Back home again.

I'm having a crack at learning cricket again. Reading the rules earlier did not help, so I thought that if I watch a game from the very beginning, I could figure it out by looking at the scores. Well, the scores displayed on TV seemed to be for the players only. They are playing for the most precious cup of all, "The Ashes". England currently has got the cup and Australia is at war. These things are so important here that summer is called "Cricket Season" as winter is called "Football Season". Well, cricket takes five days so I switched over to Dr Phil instead. "...abused housewhife Gretel has a crush on the debt collectors german shepherd, - should she loose weight to save her marriage...blah...blah...! I learn so much from Dr Phil mainly that I don't want to live in the USA. Really, almost every talk show, police show and reality show are about people who are stupid or who can't handle life, and the mistakes they make. Not that I'm any better. My restlessness has been the main cause of any negative experiences through my life. And, if that is correct, the good things are partly related to my personality too. Now, let's see how the cricket is going. Great, someone made a hat trick, that must be good! http://www.3news.co.nz/Peter-Siddle-nabs-Ashes-birthday-hat-trick/tabid/317/articleID/188004/Default.aspx I recently returned from a second working trip to Tasmania where I had more time to enjoy the scenery.

We had ordered a bungalow each with cooking facilities in a Swiss inspired resort.

When we got there it turned out there was only one cabin and the cooking facility was apparently the public barbeque outside.

This is why I constantly work on my communication skills.

It felt good seeing the beaches of North Melbourne again after another three weeks in Tasmania. I'm lucky to have lived in the few cities with beaches and clean water in the very centre. Sailing on the "Spirit of Tasmania" was good, with calm water and good weather but inside the ship,

it was as boring as always. Everybody looked as if they were going to the dentist or even worse, to the bank. With several bars and restaurants they still can't get a party going. If I showed the shipowners a video of the ferries from Stockholm to Helsinki, they would soon manage without their government funds completely. Perhaps I should just send a video to the press and let them ask why taxpayers have to pay for the "Off Spirit, Tasmania". At least I am happy I did not have to paddle across Bass Strait like a brave client did recently...
Well I'm home again and decided to stay there for quite some time. After all, it is a nice old cottage where everything is the way things should be...

I immediately drove to the shopping centre to buy some food. When the local hoon greeted me with the finger as he performed the compulsory doughnuts...

I studied history for several years as research for a TV documentary and became very interested in archive films. I think that the fascinating thing with history is when you learn enough to see a bigger picture and if you then also begin to draw your own conclusions about the events. And I believe that those conclusions can be applied on our modern life in general. Still, I have friends of whom some are even teachers, who question why we should learn history. It is good to have different opinions than your friends sometimes. But it worries me that they are so self confident that they think what happened earlier in history doesn't affect every minute of their lives in some way. To not realise how history also helps us predict some of our future is very contradicting considering that people, critical of learning history, spend half a lifetime trying to prevent their kids from earlier generations mistakes. I came across one of the most dramatic and exiting archive reels that I have ever seen. It is a film of whaling, which was very common outside Tasmania in the old days. It probably dates to the 1920´s but this film quality was available as early as 1898.
How is that old film important today? Well, first of all, if we do the maths, we can figure out why so many whales are endangered species, since they have been hunting them systematically for over a century. Second; The hardship these men endured confirm that employers tried to push their staff to the limits for profit, which still applies today. So we should not put our hopes up for a better world until we can redirect greed towards areas of less importance. I have no idea what environmental or humanitarian enterprises could be made profitable but I'm working on it.

TV Stars

I’m still practicing cooking.
The Cooking is getting better. It all looks OK but not yet as mouth watering as on the photos in the books.
Since my dishes taste good, I decided that all I need to do now is to give my pictures some Photo Shop work. How are these “Before” and “After” pictures?



In any case, it keeps me away from bad food...most of the time.

