Life-Admin

Life administration is the necessary evil one must contend with in order to have more fun. Every so often I realise that to make my life easier I must go through that big pile of paper that has the invisible label "I'll deal with that later". Later has finally come.

Unfortunately, life-admin always takes longer than I expect. It has an intense snowballing effect. I usually start easy and work my way up to the difficult stuff. It turns out it's all difficult. Yesterday's easy task was trying to register my bank account with the tax office so they can pay me some monies. However, I ended up being frustrated and hungry (because of course I thought it would only take five minutes before breakfast and now it's lunchtime the next day), I'm still unregistered and the rest of the "I'll deal with that later" pile is staring accusingly at me with its "Ha! You thought this was going to be easy? I show you easy!" face on. It won yesterday, but not today. Today I'm going to wipe the floor with its smug 10 page online application which since it has your social security number it already knows all this stuff but just wants to make you fill it out anyway form!

Life-admin in a foreign country takes 10 times as long as in your native land. Official government type web pages usually only have the general information pages in English. For all other pages, you're on your own. After two years in Sweden I can mostly deal with the Swedish or I just ring the help desk and ask really stupid questions. Sometimes a word can be the success or failure of a life-admin session.You know what the word means, you've looked it up in the dictionary but that doesn't tell you what it actually MEANS in this context or how to do whatever it is you have to do in relation to the word. Or perhaps that word is connected to another word, as the Swedes and Germans love to do, then the meaning changes but that's not in the dictionary, only the individual words. So you resort to Google translate, the enemy of learning a language properly. It seems to know the word but can you trust it? Two minutes ago it got confused between 'register' and 'complain' or the classic 'marry' and 'poison'. You know the meaning now but you don't know what to do with it, is there something to click on? Something to email? Something to send in the post? Something to confirm by phone? Something that hasn't happened yet but will next week and then you can do one of the above options (as in my case)? In the end there is a lot of clicking on things and filling forms out that requires a liberal amount of hope, help boxes, lateral language thinking, rejection warnings in red saying you didn't fill this line in correctly and 'oh well, fuck it, I'll deal with it later".

Beautiful Bavaria

Starnberger See, Bavaria.

Very quick post today to give you the link of a few photos that we took on our mini holiday to Munich and Seeshaupt in Bavaria. I realised that I had never been to Germany during the summer, it's rather beautiful. Everyone should go! The weather was perfectly hot, meaning that it actually felt like a proper summer. Sweat and swimming included. Ironically Sweden was hot while we were away with tops of at least 30 degrees. Luckily it's all back to normal now with a balmy 17 degrees and overcast with random downpours requiring an umbrella at all times, especially if it looks sunny, because it's all a trick. Sweden is truly remarkable when it can rain and all you can see is blue sky.

Falsterbo, Skåne, Sweden

My friends and I did actually make it to the beach last week. We had a perfectly hot windless day and headed down to Falsterbo by train/bus. It was my first Swedish beach experience and it was even hot enough to swim. For a Swedish beach it did pretty well for itself, there was sun, sand, water and lots of leathery tanned people. To put it bluntly, this Swedish beach (and I'll go out on a limb and say nearly all Swedish beaches) do not compare to Aussie ones. Think of the Baltic Sea as a very very shallow calm lake where you can walk for at least a kilometre before you are fully submerged. For a half drowning/half swimming enthusiast like myself, it's perfect! Although it does take the excitement out of being dumped by choppy waves, getting sand rash on one's chin when one is forced to do backwards underwater somersaults and swallowing water the wrong way so it goes up one's nose and all one's boogers fall out.
 

A Munchkin at the beach!

Krakow, Poland.

A few weeks ago I enjoyed a merry jaunt to Poland with my dear friend Niki. I managed to get through my fear of public transport and safely (and remarkably easily) arrive in Krakow, Poland. Our days were spent wandering the city consuming delicious food and wine while enjoying museums, galleries and the streets.

