homage to the wind and the heart

Whilst the original grief recovery process ended last week, we've decided to work with another unfinished relationship to get into a different mindshift, which will be so useful in life from here on. Admittedly I struggled to find one important enough to process, the only one which I apparently isn't as over as I thought - given my reaction to something on my Instagram feed some weeks ago - is my crushed professional long lasting dream of innocent.

But even if one can grief process that as such it felt a bit awkward and silly - though I have promised myself to never ever feel so passionate about a brand again that I allow it to actually crush my heart a bit - so I settled for a friendship that ended abruptly some years ago. In a hurtful, unexpected way but still not something I really dwell over since people are weird sometimes. And why they say and act in certain ways has nothing to do with you, but them and their experiences.

I think we all felt much much calmer today after saying farewell to so much pain last week. It was much more a matter of fact to read and share today. We were all grounded and empowered.

And for some reason - not only because it was a distinct autumny feeling in the air alas - I decided to wear this organic cotton sweater I got some years ago which never really has felt appropriate to wear - and not only because it's beige, analyze that if you will... - with a quote that resonated so much in me when I saw it back then. And still does.

The heart is a compass. And so is the gut feeling. (Also, today was a great hair day, despite the dreaded greys...)

It was so lovely to hear how much we could relate to eachother today, the way we look at relationships and the importance of communication. Again, I'm so very grateful to have met these women. One of life's little miracles. You are not alone.

Which brings me to the wind homage of this post. We're in it together.

These days most commercials leave me either completely uninterested or really annoyed, angry even. Very, very few make me happy, touch me or leave me in awe. But there are some precious exceptions to that rule of indifference and annoyance. And this is one. The Swedish energy company E.on produced a brilliant TV commercial this spring with ingredients that actually brought me to tears.

For you who have read this blog for some time, you know about my love for wind turbines. Fields of wind turbines, wind farms, row upon row of them on hills, in the sea, they are mesmerizingly beautiful to me.

In fact, tall, strong, confident and environmental friendly, one of these gentle giants would make the perfect partner in my book of ideals. Well, at least if it weren't for the not so minor details that the conversations would be very onesided as would the meals, plus zero cuddles to be expected. Oh, I digress.

The ingredients in this commercial that blew me away - no pun intended, really - were;

- the beautiful filming and storytelling
- that they managed to make such a beautiful, melancholic version of a really cheesy, awful Eurovision song contest winner (Fångad av en stormvind/Caught by a heavy gale) that captured both the mood and the energy source perfectly. (The artist that sings is actually the woman in the commercial.)
- the fact that you can apparently go up in the turbines and stand there on top of the world of gentle giants. Yes I know it's for installing, repairing and maintenance, but still I would absolutely love to do it. It went straight onto my dreamy bucket list of things to experience.




You can see the making of the commercial and other clips on YouTube, which will paint a fuller, not so glamourous, picture of it. And needless to say, "Fångad av en stormvind" with El perro del mar is currently one of my absolute favourites on Spotify since a few months.

Thank you heart. Thank you wind. Much love.

the innocent orange juice

Yes, I may have *some* views on innocent's recruitment procedures, but that aside I still love their juicy smooth products. Apart from the smoothies I love their apple juice, but surprisingly (since I've never concidered myself to be an orange juice kind of person) it's been the orange juice I've been gulping down the most with breakfast this past year. 

Because it really is THAT superior to any other orange juice on the Swedish market. I think Swedes have become so used to and jaded by all the nasty concentrates and frozen juices, which have either put us off orange juice (if we don't make freshly squeezed one ourselves) or disturbed our palates.

This is always fresh and so full of flavour and delicious. Now I've stumbled over a family sized bottle too, which is much kinder to the wallet. Let the juice fest continue!

Which is your favourite breakfast juice?

refusing autumn

Here stands I, refusing to give in to autumn. Finally finding a day to inaugurate that excellent Marimekko shirtdress, which sadly neither occasion nor weather has allowed until now. Bare legs, yellow shoes, cardigan no coat, drinking a summery drink and adamantly refusing to  welcome autumn. 

Admittedly it was a bit nippy in the air at first. But if you walk on the sunny side of the streets you could not guess it was nearly the middle of September already. I do hope there'll be many more days like this still. I love Indian summers!

