Utterance and contradictions.

Freedom has always been a keyword in my life. I work for freedom, like freedom of speech. Recently, I read something about freedom in balance, and also, that there actually are countries in the world where freedom has decreased. Here, Turkey is a leading country.

Lies, fakery, corruption, injustice, disinformation campaigns and impunity are some important keywords when discussing freedom. This is a very complex, intriguing subject. And also, according to me, probably a very subjective topic. What freedom is for me may not be important for you. And vice versa.

Political challenges with regard to freedom. Here, the communist party leadership in China is another example. No need for comments. Moreover, military is sometimes used to block opposition, especially in countries where military has ruled for decades. Religious extremism is also touching upon freedom. Again, very complicated, and also a subject that need a lot of space to be elaborated on.

There is something called freedom house (watchdog organization), and they write about freedom in the world. To date, there is only one Arab country considered to be classified as free, namely Tunisia. Morocco, Jordan and Kuwait are very close and come second. Presently, I am still thinking of a good subject for my next book. I have decided to write about freedom, and this is definetly going to be a tremendous challenge. So, I got inspired by this article. As you might understand, I read various news to find inspiration.

Music can play a role in freedom. Life is always a contradiction and that fascinates me. When I was in Dubai I made some observations. Law was very important. If you made any mistakes against law, immediate punishments were directly put into practice. Furthermore, women often wore quite, strict clothing. However, in the evenings, it was very popular to have bellydancers. Talking about contradiction. To conclude, music contributed to an easy ambience. Music seem to be a place where people can meet, even though different state of minds.

As usual I share a little something with you. These photos are from New Year 2018, Dubai. Mostly, I travel alone, but that doesn’t bother me. Rather often I meet people on excursions etc, and this time I met a family from Sri Lanka. They work at the university and for Blackberry, and live in Toronto, Canada. Since it was so much snow there at that timepoint, they wanted to see their family over christmas in Sri Lanka. We met on the desert excursion, and the evening ended with BBQ and belly dancers in the dark desert. I am still learning photography. It takes time. The other photo is from Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. What a contradiction, don´t you agree? Talk about freedom and restrictions.

Music has always been a part of my life. I listen to most kind of music, but of course, I have my favorites. My very first album was ABBA’s Arrival, and I liked the cover photo of them when they were sitting in a helicopter. Childhood memories. I remember I always got very happy when I listened to them. ABBA has also been very good when I have been abroad, when I have met people where English cannot be spoken. For example, I am very bad at speaking Spanish. But then it is rather fun, you just have to mention ABBA and everybody starts to smile, because ABBA is more or less universal. No words need to be spoken. Everybody knows a song.

Yesterday I saw Shania Twain with a collegue of mine. I remember some songs she has sung. I don´t know much about her, but I thought she is American but she is not. She is from Canada with some kind of Swedish origin. Anyway, it was like listening to First Lady Melania Trump singing country western inspired Texas music.

Tonight I met another collegue and we went for an Italian evening. Very good. Sometimes, it is just good to have pasta. And not least, to be spoiled.

Currently, I am trying to find inspiration for my next book. It will be about Greten. Fredrik’s daughter. Right now it is difficult to find inspiration, it feels like I have done a huge exam. But writing is a great part of my life now. Something I cannot live without.

This week I will do what I like very much, namely, work out. It takes quite a lot of time, but  it is worth it. The inflammation I had is gone. I cannot understand why I got it. My shoes are fine. Maybe due to little stretch. However, I will bring my running shoes to a place where I can run and they can measure if they are unbalanced. It is so difficult to find good shoes. I don’t understand why. But, the running season is over for me this year so no hurry. Running will be next year again.

I have started to think a about my next book. I have found a good theme, but I will not relieve anything. Will see if there is an interest of reading my first book. Nevertheless, I am going to continue to write. Meanwhile, I write here.

A lot of tea time this week. No afternoon tea, but tea in the evenings since I am busy working daytime. It is not yet winter time, but it starts to feel like winter since it is so dark in the evenings. So, time to have tea and light candles. However, today has been beautiful. Very warm. Maybe it is a touch of indian summer. Indian summer is very unusual and when I was in France,  I was lucky to experience a very warm autumn.

I have met some colleagues this week. Very nice to catch up. A lot about yoga. I have also met a friend from a long time ago when I was in France. We bumped in to each other by coincidence. It is amazing that even though it has passed so many years it feels like yesterday. I started to remember a lot from the time I spent in France. At that time I had a French haircut. Found this photo. I hardly dare to share it, but here it is.

No walk with my little sweetie this weekend. I have stayed in Stockholm, and actually, I have done quite a lot of exercise. I strongly believe that training has impact on long term well being.

I think that nobody has missed that I like dogs a lot. That probably has to do with that my family has always had dogs. When I go for walks with my sweetie we always have a short break, and we say hello to this cute dog on the photo above. She is much bigger so first they bark, but then they are friends. I know hunting dogs a lot, and I have chased them in the forest since they consider it much more fun to hunt rabbits and deers compared to stay at home.

My book that I have written takes place in Uppsala. Therefore, I follow UNT (Upsala nya tidning) to see what is going on there. I found this little notice below in the newspaper. So charming. Moreover, the other week I saw the news in the morning and I saw these police dogs being trained in Chile. They look adorable. The big dogs wear shoes. So, I share this movie.

Military is for me rather natural since my father has been to the UN in Congo, and also my auntie has served as a nurse for the UN. Nowdays, it is “hemvärnet” in the countryside. I don’t like wars, but military is a way to preserve peace and stability. A contradiction, I know. When I worked in Norway it was very common that my colleagues were military trained. Another culture in Norway compared to Sweden, that probably has influenced me during the years I worked there.