A while ago, a friend kindly took me along to watch the TV show “Hot Seat”. It was very exciting to step into a TV studio again after 15 years away from the live TV industry.
Trying to impress my friend, I showed her how it all works and where to sit for maximum camera exposure because she wants to get famous.
After some tactical positioning she was almost guaranteed a hot spot on national TV and some degree of fame. To cut a long story short; half of the audience shots had me in them and my friend was nowhere to be seen. I must be a better Studio Director than I thought.

So called "Problem Horses"

While not much is going on in my life, I might take the opportunity to mention the number one reason for problems with horses.
Lack of physical strength!
Almost all clients horses I have ridden were presented to me because of secondary problems due to physical weakness.
Before a horse has built up strength in the top line muscles, which provide collection, they display many so called "faults" for very natural reasons.
They flick their head up when doing down-transitions, go "on the forehand" or pull the reins out of the riders hands and run off etc.
For an inexperienced rider this can appear threatening and cause more or less forced reactions, first by the rider and subsequently by the horse, reacting to the rider.
Here is a good story where the rider was worried about riding her her horse.
The mare is five years old and had a foal after being broken in.
Many riders with fear of their horses have become confident as soon as they were told some facts of nature. In more dramatic cases; that a horse can not buck with the head held high up
or; generally, a horse who rears, only flip over if the reins are pulled.
On the less dramatic end of the scale are other facts such as; when a large horse is agitated it can appear to challenge the rider because it's response is physically bigger and stronger or; very agile horses react quicker and appear more stressed or nervous when a problem occurs. The fact is that many of these horses (often thoroughbreds) are the most confident and best tempered ones. (The main reason for fear in humans, is lack of knowledge)
So, This young mare, turned out to be exceptionally calm and pleasant and she improved immediately when introduced to basic physical training and allowed the time she needed to understand the exercises.

Nothing new so far

Nothing is new in my life either. I will have a look at some pictures I have taken recently and let you know what they are. This is one of the meals I have learned to cook. Marinated Lamb Cutlets with Bacon Carbonara and snow peas came out really nice. I have now five dishes that I can do well. This is after trying a total of eight and when I have seven good ones, I can rotate every week. All that is missing now is a wife in a dark suit with a business career and three snotty kids who hates any food that I make. Then the picture would be complete and I could finally have the family I never had. No offence to my ex wife and her children. They were good but I was never too popular with any of the in laws. Once, when I turned off the power to the kids Play Station and put a padlock on the fridge, their father threatened to beat me up, so you can see why I had some communication problems. I can for my life not understand how the kids are not epileptics and obese, but the truth is that they grew up to great people, so I finally learned something from their dad. "Thanks Dad!"

The other day I had the opportunity to see the A380 take off for Los Angeles. It was a very impressing event since I was standing on the tarmac together with some colleagues. Afterwards I realised that there was almost no noise when the aircraft took off. Certainly different from last time I experienced something like this. Once I assisted a professional photographer in photographing a Jumbo Jet's front wheels during take off on a wet runway.

These were the particular requirements of the client (SAAB). They wanted their advert to show how safe their cars was on wet roads. Me and my photographer lied down on the grass just beside the beginning of the runway with a camera each ready for the aircraft to appear and take off. Since we did not calculate how wide the wing span was, we had engine number four passing us less than 20 metres away. When the pilot reved up to full throttle with all brakes on, my boss stood up, threw his $10 000 Nikon F1 on the ground and ran like hell...Being half deaf already, I could not quite see what the problem was, except my head was rattling like a maraca and I could not see much with the storm blowing into my face. The same job also resulted in one of my favourite pictures.

Shipped home

It was time to leave Tasmania. I had breakfast delivered to my room hoping for a good start of the day. For $ 14 I got the poorest meal ever.
I think they take doggy bags from the soup kitchen downtown. In sympathy with the less fortunate in Devonport, I decided to eat it all with a grateful smile. Hopefully my $ 14 helped a starving motel owner through the day or at least paid for his children’s shoes.

Taking the ferry back to Melbourne I got myself ready for a hard night out, just like on the ferries from Sweden to Finland. Floating liquor stores with human brain capacity dropping by 75% before even entering the Baltic Sea. So, with newly dyed hair, Lynx all over me, I walked up to the entertainment area, only to find a handful of badly dressed people looking slightly depressed.