And I have no idea why it's the same story every year, so many Swedish people put on thick clothes, scarves, quilted jackets (yes really!) and winter boots pretty much as soon as their own holidays are over (which often is early August). Talk about missing out on natural vitamin D and a good part of our short summer season. If there is such a thing as the glass is half empty-people this attitude would certainly fall into that description. I know, Swedes are not the only ones giving up summer too early in the season, but to be honest, sadly we're not a very happy and content people, for all sorts of reasons. The signs are everywhere and that's heart wrenching really. The world is in desperate need of States of Wellbeing, but where do we begin? With refusing autumn?

from holmes to sherlock

I'm surprised at how much I like this Swedish biography-ish book about Sherlock Holmes by Mattias Boström. Because a) even if I do enjoy a bit of the older move adaptions of SH now and then and of course the latest Sherlock TV-series I've mostly found the character really annoying. And b) I may have been a bit intrigued by the book but I mainly bought it because it was on sale.

Little did I know I would be smitten from page one. It's written in a rather endearingly patronizing way combined with dry humour and interesting facts about pretty much everything Sherlockian from the author Conan Doyle and his sources of inspiration up to how the 21st century Sherlock-series came by. I'm appalled at the lack of copyrights before the early 1900s and I had no idea just how extremly popular teh Sherlock Holmes stories were back when it all began.

Of course I have no idea if I'll love the book through all its massive 460 pages, I'm only 1/4 in to it yet. But I'm impressed by the clearly well researched story and all the little factual tidbits through the centuries. It's strangely enough quite an exciting read, like a suspense novel in itself.

Don't know if it has been or is planned to be translated in to other languages. But if you're lucky enough to read Swedish I, 125 pages in, do recommend it.

innocent perfectly pink

After last year's debacle my love for the innocent brand may not be as passionate as it once was alas. But I still love their smoothies and juices and this pink drink has been on my radar for quite some time now, though not available in Sweden.

I found it in Berlin. And it was lovely. A delightful blend of beetroot, apple and pear. I even brought one bottle home, to thoroughly enjoy before due date.

Overall I think the world need more pink drinks. Happiness is pink.

green pea vegan soup

Behold the greenest and simplest of soups - creamy vegan pea soup made from frozen, thawed peas and Oatly oats milk only. Plus salt and spices obviously. I love when cooking can be made that simple and still with an absolutely delicious, healthy and filling end result.

No time for the more laboursome pumpkin soup yet, but there will be. Soon.

And one day I will blog more extensively about the fabulous Swedish brand Oatly which produces excellent healthy, vegan options to cows' milk and other dairy products - these products are made for humans not cow babies - made from oats. They have grand packaging with cocky copywriting (which I adore, it's very much in the same style as innocent smoothies...) and with that the've managed to enrage the horrific dairy industry so much - with slogans such as "Welcome to the post milk society" - that they've in fact been sued for their marketing. Go Oatly!



What's your favourite vegetarian/vegan soup?

farewell september

Oh September, I had such high expectations on you. Sadly you have not lived up to them. August was such a blah month, thus I had so hoped that you, September, would refill my happy account in a big way. Can't say you have really. At least not in the grand way I had every faith you would.

On the blah front: job related stuff has sucked once and twice and third. Things seem to happen, I'm getting excited and then they fall flat. It's indeed rather tiresome. The Swedish election outcome was a rather disappointing one - or perhaps it'll work out in an unxepectedly good way somehow.

On the good front: then arrival of Sheldon and Dymphna and then Nerdle and Ruby. Sunflower fields and castles. Blog turns an amazing 9. Good food, good fika, good talks. I began taking a course in storytelling for change - admittedly I'm a bit behind, but getting there and it's an interesting journey. There was an innocent discovery in the grocery store. There was a pretty amazing Indian summer day and gargantuan balloons - but after that the weather turned rather chilly. Scandinavian Autumn as it is has arrived. My reading mojo is definitely back. And I had a really lovely evening in Gothenburg in the company of ABBA music and stories. And there is a new computer. And a pleasing amount of work during the month that was you, September.

But despite the good stuff I'm feeling rather blah, uninspired and wistful just the same. I'm really, really, REALLY hoping that October, my birthday month will show a benevolent face and offer lots of amazing surprises of the very best kind. Because seriously, I do need that. My happy account could use a decent deposit of the rosiest kind.

