Bike Dreams

I’ve never worked for a company that provided free beer before, I’ve heard of it. I mean if it was London or something and ok ok its only light beer and yes at Samsung they did have a tab at one of the local bars every month so you could get really really drunk and insult your boss and he wouldnt remember the next day. But I mean I am sitting at my desk drinking beer and apparently that is ok.

Picsel was great because of the free curry every friday lunchtime and sometimes they would order out for pizza. I noticed they have vodka in some of the meeting rooms there too, if its a really bad day I think I will book one of those. Of course alcohol was strictly forbidden at Picsel due to religious reasons and we respected that, only I do seem to remember that beer looks very much like tea without milk if you put it in a mug.

There’s a lot of discussion about Picsel now and there is even a website for disgruntled ex-employees here http://expicsel.ning.com/ but I have to admit I loved working there, once they got in a massive load of Mecca Cola they have a brilliant website here http://mecca-cola.com although I have to admit it tasted pretty horrible. The funniest thing was when they went on a pilgramige hmmm can’t spell that one, well anyway they came back with loads of containers of holy water and it was sitting in the kitchen for a while. One of the containers was leaking all over the place, so I asked ‘were they holy containers?’ the guy that answered me wasn’t the brightest button and didnt get the joke obviously as he just said ‘no they are ordinary plastic ones’ and I didn’t press it as obvioulsy i respect their religion well ok i respect that they believe in something and i don’t want to upset them or something like that. The fact that they obviously embezzled a lot of money out of the company, got into trouble for illegal donations to the labour party, took money from the Malaysian government which is a poor country and I guess will never be paid back… as I said on the forum… what do you expect there is corruption everywhere if you dont like it then quit, you cant carry on working for a company and complain anout their morals, by working for them you are an accomplice to their crimes

I injured myself yesterday as soon as I got on the hockey court. I tried to play but it only got worse. I decided to fix the pain with alcohol so when i woke up this morning the pain had moved into my head. I just phoned Debby and they’ve started the building work on the house.

The title is a quote from Alexis. It was easy for him cos he was in Lund and I was doing the work!! It was not easy!!!! Although him saying that made me laugh!! My new easy job is digging out the earth from the ground floor. Thank goodness my back is not hurting…..! The neighbour has just been around to tell me that he will start work tomorrow at 8am! Hurrah! I have promised to make Swedish coffee – really really strong. Yuck! Just going off to the knitting and sewing club that takes place in the village. Haven’t actually got any knitting or sewing but I am sure it does not matter!

Played indoor bandy (thats a kind of indoor hockey if you didnt know) with some of the guys from work yesterday, i thought it would help stop the onset of programmers belly. I didnt realize quite how much exercise it was going to involve though. I can hardly walk today. I threw myself into it completely though trying to tackle everybody including members of my own team and scoring several own goals. Its only a bit of fun though and Im sure I will get the hang of it

I celebrated by going out with some other of the guys from work to the Grand Hotel and having a meal and a few pints. I dont feel so guilty about having a good meal as last week when Debby was stuck at home with only flour and water. Ive sent her a food parcel with two kilograms of chocolate in and I hope she gets it. I didnt think that they might not actually deliver it and it will ironically end up at the local post office which is about 20km away in an ICA supermarket which is where I bought all the stuff in the first place. So fingers crossed she actually gets it delivered.

Debby just rang to let me know that the Land agency decided we could keep all our forest! So we have to go there this weekend and shout “gerroff our land!!” to all the birds and creatures there… The other good news is that I am allowed to claim for work that ive done off site, ie my train journey tommorow, so we are doubly rich. I have to get a bigger calculator so we can count all our money and trees.

Just spoke to debby and the next door neighbor has given her a bigger crowbar so the destruction is continuing unabated. Im not sure if there will be a house to go back to on friday.

Arrived at work to find this brilliant piece of poetry in my inbox. I forgot how much humour can be found in the office.  I wonder how long it took the management team to decide the following.

Hi all,
*Regarding the question if it's possible to take a half day vacation on
days with afternoon off:

*The management team have decided:

    * It's possible to take a half day vacation on days with the
      afternoon off.
    * When we work full days it is not possible to take a half day
      vacation.

Sorry you had to wait for this answer.

Best regards
Lisa Rosengren, HR BP

the new job is great except the coffee machine, sorry MASCCCCHHHHHINE (in swedish depending where you come from) is broken and they dont have my passwords yet, so i guess they can pay me to sitta har and write my blog, the background noise level in here is fantastic, not as good as the train hotel which was a low hum similar to my tinitus but more a filtered white noise sound. They have post-it notes, i have missed post it notes, my boss wrote a password on one for the wireless internet, post it notes are such a security flaw. These are day glo.

Its really quiet though in terms of people talking, engineers can be really grumpy bastards on monday mornings, i normally like to chat with people until lunchtime but best look busy on my first day. Its actually quite exciting, there are three other people starting on our team today and one other guy that only started last week, my boss is german though and hes talking to the other guy in german, i mean if they spoke swedish i wouldnt understand either, i wonder if the others are german too!

The dream is over! It was quite sad when we realized but we never made it back to Stockholm. We found a lovely farm in Ransbysatter near Lysvik in Varmland and decided to buy it. We are living there now. We have a badger called Dave living under the barn, but apart from that is just us and lots of mushrooms. We call it the svamphus.

I start a new job today in Lund which is an 8 hour commute from the farm, but it gives me something to do and some relief from the tinitus which i think i aquired whilst down the well trying to free a frozen pump motor with a large hammer. Its so quiet at the farm, except for the imaginary piece of machinery thats in my head now.

It could be a brain tumor singing, but anyway I cant hear it down here. Before I left for the big city debby and me went to a “perfect home party” in the village. It was a bit scary like Stepford Wives, but it was a good chance to learn some useful Swedish about knives and candle holders and stuff.

The best thing about the house is the always on oven which can be anything between 100 and 300 degrees which is perfect for my bread cooking. I dont measure any of the ingredients so what it needs is random temperature. It makes really lovely bread. We bought some flour from the German Baker Konstantin. I’m not sure if he liked us.

Its strange leaving debby behind, but actually I think we could both use a break from each other, after all the bike trip has been 24/7 and buying the farm was a little stressful. I think my brain needs something to concentrate on. Hopefully it will stop it vibrating to pieces. Esmaralda! The Bells! The Bells!

Debby doesnt often get scared. Normally its me but last night she was convinced there were bears paddling in the water by our tent. There are bears here and wolves too but i think it was just the waves lapping against the shore. I cant explain the big paw prints in the beach however…