James O'Brien

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I saw the Christmas Decorations in the David Jones window, when I walked past there ealier tonight.

Even though I live close to the city, I don’t often go past there, as I’m not a particularly good “shopper”. Wandering around shops is not my idea of a good time. And so when I saw the DJs windows tonight I was genuinely surprised. I know I shouldn’t be, as it’s only a few weeks to Christmas, but I was nonetheless.

Unlike Yani who has already been Christmas shopping, and Tom who has been dealing with overseas postage issues, I’m pathetic when it comes to Christmas.

I was on my way to see James Valentine perform at The Basement. The place was packed and everyone seemed to have a good night. There was even a group of people having their “work” Christmas Party. Ours is next week.

Another reminder of the impending year’s end came at my Swedish class tonight when Marianne announced “We have just two more weeks”. “Oh yeah”, we all realised, wondering what had happened to the last few weeks.

It was an interesting class tonight, if not only for the reason we had to call the police. There was a drunk and disorderly bloke causing a bit of nearby distress, breaking windows of the next door shop. Thank goodness, we had a bloke who works in security in the class who knew exactly what to do.

And in another odd co-incidence, as I walked towards David Jones, I overheard a couple speaking in Swedish. “How many bloody Swedes are there in Sydney?”, I thought to myself.

All of which leads me to a new resolution. Along with blogging every day, and making sure I go out for lunch, and making sure the house remains tidy, I’ve decided to write something in Swedish every day. I figure if I’m going to crack this language thing I need discipline. And so I figured if I wrote something every day, even just a few lines, it would help me… So here goes…

This is a real dialogue I had last Friday night at the September Concert…

H: Hej, hej. Kommar du från sverige?

J: Nej, jag kommar från sydney.

H: Men, du har en svensk t-shirt. Varför?

J: Jag var i sverige i juli och augusti.

H: Jaha. Jag också. Jag heter Hannah. Vad heter du?

J: Hej Hannah. Jag heter James. Hur mor du?

H: Mycket bra! Varför talar du svenska?

J: Jag lyssnar på svensk pop-musik och tittar på svensk film. Jag var i sverige i juli och augusti, och jag såg många konserter: Magnus Carlsson, Peter Jöback, Eva Dahlgren, Hep Stars, ocha många andra artister. Varför talar du svenska?

H: Jag var född i sverige, och min gudmor ar svensk.

J: Ar du svensk eller australier?

H: Jag ar australier…

If you’re Swedish, please feel free to correct mistakes, as I embark on this new, interesting part of my blog.

And if you’re not Swedish, maybe you would like to attempt some translations? This could be fun…