Stockholm Visited

I am home for a few days before going to Scotland. I have spent some time in the Stockholm Area visiting one of my cousins. It was very hectic... but fun.

Here are some of the things we did:
We visited the Castle and Gardens of Drottningholm (Royal Family Residence), well we walked around outside the castle, viewed the gardens and had a lovely picnic in the park.

Gröna Lund is the amusement park in Stockholm, my sister and our cousins daughter had a blast, riding many of the wildest attractions at least twice, the favorite was Jet line which they enjoyed at least 7 times!! I loved it too.

We also enjoyed the Old Town - Gamla Stan, Royal Palace, Stortorget (another view), all very heavy loaded with history... In the Old Town we also had an Ice Cream in these Medieval Vaults, being a medieval fanatic/lunatic ;-) I loved it.

After all this I have spent some lovely days at my parents home, enjoying the summer that has finally arrived. I did have to sit quite a few hours at the computer though, planning our trip to Scotland...

Hopefully I will post some lovely Stockholm pics later on...
Now I long for the sunshine outside, see ya all!!!

On the Fun Side 2

Alright LOTR-lovers, there is another LOTR around, take a chance to see it, it is "made from famous film footage"...and is a

"...fantastic mash-up of Lord of the Rings, across three decades of movies, casting such big names as Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich Read more at Boing Boing."

I must say I enjoyed it immensely ... The Lord Of The Rings Movie - Remarkable version ;-)

On the Fun Side

I've found a new fun site - typoGenerator! You put in some words or characters, typoGenerator googles pictures, adds some effects and there - a splendid typoPoster!! Here are some of the ones I have "made".

Next one

and the last

Just a quick note

to say I am feeling much better, thank you for all your kind prayers!!! I trust God it will be no after effects from this accident, I'll tell you more later.

I now have holiday and will not post very frequently the next 4 or 5 weeks. My itinerary for these weeks looks as following: Tuesday I'll leave for Stockholm with my 13-year-old sister, visiting a cousin of ours and her children - of my sisters' age (She is more counting them as cousins... finding our real cousin to old...)
Then staying at my parents home for some days, coming home to Gothenburg and THEN the real adventure ;-)....
Me and my friend Jenny will travel by car in Scotland for some 11 days!!! I used to live there 10 years ago and have not been back for all this long time, I am so looking forward to this! A bit worried though at the thought of driving at 'the wrong' side of the road with a british car, shifting gears with wrong hand and everything... Ah well... a new experience really...

Last DVDs seen: Amelie from Montmartre and Calendar Girls.

Accidents happen...

I found myself in the midst of one two days ago, driving along the E6 motor way, a lot of queues and suddenly cars in front of me stops very suddenly, I was the fourth of five cars involved. Some crazy driver had suddenly crossed lanes and created a havoc behind him, I touched a Renault 19 and a old heavy Volvo 240 crashed right into me. The car, won't be around the roads anymore and I have a sore and stiff neck and back pain. No skeletal damage though. Angels must have been protecting me.... I am staying at my parents house while recovering and keep my spirits up, Jesus is with me and He is my comforter. I choose not to worry, it usually (or never) helps. I will not write so regularly for a while, am not allowed to sit here for any longer time... Please do pray for me, I trust this will not cause any lasting pain but the more people praying the better...

It has been a very interesting day...

at work me and my female colleague went shopping some of this panel (picture found here at Arnemarks) for a tool shed in our garden. We then used a crook (joking about having found an alternative way of income...) to remove some of the old ones and put up the new ones... Since I've never done this before, only watched my dad doing it, I feel quite proud of my self.... 

After work I washed the car I currently use and went on a 'Car Selling Date', the car is up for sale at a Swedish Site. My friend who owns it is on holiday so I have been authorized to sell it, oh dear, an interesting experience. This guy checked every thing, said 'it's OK' several times, drove us around doing brake tests and finally said: "I will have to think, I'll get back to you tomorrow". I don't know wether this is a good sign or not :-S

Found some interesting places around the web:
Loobylu had linked to a video by Björk. How could I forget Björk??? I don't like all things she does, I love this one though; "It's Oh So Quiet". Cool, soft and wild at the same time... Now when I've found it again, I keep listening and listening!

Douglas at Belief Seeking Understanding submitted a gadget he found here on my blog for Boing Boing and they posted it. He was so nice and put some credits to me at his blog. Thank's Douglas! He has now inspired me to submit to Boing Boing and this is my first attempt: France Telecom want's us to wear screens, hm... wonder what to vizualize there... emotions? your love? current opinion? It's all there to explore...

Julian Beever makes awesome pavement paintings and since my blog name contains a word for that delicious Java, I just have to announce: Coffee is now considered having health benefits so apart for stomach casualties I guess I'd just keep drinking that stuff....

A Summary for this Past Week.

Sunday the 5th of July, 23:42 hours and it is time to sum up this week:

* Physical - quite frequent migraines, tendency to turn my daily rhythm upside down, too much pollen around and quite a lot procrastination behaviour in the beginning of the week. I have eaten quite well though, not over eating on sweet stuff (well, at least during the second half of the week).

* Work wise - we have at last got our new alarm system up and going, after two-and-a-half years of waiting, violence and suicide can happen very fast, and though we have a calm time now, it is good to be prepared. I have been far to tired at work and have snapped too easily at my colleagues, this I am not proud of at all. Our residents have not suffered by this I hope. I need to make sure to sleep more though. I do long for vacation that's for sure!!

