sweden is pretty good in August while it can be rather chilly still in May-June. In September it starts being late summer and October is definitely autumn.

3) What things are a must for you for it to be a "real" summer?
Long days with sunlight until midnight, swimming, skirts and summer shoes, lots of grilled food, cutting the grass

4) Did you ever not long for summer?
Not that I can remember, perhaps when I had to leave a boyfriend behind and have a long-distance relationship for a while.

Phew!

You Belong in the UK

Blimey! A little proper, a little saucy. You're so witty and charming... No one notices your curry breath

What English Speaking Country Are You?

Competitive Sweden

The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2007 was published last week. IMD ranks Sweden no 9 out of 55 countries, a pretty good grade in my opinion! The comparison is based on 323 competitiveness criteria. The US comes in first like last year and in the EU Luxembourg scores highest (no 4 overall). In the Nordic region Denmark beats Sweden by four places and Norway can be found at no 13, followed by Germany (16), the UK (20) and France (28).

Name Game

Name theme that I "stole" from Skolfröken:

1. What does your name mean?
The name Anna is biblical and comes from the Hebrew Hannah. It means mercy or the endowed. In several languages the name is used as slang for mother. Virgin Mary's mother was the holy Anna.

2. How old is it?
Old. It originates from before biblical times and has been one of the most common names in the Nordic countries since the Middle Ages.

3. How many share your name?
Loads. It is the most common name in Sweden at the moment. For women that is. There are 310,000 women and 5 men called Anna. It's one of those names which may not be the top name given to newborns every year but it keeps being in the top hundred throughout generations.

4. Why did you get this name?
The working name was Vilda Matilda (because I kicked so much) but luckily my parents came to their senses. Nothing wrong with Matilda but I think I'm much more an Anna. There have been Annas in the family (obviously, considering the history of the name mentioned above) and I suppose they just thought it was pretty too.

5. What do you think about your name?
Have never really reflected on it too much. I remember thinking when I was little that I was happy with a simple, common but beautiful name, especially since I had a very rare surname. But I want to give my future children more unusual (or less common) names.

6. Do you have a nickname?
Not really. I guess Anna Panna as a child and variants of my surname but nothing that has stuck. My British (Armenina) friend Anoushka calls me Ans.

7. What do you want to be called if you could choose?
I'm pretty happy with Anna. When I was little I probably wanted to be called all the different names I gave my dolls and Barbies.

Hong Kong photos!

We have FINALLY posted the photos from our Hong Kong (and Macau) trip! There are lots of them so I advise you to look at the index pages and just loading the ones you think look interesting. Enjoy!

Five Books

I hardly read these days (just look under the heading "Reading" to the right, which hasn't changed for ages...) but I want to get back into the habit and I used to read a lot a few years ago...so I guess I can continue the list of five weird books that Malin has created (reached me via Skolfröken).

So the theme is "weird" or "wacko" books. Name five books that you thought were the most curious, different, stranger or crazy in terms of content or language or both. They do not have to bad but made you raise your eyebrow or smile in pure astonishment.

1. A heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genious by Dave Eggers - One of the best books I have ever read! Don't miss reading the small print on the title page or even before that in the book, and look out for a picture of a stapler! It's also a biographical account which makes it all the more interesting. His second book about two friends travelling to Senegal is not as good but probably stranger.

2. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer - Just saw the film last week and it was good but not as good as the book, of course. The Ukrainian guide's (ab)use of the English language is priceless! I haven't read his second book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close but it's sitting on the shelf waiting to be read.

3. The Narnia series by C. S. Lewis - Didn't really like them. I guess I'm not much for fantasy in general and I just thought animals with human heads and other weird creatures were scary.

4. Rabbit is Rich by John Updike - I think Updike can write the longest sentences; often more than a page long. The things Rabbit does or thinks are pretty strange too.

5. The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk - Pamuk starts telling a story but digresses so many times so the next part of the story comes a couple of chapters later. But I guess that's why he is a Nobel prize winner.

Dailies

Today's I Want: Book trip to South Africa

Today's outfit: Jeans, green top and black sweater on top

Today's makeup: Usual, bluish-greyish eyeshadow, black mascara

Today's hairstyle: Up

Today's event: Peter's purchasing a grammophone/LP player so now he can start going through his 2,000 LP collection and sell the unwanted one, allowing us some new space for books!

Today's song: The fame theme song on the new LP player

Today's plans: Well, the day is almost over and I don't think I will join Peter and friends clubbing (getting too old)

Today's I am missing: Work, nah, just kidding!

