The year in review, 2014

There you go, then it was time for my annual chronicle. A few days late, because I've been on the road, more precisely in San Diego. But more on that further down.

As is customary since 2004, every year I write about my personal year, as well as news, movies, music and more. Here it comes again. Enjoy!

• My 2014
• Year in news 2014
• Entertainment year 2014
• Top ten songs
• Top ten movies
• Dead celebrities
• Sports year 2014
• So went my guesses about 2014
• Guesses for 2015

My 2014
Job-wise, it started with something I have not experienced before. I became a permanent employee at Hallandsposten. After 2.5 years as a temp in all the newspaper’s departments, I was officially, January 1, 2014, a permanent employee as HP's letters to the editor. Very fun.

Two other fun stuff happened on the job. In the spring I blogged about Melodifestivalen and Eurovision for HP's behalf.

In January it became crazy when one of the letters were widely circulated on the internet. It was about just that, to shut down the Internet. The topic and the way it was written in, meant that it spread and read over 50,000 times, other newspapers picked it up, I was interviewed in several media, and even abroad it was taken up. Completely crazy.

All was not fun at work. My permanent employment lasted only 10 months. The owner company Stampen’s economy is anything but good, for various reasons, and in recent years they have at various times let people go. So far, it has worked with termination benefits when it comes to HP, and none have thus become fired, but went voluntarily.
It was not like that this time. Nine people had to go, according to company management, and at HP seven people chose to leave. Thus, two had to go, so I plus one more was made redundant. She has now been re-employed after another one quit, and then it was just me who was completely redundant. Yay...
During my period of notice, I did other things than before. I went back to being an night editor, and it was very fun to work night again. Then I did a few days as a reporter, and compiled the year-in-review for HP.
I will in the next few months go on a temporary with the letters to the editor again. So, again, I am a temp at HP ...

But there was fun stuff in 2014 as well. In May, a happy bunch went up to Gothenburg to go to the festival Summerburst, with house music, DJs, electronic music and such. Hella fun, good music, sweet atmospehre, a nice gang and fantastic weather. Wonderful!

Us that went to the festival. From Carro's instagram

Gothenburg received several other visits during the year, including two trips to Liseberg theme park, where the new rollercoaster Helix was new. Awesome that Liseberg has fierce coaster now.

However, there was no Liseberg visit during Christmas. Then it was Stockholm instead, which was greeted by me, Andreas, Linda, Ridwana and Carro, and David who was there. Christmas in Old Town and Skansen stood among other things on the schedule.

Midsummer was celebrated for the first time in a couple of years on Öland, with visits from the US.

This year was the first time I took time off in the summer just to be idle. In previous years, I have always taken the vacation weeks to go away, but now I had three weeks where I just was vacant and could enjoy life. Perfect, considering that it was a fantastic summer with around 30 degrees C (86 F)during much of July. For several weeks was the lowest temperature never below 20 degrees (70 F).
However, I did a couple of short trips. I was with my parents in Burg in Germany, where I and my father was the year before, for a lovely weekend. Another nice weekend trip we made in August, when we went to Stockholm.

In August I went to Herrljunga, where I acted as photographer for Tina and Jakob's wedding. Also a fun weekend.

In the fall, I saw a stand up show by the always hilarious Al Pitcher. I and Svante also had a Halloween party.

Twice I have also seen the magician Joe Labero. First as a birthday gift in Malmö, where I was also surprised by friends at a dinner. The second time I got him review for HP's behalf when he was in Halmstad.

In the spring I had the pleasure of being able to follow the New York Rangers long playoff with many late nights. They went to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 20 years, but lost to the LA Kings. This year's season began weakly (like last), but in writing, the Rangers NHL's hottest team, and I have great hope that last year's success can be repeated, if not even better.

Also saw some matches with HBK. After a lousy spring saw it long lookedlike they would go out, but a strong fall meant that they did not even had to qualify, for the first time in several years.

Speaking of sports, it was really cool to follow the women's and men's relay gold in the Olympics. Charlotte Kallas at the final leg,  will survive for long.

I have also made debut as a handball player. Or, kinda. HP has had with a team in the O'Leary's Cup, which has been exhibition matches in half time when Drott have played. Twice we played, a draw both matches. I made no goal, but it was fun!