They all watched the TV screens showing a documentary of an anorectic girl followed by the Ship Emergency Procedure Video.. I lost all hope of any social interaction of any kind. The atmosphere on board was like ice and I spent the next hour talking to my colleague and walk on deck figuring out the best way to make it to the life boats in case of more Icebergs.

Reality checks

It has been very hard to keep a healthy diet while being away from home without cooking facilities. I even had to rely on McDonalds “healthy choices” sometimes. Last time I entered McDonald’s, I could see the CCTV screen switching between cameras. The problem was that I could not see myself anywhere.

I asked the girl at the register if she could see me at all. She said that she did not understand the question, so at least she could hear me. I know I may lack personality, but this was ridiculous....On the other hand, perhaps this is why I sometimes can´t even trigger automatic doors to open. Well, personality or not, I still have to live with myself and during the past months I was able to make important decisions, which is exciting (-for me, that is). It has been easier than I thought to quit all my little projects that took too much time and money. With no time left over there was more stress, and I am god at stress.

It all begun in the eighties when everybody got in to the new Danish invention "Time Management". Some genius convinced the entire Western World that this could make a lot of money. Well, the Danes did. Every employee in the country was brainwashed for three day, chewed and spat out with a daily planner in the hand.
It even had a "Friends" folder so we could book the time with friends efficiently. The Yuppie Era had begun.
Every young male and female was an investment banker or an art director and nobody seemed to really produce anything.

Now, 27 years later, I am finally at home in the evenings and during the weekends, cooking, reading and just resting. It is still hard to say no to these little extra jobs that I am asked to do all the time. In my case, they never paid enough to justify the stress involved. The sad part, which I secretly find the best part, is that I get almost no phone calls these days. This indicates either a very lonely life or a very happy one. But, it is at least "Real Time Management".
In the future, my training of horses and riders will be limited to Saturdays and at a nearby equestrian centre. This means that I will not travel for hours each week to different venues to make a few extra bucks.
Sure, the prospect of becoming a wealthy professional competition rider should have eventuated if I was as good as I say. On the other hand, most really good riders with many horses to ride and all, can´t even save up to a house. Appart from racing, there is basically no money in equestrian sport.
My mentor in riding and life, Event rider Petrus Kastenman, told me that "You will never win Olympic games but damn you if you don´t try", which I did.
Trying that hard is in itself a personal success, consequently, there is less need to become a star. This leads me on to a couple of myths circulating in the equestrian sport.

Myth 1: “If you train horses, it is best to buy a horse property”.
Many horse owners believe that if they had their own property, it would cut costs and save a lot of time.
This is not true. At least not for competitive riders. Since most of us would struggle to afford a property, almost no one would then be able to buy the necessary material and build the facilities for successfull training.
Most property owners with competition horses find themselves training less consistent because of bad weather, wet grounds and lack of good jumps. They regularly transport the horse away away from their “horse property” to access sufficient facilities, spending many hours plus car costs and petrol. Often, the only way to access good facilities is to participate in lessons where you also have to pay for an instructor. The cost for keeping a horse at an agistment place with an indoor school and jumping arena, is lower than having your own place and the job gets done! This means, you win more ribbons.

Myth 2: “A horse should not cost much”
or "My father never paid more than 50 bucks for a horse".
1 - "A horse should cost around $ 3000 "
2 - "A float cost app. $ 20.000."
3 - "A $ 40.000 four wheel drive is necessary to tow it".

This list basically needs to be turned upside down.

1: Horse: $ 40.000
-Or at least pay for a good horse that is going to do the job from the start!
Most of us buy a young horse or just a cheap one with problems that we think we can fix.
Unless we are professional riders, we end up spending thousands on help to correct the horses, sometimes before we can even ride them ourselves.












