Movie buff

I used to be this movie buff when I lived in Amsterdam but nowadays I am happy if I get to go to the cinema a few times a year. On Saturday I managed to go though and saw Slumdog Millionaire together with my brother. This film was certainly worth its money and we had a good evening. I need to take time to do these things more often although my preference has now switched from cinema visits to having dinners with friends instead as you can TALK then as well as have great good at the same time.

The book club list

Since our book club started in April 2006 we have read 19 books. Here is the list of all the books and the scores we gave them. 4-8 women have read each book and given a grade between 1 and 5. The books are in order of preference.

1) Khaled Hosseini –The Kiterunner (2007) 5 av 5
2) Haruki Murakami-Kafka on the Shore (2007) 4.75 av 5

3) Jonas Hassen Khemiri – Montecore (2006) 4.5 av 5
4) Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche -Half of a Yellow Sun (2007) 4.4 av 5

5) Maria Sveland – Bitterfittan (2007) 4 av 5

6) Linda Olsson – Let Me Sing You Gentle Songs (2007) 3.8 av 5

7) Susanna Alakoski –Svinalängorna (2006) 3.7 av 5
8) Anna Gavalda - Ensemble, c' est tout (2005) 3.6 av 5
9) Sara Stridsberg –The Dream Faculty (2006) 3.6 av 5

10) Joan Didion - A Year of Magical Thinking (2006) 3.5 av 5

11) Zbigniew Kuklarz- Help My Name Is Zbiniew (2005) 3 av 5

12) Sara Kadefors – Fågelbovägen 32 (2006) 3 av 5
13) Jenny Diski – Stranger on a Train (2005) 2.9 av 5
14) Pär Lagerkvist- The Dwarf (1944) 2.6 av 5
15) Inger Alvén - Mandelkärnan (2007) 2.5 av 5

16) Gioconda Belli – La Mujer Habitada (2007) 2.3 av 5
17) Sisela Lindblom – The Shameless (2007) 2.1 av 5
18) Monika Fagerholm - The American Girl (2004) 1.9 av 5
19) Bengt Ohlsson – Her Softest Voice (2008) 1.75 av 5

Child´s play

On Sunday I realised I am probably the only mother at my son's

daycare who doesn't take him to different activities every evening/ weekend so we went to football school on Sunday for the first time and he really liked it, and of course a few of his mates from the daycare were there. I spoke a little to the parents and they discussed if their children should have 2, 3 or 4 activities a week or if that was too much. How can a child of 4 have three or more activities a week? And how can a child at that age know if that is what he/she wants to do? It seems more as if it is the parents' wishes that are forming the decisions rather than the child's wish. One of the children from the daycare went to hockey, football and karate. Typical "boy" activities so at least if my son is going to have that many activities soon I hope at least that he wants to go to for instance dancing or something that is not so male /sports oriented...

Date number 1: the nerd

On Friday I went on my first date with a guy I met online: the single dad Anders, 41. The good thing about the date was that it was not awkward at all and we had many things to talk about and things in common. We talked a lot about travelling, films, relationships, music, politics etc. and had a great dinner at an Indian restaurant which he paid for. The "bad" thing about the date, is that he was not my type at all and that there is no chance that there will ever be anything more between us than friendship. He was a kind of computernerd type of guy, and sure, I can like a nerd, but it was not so much his looks as his whole persona and attitude. He kind of felt old-fashioned in the way he spoke about relationships and women, and how he had no clue about certain modern concepts I talked about. For sure I think I would prefer a more modern man with a younger approach. Having said that we had a good night and chatted away for about three hours so now I am happy I have finally started dating again. Maybe I have to kiss many frogs before I meet my prince but that will all be worth it hopefully!

Dance dance dance

As a result of my lovely meeting and dance session with the 24-year-old on Saturday at the party I decided to go to a dance class last night- and loved it! I have not been to a "proper" dance class since I was about 16 I believe, but to my great delight dancing is still in my heart and blood! I had no problems following the different styles -we tried ten different styles in one hour, for instance jazz, tango, street and folk- as I thought I would have, but my main problem was to have the energy and strength to keep up with the fast pace. And boy, am I exhausted today! I can barely walk because of stretch pains but it was all worth it as I have now found my way back to a great old passion of mine: DANCING!

Men born in the 80s

Does anybody ever read this blog? As I hardly ever get any comments from anyone I don't know if it is read by anyone. Anyhow, on Saturday we had another good book club meeting with the eight girls. We discussed the book Military Music by Vladimir Kaminer which I did not find to be such a good book but we had good discussions nevertheless. Kaminer's writing is good and he writes in an absurd, funny way about all his adventures in a Russia that is falling apart. After the book discussion we started talking about men and I had a long monologue about dating younger men and how it was OK if they were born in the 70s and I stated very firmly that if they were born in the 80s they were way to young for me. Of course I should not have said that as a few hours later I was at a birthday party of a 30-year-old friend and met a very nice guy who was both cute and a good dancer and guess how old he was... 24!!! That means he was born in 1985! I really had to laugh at myself as one should never say never about anything but honestly, if he was born in 1985, the year the film the Breakfast Club came out, I am almost old enough to be his mum! PS. I have a date on Friday and the guy is 41, that's a bit better isn't it?

Mad Monarchy

On Tuesday the newspapers and TV here were filled with the BIG news that the crown princess of Sweden Viktoria was engaged to Daniel Westling, her personal trainer of seven years. The news was apparently so big that it demanded a ten-page-spread in the major newspaper DN http://www.dn.se/ as well as several reports on TV. I seriously cannot believe it. Of course I am happy for them, in the name of love, but who needs a monarchy? I want to vote for the people who lead my country and not let them inherit their titles. And a royal wedding costs millions and people were even crying in the streets of Stockholm because they were so happy Viktoria was finally going to marry- why? I know my grandmother would be very upset if she read this as she loved royalty but I am going to join the organisation against monarchy here where my colleague is the president as I firmly believe that we need to abolish the monarchy!