Bye bye September, welcome October,
you month of complete and utter awesomeness!

schadenfreude and other feelings

Schadenfreude isn't an emotion I'm that familiar with, at least not on a personal level. Somehow it seems a waste of energy-feeling. In Swedish the word for it is "skadeglädje" which is pretty much the exact same word as in the German Schadenfreude. I adore the German word, it's rather beautiful and encapsulate the emotion well (like Weltschmerz does) whilst the Swedish one feels bitter and uncomfortable.

In Sweden there's also a saying "skadeglädje är den enda sanna glädjen" which means "gloating is the only true joy" - which I find just sad. You must live a really sad and bitter life if there's nothing else you enjoy so much as schadenfreude. (Though feel free to laugh a lot over the illustrative picture to the world in this online dictionary here. And feel the joy.)

But now I'm going to tell a little recent story which is a case where I actually did experience schadenfreude on a personal level. And it strangely enough made me all giddy and happy in a very odd way.

I applied for a job, I didn't get it. Not because I wasn't good enough but because my texts "weren't quite right at this time". Since I'm absolutely convinced they were both good AND right I'm also pretty certain the reason I didn't get the job was I don't move in the "right" circles or know the "right" people. But still, I did expect the ones that did get the job would produce excellent texts and being fully knowledgeable of the concepts of transcreation and localization. Because it seems *rather* silly to hire someone not for their competence but for their *know the right people* trait, right? Right.

The other week I noticed that the company's website (which was part of the job) was updated and revamped with new texts - and it was a source of amazement and yes, a lot of schadenfreude. Because the texts were really shoddy. Like Google translate bad. Clearly not translated by someone who've heard of transcreation or localization. In fact translated by someone who simply is not very good at the Swedish language. The texts lacked flow, felt very strained, odd and un-brand-like (if there isn't such a word, there is now).

Obviously the company which was hiring wasn't looking for quality and enthusiasm, for someone who gets their brand (although that was what they claimed to be looking for, "a very special voice" indeed). Clearly they were looking for someone who knows someone "right" and possibly that someone can write a bit too. When I saw that spelled out like that, in such poor writing, I began to giggle. A giggle that was in fact liberating somehow.

I wanted that job so much, when they went with someone who produces this low quality material it is clear it's not the high quality company with attention to details I thought they were. Of course I can feel wistfulness over that fact, but I also know they don't deserve me and my passion.

I'm not sure it would have been better if the texts of the someone they went with would have been awesome or the shoddy case as it is. If the texts had been high quality awesome I could at least have felt they made a decent decision and I'd continue to love them for their attention to awesomeness. Now instead, I gloat, yes I do. And the schadenfreude I feel is of the liberating kind. Which I suppose is a good feeling and not, in this case, a waste of energy feeling. Quite the opposite. And for that I am grateful.

I think it's important to be open with the fact that the running your own business as a freelancer is not only such fun - which was also obvious in another recent situation - but also involves people that waste one's time for no good reasons at all. So here's another recent incident of the job kind. Which is a blend of nuisance and lessons learnt.

I was approached by someone on LinkedIn with a job offering. It sounded nice, the company gave me a lot of information so I could make an informed decision if it was something I would be interested in. I decided I was, I signed an NDA, did a transcreation and copywriting test, I gave a counter offer to their initial salary proposal since that was way too low for the job in question and argued for everything they'd get with me onboard. And then I waited to hear back with a possible counter offer on their part and then we could sign an agreement.

Because surely, if you contact someone on LinkedIn you do read their profile, it's pretty obvious what their job experiences and educations are, possible recommendations and endorsements *may* be a hint they're good at what they do and have solid knowledge of whatever competence you're looking for right? Right.

Well, apparently that's not always the case. Because the answer I got back was "We feel you have significant senior qualities for this job and we don't have the budget to pay you xx." Such an annoying behavior. Since a) my arguments/qualities were things already clearly visible in my LinkedIn profile. If they had read that properly BEFORE they contacted me and felt that was too much for the job in question they should not have contacted me at all. And I wouldn't have spent a lot of time contemplating it, mulling over the numbers, working on the texts.

B) If I had felt it was a job below my "significant senior qualities" of course I wouldn't have made the effort I did. I would have said thanks but no thanks on an earlier stage. Also c) I think negotiations regarding the salary is a standard thing when you're discussing a job. Offers and counter offers are norm.

