Ode to Excel (& pasta machines)

At my corporate office job I often end up teaching a colleagues to do the basic stuff you ought to know how to do in Excel. I may be biased since I am an avid fan of using Excel (no, I’m not being sarcastic here, I’m totally a fan of Excel), but I just CANNOT UNDERSTAND how people who work in desk jobs with a lot of numbers and statistics have been able to do their work without knowing how to do Pivot Tables, how to Filter data, and quick-write formulae! Just imagine the time probably WASTED on doing the same calculation over and over and over and over (about 200 times, at least) again. Or clumping numbers together, by hand! It just boggles my mind!

Excel is your friend. Excel does it all for you. It’s like a pasta machine: you just pop in a blob of dough and out comes beautiful strands of fettuccine or spaghetti. Or, if you want it to, a nice, smooth and equally-thin-in-all-places flat bit of pasta dough that you can make ravioli or lasagna or tortellini with. Much in the way you can make pretty graphs with the calculated numbers that Excel just gives you, on a silver platter. I’m so thankful for Excel. And I’m so thankful for my freakish father who taught me all about it (and still today is my open-all-hours-helpline when I hit the infrequent bump. Thanks dad!)

I have excel, but I don't have a pasta machine, but if I did have one I would make these things from Lady & Pups (none of them is pasta, but hey, it's always more fun using machines for things they were not originally intended for, right?)

CRUFFINS
PASTELS DE NATA

//a.

Nostrils

Waiting for the night to fall

#asnapaday

Late snap

'Tis night. I shall place my dainty head on my fluffy pillow and will myself to dream of unicorns. As one does. Nighty night.

#asnapaday

snap a meeting

...after this meeting I'm going to...

#asnapaday

all the chins

#asnapaday

This is my progress report on my chins-goal.

#asnapaday

Dane Edna says: let the daily snapping begin!

Public Service Broadcasting: ROYGBIV

Check it: 

Happy friday, folks!

I'm warmin' up for February

(ps. Check out the swarm of birds outside my window! It's totally making me feel like Melanie Daniels / Tippi Hedren)

A Snap a day

Hi.

I think i'm going to challenge myself with a little photo project during February. I'm going to share a face-snap (I refuse to say "Selfie") a day, all through February for your viewing pleasure. Quality will not be a quiding principle as I will be using my webcam.

Here's a sneak peak:

See you in February!

//a

The Youthful Emperor

You know when you have three seconds of a tune stuck in your head and you can't for your life figure out what the name of the tune is? The restless feeling, the creeping of the skin? The uneasy feeling of ensuing meltdown if said tune isn't figured out? Well, I had that all night last night. I knew it was an Opera. A contemporary opera, which didn't help at all in my googling, especially since I also knew that it was a pretty darn obscure opera.

This is how it usually goes when this happens: I remember some words of the lyrics and I type them in citation marks followed by "lyrics" in google and that usually does it. But this time, I only had "What is so ?????? about becoming a man...????" and descriptive words like "marimba" "contemporary opera". Didn't help at all.

I scrolled through all the Spotify-play lists belonging to the person who recommended the Opera in the first place (Of course I had already mailed him, but hadn't gotten a reply!!) and found nothing.

I read through countless lists of Contemporary American Operas (I thought I remembered that the composer was American) thinking that I would be able to recognize the name of the opera once I saw it. But nope.

Alas, when I woke up this morning I had one more second to add to the three seconds, but fat load of good that did me..."What is so ???? about becoming a man when ....?????"

My last resort was to go through all of my own Spotify-play lists and pay special attention to the ones that I frequented about four years ago when I had last been obsessed with the opera, and won't you believe that there, in my Spotify-bucket list: "Just nu" [Right now] I finally found Young Caesar!

