Yes, who indeed, would have thought that doing laundry could be quite to difficult? Let's start at the beginning:
Last week on my trip to ICA Maxi with Ron I purposely bought washing detergent in liquid form because I knew I wouldn't have a chance to get to the machines to do it any time soon and wanted to do it in my bathroom sink. As I was doing said sink-washing it did sort of cross my mind that there didn't seem to be many bubbles from the detergent, but I carried on anyway. After washing them though, I had a sort of..gut feeling..shall we say, that I may perhaps have done my laundry with fabric softener. Well, this was confirmed last night by one of the Swedish boys in my corridor, though to be fair to myself, my clothes were indeed very soft and seemed clean enough. Ahem.
On Thursday night, Meredith and I decided that our need to do laundry was getting urgent (she has a bad sense of smell and knows that when something starts to smell funky, it must REALLY be funky) and made a date to meet up, cook some eggs, and then go down to the laundry in number 3. The only problem for me though, was that I didn't have any laundry powder, only fabric softener. Never mind, Meredith had bought some and I could use hers.
PROBLEM: we had schlepped everything down there and put it in the machines (after waiting 10 minutes for a free one), but just as I went to pour the powder in, I noticed that in the ingredients were bleaching agents. Yes, apparently, in Sweden there is separate powder for whites and colours. And so, dejected, we turned around and headed back to the house.
MORAL: vitt vätt= white wash, kulor vätt= colours.
I'd already been in a pretty shitty mood because of the seven hundred dollars* that just didn't quite make it in my wire transfer and our inability to do something as simple as laundry really finished off the day for me.
*Oh yes, that seven hundred dollars. It symbolises so many things: 40 hours working my ass off in a dead-end retail job that I could've just pissed away; seven hundred dollars that is now gone, never to be seen again, never to be recouped; seven hundred dollars that could have bought many pretty shoes and clothes; seven hundred dollars for which I got nothing in return except sadness and slight desperation, which has now made way for dejection.
So what did I do last night? I went out and I drowned my sorrows for the lost seven hundred dollars using money I didn't have to spend and won't ever get back, sang Australian songs (scared many Swedes), stuck flags on people's faces, got drunk on pear cider, and somehow managed to walk the three and a half kilometres home on the slippery icy road without falling on my ass.
And it felt great.
PS. Catching the train to Stockholm tomorrow morning to wander and hopefully find something to wear to the international gasque in February. It should be fun, and so like...picturesque..and stuff.
Last week on my trip to ICA Maxi with Ron I purposely bought washing detergent in liquid form because I knew I wouldn't have a chance to get to the machines to do it any time soon and wanted to do it in my bathroom sink. As I was doing said sink-washing it did sort of cross my mind that there didn't seem to be many bubbles from the detergent, but I carried on anyway. After washing them though, I had a sort of..gut feeling..shall we say, that I may perhaps have done my laundry with fabric softener. Well, this was confirmed last night by one of the Swedish boys in my corridor, though to be fair to myself, my clothes were indeed very soft and seemed clean enough. Ahem.
On Thursday night, Meredith and I decided that our need to do laundry was getting urgent (she has a bad sense of smell and knows that when something starts to smell funky, it must REALLY be funky) and made a date to meet up, cook some eggs, and then go down to the laundry in number 3. The only problem for me though, was that I didn't have any laundry powder, only fabric softener. Never mind, Meredith had bought some and I could use hers.
PROBLEM: we had schlepped everything down there and put it in the machines (after waiting 10 minutes for a free one), but just as I went to pour the powder in, I noticed that in the ingredients were bleaching agents. Yes, apparently, in Sweden there is separate powder for whites and colours. And so, dejected, we turned around and headed back to the house.
MORAL: vitt vätt= white wash, kulor vätt= colours.
I'd already been in a pretty shitty mood because of the seven hundred dollars* that just didn't quite make it in my wire transfer and our inability to do something as simple as laundry really finished off the day for me.
