This day...

I'd planned to devote to filling out forms for my Permanent Residency ... at least part of the day. My card (and this is the same thing as a Green Card in the US), will expire in April ... imagine that, how time flies!  It all seemed very straightforward, I had downloaded the necessary documents ... or so I thought ... had photos taken, and so on. In my innocence I'd believed that this would be carried out in a snap!  I had overlooked the fact that I had to have something called Supplementary-whatever, and that could NOT be downloaded! It had to be ordered from them, wherever they are. At first, I thought ... and this was the reason I'd overlooked it ... it was when there were several family members applying. This was not the case, and I finally understood why it couldn't be downloaded. This document has this area with some sticky stuff where you attach the photo. Also, you sign your name there within a certain box, and they use this to make the new card from. Now this was a let-down as I now have to wait, probably two weeks, before this arrives. I felt bad ... because I had not read the instruction properly and started to sink down in some dark hole. It's terrible, how I allow myself to become overwhelmed by small stuff! I was thinking of all these endless, motivational sites/blogs that I come across on the web, where they suggest that all adversities you encounter should be considered as challenges ... or even opportunities!  I have a really hard time seeing this as an opportunity. Oh well, perhaps an opportunity to shape up and read more carefully next time, but right now all I can do is accept what I cannot change. Same feeling came over me just the other day, when I'd bought new ink to our printer in Costco. Came home with them only to realize they were wrong! Only because I had mixed up two numbers ... where there should have been 34 it now said 43. I had opened the package ... there were three of them ... and tried one, so I can't take them back. Grrr... ink cartridges are expensive. I've asked my fellow Saint Johners on Facebook if anyone happens to be in possession of a Lexmark printer but so for ... no dice.    Anyway, instead of filling out forms, we made a little shopping trip to Calais, Maine. That was fine ... I went through the usual procedure at the border, with finger printing, photo, filling out the form et cetera. It was smooth. $6 and I can go back and forth as much as I want for three months.  Went to Wal*Mart and Hannaford, the grocery store there. That's basically all there is. Bought the same stuff as usual ... certain cheese, a Caesar dressing that I can't get here (Cardini's) and a few other items. Quarter Pounder Cheese at McDonald's and then back home again. This was our day in a nutshell.  

before going to bed...

I wanted to post a few lines. Most of this evening, I've gone through old pictures in my Flickr album ... sorting a little, adding tags where I'd missed. In the beginning, I didn't realize the importance of tags. Even though they're only three, four years old, they bring up memories. We travelled a lot to Maine, while we lived in Quebec.  Those times, we drove down through Quebec to a little border town called Jackman, and further down to Skowhegan. From there you could go to Bar Harbor or down towards Portland, ME. So ... our first trips didn't go to Saint John -- we went to Bar Harbor. Near Jackman, there's a rest area with a look-out point with a view of the Attean Lakes. The first time we stopped there, I was so taken by this view ... I never forgot it ... I thought even the name sounded beautiful. The first pictures of it came out so terrible so I don't think I even saved them. A few times later, we had a better camera but that didn't help much. I think we happened to come by this place about the same time of day every time, and that's why the light was so screwed up. I really wanted to capture this badly, but I was never happy with the pictures. Especially not when I looked in Flickr and saw what other people had done, but I have this...

When we go to Maine nowadays, we, of course, don't come by them any more so I doubt I'll get to see them again.

a few numbers

There are forty three days of this year as I type. Might be forty two in Australia. I have 313 published posts here in this blog.  This means that if I want 365 posts published on New Years Eve, I have to post every day + throw in nine extra posts here and there :) I knew, before I left for Sweden, that I was ahead of things, even though not as much as thirty posts, but still. This is, of course, not important, but when I started this challenge I really liked the idea of having 365 posts neatly lined up at the end of the year. It's still doable. I could import the ones from the travel blog, but that doesn't seem right and besides they were only twelve posts. Never before have I been this faithful to a blog. Therefore, I wanted to get a domain name for it ... namely colderweather.com, like Quotidian Hudson River has. Wouldn't you know ... some fool already bought colderweather.com and did NOTHING with it. Name squatters, I think it's called. They buy up domain names and think they'll be able to sell it for more money [more than $10] later. I've also been toying with the idea of starting a photo blog, like my blogging buddy Jason did. He's having a great time with that and also a great following. I've had a sort of photo blog before, but that was a 365-project ... a picture a day ... that only got tiresome. If I do it ... I'm still undecided ... it will be in Blogger.

