Dilbert

This strip was waiting for me in my inbox today. Obviously Dilbert must have felt I had overlooked one of the consequences of my working too much.

In my defence, I can only argue that this exact problem did cross my mind when getting up for the millionth(?) cup of coffee Sunday night in the office.

All work and no play

Still alive, but just had a revelation! => Working 40 + XXhrs/week creates a private back log. (DUH!)

Amazing how I keep overlooking the result of my prioritising work over life. (Well, not entirely true, but when needed, and once I get going, there's no stopping me from finishing what needs to be finished (...on time, and as cost efficiently as possible, and with as high possible quality and yada yada yada...).)

So, after spending a ridiculous amount of hours working last week (which (again) has proven to be a good choice given the fact that I am now really on top of things - and no one in the project can claim they are not aware of current status) I decided to go through some papers lying around at home - and YIKES: Declaring Taxes are due next week!!! And my kids' passports must be picked-up this week!!!!!!

Breathe in...
Breathe out...

OK.

Yes, it is late. I should be in bed. But these things must go in to a plan.

Taxes: hm...
- Impact if nothing is done (i.e. no extra effort at all on my part) = the pre-filled out papers state I will get €350 back.
- Sounds OK. So, effort needed in order to turn red numbers black. Cool.
- Then again, I could put in some extra numbers leaving me probably double that amount. ...Decisions. Decisions.... (So, if can I put in those extra hours, meaning placing some calls in order to get the amount´s right - then I can claim that extra €350.) Right...
- Do I have the time to do so during normal office hours? Well... yes, but... doing that will probably cost as much lost non-billable hours.
- So, should I invest the time to do so? Probably not.
Fine!
Plan = Do nothing but sign papers and send to Tax office.

Passports: hm...
- Impact if not picked up before COB Thursday this week: Critical!
- Consequence if fails = no trip to Greece on Friday for my kids....
- Cost for picking up passports during office (non-billable hours) = €200
- So, should I invest the time to go pick up the passports? Yes.
Fine!
Plan = Pick up passports.

And again, I have a plan. It still does not include cleaning my home, or catching up with friends, or going to the gym - but it will keep me and my important ones satisfied for another 2 weeks. Good enough for now.

Gift or curse - I'm still annoyed

I love public transportation!

When abroad, it is my favourite way of getting about in the cities. (I've exposed my feelings on cab drivers here before, so will not go on about that again.)

And Stockholm has a decent system, if you're not prone to complaining everytime a small mishap occurs causing delays, but this is an issue I have no problem with as I feel I am partially to blame for not starting my trip early enough to allow delays. The fare is also amazingly cheap (eventhough I did grunt when being informed yesterday that it had doubled since I last used their fine services) so the price isn't a reason for my complaints either. I can afford it and I'm happy it is there for me when needed.

But here comes the problem: I have a tendency (curse of gift) to always look at things that, if changed, would optimise an existing flow.

Well, when it comes to the Swedish public transportations I have, countless times, realised that the biggest issue in the whole flow are the awful travellers. They have no brains! They have no manners! They do not acknowledge the fact that there are other people around with just as much right to exist in this public space as they do. And should they occationally acknowledge your presence, it is by grunting at you for them stepping on your feet, or elbowing you in your stomach, or them having to move out of the way in order for you to get out of the place (so they can get on/sit down).

Another favourite is that they may, on any given time and in any spot, decide it is a great time/spot to stop and rummage their bag for a lost piece of gum, paper clip, ringing phone... The best places for this is usually where the escalator ends or where the door just opened and people are now trying to get out.

But what gets me the most is that all of the parts mentioned above adds up to a nightmare when it comes to the escalators and even worse on those flat speedy transportation belts. These people probably don't all have drivers licenses - so fine - but ffs, plain common sense should be enough for them to at least try and line up on the same side as most of the others already standing still? Or if deciding to speed up (i.e. no longer stay put), could they not have a small glance back in order to see if there is someone approaching at higher velocity before just stepping out?

My cure: kill 'em all

On killing rabbits

Picked up a new book today, and there was a part where the narrator is trying to kill a rabbit (which he probably manages to do, it's just that I haven't finished reading that part yet.)

The story brought back a very odd memory:
I, my kids and my bf at the time, came home to my house one day only to find that there was a rabbit lying in my driveway. It must have been hit by another car and I took it for dead. But then it tried to run away, which broke my heart as the crash obviously hadn't kill the poor animal but only broken its spine. Now the rabbit was just able to move the front part of the body while the back part was completely limp.

OK sad, but only one thing to do - put Thumper out of his misery asap!

I took the kids inside, suggesting whacking the poor creature against a tree or hit it over the head with a rock but the bf took command. He'd sort it out.