*Oh yes, that seven hundred dollars. It symbolises so many things: 40 hours working my ass off in a dead-end retail job that I could've just pissed away; seven hundred dollars that is now gone, never to be seen again, never to be recouped; seven hundred dollars that could have bought many pretty shoes and clothes; seven hundred dollars for which I got nothing in return except sadness and slight desperation, which has now made way for dejection.
So what did I do last night? I went out and I drowned my sorrows for the lost seven hundred dollars using money I didn't have to spend and won't ever get back, sang Australian songs (scared many Swedes), stuck flags on people's faces, got drunk on pear cider, and somehow managed to walk the three and a half kilometres home on the slippery icy road without falling on my ass.
And it felt great.
PS. Catching the train to Stockholm tomorrow morning to wander and hopefully find something to wear to the international gasque in February. It should be fun, and so like...picturesque..and stuff.
You know, the pillows here are smaller and much softer, and the squares on the toilet paper are longer. And there are aparently no fixed shower-heads, only those bendy ones. But anyway, I digress: ooh ah, my spine. Yes, sore spine and only have myself to blame...well for some of it, I mean, the first time I landed on my ass in the snow at least it wasn't my fault. Thank god I was wearing two pairs of socks, footless tights, jeans, a short-sleeve t-shirt, a long-sleeve t-shirt, a woolen jumper, an overcoat, a pair of boots, a hat, gloves and a scarf, or else I might've felt the impact a bit more.
But slipping over in the snow doesn't actually hurt that much, at least not as much as getting a big ass rock in your spine whilst sledding down a hillside in the shadow of a medieaval pink castle on a big black garbage bag. Mmmmn, it didn't hurt at the time, probably because I was covered in snow and couldn't really feel much of my body, but I tell you, it's got a bit of bite in it now that I'm lying in bed. Oh, that and because I can now feel all my extremities due to the 45 minutes we just spent in the sauna on top of building 2 at 73 degrees C. Sigh, damn that sauna.
But slipping over in the snow doesn't actually hurt that much, at least not as much as getting a big ass rock in your spine whilst sledding down a hillside in the shadow of a medieaval pink castle on a big black garbage bag. Mmmmn, it didn't hurt at the time, probably because I was covered in snow and couldn't really feel much of my body, but I tell you, it's got a bit of bite in it now that I'm lying in bed. Oh, that and because I can now feel all my extremities due to the 45 minutes we just spent in the sauna on top of building 2 at 73 degrees C. Sigh, damn that sauna.
Uppsala's weather forecast for today is Hi:-5 Lo:-12, cloudy with flurries, 100% humidity, 65% chance of precipitation. And since I just waterproofed all my shoes by hanging out the window with a can of some strange solvent stuff and my room now smells a lot like solvent, I have my bedroom window open.
We were going to have a laundry party today (what fun that sounds...) because most of us are starting to run out of clean underwear, but one of my corridor people told me that trying to do laundry on a Sunday is suicidally bad. So we're going to go for a walk in the snow instead, maybe build a snow man, and then go to an indoor BBQ at Gästrike-Hälsinge nation. 80 kronor for food, a beer, and a snapps: can't complain about that!
We were going to have a laundry party today (what fun that sounds...) because most of us are starting to run out of clean underwear, but one of my corridor people told me that trying to do laundry on a Sunday is suicidally bad. So we're going to go for a walk in the snow instead, maybe build a snow man, and then go to an indoor BBQ at Gästrike-Hälsinge nation. 80 kronor for food, a beer, and a snapps: can't complain about that!
Yes it's true, I'm still alive. So, where to start? I suppose we could go chronologically, that would make the most sense really.
I left Australia last week on Thursday and arrived in Japan that night where the Hiranos picked me up at the airport. And, as the biggest surprise of all, Kana and Dave had found out which plane I was on and travelled two hours out to the airport to meet me! I don't really have that much to say about Osaka since I was there for less than 20 hours, so I made a little, shall we call it..photo journal of those hours (to open a larger image with the text visible, click on the photo):
From Osaka I flew on to London, where lo and behold, somewhere over Siberia I met a girl called Anna who was also going to Uppsala and was flying to Stockholm on the same flight as me...coincidence? I think not!
