Remember this face....he's a complete tool

Well ironically last time I included a picture of the man who I'm going to talk about now- poor old Sven.

Now you have to feel sorry for this guy. I mean firstly this guy gets the unfortunate job of trying to make England a good football nation.....friggin Einstein couldn't do that. However his record as England manager was up there with the best, however crap that was.

Just recently, going by what the papers say, Sven is not going to be Manchester City's boss next season. Yes folks he's getting sacked....again.

Well if this is to be true, which I genuinly hope it's not, Manchester City's owner Sum Ting Wong.......just kiddin' (that was harsh....but fair) Thaksin Shinawatra, has called time for Sven. Well frankly this is one of the worst decisions in football history.

I am no City fan, but I guarantee there isn't one on this planet that wants to see him go. He's bought in with the help of millionaire Shinawatra's money, some quality players and transformed a very mediocre/crap team, to one that's finished within the top 10 in the Premiership. Not only this but has completely revamped the youth system to create some talent within the ranks and has got people to buy season tickets for the team again: something which was unheard of even last season.

So what's the deal? Well Shinawatra's obviously got as much football knowledge as a retarded pygmy badger with arthritis. He has no clue what he is doing!! You can't transform a completely shit team to a title contender is one season, regardless of new players.

I truelly feel for poor Sven, I'm sure you Swedes have your opinions about him, same for the English, albeit completely biased/unjust most of the time.

The bottom line then: football sucks, foreign rich people suck, businessmen should keep to what they know (not a lot....). Sven has to be one of the unluckiest people alive right now......let's hope he doesn't get hit by a Volvo on his way home.

I have my own music.....thanks Sandra

Thank you Sandra!!! You have put my thieving fiance in her place....I now have the ability to listen to my ipod whenever I want. You know your practically married when you let you lady take control of the music situation...haha, kidding.

Well what am I whittering on about? Nothing big....literally. Johanna has finally invested in a Sony Walkman.....no not one of those 80's cassette beasts that drained batteries after about 3 songs but a little pink 4gb mp3 player.

Another thanks for Sandra who flew all the way to New York to buy it : )

Well now that I've got that off my chest any more updates? Erm....sort of; I've almost agreed on my Masters thesis topic for next year. It's going to be based on cleavage specificity of mast cell serine proteases....should be fun. My supervisor is called Lars.......no surprises there, everyone over here is called Lars, Magnus or Sven......

What else? I'm going to enter a squash tournament for the first time in 5 years. Wow, that makes me sound like an old man....you know 'back in my day' and all that. Should be fun, am hitting the ball and moving well, probably as good as I have in a long time.

I've decided to support my local football team (the Swedish season has just started), no not Uppsala, as it's like watching me play football- my local decent team, classed as a Stockholm team, AIK....before any Swede mentions anything, no I'm not part of the Black Army (not being racist here, it's a genuine hate club against other local stockholm rivals....no I'm not kidding....and you thought Sweden was all meatballs and blondes). Their claim to fame was playing in Europe (actually in Arsenals group) in 1999 I believe. I will be venturing down to see them soon, plus it might be safer to sit in the away stand....you also think I'm kidding.....

It's tricky to write on here when there's lots and not much to say. I could bore you with the last thing I downloaded (no not porn)...actually American gangster or the fact we now have summer tyres on the car.....yawn. I'll leave you with a joke (sorry Padraic):

An Irishman wins the lottery and goes to claim his winnings.

Congratulating him they tell him they will have to pay him the millions in 3 weekly instalments.

With that the irishman replies "if your gonna fuck me about I'll have my quid back"

Ok, here's another:

A man takes his wife to the live stock show. They start heading down the alley that house all the bulls. The sign on the first bull's stall states: "This bull mated 50 times last year." The wife turns to her husband and says, "He mated 50 times in a year, isn't that nice!"

They proceed to the next bull and his sign stated: "This bull mated 65 times last year." The wife turns to her husband and says, "This one mated 65 times last year. That is over 5 times a month. You could learn from this one!"

They precede to the last bull and his sign said: "This bull mated 365 times last year." The wife's mouth drops open and says, "WOW! He mated 365 times last year.

That is ONCE A DAY!!! You could really learn from this one."

The fed up man turns to his wife and says, "Go up and inquire if he had to f*ck the same cow every day?"

Squash

Ok, so not the most interesting title, or in the eyes of most, not the greatest sport out there. "Isn't squash the one in the box"......oh joy, another un-educated, misinformed soul. "Isn't it like tennis with smaller rackets?".....yes, yes it is.

No I'm not going to bitch and moan too much, note the emphasis on 'too'. My reasoning for this post, like all my others...well none in particular. I've just got back from my regular Thursday slot, had a great run aound....you know you've ran your ass off when you have salt crystals forming on your face/body, what not.

Me and Amrit (ok, doesn't sound very Swedish, figure it out, not Swedish born) hacked our way through 3 balls in 45 minutes, almost a record. It's such a boost to relieve some tension (for what little this country puts on me). I said in my last post I'd get up and nail my first pre-lab report. Well folks I lied....only by 5 minutes though. It's a strange sight in the middle of April to open your blinds to see it's snowing outside. Especially when the snowboard is hidden away in our Narnia style wardrobe/closet.

