World Update #5

OK here it finally is - Update V. Due to great demand I have completed this

sooner than expected.

Please if this stuff bores you shitless then tell me and I'll stop sending it

to you. Otherwise, be informed...

First thing to comment on is December travels. As well as going to Spain I

ventured up to a chilly Solleftea (middle of Sweden) for Christmas and then to

a freezing Edinburgh for Hogmanay (New Year celebrations).

Christmas in Sweden was a treat. I met about 15 completely new relatives that I

formerly only new of due to making a family tree before I left New Zealand.

Also there were a number of additions to make as little babies keep popping up

everywhere. It was a child-less christmas except for two cute little babies.

One Swedish, one Vietnamese. One of the highlights had to be meeting Hallan for

the first time. At 85 she is the last of a generation and this made the meeting

an especially significant one for me. 

As I stepped out of the car, after a snow filled trip from the airport, I was

greated by her. She was waiting outside on the snowy ground in her normal

indoor clothes whilst I stepped out of the car fully padded in my jersey and

double layered jacket! I was frozen to the bone and she as warm as though it

was a bright summers day. It was one of those moments. We both just cried and

hugged each other. Not a word was spoken. Hallan later mentioned that I

reminded her of my mother and grandmother. My grandmother being Hallan's

cousin. For me Hallan reminded me of my grandmother and grandma's sister Lallla

who visited us in NZ many years ago. Sune and Sigrid who took me from the

airport probably wondered what the hell was going on.

From then on it was an exciting continual process of meeting new relatives. At

first I would go up to them and say "Hello I'm Mark" but after the second "We

know" response given with a smiling face I gave up. It was evident that word

had got around and there would be someone new at christmas in Solleftea this

year.

Christmas eve dinner (when christmas is celebrated in Sweden) had a full house.

The table was laiden with the usual swedish christmas fare. In between

"catching-up" on the gossip and mouthfuls of good food they started on drinking

songs lead most ably by Hallan. If you've never had aquavit before I can highly

recommend it. This bit of wisdom is unfortunately from previous experiences as

at this christmas I couldn't drink. I was on anti-biotics from catching the

latest London bug. Only a handful of us stayed at Hallan's that night. Most

went home.

The days following christmas comprised of venturing out into the wilderness

(oops I mean Sweden) and visiting the clan in their own homes. This was great

as I got to see some of Sweden and the local area, a particularly uninteresting

bridge (sorry Sara), a heck of a lot of ski slopes and ski jumps. In each place

I was given the complete run-down on local history including the "I went to

school there" and " We used to live there 20 years ago" and "Oh! I didn't know

that was there. That's new!" stuff. I loved it all!

After Sweden I returned to work for two days. One the first day a colleague

asked me what christmas was like and I had completely forgotten that it was

christmas. There was so much happening that it kind of passed me by. I guess

it's still hard to accept a christmas without the sunshining down upon you. We

did do a big present opening thing on the 24th though. Each present was

accompanied by a few verses of poetry which was to help you guess what was

inside. I'm not sure everyone understood my poor english verses!

Then I was sick for a while and only just recovered to leave London again and

head for Hogmanay. This involves drinking lots of whiskey around the streets of

Edinburgh - mainly the Royal Mile and Princes Street (you would have loved it

Olle - all that whiskey!). I met up with some ultimate friends and we partied

into the new year and celebrated in the normal way. Some did the Hogmanay thing

(no names). This involves snogging as many people as you possibly can in one

night. For those Swedes that do not know what this is I am not going to explain

in words. Nor am I going to explain visually. Ask Johan Peter - I'm sure he

knows all about it! I read an article in the paper just recently that said a

number of Hogmanay goers where suffering from mouth sores. Enough said.

Although I think it worth mentioning that a there were queues for snogging

policemen and policewoman. Another thing I noticed was that the policemen

tended to be of the older variety. I wondered if they mostly are in Edinburgh

or ....? They were a cheerful bunch though. Much different from the London

"bobbys". For example when we were asked if we were carrying any bottles into

the city they did not check us. They accepted that we were speaking the truth.

In London you would have been searched regardless, I'm sure. 

Since returning again to London I have been working working working. As

December is our companies year  end we are very busy. We are having to work all

weekend as well so I am finding it hard to study. Also on my mind is fitness. I

haven't played ultimate since Nov (I think) and I will be playing in Maui only

five weeks from now. I need to do some serious fitness work which basically

involves going for runs around where I live. The only problem is that it is

very cold at the moment ; hey and lets face it - I'm lazy.

Really looking forward to the trip away now. After working most of January I'll

need it.

Much love and kisses to you all, puss o kram

World Update #4

Well I've just read my last update and a lot has happened since then and it wasonly a short time ago.I managed to get to Stockholm with Sandra, Kristy and Chanel. We stayed at ahotel near the city and had a great time. I caught up with some ultimateplayers and played some indoors. They were recovering from a hangover the nightbefore so instead of playing straight away we started off playing some indoor soccer.

