27 Oct, 00:04: Horse City
You know you’re in Horse City when you bump into a ”Kyra K. Outlet”. I’ve been at a clinic in Flyinge. A clinic is a lesson held by a star in his/her genre – a person who without a doubt proven that she has lived up to what she is teaching about. Old, proud and still modern Horse City Flyinge in Skane (region south of Sweden) was the place. Classic grounds where e.g. our old king Karl XII was doing horse business in the 18th century. In the 21st century it’s queen Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum who reigns and hence was invited by ”Leksands Knackebrod” to hold a clinic. Meredith has broken patterns and is for the horse sport what black Tiger Woods is in golf, white Eminem in hiphop and gay bishop Eva Brunne for the church. Meredith is the first woman being ranked as the world’s greatest horse jumper as well as the first one ever, and until now only, woman to ride in a championship for Germany. She teached us some lessons and praised us when needed when teaching us that ”The beauty of perfection takes time”. Beautiful. What if that was the poem about our lives? She isn’t riding since she’s five months pregnant. Ed, a friend! Shall we say World Cup Final in Las Vegas 2011. Or is that too soon… Gothenburg 2012, on Alvar’s 7th birthday is maybe better?
”One of these three is the best through all times.” Photo: Jonas Klintberg Lavaletto HB
Are you thinking about how big Kyra K. is who has her own outlet? Kyra K. is the riding brand named by horse woman Kyra Kyrklund. She is described by Wikipedia like this: ”Kyra Kyrklund, born 30 November 1951 in Helsinki, Finland, is a Finnish-Swedish dressage rider. She started competing as a 16-year-old and has won the World Cup Finals in Paris. Kyra is most successful in her home field and has won the Finnish Championships the whole of ten times. Today she lives in England and trains other dressage riders.”
Kyra K is so huge that Sweden’s now most talked about rider, Gry Forssell, paid a little extra when she many years ago bought a pair of used riding pants from a girl in Lulea (city north of Sweden) because they were said to have been worn by Kyra herself. Truth or not. Doesn’t matter. Gry gained more status in the stables. More info about Kyra at www.kyrak.com
The sign of horse city.
—————-QUICK KEY———————
- Rosa, I’m counting on you. We won’t forget the photo shoot Friday.
- Great to have a MUSE concert ahead of you. For baby ear saving reasons avoid the special guest Horrors. The brand of Ed’s preppy and stylish giraffe shoes is Teddykompaniet ( www.teddykompaniet.se).
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This is supposed to be a handball week! Do think it tasted carrot to be able to open the week with some horses. Muscles, sweat and showering together. Thursday arrive the pictures of the national handball team taken by themselves which we are to judge. Until then, if we don’t meet in the paddock before, trot safely.
25 Oct, 22:22: A tiny straight and a double house
We were to sum up the weekend, digest the Stockholm visit and enjoy eachother in a Sunday kind of way. In the afternoon we went to see the cute puppet theatre show ”Rockets and flying cows” with Sven Wagelin-Challis at the Culture Chamber here in Norrkoping. Then I played Yatzy with Alvar before his Sunday bath. It’s always an adventure competing and playing against him since he never cares about who wins. Have played a lot of Yatzy in my days but still managed to throw two completely new scores – a tiny straight and a double house.
I drew a bath and wanted to offer Alvar some luxury. Invited Elisabeth Arden into the water with her “Green Tea Relaxing Bubble Bath” and “Green Tea Energizing Bath And Shower Gel”. The combination only get contradictory if you think that both products have maximal effect. I hoped for a clean, relaxed and energy-filled child to rise from the bath.
When returning the bottle after soaking Alvar’s hair with shampoo, I felt that soft and some what familiar feeling under my foot and something slipping up through my toes. No, we don’t have a dog indoors so it wasn’t him missing the toilet and putting ”his” on the floor. It was Alvar’s glasses I’ve stepped on. Clumsy and unforgivable. Alvar had free shooting range and used it well by shooting hard. Alvar, you’re right. I managed to slightly bend them back into shape. Tomorrow you’ll have to go to the optician with mom. I know that you know where he hides the candy. In the cow behind the apples in the corner. Take two. If someone gives you a hard time tell them daddy will pay.
