Sitting in SacTown Terminal B. Bugs woke up super early in the morning to give me a ride and send me off to Sweden then Shanghai.

Update:
I’m now 37000 feet above earth! I’m getting free internet access due to some error on the plane. This is a first for me  Nothing eventful, planes were right on schedule. I slept most of the way from Sacramento to Chicago. Bugs called me for a chat

Update:
Flight was uneventful, must be getting used to torture. Landed in Stockholm and took a cab to the Sheraton. I was lucky they had a room ready, weird thing it was the exact same one as my last visit. What are the odds of that happening?

Took the subway to the train station. That is where I am at this very moment, sitting in a train waiting to roll.

I’ve landed in Chicago, this was a comfortable ride back since I had knowbody sitting next to me and it was behind the upgrade seats which meant more leg room. (22F) Movies were the same so no new entertainment.

For once an uneventful plane switch. Everything went smooth as silk. I’m now in the Chicago O’Hare terminal waiting for my flight to SacTown. Next stop, home!!!

Yaaaaaaaah! I’m all packed and ready to hit the road tomorrow. I saw this sign during one of my many walks, I thought how true. I haven’t driven a motorcycle or car in quite some time.

I’m actually sitting in the airport (Stockholm, Sweden) and using my Blackberry to post up on my Blog.

I barely made it to the airport on time. I had scheduled to be here approximately 3 hours before flight time, I cut it dangerously close by getting here only 2 hours and 45 minutes to spare.

I picked up a muffin and Red Bull. I then proceeded to check out the office space availability afterwards.

As I sat in my new office chair some MoFo kept banging on the door. This particular setup had two enclosed stalls so I was pretty ticked he kept banging on mine. Thump, Bump, Thump, Bump. I yelled “hold on” as nice as I could. Thump, Bump, Thump, Bump. Man, this guy is relentless.

After I’ve completed my project at hand I go to leave and open the door and see a wheelchair blocking my path. Ahhhh, says the slueth in me, that extra large wheelchair had a tough time manuevering in this dinky ass entrance section, that explains the bumpin’. The thought never crossed my mind to wheel it out into the terminal so I could watch from the distance a guy crawling out of the bathrooms.

Oh well, maybe some other time…

* UPDATE *
So what I do with so much extra time on my hands? I search for a wheelchaired MoFo so I can take his photo! Got it!!! I’ll upload photo when I can. That’s a shortcoming with Blackberry. Great for doing text lousy for photo manipulation…

Okay, because I said I would, here is the spy photo I took…

So what do I do… I go through my Mac Powerbook’s IPhoto library and check out some photos I’ve taken. This one caught my eye big time! It reminded me of the great homecook meals Bugs cooks up for me and the love she put into it. It really shows in this particular meal, a sort of tribute to my mom. One thing nice about taking photos you can always go back to them and remember how you felt at the time. I have tons of great photos…

Today’s Morning Walk

It is Sunday morning, same deal for breakfast. I headed out this time towards City Hall. Not once during my previous visits have I gone within the grounds. This particular site is world famous since every December the Nobel Prize Banquet is held here. (the Blue Hall).

This is the view of City Hall I see from the Sheraton Hotel.

This shot was taken with my back againts the water. As you can see, not too many tourist walking around. Even the buses that unload out front didn’t look quite as full as they used to during peak season. You can definitely tell the summer season is coming to an end here.

From what I understand your able to order any meal that has been served since the Nobel Prize started. Not to cheap and reservations are in order. I wonder if they ever served Adobe and Rice. If not, they need to contact Bugs and ask her whip up one of her tasty meals! (knowbody makes Chicken Adobo better than Lorraine!)

I watched this kayaker head off towards Old Town Stockholm. The shot was blinded by the sun so I had to go complete manual mode on the digital camera. You still get the idea.

Headed off towards “Walking Street” to make it a longer walk. This is the street that has all the tourist trap shops. It is also the location for countless ice cream vendors. This time, I went and grabbed these bread biscuits and Red Bull a combo Lorraine came up with the last time we were here.

I got up early this morning to take an early morning walk after eating a light breakfast. I saw an interesting set of saddlebags, unique at least. They looked very authentic, I was tempted to check them out and see if it felt like cowhide but wasn’t sure if the owner would be piss for me trying. I took a photo instead.

Another shot I had to take was the car shown below. They are everywhere, it reminded me of the Goldwing. Everyone call the GW a car on two wheels, I call this thing a motorcycle on four wheels. Actually… these type of cars are classified as motorcycles and can be driven without a valid Sweden drivers license. Children just need to be at a certain age and pass a written permit test and they can drive something similar to the one shown below.

