First trip of the year

I couldn't take it any longer. I haven't fished since October last year. I had to get out. I didn't catch anything in the 42 degree water but it was nice to be back out swinging the long rod again. It won't be long before the trout will be looking up again. This has been a long cold winter and people can't wait until they can get out and enjoy the outdoors again. Don't get me wrong. I like winter hiking and such but this year was dreadful. I have been gone from Sweden too long. Thank God I don't live there anymore. They have had more than 3 ft of snow in my old home town. It's been snowing off and on since Christmas.

Hotet and some pictures from Stockaryd, Sweden

I finished the great Kjell Sundvall's movie "Hotet". It is a somewhat thin story but at the same time very entertaining. It has one of my favorite Swedish actors in it Shanti Roney. Göran Ragnerstam does a great role as an air force officer. The movie came out in 2004 or so and got very bad reviews but I give it a C+. I also finished the fly fishing trilogy by Lars-Åke Olsson. Torrflugefiske, Våtflugefiske and Nymffiske. Dr Fly Fishing, Wet fly fishing and fishing with a nymph respectively. If you like Lars and his books you will enjoy these DVDs also. They are somewhat brief in the fishing department and feels more like tying movies than fishing movies.

Here's a few pictures taken at Christmas time at my parents house in Sweden.

Back from Sweden

I've got back from Sweden last night. This was one of my most horrific experiences when it comes to travel. On my way over there I was stuck in Memphis for six hours, and then seventeen hours in Amsterdam, trying to sleep in the airport. It was snow storms everywhere and complete chaos. I will never put my foot in Schiphol again if I can avoid it. Rude people and nobody cared to help anyone. I finally got to Gothenburg one day late. Picked up my rental car and drove the two hours to my home town Stockaryd. I had a nice visit with my folks, but managed to get offended twice. One day in a store In a small town called Värnamo. The clerk literally yelled at me for trying to use a computer terminal labeled info. As a visitor from the U.S, used to customer service and the customer is always right attitude I was appalled. I spoke my piece and told them that I was a visitor from overseas and lucky for them I was born in Sweden and know how rude and cold they can be. My next bad experience came in my dealings with an official government entity. I had to take care of a simple application process and they managed to constantly use sarcasm and out of place humour with me. I guess they really do hate Americans nowadays. Aside from these incidents everything was great. I just can't understand why the people are so impolite and sour. Don't even get me started on the way they bump in to you, cut in front of you in lines, and general me me attitude. I'm very disappointed in this, especially as a native born Swede. I guess I never thought about this until I moved to the U.S.

Joe Kidd and gone to Sweden

I watched Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd the other day. I have to say it is not the most impressive movie with Clint. I like Robert Duvall in it but the movie has an amateurish feeling to it in my humble opinion. It's directed by John Sturges, and it's not one of his better work. The story by Elmore Leonard is good but the movie itself you can live without. I hope I didn't offend too many Clint fan's with this, but even though I love Clint, this is a misstep.

I'm off to Sweden for a visit. I won't be back on here until mid January some time. Take care and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Hello again. It's cold and dreary this morning. We (Federation of Fly fisher in Knoxville) together with TU in Maryville and others cleaned up the riverbanks through Townsend yesterday. It was cold and rainy but not too bad after all. We had a good turnout and the food afterward was great.

I'm trying to finish up Stieg Larsson's book "The Girl With The Dragoon Tattoo" it is pretty good. I also watched two swedish movies yesterday. "Predikanten" by Camilla Läckberg and Martina Haag's "Underbar och Älskad av alla". The first one was an ordinary police drama and the second one a feel good comedy by director Hannes Holm in Sweden. I liked it pretty good. I'm not keen on writing reviews but if you like a somewhat funny and silly comedy you would like this one. It is probably not available through the ordinary distribution channels in the U.S. I got my copy from my mom in Sweden and it's a PAL version region 2. It will only play on a dvd with a region free seeting and converter built in.

Slickrock Creek, NC Saturday Oct 11, 2008

What a day. It was a full day for sure. I went with a new friend from an online fly fishing board. We decided on hiking in a couple of mile to some rugged waters in Joyce Kilmer Wilderness in NC. It was a muggy day for being October and the first highlight of the day was spotting a bald eagle cruising over our heads. We didn't do well when it comes to the fishing part but we got a good work out or at least I did. I was substantially in a lot worse shape than my buddy. We ended our day on another stream in NC and the second highlight for me was to spot one of the biggest black bears I have ever seen. I wasn't quick enough with my camera and the bear was staring at me a little too long for my comfort so I decided on backing off in order to not make the situation in to a situation of you know what I mean! All in all a nice day but fishing was slow. Oh well, you can't have it all I guess.

No news on books, movies or anything else right now, I got a call from a friend in Sweden which is always nice and I just found out that my darn ac unit is frozen up again. It's october for heaven's sake. I'm just leaving it until spring. I have to try to charge it up again since I can't afford to replace it just yet.

Update

It's been a long silence on here. I have a good reason for it. My parents from Sweden was here visiting with us for 11 days. We mainly visited local restaurants and did one day trip up to Watauga lake and South Holston lake. We also visited some friends and did a quick downtown Knoxville trip to the Mast Store and the Farmers Market on Market Square. It was a lovely visit but bittersweet as the goodbye is not easy. I had not seen my dad since the fall of 2005. I hope it won't be that long this time around.

We have had a nice day at Dollywood today courtesy of my employer. They provide a yearly outing for the employee's and it's always lovely. We also managed to squeeze in a visit to the movies last night. I'm a fan of the Coen Brothers so we had to see "Burn After Reading". It was awesome. The movie has somewhat of a similar feel as "The Big Lebowski". It's a nice spoof of the intelligence and general craziness in D.C. Anyway, I'm glad the Coen's are back in form after some uneven movies in recent years. I was not a big fan of "No Country For Old Men" and I couldn't stand "Intolerable Cruelty".

I have not been able to fish lately so not much on that. I might get back in to the fishing by next weekend if I can manage to fix a plumbing problem, I'm having at the house.

More later.....................

Busy Weekend

This past weekend was real busy. I'm preparing for my parents visit from Sweden. I haven't seen dad since 2005 so it's exciting. We are going to take if mostly easy and maybe do a few day trips.

I washed my car, cleaned house and washed windows. I did the grass and watered the shrubs. I even got to fish the Clinch on Saturday morning. I caught and released about 9 rainbows. The biggest was 13" and took a small black midge beadhead. The water was bone chilling cod at 53 degrees.

Slow Saturday

Called mom and dad back in Sweden today, not much going on there either. They are coming for a visit in a couple of weeks. I'm trying not to have a too full of a program or schedule for them. It always seem like I plan too much and it all becomes a disaster. I'm not fishing today, might hop over to the Clinch in the morning.

Saw an awful movie the other day. The only reason I got it was the fact that one of my favorite actors "Forrest Whittaker was in it. The name of the flick! Vantage Point. I think the bad acting and the confusing ending was a bore.

Anyway, not much to update. More later.