One of the year's trends was the so-called ice bucket challenge. You poured a bucket of ice cold water over yourself  (or someone else did), and then invited others to do the same. Meanwhile you donated money for research on the disease ALS, or ignored  pouring water, and donated more money. Obviously, I made the challenge, because it was fun and for a good course.

 

2014 ended and 2015 began in the United States. I went to San Diego to visit my friends Cecily and Lauren. Two lovely weeks holiday with good weather, good food, lovely celebrations and above all wonderful people. It was just what I needed after all the hassles at work, and a lovely way to start the new year.

Year in news, 2014
Missing plane, Ukraine, Ebola and super election year

Quite a lot has happened in 2014, both in the world and Sweden.


For the Swedish part, most of everything was focused on the elections. Since it was election to the European Union, municipality, parliament and county council in same year, 2014 was called the super election year.
In the European elections the Sweden Democrats and the Feminist Initiative was elected in.
In the big election in September, it became an unclear situation. However, the Alliance lost and it became an alternation of power, and Fredrik Reinfeldt announced his resignation as both prime minister and leader of the Moderate Party.
It was unclear how the victor, Stefan Löfvens Social democrats would reign. Especially since xenophobic Sweden Democrats received 13 percent of the vote, and no other parties had any willingness to cooperate with them. Hence had no political block held the majority.
In the end, the Social democrats and the Green party formed the government, however, without knowing if their budget would go through in December.
Once the vote came, so chose SD to vote on the Alliance's budget, and the government crisis was a fact. Prime minister Löfven then announced that there would be new elections in March, for the first time in Sweden in over 50 years.
On December 27, however, it became a new notification when the Government and the Alliance decided on the so-called December agreement. It means to make it easier for minority governments by the minority should abstain in the final vote. Thus the new election was called off. However, the red-green government govern with an alliance Budget during the first half of 2015 because it had already gone through.

In Halmstad, power was unchanged. The election campaign’s big thing was that it appeared pictures on SD's front-runner while wearing a swastika band. She retired before election day.


During the year there has been an outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. Thousands of people have died, and there has been much to prevent the spread.

Russia and Putin have gone mad house in 2014 and is acting very nasty. They invaded the Crimea and now call it Russian. They support the rebels in eastern Ukraine who want to become independent or belong to Russia.
Russia was expelled from the G8.
In the fall it was suspected that Russian submarines were in the Stockholm archipelago. After much searching, the military found nothing however, although there are indications that they were actually there. Also, Russian aircraft violated Swedish airspace during the year.

It was a bad year for the aviation industry. In March a plane dissapeared from Malaysian Airlines. It was just gone. For several weeks there were speculations of whether it had been hijacked, crashed, landed, abducted by aliens. It has not yet been found, but it is most likely that it crashed in such deep that you can not track it.
The same airline were hit when one of their planes were shot down by rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Even in Iran, Mali and South East Asia crashed plane during the year.

A Swedish journalist, Nils Horner, was killed in Afghanistan.

In Nigeria many girls was kidnapped to be held as slaves by the terror group Boko Haram.

In Sweden in the summer, a train strike affected many.

In Halmstad was the big thing this year was that the ship Najaden was sold to Norway. Large protests were held in July, when the ship was handed over to the new owners.

Getinge, where I grew up, had major floods in the summer. Large sections of the village, including the street Klockarevägen where I previously lived, was hit so hard that the residents had to be evacuated from there. It will take at least a year to renovate.

In Västmanland it was the opposite. There, it burned, and significantly. The biggest forest fire in Sweden in modern era harvested one fatality and substantial damage.

During the year the group Islamic State, IS and sometimes called ISIS acted in the Middle East where they want to see an Islamist state. The group is classified by the outside world as a terrorist group.

After a young man was killed by police in the town of Ferguson in the US there was riots and demonstrations throughout the year. Racism against African-Americans was brought up.

A human-made object landed on a comet for the first time.

Princess Madeleine had a daughter, Leonore, and announced at the end of the year she'll have another child. Prince Carl Philip became engaged to girlfriend Sofia.

The young Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Prize for peace after fighting for schooling in Pakistan.

