Swedish music

Months and months and months ago (probably about a year ago actually!), my friend Nathan made me a cd of Swedish music. I know, that sounds a bit backwards, surely it should be the other way around? Patience, my dear, it will all be explained in due course.

Oh - and Nathan, if you're reading this, please don't. Cos it'll ruin the surprise.

N used to give me lifts to and from uni every day the first few months of the MSc. Being the only two people who lived far away from campus (apart, obviously, from the Dutch guy who actually lived in the Hague) it made sense. And he'd always play this really cute, cheery music. Not something I'd choose to listen to normally maybe, but nice enough. And I'd ask who it was, and invariably the answer would be 'it's the Swedish band XYZ. Don't you know them?'

So, one day I got a cd with loads of them on! The cover was the titles written out in blue and yellow, shaped as the Swedish flag. Y'kno, in case I ever feel homesick ;)

Edit: I just realised I never explained the Swedish connection. There's a club in Newcastle that do/did a Swedish Popklubb every month (I think?). So it's not completely random!

Such a sweet thing to do!

So, I promised I'd return the favour. And me being, well... me. Lazy. I still haven't.

I made a playlist to burn onto a cd ages ago. But since then I've reinstalled Windows. And of course lost the playlist. And forgotten about it. Again. And again. And again. I'm so useless!

So today I finally remade the playlist. Well, some of it. There's some music saved on the server I want to add but it's not shared at the moment.

But the point is, Nathan shall get his cd. Soon.

In the mean time, here are some highlights. The best of Swedish music, some would say... (ignore the rubbish videos...)

Magnus Uggla - Första Gången

Ted Gärdestad - Jag vill ha en egen måne

Docent Död - Bakom mina solglasögon

Another project.

Couldn't post this earlier, partly cos I forgot to take photos, and partly cos they were for a swap so couldn't post them before in case my partner saw them!

 

 (both images from her Craftster post)

The swap was a 'junk jewellery' swap, so basically using bits from old/broken pieces of jewellery to put something new together. I hope she liked it - she claims she did ;)

This is what I received from her - I love it!!

 

 

Some projects...

Originally posted at Craftster

After I finished my project for the Junk Jewellery Swap 2 I was inspired - stayed up all night giving some old broken jewellery new life...

The first one is beads from a cheap old necklace (H&M I think) which was threaded on elastic which obviously snapped. Not sure if you can see it from the pictures but 8 of the beads are slightly larger and more pinkish, they're from a broken necklace I got from my grandma's collection. The closure is new.





Second one is made mainly from a necklace from grandma, some glass bits - just added parts of a broken chain to a part of the necklace. I know the closure isn't centered but I like it...



The next necklace is parts of the same necklace I took the chain above from. I put all the beaded parts together and added some chains to the bottom.





And a bracelet to match...



They're not very special but I quite like them!

xx

Cliques and chavs.

I looked out my window earlier and saw this beautiful golden retriver on the opposite sidewalk. Sorry, pavement. I forget.

The dog stopped, sat down and scratched itself vigorously for a long long time. It looked nice. I caught myself thinking that's what animals do. If there's an itch, they scratch it. Humans are much more discreet.

Then I thought, 'Hang on, that isn't true.'

You see young men with their hands permanently in their pants all over the place in this country. I once asked a mate why chavs do this, and he said it's probably to keep their balls warm. Nothing like a bit of body heat on a cold day. And with the added bonus of self-affection, I bet it feels a little bit less lonely?

It almost sounds like I'm comparing chavs to animals here. I'm really not. And I'm even going to avoid all the stereotypical jokes about that comparison not being fair on animals (oh look at that, I couldn't. But I wanted to preempt it so no comments do...).

I've nothing against any group of people. But some groups do seem to have a worse reputation than others. Does that mean some groups are actually worse? Nah.

I do wonder if a certain type of people are drawn to certain groups for a reason. No, I don't wonder, I'm sure of it. It's probably a well established fact. Not that I've ever read any such studies.

You get cliques everywhere. Online. In school. At work. On the bus (cool kids in the back anyone?). In any gathering of people really.

