The weather today

- 13 C cold today and the snow is still on the ground.

Christmas cards

Ok, I have to send my Christmas cards today, because today is the last day for sending Christmas cards (with special Christmas stamps). I have finished writing all my Christmas cards, but no stamps yet.

Yesterday I got my first Christmas card for this year, a card from Newcastle. Very nice!

Snow and space

Ah! Finally snow! It's been boring weather with raining for almost one month, it's so much better with snow! It was -3 C this morning, but it's not that bad.

Yesterday night, Christer Fuglesang has walked in space again to fix some electrical problems. His 2nd time. Maybe he have to do a spacewalk again, his 3rd, to do some work on the solar panels.

Tonight, the Swedish TV will interview Christer in live broadcast, and of course I will watch it. I hope the interview will be subtitled tonight.

Christmas presents

On Wednesday, I will go to a Christmas party at the Deaf club. We will all bring a Christmas present and give to each other.

But last week at the deaf club, one woman told us all: "No chocolate boxes as Christmas presents! I'm so tired of chocolate! Chocolate is such a boring gift! Don't buy chocolate!" she said angrily to us.

Hmm... Now I'm thinking of buying a chocolate box and give as Christmas present at that party...

Fuglesang's space travel

Tonight maybe Christer will travel to space? I hope so!

I will stay up all night until 2-3 am and watch it live on tv. It´s space-fever now in Sweden!

Christer will be the first Swede in space, and I read he will take gingerbread and moose meat with him. He wanted his astronaut friends to taste some of Swedish food. Interesting!

I'm holding my thumbs for him! "Hold my thumbs" is a Swedish saying for "Cross my fingers".

Closed hospitals

Today I was supposed to go to the yearly medical check-up.

But yesterday, I read in the newspapers that some hospitals had to close for some days or longer. Visitors are not allowed to visit these hospitals.
Why? It's because many are sick in the so-called "vomit disease" right now. I don't know what it's called in English, but this is how we say in Swedish.
The "vomit disease" is an extremely contagious disease. That's why visitors are not allowed to visit the hospitals.
There are not enough nurses to take care of the patients, because they too are sick! So the hospitals want to save both the patients already in the hospitals and the visitors.

So I called my doctor to cancel my appointment and changed it to an another date. I don't think I want to visit any hospital right now! Better wait until later... The doctor (or really the receptionist) said it was ok and I got a new appointment in about one month. I hope things are better by then!

Weather Diary

It has snowed a lot last night. I took this photo in the morning when I walked to the city centre to buy flowers and a cake for my dad, it's Father's Day today.

Santa Claus in pink

My favourite candy! Pink Santa Claus. Yummy!

The day after the storm

After the storm - a lot of snow in city of Lulea

Pic of the day

Usually it starts snowing in November, but this year the snow came early. It started to snow a couple of days ago, but I don't complain. The snow makes it brighter outside.

Yesterday, it was very stormy. The weather forecast had warned of very strong winds coming from Scotland, but this wasn't that bad. Here in Lulea, we are used to strong winds, because we live near the ocean. So, the yesterday's storm was manageable.

T-blog

Everytime I see my pics of the sheeps, I always think of this video...

Crazy man!!

Pic of the day

It's autumn here in Lulea. Took the pic with my mobile phone.

Our excursion

Me and my work staff made an excursion to Hägnan, outside Luleå.
Today we didn't have to work, but enjoy the day.
It was a beautiful autumn day and no rain today.
We were there all day and had lunch there.

Some sheeps greeted us when we came there.

Our boss lighted a fire. Very cosy.


This is the place where we went to. A very nice place.

Hägnan is an open-air museum, where you can experience what a
small Swedish town was like during the 16th to 19th century.

The day after

M won the election! We have a new prime minister! Fredrik Reinfeldt is his name. It feels unusual to have a new prime minister, but it feels good.

