Lindy Blog

I was scrolling thru Google plus this afternoon and linked onto Jo Hoffberg’s blog. Today’s entry was about what to wear for Herräng tonight, but I clicked back thru a couple of posts and came across this one http://johoffberg.com/2011/07/tiger-of-sweden/ which made me smile a lot. Because there's lindy with jeans, but also because I no these guys. Or rather I see these guys. They dance at the place I dance on a Wednesday. This is the girl that I always end up watching when she’s there and I’m not dancing. Partially because of the way she moves – she has such an old-school technique that's just great, but also because she’s always smiling. You can just tell she’s having fun. And its great to watch cos she plays with the music and with her partner and sometimes it doesn’t turn out as good as others but at the very least its fun. I’ve been reading a couple of lindy blogs this week which are talking about creativity, and the thing that stood out from it was a quote from someone saying you have to dare to dance ugly. Cos if you don’t, you’ll never push the boundaries of what you can do – you’ll never try anything that you cant already do. And more importantly, just cos it doesn’t look beautiful yet doesn’t mean it isn’t fun! The thing I have paid most attention to since going to Highland Swing in June, is Hasse and Marie saying “Love every step”!! because if dancing isn’t fun then why are you doing it?? Yes sometimes its really hard work, and can be massively frustrating, but at the end of the day if its not fun then why would you want to work hard. When I first started dancing in Sweden I spent so much time analysing what I was doing and critiquing myself, getting annoyed at my continued bad habits that crop up when I think they’re gone (obv not all but you think one is fixed and then it appears again) that I forgot to have fun. I would literally dance for 3 hours and spend the whole time just concentrating on what I wasn’t and should be doing. I think sometimes we need to be told to remember to have fun, so what if its not perfect, its only dancing, the world wont end if you take 1 step instead of 2 or end on the ‘wrong’ foot! And then coming back from Highland Swing I found that just that attitude of enjoying it, of relaxing more, that in itself made things feel easier, and I found myself doing all sorts of styling with my left arm and my feet without a conscious thought of next swing out I’ll put in this variation or that styling. And I think that what comes out of that is a much more natural, music defined finish.

I had a debate last night with a non-dancer which started as a comment on how its impossible to dance with someone who isn’t dancing to the rhythm of the music when you let go (which is an aside for another time) but which got heated about the time the non dancer introduced the phrase ‘a dumb follow’. Now this was a conversation which mostly wrapped up in the apparent revelation that moves are not set. But his definition of a dumb follow was one who just followed, who didn’t go off and do her own stuff and then come back to it. I pointed out several times that Lindy is a lead-follow dance and the idea is to follow, not ignore the lead and do whatever you want instead. But his idea of a good follow was one who added in different steps and jumps. The conversation felt like he thought the opposite of what I think to be true. That a good follow should follow exactly. Including following the beat of the guy if he isn’t following the music – otherwise you end up fighting against each other for the entire song, in my experience. (I’m not saying don’t add anything – I think styling, decorations and variations are brilliant, but they shouldn’t stop the lead.) But it did make me think about how much of each dance is actually followed. At GNSH this year we were told in one class not to step unless led, not to triple step unless that was led. Which was fun, but seems like the kind of thing that doesn’t regularly get applied outside of class. When dancing with regular dance partners it is easy to know of their level and to dance to their level (ie you would never wait for a beginner to lead each triple step) but in the world of Stockholm Swing Dancing, I am still finding new people to dance with every week who I haven’t necessarily met before let alone see dance, so its interesting to work out what level of following to apply. Its like how Sarah Breck uses the magic 8 ball analogy (I think its an 8 ball) – in class you should follow exactly but on the social dance floor you should make allowances. The question I’ve been pondering is how far does that go? And how then can you be sure that you’re following exactly what's being led and not just anticipating, or using visual leads to overrule your moves.

Highland Swing

Not in Sweden, but during my time here...  headed to Scotland in the middle of June for Highland Swing (http://thehighlandswing.co.uk/)

 (also, as part of my catch up, this is turning into a highlights blog rather than an everything...)

Fri 

Got up at just after 4 which would feel overly early on an average day but particularly since the previous day had included a work party which I hadn’t managed to leave till 10. but I had been fairly well prepared so I really just had to grab my bag and head out. The walk down to the tube was really kinda nice. It was all light and quiet and sunny. Wandered into the tube station and then had to stand and wait for the man to come stamp my ticket. That was fine tho since I’d overestimated how long it would take to get out of the house and to the station so I had loads of time. Sat on the tube with some young folks I thought may be on their way home and a guy who looked like he was heading to the airport.

Wandered up to where the Train was but just not quite quick enough to catch the 5 past train. So then I got to stand on the platform for 15 mins. I could deal with that tho. And I enjoyed the train. It was comfy and fast. And the scrolling bar told me the time, the outside temperature (18*) and the speed (which topped off at 205 km/hr). I watched the time a little bit and played on facebook. Made it to the airport and found the right area. Was glad I had checked in before since I got there and there was an absolutely massive queue for security. I found a guy in high vis cos there was no way if I stood in that queue I’d make the plane. He said there was another security section down the far end of the hall so I headed that way. And there was no queue there at all so I felt much better then. But I did still have to walk across the airport and get strait onto the plane. Where I forget to put my water bottle by my seat and I couldn’t get out to get it since the guy next to me decided to sleep, so I was annoyed at that. He also decided to take up as much space as possible. I got massively annoyed cos I could only sit facing on way since he had his knee in my space. And his arm over the chair arm. And I ended up sitting as far across as poss with my arm across me and holding onto the chair. That was not good for the sleeping I wanted to do. Nor my mood. And I spent the whole time asking for drinks cos I was really thirsty.

The second plane was better tho. Having sat in Amsterdam for not too long, and bought starbucks, although I hadn’t realised that Amsterdam has security at the gates so I had to down a bottle of water and managed to get into the same situation again with not having a bottle on the plane. I did however manage to read the whole time.

Wandered up to the place to meet holly for a coffee. Was gonna say to her did she fancy coming shopping but she was already having coffee so I sat down for a little while before heading off. Found a new look and bought some shoes. Almost bought 2 pairs but figured they wouldn’t fit in the bag on the way home. Then had to grab shampoo and toothpaste – thank you liquid controls on planes. But I ended up having loads of time and headed in the direction of the pickup point. I ate my lunch on the far side of a small park since that had a bench and then headed across in the hope that I knew someone. There was vague knowings and I felt better once Helena and Katherine arrived.

Sat with Helena on the coach near the back. I enjoyed it tho since we got to listen to all the silliness and meet a few other folks. We took the long route there cos of the low bridge which had been pointed out to the driver but he had forgotten, or something.

So once we arrived there was registration, room finding, and bbq. Classes started for me with a Jazz class with Scottie, which was a lot of fun. He did well to aim for both the beginners and the level 5s. Was a quite a speedy routine with mostly Charleston and a bit of Cakewalk. I’m sure someone videoed it but I don’t know who… 

Then in the girls styling class we did a Showgirl routine with Annie. She said she had variations or a jazz routine or the showgirl routine. So I was like yeah showgirl! I thought the routine was so much fun, tho I don’t know if or how we could ever replicate it. I was excited tho cos we got to do the in a line kicking and the turning cross and the grapevine. That was all v exciting.

Danced with a girl (whose name I didn’t catch) when the dj started so that someone was dancing and cos I wanted to dance already. Got to dance with lots of fun people including Scottie Cupit (who’s really good for the confidence/ego) and Skye Humphries, but in a terrible twist of fate the computer died so I lost out on the second dance he offered. Stayed up dancing till 1. Figured I could probably have danced some more but I didn’t really no anyone that was still up and it was the start of the weekend.

First class of Sat we had with Hasse and Marie. They’re brilliant. I love the way they teach. I also managed to get pulled into the middle to demonstrate while Marie was busy with the music.