Immigration at Heathrow was crazy, it took almost an hour, and by the time I made it through customs the jetlag was really starting to hit me since I hadn't slept for quite a while and my body was telling me that it was the middle of the night. I managed to stay awake until ooh, 7.00 that night, then woke up again at 3am and stayed awake until 7 before having another snooze and waking up at 9am. We did a bit of sightseeing in London: Buckingham Palace, the houses of Parliament, some squirrels etc and also a few large chunks of the monopoly board, then Camden markets on Sunday where I was very tempted to buy some funny hats (which, in light of the current temperature in Sweden, I really wish I'd bought).
I only got two and a half hours sleep that night before the nervous energy got the better of me and I had to get out of bed to fly on to Sverige...
And now I'm in Sweden...what can I tell you? It's getting dark really early, and is cold all the time. It snowed today quite a lot. I've met some really nice people and we've done some fun stuff. We saw some churches, drank some coffee, tried to figure out how to get our internet connected, drank some coffee, found an all you can eat sushi buffet, got lost in some woodland trying to find the Biomedical Centre (Ieven had a map, and then all of a sudden there were no houses, just trees, and a Spaniel bounding around joyfully), drank some vodka, walked a really long way to IKEA, found out that Jordan has a life-threatening dairy allergy that's really quite endearing, took some photos, walked some more, got cold, bought boots, navigated the System Bolaget (that's liquor store to you), spent three hours trying to do the grocery shopping (where is the mustard, really, and what is all that stuff in the freezer section in tubes?), realised that it gets dark at two thirty in the afternoon, learned how to order coffee in Swedish, found out that there's no breakfast menu at McDonalds here no matter how early you get there, and then all went to bed pretty early.
Especially Ron who is still a bit messed up from the flight and really needs to stop going to bed at 6pm.
I left Australia last week on Thursday and arrived in Japan that night where the Hiranos picked me up at the airport. And, as the biggest surprise of all, Kana and Dave had found out which plane I was on and travelled two hours out to the airport to meet me! I don't really have that much to say about Osaka since I was there for less than 20 hours, so I made a little, shall we call it..photo journal of those hours (to open a larger image with the text visible, click on the photo):
From Osaka I flew on to London, where lo and behold, somewhere over Siberia I met a girl called Anna who was also going to Uppsala and was flying to Stockholm on the same flight as me...coincidence? I think not!
Immigration at Heathrow was crazy, it took almost an hour, and by the time I made it through customs the jetlag was really starting to hit me since I hadn't slept for quite a while and my body was telling me that it was the middle of the night. I managed to stay awake until ooh, 7.00 that night, then woke up again at 3am and stayed awake until 7 before having another snooze and waking up at 9am. We did a bit of sightseeing in London: Buckingham Palace, the houses of Parliament, some squirrels etc and also a few large chunks of the monopoly board, then Camden markets on Sunday where I was very tempted to buy some funny hats (which, in light of the current temperature in Sweden, I really wish I'd bought).
I only got two and a half hours sleep that night before the nervous energy got the better of me and I had to get out of bed to fly on to Sverige...
And now I'm in Sweden...what can I tell you? It's getting dark really early, and is cold all the time. It snowed today quite a lot. I've met some really nice people and we've done some fun stuff. We saw some churches, drank some coffee, tried to figure out how to get our internet connected, drank some coffee, found an all you can eat sushi buffet, got lost in some woodland trying to find the Biomedical Centre (Ieven had a map, and then all of a sudden there were no houses, just trees, and a Spaniel bounding around joyfully), drank some vodka, walked a really long way to IKEA, found out that Jordan has a life-threatening dairy allergy that's really quite endearing, took some photos, walked some more, got cold, bought boots, navigated the System Bolaget (that's liquor store to you), spent three hours trying to do the grocery shopping (where is the mustard, really, and what is all that stuff in the freezer section in tubes?), realised that it gets dark at two thirty in the afternoon, learned how to order coffee in Swedish, found out that there's no breakfast menu at McDonalds here no matter how early you get there, and then all went to bed pretty early.