President Obama decided to warm up the relationship with Cuba that the United States had (not had) since the 50s.



Entertainment year of 2014
Swedish Idol had several good contestants. I had three favorites, and these became top three, so then I was happy with whoever’d be the winner. They were Josefin Myrberg, Mollie Lindén and Lisa Ajax. Eventually Lisa won.

After so many attempts Sanna Nielsen won Melodifestivalen. She later ended third in the Eurovision Song Contest, which was won by Conchita Wurst.

Two great actor died. Philip Seymore Hoffman took an overdose, and Robin Williams took his life after a prolonged depression. Also many other celebrities died during the year.

During the Oscars, Ellen DeGeneres (or, really Bradler Cooper) took a Selfie containing several major actors, and the image becomes the most retweetade ever.

Seth Rogen and James Franco made a film, The interview, which was about the assassination of North Korea's dictator Kim Jong-Un. North Korea threatened to attack if the movie is released, so it was pulled in from the big premiere on Christmas Day. Some small private movie theaters showed the movie, and I saw it when I was in San Diego. The film was actually very funny.
At the same time the company Sony, which was behind the film, was impacted by an extensive hacker attack.

Others who were exposed to a hacker attack was a large number of celebrities who got their nude pictures scattered on the net. Among others, Jennifer Lawrence was affected.

The last episode of How I Met Your Mother aired. The final season was good, but not the final last double episode. Too bad.

Many celebrities took part in fun ways in ice bucket Challenge. See my verision further up.

Music 2014
My ten favorite songs during the year.

• Sia - Chandelier
• Taylor Swift - Blank Space
• Ariana Grande - Problem
• Taylor Swift - Shake it off
• Ariana Grande – Break Free
• Emily Kinney - Julie
• AronChupa - I'm an albatraoz
• Laleh – En stund på jorden
• Katy Perry - Dark Horse
• Selena Gomez - The heart want what it wants

Movies 2014
Some of the best new films I've seen this year, which has been quite numerous.
Boyhood, Interstellar, Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, Annabelle, Divergent, The Fault in our Stars, If I Stay, Edge of Tomorrow, 22 Jump Street, The Interview.

Dead celebrities
Ariel Sharon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alice Babs, Robin Williams, Brasse Brännström, Kim Anderzon, Klas Ingesson, Olle Häger, Richard Attenborough, Björn Waldegård, Richard Kiel, Viktor Tikhonov, Jean Beliveau, Joe Cocker

Sports Year 2014
Winter Olympics in Sochi gave three Swedish gold. Charlotte Kalla took two, one individual and one with a relay team where she made a historic pickup. Also the men's relay team took gold.

NY Rangers lost in the Stanley Cup Finals against the LA Kings.

The Soccer World Cup was held in Brazil. The home team had a match that will go down in history when, in the semifinal, they lost against Germant with 7-1. Germany later won the gold.

In Swedish soccer the city of Malmö dominated, both on the men's and women's side. Malmö FF and Rosengård became champions. MFF also went to the group stage of the Champions league, as the first Swedish team since 2000. They were however lousy. On the women's side, the Swedes fared a little better when Tyresö went to the CL final, but lost.

In the European handball Championships the Swedish women won bronze.

Soccer hero from 1994, hero Klas Ingesson fought long with his cancer, but died in the fall.

HBK did a crappy spring and a great summer / fall. However, the coach Jens Gustafsson got fired after the season and was replaced by Janne Jönsson before 2015.


So went my guesses about 2014

Germany will win the World cup.

Yes! Correct!

Sweden will win the Olympic hockey, and get a total of 13 medals.

They got the silver in hockey, and a total of 15 medals.

It will be a great summer, with many things to do.

Warm and great summer, and lots of fun things happened.

Change of government in Sweden after the election.

Yep, that’s true.

I get a car.

Dammit, I was so close in getting them all correct, but no car.

Overall ways really good guesses can I say!

Guesses about 2015

I make at least two major trips
At least two ministers resign from the Swedish government.
New York Rangers goes to the final. Oh, stop being a wossy, Johan. They win!
At least one major change in my life. However, nothing’s going on right now, but I have a positive feeling.
Sweden is doing a poor in the World Ski Championships.
Boyhood wins the Academy award for best picture.