The screws have arrived ! Of course that doesnt mean we can finally put together our new chair. The wonderful souls at Ikea forgot the metal poles this time. Still they are doing rather well now,I mean there is only one piece missing now. Well two of the samepiece, but they couldnt mess that up could they ? I dont want to answer that question. I am off to work now,a non too happy chappy.

Finally the missing parts to our new chair came in the post from Ikea on Wednesday. Would have been nice if they had put the screws in the parcel as well though. Hopefully Postis Per, have to love the Swedish versions of our childhood classics, will come with a parcel today as I could do with a comfy chair to collapse in. My legs are feeling to say the least, heavy at the moment. After cross training on Tuesday, I had a short run Wednesday morning, before having a call from work which meant another hour on the bike.

Work itself was a disaster. Ever had one of those days when nothing goes right ? It started badly, when the forks that are meant to collect the printed sections of books, stuck in the down position. This caused piles of paper to be thrown all over the floor at a rate of knots. Calls for help were hindered by ear protectors and I continued to drown in a flood of paper. Finally they noticed I had been replaced by a mountain of paper, and the clear up operation could begin. The rest of the shift was filled with over areas of the machine going wrong, which meant very little printing was done at all. There is nothing as boring as doing nothing.

Feeling good on Monday I decided to try a run around the lake at a faster pace. The state of well being didn’t last that long, until about half way around in fact. There were quite a few runners out today, and every single one of them looked much calmer than myself. Maybe on the outside I don’t look that bad either. However on the inside my stomach was churning and my heart pounding, there were several times when I could have quite happily given up. As long as there was no one there to see me give up that is. And that’s what got me out of the sticky spot. Each time my legs were willing me to stop, another Swede popped out of the hedges, until finally I was home again. Another run done at just under 8 minute mile pace instead of my more usual plodding 10-minute milers. So all in all not such a bad day after all. Now where can I find 101 people willing to line the route of my training runs at short notice…

Despite remaining around zero, the weather was wonderful on Sunday. So having delivered all the junk mail on my round (A job I don’t particularly care for but do all the same) we decided to go for a bike ride. We being my fiancee Maria, and myself. It seems everyone else and their dogs had had the same idea. The area around the lake was crowded (by swedish standards) and cycling became more of a salom event. Confusion started to show on my face as we pulled nearer to the lakeside. On the other side of the lake boat sails could be seen skimming quickly across the lake. But the lakes still covered on ice, the voices in my head could be heard to be screaming, how can this be ? It seems they have made canoes on skate like runners with sailing boat sails. Quite a clever construction, that were moving at a rapid speed. People seemed to be quite happy to go out walking on the ice covered lake. Call me a chicken if you like, but having seen the ice melting towards the shoreline, my feet decided they were staying on firm ground.

I tested my resting heart beat over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised to find it has come down to 60 beats a minute. I can not remember exactly what it was before I moved over, but I have a feeling it was around 74 beats a minute. Maybe it is just my memory playing tricks on me, but I would prefer to call it a good improvement.

The simple things in life bring the greatest joys. We have a new phone at last. The one we had been using was a cheap plastic affair and I am glad to see the back of it. No longer will I be jumping out off my skin each time the phone rings. Nothings ever perfect though, I think the answerphone is being sarcastic when telling me we have no new messages. Thursdays run was another easy run of 26 minutes. Hopefully soon I will be able to work in some shorter harder runs but at the moment I don’t want to risk it until the ice has gone for good.

Today I had another call from work asking if I could come in again. That meant a rush to work at short notice and no time for a run today. However I am sticking with what Chris of www.runnerchris.blogspot.com said about cycling instead of running. “Don't feel bad about cycling instead of running. I'm finding that more cross-training is a good thing. It gives your legs a break from all the pounding and builds/works different muscles” I am all for that now if only my bum would agree with me. I am to say the least, slightly saddle sore. I certainly wouldn’t be any good as a cowboy. It’s as if my backside is holding me to ransom saying “I know you didn’t go running yesterday and now your going to suffer”. Paranoia is a wonderful thing.

Another day another rejection letter, at least they bothered to write this time, I guess that makes a change. Before I go any further with this post I have to admit I didn’t go for a run yesterday. Will you forgive me ? I have a good excuse, erm I mean reason. The book factory where I have stand by work phoned at late notice and asked if I could come and work the late shift. I cycled the 30 minutes each way so we could call it cross training if you like. Okay you drive a hard bargain but it's a deal if I train that bit harder today you will forgive me.

Its snowing here again. I can’t believe it ! Don’t get me wrong I love snow, I am like a big kid in snow. I wish for blizzards, blocked roads and sightings of the yeti in the middle of town. But that’s in December and January. I’m English, and if there is one thing that has taught me, that is that in Mars you have mist, you have dull grey, if you are lucky a bit of sun, but no snow. What’s the big problem you may be wondering ? Well it covers all the ice and hides it, it melts and forms new ice, in short it's a hazard. I have fallen over 3 times this winter just walking so I think I would be pushing my luck with too much running or cycling. It's a terrible tease as well, just as you think its clearing up and spring is truly on the way, mother nature goes and dumps another load of the white stuff everywhere. If this keeps up I think I will have a nervous breakdown, otherwise I will be back with today’s post tonight.

After a week of constant reformats it would seem that the computer is back reasonably stable for the time being. I am starting to believe that an electronics missionary must have broken into the apartment when no one was looking. How else can you explain the suicide bid of every item in the area that has a microchip in it. If I take a while to update this you can assume that my hard drive is floating around on a fluffy cloud attempting to play a harp.

As for the running I managed a 30 minute jog around the lake dodging old ladies. Despite walking slowly they managed with skilful positioning of icey sections of path and bitterly cold puddles and considered sveres managed to block the entire path. Most of the tracks are now clear of snow and ice but I still had to take care not to end up arse over tit for the 4th time this year. Roll on spring.

Well first things first, welcome to my blog. The name is James, I am a 24 year old englishman now living in Sweden. I moved over from the south east of England to continue a relationship with a tickle crazy swedish girl and have now been living here for 18 months. This blog is meant to record my life as i find it living in a new country with a new language and my attempts to train for a 28km road running race in september of this year.