Especially Ron who is still a bit messed up from the flight and really needs to stop going to bed at 6pm.
I knew there was something I forgot to mention...
Unfortunately most of the photos from Christmas 06. are crap due to people using my camera who haven't used it before, as well as the reasonable large amounts of alcohol consumed by most present. If I get a chance I'll post some of the better ones, but here's an ok one.
In other news, I'm leaving the country tomorrow and I'll be back in a year (sorry if you didn't know..perhaps you've been living in a box for the last couple of months?) I'll be using my UNSW email address but will get a new phone in the first week or so that I'm in Sweden. Until then, bye bye (it's only a physical goodbye, I'll keep blogging).
Unfortunately most of the photos from Christmas 06. are crap due to people using my camera who haven't used it before, as well as the reasonable large amounts of alcohol consumed by most present. If I get a chance I'll post some of the better ones, but here's an ok one.
In other news, I'm leaving the country tomorrow and I'll be back in a year (sorry if you didn't know..perhaps you've been living in a box for the last couple of months?) I'll be using my UNSW email address but will get a new phone in the first week or so that I'm in Sweden. Until then, bye bye (it's only a physical goodbye, I'll keep blogging).
After some fairly frenzied packing last night I crashed quite late, but because of the nervous energy which has been so carefully stowed away for the past few weeks escaping I was up quite early this morning. Very out of character for me.
I'm feeling a lot perkier since I started a course of antibiotics; I've noticed in the past with sinus infections you can tell within a few hours of taking the first tablet whether it's viral or bacterial, the difference being that if it's viral you still feel like shit. My ears have stopped hurting too because the pressure on my sinuses has reduced so much, so I'm not paranoid about having a flight-inhibiting middle ear infection anymore.
Sigh, hypochondria aside, Helen and I had an eventful day today: she actually saw her life flash before her eyes. We decided to go to the beach to have breakfast, and even though it was overcast we took our swimmers down with us because, while we both know better and that it's bad and causes cancer, a tan wouldn't be half bad before heading off to Sweden/Melbourne. We wandered down to Cafe Bohemia, and had the usual big breakfast: bacon, eggs, baked beans, tomato, mushroom, a sausage, and three massive hunks of toast, and then sort of waddled down to the beach.
I have to say, we probably should have known better. You see, there were about 15 lifeguards on the beach, about three times the usual amount, and really not many people in the water, and while the waves looked biggish, we assumed that it was the glacial waterr-temp keeping people out. After jumping in once, we decided it was far too cold to go swimming, but then I decided we shouldn't be such pussies and we both got back in the water. Like I say, we should have known better. The waves, which, like I said, had looked biggish from the sand, were at least 2 metres. And they were coming in sets of three without much space between. Helen didn't have her glasses on, so I was trying to look out for her, but at the same time being distracted by how cold it was and trying to get out past the breakers before the next set came. Well, I obviously didn't get far enough because I saw this massive wave sorta bearing down on top of me, and I got separated from Helen, who'd decided this wasn't much fun and she was going back to the shore. Unfortunately, I was exactly at the point where the waves were breaking..on top of me. My only option really, was to go down, so I waited until the very last moment, then took as big a breath as I could and crouched as tightly as I could with my feet on the sand. The only way I can describe the force of these waves is "uncomfortably powerful". The first bit of the wave breaking wasn't so bad, but it was the wash right behind it that was really awful, the sort where it feels like your arms and head might be about to get ripped off. And the worst part, was that they were coming in sets of three very close waves so as soon as one was over, there was another right on top of me.
Meanwhile, Helen had been heading back to the shore, but hadn't gotten close enough so she was not only getting pounded by the incoming wave, but the rush of the outgoing water. And she got knocked off her feet so she was getting thrown around like a sparrow in a storm. Three times over.