The last one, Goran Persson has been our prime minister for 15 years. I think the Swedish people felt it was time for a change and choosed an another party than S.
I also think that the Swedish people will vote back to S at the next election about 4 years. That depends on how M will manage until then...

The Swedish election

Today is the Swedish Election. I have been voted today. As a Swede, I feel like it is every Swede's duty to vote, but that is a good duty as Sweden is a democracy! Not every one vote, some are "stay-at-home" and don't vote. We can't do anything about them, but it's their choice not to use their human rights to vote.

Anyway, here in Sweden we have about 6 big parties to choose from, some are rightish, other are leftish. They are: M, Fp, Kd, C, S and V (abbreviation of the parties, I'm too lazy to write their full names). There are many other small parties to choose from, but not many vote on them, yet.
Right now S is holding power. Let's see if the Swedish people vote on S tonight or on another party?

Tonight I will sit up waiting for the election results, they show it on TV and it is always exciting to see which party will win!

"I met Lassie"

The day before yesterday, I went to the supermarket to buy a chest of drawers and a toaster. Then I went to Max to eat some hamburger. Guess who I saw there! A famous guy from Swedish Big Brother - Olivier. I have forgotten his last name, but it's the French crazy fun guy who moved to Sweden. He is just as gorgeous in real life as in TV! Great to see him there!

An autumn tradition in Sweden

Last night, I have been to "Surstromming party" at our deaf club. "Surstromming" = fermented baltic herring. We eat raw herring with potatoes, tomatoes and onions, and also "tunnbrod" which is a kind of bread. You can see it on the pics here. And yes, you read it right, we eat raw herring!

Every year around August 19-30, we have Surstromming parties. It is big here in Sweden, especially in the northern parts of Sweden. I know that some, or most foreigners hate the taste of this Surstromming. But they are not used to it! It's not that bad, it just takes time to get used to this.

Dating advices

Some dating advices I got from my mum and sister:

- Children? It doesn't matter if he already has children. Children grow fast. You just blink and whooosh! suddenly they are grown up and leave the nest.

- Weekend-dad? That is good too. This shows he is a responsible person who take care of his children.

- Drinks? Honestly is good. If he says he never drink, you have to ask yourself why... does he lie about his real drinking habits?
But! Avoid those who take drugs.

- Age different? It doesn't matter, the most important is what you feel for each other.

- Never married? These guys are cute, but unexperienced. Maybe he try to wash red socks with white clothes or something like that. Maybe he even lives with his mother. But don't worry, that's no big problem. That can be taken care of.

Autumn now

Today the children are back at school again, and I am back at work after my summer holiday. According to my calendar, autumn is here now.

This summer has been hot, 30-35 C and that's too hot!! I couldn't even walk without sweating. Now the weather's starting to cool off a little. Today was 21 C, that's more normal for a Swedish summer.

Sure, it's great with a warm summer, but it should not last too long!
Two months of hot weather is enough for me! Now it's time for autumn.

Oh, and it's time for autumn fashion! The autumn clothes are already in the shops, and I can't wait for my salary on the 25th!!! I can't wait for shopping!

My summer holiday

I am back home again.
This is what I have done during my summer holiday:

I have read books.
I have travelled to 2 countries.
I have been shopping.
I have eaten 3 birthday cakes.
I have spent times with my family.
I have been out on 2 dates.
I have eaten ice cream.
I haven't bathed in the sea, but have waded in the water on the beach.
And this summer I succeeded to get a nice suntan without getting burnt!

One of the books I have read, and a bag that I have shopped

I waded in the water on this beach: Sassnitz, Germany

My Norwegian date

Now I have met the Norwegian date. We met in Orebro, Sweden, had a cup of coffee and chatted for a while. He was a nice guy and I wouldn't mind get hitched with him. But I found out that he is already dating an another woman. He said they have dated for a while and he is thinking of moving in with her. Hmpfff, then why did he date me?? Strange...

Anyway, two weeks later he called me on the MSN chat. He told me he want to date me again. What? What happened to his other date? He wants me to visit his home in Norway, but that is not going to happen. Obviously he can't make up his mind.

