On my last trip to Copenhagen for awhile, I decided to take some pictures….enjoy!

Well I should describe my birthday in some more detail.

On Thursday, Markus and Sussi took me out to this disco show out at the archipelago. It was really nice and a really sweet thought. We had tons of wine and drinks and the food was okay and loads of dancing.

The complete pictures are here, but here are some photos for those of you too lazy to visit my photo page 🙂

Relaxing with a drink — still haven’t recovered from yesterday!

A bottle of wine per person = happy drunk look

Sussi….fabulousness redefined!

Markus….his picture speaks for itself 🙂 in a good way 🙂

The Three Amigos 🙂

I really have to say thanks to Markus and Sussi…they helped lift my spirits for my birthday and the pleasure of their company was more than I could have asked for. I was content to have a quiet birthday, but they made sure otherwise! 🙂

Love, Rodney

wanna know what I am doing when I am not at work?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5427138374898988918&pr=goog-sl

http://www.stockholmsfinest.se/content/template/imageGalleryPopup.php?iid=51158&index=14&gid=559

http://www.stockholmsfinest.se/content/template/imageGalleryPopup.php?iid=51157&index=13&gid=559

Well my birthday came and passed. Some of the highlights from my birthday include Frederick meeting me for dinner and coffee and giving me a thoughtful gift; birthday wishes from people in the United States (Jason, PJ, and Tim); Sweden-based wishes from Robert, Rainer, Stefan, Markus, Sussi, Tomas, and Sebastian; and a nice night out with Markus and Sussi. UK wishes from Caroline and Blake; and some flowers from my management.

To be honest, some people I would have expected at least an SMS or e-mail from some people who purport to be my friend. But oh well, I learned on my birthday who my friends are….time to focus on a mentally healthy me and now I understand who those friends are that help me build a mentally health perspective on life.

It seems like I only write on weekends, but in fact I have to say during the week. I just forget. It is a result of turning older. I am turning 30 tomorrow.

The past weekend I wasn’t feeling very good and decided to have a soft night inside. Frederick came over and that really cool and nice of him. He’s travelled in Russia and the former USSR. We ate chocolates and drank wine most of the wine. It was just a great and relaxing evening. I hadn’t been that relaxed in a while. How he eats so many chocolates and keeps as fit as it does is a swedish national secret. meanwhile, I walk past a pastry shop and immediately put on a stone. but i have managed to drop 6kg in the last weeks, and I will be ready for the height of beach season by August.

On Saturday Markus made a great dinner. Salmon, potatoes, and asparagus. And I brought over some nice wine. After dinner we went back to my place to hang out and Siussi came over. We drank some and then went to Bunker which was not very crowded. We say Rainer there and some guy who works at IBM too. That was cool. But it was so empty that we went to Lino instead and had a great night. I decided to have an after-party at my place. I got to meet up with Sebastian whom I think is one of the coolest guys ever. I seriously love that guy…he’s always happy and relaxed. There were about 12 of us, and of course I hung out mostly with Markus, min båsta kompis på stockholm. 🙂 Everyone left around 08.00.

I then went to Copenhagen on Sunday afternoon, and when I was there, I just had this yearning to be back at home. So I came back from Copenhagen on Monday evening and that was a great decision. I made a terrific dinner, had some nice wine and a stiff drink, and then went to bed. Today (Tuesday) I worked from home, where I will work from most of the summer (or in town when I need to enter an IBM office).

Being a local employee so far is not so bad. Of couse, they deleted my bank information (don’t yet know how I will be paid), deleted my office phone (no way to reach me), and haven’t delivered on the relocation award money yet. But no matter…I will be visiting the US for some days (using up some of my 30 vacation days).

Tonight I will call my family and let them know I am coming. I have a lot of work during the days, but it should be okay. And of course a trip to Atlanta 🙂

But I just need to get through this week at work. And if Rainer is up to it, we’ll go to the history museum this weekend.

Hugs and kisses to all !:-)

//Rodney

Hola Mi Amigos!

Don’t have much to report on this weekend. Actually I do have a lot to report on, I just don’t know how to report on it all. With Markus in Gävle, I decided that I needed to go out and have some fun. I ended up meeting with Rainer, a guy from Germany who was really cool. It was his first weekend in Stockholm so we agreed to meet for some drinks. We went to Torget and Connection and had a really good time, despite the fact that I am not so crazy about connection. While we were out I ran into various different people from various parts of my life, but it was a great night overall. Rainer spent the night at my place in part because he lives a bit outside of the city and I am really central. The next day since we were both free, I took him on a walking tour of Stockholm. Or put more appropriately, he took me on a “re-discovery” tour. It was nice to see Stockholm through someone else’s eyes seeing the city for the first time. And it helped to remind me why I decided to take a local contract. We went walking and shopping (well he went shopping…lol) and I ran into Sipho who was with his overly quiet friend (I think he talks, not sure). I subsequently learned that his name was Daniel. It was nice to see Markus again though. It’s always nice to see him. Eventually a tired Rainer went back home to Kista. He’s a really cool and smart guy. He’ll be popular here while he stays.

Came back to my place, made dinner (oven-baked lemon-pepper salmon with steamed veggies), and then took a nap. Woke up to the sound of my other friend Markus calling telling me I had 5 minutes to prepare for his arrival. Haha! I love me some Markus. We had some pre-departure drinks at my place and then went out to Lino. Lino had great music and I saw people I hadn’t seen in months. And everyone told me how nice I looked. I was feeling pretty nice about myself yesterday. I mean I have a good degree of self-confidence, but some external validation never hurts.

So for Sunday, I have designated it a chill out day. In terms of work, I won’t do a lot of it, that much is certain. I have to read through my contract and associated forms like health care and the like. It’s all in Swedish so I will spend some time with my dictionary. And I have to run errands and get ready to spend the week in Copenhagen again. Maybe this week I will get to meet up with Rasmus, Kristoffer (who has a job now..yay!), and Chris. Would be nice.

Oh yeah, did I mention that as a local Swedish employee, I have 30 days of vacation this year to take, plus another 5 days of deferred holidays so far this year? How I am going to spend 7 weeks of holiday this year? Any ideas anyone?