SMK

The beauty of self-distance

I had a real eye-opening experience on Sunday. I was in Öland, one of Sweden's beautiful islands. Anyway there was this big party at Sweden's biggest nightclub or something (on Öland, you might wonder...so did I...but there you go) and when the sun still was up...oh yeah I have to add that I was there working, not partying...anyway...There were alot of people but some of them particularly caught our eyes. One of them was a man in his mid/late twenties with a red blazer, his hair waxed back and sunglasses, of course. And he took himself so seriously. I mean he was aware of his every move. It's just so: SNORE!!!

The eye opener experience was when he got company at his table. The company consisted of 5 disabled persons in wheelchairs, all dressed up in funny costumes, having a blast! They were so much fun. They blew me away with their self-distance and it became extra obvious when you compared with the snore-bore next to them.

Hultsfred festival

Did you know that kids born in the nineties are old enough to buy cigarettes? OMG, right?! I remember what I did when they were born...and now they can vote and buy cigarettes? And I look at their skin going...ahhhh how tight is that? so young, so filled with anguish and pain although I as a beholder see their lives as the easiest possible. When it still was possible getting away with not wearing bras and under-eye cream. Glorydays.

What's happened to the running tracks?

I noticed something today when I was out jogging this morning. I don't know what it was, maybe it's because it's summer, maybe because the sun was shining maybe (and this is what I'm voting for, ha ha) I was just so fantastic at running that I got hit on by several persons. And I write persons, because there were women too. Oh yeah. You guys can suck on that goodie-mental image for a bit, a treat of mine. Anyway, what happened? Have the runningtracks become the new hitting grounds? Are people so opportunistic that they want to optimize their time that much...get the morning run done, AND get some hiny fixed at the same time. Well, atleast you know you can go out running together...you will always have that incommon...ha ha

Oh btw, I'm definitely going out running tomorrow again.

Hmmm...What could we do for nature?

...Let's get naked and go biking!

LONDON, baby!

This ain't Hyde Park, people...But I'm still happy!

Camden just became two hotties richer... ;)

Oh look at his face...

But where the HELL IS BIG BEN???

If he is 18...I'm like 22, right?

Mioli goes Marilyn

Hey you can totally see someone's knickers! (panties for u Amewicans) ;)

Well...I don't know what to write here...

What shall we do with the drunken sailor?

I came to Helsinki yesterday for a job, just a quickie back and forth kind of a trip, and I was stunned by a fact I was harshly reminded of on the bus into town from the airport in Vantaa: Alot of Fins have problems with alcohol. Sitting there on the bus we drove thorugh some parts of Helsinki that are extra filled with slobby pubs and by a red light I saw a sad bunch of women out smoking outside one of them. I mean it was Sunday evening at 8 PM. I bet most of them work at the post office or something, because I've had a feeling lately that's where all the sadest, most acrimonious people work.

Seing that made me think (uh oh she's gonna explode). What is it that makes people so vulnerable to misuse alcohol. Why don't Spanish people have problems in the same extent that we do? I mean working at a trauma ward in down town Helsinki for 2 years made me see that 1/3, let me write that again: one BLOODY third, of all the cases were alcohol related! That's a whole lot. I mean there are pubs that start their happy hour on Mondays at ten. 10 AM!

Why do Fins have a tendency to misuse alcohol? Is it the depressing weather? The darkness? Well it's just as depressing in Sweden and Norway...but we are the ones who get depressed and hit the bottle added to that. At least at some point Finland was the number one country in the world in the usage of antidepressants per habitant. Why? And more importantly....What the hell should one/can one do about it?



What we in Helsinki call a "deeku" = an acoholic. Cheers!

Lack of sleep...

What is it that comes with age (because it has to be that, right...what else to blame?) that makes it absolutely impossible staying up more than 1 night a week? I tried...really tried...but man...I did not succeed. The lack of sleep makes me whack, I tell you, WHACK!

How much do you hate being wrong?

Because I HATE IT! Really hate it! I'm taking a course in Project Management, as I mentioned earlier and I did my first exam yesterday. I'm a nerd when it comes to school, so I was totally prepared to ace the little sucker. The exam was compiled of questions that you answered and got it corrected at once. No biggie. The first part was bananas. But then...I get this LARGE RED WORD in my face...It's a word that's totally alien to me...it said: FALSE... OMG! Kiss my squirrel! I got so thrown off I answered the next one falsely too. Absolutely hate it. There must have been something wrong with it... ;)

What is the worst response to "I love you"?

Have you seen that episode of Friends where...is it Ross? I think it is Ross, who says the three famous words (and no I don't mean "food is ready" or "football is on" or anything nasty) and gets a "thank you" as a response. Have you seen that? Or am I out biking? (swedish saying) Maybe it was somewhere else, well anyway you got the point, right? Is thank you worse than a laugh? Worse than a shut down? Maybe thank you is synonomous to a shut down. Silence? What do you answer if you don't feel the same way? The weather is nice today?

Who died and made you worldpolice?

