HStP #23: Buy Something Secondhand.

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. I guess it's just easier to complete sings during summer. However, I actually completed another item now; Buy Something Secondhand. I was in Umeå visiting Valentina and other friends up there. On Monday, we went to Myrorna, a second hand shop run by the Salvation Army in Sweden. It was kind of boring and Valentina was running around looking at EVERYTHING, soI got kind of tired of it. But then I found a nice pair of Björn Borg shoes, for only 125SEK! So I bought them! And that means I have completed another thing on my list!

BYD #49 b: See a Lunar Eclipse.

Only two weeks after the Partial Solar Eclipse comes a Partial Lunar Eclipse! Nice! This one was also much easier to see, and I enjoyed it more than the solar one. Maybe because this time you could actually see the change.

It was a partial eclipse, and at the height of the eclipse 81% of the moon was covered by the earth's shadow. I tried to take pictures of it with the camera on my cell phone, but the pictures didn't turn out good at all. So I made my friend Ivar in Gothenburg go outside and take pictures of the moon with his camera (which is slightly better than the one on my phone).

I would still like to see both a total lunar and a total solar eclipse though. Maybe I shouldn't really be counting these two as completed, until I've seen total eclipses. Ah well, if I ever do, I'll promise to blog about it. :)

OaB #18: Win Something.

This is one of the coolest things ever. Yesterday, I received an email telling me I'm the winner of a competition where the prize was a guitar signed by Jason Mraz.

As some of you know, I'm a HUGE fan of Jason Mraz, so this is really the most awesome thing I could have won!

What happened was I found out that Ginza.se had a competition with a guitar signed by Mraz as the prize. Of course I had to participate, considering I'm a huge fan. I had to write why I deserved to win, so I wrote, and I wrote, and I wrote. Far longer than I usually write when entering competitions like these, but I had to. It was almost like a short essay.

I told them how I had used Pandora.com back in 2004, and that they had suggested that I listen to Jason Mraz. I did, and I loved his songs. You can read about all that in one of my older posts. Long story short - few years later, Mraz became uberpopular in Sweden, which means he actually performs in Sweden every now and then! Awesome! I'm going to a concert with him in Stockholm in September. It also means him being involved in competitions, like the one where you had a chance to meet him (which I didn't win) and this competition, which I'm so happy I won.

BYD #49 a: See a Solar Eclipse.

It wasn't as exciting as I had thought, but at least I've seen one. A partial that is. Today, at 11.40, the moon covered part of the sun here in the Stockholm area. I didn't have any coolish glasses, and no binoculars either, so I had to look directly into the sun, a big no-no of course. But otherwise I wouldn't have seen anything (because it didn't get noticeably darker), so with my left eye closed, I looked into the sun with my right eye, and I saw that the moon had covered about 40% of the sun.

It was supposed to be over 50%, but I doubt that would have been more exciting. I guess it takes a total eclipse for it to be a wow-factor. Some day I'll travel to a country where there will be a total eclipse, as I'd love to see one and as the next one in Sweden is in like 2090 or something...

The weather would have been perfect for a total eclipse. Enough clouds to use as filter, and enough cloud free moments to see just the sun.

I took some pictures with the camera on my mobile, but you can't really see anything except for the sun.

HStP #86: Bond with the Forest.

Ahh! Sitting on a tree stump in the forest, listening to the sounds of nature. Lovely. That's what me, Katarina, Rebecka and their dog Morven did while climbing Djupaåsen in Undersvik.

Credits to Rebecka for the nice picture! The cap makes
me look like a real citizen of Bollnäs. Huah!

OaB #32 g: Visit the Countryside

I was invited to visit my friend Katarina and her family in Undersvik, Hälsingland in Sweden for four days (July 25-28), and since my vacation had just started I gladly accepted. It was great! It truly was the countryside, and it was beautiful.

Me, Katarina and her sister Rebecka had a lot of fun. Instead of writing it all down I'll just post a bunch of pictures, because I'm lazy and I have loads of other things I've done to write about as well!

A horse! A horse! My blog for a horse!



The view from their home.



Of course we had to bathe in the warm water!



The Parish of Undersvik.



Me and Katarina as Sea Monsters! Arghh!!



Uhm, a picture of a train...



Rebecka, me and Katarina had to wait in Bollnäs for their mom to pick us up!



A beautiful sunset in the river Ljusnan.



Two of the creatures to touch - a mice or rat, and a butterfly or moth.



We also had time to visit the fishingvillage Skärså.
Here we went to a restaurant called Albertina where I had a delicious salmon dish!

HStP #88: Unshaven and Without Make-Up.

The mission was not to wear make-up or shave for a week. Surprisingly, I don't wear make-up, but I do shave. However, as my facial hair doesn't grow very fast, I actually let it grow for 2-3 weeks before I counted this one as completed.

I don't know if I need to say much more - but here is a picture.

It was very tough not shaving, just look at the reds in my eyes!

HStP #79: Hug a Tree.

After I had been to Liverpool for three days, me and my uncle went to Riga, Latvia, for two days, July 8-9. The 9th was my birthday, and it was the first time I didn't wake up in Sweden on my birthday!

Anyway, while in Riga, I decided to complete another thing from one of the books, and the easiest one was number 79 in the HStP book, to hug a tree.

And of course I did it in Riga just to get to tell you I was in Riga, haha!

OaB #32 f: Visit an Aquarium.

This Monday, I went to Liverpool for three days with my uncle and my brother. We had a lot of fun, doing things we normally don't do: Go to museums. I'm actually kind of surprised visiting a museum is not on the list. One of the museums we visited on Tuesday, July 1, was World Museum Liverpool, a museum with everything from insects, iron ore and ancient board games to meteors, gems and a Holocaust spectacle collection.

And they also had an aquarium. Although it was quite small, it was still quite fun and interesting to see weird fish and anemones, and it gave me a reason to pick up the book when we got back to the hotel!

As usual, here are some pictures:

HStP #20: Get an Environmentally Friendly Haircut.

HStP? What on earth is this?

At the Midsummer's Eve Celebration, Mirre, one of the attendees, gave me an early birthday gift. She gave me a book called "Uppdraget Rädda Världen" which means something like "Mission Save the World". It's a fun book with 105 things to do, pretty much like these two books, just that every thing in the book is something that (supposedly) helps save the planet!

One of the things in Old and Boring happens to be just that - OaB #26: Help Save the Planet! So I decided that I have to complete the lovely planet saving book to cross off number 26. Another good thing is that many things in the planet book are things also in the OaB book, so I can cross off two at once. Yey!

The first item I completed was number 20, get an environmentally friendly haircut. I usually have a lot of hair wax in my hair, so last Saturday, I gave myself an e-friendly haircut by shaving off my hair at my friend Malin's birthday party!

Here are some pictures:

In a few days I'll add a list with all the 105 things to the left column, under the current two lists.