Shopping for one

Popping by the market on Thursday evening I ran into the tutor from last week’s Thinknician workshop. As we talked I took a peek of his basket and then my own basket. Typical late time shopping for one. Who else would do their shopping at 8 o’clock in the evening?! My shopping was probably also very womanly with low fat milk, low fat vanilla yogurt, a box of rocket, cottage cheese and a frozen pizza from WW. Talk about being the stereotype of a single woman in her mid 30’s… Walking the last blocks home in pouring rain I couldn’t help feeling both a bit lonely and pathetic wondering why I choose to become a career driven single woman instead of a fun loving stay at home mum. I guess life is all about choices…

I belong in London

Just took a test on which city I belong in and the answer was London. Hm, interesting... Internet tests are always right, aren’t they?!

You Belong in London

You belong in London, but you belong in many cities... Hong Kong, San Francisco, Sidney. You fit in almost anywhere. And London is diverse and international enough to satisfy many of your tastes. From curry to Shakespeare, London (almost) has it all!

Proud blogger

It’s not every day a part of your blog post gets published at The Guardian Technology Blog. They probably found my post about online content via trackback, but still I think it’s rather cool they thought some of my thoughts were good enough to publish. Maybe there is more depth to my ramblings than I think.

A bit fun

I'm way to tired tonight after having spent most of the day discussing next year’s budget. Lets just say that I know why I never became an accountant. Figures and me will never be a good combination… And talking about numbers. Even Foxtrot talks about Web 2.0.

No point of return

I signed up and became a member of a health club and spa today. For the last couple of months going to the gym has just felt like chore and my motivation have been drifting more and more. I’ve also become rather good with coming up with excuses why I shouldn’t go. Last week at the Thinknican workshop I complained to our Event Manager and one of our media consultants that I was just coming up with excuses for not going to the gym. Both of them told me to sign up with Hagabadet Health Club & Spa, one of the best health clubs and spas in town. At first I was a little hesitant since they are quite expensive even though they have a very good reputation. But the fact that they are located only 10 minutes from the office and that we as a company gets a 30% discount made me go and sign up today after work.

They had some special autumn sign up deal so I also got 180 minutes with a personal trainer for free. Just what I wanted, and needed… Someone who can kick my behind a bit… So at lunchtime next Friday I have my first session with my own PT Daniel.

For the first time in a real long time I’m actually looking forward to work out. Hagabadet offers a lot of different classes, including Core and Pace that I used to go to when working at BingoLotto. They also have Pilates, which I’ve wanted to try for ages and something called Aqua Fitness. Stretching, toning and relaxing in an extra hot pool. Sounds perfect for me who loves hot baths. As a member of the health club you automatically get a discount at the spa, so I’ve already decide that I’m going to treat myself with a massage, facial, manicure etc every now and then just as mini reward for taking care of myself again. And I know it’s worth it in the long run. Both my body and soul will feel so much better, which means in reality that I as person will feel better.

What a woman should have

Got this from my friend Holly today. It’s worth repeating since it's good. It makes you think and smile at the same time.

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE…
A set of screwdrivers,
A cordless drill, and
A black lace bra

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE...
One friend who always makes her laugh
And one who lets her cry

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE...
A good piece of furniture
Not previously owned by anyone else in her family

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE…
Eight matching plates,
Wine glasses with stems,
And a recipe for a meal that will
Make her guests feel honoured

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE...
A feeling of control over her destiny

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
How to fall in love without losing herself

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
How to quit a job
Break up with a lover
And confront a friend without ruining the friendship

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
When to try harder and
When to walk away

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
That she can't change
The length of her calves,
The width of her hips, or
The nature of her parents

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
That her childhood
May not have been perfect
But it’s over

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
What she would and wouldn’t
Do for love or more

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
How to live alone
Even if she doesn't like it

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
Whom she can trust, whom she can't,
And why she shouldn't take it personally

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
Where to go
Be it to her best friend's kitchen table
Or a charming inn in the woods
When her soul needs soothing

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
What she can and can't accomplish
In a day
A month
And a year

Mmm...

Mmm, Chocolate Week. I think I just found a reason why I need to be in London that week...

Chocolate Week is pure chocolate indulgence with talks, tastings, demonstrations, launches of new chocolates, chocolate fountains, sculptures etc. Foodies will be able to find out more about chocolate, it’s origins, cocoa beans, how it is made and also taste the finest chocolate in the world.

