Time passes by and another year is almost over. To update everybody what’s going on around me this the first year of the 21:st century I thought it was a good idea to write my own biography for year 2000. It might not be as successful as Richard Branson’s or as glamorous as princess Diana’s. Nevertheless it is about my adventures and me so enjoy. I also have to admit that this idea with a summary of the past year is stolen as most of my good ideas are. Enough with excuses and explanations let’s open my diary and see what has going on.

The year started surprisingly not where it ended. For the first time I spent more than a weekend in my almost new apartment in Malmö. Even if it was only for a week I almost doubled my days there and that was enough for me to accept it as my new home. A week in Malmö was enough though and it was time for me to check the royal city of Sweden. The mission this time was to help another Sigma company with a project. So far this project has followed my career. This is the never-ending POESI project I have been working earlier with in Malmö and Norway. I only accepted this project since there was nothing else more interesting and also because it was a good way to see how Stockholm was. To my surprise this time was most enjoying and also the tasks as both "expert" and "tutor" inspiring. I spent three months in Stockholm. Many thanks to the team I worked with Pär, Yvonne, Urban and Christos.

OK let’s go back to January again. Even if I left Paris I still had a lot of friends there and it was also winter and it was snowing in the Alps. From Paris there are excellent connections to Albertville and in low-seasons like January good deals on ski-packages are available. With short notice it was decided that a weekend trip to the mountains via Paris would be reality. I was going to fly in to Paris from Stockholm Friday afternoon to meet Sarah, Dawn, Christiane and Rune. Later that evening we took the night train to Albertville arriving early morning. The destination was Notre Dame de Bellecombe an hour away by bus from Albertville. One breakfast and 15 minutes in the skishop later we hit the white slopes under a clear blue sky. Unreal but most relaxing. A funny episode worth telling is when Rune and I wanted to teach Sarah how to ski in powder snow. The 20 minutes slope took more than 2 hours and we missed the last lift back home with a couple of minutes. Instead we had to take a bus back. But since we had to wait there for 30 minutes we decided to walk the 2 km back in our ski boots carrying all our equipment. We reach back to the hotel minutes before the bus arrived. It was a nice walk though and from what I remember we had a lot of fun. Monday morning 10.30am I was back in the office thinking if the weekend was a dream or not. Only the tan in my face could tell.

I think you all know how strange the pricing of a flight ticket can be. Sometimes it is cheaper to buy two than just one. This was the reason my next trip to Paris was done. A legacy from my time in Paris has left me a return ticket to Paris. Of course I couldn’t resist another weekend trip especially since the rumors said there were going to be a party by Tim’s. I also was promised some shopping consulting by Sarah and who can say no to that.

My dear friends in Paris was willing to travel and so was I. Two weeks later we all tried to get away and meet up somewhere in Europe, Dublin, Spain and Italy were different options. Since we were too late with our planning it turned out to be too difficult to succeed. Finally I suggested that we all should meet up in Stockholm. Only one brave soul made it. But Sarah got to see one of Stockholm’s best faces. It was a sunny clear winter weekend but not too cold. I also managed to get a parking ticket outside the Wasa museum due to confusing signs. I learned the lesson, never have a car in Stockholm.

As I already have told, I just got an apartment in Malmö and even if I had not spent so much time there it was time to have a housewarming party. We all started a friendly fight at the Laserdome. Since I didn’t won, the result is not to be discussed here. The most surprising guests were maybe Christiane, Matt and Sarah coming all the way up from Paris for a party. Later this year this should be more a tradition than an exception.

After a five days long weekend (!) and two working days it was once again time for the annual ski trip. For the first time in its history we went by UCPA. After boarding the bus in Malmö and Helsingborg, Jonas, Peter, Helene, Marie-Lousie and me were ready for a 24 hours long bus-trip. Surprisingly it wasn’t too bad. Down in the Alps the white gold was waiting for us under a strong and warm early-spring sun. At the hostel Martin and Pia also joined the group. The conditions were not the best for deep powder but with new carving skis, a fun ski instructor and plenty of good food nobody could complain. Relax and enjoy was the mission and we certainly accomplished that. The week passed by and we all could come back with a nice tan.