I keep on searching...

Another birthday this summer

My niece had her birthday a couple of days ago. This is her birthday cake. As you can see, there are seven candles on her cake, as she turned 7 years old. She will begin 1st class in school in August. Exciting for her!

Leo also wants to eat some birthday cake.

Lilly have jumped on the table and eats some of the cake. We had already eaten the cake, so we let the cat eat the leftovers.

Misse is fine now

Misse is taking a walk

Misse hurted her paw a few days earlier but is doing fine now.
She doesn't seems to have problem with her paw anymore.

I hope she doesn't get into more cat fights, but stay calm this time.

But you never know what she's doing when she's out at night!

A shameless cat

Last night, we had some evening tea with sandwiches.
Curry, the cat tries to grab a sandwich.
My sister stopped him.
So, this time, Curry didn't get a chance to eat from our food.
But Curry is already secretly planning his next coup for a good sandwich.

Cat accident

Misse the cat

I am back to Sweden again, now staying at mum's house near Malmo.
Will stay here during the rest of the summer.

An accident happened to mum's cat, we don't know exactly what had happened. She has a big sore on her paw and is limping.

At first we thought the cat had jumped off a roof, but the veterinarian thinks it was in a fight with an another cat. The veterinarian told my mum to give the cat medicine every day for one week.

Misse's paw in bandage

My English date in Newcastle

The "Millenium bridge" in Newcastle

Last week, I have travelled to Newcastle, England for a couple of days. I met my English date and spent some days with him there. It was hot and sunny there, about 30 C degrees, little hotter than at home in Sweden. It rained one day, the other days was sunny.
How did Newcastle got its name? A long time ago, someone built a castle for himself there, and then he told people about his new castle upon Tyne. That's how Newcastle got its name.

The village Whitby and the old ruins

I visited some villages outside of Newcastle: Whitby, York, Stockton, Darlington.
Whitby is a special little village, the tv-series "Emmerdale" and "Heart beat" have been filmed on location there. Whitby Abbey, the ruins have inspired Bram Stoker to the movie Dracula.
There is some kind of a Dracula-festival going on there once every year, people dress as Dracula, witches, magician etc and do some partying there.
Whitby is also known for an another thing - Captain James Cook have lived there (you know the captain who sailed to New Zeeland and Australia).

The village York and the Roman Wall

York is an old town from the Roman Empire and you can go on a ghost trail there, as the tourist broschures says. According to the tourist broschures, ghost are walking around in York, especially on the Roman Wall. The Romans built a wall to prevent York from beeing attacked by the Scots.
It seems that some Roman soldiers have been left there and still patrol on the wall, but now as ghosts. Notice the picture, that there is no fence to avoid people to fall off, and it was a steep hill down there. It was little nervous to walk there, and I had to walk carefully not to fall down.

Dog statues in Stockton

There are some cute dog statues in Stockton. Other than that, there isn't much to see there.

The date went fine and he was an nice man. I must think about this for a while.

Gone fishing

Today I am almost alone at my work, except 2 colleagues, because everybody have gone fishing. They are on summer holiday. I will work this week, but next week I will start my summer holiday too.

In Sweden people have the right to take 5 weeks holiday from their work. Most people take 4 weeks holiday in July month, because July is the warmest month here in Sweden. The 5^th week, most people save it for Christmas-New Years holidays.

So, from next Monday, I will be off work for 4 weeks on my summer vacation, and I can go on the two dates I wrote about earlier. Most of the summer, I will stay at mum's house and spend time with my family. During a couple of days, I will travel to Newcastle, England and meet the English date. Then I will meet my second date, the Norwegian date in Sweden during one day.

Have a nice summer everybody!

Dating on the Net

This summer I will go on two dates. One from Norway and the other from England. I have chatted with both on MSN, and we have decided to meet IRL. Both communicates in Sign Language, one with Norwegian Sign Language, and the other in British Sign Language (BSL).

