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 So I shall start catching up but still be out of date, and I shall distract you with a quote that really should have gone with the last entry but …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 3rd 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!!
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