Some people are always prone to interfere. My question is now: why? Why do they want to make the life miserable for others? What do they get out of it? Is it just the fact that their life is so miserable they want others to have a horrible time too? Or is it just in their genes? I don't understand. Why bother? Isn't it better to pick your battles and interfere when it is necessary, I mean if someone or something gets hurt or whatever. That's a fantastic time to interfere. We need more of that. The interferers I'm talking about are the ones doing it only to assert themselves, I think. There's no other gain. There can't be.

Shoes are good for a lot of stuff...

Finally summer in Stockholm...or? Remember to bring your mittens and hats and gear up for the swedish summer.

The first pic nic this year. Tantolunden, Stockholm

Oh and this is my collegue. Crazy lady. Fox in a box! Would you think that our age added up is...56 years?!!!

Hey! I'm married to one of those....

Yupp, here's the evidence. I'm married to one of the 48% of guys who, in Sweden, actually iron their own clothes. Hallelujah! And apparently not all of the 11% who iron naked live in Gothenburg (as the poll stated), one lives in Stockholm...Just imagine the picture without the undies....I wonder how long I'm gonna be able to keep these pics up here, until he sees them and forces me to remove them...

I like, how much?

Yummylishous!

Yesterday we came home and it seemed we had nothing to eat, you know grub... ;) Well this is what McGyver and Pete threw together. And man, it was yummylishous!

The salad with grilled Haloumi cheese, bell pepper and grilled pine nuts.

The salad...In the background are some recepies and more importantly the love the food was made with. The cards I have all gotten from my sister and they give me a smile (and a tear sometimes, to be honest) every time I see them. Hey just blow your noses, u softies! ;)

What happens when you have a baby?

I had coffee with a friend and we disgussed kids, people with kids and the fact that we don't have kids. And one thing both of us were astonished about was the phenomenon on facebook. People who have kids, oooops I just realized I'm gonna step on a lot of toes here, but here it goes, exchange their profile pictures into a pic of their kid.......WHY? Maybe the ones who do and did could enlighten me? I totally understand the pictures where the kid is with you, because it is still such a big part of your life. But only the kid??? Did you disappear once you had the child? I want to think that you just get one role more. You become the mother/the father. I don't want to be synonomous to the offspring. I still want to be me. Although I would probably be ready to sacrifice everything, probably including my life for it/them.

"This is boring, I think I'll just take off""

I can't believe the low standard some people have when it comes to work ethics. Do they not understand that if they do a lousy job, they will never be hired again with that company? Do people just not care? This is what happened: A girl that worked on the same project as I did had apparently called my boss in the middle of the workday and said:

"This was just too boring, so I took off"

Errrr..... You can't do that! I mean I hope that when I am...let's say...in surgery or something the doctor doesn't think it gets boring and takes off! Really. Holy Moly I am astonished by people's nonchalance. What ever happened to values, huh?

People are so weird!

I was on the bus today in downtown Stockholm and man it was packed. I snitched one of the last seats (and held on to it with my bare teeth, ha ha) and had a good sight over the rest of the bus as I sat there on the last row, where all the cool kids sit, u know.

Well, on board steps a man, normal looking with a bag and books in his arms. He looked like an mathematician. Anyway, this man puts his bag on the absolute last seat and when a woman makes it clear she wants to sit there, listen to this, he refuses and gets upset over the request! I mean, c'mon people! So much for the social skills in people, right. Maybe he is just good with numbers and dark basements with rats, or something. I would have lost faith in people for a bit because of that, hadn't it been for the young teenaged girl sitting next to the bag. She took the bag and offered to hold on to the bag, so the woman could sit. And so she did. And the bagowner-weirdo let her. Such a sweet girl. I just hope she will be able to maintain as sweet and not be bulldozed over by these weird, socially retarded people, who evidently are out there.

Life management skills taught at the University of Stockholm

"Change before you have to - get a culture at your company that loves change"
Jack Welch 2004, legendarisk VD för General Electric.

I'm taking a course in Project Management and had a revelation today. The things I read about were perfectly transferrable to life.

What I realized was that change is necessary and it happens faster and faster. Everybody who try to work against it, lose the battle. It's all about finding the right tools to change according to the goals and visions you have in life. Therefore it's imperative to actually have those visions and goals, so you know what to strive for and change into and foremost evolve.

Who would have thought to get such good life-advice from a Project Management course, huh?

Radiohead, always a good choice!

What is it with the post office in this country?

Compared to other parts of the world everything is very organized and reliable up here in the Nordic countries. It's safe and you know that you will get help if you go to the police and so on. But what is it with the post office that makes it completely impossible to deal with? Today I went to the convenience store where the post office now a days resides to get a couple of packages with stuff I ordered from the internet. She wanted to see my ID, which is perfectly fine. But when she sees it she says:

No, I want to see a swedish ID.

Mioli: Oh I don't have one.

cashier: You have to have a swedish passport or ID.

Mioli: Well I'm not a swedish citizen, it's kind of hard for me to get a swedish passport.

Finally she settled for my Europian Union driver's licence as ID and I got my stuff. You would think that a passport would be the most important piece of identification, but apparently not for the swedish post. You can get in and out of a country with your (in this case) finnish passport, but you cannot get a package out of the swedish post.

Time for an update, Posten?