andreasviklund.com

The last couple of weeks have been chaotic, especially this week which has been a complete nightmare. I have disappointed both colleagues and clients because I have not been able to deliver all projects according to the schedule - and people have not been able to reach me since I've been away and my mobile phone is broken. There are of course reasons for that, and I will write more about it all in a few days. But but this post is about something much more fun, something that will hopefully make the next couple of weeks much more happy: The single most important person in my life, my father Kjell Viklund, becomes 50 years today!

A surprise party!

To celebrate this, I will spend the weekend in Porjus. I'll bring the computer, my camera and a present that I know he will love, and I'm planning to stay until tomorrow afternoon. Uncle Kent and aunt Anna-Lena (and their families) are planning for a surprise birthday party tonight. The old man himself doesn't know anything about it, but the plan is to have a good dinner, make sure old and new friends drop by to share a few drinks and hopefully have a great time.

I have asked a number of friends to come to the party as well, but I don't know how many that will actually show up. I hope that it will be a lot of people, because he deserves something really special for this day! I have also prepared a few extra surprises for him, including the birthday card that you see to the right. The image is a few years old, but it is the only photo I have where he actually poses for the camera. The photo probably reveals that he enjoys weightlifting as well…

Plans for the next couple of weeks

But the celebrations will go on for several weeks. The local basketball team, defending champions Plannja Basket, will probably reach the finals in the top league in Sweden, and if we manage to get tickets we will probably spend a day in Luleå and see one of the finals. And at the end of this month, my grandmother is sending both dad and me to Pite Havsbad in Piteå to enjoy a relaxing hotel weekend with spa treatments and other adventures.

I am also going to convince dad to get an e-mail address of his own - and maybe a blog as well. Everyone who has met my father knows that he is a man with many amazing stories to tell. We have been talking about recording those stories and turn them into a book, and a blog could be a good way to speed up the writing and give both inspiration and feedback. We have actually come pretty far with the idea and got positive comments from people who have read the first few texts. One of my favorite writers, Mikael Niemi from Pajala, read the first storiy and said that we should definitely write the book - and his comment was a great encouragement. We'll see what happens with that as well…

Time to pack the bags!