The Famous Underwear Guy

I never see anyone famous. If I bumped into them on the street, I wouldn't notice. In Sweden, I don't even know who the famous people are... and now that I have lived here so long, I don't even know who I should know in the US.

So I turn up for my Tuesday ladies tennis day, as usual. "Did you see?" someone asked. "What?" I reply. "Over there!" I look and nothing looks unusual - three courts of guys playing singles, just like every other Tuesday. "Björn Borg", she says, "playing with his son." So I look more closely. The two bald guys next to us? Nope... The next two bald guys? Doesn't seem right... And then the two guys with hair, one in a fluroescent yellow shirt (and if he didn't want to be noticed, he might have chosen white...). Yep, it was Björn Borg, long-ish hair and all.

I think I might have noticed if I had watched some of the serves. Unbelievable. I can't even imagine how one would receive such a serve. With me, it would surely involve bruising.

So I posted my status on Facebook, and told Annika, who was very impressed. "Cool - he makes underwear, doesn't he?" So I explained that now, his name is on a whole line of underwear, but a while back, he was a very famous tennis player, one of the best in the world, if not the best. "Really? Never heard of him."

Can't Win for Losing

For our Christmas holidays, David likes to make sure that the family doesn't sit idle... and I agree, though I must admit that I am much more willing to spend long days reading by the pool than he is. But activity is good, and it gets us out and moving. This year, we booked sailing lessons and tennis lessons for the kids.

Sailing - Annika pitched a fit about the sailing lessons, claiming that she hated it, and would never again get on a small boat, after a cold-water experience in Sweden several years ago. After much bribery and cajoling, we convinced her to do the lessons, which she reluctantly admitted that she enjoyed.

Tennis - more drama - but she did do the one lesson we booked for her. And refused any more bookings.

Snorkeling - "I'm not going in the water." she stated. And left her mask and snorkel in the room, deliberately. We get to the snorkeling site... "Mamma, I want to use your mask and snorkel, not the ones in the boat." So who gets the boat issue? And who gets the really nice one I bought last year? Yeah... well... at least she got in the water.

So we threw our hands up in the air. Fine. Sit by the pool. Watch Nickelodeon or Disney. Play iPad. Text your friends.

One day later, Christopher is headed off for a tennis lesson. "Could you book one for me?" Annika asks, "I want to do something."

Lesson for next year? Book nothing the first four days. Then when she is bored of doing what she wants (nothing), she will be ready for other activities. We'll keep you posted...