Not much more to update you with. Everything is exciting at the moment, no not holidays etc, but just that feeling, you know the one when you can't really put your finger on it. You just feel good inside for some innate reason. You know no matter what happens, everything will work out. Hmm....I'm digging a hole with my waffling, so I'll stop now.

I watched a program on the European Cup this year (football obviously), it felt odd, something missing.....oh yeah that was it, bloody England didn't qualify!! haha, it's that crap I almost totally forgot. Well no prizes for the team I'm going to support......yep, France.

Joking!! Of course I'll be wearing my Sweden boxers, eating meatballs and sitting on my Ikea furniture, whilst dreaming of a Volvo....Come on your Swedes!!

p.s. isn't a Swede almost like a squash?....Oh dear, my sense of humour has taken a turn for the worse

What next?

After an almost sales pitch type ploy by the professors of various courses for selection next year, it made me wonder what I want to do. I'm not going to bore you with the biology details, but I'm contemplating which area I want to do my project in. It's potentially not an easy choice as I could be spending the whole year researching/working on it.

My moment was more what I'm doing after this degree. Well the easy answer is I don't know.

This answer is the (almost) bain of my (everyone's) life. Ok, so I do know what I want to do: some medical research, you know save the World and all that.

The point is, however frightening it is still not knowing what I'm really doing, that is probably why everything is so exciting. It makes the thought of just getting a job a real bore and to be honest it should. I know I'm no Einstein but I'm not a retard either. I'm setting the bar high and for good reasons, because whatever I do, it's going to be fun, worthwhile and will set up my outlook on life.

Honestly I don't want to move back to England, I feel it has not much to offer me. The master plan is to see what Oz and NZ has to offer. They want the best and I think that's something I can give them, I just need a chance.

So even though I'm struggling to find motivation to write about MutS, a DNA repair system in E.coli right this minute, it won't stop me from getting up at 7am tomorrow to hit the books. All I can say to my current task at hand and the long term future.......Bring it on.

The end (of a snowboarding season)

Ok, not the end of the World, but almost. Even though it is snowing as we speak, my board has been safely stowed away, all waxed up ready for it's re-birth in November/December.

The last few days were in Sälen: We rode for three days, watched the Oxborn Winter Jam, chilled out and had a blast. Despite the 5/6 hour drive, the snow was insane.

Johanna's switch riding is getting very good, my old man's hunger to improve is still there: his beatings were testament to this. Not only did he go over some jumps and land them, only to catch his edge seconds later, leaving him with temporary head pains. He also caught his edge whilst riding on the flats, before we even got to the run. Needless to say he was pretty pissed at that.

What he needs to know is we've all done it, no not the edge catching on flat terrain you muppet, but had incidences, my last snowboarding injury, although not very bad, involved me crippling my thumb whilst practising short snappies on a training session.

The worst injury I saw was a bloke who rode in the park with a backpack on (plus camera in it), launched over a small barrel only to shatter his lower vertebrae in to 16 pieces (the camera fit nicely in to his back). This was after another guy tried hitting a very tricky rail only to knock his front 6 teeth out. So my Dad hurting his helmeted head isn't so bad after all!!

As for me, I feel satisfied...no may be not right word, may be content with my riding. Hopefully I can still ride this well in a few years.

After watching the ace kiddies hitting the main jump, some pulling double backflips, others switch backside 12's, the full works, its definitely inspiring to get some air. Ironically my Dad nearly got some air as he got taken out by the lift that he wasn't paying attention to. Oh I'll remember that forever....very funny!!

So a great long weekend, one of many more to come. Just need to wait 7/8 months and job done, snow here we come.

The joys of spring

This time last year I had just finished my second boarding season in the States, then jetted off to see Johanna in Sweden. Just before I left America, it was potentially one of the best times over there: I mean the skies were clear, the temperature was warm enough so only a T-shirt was needed, I got to free-ride with other talented riders all day, a cold beer on a warm day was a reality.

I guess spring should be like every season, it changes dramatically from the last, just like people should. I know it might be a while before I do another season, my path is forever changing, but that's all part of it. I still ride and love it. There is nothing on this planet that has the same feeling as when you are outside in awe of your surroundings, almost total freedom if not for the occasional lift and trail sign....one day I'll get the chance to do a non resort mountain, to really be at one with nature.

On a note of change, the last week or so has been very 'warm' and me and Johanna thought it would be appropriate to walk in to town to get an ice cream. Now I don't really see this as a Swedish event, amongst the endless coffee drinking, cake eating and rotten fish bonanzas. However what was incredibly Swedish was the choice of icecream.

I went for a standard Cornetto (some raspberry cheesecake type thing) which was pretty good. Meanwhile Johanna went for the most rankest, foul tasting beast of an ice-cream. Yes folks, a liquorice coated ice-cream.

For starters, ice cream should not be black. This ice cream has apparently been re-introduced (certainly not by popular demand?!) from a significant absence. What made it worse was the fact that Johanna grabbed the last one in the freezer, while all the other ice-creams lay there, waiting to be picked by some obnoxious kids.

Johanna informed me it tasted fine, much to my disbelief. What next we will never know, as long as they don't make meatball or herring flavoured ones......