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Meme from hellison, who picked three interests and my three icons to explain. If you want to, reply and I'll pick three of yours.

Alpacas

Well, I love knitting and animals. The natural animal to have would perhaps be sheep, but don't they look rather boring? Doesn't LLAMA have more of a ring to it? And isn't alpaca yarn the most softest and coziest yarn ever? Well, then. the solution is obviously ALPACAS. One day I will have them.

Beer snobbery

I drink wine, but I'm more of a beer person, and I love going to pubs/bars where they have loads of interesting new kinds of beer to try them out. I also love to make fun of friends brought to said pubs when they order a "stor stark", which in English I assume would be theequivalent of ordering a "pint" please.

Vadstenaknyppling

I've taken a course with a couple of my girlfriends in bobbin lace making, which is very intricate and interesting. Bobbin lace is knyppling in Swedish, and Vadstena is the town where it's been practiced the most and hence it's the most influential style of lace making in Sweden.  It looks like this: http://www.koping.se/upload/Knyppling.jpg

Oh, and I don't know how to put the icons in here but I have... one with a cat, which is my youngest cat Kosmos as a kitten. Cats are self-explanatory on LJ, yeah? And one with Capt Jack Sparrow. Fangirls are self-explanatory too, yeah? And one that says "That's MISS bitch to you" because it amused me. Alas, I need to change it to MS bitch, but I can't be arsed.

Current Mood:

amused

In my next life I want to be a bear.

If you're a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months.

I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, you're supposed to eat yourself stupid.

I could deal with that, too.

If you're a bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you're sleeping and wake to partially grown, cute cuddly cubs.

I could definitely deal with that.

If you're a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too.

I could deal with that.

If you're a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat. He KNOWS not to get between you and the food.

Yup..... Gonna be a bear.

Weekend was busy, but we managed to conduct research into the vast field of washing machines and decided on some criteria. Yesterday was to be the day of Buying a New Washing Machine.

Now me, I thought this was going to be easy-peasy. (I'm sure some of you know better.) I mean, I'm really good at shopping. You go into store, you decide on product, maybe you ask a question or two, you hand over your VISA and hey presto, suddenly ownership has been transferred.

How wrong I was.

We went to store number 1. We decided on a product. We wanted to ask a question or two. This is where it started to go pear-shaped. We waited for 20 minutes, behind another couple who was on a similar quest. Finally we got to talk to a young man who could not answer our question. He seemed resourceful enough and phoned up some sort of supervisor to find out. While on the phone, some sort of supervisor shows up, asks if we're the washing machine buyers, which we answered in the affirmative, and told us to come with her. Feeble protests that we were finally getting some help and were completely pleased as it were did us no good. She told our bloke to hang up and took us to the Help Desk Thingie. Where she left us to go on the phone.

Nothing happened.

And continued to happen.

We asked some other people working there, but they knew nothing and concluded we better stick to our woman. When we started actually listening to her conversation she was waffling about some cooker. Rather rudely I interrupted her and asked if we were going to get help? It turns out she thought we were the other couple, who apparantly wanted to return a product... When we informed her that we were not, and also that we were now going to take our custom elsewhere she dragged us back to the washing machine area and forced us on another bloke.

Not to much surprise, he also didn't know the answer to our question, and waffled a great deal. When we informed him that we were now leaving, he finally managed to actually give the answer which was positive for us. So we decided that we'd just buy the damn thing and get it over with.

Now it turns out that they actually don't have pretty much any machine in the store, because factories in Germany are on strike. Now we actually did leave.

Enter store 2. Repeat procedure to find acceptable product. Repeat 20 minute waititng process to ask question (because other couple from store 1, (who had managed to get a refund for the washing machine they bought two weeks ago but had yet not received) made it to store 2 before us). Find out that this particular store is out of the machine in question, but that their other store, 20 minutes away has it. Decide, despite the odds, to go there. In separate cars.

Proceed me being utterly and completely lost for 30 minutes, looking for store number 3, blood sugar down around my knees, and, of course, no phone battery.

When I finally get to store number 3 it turns out woman at store number 2 is an idiot, and it is in fact store number 4 who has the washing machine. At this point I broke down screaming and sobbing and we went home. Without a washing machine.