I wrote back and said "Thank you for seeing me as having significant senior qualities. But it sounded like a fun job and I'm sure we could have agreed on a salary. Feel free to give me a counter offer." - do you think I got a reply? Well of course not.

Sometimes I get the distinct feeling that companies/people aren't used to freelancers having a mind of their own, standing up for themselves and aegue for a reasonable financial compensation for quality work. Like we'll only be grateful for being contacted via LinkedIn (and other places of course) and therefore saying yes to anything and everything.

Which brings me back to this article about freelancers being their own worst enemies. Our time and competences are just as valuable as anyone's. It's about high time more of us acknowledge that simple fact. We are freelancers because we value the freedom in how and where we work, but we still need to get a reasonable pay for a job well done. And if we don't stand up for our own value and argue for our competences, noone else will.

You win some, you lose some and some just waste your time. I actually do think the latter group is the worst.

Do you have an opinion on this?
And what's your experience?

how to not impress a cat

'I am not impressed by this grocery shopping. Personally I think there is just too little meat is served in this residence.'

The life of a vegetarian/vegan cat owner.

a grocery surprise of the innocent kind

I was recently very pleasantly surprised when I found this in one of my local Coop grocery stores - a few shelves with both innocent smoothies and juices, not only the usual small smoothie bottles.



Even though launched in Sweden 2007 already the sightings of innocent smoothies have since then been pretty few and far apart - and the juice bottles I've never seen in Sweden until now actually. I immediately bought a little batch of smoothies and juices and I'm delighted to say that the juice encounter was almost as delightful as rekindling with the smoothie tetras.



The apple juice was absolutely delicious, fresh and natural and it'll definitely be a staple juice in my fridge from now on. The orange juice was lovely too, when I crave orange juice from now on it'll be this bottle I get. The apple and raspberry juice was nice, but not really my cup of tea glass of juice flavourwise.



Although the dream of actually working with innocent - something which I've worked really hard for, especially this the last 1,5 years, as I've hinted here, there and then some for example here in blog - kind of broke into pieces some months ago, my love for the sweet, fun brand and its amazing flavours is still, in parts, intact.



So whenever the re-launch comes, I will obviously be very sad that it's not me working with the brand, but me, my palate and all my little inspectors will be happy for us being able to, hopefully, find it in many more stores to come.

a full weekend fridge

Behold a fridge with a pretty fine blend of vegetarian delights. Since my fridge is rarely this full, I'm not sure what happened. The carrots take up a lot of room, but still, when did the rest of the edible stuff move in? 

A good thing it happened in time for the weekend though, as it'll be filled with work and reading - I'm guessing there'll be a bit of cooking too. 

So all set for finishing work assignments, books and plates of food. (Also plenty of food for the rest of September I suppose.)

Happy, good eating weekend to you too!

to be overwhelmed with dog joy and other important snippets

From the daily weather cat, to the strawberry cake weather report to the daily weather hedgehog, slowly, slowly slightly cooler weather. What can I say, it's easy to be a bit obsessive with weather when you never seem to get a proper night's sleep due to the heat...


:: Today I'm contemplating the fact that a year ago today I was part of a really lovely event revolving around something I'm very passionate about. Truly madly deeply I worked wished wanted for that to evolve into something substantial, long-term, beneficial and profitable for everyone involved. Still waiting for that to happen.


:: This might be one of the the most endearing articles and movie clips I've seen in a long long time - Dog faints being overwhelmed with joy after being reunited with her owner. Tissues close at hand because you will both cry and laugh seeing this (and you might need earplugs too, because the excited dog's whimpering is loud).


:: I love these sort of projects, like the London Wildlife Trust. Sadly not something you see in Sweden/Stockholm, where (city) life seems to be about building more roads to accomodate even more cars and tearing down the old to build something new but far from always something better. Rarely do we hear something about preservation, eco-friendliness and caring for the city co-dwellers. As usual every other being should only co-exist if it can do so without inconvenience for the human specie. So many humans seem so utterly silly and ungraspably stupid, like from another planet of pure selfishness and ignorance.


