I'm not surprised!

The title of this post is a reflection of the death of Hester Stewart, a medical student, which I will discuss in a bit.

As it's been a while, there no doubt has been a myriad of things that have happened, but time more than anything is a limiting factor. On a more 'boring' front, the reason is mainly I'm writing up my Masters project, that's it. Anways, I digress from the more interesting stuff.

Firstly Johanna is currently in the middle of her practical training for her degree; she's teaching over in a local secondary school, all about health and nutrition type stuff. Ok, to the outside possibly not so interesting right? Well, wrong. She got some amazing news a few days ago- offering her a job (starting after summer I think) at least until Xmas or June next year. To be offered a job for one is something special, especially as she's only supposed to be shadowing (or similar). She's taken lessons and got involved and it's already paid off, so a big congrats to her.

Having recently seen the London marathon results/pics etc, it's obviously weighed a little on our minds. The mental toughness is something which I believe is a big plus for me. 'Failure' is not an option, I will not be beat, that's as simple as it is. I'm trying to rub a little of this 'competitive' nature off on J, we shall see.....The target is anything under 4hrs, 3.45 would be an absolute result for me; I'm not a runner, my knee/ankle could be a problem, but pain is only temporary right? I've got way too much pride to just stop (unless my leg falls off, but then I'll crawl damn it!) and give up. Bring it on.

I'm still in the process of getting accepted on to my PhD. 'Formality' is a word I want to keep hearing, but seriously, it should be smooth sailing......

So back to the original title. It's not so much of a moan, more of a 'shocking' (yet not really) thing surrounding the death of this girl. As all parents/friends of anyone that dies (especially young) it's all complements, how great they are and what not. The same is true of this girl, the 'oh not my girl, she wouldnt do this and that' ' she's sensible' syndrone: so basically the story tells us of this 21 year old who has died apparently using a party drug. To make the story sympathetically worse by adding she was a medical student, so of course she MUST be clever etc and wouldn't use drugs....yeah, that works. Anyway, besides looking like a hippy (and being called Hester, a female by the way), I thought to myself, oh she's died of ecstacy or some sort of amphetamine or something, as the title says 'party drug'.

However, as I read on, turns out they found GBL in her system- what is that I hear you ask? Well it stands for gamma-Butyrolactone. Sounds ominous already. Well it is. So the poor mother of this now deceased child has called to the Government to ban this drug. Ok, so whats the problem? Well unlike cannabis or some 'normal' drug most punk kids get high on, you know the usual ones you hear about in the news. I thought so what is this GBL? Apparently illegal in the States and Canada, the mother, seemingly disgraced that this 'drug' is in society wants a ban, as mentioned before. The funny thing about it all, that GBL is a solvent found in stain removers, superglue removers, cleaning agents, paint strippers, you name it. Why the hell would you take this?! How can the mother ask for a formal inquiry why it's not banned in the UK?! What the f**k is going on in this world that an apparently 'intelligent' person doesn't know why its probably not a good idea to drink things found in paint stripper?! Honestly!!!! How can the mother be so mad it's not banned?! There are millions of chemicals that a monkey knows you shouldn't drink. If you drank enough shampoo you'd die from it: 'The government must ban this terrible hair cleaning product'.......christ alive!!!

It wasn't long ago, in the prime of my youth that we did the occasional stupid thing- have a beer or a few, knowing we weren't 'legally' allowed, you know, these type of things. The so called bar was never that high, I never did drugs, I certainly never wanted to drink chemicals that cleaned toilets, but youth of today have really pushed the boat out. When getting drunk (and possibly high nowadays) is not enough what do you resort to? The latest thing I knew about was people getting high on horse tranquilizers- again, what the hell are you thinking? Hopefully this is a case that she was drugged, the old slip it in to her drink type thing, to even salvage a bit of her pride or even family pride, as this is just bizarre. For her mother to make such a big deal about making the specific chemical illegal is beyond me, nothing about thinking it is normal to drink these things?!

It begs the question to what is next? Snorting hoover dust? Eating superglue? Drinking toilet cleaner? One thing for sure if drinking chemicals in paint thinners etc is 'cool', I'm definitely out of the loop......

Easter Weekend

Easter is a weird phenomenom. We celebrate the death of this Jesus fellow with eggs. The connection here to be honest baffles me, ok may be it's the 'resurrection' thing, with (re) birth and eggs or something. Whatever, probably it's my ignorance of religion, more in the 'I don't care' kind of way. If the World decides to give me 2 extra days off (well almost- I had to go in on Friday and will tomorrow!), then so be it.

Easter is some what bigger (and different) in Sweden than England. Massive chocolate eggs are not given as gifts: Instead, cardboard eggs (empty) that split in half are stuffed full of pic 'n' mix, then given to the masses. It's awesome because all these sweeties are pretty much half price for this week : )

The Swedes also seem to really use this week (where the kids are off) to go skiing. And yes, we were a slave to the system: Ok, not for a week, just yesterday actually- and wow what a day it was. Swedes also love decorating everything with feathers and chickens etc, and do a version of trick or treat, as they munch on scarily similar food to Xmas; meatballs, herring etc.

Like most places, the weather has taken a turn for the better: the last 2 weeks have been pretty immense. Today and yesterday were at least 15 plus: we went to the coast today in search of a sandy beach at Alvkarleby. What was truelly a first for me was seeing sand (as promised by J)......easily impressed right? But this was no ordinary sand- it had snow/ice on it!! I was, how to put it, erm confused. It's not an easy association to make, sun, sand, sea and snow.....

