Looking back at 2010

It's past 6pm, New Year's Eve here now. Only hours left of 2010! Thought now may be a good time to look back at the year which is about to end. 2010 has been both good, bad and outright ugly. It's not without bittersweet feelings I look back at 2010.

The year started just so so with some till this day unexplained stomach pain which didn't go away for months. The summer was great with some great weeks in China. Autumn has been outright ugly in the first half with my husband leaving me in September and the depression I went through because of that. I turned 25 in October and had a great weekend with family at that time. In November I found happiness in my life again when having video chats with friends from around the world one weekend, and the weekend after that I found the meaning of life through starting to listen to Queen seriously.

My meaning of life is to help people, spread awareness, knowledge and acceptance and help in every way I can with finding a cure for Diabetes and HIV/AIDS.

I feel this passion in life, something I found thanks to Queen. I found my old music interest again, have started to learn to play my keyboard properly. I have plans on taking up violin playing again, I practice singing on my own and want to start playing guitar. I have this dream to sing and play for charity one day.

December hasn't been purely a dance on roses though. I've has issues with joint pain on and off for a long time but the pain has increased along with now affecting many more of my joints. The other week I discovered I'm actually hyper flexible in many joints, and that may well be the reason why I'm in pain all the time. I suspect I may have Ehler's Danlo's Syndrome or as it is mostly written: EDS.

So all in all. This year has changed my life in many ways, in some ways good changes, in other ways bittersweet.

It is with curiosity and a straight back I welcome 2011 in a few hours time.

Happy New Year :)

Christmas

Today it's Christmas eve, the day when we in Sweden celebrate Christmas. My parents and I went to my grandmother in Gothenburg to celebrate and a couple of hours ago we came back home, with grandmother.
The day has been spent relaxing, watching Disney on TV and of course, the Christmas gifts. I'm happy with the gifts I got and everyone else was happy too :)

Tomorrow my aunts and cousins are coming over for the traditional Turkey dinner we always host at home on Christmas Day. I really hope everyone can come.

I took some pictures today both at home and at my Grandmother's place. Will upload some of them later when I've transferred them to my laptop, right now they're only in my camera.

It's been a very white Christmas this year! Think Disney Christmas movies ;) I've NEVER before seen this much snow on Christmas eve, and it hasn't been warmer than -9 or -10 degrees C all day! And it was snowing when we were driving home from Gothenburg. It's really quite amazing! Today is really the kind of Christmas eve/Christmas day you only see in movies.

I just find it quite annoying that, despite having vacation since I was off work on Tuesday, my wrists, elbows and knee is still aching :(
But anyways...



Merry Christmas everyone :)

The final preparations

Trying to prepare as much as possible at home today for my trip home to parents on Tuesday. Did the laundry and dishes today, and going to at least start packing I think. But it is getting kinda late now so I maybe should get my hair dry and sleep instead and finish everything tomorrow after work.

Now I really need to do something, either dry my hair or start packing!

Maybe that's the answer...

I've always been quite flexible, especially when I was about 10-12 years old I could have become a contortionist easily had I just practiced for it.
For the past several years I've had problems with especially my right knee being bent backwards when I don't pay attention to how I'm standing and I'm often having joint pain somewhere in my body. I also have over flexible fingers and wrists and ankles and feet.
As said, I'm almost always having pain somewhere. Back pain for me is a daily issue I've had to learn to live with. Since summer my wrists have started to act up and become painful from time to time so I sometimes need to wear wrist support to ease the pain. I need to take painkillers to go to work many days, but it's not often it helps at all.
All in all, I can't even remember when I had a completely pain free day last time.

I came into this hyper mobility forum the other day, and started reading about hyper mobility syndrome and EDS, and the more I read about it, the more likely it seems I may be having either hyper mobility syndrome or EDS, so many things fit in, including the trouble with painkillers not working well!

Think I'll have to contact my doctor after New Year's and ask him if he can test me for EDS and hyper flexibility or send me to someone who can!

Christmas party at work.

Yesterday it was Christmas party at work. It was my 3rd time attending it and I must say, this year it didn't quite reach its usual standards. The food was good, but really, Italian food on a Christmas party? And there was far too little entertainment. I think most people was kinda disappointed really. The best Christmas party at work was definitely last year! Last year the whole evening was just so much fun!
Yesterday I went home even before the music started, partly because I was bored and partly because I was so tired after working so much overtime lately.

Today I'm so sleepy, I took an emergency nap in the afternoon and ended up sleeping for about 4 hours. Thanks heaven it's only 2 more days of work before I go up to my parents place for Christmas! I only work Monday and Tuesday and then on Tuesday after work I take the train up to my parents and have vacation until January 3rd :)

Time for an update

I haven't been posting for a few days now, and it has its good reasons for sure!
I'm really busy at work and work generally 9-10 hours per day now and when I finally do get home at about 7pm I rush into the shower and then only spend a little time at computer before drying my hair and go to sleep. I try to be in bed before 10pm and lights off at 11pm at the latest.
Tomorrow it's finally Friday again, but not just any Friday! It's Christmas Party at work tomorrow evening! I'm of course attending it, but I have no idea for how long I'll stay as I will be getting up at about 5am tomorrow morning, work all day and then attend the party, after a work week with currently 6 hours overtime shared between 3 days.

I'm the least to say, pretty tired when I get home, and do as little as possible really.

In the weekend I'll also be pretty busy. Need to prepare as much as possible at home and pack my bag for my trip home on Tuesday directly after work. I want everything packed and ready before Monday, possibly with exception for items I need to use on Tuesday morning, like my hair brush.

Now I'd better back my backpack with the things I'm going to bring to work tomorrow as I'll stay at work to shower and change clothes before the party starts. Then off to dry hair and go to bed!

Long week and short weekend

It is a normal week in other words, except for this week being about 10h longer than a usual week as I've been working a lot of overtime. If I counted right on Friday evening after work, I had done 47.5h of work this week, compared to my normal 37h!

It's less than 2 weeks to go until Christmas eve now, and I'm sad to say it, but Christmas spirit just hasn't found me just yet. I love advent time and Christmas, but this year... Well, I have barely even started listening to Christmas carols yet! Right now I'm playing Hayley Westenra's Winter Magic on iTunes, but music wise right now, I wish Queen had made a whole Christmas album!

I'm pretty much done with Christmas shopping now anyways. Bought some more presents yesterday and I'm done with what I can buy here in Copenhagen. The last couple of things I'll buy on the 22nd when I'm in my hometown.

As for Christmas cards... Sorry people, I don't really send any these days. I don't even have time to go to the post office to send any due to my work schedule :( And as I live in Denmark. ALL cards would be international which means I'd have to go to the post office to send them, and the post is not open when I'm not working... I'll simply just wish everyone a Merry Christmas online or through the cards my parents send to people.

Hmm bit difficult to type today. I have this strange cut on my left index finger just at the fingertip, it makes typing feel slightly odd but the worst part is: I don't know when or how I got that cut! I can't remember touching anything sharp with that finger and as I'm currently mainly left handed, it's my right hand getting the most cuts. I didn't notice this cut until I did some dishes just before...

Now I'd better start preparing the laundry bag. Have laundry at 4pm and would rather not have to gather all the laundry 5 minutes before today :P

A Monday from hell again?

One could think so anyways. But this Monday has one advantage compared to other Mondays: This year is about to run out of Mondays!
Monday is that day of the week I'd like to rip out of the calendar, burn the pages and deny its existence!
When transportation to and/or from work is delayed for one reason or another, that just makes my Monday mood even worse! Today my train home was 6 minutes delayed and it pretty much ruined my whole evening.

On a more positive side though... Yesterday my nose piercing turned 2 weeks old, and it's behaving perfectly. In fact, it already pretty much feels healed! But I'll still wait for a few more weeks before treating is as a healed piercing. Now I still treat it like a healing one :)

It looks like it may have started snowing a little outside again. Yesterday it was snowing quite a lot, but today has been mainly sunny and first day above zero for about 1.5-2 weeks. But at just 1-2 degrees, not much happened with the already existing snow. I think this year may well be a White Christmas all over Sweden and Denmark! I hope it will be, most of the time we're just dreaming of a white Christmas even though it's cold and winter here at Christmas time :P

Christmas shopping!

So yesterday I went over to Malmö for some Christmas shopping, and to take a look in this music store I had seen so many times from the bus. First thing I did after getting off the train at Malmö central station was to go to that music shop, and wow, what a place! So much instruments, sheet music high and low and everything you can imagine for playing music! I bought a couple of beginner books for keyboard, or actually, one beginner book for keyboard and one chord book for piano. I have been playing keyboard a bit before, or OK, most of my life, but on small toy keyboards. This keyboard I have now is a big one. I've had it for years but never really played much on it and that is so going to change now!
Until now, I've only been playing keyboard or piano by ear, I only read sheet music for violin and a little for flute. But with this new passion for music I've got in the past few weeks, I've decided to learn playing my keyboard properly and read sheet music too!

Anyways, after I had been to that music store. I went further into town for some Christmas shopping and managed to almost finish my Christmas shopping! I only have a couple more planned things to buy now, but that's things I'll buy in my hometown in a small local shop, partly because the items I'm going to buy is a bit inconvenient to bring on the train, but mainly because I know the shop owner and want to keep the local shops at home alive.

