Big Bulk Love to everyone who sent emails to me today...I have heaps of lovely emails!!! Did exams just finish??? I don't care....I love you all!!! I will answer as soon as I can wade through the pile. Super sweet to hear from you all...I'll try my darndest to get some missadventures ready for you in return.

I have one comment to make though, and it is a topic that is the cause of a great many tears in my direction...and that is these rumours that are circulating that some of you...now I'm not going to mention any names...are planning on leaving Brisvagus before I return. I would like to officially make it clear that

this is just fucking NOT on.

I mean it too. If I find out that any of you punks have left before I get home from Sweden I am going to track you down and subject you to an entire album of 'Backstreet Boys covers Nick Cave'. I shit you not.

I have spoken.

11:28pm EAST
14:28 Swedish Time
Weather : (-2) -> 2C (currently really sunny, beautiful and 7C...go figure!)

Serious question : Does anyone know anyone studying Environmental Engineering at UQ or QUT? Email addy please...contemplating a career change or add-on rather.

In other news, it is so beautiful here in Jönköping today. The snow melted a few days ago and all that remains are beautiful blue skies,a nicely moderate 5C temperature, and the sun shining all around. The clouds in Sweden hang so low in the sky...it's really weird...you never actually look 'up' at the clouds so much...they seem to fill your peripherals. It means that on grey cloud days they do actually DO have a silver lining, or rather a white one. You can see both the bottom and parts of the tops of the clouds. It's really nice. Also, seeing as Jönköping is relatively small and in the 'country' so to speak, when it is a clear night the sky is this really nice navy colour with stars everywhere - I really like it here.

OK, found a decent scanner. If my life was a comic strip, then this would have been my weekend column :

Needless to say, I celebrated the end of exams with a great deal of decorum, poise, gentlemenly charm, and above all, a great deal of success :)
I wish I had more to say, but I don't because I am very hungry and need to go home for dinner. Oh yeah, before I forget...Sweden is now 9 hours behind Australia with the end of daylight savings time yesterday, so if you intend to call me, keep this in mind.

hej då!
Rowley

Hej!

mega apologies for the lack of posting this weekend...had sort of a graphical summary of the weekend to scan, and the scanner died...so patience please!!! :) Might actually do a big web push tonight, but I seem to be missing my data CD...scary if I left it in a computer....cause I loved that CD ;(

Hmm...also apologies to my friends online ICQ & MSN Messenger...my login here in Sweden is uber screwed at the moment...think it is my fault maybe, but I can't use either program. IE is also screwed, leaving me stuck with a not-able-to-read-frames version of Netscape Com. Argh!!!

Passed my Swedish Exam!

Listen and love. These guys are some online friends of Dave from Canada's - they run the world's most listened to online house broadcast every sunday from their living room in Germany! But you don't have to wait...you can listen now by clicking on the link. I love ISDN connections.

Cheers all.

I am putting this conversational excerpt here for personal reference...very few people will actually find it funny...but I find it quaintly ironic...

Mere :- so how did your night out go?
Row :- night out = bulk fun
Mere :- stop using the word bulk.
Row :- bulk you
Row :- it is more efficient than 'a lot of fun'
Mere :- efficiency in language? you aren't a romantic are you?
Row :- you should know that...
Mere :- anyway, so this night out...

Had a ball last night dancing my ass off until 5am :) Went to Kåren and danced for several hours and then went back to Caroline's with Jimmy, Duncan and a few more. Met some more international students who were really nice - one from Malaysia and yet another friendly German.

I love it when you finish exams!!!!!!

This little gem comes from Draper. Thanks buddy.

Good luck to Doug and Drapes in the Cricket this Saturday. Ok, me go to lecture now. Pepper me with emails and I'll answer them afterwards!!

1:30am EAST
17:30 Swedish Time
Temperature : 2 - 6C (currently very rainy and 6C...haven't seen the sun in 9 days...)

To give you an insight into what I've been up to this weekend, here's an exerpt from my paper journal :

0:55 Sondag 20th Oktober, 2002

Not many people can say that they were up late last night building a six foot high hawaiian snowman that bore a striking resemblance to Albert Einstein, but come morning, I will be one of those proud few. :)

Yep, it snowed, :)
and now it's melted again :(

but I managed to check quite a few things off my list. Since the first snow hit the ground, I've made a six foot snowman, a 5 foot snow woman; formed 2 snow angels; written my initials in the snow in the unconventional form, and have run naked around the student common room before diving into the snow in front of two of the Russian girls...ooops(Nathan and I didn't see them until after we'd hit the ground...).

