the things i miss

To celebrate that I now have less than 20 days left at the office I will post some photos of things that I miss. Mostly, I miss European food. Not the kind of food I would typically eat when I cook myself but food from my child hood. My mothers food made to be liked by peckish kids. Like mashed potatoes and Swedish meatballs with lingonberry jam. I could die for my mum’s home made meatballs right now.

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I miss Swedish spring, i miss my family, i miss my oldest friend in the world, i miss my nephew, i miss the quietness and nature of my home town, i miss wearing big fluffy autumn clothes, i miss talking long walks, i miss yoghurt and muesli, i miss Gothenburg, i miss Friday after work @ Stars n Bars, i miss my super awesome friends, i miss being able to be blonde without getting stared at, i miss park chill (i don’t miss wyatt but i didn’t have a better park photo and i also miss my guitar), i miss sushi (but the photo means i miss having dinner with friends).

But most of all, I miss my baby nephew and the opportunity to see the soon-to-be baby of my sister who won’t be new born anymore when I reach home.

handicapped females in the front

Normally when Mei and I endure our hour long bus ride to and from office, we bitch about work (or the lack of). But during yesterdays ride home we talked about gender equality, possibly due to the ridiculous amount of blog posts I’ve read through since I found a new blog yesterday, and in the middle of the conversation about why we have to stand up in the front part of the bus when there is at least ten free seats in the back part that belongs to male bus travelers, I spot this sign; ladies physically handicapped. I don’t think I have to mention how annoyed it made me.

The second thing we discussed yesterday (and which was the reason to why these pictures was taken in the first place) was how good Mei’s Singaporean looks makes her melt in. I on the other hand, don’t melt in even the slightest.

obsession

During uncountable days of boredom at office, I have created an obsession to fill my days with. I found a link to a blog on a Swedish newspaper site and now I can’t stop reading it. The problem is that I have three years of blog posts to catch up with and reading about the life of a gender equality focused suburb dad in Stockholm is much more interesting than writing business proposals. So, today when I finally have work to do, I don’t want to. Korvasbloggen 1 – Business proposals 0.

Even though I don’t picture myself with a screaming baby on my arm in the near future, I am for some reason completely under the spell of this blog. The daily struggle of a normal dad who wants his daughter to wear gender neutral colors on her clothes, have as much paternity leave as the child’s mother has maternity leave and named his kid Harry. Even though she is a girl.

smile, and the world will still look down upon you

Yesterday I had a conversation with my boss about me having no work again. He wondered why I didn’t come up with something to do and I wondered why I wasn’t swamped in work. Then he told me it’s my own fault I have no work since I’m too efficient, finishing work assignments that are supposed to take a month in a weeks time.

The conversation that followed reminded me of something that my father told me in high school a lot of years ago; Carolina, if you would just shut up and lick some ass once and then you would graduate with top grades in every subject.

Unfortunately for me, and sometimes the people around me, to shut up and swallow my words in situations that according to me are wrong is not my strongest side. In India, this is specially unfortunate since every word is supposed to be sugar coated and wrapped in little pink fluffy clouds – something I don’t do. I am a strong believer in the fact that also tiny blond girls are competent and have the right to be individualists. So when my boss tells me You have a nice smile, you should use it a bit more often and people might give you more things to do, in the same sentence as he tells me that the report I just handed in is the most competent he has ever seen and that he is sure no one else in the office would be able to construct something like that – I flip. Comments that would never cross someones lips in a conversation with a man, are not supposed to be said in my presence. Now my boss also knows that I don’t lick people’s asses.

Lesson Learned: In India, it doesn’t matter how many times I prove that I am a well educated, cleaver, hard working person as long as I am a girl. Because all girls are supposed to do is to shut up and smile.

take off

Early tomorrow morning, our flight leaves Bangalore for a warmer and nicer, beach filled and seafood packed Kerala. Round Two.

Five days of beach chill and peacefully floating down the backwaters between palm trees, fishermen and little villages. Five days of quietness, fresh air and beautiful landscape together with my lovely boys. Hell yeah.

not only curry

I am trying to tell myself that there are upsides with being sick. I don’t have to sit at the office being bored all day, I can eat as much garlic as I want and I am one hundred percent convinced that it is okay to eat an entire packet of chocolate if I want and I get to stay tucked into bed all day long watching How I Met Your Mother in my joggers while drinking honey lemon tea.

However, I need to get well before the Easter holiday starts on Thursday. I don’t mind spending weekdays having the flu but no cold in the world gets to mess with my vacation. Thursday morning Carlos, Mikael and I will fly to Trivandrum. Cold or no cold, it’s beach time!

Yesterday I defied my runny nose, ate two paracetamol and headed for dinner a la Tim.

T.h.e  b.e.s.t  f.o.o.d  e.v.e.r. At least in India. See, people, it’s not all curry and rice.

Thank You, Tim. It was amazing.