<$BlogRSDURL$>
erika's little blog
www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from azbabizmir. Make your own badge here.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
 
the air is filled with the smell of cow shit and hägg. it's still very cold, though. not ver summerish at all...
 
16 comments
 
today is a much less rotten day than yesterday! i defended my paper on child language today, borrowing video conference equipment in tommy's school. i passed. i will never ever have to look at that paper again! great! and i came home almost an hour earlier than ordinary days too. even greater!
 
0 comments
Monday, May 30, 2005
 
today has been a rotten day. when the alarm clock went off this morning i was so tired it hurt. we were out of juice, so i had to drink our smelly bad tasting yellow water for breakfast. the galdor cat came with the bob and me for the morning walk, and i didn't have the energy to run away from him. so we lost him in the woods. so i worried all day about him being hit by a car or eaten by the vicious killer cats in the village (galdor is too much of a philosopher to notice all the dangers in life). my lunch was cold in the middle. i was hungry before it was time to go home from work. the stupid galdor cat came with the bob and me for the after work walk too. and i had even less energy to run away from him then. he got stuck in a pipe, almost fell into the stream, almost got hit by a truck and two cars and eventually i lost him. tommy suggested funny coloured drinks to cheer me up. i thought that sounded fun, so i was actually a bit happy for a while. but after the first zip i remembered i don't like alcohol, and the drink tasted horrible. so i had to drink the smelly bad tasting yellow water for dinner too. after dinner i had to go for a second after work walk, as the first one was so short (galdor's fault). the road is covered with white worm corpses after all the rain. i imagined the worms to be tiny dead people after the tsunami. that didn't make me in a better mood. on the way back home i felt a weak happyish felling in the stomach for a while, when i was looking at the mountains surrounding our little piece of the world. then i stepped on a pile of worm corpses, and the happiness disappeared.

after a hot shower, and chocolate and a cosy cat under the blanket in the sofa i now feel a bit better. i'm going to bed early tonight...
 
0 comments
 
we're now having drinks with funny colours and pytt i panna :)
 
0 comments
Sunday, May 29, 2005
 
today is mother's day. and i remembered to phone my mother! i'm such a nice daughter :)

the woods are steaming in nyland tonight. i guess that must mean the air is getting colder? the evening walk didn't last long enough for me to tell; bob's leash snapped, and he turned around and ran back home faster than the saab. he doesn't enjoy rainy walks very much...
 
0 comments
 
yesterday i went riding with 7 colleagues and one daugther of a colleague. it was fun, and i had the fastest horse :) today it hurts when i sit...

afterwards we had dinner together in sollefteå. the food was good, but the waiters were slow. when we parked the saab before eating the fan started running and refused to stop. after telephoning one of the car fixing brothers i found a plug to pull. i hope it was just something temporary...

i had planned to sleep for ages today, and even the bob seemed to be ok with that. but i woke up at 9.30 and couldn't go back to sleep... i hope there's nothing seriously wrong with me!

the bob and i went for a walk up the mountain, and when we reached the top i sat down to enjoy the view and listen to the rain. i like the sound of rain in woods. especially in spring, when the leaves are small. it sounds as if the trees are alive.
 
0 comments
Friday, May 27, 2005
 
the hägg ("bird cherry", according to my dictionary) is starting to blossom in nyland. it smells wonderful.

tomorrow i'm going to ride on icelandic horses with 10 of my colleagues. fun!
 
0 comments
Thursday, May 26, 2005
 
i'm dizzy from having watched playfull swallows doing somersaults and other tricks in the air above the road between torsten's house and his sawmill.
 
0 comments
 
yesterday was the big vårruset day. i didn't win. :( but i think i was among the few hundred first ones. apparently there were over 6 400 people running!

i didn't win the race, but i did win 700 kr on the casino. my ombudsman nisse gambled for me. he lost his own money, and won 700 for me. we're a great gambling team :)

my one-fruit-a-day thing didn't work. i don't like fruit. it would be much easier with one coca cola a day.
 
0 comments
Sunday, May 22, 2005
 
tommy, the bob and i just came home from the evening walk, finding a dead mouse hung from a stone supporting the porch. i won't even try to imagine how they managed to do that... devil cats!
 