So as you can see it's been a pretty successful few days for my Swedish checklist. Let's take a look at that puppy to see how I'm going so far...

Hmm...seems like I'm almost ready to come home.

Almost :)

I also had some luck on Sunday in the pants department...my host family heard of this newish place which is basically a town, except the town is one giant outlet almost. So I managed to pick up some clothes for bugger all!! Like a nice pair of Diesel Jeans for $60AU. Yay sweet!! Still only found one pair of pants though...but that brings my tally up to 4 pairs total, so that should [hopefully] 'cover' me for winter :)

Anyway, I have to give a 1/2 hour lecture to a high school tomorrow on Australian Culture (God save them all), so I'd best start writing it!!!

Hej Då!

Oh yeah, one more thing for Sandy and the boys...thought I needed to improve my swedish vocabulary, so I decided to start reading a novel in Swedish. I'm re-reading Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man, or in Svenska, Döden ligger lågt. So there you go. :)

it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!it'ssnowing!!

Sorry, but I've never seen snow before :)

10:00am EAST
02:00 Swedish Time
Weather : Conflicting reports from various sources...some say it will snow and be negative 10. So I am coming home. Just for the weekend though. Ah VISA, how I love thee.

Karma is for Wusses.

It's 2am, I'm still at uni trying to finish this website, but have lost all motivation and as such am not far off giving up and walking home...hmm...why does it have to be so freaking cold outside...????

Arrgh!! If someone doesn't get online and talk to me soon I'm going to go nuts...

Hmmm...

blah...

Interesting fact...the labs here are so technimacal, they are wired to sensors. If they detect minimal movement (i.e. all us nerds are working instead of leaning into corners on Daytona or air punching after wreaking death from above in UT), they will sound a small alarm to alert you to move. If you don't, they power down the labs to conserve energy. Cool huh? Also reminds you to check to see if your butt has gone numb. Which it has. Excuse me. Lab run in order.

yada yada.

OK. seeing as I am bored and am trying to work up the courage to walk home in the below zeroness of this cursed town, I will devulge to you, my minions, my instructions for the greater world today :

- Mum, take Harry for a walk, and Harry, don't bug dad at the dinner table too much.
- Susannah, threaten to push a kid into the oven and eat them Hansel and Gretel style. If they don't take you seriously, then actually push one of them in. Kids need to learn to respect their elders.
- Dad, have a beer. On me.
- Doug, speak English. Failing that, deliberately resort to grunts when asking for the salad to be passed to you.
- Jackie, Sail until you are just far enough to effect a mutany, and then come visit me :)
- Runge...no fun for you boy...finish your assignments
- Meredith...Use UQLS funding to overthrow a small government. There's no time like the present to start practising.
- Goober, auction a government secret on E-Bay.
- John Howard : Part your eyebrows with a comb, and see if anyone notices during open session today.
- Fish, hand one of your underlings at uni one of the famous 'unsolvables' as a homework assignment, then retire to the post grad lounge and convince your collegues there is nothing strange with the pot-infused tea you are pooring for them.
- Simon, develop a super fuel that will end the world's energy and environmental problems singlehandedly. Then patent it, and see who comes up with the best offer...Chrysler or Toyota.
- Erin : Make a first year cry. Double points if they run off bawling.
- James : threaten a high court judge with an envelop of 'photos'
- Mounty : Get Harry into trouble, then eat his dinner. After all, you only live 9 times kiddo...
- Cadden : Attend a national athletics carnaval and fail to make the cut because of your 2 foot white-fro.
- Jane :Mix tequila in with Kerry's evening scotch.
- Aliska : prove you exist :)
- Goat, in addition to successfully integrating the GPS unit into the mobile phone, build in a subordinate system that allows you to track the movements of good looking women in the greater Brisbane area
- Nats and Leasa - take the inflatable kids pool into a lecture. When questioned, crash tackle the lecturer into the middle, beat him with pool noodles, and then offer your apologies in the form of liberal application of cocktails and a lecture wide wet t-shirt competition
- BJ, whilst running the lines at a touch football match, run the clock an extra 10 minutes both ways so that the referee is absolutely rooted by the end of the night.
- Jaymis : Audibly classify the members of your university (Toowoomba fyi) as either a 'hillbilly' or a 'farm land drop-out'. Refer to your classmates as 'Jed' and 'Elly May' at all times.
- Troy : Tie people's shoelaces together in the steeply tiered 'Z' lecture theatres.
- Duncan Greer, strip the tires off of Rod Walker's mean machine and replace them with the wheelset from a Ford Laser, or to add further insult, put on mags and street tires from an easily-located-at-QUT Supra or Lancer, and adorn his windshield with the biggest 'ALPINE' sticker you can find.
- Munchie, sell a baby tortoise on the black market. Then use the proceeds to buy a TRUE South African baby grand :)
- Pato, at BJ's party on saturday, piss in an empty stubby bottle and then pass it off to one of the Engimabeers half way through the night. Tip : Give it to a XXXX drinker...they won't be able to tell the difference.
- Duncan Newman, Blue Rinse Dye your mum's hair in her sleep. Give her an Eccy before she goes to Church this sunday.
- Sandy : Short Sheet your brother's bed. Simple, but ever the classic, and I'm feeling a tad nostalgic. Failing that, rewire the street crossings to beep when they should click, and vice versa.
- Matt, discuss in great detail the disection of syphilitic puss ridden internal organs at every God given opportunity during lunch today.