I felt ok, I just wanted out of the water, but I've been in much rougher surf than that before, and I'd been watching the sets before we got in the water, so I was expected the three waves and was reasonably ready to have the shit knocked out of me. But because she'd been knocked over, Helen kept getting dumped really badly and was fairly traumatised and jelly-legged when we finally made it out of the water, swimmers full of sand, adrenalin pumping, and more than a little breathless.
We really should have known better.
Anyway, after that, the rest of the day was really a walk in the park. We chilled on the couch for a while and then I did a whole lot more packing, which made me grumpy because it doesn't seem to matter how much shit I throw out, there keeps being more. The strangest thing though, is that I keep finding used Australia Post padded parcel bags. It seems like everytime in the last two years that someone has sent me something, I've kept the bag in the misguided belief that one day I'll reuse it. The result then, was little stashes of them everywhere, in drawers, under drawers, inside other padded Australia Post parcel bags. As though they had bred in the night. And even when I think I've thrown them all out, I find another stashed somewhere.
Oh, if I see another parcel bag, I will lose my mind.
I'm feeling a lot perkier since I started a course of antibiotics; I've noticed in the past with sinus infections you can tell within a few hours of taking the first tablet whether it's viral or bacterial, the difference being that if it's viral you still feel like shit. My ears have stopped hurting too because the pressure on my sinuses has reduced so much, so I'm not paranoid about having a flight-inhibiting middle ear infection anymore.
Sigh, hypochondria aside, Helen and I had an eventful day today: she actually saw her life flash before her eyes. We decided to go to the beach to have breakfast, and even though it was overcast we took our swimmers down with us because, while we both know better and that it's bad and causes cancer, a tan wouldn't be half bad before heading off to Sweden/Melbourne. We wandered down to Cafe Bohemia, and had the usual big breakfast: bacon, eggs, baked beans, tomato, mushroom, a sausage, and three massive hunks of toast, and then sort of waddled down to the beach.
I have to say, we probably should have known better. You see, there were about 15 lifeguards on the beach, about three times the usual amount, and really not many people in the water, and while the waves looked biggish, we assumed that it was the glacial waterr-temp keeping people out. After jumping in once, we decided it was far too cold to go swimming, but then I decided we shouldn't be such pussies and we both got back in the water. Like I say, we should have known better. The waves, which, like I said, had looked biggish from the sand, were at least 2 metres. And they were coming in sets of three without much space between. Helen didn't have her glasses on, so I was trying to look out for her, but at the same time being distracted by how cold it was and trying to get out past the breakers before the next set came. Well, I obviously didn't get far enough because I saw this massive wave sorta bearing down on top of me, and I got separated from Helen, who'd decided this wasn't much fun and she was going back to the shore. Unfortunately, I was exactly at the point where the waves were breaking..on top of me. My only option really, was to go down, so I waited until the very last moment, then took as big a breath as I could and crouched as tightly as I could with my feet on the sand. The only way I can describe the force of these waves is "uncomfortably powerful". The first bit of the wave breaking wasn't so bad, but it was the wash right behind it that was really awful, the sort where it feels like your arms and head might be about to get ripped off. And the worst part, was that they were coming in sets of three very close waves so as soon as one was over, there was another right on top of me.
Meanwhile, Helen had been heading back to the shore, but hadn't gotten close enough so she was not only getting pounded by the incoming wave, but the rush of the outgoing water. And she got knocked off her feet so she was getting thrown around like a sparrow in a storm. Three times over.
I felt ok, I just wanted out of the water, but I've been in much rougher surf than that before, and I'd been watching the sets before we got in the water, so I was expected the three waves and was reasonably ready to have the shit knocked out of me. But because she'd been knocked over, Helen kept getting dumped really badly and was fairly traumatised and jelly-legged when we finally made it out of the water, swimmers full of sand, adrenalin pumping, and more than a little breathless.
We really should have known better.