I had a break next so went to sit in the tea/coffee area and someone said they needed more follows in a class so I ran into it. Someone laughed at me saying there isn’t enough dancing. But I knew it was a Hasse and Marie class so I was up for it even tho it was level 2. Took my jumper off and then remembered I was wearing my Swedish shirt. (it says “I’m sorry I don’t speak Swedish would you like to dance” in Swedish on it) Marie read it and commented and then later said I speak Swedish, I was like no I really don’t, I have the t shirt to prove it too!!

We had a joint Level 4 and 5 with Paul and Christi which was about Charleston. I liked the way they gave us time to think about how we usually do it before providing entries to get into cross overs, cross overs to back to back and Back to back to side to side. I also liked the joint classes cos there was a bunch more people to dance with. Hurrahs.

After lunch we had another Joint 4 and 5 class. This time with Scottie Cupit &Annie Ryan. I’d had a class with Annie before, but never with Scottie. He’s a lot of fun.

Level 4 class with Skye and Naomi started of course with swing outs, but covered mostly charleston. They had the craziest warm up too. They were talking about really using the floor and really keeping a pulse so that no matter what variations you were doing you still had the pulse in common with your partner.

The end of Sat classes was a blues taster with Scottie & Annie. There were a bunch of newbies, a couple of guys who thought they knew what they were doing, and a couple of really good ones. So they covered the basics mostly, with some nice bits and pieces. I had one particularly good dance, just at the end, where Scottie told us off for showing off so it must have looked good.

Highland games

Having not been before I didn’t no what the games were gonna be so I decided to join team spectators and we just watched and took photos. The games, it turned out, were Caber tossing, Balance beam and Sledging down the dry ski slope. I would have liked to do the caber toss but not so much in front of people. And I would have liked the balance beam. And then I almost did the sledging – I had a team to join for that, but noticed that the dry ski slope not a lot of fun for bailing onto, and I was wearing a small skirt and tights - not suitable for such an occasion. So I bailed on that. Plus the rain got really heavy before my possible team was called up so I bailed inside anyways to a place where I could watch without getting wet.

The Sat night party included a couple of highland dances, strip the willow, and another one I didn’t entirely recognise. They were a lot of fun but required way more effort than I was expecting. Got to dance with lots of good people, including Skye Humphries (YAY!!). Also managed to have some silly dances and some fast dances. We got in a shim sham and a big apple (which always makes me happy). And then there was soup to help us warm up from the cold. I also managed to get cold enough that getting sat on helped.

I stayed for the blues even tho I was really tired by then. Danced with a bunch of ppl and enjoyed the lazier feel. I did almost get lost tho due to the lighting situation. Being in a marquee we either had the choice of full lights or just fairy lights, only they were on a timed pattern which included a dark spot. And I managed to almost spin away into the dark spot, but was found before I got totally lost, hurrahs.

Sun our first class of the day was Charleston with Scottie & Annie. Annie wanted more effort than would normally be wanted first thing on a Sunday morning! But I put more effort in, got more forward, engaged stomach, felt and apparently looked better. So maybe there is some truth in this ‘more you put in means the more you get out of it’ idea.

Our joint level class with Hasse and Marie involved a pretend Marie to start with. She was doing music so Hasse pulled out a girl (who had been leading in our class) and asked her what do you want to do today. She said she wanted to be as good a follow as Marie. And then asked what Hasse wanted to get out of the lesson. He said he wanted to articulate his English so someone asked if he was gonna count in order (I liked the time he forgot and counted in Swedish!).

For the second half of lunch me n Andy had a private lesson with Scottie & Annie. I’d never had a private lesson before so was intrigued as to how that would work. Was massively useful. Annie was talking about relaxing all of me, and putting my weight further forward, and said I need to swivel more. Scottie asked if me n Andy were dating before commenting on the dancing! He was good for encouragement and said if he was being picky the one thing I’m less good at is sideways connection. Which is something I haven’t thought about before so that's cool.

Then I managed to miss the start of the warm up for Skye and Naomi’s class cos I was running around trying to find a pen and paper to scribble down what had been said in the private lesson. Got in before class started tho. We did Sailor kicks but with a much more bouncy entry. Which was a lot of fun, but did mean I almost killed Helena at one point. Only cos she was sitting down next to the dance floor and we may have had a lot more momentum that was strictly necessary, but it was a lot of fun! Also, adding the bouncy entry to the overly flexing dance floor meant you could get quite a lot of height!

So then I was standing in one of the dance rooms getting to be a prop for Bene but I called in back up (in the form of Hasse) to make the move work. He made us show it. And then he did the exact same thing with me. And it was really just a keep closer in it. So then he made us do it again and it worked. We did it once he was out of sight to make sure it wasn’t just cos Hasse was watching. Then we managed to get filmed twice doing it, and also the other ending from Hasse and Marie’s class. Cos apparently they hadn’t gotten the video in the class. So then I managed to sneak into the level 5 class accidentally since I was demonstrating there.

That was a Scottie and Annie class. We had side by side Charleston, with some cute little turns, some filler bits and then switches with a crazy variation. Annie made switches hard by making me realise that I always do them with my right toes in the air and she wanted us to do them by swivelling on your toes. (which does actually look better)  So I was like ok I can do that. But apparently that took some concentration – I’m blaming it on being last class of the weekend.

So then the final bit of weekend was the Teacher’s forum. I’ve never been to one of those before but it was really interesting. People asked really sensible questions about how they’d gotten into dancing, and about starting new scenes, and whether being a professional makes dancing less fun.

Then I managed to sneak in a dance with Hasse to no music in the tea and coffee area cos I hadn’t had a chance to dance with him, and then also asked about Bug since it’s a Swedish dance and I didn’t no what it is (its like lindy but just steps and usually forwards rather than backwards) and then headed for the bus. Got to sit on the back cos that was where all the cool kids were, and was a fun place to be. Meant that there was silliness and also alcohol. Seb made it very hard to say anything since he could reply to almost anything with ‘that's what she said’!! But we also got some Finnish music played at us, and I managed to insult someone by saying he looked at least 12 when it turns out he’s 23 – oops.  

So then the bus dropped us at the Sunday night after party venue. That seemed very small in comparison to the marquee but we still managed to get some dancing in. there was also a brilliant moment when Lavender coffin was playing and everyone was singing along, and then Jack’s computer cut out again. So he tried to sort that out, but in the mean time, everyone just carried on singing it, so the people dancing could carry on dancing. It was beautiful. Just made me remember why I love swing dancers, not just the dancing itself.

Kicking out time rolled round way too early so I Told various people to come to Leeds for the swing exchange since that's the next time I’m in the country. Got lots of hugs and headed on out to the after after-party since it was at the place I was staying.

Mon morning came around all too early tho. My alarm went off and I had to move unfortunately. Had a v quick chat and had to borrow some money since the buses in Edinburgh don’t give change and I only had a tenner. So then I rushed off. Got on a bus hoping I would recognise it when I got there. Had to walk the whole way down prince’s st since apparently the coach doesn’t stop there, as we thought it might. So then I made it to the airport eventually – feeling rushed as ever. Found a queue in which the very nice older gentleman in front of me explained I could check in on a machine. He said you then had to queue again for dropping luggage but luckily I had just hand luggage. So then I could head down to gate. Got to pause briefly before getting on the plane.

Got off the plane in Amsterdam checked the board which said my next flight was already boarding. So then I walked fast across the airport but had to go thru passport control. I was like no! But found a guy in high vis to question since there wasn’t a chance I could make it thru the queue and make my plane. He said I could jump most of the queue so on I went. Felt better letting a girl whose flight was closing ahead of me. Then walked across cos of course the plane was as far away as possible! Made it back to Sweden and was glad that the rest of it was with no rush at all. Got to direct some ppl to the train and jumped on myself. Thought about cycling home from the station but was glad when I got on the tube and sat down. And then made it home.

The Girls came...

At the start of June (this is how behind I am) I had a very exciting weekend, when Ella and Christina came to visit… 

The girls were due in on a late flight so I had a nap before meeting them at the tube. Took them back to the flat where we had a nice gossip before bed. 

