Busy

I don't have much time or energy to blog this days. Have started school again and it seems like studying and my energetic daughter is taking up most of my time. I will be having a busy schedule for ten weeks now. After that things will be a bit calmer.

So have patience with me, as I will not be blogging that frequently for a while now. While I'm busy doing other things than blogging, you guys can sit in front of the computer screen in amazement about what a gorgeous daughter I've got. Who will be exactly six months old tomorrow, by the way. I can't believe how time flies!

I'm happy to leave on those terms

Fredrik Ljungberg is getting 70 millions SEK for leaving West Ham.

I wish my employer would do the same: "Sandra, thanks for the time you've given us, but as we feel that you are no longer doing your job as well as you used to, we will give you 70 millions if you promise to leave straight away".

Privatizing in areas that should never be privatized

The current government in Sweden seems eager to privatize everything. Now the turn has come to my work area. I work at a so called group home for people with Down Syndrome.

Considering that we are over budget basically every year I get a bit scared thinking of how a private company is supposed to make money by running my work place.

The rent will not change, so, will they move us? That is of course not an option. You don't just move peoples homes.

The costs for materials like office supplies and other stuff is already pretty much as low as it can be. So cutting down there is not a possibility either.

Mine and my colleagues salary could of course be cut. But I'm sure you can understand how I feel about that. Considering I do not work in a well paid area it would be a bad idea to cut salaries any further. That only results in high staff turn overs.

So I'm afraid that they will cut in the amount of staff. The only way this could be possible would be by totally changing the way we work. Which would collide with the rights of the people we are working for. Scary.

Do not support the bus strike

I pay 415 SEK every month to Kommunal, a union that is at the moment having a bus strike in Stockholm and other parts of Sweden. I do not support it!

Okay, certain demands I think are justifiable. And if the strike was only about those I would probably support it. But the strike is also about the bus drivers' pay check. And the fact is that bus drivers make more money than nurses. Nurses that have to spend three years in University, while you can become a bus driver in a heart beat.

And they also make more money than me. But Kommunal is not having a strike on my account. Cant help thinking that it's probably because I work in a female dominated work area, while bus drivers most often are men.

The State - a discriminating employer

Men, employed by the State, makes 17 508 SEK more than women in the same position, every year. There are twice as many men compared to women, being "the boss". And men, employed by the state, have safer terms of employment, in comparison with women employed by the State. All this according to the Swedish newspaper DN today.

Starting to feel a bit embarrassed, and pretty angry, as I, myself, is employed by.... the State.

Been living in a bubble

It's so strange, the feeling you get from working on a production/shoot.

Even though it was only two days this time, yesterday evening, when I got home, it felt like I had been away forever. It felt like I had been abroad. Or lived in a bubble for a while.

This from getting up at five, go to the set, spend the whole day and evening at the set. Then getting home late and crash in to bed. Next morning, same procedure.

This means no news. No talking to family or friends. No actual connection with reality basically.

So, as I said, when I got home last night, I felt like I had been away from home forever.

Today I'm so tired. Which I think is a good thing, as I'm even too tired to be nervous about the visit at the hospital today.

Right now I'm just sitting at home, waiting for the hospital to call, to say that I can come in. I was supposed to call them at seven this morning, which I did, just to get the information that they were full at the moment and that I should wait for them to call, some time during the day, as soon as they had a space for me.

Boring to just sit and wait. But as I'm so tired I wouldn't have been able to do much with this day anyway.

Wish me luck!

Nasty tasting tea - a great experience at work

Even though I gave up the idea about becoming a psychologist a few years ago, and decided to take a slightly different path, the way us human beings react, think, act and behave fascinates me (and sometimes scares me).

I find the smallest things interesting. Yesterday it happened when I was sitting with a cup of tea in my hand. The tea was a certain kind of tea that I've been drinking a lot at work, because that was the tea available.

It hit me, when I was sitting there, with the cup of tea in my hand, that I actually felt like if I was at work. The flavor, the scent of the tea, and the fact that I had to use a small tea cup (which I never do, but now had to do to get some flavor out of this tea bag) totally made me feel like if I was at work. It was a strange feeling.

Then I started to examine the feeling a bit. And I realized that I could not drink the tea, could not finish what was left in the cup. All of the sudden it tasted horrible.

And it wasn't the fact that it reminded me of work. It was the fact that at work a cup of tea (most of the time this tea in particular) was something that symbolized a few moments on my on in the morning, a nice time in front of the TV or the computer before going to bed (yes, I did and was supposed to sleep at work) or a chat with my colleagues.

Without those things the tea tasted horrible. At home I'm used to drinking all different kinds of nice tea, and this nasty tasting tea did not fit in my sofa at home. Still, at work, because of what it symbolized I had enjoyed it a lot. Funny, right?

A brilliant day

It's rare that everything goes your way the whole day. Today it has, for me though.

It did start like if it would be a bad day though. I turned on the news, while having porridge for breakfast. And I was met by a debate about whether or not the law on homosexual marriage should change.

That is a debate about if it should stay as it is now - a separate law for homosexuals, that is close to the heterosexual one, but still called somethings else and including some small differences. Or if there should be one law no matter who you chose to marry, one form of marriage and no separation that makes one category the norm and another category "the others".

I got annoyed, as the person arguing the stand point that I have, the later one, was pretty bad at arguing his point. And I got annoyed as the other person, arguing the separation, used things like "the child's best interest" in her arguments, like if it was clear that her stand point provided the best situation for children.

Anyway, I shook this annoyance off, and I went to see three of my former colleagues, and had a nice time.

After that I went to a Beauty salon and had a two hours facial, which was wonderful.

When I got home I had two letters waiting for me. One that told me that I got highest grade on the course that I just finished. And another one that told me that I've gotten a really big raise, bigger than I had dared to expect.

Can it get any better in one and the same day?