Today I went shopping again, this time in Copenhagen at the big shopping center Field's which is just a few minutes away from where I live. Bought a couple more Christmas presents and did some general grocery shopping. After shopping today, I did my traditional Sunday laundry.

Now I think I'll play some keyboard for a while. Going to try to make it into a daily habit to practice every day :)

Fun conversation with mum

Was just on the phone with mum and mentioned that a friend of mine, Anna, is going on a cruise tomorrow and having to get up very early to catch the flight and that the security check may take a bit longer due to Anna having type 1 diabetes and wearing an insulin pump. Mums reaction? A pump? Is her diabetes that bad? DOH! I had to give my dear mother a whole lecture about pumps and diabetes! Told her that diabetes is not "worse" just because someone is wearing a pump. A pump is a personal choice and can enable better control by being able to fine tune the dose more than with injections.

I think the message got through anyways, as mum went onto saying "But I haven't heard about many using pumps here" and that is true, told mum it's most likely due to the cost and Sweden not having private medical insurance system like USA and Canada has. It's the regions that pays for pumps in Sweden, so it's a bit more picky when it comes to who gets a pump and not. As far as I know, the pump is just for rent, but it's the consumables which costs a whole farm compared to the cost for injections. I'm not very into how pumping works in Sweden though. But I do know it's not the most common way of treating Type 1 diabetes in Sweden.

Can I say mission accomplished now? I think mum learned something new about diabetes today!

World AIDS day!

Today is the day to do what should be done everyday all year really! Spread awareness, kill myths, get rid of the shame and taboo and fight for a cure for HIV/AIDS! This horrible disease has killed millions world wide and more and more people around the world are diagnosed everyday!
I'm healthy and thankful for that, but I really feel for those people who have their lives ruined by HIV/AIDS and want to do what I can to help!
So let's kill off some of the taboo and show support for people who live with HIV+ and their families and friends!

A thing about HIV you hear far too often is that it's some kind of "God's punishment to gay men" because gay men have a higher rate of HIV+ than the hetero population. That is just so wrong! Their sexual preference and use of the "back door" just puts them at a higher risk because the virus seems to be absorbed more easily, and too few consider that risk and don't use protection. But anyone can get infected with HIV! Sexual preference doesn't matter, all it takes is some bad luck, and maybe a few too many sex partners you don't know along with not using condom or the condom broke. My opinion on sexuality is that Love is Love, no matter if someone is gay, bi or hetero. Love is the most beautiful thing in the world! But gay men out there, please do get tested and use protection and stay safe!

Another common category of HIV+ is drug addicts who share needles with others. Needles should never ever be shared! I wish the society would take better care of drug addicts, help them get rid of the addiction and help them back into the society. Many who resort to taking illegal drugs want to quit, but can't! And they may have got stuck with it because of some traumatic experience in the past. The drugs became some kind of relief from the emotional pain. They need help, and until they can quit the drugs, they need sterile equipment and safe environments to prevent the spread of HIV and other infections.

When it comes to the HIV/AIDS rate in developing countries, it's just tragic there's not enough information and lack of money so people don't use protection, along with the myth that having sex with a virgin will cure HIV/AIDS. There are many cases in especially parts of Africa where young HIV- women will be raped by a HIV+ man who believe it will cure him. Unfortunately it just makes it likely that the woman will be infected too, should she become pregnant there's a possibility that the child will be or become HIV+ too, or see the parents die from AIDS a few years later.

Many with the diagnose live in developing countries and too few have access to the medication they need to keep the HIV from turning into AIDS.
But that's were you and I can do a difference! If you can, make a donation to your local AIDS fund! It doesn't cost much and you will help saving lives! If you can't make a donation, then you can wear something red to show your support
So many children around the world are orphans today because AIDS took their parents. It's just not right! There just HAS to be a cure!


Another problem with HIV is that people often live for years without knowing they're infected, it's a virus working in silence, killing slowly and symptoms usually don't come until years later. Just look at what HIV did with Freddie Mercury! He went from looking perfectly healthy to withering away in just a few years, and he had the infection for many years before he found out, he had already developed AIDS when he got the diagnose.

If you know someone who is HIV+ do show your love and support, and help that person as much as you can! Don't behave as if HIV spreads in the air- that's what flu and colds do! But if you do have a flu or a cold you should maybe try to stay away from the person you know who has HIV as that person may be more sensitive to infections than fully healthy people.

If you have HIV, don't let it stop you from living your life to the fullest! Just do take extra care if you get a cut or something and always use protection. Don't hide your condition, there's tons of support to be found. You should not have to go through everything alone! IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT THAT YOU GOT INFECTED!



Who am I then? Well, I'm a 25 year old woman with a passion for awareness and helping others. I'm perfectly healthy myself, and wish EVERYONE could be just as healthy!

With all this being said, I shall get off my soap box and continue practice singing so I can one day start my dream: The awareness choir!

A Monday from hell?

One would think it was anyways... Started off nicely with leaving home just after 8am this morning to go to work, going to work normally takes me about an hour under normal conditions. Today though, conditions were far from normal as we have about 20-30cm of snow in Copenhagen now and as Denmark doesn't have heating in the train tracks where the tracks separate into more tracks, those darn things often freeze in winter! Today was one of those days. Snow, wind and a bitter cold, and as I came to the station all trains were either delayed big time or canceled. I waited in the station for about 30 minutes before a train finally came, having to endure the speaker's happy voice announcing trains every 20 minutes in each direction (and some people on the platform had been waiting for 40 already). Those announcements were the joke of today for sure!
I finally got into Copenhagen main station where I transfer to a local train, luckily I didn't need to wait for more than a minute for that train. Got off at my usual station to take the bus to work, and the god damn bus doesn't come! I had to wait for 30 minutes again! Some people at the bus stop had been waiting for nearly an hour when the bus finally came. When the bus finally came, I had already been on my way to work for over 1.5 hour and I was starting to run late.
Got off bus at my bus stop and walked as fast as I could to work and checked in 5 minutes late! Took me almost 2 hours from door to door today!
On top of it, today was incredibly busy at work, along with everything taking longer than normal because the orders were big or a bit special when sending them out.
Anyways, 6pm came at last, and I left work to go home. My bus came a couple of minutes late and I saw my train leave the station. Said a few well chosen words and walked up on the platform and to my great relief the local trains had started running every 10 minutes again instead of the every 20 minutes it had been for most of the day. Arrived main station and went down to the platform where my train leaves from just at just about the same time as my usual train arrived a few minutes behind schedule. Caught my train and was back home only a little bit later than I'd normally be after going to supermarket on my way home too. My trip home was fine. But this morning and day at work sure was a Monday from hell!

The snow sure looks pretty, but it's just so much problems on the roads and with the public transportation so I really do have a love- hate relationship with it.
Not knowing exactly where my ski trousers are either does make me want to fly south for a while too! When standing outside in this weather, waiting for a bus or train you don't know when it will arrive, you really do feel like a deep frozen penguin from south of the south pole when the bus or train does arrive!
I think my ski trousers are somewhere in my rental storage room, I'll maybe go there tomorrow to look, today I had to go to supermarket on my way and it would have been too late for me to do both shopping and going to storage room today because I needed to get home and into the shower.
I sure hope my ski trousers are in the storage room! It's too freezing cold to only wear winter shoes, a big warm coat and jeans when being outside now. Need to have those trousers too to not get too cold.

Back home again

Have spent the weekend with my family in my home village. It was so nice to just spend some time with family and my cat again. I haven't been at home since October.
Yesterday one of my aunts had a Christmas party which was very nice! So nice to just sit and talk with everyone! And I got to see my wonderful cousin again for the first time for many months! Last time I was at home, my cousin was still in hospital after a major back surgery she had gone through in September.

There's a lot of snow outside now, both in Copenhagen where I live now, and in my home area, more snow in my home area though- it's further north. Here in Copenhagen we have about 5-10cm of snow, my home area has about 20cm of snow.
It's very pretty with the snow now in Advent :) Makes it very Christmassy outside. A winter like this is something I haven't seen before really. Some snow in Advent is not really uncommon, but this much snow, and this cold already is very rare. My home area has had about -10 degrees for a few days now, right now it's -6 there according to my iPhone, and that is pretty rare for this time of year. Those really cold temperatures usually doesn't come until January-February. Here in Copenhagen it's 1 degree now, but funnily enough it felt much colder here when I walked home from the station, than it did yesterday when going out to the car after the Christmas party, and last night it was -10 when we went home again.
Just a shame there wasn't any northern light outside last night as it was very clear sky and "perfect conditions" for watching northern light. Oh well, winter isn't over yet, and I hope I can see the northern light this winter :) I haven't seen it for some years now and it's so beautiful! It's commonly seen in the north part of Sweden and Norway, but not as common in my home area even if it does exist.

And right now I think I may just have heard thunder outside here :O I sure hope it won't be thunder over night! Not just is it very rare in November, but I absolutely hate being alone when it's thundering, especially at night!

Mum had bought a book for me a couple of weeks ago, written by my idol from my teenage years. I read the book over the weekend and finished it on the train back home today. I quite liked the book, but sure hope that guy hasn't gone through all of that he wrote! I know parts of the book was from his real life, like passing out at home and waking up in hospital after a severe low (he's a type 1 diabetic) but hopefully some parts were just parts of celebrity life but not something he had gone through himself. But after reading that book, I'm happy about not being a celebrity! Just too much late nights, parties, alcohol and drugs involved in that kind of life.