That’s a lot of bloggers

There are more than 30 million blogs in China. That’s what I call blogsphere! According to CNN more than 17 million people write blogs and more than 75 million people read them. And I who thought I was dong so good with an average of 20 visitors ever day… Hrm, well everything is relative. Or maybe I just have to move to China...

Enough now

Defeated Swedish PM Göran Persson hasn’t very high hopes for the new government.

Sweden's new Alliance government will split within four years. That's the analysis of defeated prime minister Göran Persson, who addressed Social Democrat members of parliament on Tuesday."Given how badly prepared the Alliance seemsto be, a new Social Democratic party leadership ought to be prepared to take office before 2010," he told the meeting of MPs in Stockholm.

I’m just so tired of him. Always those snooty remarks. Why can’t he just go back to his newly build mansion in the woods and retire?! There aren’t that many people who I don’t like, but PM Persson is one. He’s just too much of everything, and that’s not coming from me as a political opponent. In my world a snooty attitude won’t get you anywhere. And obviously the Swedish voters thought the same.

Chilean wines

Just back from an evening testing wines from Chile and the wine house of Concocha y Toro. Two white ones and four red along with tapas and afterward a dinner. One could do more boring things on a Monday…

We tried the two of the most famous names of the house, Casillero del Diablo and TRIO. Casillero de Diablo is very common here in Sweden, but I hade never heard about TRIO before. But we were told that you could make special orders in the wine stores if you know what you wanted.

Casillero del Diablo Chardonnay
Tested very much like an ordinary chardonnay. Quite fruity with apple and pineapple.

TRIO Chardonnay – Pinot Grigio – Pinot Blanc
Citrus with minerals and tropical fruit. Fresh taste

Casillero del Diablo Merlot
Chocolate, plums and berries. Long after-taste.

TRIO Merlot – Carmanere – Cabernet Sauvignon
A full-bodied wine, but still a bit silky. Oak and some spices.

Casillero Cabernet Sauvignon
A classic cabernet. A lot of cherries and blackcurrant.

TRIO Cabernet Sauvignon – Shiraz – Cabernet Franc
Sharp and quite aromatic with a hint of pepper.

My favourite was of course the Chardonnay. A good "drink and talk" wine. Of the red ones I liked TRIO Merlot – Carmanere – Cabernet Sauvignon. The Carmanere part made the wine a bit unusual, but still very good. Add some nice cheese and I’ll go straight to heaven.

Europe did it again

I’m not a golfer myself, but I was happy to read that for the third time in a row Europe won over the US in Ryder’s Cup.

The triumph was the first time that the Europeans had won three times in a row and represented a new low for American golf in the 79-year-old history of golf's biggest event as they lost for the fifth time in the last six.

The winning putt went to Sweden's Henrik Stenson defeating JJ Taylor four and three on the 15th green.

Congratulations and well done boys!

Confessions of a bookworm

As usual I went shopping in London, but this time not for cloths. OK, I bought a wrap cardigan and another pashmina, but that’s all. Instead I went shopping for books and magazines. Books, magazines etc are in expensive in Sweden. And if you want your book and magazine to be in English you have to pay even more. So walking into an English bookshop is pure heaven. All the books I want for less than half the price. It can’t get any better than that…

My first stop was Waterstone’s where I found the following:
Never have your dog stuffed – Alan Alda
I’ve loved Alan Alda since MASH so passing up his memoirs was something I just couldn’t do.

Hard choices – Carole Hayman
Politics. Good and Evil. A vision of the society we may yet become. Sounds scary, but interesting.

The rise and fall of a yummy mummy – Polly Williams
Probably a bit of chick litt, but sometimes you just need to read without having to think

Who moved my Blackberry – Martin Lukes
Working in the world of Blackberrys I couldn’t resist. There are way too many “important” people in the world of marketing…

Every morning walking to the office I passed the Parliament Bookshop. On Saturday I finally had the time to go inside. Browsing around for a while I found two very interesting books:
David & Winston – Robert Lloyd George
Two statesmen and their lifelong friendship in peace and war.

My trade – Andrew Marr
I’m a bit of media junkie and always fascinated by what drives a good journalist.