Krakow is a beautiful city, full of interesting buildings, history and legends. We found ourselves in fantastic restaurants eating either hearty traditional Polish food or scrumptious Italian. We enjoyed a photo exhibition of surrealist artist Rene Magritte, took a turn around Wawel Castle, a gawk at the Dragon festival parade, a wander through the Jewish quarter, tried to go shopping (and accidentally found every second hand shop in town), entered a few churches and solemnly visited Auschwitz I - Auschwitz II Birkenau.

The downside of Krakow is that it has a lot of tourists. The upside is that there are English translations of all menus. I recommend going on one of the free walking tours if you happen to be visiting. However, take some snacks and comfy shoes. I accidentally joined this tour five minutes after it started and didn't realise it went for two hours. All in all it was a pretty great trip.

Click on the link to the right and it will take you to the web albums as usual. I've divided this album in two. One album is of Krakow city and Niki and I being silly and the other is of Auschwitz. For those of you who wish to look at the Auschwitz photos, click here Auschwitz Album.

I know visiting Auschwitz is not everyone's cup of tea and originally I wasn't going to go either but in the end I'm glad I did. I felt that I probably wouldn't get this chance again and it has certainly affected me. I think what got to me most is the shear enormity of the whole operation. Although this sounds corny, the experience of being there is grounding, incredible and unimaginable. It's not just in a movie or history book, it actually happened to real people by real people on a monstrous scale. Any description I give would not do the place nor my feelings about it justice. All I can say is that I came away with an extremely sad feeling, amongst others, and that's putting it mildly. After being at Auschwitz it was relieving and uplifting to return to Krakow. Firstly, one really needs a drink after being there and secondly, it's nice to see such a thriving city and if it's recovery and vitality is anything to go by, then visiting any part of Poland is a must.

Beginning again.

It turns out that Cara can't read or more precisely Cara can read but then can't write about what she's read. Is it lazy-ness? Is it lack of time? Is it procrastination? Is it that all the books were so bad that they're not worth writing about? It's certainly not the latter but it could be procrastination. Blog procrastination.

When I started this blog I had many good intentions and I even used it to procrastinate from doing other things such as finding a job, searching for apartments, studying Swedish. Now it's the opposite. I make the excuse that my life hasn't been exciting enough to tell you about but I think I'm missing the point. Most people don't blog about amazingly fantastic things that have happened, they blog about everyday things. So from this day forward I'm not going to make any ill-advised guarantees that I will post regularly, that it will have a consistent theme or that I will make my own mini online book club. Oh how silly I was. Maybe I'll surprise myself by blogging more if I have no expectations to blog at all. One can only hope!

Now that I've cleared the air, I can start to blog about random stuff.

Here's a short list I compiled a couple of months ago. It's called "Top things about Sweden". It should probably be called "Random things about Sweden" since I went a bit off topic.

1. You don't have to check your gumboots for spiders.
2. You can (sometimes) just ring the doctor for a prescription renewal without a visit. This happens to normal people, not just the elderly. You have to see the doctor eventually but for a simple repeat it is often granted. 
3. The buses actually go where they say they will and run on time. Canberra could learn from this. 
4. Although the buses run on time or sometimes early (which is almost as bad as late) there is a high proportion of crazy bus drivers who can't quite get the hang of the gears and/or the brake. 
5. The most dangerous animal is the European wasp (this is not based on fact, it's just something I heard).
6. Leg warmers are not just an 80's fashion reference, they are a vital piece of normal clothing. 
7. Most Swedish men (under 40) look like they've been styled professionally and have better fashion sense than the women.
8.  Ice cream shops open in March when it's still below 10 degrees and people actually go to them. 
9. They call a spade, a spade!

Tune in next time for something completely random, it might be about me and what I've been up to or the lost art of using a semi-colon (which I can't do to save my life), or how ones English skills go down the drain when learning a second language. Whatever it is, it will be random.

Catchya round like a rissole.

Oops!