I'm still wanting to get into music more, but only as a hobby and maybe for raising awareness and such. But at first, I'll just try to find a non-religious choir to join after the holidays. I really want to get to know my voice better and train it to be able to control it better and sing without getting tired, along with wanting to find some real life friends in this area. My life is on the internet, and as happy as I may be with that, I would like to have a life offline too!

Today I've had my nose piercing for a week, and it looks and feels fine which means it's healing the way it should. Mum didn't see it until yesterday, and when she saw it she actually didn't get mad at me but said it was OK and started to rant about eyebrow piercings and lip piercings instead. Dad seems to not have noticed, or he just didn't mention seeing it, I don't know which. No one in the Christmas party yesterday seem to have noticed it anyways as no one mentioned it. But I see that as a good thing, it means my nose piercing fits me and doesn't become a huge scream in my face, it just melts in with my general look :)

Winter seems to have got to my hands now. I normally don't have issues with dry skin or anything, but now I seem to have very dry skin or some kind of rash on my right hand. It's not itching really, but the skin looks very dry and a bit red, and it stings a bit. Quite annoying, but I think some good hand cream I have at home should fix it.

Now I really should get my hair dry and get ready for sleep. It's nearly midnight and I have work tomorrow.

Posting from the train.

Sitting on a train now, on my way to my parents and childhood home village :)
As I was waiting for the train in Copenhagen main station, I was listening to a choir singing carols in the main hall, and quietly singing along. Made me want to join a choir actually. Think maybe I'll look into that after the holidays. Problem is, most choirs are church based, and as an atheist I'd rather sing non-religious songs.
I'll look into it anyways. The inspiration from this morning mentioned in my previous post today still lingers with me. But guess I'll have to start small and get to know my voice before possibly taking it another step.
But I have ideas, big ideas... Oh how I wish it could be reality one day :)


Right now though, my main focus is to not sing loud on the train, and to catch my 2 connection trains. My connections were tight to begin with, currently running 20 minutes late makes me feel pretty stressed. Can't enjoy the train journey the same way I'd normally do as I constantly worry about having to run between platforms or maybe miss a connection and not knowing how to get to my parents place! My first connection is too far away from my home village so I can not possibly have my parents come pick me up there! Think it's like 130-150km away from my home village. Should I run too late for 2nd connection it's not as bad as it is "only" 55km from home village.
I don't normally take this route with the train, but this time it was the departure from Copenhagen that fit best with my work schedule along with arriving home village a bit earlier. Normally I go along the west coast and just change train in Gothenburg.

Oh well. Will keep you updated :)

Now that's an idea!

It's early morning and I've slept too little again and got up at 6am to prepare the last things for the travel this afternoon along with already being on my way to work about an hour earlier than normal for a Friday.
Now while I was waiting for my commuter train at central station a few minutes ago, an idea took shape in my mind. An idea which will take a lot of time, energy and skill along with a group of people sharing the same passion. Maybe one day I'll be there... With a lot of luck... Oh well, one can have dreams. But I sure would like to at some point in my life, sing with a passionate choir out in the towns in whatever country I live in at the time, raising awareness for various diseases and conditions that today has no cure, any money donated by audience would go straight to an organization which is working on finding a cure!

Now I may just be too sleepy. But this feels like something worth to work hard for!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I've found myself at last!

I had a rough day at work today with a lot of problems with things which made me having to run after certain people rather than actually working. Problems still not solved, but that will have to be someone else project for tomorrow as I'm going to do other things tomorrow at work!
Anyways, so there I was, having a lousy day and the only light in my day was the music streaming through my earphones, filling me up with wonderful tones. A thought came into my head: I believe in music, Queen is my religion and Freddie Mercury is my God!

Ever since I started to really listen to Queen, my life has just changed so much! A bit like when someone suddenly become a Christian or whatever other religion.

If listening carefully to the lyrics in Queen songs, almost all of them have a kind of encouraging message hidden in them.

Listening to the incredible musical talent of Queen, Freddie's magical voice and reading his life story, I've started to believe in myself in a way I've never really done before. I feel encouraged to develop the talents I do have, talents which has just been there for years but pretty much been forgotten lately.

It's a wonderful feeling really!



This weekend I'll be traveling to my home village to be with my family for the weekend. Saturday brings an Advent family gathering at my Aunt's house and I'm really looking forward to it! The only thing I don't really look forward to is the long train trip tomorrow pretty much directly after work. I'm off work at 5pm, my train leaves Central station at 6.19pm (I'll have about 40 minutes wait in Central station after work), and then I'll arrive my home village at 11.22pm! Add poor sleep for the last 1+ week and going to work overtime tomorrow morning because work is so busy these days.



I'm really quite amazed about what some music can do with someone's life. Just a few weeks ago I still felt quite down and didn't see much light in my life. And now I'm a very happy 25 year old woman who takes on each day with a smile and laugh while singing with joy within, and singing out loud at home too ;) People around me can notice a difference too.

Now I'll sing quietly for a bit more while making sure I've packed the things I'm bringing for the weekend, and then time to sleep! Tomorrow will be a long day!

Dear Freddie

Today it's been 19 years since you left earth life. I've been thinking of it all day today while I was working. Have been watching some videos on youtube this evening, and my video for you came up late last night after I had gone to sleep.
I don't really know what to write today, I'm just too sad I guess.

Here's the video I made anyways.



I hope you like it. I'm no good at making videos, but I just felt I wanted to do something for this day.

Hope all is well in heaven!

R.I.P Freddie! We still love you!

An open letter to Freddie Mercury.

Dear Freddie
It's been 19 years today since the world found out about your AIDS. I don't remember the day, nor the day you passed away as I was only 6 years old at that time.
The world has changed a lot through the years since your passing. Mobile phones has become something everyone has now, TV's are flat and in high definition, music is mainly made on computers, computers which are small enough to carry around and they work very fast. People mostly listen to music on something called MP3 player and the device is tiny yet holds a huge storage capacity, you'd easily be able to store all songs ever made by you and Queen in one device.
Pretty much the only thing that hasn't changed much is people's love and passion for you and for Queen. The music you made, the songs you sang, they are timeless! And your voice is still considered the best by many, and I don't think anyone can ever have a better voice than you!
I have been watching music videos of Queen and your solo career on a site called youtube, and that site also has videos of some of your live performances. You were totally amazing on stage Freddie!
I don't think we'll ever see anyone else with the same talent as you had when it comes to music. You were such a natural with everything you did! Your voice is magic, your piano skill is incredible, and your ability to write music just stunning.
I used to take violin lessons when I was younger, I played for little more than 5 years and wasn't too bad at it. I also have some ability to play by ear, but I'm no where near as good as you when it comes to playing by ear.
You're my inspiration! Since I started listening to your magic voice, which is quite recently I'm ashamed to say (what have I been listening to all these years?), it woke something within me! I've decided to take up music in my life again now. I'm about to learn how to really play on my keyboard which has 61 keys, and I'm planning to start learning guitar too, and I want to learn how to control my voice when I sing. My voice is not too bad, I'm just too shy to let it out, and I don't have much control over it and get tired fast. I want to change that!

I'm however sad to say that even if 19 years has passed now, far too many around the world still see homosexuality and bisexuality as something bad or wrong. One would think the world would change after so many years, but no, there's still people who have to hide their true self because the surrounding can't accept what's "different". I'm hetero myself, but I see nothing wrong with bisexuality or homosexuality. Love is love!
I'm also sad to announce that HIV/AIDS still doesn't have a cure even if more is known about it today than when you were alive.
After you passed away, the remaining members of Queen started a fund raising for AIDS awareness in your honor. It's called Mercury Phoenix Trust. They've raised millions through the years, and I'm planning to make an annual donation to the Mercury Phoenix Trust to honor your memory and help others who are in the same situation as you once were.

You were such a strong person Freddie, daring to be yourself to the fullest, being open about who you truly were, yet off stage you managed to keep your private life private and that's just amazing! I really admire you Freddie for all this!

I wish you could still be among us in person, you'd be an older man today, possibly retired from the stage but most likely still making incredible music.

As it is now, you may not be able to be here in person, but in the heart and soul of your family, friends and fans, you live forever and will never be forgotten!

Thank You Freddie for once being among us, sharing your wonderful voice and talent with the world!

I hope you are at peace in Heaven.

Oh, and I hope you like the tribute video I put together for you. But it seems youtube is a bit slow on processing so I'll have to post it for you as soon as it is up.


Yours sincerely.

Jennie

Little bit more than 24h in :)

So I've had my nose bling since yesterday afternoon. So far so good. I don't feel it's there, no issues with it what so ever! Just had a laugh at work today in the afternoon as it took almost all day before anyone even noticed I had it! So my nose piercing is the way I want it to be- nice and discrete and behaving :)
It will just be interesting to see if my parents will notice it this coming weekend. I won't be stupid enough to tell them ;) If they spot it, I think dad will not say much, mum will call me incredibly stupid.
But really, it's just a tiny little nose stud, barely visible. I like it a lot anyways! Should I get tired of it sometime in the future, it will be such a tiny mark it will barely be visible. Now if I had got a tattoo done, I'd think about it for longer than I did before getting this piercing. I've actually been wanting to get a tattoo since I was 18, and I'm 25 now and still haven't decided on what and where.
Maybe one day I'll find the perfect tattoo and have it done. But now is not that day.

