Already looking forward to next year...
20080531
32 good kilometers
...and then my knee broke down. I sucks a little bit extra, since everything else was going pretty well. Anyway, running on when you have knee pains isn't really an option, so I'm trying to be sporty about it ;)
20080530
Tomorrow's Stockholm Marathon
I'm kind of nervous about tomorrow's marathon - it's my first! Sure, I've been running six half marathons and a 30 km-run, but the saying "every marathon runner knows that the race starts after 20 miles" makes me kind of cautious.
I've been preparing with drinking lots of fluids, eating lots of carbs, buying vaseline and tape against chafing. At times the past few days, I've been feeling like I have suffered from some kind of marathon-induced hypochondriasis: "Is my throat sore now? Am I getting a runny nose?"
But, to be quite honest I'm not THAT nervous about the distance. The only thing that really concerns me is my knee. It has been kind of stale since a "runner's knee experience" a month ago, but on the other hand it didn't make that much fuss during Göteborgsvarvet two weeks ago.
We'll see what happens. I start 23 hours and 55 minutes from now :)
20080529
Jan Sadek new ambassador in Sudan
Today our friend Jan Sadek was appointed as the new ambassador in Khartoum, Sudan. It will no doubt be a very interesting and demanding ambassadorships indeed, and of course involving all the challenges in Darfur.
Congratulations, Jan!
20080425
Telephone Line
Not that I am totally unaware of the continuous price drops in telecommunications, but the actual facts always surprises me.
How amazing is this: When I was born, the real cost of a one-minute international phone call was roughly US$100! A one-minute phone call! $100. ONE minute.
Read about it (The Economist).
20080321
The longest not-so-long trip ever and an old communist
Yesterday, I tried to get back from London to my family who are skiing up in Sälen. The plan was to leave London at 2-ish, and then be in Sälen by midnight.
This was, of course, rather naïve. SAS and all SAS hub airports has had constant delays during the past few months - all since they changed traffic system to a "better" one.
I didn't even have to bother to leave the office: a quick browse on arlanda.se revealed that the plane was 45 minutes late already when leaving.
The flight I ended up taking from LCY was only 45 minutes late, which meant that I came home to Vaxholm just after midnight, leaving me with 4 1/2 hours before I needed to get up to catch the train to Sälen.
Banverket came up with the clever idea to shut off the train traffic out north from Stockholm during Easter. Clever idea! This and other delays on the train to Borlänge made us miss our connecting train. Two and a half hours waiting until an alternative route could begin. The poor guy who has the small restaurant "Take the train" on Borlänge train staion seemed kind of chocked when hordes of confused people from a 500 seat train came in and tried to buy food, AND to grab any of the 30 seats in the room.
When I boarded the next "train" (rälsbuss), I quickly noticed two things:
1) The train is destined to make an almost impossibly complicated detour, bringing me a few kilometers from my childhood home in Grangärde
2) The famous/infamous left-wing journalist Göran Greider was sitting just in front of me. He got off the train in Dala-Floda. That's when I noticed that he was wearing a pair of rather tight sweat pants. In snowy Dalarna, in March. Charming.
Soon I'll board a bus (they say), which will take me up to Sälens Högfjäll. If this bus is the first on-time leg, then I might even make it before 1800 hrs. That's basically 30 hours after when I first tried to leave...
This was, of course, rather naïve. SAS and all SAS hub airports has had constant delays during the past few months - all since they changed traffic system to a "better" one.
I didn't even have to bother to leave the office: a quick browse on arlanda.se revealed that the plane was 45 minutes late already when leaving.
The flight I ended up taking from LCY was only 45 minutes late, which meant that I came home to Vaxholm just after midnight, leaving me with 4 1/2 hours before I needed to get up to catch the train to Sälen.
Banverket came up with the clever idea to shut off the train traffic out north from Stockholm during Easter. Clever idea! This and other delays on the train to Borlänge made us miss our connecting train. Two and a half hours waiting until an alternative route could begin. The poor guy who has the small restaurant "Take the train" on Borlänge train staion seemed kind of chocked when hordes of confused people from a 500 seat train came in and tried to buy food, AND to grab any of the 30 seats in the room.
When I boarded the next "train" (rälsbuss), I quickly noticed two things:
1) The train is destined to make an almost impossibly complicated detour, bringing me a few kilometers from my childhood home in Grangärde
2) The famous/infamous left-wing journalist Göran Greider was sitting just in front of me. He got off the train in Dala-Floda. That's when I noticed that he was wearing a pair of rather tight sweat pants. In snowy Dalarna, in March. Charming.
Soon I'll board a bus (they say), which will take me up to Sälens Högfjäll. If this bus is the first on-time leg, then I might even make it before 1800 hrs. That's basically 30 hours after when I first tried to leave...
20080309
The Moderate Party in Vaxholm
Yesterday I had the pleasure of being elected chairman of the Moderate Party in Vaxholm. It feels great, and I thank all our members who have put their trust in me!
Our party has been struggling a bit after a semi-division just before the 2006 elections, but i think the time has finally come for us to start acting united and set the agenda in Vaxholm again. More on this later!
Our party has been struggling a bit after a semi-division just before the 2006 elections, but i think the time has finally come for us to start acting united and set the agenda in Vaxholm again. More on this later!
Working in London for a while
Since last Monday I have been working in London with a UK client, and the project seems to go on at least until Easter.
The days are long and demanding into the extreme, but the project is also great fun. My days here in London look pretty similar: up as early as possible, but sadly not early enough for me to have any time to work out. If I have, it's a great bonus. Then a quick walk from Sanderson's to the client on the other side of Tottenham Court Road, picking up a sandwich, juice and coffee on the way. EAT makes great sandwiches. Then work, work work. And in the evening the same procedure in reverse.
My walks back to the hotel (23:00-ish) gives me an interesting feeling for London's nightlife: From Monday night with only a few souls scattered around New Oxford Street, to Thursday night when the party crowd running around makes me having to zig-zag my way through.
This means very little blogging, and very little time to answer any except for the most urgent e-mails. See you again after Easter ;)
The days are long and demanding into the extreme, but the project is also great fun. My days here in London look pretty similar: up as early as possible, but sadly not early enough for me to have any time to work out. If I have, it's a great bonus. Then a quick walk from Sanderson's to the client on the other side of Tottenham Court Road, picking up a sandwich, juice and coffee on the way. EAT makes great sandwiches. Then work, work work. And in the evening the same procedure in reverse.
My walks back to the hotel (23:00-ish) gives me an interesting feeling for London's nightlife: From Monday night with only a few souls scattered around New Oxford Street, to Thursday night when the party crowd running around makes me having to zig-zag my way through.
This means very little blogging, and very little time to answer any except for the most urgent e-mails. See you again after Easter ;)
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