old mill

this is a picture of where my Mom was born.  My grandpa had this mill. My mother had one brother ... my uncle Arne ... and four half siblings. She would have had one more brother, but he drowned in that stream. He was three. I don't know for how long they lived there. I do know that they moved a couple of times, but I have no idea where, when or how. This is why I wish I could persuade all young people to pay attention and remember what the older people in their family are telling them because there will come a day when they'll be interested ... even though they don't believe it! In my case, it's too late -- no one left to ask. The church in this village is right behind this place. I walked around on the cemetary, looked at my grandparents' grave, where also my uncle rests. There were so many names on tomb stones that I recognized vaguely, but couldn't remember the stories ... because I never paid attention. The day was overcast and totally calm. We went down to the lake, below the church, where I learned to swim ... remembered how they used to scare me for dragonflies [for some reason that's beyond me]. They said that they could get in to your ears! Silly things they used to tell kids back then -- I still feel a little uncomfortable around dragonflies.

11-11-11

poppies

If you think Saint John is calm and quiet on a Sunday, you should see it on November 11th ... Remembrance Day. Then everything comes to a grinding halt and everything is closed ... just the way it should be. For about two weeks now, everyone here has worn a poppy on the left side of their coats. So, tomorrow on 11:11AM 11-11-11, we'll gather in Harbour Station for the annual Remembrance Day tribute -- two minutes of silence, to reflect. This will be my fourth time ... the first time, we had just moved in here. It's a very moving celebration, and it warms my heart to see Harbour Station filled to the last seat with Saint Johners who want to pay their respect. Coming from Sweden, that hasn't participated in a war for two hundred years or so, this perhaps feels even more important. We have so much to be thankful for!  The build-up to this day on TV -- History Channel in particular -- is immense, and it saddens me to no end, to think about us ... the human race. Why can't we just get along.... This particular poppy, I shot in Skåne, Sweden, during my trip. There were a few, still blooming, even though it was late September.  

Weekly Photo Challenge: Windows

So ... this week's photo challenge is Windows. Not Windows7 or WindowsXP, I assume :) so here goes... [caption id="attachment_7469" align="aligncenter" width="593" caption="View through window in Quebec, winter 2007/08"]

[/caption] [caption id="attachment_7468" align="aligncenter" width="585" caption="Maple syrup bottles in sugar shack, Quebec 2007"] [/caption] [caption id="attachment_7467" align="aligncenter" width="427" caption="Sugar shack, Quebec 2007"] [/caption]

three years

Three years ago, at this date, we had just moved in to this apartment. We left Quebec on a Sunday, in our car, with cat McDuff in the back seat in his carriage. Here he is, checking out his new surroundings, but he was in a state of shock the first time. We arrived in Saint John, some time just before 5PM, we didn't have any furniture or so because the movers were coming later. I remember I walked down to the grocery store [thinking about how nice it was that I could take a short walk to the store], to buy some basic stuff, only to find that it had just closed. This is Saint John ... on a Sunday everything closes 5PM. My husband went out later and bought some stuff in KFC. We were dead tired ... the whole packing/moving process in itself had been very tiresome ... Gerry, in particular had done a tremendous job on emptying the house in which he had lived for almost forty years. Imagine the accumulation of STUFF! Very little I could do there, as it was his stuff, from his working years, book mainly, documents et cetera. He got rid of a lot, but I think a certain accumulation has started again here :) ...on both our parts. We didn't have a bed (!), so we slept on an inflatable mattress on the floor ... all the air went out of it, so in the morning I found myself on the floor.  Besides, we'd thrown our old bed away and were going to buy a new one. We went out to SEARS the following day -- thinking that would be an easy thing -- but it turned out they didn't have a stock here in Saint John ... the bed would have to be ordered from Montreal, and that would take many days! We thought we'd have to go somewhere else, when the sales woman remembered that they did indeed have ONE, but she thought it would be too firm. We tried it out, and have loved it ever since. Every night, when I climb into bed, I think of how happy I am with it! :) BELL couldn't come and install the TV/Phone/Internet until the 4th, and I had had to really persuade them to come then because the American presidential election was on that date, and I was really anxious to be able to watch that. They arrived in good order, so that night we watched TV, sitting on hard, wooden chairs. This first time in Saint John, I'll never forget. I was very happy and excited ... about little things, like walking to the store that I mentioned ... also that I could talk with all the people and understand [I never learned French while in Quebec]. I walked downtown too ... took oodles of pictures with out little P&S camera. Of course I'm still happy, after these three years, but you know how you get accustomed and start taking things for granted.  That's why it's good to write a blog post like this ... to reminisce and to remind myself of how good it is to be here.