- anyone I have forgotten, your task is to abuse me in your choice of digital media.

OK, so now I am walking home. Help.

2:02am EAST
18:02 Swedish Time
Temperature : (-3) to 3C (currently 2C)

Everyone should have a T1 connection. That way, I wouldn't have to spend ALL FREAKING NIGHT AGAIN rescanning in pictures to get a better ratio of quality-size.

Grrrr I tell you...Grrr.

This is my little brother, as digitally edited by my sis in the US.

I've edited it appropriately to give him some sort of reason to bear such a smile...(thanks to Inside Sport for the image...hope you don't mind...)

We are such a loving family aren't we :)

hmm...I'm guessing autoframing is screwed at blogger...thus the mega wide sentences, which I'll leave them to fix, the slack bastards. :)

"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids,
we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and
listening to repetitive electronic music."
- Kristin Wilson, Nintendo, Inc., 1989.

Oops :) (thx Runge for the quote)

I now have indoor soccer shoes. Sexy ones too. Silver and everything. They look like this, except silver. :

And they only cost me AU$100!!! Finally something that is cheap in Sweden. (Sally, had to put them on the VISA cause my card didn't work in the store, but it's sorted this end now). Cause they are supposed to cost $75US, according to their website. So I am a happy man because now I can get back to training and stuff. Playing outside in 0C on semi frozen ground isn't nice to my ankles.

However, in the pants department, I have not been as successful. 3 hours of trying on pants and one set of slightly bruised testicles later and I have decided that Swedish men are cyborgs. They have no legs!!! The pants here are cut straight up and down...like STRAIGHT. Sheet. :) But I did manage to find one pair...I will have to go searching again later as I still do not have enough to last a working week!!! :) However the ones I did get, combined with my new shoes, make me a dancing machine!!! They are uber comfortable and all I want to do is groove in them. Groove groove groove.

Groove I say. Groove you must. Bring on the dark rooms, flashy lights and electric music, for I AM PACMAN.

Sorry, but I urgently need to vent. Like badly. REALLY badly.

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck
fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccc
ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkk
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.

thank you.

Buy me this NOW. I promise gratuitous debt redemption of your choice.

Aaargh! My discman has died. Or rather the CD clasp has broken. Will scan in a picture to highlight my cause...but on Tuesday or something.

It's AB! Good Cause.

Isn't it always the way...you find yourself alone at uni on a Sunday...there's no one around and you have the entire lab to yourself. So you think, why not?? I'm all alone...so you let one rip ('fart' for the international students who aren't up with the Aussie lingo). So what happens next? Yup you guessed it...some people come out of nowhere and walk into aformentioned and now quite smelly lab, subsequently cop a nostril full, and you are left with absolutely no one to blame. Bugger.

Woot!

After much hard work and deliberation, I feel that I am finally making some headwind in this whole 'quest for decent Swedish sweets to send home' thing. In other news, I heard a nasty rumour that I have an exam at 8am tomorrow morning.

WE@D Clothing Goes International

9:45pm EAST
13:45 Swedish Time
Temperature : (-4) -> 2C (currently warmer at 3C!)