2:Float/Truck: $ 20.000
- A float only needs to be safe and good for the horses to travel in.
Unfortunately, many of us want to drive around in a float or preferably a truck that make us look very successful.
3: Car: $ 5.000 (additional cost)
-Your existing car can most likely tow a float and a horse already!
A few locations you go to, may be too muddy but these places can mostly be avoided, so it is not necessary to upgrade to a new four wheel drive.
Often it is enough to put a tow bar on the existing car or just upgrade to a slightly stronger one with a tow bar.

Myth 3: “I go to many instructors and pick the parts that suits me”
Gathering different training tips all over the place and then create a working training schedule ourselves, is almost impossible. And it is confusing for everyone.
Riding students or their parents don´t have the experience to judge which methods are best? Let alone to put it together to a working system, as well as to hop on the horse and adjust it to the individual talent and age of their horse.
FEI judge Eric Lette (“The conscience of World Dressage”) told me that consistency in the training is more important than going to all the best instructors.

Most instructors are very good, and anyone who sticks to him/her will find success.
The key is that the instructor must know when it is time to send the student off to the next level. This is how it often works in some European countries. The top riders don´t forget who started them out and the top trainers have respect for trainers at lower level. They remember their names and sometimes consult them about common students.
Another benefit is that there is less room for corruption in an Equestrian Federation with such a system.
In Australia we have a wealth of talent and the quality of our horses is good enough, at least until they their education begins. Most riders need to learn how to train a young extremely talented horse. It is different to training normal horses. The only way to learn how to harvest the talent of a super horse is to go to Europe and to stay there long enough to learn it.
By the way; to bring your own horse to a German top rider for 3 months and pay a massive amount of money, does not do it. Still, the main reason for lack of international success by Australian Dressage and Show Jumping riders, is a corrupted federation.

One that could appoint someone like Harry Bolt as an "assistant" coach. This is a man who has taken Germany to several Olympic Team Gold medals. It does not matter if he did not want to carry the main responsibility for Australian Dressage or was old or too expensive or not politically correct or something. Whatever the excuse, they should just have handed over the entire show to him, paid the money and then sat down to watch and learn.
And -there would have been enough commercial value in it to attract sponsors to cover the cost.


God only knows how our Event riders manage to do so well .
I guess it is because they are mostly free spirits and more fun.

Last days in Tasmania

After two weeks of hard work I and my colleague drove up to the north coast to work in Burnie for three days. On the way through Tasmania I saw many little places where I would not mind living. At my age one appreciates peace and quiet and if I could make a living staying in a remote area, I would. We had dinner at a pub with unusually bad food and after 9PM all guests were gone, the place was dead. When we walked outside it turned out that that there was nobody anywhere else either. The locals had simply gone home after a meal out on Saturday night (I might need to reconsider my future rural lifestyle). Still, there was no sound of banjos, so I decided not to worry. On the last Sunday we went for a drive to visit the Stanley Nut.


The city of Stanley, or should I say, the street of Stanley still look like it was 150 years old. The only thing missing was a gang of bandits galloping through town.

Afterwards we went to Touchwood cafe to try their world famous scones with jam and cream. - Amazingly rich stuff that eliminates any need for food for the next 24 hours. My colleague who is a diabetic, had a scone in one hand and the insulin shot in the other, so we survived it.

I had the opportunity to see other historical places in Tasmania too. I am constantly trying to learn more about the Australian soul and people. What made them a quiet, far away nation of hard workers and heroes with a laid back lifestyle and unique humour? Only history can explain it.

Something kept Australia quite intact without any of the mayor crisis seen in most warm climate countries. Why did the Australian aboriginals not learn to use the white man´s horses and weapons straight away. Theey did not revolt to elect a PM who then worked his way up to President and finishes as a Dictator with a taste for cannibalism....or so.
Once, two Professors at Sydney Museum told me that most aboriginals could not understand that man could own land. I believe we can claim as much land as we want to and pay as many millions of dollars as we like, but we will never own the land anyway.

One day nature will create a new world without any concern for humans whatsoever.

Leaving the Maritime Museum of Devonport I was surprised by a very aggressive bird trying to kill me. It was a Plover Bird that lays its eggs directly on the ground. I believevthat the Plover Bird is a direct descendant of Tyrannosaurus Rex since it thinks it strong and that it has no natural enemies. I suppose...a bit like...a Jack Russel (Dressurschweinchen) or Oksana or My Ex whi....(Not) or The Independent MPs or... well, you get the picture.

