a dotty car

spotted (no pun intended, or maybe a tad dot) this today, what may be one of the cutest car 'paint jobs' i've ever seen - a chocolate brown with white dots delivery car!

befittingly enough it belongs to the chocolate/bakery company and cafe xoko, a place i think is very much overrated, though some people seem to rave about it... - but i love their choice of company car.

still think the grass car is the most awesome company car ever (and they of course sell products i totally rave about) but this dotty thing is definitely on the top list too.

what's the cutest, most original delivery/company car you've ever seen?

happy last august weekend ~

Some things I've learnt and/or had confirmed this past week - which has been, I repeat, overall  a w e s o m e! - are;

~ networking and selling via channels you're comfortable with can work perfectly fine (which is great news for us odd phoneys of course). And the bonus is that when you get good feedback and things done that way it will quite possibly push you to try channels which are less comfortable (hey I'm talking to you telephone)

~ when you're bursting with great news and they are work-related you can't always share in blog. Let's just say I'm pretty pleased at the moment - and I love how everything is connected, the unexpected bonus of cross-fertilisation all the time is mind-blowing. This constant buzz of usefulness, goodness me!

~ the same as above goes for lowpoints, work-related (like people who think mind-reading is a good way to make business happen) and otherwise. I just don't get some people. Like the ones who blatantly keep 'misunderstanding' things, words, situations. Who lashes out on people they should know mean well, in spiteful, scornful and hurtful ways.

~ engulfed in anger and bitterness, however initially justifiable and understandable, will most certainly stop you from being open and seeing the good things around you. It will relentlessly eat up your energy and push people away. Your attitude can both attract as well as repel. And yes it seems that some people still haven't got the simple fact that mind and body are connected. Sometimes one just has to sit down and analyze one's own behaviour, especially when the negative spiral seems like a neverending one. Really, it doesn't hurt to try and let new ideas in. For your own good if nothing else.

And yes, I constantly analyze my own behaviour and thoughts, sometimes I react in the silliest of ways, other times I'm a wise owl, which conclusions can I draw to keep my mindset more objective and approach more logical next time something happens. Attitude may not be everything, but it sure means a lot.

~ choose your battles and pursuits carefully, your yes' and your nos too.

~ I surprised myself today by celebrating this last week of summer and good news with getting something work-related and not a pair of new shoes. I love that I can still surprise myself in silly little ways like that.

Want to kick off your weekend with a good laugh? Then do read this piece about 14 Swedish words that conflict with the 'Swedish furniture company' products they name

Wishing you a lovely last weekend of August,
filled with sunshine, smiles and nice surprises ~

to walk in the right direction

Spotted this rather fabulous pair of sandals in the Camper shop window in Copenhagen - but with age comes at least a bit of wisdom and in my case, one of those wisdoms is the fact that I do not buy a pair of shoes I know will not be comfortable to walk in for miles and miles ie they are ergonomically crap. Still I can admire the design. But without the covet to buy.

Overall I find myself more and more rarely in the covet to buy-mood. Which is rather liberating. Shopping and and consumerism is quite tiresome, for all sorts of reasons. Though of course, I would blatantly lie if I said that I do not covet to buy another pair of shoes when there's something special to celebrate. But good shoes make for happy feet, body and mind, so I think it's kind of alright to have that covet still. We all have weaknesses. Great shoes are one of mine. And since I walk a lot they are essential - I know some might argue it's not essential with *that* many shoes, but I'm not one of those. Every colour, model, style, season and mood need their special bit of perfect footgear. Obviously.

To walk in the right direction not only calls for the perfect choice of shoes, it calls for all sorts of choices. Some easier than others. Some pretty darn uncomfortable - as opposed to the shoes - but oh so eye-opening. And, as usual, it's the uncomfortable things we have to do that makes us grow. Which these days have become sort of a mantra for me. Because with Prosit I have no choice, I have to pursue the uncomfortable stuff all the time and - apart from the odd phoney matter still... - pretty much every day I find they are less and less uncomfortable. They just are. And they have to be done and faced. And now and then I can actually smile, giggle and laugh about them. I'm still amazed at how liberating it is to face all this uncomfortableness.

Of course, smiling, giggling and laughing is best done in great shoes. Plus, great shoes, the notion that at the end of a mission and a certain amount of achievements a pair of new shoes await, is rather an excellent little extra incentive to get those uncomfortable things done. Ah yes, shoes are great in so so many ways.

