I Made This

Saw the night for the first time in eleven days yesterday...and no, this is not a metaphor for missing my girlfriend. With the year inching towards midsummer the light in Dalarna, even after eleven pm, is little more than dusk.  But now that I'm back home I saw the black of night once more.
My girlfriend is a little happier now to have left her art school, but there were still the final days to get through, including a goodbye event involving singing, humour, costume changes and bingo.  Unfortunately I couldn't understand enough of the numbers to genuinely win a prize.
I did however get the opportunity to carry an over-heavy bag, more than half full of my girlfriends belongings...which wasn't quite so fun.  She also gave me a huge recipe book to bring back with me (for her use when she moves over).  I think the weight of my bag made it into double figures for the first time ever.
While at her dad's I watched A Knights Tale, for the first time, fun and a lot better than Dirty Dancing...but that goes without saying. Carrying a heavy pack is better than having to watch Dirty Dancing.  I also cooked for all the family, a very daunting prospect, but decided to go for something simple, and English...A cottage pie.  Thankfully it went down very well, mainly thanks to my girlfriends sister having some Worcestershire Sauce, for it would have been poor without it.
Now I am faced once more with having to find work, not fun, but I really must push myself.  I have also managed only a little writing in the last fortnight and must sort my brain out again.  Have just finished reading The Summer Tree however, one of my girlfriends favourites, need to wait for her to arrive with books 2 and 3 of the Fionavar Tapestry.  It was good, and I am curious to know how it all ends. For fantasy lovers I do recommend it.

Back in Time

Well I've made it to Sweden now, and gone back in time as a result...only joking...Sweden isn't that backward a country.  It was actually the Medieval Market I visited in Leksand.  They had stalls selling pottery and earthenware, cloth and clothes, silverware and ironware, herbs and sweets and soaps.  There were also people in period costume and a "medieval boy-band"

Later there were jousters on horseback and a horse and cart giving rides

Since then I have come to Arjang to help my girlfriend pack and to get her through the last few days of school.  I've been trying to keep her on the rails, while surveying from my throne...

We've had some shocking moments...

But also been to see a beautifully still lake...although in Sweden this is just a puddle...a puddle with moquitos

I will endeavour to write sometime over the next few days while my girlfriend works, cleans, etc

A Busy Week

Not really, but a title like that always sounds good.  And it's not that i've been celebrating England's first ICC tournament win either, at least not for the whole week.
I've actually been sequestering my own brain this week to get some writing done.  I've been working on an idea using the Snowflake method as mentioned last week, but I've also been writing something else entirely to keep my mind in gear.  The truth is, i'm not much good at planning, I get bored very easily. So I've decided to make it easier by getting some writing done at the same time. That way I can feel that I've done something. Anyway, I've written about 17000 words since last time, which is quite a lot for a weeks work. Doesn't mean its much good though, but we'll see how it turns out.
The weather is baking, so I'm sitting here sweating right now.  Later this week I head out to Sweden again - finally - for the last trip before my girlfriend moves over, so I will have to do some washing and packing this week. But I will try to continue with the writing.  I have to really, because I know that I'll get sidetracked if i'm not careful and it'll never get finished. Wish me luck.

The Old Battle

Over the past couple of weeks the West Indies have been hosting the Twenty20 world cup and the final takes place tomorrow between England and Australia.  England have never won an ICC tournament before, although they have been to some finals.  It all kicks off at 16.30 BST and I for one am very much looking forward to it...I'm only hoping that they do themselves justice.
I've also been checking out the International Cricket Council website and found they have a profile for Swedish Cricket which sadly has not been allowed to compete recently in international events since they don't have enough home grown players.  There is a league, but most players seem to be ex-pats from other cricketing nations.  Come on you Swedes!  Take the game up...

I've also been working on writing this week.  I've come across an interesting web page detailing the Snowflake method and its the most useful thing I've read on writing so far.  I've already begun working down as far as stage three, so hopefully I'll be able to keep going.
I also came up with some ideas on humorous poems looking at historical stories a little differently.  Not sure how they will work yet, or whether I will print them here...but we'll see.

Teaching the Swedes British Politics

I think in truth that this is a harder task since at least cricket has a clear list of laws and rules...After all how can it seem fair that one party can get 22% of the votes, and only 9% of the seats, or another to get 26% votes and 37% of the seats.  The point is that constinuencies are inconsistent in their size and the first past the post sytem (FPP) is archaic.
 I won't even bother on trying to explain how people would have been unable to vote because I don't understand that either.  It seems that in a lot of european countries their elections take place on a Sunday and therefore people don't have the problem of being at work all day.  Ours have always taken place on Thursdays and I can only think that this dates back from a time the only people allowed to vote were the ones who didn't have to work anyway!
So we got a hung parliament as expected, and the upshot is that we have our first coalition government since the second world war.  I have been seeing some odd comments on facebook throughout all of this, about people complaining about voting Lib Dem, to see a Tory government in place etc.  But did they expect Nick Clegg to form a minority government with only 57 seats?  Or perhaps they just expected him to sit on the sidelines and do nothing?
The fact that the Tories will now have to moderate some of their policies seems to have escaped them totally, along with the fact that a party they voted for will actually have a say in the running of the country.  There seems to be no pleasing some people.
How this will all turn out is intriguing to say the least.

On another topic entirely, I took a walk through Hyde Park and some of the city yesterday, to find a profusion of elephants!  Not real ones, model ones, everywhere and in various colours.  It's been organised by Elephant Family, a charity protecting asian elephants.  More about the elephant parade in london can be found on the website.

Election Special

Wanted After All

Yesterday I walked into an agency to look for work to be told that that particular branch dealt with a specialist type of work but that they would get back to me...no word yet...However, only two hours after my return home I was called out of the blue by another agency entirely, to say that they had seen my cv online, and maybe had a job for me.  I signed with them today...strange world.
Writing wise I have been working on something inspired by one of my girlfriend's little projects...not too sure whether there will be more on the subject or not, we will see.
I have also been listening to the cricket from the West Indies, the Twenty20 world cup, in which England have managed to progress without winning a game.  I will not talk about Duckworth Lewis.
Finally, here are two recent watercolour sketches...Popping Fun and Bringing Out the Covers...