After two minutes he comes back in asking for some worker gloves. I gave him some. Another twenty minutes later he came back in saying it had been really hard to get a firm and tight enough grip around that thin neck, hence it had taken him so long to strangle the rabbit.

PS: None of you know this ex bf
PPS. The narrator in the book managed to kill the rabbit, also strangling the creature.

Spring is officially here

Our barbeque was fired up for the first time this year which is the classic Swedish sign of announcing spring is here. Some nights it seems everyone in the entire neighbourhood fires up their barbeques and the smoke hangs thick. At these nights you might see the usually very reserved Swedes lean out over the balcony railings to spy on the neighbour's dinners and if spotted, a small nod can be seen. That's just how crazy we get...

Food was good as we were all hungry from our walk in the National park. Being another beautiful +20 degrees day, we were smart not to go in there until after park rush hour. Was great sitting on a rock by the water, drinking coffee and enjoying the sun. Was a laugh watching my kids playing with frogs! There were so many frogs just floating around in the water, and when the kids stuck their hands in the frogs swam up and hugged them. They acctually climbed out of the water clinging to the arms, probably enjoying the warmth from these creatures by the waterfront. Never seen frogs behave like that before.

Post edit: The following week we hade snow!

Trying to be positive here!

Driving home today I realized that everything going in to this blog has been negative-ish. And today was a FAN-fckng-TASTIC day with sunshine and +20 degrees which made me smile. So I was thinking I should be able to blog something more positive. (Also thinking about Kharma and all that...)
Unfortunately I realized I was not only smiling due to the great weather, when driving through the city center, I was smiling (read: smirking) watching all these fools out in the sunshine. People look like such dorks, thinking they look good. Seriously, wtf is up with this years gigantic sunglasses? They look like the comic oversized glasses sold in toy stores 10-20 years ago - and NO they do NOT make you look hot. They make you look stupid as hell.
And all these girls wearing stupid shorts worn with leggings underneath and dresses over - couldn't make up their minds when getting dressed in the morning or simply had no light/mirror?

Anyho... I was a tad bit hungover today. Had a great evening last night meeting up with a friend. The plan was an after work drink. I insisted we needed food first. And so we ended up with way too much drinking. As always. Evening ended in the Vampire Lounge where two (dorky) DJs were playing 60's & 70's music which was unexpected but fun. Excellent drinks! So very likely to be a stop for my next night out.

As always the evening ended up with us music sharing (mobile bluetoothing), so I had my first listen to Porcupine Tree (in the taxi home). Never heard of them, but instantly fell in love with. Follow the link and listen to Blackest Eyes. Hope you enjoy it.

In closing I'd like to express my gratitude for Alca-Seltzers! I woke up 5.00 in the morning, and wanted to die since my head was about to crack open. But downing a glass of that fine potion, I could not only go back to sleep but also wake up feeling good when going to work 2 hours later. Amazing!

Taxi drivers - can we kill the bad ones?

WTF is up with the cab drivers?

Shouldn't I as a paying customer be able to rely on the fact that their business is to KNOW addresses?
(I always seem to be guiding them when they are obviously struggling to find the right way/address. And the times I've decided NOT to (or tbh fallen asleep), they have messed up big time and been driving either completely wrong or chosen to take a route that is sooooo out of the way to get to B from A.)

And - tonight (again) - I ended up in a taxi where the driver obviously believed that the vehicle would not move forward unless he PUMPED the gas into the engine using the gas pedal. Which a) makes me annoyed as hell and b) makes me sick to my stomach.

But OK, maybe killing them is bit drastic, but can we at least think of new professions for these sad people? Please?

I want drugs

I hate being sick. Happens very rarely, but it seems that when I go down - I go down hard. Been in bed for the last 5 days going through 2 packs of painkillers and I've used up 2 rolls of toilet tissue. My nose is flaky and my head feels like it is about to explode every time I cough (which is only every 5 minutes...)

Luckily it seems that noone I've met has caught this nasty bug. I hope it stays that way.

And oh, I do not want pity. I want drugs to get well. So if you got some, send them over asap. Cause I've got a concert to go to tomorrow!

Enjoyed 18 episodes of Heroes. (And now pissed cause the rest aren't available yet). Also read a book that made me both laugh and cry: Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time". Worth a read if you've got the time.

Friends - to do or not to do

Some thoughts on terms related to friends and sex

:ex-partners
I know people who say they still manage to stay friends with their ex-partners. Now, that has never been me. Either I still wanted to shag them (i.e. I was dumped) or they still wanted to shag me. And never liked the idea of drinking my coffee with one hand while trying to guard my privates with the other. (Makes me think of dogs humping your leg. You would not want to be friends with that, would you? And even worse(!) you would not want to BE that dog, right?)