”Glasses: Moomin”
MUSE at Hovet yesterday! The masters were kings! Thanks for everything. It was big and abundant. Exactly what I want out of life. Alvar was with his grandpa and cousin at Globen and the Dinosaur show at the same time. His opinion was ”Great seeing dinosaurs in real life. They were much smaller than I thought. No one knocked their head on the ceiling and I was only a little bit afraid one time”.
Also the serious adult concert offered a little bit of humour, just before it started. You know that a rock star that looses his cool is quickly degraded to an ex rock star or an ordinary man that could be standing in the audience with the rest of us. Both degradations are equally horrifying. A rock star needs to be larger than life if we, the audience, will continue to pay money to see him. Just before the concert was about to take off, 9000 persons clapping their hands showing they’re ready, a pretty awkward thing happened.
Instead of closing off seats with bad visibility around the stage, the organizers nowadays sell tickets that put some people diagonally from the rear of the stage. From there you can follow the stage workers’ day, or more likely night. One problem is when the band goes on stage. Those with the cheapest tickets start screaming and hence risk reveiling for the rest of the arena that the band is on the go. It could sabotage the stage entrance and also make the band look like ordinary people, acting as normal people behind the stage. It could threaten the myth which we partly pay to believe in. Yesterday, in order for this not to happen when the three members of MUSE were to walk the 20 meters short stretch from the dressing room corridor to the stage, they had put up some kind of elastic tunnel. It’s fairly common using these kinds of covering manoveurs. The tunnel is taken out when the band is on the move. If it were to be permanently there it would be in the way for those trying to work before and after the band’s entrance. When the tunnel some what elegantly was pulled out it didn’t make it all the way from the corridor to the stage. A gap of about 5 meters. The stage workers pulled on one end and the gap appeared on the other end. Then it was pulled a little bit from the other side and voila the gap swopped to the other end. Hence the band members had to walk with the speed of the tunnel. Not so glamorous! It’s hard to walk forward with nonchalance and undefined gaze when you have to jump along with a tunnel. I would have wanted to be in the tunnel, hearing what they said to the band when the drummer in his slightly gay lightblue glitter top showed up maybe yelling ”Let’s rock” and the singer in his crow outfit with feathers answered ”and fuckin’ roll!”. And one of the stage workers, whom no-one in the band recognizes says ”OK boys, on three, 1, 2, GO, 1, 2, GO…”.
It was an amazing concert with a wild audience. I love bands who have the guts to go for a knock-out on the first note. MUSE opened dramatically with ”Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 1: Overture” and then two smoking hits – ”Uprising” and ”Resistance” – from the latest album. The fourth song is one of my favourites that I’d almost forgotten about, but when they played I didn’t only remember how much I love the song but also it’s, until know, unknown purpose. The masterpiece is called ”New Born”.
There it was! Now I know which song to play when we baptize Ed. ”New Born” of and with MUSE. It will be heavy when Ed gets his name. Maybe we start or end soft with Europe’s ”New Love In Town” which soon is played everywhere anyway, even on the maternity ward’s radio when Ed was just born. U2′s ”Pride (In The Name Of Love)” has a great title for a baptizing but it’s about when Martin Luther King got shot so could be hard to sneak in if Malin wants to double check the playlist.
”In the black on the left is the tunnel. Can you feel it?”
——————-ANSWERS AND COMMENTS———————
- You are pro-pacifiers. Now also I am pro pacifiers. Amazingly interesting comments. I like your seriousness. We have fun together and make a lot of jokes, that’s why we also dare being honest and have serious talks.
- I like Alvar’s love for stuffed animals. Also he’s nice to Malin’s horses and the farm cats. Animal teaches children responsibility.
- We were ”Brand blushed”!! Great that you tagged along. We’ve got style. This is not a gang you should be fighting with. Of course you lean a little more towards the way where your favourite brands are instead of writing about well-worn underwear from Wallmart. It’s the opposites that make the gold shine. We rather polish the gold than talk about things with fart holes. That’s my bloggmates!
Short summary.
Most of us use Mac (even I) (6 Mac, 2 LG and one of each of HP and Dell).
When it comes to watches we all have fairly exclusive taste, but crazily divided – Efva Attling, DKNY, Certina, Raymond Weil, Certina, Omega, Rolex, Gant, Longines. None of us wears the same kind of watch.
Not many wrote which cellphone they have. Interesting though that those who did mention they had either Sony Ericsson or Samsung.
Soon we’ll do another ”This brand is me”.