Small changes that makes a big difference

Today I've had one of those pretty boring Sundays, both with everything in Copenhagen being closed and having to do the laundry along with the grey and generally dull weather. I just felt like doing something! So I took the train over to Malmö in Sweden in the early afternoon, went to a shopping mall and step into a piercing studio! 40 minutes later I go back to the very same piercing studio and had a nose piercing done! I had been considering getting a nose piercing for some time, just felt I wanted to change something with my look a tiny bit, but I had definitely not planned on having it done today or even before the new year! But anyways, now I have it! I barely felt it at all, and less than an hour later I had already gotten used to the piercing and don't even notice it's there. I had somewhat expected it to be painful, and having tears, but nope, painless and no tears! I only got a little watery in my eyes as when you're about to sneeze but the sneeze doesn't come, but never needed to wipe my eyes.
Ever since I had the piercing done this afternoon, I just feel great! Such a small change really boosted my self confidence!
And while I waited for my appointment at the studio, I went to do some shopping. Bought a stand for my laptop to be able to have it at an angle, and bought a cable adapter for earphones as my keyboard uses the bigger connection and all earphones are the small connection.
All in all, a great weekend with cinema yesterday, buying a lot of Queen CD's and getting that nose piercing done today and finding a cable adapter :)

Next weekend I'll be at my parents place again, for the first time since mid October. If my parents even notices my nose piercing, at least mum will call me incredibly stupid LOL But I'm 25 and can do what I want!

Ambidextrous people rock the world!

By the word pretty much ;) As I was looking for pictures of Freddie for a tribute video I made yesterday as November 24th is the day he passed away in 1991, I found a photo of him playing guitar left handed, which made me pretty sure he was ambidextrous. Some googling today, and my guess was right!
I'm ambidextrous myself, and it's so handy! In fact, I remember this one time when I was going to hold a guitar for the first time ever, think it was in music class in junior school, I first held it as a left handed would and this was before I even found out I'm ambidextrous. I found out I'm ambidextrous 10 years ago now, when I was 15, until then I was right handed with left handed tendencies like wearing my watch on right wrist- something I've always done ever since having those plastic toy watches that always breaks after 2 minutes ;)
Today I mix between writing with left and right, but for many other things I'm left handed. I can't for e.g brush my teeth with right hand, while I do brush my hair mostly with right hand. As for using the tape at work, I almost always use left hand, same goes for cutting down cardboard boxes.
At work I'm funnily enough not the only ambidextrous. I have a couple of workmates who are ambidextrous too, even though they seem to be a bit more right handed.

And they say being ambidextrous is rare? I know several ambidextrous people around the world, and many musicians are ambidextrous too. It's a good thing when playing an instrument :) Maybe that's why violin wasn't too difficult for me...
And no, I haven't learned to be ambidextrous, nor have someone taught me to in my childhood. I just tried writing with left when I was 15 and it worked! After that I've just tried more and more to compare my ability in both hands. The only thing I can't do with left hand is using scissors but I even know purely left handed people who can't use scissors with left hand, no matter what kind of scissors it is.

Being ambidextrous really gives you the best out of two worlds! I think it will come very handy too now when I'm wanting to learn to play keyboard properly, and not just play one handed melodies. Should I try guitar too, it will be interesting to see which will feel better, left or right.

Oh gosh am I rambling or what. It's midnight, I've slept too little all week and felt craptastic most of the evening so I guess that's why I just type out these kinds of random ramblings about whatever.

Oh well, here's the photo I found which made me google and is the reason behind this long post.

Finding your inspiration and motivation

For the past few days I've felt so inspired to start with music again so yesterday I went to my rental storage room and picked up fairly big keyboard (all in all 61 keys) which I haven't been playing on for years really. Being without car these days, going to my storage room meant having to take the bus there (could have walked, but weather was bad) and then carry above mentioned keyboard to bus stop, and then from bus stop to home. Anyways, I got my keyboard home, with it's support legs and cable, in the rain which may still have been snow mixed. Now I'm looking up piano and keyboard lessons online to really learn how to play keyboard. Until now I've only been playing by ear, which worked fine until now when I've set a goal to myself to learn Bohemian Rhapsody ;) 7 pages of sheet music and said to be very difficult to learn.

I've found musical inspiration from Queen and Freddie Mercury's amazing talent, especially Freddie is an inspiration for me with his incredible talent for writing music and playing the piano and sing. Another reason I look up to him is how he, despite being so desperately ill, never gave up! He kept singing until the very end. So if he could do that, then I should be able to really learn how to play keyboard, right?
I do have a fair music ear after playing by ear on small keyboard since I was very young, I actually had a keyboard when I was really little, and it was broken so it only worked if leaning it against something while up-side down! You could even say I learned how to play up-side down ;) After playing violin for over 5 years while in middle, junior and early high school, I do know how to read music too, I just need to learn it on keyboard as well.
I've also started to try to improve my voice a bit and learn how to control it. It's not because I want to become a star or even go to an IDOL tryout, it's just because I WANT to do this as a hobby. I'm also planning to start playing some guitar just for fun, that's something I've never tried before.
I guess I just feel I need a hobby to do at home, after work which doesn't require much time and effort. I'd love to start dancing, but with my work hours it's difficult to go somewhere to attend something after work. Singing, playing guitar and keyboard is something I can do while I wait for my hair to dry in the evenings.
Internet has been my main hobby for too long now, it's time to let creativity flow!

If you are going through some difficult times, or have something in life that just complicates things a bit (like a chronic disease, just to mention something), find someone to look up to! If he or she can do it, you can too!

Nothing is impossible!

Have made a decision.

I'm going to pick up my keyboard in my rental storage room this weekend! I'm so in the mood to start playing again. I used to have bit of a talent to play by ear both on keyboard and violin. I want to start with that again, and really learn to play keyboard! My keyboard is almost the size of a piano, so it's not one of them toy ones. Mine is a real one, from Casio.
I don't know about today, but I used to have a good music ear a few years back, think it's still there, I just need to start with the music again.
May attempt to play Bohemian Rhapsody by ear, who knows.
If I can play Schindler's list on violin without ever seeing the music sheet for it, I should be able to play parts of Bohemian Rhapsody on keyboard... When I played Schindler's list by ear I had not even learned the highest tones in it in violin class yet (and never did) I just found them.

Best song by Queen, ever!

I've totally fallen for Queen in the last few days, especially the song The show must go on. Today while I was listening to it at work on my iPhone, I started analyzing the content of the lyrics while listening, realizing that this song sounds like a kind of farewell song. By the sound of it, I just made a wild guess that it was written after Freddie Mercury got his AIDS diagnosis. Did a google search to know more after I got home from work today, and it truly brought me to tears when I found out that the song was written in the very end of Freddie's life. Upon recording it, he was so ill he could barely stand on his legs! Yet he nailed the song completely. The rest of Queen never even thought he'd be able to sing it in his usual way, but he did! The single was released on October 14th 1991, just 6 weeks before Freddie passed away. It was before he even had made it public that he had AIDS.
Knowing this now, makes me realize the lyrics of the song has a hidden message in it, telling his fans that the show must go on even after he's gone. He's in the song discretely saying he's dying. He knew he didn't have much time left.
It's the last song he ever recorded, yet his voice is flawless!
Singing and smiling until the very end...

Some people seem to be of the opinion that Freddie brought on HIV/AIDS on him because of his sexual preferences. To those people I want to say: It can happen ANYONE if not being careful! Freddie was just unfortunate to catch the infection and it has nothing to do with him being bisexual! It's especially unfortunate that he caught the infection back in the days where there wasn't much knowledge about it, and no good medications for it.
It's tragic how he passed, and I can't even imagine how much suffering he must have been going through before he finally got to rest.

NEVER say that someone brought on a disease on themselves! Doesn't matter what disease it is or the severity of it.

But seriously! Do let him love who ever he loves and loved! There's absolutely nothing wrong with bisexual or homosexual relations! LOVE IS LOVE!

This last part I just had to let out. Some comments on youtube really made me upset!

Now do enjoy this masterpiece and let the show go on!





(On an additional note, in case someone wonder: I'm hetero and have never had any kind of STD or any other potentially dangerous infection)

I accept people as they are!

Monday morning

So it's yet another *beep* Monday. Sums it up what I think about Mondays right?
Sitting on the train to work now, out unusually early because I finished fast at home today and saw no reason to linger and do nothing for half an hour.
Today is going to be a painfully long day! I didn't fall asleep until about 1am last night and I've slept late all weekend to be honest. Just so many things going on on the Internet in my evenings and nights. Getting stuck listening to music doesn't really help you falling asleep either.
Oh well, I'd better round off here as I'm arriving my train station in a few minutes.
Have a great Monday (if there's such a thing as great Mondays) ;)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

World Diabetes Day!

Happy World Diabetes Day everyone!
Hope you all have a great day where ever you are in the world!
I'm wearing blue today, even though I've mostly been at home. Just went downstairs to do laundry earlier today. I would have liked to go into Copenhagen today to take a look around town to see if any building or monument had been lit in blue, but as the public transportation to the central part of Copenhagen is not at its best on Sundays, unless I wanted to take the detour past central station of course, along with it being misty and rainy all day, I decided to just stay at home.

But since blue is the color to wear today, I think this video fit in very well. Yes, look, a whole music video full of little blue Diabetes awareness men!