dealing with important people

Just read a, very entertaining, blog post by Linda ... my blogging buddy, which brought up many memories, even though on a different level. For eight years, I worked in a health care clinic. There were eight to ten GP:s, lab, physiotherapy and occupational therapy. I worked as a medical transcriptionist and certain days at the front desk. Also took care of the computer network in the clinic. Each year, you could read in the local paper that «this year's FLU has arrived! First case verified!!!» If you read that in the paper before going to work in the morning, then you knew what was coming! The waiting area would be packed with people, demanding the flu shot! These newspaper articles were always unfortunate, because they were too early. People who had read this, didn't back off ... they HAD TO have their flu shot then and there ... not susceptible to reason, that they'd be out of protection when the flu really arrived. This could happen two, three months later. One year this whole thing turned out even more unfortunate. It had been decided, from 'up above', that patients with a coronary/pulmonary condition would get their flu shot for FREE! Imagine that ... the others had to pay some $30! This decision was so ill thought-through ... or rather, not at all. Everyone claimed to have a heart condition of some sort, no one at the front desk had received any information about how to deal with this. We, who were working there, ended up in endless discussions with patients ... trying to explain to them that they had to have some note from their Dr. that they really were eligible for a free shot. Many of them considered themselves to be 'very important people' and should somehow be eligible just  because of that, and *don't you know who I AM??* Since this was a very small town, I did know who most people were, but I didn't necessarily want to feed their egos even more. They didn't make that mistake the following year ... it was free for all. This job .... those days, when I worked at the front desk, often made me wonder: «what gives them the right to be this rude  to me ... I'm just sitting here, doing this job for a lousy salary?!» Of course, this is such a common situation ... receptionists and switch board operators often have to take the crap for somebody else's decisions and policies. One event stands out in my memory in particular. One woman walked in, late one afternoon, without passing the front desk. This wasn't totally uncommon, because they might just have an appointment for blood sampling or some such, and that didn't cost anything. However, there was this system, so each time they went to see a Dr. and paid, they got a stamp in a card. When they'd paid approx. $300 they got to see the Dr. for free the rest of the year. The following morning, the same woman walked in. The waiting area was crowded. The only reason I remembered her from the day before, was that I liked her purse (!!!). This time, she 'reported' to the front desk ... she was going to see the Dr, paid, and I stamped her card. I asked her amicably, whether she'd seen the Dr. yesterday too ... because she was almost on the limit for receiving a 'free card'.  She totally lost it!!! I've never seen anybody get so mad, so quickly. She yelled and asked if I was the police or worse, turned out towards the crowd and shouted something about 'nazis' and I don't know what... So much for trying to be helpful. As a counterweight to this story, I also remember a very timid, little old lady, who had somehow sneaked in, unnoticed .... sat in the waiting area for hours, without saying a word. Just before closing time, she came up to me and asked if she could talk to someone. I said, 'sure, what's the matter?' She just held her arm up, and you could see how one of the bones in the forearm was sticking OUT underneath the skin!!! The pain must have been excruciating  and she had probably sat there for two hours! It was an interesting job, at times.        

common question

[all links and images will open in a new window] Quite often, people have asked me what I miss the most from my homeland, and even more often; 'what foods I miss the most'. To be honest, there aren't too many things I've missed because I can get a hold of most food items here or the ingredients. There are a few things though, that I've had the urge for every now and then. One friend even asked me if I had any particular dishes I wanted her to make while I was there! That was so kind and thoughtful ...

Apart from the breakfast [consisting of filmjölk amongst others], one of the first meals I had was this! Grilled hotdog with mashed potatoes and shrimp salad (!). Yes ... you read it right: hotdog with shrimp salad! LOL I've really tried to make this kind of -- extremely fatty -- shrimp salad myself, but so far I've never managed to get it right. It has more mayo than anything else, but I don't know what more they put in there ... to make it pink?! Either way, when Sara and I were in Malmö, I asked her to stop by the first fast food place we saw, and I took a picture of it before I started to dig in! It was delicious!!! And this was just the first .... there were many like this to come -- after all, I spent four weeks in the country. I wanted to go into Malmö because of the third, major reason I wanted to go to Skåne [Sara herself, being the first and Ales Stenar in previous post the second], was this ... The Turning Torso! I'd seen so many shots of it, both in Flickr and Google and I was just dying to give it a shot myself ... and see it in real life! It was pretty awesome! We also had a very nice walk along the water ... saw the bridge over to Denmark, but it was very hazy. Today, I was reminded, while reading Barb's post about her trip to the U.K., about one dish that I just forgot to have while I was home: Pölsa!  Barb mentioned Haggis in her post, and the ingredients in pölsa are almost identical to the Scottish haggis. There is also some jellied veal, that I forgot about ... guess I was just too preoccupied with all the activities. Next time... :) Today, we were hit by the first No'reaster of the season! High winds and wet snow ... it melted as soon as it hit the ground, so ... no accumulation. A good day to stay inside and enjoy the storm in the comfort of our own apartment.