Life Lessons, and Unintentional Giving

A couple of days ago I withdrew some money from the cash machine outside my branch. My son and I had done the grocery shopping for the week, and I needed some cash so we could have a cool drink while waiting for the bus home to arrive. So I withdrew 70 euro (approximately 77 dollar) while keeping an out on the tables outside the coffee shop to see if one would free up. There are a few tables positioned so we can see when the bus arrives, meaning we don't have to stand around and wait at the actual bus stop since the buses are rarely on time here, and we wanted one of those tables. But, since they were all occupied when approaching the cash machine on the other side of the street I kept my eyes on them.

And we were lucky, as I was in the process of withdrawing my money a table became free and I we rushed over there. Once seated we ordered our drinks and I got my purse out to pay the bill, but imagine my surprise when my money weren't there!! What the heck!?

I then realised that I had not actually taken the money out of the machine, I had only taken the card and the slip, but not the money. Obviously because of the distraction of the table. Also, correct me if I'm wrong Swedish readers, I think in Sweden the slip comes out last, here the money come last, and I think in that moment I was on an old auto-pilot from way back in my Swedish days. When the slip comes out you're done! I do remember looking at the slip before putting in my purse. I might be wrong about the order of things coming out of the machine, though.

Anyway, I rushed back to the cash machine but the money weren't there. Of course.

At this moment I had a few options on how to react;

• I could get mad - but obviously that will not change anything except my mood. 
• I could get annoyed - with the same result as if I got mad. 
• I could laugh at it - and improve my already good mood.
• I could be happy about it - because there is a lesson to learn here. 
• I could be grateful about it - because I probably made someone else's day. 

Well, I started out laughing at it, I mean seriously, how can you not. I certainly think I would have laughed if someone else had done it, actually my bank lady laughed at me when I told her about it the next day. How can you get so distracted by a table that you forget 70 euro? She completely understood though, she had seen it plenty of times and she'd done it herself. At least I'm not alone, right!

Then I thought, well, that will teach me to be focused on the task at hand. Lesson learned, it cost me 70 euro - it took a split second. Maybe sometime in the future I can charge someone that to teach them this lesson? Ha!

Thirdly I thought about the person taking the money; and I sincerely hope that it was someone that made something special with it. Maybe it meant that they could take their girlfriend or boyfriend out to dinner, maybe it meant they could treat their family to something unusually nice, or maybe they needed a new pair of sandals. Or maybe they just needed some food in their stomach or a bed for the night. Whatever they did with it I choose to believe that they appreciated it one way or another. 

Sure, I had things to do for the money, but I am lucky enough to have more than enough to live a good life in every way. And maybe that person do too, but hey, free money is always nice, right! 

So then I thought, lesson nr 2 learned; remember to be grateful for everything I've got in my life, and remember to be grateful for everything that brought me here. 

Life is so precious, and we take it so much for granted most of the time. I think sometimes we need a reminder of that. And I think it's important to remember the gift of giving. This experience reminded me about all this. And that makes me grateful.

So, I threw myself a curve ball, and I caught it, and I (unintentionally) made someone else happy. That to me, is worth a lot more than those 70 euro. 

Whenever I find myself in a situation where I so obviously can choose my reaction, action and emotion (yes, I believe it is almost always a choice) I get proud, and I feel love for life. 

This song was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012, a Swedish win just like this year. 

It always raises my mood and energy. I hope you like it. 

Here's Loreen with Euphoria. 

Love//

Carina

Catching Up Medley

I was yelled at over the phone today. By one of my colleagues from Sweden. He was very upset with me because of the lack of new posts lately. Well, OK, he didn't yell, but he did tell me I need to post something new. It's been way too long since my last post, he said. And he was right, of course, still it was kind of nice to hear it. My blog is the only blog he follows so I have a responsibility to keep posting. So, thank you A, this one is for you! You better enjoy it!

OK, there are a few reasons I haven't posted anything in a while. First of all I was in Sweden, and for a few days I was without an internet connection so I couldn't post. I did write some posts, but when I finally had connection again the posts felt out of date, and I was too busy to write something new. After I came back home again I got a headache, leading to a 4 day migraine attack. Not fun and a joy of my life, but hey, at least it didn't last for 5 days! And after that I've started a few posts, but I didn't feel any inspiration. I have no choice today, but that's OK because today I am inspired!

Let's talk about my trip to Sweden. What did I do? How was it? Who did I see? Well, over a period of 10 days I was in 5 different towns, and I saw 56 people. The youngest was my new little nephew of 6 weeks, the oldest was my granddad of 82 years. Some I saw for only a few minutes, and some I saw for a few days. Some I had never met before, and some I see every time I go back. It was a perfect mix of family and friends, old ones and new ones. Well, almost perfect, there are always a few people I wish I could have seen, but it didn't work out that way. Hopefully next time!

