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2001-10-24 00:11:22 Source: Web

Well, I just came back from seeing a guy who performes under the name Hamell On Trial. Excellent! Truly wonderul. If you're in London next week and you know the sort of music taste I have and think my recommendations are generally OK, then don't pass this one up! He's playing at Spitz(?) and somewhere else in London next week. GO AND SEE Hamell on Trial!
Blah

2001-10-21 21:04:47 Source: Web

I took away the image as it was annoying me! However you can still see it here if you so wish.

This has been a pretty good weekend. It started surprisingly well. Lotta talked me into trying out a new club that has opened. As it was a self-described pop club I was somewhat doubtful, but it turned out to be the really good sort of pop (indie basically, I enjoyed most of their playlist). We ended up being dragged off to a gay bar in town by some frirends who were with us, where the music was less my cup of tea. The place itself was alright, but a bit too "disco" for my tastes.

So as you might guess, knowing me, Saturday was a bit unsteady. I didn't get up the strength to leave the flat and just chilled out on the sofa and in front of the computer all day.

Today has been mad though! I've done loads and feel great. I did laundry and then headed for the shops to get some things from my "want" list. That would be a large frying pan, a large saucepan (Pasta cooking size), a couple of spatulas and I spotted some well priced polo-neck tops of the kind I like, which is good as the old ones were getting very tatty. As 10 quid a pop the price was right too!

When I got home, my friend Jens whizzed round to give me a cast-off 8Gb hard-disk (I was down to 300Mb on my original disk!), so now I can continue downloading and trying out software, which I tend to do quite a lot. (I also tend to end up having to reinstall my OS fairly often though since my command of Linux is getting better it's not as often as it was). It only took us about 20 minutes to figure out how to repartition and format the disk - not too bad considering I've never done that in Linux before. Add 20 minutes for physically installing the thing and I think we were pretty damn effective!

After that I spent the remainder of the afternoon downloading and installing software (told you!). I've upgraded Gnome, RedHat and my kernel as well as installing EVolution (very nice!) and Galeon (as recommended by my mate Neil). Galeon is a browse that uses the excellent Mozilla rendering engine, but with a much more sensible codebase for the surrounding browser software instead of the interminably bad Mozilla codebase. It's fast and effective and has some features that I already love just 2 hours into using it.

That's been my weekend then. There's a busy week ahead of me, with a lot of planning to be done at work, plus several thinsg happening during the evenings. I'll keep you posted!

2001-10-19 15:02:32 Source: Web

I found a funny!
*edited* Image removed.

2001-10-16 21:04:01 Source: Web

I'm back from Cyprus! We had a fantastic week in the sun - and it was *very* sunny, at least as far as we were concerned. Temperatures were up in the very high 20s all week and both Lotta and I are several shades darker than when we left Sweden. October is a fantastic time to visit Cyprus, as the crowds have thinned out, yet everything is still open, the weather is very warm, but not searingly hot. We swam almost every day and the sea felt warmer than our normal session at the swimming pool.

On top of the normal touristy stuff, we also helped out with my niece's christening. It was great to have all my immediate family in one place for the first time in many years - and for such a happy occassion. My niece (Cleopatra) is an absolute charmer - very peaceful for a young baby and extremely sweet. She's obviously popular with Lucy and Michael's friends too as around secenty people showed up for the christening party. The christening itself was Greek Orthodox, which was quite and experience! It was probably the most chaotic church service I've ever witnessed. Despite the very solemn surroundings, and rules such as not being allowed to cross your legs in the church, everyone was milling around, taking photos, talking and generally doing whatever they felt like during the service. I'll have my photos developed as soon as possible to give a better idea of how it was!

The party was a great success. My mum and I prepared salads for 150 people the day before (with everyone else's help of course) and while I was too frazzled to really enjoy the party properly, I do know that it was enjoyed by Lucy, Michael and their guests, which is the important thing. I have to say that the Mediterranean way of partying isn't really my thing. I'm looking forward to my own party next month though!n (Tequila and Cake party Mark III)

Early in the week, Lotta and I tracked down the workshop of my favourite potter (stumbled across it by chance, which was a fantastic coincidence!) and I bought a pair of masks which won't be hung until we buy a place together, something which we are now actively planning and which hopefully will happen early next year. Another highlight for us was visting a waterpark on the last day and spending a very happy few hours trying out all the waterslides, wavepools, tube rides and other attractions we could find. As we both love the water we had a great time.

Food featured heavily amongst the attractions of course and I've probably put on a few pounds. Time to go back to the salads again for a while! I've eaten some of the best Sieftalia (Greek kebab sausages), halloumi (a grilled cheese), Stifados (a lamb and onion stew) and various assorted cakes and baked goods that I can remember. Particularly good was a visit to the local kebab cafe on our last night and we sat in the run-down courtyard, drinking Keo beer and eating through a fantastic range of traditional Cypriot food (the egg and tomato mix was to die for) that stretched our bellies. While the area itself is an estate for refugees from Northern Cyprus and the cafe was nothing your would look at twice, the food and the atmosphere were fantastic. In Cyprus you don't need to have pots of money to be truly rich.

2001-10-06 08:07:02 Source: Web

A quick link - check out Damien's horror film retrospective.

Good to see you enthusing about your old passion again mate!

2001-10-06 07:48:36 Source: Web

Time for a post or two before I go on holiday, though I should still be able to make some updates via WAP. Who said it's a useless protocol?

Well, life steams ahead. Last night Lotta, her parents and I went to see a chap called Jonas Gardell performing. He's a Swedish author and stand-up comedian. Having seen that most of Sweden's more famous stand-up comedians are of the "I'm a ridiculous fool" variety, I was looking forward to seeing Gardell, who is much more hard-hitting, combining hugely energetic, camp sillyness, with social messages and some extremely tender moments.

I had read his book "A comic's childhood" the week before (thanks Kerstin), which is a half-biographical work about a boy growing up in the 70's in the suburbs of Stockholm who's defence against the horrors of childhood iS his humour. Not a funny book at all, but very powerful.

Well, the performance was fantastic! He got a hugely well deserved standing-ovation and I don't think a single person left that theatre unsatisfied.

Last night was also Culture Night, a night when Gothenburg's theatres, galleries, cafes and performance spaces are open to the public. There are happenings everywhere and town is full of mingling people. A fantastic evening that unfortunately neither Lotta nor I felt up to this year. So instead of going out and partying we headed to our respective homes. I'm glad for that, because as it was I woke up feeling sick in the night and still have a headache this morning. I drank very little last night, so I'm mystified as to why I feel so bad.

Today my mate Neil arrives from England, I'm heading out to buy clogs, slippers and a digital camera and I'll be picking up a smoked mozzarella from Lotta's which her mum very kindly brought back for me from Italy! Mmmm - smoked pizza!

2001-10-03 08:09:57 Source: Web

Thanks to anyone who remembered to cross their fingers for me. It seems to have worked!

I'm *very* happy!

2001-10-01 17:39:49 Source: Web

Well, the gallery is sorted. It's perhaps a little big for some screens, but at least everything should be visible. I think I like it!

2001-10-01 15:15:39 Source: Web

Oh yeah - and if you're using Explorer, then sorry, but the gallery sucks big time right now! I need to chekc my stylesheet. Hopefully it will make more sense this evening.

2001-10-01 15:14:38 Source: Web

Please keep your fingers crossed for me tomorrow (Tuesday). I need luck, but cannot tell you why just yet! All will be revealed on Wednesday.