0 comments
 
yesterday i went to a eurovision song contest party at a colleague's. we had a delicious dinner, and as today is another colleague's birthday we had cake for desert. after dinner we watched the show on big screen. now i'm afraid my brain is damaged for ever... i hear the competing songs over and over and over again.

yesterday's fruit: 0

today bob woke me up "early". he wanted to get out in the woods and pretend he was a saab turbo. he ran and ran and ran, and then he cooled off in a big puddle of water. after that we strolled on for a while and met a yellow butterfly. i've been told that if the first butterfly you see is yellow the summer will be nice. so we thanked the butterfly for showing up and saving our summer, and went home to have breakfast.

today's fruit: kiwi (will have it soon)
 
0 comments
Friday, May 20, 2005
 
so far so good

today has been a nice day in many ways.

a colleague and i had lunch in the sun. five minutes after the lunch was over the sun disappeared, and hasn't been seen since.

on my way home from work i stopped by a little man who was standing in the middle of the road, with cars rushing by in crazy speeds. he just wanted to hold someone's hand for a while, and he was very surprised i didn't know who he was. "but... i'm the drunkard" he said, and seemed pleased when he had to introduce himself by name. he repeated it 4 times, to make sure i really didn't know him. then he told me he was a priest. "jesus made wine into water" he said and laughed. somehow it didn't sound wrong at all.

tommy had bought coca cola for the weekend, and we had a nice dinner with the much longed-for black drink :)

when bob and i went for an after work walk we saw three ducks having sex on our lawn. we watched them for a while, until the neighbour's cat chased them away. he's a prude.

halfway through the dog walk a "neighbour" invited me for coffee. their son is now my favourite child. he wasn't big enough to talk, and he could climb up on the kitchen sink in less than a second, but he was clever enough to understand what people said to him. and he actually did as he was told! my favourite child by far!

so today i've met my favourite priest and my favourite child. not bad.

today's fruit: kiwi (i haven't had it yet, but i will, i promise)
 
0 comments
Thursday, May 19, 2005
 
today i went home an hour earlier, to have friskvård (health care...). the bob, tommy and i went jogging. it's less than a week to vårruset, which i accidentally said i'd win... (i'm not really sure i'll win it, to be honest)

in one of the fields there was a new lake, from all the snow that's melted these last two days. apparently a very popular lake among the bird youngsters. it was full of almost invisible little birds that i guess must be storspov babies. unless there's something called småspov (stor=big, små=small)... very cute, anyway.

today's fruit: tangerine
 
0 comments
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
 
most of the snow has melted since the snow storm yesterday, but there's still more than enough left. the weather is a bit schizophrenic these days. we've had a snow storm, sunshine, rain and hailstorms since yesterday morning.

the weather right now: the sky above långsele looks like a water painting, with soft shades of pink, blue and pale grey, but if you look the other direction there's a big dark sharp cloud. one side of the lake is hidden under a thick smoke, the middle of the lake is completely calm and smooth, and the other side of the lake is rippled.
 
0 comments
 
today's fruit: tangerine

(i've promised myself to have one fruit a day. apparently it's good for you...)
 
0 comments
Monday, May 16, 2005
 
i'm bored. everything is wet and grey outside. i've allready had the last of the coca cola. it's too early to go to bed. i don't feel like reading. a perfect day to spend under a blanket with a cat in the lap watching tv. if there was anything to watch on tv. maybe i'll see an episode of the office...

i forgot to tell you about the melvin baby. the brother of the girl that was baptised in umeå this weekend. he looked like a stephen-king-movie-baby, but he was quite fun. he now speaks fluently. unfortunately he speaks an unknown asian language, which makes it difficult for him to communicate with other people. but it sounds fun.

today was my first "real" day at work. until now we've been trained. i took 51 phone calls. that's quite good for someone who's afraid of telephones, i think.
 