Lou Harrison wrote the obscure Opera, "Young Caesar", in 1970. It was composed as an Indonesian puppet theatre production, with influences from Chinese Opera and premiered at Caltech, in California. After that it seems it hibernated from the stage and Harrison allegedly worked on the Opera to incorporate more western melody and instrumentation. In 2007, 4 years after his death, the "new" rendition premiered in San Fransisco, and I believe it is that performance that can be found on Spotify. It is haunting and absolutely gorgeous. Look it up, or check out the compilation youtube film below with the three main arias!

References: This Article.

50 dang questions!

1. ARE YOU A MORNING OR A NIGHT PERSON?

I'm most effective in the morning and most handsome at night. But I'm also terrible at getting up and terrible at staying up.

2. SWEET OR SALTY FOODS?

Salty, all the way. (and when there's sour as well my tummy does a jigg)

3. NINJAS OR PIRATES?

I want all of the parrots and wooden legs.

4. WHAT IS YOUR HAIR COLOR?

Pink, orange with a streak of green and pesky darkbrown roots.

5. AUTOBOTS OR DECEPTICONS?

I'm more into other forms of Trans- than Transformers.

6. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE CHILDHOOD TELEVISION PROGRAM?

Didn't watch much telly growing up, but I did enjoy Fångarna på Fortet.

7. ARE YOU A COLLECTOR OF ANYTHING?

Uhm, not anything. But yes, perfumes.

8. IF YOU COULD BE ANY ANIMAL, WHAT WOULD YOU BE?

A spoiled cat.

9. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY SUPERPOWER, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Curiosity killed the cat, but still: Mind-reading!

10. WHAT IS USUALLY YOUR FIRST THOUGHT WHEN YOU WAKE UP?

"Hooray! I new day full of new possibilities."

11. WHAT DO YOU USUALLY THINK ABOUT RIGHT BEFORE FALLING ASLEEP?

Why am I not falling asle.....

12. What's your favorite color?

Redorangepinkyellowgreenbluepurpleblackwhitegray. What do you mean "that's not a color"?!

13. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL?

A happy animal.

14. DO YOU BELIEVE IN EXTRATERRESTRIALS OR LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS?

Uhm, duh: haven't you seen the documentary "E.T." and the reality show "X-files"? 

15. DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?

No. At least not the bedlinen-wearing kind.

16. EVER BEEN ADDICTED TO A VIDEO/COMPUTER GAME?

Nope.

17. YOU'RE GIVEN 1 MILLION DOLLARS, WHAT WOULD YOU SPEND IT ON?

Savings, travel and charity. Probably in that order. Sorry.

18. HAVE ANY BAD HABITS?

No, I'm totally exempt from flaws.

19. WHICH BAD HABITS, IF ANY, DRIVE YOU CRAZY?

As much as I'm exempt from flaws, the rest of the world is riddled with them! Here's a toplist, in no particular order:

a) When people dig holes in the butter carton

b) When people cough or sneeze into their hands (sneezing is meant to be done into your elbow pit)

c) Frivolous spending (I never spend frivolously)

d) Loud through-the-nose breathing

e) "List one thing"

20. LIST 3 OF YOUR BEST PERSONALITY TRAITS:

a) I'm clever

b) I only give righteous compliments

c) I get things done, effectively, in a JIT fashion

21. LIST 3 OF YOUR WORST PERSONALITY TRAITS:

a) I'm clever

b) I only give righteous compliments

c) JIT means "Just in Time"

22. HAVE ANY CELEBRITY CRUSHES?

Have any celebrity crushes....what?

 ...asked me out? 

...stayed in with me in their pajamas, painting nails and eating take out sushi? 

...tattooed my name on their bottom? 

Uhm, no. (but, I wish.)

ps. All of the red heads, and J-Law.

23. LIST 1 THING YOU WISH YOU COULD CHANGE ABOUT YOURSELF:

How is 1 thing a "list"???!! Argh, Now I need to go and add that to my list of bad habits!

ps. I really wish my answer to nr 10 was true.

24. ANY TATTOOS OR PIERCINGS?

Yes.

25. WHAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE IN THE OPPOSITE SEX?

Probably the same things I notice in the same sex.

26. WHAT PERSONALITY TRAITS DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A PARTER?

A lack of nr. 19 and a loving acceptance of the opposite reality to nr 18.

27. WHAT PERSONALITY TRAITS DO YOU DISLIKE IN OTHER PEOPLE?

The same personality traits that I dislike in myself, probably. Or at least especially those.

28. ARE YOU MOSTLY A CLEAN OR MESSY PERSON?

I am a clean person, but not a cleaning person. Is that a thing?

29. IF YOU COULD LIVE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD YOU LIVE?

At the moment I'm actually pretty dang happy about where I'm living now: Stockholm. But being a TCC I know that I want to live abroad at some point in my life, and preferably with my future family.

30. IF YOU COULD VISIT ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD YOU GO?

Another inhabitable planet, granted I could get to and fro Tellus pretty fast.

31. LIST 5 GOALS ON YOUR LIFE'S TO-DO LIST:

a) Live & work abroad

b) Have kids

c) No have to worry about money

d) Continue to have creative endeavors

e) Get strong, and stay strong

32. NAME 1 REGRET YOU HAVE:

Starting to fill out these 50 questions...?

33. NAME 1 THING YOU MISS ABOUT BEING A KID:

The freedom of responsibility

34. NAME 1 THING YOU LOVE ABOUT BEING AN ADULT:

The freedom that comes with responsibility

35. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE SONG OF THE MOMENT?

I really don't have one at the moment! I must be terribly ill or something!

36. WHAT'S YOU FAVORITE SONG OF ALL TIME?

Ugh, just no. Too hard!

37. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DO ON A SATURDAY NIGHT?

Buy lots of LCHF-approved yummies and stuff my face with them, in my jammies, together with my fiancée, watching a sci-fi flick, preferably of the 80s vintage kind.

38. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DO ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON?
Eat bacon. At home, or out on the town, don't care. As long as there is bacon. Oh, and sun. I love sun on Sundays.

39. HAVE YOU ANY HIDDEN TALENTS?
All my talents are totally visible. I'm a wear-my-talents-on-my-sleeve-kind of person. (Except my Audrey Horne-talent)

40. YOU'RE ABOUT TO WALK THE GREEN MILE. WHAT DO YOU HAVE AS YOUR LAST MEAL?
Easy: Some fine sushi, a side of kimchi and black, salty licorice for dessert.

41. WHAT WOULD BE YOUR DREAM JOB?
Something where I get to travel the world, meet people and keep continuously learning.

42. WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE, 100 MILLION DOLLARS OR TRUE LOVE?
100 million dollars will buy you some pretty darn convincing fake love. Jokes aside, I think there is more that I could accomplish for the world with 100 million dollars than with true love.

43. IF YOU COULD HAVE 3 WISHES GRANTED, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
a) limitless wishes for me
b) limitless wishes for my best friend
c) world peace

44. EVER WICH YOU WERE BORN THE OPPOSITE SEX? IF SO, WHY?
No. I'm quite contented with my sex.

45. NAME ONE THING NOT MANY PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT YOU:
I shower quite seldomly. Better for my skin, better for the environment!

46. IF YOU HAD TO CHANGE YOUR NAME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE IT TO?
Princess Consuela Banana Hammock.

47. DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE AFTERLIFE?
No. (Only when it works in my favor)

48. DO YOU SEE YOURSELF GETTING MARRIED IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS?
Yes

49. WARM WINTERS OR COLD SUMMERS?
Both are hell, but warm winter, rather than cold summer.

50. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING RIGHT NOW?
Leopard print and yesterday's makeup.

Becoming Strong

Remember how I said I wanted to save money as a goal for 2015? Well, I have other goals that are less rigid, but that I have mainly because it's fun to have goals to work towards. However, I'm a little bit ashamed of this second goal, because I've had it for years, but haven't really worked at it, so it has never been achieved...BUT THIS YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT....!