Tasmania

Almost straight after returning to Australia I went to Tasmania to work. Based in Hobart me and two colleagues worked hard for a week and then got some spare time to look around the place. After 15 years in Australia I had never been to Tasmania until this year. And suddenly I was there for the second time within a couple of months time. The weather is cold and wet at this time of year but the landscape and the historical character of the island sucks you in somehow and I am beginning to really like it here.

They say that Tasmanians are a bit slow and in the most remote places you can sometimes even hear the sound of duelling banjos, but I don`t believe it. The folks up the mountains here don´t look like they could play any instrument at all... We walked down Elisabeth Street to the waterfront and turned right pass the yacht club and to the casino. The views are amazing, like one beautiful backdrop in front of the other. The bay, full of sails and the old houses by the waterfront. Behind is the silhouette of Hobart city surrounded by hills and behind that rises the steep mountains with the top covered by mist (I think King Kong lives there).

We had coffee at the casino and then took the water taxi back to the city. Then, lunch at one of the floating fish and chips shops lined up along the Constitution docks

There are a couple of research ships for arctic and marine research based here. Like some of the old sailing ships, they let normal people pay thousands of dollars to be part of the crew for a couple of weeks. It is the adventure of a lifetime to participate in scientific research of Antarctica and its surrounding waters.

We spend most of our time in Hobart, which is very nice except for that the pedestrian traffic lights seems to be designed by Usain Bolt, or at least by someone from Jamaica. The green man turns red long before any fit young person could possibly walk across the street. We have now tendered to the Tasmanian Traffic Authorities to manufacture a new type of lights using different silhouettes (where It says “Don´t Walk” or “Walk” we suggest a change to “Don´t Walk” and “Bolt”)

Here is a plug for the best fish-n-chips in the world for Swedes, who are thinking of visiting me.

The Last Ride

Sorry, I forgot to write about my last ride on Farao and his first official appearance.
After I had ridden him for two months the owner took Farao to a clinic at the former Cavalry school Strömsholm. It was a big outing but he did not put a foot wrong and proved his great attitude and temperament once again. My job was officially done and Farao was to be promoted by his owner and her coach, the prominent dressage judge and rider Ove Slöör. Mr Slöör has been around for a long time and has gained a somewhat master status, which will guarantee Farao´s future as a top dressage horse. Farao won´t be competing much or at all but he will give his rider much pleasure for many years to come.

He has the potential to develop extraordinary movements, so I put the pressure on and suggested that “now you have five years to prove it”.
After two weeks of not riding Farao I was offered to ride him in a local dressage event. I decided to try him the day before to see if he would be ready for it. Farao had been ridden less than normal the past weeks and I could feel it. He behaved well but lacked forwardness and I had to make clear that the competition the next day would be outdoors Otherwise I knew Farao would almost fall asleep on me. Earlier he had been extremely excited and a bit out of control when he was ridden on the outdoor arena. In the early days he took off as soon as he saw something move behind him. This had slowly improved to just reasonable excitement and in fairly good control. So my guess was that Farao would be quite hot the next day with all the other horses and people who were going to be around and that I would be able to control him enough to get around a dressage test at the lowest level.
The trick was position his head in front of the vertical though I most of the time had to pull the brakes. Well, the good thing with young horses, is they are not very smart yet. This means that many times, if they “take off” they don´t bother with what the rider is doing with the reins, they simply ignore it and that can be used to the riders advantage. If the rider dares to ease the reins often on what feels like a runaway train, the head moves forward to a “correct” position. I tried it which was fine and since the weather was very hot and humid, by time we were on, Farao had gone back to almost normal. He felt good but during the ride I made a couple of mistakes in preparing for some movements. Still, we ended up doing a good test. I think there were at least 12 competitors and Farao got a fourth place. Everybody seemed very happy, and salubrated it with a fantastic marzipan cake, so I was happy too. Farao has the personality of a cheeky teenager who still wants to please the rider, which I think is great, so I am very happy for him and it was a most enjoyable ride. During my two months riding Farao, it was a pleasure to work with his owner and to get advice from Mr Slöör. The video of it was awful due to technical problems but after tweaking some of the clips you can at least see something.