Saturday it took us ages to get out of the house but eventually we made it. We cycled to Skansen, which was a little bit of an adventure in itself. Or to Djurgården anyways. There were a lot of people in the centre of town. And when we got to Djurgården, we discovered that the rail there was full so we then had to cycle back into town to leave the bikes, and walk back along the front. Which did mean that we had chance to get a coffee along the way. Skansen is this wonderful place which is a cross between a zoo and a beamish style museum. It has a bunch of old buildings (inc Sweden’s tallest wooden bell tower) and had some people folk dancing, and an option to play on stilts. We were excited by the animals, particularly the bears (tho Ella was fond of the escaping bunnies). We spent most of the day there before cycling home and having dinner. Then we then headed out to a truly Swedish pub (or in other words an Irish Pub!!) which was a whole bunch of fun. Particularly cos Ella could keep people warm just by sitting by them (we forgot to get sunscreen!!)

Sunday we were better at getting out of the house altho we did end up having to run a little bit to make the boat to Vaxholm. But once we were on we could relax and enjoy the fresh air and prettiness. And Vaxholm it turns out has a crazy golf course if nothing else. We managed not to explore much of the island but enjoyed the wondrous crazy golf where we may have managed to entertain the locals by being terrible but amusing. We also got lunch there and I introduced Christina to the world of lingonberry juice. We also managed to wander around some shops and see two Ferrari’s before jumping back on a boat to head back. I wanted to make sure the girls had gotten to see some of the dance scene so we headed straight up from the ferry to Stora skuggen, home to Sunday dancing. It’s a great little spot – a wooden gazebo next to a lake up somewhere near the uni. And  I think we managed to confuse the locals by being more English people than they’re used to!

So then we eventually left there, tired and well danced and headed to find dinner at the Indian I sometimes go to for lunch. After that we met the boys at the pub (an actual Swedish one this time) before almost falling asleep there (Ella particularly) so we headed on home.

And then they both had to leave earlish Monday morning, which was very sad for me. My room was suddenly very quiet. But I was massively glad they had come. And if anyone else wants to visit I do have a sofa or space on my floor….

End of May / Start of June

Written a very long time ago but apparently didnt get uploaded... 

Wed 25^th May was a day of tiredness. And then dancing was rubbish! Or not entirely rubbish. But I was massively tired and the night was just lacking in top notch dances. Had a couple of good ones, danced much better with one of the guys I usually dance with than I had pre blues workshop. But the first 3 guys I danced with were just terrible. One that didn’t bother listening to the music, one that has no rhythm at all and the close Finnish guy who was being ridiculous. He spent most of the time trying to get me into close embrace and then some, and I spent most of it pushing him away really hard. I was so annoyed by the end of it cos there was no need to be in close embrace and it wasn’t like I wasn’t being really obvious in my discomfort! 
On the plus side tho, there was a band. And we did get a shim sham tho since it was Frankie’s birthday. And some ppl gave a speech about it but that wasn’t great for me since I didn’t understand anything being said. 
Did manage to get the last dance as a guy came and asked me. He pointed out it was the last one, which may be part of the reason I danced with him, since his white shirt was towards see thru and dripping – he had clearly danced lots – and that’s not really a fun time when your left arm connection is onto sweat. But it was probably better than not dancing the last song.
Then I wasn’t sure whether to go to the pub or not. David pointed out that my eyes were empty, and they aren’t usually at the end of the night. Which was cos I was missing the lindy high. Usually at the end of the night I’m all buzzy and excited. And thus the pub is a good plan. But instead of listening to my tired head and going home I went to the pub. Partly due to feeling bad for making people wait while I extolled the virtues of Leeds and its swing exchange (I did try Helena!!) So I went to the pub where I sat and chatted to a guy I didn’t no for a while, but mostly they were talking Swedish, so I didn’t stay too long.

Thu evening we decided to watch the second half of godfather 2. Which turns out to be really quite a good film. I found both halves pretty interesting, unlike the others who preferred the old stuff.

Fri night the boys at work decided they were all gonna have a sauna (in the work sauna) and then have a bbq. They were supposed to start at 4 which would have meant they would be finishing up about the right time for end of work for the rest of us. only the sauna broke. So they had to call in an engineer! So I went home. Cos I didn’t no how long they were gonna be so had left the boys instructions to let me know when they were done cos I was up for the bbqing. I headed back to the bbq and managed not to get any food despite the boys being somewhat silly and burning everything that wasn’t being eaten including spare buns (in the packaging) and at one point the entire bottle of lighter fluid, which luckily didn’t explode the way we expected it to. I got berated for about 20 mins about my having not gone into the sauna by one of the Swedish boys. He said if it had been the other way round he would have loved a sauna with 12 girls, even tho they apparently don’t look when in the sauna. He couldn’t understand why I would think it was weird at all, even tho I pointed out that it was a colleagues, and they speak a different language so we don’t know what they’re saying half the time! So then we all stood around the fire before heading inside to the warmth and more drinking. There was wine from the wine lottery, and someone felt bad that they had missed a birthday so we were celebrating that too. Hugo had gone to pick up a friend from town and came back disappointed that the bbq was out so he, friend and I went to macdonalds since I decided food was a good plan. So having exhausted the alcohol in the office (or given up on it I’m not sure) we headed out. The first place that we tried to go to said that one of the guys was too drunk, and then the second place was closing so we went to the Viking bar restaurant place where we managed to sit down for a while and drink one beer before they were closing. Then we lost a whole load of our Swedes but headed to a club called rocks, where they insisted on stamping the club name half way up our arms, which I thought was weird, but where we danced for quite some time after losing our two remaining Swedes.

Sat I was heading up to meet the boys on Gamla Stan so I grabbed a bike from the waterfront and had to run with it across the marathon. Its pretty hard to do but there was sufficient gap, and I wasn’t the first one to do it so I didn’t feel too bad. There was some chaos in the bike lane tho as ppl were standing in it to watch. I made it up to meet the boys for coffee tho before we wander off and around. not sure where all the time disappeared to but we headed back to the boys house where I almost fell asleep. Hugo was very kindly in charge of food while James was being the entertainment with his series of jokes based around a set of business propositions. The idea was that you had a proposition and the other one asked how it was going, for example the skiing business was going downhill (!!). So then our post food entertainment was to watch the football. I was glad that Paul and Eleanor had come back for that since apparently I cant watch football without making stupid noises and it felt less stupid since she did it too. Then I got to cycle home on Andy Leishman’s bike which is currently living with the boys. It confused me since its not at all like the city bikes, I was missing the back pedal break, I had to stop to work out how to change gear, and I managed to get my jeans caught in the cogs at one point too, but apart from that a successful cycle home.

Sun me and jess cycled into town for more coffee with the boys before heading to the Archipelago fair. The four of us then went for a cycle round some of Djurgärden. That was a lot of fun. Felt like a really childish type thing to do, to be out cycling with friends, but in a really fun way. It just seemed like one of those things that people don’t do anymore, the kind of thing you do at like 10 but not since we’re in a foreign country and had no (responsible) adults with us. So we headed down one side and then me and jess turned back since I had to get to dancing and she wanted to go home. So I cycled to the tube to find that the place I meant to leave the bike was full, so had to keep cycling to find another bike stand. Luckily the next one I headed to had one space so I could sneak in there and jump strait on to the tube to uni. Met Adam and his girlfriend so they could show me the way across to where the Dancing was in a large wooden gazebo. It beautiful. Its this large wooden gazebo in the sunshine in a park next to a lake. Really makes you feel like you’re on holiday. And I managed to dance with a guy who was massively enthusiastic about my spinning particularly and thus span me ridiculously fast. A girl came to talk to me after and garbled excitedly in Swedish before I could tell her I’m English, but apparently she was saying that she really liked the way I span fast and then finished up by sticking my knee up in a kinda random way. I told her it was just cos I had too much momentum and it was the easiest way to stop it, but its cool when people think accidental styling looks good. On the way home I mostly remembered the way back to the tube station. I still had energy at that point and thought about getting off early so I could cycle the rest of the way home but having sat on the tube for more than a few minutes the tiredness kicked in and I almost fell asleep before getting home.