:: Also cats can wait and long to be reunited with their humans, but they mostly do so in a moer dignified way - 30 melancholic cats wait for their humans to return


:: I may not be a fan of IKEA, but this collaboration with animal shelters in order to get people to adopt rescue dogs is so so so much awesome! I hope it'll spread to more stores all over the world.


:: Feed the vending machine with plastic bottles for recycling, feed stray dogs - another great initiative for dogs. Although, just like in Athens, my heart aches for those dogs without a home. All because of humans irresponsible behaviour. Again.


:: This is certainly a powerful campaign by the WWF regarding the heartbreaking rising numbers of poaching of endangered species - Stop one, stop them all. In 2014 the world really is still full of heartless and stupid people.


:: And while we're at the subject great campaigns that make you think, take a look at these brilliant ads that actually have something important to say.




Some days, for a brief moment, it's actually possible for two hedgehogs to share one food bowl. One might then think that humans, with a much larger brain that's said to be able to grasp much more complex questions and reasonings, would be able to live a more peaceful, compassionate, kind and insightful life. Most days I thoroughly question that capability.

as endorsed by hedgehogs

Glad to report that my little prickly guests at Hedgehog DropInn just like last year share my excellent taste in smoothies of the innocent kind. And say yes to recycling.

Or it could possibly be the flowers that makes for a curiosity magnet, not the bottle. Because surely it can't be the bowl with cat food in the background? Nah, I think not.

In this residence we believe in sharing is caring, whether it be sun or splendid taste in drinking matters. We also believe in recycling and upcycling. And we do enjoy flowers.

Happy, kind, tasty
weekend one and all ~

sweet rejection

Today I got the sweetest rejection mail I've ever received. But as nicely put as it was I've never been more disappointed about a rejection. Because it was something I was (is) so passionate about, on a professional as well as personal level. Something I've worked for for so long. So after moments of dumbstruckness I bawled my eyes out for a long time.

That never happens unless it's sorrow over personal losses, animal cruelty or times of Weltschmerz. But this was about longstanding dreams and absolute, total conviction I was (is) the right passionate as well as competent person for the job (because passion and competence is a match made in heaven).

It was about my love for creative expressions, about possibilities, collaborations with likeminded people, important values and spreading of goodness.

So actually, I think it was just the right reaction. It's my rejection and I cry if I want to.

And it didn't help that the rejection mail also contained the sentence "Please don't be sad." That's like pushing a cry-button. Such a mail deserves a classy reply. Just let me dry my tears first and I'll be right at it.

So from yesterday which was a lovely day in so many ways, to today, the very last one of June, matters changed unimaginably fast. This is life as it is, inconcievable.

I can't begin to describe how serendipitious life has been this past year and a half, so many unexplainable coincidences pointing in one obvious dreamy direction. Sure there have been the odd here and there lowpoints of confusion, but there've always been something urging me down the path of continuing to plant subtargets in order to harvest dreams.

I've amazed myself in doggingness and conviction at the same time as I've been open to possibilities unknown. And I've worked hard, learnt oh so many things about my own capacity. While always firmly stuck to the importance of values and quality, curiousity and professionalism.

I wish the last day of June had held better news. It was not the final day round off I had expected, far from perfection. Some day this will make sense. Today is not that day.

Dear July, welcome and please make sense. Give joy.

happy midsummer 2014 ~

Some of my personal favourite ingredients for the day will be of the innocent pleasures kind;
good, vegetarian food, cake, strawberries, flowers and hedgehogs. Possibly cats too.

Hope you'll have a lovely summer day,
however you chose to spend it! 

work, pug, cake

Today was Friday the 13th, to be honest I had expected amazing things and fireworksy matters to happen. But perhaps small blessings and sweet things can be considered fireworks in disguise. In that case these three matters are my favourites of this June 13 -

1. The finishing of a rather extensive copywriting assignment - and learning a lot along the way, not everything pleasant unfortunately. It made me think a lot about how presumptiously we humans keep treating the environment and nature, like its the most natural thing to do... And then someone like I steps in and sugarcoat the matters with smooth talking words... - recharging for the last bits with smoothie goodness and encouraging small sized woollies. And somehow all is well. For the here and now. From my point of view.



