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2002-04-22 20:24:32 Source: Web
I ran again! Now my shins ache :-) It'll get better with time. I did find a really nice route though...
I'm looking forward to the end of this week. We've got completion on the new flat on Friday. The plan is to sign all the completion documents, then head on up to the flat with the seller and check the cleaning and state of the apartment. Then we're gonna crack a bottle of bubbly and sit there with Lotta's folks in the empty apartment :-D
Oh - and then in the afternoon / evening I've got tickets to the Icehockey World Championships - I treated Lotta's dad as his christmas present.
Saturday is our friends wedding, so we won't be starting any work on the new flat until Sunday. Then next week I'm on holiday from the 1st till the 8th to get some serious time in on the new place.
Things are looking good!
2002-04-19 11:37:18 Source: Web
I surprised even myself yesterday and went for a run! Seeing as I live on a major hill it's not terribly inviting, but I'm not far from the biggest park in Gothenburg and so with visions of springing gaily through the woods I set off towards that. The first stretch was uphill and having alreday decided I would take it easy I walked a few streteches. However when I got into the park I was able to complete the second half of my run without breaking stride at all.
It didn't break any records, but I ran for 15 minutes without killing myself. Even more surprising, I'm not feeling too beaten up today, so the stretching and exercises I did after I'd gotten home obviously helped.
I did find it pretty amazing how 3 minutes after I had stopped running my body suddenly went from a light perspiration to pumping water out of my pores as fast as it possibly could!
Well, it was a pretty successful first run! I think I'll repeat a few times a week as necessary. Along with my swimming and cycling, it seems like I'm training for triathlon :-D *hmmmmm*...
2002-04-17 20:22:59 Source: Web
I read Dave's blog this morning and thought that his current quest for fitness sounds very familiar ;-) I'm also feeling that I have waaay too much extra meat around the middle, so I've been remodelling my diet, doing more exercise and have even bought sweatpants and trainers!
I've been cycling to work each day and swimming a kilometer a couple of times a week. I'm trying to do some strength exercises at home as well. I'm gearing up for doing some running as well, though the thought kinda scares me ;-) Then there's rollerblading which I can do when the weather gets just a little warmer. I still feel that I'm currently missing upper-body exercise, but I'm hoping to take the beginners course at the nunjitsu place I mentioned in my last post.
The good effect of all this is that I noticed a drop of a kilo when I was at the pool last and I'm feeling a little firmer around the middle! We'll see how long it all lasts, but right now I'm feeling confident that I can find a level of exercise that I'm going to be comfortable with and that will keep me in better shape.
2002-04-14 21:41:49 Source: Web
Well, it was a hectic week, both with preparations for Martin's batchelor bash and with a lot of client work to be done at work. It was a stretch, but I'm feeling like it was a good week and well worth the effort. Now it's definitely time to focus on getting the flat packed up for the move in a few weeks time.
As I mentioned, on Saturday we had a day-long batchelor party for my friend Martin. A group of us had been planning for 6 weeks! The fun started when he received a threatening letter the day before from a blackmailer threatening to expose his earlier marriage to Sandra Bullock if he didn't pay a sum of money. The letter was accompanied by photos of him and Sandra (faked in Photoshop) plus a marriage certificate :-D
On the day itself we had built a series of events with Martin at the centre. On the one hand was his batchelor day with certain organised events (a dance lesson, training in how to disarm a person with a pistol using "Nun-jitsu", lunch at a great sky-bar plus a wind-down at roman baths) and on the other hand a detective story where he had to track the blackmailer and eventually recover the negatives and save his marriage!
All in all the day was a great success - if a lot of hard work - and we had a party at a friend's house to finish the day. It was even by Swedish standards a highly planned and long batchelor do! I hope that when I get married I have friends around to do something even half as fun ;-)
2002-04-08 12:08:53 Source: Web
Here's a link to an article that both saddened and angered me. Read about the worsening conditions at the top of the world for the Arctic Eskimos.
Article
2002-04-07 21:47:52 Source: Web
I'm feeling pretty good about myself today. I've been feeling very flabby after the excesses of winter and have been wanting to start getting myself back into shape. Well, my regime kicked in this weekend. On Saturday I cycled 10 miles and today I swam a kilometre (complete with cycle ride to and from the pool). On top of that I've been eating more healthily (water instead of Coke, salads and moussaka!) and doing some other exercises to try and get some muscle tone in place.
On top of that I'm looking around for other activities I can take up - I'm not a gym type person, but I like doing things which aren't only about exercising. I'm thinking possibly some kind of martial art (though preferably not a "beat the shit out of each other" one!) or climbing or something similar. I think it's upper body that needs the most attention.
Let me know if you think of anything that I might like!
2002-04-05 20:29:43 Source: Web
Two posts ago I wrote about the fantastic concert we saw with Fad Gadget at the SAMA awards. Lotta has just sent me a link with the news that Frank Tovey the genius behind the band has died. I guess we were at his last concert.