Part 2 of the saga will take place today after work. I will bring chocolate. Wish me luck.

In other news, house owning is as Interesting as ever. Yesterday we had a man with a digging machine thingie come dig up the back yard completely so we can out water pipes down there. Unfortunately he also digged up some electrical wires who apparantly were Instrumental. Well, when I say digged up I don't mean up as much as yanked. They moved 5-10 cm or so, and this has caused electricity to be... sporadic throughout the house. Very Interesting to say the least. It seems fridge&freezer + dishwasher, heater/boiler and water pump all work. We also have some lights working, but only one normal socket. Luckily this is in the middle of the house, so wherever we go wehre we want to do stuff to do with electricity we drag the longest cable ever behind us to plug in various appliances.

Oh yeah, and the washing machine started to do this rather worrying burning-type smell last week so now we daren't use it at all. A new one will hopefully be bought tomorrow and instaleld during the week.

Sigh.

But I bought this great fabric to make Christmas curtains for the kitchen!!

8.45 Meeting
9.30 Fika
11.45 Out for lunch with collegues
14.30 Fika with added suspense of the wine lottery

And because it's Friday we usually try to drag out the meeting until it's time for fika, so work starts at around 10-ish. Then there's usually time for an hour and a half after lunch, but quite often I'll have a wedding so some time is shaved off there too... And who works after 15 on a Friday?

OTOH they're hell if you actually have to get a lot of stuff done, but atm I'm enjoying a seeming control of my work situation thanks to two rather calm weeks.

Weekend is looking busy though, waving goodbye to a friend who's moving to Ireland today, both of my sisters-in-law visit tomorrow, one with her family for fika and the other for dinner. Then Sunday will be Christmas card making with a couple of friends. And I promised myself to get the last drywall up in the livingroom as well... And of course the need to do BOBBIN LACE - my new passion.

So I ended up getting home an hour and some later than I planned, driven by the police, absolutely shaking. Mr Kana isn't home so I was on the phone with him for almost an hour, and with my mum and my best friend, while telling people about it on MSN and the mud. At around midnight I managed to go to bed, even though I can't say I slept very well. Mum called again at around 7 and we decided it was best if I go to work. I was totally up for working (well, as much as I normally am after a lousy night's sleep) but I wasn't very up to going 55 km on the motorway in Mr Kana's car... but you know, get up on the horse again and so on, and here I am.

Gah, I really didn't need time taken out of my schedule and MONEY out of my wallet right at this moment in time, considering you know, the HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE which will make me COMPLETE AS A WOMAN and all that lark. Oh well, maybe bad things happen before the wedding so the actual day will be allright? Or is it a sign that I should cancel? ;-)

Current Mood:

shocked

tiquetoque

The future Mr Kana has been sent off to Stockholm to install some system thingie in some factory, and I swore I'd finish off the little programs for the wedding reception which will cunningly be combined with the place label thingies. Enter label problem. I finally got it to work yesterday after effing and blinding all over (cre) for an hour and a half and then the printer went wonky on me. I'll have to print them at work tomorrow.

What's keeping me going now is that it'd be awfully embarassing to cancel the whole thing, and also I want to be allowed to wear my wedding ring 'cause it's so PRETTY and SPARKLY! Less than two weeks to go, and I'll have my life back, hooray!

I'm not the most socially skilled person ever, but lately I think I've made progress and managed to keep friends and hang on to them, even without a "formal connection" such as the same school or workplace or so. I have to say it's really because I've managed to believe more in myself and trust that perhaps I'm good enough for people to be around. Most of my friends don't know each other though, since they're people I've picked up in various places. My best friend works really weird hours, and she asked me "So, right, you don't want a hen night, no?" because I've spilled some crap over other hen nights I've been to. All in all, I didn't think it was going to happen at all and felt that I was okay with that. It would have been fun of course, but hey, I'll be married anyway. I had no suspicions whatsoever.