On Monday we decided to be as Swedish as possible. The boys did better by going for a swim in the Baltic but I joined them for the sauna part of the evening. They came to pick me up but I wanted a city bike so Paul offered to go get one so me and James went to find him but took a different route and managed to lose him completely. Which made me laugh. But did mean that while me n James took our bikes to the nearest rack to work, Paul left his in the work garage which meant I had a bike to cycle home on. Unfortunately I was in charge of providing music which didn’t work so well. We discovered that Hugo cant work an ipod – he couldn’t even switch it on, and that I have no music suitable for saunas. But we sat around there for a while anyways. The boys kept making it hotter, which is not always a good thing. But I did come out feeling a lot more relaxed. And then I had a nice cycle home before bed.

Tue was a change of plans night. The initial plan had involved watching Godfather 3 but then I had left work on time since I was starving, and the others all ended up going to the boys house to watch tennis so I mostly lay on the couch.

Wed was again a dancing night. Felt a little weird since everyone (ie Jess and the boys) were at ours to watch Godfather 3 without me when I was heading out for dancing, Met Adam on the way in and also spotted Chris Härm early on. He’s the guy who taught the last class I was at in London just before moving here. So I managed to grab a dance with him as well. He’s a lot of fun to dance with, tho I didn’t feel on top form. Had another couple of dances where I just underperformed for no reason, but did get an ace blues dance in there. Managed to make eye contact with someone who wasn’t dancing at the time, which is kinda bad blues etiquette but oppositely repeated that when he was blues dancing and I wasn’t so I didn’t feel so bad. Danced with a bunch of the usual suspects. And spent a while chatting too. Then at the end I stood and waited for Adam before he pointed out he wasn’t up for a pub trip but that was ok since I was fairly tired and going to bed less late is a good plan, so I got a hug by the tube station and headed on home.

Thu was very much a do nothing kinda day. I had thought about getting up and being useful and doing stuff. But decided after laying on my bed till mid afternoon I should write it off and write a to do list for Friday instead! So that’s what I did! I did notice that the weather was lovely, but I had no idea what to do with the afternoon, and really I didn’t fancy doing anything so I dyed my hair. On the grounds that that had been on my to do list for the weekend!
I did text the boys to see if they were up to anything exciting or planning anything for the evening, but they Paul was writing his book (still!!!) and Hugo was apparently out buying a tent. I did end up going to the boys house in the evening tho to borrow their bike cards for the imminent arrival of ‘my people’! And then curled up in the armchair for a small while, while apparently giving amusing comments on the tennis. I think fashion is important in sport, and that Paul should spend less time looking at tan lines! I also finished the biscuits we’d started the previous week since they’d been sitting on the side since then (and had not gone soft!). But the really amusing thing was that I then walked home and watched the sun set. Or not even really set. Walking down my street at quarter to midnight, the sky was a fairly dark blue, but in the gaps between buildings you could still see the orange as well as a pale blue between the two. Very weird. I do think the sun is going to teach me to not sleep for the next few months or so.

Today (Friday) was my productivity day. I went to the System (which is basically an off-licence) where I stood around wondering if I’d actually ever really bought anything from an off licence before and felt very out of place. Then I carried my winnings there home before going out again, this time to the ever more exciting grocery store. Success all round. Or at least I’m pretty sure I found most of my shopping list. Then I came home, I cooked up a whole load of food waiting to be cooked. And then I read a book. I did look out the window and wonder about taking my book elsewhere but decided it made more sense to just sit on my windowsill since that was fully in the sun, and meant I had running water and snacks at the ready. And then finally because I once more had more time than I was sure what to do with I went for a cycle. The route of which I put in my cycle blog entry. And hopefully will manage to post 2 blog entries! We’ll see… - nope total fail on that.

Cycle Blog - An Aside

I am not a cyclist. I will never be a cyclist (sorry Moira!) but I do see the value of a bike. In particular, the Stockholm city bikes. Which are not the most technical bikes in the world. They only have 3 gears and have a back pedal brake (which I actually love) but I find them particularly useful since you can just pick them up and drop them off all over the place. It is worth timing it right, or checking before you go there are bikes available (the website has a live count of where there are bikes and where there are spaces) but all in all, they are kinda ace. It def helps that we live pretty close to 2 stands so can mostly get one. Like this afternoon, where I wasn’t sure what to do, so I figured I might as well go for a cycle. I mean why not, I already paid for the card (a season ticket for £25 or a 3 day pass for £20), and I can go off and see whatever I find. The bike is mine for up to 3 hours. And its like sneaking exercise into real life. So today I cycled the whole way round the island, decided it didn’t feel too much like hard work and went round Gamla Stan too. These are things I’d never do at home. Not there's bicycle access at home, not a decent set of cycle paths for those of us not confident at roads (but the drivers here are so much better with bikes anyways). So it’s a very pleasant basically free afternoon. Hurrah. 

Plus, borrowing bikes, you can take them on 1 way journeys and not get stuck with a bike somewhere, and you don’t have the whole maintenance thing. Apart from the much smaller initial cost, there isn’t the upkeep costs or time. The only problem I’ve found with these wonderful bikes is that you can only get them between 6am and 10pm, which I understand, you don’t really want to encourage post pub cycling, but I have discovered that it at least feels like it takes so much less effort to cycle home than walk that I really would rather cycle. Not in a drunken way, but my late night wishing I was on a bike isn’t when I’ve been drinking but when I’ve been out dancing or hanging out at the boys house. Also, we have found the way round it is to pick up a bike just before 10 and then you still have 3 hours to return it, although I have only done this once since I am usually too busy and forget until after 10!

I do have to say tho, having cycled a few times, I do now get overly annoyed when people walk in the cycle lane, or cycle down the wrong side, or just don’t get out of the way!! That’s what the bell is for! You should no by now (in Stockholm) that you always get out of the way of bells. But apparently there are some crazy cycle folks. For example, I did see a woman talking on the phone, not hands free, while cycling across a four way junction without slowing down!! I’m not even sure she looked! Also, getting overtaken on a cycle lane by a scooter, and I don’t mean the toys kids play with – that was shocking! I was massively unimpressed with him – get out my cycle lane!! I am sure tho that I am also of some annoyance, last weekend I had to run across the marathon with the bike so that I could cycle down the cycle path, but I did wait for a gap and literally run across it so I wasn’t much in anyone’s way. I think I may also be one of the slowest cyclists on the island. I am getting better, more confident, but I am still one of the slower ones. I do think if there were more gears I would cycle faster, I don’t like the way you can get so much fast freewheeling than pedalling in a lot of areas. 

I have also experienced the problem of too many bikes. Or rather, the stand I want to leave my bike at being full. This has now happened twice! Once was during the marathon so I guess its not really surprising, everyone wanted to go see that not cycle around. And the other was the time I was running late to meet a friend and had to drop my bike off so I could get on the tube, that was a bad moment because the only other racks I knew were getting further away from my destination, although I may have actually been quicker cycling further and then being closer to a tube station, but still, I think I may need to start carrying a map since there are a lot of racks I don’t know the locations of (ie not on Söder Gamla Stan or just onto the mainland)!

This is pretty much todays route, http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4551888, only less straight, but the website doesnt seem to recognise that there's a path round the waterfront that can be cycled on the whole way

Also, the gorgeous city bikes look like this (we're so cool!!):

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.

Wow I have a lot of time to cover on here… I shall try to remember it all…  [disclaimer: this is not a short entry!]

