skydiving film festival

We started at my place for the preparty. Kitten was the only one who replied to my open invitation on the down list. She brought along Gunilla and eld-Janne. Fadder Joey and Ingela also came.

The film festival was if full swing when we arrived. I realized that I now recognize the majority of the regular members, and some are stating to recognize me. Though it didn't encourage anyone but kitten to accept my ivite. grr.

Chippe was checking people in. He asked about Johan directly. Funny how some people can remember names and connections and some of the members don't even associate Johan and I as a couple.

The atmosphere reminded me of a jr. highschool dance with showing home movies. I must admit that I was inspired by most of the films. It's not a secret that I am still scared out of my mind by the prospect of jumping out an airplane again as the season starts, but after seeing the beauty of mid-air acrobatics, I was enthused and excited to start jumping again.

The winners had spoofed "We are the World" and it went down real well with the inhebriated crowd who embraced shoulders and sung in unison.

The funniest element of the evening was the journey home. I had no idea where exactly I was in Hammarby. When I got to the road hoping to luck out on a taxi driving by I found a lost coach bus driver in need of directings to Zinkensdamm. I traded a ride there for guidance.

week of coincidences

It turned out to be two skaters who succumbed to hypothermia and died in the skating accident. But it was the first fatality that started the coincidences. His name was David Sjögren and it turned out that he was an active member in our skydiving club. I didn't know him.

Last weekend we went up to Gryttjom to help out with some building jobs at the clubhouse. Since we're both still very new, it's also an opportunity to get to know folks. We successfully got to know the gang of 12 or so a little better.

On Monday I discovered that Mlowry, a poster on the Local and someone in IRC, knows a skydiver. From a posted picture of a skating outing on Mlowry's blog I identified Patric, one of the guys on the building team.

On Tuesday I lunched with Paul, the now retired HR manager of BSH. In discussion of skydiving and the unfortunate skater, Paul informed me that his former boss at BSH was best friends and pall bearer at David's funeral. On a happier note, when discussing Paul's childhood home, Reimersholmen --our neck of the woods we found another connection. The conversation went like this:

P: Our apartment looked out on the canal
Me: That's where our boat club is
P: I still know one guy who I grew up who still lives on Reimers. He's a member in that club. His name is Lars-Gunnar-
Me: Axelsson. I just wrote him an email 2 hours ago for boat club related information.

On Wednesday I got in contact with Stefan, my former skydiving instructor and member of the Swedish delegation who participated in the successful 400-way world record in Thailand a couple of weeks ago. I will profile him in an upcoming article. Upon looking at his work email address, I discover that he works at Anoto, the company I have just started writing business cases for.

On Thursday I had déjà vu. As I entered the revolving door to a building I was stuck by the familiarity of the backpack of the guy in front of me. I realized that exactly one week before, same time, same door, same backpack, same guy, entered exactly ahead of me and preceded me on the way up the esclator.

Today is Friday...I am still waiting for today's coincidence.