0 comments
Sunday, May 15, 2005
 
we're home from a quick, cold, windy and nice trip to umeå.
* marie, orwhar, bob and i went for a walk.
* marie came with us to the city, where i bought football shoes for a friend (i hope i got the right ones. he showed me a picture where they were white and red, but the ones i got are white and black. but the man who sold them promised me it was right), marie got a new leash for orwhar, and we all had hamburgers and coca cola. we also found a gift for the baby (a boring one: the father wished her a "body", so we got her one. and one a little bit more fun: a little rattle that looked like a lion to put around her arm. she seemed to like it, but maybe it was just a tummy ache).
* we finally used our cinema cheques, and saw masjävlar.
* we visited jim, petra, melvin and smilla (the baptised one). they showed us the plot they want to buy, and the house they want to build. it will probably be very nice, but right now it was just gravel, water and mud.
* we forgot to buy juice, so we had coca cola for breakfast. great. to make it even greater i had a piece of chocolate as desert.
* the baby was baptised.
* we had cake (LOTS of it) and coca cola.
* we went for a walk around nydalasjön. for some reason the woods in umeå smell superficial. a walk around nydalasjön smells like air freshener.
* we ran into marie, and gave her a final hug.
* we went home.
* in näs, after sidensjö, we stopped to walk on a work of art called "två bryggor". i liked it. bob too i think. he went crazy. it was like walking in the air.
 
0 comments
Friday, May 13, 2005
 
no accidents yet

tomorrow we head for umeå, to see the new baby smilla and the old baby melvin. we've seen pictures of melvin where he looks like a killer baby in a stephen king movie, so i'm quite excited to see him.

spring signs:
* i've seen leaves!! they started showing up a few days ago in sollefteå, but the first ones in nyland came today

* bob and i met several ants on the road this afternoon

* bob and i saw torsten in a rowing boat on the lake

* sören has planted spring flowers in the brown tree trunk he puts on the lawn

* today was the first day we saw henry sitting on the lawn
 
0 comments
Thursday, May 12, 2005
 
i'm an addict...
instead of working hard on my paper i've spent the evening pondering. one of the things i've realised is that i'm an addict. just a few things i'm addicted to at the moment:
coca cola
chocolate
svenskanamn.se
my pyjamas (the blue one with teddy bears)
sunglasses while driving
sunlight
my red rubber boots
the black china cap while jogging (my ears hurt without it)
the smell of horse shit on morning walks (it's much nicer than it might sound...)
an evening walk before going to bed
cheese
there's probably much much more. i get addicted to things so easily i don't even realise it, and some addictions are probably replaced by others every now and then. i probably wasn't addicted to the smell of horseshit while i lived in umeå, for example. but i think i might have been addicted to the smell of warm pine trees instead...
it's probably a good thing i've never tried smoking... :)
 
0 comments
 
yesterday was tommy's birthday. i didn't forget it (i promise). he is now only 4 years away from 40. and bob is almost 12... everyone is getting old in my familly...:) today he had a mail-cake from tierp. it was actually quite good.

i was on a health check sponsored by work today. apparently i'm healthy. the nurse (who seemed to be a very sensible and competent person :) said i was tall and slender. that's good to know, as i myself thought i was getting fat, and was thinking about maybe not eating as much chocolate and drinking as much coca cola. but if i'm slender i guess it must be ok:) i celebrate with coca cola and cake right now.
 
0 comments
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
 
most of our lawn is now green
 
0 comments
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
 
i think there's something wrong with me. today i've been jogging. twice. but i'm still alive :)

and my figures are correct! i LOVE spss (forget everything i might have said yesterday).

and there's a little monster living in our lake.

and our house is for sale
 
0 comments
Monday, May 09, 2005
 
i'm a bad bad person! i forgon the galdor cat's birthday... of course i always forget his birthday (as well as everybody elses), but this year was special. he turned 6 (or 7 or 8 or something like that) on the fifth of may. 050505. that must be a magical day for a birthday, and i forgot it...
 
0 comments
Sunday, May 08, 2005
 
the little teo cat has just had his first "bath". he was peed on by bob at the dog walk... he looked really funny! almost couldn't walk because of the two or three yellow drops behind his left ear. he jumped and ran to get away from it :)

unfortunately i was wrong about the leaves. i was so sure i would have seen a real green leaf before the end of this week, but i still haven't seen one. there's more and more green grass growing up through the dead and yellow grass of last year though, so there's starting to be some colour to the landscape of nyland.
 
