At war

Had brilliant time at home, nice presents, lovely family, charming dog, waaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much unhealthy food. All as it should be!

But then i return to London, not at all keen, because after some research and quite a few sleepless nights I've realised that my room/shoe box/wardrobe/whatever you wanna call it is infested by bed bugs. So f*ing disgusting. I HATE LONDON.

All day today; some serious vacuuming (yes, dragged my trustworthy knight in shiny plastic all the way back here from Swe) and enthusiastic poisoning of the room. Now I've banned myself from the apartment for the eve in the naive hope that when i return there will be NO a) disgusting horrible creep waiting to chew on me and/or b) no poison left in the air that will slowly kill me in my sleep.

Sleep tight and don't let the..... x

Home for XMAS!

At work the last few hours now... Soon soon soon I'll be home in the land of Lussebullar and Kanelgifflar. Can't wait!

Lis x

Things I don’t understand about London

Why do the supermarket people insist on packing all the heavy stuff in one bag and all the light stuff in another? ending up leaning slightly to the right because I‘m daredevil-ish enough to buy smoothie, milk, juice and water at the same time is NOT cool

Why can’t commuters understand the simple rule of “let people off the train before boarding”? it will NOT go quicker to get on the train if having a shuffling match in two opposite directions

Why do all the signs and screens at the train station always go out when trains are delayed so you can’t get any info at all on when it will decide to show up?

Why do bus drivers find it sooo funny to wait at the stop until you’re breathing distance away from the door and then drive off?

And WHY do I always whine so much…? :) :) :)

A laugh for the weekend

Hysterically (unintentionally) funny web addresses: http://gigglesugar.com/71649

Brill weekend all! x

Things I want right now.

- A one bed flat in NH
- A blue striped Mini Cooper
- An English Toy Terrier puppy
- A Chloe Paddington bag in light brown
- An aquarium made of a vintage Television Set
- A bag of crisps - any flavour really. Except BBQ.

If you feel like donating any of the above mentioned, just let me know.

Love & Hate.

Hate London.

- having faced shoved into sweaty people’s armpits on the tube
- listening to weirdoes screaming their heads off outside my window
- strolling thru garbage and used nappies on a hot summers eve

Love London.

- having coffee in Starbucks with friends
- listening to cool bands with the music gang a weekday eve
- strolling in Kensington Palace Gardens a chilly autumn morning

One of those mornings.

Forgot wallet.
Missed bus.
Stumbled over own feet down tube escalator.
Hurt right ankle.
Spilled coffee.
Missed train.
Missed bus.
Spilled tea.
Deleted important script.
Spilled water.

It’s now 9.40 am.
Monday.

And to think I never knew....

Breaking news: Milk actually contains milk!!!
Check out http://www.tjuvtittat.se/ for more fun.

Or, for that matter, http://www.engrish.com/ - one of my all time faves. Sample below.

Indeed. Laugh carefully too!

Reasons to smile at the zoo

1. The little boy with the notepad constantly giving me lectures about reptiles – while I’m officially holding the talk (and yes, he knows a lot more than me!)

2. The slightly frisky monkey couple – getting up to “activities” while their poor baby holds on for life on the mother’s back

3. The older lady gorilla showing off her extensive climbing skills – while sporting an attractive brown sack cloth over her head

Just remembered that I actually have a blog.

It’s been a year. It turned out approx like this:

JANUARY
Spent the magical first minutes of the New Year (and the not-so-magical half an hour preceding them) trapped in an elevator the size of a shoe box with approx 25 other happy campers, all in various stages of panic attacks. We did have champagne though.

FEBRUARY
Started to go slightly mad – decided to swap jobs to retain what’s left of my sanity. AND started working as a volunteer at London Zoo; every other Sunday is spent with our closest cousins.

MARCH
New job – same company, less head ache, less heart attacks. Two weeks holiday in a rainy London – and a brill weekend in a rainy Barcelona with the two blondes!

APRIL
Didn’t go home for Easter. Think it was raining.

MAY
We actually had sun in London. And lots of it too!

JUNE
Have no idea what I did this month. But I bet it was raining.

JULY
Paris with A & J – brill time, not-so-brill weather. But managed to pap both Goofy and Mickey Mouse and that’s all that counts. More hols, more rain, more London. And a promotion at work! Woohoo!

AUGUST
Raining. New job starting – producing trailers now for real. It’s cool. Hard work; leaning slightly towards starting some healthy drug abuse, but hey, it’s fun.

SEPTEMBER
B’day. Even older. Tick tack. Barcelooooona again, this time w sun!!!!