What's your incentive to get those uncomfortable but necessary things done?

what a wonderful day

it has been a rather awesome day indeed. with ingredients such as great news, interesting information, sunshine and a simply marvellous, perfect, warm late summer evening - love the sound of crickets! - giggles and laughters, brilliant thinking, prime conversation and a fancy rawfood dinner.

it was the best of days.
a treasured one.
thank you the last week of summer,
so far you have in some aspects truly surpassed my expectations,
let's continue on this beaming path.

the highs and lows in commuting with public transportation

A recent high on travelling with the commuter train is certainly the new happy informative stickers campaign - I've spotted two more since last time. I hope more will follow, because they certainly make me smile.



A reoccuring low is the fact that SL (Stockholm Local Traffic, the company responsible for public transportation in the Stockholm area) keep putting up these ridiculous glass bus shelters even though they KNOW idiots keep vandalizing them regularly. It's such a flagrant waste of taxpayers money, they're too small to offer any real shelter if there are a lot of people waiting and the old, larger shelters made of see through iron sheets with a large roof where much more convenient and non-breakable. Plus every time the glass walls get broken (and reported) it takes forever before they come and clean it up thus the nastiness of injuries for people and animals are imminent waiting for the bus or walking by. This is truly one of life's great mysteries...



Other lows (without picture proofs) in commuting is of course rush hours (which I'm just all too deliriously happy I can mostly avoid having my own business), especially the morning rush hours. The anxiety, zombie attitude of a 9-5 job, hate it.

Then there's the stupidity of not keeping shoes off seats
(incl letting your kids run around on the seats or kick fellow passengers with dirty shoes on).
Not taking the litter with you.
Not letting people get off before you push yourself on the train.
Begger gangs and street musicians forcing their message and more or less talented musical entertainment on you.
Being loud and obnoxious
(yes that includes having a loud conversation on a cell phone, intimate or brainless are of course the worst).
Not being considerate when people want to pass or sit.
Striking up conversations with strangers who clearly do no want to socialize, just want to be left alone. Recurrent delays, which can totally screw your day up, especially during winters when they apparently still don't realise that we have snow in this country.
Not to mention the prudent idea of using bus trousers always in the back of mind.

The obvious great high is of course the environmental advantages of not driving a car but instead sharing transportations with others.
Reading a book or paper, working, taking a nap, preparing for a meeting, knitting, people watching are all rather pleasant ways to spend the time on bus or train.
Not to mention tweeting and such.



And art spotting! The Stockholm subway system is in fact (as mentioned before) the world's longest art exhibition. Some pieces and stations more enjoyable than others, but pretty much all offering something unique to see. The ceramics wall above is one of my favourite art pieces. A quite recent piece installed on a wall at a nearby train station I think it looks like giant, rainbow colored chewing gum bits - love it.



And Carrotboy loved meeting Mr Happy-to-ride-the-commuter-train. I think he felt he had met a fellow excited adventure enthusiast.

How about you, do you commute by public transportation?
Love or hate, perhaps indifferent?
Every day or only now and then?
The best thing about it, the worst?
And in which city/country have you had
the best or worst public transportation experience?

budapest people in pictures

Taking pictures of people unaware of it (or at least not posing) is really one of my favourite things to do with a camera. Even better is taking pictures of people taking pictures. Alas it's usually a bit easier to catch them unaware with an iPhone than with a DSLR, but that rarely leave room for any close ups. Here are a few unpretentious favourite no-iPhone people moments caught in Budapest (SOOC) -







Workers in blue and yellow, dressed in the Swedish flag-looking



Budapest certainly has one of, if not the, prettiest parliament building ever.



This old man was so utterly untalented and made such a ghastly noise with that poor violin that people had to give him money to stop.



The Hungarian police.



If you don't have a travel companion to take pictures of you can always take pictures of other people's travel companions posing.





I may have misinterpreted this scene, but it did break my heart a little when I saw it...



I call this one "deep asleep on the bus".



The perfect place for selfies.



These two girls reminded me a bit of myself as a kid.





Like mistress like dog.



Blue and red lifeguard on duty.



Hey you unknown guy begging me to take your picture, now you ended up in my blog too.