Sat April 30^th

We had talked about going to Uppsala but Friday had turned into something of a late one dancing to the early hours of the morning, so it didn’t happen. Instead I headed over to the boys house to make a plan. We came up with a plan, it consisted of going to a coffee shop. So we sat in a coffee shop before heading out for a walk. The walk took us up to Gamla Stan, across a small amount of the mainland and back down around Skeppsholmen and Kastelholmen. It amazes me how there can be total holiday type locations in the middle of the city. Its so beautiful following the waterfront. And there are some amusements. Walking past a smoking bin Hugo questioned if we should call the fire brigade. I said there wasn’t enough smoke. A couple of minutes later they arrive. 4 firemen against one bin. They didn’t seem to take it seriously, but check out the photos on fb cos its kinda amusing. So we followed the waterfront around onto Kastelholmen. There's something kinda fun about looking around islands accompanied by the sound of screaming, which was coming from the theme park across the water! We then managed to not appear to be tourists when pointing out where the Vasa Museum is and how to get there to a couple of American tourists.

So then I nipped home long enough to eat before heading back out cos it was Valborgs night, which is bonfire night in Sweden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpurgis_Night#Sweden) and there was a concert in the Square on Gamla Stan. So me and Hugo headed up there to discover that it was the railway marching band, and they had song sheets to join in from. So we tried very hard but its really difficult when you don’t recognise the words, don’t know how to pronounce them, and don’t recognise the song. The first couple worked well as there was a man standing next to me belting them out. I’m sure this must have helped my pronunciation but then he ran away…! So then after the songs there was a lighting of all these torches which were basically sticks wrapped in something flammable – wouldn’t have passed health and safety in England, and the people in the square processioned down to where a bonfire was set up at the waterfront. We stood watching the bonfire, getting squished, and listening to various musics for a while. The music included an acapella version of mamma mia which I’m sure they changed the words on. So having listened without understanding to a very long speech which we were told didn’t really make sense in Swedish we gave up and headed for hot chocolate!

Sun 1^st May

I spent most of the day lying on the couch before going for a walk around Långholmen on the grounds that a) I hadn’t been there yet and b) I hadn’t left the house. So I wandered across and around wondering if I was allowed to be walking thru the grounds of whatever that building was that I couldn’t read the signs for. I found a small beach but there were people on it so I went and found my own little rock bay to sit in instead. I sat down to write and ended up spending quite a lot of time watching a little bird which was sitting on one of the rocks. He was trying to drink from the lake and kept hopping onto various twigs before deciding they weren’t stable enough. when large boats (or speed boats) go past the wake changes the water level quite a lot, and the little bird was like a small child at the beach, venturing forwards before running away again. It was very cute! So then I wandered off to see some of the rest of the island. I would have kept wandering but I completely overestimated the temperature and had to head home.

 Monday 2^nd May

On the way home from work I decided I should go explore Tantalunden park since its really close to the office and the flat and I hadn’t been there yet. I wandered thru and around, up and down, and then found the view at the top. Its lovely. So I decided to just sit on a rock there at the top and watch the scenery. I then also managed to find a scramble path back down so I could walk the short way home and didn’t have to go back on myself. Hurrahs.

I took some pics of the view which (hopefully) might work. They are from my phone tho so not top quality…

Wed 4^th May

I didn’t go dancing as I was very much feeling the quietness of having only half the English team around and no one else to hang out with, so I decided I would rather be alone on my own than in a room full of people. Plus then I could lie in bed and watch tele!

Thu 5^th May

Told the English that’s why I didn’t dance and they said we should all hang out more. (So we have since been very much doing lots, hence the not lots of time for blogging)

Thursday was the day for Oppet Hus. Which is where the company opens up the office and clients come and see what we do. Theoretically. Although there really weren’t very many clients around the place. But the party was amazing. There was masses of alcohol, and proper catering, and a band. In fact 2 bands, but I didn’t see the one on ground floor. The one of plan 3 was a double bass, a guitar and a singer, and were really good. I so wanted to dance, but there was no one to dance with. So we stayed and listened to them till around half 9 even tho they were scheduled to finish at 8. then we were told we didn’t have to leave the building, just that floor, and could go either upstairs or down. We walked into the room on plan 8 and there was this massive party going on. it felt something like a house party, lots of people, lots of alcohol, lots of music. There was a dance floor/dance room occurring in one of the meeting rooms. And just a lot of fun. I decided the party was exactly what I needed. Lots of chatting to people you wouldn’t expect to chat to, people who don’t normally talk English, and people there just isn’t usually a chance to chat to as well as people I’d never even seen before let alone recognise, and lots of dancing. We did however find the downside of smart boards, which is that putting a music player on one means that lots of people can change the music, and did! People kept changing the song all the time. But you just had to go with it. It was mostly the same sorts of songs too so it worked. I was the first of the English (the 3 of us) to go home with one of the boys managing to hit a club after the party! Guess who was feeling rough the next day!

So then on the Fri we went and sat at a café bar since it was all sunny out and we wanted to sit out, even without drinking, some especially without, and just chilled for a while. Met Ian’s wife who suggested the best way to learn the language was to date a local. She also described one of our colleagues as camp which made me laugh a lot. He would not appreciate it.

Sat 7^th May

We decided to go Kayaking. All bar one of ‘the English’ as well as a Swede and a Spaniard. We were mostly in single boats and I was def the slowest. Didn’t work out any sort of decent technique until near the end. Plus the boats had rudders which I found massively confusing since you have to turn it using peddles, I quickly gave up on that and left it sticking up out of the water the whole time. So we paddled up the water along the front of Kungsholmen, and then across to Södermalm and back down the canal between Södermalm and Långholmen (this makes more sense if you look at a map). And the lake def felt enough like the sea to me, esp when you have to try and work out whether you can cross the path before the big boat or whether to wait and let it go by. That’s a lot of fun.

So we followed that by sitting in a park in the sun with a kinda picnic before heading back to ours for a movie night.

Mon was pub quiz night at the English pub. This month’s special topics were on general knowledge, Swedish politics and popular culture. (Def a step up from the T-bana questions the previous month!!) We came second. Kinda. In points at least. But two other teams got the same number of points and the tie breaker is to guess how many cigarettes the guy has in his packet. We couldn’t work out if it was a 10 or a 20 pack, which didn’t help. But it was amusing none the less. Although one of the guys complained that a pub quiz isn’t very social since there's less chatting time, but given that they live together and we all work together there sometimes isn’t that much to chat about…!

Tuesday 10^th May

Tuesday was a particularly naff day at work, one of those everything is going wrong and my joints ache kind of days. So I combated it by sitting in the park. Same spot as last time, just up there with the view enjoying the sunshine and watching the sky. That totally transformed my mood and is def a good way to feel better. Then I went home for another movie night – this time we watched the Godfather since 2 of us hadn’t seen it before. Its not a short movie. And I found it quite tiring, although I did like the bit in Italy.

 Wed was another dancing night. Turned up and was disappointed that Ola (from first week) wasn’t there since he’s the person I find it easiest to talk to there. One of the guys pointed out that I owed him a dance so he collected on that. Which was all good since I like dancing with him. I managed to dance with a guy who had a ridiculous lead of waving my arms around, way too hard. With no body lead at all. That was uncomfortable. And made me dance badly since I had to disconnect my arms so as to not get hurt. Then I danced with a guy who couldn’t get his timing right on a swing out but was otherwise good so we worked on that a little. Turns out I like helping people practise stuff. But I think half his problem was that the music was too fast. He was better when it slowed down. It also made me think about how I could use at least a critique dance since I’m not going to lessons over here.

Then I danced with one of the usual suspects, this Finnish guy who gets too close, and thought about it later, how much do we let certain dancers get away with stuff that’s kinda uncomfortable because the rest of their dancing is really good? Like the way really good dancers can get away with being sleazy cos they have the skill to back it up whereas bad dancers cant. Its kinda like the idea that you’re allowed to insult your siblings/family but people outside your family unit cant. Its interesting… (comments on the subject gladly received :oD)

Then there was this weird guy. He had been there the previous week and made me dance lots since I hadn’t worked out whether you’re allowed to say no or not. He was like you’re the Nikki. I was like the Nikki? Then he made me dance, only his version of dancing is waving his arms about some no way in time nor really dancing. I grabbed the Lithuanian guy a second time later to run away from the weird guy. Which made me feel a little bad for both of them, but also uncertain of what other choices there are.