Back to work and back in Stockholm. I was now going to work I thought. (How many times haven’t I done that promise?) But the destiny had something else in mind. After a weekend in bed, with pain in my stomach I decided on Monday morning to see a doctor so he could give me some medicine to get rid or reduce the pain. To my surprise I didn’t get any pills instead they told me to get ready for surgery. My appendix was to be removed. That didn’t bother me but this was not the thing I had in mind when I stepped into the hospital a couple of hours earlier. They kept me there during the night before I was supposed to go home and rest. The day after that I was back at work because it was too boring sitting in my room waiting to get better. Stupid or not I don’t know but sofar I have survived.

The next stupidity was maybe the next birthday/homecoming party I was visiting at the end of that week in Frankfurt. Christiane finally decided to move back to Germany and Hochheim. Since I already had the ticket no surgery could hold me in Stockholm. Besides I never been there and my curiosity won the fight over my sense.

The next week was the last week for me in Stockholm, I was now going to spend a month in Malmö.

In the middle of April it was time for another tradition, every year Sigma goes somewhere for a conference trip. This year we headed off for the Big Apple. We left a cold Sweden for a little warmer New York. After one day of work we were released like schoolkids on a schooltrip. Now was the time to visit Empire State Building, take a photo in front of Wall Street and of course squeeze down a hamburger or two. There was plenty of time to talk to the colleagues and even to learn some new faces during the five days trip.

In the meantime the spring has arrived to Skåne. The temperature was now well above 10° C.

But I was soon going to enjoy even better temperatures. During Eastern I was going to visit my sister in Vienna and I have been told that the summer already arrived there. Kristina was doing her fourth year of studies at the university in Vienna. My knowledge about Vienna was very limited so since you never can trust your sister I thought it was wise to bring in some support. Sarah flew in from Paris and Christiane came by train from Frankfurt. We visited the main attractions in Vienna like Hofburg, Schönbrunn and the Opera. However I don’t remember everything and my dear sister make that clear for me.

A new month and a new assignment, May the 1:st I headed down to Paris again. The next day I fulfill another promise I have done to myself. Rollerblading! I think it wasn’t that hard to get a grip on it however it was a little bit scary in the beginning before I felt I could stop fast enough. But very soon I was as crazy as everybody else in Paris. Crossing streets, going slalom between the people and scare the hell out of the tourists. Beside the Metro, I think rollerblades are possible one of the fastest way to get around in Paris, especially if it is downhill.

As time runs by, I started to get restless. Very soon I found a free weekend perfect for a trip to Casablanca and visit Erik. A few calls later and I had a ticket in my hand. May the 19:th I take off from Orly airport and headed south to a new unexplored continent for me, Africa. Some of you have probably already read the stories from Erik and I can only confirm the chaos in Casablanca. The chaos started already in the taxi from the airport. First the driver wanted to drop me off in a suburb claiming that this was the address I had on my paper. After some discussing I convinced he was wrong and we took off again. Instead of admitting he was lost he drove around for 30 minutes hoping to find the sign I was looking for. Later he picked up a "friend" not to guide him but to entertain me while he was driving. We also had to call Erik’s office before I finally got there. I couldn’t complain I was just happy he didn’t run over any during the ride. Beside Casablanca we also visited Rabat that weekend. Again I had a nice two days getaway trip.

For those who are not familiar with Casablanca, the picture shows the world’s second biggest mosque, Hassan II.

The next event worth mention happened May the 30:th. But I don’t think it came as a surprise for that many, this day I resigned from Sigma Exallon Systems. Normally people get another job before quitting but since I had three months to find another job before I was going to leave Sigma and also since the demand for engineers was high I thought I was going to get a job during these three months. There were a lot of different reasons why I took this decision. First of all I wanted to try something new for me, the things I was doing felt like routine. I also thought I wanted to be "good" at something. Other reasons were that I wanted to do less programming and also maybe work a little with economics. This turned out to be hard to fulfil everything but I think I knew that from the beginning but as they say "it’s better to aim too high than too low".

