Throwing out old garbage and looking forward to a fresh start

For me Bat Fit has been a lot about mind cleansing recent years. Until las autumn, I was surrounded by toxic people at a toxic job and it left me feeling completely useless. A couple of years ago, I was deeply depressed, suicidal, but during my journey back to life, a couple 

of descisions were taken:

1. Get healthy enough to get another job. If you feel useless and depressed, I can assure you that it is impossible to get hired elsewere.

2. If you don't find a proper job. Think of doing something completely different. So I started school agin at the same time I had my pissy full time job, but it worked great. Eventhough I should be more stressed, I was actually happier and felt that Im not that stupid useless crap my bosses made me think.

3. Get another profession. My goal was to become a highschool teacher in chemistry and I sended out my CV's to a couple of local schools and heard nothing fo 8 months. Last year a principal called and wanted to book an interview. I got a new job.

4. Finish my exam and do a excellent job. This is were I am right now and can admit that I haven't been a good student but a great teacher working too much. I have a couple of essays to write this week before next semester.

5. Loose weight by excersise. My dream is that I will be able to run again. But a broken knee and overweight prevents that now.

6. Eat healthier. I know what works for me and that is low carb with lots of vegetables.

These two last things are difficult as I work most of my time awake. I have to make room for exercise and to make healthy lunch boxes and stop eating in front of the tv. 

All the working, studying and bad eating have given me a stress belly. I have always been an hourglass, but now Im an barrel shaped figure. That is very dangerous because heart failures runs in my family.

During my holiday off work, I've been taken daily walks and a bit of weight lifting.

My face has become really puffy lately.

Thank godness for beautiful surroundings!

My breakfast this morning was a green smoothie. A habit I must start again, slowly. If you don't start slowly you will end up with bad headache.

If you haven't heard about Bat Fit yet, hop over to Frannys blog to read more, and join the amazing facebook group.

I usually hate shopping in town. But as I got money to spend for Christmas I made an exception. A big wool sweater, a pair of earrings, an expensive but very good deodorant and a book. 

For you Swedish speaking readers, I can really recommend Mörkersdottir förlag. The owner writes horror and supernatural fiction and herself and releasing books of other writers, like the one above. 

Sekten på Dimön (The sect on Fog Island) is based on the writers experiences of the Scientiology church were she were living and working for the inner circle. I'll post a review of it once its read.

Crawling out from the crypt

Thank you Ms.Misantropia for the giveaway. I'm looking forward to read it and I hope it's not that corny as the movies ;-). I also got a card letter in my first letter and a book mark fit for a dark novel.

So were the hell have I been?

I have been working a huge part and trying to keep pace with my studies at the same time, more on that later for you who are interested. 

We didn't throw our annual Halloween party because of my tight scedule. But pumpkin cupcakes it was and Alfons carved out the huge one . The inside gave a huge batch of pumpkin puree to bake and make tasty stuff.

A tip when you carve out the meat of the pumpkin. Bake it in a pan tightly covered with an ovensheet on low heat to get a nice puree with all the flavours left.

The rest of the time has evolved around technology and science only, even at my sparetime. Oskar and his class mates joined the First Lego League challenge. It was an exciting game. They had a good chance to win but as a sensor failed to work an the other didn't have the equal calibration, they lost the semi.

We also visited the science museum for kids. Where they have a simple and harmless laboratory. My bunch are making lava lamps on this photo.

 I had to buy the Monster High Halloween pack. The magazine is ridicilous, I hate the effeminated texts in it. The craft stuff was nice and I finally have a real ink pen that works for my lefthanded writing. Yay!!

So why do I work so much? Well I teach two different math classes, I also have a class in chemistry, then I'm an examinator for some of the third grades exam assignments and I'm a mentor for a couple of students in my first grade class. This could fill my time completely but I also teach second technology and scientific specialisation. In these two last classes there are no books, no material to use, and no material to find. I teach my scientific class steel plant technology, hot forming of steel and material technology, because that's something I have knowledge of. The technology class is worse, they ought to learn mechanics like transmission, hydraulics, and pneumatics and so forth but I can't find any books of good standars. I have no idea what other technology teachers are doing in this case, this course is very new as well. I have this weekend to work on this and to do my own schoolwork, an essay about environmental sustainability work in school.

I say bye for now. See you maybe in another month...

Book piles

 So many books, but so little time. Lots of books has been bought this summer both for studies and for recreation. The recreational books will have to wait for a while now because the semester has began and there is lots of reading and writing ahead. This is a pile of books that has to wait it is; The whole Harry Potter series, I will read them for Alfons at bedtime (it's great that he says the books are better than the movies), The Steampunk bible (couldn't resist), Flood of fire (bought at the Steamcon), The diary of Årstafrun (a diary from 16th century), American Gods, and Sustainable living by John Seymore. The pile actually tells a lot about my interests.

Here's a few books read this summer that I wanted to review. Hollow city was bought earlier this year in English because I didn't want to wait for the Swedish translation, but didn't have time to read it until the summer vacation came. I actually prefer it in the original language. Hollow City is the following book after Miss Peregrine's school for peculiar children. It is full of adventure and dangerous enemies. The book is actually a long escape that starts in the first book and I do think that this particular event could have been cut down a bit. Maybe the writer wanted to include all the photos and weave the story around them. 
I can tell you that this is not the end of the story, it continues in a third book not ready to be sold yet. 

My heart beats for chemistry and this book is amazing. I haven't found it translated wich is a darn pity. It tells about poisons and the darker aspects of chemistry. Like, what happens when a corpse is decomposing, how long does it takes ( wich is cruical for the forensics), how to preserve a mummy, odors of hell, drugs and poisons. All the substances are scientifically described and their consequenses along with real and fictional stories. So if you can read in Swedish or maybe find an English version, I higly recommend "Ond Kemi" by Ulf Ellervik. He has also written a similar book about the chemistry around joyments (sex, food and feelings).

This is my non-feng shui-view while reading books in the bed. Piles of clothes, unmatching curtains and a skeleton. My book shelves are brim ful and today I will go to Ikea to buy another book shelf for my student books. 

Me and the boys went to a town an hours drive from home last friday, because the youngest would start the bandy season. It was a warm evening outdoors and very cold in the arena. When you have kids training sports it's necessary to be an attending parent, it is also necessary to get along with the other parents to make everything go smooth. I really tried to talk to the others, but was completely ignored, it's not the first time this happens. I must have looked like a fool not worthy to talk to or something, maybe it was that I didn't wear any sporty leisure clothes. While the others sat on the rood loft I was by the ice, fetching balls (bandy = balls, no pucks) and lacing skates, who was the sporty parent now?

Oh, before I stop my babble I will recommend you to read my other blog Along the green road where I write about healthy food, vegetables and a bit of gardening. If you have a citrus tree I give you a tip what you can do with the leaves.

Look the firework has started! I love my African lily, Agaphantus.