“Oh thank you so much. That’s so kind. You’ve made my day”, said the woman at the bus stop tonight. As if by some cosmic co-incidence, the first person I’ve spoken to at length since arriving home (aside from friends, family and workmates) was my travel agent. Although I didn’t remember her name instantly, I recognised her face straight away. Actually, to be totally honest, it was her boobs I recognised. She’s got really big boobs.
I’d planned on popping in to the agency this week to say a “thankyou” and that all had gone well. Seeing her at the bus stop tonight, however, saved me the trouble. And a kind word from a customer she probably didn’t remember, though she faked it well, seemed to help take away the huge frown that was on her face.
I was on my way to see Damo for dinner. We went to a great little Japanese place not far from his home where the food was excellent. It was the first time in a few months I’ve had a meal with someone else where the ordering was done in English. After a couple of months of bonjour, and guten tag, and tack sa mycket, it was a wonderful relief to be able to order a meal and to know that I wasn’t going to stuff it up in some way.
This was my first outing since arriving back yesterday morning. Since arriving back I’ve basically slept on and off. I’ve had some conversations on the phone, though to be totally honest, I’m struggling to remember the content of most of them. Let’s just put it this way: the jetlag fairy hasn’t been kind.
“How long have you been back?”, I was asked the other night by a colleague about my trip to Spain. “Only a week”, I told her, though I had to think about it for a moment, because so much has happened in the last seven days.
Normally, I don’t have much luck getting through customs. Even though I have one of those electronic passports which is supposed to recognise you and allow you through quickly, I’ve never had much luck with it. “You’ve lost quite a bit of weight since your passport photograph was taken” was the excuse offered to me a couple of years ago to explain why it always takes so long. But on this trip, I made it through in record time, even though my passport photograph was somewhat damaged, due to a collision with a water bottle, thanks to the short queue. I was also lucky with the public transport connections. We landed at 8 minutes past 7, and I was literally sitting on my couch at home by 10 minutes past 8.
Oddly enough, only metres from my home, I ran into a colleague, who lives close-by. He was on his way to work, and we exchanged “headlines” about my holiday, and what had been happening at work while I was away.
As we’re going through lots of planning for next year, work has been extremely busy in the last few days. Though I still found time to go out for lunch twice – once with friends, and once with colleagues – which is more than I normally manage. Usually, it’s lunch from the downstairs cafe, consumed in front of my computer. Though I’ve returned to work from this holiday with renewed vigour to go out for lunch as much as possible. The weather’s beautiful in Sydney right now, and I DON’T NEED to work through my lunch-break. I also had dinner with my friend Kate at the awesome BBQ King.
And on Friday night, I attended the annual Andrew Olle Media Lecture. Though I’ve been wearing the same suit and tie for the last fifteen years (probably longer) I went out and bought something new this year. “At least I’ll remember what year it was from”, I told my aforementioned colleague, as you’ll see from the topicality of the bow-tie.
Andrew Olle Media LectureRainbow Tie
Other events from the last week, include attending the launch of Media Diversity Australia, the marriage equality rally last weekend, and then today attending the People with Cameras photo event, centred around Central Park. Catching up with a mate I’ve met through Google+ was also awesome.
On most nights before I go to bed, I look at my calendar for the following day. Often I’ll add a few items to the “to do” list, and maybe tenatively organise a brief meeting or two to finalise or start something.
I’m not one for blocking out hour-long meetings and discussions. My view is that if you do your homework, and have a clear agenda, most meetings can be brief, and are sometimes just a formality. Nonetheless, I usually have one or two meetings – usually half an hour, sometimes an hour – scheduled in for most days.
I didn’t do that preparation last night, as I went to bed within minutes of arriving home from the pub.
So you can imagine my surprise as I checked my calendar on the way to work this morning when I discovered I had absolutely no meetings booked in at all. There were a few items on the “to do” list, but no actual meetings.
In contrast to the last few months which have been extraordinarily busy, it was nice to have a clean run. I managed to knock off everything on the “to do” list for today, and even managed to get ahead.
I made a brief appearance on ABC Radio in the Northern Territory today, talking about Radio Everyone, a pop-up radio station in support of #globalgoals
The meatballs at Ikea today were much improved on the last time I visited their only Sydney store at Rhodes.
Last time, they were a little dried out, they were nowhere near as flavoursome as the ones I enjoyed last year in Sweden, and there wasn’t enough of either lingonberries or the rather curious brown sauce that usually accompanies them.