* Time Management - after work to tired to get anything done, days off a lot of resting in the beginning of the week, mostly sitting in front of this screen. During the second part of the week I have accomplished some things on my personal agenda, such as; potting some of my cuttings and re-potting some of my old plants, editing some photos in PS Elements for my friend's CD-cover, resign from quite a few BookCrossing Book Rings, cleaning out my spice shelf (throwing out 10-year-old specimens, yuck, general house cleaning still necessary though.

* Spiritual - God is talking to me right now about keeping promises, right priorities, focusing on my goals and reaching them...just opposite of this procrastination behaviour I usually have...Joyce Meyer speaks on this on the 6th tape of her series "Mount Up with Wings as Eagles" and my pastor spoke about this today at church (how to stay on His Way and why we have to prioritise our relationship with God above all things...and to keep focused.) I have encountered the word "procrastination" (which I use a lot right now as you see) and found a lot of great sources here on the web on how to get out of it... I am working on talking positive in stead of negative, using affirmations like these: "When I set my eyes on something, I keep focus and I reach my goal" and "I love the company of Jesus and seek it every day, hour and minute". I do see progress but I need to stay accountable, that's why I post about it here, dear readers.

* Blog wise - I have been blogging a lot and also read a lot of noteworthy posts from other bloggers:

Rebecca Ryan at Worthwhile talks about a wonderful life philosophy her dying father's nurse told her:

"Rebecca, I'm going to share with you my philosophy of life. Each of us is given five balls. One is rubber and four are glass. The rubber ball is work. If you drop it, it will always bounce back. The other four glass balls are family, friends, health and integrity. If you drop them, they are shattered. They won't bounce back."

This nurse has definitely found some wisdom there and Ms Ryan discusses this theory in a personal way.

Douglas at Belief Seeking Understanding discusses Blogging Motivations, links to Army of One and concludes:

"What would the angels discover if they weighed and analyzed our blogging motivation? I hereby confess to you that there are multiple components in mine, some of which are more noble than others; being truly helpful, sharing information, indulging in wordplay, appearing clever, defending those who are attacked unjustly, expressing spite and anger at the attackers, having credibility and respect in my community, they're all in there somewhere. I can't begin to express it as a percentage. It's not really a confession, because anyone who reads what I write and has one eye open will notice these things. I just want you to know that I know it as well."

What are my blogging motivations? I'm not quite sure, partly to share my thoughts with any one wanting to read them, partly to give something of what I've found important in life to others, partly a lot of egoistic stuff such as be seen, acknowledged, getting a lot of visitors (BTW, I celebrate the 500th hit today!!) and a lot more...

Other interesting blog posts are: Onionboy's on the art to give yourself permission.(via Everyday Matters) and kottke.org has written a funny one about impossible policies... and finally Booklust has a lovely picture and speaks about Bibliomania.

This became a very long post and took about an hour to write, I hope you have endured to read this far... I find it good though, to sum things up now and then.

Problems with IE...

I've just realized that the post titles is chopped off when viewed in Internet Explorer, does anyone have any suggestions how to deal with this???

More on EURO 2004....

Greece striker Angelos Charisteas celebrates his goal (©AFP) 
I just had to share this photo, just as a celebration for the worthy winners of UEFA EURO 2004, here you'll find the original photo.

This is just amazing....

Greece came from virtually nothing and has made such a beautiful triumph!!! Greece is now the Champions of Euro2004!!! Well done and congratulations!!

"Greece pulled off arguably the biggest shock at a major football championship as a goal by Angelos Charisteas gave them victory at UEFA EURO 2004. Having begun the tournament as 80-1 outsiders, the achievement of Otto Rehhagel's team of European journeymen is hard to put into perspective, but once again the belief they have shown in themselves throughout this amazing adventure was too strong for their opponents." Read more...

There is no question about it, they are worthy of their victory, an amazing accomplishment!!

The Ostrich Phenomenon - an apology

To you BookCrossers out there waiting for a book from me...
I have been quite stressed out for quite a while now, when I haven't been working, I mostly have been sleeping or sitting here at the computer, blogging, reading blogs.... BUT all bad consciences such as sending books (along with house cleaning etc...) has been dug deep into the sand along with my head... sinking deeper and deeper into procrastination...
I will now resign from as many book rings as possible (except those very difficult to get hold of here in Sweden, and when they are so much fewer I will be able to post them quicker - also for monetary reasons...) and try to post some books now and then as fast as I can afford it.
Hopefully I then can restart joining bookrings, but just a few at a time... I guess the discovery of BookCrossing and the bookrings made me over enthusiastic as I have gathered has happened to others...
Again, I am truly sorry and ashamed...

More soccer....

A team that had these motivations and goals for the Euro2004:

'Hope remains
Their experience at finals tournaments has not been a happy one so far, but Greece will be hoping for better at UEFA EURO 2004™. German coach Otto Rehhagel masterminded a great qualifying campaign and has high expectations. "We don't want to go to Portugal just to represent Greece; we want to achieve something there," he said. A first-ever win in a finals tournament would be a welcome start.'Link

...is now in The Final!!! Congratulations Greece, this is an amazing achievement... My own personal theory of their success is the 'hot blooded passion and zeal' of the Mediterranean Greeks combined with the 'cool minded organizatorial skills' of their German coach Otto Rehhagel. I know, I know... that is a stereotypical view... but it might have some truth in it...

I surely hope Greece will win on Sunday!!! That would be something!