Odds and Ends

You know when you have so many things to talk about, you can't possibly fit it all in? This is the post that captures all those things I wasn't able to post anywhere, due to forgetfulness or lack of time or not being able to fit them into a specific topic. Here goes!

This picture is the result of my first attempt at documenting for the blog. This blurry building is Lindome church. It was taken after the concert was over. I didn't take any pictures of the building before the concert. I didn't take any pictures during the concert. I didn't take any after the concert. I recorded film clips and got this one grainy shot. That's it! Compare that to the last concert in Jönköping and my reporting from Lindome looks positively pathetic.


Not exactly easy to see in the small version, but this guy is hanging up Christmas lights in Tranås on October 4. I took this picture from the hotel room early early in the morning. No procrastination in this city. Those lights go up early.




Vinna Hela Världen in its natural environment - a bookstore in Gothenburg. They've blended the biographies and history books together in this store, which is the way it is in the Dewey Decimal System. Makes for an interesting photo. WWII, a Swedish King, and Jenny Berggren. Why not?



Being silly in Karlstad. Take a look at the grandeur of the two tripods to the right. So cool. So sleek. So not mine. See the sad little tripod on the left? That's mine. One day I'll have one as cool as Jessi and Anja. I'm sure they will have upgraded to professional TV cameras by that point. Don't laugh. I saw them eyeing the ones in Stockholm. I think they were considering a purchase.



At least I didn't bring just one camera like Anna did. Poor Anna. This is her little studio. It's sitting on my leg and it's seriously small. If I sneezed, it would have blown away. I don't even know if she used it during the Kungälv concert. Anna, we need to sit down and have a chat about concert documentation.


Anja and Jessi on October 13 in Stockholm with their copies of My Story and Here I Am. They look quite pleased. I would upload some pictures and videos of them dancing around, but I'm afraid I might get in trouble for that one. So, I'll leave you with this picture instead. Happy fans!


Further evidence of this country's candy craziness. This is a Marabou poster campaign I found in Nordstan. Granted, I've never seen anyone walking around with a huge candy bar in their bag or pocket, but I could easily imagine it being a possibility. Carry-around candy now available in Sweden. Get it today!


A pic straight out of fandom. I think this was taken somewhere over the East coast of the US. I like to import my CDs by hand. One side effect of listening to the album before you land? You end up singing straight through customs and security. And they didn't even stop me for an extra search this time. I must've seemed too cheery to look like a threat.


Wait? You mean to tell me I'm not in Europe anymore? What gave you that idea? Oh. The giant fiberglass cow in a spacesuit holding a Texas flag. Yeah, that's a good clue.

This is why I love Texas. So kitschy and loveable. It feels like home. I found a "Welcome to Houston" banner situated just to the right of this cow. Who was the sponsor of the banner? None other than ABB, a Swedish company. The best of two places together.



My busted suitcase handle. A casualty of fun. Those Gothenburg cobblestones aren't kind to your luggage. Sometimes you hit that odd stone and it catches your suitcase wheel. No matter how much of a grip you have on your luggage, you still lose it on the pavement. When that happens one too many times, this is the result. It's all good though. The suitcase works fine and I'll always remember this trip whenever I use it.

And finally, my biggest regret of the trip: I failed to take a picture at one crucial moment.

After Förkväll was over, we were chatting with Jenny outside the Central Station. Jenny was speaking when, suddenly, she changed the topic in the middle of her sentence. "A parrot.", she said, "He has a parrot." I thought to myself, "Did she just say parrot?" That's when I turned around to see what she was seeing.

Indeed.

A gentleman was walking by us and behind him he was pulling a little wagon. In this wagon, there was a parrot in a cage. No joke.

A green parrot. In a cage. In the middle of Stockholm. It was so awesomely random, we all had to stop what we were doing and stare as the man made his way into the station.

How I wish I had that picture.