Is Sign Language international, maybe you ask now?
No, Sign Language is not international. Every country has it own Sign Language.
As you know, Switzerland even has several languages: German, Italian, French and Romanch, if I remember it right from my school time.
It’s the same with Sign Language. In Switzerland there are French and German Sign Language.
In Sweden, we only have one Sign Language – the Swedish Sign Language - thank goodness!

Sign Language is different in every country. Some examples:
In Sweden, we sign the word “yes” by signing the alphabeth letters “J” and “A”.
But in Norway and England they sign ”yes” different from the Swedish Sign Language.

Sweden: “Yes” in Swedish Sign Language, but in England this sign means ”stop”.

Norway: This Norwegian sign for “yes” means “maybe” in England, and “childish behavior” in Sweden.

England: “Yes” in England, but in Sweden it means “nodding” or “pretend to understand” or “be deceived”.

Confusing? No, not if you have learned to understand the different Sign Languages.

I have learned some BSL (British Sign Language) but not the Norwegian Sign Language. I think we can understand each other well even thought I don't know Norwegian Sign Language.

After the ordaining

Many people came to Johan's ordaining to priest, I heard it came about 300 people. I haven't been there myself, but those who have been there told me it was a beautiful and a great event. No music or psalm singing, but dance and deaf poetry instead of music. The bishop had learned some sign language, and signed to Johan on the ordaining.

You can see some pictures from Anne-Maj's blog here.
She also signs about this day in her vlog and she shows more pics in her video.

First deaf priest in Sweden

Johan Selin from Harnosand, Sweden, will be ordained to priest on Sunday 11th June. This is a great event, because Johan is the first deaf who will be ordained to priest in the Swedish Church.

Anne-Maj write more about this in her blog. If you know Swedish Sign Language, you can read it here. She has interviewed Johan Selin, and he told her that he used to play priest when he was a child. Later, after his one-year work in Tanzania, he decided to study to priest, which he has succeded at it now. Johan did his studies in Uppsala, near Stockholm, which is far away from his wife and two children. But he could to go home on the weekends, and came back to the studies on weekdays.

Johan wanted to change the church for deaf people, and raised a debate about Sign Language in church services. The priests had too little knowledges in Sign Language by then. Now, the hearing priests have got further training in Sign Language, and now signs in the church services.

We can also learn from Anne-Maj's blog that in U.K there are 3-4 deaf priests, and a couple more in other places around the world. But here in Sweden, Johan is the first deaf who will be ordained to priest.

Congratulation to Johan Selin!

A talking cake

Last year in May, my friend from Stockholm sent a MMS to me. It was a birthday-greeting from him to me, a picture of a birthday cake with the text "Happy Birthday to you!" (in Swedish of course). My friend found the cake on three:s homepage and sent it to me. That was a funny cake.
Later in the summer, my sister had her birthday in July. I sent the birthday-cake as MMS to her, with same text and congratulated her on her birthday.

Some minutes later, I got a text message from her, saying "Happy Birthday on your 39-years day? I am only 36 years!" What? I haven't written that! Where did she get that from?

My sister explained to me, it was the birthday-cake that talked and said that. Oops! I didn't know that the cake talked too! Because I'm deaf, I didn't heard that.

But my sister understood that I couldn't hear what the cake said.
She was happy anyway. :-D

Strawberry-cake

My strawberry cake from last year,

taken with my mobile cam.

Soon it's my birthday. My wishing list? I don't know what to wish, I think I have everything I need...

Now I know what to wish!

- Eat strawberry-cake.

Fresh strawberries are usually not available in shops up here in north during the winter and most of the spring. The strawberries usually come to the shops in the end of May.

So I have made it to my own tradition to always have strawberries on my birthday cake. And it also become a première to eat strawberries on my day.

Strawberries....yummy!

