Real Football

So World Cup Fever truly died here after Sweden was bounced out of the prelim final against Germany, and then Australia's had it's turn of bad luck. It was great to be in a truly soccer loving nation as coverage of it was everywhere. Watching Sweden win over England at the uni bar was another example of quiet restraint, as barely a peep could be heard in the place. Not such a surprise for me after the similar experience watching the olympic hockey final, but to the work visitor Jon from the US, and Lucy from Melb, it was hard to understand.

I actually wrote a little outline of how Australian football works, seeing as I kept being asked about soccer in Aus and about other football codes that we play. I added a few links to Youtube videos, and had a quick summary of the main aspects of the game written in almost grammatically perfect Swedish. Almost. I used the word 'ballen' instead of 'bollen'. Which meant one of my sentences read: "A man can run holding his balls, but they must be touched to the ground every 15m, either by bouncing, touching, or punching...". The game sounded impressive to a lot of people!

I met Lucy through taiko drumming, and since there was a conference in Stockholm, she couldn't not come up north... and she generously brought a real footy for me to replace the one I lost at the Ice hotel, which is probably on its way to the Baltic sea by now. It was a hectic week, but we managed to find a little time for a bit of kick to kick.

A floater

Hasse in action

Jon