Cheap PVC waders chafe

Midsummer day was spent alongside the old Säveån again. Slightly hung over from the midsummer barbecue, I got a lift from K and was left at the Floda end of the river.

Rune joined from the train all sweaty in his 15-years-old chest-high PVC waders while I sported the cheap thigh-high ditto from Lidl, that he had bought me last summer.

We fished our way down to Anton's bench again, not a waking fish and the weather was brilliantly bright and sunny so no wonder. After a while we started to think about food and decided to fish our way down the entire stretch and have a bite in Stenkullen.

On midsummer's day only the pizzeria (run by a Southern gentleman who didn't bother too much about Swedish holidays) was open, but the had a splendid offer of beef bearnaise with big chunky fries and a pint of beer for less than a hundred SEK!

To top it of the very pleasant waitress didn't want to give us the traditional 'sauerkraut' type of pizza salad that lay in the soft drink fridge, but instead surprised us with a nice plate of Greek salad complete with olives and feta, and each one bowl of steaming new-baked bread!! Amazing...!

We were so pleased that we decided to take one more beer and sit out in the sun to eat and drink. Very content we dozed off for an hour or so and I felt a slight tingeling feeling inside the boots. I decided to peel the left one off to discover a beginning chafe between the knee and ankle. I pulled out an adhesive plaster and taped it across the red mark. Thought nothing more of it and pulled th eboot back on.

We walked and fished our way back to Floda, and all the time the chafing got worse. In Floda, I couldn't get my significant other to turn up so I had to walk another four miles to Kyrkmossen.

I ended up with a deep red semi-circular gnawed wound around the calf of my right leg(where I didn't put a plaster). I'll save you the grossness of a picture. Instead you can feast your eyes on the idyll of Swedish midsummer anno 2005.

Hamster funeral

Last week my daughter's hamster, Espri, has been on her last leg. When we came back from Granny's on Friday Espri was lying flat out on the bottom of her cage, trembling. We gave her some water and tried to feed her but she didn´t want any. We all understood that this was the end and the weekend has been spent waiting for The Grim Hamster Reaper.

On Saturday my daughter was Florence Nightingale of hamsters, and distributed drips of water to the trembling hamster. On Sunday death was announced around noon. We quickly made a makeshift coffin out of a golden cardboard box and some nicely embossed paper napkins.

The hearse went out to our sports cabin and the funeral was quickly executed next to the earlier hamster grave where Gnager ("Gnawey") is spending his eternity under a ceramic sea star.

Rounded of by installing a solar powered, light sensitive grave light between the two hamstergraves, which will light up the pet cemetary by night, helping the hamster spirits to find themselves and their graves.

On Monday the cage was out in the stair case awaiting its further destiny.

New use for näsfräs

I brought my OBH Nordica (see below) back home and put it in my bathroom cupboard, next to the MachIII razor. It looked really nice.

This morning I had to use it again only this time with a mirror. The lamp in the näsfräs proved extremely practical as it helped me look into the corners of my nose I had previously been blissfully unaware of.

My thoughts went out to my significant other who most likely has been seeing more of this than me. I had been missing out quite a lot of hair yesterday when I tried it in the office. Not only in the nostrils but also in the ears.

Now my curiosity was risen, since I saw in the instructions that the näsfräs could be used to trim and groom the eyebrows as well. I had to try, even though I had never given that type of cosmetic action a thought before. Sure enough. It worked just fine with those stray eyebrow hairs towards the corners of my eyes.

Now I was so into it I had to try grooming that excuse of a beard I sport on my lower lip, a.k.a. an "Imperial". This one proved a lot harder probably due to the fact that each straw is more that an inch long.

I now feel more sophisticated and well-groomed than yesterday, and the näsfräs sits very nicely in the cupboard. I recommend it to anyone who has reached the age where one can curl one's nosehairs into a Preussian moustache with the help of wax. Don't.

Trim & Groom

Finally I caved in. Gave up to the middle age syndrom and went and bought myself a nose trimmer. An OBH Nordica for app 15€.
Chrille tried to persuade me to buy a cheap one at KlarreBarre for a third of the price, but Tårtan told me not to, he'd already tried one and it sucked.
Tårtan being older than Chrille, I followed his advvice and dumped the cheap "näsfräs"(nose aerator) in the nearest splash basket.

As I had set my mind on bying one of those products, I stepped into Åhléns instead only to find this.

Came complete with a lamp and all.
Bought it and brought it back to the office. Loaded with a battery, pushed the button and slowly inserted into my left nostril, trembling with expectation. The lamp probably lit up my nose to a nice pink color, I could only see parts of the effect, lacking a mirror.

As the rotating knife came in touch with the first burst of nose hair the silent buzz rose to an earshattering crunching sound as the hair was ground down to a fine powder that rapidly spread across the mucous membrane. The tickling sensation paired with the powder invading my nostril could only have one result. I sneezed. Like hell!

I had to do it all over once again in the right nostril, with pretty much the same result. While I was at it I gave the ears a good blast too.

Afterwards I felt great and proudly showed my newest grooming gear to Matilda at the office, who smiled politely and said it was a good investment and indeed "a must-have in every man's equipment".

I resisted the urge to show off my ears and nostrils, as I figured she had already discreetly checked them out, once she put two and two together, having heard the noise and sneezes from my cubicle.

I can breathe more freely now and my nose doesn't tickle anymore...