Today's most stupid: I have to reiterate what Johanna said: the American arms legislation

Today's sickest: The Swedish house prices

Today's drug: Saturday sweets

Today's funniest: Peter preparing to go to the gym with a friend and then arriving there just when they close; major anti-climax (the friend is exercise addicted and had to go across town to an open gym, while Peter came home to share some red wine and cheese with me)

Today's favourite: Sleeping in

Today's purchase: Nothing for me but Peter's wallet was busy on behalf of both of us (new rug to the hallway and the afore-mentioned LP player)

Today's sweet: My regular Saturday intake

Today's mood: Happy, a bit weekend tired

Today's word: Windy (it was super-windy today!)

Volunteers?

Missed the Deadline

Another tag, which is way overdue, but better late than never. (And yes, I promise that HK photos are coming soon!)

Three Things That Scare Me
* Being subjected to some sort of violence (although I think the risk is pretty small and I try to eliminate it as well by not walking alone in the middle of the night or similar)
* Dying young
* The rate at which we are destroying the planet

Three People Who Make Me Laugh
* Peter (boyfriend)
* My British colleagues when they get going (or set of people)
* My cousins when they get going

Three Things I Love
* The appetite and search for knowledge in myself and in others
* Spending time with friends and family
* Travelling, and then coming back to beautiful Stockholm

Three Things I Hate
* War and violence of all kinds
* Intolerance and narrow-mindedness
* "Unsolidarity"

Three Things I Don't Understand
* All of the above under what I hate
* Cynicism
* The new Swedish government

Three Things On My Desk
I don't have a desk but next to me on the couch are:
* Pile of post from my other flat
* New beautiful pillows
* My embroidery that I pick up when I need to relax (sort of meditation)

Three Things I'm Doing Right Now
* Watching an old episode of "House"
* Boiling eggs
* Waiting for a delivery of a new grill for the balcony

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die
* Have children
* Have a interesting, successful career, allowing me to work with something I really love and think is important
* See Africa and South America

Three Things I Can Do
* Talk constantly
* Bake cheesecake
* Spell (as opposed to many Swedes these days it seems)

Three Things I Can't Do
* Parallel park (I can manage but I don't like it!)
* Speak Mandarin or Arabic, two useful languages
* Play an instrument

Three Things I Think You Should Listen To
* Salem al Fakir
* Sofia Talvik
* Yourself

Three Things I'd Like To Learn
* Arabic or Mandarin
* More cooking (though I think I am okay)
* Anything and everything

Three Favourite Foods
* Chicken korma
* Most vegetarian
* Haloumi cheese

Three Wonderful People to Inflict My Meme On
* Nonna
* Tora
* Skolfröken

Home Sweet Home

I'm back (on Friday, but didn't get around to blogging over the weekend because the weather was so sunny and nice!). A blog challenge and posting photos from HK await!

Made in Hong Kong

Sitting at Arlanda waiting for my flight to start boarding. Was supposed to go via Zurich at 19.35 but it was delayed so they re-booked me for Helsinki. I feel very lucky, since the layover in Zurich was only 45 mins and I would have missed my connecting flight to Hong Kong otherwise. Now I will only be arriving in HK 2 hours later than planned.

I expect a lot of sight-seeing and shopping but I'm also excited about 22 degrees instead of the recent chill in Stockholm. And most of all, to see Peter again after ten days! :)

Days of Our Lives

I've been challenged (what would I blog about if people didn't keep challenging me I wonder?!) by Skolfröken to write about the years that I have experienced that end with a 2 or a 7.

1977 - I was 1 and don't remember too much. I do have a memory of standing in a big field (I know now that it is Öland) and getting afraid because my parents were ahead of me (they were probably not very far away but at that age even 10 metres is probably an abyss). This must have been in the summer of 1977 so I was a year and a half.

1982 - I was 6 years old, in pre-school and longing to start school. We had Kindergarten classes once a week but I mostly remember learning how to light matches (some sort of safety lesson I guess) and drinking coffee with lots of sugar and milk (some sort of becoming-an-adult lesson?). My parents contemplated putting me in school one year early but decided against it as they wanted me to stay with the friends I already had and let me play for another year. I started school in 1983 instead, which is perfectly fine with me now because otherwise I wouldn't have the same friends I have now.

