I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)

[Chorus]

Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair

In 77 and 69 revolution was in the air

I was born too late into a world that doesn't care

Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair

When the head of state didn't play guitar,

Not everybody drove a car,

When music really mattered and when radio was king,

When accountants didn't have control

And the media couldn't buy your soul

And computers were still scary and we didn't know everything

[Chorus]

When pop-stars still remained a myth

And ignorance could still be bliss

And when God Saved the Queen she turned a whiter shade of pale

When my mom and dad were in their teens

And anarchy was still a dream

And the only way to stay in touch was a letter in the mail

[Chorus]

When record shops were still on top

And vinyl was all that they stocked

And the super info highway was still drifting out in space

Kids were wearing hand me downs,

And playing games meant kick around

And footballers still had long hair and dirt across their face

[Chorus]

I was born too late to a world that doesn't care

Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair

--Sandi Thom. Album, "Smile it Confuses People."

Deep Thought of the Week

I’ve been pondering this one for a while:

We have long corridors at work with offices on either side. (Reminds me quite a bit of my freshman year college dorm building.) My office is all the way at the end, so I often find myself walking down the hallway to get to the copy room, restroom, stairway, etc. Along the way to said destination I most often meet people who are coming from the opposite direction.

The hallway is empty except for the two of us. I know that he is there, but he is still really far down the hallway. Should I wave and say hello right away, thus being forced to hold my smile and keep eye contact until we pass each other? Should I let my eyes wander and pretend like I don’t see him until we are about five feet away and then look up, smile and say hello? And worst of all, what should I do when I am about to pass him for the 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th time that day? Should I smile and say hello every time (even if I just did it 2 minutes before.) Should I ignore them and pretend to be reading the papers in my hand? Should I give him a disinterested nod.

It sounds like such a silly thing, but awkward non the less. Does this happen to anyone else?

Straying now from this very deep topic: Less than 2 days until I’ll be on my way home, and most importantly, on vacation!!! “Christmas break, woo-hoo!”

Lucia and Liseberg

Yesterday was Saint Lucia Day here in Sweden. I’m not exactly sure why the Swedes celebrate it, or how it came to be a Swedish tradition (it originated in Sicily.) But it’s a pretty big deal. School children dress up and have a special Lucia parade. ”Lucia” walks first with candles on her head. Next follow the ”maids” dressed in white gowns and holding candles, then come the ”star boys” who have cone shaped hats and star wands, and finally come the ”gingerbread boys.” They all sing Christmas carols and special Lucia songs.

The employee choir had their own special parade at work yesterday morning. It was really beautiful. If only I could sing like that…if only I could sing at all. Then the company had lussekatter (saffron and raison pastries that you only eat on Lucia Day,) and gingerbread cookies. It’s always a good day when you get free food at work!

After work P. and I went to Liseberg (which you may remember is the largest amusement park in Sweden.) They had it all lit up for Christmas, plus they have a Christmas market. I’ve been wanting to go since November when they opened for the season. (I’ve been driving past those lights on the freeway for weeks!) Anyway, we went and were disappointed that it cost 70 crowns to go in. (I thought it only cost 20 crowns.) But we were there and I had been waiting to go for so long, so we paid it and went inside. The lights were beautiful although we were a little bit disappointed; we were expecting a bit more for our money. Especially since it’s really hyped up. Anyway, it was pretty. We walked around, enjoyed the lights, checked out the piggies in the petting zoo and treated ourselves to roasted chestnuts and churros. Aye Carumba!

Tonight after work I get to go to yet another Christmas party! This time with my real employer (my contracting agency.) We’ll be at the SAS-Radisson, should be fun! Tomorrow is Friday and we only have a few days left until we leave for vacation!!!

Seriously?