Also, learning from a Swedish woman in class who said, “I always ask for more lingonberries”, I did the same and was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted. Not quite as good as the meatballs I enjoyed last year in Skansen, but pretty good nonetheless.
Accompanying the meal was some lingonberry softdrink which, to be honest, wasn’t all that dissimilar from creaming soda.
Meatballs in Sydney: Ikea Meatballs with Lingonberry SoftdrinkLight beer and meatballs at Skansen.
Grant, Graeme made this visit to Ikea today with really only one purpose in mind: to purchase some Swedish food for class this week.
From time to time throughout our classes, we’ve been asked to bring some food to “celebrate” the end of one section and the commencement of another.
Marabou chocolate, crackerbread, Glogg and a host of other examples of typical Swedish food have been brought along by members of the class.
So Grant and I were there with the intention of finding something interesting and “typically Swedish” to take along.
I’ll leave it up to Graeme to describe our purchases…
Grant got some kind of cake-sweet that looked like it came from a nuclear waste facility. And James got some caviar in a tube and some Swedish cracker biscuits. And of course they both got IKEA bags because they look so camp! They also got some non-alcoholic Swedish pear cider. James plans to add a little vodka to his to ‘cure’ it of it’s non-alcoholic status!
When we weren’t eating, we were looking around the store at the various bits and pieces they sell.
At one point I noticed a young girl, maybe three or four years old, who was walking around saying the prices out loud, “practising her numbers” so to speak. It was then I realised I was doing something not all that dissimilar in that I was walking around saying the Swedish words out loud.
“Some of the names for furniture are very strange”, I observed to Grant at one point. Ordinary every day words like “kvart” (“quarter”) have been applied to items of furniture for no apparent reason. I wonder if it’s the same in Ikea shops in Sweden, or do the names there differ?
Another highlight, was the decision to take a photograph of Grant and Graeme as if they were in Stockholm against the backdrop of a large poster in the store. It’s not disimilar, don’t you think, to the header page for this blog?
Stockholm? Nah, it’s just the Ikea store in Sydney.
For all the store’s Swedishness, we were a little disappointed they didn’t play Swedish music on the public address system – Roxette and ABBA are too easy – or that their large art works of cities of the world include every other city except Stockholm.
Grant and Graeme are heading off to Stockholm in July. No doubt, we’ll be able to follow their travels via their respective blogs.
PS. This is post #987, which means that sometime in the next fortnight I’ll be “celebrating 1000 posts”. That’s a lot of words to say so little… don’t you think?
“How are you feeling?” Sue asked me today about my forthcoming trip to Stockholm. Sue was in Sydney for a meeting today, by the way.
“I’m slightly apprehensive about the weather”, I told her.
It was then I pulled out my phone and logged on to the weather application which I’ve set up for Stockholm, which gives you current weather information, a seven day forecast, and an idea of what the weather actually feels like. “Feels like” as in the phrase “it’s currently minus 14, but feels like minus 22”.
Today there were snow flurries. Early next week, some sunshine is expected, with temperatures only just below zero.
“That’ll be fine”, I convinced myself.
I am apprehensive though. I’ve never been on holiday to anywhere quite as cold. Sure, I’ve been to the Snowy Mountains, but that’s hardly in the same league as Stockholm in winter/spring.
Sue told me today she had asked a friend who lives in Moscow the difference between minus 10 and minus 30, and was told that at minus 30, the hair in your nose freezes.
I’ve been checking out the online weather most days, and the Stockholm web cameras every other day. Although the temperatures scare me slightly, the photographs never cease to amaze me.
That would be fabulous. Given my current sleeping pattern, how does lunch at 3am Saturday or breakfast at 5pm Sunday sound? :) Seriously though, yes that would be great.
Welcome back… it normally takes me a week to fully get over the jet lag. At least you’re not back at work yet! There’s nothing like falling asleep in a 3pm meeting! :)
Welcome back! Good luck with the jetlag. Feel like catching up this weekend?
That would be fabulous. Given my current sleeping pattern, how does lunch at 3am Saturday or breakfast at 5pm Sunday sound? :) Seriously though, yes that would be great.
Welcome back… it normally takes me a week to fully get over the jet lag. At least you’re not back at work yet! There’s nothing like falling asleep in a 3pm meeting! :)
Thanks Tom – it’s nice to be back,