In the middle of June, Mattias and Fredrik come and visit me in Paris. I guess they got cold feet when they heard I resigned ;-) so they came for a weekend to check out the nightlife in Paris. These guys are professionals so I had to set up a tight schedule. Friday night we started with a restaurant to get some food continued with an Irish pub for the beer. After that the famous Buddah bar (famous for many photo models usually go there), next stop Chesterfield close to Champs Élysées and after that time for The Locomotive next door to Molin Rougue. The next day we slowed down a little, just walking around in Paris getting ready for the night’s event. It was time for Sarah’s farewell party. She was going to leave Paris after almost five years in the city. It was a fun party actually so fun that even three policemen visited the party, unfortunately they didn’t come to have fun. On Sunday it was time Mattias and Fredrik to leave again but before that we managed to visit the catacombs in south Paris.

July the 1:st was another special day. I guess the most surprised person that day was Henrik Johansson. Just before 9 am that morning he was kidnapped for his bachelor party. After a slow start with some small exercises at Stortorget, the first happening was to fly an airplane from World War II. Other things on the agenda were pizza barbecuing, laserdome, rollerblading and bowling.

I didn’t plan any vacation this summer. But I managed to escape one weekend in July to Coventry, England. This was a typically short getaway trip. All I knew was that I was going to visit Matt and Sarah and that I had a rented car so I had some fun driving. It turned out to be a nice little trip. It was the only sunshine I saw during two weeks, who could believe that in England. We drove to Wales one day and the other day it was time to visit Midland’s highlights. Like Warwick, Kenilworth and Shakespeare’s birthplace. At the end of the day we all went to Matt and Sarah’s brother Justin and his wife Jayne.

In the middle of August, or to be more exact August the 11:th Henrik and Maria got married in Brandstad. The celebration then continued in Snogeholm a castle in the middle of Skåne. Even if I don’t have much experience I can only say that weddings are fun.

Three days later I had my deadline when I had promised my self to decide what to do after my time at Sigma. I was lucky to have a couple of alternatives to choose from. The job I accepted, as most of you probably already know, was Ericsson. To be honest I didn’t know very much about it, but it sounded promising.

Many of you don’t understand why I have to go home to my parents to help them with the work during August. I don’t blame you, I guess you were not born with it. To let you understand a little bit more, this summer I remembered to take a photo of the amazing thing. Look and enjoy!!

August the 30:th was the last day for me at Sigma.

The beautiful fall this year invited to a lot of nice daytrips. Amazingly I was able to enjoy some. For the first one I have to send my thanks to Anders and Kristina for taking out Christiane and me to northeast Skåne, more exactly Kullen. An enjoyable trip, with splendid food at a restaurant in Mölle. Another thing Christiane managed to experience was my sister’s housewarming party in Lund.

The weekend after that Sarah returned to Sweden and Malmö again. The sun, the clearblue sky and the mild winds were still around and trust me it was hard to explain for a non-Malmö citizen that it usually isn’t this good weather. Places visited this time were Lund, Copenhagen (to meet Christiane !) and south-east Skåne.

Time passes by and during the weekdays I spend about half of the time in Karlskrona and the rest in Malmö. Besides from these trips the next getaway trip was a cheap flight Malmö to London. Actually I headed to the second biggest city in U.K., England’s respons to Detroit, Birmingham. Do I have to tell it was the "travelling three" (Christiane, Sarah and me) that once again met somewhere in Europe.

Västerås I think is the next event this unusual mild and beautiful fall. In the beginning of November the old skiing team joined together to drive up to meet the two lost souls (Martin and Erik) in Västerås for a party. Since no girls were invited the party was a traditional pizza-and-beer party. But probably more a geeks-party comparing all the different new electronic toys we always have to carry around.

Well that is pretty much what have happened for me. So for me there is only one more thing to say.