Sunday, December 24, 2006

Merry Cristmas!



Christmas eve!! which is the same thing as christmas to a swede, in case you did not know....yeppers...christmas celebration in Scandinavia is today. Not that we are the earliest ones out...the Dutch have their bash on Dec 6!

Clara and I are celebrating with traditional swedish christmas dinner tonight at a friends place. Clara have started opening her presents as can be seen to the left...and my own present for myself was a brand new lap top so I can finally get back online here again!

And hey...lets not forget what christmas is really about....spend that extra time with friends and family this year, give an extra hug to those that need it. Send some money to an aid organsiation of your choice, buy that magazine the homeless guy outside the mall sells, smile at strangers and give the dog an extra bone...

Hugs

B

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Screwed

Day 1
Crashed my car, totalled it on one of these middle of the road wires after having been taken over by an idiot who was obviously drunk or high , most likely both......everything went so fast that I did not have time to think. I just lost control over my car and next time I knew I was standing in the ditch looking at my car in surprise. I had Clara with me, and luckily we both escaped unscathed. Frightened, but nothing else.

Day 2
Went to the Bastard of all banks, explained my situation and begged. Finally after three days of fucking me around I got a smaller loan than I needed to buy a new halfdecent used car and in panic bought an old Golf Diesel turbo. A Golf Diesel would have been sufficient....as it showed. The turbo part has turned out to not be such a clever thing.

Day 5
Fucked the engine on the new old car. Yes, people. I had the car three days. Turns out that the people who sold it to me knew what they were doing. Turn sout that the yhad severely neglected the engine and in the end when the turbo blew they had just plugged it. This my friends...are possible to do.....and lasts for approx 100 miles or so....I was damn lucky and got almost 150 out of it!!
Sellers was not to be found- cellphone nr no longer in use....
Ok so, as everyone but me knows....turbo engines are to be avoided. a turbo can be changed and SHOULD be changed now an dthen, a renovated turbo are not hard to come by and reasonable in cost and I was still ok about it.

Day 6
Turns out that the whole engine is fucked - no go. Due to severe neglect by previous owners. Hunt for replacement engine begins.

Day 7
No luck. That particular engine is hard to come by- and friggin expensive if you do come by them.

Day 8
I fall ill with a sever strep infection, end sup in the emergency ward and faints on floor. Mostly due to late arrival since I have no car I had to wait a whole day until a friend gave me lift (no public transport out here in the turnip field).

Day 9 -15
Very ill - bad reaction on penicillin - infection gets waaaaaaaay worse and yours truly ends up in emergency ward on fluids and intravenous antibiotics.

Day 16
Back home, on strong antibiotics.

Day 21
Replacement engine found - purchased to a staggering amount of money (borrowed from grandmother).

Day 22
Mechanic farts off up north ( of course) and me and Clara are camping with gran. It is the worst heatwave sweden has known in years and I feel like dying when going back to work after two weeks holiday. Yes people, holiday. After all, I work for DELL and would not want to jeopardise my employment by doing such a stupid thing as being home sick for a week. I like my work, and love the people I work with but my employer has a habit of firing people who "performs badly". To bad performance counts things like sever strepinfections.

Day 23
DELL starts an investigation into the source of all strepinfections since too many have fallen ill, and a lot of us have been hospitalized.
We are told that there will be no compensation in the form of paid sickleave or budget cuts.

Day 24
We are told that there are absolutely no causes for the strepinfections at the cantina ( no one ever suspected it) and that " it is impossible that it came from the AC because the air comes from the outside" - yes it does, however the temp in the system is 25C ( ought to be 18) and it is circulated......not to mention that people have been sick as dogs for the past six months.

Day 30
A month withouth a car to drive are celebrated by a troublesome busride through southern sweden from malmö home to vollsjö where we arrive 00.32. The lovely trip included lovely companions such as a totally wasted lady in her 60's that snored and passed gas loudly as well as Clara throwing up. Other passengers were clearly more annoyed with drunk lady than barfing Clara though. Always something :)

Day 32
Car is driveable....turns out the turbo on the replacement engine does not feel very well and decisions to send the other one from old engine for a complete renovation are swifty made. mechanic think I am nuts and wants me to get rid of the car asap. I explain that I am ´now so in debt over it that I cant. I have to keep fixing the odd bits until it can last me over the winter. Hopefully. The poor man , who has been working very hard and for very little money ( since he has a heart and feels sorry for me) just shakes his head and declares me mad.
I wash car and decide I hate it. However long I will have this car I will never feel comfortable driving it.
I realise my planned trip to Alabama this autumn goes to shits and are afrid I might loose a really good friend because of it. That saddens me.


Clara and I have gone for a short trip in the wretched fuck of a german nazi lemon down to the grocery shop and shared an icecream.

Clara does not like the car.

It is 23.00 and it is 29 C, that is more than tropical and I could definitely be without it. I long for three days of rain and the clear sky and fresh air that follows....

I guess the good news are that the crayfish in the creek will grown huge and that It will be fun going down there in August....always something...


ah well....that was it....be back soon