Well not being terribly co-ordinated with my feet I didn't contribute ahell of a lot. It got a sweat up though so we were well warmed up by the timewe started to play ultimate.I managed to be too smart for my own good and caught the disc with my mouth atone point. My lip started to gush blood about so I ran up to the changing roomsand left a nice colour in the white hand basin by the time I was cleaned up.I've never had a fat lip before and it didn't help the alcohol consumptionlater that night! I did manage to get on the court and play some more though. At the gym therewas a couple who were just watching. They came out with us that night and Ireally had a blast with them. Bjorn and Jenne were soo cool I arranged to meetthem the following day with Bjorn's two nephews. We went to Junibacken which isa kids museum of all the Swedish childrens stories. That was fun for me too asI know a couple of stories. One you might know of is Pippi Longstocking.Anyway the trip was great and I got a chance to catch up with Annika (my cousinof the same age) and Arvid (her man) and their mates. Also my little cherub -Ebba. She is Annika's daughter. A difficult one to win-over but I think I mightbe creeping into her good books.Since then I've had my contract at Cable Corp extended. They are going thru amajor restructure and some redundancies were announced that means that by Maynext year I'm going to be looking for work. That ties in fairly well with mytravel plans anyway so I'm not worried.There are some changes afoot in the flat. Three people are soon to be leavingus and some new ones to come in. Our place seems like Grand Central Station attimes but this is the first time so many of the actual flatmates (ie. notdossers = people staying with us) are leaving. It seems strange to have theflatmates go as we have been together for a long time now. I unfortunatelyhaven't made the best of it and still do not really know them that well. I'msad to see them go.Sue and I have just come back from Murcia in the south of Spain. One day brightblue skies with puffy white clouds to dim grey sky (if you are lucky enough tosee it!) and white ground - it was snowing when we came back. The temperaturechange was a should to my body. From 18 degrees C to sub-zero in England.Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (sorry for the repeat there for those that have already heardthat one!).The trip was great and just what we both needed. We stayed at Las Lomos whichis a Hyatt resort mainly for UK golfers. This didn't stop us enjoying playingtennis and riding mountain bikes around the local area. Most of the time wasspent "chilliing". Someone got merrily drunk one night and the other got zappeddrunk on his birthday. Ooops I wasn't supposed to let on which story related towhich person. Too late now. For those of who don't know I turned 30 on the15th.Before you start bombarding me with the old-timer rubbish I am in the bestshape of my life and doing more than I ever have done. And no I didn't need tosay that just to reassure myself that I can still hack-it. So there.Speaking of being drunk. A young 29yr old got himself into quite a state acouple of weeks back. That was just before the first test between NZ andEngland in the netball series (of course we won). Without going into the gorydetails it is enought to say that I have never felt worse in my entire life.Thanks to the lovely ladies who took care of me that night. I would name thembut I am only certain of two of them and wouldn't want to stick my foot in itby mentioning or not mentioning someone!Later that week I farwelled Susie who is returning to the States. She playedultimate with our team over here and has been studying english, just like me!Well her studies are a little higher up the ladder than my GCSE. Whichincidentally is going well. I've managed to bash out three assignments now.I've almost finished reading Jane Eyre which is a cool book. Have a read if youget a chance. I'm slowing down with the reading now though as when I finishJane Eyre I'll have to start Macbeth or poetry by Thomas Hardy. Neither ofwhich I particularly care for. To be honest I haven't read any of TH's poemsbut I've never been into poetry and I'm not expecting that to change anytimesoon.Things are afoot with our ultimate team in the UK too. We are trying to decidehow to tackle 1998. There is the opportunity to do really well next year andchallenge the top teams. Our problem at the moment (as with any amateur/socialsport) is that some players do not want to be competitive and some do. It willbe interesting to see what happens.I'm going to spend Xmas in the north of Sweden with relatives on my mums side.I'm a tad nervous about the whole thing as I won't know anyone except forJohan-Peter who I met in London just before he left to go home. It will begreat though meeting up with a whole bunch of my relies and I am really lookingforward to it. This, after all, was my main reason for coming over to this sideof the world - to meet my relatives. Well actually it was my ONLY reason forcoming over here. I seem to have got side-tracked along the way and taken mytime in getting to Sweden. I still plan to spend summer there but that is inJuly/August.Thinking about my relies makes me think about how I felt coming back intoGatwick from Spain. I am beginning to feel like this is where I should havebeen all my life. I am starting to feel "at home" on this side of the world.Don't panic mum. I will come and visit you (if you are nice to me and stoptelling me what a prat I am at times!). Well, what haven't I mentioned?? Oh yeah. Since I last emailed two of my Kiwi cousins have come on-line. Hi Dan and Em and Howe's. Good to be in contact!Also I have started to email the Swedish relies more frequently. Wait till theystart to see my jokes! They won't ever invite me over to Sweden again!Hope this finds you well and I guess it's a great time to say have a sloshinglygood Christmas. Try to remember what you did on New Years Eve and don't maketoo many of those nasty New Years resolutions that you are going to feel guiltyabout later.Lots of love to you all,Peace and humptiness