Everywhere, in every country, all these ridiculous, meaningless, outdated military procedures...



Castle tourists.



Love this message, love this scene. Love people watching and people snapping.

welcome the last week of summer

I won't say that this summer has flown by, because it has certainly been filled with wonderful things of various kinds, fantastic meetings, great people, new places discovered, old places rekindled, lovely food, awesome thinking and amazing weather.

That said it's difficult to grasp that we're now entering the final week of summer here in the Northern hemisphere. Because even if the evenings are darker, there's a distinct chill in the winds more regularly, the sun is perhaps not as generously warm as a few weeks back, the summer still feels very present.

But I also have a slightly melancholy feeling over the illusion of summer and remember a phrase from a favourite book about the end of summer, which goes something like this;

That bittersweet turn, when we deceive ourselves thinking summer is still with us. Whilst that illusion makes us unaware of the fact that the mousetrap clangs shut and traps the fair days for this season...

Since I'm very much still in a happy place I find beauty in this melancholy, trying to make the most of these lingering days - with hopes for a fantastic Indian summer September of course - and there's absolutely no reason for this last week of August not to be absolutely glorious in every single way. Sunshine and metaphorical fireworks in celebration of one of the best summers in a long time,

let's make this week a simply marvelous one!

raspberry circus nails

Apart from raspberry being my favourite fruit/berry I also love its perfect red pinkish hue. And as usual nailpolish is quite the perfect little way to play around with colours. So I went a bit circus nailish with the cold pink and red hues in my polish collection (let's just say it's a tad bit bigger now than then)

From left to right;
OPI do you think i'm tex-y? (takes at least three coats for coverage, not a favourite bottle, but a nice colour)
GOSH Flamingo 569
Essie Watermelon
Essie Big Spender
OPI Kiss me on my tulips

So, which colours will you spend time in this weekend?

follow your passion

"Follow your passion" may be a cliché, but surprisingly many clichés stem from undeniable truths. Truths that we not always feel comfortable to embrace and acknowledge, truths that are not always easy to live by in a society like ours.

Nevertheless I truly believe that to live by your passion, to engage in things you believe in, things that matters, whether it be job, personal life, hobbies is one of the most important things we can do in life.

I wish everyone's circumstances would allow them to follow their passions, have the time and opportunities to seek them out, alas that isn't so. But for all of us who have the chance to do so, I think we owe that to ourselves and the world to do just that.

If you work and live with passion, you'll do a much better job, live a much richer life. And inspire others to do so too. And in doing so making the world a dash happier, better world to be in. I do believe passion is an infectious thing of the best kind.

Another kind of wonderful passion - a more tangible, edible sort - is of course passionfruit. This simple dessert is just delightful, quite the perfect treat.

~ Half a peeled, sliced and diced galia melon
~ One passionfruit
~ A few scoops of ice cream (in this case the vegan Tofuline vanilla)

A small first step to live a more passionate life, perhaps?



Have a passionate weekend ~

good conversations

To sum up this rather awesome day;

~ talking galore
~ walking galore
~ riding the train galore
~ inspiration and thinking galore
~ sunshine and too many soy lattes

I adore meaningful meetings, good conversations, exchanging of ideas, laughters and glimmers of recognition. Being on the same page but still different individuals, different backgrounds, experiences, lifes, sharing views while complementing eachother's strengths and weaknesses. Thank you LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram for the people I met today.

Greens shoes were worn, one might say they are the perfect Prosit shoes.

hot dog

Another thing to appreciate about Budapest is the overall general impression of well-kept, well-behaved and much loved dogs (which certainly isn't always the case at travel destinations, quite the heartbreaking opposite) -



this happy chap just jumped into the water feature at the square and played around like crazy (it was after all +35C), trying to catch the illusive squirts, to much everyone's delight nearby. Soon followed by a few little girls. A truly smile inducing scene. The unadulterated joy.

budapest ferris wheel

Never got to ride this particular ferris wheel, even if I think they're rather great for enjoying a city from above I'm not too charmed by the modern type of ferris wheel. Probably more practical and safe I suppose, but not nearly as romantic and enchanting as the old ones.



Riding a ferris wheel by yourself is pretty un-entertaining and when in the company of someone who's afraid of heights, well, having a spin in it isn't a fun option.



Do you enjoy ferris wheels?
If so, where have you had the best ride in one?