At the end I grabbed a guy (Adam) I’d wanted to dance with previously but hadn’t gotten a chance to. He threw a brilliant dance at me, totally challenging me / pushing me, not just doing the easy stuff. I had forgotten how much people stick to easy stuff. And then the dj said 2 more dances. I was like do you want one of those? YES! I mean yes please. And then he stole the last one too, which seemed fair since you cant not dance the last one.

Then I was chatting to him after and his friend, David, asked if I was coming to the pub too. I was like sure. It was one of those, this isn’t really the time I want to be going to the pub since its late, but it’s the first time someone outside of work has asked, I cant say no to this. So 5 of us went and sat there, and it felt so normal in such a brilliant way. And they all spoke English the whole time, not just when they were talking to me which I thought was wonderful. And there was a beautiful moment where I got called the geek, and I was sitting with 3 programmers! That made me laugh quite a lot.

Thu night I went back to sitting in the park. Was just sitting there enjoying the view and thinking about the sky. About how it seemed more beautiful when it wasn’t what we would normally call perfect, when there were clouds, but they made the sky all different colours and shades and gave it texture, so I figured there's gotta be a message in there – ‘imperfections’ are beautiful and perfection isn’t necessarily the aim?  

But just sitting there with that view I was thinking, what would happen if I just didn’t ever go home…? This seems to be less of an option given my inability to speak Swedish. But it did give me a pause for thought moment.                                                                                         

Friday 13^th. David Burns, who is the director in Bristol and who is technically in charge of us, came to Sweden to see that we were ok and to discuss with the directors out here what happens next, and what the plan ahead is. So conversations occurred to see how we all feel about being here and staying here and what happens next. It wasn’t the most straight forward thing. I said that I’d quite like to stay until Christmas but apparently whether me and Jess can stay till Christmas is mostly dependant on whether Nick stays apparently since they aren’t sure it'd work without a team leader. So they’re gonna keep thinking about that one. I also sent the guy in Edinburgh an email to say I’d like to go there next but I haven’t had a reply about that just yet either. It was fun tho to see David’s reactions to Sweden since I feel like I’m now quite used to the size and space of the office and the whole fika experience.
David also took us for drinks after work so we headed to Rosen since its not really a Sweden experience without it. We managed to gain a few Swedes along the way and ended up staying in there until it closed. Then we hit Mcdonalds cos we’re a classy bunch before heading to a club called Kgb, which did have the crazy décor you could imagine. Who doesn’t want several statues of Stalin in their club right…

Sat 14^th May
So I got a call at 10, Do you wanna go on a boat trip and can you be at the grand hotel for 11. As I was still in bed at this point I was like erm… maybe…? So I jumped out of bed and pulled on some clothes and tried to work out what I would need for a day trip out. I cleverly found a ridiculously large bottle of water, but stupidly didn’t take the crisps I looked at. Then I thought I would try out one of these city bikes (like Boris’s bikes in London) since I had Jess’s card while she was home for the weekend. So it got to half past and I rushed down to the bike stand. At which point I realised I didn’t no how to use the bike system and it wasn’t sufficiently obvious. So then I had to rush to the tube instead. I jumped on the tube, got off at Gamla Stan deciding it is probably the closest station, came out of the station and felt massively lost. I knew there was a short way there but couldn’t work out which direction I needed to be walking in to go across instead of round. But I made it to the boat stand with loads of time to spare. Hurrah. And I felt better once I’d found the boys since they were also dressed like tourists, both wearing shorts, unlike the other residents who were all in coats still.
 So we took a 2 hour boat trip thru the archipelago to Grinda. We took several (and the rest) photos including trying to surreptitiously photograph this guy who had on a russian navy hat and blue combat pants, and had the commander moustache to go with it! So we made it to the island before deciding that we should have brought a picnic. The ‘café’ was more expensive than normal Stockholm prices, which aren’t cheap, so instead we managed to spend like £21 in the shop buying picnic stuff!! Not a cheap dayout. So then we found our own private little bay to sunbathe in. Hugo went swimming, like any good Scotsman, even tho the water was v much on the chilly side, and then he shivered for a good hour or so after. We decided that we really hadn’t chosen the best spot to sunbathe in. Paul remarked how if you’d taken aerial photos every 5 minutes we would have all be in different places in every one. I think that was a little exaggeration, but not that much, we did not pick the comfy rocks. But we did enjoy laying in the sun before realising we probably didn’t have time to explore the rest of the island before heading back to the boat. But that was ok, it was sufficient fun for us.
On the way back we decided we should have a Eurovision party. I said it should be at our house and Paul insisted it should be at theirs. What actually happened tho was that I got into mine to eat first, and lay on the couch and refused to move – its tiring laying on a rock all day!! So I did miss Eurovision, disappointing when facebook is full of comments about it, but it just wouldn’t have been the same with a Swedish commentator!

Sunday has turned into a reoccurring theme of staying in, laying on the couch. But the weather wasn’t good enough to make me want to go outside, so I didn’t. Plus the boys were supposed to text me if there were any plans, but it turned out they did nothing as well.

And thus we were back into another working week. 
 Mon 16^th May and Tue 17^th May I have nothing written down for, and don’t remember doing anything on…. that's interesting… or not for you lot reading this, but is interesting to lose evenings, I guess they must have been tele or writing then…

Wed was of course a dancing night. I had a couple of excellent dances. And one where I totally failed. I just couldn’t work out what he was doing, and I no he can dance! Which did nothing for the confidence levels. I also had one or two where the guys just didn’t have it so it didn’t work at all. That made me question how much that makes me a bad follow that I cant work out something to do even if the guys aren’t leading well, but sometimes if the song is fast or you’re tired you just don’t wanna dance with people you don’t dance well with.
I did however dance well with Adam, and apparently killed David cos I managed to dance to 4 fast songs in a row with him, but that's just part of the fun! Then a guy almost killed me with a small aerial. The one I would normally call the big swing. Which should always be preceded with a query over whether that’s allowed or not. I don’t approve of this idea of just throwing it in. It wasn’t too bad since my noise making of ‘argh’ or similar did stop him so it wasn’t too bad. And I’m sure its usually not a problem, but that I didn’t tense cos I wasn’t expecting it, and my back really doesn’t like those sorts of moves without a proper warm up.
So then I finished up the night with a dance of silly moves, thanks Adam, and a bad attempt at blues (on my behalf not his), and then we headed to the pub. I was already tired so was only planning on staying a short time but somehow time ran away!!

On Thu we decided to go see the new Pirates movie. In 3d. even the 3d glasses are better in Sweden. Not that they’re stylish, but they didn’t make my head hurt (which is the first time when watching a 3d film it hasn’t). then jess wanted to cycle home since she was wearing heels and didn’t wanna walk, so I borrowed Paul’s card and I cycled home following jess. She has a much better grip of how to cycle places, apart from a couple of ‘where on earth is she going’ moments including the wrong way down a one way street. We got home and I was like hey can we go out again since it had actually been kinda fun. So she changed, we both grabbed a quick snack and then went out again. Another couple of argh I might die, moments, and we managed to find the only person in Stockholm that cycles slower than me, in a part where I couldn’t overtake. So then we made it almost home and I decided to keep going. Jess headed back and I just followed the waterfront round the Westside to the south of the island since I figured that was probably a safe route to take – I hadn’t been down that side at all. I accidentally ended up on a road I didn’t recognise and decided I should probably head in the general direction of home. I came out on a street I wasn’t expecting to come out on but did recognise so it was ok. And then I had one of those argh my legs are gonna die moments when I hit a (small) hill at the end. But I did feel like I had rediscovered the bicycle. And like I was a whole lot less wobbly at the end!

