my life: February 2003 Archives

I have had a bad conscience about it since before Christmas. That's when the first reminder arrived in the mail. Since then I have gotten two more and all three of them have a alarming red stamp saying "We have a shortage!"

So today, after collecting the theatertickets for Saturday, I did a good deed. I went to the blood donor center Södertappen.

I have only been a blood donator once before, in August last year. So the nurse was kind to me and asked me how I had felt after the first time and if the iron pills had left any secondary effects. I said no, I felt just fine afterwards and she replied that my blood count was excellent.

- You are a A+, she said.
- Is that uncommon, I asked hopefully, and wondered why I thought it would be so much cooler to have a rare blood group.
- No, not very, she answered, 37% of all Swedes are A+.

She pricked. It didn't hurt and I got a rubber ball to squeeze while she drawed 450 ml blood from me. I studied the ceiling and after a couple of minutes, it was over. When I left, I got to pick a present from a glass cupboard. You don't any money when donating blood in Sweden but the present and a the feeling of being a kindhearted citizen is more then enough ;)

I picked a pink toy pig!

When I got home, I checked the blood bank and saw that the hospitals in Stockholm really have shortage of A+ blood. So I guess I did a good deed today then :)

Heute hab' ich Deutsch gesprochen!

Jenny invited me to meet her Austrian friend Viktor today. He is an exchangestudent from FH Kufstein who currently is studying at our university. She cooked for us and we talked about everything from the skiing opportunities in Huddinge to how the Austrian newspaper "Krone Zeitung" handled the Temelin plebecite about a year ago. Very interesting!

This is my favorite tree casting its shadow on my house (I live to the right on the first floor).

When I lay in my living-room sofa, I have an excellent view of the tree and sometimes, when I feel overstrained and tired, like right now, I just want to stay in my sofa and watch my tree and stop to care about the rest of the world.

I will be feeling such a relief when this week is over.

Please forgive me for I have sinned... I haven't been totally honest with you guys...

Since I started blogging in English about a year ago many of my regular readers started complaining and some lost interest and stopped reading here. The majority of the opinons expressed meant I ought to start writing in Swedish again.

English is not my mother tounge and I understand my texts can be a bit difficult to read and especially since I'm not the world's most brilliant English-speaker.

Anyway, all along I have kept another blog. In Swedish. For many reasons, one is that some things are just better said in Swedish :) Another reason was I thought I needed a place to write where not everyone knew who I were. To perhaps let off some steam without the risk of hurting people. As it turned out, this other blog never really had that function, I more or less continued to write like I had always done.

A few people knew about my other blog (*vinkar till Anna och Elin*) and for the rest of you... welcome over to have a look at Hypodea :-)

I did not join the 75 000 other swedes (according to DN) demonstrating against a war on Iraq this weekend.

I had to concentrate on my article about Estonia. The deadline is today at noon and after writing all weekend I finally finnished yesterday around midnight. Boy was I tired on Estonia by then! ;)

And even if I wouldn't have had the article to blame, I wouldn't have joined the demonstrations. That however, doesn't mean I support a war on Iraq. And not supporting a war on Iraq doesn't mean I love Saddam Hussein. And not loving Saddam doesn't mean I think the american way is the best way in this particular case... and does this babble make any sense at all?