This morning I held my ever first MS Excel course, which went excellent. The users had very little, if any, experience with the program and I think I managed to relay a few real aha!-experiences. Last night I woke upp appx. ten times, no exaggeration. At one time I dreamt a nightmare about how I forgot to print out the Excel lessons for my students. Another one pictured how I'd forgotten the entire contents of the course, one minute before show-time. I think my system got rid of a lot of anxiety that night, which could be why I did quite well today. Now I can ease down the yellow brick road...not! This afternoon I've spent testing a system that reared it's ugly head with 32 new bugs. Yuck.
This week-end has been lovely. Mikaela and I went partying on Saturday, first at åsa's place, then at our hair-dresser's salon. When we called on åsa's door she opened and her fiancee stood beside her. Mikaela had told me that åsa's appx. 50 years old, and that her hubby is 17 years younger. Maybe I had spilled some dissolving liquid into an eye again, but he looked something like...20, and he was neatly dressed, suit and tie. As I was yanking my shoes off at the door, I heard him mention his wedding. Oh! So åsa's son had also married? I decided to break the ice and congratulated him: "Oh, so you've married?" He smiled at me and looked flummoxed: "Eh, yes, I have!" How nice: "Oh great, the both of you!" I told åsa and him. As I uttered those magical words, I realised what I'd done. The married couple just stared at me and smiled confoundedly. I just thanked them for allowing me to show up, and quickly moved past them to hide my shame.
The view from their apartment was very nice. They had a full view of a big lake, sea or whatever. I've written this before: geography is definitly my weakest side.
After this party, where [avatar:https://niklasblog.com/bilder/avatars/patrik.gif]Patrik[/avatar] showed up (1 hours and 15 minutes late, as usual!), Mikaela and I left as he was just starting to eat. We left for Rival, where we sat near the bar and sipped white wine. The view was very nice, and it's nice to see that some people don't spare expenses when renovating. Even the toilet was grand! Oh yes, Benny from ABBA is one of the owners, so sure, they had the money required alright, but as you know, being rich doesn't automatically bring good taste. Just look at Baby. Anyway, I had brought a couple of white wine bottles as we were invited to our hair-dresser's. Nicola, the hostess in question, allowed us to bring friends, so I'd invited [avatar:https://niklasblog.com/bilder/avatars/patrik.gif]Patrik[/avatar] and [avatar:https://niklasblog.com/bilder/avatars/staffan.gif]Staffan[/avatar] as they might be interested to go, after the party at åsa. We came semi-early to Nicola's party, at 22:00. She was very nicely dressed and also tanned, having spent a few weeks at her parents' place in Xmi. Bastard! Anyway she's cutting my hair come Wednesday so I hope she doesn't read this before that.
Their party was splendid. Her boyfriend, Marco, was acting bartender and made drinks for everybody - with a lot of alcohol to boot. We danced our shoes off. Simon, Nicola's partner hair-dresser, played a very sweet set of tech house and everybody who had even a little rhythm in them danced along. There was even a little girl at the party! She was four years old and we had fun. Downstairs Nicola had a big bean-bag, on which the little one sat and tried to thrust her shoes against mine. "I'm losing, you're too strong!" I said, and she laughed. I can't understand why she didn't cry though, as the volume was astounding. I have no idea why the neighbours didn't stop the party. Well, we didn't stay very long, we left quite early so we missed Joel Mull DJ'ing. Anyway the hosts were excellent and the people were really nice. [avatar:https://niklasblog.com/bilder/avatars/patrik.gif]Patrik[/avatar] came along after a while, and even [avatar:https://niklasblog.com/bilder/avatars/fdp.gif]Frederic[/avatar]! We danced, we ate, we drank. Very nice. Mikaela even wants a hard-house DJ to play at our wedding.
Today I received Fat, that looks very interesting. From the synopsis:
With more than one billion overweight adults in the world today, obesity has become an epidemic. But fat is not as straightforward-or even as uni-versally damned-as one might think. Enlisting thirteen anthropologists and a fat activist, editors and anthropologists Don Kulick and Anne Meneley have produced an unconventional-and unprecedented-examination of fat in various cultural and social contexts. In this anthology, these writers argue that fat is neither a mere physical state nor an inert concept. Instead, it is a construct built by culture and judged in courts of public opinion, courts whose laws vary from society to society.
From the anthropology of "fat-talk" among teenage girls in Sweden to the veneration of Spam in Hawaii; from fear of the fat-sucking pishtaco vampire in the Andes to the underground allure of fat porn stars like Supersize Betsy-this anthology provides fresh perspectives on a subject more complex than love handles, and less easily understood than a number on a scale. Fat proves that fat can be beautiful, evil, pornographic, delicious, shameful, ugly, or magical. It all depends on who-and where-you are.
Talking of interesting, I've been listening to a couple of EP's from the late, almost always great group Atari Teenage Riot. I think I may have underestimated their "60 Second Wipeout" album. I've got to rip it and listen it through again. It's such a rush of energy to hear Carl Crack and Hanin Elias, the MC's of ATR, shout "FUCK THE SYSTEM!!!!" and "WITH NO REMORSE I WANNA DIE!!!!!". To everybody who denies their exclamations as teen angst, I've got a quote for you: "DESTROY!!!!!!" By the way, you can't deny a label that releases a song called "All The Worst Albums In The World Were Recorded On Protools". And don't forget to check out Alec Empire's "Futurist" album that's actually more punkish than electronic. Check out the Kerrang review here. I think my next podcast will be on ATR.
Yesterday Mikaela made chocolate chip brownies and also a tagliatelle puttanesca. I love that pasta, and I the cookies went very nice and fluffy. Check the pictures out here. Frederic came by, we ate cookies while watching "Pingu Forever". Very nice.