The wicked wit of Winston Churchill – Dominique Enright
Visiting the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum I of course had to buy a book with the wit of Winston Churchill. His wit and speeches are quite remarkable.

Murder One at Charring Cross Road is my favourite mystery bookshop in London. Just one bookshop dedicated to crime and mystery. Here I finally found The complete Jack the Ripper - Donald Rumbelow. A book came out the first time in 1975 and has been very hard to find. Donald Rumbelow is THE authority when it comes to Jack the Ripper. I finally took a Jack the Ripper walk on Thursday night and the guide recommended this book as one of the best.

Having some time to kill at Heathrow before leaving last Sunday I of course ended up at Books etc. Get 2 pay for 1 is always a good deal for a bookworm.
Air Babylon – Imogene Edwards-Jones
Just seemed cool to read about what goes on behind the scenes in air travel. I’m sure it’s pretty dirty like in all other businesses.

If you could see me now – Cecelia Ahern
I laughed and cried my way through PS, I love you. Lets hope this book is as good.

Quite a big pile of books along with four magazines. No wonder the taxi driver almost had a hernia lifting my suitcase. I tipped him well…

The Queen

On of my favourite things to do when I’m the UK is going to the cinema. I’ve always been a bit of a cinema buff. I just don’t get around doing it very much nowadays though. So when I do get to go the cinema it feels a little bit special, especial if I’m in the UK. I also believe that the chairs are a bit comfier there than here in Sweden. And then there are always the Maltesers…

So on Saturday afternoon, after having walked I don’t know how many miles since Tuesday night, it was time to go the cinema. As always there was a wide range of films to choose from (another reason why I like going the cinema in the UK). The film The Queen had opened up the day before and having heard so much about it I decided to see it. A very good choice. All of us in the audience were totally absorbed by what happened on the screen, even though we knew the whole story. The interaction between HM Queen Elizabeth II and newly elected PM Tony Blair after the death of Princess Diana, and how they reached a compromise between what was a private tragedy for the Royal family and the public's demand for a display of mourning.

Helen Mirren is magnificent as HM Queen Elisabeth II (Oscar material in my opinion). Michael Sheen as PM Toney Blair does an excellent job and so does James Cromwell as Prince Philip. The dialogue is quite British with that typical dry sense of humour along with some very good one-liners. "Tell him to hang on" - in reference to a phone call from Gordon Brown got the whole theatre cracking up.

The film is of course fiction, but still shows how the world has changed. Especially if you are the Queen. Things aren’t black or white anymore. They are grey and to know what the people expect of you in a new situation is hard.

Who owns your online content?

More and more platforms are available to upload creative content as video, words and audio. But once uploaded is still the copyright yours? Well, it depends.

The Guardian has an interesting article on this question - Whose content is it anyway? It seems like it very much varies from case to case. As the creator you need to know what and where to upload.

BBC and Channel 4 use the Creative Commons attitude, which means sharing creativity but the creators retain the rights. On MTV Flux it’s the other way around. They own all the rights, to the extent of having the option to use the content even when you remove it.

My first instinct is to say that if you create something you own the rights to it, but what if some of your material is taken from some other media source? Is it still yours? Somebody before you created the whole thing from scratch, you just changed or added content. So this is really a very tricky question. And something I believe is going to be an even bigger issue the more user-generated content sites there get on the Internet. Only time will tell, but I believe and hope that the Creative Commons rights will be the way to go.

Summer comeback

Ms Summer made a comeback today with temperatures about 25 degrees. Quite amazing. The last week has been rather good, but temperature around 25 degrees in late September is very rare here. I should be starting to think about winter jackets and instead I’m still thinking about what light cloths I can wear so I don’t get hot. But I’m not complaining. Warm and sunny weather just makes the autumn shorter. But the dark is inevitable. It’s now dark when I get up at 6 o’clock in the morning and it’s gets dark about 7 in the evening. Ugh! I’m still sleeping with all the windows open though. A rare treat that I’m not going to give up until the frost gets here.

Home alone

I’m just such a homebody from time to time. It’s Friday and I’ve been spending the night in front of the telly drinking wine all alone, just feeling great. And that’s not just because of the wine... As much as I like being around people, to travel and make new friends there is nothing like being home and just do nothing. My way of relaxing and recharging the batteries. Tomorrow I’m going to try to catch up on some reading. Another way of relaxing and don’t give a toss about work.