By June 30th I shall be able to to at least 1 proper pull-up (palms away from me) and 5 chin-ups (palms towards me).

There, I said it, so it has to be. I have 172 days. See you on the other side!

Hi (2015), Bye (2014)!

It's been ages, and I can't promise that it won't be ages after this either. But I really would like to kick the ol' blog into gear again and what better way than to summarize 2014 and relay my goals for 2015.

2014 was a really grand year. I mean really wonderfully grand. I got engaged, travelled the US for six (!!) weeks and finally got a permanent position at my job (with a raise I did not expect but still can giggle about with glee).

I've managed to keep up exercising and I low-carbed almost all year, though to be honest, there was nothing LCHF about the food I ate all Christmas. I'm meaning to kick it into gear after this weekend. The reason for the delay is that I'm taking C to Esperanto, which was voted the best restaurant in Sweden in 2014, and in 2014 by The White Guide, as a Christmas gift to him...though to be honest it's just as much a gift to myself, isn't it? Haha!

It just feels like onwards and upwards from here! I'm on the train and it's bang on time, I think!

I didn't think I was going to have any goals or resolutions for 2015, but I've come to realize that I do have one big one:

I want to be more concious of my spending. I want to save more money so that I feel like I'm building a proper buffer for the future. My goal for 2015 is to double the amount that I have in my savings account by the end of 2015.

And I believe that is totally doable. I've been doing some excel-calculations (yes, I'm a dork!) based on my income and on monthly spending and so on, and I believe that if I just limit myself a bit more and become more concious of my spending I can still spend money on the frivolities (perfume, vintage clothes, excellent food) that I live for and at the same time be able to save up enough each month to reach my goal. That is if nothing unexpected happens.

Do any of you do excel-sheets to plan your economy? Or do you use a different tool? What's your experience? "Save more money" feels like a pretty boring year goal, but important, I think. What are your goals?

Tilda Swinton smells like curry

I'm slowly trying to smell my way through the Etat Libre d'Orange perfume collection. So far I've tested perfumes in a very ad hoc way. I've reached my hand into the paper bag and worn whatever I picked.

Photo: Glen Luchford for Dazed & Confused Magazine, found on Tumblr

Today the pick fell on Like This. Tilda Swinton's ELdO-perfume. I love Tilda. Oh my gosh; I'd totally pay good money for her bottled up. BUT. The perfume: Not. So. Much.

Source: www.shoppingblog.com

Ough, what a total disaster. It opened so beautifully: Lovely fresh cut ginger, sweet tangy tangerine, round pumpkin and a flutter of heliotrope... Now, after a couple of hours, all I get is pumpkin sweetness and curry. Yes, curry. Damn you Immortelle! You are supposed to be caramelly and sweet. You're supposed to be "one of the most fragrant plants, which contributes to giving the Corsican “maquis” its characteristic perfume. Immortelle produces a fascinating, rich, multi-layered, sexy, desireable, satisfying aroma." But not satisfying as an Indian meal of curry and Naan. I know that you are mentioned to have a kind of curry note, but did that particular note have to be so prominent on my skin? Why not focus the scent projection on the ginger, the  pumpkin and the heliotrope (oh, heliotrope, how I love thee!)?

I thought Tilda and I would be like this *crosses index and long finger*. Not only because she is drop-dead-beautiful, but also because of ther pride-flag-stunt in Russia. And it seemed so promising at the start, but you have proven yourself to be a wolf in a sheep's skin, Tilda. Or some sort of defiant dish thought up in Heston Blumenthal's insane/genious mind.

Source: Twitter/ElioIannacci

But you can totally make it up to me though. You could, say, take me out to dinner or something....As long as it's not Indian.

A scented return

I’m sorry little lovelies, I just could not bring myself to blog during the last busy weeks of work before vacation, and to be completely honest, blogging did not have a top-spot on my prio-list during vacation either. But now. Now. Now I have time, energy, and things to write about. I think that this fall will focus a lot on my interest in perfumes.