OCTOBER
Cold. Rainy. Made a complete arse of myself at the office Kick-Off. And FINALLY – after 1,5 years of being lazy for Britain – I’ve join the gym. Applauds please! Banish those bingo wings to hell! To hell I tell you!! (Not to mention all those chocolate éclairs…..)

NOVEMBER
Even colder, even rainier. And some sad stuff... But still, mostly, all good!

DECEMBER
Well, obviously haven't happened yet.... But my goals are:
- no rain
- less chocolate éclairs
- not making an arse of myself at the office X-mas party
Wish me luck.

A Swedish XMAS

Sitting in "my" room in my parents house (which by the way made J and boyfriend shake their heads furiously in disbelief - it is even smaller than my London apartment), relaxing the day away. I've sort of gone into a zombie mode; spending my days watching awful films with my oldest brother (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, anyone?), eating far to much chocolate and cuddling the not-always-cuddly baby dog. It's sooo nice.

Christmas day was spent at my aunts (whom I'm still pissed off with after the disastrous London visit in November which I haven't told you about but anyway). Got presents, ate food, the usual stuff. No snow in sight, but still felt like a good old Swedish XMAS. Way too much meat for my taste - but it's all part of the scene.

London after New Years. Happy holidays everyone!

Lis xx

Sliding away

Where else but in London can you find a place that allows you to be incredibly childish while masquerading your immatureness as being cultural and arty? Tate Modern’s most popular exhibit at the mo is five gigantic slides; ranging in height from two floors to five. And you get to ride for free! Elbow patches and all.

Oh, London life is good.

Working in the dark

Office power is gone – we are tumbling around in the dark. Well actually – it’s not that bad; important machinery runs on generators and is business as usual – however, lavatory visits and likewise has turned into quite an adventure.

Somehow I like it; it has sort of a intensely Christmassy feel. Sitting in the edit suites with no light except the computer screen brings on thoughts of tea light candles, hot chocolate and ginger bread cookies. But that might just be me.

I’ve been well into The Christmas Spirit for weeks now – Xmas Campaigns is under production; leaving me listening to soft Christmas music all day long. Quite nice, but dreading the way I will fell in regards to All Things Christmas as the real thing draws nearer. There is a limit to how many times you can listen to “White Christmas” without needing to throw up.

Visit this weekend – little Lara; ex-dolphin volunteer just like me. Fun!

Talk to you soon, Lis x

Time has flown by in record speed...

Since last time:
- Had birthday; missed Big Company Kick-Off but lovely drinks instead
- Found out I’ve been lied to for over 5 months
- Lost some friends I thought I knew
- Found some new ones
- Re-kindled friendship with an Oz-ex, C; commonly referred to as “the Bastard” (but now is rather nice)
- Had visits from Johanna, Rouba and Tony & Caroline from Bunbury

Short and sweet. And probably rather confusing.

Otherwise - work is good; feel in control (most of time). Home is cosy – though shared involuntarily with a very annoying “little person” (read: mouse) called Henry.

New hobby also: go to free cinema previews (if that qualifies as a hobby). So far (no particular order):
- Devil Wears Prada (brilliant light chick flick)
- Children Of Men (beautifully ugly)
- Borat (no comment)
- A Good Year (zzzz)
- Little Miss Sunshine (fun & uplifting)
- Last Kiss (nah, quite crap really)

Coming up: Starter For Ten (on Wed) and whatever pops up in my inbox. Brilliant. Love cinema – have no money – free is great. I love London.

Feathers & Costumes

The Notting Hill Carnical has come and gone; leaving tons of rubbish in it's wake. Last night the partying and the music was heard all the way to my room with an astounding clarity into the small hours - and I live at least five minutes walk from the very very outskirts of the festival area.

Walking through town this weekend (or just trying to get to your front door), the most extraordinary random sights awaits you. My quiet little street had been temporarily turned into a stable; police horses and dung galore. The streets - even here in Queensway - are lined with litter in such an arresting amount it feels almost surreal. You could literally swim in it. I'm not kidding.

Sunday night I spent walking and socializing in Notting Hill with work colleagues; trying to navigate my way through literally mountains of dead chicken parts mixed with interesting unidentifiable masses of goo and horse shit (pardon my French). Finally we ended up having an improvised party in the middle of a street still in use by random vehicles; there were no place else to stand.

The carnival in itself was a welcome diversion but not too impressive. I imagined an overflow of feathers and costumes and glitter and dancing; and these things did certainly exist, but in a much smaller scale than anticipated. Some groups idea of dressing up for the carnival train seemed to be plainly wearing the same colored ridiculous and heavily advertisement-filled t-shirts. However, there were some notable exceptions; like one little boy dressed up as a butterfly (or something to that extent) happily posing for pictures in an adorable and confident way.

