mirror-side rumours

Elephants and old men singing

I saw the film Elephant today. It's about a Columbine-style high school massacre. It signally failed to improve my outlook on life (now there's a surprise).

I'm currently a bit lacking in enthusiasm. I start my course tomorrow (yay), but I still don't know what's happening with going to London. I rang many many times last week, and mostly got answering machines in Swedish.

On the happy side, we went out for sushi at Hai! today. I think it was the first time I've had sushi in about a year. It was fantastic. I'm going to make it at home soon. We also went to the Modern Art gallery. That wasn't so great, but there was a good film by Jesper Just.

I'm becoming the cooking queen. I made a chocolate zucchini cake yesterday. It's all gone now. We are all much healthier as a result (zucchini is very nutritious, you know...).

As Kiwi as apple pie

I bought New Zealand apples yesterday. I'm generally opposed to my food being shipped halfway across the world, but I have a guilty feeling that NZ's flagging agricultural economy needs my help.

Then I made apple pie. It was pretty good, although nowhere near as tasty as the dinner Jenny and Stefan made for us. Yum.

In an action-packed day, I also went to Lund. It's a small university town, about 20 minutes away from here on the train (which costs about £2, how do you like that British Rail?). Apparently the city is about a thousand years old, so it's basically all built on dead people. There is a park which used to be a graveyard - they simply took away the headstones. Too too utterly pragmatic.

We visited the domkyrka (note for ferriners - that means church of judgement, rather than church of doom).

(image from here).

There's an amazing astronomical clock there, from the 14th century. Apparently it all changes, little clockwork figures and who knows what more excitement at 1pm and 3pm. We tried to see the action both those times, and failed miserably. We turned up each time just as the tourists were filing out from the packed church pews.

In other breaking news, I sat the written placement test for my Swedish course on Tuesday, and I should be starting next week! Finally. . . I'm looking forward to it.

I should be so lucky . . .

You know how there's always incredibly cheap flights, except for the date when you want to go? Ryan Air is having a free flights sale today. Wait for it, wait for it . . . It actually covers the time I want to go to London (lasts until Monday kiddies).

I'm planning to go to London and Edinburgh at the end of the month, to see George when she visits from New Zealand, and to check out schools of osteopathy for next year. Hurrah.

I watched the movie Paradise Road last night. It was Cate Blanchett's first movie, about a group of women in a Sumatran prison camp during the war.

It made me think about my distinct lack of knowledge. In the film, one of the women writes out musical scripts which she knows by heart. Not only do I not know the words of a single song, I also don't know any poems. If I were stuck in a prison camp for several years, I would carry nothing with me from the thousands of books I've read, the hundreds of films I've seen.

I appreciate that I have a terrible memory, but I don't think I'm alone. I used to have a fabulous book of Parlour Poetry, the sort that Victorian children would have to learn to recite for the edification of their elders. I suspect most small children today can barely write (although whizzes on the computer, no doubt).

I found a great site today, worldprayers.org. It's a collection of prayers and meditations from across beliefs and religions. They have selected prayers for peace, which I don't particularly like (probably because they're all a bit hackneyed), but also a couple of ways of choosing random celebrations, invocations and meditations.

For the skeptics amongst you (yes, including me), this was my random one for today:

"The word, which is often translated simply as prayer means literally 'wish-path' (Tibetan: smon-lam). It is not a request to an external deity, but a method of purifying and directing the mind. It acts as inspiration by arousing the mind's inherent desire for good, which attracts the fulfillment of its aim."
-The Tibetan Book of the Dead

Surfing in Swedish

I just read my first website in Swedish. Yay me. I was looking for vegetarian restaurants in Malmö, and vegetarian food language is my one strength (we won't dwell on my many weak points).

I just had a massive craving for Sosmix (delicious British soy product). I spent today closely questioning every health food shop owner in the city, and must regretfully conclude that it is not sold here. Not happy. I did find 'lakto-vegetarisk färsmix', which looks like it might be similar, although just not the same.

On the upside, this little quest did mean that I discovered the vegetarian food section of my supermarket, after visiting said supermarket for two months. The reason I didn't manage to locate this section earlier is that it's carefully hidden right in the middle of the meat aisles. Ah, the marketing genius.

Patrick and I went for a swim at Sibbarp today.

It was warm and fairly deserted, just the way I like it. I'm still not entirely comfortable with Swedish beaches. I keep on expecting waves, and being disappointed. Im sure I'll adjust soon, and then I'll be shocked at the rough waters of the rest of the world.

I've completely failed to blog for ages and now it just seems too difficult to catch up. The major event in that time was Suraya and Kelly coming to visit. I really enjoyed their stay, with some nice touristing and a very successful hangi for Patrick's birthday. If you're considering having a hangi, my only advice is that you check the weather reports first. I put my umbrella on top of ours, and it still smells pleasantly of hangi. Mmm mm.