"If he'd known how long he was going to spend in the airport lounge of his own life, he'd made different travel arrangements, but instead he'd sat there, sighing and fidgeting and, more often than was ever really acceptable, snapping at his travelling companions."

- Juliet Naked by Nick Hornby -

There's a lot that M gave me, one of the items on that lengthy list would be none other than Mr. Nick Hornby. Even if I needed about 6 years to come around and properly introduce myself to him.

I first started to like Zoey Deschanel when I saw her on Elvis Costello's show singing with Jenny Lewis:

I truly fell in love with her voice. She sings in a band called She & Him. I meant to watch her movies ever since - and then there came one: 500 Days of Summer (imdb). It was a story of boy meets girl, but it was not a love story as it claimed. It was cute and nice and lovely and everyone would fall for Zoey's big blue eyes and sixties haircut and singing.

I can only recommend it for girlie evenings...

I'm still alive.... heartbeat msg.... dance, dance, dance to the radio And love, love will tear us apart again..

Me and H and her friend C are off to Skåne tomorrow morning - waaaaay down to the south of Sweden. No nothing, just us. And apparently two days of rain, and two days of no-rain. Ah well, we really had way too much nice weather here, haha!

Anyway, just us, and a couple of laptops and other electronic gadgets =) Plus I bring the book that I never manage to finish (Middlesex!), plus all the papers I bought last week to catch up on some reading too.

Cause I'm a real wild child

Today was the first summery day in Sthlm! By the time I got out of bed at around half past ten it was already around 10 degrees and tons of sun.... I am not sure I have ever wrote about this but then it is sunny in Sthlm it is a lot different than in Bp, it's at least twelve times more sunny here than back home. I guess it has to do with the angle of the sunbeams hitting the Earth. Anyway, it was sunny and warm, and S and I met up for a walk-and-talk at around 12, we walked for some time and then started to look for food in Soder (without much success though as) the prerequisites were to sit out in the sun and we didn't care about the food itself as long as it wasn't sushi. We even decided to create a FB group called "People who don't like sushi and watching football, and especially the two at the same time".

There was a conclusion that we came to, namely that Gotgatan is paved along with Irish pubs.

After all the walking, we finally went for a small Italian place and decided to take away focaccias (nice ones, thought with tons of cheese, which was gluey and made it physically impossible to eat it all up as they filled you up soon. And we set on a bench across a jattekul record store that I had to go into. I wanted to and actually got the OST of Once, as well as the new R.E.M. record =)))

 After that we walked back towards Slussen (we basically started our long walk in Radhuset going central and across to Slussen crisscrossing Soder) looking for a coffee place, but as it was the first summer day here everyone was out, places all packed. Well, in fact places are all packed whole year round, considering the fact that if it is just raingin a teeny bit Swedes are still out doing their crazy shopping and sports, and when it is called they are still out but inside to cafes and restaurants and then it's packed as it's less place for probably almost the same amount of people.

So we walked to the old town, places still packed, and we went for take out coffee from Espresso House and then sat on the beach "hanging out feet" [= taking the weight off our feet] above the water facing Skansen and Grona Lund. It was just a perfect day...

 Same time, next year :p

I have a friend who never listens to the lyrics of songs, or at least he keeps telling me that. Me, on the contrary, cannot stop listening to and speaking in lyrics. Take a look at the title, which is an extract of the oh-so-adored Stereophonics song entitled Dakota... and it just perfectly suits the situation.

But what do you do when there is a mess around you? Step back, take a piece of paper, and draw big bubbles. No, not pink ones, but bubbles of what's important and what's not. This "dig where you stand" keeps going on and on in my head.

Priority lists, and the urgent/important quadrants.

• finish my current assignment 
  

I still have at least one more interview, and I wonder why the others haven't gotten back to me. Should look into that.

• back in Bp in less than 6 weeks
• Beijing
  
• skiing (Austria)
  
• back in Sthlm for the final module
• skiing =))
  
• get a job in Sthlm?
• yes => arrange practicalities, i.e. lodgement, social security number, bank account
• [no => arrange practicalities, i.e. move back to Bp]

Oh, and getting back to the daily routines of getting up early, going to the gym/swimming pool/climbing, blablabla.

I also have tons of books on my shelf, so I have ceased buying new ones up until I haven't read most of these =))

Ohh, and yes, I am still sick, still at home, most likely for the whole week, though I am working from today. At least I try to work when I am not dead from a headache or sweating too much.

Maybe, maybe I understand why so many Swedes go to the warm and sunny places for a couple of weeks at this time of the year. 

There is this terrific track by LTJ Bukem I think entitled Two Steps...

I need to focus on two things: not to focus on my future so much cause it will only drive me crazy; secondly send those emails out for my future assignment.

Life's been crazy today, I have been getting on my own nerves... seriously, I can drive myself crazy. So I'd better stop now, take a deep breath and relax. In other words get back to my daily morning gym routine and keep to it.

And life's mysterious ways are still fun... turning on the tv while grabbing lunch having a superbad day and there you see Sting & Robert Downey Jr singing that kick-ass track in  Ally McBeal that you have always loved. Life's perfect.... tired, tiring, but perfect.

And tomorrow I'm getting back to the grind. Again.