The tourists are here now

Yesterday morning, when I walked to work, I saw a group of Indian men walking in front of me to city. They had just arrived with the train and were walking from the train station to city with their luggage. Probably tourists. They were wearing typical Indian clothes, Indian "skirts" or whatever you call it, those clothes Indian males are wearing in India.

It was cold outside + 4 C in the morning.

Poor guys! They must have been freezing when they got off the train!
How will they manage in Sweden? :-D

Where is the summer?

Went out for lunch today, and what did I see?
It was hailing outside.
And cold + 3 C.
Where is the summer?!?

A forgotten boat

Somebody has forgotten his boat.

It's been here on the shore during all the spring.

Spring picture

An ordinary three up here in north. No leaves yet.

+ 9 C degrees and sunny today.

I have been unfaitful!

Yesterday I went to an another hairdresser than the one I usually go to. My friend told me, one of her students in her sign language class work as hairdresser. I didn't know about that hairdresser before. So I decided to go there and try her.

Great to communicate in sign language with the hairdresser! Unusual to meet an "official" person who know sign language. I hope that more and more hearing people learn sign language, to be able to communicate with deaf little easier. And it is so fun to learn something new!

And about my hair? Yes, it was alright, I cutted my hair little shorter and it looked good.

Big Brother

I haven’t watched Big Brother at all this spring. Before my travel to Laos, I watched Big Brother every day. When I was in Laos for almost 2 weeks, I had a break in watching. When I came back home, I forgot to watch BB and lost interest.

But when BB did an exchange with Thailand’s BB, I started to watch again. Boo from Thailand came to Swedish Big Brother, and our Swedish Anton travelled to their Big Brother in Thailand. Very interesting to learn about the Thai culture! When Anton came back to Swedish BB, I stop watching it. Mainly because it is not subtitled.

My favorite is Anton, even thought I haven’t watched BB for months. The other people in BB are just embarrassing.

Hottest spring ever

The summer is finally here!
Last Sunday was beautiful and nice weather. Sunny all day. About 15 C.
Feels strange to wear summer clothes when the ice is still there in the lake near my home.
But it is warm enough to wear summer clothes.

Last year, same time, it was cold in the air, but the ice had already melted away.
This time, the ice is still there and it is really warm weather.

Strange weather… but I really appreciate to get rid of my winter clothes and start to wear summer clothes!

More pics from Laos

I saw this calendar hanging on the wall in many laotian homes, in restaurants and many other places. The calendar is from Thailand. This one I photographed in a restaurant. Notice the year 2548, it is the Thai year.

The Thai people count their years from when Buddha was born, which is year 0 for them. Buddha was born on 543 BC. So, when we say year 2005, the Thai people say year 2548.

Why was it year 2005 on the calendar when I was there in 2006? Old calendar? No, that’s because they celebrate their New Year in April month. So they didn't changed year yet when I was there in February month.

Bridge between Laos and Thailand

We visited this bridge near Savannakhet (a city in south of Laos), they are building a bridge between Laos and Thailand.
You can see Thailand on the other side of the river. When I took this pic, it was evening about 5 am (11 pm in Sweden).
This bridge was delayed due to an accident. A construction worker on the Thai side of the bridge fell and died. So the work on the bridge stopped for a couple of months. Maybe they have started working on the bridge again, I think.

Holy basil - Laos

I eat this food in Laos. It was called "Holy basil". Found it in the menu at a restaurant in Vientiane, and I was curious at it. What is so holy about this food? Choosed it only because of its funny name.

"Holy basil" is the one in the middle of the menu.

It was actually good, but very spicy. Now I understand why it calls Holy basil. It is so spicy that you become almost holy. I drank a lot of water. But it was good food!

Some pics from Laos

Tuk tuk in Laos, a taxi. The cost was 7 000 kip/person from our hotel to city. 3 years ago it was 5 000 kip. We often went to city, because there was no mobile coverage at our hotel. In city, near the river was/is good coverage, so I could send and receive text messages to my family and friends back home.

Food in Laos - they fry grasshoppers and eat it. It taste like chicken.