The Trip Home

My three months in Sweden have come to an end. It does not feel as if the time has passed quickly or so because I have been both working and experienced many great moments. It was hard to say goodbye to my mother and family and I already miss the old and new friends I met. One major reason for leaving home was to make some important decisions about my future, so I am quite exited to return and implement my new plans.
For me, it is basically a matter of focusing on one profession only, settling for max one hobby or project at the time and being free after office hours and during weekends, what we call a “normal life” I guess. In some ways, it is a matter of being strong enough to say no.
One reason for my need to make a change is mainly that almost half of my time spent on video productions and equestrian services has earlier been unpaid and left me almost without a social life. Nothing wrong with that since I had chosen it but in the long run I can't afford it and. It was time to get a life.

Two very dear friends dropped me off at Arlanda airport outside Stockholm. We passed the unique Jumbo Stay Hostel before arriving.


Then I spent one hour negotiating with the beautiful check in supervisor Anette about 6 Kg luggage overweight. This was the final confirmation that I have finally lost my looks completely. After running through my entire repertoire of charming jokes and compliments, the suitcase still ended up weighing the expected 20 Kg here I had 13 kg of things with me in the cabin instead. The fact that my bodyweight is half of any of the other passengers' had no effect at all on Anette (I bet she likes obese men). The bottom line is that they didn´t want to hear my jokes at the check in counter, still, the compliments went down well (trust women). I was supposed to have contacted the airline beforehand instead about bringing extra luggage. I left behind a lot of clothes and things in Sweden, so it won´t be a problem next time.
During my Sweden visit three of my friends and family members decided to come and visit me in January. The flight is minimum 20 hours in the air and normally it is impossible for me to sleep on planes. For anybody who is planning to make such a long flight, here are the aviators' advice on how to handle it:
-Exercise before going to the airport.("crew fitness level")
-Bring a warm sweater or jacket ("budget cabin air con. systems")
-Drink extra water ("check cooling system")
-Eat a bit less amount of food than normal during the flight ("avoid excess fuel")
-Bring a blow up collar pillow ("secondary life jacket")
-Take shoes off at the start (“Take Off”)
-If needed, take a sleeping pill for the night.(de-pressurise)
-Drink water instead of alcohol (depress-urise)
-Visit the toilet before meals (empty the fuel tanks)
-Exercise on board ("suspicious cabin activity")
Off course, the most effective way to manage such a trip is to follow the advice of a highly qualified nurse that I was seeing once. I had told her that I can´t sleep on planes and her advice was to follow the same routines as normal before bedtime as well as in bed when getting ready to sleep. -Brush the teeth, go to the toilet, watch a movie on TV or read a book etc. I thanked her and asked if she had practiced this often on her overseas trips.
She said “Not quite, I have been to France once and I got drunk from wine and took morphine and slept for 18 hours until the attendants got me back to life in Paris”. The warning bells should have rung already then and I should have known that I was wasting time dating her. As expected, she dumped me later with another lecture. This time she praised my personal potential and great personality for 20 minutes, and then she gave me the flick.
Apart from that, she was really nice [the picture is of another nurse]
The first leg took 6 hours to Qatar and went very well. Again, the Qatar Air service and food was better than on any other airline I have travelled with before. The food quality must have something to do with the Islamic preparations that they advertise before each meal. I have never seen Qantas or SAS mention anything about their Christian cooking or point out the direction to Jerusalem or Graceland or some place for those who want to pray. Probably because that kind of information is not really needed.
Next to me was a very young and very Christian woman on her way to Tanzania to do missionary work. In front of us was the most unreal couple I have ever seen. One 5 foot 1" (155 cm) native South American medicine-man and his 6 foot 7" (2 m) tall female model. I tried to get a good photo of them for this blog at the airport but it was a bit dangerous, so it did not come out very well, but you get the idea I think. Love is blind...though, in this case the woman did not even need to be blind since she could not see her boyfriend unless she looked straight down. Off course, being not much taller myself, than the medicine-man, I was a bit jealous.
The second leg from Qatar to Melbourne took 13 hours and was OK because I managed to do a short workout, take one sleeping tablet and get five hours sleep.
Melbourne was cold and humid and the spring will come later than I expected.