And these things; messy and noisy and trashy as they may well be (notable is the fact that seemingly all shops in Notting Hill and its surroundings had all their shop fronts and windows boarded up by plywood well in advance to avoid having their shops mugged/plundered/randomly destroyed) - is why I love London. How cool is it to walk into a massive and happily singing/dancing carnival train just five minutes walk from your front door? In my mind, very cool.

I am officially an airhead

Step one:
I purchase food from company canteen.

Step two:
I place plate on desk (main place for food consumption nowadays; qiute sad but that's deadlines for you!).

Step three:
I endeavor to check my emails. Computer decidedly not cooperating; exchanges sites randomly/creates self-made scroller texts/insistently bases the arrow cursor at very bottom of each application.

Step four:
I look very puzzled.

Step five:
I make slightly worried enquiry to my boss (THE main boss) regarding the state of said computer; requiring possible solutions.

Step six:
Boss One & Boss Two (yes, both THE main bosses) examines my computer.

Step seven:
Boss One contemplates v seriously; well nasty things these viruses... Quite frightening indeed. But on the other hand, it might help if you remove your plate from the space button on your keyboard.

Not-so-quick update

Oh have I been busy! Work tempo got put on over-drive two weeks ago; massive deadline after enormous deadline. But it's still fun, I still like it. Am settling in now, think I got it (mainly) under control. That seems to be the view of the management too; grand! Nice people, nice environment, feeling needed; cool.

Free time has been spent mostly arguing with more or less freakish customer service people re random missing packages/cancelled deliveries. 1) my hair straightener has disappeared while being delivered ("there is no record of it being delivered at your address yet, miss"; no shit!), 2) my docking/speaker set for my iPod was apparently cancelled and undeliverable "for unknown reason" ("the courier couldn't seem to find your address, miss, are you sure it's correct?"; "you delivered my iPod at exactly the same address two weeks ago"; "aha, ok, yes, but..."). Intriguing.

Liking my little apartment too. Eventual nightly visits to the "little ladies room" major inconvenience; get dressed/walk down big stairs/walk up little stairs/forgot keys/go back and repeat. But apart from that; feel comfy and relaxed at home as should.

J & boyfr visited in ultra-speed - arrived 19.30pm, left 08.00am - much fun! Very timed, very scheduled bayswater-paddington-edgware rd bar round finished up in old quarters; drinking with the Ex's best friends (as per usual it seems). Good old fun.

Sushi in the night

Had a v lovely evening w new work colleagaues Tuesday; in Soho - quick drink at Gay Bar, Sushi buffeet at Japanese rest, talking and mingling outside v English pub. Much enjoyable. Didn't even get killed/ridiculed for being food/vegetarian maniac.

Was walking home according to plan; when bumped straight into ex-K, old house mate (in fact room mate), sometimes bed mate. Almost crashed into while rounding corner. V strange but fun! So off for more drinks and catch-up. Probably meeting him next week for another drink or two, could be good.

Tonight; coffee w TopShop girl, P. She's sweet, good to keep in touch.

AND I've bought an iPod. Happy happy happy.

To throw yourself in front of a train

Walking into town today (yes I do walk, my butt's grown rapidly lately!), I ended up amidst a frenzy of police cars, ambulances and fire trucks outside Queensway station. 7/7-05 very easily pops into your head living in London, so I had to find out. "Well, love, someone's under the train you see - and it's a bit of a hassle getting him out".

I still feel sick. Why on earth would you do this? And I don't mean to yourself - if you really desperately want to kill yourself, by all means go ahead; but for God's sake think of the poor people who have to scrape you up! Same goes for people who choose to drive their car into someone random else's - what a cowardly way to go. Take a pill for heaven's sake.

However, this particular case might have been an accident/murder - I don't know for sure. But there's plenty of the "voluntary" ones going on too.

On my own and loving it

So the day has come - and gone, actually - I am now "on my own" at work. Of course, still have five million people to ask, and lovely R who's trained me is close by; but I am finally working properly and properly earning my salary. Slightly nerve-wrecking but pretty exciting!

So what do I do? Well basically, I'm the infamous "spider in the net" - I collect/receive information/material and pass it on; fixing faults and problems in between. Calling people, writing emails, fixing production finishing touches. Might not sound too exciting, but is rather fun and interesting. Compared to TopShop; it's a dream! ;)

Calm w/end ahead, unfortunately, most friends away/working. Tonight's lovely though - dining at Hampstead restaurant with A, A's sister and A's boy. Will be nice. And maybe I can score some partying tomorrow...? I'll work it out. I need a man.