zappo

Not quite The Giant Rat of Sumatra, but almost.

So I went to the dog fair on Saturday -- 3hr of dogs in all sizes, colours and temperaments, plus their humans. Which is the most entertaining? Sometimes it's hard to tell. Many cute dogs too; I still think if I wanted a pedigree dog (and not a "just a dog" dog, i.e. a mongrel), it would be a Dansk-svensk gårdshund, like Kvik in "Matador". And I still think the best thing with these fairs is the agility contest, where lots of tiny to midsize dogs whizzzz around an obstacle course barking like mad because it's just so darned fun!

Also there was a stage play where the actors were all dogs... again something like agility, or rather a circus act, where dogs and their humans had fun together. The story was Cinderella, in Swedish "Askhunden". Would that be "Dogerella", or rather "Cinderdog"?

And the vendors. Oh the vendors...

After three hours I was tired and went to the movies. It was almost sold out. Why were all the other ppl there? I was there because of the rumoured slash content, and because it said "Sherlock Holmes" on the tin. But I'm afraid I was rather disappointed on both counts. Featuring cultists, a crowd of literary characters including a feisty woman and loving paintings of a London skyline full of cranes of drifting smoke, this movie should have been called "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", and then it would have been good (much better than the Sean Connery vehicle). But with the current title, I'm sorry, it's just _wrong_. That's nowhere near the "real" Holmes, never mind the random quotes and nods to Conan Doyle's characterisation! Argh bloody writers! But the acting was OK, I really like Jude Law's Watson. Heh, that seems to be a recurring theme in latter-day Holmes productions: the Watson is good, sometimes much better than the Holmes.

Jeremy Brett still rules supreme as the best screen Holmes.

Argh, want to share this link with the #lexxians but I can't access mIRC from work! Anyway, tentacle fries!

Did anyone see the meteor shower last night? The rain showers here hid it. Oh look, it's raining again now... good thing I decided not to go to Strömstad for fieldwork today.

... during morning rush hour in the tube.

Why do all handrails in escalators move faster than the escalator itself? I don't think I've ridden a single one where I don't have to move pull my hand back every few seconds because the handrail is not synchronised to the moving stairs.

Perhaps they're designed by the same engineers who make bus engines.

Stockholm _does_ move at a different pace from Gbg. Everyone here is so gosh-darned important and horribly stressed (this is a point of pride and honour, as one can read in editorials, books and blogs; the smugness at being stressed always shines through). I thought I walked slowly in Gbg but here it's twice worse. Plus no one here gives way the least little bit at all ever!

All the streets and tube corridors echo with the clatter of pumps and women's high-heeled boots. What a racket.

But communications are mostly running frequently and on time -- a very pleasant change to Gbg and Värsttrafik!

Only one more day to spend here...

We've just passed Falköping and I looked out the window and saw a herd of big black beasts -- not horses, not cows but... bison. What? *rubbernecking* What?! *full-on Tenth Doctor mode* WHAT???

Now I wonder about the kind of cheese they make in Falköping...