On Fri I decided I was going to bow to peer pressure and sign up for the blues weekend, esp since we weren’t going to Finland (that had been the weekend’s other option). So I signed up for that and then thought about whether I wanted to go or not and was worried.
I was however cheered by the Friday Hus boys experience. You know its Friday when hero comes on. Every Friday the boys on the other half of our team play hero by Enrique Iglesias. And sing along. But not in a quiet merrily singing and working way, in way that sounds like a performance, belting it out as loud as possible. Which isn’t terrible since at least one of them can sing, its only when the whistling kicks in does it become painful, but I love it. It is one of those things I will miss when we leave, tho I am v tempted to record it so I can play it for Fridays to come. Also to fully understand the beauty of this moment you must imagine that the guy that can sing is the one with long hair and a beard (and would look more at home in a rock band), and the other singers do not look like pop stars, in any way shape or form!

So then Fri was also office drinks night which meant that we sat in the Fikaplats drinking beer and eating popcorn from 4:30 till jess pointed out that I wanted to get a bike card and the place may close at 6. Apparently the boys managed to stay there till 9 before finding a club to go into. This is unusual simply because office drinks usually involves 1 to 2 beers each and lots of people leaving by 5:30, but there was a lot of people missing so the beer went a lot further.

So after cycling home, I ate got changed and headed for the blues place. I arrived 5 mins after the stated start time and was very much first. The band were in fact still sound checking. So I spent some time standing around. Chatted a little to a guy from London since he's English and apparently that's how it works. I then spent at least the first hour of dancing feeling like I had no idea what I was doing, I wasn’t even good at dancing with Adam. He said the one biggest rule was that I was only allowed one foot on the floor at once. Which kinda worked. Velody also told me that the best thing she got told was to wait as long as possible and then when you have to step do, but I am not good at waiting. Then I managed to dance with the teacher by accident. He’s one of those people that is so easy to dance with. Everything is led beautifully, and you really just do it rather than having to stop and think and interpret what he’s asking you to do. The other difference is that it feels like he’s comfortable with what he’s doing, and he makes you laugh which always relaxes people, and that makes everyone dance better. He got bonus points to for managing to catch me with his leg and send me back the other way (on purpose!) Said to him after that he made me feel like I could dance. He said I can dance. And that it was lots of fun. And then picked me off the floor in a hug which is always an excellent sign. So I stayed until I was really tired and then walked home. The view from the Vastabron was gorgeous, and did make me feel like I should never leave! The moon was all big and the sky was clear and the lights were all reflected in the water. I tried to take a picture on my phone but it did not work.

On Saturday there was class at 11. I cycled up and arrived and Adam was like you missed the audition! I was like I no, I was aiming to! But arrived 5 mins before class started which was ideal. Chris and Campbell covered different basics, touch n go, body movement, open, and something else. They did it as a 3 hour class with mini breaks between. They are excellent teachers and if you get a chance def go to one of their classes, or better, dance with them. So my classes finished at 2 and I headed home, would have cycled if there had been a bike there but ended up walking. Spent the rest of the day just chilling out before going for a bbq on Långholmen with ‘the English’.

Then Sat night I decided to walk up to the blues place. There wasn’t very many people there over the weekend which meant that we ended up dancing more. Esp because the numbers were about even. Sat night I felt like I danced better generally, and had a couple more brilliant dances with teacher Chris. I also tried watching Campbell to see if some of her brilliance would rub off but I fear that is wishful thinking. One of the reasons I think she’s brilliant is that she’s what I would call a really quiet follow, listening totally to the lead and adding quiet styling, not big showing stuff. Plus she clearly enjoys all the dances, which makes anyone more watchable. So I again stayed until I was tired and needed to leave.

On Sunday level 1 classes were in the afternoon, with us not starting until 2, a definite bonus. We covered close hold, being told class is a safe place - we’re nice I promise, knee bends – that one I was somewhat unconvinced by tho the theory worked better in the dance than the class– in class it just felt weird, dancing with eyes closed, and musicality. The musicality exercise was a lot of fun. They had stuck up words like happy and angry and sleepy and caffeinated and each took turns (lead or follow) picking one and dancing it for the other to guess. Then they had us both do it at the same time. That was hilarious as I was being happy while my partner was being evil! He wasn’t evil enough for me to guess correctly tho. When I explained this to Paul he said he should have dropped me and tripped me up, which would have been somewhat evil, but I guess he’s too nice a person for that.

So then Sunday “night” was really from 5 when our class finished. There wasn’t a lot of folks left. A couple of folks disappeared and then came back. I managed to sneak in lots of dancing with teacher Chris, including getting one videoed so I could critique myself. And also got lots of dancing with Adam. There was a whole bunch of chatting. Velody asked if you could do Shorty Georges while lying on the floor. Which seemed like a reasonable question to me. Then she went with the random wiggling around on the floor. And there may be a video somewhere of all of this. These was a large discussion about different dances as we got invaded by a couple of west coast swingers. Teacher Chris was saying he thinks its good to try a lot of different dances, then you get to see what you really like best. And you can infuse bits, do things in different ways. And dancing is good. The general opinion tho was that swing definitely has the best atmosphere and social attitude, but it did make me feel like I should try some other dances. Anyone for a tango class?

Sunday had some brilliant music choices, including the shake your tail feather song. Had some excellent dancing moments with Adam. He was like that was awesome! I was like blues not so much but random following, that I can do! He refused to lindy to the Outkast song. So Chris came and lindy-ed with me. He apologised for being in outdoor shoes but I’m not sure it made much difference. It did feel weird tho dancing with someone other than Ranj since that meant there were no jumps, and different moves! Weird!

So then I managed to finish up the weekend with a couple of dances with teacher Chris and then the last dance with Adam. Then there was hugs all round, lots of mutual appreciation and a cycle home.

Mon 23^rd May

Work as usual. Managed just about not to fall asleep. Then the boys came round for a movie night to watch the first half of the Godfather 2.

Tuesday was supposed to be the second half of the Godfather 2, but there apparently is tennis on. And Alex (one of our Swedes) is particularly fond of tennis so we all ended up going round to the boys’ house since they have Eurosport which currently means tennis. So we all watched that for a while. I routed for the guy who lost to Nadal, just cos he was playing Nadal. And got told off for saying he probably isn’t very good at dancing. I wasn’t being mean, the guy’s 6’9 – he’s less likely to be graceful is all!

And that leads back into a dancing night, which can wait for the next entry!

Easter Week to the End of April (or Nearly)

I know – I’m so behind, and the longer I leave it the more behind I get!! So I shall start catching up but still be out of date, and I shall distract you with a quote that really should have gone with the last entry but …

All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing. MOLIERE

The week before Easter was very much a beautiful weather week. Which meant that we got to spend Fika (our coffee break time) sitting in a line in the sun on one of the terraces. Its so relaxing to do that in the middle of the working day. Makes the day seem so much nicer. But it must have been funny to see since we would be in a line facing one way in the morning, mostly around tables at lunch and then a line facing the other way in the afternoon. Sometimes we end up with more than 1 line which makes me feel like there should be some sort of entertainment in the corner of the terrace.

The good thing about moving somewhere new, esp for a limited time is that you don’t say no to activites. So two of the gigs I’ve been to I wouldn’t have gone to, but that’s what ppl were doing, and my options are usually do that or stay in, or find something to do on my own, and I’ve actually had a lot of fun doing random stuff I wouldn’t usually do. I’m starting to feel like this is a good way to live, instead of the total routine I was used to. I’ve started taking random different routes to work just for fun, which I would have never done before, before it was always just take the flattest quickest route. The other day on the way home I decided to turn left instead of right which meant I ended up further exploring the park near me, and getting to scramble down a rockyish edge and then find the waterfront and a whole bunch of streets I hadn’t been down. One of those ‘I hope I’m going the right way’ kind of moments. 