But yesterday morning at 8.45 someone pounded violently on the front door and woke me from deep sleep. I told Mr Kana to go open but he was uncharacteristically un-cooperative (he always wakes up earlier and faster than me). When the pounding continued I put on a robe and went downstairs to open. I actually don't know what I thought was happening, but I think I imagined it must be one of the neighbours. He's been doing a lot of building on his house, and using explosives. I was way too tired to think much of it. When I opened the door, the Cookie Monster was standing outside the door... with a bag and a card. I think I must've just stared at him and he gave me the bag and the card. The card said that I had 15 minutes to get ready and to pack my passport, swimsuit and wear something red or white. Apparantly I just said "Okay." and closed the front door. The poor monster was left on the doorstep! I went up to Mr Kana and told him I'd left the Cookie Monster in the garden and would he please find my passport?

I got ready superfast, was blindfolded and lead to a car. The whole car ride was in complete silence for 30 minutes or so, before I was lead quite far over some lawns and stone pavings. By that time the blindfold had eased a little which made it possible for me to see my own feet and the feet of the person who was leading me. And immediately recognised my best friend's favourite sandals, which she wasn't very happy about when I said so afterwards.

When the blindfold was taken off, seven of my friends were there, having fixed breakfast with fresh baked bread and fizzy wine and we had a great time trying to fend of wasps from the ham. During the day I got mission cards (in the Danish colours) with things I was meant to accomplish and when they day was over, they graded me.

We then proceeded to the first activity, which was a recording studio :( Mr Kana has great musical talents, plays a variety of instruments and used to sing in a choir. We have a rather advanced home studio set up in one of the spare bedrooms. Now me, I couldn't sing in tune to save my life. Much anxiety ensued, which was dosed by Bacardi Breezers and my knitting project for the day. The girls then picked two songs for me, which I absolutely didn't know well enough, so I managed to get most of them in the recording booth with me, as a choir. We did have lots of fun, but the end result was absolutely ghastly. And they took the CD and told me not to tell Mr Kana about it, so I suppose the wedding guests will have something to look forward to...

After that we got on the bus to town, the European Athletic Championships are in Gothenburg and the entire city was closed because of the women's marathon. By then it rained lotsly so the picknick in the park was quickly transformed into lunch at a friend's place. I had more missions, everyone had brought some little thing with them and I was to guess who brought what and why I thought so. There was also a quiz on Mr Kana with questions such as "What does he think is the ugliest thing you wear?" I didn't get it right, but I blame the fact that he doesn't actually have any opinions on what I wear, so he just picked something ;-)

We then proceeded to have some outdoor activities, which turned into a du-athlon because of lack of time. The events were chew-biscuits-and-whistle and spotta råtta which is funnier in Swedish because it rhymes. It means spit rat and was a competition as to who could spit the jelly rat the furthest. Let's just say I didn't win (I did finish third on the biscuit race though!) We then hurried off to the spa at one of the hotels in town and had a nice couple of hours in their bubble pool. There I got some more letters and quizzes from the girls who couldn't make it.

Afterwards we went to another girl's place and I got to make drinks for everyone while they cooked paella, and we had such a nice dinner with food and wine and chocolates. We played Jeopardy (which I did win) and in the end they declared me fit to marry, and gave me a kit to make my own garter with promises there would be an inspection at the reception!

All in all, I had the nicest day, and I was touched to no end by all the time and energy they'd put into making it so for me. They all seemed to have had a ton of fun planning it, and having secret get-togethers and telling me things about how busy they were all the following weekends.

So, not only did I get a hen night, but it was lovely fun, and as well-thought-out and planned as anyone could ever wish for. I think I'm going to get some nice cards in town and write to them all to tell them how much it actually meant to me :-)

And now to have a shower, and a nice day of not moving my head too much in any direction at all!

Current Mood:

touched

I can get a bit miffed with how hyped travelling is. It's like The Only Legitimate Goal to have whwn you're in your twenties. I like to travel, yes, and even though I haven't been to that many far-away places I enjoyed the visits I've made. But I always get to feel like a somewhat lesser person because I don't claim that what I'd really like to do is sell all my stuff and backpack around India. As it happens you can't have everything in life (at least not with my salary!) and I happen to prefer a comfortable life during the 48 weeks of the year when I don't have the possibility of leaving the country. And occasionally I get the money and time together and go see somewhere else, and that's fun and interesting. But don't come telling me that just because you go abroad for two or three weeks every year, you're a much more open, tolerant and interesting person than I am. Bah. Humbug.