Meet the readers - Lisa Chong

Lisa Chong is one of those people who've gone to both Stanford AND Yale. First she studied English, then decided to become a violinist. Despite her obvious superhuman qualities, she's a humble, sweet person with an entertaining dry sense of humor.

She plays for the St. Louis symphony orchestra. She visited Sweden and told me tons of things I've never known about life as a musician. Like the fact that they play behind a curtain and walk on muting mats on their way to auditions so that the listeners won't know if someone tripping on high heels or more manly shoes are playing. That's really hiring people on a gender neutral basis.

I don't know if I've told you this before but Vanja is a delicate person. She's made of glass. She'll cry just touching something with her little legs. I don't know how it happened, I think she's just extremely sensitive. I raised her to be strong. She resisted. Joel, on the other hand doesn't cry even if blood is gushing. He doesn't cry from pain, only for emotional reasons. They cry about the same amount.

When Lisa came to visit, she had the best way of dealing with Vanja's complaints.

Showing a barely bruised knee to me and Lisa, Vanja was met with relevant, thoughtful questions from Lisa's Swedish phrasebook:

"Is it serious?"

"Will you need surgery?"

"Is it contagious?"

Even Vanja laughed and the pain was gone.

It was so nice having Lisa around. Now she's back in St Louis playing and eating Bissinger's delicious acai blueberries. They're so good we just ordered 60 bucks worth of the stuff.

want more lisa for yourself?

Here's her blog!

Meet the readers - Karin

Here's Karin with my brother Björn at Björn's birthday and screening party for his short film "Bjorn in the USA". I've known Karin since she was 14. She used to date one of Björn's best friends. Back then she was into theater. Now, she's into food. I sometimes try to make people believe I'm Tina Fey's unknown Swedish sister. But Karin is just more Liz Lemony as I could ever be. She cheats. She exaggerates. She's impossible not to like. I love her.

In that picture above with Björn, the two are talking about Barbecue sauce. The sauce is the boss. Everyone knows. 

Meet the readers - Jenny in Brooklyn

I often think that Jenny is my New York self. My Brooklyn counterpart. With much better hair and a grasp of history I can only dream of. She also loves to cook, which I someday hope to do, too. 

But this is where we are similar: We both love our respective cities. Love them with a passion that makes us unpaid but extremely dedicated guides. I don't know, but I'm almost sure that Jenny also loves the sight of tourists, lost in their tracks. I hunt them down and help them find the charms of Stockholm. Jenny can help you find anything and everything in Brooklyn and Manhattan. 

Like me, it seems she can pronounce every word at ease except these three in a sequence: "I don't know." They rarely come out of my mouth. I've never heard her say them either. 

Jenny loves food and books. Cookbooks are a favorite, but she would never limit herself to just one genre, when words come in so many beautiful shapes. She's funny. She's dry. 

Jenny's lawyer husband Mark is a nice hardworking man, lucky enough to share his life and apartment with Jenny and their two lovely offspring: Dinah and Alexei.

Jenny also know Stockholm really well, she has relatives here. I dream of the day she will come visit and we will hunt down tourists together. Perhaps this summer?

Meet the readers - Anna Ander

Picture by Maria Lindroos.

I first met Anna when we were both copywriters at Moonwalk agency. Anna was pregnant then. So pregnant. You'd think that you can only be 100% pregnant or 0%, but Anna was 195% pregnant. She was so pregnant, I don't know where to begin. 

It wasn't just the third trimester thing, it was also some kind of symptom I can't remember the name of. Basically, people who have this symptoms only have one child, because the pregnancy in itself is too much for once pregnancy. It's like 10 pregnancies rolled into one. 

It was a high price to pay for one lovely embrace, but luckily enough it resulted in a magically perfect son - Wille. And then came Blanka. 

Anna is fluent in many languages and funny in every one of them. She is particular about food and clothing and why shouldn't she be? A girl needs to have certain standards. We, the people around her,  appreciate this attitude. 

Anna now works at a different office, together with lovely Maria, who lives on an island. Highly impractical, but picturesque.  Anna and Maria make the great advertising campaigns for Polarn & Pyret. Lena makes sure they deliver. We all love Lena. 

Anna leads an international lifestyle and vacations all over the world. We, the people around her, are jealous. 

Anna also recently bought a house in the south part of Stockholm.  We, the people around her, look forward to being invited for dinner. 

Anna is married to the love of her life, Jesper. They went to the same school. We, the people around her, are sometimes jealous of their relationship and many many shared memories. 

Anna has a beautiful voice that very often breaks into laughter. She has the rare ability to laugh and talk simultaneously. It is very charming. It seems like a voice apt for singing. Strangely, we have not heard Anna sing!

Just when Anna had her kids, her parents decided to move out to the country which was good and bad. Bad because they are now far away, but good because they moved to an incredibly beautiful place called Midsomer. They keep farm animals. 

Anna is a far relation of the last person who was executed in Sweden. That's really not her fault. That they're related I mean, not that they stopped excuting people in Sweden.  (Personally, I am against the death penalty. Especially by way of guillotine, which was used for poor Alfred Ander. )

Anna has great hair and the kind of skin that is often referred to as "peaches and cream". 

I am happy to count her among my friends and proud to have her as a reader. She has a blog of her own, called What would Leo do. It's about what Leo of Westwing, not Leo di Caprio would do. Just so you know.