I was intending to post my first book review thingy today but an unfortunate lack-of-pressing-the-save-button-and-accidently-hitting-some-random-keys circumstance has lead to an empty depressing page. This is the second time today just when I was almost finished.

As Kavs would say "It's a sign!", it sure is, it's a sign that I need to give up writing for the day and eat some chocolate (or have a beer). Sorry for the delay. Hopefully I will remember how witty I was in a few days and do a re-write then :-)

Cara can read...or can she?

"'Twas the night before Christmas,

when all thro' the house,

Not a creature was stirring,

not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung

by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas

soon would be there;"

After finishing the latest book "A Dance with Dragons" of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire", the intricate backstabbing fantasy saga, I was at a loss. I needed a break from the intensity of such a momentous book. If I were home home in Osbornes Flat with my now politically incorrect editions of Enid Blyton novels, I would go for something like The Famous Five or The Magic Faraway Tree. I've read them a million times but they are comfort books (if there is such a thing), they smell like real books, some newer than others, some with my Mum's name inside the cover, some with a crossed out school library stamp and either my brother or sisters name below it, but real live books. As you can see, I'm still not convinced by e-books, they just don't smell right! However, I'm not at home home I'm just at home. When I moved to Sweden I brought one book with me which happened to be the second book in the George R.R. Martin series but I brought no comfort books so I've had to make do with Jochen's. His comfort books are the entire Terry Pratchet series. I'm not at a loss for quantity that's for sure. I've read a few Pratchet over the years but haven't really been completely absorbed until now. I fell in love with Mr Nutt in Unseen Academicals and then I decided I should read the whole series from the beginning. So far we have solved one problem, what to read as an inbetweeny-comfort-book. Now for the real problem, after I've finished said Prachet-comfort what will I read next?

There have been a couple of decisions that I believe has lead me to this new page on my blog. One is my faithful sidekick Niki (or perhaps more correctly, I am her sidekick) and the other is Matty Cutts from a TED Talks video. Niki and I decided a little while ago that we were going to become Renaissance men. We had become stagnant and more involved with the lives of people on TV soaps than our own. Therefore we made a few decisions of how to become a Renaissance Man and one of which was to read more. Incidentally, if you are thinking of becoming a Renaissance Man one should "Be able to defend himself with a variety of weapons, especially the sword." (http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/Polymath.html) which we were pretty excited about. The other motivation was a TED Talk by Matty Cutts called "Try something new for 30 days"(http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html). Jochen and I completed a thirty day "No TV" challenge during December. This in turn led to the revival of our bookish natures and in turn the need for new books!

Among some other fantastic presents that I received for Christmas, I was given a plethora of books. So far I've read three of them and I'm currently reading the fourth and fifth (I have to have a bus book and a bed book of course!). The first book I read was a classic, thank you to my family for sending this one. You may recognise it from the couple of paragraphs at the top of this post. "'Twas the Night before Christmas" (unknown author), my all time favourite Christmas book, also probably the only Christmas book. My Mum would read this to me on Christmas Eve every year and it was awesome. Since I couldn't pack my Mum when I came to Sweden, Jochen was kind enough to oblige (unless it was really my Mum in disguise with a beard and long blond hair). I suppose technically I didn't read the book as it was read to me but then what do you say about audiobooks, just because I have listened to it doesn't mean I don't know what's between the covers. 

I will try to post something about each book that I read for this year. I don't want to ruin the books for anyone so I will try to avoid spoilers. I hope this will create some kind of discussion or at least recommendations for new books to read. I don't like the label 'book club', maybe this is more a 'book lover' page. This is mostly a selfish endeavour as I will need a suggestions after I finish this big stack on my desk but hopefully you will get some good tips out of it too. Perhaps if anyone is really keen you can send me your own post about a book you have read and I will happily post it. Check my profile for my email address. Check back soon for the first reviewy-posty-type-thing as I already have a back log.

Happy reading less tv-ing everyone.