And again, just like yesterday, I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to Dr Banting and Best for discovering insulin! And THANK YOU all scientists who keep improving the insulin and delivery methods for it to make life better and easier for millions of people world wide.

Happy Birthday Sir Frederick Banting! I hope you are proud over the developments that has been made since you first started treating diabetes patients with insulin back in the 1920's. Without you, many of my friends would not be here today. Thank you for saving so many lives!

The day before WDD!

Tomorrow is World Diabetes Day! It's celebrated annually on November 14th in honor of Sir Frederick Bantings birthday. Millions of people around the world have Mr Banting and his fellow scientists to thank for still being alive.
His discovery of Insulin has saved and is still saving so many lives everyday. I thank him and his fellow scientists for discovering insulin, and scientists after him for developing better insulin types and more accurate and painless ways of injecting it.
I want to say thank you to all scientists who do their best to improve quality of life for people with diabetes by coming up with new and better ways for keeping diabetes in control, and who work night and day with finding a cure!

Blue is the awareness color for diabetes. Tomorrow millions of people around the world will wear something blue, you can do it too! I will!

Do feel welcome in joining in on the Big Blue Test tomorrow at 2pm your local time if you have diabetes, or if you know someone will diabetes, invite them to join in on it. In the meantime please watch the video and help save a child with diabetes :)




If you don't have diabetes and don't know someone who has. You can still participate in World Diabetes Day by wearing something blue to show your support, and maybe spend a few minutes on learning something about diabetes that you didn't know before.

A musical nostalgy trip

Friday evening and I got home from work about an hour ago. Just in the mood to listen to music and go onto Youtube, search ABBA and the Friday evening is complete! ABBA is timeless, and was still played a bit when I was really young. I'm born in the mid 80's. Sitting here listening to ABBA almost makes me wish I grew up in the 70's, the decade with GOOD MUSIC! Most of the songs made today sound like a combination of metal workshop and torture of a turkey! And tone deaf ear torture #1 is no other than Rihanna, closely followed by Ke$ha. I can't stand those two at all!

Right now watching and listening to I have a dream by ABBA, and I see potential to re-do the lyrics on it a bit. Maybe a project for the future. Right now I'm just enjoying the music. It's my favourite song by ABBA!

It's wonderful with weekend now. Going to enjoy every second of it. And do what I can to spread awareness on International Diabetes awareness day on Sunday! It's about time the general population get an idea what it's like for all those million of people living with the condition! I have many friends living with type 1 and family living with type 2. I consider myself a type 3, which is not a diagnose but a person who cares and know a little bit about the condition.

I often sit and google things for friends, especially one friend in China who doesn't know much about what's out there on the market. I try to help him get the hang of things, find better ways of managing his condition. He rarely or never test his blood sugar levels, and even after 6 years of type 1, he's on a pre-mixed insulin twice daily and those few times in a year when he does test his levels, he's always high. I'm seriously worried! He's only 32, and not many years into living with diabetes, so it's not too late for him to take control! But the way it's going now, I'm fearing to soon hear from him that he's got complications!
I'm not pushing him or anything. I'm just looking things up, ask him how he's doing and try to get him more motivated.

OK, now this post become quite a mess of things. But I had to get it all out!

If you have read my ramblings this far, do spend another 2 minutes and help save a child's life!

The trains in Copenhagen

As in any bigger city, Copenhagen has a wide network of public transport through the city and suburbs. With so much public transportation available one would think this city is a commuter heaven. But it isn't!
There's hardly one day without delays, cancelled trains or waiting for signals, or what about people talking on the phone or playing music too loud in the silent area of the train!
I have a 20 minute drive to work from home, but as I don't have a car now I'm forced to go by train, and that takes an hour, not including the possible problems that may occur on the way.
Since yesterday the commuter trains within the city has problems due to a fallen power line in one station, and it's not the first time the power lines fall down. Haven't they heard about screwdrivers and maintenance here? In spring I had 2 days in a week with fallen power lines so it took me twice as long to get home! Ended up having to be picked up by car both those days.
Thanks heaven it's Friday today, only need to go home from work in the afternoon and then I'm off commuting for 2 days and can spend my time on more important things than waiting for late trains and having to listen to other peoples MP3 players in the silent part of the train!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Finally Friday!

Feels like it's been a long week even if it hasn't been longer than any week. So much has changed in the past week in a way. I've made some pretty big decisions in the past few days, found new friends and decided on a few things I'd like to do. But more of all this when I'm not sitting on a train and being about to change trains ;)

Just random.

I have a tendency to sometimes make my own words, or at least I think so. Anyways, it's words others MAY use, but I've never seen before. Today another popped into my head when reading on twitter in my afternoon break at work. My friend Anna woke up low in the middle of the night last night, and when she woke up this morning I asked her if the "hypo fairy" was gone.

A hypo fairy low is a low which comes very unexpected and preferably in the night- as if a fairy just blows some fairy dust on someone and the dust makes blood sugar go low.

Hypo fairy has a sister too, but they're like night and day. While hypo fairy likes to make people go low when least expecting it, her sister Hyper fairy likes to spread sugar dust and hidden carbohydrates around her where ever she goes, making it extremely difficult for a PWD to calculate the carbohydrates.

But the worst of all has to be Mr DKA who has a crush on Hyper fairy. It's when they go out on a date things can go really bad really fast for the PWD who only wants to have good, stable blood sugar levels, or even better: A CURE!

But until Diabetes has a cure, there's only one thing for PWD's to do. Rely on the superhero Insulin who always comes to the rescue when Hyper fairy has been in the neigbourhood ;)

Interesting measurement units

I had a pretty interesting discussion with a couple of friends over Twitter last night regarding measurement units. I'm born and raised with the metric system and celcius so that's what I know. Needless to say I had no clue about anything when I came to USA in 2003 and everything was in ft, miles and Farenheit! Same goes for my trips to UK in 2004 and 2006 when they were talking yards all the time. The imperial measurements just don't make any sense to me at all! And what's even worse has to be when people are driving on the wrong side of the road! RIGHT is right, left side is just... wrong.

But what started the discussion then? Well, such a simple thing as diabetes awareness and the different measurement units used between countries to measure the concentration of glucose in the blood. Most countries use something called mmol/l, while USA together with very few other countries uses mg/dl. To convert between them is simple enough, divide by 18 from mg/dl to mmol/l, or multiply with 18 if converting from mmol/l to mg/dl. Comparing the two of them made me think about how accurate they are. Both are accurate, but I do feel mg/dl is more easy to understand in a way, even if mmol/l is the system used here. I guess it has to do with mg and dl being common measurements, while mmol is a bit more difficult to get the hang of as it isn't as frequently used outside science class.
It will be highly interesting to see if in the future, there will be only one system used for measuring glucose and other medical values.

On Sunday it's international Diabetes awareness day. I'm already wearing blue and hoping people around me will get the point ;)
If you have a couple of minutes to spare, do watch this video and help save a child with diabetes!

The best weekend in a long time!

This weekend, I tried something I've never tried before- video chatting in a chat room! I had such a great time and made some new online friends too! I haven't had that much fun in a very long time, and seeing everyone and talking rather than only typing makes it feel like you're in the same room in a way, even if the people in the chat room is half a world away from where I am.
For the first time in quite a while, I actually felt happiness again! And I was truly laughing because I had fun.

I haven't blogged for a while. I just haven't had the strength to do so. I think I'm strong enough now.

For those of you who have been reading my blog before, you know I'm married and very much in love. Well, in September, my world fell apart when my husband quite suddenly left me and a couple of days later said he wanted a divorce and that he hasn't loved me for years if he ever even did love me at all. It was him proposing marriage and everything! It has taken quite some time to get back on track from all this, I was even on sick leave from work for 3 weeks to get myself together again and spend some time with my family who lives hours away from me.

As of today, I haven't heard a word from my husband for three weeks, no phone call, no SMS or anything, I've just seen him signing on MSN every once in a while, but he doesn't write to me and I don't write to him. I'm determined to not be the one breaking the silence between us as it was him who did all this!
He's the one wanting a divorce, but I'm the one who's been having to look everything up on how to do it. I've made my decision now: I'm going to file the divorce! It's what he wants, but I want to move out of this apartment where we used to live together. It's just too many memories here and it can never feel like MY home because of that. I need a new beginning, a place to call my own and closer to my job. I have something called flexibility in the waiting list in the part of town where my work is located, but before that county can help me now they need divorce papers from me or something called separation approval. I see no reason to bullshit with the separation approval so I'll go straight onto divorce. My husband has moved out and we're no longer living together and don't have any intention to live together again.

After the shock of him leaving me, the man who was my true love. I've realized I deserve better than that. But I'll let things take its time and I won't go looking for a new man in my life. Should Mr Right cross my path, it's destiny who wants it that way!

So... Now you know why I've been so silent for almost 2 months. And the fun I had this weekend made me pretty much forget all my sorrows and I felt true happiness again!

I want to say Thank You to all my friends, old or new, online or offline, near or far, for making life worth living! Love you all! <3

I'm too old for this...

Really, I feel I'm too old to do so many things which most people in their 20's do. I turn 25 next month, but according to a test my "real" age should be 40! And I'm sad to say I do feel more like I'm 40 than about to turn 25.

I feel I'm too old for going out clubbing and such, and I've never had an interest going out.

I prefer to sit at home, relaxing in my spare time.

I like to sleep before midnight even in weekends.