All my interests fluctuate heavily. I had a period of obsession with plants and growing things in the spring (this obsession is still going strong now with my balcony-grown produce ripening and all) and then a period of great interest in sewing in the beginning of summer; so much that I finally took my sewing machine to the store to have it serviced. Alas, it’s been gone all summer now. So, I turned my interests to another obsession of mine: scents. I am by no means a die-hard, fortune-spending, sample-hoarding kind of perfume lover, but I’ve built myself quite a collection and I envision it growing. But, slowly, and mainly in the samples section (buying whole bottles is not only expensive, but it takes up a heck load of space!)

I recently ordered a sampler set of (27!!) perfumes from Etat Libre d’Orange and another sampler set from Lalique (with 10 perfumes) and they arrived yesterday! OH JOY! However, the joy did not go unblackened for long because as I opened ripped open the package from the UK I sensed a scent. A lovely, sweet scent with leathery undertones… At first I was hopeful that it might just be a slightly leaky sample, which is not impossible. I first opened tore up the Lalique package; all the samples were intact, the scent was not coming from there. Then I went on to the brown paper bag with the “Smelling is believing”-text on from ELdO, poured out the little plastic packets with mini-leaflets and 1,5 ml samples for each perfume on my bed and ruffled through them when I found the culprit.TOM of Finland had burst! Oh the sorrow! The disdain for the stupid, incompetent person who packed my package in such a way that ToF could not last all the way from the UK to Sweden! It was a sad, sad event.

However, life goes on I guess. Today I’m wearing Dangerous Complicity (I totally chose it by perfume lottery: reached my hand into the bag and wore whatever I picked. So happy I didn’t happen to pick Secretions Magnifiques…) which has been a sweet woodsy note with something slightly tart/cool/sharp in the background on my skin. Could it be the jasmine? Or the famed Chinese Osmanthus? I am going to experiment with amounts on my skin. I believe I was a little on the stingy side this morning. How do you usually dose your perfume application when you have non-spray sample vials?

Less than three for more than three!

What is that cryptical blog entry title you might wonder. Well, "Less than three = <3 = heart/love for more than three (years)", which is the case with me and Mr Banjodjango. Three years. I can't believe how fast time flies. I love you I love you I love you.

The Great Gatsby Premiere Party

Hellu dearies!

Remember I told you about attending the Great Gatsby Premiere Party here in Sweden? Well, I totally did not manage to take any good photos. But lucky for me the beautiful Jessica Silversaga did! I wore a lovely 20s flapper dress in blue lace that I found at a flea market and it was a ridiculous steal. Some minor tending to a little hole, but apart from that it was in perfect condition. With it I wore my most expensive impulse shopping item ever: my golden Gucci Stilettos. My hair was a mess, but good news for messy curls is: the "invisible" hairnet (aka the hair-colored thin hairnet).

One piece of input to the event coordinators: Why were you so adamant about not mixing in some swing music from the era with the modern thump-thump-thump?! You wanted a 20s themed party with a Gatsby-esque flair. We were basically offering to give you a free dance performance with dancing from the era if only you would have let the (very willing) DJs play something else than main stream disco music. Such a pity.

Anyway, all in all, it was a really good party, and there was plenty of Moët & Chandon to be had. Yum yum yum.

Were any of you there? Did you enjoy yourselves? Wouldn't you have just loved to see some swing dancing as well as the great burlesque performances by the Blackbird Burlesque Cabaret who were there performing and enticing the audience? Sad I got no photos...




Why are you still here? Head on over to peruse Jessicas photos!