0 comments
 
i love watching birds from beneath. especially when they are flying, of course, but lately i've become more and more interested in watching them sitting still too. i think it's fascinating how they can keep the balance with their tiny little feet around a little twig or a wire. it doesn't even look difficult. i wonder if they fall off at first, when they are young and haven't practiced much.

we just came in from a walk, bob and i. and just as we turned back to our road a huge group of the fat black shaggy birds that i don't know the names of flew over us, quite low. my heart is still pouding! it's the moment when i'm right underneath them that's special. when they are close enough for me to see that they are alive. if you look carefully a flying bird looks almost like an animation when it's seen from beneath. it looks unnatural to seem them move their little heads and look around. i wonder what the world looks like through the eyes of a big fat shaggy bird...
 
0 comments
Saturday, May 07, 2005
 
old dog new shoes

tommy and i went to the big city of sollefteå today. there was some kind of record market that tommy wanted to go to, and i thought i could look for a gift to the new baby who is being babtised in umeå next week. didn't find a present for the baby. they are difficult to buy gifts for when they're so small. but i found shoes for myself instead :) much more fun to buy presents to myself! now i know what madicken must have felt like when she wasn't allowed to wear her new shiny shoes in the mud... it's mud everywhere. and the rain never seems to stop. but it would be SO much more fun to wear my new shiny shoes than my red rubber boots...

on our way back home after a walk in the rain i was walking behind the bob dog up the slope to our house, and when i looked at his wet shaggy back and thighs he suddenly looked quite old :(
 
0 comments
Friday, May 06, 2005
 
bob and i went for a walk a while ago, and by some kind of mixture between dusk, wet dirt road, coffe delirium and weird imagination i thought i saw a very tall man with a tall hat a few hundred metres ahead. quite soon i realised the man wasn't moving, and probably wasn't even a man. but somehow i got a scary feeling of meeting "mr death" in a black and white movie. we hurried back in, to continue with the vampire film and some more coca cola :)
 
0 comments
 
still more dead than alive. remind me to NEVER drink this much (and this STRONG) coffee again! we ate a bit smörgåstårta and had some coca cola, and it got a little bit better. but it's still far from good...
 
0 comments
 
i've just had an overdose of coffee
we were invited for coffee by our neighbours in klippen. bob had lots (and lots) of cat food, and i had lots and lots (and LOTS) of strong coffee. and i don't even like coffee. now i feel like throwing up. i wonder if there's anything to neutralise it? i'll try with some coca cola. if you never hear from me again you'll know that it doesn't work.
 
0 comments
Thursday, May 05, 2005
 
growing up?

i have noticed a couple of growing up signs:

* a while ago i realised i thought it might not be suitable to wear my favourite shirt to work. those of you who have seen it know that it's never been a very good looking shirt. and as i've had it since i was 13 or something it is also quite worn out by now. this has never stopped me from wearing it in public, though. until now. and it doesn't feel right to the shirt only to wear it at home, so the last two weeks it's been all alone in the wardrobe, wondering what it's done wrong. i don't like this kind of growing up signs, so i've decided to wear it to work tomorrow.

* i hardly ever wear socks with holes anymore. i still don't have any problems wearing socks with different colours, though.

* last weekend i realised it might look funny if i go for dog walks in my pyjamas. it's not very often i meet anyone, but still i thought i must look like a byfåne with my red rubber boots and my blue pyjamas with teddy bears... but i love my pyjamas more than i worry about being the byfåne, so i'll go on wearing my pyjamas all day when i'm not working.

* i'm thinking about buying a new spring jacket. the one i have is more than 10 years old, and the zipper is broken. but i love it... i think i'll keep it a few more years.

with all these growing up signs i might even try to iron one of these days. i've never been able to do that before, but maybe i'm big enough by now?
 
0 comments
Monday, May 02, 2005
 
i *love* my sunglasses! they make everything yellow and sunny and beautiful. i even wear them when it's grey and rainy. they're like a drug.

spring signs:
* there are lots of violet little flowers on a spot in the ditch beside the road. at first i thought it was horse shit with mould on :)
* the buds are growing, and i'm quite sure i'll be able to see real leaves before the end of this week.
* the teo cat only comes in to have some food now and then.
* the galdor cat is battered now and then... :(
 
0 comments
Sunday, May 01, 2005
 
i feel sick. i've just been watching a programme about the torture in abu guraib, with and interview with lynndie england. i find it so scary that people are capabe of doing such horrible things to other living creatures, and don't feel that they are doing anything wrong. does that mean people are evil? or are we just stupid? i recently heard that someone (my husband says voltaire, i guessed aristotle...) said something like "there is no evil, just lack of goodness". i thought that sounded rather wise. but i'll have to think about it for a while before i'm really sure... i'm a slow thinker.
 