The Office

I’m a big fan of The Office. I either laugh or cringe so much it hurts. British comedy at it best. I knew this clips have been around on YouTube for a while now, but I just found them tonight so enjoy!

Gareth and Tim argue

The Review

Swindon Introduction

I believe I can think

Back in the real world again after days of creative thinking. I’m now an authorised Thinknician with a diploma and all… Never thought learning how to think would be so tiring, but it was hard work. We came up with some great ideas during the days, but what I will remember most was seeing our Marketing Manager on stage singing and playing the guitar. As Marketing Manager he’s rather laidback and pretty soft-spoken, but a very clever man. On stage he turned into a full-fledged rock star and was just brilliant. In the end he asked on of the other managers to join him on stage. I knew from beforehand that this manager could sing, but not like this. He too was very, very good! So I guess you never know what hidden talent your colleagues might have.

Gone again

Tomorrow morning I’m off for a two-day workshop learning how to think out of the box and become a thinknician. I’ve been around for 34 years so it’s about time I would say… Seriously though, I think it might be interesting. As a company we need to think in new ways and look outside the company sphere. Two of the top directors are going to be part of the workshop as well as most of the senior managers. So things could become interesting, very interesting.

A shift in regime

After 12 years with the Social Democrats Sweden will finally get a government lead by the centre-right alliance.

With votes from 95 percent of districts counted, the alliance was leading by 1.3 percentage points.

Finally the Swedes have realised that it’s better to have right wing government who gives you the freedom to choose than a left wing government who you just tells you what to do and not to do. People want a change, not just talk about a change.

Clever conversation

After arriving in London on Tuesday night I met up with my dear friend and fellow blogger Philip for dinner and drinks. As usual our conversation covered the whole aspect from politics, current affairs, philosophy and history to blogging, travels, wine and plain old gabbing.

As the lifelong Londoner Philip usually picks the restaurant. This time we ended up at Pulcinella, a very charming Italian restaurant in Soho at Old Crompton Street. I had garlic bruschetta as starter and a lovely risotto with asparagus and wild mushrooms as main course. Also as usual we, or at least I, talked so much so my food went cold. Something one has to take as part of a brilliant and smart conversation. Afterwards we went to Waxy’s for a quick drink before heading down to Charring Cross Station where we said goodbye. Hopefully we’ll manage to meet again soon. Having busy lives it’s a bit of a puzzle finding a time and place that suits the both of us, but when we do meet it is always very enjoyable.

Home

My five days in London just flew by and I’m home again. Hopefully I’ll be going back in four or five weeks. One of my favourite things with London is the buildings and sights. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen those familiar landmarks. I just get a smile on my face every time.

Walking to the office every morning I start with passing Lord Nelson at Trafalgar Square. Down Whitehall I pass 10 Downing Street and across the street at one could see The London Eye down at the Thames. Five minutes later down the street I pass Big Ben and The Parliament. Then comes Westminster Abbey where I turn right and walk another 10 minutes before getting to St James’s Park and the office. Standing in the office’s tiny little back yard I’m next to the backside of Wellington Barracks and Buckingham Palace is just around the corner as well. Just landmarks wherever I look which makes London such amazing city to be in.

I’m off

…to London. Back on Sunday right in time for Election Day here in Sweden. I’m not sure I’ll get the time to post, so let’s just say - See you when I see you.

A special date

I don’t think there is anybody who doesn’t remember what they did when they found out about the attacks on WTC. I was standing on a beach with my colleagues from work learning how to do archery. It was the second day of a two-day kick-off and teambuilding event, and we were all pretty tired and were mostly joking around and laughing. Andy got a phone call from his girlfriend telling him that an airplane had crashed into a skyscraper in NYC. We both told each other a thing like that sounded too weird to be true. But two minutes later everybody’s mobile phones started ringing and yes, it was true.

The irony in this story is that during lunch all of us hade been given 58 000 SEK by the company who bought back our stock options. The founder of the company had given us stock options in the company two years earlier. When he sold the company a year later the new owner didn’t want us to own part of the company. Andy’s first comment when we received the money was that now he would take his girlfriend to NYC and show her everything that he loved. Two hours later two of the tallest buildings in NYC were gone. Talk about anticlimax!