P. called me at about 4pm yesterday to tell me that there were many delays due to flooding. It’s been raining for weeks, and I guess yesterday’s rain put the “water over the bridge.” All trains starting in Gothenburg and heading south were canceled. Plus, basically all roads in the city of Mölndal were shut down due to flooding. Guess which city I work in? Here’s a hint, it starts with an “M” and ends in “ölndal.” Mölndal is about 10 minutes south of Gothenburg, and by the way, I live about 10 minutes north of Gothenburg on the island of Hissingen. I decided to skip the freeway (E6) and take the highway instead (155), which is sort of a back road. It involves taking a bridge (see picture) over the river instead of the tunnel (which is the E6 goes through), the traffic can get really backed-up around the tunnel, so I didn’t want to chance it. Once I got out of Mölndal the traffic wasn’t too bad, I made it home in about 35 minutes (it normally takes about 20.)

This morning I was pretty sure that the E6 would be really backed-up, so I decided to take the 155 again. Everything went smoothly until a few kilometers after the bridge. Things started to slow down…and then stop. I took me about 2 hours to drive a distance that normally takes about 5 minutes. I drove in 1st gear for several kilometers going about 5 kilometers per hour instead of 90 km/h. Eventually my left leg started quivering as I struggled to hold down the clutch in my tractor-like, German mini-car (Opal) that I got from the workshop where I let my Saab yesterday.…finally I saw the giant glass buildings and factories that make up my company in the distance. Of course it was at about this point that I realized that the road was completely closed in front of me, and that we were being forced to exit the freeway and take back roads. What a morning. I left the apartment at 7:30 and made it to work at about 10am. Seriously.

Now I’m sitting here wondering how the heck I’m going to get home…

I’m also thinking about my honeymoon. I think we’ve narrowed down to two places. One that is all inclusive and looks like a really good deal. I’ve always wanted to go there but I’m not sure if it’s the ideal honeymoon location. The other isn’t all inclusive and it will cost more, but it look much more like paradise. It seems that in Sweden you are supposed to keep your honeymoon location a secret, so I won’t be giving out any info just yet. But here’s a hint: the two honeymoon locations that we are considering are on two separate continents. I neither live on, nor come from, either of those two continents.

Lazy Girl Creates English Blog

Well, it’s been a while since I updated by blog, and I guess it’s because writing in French just takes more time. And time is money…So I’ve decided to create an English blog too. This way if I feel like blogging (but don’t have much time) I can just do a quickie in English. ;) But I don’t want to give up the French idea, so I’ll try to keep that updated too…

So let’s do a weekend-update, shall we?

Friday night was the awesome company Christmas party. (In Sweden you can still say Christmas.) Anyway, the office parties started at about 1:30pm on Friday afternoon. Then, at 3pm, big coach buses were waiting to whisk us away to Lisebergshallen. (Liseberg is Sweden’s biggest amusement park and is located right here in Gothenburg. We were in a big theater. The park attractions are closed, but the park itself has been turned into a big Christmas market for the season.) Anyhoo, we were treated to champagne, chocolate, and a great show. Afterwords we went across the street to Svenskamässan (Swedish Convention Center) where we enjoyed dinner, loads more to drink, more entertainment, and lots of dancing. I think that there were about 2,500 of us there from work. :) I danced until 1am, at which time P. picked me up on his way home from work.

On Saturday P and I went up to Bengtsfors for a traditional Julbord or ”Christmas Table.” We dinned at a fancy mansion turned restaurant and hotel. The food was great.

On Sunday we hung out, ate ginger cookies, drank glögg (hot wine,) and discussed our wedding/catering problem.

This morning I had to drop off our car at the workshop again. We recently discovered that they didn’t do any work under the car like they were supposed to (after the wheel incident earlier this fall.) Anyway, they’re going to fix it now and we won’t need to pay another deductible or anything. So I brought my poor baby down to the workshop and was given a tiny Opal to use for the week. The Opal is really old and doesn’t have power-steering. It’s noisy too. Plus they didn’t put any gas in it. I already miss my car!

It was still very dark at about 9am this morning, and it’s getting darker by the minute now (current time: 3:09pm.) It has been raining non-stop since October and the weather has been unusually warm, often above 10 degrees Celsius! (40 degrees F? Not sure)
I can’t wait to leave for Spokane next Wednesday! It will be 3 fun weeks of vacation and wedding planning!