Anyway, after that, the rest of the day was really a walk in the park. We chilled on the couch for a while and then I did a whole lot more packing, which made me grumpy because it doesn't seem to matter how much shit I throw out, there keeps being more. The strangest thing though, is that I keep finding used Australia Post padded parcel bags. It seems like everytime in the last two years that someone has sent me something, I've kept the bag in the misguided belief that one day I'll reuse it. The result then, was little stashes of them everywhere, in drawers, under drawers, inside other padded Australia Post parcel bags. As though they had bred in the night. And even when I think I've thrown them all out, I find another stashed somewhere.
Oh, if I see another parcel bag, I will lose my mind.
Well, a fairly run-of-the-mill week, sliced in with some dramatic little tidbits along the way.
Firstly, I resigned yesterday, and after all the build up and anticipation of waiting for my last day, I ended up going home sick, meaning my last day went with more of a whimper than a bang. It also meant that I couldn't make the clean break I was hoping for (as in -I'm out, I never have to go back-) , because I had to go back in today and hand in my keys and badge etc. And, because nothing ever goes smoothly in that place, I had to fill out another resignation form because they lost my original one. When my manager had signed it and all she hugged me(!) and told me it was a pleasure working with me(!!)... I didn't really know what to say...because like...it wasn't a pleasure for me.
Which brings us to the second little bit of drama, which in the end doesn't sound like it was that interesting (I was at home when it happened). Aforementioned manager also resigned, alas, for me, a year too late. She told me today that they're paying her out and letting her go on Friday instead of the month's notice, which suggests to me that they just want her gone. Again, sadly a year too late.
I went to the doctor this afternoon beccause I had a couple of what you might call 'funny turns' during the week involving me ending up on the fitting room floor, head between my knees, couldn't stand up sort of things. I think it might be because the iron tablets I've been taking since my last blood test are a much lower dose than what I had been taking and I've started feeling weird again so I figured it was better to get it checked out before I leave. Coincidentally, I've been sick for the past few days with a nasty cough and sore ears, so it was good timing for a visit to the doctor, and she thinks I might have bronchitits. Yay for me. Apparently my chest doesn't sound too bad, so she'll check it out again on Friday when the new blood tests come back. The conclusion I want is that the funny turns were because I was coming down with something, and I've come down with a virus that will go away in the next few days. Have to wait and see though.
And finally, I've started packing up my stuff. I'm ready to get off this island.
Firstly, I resigned yesterday, and after all the build up and anticipation of waiting for my last day, I ended up going home sick, meaning my last day went with more of a whimper than a bang. It also meant that I couldn't make the clean break I was hoping for (as in -I'm out, I never have to go back-) , because I had to go back in today and hand in my keys and badge etc. And, because nothing ever goes smoothly in that place, I had to fill out another resignation form because they lost my original one. When my manager had signed it and all she hugged me(!) and told me it was a pleasure working with me(!!)... I didn't really know what to say...because like...it wasn't a pleasure for me.
Which brings us to the second little bit of drama, which in the end doesn't sound like it was that interesting (I was at home when it happened). Aforementioned manager also resigned, alas, for me, a year too late. She told me today that they're paying her out and letting her go on Friday instead of the month's notice, which suggests to me that they just want her gone. Again, sadly a year too late.
I went to the doctor this afternoon beccause I had a couple of what you might call 'funny turns' during the week involving me ending up on the fitting room floor, head between my knees, couldn't stand up sort of things. I think it might be because the iron tablets I've been taking since my last blood test are a much lower dose than what I had been taking and I've started feeling weird again so I figured it was better to get it checked out before I leave. Coincidentally, I've been sick for the past few days with a nasty cough and sore ears, so it was good timing for a visit to the doctor, and she thinks I might have bronchitits. Yay for me. Apparently my chest doesn't sound too bad, so she'll check it out again on Friday when the new blood tests come back. The conclusion I want is that the funny turns were because I was coming down with something, and I've come down with a virus that will go away in the next few days. Have to wait and see though.
And finally, I've started packing up my stuff. I'm ready to get off this island.
