Played soccer the otherday, thought it would be good to get some exercise. Oh boy was I wrong... These delusions I keep having has to stop or I might hurt myself. As of today I have now removed my big toe nail and two more toe nails are looking oddly suspicious and probably very unhealthy. Not to mention the brutal bashing my pride took as I'm nowhere near as fit as I though I would be. I did manage a brilliant back-heeler along the way though, some pride recovered. So what to do ?

I did what Carrie Bradshaw from Sex & the city would have, I went shopping for designer clothes. Now those who have ever laid eyes on me are by now writhing on the floor in laughter at the absurd analogy (and those who have access to my financial records will probably at least have raised an eyebrow). But truth of the matter is... I now own my first brand-piece of clothing, a nice armani tie.

The rest of the week was spent either in bed, in front of the computer or planning for today.... today was the big day you see... I was going to meet an american friend of mine from the internet. As it turns out, not much planning was needed so the other two activities prevailed. I will only refer to my friend by her internet-alias "killer_queen", out of respect of her privacy. Killer was coming to Stockholm, and asked if I wanted to meet up. Not a man to pass up such an enchanting invitation I started calculating on how best to get to said meeting. Some methods were ruled out pretty quickly:
Flying ? to expensive.
Walking ? it's 300 miles one way, come on.
Train ? also too expensive.
Bus ? Not gonna happen, kiddo. I'm 6 ft 7 (201 cm) and those buses were designed with dwarves in mind.

So I did what every desperate youngster in the world would do, I asked my father if I could borrow his car and with insane wheeling and dealing I even got him to pay for the gas. (and that's some feat when the gas costs 6.75$/gallon as it does around here)

So I made all the preparations; checked various mapsites for directions, ate well, got a good nights sleep and then the next morning I was off. I can tell you that the Swedish countryside between Gothenburg and Stockholm gets dull very fast. Except for one passage that is wonderful as you drive along the shores of one of the great lakes of Sweden. Even the part that's known as "the road of death" offered little excitement, except for the occasional dead badger that had tried butting heads with ye ole "rapidly approaching Bridgestone tire" one too many times. All I could think of as I passed this section was "How will I keep myself from falling asleep here on the way back" and "these traffic cameras that they have put up here, to catch speeding drivers... I wonder if they work"

Well, I got to the outskirts of Stockholm, and now a conundrum appeared: the directions I had printed out, lay on the passenger seat next to me... was I man enough to read the direction while speeding long a highway at 75 mph (110 km/h). As no other solution appeared I was forced to be just that man. Well of course this project failed on epic levels, soon I was lost in the innercity of Stockholm and I couldn't match a single streetname I passed by with the ones found on my precious directions. And to boot, my bladder was reminding me that caffeine helps you get up in the morning but also creates some other great urges that are hard to satisfy while operating a vehicle.

I resigned to relieve myself in a small shrubbery next to a scarsely trafficked street and all of a sudden everything cleared. With renewed willpower the last part of the journey was quickly traversed and I could enjoy the meeting with killer. We both had a great time... (I think) and as anyone can testify, on those occasions time flies so it was soone time for me to leave Killer. Lots of huggage ensued, adresses and phone numbers where traded with promises of doing this again as soon as it's possible.

I spent the journey back zoning.... 5 hours passed quickly, I may even have missed a girl flashing me as she and her buddies drove by. Not sure if that's a good sign.

To conclude:

10 hours behind the wheel... but it was all worth it. Hey Killer!