Still alive!

I'm happy to report that I resisted the siren call of schnapps yesterday, so did not end up with any mental blackouts. It's a bit sad though, when people you were drinking with the night before (and of course I have no memory of the lengthy conversations I apparently had with these people) greet you with a shout of "you're alive!!" I managed to stick to white wine last night, which I don't like as much as other forms of alcohol so am able to sip it in a socially acceptable manner. However, I have now got blisters on the soles of my feet, which is not good. I had to stand all freakin' night, walked from reception to reception, and it just became agony by the end of the day. Oh well. At least the blisters forced me to call it a (relatively) early night, as I got back to my hotel room at 11.30.

I guess I should be reporting something about Sweden. Well, it's very nice. Pretty mild temperatures, pretty buildings, nicely laid out city. All that good stuff. Absolutely freakin' full of women with strollers, prams and large pregnant bellies. I guess when you have a nice long maternity leave, what else are you going to do but stroll around town parading your good fortune?

The Swedish language is remarkably foreign to listen to, but oddly it is relatively easy to tease out some information when you look at it in print. For example, "värm äppelkaka med vaniljsas" (with a little circle above that last a, but I can't find that on the keyboard) turns out to be the pretty easy to understand "warm apple cake with vanilla sauce". Of course, I guess "vanilla sauce" is probably custard, but hey, you can get the gist of it. And, as a vegetarian, thank god for the Italians - "grillad focaccia med mozarrella, tomaten och basilikum" is also pretty easy to get. Apologies for Swedish spelling mistakes there - I'm going off memory so I'm a bit hazy on some of it. More complicated stuff is way over my head though. But everyone speaks English, so it's not too difficult to get by. There're also a lot of English shows on TV, which are shown with Swedish subtitles, so I've managed to catch up with The Amazing Race, and some old episodes of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Ahhh, yeah, well, beggars can't be choosers, as my grandmother always used to say.

All in all, I wouldn't even mind coming back on vacation one day. But not with the assholes who are here from my company. Team spirit is sadly lacking - not that that surprises me, but I'd hoped for better.