If ever you need something to brighten up your day real quick.

If ghosts had real skeletons, dogs would attack them all the time.

I've been on a cruise again!

Two more within four days no less, with a good buddy and a cousin... and both were great, though I seem to have caught something from the (I assume) breakfast buffet with either the former or the latter, cause a day later I was back home with a pretty grueling case of something that seems akin to strep throat.

Is it really a case of streptococci bacteria though? A mild case of tonsilitis mayhaps? Some food allergy, or immune-related response, or lingering cold-related symptoms that were further enhanced by exacerbations and additional trips? None of the symptoms sets match entirely.

Who knows!

It's painful to swallow anyhow. At first mostly my left tonsil, now my right, and for a couple of nights my ears were popping and getting pretty painful as well, and I wondered if I was coming down with an ear infection also, but *knock on wood* that at least seems not to be the case...

The time of cruising is over at least, for now.

I've bought a bundle of interesting beverages on board, I've tested some finer brands of whisky and liquor, I've had three breakfast buffets - one on a weekend and two on weekdays - the dishes differ, toured the M/S Birka Gotland rigorously, sat above the helm and talked stocks for an hour or two with my good friend, played cards by a sunny window on deck 5 with my cousin, listened to a variety of artists, played for a couple of kronor at the casino, stood stoically in a blitz of snow one wavy night, watched the moonlit sea from the window another, soaked in sun on the last way back, and I'm starting to get a pretty good geographical grasp on the layout of the Stockholm archipelago...

Good trips! They're just as cheap next week too, and I do have a few spare days then, but I feel like I've had enough of boats for now, and besides, next weekend we're headed for Albania.

So much of the past month's been spent on sickness though.

I've been sick, mom and dad have been sick, my sister too, both my boss and his brother, good buddy Bear also...

Get-together and Birthday celebration plans have been getting postponed continually, and before you know it you've spent a twelfth of the New Year on not much of anything...

I can't help feel like I could've been much more prolific. I'm sick of feeling worn down and sickish.

You know that NG documentary though? It made it! One little victory. Magnific.

Ever heard of exploding pingos btw? Ever watched the Guinness Record for sheep to jumper? How about Trump's (with certain enhancement/montaging) Harry Styles cover?

Apart from the cruises I've been playing some DOOM 2 the past few days, while I binge podcasts in the background and troubleshoot a somewhat problematic (aren't they always) integration migration at work.

If you have a working API why you gotta change one? Innovation's our main frustration.

Speak more in a few. Go cruise or to Zoo. It's coo'.

Oh I'm ready now!

We have to love our kids more than we hate each other.

Paraphrased slightly, I believe.

After Göteborg there was this! A two day trip to Halmstad.

I have no idea what Halmstad is in English - if it's called anything other than it's actual name (as Gothenburg is), so I'll just roll with that this time! Halmstad, AKA the City of Hay.

Though it's really more a town than a city.

Ever been there yourself? Ever planning to go? If so here's a bundle of restaurants we considered on the train trip there.

We ended up going to the one of those with the shortest anchor text above, and this one, and they were great!

The place? Some pictures...

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