1987 - A highlight this year was that I got a new cousin and was able to play with her instead of my dolls (now she's 20 and wild!) We had a caravan in the yard of our little country house that I pretended was my own home (much bigger than my little playhouse) - mostly playing with my friend Malin who used to spend a lot of time with us there.

1992 - I finished compulsory school. I think the end-of-year party both at the end of eight and ninth grade was at Folkets Park, where we tried - unsuccessfully - to get in for free. I had been madly in love with the same guy for the last three years of school but nothing never happened between us, not a few years later when he was interested in me either. By that time I had moved on.

1997 - I started university in January that year, after having been an au pair in the USA for a year and worked at a pre-school for a few months. I spent one term at Stockholm University before moving on to Uppsala in the autumn of 1997. At Uppsala I met two girls, Jenny and Lena, who talked about studying in the UK, an idea that really appealed to me. In an interesting twist Lena ended up staying only for six months or so and Jenny went to the US instead, while I remained in the UK for four years.

2002 - I finished my MPhil at Oxford and did an internship at the European Commission - two really important milestones in the beginning of my career. After the period in Brussels, in March 2003, I moved back to Sweden, something that took a while to get used to. It probably wasn't until 2004 I felt that Sweden was truly my home again.

2007 - The best time is always the present. I am madly in love with a guy who seems equally in love with me, so I think this is the beginning of the rest of my life!

I challenge Johanna and Karin!

Assasination Victim??

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Test your own luck leadership potential!

That Explains It

I may have misheard - I really hope I did - but it sure sounded like Göran Persson said (in the documentary about him on TV tonight) that Helmut Kohl used to eat butter. Plain butter. Not plenty of butter on bread, but just butter. With a spoon. Especially when he was nervous.

Yuck!

No wonder he was so fat.

New Times

The Social Democrats selected their new leader this past weekend, the first woman chair in its history. Eric Sundström has written very well about Mona Sahlin here. Let's hope she becomes Sweden's first female Prime Minister (yes, for some peculiar reason we haven't had a woman leader yet) in 2010! We also said goodbye to Göran Persson after almost eleven years at the post (and as prime minister for over ten).

The European Story

One of the professors from my Masters programme at Oxford, Timothy Garton Ash, has started an interesting web project ahead of the EU's 50th anniversary encouraging people to contribute to the "story of Europe". Garton Ash has written a first draft around six goals that he thinks most Europeans aspire to: Freedom, Peace, Law, Prosperity, Diversity and Solidarity.

Join in the debate or vote for your favourite story!

Challenge

Rules - Each player starts by listing six weird/curious things about themselves. S/he must write down the rules of the game and choose six new bloggers to challenge by listing them here and posting a comment on the challengees' blogs so that they know that they are being tasked.

1. My boyfriend says I'm the least loyal employee there is, the reason being that I'm always looking for a new job (though only applying for the occasional one) even though I'm perfectly happy with the one I have (for now at least).

2. I like embroidery. In fact, I've been taking it up again after two years' break. It's a really relaxing pastime while watching TV or keeping Peter company while he has to work from home at night. I hear knitting is in but I'm really bad at that.

3. I like paying taxes. I actually don't mind at all, even if I pay 50 %. I figure that if I earn that much that I'm required to pay over 50 % tax, I probably have enough to share it with the less fortunate. And I feel I get pretty good stuff for my money: education, healthcare, aid to the world, etc.

4. When I was little I used to have a recurring dream when I was sick (usually when I had a fever) that I was in a hospital in 19th century (or early 20th century; don't think I knew too much about different time eras to be accurate) England (hadn't been to England back then but I must have watched the Forsythe saga too much or something) and that my mum was a nurse at the hospital but since she was working she wasn't able to take care of me. I think it was probably dealing with having a little brother that competed with me for her attention.

5. I'm afraid of the dark even though I'm an adult. I often sleep with the lights on if I'm at home by myself (like now and for another 9 days).

6. I cannot count to 6 so I will only list 5 things...

Challengees
Aunty Marianne, Nonnka, Perfume girl, Beverly, Johanna and Karin.

Broody

No, not me. But there seems to be no end to Brangelina's baby-making, eh, baby-acquiring (don't want to say buying). Do they even have time for the three they already have? Maddox was all alone for over three years and then a new dad and two sisters in less than a year's time. I wonder how he will look back on that as an adult. I'm not saying that they are bad parents, just that I hope that they have time for each individual child. It's difficult to be adopted in the first place, and having über famous parents is probably not easy-peasy either.