Okay, it's time for another update.

The only thing I can blame my abscense on is that I'm busy all day and completely exhausted every evening. Bad excuse but the only one I have.

I did my final test in Nature knowledge this Wednesday. Interestingly, I think I did quite well in spite of hardly opening the books. That's quite a contrast compared to all the efforts I put in Social studies, a final test I also took Wednesday. It ended in disaster. I answered the first two questions and then my brain took a walk, leaving me alone with my paper and pencil. I just hate when that happens. I don't think I answered half of the questions correctly. My only comfort is that it was about financial politics and being the walking, talking economic disaster I am, the questions were not in my favor. I can hardly understand where my own money goes.

I also left my final paper in Swedish class, this Tuesday. We had to write a convincing article about a subject and give a lot of solid arguments in favor of our chosen subject. I chose to write about why I think it is important to increase the amount of lessons for Sex & relationships at school from the fourth grade and up. And I do feel strongly about this subject...

I even managed to find a relationship between the first increase in gang rapes in the eighties and the more serious porn in "gentlemen's magazines" and the even bigger increase from the early nineties and the greater use of the internet that started at the same time. It gave some food for thought...

Anyway, my teacher just had to quote me in front of the class (all female) with the part:

"Opening a centerfold in todays magazines has been degraded into looking at a bigger than life steak tartare with no person behind the pink. It's no more exciting than watching a leftover block of wood from handicraft class. Some things are just better left to see in real life and real life size."
I'm pretty confident I'll get a PwHH.

Surprisingly I also feel pretty confident about the final math test next Wednesday. We've had the opportunity to try out older tests and I had no problems worth mentioning.


I'm still working on the latest project in Web design and it's quite time consuming. I chose to make a web site based on a fictional figure called Jungle-Jim. I've remodeled the site about a hundred times by now and it has to be finished before Tuesday. I've realized I'm not a designer but just a mere amateur doing his best. I still think I'll get PwHH.


This last weekend the whole family went to Vaermland, a part of Sweden I love for many reasons. Several of Swedens most beloved authors lived there: Nils Ferlin (1898-1961), Gustaf Froding (1860-1911) and Selma Lagerlof (1858-1940). There isn't a swedish child who hasn't read, or at least heard about, the story about "Nils Holgersson's wonderful trip" by Selma Lagerlof. Zarah Leander (1907-1981), singer and actress, and Monica Zetterlund (1937-2005) jazz-singer, actress and variety-artist, were also born here.

I also love Vearmland for it's scenery. There are many lovely places in Sweden but Vearmland has a special place in my heart. Strangely this seems to have evolved from the poetry of Nils Ferlin and the novels by Selma, because I had never set foot in this part of Sweden before my late teens.

Well anyway, last Friday morning me, Redhead, LittleAngel and Rambo (the dog) packed our Volkswagen bus (Olga) and drove off to the small municipality called Kil (means wedge). LazyWorm, RazorTongue and CartoonBoy had left the day before together with my mother. Unfortunatly LittleAngel had caught a severe cold which made our trip less pleasant. If you're a masochist, you'll really enjoy a trip with a sick two-year old. We didn't.

Olga's gas/mileage ratio is usually very reasonable with about 1 litre/10 kilometers. Not this time though. Her 60-litre gas tank would normally have taken us all the way to Kil but not this time. We had to fill her up in Gothenburg, which is almost exactly half way. The reason? Strong winds along the coast. As soon as we had passed Gothenburg and drove more inland Olga was back to her normal mileage.

After some trouble we finally found the hostel my aunt (she's younger than me) had arranged for us to sleep at. The view was just awesome. We were litterally living on the beach of the southern edge of Lower Fryken, a three parted lake. I slept like a rock that night. If I can afford it, I'll return this summer.

This was the view that met us at the hostel we stayed at.

This was the hostel we stayed at.

Snow in May?

Now, the whole reason for this trip was that one of my cousins (15 yo) was having his confirmation in church. In Sweden, most young people don't give a damn about God, priests and churches but they do like the presents at confirmation. Which, in my opinion, is somewhat disrespectful against those who really believe.

To my surprise the whole ceremony was led by one of the best priests I've ever heard. This guy really believed and he loved his work. About an hour later the whole family, with relatives and all almost a 100 people, gathered in a house at the foot of a skiing slope. To my kids amazement there was still a big patch of snow about halfway up the slope. Needless to say they had a good time.

After meals and speaches we went to the hostel and started packing. My brother-in-law, FungusBrain, asked if we could travel together. Thinking about it for a while and realizing that he was afraid his car, a very new Chrysler Voyager, would brake down I said okay. Quite funny he was more afraid that his car would brake down than I was about good ol' Olga since he always asks me why I won't buy a new, "better" one. Considering he's already repaired his car for thousands of SEK since he bought it last Fall and I've put less than 500 SEK in my 1989 VW in the two years I've had the fortune to own her, the question has answered itself. But he'll never get it. He'll continue to plow money into his car until he finally gets rid of it and buy another "new" car, brag about it and then start to repair it. He's done it before.

The travel home had one little mishap, my right front tire suddenly started to look pregnant so I had to stop and change it. Other than that the whole trip took about six hours. We would have made it in five but FungusBrain just had to stop at a McDonalds. And when I start to eat, I eat.


Oh, and Olga cleared the yearly inspection too. Guess who's car didn't...