On past lives, changing lives and moving your body

Many years ago, in a faraway reality I tended a bloggy-wog called ”Spark-SDFHG – the (mis?)adventures of one trying to live by the rules of ‘hurtigheten’”. It is long-ago taken down and is now only readable by myself as a kind of reminder of the past and the person I was in another chapter in my life. That is not to say that each chapter prompts a reinvention, but let’s face it, we all try to better ourselves from time to time, moving along the road of life with little inkling as to when the next bold turn will come.

The other day I was reading a Swedish blog where the blogger has recently found a sort of holy grail by the means of exercise and some of her readers have had the audacity to criticize her for “not being the same anymore” just because she happens to write a little bit more about how great it feels for her to move her body, and little bit less (but by no means excluding) about vintage thrifting, DIY and cooking. I believe that this is the same response that Fleur got when she found her totally unexpected love for running (which I, by the way, think is RAD and I’m SOOO jealous I never seem to get over that “ough-I-hate-this-so-much-hurdle” and into runner’s high) and shared that aspect of her life on her blog.

Why is it so hard to come to terms about the fact that there are real people behind the words you read? People who are also travelling along the road of life and meeting unexpected twists and turns and interests and holy grails along the way. Are you the same person you were five years ago? I’m certainly not. Why would you expect that of a blogger that you happen to follow? If you want to read something that is static, read an encyclopedia (I’m not bashing down on encyclopedias here, I love them and have been known to read them cover to cover, for the fun of it).

All this talk of exercise and of changing interests made me think of my old blog. About something I named “the Hurtigheten Regime”. Because, I for one, was inspired by UnderbaraClara and her writing about how she found her way back to exercising and how great it makes her feel. And not to mention how much she manages to get done thanks to the great amount of energy and focus that exercise gives. I used to feel that too. Somewhere along the road I dropped off. But I’m willing to stretch myself uncomfortably for a while to get there because it is so worth it; that is really what hurtigheten is all about.

Question is, will you stick around for it?

YOLO (LOL)

I am old. Or at least I feel old when I no longer am up to speed on the lingo the kids are using these days. I only learnt this weekend what YOLO means. I feel like that mother made famous on the interwebs for thinking LOL means “Lots of Love” and thus wrote LOL in text message about a close relative’s death. (LOL, just to be clear, means “Laughing out loud” and is the product of chatty youngsters wanting to express as much as possible in as few letters as possible (because typing out full words is too much of an effort and totally grown-up-boring-like; yes, I was that kid).

Anyway, having learnt now what YOLO means (after having felt totally like a loser for not being able to make it out myself) I am eager to live by it so that I too can allow myself that extra cookie because YOLO! Or buy those super expensive but SO pretty sunglasses because YOLO! Or those Manhattan heel fully fashioned stockings because….you get it right?

Ok, no, that was lies. I haven’t got the money put away for that yet, but I do have a massage appointment at 11, because YOLO!

ps. Yesterday we went donned our best flapper outfits and headed to the Premier Party of The Great Gatsby at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm. I honestly have not had that much Moët & Chandon in one evening, ever. Not even on new years. It was, needless to say, FANTABULISTIC. Were any of you there? Will you go see the movie?

Tie-sty dinner with friends

Last weekend was Sugar Hill Weekend in Stockholm. It is an amazing Full Weekend Event with music, shopping, dancing, performances etc from the 1920-1950s era (with focus on the 1930-1940s). My friends Madelin, Josefin and Sandra organized it and it took place in a fantastic venue called Södra Teatern which used to be just a theatre for a long time, then happened on bad times and was used as a food storing facility (yeah, I KNOW, right?!) and have now been turned into a fantastic stage for international music and performing arts.

Christopher and I took the chance to clean out our wardrobes (make space for more) to sell at the vintage market at Sugar Hill and after the market we headed out to dinner at a close by Italian restaurant. If you think we're particularly handsome in the photo above it must be because of our vintage ties (Christopher's a collector and kindly lended both Åsa and me a tie each; Lars had is own.) I'd gladly wear ties more often, it's just difficult finding good button down shirts for them, in good ladies sizes. The search goes on!

Ta ta!