But, right now I am managing to stay friends with my latest ex. And I'm convinced it is partially related to the fact that we broke up due to lack of shagging. Well, obviously not the only reason but it was definately part of the problem. Anyhow, for the last 4-ish months we've enjoyed dinners and coffees, seen movies and helped each other out with everyday life things like shopping for new furnitures and feeding the cat when off skiing. Love it!
However, I am pretty sure this new friendship of ours will be affected when a new partner comes in to one of our lives. But I'm both happy and proud that we are managing to keep the friendship up. In so many ways he makes me a better person.

:shag-mates
Now this sounds too cool to be true. I have heard so many people speak of having/being "just shag-mates" but to be honest, there has always been something in those stories that turns out to be less cool. Such as broken hearts (one of them will fall in love), or disgust (for self or the other giving it up too easily) and even personality changing (not liking the person they shag, but manage to put that out of their minds just to get laid).
I still like the idea though. The whole no-strings-attached thing. Just can't see it working for me.

:friends
To me a friend is someone you love but do not shag. But after checking out what Webster says I realize I am more describing one of the many *activities* I would not engage in with someone I call a Friend.
The topic was briefly discussed in a hotel room two days ago. Two mates of mine (too tired/drunk to sit up) lay on the beds while I was enjoying the champagne I found in the mini-bar, sitting in the only good chair just watching them. And there they were discussing if it was possible to have sex with a friend or not. And it turns out one of them obviously used to think you could, but had changed opinion after talking to me. I wish I'd keep my mouth shut more often.

Came back to Stockholm - spent the night in a hotel...

Sunday april 1st

• Flew back from Dublin
  (Had a grand 4-days long weekend with great mates, many laughs and lots of Guinness)
  
  
• Stopped for a (one) drink
  (Yes, only 1 (one) in a nice hotel lobby in Stockholm. I was in the pleasant company of a mate who happened to fly back to Sthlm from Dub with the same flight. Well, to be honest, it wasn't the fact that I would be working the day after that made me have only that 1 glass. It was simply the fact that the bar closed when we came in to the hotel, but the barman was a good enough guy to let us have that one drink. He then quickly packed up and went home.)
  
  
• Got a cab back home
  (Eeeeeeexpensive, but I was still happy as there was very little traffic so what the fck. Another 20 minutes later I paid him a small fortune and turned down his nice offer to wait until I was safely inside. Mvhahahaaaa, this is not a *dangerous* neighbourhood you know I told him and rolled off with my luggage.)
  
  
• 01:10 - stared at my apartment door holding 1 key of 2 keys to open the locks on the door
  (So that's what I get for being a risk manager...The story to this is that as I was packing for my trip on Wednesday night and I realized that I'd be leaving the apartment very early in the morning, and by habit I might accidently lock both locks. By doing that I would have put my daughter in a tight spot as she reported one of her keys had stopped working during the week. So, being a good and careful mom, I took that one key off my own keychain and stored it in safely in my key cabinet. Now at 01:10 in the morning, I realized that my daughters key was indeed still working...)
  
  
• Got a cab back to work(!)
  (Had a moment with my tired head against my apartment door, eyes closed, teeth grinding and needed a) to go to the loo, b) take off my shoes and c) sleep in my own bed.
  
  Options considered with head against the door:
  - Go to my mom's and wake both her & my kids up, still not get any decent sleep since there's not room for more than 3 pps at her house?
  - Go to ex boyfriend and spend hours catching up?
  - Go back to the hotel I just left?
  - Scream at the top of my lungs? (Tempting but insane, so no)
  - Find a dark spot outside to relieve bladder?
  - Call hotel near my office in order not to get stuck in morning rush-hour traffic?
  
  I went for the last option. Only. Spent 10 minutes getting cold waiting for the cab. Then seriously considered picking a fight with the cab driver since he insisted keeping the speeding limit, when there was just us out driving. Decided to bite my tongue with fresh memory of picking cab driver fight abroad... And 40 minutes later I paid for the even more expensive cab ride.)
  
  
• 02:00 Biting my tongue, getting my room key
  (Arrived safely at hotel, and spent, what at least *felt* like, 20 minutes at the desk waiting for the receptionist to get through the check-in procedure. Of course I added to the normal check-in time by claiming to be entitled to the T2-rate (which I obviously am *not* as not a T2-employee). The guy wanted to see some proof (good man). Like a T2 business card (duh, for employees only) or an business ID badge (yeah, I got one of those!) but it was safely left at home (behind the closed door) and obviously not brought to Dublin for risk managing reasons (and why would I need it until Monday anyway - right?). So spending 4 minutes trying to make him understand that I could not prove it, and would happily pay full price as long as he just gave me the key to the bleeding room.
  
  At this point he just gave me a long sad look and said "why are you so upset?". So I took a deep breath, told my story and that magically made him produce the key to my room.
  Checking out the next morning I noticed he gave me the T2 price. Thanks!)