Hey friends… I’m in beijing this evening . – just found that facebook, youtube and myspace are all blocked on the internet from this hotel ! That’s never happened to me before in china. If you see tjis post it means my blacberry can still get through. If you can’t see this post then …. Why am I still typing this :-). -anway.. All is well here. Great (!) Meetings today. I’ll try and post pictures of this huge, smoggy, crowded (and very cool and fascinating ) city tomorrow ! Nite all, nite sam
-me
All posts by johncohn
Monday night – more sweden
Greetings from Stockholm.. It’s about midnight and I’m feeling a little
low.. I miss my family…
low.. I miss my family…
It’s been fun ere.. I had a good day at work.. a couple of customer meetings
and then oem good brainstorming with some friends here at work..
The rain broke midday at it was really beautiful and cool.. there were some great rainbows over the city.. I coud only catch this one..
This evening Mikael, Per-Olof and I retired to a Belgian restaurant to work on world peace.. I think we got most of it solved. Seriously.. nothing is more conducive to good working relationships that being ale to sit and talk to someone over a meal and a beverage or two. I really miss the degree of face to face contact we used to have at work..
Here’s Mikael looking sage.. (he is quite sage)
.. and here’s Per-Olof.. (another great. great guy)
Per-Olof obliged me by giving me a Swedish sample of my universal watch-word ” I dropped my pen in the mashed potatoes” sorry it was so dark. ( I also had one of Mikael but it’s too dark to see)
Now I’m back in my hotel room prepping for my talk tomorrow in the best way I know how
OK.. time for sleep. Night all, night sam
-me
Sunday night – Stockholm
Greetings from Stockholm, home of Ingrid Bergman , Ingmar Bergman, Bjorn Borg, Abba , Greta Garbo and dynamite . It’s a beautiful city. I’ haven’t been here since the mid 80’s but it’s still one of my favorite cites on the planet. I’m not exactly sure why I like it so much.. it’s kind of grey, , usualy cold.. and full of big sately buildings.. but it has a beutiful colorful life to it inside of the pale grays and browns of it’s architecture..
I got in about 9::30 this mornign to Arlanda airport.. You have to understand that I just finished reading all 3 of the Stieg Larson Books (Women with the Dragon Tattoo, Woman Who Played WIht Fire Woman Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest) Places like Arlanda .. and Vasgarten, the steet my hotel is on.. factored big in those books. I feel like I’m right in the middle of som twisted and misogynistic, Swedish spy thriller/romance/psycho novel.. very exciting.
They even ask you to check your teargas at the door.. it’s a crime to carry it here.. (just liek in the book !)
Speaking of crime, I was very glad to se my suitcase come out intact.. The last time I saw it, it was splayed out over two tables whit all of its contents being photographed and separately scanned. I have some demo equipment in there for my talk on Tuesday.. Evidently it didn’t look good on xray. .especially on 9/11..
I caught the Arlanda express into town..
Found my hotel down near the water, changed into my running clothes and went out for a run in the cool, gray morning..
The place is well layed out for bike commuters
and chock full of art.
Here’s a veiw over into the Gamala Stan- The Old City
Ahhhh.. here’s the newspaper where Monica worked in the book (I think)
I ran back home showered and headed out to meet up with my old freind Madeline. In the way I noticed this huge screen on a building showing a data glitch.. – FAIL !
I loved the old streets.. a great mix of old and new architecuture and fittings. Very clean.. very muted..
I met up with Madeline at the appointed restaurant, more or less on time, only to find it closed, We found a small busy place around the corner. and proceeded to catch up for the last 30 some odd years.
Madeline had been an exchange student staying with my good friend Sandy in Houston. We were very good friends in high school… and have stayed more or less in touch since. Diane and I visited Madeline her in Stockholm in the mid 80s.. then we saw her at Sandy’s wedding.. and once more when she visited us abut 12 years ago in Vermont. I hadn’t spoken with her since Sam died. To day I learned that her 27 year old step son Theo died just about the same time as Sam in a beach accident in Rio de Jainero. I was so shocked to here that / We spent the next couple of hours talking about all of our kids, our lives, grieving. healing, re-finding ourselves, our missions in life.. It was a really, really wonderful and deep conversation. It’s amazing how easy it is to drop back into a conversation with a good friend, even if it’s been years since you last talked.
‘
After lunch Madeline walked with me for a bit then headed off to pack. Her son is getting married this week in Barcelona and she’s leaving somtime tonight..
I did a little more exploring of the city.. then headed back for meditation and a short nap (only 3 hours of sleep last night)..
My dinner plans this evening fell through when my business friend here
called to say that he too had been up all night and needed to get some
sleep No proble for me, my friend Dirk from Belgium is teaching here
outside of the city. I called him up and he agreed to meet me for a
late dinner down in Gamala Stan..
Dirk met me around 7:30 .. and we walked across the bridge into the old quarter. It was so magically beautiful ..
We passed the Nobel museum..Dedicated to Alfred Nobel, the inventor of Dynamite.. (and the Nobel prize)
Dirk’s been living in Stockholm for about 9 months, so he was an exclellnet guide.. he led us to this small restaurant with typical swedish stuff.. ..
Here’s Dirk contemplating the coming 4 types of herring for dinner
We drank god beer .. great brand, no ?
Ah.. here are 3 types of herring
and the fourth .. yum !!!
Around 10 I had to get back home for a work meeting. Dirk walked me that way.. past Yxsmesgrand street .. that means ‘bad scrabble hand’ street if you didn’t know..
OK.. Jet lag kicking in big time here. time for sleep.. More from Sweden tomorrow.
god natt al, god natt Sam
-me
Saturday afternoon – 911
You know, 911 was always my lucky number as a kid. It was our locker number
at the tennis and swimming club that my folks belonged to. It was my locker combo at school. It kept recurring in my life with such frequency that I took it to be lucky. I would make important phone calls at 9:11 AM or PM.. I would hold my thumb… an austrian symbol of good luck and make a wish whenever I saw 911 .. on a clock, license plate, phone number, etc. The days Sept 11 or Nov 9th (in Europe they put day first) were always particularly auspicious.. In fact, Diane and I got engaged on Nov 9.. Sept 11 didn’t work because Diane had an exam.
Then.. came 9/11 @001.. I remember I was giving a talk at the Math Department at U of Vermont. I had this watch that doubled as a pageer. When the first plane hit the world trade center my watch went off.. I read the short cryptic message about the attack on the small screen of my watch.. The room was silent.. A few minutes later, more messages.. as we all crowded around the tiny screen of my watch..
Diane was away at a yoga training.. I drove home to be there when the kids came home.. I remember how hat whole day felt.. and the week after.. so vividly…
Every year since the echo of this day has felt strange.. This year there’s some bad energy around the burning of the Holy Quoran .. and the positioning of a mosque near ground zero. As a religious minority myself, I cna only hope that reason reigns eventually.. we need to learn not to hate.. no matter how hateful an enemy we see.. we have to learn tolerance of others beliefs and creeds .. no matter how hard that is. It’s not that love will fix the world.. there will always be extremists on all sides of all issues.. It’s just that Love has got to be our response to pain and suffering. We can’t control others.. only our own response.
I write the above as I’m about to board a plane to Sweden on 9/11.. It’s a wierd day to fly.. The TSA went through the science gear in my suitcase with a fine toothed comb.. I’m glad they did..
More from Sweden tomorrow.
Nite all.. nite Sam
-me