TGIF

It's been a busy and eventful week, and I'm glad that Friday has finally arrived.

Last Friday I learned that there was some training going on this week in Copenhagen and that I should try to attend if possible. I finally got approval on Saturday, and made travel arrangements late Sunday night. I awoke at 5:30 Monday morning to catch the 7:10 flight down to Copenhagen. There I joined several other colleages and atteneded a workshop related to my new job. On the first day we broke into teams and did a roll-playing game where each team played the roll of a different department within a company. The point was to illustrate some of the challenges faced by our customers and to show how IBM software can help our customers handle those challenges. It was fun and informative. Monday night one of the IBM VPs bought us all dinner at a nice restaurant near the harbor, and after attending some more presentations on Tuesday, I flew back to Stockholm.

Wednesday night I went to the first salsa lesson of the autumn. I was still recovering from a cold so my balance was a bit off. Oddly enough, I found that I could do right turns okay but that left turns made me dizzy. The body isolation lesson (right after the salsa lesson) was even more challenging. Our instructor Marina made us work on moving just one part of our bodies at a time, like moving the right shoulder back and the left shoulder forward. She is so good at this sort of thing that she makes it look easy. It's not!

Thursday night was the second of Sacuye's salsa socials of the season. I joined Erlend for a quick dinner. Erlend and I get along really well and seem to have a very similar world-view. For some reason, though, we don't meet very often. So it was nice to get a chance to sit down and just visit for a while. We ate at an Italian restaurant on Hornsgatan not too far from the dance place. I had an "American style" deep dish pizza. It was unlike anything I've eaten in the U.S., but it was good and filling. After dinner, we walked to Chicago for the social. It was fun and not as hot and crowded as last week. Apparently they've installed a better ventilation system that brings in fresh air from outside. I took some great photos of my friends and fellow dancers; I hope to post them soon.

There's a boulder open competition at Karbin tonight, and I will take part. The previous boulder open was a lot of fun, but I probably didn't perform at my peak because I was climbing with an injured foot. I expect to do a bit better this time around. The folks at Karbin have been a bit lazy about posting the results from the last competition. With any luck the results of both that one and tonight's competition will be online within a few days.


Lastly, Lotta forwarded this video to me and I wanted to share it with you. It's a recording of four Norwegian guys singing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, accompanied by a single accoustic guitar. The last man to sing was the winner of the Norwegian Idol contest. I really enjoyed it and I hope you do to.

Now I'm off to the food court at Kista Galleria now to have lunch with Tobbe. Have a good Friday, everyone!