I don't know. I don't like it. It's a natural thing to an extent, of course you'll be drawn to the people you agree with/who hold similar values/share your sense of humour etc. But it becomes too big a thing too often. People worry too much about stuff.

I'm rambling. Back to the job hunt!

Blogger blogger blogger...

The other day I read in the Blogger Buzz Blog about how they've improved the 'next blog' function so it brings you to blogs similar to the one you're reading - and in the same language - and will roll it out over the next week. Ok, I might be impatient, but it's now been a week... Whenever I click 'next blog' various Portugese blogs pop up. Don't get me wrong, they look wonderful! And I'd love to read them. But my year of Spanish 8 years ago (and lunchtime catch up course last year... but we shan't count that!) has unfortunately not given me the skills to decipher Portugese.

I'm waiting in anticipation...

Impatiently yours,

Julia.

Feeling hungover.

No, I didn't drink or do anything silly last night. I just feel odd today! Slept about an hour Friday night (got carried away making some jewellery - pictures later - and had to get up at half past 4) and had a very long day with lots of travelling yesterday. Slept a good amount of hours last night though, so will be caught up soon.

I'm really not very good at staying up all night. Yesterday I was alright as it was such a busy day, lots of people around etc. But the couple of times I've done all-nighters recently I've fallen asleep in computer lab whilst typing. It makes for interesting reading once you wake up, I'll tell you that for free. I think I fixed it all before handing in my dissertation though ;)

Joanna was here last weekend. She left on Tuesday and I miss her already. It was so nice to see her and have her all to myself for a while! We did a lot actually, I never normally do things! Went to the Castle museum which was great (thanks for the tip Paula!) - all three of us got in for £6.50 even though I'd left my York resident's card at home and Mike doesn't actually have one. Normally it's £7.50 per adult, but Joanna's Swedish student ID worked (it also worked in Outfit, score!). Thank you, nice lady on the till!

There were some great exhibitions, about cleaning and household appliances (sounds odd, I know...), they'd built up a Victorian street and loads of rooms from different time periods... The prison part of the museum was alright but I'd expected more - especially with all the hype about the e-fit of Dick Turpin. I'd been looking forward to that but it was actually only mentioned once, one tiny paragraph as part of a massive board display of other things. Oh well, I've seen some presentations of how they do it in general and the technology they use anyway so perhaps I'll survive.

xx

Film review: An Education

Image from Movie City News

I've not written a film review in a very long time - probably since school - but I wanted to give it a go.

This was a really good film. Went to see it with Joanna when she was visiting this weekend. I thought I knew how the film would turn out; it seemed predictable. But there were a few... well, not twists as such, but events and actions that I didn't expect. Which was great.

The story encapsulates humour, love, hate and hope as well as hopelessness. It's all so grey - but when Jenny meets the older man it's suddenly all in colour, all alive. She's a very strong character, Carey Mulligan. Alfred Molina gave a brilliant performance as the confused, worried and rather pathetic dad.

But my favourite part is the clothes. I wish I was a 60s girl - just have a look at these... (click on the images to see sources).

Definitely go see this film. I very much enjoyed it.

It's all about the who.

I'm very interested in how people react to things, how they approach situations and how they respond differently to similar things.

I remember reading a story about this man who was reminiscing on his childhood. Or maybe it was a piece on the radio. Either way, it was a few years ago I came across this so bear with me. He told of how whenever anything broke, stopped working or happened in their household, the response from his parents was always the same - 'who did this?'.

I don't remember anything like that from my childhood. Ok, my sister and I would probably jump straight in with 'look what Joanna/Julia did!' before our parents even had a chance to ask. Little tattle-tales we were...

This emphasis on 'who', on the blame is the interesting part. He described it as something that coloured his whole childhood. Of course, sometimes the 'who' is important. But isn't a response focused on how to fix things more practical?

I think I very much focus on the fixing rather than blame. People - especially kids - make mistakes. And there is no use in wallowing or worrying about stuff.

Of course, then there's the mistakes you just can't take back. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm on about
silly things, like breaking a vase or spilling your cornflakes.

I'm not 100% sure where I was going with this. This is what I get for taking a break from blogging and watching some Criminal Minds...