I can only say that the concert we saw was absolutely exceptional. He was a genius to the end.
2002-04-03 22:31:00 Source: Web
Someone pointed something out to me earlier and I felt it was my duty to share it with you all. Chris is well known to many of you (link on the right-hand side of the page, he has enough links as it it!). Keyop has perhaps less media exposure these days, but was once a comedy sidekick in Battle of the Planets (or G-Force as it was also known).
Sorry Chris - it *had* to be done ;-)
2002-04-02 21:21:15 Source: Web
Well I promised you a round up of my fun weekend - and as my TV is not allowing me to access any channels right now, I've got plenty of time to write it up ;-)
Friday was pretty productive - we finished work on Thursday afternoon, so I had already spent a whole afternoon playing Mame and could concentrate on doing some of the jobs that really need doing. The only drawback to washing my windows is that the view is so much clearer I realise even more how much I'm going to miss it *grin*.
The evening kicked off with a "före-fest" (pre-party party) at a friend's house and then a bunch of us headed for the SAMA warm-up night. Quite a warm-up it was too, with a cool band playing (you haven't heard of them) and despite trying to make sure that I wouldn't be in too bad a state for Saturday morning I staggered home.
Unfortunately I had *completely* misjudged the night before and so I felt like crap when the alarm went at 8:15 on Saturday. I had booked the wash room (like a free communal launderette often found in apartment buildings in Sweden), but didn't manage to crawl out of bed until 10:30 by which time I only had enough drying time left to do one load. I got the main bits done at least. The next problem was that SAMA started at 17:00 and I was still feeling pretty crappy after collecting my half dry washing at 15:00.
Miraculously, after getting outside of some food (as opposed to the opposite effect earlier in the day), I was starting to slowly pull together by 17.00 when we headed to another friend's house before making our way to the club.
Once inside the law of "not hung-Over, but hung-Under" applied as usual and after a couple of cautious beers I was feeling more like myself. A good job too, as the evening was completely fantastic! Bands we saw include the following:
- Tyskarna från Lund (The Germans from Lund). A completely wild band who mimed the entire set to scandalously funny tracks inspired by Kraftwerk. Tanzen mitt muzik" ("Download for free) will make you laugh out loud with lines like "Ich dricker Glühvein och spizad marzipan." (or something close to that).
- Deathstars who have been a death metal band, but now are somthing closer to Marilyn Manson. I thought they were OK, but as I said to Lotta, as soon as they become famous I'll probably hate them ;-)
- Apoptygma Berzerk A Norwegian synth/industrial band who closed the night. I have quite a few tracks of theirs and thought they did a pretty good job, but they weren't the highlight I'm afraid. That honour went to...
- Fad Gadget What a show! Frank Tovey, the creative madman behind Fad Gadget is in his 40's and should know better - but on stage he came over as way more refreshing and original than any of the other bands we saw that night. The music rocked and old favourites such as "Collapsing New People" were hugely appreciated by the crowd. But for me it was Tovey's stage show that won the day. He was so animated and during the course of the show lost layers of clothing to eventually reveal a layer of white down feathers! When he came on for his encore he was tarred an feathered! Madness. At one point he stagedived and as I was running around trying to take photos with the digicam I ran over to be perfectly positioned for an upside-down shot of his head. Pressed the button - and the batteries died :( Even if they hadn't dies, most of the pics I managed to get were very blurry in the low light, so I don't have much to show I'm afraid.
Well, that wrapped up our SAMA evening. We were there for around 8 hours and it was completely jam-packed. You've got to come along next year ;-)
The next day I was tired, but in surprisingly good form. Funny how that happens! I managed to get some small jobs done around the flat - and play some more Mame ;-) That evening we spent having an extremely good traditional Easter feast with Lotta's folks. Pickled herring (*not* my favourite :), gravad lax (dill cured salmon), potatoes, home baked ham and a potato & tomato bake. Yum!
Monday was muh less adventurous, though I did get some more of the small pre pack-everything-up-for-moving jobs done. Everything is starting to feel pretty close now. Just waiting for the financing to come in. This Friday I'm taking a day off so we can go and look at beds and sofas. We saw a bed frame we liked, but at over £1000 it was a bit pricey (yes - *just* the frame!). It's less than 4 weeks until we get ownership now and around 5 weeks until we start moving. Before then I have plans to attend a wedding and a couple of Hocky World Championships matches. Oh! And I'm having a little party at my place this weekend! Almost forgot ;-)
I hope your Easter / Passover was good too! Write me and let me know!
2002-04-01 13:58:42 Source: Web
Finally! Observant visitors may have noticed that the site has been inaccessible for the last few days (Hi Lucy!). There was a glitch with the server and the guys who run it (and do a sterling job!) couldn't get access to the box to reboot it, what with it being Easter holidays and all.
Anyway, we're back and running now!
An update on all the Easter fun, including the incredibly awesome SAMA weekend to come soon!