Aaargh! My circuit design exam has been moved FORWARD from next Friday to Monday, 8am!!! Evil! (They are allowed to do this because you are allowed to retake exams). So this means I will be a study bunny all weekend which means that I won't be able to do the planned website update...heck I can't even go to the party I helped organise this Saturday!!!

Anyways, instead I have posted some photos below. They are of me, because I sent some photos and people didn't know who people were in the photo (out of roughly 10 rolls of film I am in only like 4 photos) so Katie was nice enough to lend me some photos to scan. And here they are. They also give a nice progression of my scary shiney hair. I swear at times I look like the sexual chocolate lead singer from 'Coming to America' with that sunglow stuff in my hair. OK, without further adieu...

Katie (South Carolina) and I at the world's best drinking game (caps)


L-R : Sarah (Australia), Barbara (Switzerland), Caroline (Australia), Me, James (Australia) at...something? at Kåren


Katie and I at the toga party. I was sober. She was not.


My "Swedish Chocolate + Wine Party"...later in the evening...after much red wine...James and I jamming (that's a harmonica in my hand)


Me wishing I owned a Maton...stupid right handed guitars.


'Piece de la resistance' - The International Dinner afterparty...posing as 'The Essential Aussie Male' :)

Hope you like them!

Also...GO STUEY LAW AND THE BULLS AT THE ALLAN BORDER FIELD!!! KICK ASS FELLAS!!!

For once I beat Jaymis to the cool link of the week. Instead of accessing the official Livid 2002 webpage, I stumbled on this little gem. Now THAT'S what I call appropriate usage of a digital camera.

Yeeeeeha! Dave's coming to visit me in Sweden!!!!!!! YEAH BABY!!

Oh yeah, also forgot to pass on a big congrats to Dougie, my brother, who made 2nd grade in cricket. Sweet bro! First stop second grade, next stop World Cup South Africa buddy.

Now where was that email with the scores you promised me!

4:46pm EAST
8:46 Swedish Time
Temperature : (-6) -> 6C (currently 0C and frosty)

OK, here are a few more interesting things about Sweden and stuff.

1. You can't sneeze in front of people. It's rude. As in really rude. What makes this funny is that number...
2. is that you are allowed to spit in front of people, be you male or female. I was talking to this girl the other day, and she just turns her head to the left and loogies away. Meanwhile. I go to blow my nose and she repels away in disgust. Weird. I have actually started to enquire with a few of my Swedish friends as to how far this goes...I mean, does the guy have to get out of bed and go to the bathroom to sneeze? Is it rude to sneeze during sex? The quest continues.
3. Swedish education is based heavily on self driven education - the ultimate aim is basically that you should be driven by motivation and not deadlines. What this means, as I found out this week, is that if you don't have time to hand in a project, you can hand it in whenever,even if your excuse is that you were just plain lazy. To quote "...don't be too stressed about handing it in asap...I didn't put a due date on the paper...I am running this course next may so you can hand in your project work with them". WTF??? Similar for exams. You have retake exams here in Sweden, so if you were nervous or had exams close together you can retake the exam...or in the case of a few Swedish friends, not go because, quite frankly, you didn't feel like it today. You'll get another date at your leisure in a few weeks time.
4. Sweden have this word, Lagem. It means 'in the middle' or 'just enough' - it also has a lot to do with their reputation as negotiators and comprimisors rather than arguers. This means I have lived with a Swedish family for two months and haven't seen them fight once...rather I have seen a 9 year old negotiate his bed time with his father. Go figure. This reputation is well deserved...I even have a Swedish friend who at high school, instead of being given an assessment guide (you know, final exam worth 65%, 2 assignments at 10% etc. etc.) the whole class sat in a circle and discussed what assessment they would prefer for the semester, and this was USED by the teacher to set assessment. So if everyone prefered assignment based, that's what you got. Awesome...

ONE thing I will comment on though...who makes these Swedish washing machines? I ask you? First they destroy my favourite shirt of all time, and now they are chewing my underwear to pieces. My lovely Mitch Dowds and Davenports, none more than roughly 6 months old, are all coming apart at the seams. I mean, the Marshalls are reputed for their strong farting, but this is ridiculous. Swedes must either wear none, or wear ones made of steel.

I did say I would post this as an indication of my friends back home in Australia. Here is Alex, one of my best friends of many years, during one of his less...um...conservative moments, at Mere's (right) Leather and Lace 21st birthday. See, I'm not the only Aussie who dresses up. Albeit, there is a step from leather to a sarong made out of the Australian flag...but is it a step for better or worse?