Two years later I also know exactly what I did on September 11. It was just after nine in the morning and I was standing in a colleague’s room watching a press conference by the PM on a very tiny monitor. When the PM and vice PM walked onto the stage we already knew what he was going to say. His looks said it all. Earlier during the morning the Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lind had died after being severely stabbed the evening before at a department store in Stockholm.

A year later September 11 was a Saturday and I went to my third funeral in less then 24 hours. During the last days of August our family suffered three major deaths in less then 10 days. When it was time for funerals they all end up being held on Friday and Saturday. Very unreal!

But September 11 is also a day of happiness for some. The marketing woman who outed me as blogger told me the other day that she and her husband got married two years ago on September 11. And why not?! Life goes on no matter what, and love and marriage are prefect signs that the good forces are still winning. - Happy 2-year anniversary Pia! Hope you and hubby had a great day with many more to come!

Links and referrals

I try not to obsess too much about the number of visitors to my blog or links and referrals. I’m doing this after all just for the fun of it. But reading a post at The Viral Garden earlier this week made me take a closer close at my own visitors. I recognized most of the visitors or at lest I think so. You wouldn’t come back every day if you didn’t knew me, would you?! To my surprise I also noticed that I had had visitors from both BBC and The Daily Telegraph. I couldn’t really figure out how they ended up here since the referral links said unknown. Probably a trackback somewhere, but still it made me a bit proud. Silly I know, but when it comes to things like this I’m easily amused…

You just lost a loyal customer

WW lost a long-time and loyal customer on Wednesday. Me. It’s been four years (next week) since I became a member and in November three years since I made goal and became a Lifetime member. Over the years I’ve paid WW so much money that I could own them by now, but I’ve always been happy to do it since they helped me change my lifestyle. They helped me create a Cathy who both eats right and exercise. Something that I never thought would happen… I haven’t been at goal for the last two and half years. The holiday season rolled around right after I made goal and somehow my body rebelled on me with gaining 5-6 pounds in just a couple of weeks. Since then I’ve been been gaining and losing the same pounds over and over. Sometimes I’m as much as 10 pounds over goal and sometimes just barely above my goal weight.

Over the last three years I’ve also been through getting laid off (made redundant), changed jobs twice and had three major deaths in the family during a period of 10 days. Since food is and always will be my passion I’m surprised that it hasn’t affected my weight more. Regardless of 10 pounds on or off I’m still the same size so I haven’t really worried about it. My life has changed in so many others meaningful ways so worrying about a couple of numbers on a scale hasn’t been my priority.

My leader who had been me from day one never worried much about it either. If I had gained at my monthly meeting she cheered me on and if I had lost she praised me. But most of all she knew my journey and was proud of what I had accomplished. Sad to say she decided to leave WW in April after 15 years as a leader. I almost cried when she told me because she has always been my pillar of strength. At her last meeting I promised to keep going to meetings and be a member, but on Wednesday couldn’t take it any longer.

From start the new leader hasn’t exactly been my cup of tea. She lacks both passion and motivation and is dead boring during the classes. As usual my weight has been going up and down. This last time I had gained some more and I’m now 10 pounds over goal again. Not good, and I really should get a grip on myself, but her comment was just plain rude - Stop eating! You would start losing weight again if you stopped eating. I got pretty perplexed by her comment, but said something about that my motivation is gone. Eating right and exercising is just a routine nowadays. I need to spice up things. Here I was expecting some good advice and cheering, but she just kept talking about stop eating and everything would be fun again. By then I realized she had no idea what she was talking about and that I could do without her. I wish I had said – Lady, you just lost a very loyal and long-time customer, but I just left.

I still haven’t decided if I will try another day and meeting. In my heart I know that I need WW to help me continue on this life long and very bumpy journey. But right now I just don’t know…

Great reminder

Hat-tip Beyond Madison Avenue

New influencers

Veteran tech journalist Paul Gillin is working on a book called The New Influencers. A book about how social media is changing marketing, journalism and PR. The book will not be out until the spring of 2007, but Paul Gillin has put out the draft version on his website. I just took a quick look at it, but it seems very interesting. I also think I’ve found a great source for my Web 2.0/Social Media presentation. Something I really need to start working on right now since I’ll be in London until Sunday and the meeting is the next day…

Via Micro Persuasion

This can’t be right

Dlisted reports that Hugh Grant turns 46 today. That can’t be right. If he’s 46, that make me, lets see... Old.