So the Wednesday before Easter I was due to fly home about 6ish. I got into work in the morning and thought I should try the online check in thing. But it said you can only do that 23 hours before your flight. I was like erm.. that should be fine, only to then discover that the booking had been made for the wrong month!! That created a small amount of stress. Esp because Brita, the lady who books (thru a travel agent) the flights, wasn’t in. and no one even knew if she was coming in. so I had a look for some new flights because that’s the only think I could think to do, and then wasn’t sure whether to book them or not. But I could only find massively expensive ones and the timings weren’t a great deal better. Also my stress levels increased as the number of available flights went down, because apparently everyone wants to fly at the same time over Easter – big surprise there huh. So then it finally occurred to us, having asked many members of the team that I could just call the travel agents, but since I didn’t know whose mistake it was I had to be careful over language. The lady from that called me back and said it would be about £600 to change my flights. So I sat there panicking some more cos I cant ok that, and wasn’t sure who could. So I went to explain all this to our English team leader Nick who also didn’t wanna ok that. He said lets ask Sanna, who’s the head of our department, but she was in a meeting for most of the day. So I was panicking some. I made it thru Fika without having too much to say or yelling at anyone which felt like a small victory, and then ran into Brita who said if that’s what it costs for you to go home then that’s just what it costs. I was like wow, ok, so different from the uk where they would have argued all ways to make it less expensive. So then I had to call the travel agents back again and we talked about various flights and she managed to book new flights for less than the cost of changing it. I was like phew. Until the booking came thru on the email and it said that if the name is spelled wrong it counts as a name change and should be done immediately! So my booking under ‘Nikki’ worried me a little but we decided just to ignore it!

So then me and Paul left the office at about half 3 since he was due on a flight 10 mins after me. We made it to the bus station mostly by luck and good signage and then headed to the airport. The bus route also took us past the site of the hospital we’re currently designing which made Paul very excited and me quite amused. Then we realised how strict the uk is as I managed to check in at the airport without seeing anyone or showing my passport to anyone. In fact, no one looked at my airport until Germany, and even then I think that was just because I was switching to another terminal. The two flights home were fine tho. I was highly amused getting on the second one as I noticed it was the same flight crew as the one from Sweden. Second flight was less good as the food was less good, but better as I was on a window seat instead of a middle seat.

Like all good English people abroad I had no idea what I needed when coming out here and thus went home with a list of things to buy. So I spent the Thursday shopping. Mostly because of the price of clothes (and everything else) over here, but also because I decided I’m really not Swedish shaped so it would be easier. As it turns out I made the right choice, one of the guys went shopping after being in the same predicament and spent more than double!  

Good Friday was a little different this year. It had of course the church service and the walk around the village, as most Good Fridays have, but it then continued on with a fake 3^rd party proposal, and a trip to Leeds. I was in no way in charge of the pub trip that occurred by our early arrival into Leeds (sorry to anyone who didn’t get informed – please don’t be offended it wasn’t planned at all). We then made it down to a wonderful episode of lindy Fridays which only caused a little chaos. The idea of doing 2 classes without footwork was a lot of fun, but did mean I confused a few when I put basics on the end of the routine :o) oops. Was so glad to make it down, tho disappointed in the folks who had said on fb they would be there but weren’t. I did tho have some wonderful dances (and a sleazy one from mike :oD).

I was really impressed with the live band. They played Gypsy Jazz so had a lead violin, a couple of guitars and I'm not sure what else. Tho they played a lot of fast stuff. They started saying which were fast and slow once we'd started dancing, but I think our interpretation of the big apple sped up was a beautiful one, and I loved the polka that me n Christina and Jen n Laura did. That was highly entertaining. Also I was reminded of the importance of choosing the right partner as grabbing Tina when I was leading meant that no one noticed my look of ‘aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!! I dont no what I’m doing!!’ So hurray for Tina and her fancy footwork which made it both fun and (apparently) impressive to see, hurrah!! We did eventually give up the dancing at about 1sh after several dances after the band had finished. I was impressed with our interpretation of their music, and that I got to go clubbing in one of my dad’s old t shirts! 

To make up for the amount of dancing, and the tiredness, I then spent most of Saturday doing nothing! We did however go to the Movies in the evening, and see Beastly. Not exactly sure it does what it says on the tin (he doesn’t learn his lesson!! And it still bugs me that she doesn’t care that he lied to her for months!!) but it entertained us for a couple of hours. And allowed some catching up time before hand. Is always good to get a Kell story :o)

Sunday was again a church morning, but then enough time after to catch up with my LL friends. For the first time in a long time I actually managed to finish a conversation of any importance with a Kell!! (Usually conversations seem to end because of a lack of time or the place being inappropriate for the conversation, or the cast involved). And he said one of the best things said to me recently! (I wrote half a blog entry off the back of it but decided it was suitable for here). So that was lovely. And then we made it home in time for a proper roast lunch complete with Yorkshire puddings. Hurrah!! I will have to make some while over here sometime.

Monday morning I had to check in luggage for the trip back to Sweden, and found the one check in person who is silly. I was feeling nervous since I knew that my name was spelled different on my boarding pass to my passport. So when he said he was gonna send my bags to Barcelona instead I panicked some. And I didn’t pay attention to what the label he attached to the bag said, so upon arriving in Dusseldorf didn’t no whether I was supposed to collect bags or not. Which led to a minor panic and a pointless phone call, during the overly long time I got sit in a really boring airport! But then I made it onto the next plane and was almost home again. Luckily my suitcase did make it all the way to Sweden, and there was a bus into town waiting for me. So making it back to the flat was easy. Unfortunately it then took forever to cook some food since the oven decided to switch itself off 3 times at different points so short of watching the oven cook I was stuck.

Then on the Tuesday it was back to work as normal. Only quieter. The lack of Jess and Paul did make it actually feel much quieter. Which made me consider the ever changing English population of Stockholm. I have been relying quite heavily on the fact that there's 7 of us here and that means there's always someone around for Fika and Friday pub trips. But according to the original plans, Paul and Hugo are due to leave the middle of July. Which means that apart from anything else it will get quiet. And that we may need to expand our social group. Of course this assumes that they both will leave and that we will be here til mid September, all of which is up for discussion at the moment. Esp cos Nick (the English team leader) has just signed the contract saying he’s def gonna be here til mid September (he was due to leave early July) 

Wednesday it was back to dancing. It was a quiet week for them as there had been a weekend of classes and dances. That meant that I only recognised a couple of guys. The one guy from the first week that I actually had a conversation with was there tho which I was glad of. He makes me feel a little less like a loner! And I managed to meet an American guy who was very much about making the dancing silly. We spent a whole song laughing, which is exactly what dancing should be. He said he likes to lead in a vague way so that he gets different results from different people and it gives him loads of inspiration for what else you can do. Its totally doable in Stockholm since there's so many good dancers, whereas I think that would likely lead to a lot of confusion in a smaller scene as follows just weren’t sure of what the guy wanted (esp the ‘younger’ ones who are less confident at just doing their own interpretation thing). I did however think hurrah, this one is an easy friend to make, until he said he lives in Luleå, a mere 1000kms away!!  

In true me fashion, I spent the night before my flatmate gets home tidying up whatever mess I had created in the 3 days I’d been there alone! How do I do it! 

On the royal wedding Friday when you lot were all having a nice day off, the rest of us had to work. But luckily for me, the bbc were streaming the royal wedding. I turned out to be more excited about it than I thought I would be. We managed to watch all of the arrivals bit in our favourite café type place (Rosen) and then I made it back to my desk (where there was sound) for the ceremony, without even really aiming to. I then spent afternoon fika telling one of the girls all sorts of random info I’d picked up from the voice over thing about it all. She seemed quite amused!

Friday evening we decided it was too nice and that we were definitely gonna be sitting out in the sun. so in true british style we sat there regardless of the fact that it so wasnt warm enough to. And that we were getting covered in cherry blossom by the wind (including getting it in the drinks). But we are the English and we must. We had a quiet one after work and then I managed to go home long enough to have something sensible to eat (not that I did) before going out to a club which I definitely would have described as being too cool for me. And had a wonderful moment of realisation when looking at my beer, which cost more than the jumper I was wearing!!