I do not drink alcohol, except for the very very occasional cider and then it's only ONE at a time.

I have a full time employment since 2 years.

I'm not having any globetrotter ambitions, like backpack travel around the globe.

One of my best ways to relax is to read a good book and have a cup of tea.

I sit and complain about today's youth and get along with older people easily and always have.

Really, does my life really sound like the life of a soon 25 year old? I think not!

What I'm really longing for now is for me and my husband to move into a bigger apartment, and I'm so wanting to become a mother real soon!

If my husband was to take the "real age" test, he'd most likely not even be 20 years old. He's out late (too often, in my opinion), he's still a student who has never had more than student jobs yet and he wants to wait with having kids for a while longer.

I'm feeling the time is right to have a family, I DO NOT want to be close to 30 or over 30 when having a child! My parents were over 30 when I was born, and it is something that always bother me and pretty much makes me depressed- I have old parents! And the thoughts comes: How long will I get with them? Will they be able to babysit their grandchild and maybe bring that child out on mini vacations?

My parents age and my age, it's something constantly on my mind, and as for becoming a mother, I feel the biological clock is ticking...

It really saddens me...

Höst

Usch, nu är det höst! September, första höstmånaden. Vill ha sommar året runt ju!

Har fortfarande inte fått min jävla iPhone 3GS från 3! Ringde senast i Måndags, och då hade de inkompetenta idioterna tappat bort min försändelse och inte ens börjat leta trots att jag ringde förra Tisdagen också. Fan, jag beställde ju telefonen i Juli! Hur jävla svårt kan det va att bara ta en returnerad försändelse som sändes till fel adress, och bara framsända den till RÄTT adress.
Börjar tröttna på att vänta nu!

Ibland har man bara oflyt!

Som när kopplingen på bilen går sönder tex. Eller när man får vänta i 6 veckor på att en jäkla telefon ska komma med posten!

Förra Fredagen gick kopplingen på bilen och denna reparation går på nätta 6800 danska kronor! Och jag har fått åka buss och tåg i en vecka igen. Jag som hade tänkt slippa det kollektiva ett bra tag framöver! Så blev det alltså inte.

Beställde i Juli(!) en iPhone 3GS från 3's webshop i Danmark. De har leverans inom 1-5 vardagar efter att man beställt. Om två dagar har det gått 6 veckor sedan jag beställde min telefon och den har fortfarande inte kommit! Först skickades den till min gamla adress, och när den så blev returnerad till 3 (några timmar innan jag kom till det gamla posthuset för att hämta den) så kunde 3's lager inte hitta telefonen fick jag höra i Tisdags när jag ringde IGEN, men att de skulle leta efter den och sända den eller en annan så jag kunde räkna med att ha min telefon om 2-3 dagar. Det har nu gått 4 dagar (ja, det är postutdelning även på Lördagar i Danmark) och FORTFARANDE ingen avi från posthuset om att jag har paket att hämta!
Får jag inte min telefon på Måndag så ska 3's webshop kundservice få höra på en Svensk som tappat tålamodet! Om de så ska skicka telefonen med all express de kan så ska jag fanimej ha telefonen på Tisdag! Nu har jag väntat allt för länge! Nu har till och med mitt tålamod tagit slut!

Nästa gång jag ska köpa ny telefon så blir det i butik! Och vad ni än gör: KÖP INGEN TELEFON ÖVER 3'S WEBSHOP om ni vill ha telefonen innan nästa millenium!

Kanske flyttar snart :)

Fick post ifrån Bröndby kommun igår. Ett erbjudande om en lägenhet på 80.4kvm alldeles intill Bröndbyöster station. Min man och jag är nummer två i kön på den lägenheten, och vi har tänkt att tacka ja. Hoppas att vi får den! Vore så skönt att äntligen få en lägenhet stor nog för två vuxna, katt och framtida barn. Får vi bara flyttat så går det ju att börja tänka lite mer i familjebanorna. Är väldigt glad nu!


Idag fick vi lyxat till det lite hemma med middagen också. Lagade hjortytterfilé med kantarellsås och det blev minst sagt en succé!

Har annars inte gjort särskillt mycket idag. Förbereder mig mentalt för att behöva åka kollektivt till jobbet igen eftersom kopplingen på bilen gick sönder på väg till jobbet i Fredags så bilen är på verkstad nu.

Men men, får vi lägenheten så kan jag till och med cykla till jobbet om jag vill, eller åtminstone ta bussen direkt utan att behöva byta transportmedel femtielva gånger!

Äntligen Fredag/Friday at last

Så jag gick och snackade med vår allvetande sjuksköterska på jobbet idag angående mitt högra ben som gör ont. Hon tyckte jag skulle ringa min läkare direkt, vilket jag gjorde och jag fick en tid redan idag vid lunchtid. Åkte från jobbet vid 11 för att komma i tid till mitt läkarbesök. Läkaren sa att jag inte hade någon propp, och det är ju skönt att höra!
Däremot så har jag en överbelastad sena i foten- den som går från hälen och fram, samt att jag står väldigt mycket på jobbet- ungefär 7 timmar om dagen, har gjort att jag börjat samla lite lite vätska i benen. Fick en sån där elastisk tubbandage historia av läkaren och fick rådet att skaffa ordentliga stödstrumpor att ha på jobbet. Sagt och gjort, blir till att snacka med kundservice's strupguru redan på Måndag!

Just nu sitter jag här i sängen med stödstrumpan på. Benet gör fortfarande rätt så ont och jag är inte gärna uppe och går just nu. Har tagit fram mina gamla kryckor ifall det blir för jobbigt :P





I went to see the know-it-all nurse in customer service at work today regarding my right leg. She said I should call my GP as soon as possible which I did and got an appointment at noon today. Doctor said I did not have a blood cloth, so that's a relief. I do however have an overworked ligament in my foot, the one that goes from the heel and forward, and all the standing at work- 7h per day has made my leg starting to collect a little bit of fluids. I got a piece of tubular bandage from the doctor to use for now, but he did suggest me to wear some kind of support socks at work to see if that helps. So on Monday I'll talk with the support sock guru at work.
I'm wearing my tubular bandage now, my leg still hurts a bit so I'm not really wanting to be up and about much now obviously. Have even taken out my old pair of crutches just in case it gets too troublesome to move around :P


Nä, nu måste jag verkligen få i mig någon middag. Blev inte ens någon lunch idag eftersom jag skulle till läkaren!

Time for a late dinner! I didn't even have lunch today because of my appointment with the doctor!

After dinner I'm going to watch a movie :)

Nearly Friday!

And man do I need that weekend! I'm so tired and my right leg just doesn't want to behave properly. In fact, this week has been crapish, starting with an early stage migraine on Monday and severe headache on Tuesday meaning two sickdays from work!

And then it's my right leg. It has been acting up since last week sometime. Have pain on the back of my leg and the pain spread on and off to affect my ankle and a point under my foot just in front of the heel. The pain is constant, night and day and it doesn't matter if I'm sitting, standing, walking or laying in bed, it hurts!

Yesterday evening it was bad enough to even make me start limping a bit. I've tried everything I can think of: Massage, stretching, resting and nothing works except for some fairly strong painkillers I'd rather not take, so I only take them for the night and end up having to work while being in pain in daytime. I can get drowsy from those painkillers so it's not something I want to work on or drive while they're peaking!
May contact my GP about this shortly as I don't know what's causing the problem and nothing I've tried for it helps.

For this weekend I have no plans really. May just stay home and relax as much as possible now when there's no class reunion to attend ~500km away (one way). Last weekend I drove 1000km solo in just about 48 hours, and that was after working fulltime all week.
But tiring as it was driving that far, it was so worth it! I had a blast hanging out with some of my classmates again! I haven't met some of them since 2004 when we graduated high school, and have not met any of them since 2005.

Klassträff

Så för att bryta lite mönster på denna blogg så kommer här ett inlägg på Svenska också för en gångs skull. Verkar inte som det blir så mycket med min Svenska blogg. Undrar vad det kan bero på (kanske att jag aldrig uppdaterar)...
I vilket fall som helst så var jag den gångna helgen uppe i min hemregion Västra Götaland och var med på en liten men mycket trevlig klassträff! Det var inte många som kom, men vi som var där var det där lilla kärngänget som umgicks på gymnasiet och jag hade inte träffat någon av dem sedan 2005 och en del inte sedan vi tog studenten 2004.
Körde upp till mina föräldrar i Fredags efter jobbet. 40 mil enkel resa, men det är inga problem för min del att köra såpass långt. I Lördags hade jag 13 mil enkel resa till klassträffen så då blev det ytterligare 26 mil och jag kom hem till mina föräldrar igen mitt i natten. I Söndags var det så dags att åka hem till Köpenhamn igen, de där 40 milen. Trött var jag och regnade gjorde det! Men det gick ändå. Såg knappt vägen från Halmstad och ner men det är en annan historia.
Blev allt som allt lite mer än 100 mil på en helg, solo! Men det var det värt :)




If you can't read the text above, you may ask me to translate it ;) I just don't have the energy to write it all over again but in a 2nd language right now. 11.40pm so it's time for bed^^

It hurts...

It hurts when a group members festival is more important than spending quality time together.
It hurts when a friend moving is more important than spending quality time together.
It hurts when even 5 minutes of cuddle is too much to ask for after hours apart.
It hurts when you don't tell me things early.
It hurts when yet another weekend is spent mostly alone.