There ya go buddy. I'll do my proper post tomorrow.

6:10pm EAST
08:10 Swedish Time
Temperature : (-3) -> 3C (currently 3C and f#%king windy)

Hmmm...a beautifully warm Swedish Tuesday...Please tell me it is pissing rain in Brisbane... :)

OK, so I have a fair bit to say about the weekend, so I thought I'd come in early and get a good start on. Actually that's a blatant lie...I thought I had an 8am lecture, and evidently I don't, so instead you people have to put up with my early mornings.

Firstly, some how I think my body clock is struggling to come to terms with the climatic changes occuring at the moment...I mean Friday night I didn't get to bed until 4am, Saturday night I didn't get to bed until 6:30am and on Sunday night I went to bed at midnight and woke at 8am. So what does my body do this morning? Wake at bloody 5am and announce that it doesn't want to sleep any more. Not wanting to argue with someone who could make my day a living hell, I decided to go for a run. 20 minutes later my body suddenly realised it had made a big mistake and declared that it would prefer bed to running in windy 3C conditions. This it did with a rather impressive set of stomach cramps. Bastard. I can see that we aren't going to get along today.

So anyways, here I am, John Butler Trio cranked to the max (track 5 if you want to crank along). After working all week and after being threatened with death if I didn't socialise this weekend, I decided to socialise this weekend. Friday night was pretty tame...Benjamin was celebrating his birthday, so several of us rocked around to his place for a few quiet drinks - kudos to the man for putting on a good spread...I've never seen such a more organised array of alcohol and edibles...gotta love those Germans :) Anyways, met some more groovy people including a Swede who went on exchange to Darwin...now that's balls. And given the time of year she left, she has serious balls...she left at Christmas time which meant she stepped onto the plane in (-10)C weather, and stepped off the blasted thing into +40C. Crazy Swede!

Saturday night was the International Cook-off...30 or so teams from countries around the world cooking traditional dishes from their own country for the world to sample. It was AWESOME fun. Seriously. Obviously us Aussies went all out...our two teams combined put on Aussie burgers (complete with egg, bacon, pineapple and beetroot which I'll add is a beatch to find here...it was a dead set dagwood too...a cube...just as high as it was wide...very well received), lamingtons, vegemite on toast, and then some fairy bread and pancakes for desert. Bloody good spread if you ask me. We spent the entire afternoon cranking ACDC, midnight oil, powderfinger, Something For Kate and many more, whilst dancing around and generally creating a huge amount of noise. The piece de la' resistance was the fact that we went all out on the get up. The temperature was 0C, but we didn't care...Nathan, James and I paraded down in little more than a pair of satin Aussie flag boxers, an Aussie flag and a bluey wife beater singlet. Oh, and did I mention pluggers? I wore pluggers as well. Oh yeah, and I didn't shave for a week to set the mood. (Yes, I CAN grow stubble you bastards!). So we paraded in an Aussie 1/2 hour late with Caroline in tow singing the national anthem at the top of our voices until we had the attention of the majority of the crowd, then proceeded to Aussie Aussie Aussie, and then set up. James and I even brought our guitars so that after a few minutes we broke out into song with a rendition of 'Waltzing Matilda'. (Photos will arrive...just I am not being as trigger happy these days and I have 36er films which take longer to get through)

Needless to say we won the hearts of the world. And although we didn't win the food prize (which is a rort, because our burgers were bloody unreal), they created a special prize for us for putting on such a good show. The prize was equally Aussie...beer :)

This leads me to my next point, which is I have been working very hard, and intend to do so more a few more weeks, but there are evil plans afoot. Take Saturday night for example...there I was, keen on having a long night, but a dry one because I wanted to get up early to go to uni to do some more work. So I rock up without supplies, and get to work on the cooking part. Then Nathan hands me a beer, which I'll add are all 500mL here in Sweden. Then so does James. Then I get to sockertoppen and we win beer. Then I go back to Dave's, and it was all downhill from there. roughly 10 (?) shots later of various mixes ranging from tequila to jager to mini cocktails, and I find that it is 4:30am, and I've been invited to James' for a late night (sic. early morning) scotch. No problems for me...

The evil bastards are plotting against my study program I swear :)

For the parental units and other such bodies of power, I maintain that I wasn't drunk at any stage - after all this WAS spaced out over a 13 hour period! Instead I spent part of the night playing 2nd guitar to James, and dancing around the remainder. It was hellish fun!