I also went through my stuff, which wasn't more than a few boxes of a mix of things that was mine, my dad's and my grandma's. There were a lot of rubbish, I got rid of 5 big bin liners with stuff, but there were some treasures as well. I found old papers after my grandma, like food rationing coupons for the years after World War 2 when my dad was just a baby; and kitchen towels monogrammed with her maiden name initials. My dad had those things in possession when he died, and I apparently kept them. I was in such a bad state when I left Sweden to move to Spain so I had no memory of keeping those things. But I love it that I did! There were also some things that was my dad's, like photographs, and letters I wrote to him when I was a kid, and drawings my son made for him when he was a kid. And his journals, actually calendars, where he jotted down a few words of what had happened a few times a week, or when something in particular had occurred. Events like when he saw, or spoke to my sister and myself, or when he had doctor's appointments or had dinner at my grandma's. And among my own things were my photographs, the most important ones where all there; my baby pictures, and my son's baby pictures. I wasn't sure they would be there, but they were. Memories of life and love!

All those things I brought with me to Spain, except for what I didn't want to keep, and my dad's drawer. It was so nice to see it again, and I have more love for it than I remembered. I can't wait to find a way to get it here. After the summer, before the end of this year, is what I hope for. I just need to figure out the cheapest and best way to do it.

What else did I do in Sweden? Well, I had a couple of days with no plans and one of those days I spent with my best friend and it was rainy and cold outside so we slept in, had a nice chat by the kitchen table, and then we watched films all evening, cuddled up under blankets and we had sweets and chips and dip for both lunch and dinner. Yum! I also had a nice dinner and evening alone with my mum for the first time in, well, maybe all my life. She cooked and we had some wine and stayed up chatting until after midnight. I also had a nice dinner out with some friends one evening, and I saw my granddad a total of three times. And the last evening I watched Sweden win the Eurovision Song Contest for the 6th time, it was exciting and nail biting and oh so much fun. Måns Zelmerlöw was great and performed the song Heroes perfectly! I am so happy got to share that evening with my sister and her best friend. Next year I plan on being there in person to see it live, it's supposed to be a great live event. With Home Free coming to Europe and Eurovision being held in Sweden I have decided to make next year a year of live music. I am very excited to see what else will come my way!

Speaking of music, and Home Free, they released a new video yesterday and as always I am in love with both the song and the video. This time it's a medley of Song of The South by Alabama and Wagon Wheel by Old Crowe Medicine Show, and it's smooth and soothing, and fun. It's even more fun in concert, so have a look for a live video of it on YouTube, there are several to choose from, and you will see the guys interact with their audience while singing it. It's fun, and I wish I was there. Of course.

So, A, are you happy now?

Did anybody else miss me? If so, what would you want me to write about next? What posts are your favourites? Let me know in the comments, please.

Love//

Carina

What's going on?

So, I've not posted anything for a while. Sometimes that will happen. It's due to life, or rather lack of inspiration, and it's OK. Know, that I will always come back, because, hey, I love blogging and writing. It's a part of who I am.

Speaking of writing, I have been working a bit on my book. Not a lot, but it's moving forward and that's the important thing. I get excited when I think about it! It makes me smile!

What else have I been doing? I've been completely sucked into One Tree Hill, the series. I used to watch it back in the days when it first started, and for a while now I have been thinking about re-watching it and follow it through until the end. I think I stopped watching it somewhere around the shift between season 3 and 4. So, about a week ago I started from the very beginning, and I am seriously hooked. I have to force myself to shut it off at nights because otherwise I wouldn't get any sleep at all, which actually happened the night between last Saturday and Sunday. Didn't even close my eyes. I didn't even get tired. It kind of reminds me of the first few months after I found Home Free.

Speaking of Home Free; they had their last show of the Spring Tour Tour the other night, and they are now on a short break. During the summer they will do some shows, one being their debut performance at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. For those of you that don't know what that is, it's the show that made country music famous, this is where every country musician dream about playing/singing. It is a great honour and recognition to get to perform there. A milestone worthy them, I'd say. They will also hit the studio to record their next album which is due sometime late summer/early fall. Hopefully they will have time to record some more videos for YouTube as well. And, BIG NEWS;

**********HOME FREE IS COMING TO EUROPE IN JANUARY!**********

I am so excited I can cry! At this point all we know is that they will be coming the UK in January of next year, no dates or places are known yet. We don't know if they will come only to the UK, for one show only, or if they will do several shows in the UK only, or tour more countries. But, at this point, who cares!? I will be there, no matter what! Nothing and nobody will be able to keep me away! As many shows in as many countries as possible is what I am aiming for.

