Monthly Archive: July 2006

12
Jul
2006

BONNY DAYS IN EDINBURGH

The evening sun is shining over Arthur’s Seat and Anders and the kids have set out to climb it while the sun is still up, so I’m grabbing the opportunity to post an entry at the internet café around the corner from our lodgings. We’re staying in a sterile dormitory apartment that is quite roomy for the 4 of us as it has a long corridor with 4 separate dorm rooms opening off it, a kitchen, and a bathroom. No other amenities, really, it’s barebones for students here. The hostel we stayed at the first night in Glasgow was much...

09
Jul
2006

BEANNACHD LEAT

May the best ye hae ivver seen be the warst ye’ll ivver see. May the moose* ne’er lea’ yer girnal wi a tear-drap in its ee. May ye aye keep hail an hertie till ye’r auld eneuch tae dee. May ye aye juist be sae happie as A wuss ye aye tae be. May the best you have ever seen be the worst you will ever see. May the moose* never leave your grain store with a tear drop in its eye. May you always stay hale and hearty until you are old enough to die. May you still be...

08
Jul
2006

HOT FLASH

Much as I love the sunshine, I wish the temperatures would crank down about 15 degrees. It’s been over 90° all week, and I am not a fan of heat and humidity. When it rains in Sweden, everyone grumbles about the weather. When it’s dark and cold here, everyone bitches and moans. When it’s unexpectedly hot for an extended period of time, which is normally very, very rare, even in the south of Sweden (which, if you will recall, is on the same latitude as ANCHORAGE, ALASKA for god’s sake), everyone in Sweden is fervently wishing it would cool off...

06
Jul
2006

POETRY THURSDAY

I’ve wanted to go to Scotland ever since I can remember. I’ve read book after book after book about it and its history and its famous people, and it draws me thither like a call from home. Sometimes I wonder if I lived there once or more, in another lifetime, or in a dream; that frisson of recognition in the descriptions and photographs of a place I’ve never been. Now that I’m soon to be going there, I worry somewhat that it won’t live up to my expectations, the anticipation of so many decades. However, deep down, I know I...

05
Jul
2006

AND THEY PAY ME FOR IT, TOO!

Today I had what is called in Swedish my P U samtal with my boss. It stands for Personlig Utveckling and translates literally as Personal Development Discussion. What it boiled down to was she’s happy, I’m happy, go forth and prosper. We have these conversations twice a year, and that is in addition to the salary discussions that take place every December. I have been at this job for just under 2 years and I love it more than ever. In the entire time, there has been only 1 day that I did not want to get out of bed...

04
Jul
2006

ASWIRL

My mind is currently a vortex machine. Below are only some of the thoughts that have been spinning for hours in there. Hopefully, sharing them will cause them to either slow down, and eventually spin to a stop, returning calm seas to my surface, or they will be finally slurped down the drain, which unaccountably seems to be stopped up. Probably with my hair. It’s always MY hair in the drain, alas I am unable to dissemble, because I am the only one with long, dark hair in the household. Shit. We have hardly any money left this month and...

03
Jul
2006

BORED OF THE FLIES

Damn, it was hot today. For most of it, I was inside my cool, air-conditioned office, looking longingly over my shoulder out the window once in awhile as I tapppity-tappped away on my keyboard putting layouts together. It looked sunny and lovely and warm, and that was confirmed at lunchtime when I took my baguette and went outside on the terrace to bask in the sun for 20 minutes. Leaving work just a little early, I raced to Flyinge to pick up the kids and deliver them to swimming lessons. There is no shade whatsoever at the public pool in...

02
Jul
2006

DON’T WISH IT AWAY, DON’T LOOK AT IT LIKE IT’S FOREVER

For the most part, penultimate summer lives only in our memories, a childhood haze of endless sunny days with no school spent poolside, our limbs sealy and brown, slick with water. Mother’s voice, calling distant, while the lightning bugs gather and flash and the streetlamps buzz and strengthen as we skip along the hedgerow, with the sun still lighting our way home despite the hour. 3 days and counting: Perfect summer in Sweden. This is when the tourist board rushes out to photograph the countryside, sunlight and warmth lighting up the red wooden houses and blue and gold crossed flags...

01
Jul
2006

SALT LICORICE SACRILEGE AND PUPPY LOVE

Around here, Friday evenings, and sometimes Saturdays, are known as myskväll. It’s a hard word to translate properly, since mys means, essentially, “to enjoy oneself”…but it often gets used in the sense of cozy and cuddly. As our family has interpreted it, it means staying home and gathering in the living room to watch a movie or special television program, with popcorn and candy (which is forbidden the rest of the week), and an 1.5-hour extension on bedtime. At first, the candy bags were huge, and completely out of control. But after one of Martin’s dentist visits where we discovered...

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