Still haven't bought my pants though...that will have to happen soon :)

Anyways, I might go see if my lecture is on. Actually, this is a lie...Jane logged on and I intend to go chat. And read emails!

#1 International Care Package Award : goes to Janie, for sending me the hotwater bottle that came in handy last night!

#1 Item To Travel With To A Cold Country : Big f#%k-off headphones - two reasons, firstly, better sounding music. 2nd reason, legitemate earmuffs!!!

Interesting Ways To Start An International Incident #26 : Hand in a comparatively poorly researched report entitled "War, Peace & The Swedish Mentality :
A Personal Perspective & Interpretation"

Ways To Avert An International Incident #2,327 : Include a prolog/disclaimer proclaiming yourself to be a poorly read, simplistic fool with absolutely no historically relevant analytical skills whatsoever (sic. 'an Engineer')

Damn these evil 3,500 written assignments. Damn them all I say.

Please send 1 x full length colour poster of Claire Forlani, and 1 x full length colour photo of Kiera Knightly, preferably exerpted from the 'Bend It Like Beckham' training sessions. Thank you. :)

Super Tribute :

Congrats Mere!!! Or should I say Vice President Bennett? Big hugs and plutonic kisses all round all the same. ;) You deserve it.

(Ditto for Foxy Lady)

8:23pm EAST
12:23 Swedish Time
Temperature : 6 - 11C (currently 11C)

The BBC wishes to apologise for the apparent educational nature of the previous post. It actually should not have contained any educational content whatsoever, and the person responsible has been beaten within an inch of their life. We would like to apologise to our viewers for any inconvienience, and we will now return to our regularly scheduled program. Thank You.

OK, and now back to the real world. I did bugger all on my report last night AND missed Oktoberfest to boot, so now today I have reclaimed my Incubus CDs from Andy (dear Lord thank you for the blessed sound of 11am) and have found a lab that NO one is going to look for me in. And it is work time. Honest. Just after I reply to these few emails...

I really miss my friends back home...especially when they display such love for me in their emails. This little gem came from an undisclosed source (**cough mere**) deep within the satanous realm of the UQLS (**cough cough meredith cough bennett**). Still, made me crack up.

As for your chances of getting into a university such as UQ...you have ZERO CHANCE. So go back to your shit-hole uni in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere in the middle of a country that resembles a frozen wasteland similar to Siberia and go and get honours in your finger-painting degree or whatever other brainless course you are currently enrolled in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I tell you, is that love people? You bet your sweet ass it is. Oh yeah...she wants me baaad. :)
[cop that wench... ;P ]

Right. On with the wagon o work.

Oh yeah, QUTians, you will be happy to know that I have once again managed to claim/reclaim the title of softus cockeratus...I actually had someone threaten to drag me to a social event today :)

hej då!

2:59am EAST
16:59 Swedish Time
Temperature : 6 - 13C (currently 11C)

Please note that this is not an attempt to sound intellectual or anything (actually it's probably more of a public proclaimation of ignorance) but I am currently reading Paul A Levine's "From Indifference to Activism : Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust; 1938 - 1944", and finding it incredibly interesting. Being from waaay over on the other side of the planet, I generally maintain the same view of World War 2 as many other beer swilling Aussies, being that "...sure it was tough, but didn't we kick ass eh?" [insert beer glass clink here]. In other words, I've studied it at school, and covered it in very broad terms...I'm guessing partially because we were split between both the European and Pacific regions of the war resulting in a more general field of view, and also partially I'm guessing because our teachers were also the same, beer swilling ass kicking Aussies. What I'm trying to say in all this is that whilst I knew it was an atrocity, the reality was that it was all numbers to me.

Now I'll be the first to admit that I didn't pick up this book off handedly, but rather because we were given a Swedish Society assignment and it was one of the reference books I'm using for my report. But I will say I am glad I did, because it has given me a much greater appreciation of all the shit, and I mean shit, that went down here. The European political scene was amazing...before, during and after the conflict. The Germans weren't the only ones doing the persecuting, even though they were undertaking the most aggressive form.

That's all I'll say because this blog isn't a forum...but I just wanted to point out that it's not all tall blondes and evenings spent in a sauna over here :) Either way though, I'll hand this assignment in and keep reading this book.

Good night neverland!