So, what's next in my life? I am getting ready for a trip to Sweden! I am working tomorrow, and early Thursday morning I am off, arriving around 11 am in Sweden. I have the whole trip planned, except for one or two of the ten days I'm there for. I will be meeting up with a lot of family and friends, some that I saw when I was there in January, some I haven't seen in 10 years, others I haven't seen in 25 years and others yet I have actually never seen, like my new little nephew that was born early April. There will be birthdays to celebrate in more than one place, and I will also spend some time sorting through what stuff I have left in Sweden. Most of it is after my dad. He died only a few months before I moved to Spain, and I kept a lot of things that I didn't really need to keep, because it was too hard to get rid of them. So, I will throw a lot away, see if there's anything I can sell or give away, bring some of it with me back here, and hopefully be left with nothing more than my dad's drawer desk. It will be ten days filled with love, laughter and tears. I am sure I will miss my dad when I go through his things. The last evening is the Eurovision Song Contest, hopefully Sweden and Måns will make it to the finals because I am planning to watch it with my sister. This was an event that my dad enjoyed watching with us, but it will be the first time in a long time that my sister and I will be watching it together.

Here's some other fun news; I plan on taking you with me on my trip. I will post updates as often as I can, it might not be every day, but close to it.

Since I'm in some ways will get thrown back in time on my trip this video and song fits perfectly. Story of My Life, by One Direction, but, of course, brilliantly covered by Home Free. Enjoy!

I hope to see you on my trip!

Love//
Carina

Music Sunday

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the Eurovision Song Contest that we have here in Europe in May every year. In Sweden this is a huge event, and the hunt for Sweden's contribution officially starts in January every year (although the job in finding songs starts long before that). For 6 consecutive Saturdays the Swedes are sat in front of the telly watching the Melodifestivalen (or Mello as it's commonly called) while artists perform songs. The first 4 weeks will show 10 contributions per week, with the top 2 going straight to the final week, and the 3d and 4th going to a second chance aired week 5. The top 2 of those goes to the final week. These evenings bring family and friends together over some nice food, loud opinions and laughter.

In the end there are 10 songs and artists ready for the big Final week 6. The winner is chosen by the votes of the viewers and jury groups around Europe. I'm not going to get in to the technicalities of how the votes are calculated, but they are.

The winner of all this gets to go to the Eurovision Song Contest, which is held in the country of last year's winning song. 

Nowadays most countries contributions are in English, but there used to be a rule that you were only allowed to sing in the official language of the country you were competing for. This was always unfair because a lot of people understand English, or Spanish, but very few understand Turkish, Polish or Greek. It was fun in a lot of ways, but I prefer it now when I can understand the lyrics of the songs.

Anyway, this is Sweden's winning act, and this year's contribution to Eurovision. There is an official video of this song, but I'm sharing the actual performance that won Melodifestivalen, because the light show is quite spectacular.

This is Måns Zelmerlöw. Måns came in fifth in Swedish Idol in 2005, and he won the first season of the Swedish Let's Dance in 2007. Here is Heroes.

Oh, and beware of his eyes. You might drown if you're not careful. 

Love//

Carina

Music Sunday

It's Sunday again! I love Sundays, because I get to spend a lot of time surfing YouTube in the hunt for a music video to share here. Sometimes I already know which one I want, but sometimes I don't. Sometimes I change my mind and go with something other than planned.

Anyway, I've been feeling a bit under the weather, so to speak, for a while, but am starting to feel a bit better. I think it's allergies, so it's nothing serious.

So, back to Music Sunday! I had nothing planned for today, so I started the hunt. I've been listening to some of my favourite singers/artists, and also some new to me stuff. A lot of good music, but nothing that felt completely right. And so I decided to go with one of my favourites, when it hit me I should have a look in my likes playlist. That's where videos you have pressed like on end up, so it's easy for you to find. I scrolled down, past all my Home Free likes, and found this gem.

In Europe we have something called the Eurovision Song Contest in May every year since 1956. This is where ABBA got their big breakthrough when they won with the song Waterloo in 1974. Anyway, the ESC is a huge thing in a lot of countries, especially in Sweden. This is a night to gather your friends around, not because of the great music, but because of the fun of voting and discussing all the contestants. This year Australia will join us. Yes, we know Australia is no where near Europe, but the ESC is actually huge down under.

This is Malta's contribution in 2013. It's sung by a guy called Gianluca Bezzina, who is actually also a doctor. I like his voice, and I like the song. What do you think?

I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday!
I'm about to do some writing. A new story will be up within a couple of days.

Love//
Carina