0 comments
 
the valborgsmässo-party wasn't too fun yesterday. it began bad, and got worse...
our neighbour telephoned and wanted to join us to the fire. he knocked on our door about half an hour before they lit the fire, and was rather "tipsy" (to use a sweet little word :). as the weather wasn't too fun we invited him in, instead of heading straight to the fire place. after being a bit shy for a few seconds he started telling us how mean everyone in the village was, and how bad they all treat him.

when we got to the fire place he acted just like my parents' little poodle: he immediately started to argue with the first person he saw, then he came to stand close to me, to gather some more strength, before he could lash our at somebody else. and he kept on doing that the entire evening. as soon as somebody got close to him he started barking. it can't be easy being him. the poor little children were so afraid of him they didn't dare to move (in that respect he was quite unlike the poodle, who is generally very good at socialising with children).



after a while tommy and i got bored, and went home to watch a film instead.

the water birds seemed to have a much funner party than we did, though. they were up all night, celebrating the return of their lake with shouts and laughter. today the lake is filled with tired hung over sea gulls, sleeping in the water :)
 
0 comments
i'm erika, and this is my own little blog. i'm married to tommy, and we have two cats named galdor and kala bhalu, a puppy dog named sasoh and a few chicks. we also have five angels: love, arne, anton, bob and teo.

ARCHIVES
02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004 / 03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004 / 04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004 / 05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004 / 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004 / 07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004 / 08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004 / 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004 / 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004 / 11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004 / 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005 / 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005 / 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005 / 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005 / 04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005 / 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 / 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005 / 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005 / 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005 / 09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005 / 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005 / 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005 / 12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006 / 01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006 / 02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006 / 03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006 / 04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006 / 05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006 / 06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006 / 07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006 / 08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006 / 09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006 / 10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006 / 11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006 / 12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007 / 01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007 / 02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007 / 03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007 / 04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007 / 05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007 / 06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007 / 07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007 / 08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007 / 09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007 / 10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007 / 11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007 / 12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008 / 01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008 / 02/01/2008 - 03/01/2008 / 03/01/2008 - 04/01/2008 / 04/01/2008 - 05/01/2008 / 05/01/2008 - 06/01/2008 / 06/01/2008 - 07/01/2008 / 07/01/2008 - 08/01/2008 / 08/01/2008 - 09/01/2008 / 09/01/2008 - 10/01/2008 / 10/01/2008 - 11/01/2008 / 11/01/2008 - 12/01/2008 / 12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009 / 01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009 / 02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009 / 03/01/2009 - 04/01/2009 / 04/01/2009 - 05/01/2009 / 05/01/2009 - 06/01/2009 / 06/01/2009 - 07/01/2009 / 07/01/2009 - 08/01/2009 / 08/01/2009 - 09/01/2009 / 09/01/2009 - 10/01/2009 / 10/01/2009 - 11/01/2009 / 11/01/2009 - 12/01/2009 / 12/01/2009 - 01/01/2010 / 01/01/2010 - 02/01/2010 / 02/01/2010 - 03/01/2010 / 03/01/2010 - 04/01/2010 / 04/01/2010 - 05/01/2010 / 05/01/2010 - 06/01/2010 / 06/01/2010 - 07/01/2010 / 07/01/2010 - 08/01/2010 / 08/01/2010 - 09/01/2010 / 09/01/2010 - 10/01/2010 / 10/01/2010 - 11/01/2010 / 11/01/2010 - 12/01/2010 / 12/01/2010 - 01/01/2011 / 01/01/2011 - 02/01/2011 / 02/01/2011 - 03/01/2011 / 03/01/2011 - 04/01/2011 / 04/01/2011 - 05/01/2011 / 05/01/2011 - 06/01/2011 / 06/01/2011 - 07/01/2011 / 07/01/2011 - 08/01/2011 / 08/01/2011 - 09/01/2011 / 09/01/2011 - 10/01/2011 / I commit to peace on 21 September. What will you do to make peace on 21 September? Take Action now