A toilet in Laos - there is no toilet paper and no soap... so I had to bring my own toilet paper (taken from my hotel room) and wet tissues to wash my hands. You do not sit on this toilet seat, but you stand with your feet on the seat and squat.

My Laos travel

I have been to Laos, and have come home safely. I was planning to write about my travel in this blog when I was there, but I didn't. Busy with meetings and other things (other things=night life).

It was a good trip. Nice people and warm weather. Great to get away from our winter for a while, I travelled for two weeks in February. I know, been lazy to update this blog...
I tried to get a tan. When we were outside and waited for the meetings to start, I turned my face towards the sun to get some tan in my face.

Surprisingly, the weather in Laos was really pleasant, in spite of Laos beeing a tropical place. It was about 25-30 C, almost like a really hot Swedish summer day. For them in Laos it was cold and winter, but for me as a Swede, it was really hot.

Before I travelled to Laos, I was worried that it would be too hot and humid there, but it wasn't. I have been there once before, in September 3 years ago, it was toooo hot (about 40 C), humid and muddy roads. My feet and shoes got all dirty from the muddy roads, and the cars had a hard time to drive on the roads.
This time in February it was better weather, dry and the cars could drive on the roads without problems. And I could keep my shoes and feet clean.

I got the chance to ride a moped and that was great! I didn’t drive myself, I sat on the back seat or whatever you call it when you sit behind the driver on the moped. There was a group of nice deaf girls who offered us to ride on their mopeds.

I saw one thing which made me a little upset. There was a guy, a deaf man from Thailand who visited Laos for a couple of days as a tourist, and he joined us for dinner in the evenings.
He walked straight to one of the girls, told her to get off her moped and let him drive. He didn’t ask nicely, but told her in a rude way. She tried to protest, but too weakly. He didn’t listen to her and whisked to her to get off the moped. Finally she got off her moped and he drove it.
There really is a need for fight for equality here!

Anyway, I hope to return to Laos again. Depends if my deaf association send us there again for volontary work.

An embarrassing thing

A small embarrassing thing happened to me the other day.
After work, I walked home as usual, and when I turned my key in the door lock, I couldn’t open it. Strange… The lock doesn’t work? Tried again to turn the key. The door didn’t open. Started to sweat and panic a little.

Then I saw a sticker on the door. What? I don’t have any stickers on my door, why is that sticker there? Started to think, and suddenly looked at the name on the letterbox. My name wasn’t there, but an another name was there. I had walked to the wrong door! This is 2nd floor and I live on 3rd floor.

Took the key out, and ran up to my own floor. Phew! Luckily, nobody saw me and the guy who live on the 2nd floor didn’t seem to be at home at that moment. If he had been at home, maybe he would think it was a burglary. He he
That was embarrassing, and when I came inside my own apartment, I laughed a little for myself.

Such things happen when you are absent-minded!

Text telephones in England

I will write a little more about my visit to England.

Text telephones in England are different from Swedish text phones. Most things are same, but some things are different. When we write "come" or *, they write GA instead. When we finish the phone call we write "kl sl", they write SK instead. "Kl sl" means "over and out".
They have special keys for GA and SK, which we don't have. On Swedish text phones we must write c-o-m-e or "kl sl" with the ordinary keys.

And they have another special key, which don't exist in Sweden. That is the emergency key. If something happen, like burglary, fire or abuse, you use this key to give alarm to the police. Wow, we should have something like that for deaf in Sweden!

But sometimes mistakes happen. My friend told me, one day he was dusting off his phone. He touched the emergency key by mistake, but he didn't notice it. After a little while, when he sat in the sofa and read a newspaper, the police came into his apartment!

The police had a copy of his apartment key, so when they got the alarm, they went to his house and opened his door and walked in to his living room. My friend was very surprised to suddenly see two police men standing in the living room!

The police asked my friend if something have happened. No, he said. But then he remembered that he had dusted off his textphone. The police understood it and said to him, next time he clean the phone, he must pull out the plug cord to not start the alarm again by mistake.