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Coming week will be great. The theme is HANDBALL – the world’s most beautiful sport. Our Swedish National Handball team is going to Germany to play the SuperCup. They’ll be playing Denmark, Norway and Germany. First game is Thursday. Until then they’re not only going to practise but also participate in a photo challenge and it’s YOU, dear readers of this blog, who will decide who wins. More about this next week. I’m only asking for your preparation. Think ”Thursday, muscles, photo, handball and I (i.e. YOU) decide”.
Image No 4 ”Even adults should wear giraffe shoes sometimes”.
// HENRiK, who didn’t forget Friday’s picture but prioritized it away, also because I wanted to see if anyone of you would remind me of our gigantic art project of taking one picture a week of Ed in the same couch in order to follow his development visually. No reminders. Here’s the picture.
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24 Oct, 18:49: The one who steps on the line is f-cked
Stockholm. The city may be full of water – both around the islands and from a constant drizzle – but Alvar and I are more than just in the hat. I moved here, to the capital, in 1994. We’ve been in daily contact ever since. Now it’s time for a new attack. Got in on the train yesterday. Walked slowly holding Alvar’s hand in mine through the Central Station’s swarm along Wasa Street and up the stairs to an American pizza buffet. Alvar stops to look at the things I’ve forgotten. Street musicians, singing nutcases, screaming taxi drivers and the never ending stream of emergency vehicles that accompany the city image. I’ve never before played that you will burn up and die if you step on the lines in the pavement on Drottninggatan at Sergels torg. But it’s important that also in this mix of temperament and people hold on to both your calm and your origin. Went on to meet friends for more games. Today I’ve taken a bath and played even more. Now awaits the dinosaurs at Globen and MUSE at Hovet. We’re not done with the city. We’ve received a lot and now we want more. Keep the balance. Let’s have our last night in town! The one who steps on the line is f-cked.
”HENRIK – jeans:Pour and shoes: Tretorn. Alvar – jeans: H&M and shoes: Puma.”
// HENRiK, on a computer I can’t change into Swedish alphabet. You either complain about it or go for it and understand anyway. Here I come MUSE! Five years of waiting is over. We’ve really been longing for this.
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23 Oct, 10:59: Chasing ghosts
I dream a lot when I sleep. The show starts in my deapest slumber. Often exciting and wildly uncontrollable. Tonight it was nightmares. The house was full of people and I ran around trying to get them out. They weren’t violent but really hard to get out. When I tried to throw them out I couldn’t get a hold. It wasn’t possible to grab a hold of them. I was chasing ghosts! What does that mean? Am I afraid of ghosts? Do I feel hunted? Or is it a misunderstanding of what I actually dreamt of? Woke up from the dream from Alvar screaming Tigris! Tigris! That’s his new tiger. I went to his room and wondered what was up.
- Tigris has bad dreams and has jumped on to the floor, the sleepy but clear Alvar said.
- Oh, I’m also having bad dreams, I replied.
- Grab Tigris and lay down with me and we try to go back to sleep together, suggested Alvar.
I crawled into his 90 cm bed with high wave-shaped edges, next to Alvar, Tigris and Vovve (Doggy). We lay in breadth so I turned on my side and fell calmly back to sleep. The ghosts were gone and didn’t dare returning to face the fantastic four sleeping together.
The morning was good. But it’s time for pacifier debate no 3 in my life. I had a pacifier til I was six years old and hence bad shaped teeth. Alvar threw his away on his four year birthday after a lot of fuss. Now it’s you Ed. The pacifier silence you of course but will you be able to let go of it. Are we doing you a favour or not? It’s very cute but still not entirely right. I will get back to you on this subject.
Three things that can culture-kick us through the weekend.
1. Walking with dinosaurs – the arena spectacular.
Get ready all you dinosaurs! Alvar, his cousin and grandpa are going to Globen and want to feel it roll.
2. MUSE – Live at Hovet.
When Alvar & Co are at Globen with the prehistoric animals I’ll be in front at Hovet next door singing along in all the choruses.
3. State Of Play.
”Investigating journalist Cal McCaffrey (Crowe) finds himself in a dilemma, being an old friend of Collins and having a ruthless editor – Cameron (Oscar®-awarded Helen Mirren**) – who assign him to report about the case…”
Sunday night. Tired. I neither want nor have the energy to think to much. Hollywood. Entertain me.
// HENRiK who is off on a guy’s weekend in Stockholm with Alvar. Rock.