I had no idea that Goran Visnjic was only 34 though. But on the other hand, if he’s only 34 them I’m not that old after all…

Californian chardonnay

Growing up I was always told that wines from California weren’t any good. To quote my dad: "Americans don’t know how to make wine". He was quite a wine snob and when he died his wine cellar only had wines from the Old World, and then especially from France (of course!) But thinking this was the 1980’s I’m not sure the how much wine from the New World you could actually buy in Sweden.

Over the years I’ve become a big fan of wines from the New World with South Africa and Australia as real favourites. But California has been a white spot on my map though. Until last night. One of my neighbours and I had a bit of girls night eating a very simple but delicious asparagus risotto and drinking Fetzer Valley Oak Chardonnay vintage 2004. She was bringing the wine since I was cooking. Not a Californian wine was my immediate thought when she showed me the bottle, but boy was I wrong. A lovely dry and fruity chardonnay with hints of pineapple, grapefruit and just a touch of vanilla. So now I have a whole new range of wines to discover. Hopefully dad isn’t turning in his grave seeing his daughter drinking wine from California. And on top of that she actually thinks it's good …

Wine and chocolate

Yes, it’s true. Wine and chocolate is good for you.

Have a cup of coffee, drink two or three glasses of red wine a day, take a cup of green tea, eat 100 grams of dark chocolate and be happy," said Alan Crozier, of Glasgow University.

Looks like I’m doing pretty well then. I love to drink wine (Not every day though. Should I start since it’s good for you?!) and I love to eat chocolate , especially dark one. Can’t live without my big cup of coffee in the morning. The only thing that’s missing is green tea. And to be honest I have never tried it. Wonder if my life would become even happier if I did?!

So I guess it’s true what I’ve been saying for years. The good things in life can’t be bad for you.

Mum’s cooking

Mum is in town staying with my sister. Tonight she was made dinner and what can I say? Nothing beats mum’s cooking. Both my sister and I love to cook and are pretty good at doing it, so it’s not like we never get home cooked meals. It’s just mum’s cooking will always be mum’s cooking. Tonight she made meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Something quite simple, but so very comforting. All those times as a child at home in the kitchen. Mum cooking and I doing my homework... Mum had also made desert. . Apple crumble and custard. Just plain delicious! When we were all done eating neither of us had the energy to get up. We were just too stuffed! But happy and very content. Something a home cooked meal is suppose to make you. Mum, you're the best cook I know!

Inspired

I’m feeling a bit inspired tonight. A week from today I’ll be in London again. In my opinion one of the best cities in the world. Business and meetings for the first couple of days and then a long weekend with friends, shopping and plain fun. It can’t get any better than that!

For more London inspiration here’s a great photo of Shaftesbury Avenue from circa 1950. Those were the days!

Could I talk about Web 2.0?

I don’t know where my boss has been hiding for the last weeks. By now everybody knows how passionate I am about the Internet, blogs, social media and how it’s changing the world as we speak.

At our weekly Monday meeting today my boss suddenly asked, "Does anybody know what Web 2.0 means? And what is Social Media? And Travel 2.0?" It all got very quiet around the table and everybody looked at me. Hm, well I know... Trying to keep things short I just explained very briefly what is all means and what this revolution is all about. "Sounds very interesting" replied my boss. "Would you mind doing a longer presentation about this in two weeks? It’s all very important that we know what goes on in the Internet world and what’s coming next."

O M G! I think the man just had a light bulb moment!

Coincidence?!

With only two weeks left until Election Day it’s starting to look like everything is allowed. Stab and hurt your opponent as much as possible. Here’s a fine example of how the Social Democrats can’t let the oppositions leaders have their moments.

Last week, the christian democrat Göran Hägglund surprised positively in the SVT-interview. But that was overshadowed by the social democrats´ revelation, the same day, that they had stopped a young christian democratic women from spying on their campaign one week before.

And tonight Fredrik Reinfeldt was successful in his interview. So what do the social democrats do? They announce a press conference at 23.30, about why they will report folkpartiet to the police for possible intrusion in their computer system.

Coincident? I don’t think so. Especially since both legal and IT-experts talked at behalf of the Social Democrats at the press conference. One just don’t find experts like that at 23:30 on a Sunday evening.