It hurts so bad I want to scream, throw things around and even hurt myself. But do I? No, because that's how I know you don't want to see me...


All this has happened in the last few days- AGAIN... Yes, I'm hurt and yes I'm crying. Yes, I'm considering cutting myself to let the pain out, but it just gives such horrid scars so I'm not going to and have never done in past either.
I'll just be a good wife and tidy the laundry and clean the bathroom all while the tears are streaming down my face over yet another weekend lost.

China!

I have been silent for a while on here, it's not because I have forgotten my blog or anything. I've just been too busy first hosting parents for a week in China and then doing a lot of other things and generally just enjoying my vacation!
As I write this, I'm sitting in Suzhou, China. I've been here for three weeks now and staying until July 8th.
A lot of things has happened these three weeks. My parents came with my husband and I and stayed for a week to attend our 2nd wedding reception which was held in Suzhou on June 19th and had roughly 200 guests! But the days up to the wedding party were busy sightseeing in Suzhou as it was my parents first and maybe only time coming here.
I have of course taken many photos but as I don't have all of them in my computer yet I'll wait with uploading any on here.
A more detailed blog post will be up once I'm back in Europe too. It's 10pm here now and I'm not feeling too well due to some stomach issues which I'm 100% sure are NOT tourist related. Feels more like I might be sensitive towards something.
Anyways, I need to get my beauty sleep now, I really look like something the cat has brought in!

Nearly there!

Just another two days of work before my vacation begins. I'm yet to even start packing for the trip to China, but seeing I have an hour's travel ONE way to and from work, I have a good excuse... When off work at 6pm I'm rather lucky to be home at 7pm and the first thing I have to do when coming home is to take a shower.
Today wasn't one of those smooth days travel wise... I had an errand at Bodyshop in Central station of Copenhagen on my way home- wanted to buy a gift for my Father-in-law, and when I came out from the shop going to the platform and saw the screens... DELAYS! And cancellations! And more delays...
Called my husband who did offer to pick me up by car, but I decided it was good enough if he could just pick me up at a bus stop somewhere not too far away from home. Said and done, I went out to the bus station and took a 5A towards the airport, got off not far from a crossing where that bus goes left and the way home is right and there my husband picked me up minutes later. Thanks heaven we have a car!

It's been a generally pretty lousy day. The 8 hours at work felt like at least 12, and the strike in Post Denmark didn't make it any better! We worked hard, but not much left the building since Post Denmark didn't come to pick it up. Now we have a fair amount of packages waiting for the post, and a whole lot of customers waiting for their supplies which in some cases might keep them alive and in other cases offer convenience and flexibility. Now if I had been working in a book store with mail service, I wouldn't have been too upset if customers had to wait an extra day for their orders, but I'm NOT working with books, I'm working with medical supplies! What if a customer has run out of supplies? You can't really walk into a pharmacy and find EVERYTHING, sometimes even a pharmacy has to specially order home something for a customer...

Now maybe I should take a look at my luggage for Sunday. Start packing a bit :) My hair is not nearly dry enough for going to sleep yet =X

Almost there!

It's just about two weeks to go now until my husband and I and my parents will go to China! Time really flies past.
I have most things settled for the trip. Got my Chinese visa earlier this week and have planned or already bought the things that I'm going to bring on my vacation both for myself and gifts for my in-laws. I just need to find some more summer clothes and possibly one more pair of nice looking shoes that are both cool (as in not covering too much), light (in case I don't wear them on the flights) and comfortable enough to be worn for a whole day and not JUST when going out to have dinner. It's easier said than done to find something, but lets face it, I haven't really looked too much either yet ;)

My husband and I are driving up to Gothenburg on Thursday afternoon to visit the Chinese consulate on Friday morning to have our translated and stamped marriage certification legalized by the consulate so we can use it in China and register our marriage in China too! It would have been oh so easy if that paper could have been legalized by the consulate or embassy here in Copenhagen, but since the document is issued in Sweden, it has to be legalized by the embassy or consulate in Sweden, and the consulate in Gothenburg is the closest to us in Sweden.
Nevertheless, it's a good 3-4 hours drive to go there! Fortunately my parents live not far from Gothenburg, so we're just going to my hometown and take a day trip to Gothenburg to fix our document. And since we're going over to Sweden in the coming week, we'll just do our last minute shopping in Gothenburg instead of going over to Malmö for shopping next weekend (which was the original plan until finding out we needed to go to the consulate in Gothenburg).

Oh, and you may wonder why I'm blogging at this time of the day as I'd normally work until 5pm (3.20pm now). I'm home from work today due to a bad shoulder pain this morning which made it difficult to even lift my arm, along with some pretty bad blisters on my feet and generally not feeling too well. Could say I finally listened to my body eh?

I'm still struggling with my stomach pain too. Yesterday I had been in pain continuously for 5 months! Which reminds me that I really need to see a doctor before going to China. The OTC painkillers I'm taking now is just not doing it for me! I stick to them anyways now since they're anti-inflammatory and my stomach pain is not unlikely to be caused by Endometriosis and if that's the case, anti-inflammatory generally works better. Ibuprophen works a bit, but it's just not strong enough to make me pain free. So I hope to get something better from my doctor before going on my vacation.

Oh, long post today. Time for me to rest a bit. Feels like I haven't slept for a week or something.

Just one month to go!

Today it's just one month left until I'll be flying to China together with my husband and my parents. And yesterday it had been one year since my husband and I got engaged in Suzhou, totally surprising his entire family! And today it's one year since our engagement dinner which my father-in-law arranged in a haste. Or well, the dinner was planned, but he sure got busy with his phone in the evening of may 12 when my husband and I showed the rings *teehee* He had to call all the dinner guests telling them the good news.

I'm moving out from Malmö on this Saturday. I really should prepare more for it but I'll just take it as it is and smash everything into boxes tomorrow. I'm both too tired and in too much discomfort to go over to Malmö today as well. It will be nice moving out and finally having the same address as my husband! Sure, it will be crowded to live 2 adults in a one room apartment, but heck, this apartment is 10m2 bigger than the double room we had when living together in a student dorm room, so living 2 people in a 40m2 one room apartment should work just fine.
It's only temporary anyways as we're waiting for something bigger which is closer to my work. But until we get a 3 room apartment, this will just have to do because it's so unnecessary to pay 2 rents and being together most of the time anyways.
Now we'll share his rent, and I also rent a storage room nearby for storing my things I don't need to have at home at all times. But all in all, that will save a lot of money for both of us, and it saves me about 30-45 minutes each way to and from work to leave Malmö behind once and for all.
I just hope I'll still be able to keep going to my doctor in Malmö as I've been very happy with that doctor ever since the first time needing to make an appointment.
I'll get my "own" GP here in Copenhagen as well once I've moved over with all papers too, but the GP's here generally don't sit in big clinics like the doctors in Sweden. Here most doctors just have some kind of simple reception office where they can only do simple exams and tests. You might even need to go to another place for more advanced labs! In Sweden you have everything under the same roof, including lab. It's only for X-rays you need to go to hospital, most other things can be done in the clinic itself.

Oh well, I'm rambling too much...

Pollen pollen pollen!

There's a good reason I say I hate spring. I'm allergic to pollen, to many of the pollen in spring on top of that! For the past few weeks I've been sneezing and snivelling constantly without having a cold, and breathing is heavier than normal. I also get tired more easily and out of breath for seemingly nothing.
Right now there's quite a lot of pollen of various kinds outside, but I just can't stay indoor with closed windows when the weather is so nice! Even now I have the window open even though it makes me feel really unwell. But with about 12 degrees at 8.40pm I just don't want to close the window just yet.

Yesterday my husband and I bought our tickets to China, and I bought tickets for my parents too- or well, helped them to buy their tickets. So in June my husband and I and my parents are going to China! It will be my third trip to China and my parents first. My husband comes from China so for him it will be going home. And home we go, to Suzhou. June 19th will be so much more than the wedding between the Swedish crown princess Victoria and her fiance Daniel, it's also the day my husband and I will hold a dinner for his relatives and family friends to celebrate my husband and I got married last October. It will be a neat little dinner with about 100 guests or so and I will be wearing a traditional qipao dress that evening.

Now I'd better go and close that window. My nose is clogging up real bad now :(

Finding the way

Having grown up and learning to drive before the days of gps in mobile phones along with having good navigators in the family has given me the gift of never getting lost. I tend to say I might be on the wrong road but always on the right way. I have never not been able to find my way back if taking a wrong turn simply because my sense of direction is as strong as if I have a built in compass. My husband on the other hand has no sense of direction what so ever. I often call him a gps dependant, over confident grassfoot, grassfoot being a direct translation of what they call new drivers in China. Long story short, my husband can't even find his own workplace without gps and he's both been going with me and driving himself to that area as it is in the same part of town as my work. Anyways, yesterday he came to pick me up at work and we were going into Copenhagen to eat dinner at a dim sum restaurant. My husband was driving without gps which is fine when I'm in the car too :-P He missed the entrance to the highway of course but my inner feeling told me that we should just continue forward and that the road we were on would connect to a road I know very well, said and done and I was right but my husband missed the left turn and we had to go to a parking lot to turn around- no biggie. Missed another highway entrance but again my inner feeling told me we were on the right way, again I was right! My husband asked several times were the hell we were and every time I had an answer even though I had never been there before. Another few missed turns and seeing the same place twice a couple of times, we arrived our destination thanks to me more or less driving from the passenger seat. I had to tell my husband every turn and remind him to be aware of the lanes :-P GPS? Not for me and in my case it's a waste to have it in my phone. My husband couldn't find his shoes without it ;) I'm starting to wonder who grew up in the country side and who grew up in a city with millions of people... As far as I know my hometown only has 11000 people and it was less when I grew up. My husbands hometown in China is currently having a population of nearly 11 million- that's more than my entire home country! Ah, the joys of driving LOL


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Stress at work, feeling down!

