Monday 27 February 2012

Catching up with friends, and watching melodifestivalen

This week we have finally been able to get out on Friday for my workplaces 'afterwork' (beers after work on a Friday) and it was really nice to see lots of friends that we haven't met up with for months. Its really nice to know you have friends that you don't see for ages, and yet when you do meet up it is like you saw each other last week.
There was a good turn out this week, I think about 25...but I didn't actually count. Some new faces too (well...they probably aren't new anymore, we have just been away for so long we hadn't met them) which is always good. I am quite a sociable person (when I want to be) and meeting new people is always good.
So after a few drinks we went for dinner at a local Thai/Chinese place called Big Buddha. Now normally I would say this is one of the tastiest places to eat in Helsingborg, but apparently they do not cope very well on Swedish pay day, as it was crazy busy and it took nearly an hour for them to bring the food. There were 9 of us, but still...an hour?? And when it did arrive, the food wasn't even all hot...so very disappointed indeed. However, it was still really tasty, and certainly didn't put me off going again...I will just not take 7 friends with us next time!
Then on Saturday, Sarah and I decided that it was about time that we cleaned out our storage area in the basement of our apartment block. I am quite ashamed to say that I still had the cardboard boxes that I used to move to Sweden with (yes...three years ago) so these were the first things to be thrown! In the end, we had to do 2 trips to the dump (refuse disposal, tip) as we had so much rubbish to get rid of!
Then on Saturday night we went round to a friends apartment for dinner and to watch the 'Melodifestivalen'. Now for those of you not in Sweden, this needs explaining. It is actually the qualifying rounds for the Swedish entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. If you have never seen Eurovision, you really need to search for it on YouTube or something similar. The main contest is European countries entering 1 song each, and voting for who they think is best. It is absolutely appalling, and is only really worth watching to laugh at.
So you can imagine the quality of the qualifying entries...! What I hadn't realised is that it is such a big deal in Sweden! Imagine the X-Factor level of attention...but for absolute trash. It is also not a 1 off thing...there are 4 heats, 4 semi finals, a second chance final, and then the final. So yes, it goes on for a few weeks...
This Saturday was quite an eye opener. There were 3 OK songs (in my opinion, which is often made fun of) and some absolute rubbish too. Unfortunately, to prove how bad my taste is, 1 of my favourites got voted out completely! However, the other 2 did make it straight to the final. One of them is absolute cheese... do a search for 'Danny Saucedo amazing melodifestivalen 2012' in the search engine of your choice and prepare to be amazed. He has a tracksuit with Christmas fairy lights on. No, really...it is. And that was one of the winners.
After the show, we amused ourselves for the rest of the evening playing on the Wii, which is soooo much more fun with other people than on your own.
What an evening :)
Oh, and I nearly forgot my favourite part of the night! My friend has purchased a steering wheel with pedals for his PlayStation! The feedback is really good, and it really makes playing racing games a lot more fun. If only I had the money to get one at home...oh well, guess I will just be going round to his house more often.

What I have learned this week:
Melodifestivalen is interesting...
Good friends are really worth keeping hold of
I want a force feedback steering wheel and pedals for my PS3.

PS, doing boring things with the right person makes them so much more fun :)

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