Storm

Gusty winds and rain woke me up this morning. The first autumn storm of the season was a fact. Probably for the first time in months I also had to close all windows and balcony doors. Another sign of autumn.

Being inside all day I have just done things that I felt like. Reading, watching old movies on TNT and taking a long hot bath. All very relaxing and cosy. Storms can be that when one can be inside and just watch on. It better be gone tomorrow, when it’s time to go to work. Because storms on Monday mornings are not cosy, they are just a nuisance.

Digital immigrant

I very much consider my lifestyle connected, but a post by Shane Richmond at the Daily Telegraph blog got me thinking.

But while the younger generation struggles with numeracy, the older generation stands accused of technical illiteracy.
…
Brilliantly, Kirah divides society into "digital immigrants", who weren't born into a digital lifestyle and have found themselves struggling to assimilate, and "digital natives", to whom a connected lifestyle comes naturally.

I was about 9 or 10 the first time I touched a computer. My best friend’s big brother had borrowed one from school from school during Christmas break. An old ABC80 which we where just barely allowed to touch. It was a computer after all! Then came the Commodore 64 and the same story. Don’t touch it! It’s a computer! My first real contact at a user came about 10 years later as a freshman in Texas. My old Computer Science Professor actually drilled me (retired army captain) so hard that I ended up with I a degree in Computer Science. So here I am using my third computer in 10 years and looking into buying a new one pretty soon. But I am still a digital immigrant.

Right before the summer I was doing interviews at work for a new Webmaster position. In the end we had narrowed it down to two very bright and suitable persons. One was n around 35 with a lot of experience and the other one 25 and right of out school. When I asked the older one what he thought about the Internet his answer was "To get information". The young one said, "Everything is possible. There are no limits". Just the answer I wanted to hear as head of Internet and E-commerce… He has been with us for a month now, and what can I say – He doesn’t know anything else then the Internet. It has been a natural part of his upbringing and youth. A digital native who smiles at us oldies and immigrants as we try hard to be connected.

Cheese becomes coffee

I was very sad to see one of the city’s best cheese shops close down right before the summer. For more than 15 years I’ve been walking by more or less daily looking at all those different chesses having my mouth water. Needless to say I’ve been quite a regular customer buying everything from Gorgonzola and Chèvre to all sorts of Swedish hard cheese.

During the summer I noticed how the shop was being refurbished. A couple of weeks later I saw a new shiny chrome counter and a coffee machine inside. My immediate thought was actually: “Not another one of those American style coffee bars. Can’t they come up with something else?”

Walking home yesterday they had finally opened. But not as one of those coffee places I had dreaded. Instead it was an Italian coffee bar, which actually made you believe that you were in Rome instead of Gothenburg. I tried a cappuccino wondering if it would beat Signor Vivori’s cappuccinos in Taormina, Sicily. So far in my travels I’ve never found anybody else being able to make cappuccinos so foamy and creamy as him. And no, this place couldn’t either, but they were pretty close. Strong black coffee together with just the right amount of creamy foam. Very, very nice. So it looks like my old cheese addiction from now on will become a cappuccino addiction.

Going south

In October the Brits Ben Saunders and Tony Haile are going to try to walk to the South Pole and back again.

Since January 1912 when Robert Falcon Scott and his team died on the return leg of their fateful expedition, no one has ever walked to the South Pole and back. In fact many experts still consider it impossible.

So it looks like they are in for a real challenge. Best of luck guys! Also check out their amazing photos from a training expedition in 2005. Greenland looks beautiful, but very cold. Brr!

High maintenance

My friends always tease me, saying I’m and picky and high maintenance when it comes to men. Myself I call it knowing what I want. The same goes for cloths and shoes. I know exactly what I want and I’ll search until I find the perfect sample.

Now it looks like the British women have taken it one step further. They want a wealthy man according to a survey from National Savings and Investments.

Some 45% of women say they rate a healthy bank balance as their top priority when looking for a partner compared with 22% of men.

So where does that leave me. I might be a very material girl from time to time, but what gets me going is the inside of a person. Heart and soul is so much more important than a big bank account. I want to be able to talk to my man. To discuss major and minor things in life. To laugh and swap stories together. To be each other’s best friends. Money is very good to have, but without being able to talk to each other there is nothing.