The bus trip

I´m on the bus back to Stockholm. The last 4 days have been great because I met my
old friend and also because she introduced me to really funny people on the South Swedish countryside.

They are farmers and horse breeders, with somewhat conservative ideas and great fun to be with. I heard all these local village anecdotes about the kind of characters that I thought did not exist anymore.
It was like listening to a comedy stage show from 1959 or so, and I loved it.

My clever host also arranged a couple of still photo jobs, which I enjoyed very much. Photographing horses is difficult and I am not mastering it in any way but it is a great challenge.
The catch is that you have to find the right light and background and then, if the horses get there, you can only shoot the pictures when their ears are pointed more or less forward.

In this bus, next to me is a 90 year old lady who spends every minute trying to figure out where we are. One minute she thinks she is on the way home and the other on the way to Stockholm. She also constantly asks who is singing in the bus. Her favourite song from the WW2 top charts is obviously running a loop in her head because the only sound here is from the tyres on the road.
Her son finally picked her up at the end station and I told him that this was not a very good idea. He was a left over hippie, approximately 5 years BW (Before Woodstock) and looks like he doesn´t know where he is either. So I leave them and remember what Dr Phil said about being there for people in need...”Do Not Help Them! (They only want you to listen)”.
Most people of the so called western world learn basic psychology through TV and Dr Phil.
Most things we do are directed by the North American culture so every other little country is slowly changing their language to English.
I have heard at least five new everyday words in Sweden this year:


Sale (Swe:Rea). Stalk (Swe:Stalka), Kids (Swe:Kidsen), Confront (Swe:Fronta), Implement (Swe:Implementera), Promote (Swe:Promota)




On top of that, some businesses are changing their names. One of the most stupid one is this pub in Stockholm...”Gastro Bar”. I don´t think they get many visitors from outside Sweden.
Young people have off course totally in sync with this lingo. This is the way language develops through history. The only problem is that now we lose important words that could describe things more precisely. So we can´t express exactly what we mean and what we feel, which is asking for conflict.
This is how many divorces begin and even wars.
So when some guy tells his more educated woman “stuff the chicken tonight” (when all he meant was “Let´s not have chicken tonight again”), he gets chicken for the fourth time that week, but this time a stuffed one. Then he complains to his friends later that his woman does not understand him.
I think this is what will happen to today’s children when they grow up.
Anyway, Kids, what is it with them?
The other day when I was having lunch with friends this little girl at the next table was twittering on her mobile, drinking from a straw, taking a nap with her head on the table and listening to music with her earphones –at the same time.
I did know that girls are multitasked but this was a world class performance!
Another time I saw a boy waiting in a staff room for his dad to quit work.
He was playing with his Nintendo as his father entered the room every minute and kept telling him to finish his food, four doughnuts and a soft drink.
The boy, who was not full or anything, just kept nagging his dad for doughnuts with a different icing on it. How long until his diabetes, asthma and knee ligaments will consume all the tax his father paid during the past 20 years?
Then there are all the new born Christians.
Millions of kids, mainly girls can be heard these days, calling for their lord and saviour almost every minute of the day. I know, because I hear it all the time. As soon as there is any excitement of any kind at any level, they call for him.
“...I can’t do this!!! Oh My God...My God...My nail broke...I hate you...I will never put the dishes away, ever, nevurr...My God!!!”
They say that if you tell a lie enough times, you believe it. So perhaps these girls, -this entire generation, will one day subconsciously adopt Christian values.
Anyway, history tells us clearly how even these young sexually frustrated walking loudspeakers will later grow to become great people.