2. The entusiastic visit of one special pug. Amongst very sceptical cats. The third day of faces that says it all...



3. The baking of a cake. This time a geranium cake I've been meaning to bake for ages. Or as it happens to be called in Swedish; 'Pias pelargonkaka' ie Pia's geranium cake - not named after me, but a splendid name choice anyway. It turned out lovely and special. Will blog the recipe another day.

Now I'm simply ready for a relaxing weekend.
How about you?

farewell, beautiful may

This certainly is the prettiest of seasons, countless shades of green, a continous flow of new flowers, sweet scents and fresh starts. And as far as my office goes, from cowslips to lilies of the valley. From April to May.

What I bring with me from, yet another, lovely month is this -

:: that saying yes is most often the best thing to do. That by accepting an invitation on a rather short notice you're open to really, really, really good and unexpected things to happen.
:: there really IS such a thing as serendipity. And that makes my heart sing.
:: the generosity of some people can be really mindblowing. Truly. And when you meet such people they make you think about how important a feature that is, how inspiring and what can you do to pay it forward and pay it back.
:: how blessed I am to have met so many good people over the years, especially these past few years. And quite a few of them via Twitter.
:: I love Twitter. Such a great social channel on so many different levels. For so many purposes.
:: LinkedIn isn't half bad either.
:: that writing about states of confusion can be truly liberating and from that shift in thinking very good things can appear.
:: that you really should tell people about your dreams and what you want, it may feel silly, you may feel exposed and open to ridicule. But from being passionate and open you can get fantastic support and kindness when you least expect it.

And as always, the importance of beauty and inspiration. Unpretentious recycling and innocent sweetness in a bottle or two. Heart.



What things do you bring with you from beautiful May?

farewell april

For me April has been an overall good month, a surprising and hard working one, with, I'm grateful to say, more ups than downs. In parts a rather curious month with sprinkles of frustration and I'm still clueless about certain people's behaviour. Or rather a specific someone. Confusing and mixed messages seem to be the signature of some. When clearness has its obvious merits. I wish I was a mind-reader.

But, overall, April has been much enjoyed. Now I'm very much looking forward to May and all the excitement one of the prettiest months of the Scandinavian year will bring. Because I'm sure it will.



Today my always-picking-flowers-mum brought be a tiny bouquet of freshly picked cowslips. I couldn't find a perfect wee bottle or vase for it so I ended up using an empty Innocent smoothie bottle. It looks like it has an unruly hair of cowslips. Yellow in yellow. With yellow bobbaloo. And dandelions. All is yellow. Inspected by little miss redhead. And sister white.



Farewell fine April,
Happy Walpurgis,
Hallo sweet May ~

sunny, springy friday

From a very snowy yesterday and vernal equinox to this. Sunshine, snow melting, bare grounds, +10C and positive vibes in the air. Glorious spring! Good news!

From a very productive and fun morning meeting,
to another lead that has every potential to become something fantastic -
too bad I'm not the one who has the final say, to the one who has;
please be enthusiastic and happy about this great opportunity! 
Please don't fret, stress, imagine only work and problems.
Please see the greater picture of awesomeness.
It is time to shine and be inspired!





To actually being able to take a chair and sit down in a sunny spot in (a snow free!) garden, having a good read while enjoying a bottle of the best smoothie in the whole wide world. Admittedly it is *rather* difficult to read while a mini-me demands attention and good cuddles. Behold the face of "I'm being neglected".



Happy weekend one and all!
May it be a joyous sunny one!

when yelp stockholm turns two

Time flies, it's now two years already since Yelp was launched in Stockholm. And I was there from the start, being a city scout was my first assignment for Prosit. It was a lovely first assignment and I learnt a lot, had lots of fun both then and since.



From Yelp Scout to Yelp Elite I've had the opportunity to meet great people, been to fun events (like tropical party, ice cream tasting, Day Spa, Nobis breakfast, Dill, movie night and not to mention played a part in a lovely one myself.) and I still, a year later hold the Queen of Stockholm title.

It started with a tweet, I got an assignment, two years later it's been a great ride and definitely continue to be so.



Today we had a celebratory lunch at gastro pub The Flying Elk (my vegetarian option was broccoli & chips, pretty good but the type of food that, to be honest, is too greasy to agree with me, gastro or not), a selected few of the Yelp Elite. It was awesome, unpretentious and loads of fun. Including a great organic cider.

Happy 2 years birthday,
dear Yelp Stockholm,
and many more to come!!