Yesterday (yes my chronology is off slightly I know) was awesome too: I've had acute (viral) bronchitis for at least the past 2 weeks and suffered pretty bad. My chest hurts like shite and was coughing nicely, meaning I havent been doing much of, well, anything. Never the less, we decided to give boarding once last go, as it was officially the last weekend of the season : ( We took it kinda easy, but it was truelly awesome: there was no-one there, was literally shorts and t-shirt weather and the snow was soft and fluffy. The good news was I survived, the bad, well, I smelled like shite because I sweated so much, erm.....all in all was fantastic. Just have to wait 7/8 months for the next time : (

Occasionally I get these amazing feelings inside, basically of how great everything is. Those times for most people are usually few and far between, but when things come together and everything goes for you, you know it. This weekend has given me that feeling. It's not really even because it feels like a holiday in the strictest sense: I was the last person to leave the lab on Thursday, I had to go in on Friday for a few hours, I will no doubt check my little punk cells tomorrow when everyone is off, and it will 'start' again on Tuesday, but this is in no means a deterent. I've just had an 'I appreciate everything' moment, which is not something I have enough of (probably applicable to most of us).

Anyways, enough of me yacking. We watched Bedtime Stories (completely legally, ahem), which despite being a Disney film, having a slightly tacky/cheesy ending, wasn't half bad. Whatever your thoughts of Russell Brand are (if you even know who he is), he's pretty funny in it, so have a watch if you get a chance.

p.s. Thanks Pinocchio for your Custom board, was a nice ride : ) Oh yeah, I'll wax it for free to show my appreciation.

p.p.s. I'll also do your Custom X for free too

p.p.p.s. I'll also take care of your boots, bindings, helmet, coat, bottoms, goggles, gloves, socks, neckies and board bag- seriously, no problem, I won't wax them though.

p.p.p.p.s. Do you like the picture? Another first: on a swing, on the beach (with snow!) with a view....what could be better?! Oh yeah, it was sunny, warm and oh yeah....it's not in England : )

A follow up

Following the story of notorious Jade, a big brother contestant who made fame for being fat, rough and obnoxious: well she died. This was a few weeks ago (I guess). However what has really got on my tits was/is all the media coverage. Every story is about poor dead Jade. All these other so called celebrities sending their best wishes to her family etc. I think you have to be a Brit to understand this story. Interestingly the trend was broken today, by non other Sir Michael Parkinson. Again, may be non-Brits don't know him (look him up). Basically he's a journalist by nature, but he's very respected, kind of says it as it should be (not so much as it is), but today was a different day. He's come out and said what a joke this Jade bollocks is. I would post a link but Sky news will probably delete the article it or something, so here's the text:

"I feel sorry for the poor girl. I think she was totally exploited from the moment she went on Big Brother," he told Sky News Online.

"I thought it was very poor, I thought the people who did that should be ashamed of themselves.

"I have been a journalist for 60 years and I am appalled by what's happened to my profession, she was exploited mercilessly by the media."

Thousands lined the streets and left floral tributes to pay their respects to the 27-year-old as her funeral cortege made its way from Bermondsey, south London, where she was born.

Newspaper reports said the outpouring of gried and sea of flowers had echoes of Princess Diana's funeral.

But Sir Michael said: "Jade Goody has her own place in the history of television and, while it's significant, it's nothing to be proud of.

"Her death is as sad as the death of any young person, but it's not the passing of a martyr or a saint or, God help us, Princess Di."

The 74-year-old added: "When we clear the media smoke screen from around her death what we're left with is a woman who came to represent all that's paltry and wretched about Britain today.

"She was brought up on a sink estate, as a child came to know both drugs and crime, was barely educated, ignorant and puerile.

"Then she was projected to celebrity by Big Brother and from that point on became a media chattel to be manipulated and exploited till the day she died."

He added: "What bothers me is that the media first of all recommended we hate Jade Goody - 'a slapper with a face like a pig', remember? - and shortly thereafter tried to persuade us to celebrate her."

He also pointed to role models that people should aspire to - rather than people who had just become famous through reality TV shows.

"Certain people gift you ambition," he added.

"When I saw Tom Graveney I wanted to be a professional cricketer. When I first set eyes on Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca I wanted to marry her.

"And seeing Alan Whicker on television gave me the idea that a life in telly might be fun," he said, adding: "One out of three ain't bad."

I think there's a lot of truth in it. Things these days (sorry the grandad type sentiment) are very different to even when I grew up. There seems to be no rules, no respect (or respect for completely the wrong thing), no........well much of anything. Society has severely misplaced icons/rolemodels/heroes and what not. Media attention to actors/models/tv personalities/footballers is just beyond a joke. We are brainwashing the poor chavs of England to want to grow up with not a brain cell in their head, to not want to aspire more than a drunk, wife beating Ashley Cole- 'look at me, I'm a footballer'.

Lets just say I'm glad I'm not a kid now, I have aspirations/goals/dreams, non of which involve being based on appearing on Big Brother. Not realizing nearly all of todays films and songs are NOT originals is one of many examples why little fuckers these days need EDUCATING. Where does this come from? Well I'm not a family man, but the breakdown of the home is for me without a doubt, a huge source of the problems. To change this? Well don't have bloody kids when you aren't in a stable relationship, end of. Marriage is forever, kids are forever, balanced kids = 'good kids' = good future. This is hopefully the direction it will turn to when programmes like Big Brother are taken off TV. Or may be the whole TV should go.......