I posted this in my Facebook a few hours ago and thought I'd post it here as well.

I'm very happy about my job, but have been unfortunate enough to first be diagnosed with B12 deficiency a while ago and just a couple of months later I got this unexplainable abdominal pain. Obviously this has meant quite a lot of sick leave from work in the past few months. I was home on full time from late December until mid February and have since then worked 50% again.
Today I went home after just a couple of hours work. The reason I went home is completely unrelated to my sick leave. I was just driving the for me wrong kind of forklift. I get back, shoulder and neck pain from that kind of small forklift so I don't drive it normally, today I didn't have a choice and got all of the above mentioned pain plus that a disc in my upper back decided to lock- something which can be prevented completely if I drive my usual type of forklift.

A while ago I got a slightly annoyed SMS from my boss saying that I should report to him or the supply chain manager next time I go home. Well, I would have done that but seeing none of them were available at the time I just talked to my team leader. My boss also mentioned that my sick leave expired on the 17th of March and he expect me to be back on full time by April 1st. I have been in contact with my GP clinic, but my doctor didn't have phone appointment time until Friday this week, and I was in contact with the clinic last week already.
This whole mess just stresses me up completely. The pressure from my boss to get me back on full time just makes it feel like they want me to resign or something. I know they mean well and just wanting me back on full time, but there's a huge difference of what you want to do and what you can do. I WANT to just send this abdominal pain to hell, throw my painkillers to the moon, but all this misery behind me and get back to work on full time, but the reality looks different. I'm pretty much struggling through my 4 hours of work, get home with a headache from outer space most days along with increased abdominal pain, I simply CAN'T work much more than my current hours now even if I WANT to.

If I just COULD, I'd WANT to work 10 hours per day when needed!

My reality right now consists struggling through my 4 hours of work, constantly being under the influence of painkillers (Ketoprophen ER), and taking sleeping aid pills almost every evening! This is not the life I want to have. I can't even remember what it feels like to not be under the influence of painkillers and no pain, or the feeling of working an 8 hour shift.

Just because you normally like something...

Doesn't mean it always tastes good!

I'm not very picky with foods, I just don't eat fish or seafood or odd things (like snakes, bugs, dogs and such).

Anyways. I like tofu and I like green beans. But fermented green beans is just purely sickening, and so is tofu with some salted vegetable (which tastes like strong sea weed), I just can't handle that, it just tastes too bad!

Yesterday I had such an experience in the cafeteria at work. The lunch normally taste good, and I like both rice, beef and bamboo shots. But yesterday's lunch was the 3rd most horrible thing I've ever tasted! It was worse than the worst take-away box you can imagine! The beef was dry and swimming in water which tasted very strongly of bamboo shots which were overcooked, and the rice had some seasoning on top. For crying out loud, you DON'T put seasoning on rice before serving it!

I've cooked similar dishes at home and they always taste good. I like the combination but yesterday was just a MONDAY it seems... Needless to say, I only had a couple of sandwiches for lunch today as the main dish was fish and there were leftovers from yesterday as an option...

Bowling with workmates

Yesterday the employee social group or whatever you want to call it, had their annual Bowling tournament and dinner. It was my 2nd year attending and even though I was out of energy yesterday and would have preferred to stay at home, I did have a good time. My bowling was worse than ever due to feeling weak and tired, but nevertheless, I did play and managed 2 strike and 2 or 3 spare, bad for me but yeah. As I said to my lane buddies- it's the result of long time sick leave and constant pain and tiredness.

The dinner was just OK. It was an Italian buffet. I guess it was nice for people who like olives, pesto and smelly cheese. I hate olives, pesto and smelly cheese which pretty much left me with a few tomatoes and some lasagna and bread. I simply can't stand Parmesan cheese, how people can eat something like that is for me a mystery. It tastes worse than old socks smell! One of the only Italian cheese I like is Mozzarella, but the mozzarella yesterday was quite odd too. The dessert was just soso as well. I'm not a fan of Tiramisu at all. A vanilla panacotta would have been nicer and not as sickening sweet!

It was a nice evening anyways, despite feeling really tired. I got home again shortly after midnight and went to bed more or less instantly and slept all night.
My husband and I went out shopping today and when we came back home I slept again for like 3 hours. 9.40pm now and I think I'll be off to sleep shortly.

The conclusion: I'm not a fan of Italian food except for pizza, pasta and lasagna. And I'm in no fit condition for being up late or bowling!

Now I'm going to take my painkiller and minipill and then get ready to sleep!

Time for an update.

Not much has happened really. I've been too busy doing nothing lately. I've finally started working again as of last Wednesday. It's just 50% but at least that's better than just being at home all the time. My body can't handle more work right now anyways. My husband has finally passed his driving test last Tuesday and bought a car a week ago so now both my husband and I are drivers and we have a car available. We are so going to meet the spring in different parts of Denmark and Sweden now!

I'm starting to get really annoyed with Facebook in the past few weeks, all there is these days are bugs, glitches and errors! And the slowest browser in history- Firefox, is not making my mood any better really.

Sorry all Firefox fans but FIREFOX SUCKS!

Been a while...

Not much has happened since my last post, other than finally having a painkiller which works well for me along with a sleeping aid pill which can help me fall asleep if my restlessness and pain keeps me awake. Been on those pills for 2 days now (taking 3rd tonight) and I haven't felt this good in weeks really. So all good there, and I've got an appointment with a specialist for the 23rd of February so then I'll probably get to know if I have a cyst or endometriosis, or if it's something else related with being a woman which causes my pain. I know for sure I'm not pregnant anyways!

I'm so stuck with listening to Hayley Westenra (again- and I've been a fan since 2003 or 2004), her voice is just so amazing and she's still so young. Just imagine Hayley and Susan Boyle on the same stage, now that would be the performance of this millenium!

Oh and here's my current favorite song with Hayley. Lean back, relax and enjoy!

Sick of being sick!

The title speaks for itself! I want to go back to work! But in my current condition it's impossible :'( It's nearly 1am here now, I'm really tired but can't sleep because it feels like I have knives in my stomach despite taking strong painkillers a few hours ago. Going to take 2 more of those painkillers soon, and start hoping for a miracle. Going to see my GP again on Wednesday, hopefully he'll know what to do next because he really doesn't know what's wrong with my stomach, and I have no idea either.

OK, just took 2 more of my painkillers, if this doesn't help I don't know what to do!

Some big changes in Restaurant City

Last night I got bored and changed the layout and decorations in my restaurant in Restaurant City. All the previous snow and ice is gone, and in comes a refreshed version of my old Chinese theme restaurant, and a bigger garden than before. I'm quite happy with it, everything runs smoothly and the popularity is at max most of the time. There is room for improvement decorationwise but I will improve it little by little. I just don't want to buy too much new decorations now with the Chinese New Year coming so soon- I hope there will be Spring Festival themed decorations in Restaurant City by then. Oh well, a picture of my restaurant as of today.

On sick leave again!

Bah! I had a setback yesterday, and had to again see my doctor and now I'm on sick leave again! This time until the 27th. I've managed to work a massive two days this year! I'm sick of being sick, and now they're apparently checking me for IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) too.

Now that was a surprise!

Googled BigBang for a while just now, just because I thought I could be interesting to know more about the individuals in the group. That was a shocker, I had thought they were at least about 25 years old like me, but in fact the oldest member was born in 1987 and the youngest in 1990! Like wow, so young and already so experienced and their talent seem to have no end. I was born in 1985, making me 2-5 years older than all of them!
I could see they are young, but could never have guessed they were younger than me. But on the other hand, it's pretty darn impossible to tell the age of someone from Asia just by looks, unless they already have wrinkles. Asians have a tendency to look much younger than their true age! I had to get an ID card already the year I turned 15 because people thought I was at least about 18, guess it didn't help already towering at 172cm at that time ;) I had to show my ID quite a few times on bus and train to not have to pay adult ticket!

OK, enough rambling for tonight.

Susan Boyle

I watched a program about Susan Boyle on TV earlier tonight, about her rocket career and success. Found out she had released an album and decided to check it out, so I'm now checking it out online and I can say, I haven't bought a CD in years (mainly because I only listen to MP3 since about 6 years now) but I'm so going to buy Susan Boyle's I dreamed a dream, it's absolutely incredible, amazingly beautiful! Song after song, I get goose bumps and tears in my eyes again and again. I haven't felt like this about music for very very long. Wild Horses has to be one of my favorite songs on the album. It's simply amazing!
I have been amazed by Susan Boyle's singing ever since I first saw the clip of her Talent audition on youtube last year. Today when watching the program about her on TV, both my flatmate and I had goose bumps and tears in our eyes. I'm so happy for Susan, she finally gets to live her dream! And how I wish she had been discovered long ago, she truly has one of the most amazing voices in this universe!

As said above: I'm so going to buy this album!