Interesting with English text telephones!

One day in London

I have been to London between Boxing Day and New Year 2005 to visit my friend there for a couple of days. One day I wanted to go shopping, but my friend couldn't follow me, he had to work.

So, next morning, we took a bus from his home to the nearest Tube station. He explained to me which bus to take, how many bus stops there are and where to get off the bus.

Ok, so far everything was clear to me.

At the Tube station, my friend showed me where to take the bus home to his house. This bus stop is not at same place as the one we recently got off from the bus. One bus stop is on one side of the Tube station and the other bus stop is on the other side of the station. Very confusing.
Anyway, my friend dropped me off at the tube station, and I went shopping at the Christmas sales.

Later that afternoon, I went back to the tube station with full loaded shopping bags. I walked to this bus stop my friend had showed me earlier. I even hopped on the right bus, I checked the bus number very carefully.

It was dark out now, and it was hard to see the bus stops. I counted the bus stops, there would be 6 of them, as my friend told me earlier this morning. At the 6th bus stop, I hopped off the bus. But it didn't seemed right. Where is that small shop where I bought my one-day bus card? And where is that hairdresser salon next to the small shop?

I quickly walked back into the bus, walked to the bus driver and asked him: "Excuse me, but I think I have missed my bus stop." I told him where my bus stop is and asked him if he know where it is. He said something I didn't hear, but I think he said that I should have told him before, so he could show me my bus stop. I told him "I'm sorry" and asked him if I should take another bus back?

Now he got very angry and shouted at me, and said lot of things I didn't hear. I was surprised. I don't know why he became so angry. He shouted a long time. Another passenger, a woman, pointed to a bus stop across the street and told me to go there. I thanked her and got off the bus. This was embarrassing. Everybody in the bus was looking at me and I felt ashamed.

I waited at the bus stop for about 10 minutes until the next bus came. This time I asked the bus driver (not same bus driver, this was another one, phew!) to tell me where to get off at the tube station. I planned to go all the way back to the tube station and ask my friend to come and pick me up there.

After 4 bus stops, I suddenly saw "my" shop and the hairdresser salon. I quickly got off the bus. Finally something I recognize! Phew! The rest was easy, walk past the shop, turn right and then to my friend's house.

I texted on the mobile to my sister about what had happened today. She answered back on the mobile: "Don't get lost! You should always follow your friend! Don't mess it up!"

Some facts about Laos

Laos is a country in Asia, between Thailand and Vietnam.

Laos' neighboroughs are: Thailand, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma.

Capital: Vientiane.

Number of inhabitans: 6,2 millions

National Day: Dec 2nd

Laos have been French before. That's why there are still many signs in French language. For a short time during the 2nd World War, Laos was occupied by Japan, but France took Laos back again.
Laos became free from France 1953.

Currency: Kip
I can't exchange to kip here in Sweden, so I must exhange to kip in Laos, i.e at our hotel or at a bank in Laos.

Big Brother Sweden have started now

I will be stuck in the BB-world all the way to summer.
There is nothing else to do than to put my life aside.

"Resistance is futile!"

Don't disturb me at 19.00 in the evenings! Because it is Big Brother on TV! ;-)

My first blog

I was going to find a catchy name to this blog... hummm... but couldn't find any, so I took my ordinary nick name as I use in some communities. Easier to remember...

In this blog I will write about my trip to Laos, so mum and dad don't have to worry about me when I am there. I hope there is a computer with internet at my hotel in Laos, so I can write regurlarly in this blog. I also hope that mum and dad know how to find and read this blog. Maybe I have to teach them...

But I know my sister is reading this blog :-)

My trip to Laos is not a holiday, it is for work. My deaf club are supporting deaf schools in Laos, and we will travel there to see what they have done so far with our contribution, look at their new deaf school, learn more about their recently started vocational training etc.

And sorry if my English isn't perfect! ;-)