I did some more walking around Stockholm, after awhile I started getting bored and went into the subway system. Nice and cool down there. I found that if stayed with the orange lines I was bound to get back to the hotel.

I made a discovery this time around. I found you can get around by taking the “airport sidewalks” which I call the flat escalators. They go forward in direction and never up. It’s a nice way to get around town without getting hot, cold, rained on etc. A major plus is the fact knowbody gets in your way, were all moving the same direction and the slower bozo’s stay close to the right handrail as you buzz pass them. I also found if you press hard enough with your elbow between their shoulder blades they will notice you behind them. Also, for a quicker response, stick your hand in their rear pocket and start pulling the wallet.

The escalators go a long way down…

Took off again to check out a Matinee at the local Movie Theaters. I had to walk about 1 1/4 mile to get there to find out that they showed Miami Vice only once a day and that was a 9PM evening show. I said thanks with my “you suck” scowl and promptly left the theater.

Headed off towards Central Station to grab a bite, rice & chicken. I’ve eaten the exact same meal at least four times now.

One thing I’ve gotten hooked on is the free expressos, latte, cappuccino’s they have at work. Just bring a cup, poke a button and instant wakeup buzz! At first I just watched the guys drink up during the breaks then one day I thought I’d give it whirl. That’s all she wrote! Like clockwork now, have it in the morning, noon, mid-afternoon sometimes more. The photo below is the exact model I use (see what happens when your stuck in the hotel, doing research on expresso machines!)

The summer season is coming to an end here in Sweden. I woke up this morning to see the fog rolling in. It started about 5am by the time I left an hour later the fog got really thick. One good thing, I don’t have to drive in this weather. I’m still taking the Tube and Trains to get to work. It will get interesting as the foggy season arrives and I’m still walking through the forest to get to work.

Another shot a few days earlier…

I’m still trying adjust to the time zone change, find myself waking up early in the mornings. I can already see the difference between sunrise and sunset. The last time I was here it the sun was already coming up around 3:30am and setting down close to 10:30pm which made super long daylight hours. It has definitely shortened as I took this photo around 6am and notice it starts to get dark around 7pm. The shot below is a rare shot with not the usual hustle and bustling crowds below. I plan on having an early breakfast and go birthday gift shopping for Bugs today.

I just had breakfast downstairs not too many in the hotel. I think the tourist season just about ending. It was still early so I took a stroll to Central Station to pickup a couple magazines to read later on tonight. As I was walking out of the station it dawned on me that i paid over $28.00 for two freakin’ magazines when it would have cost me $13.00 in the states!!! I seem to be learning more lessons this time around, don’t take for granted pricing even when its the exact same items.

Went for a walk around Kings Garden. It turns out they had a rally for a great cause, it felt good being part of this super event where thousands gathered in support of… didn’t have a clue! All the literature was in Swedish, their speeches were in Swedish, songs, buttons, freebees all in Swedish. I do know ECCO sponsored the event 🙂

This weekend happens to be election time. I’ve seen different candidates giving speeches on TV. One of them happened to be in the “Square” next to the Pedestrian Shopping Walkway. This is an abnormal election as a splinter group is trying to create a recognized party. The elections happen this coming Sunday, I’ll hear more when I go to work Monday…

After spending so much time here I sort of consider myself a seasoned subway (tuber) and train commuter :0 Well, this morning I was munching on my traditional buttered bread pastries and swiggin’ down a can of redbull when I looked out of the boxcar window and noticed this huge rolling pasture with the sun just starting to edge above the grass. Hold on! sh_t! I’ve never seen this before. It turns out I must have daydreamed right past my train station towards Voxholm and the Baltic Sea.

I ended up hopping off the next station and waited for the next train heading back towards Stockholm. One funny note, I started getting ready as I heard the train coming, got in primo calculated position where the train doors would open, roller laptop bag poised and ready for action, knowbody else budged. I didn’t give it too much thought until I see this train coming towards us so fast I thought no way in hell was that thing going to stop in time! It didn’t, blew right pass me flapping my jacket and shifting the cool shades on my head. No wonder they did’t budge. It turns out not all trains stop at all stations. Doh! That’s cool, I knew that people. It didn’t matter that I now had to stand since someone snagged my place on the single wooden bench.

The whole event added an hour to the commute if you look at it that way, I thought of it as another adventure as I got to see wide open pastures as well as heavily densed forest areas all in one trip and I learned another lesson in traveling…