Intrum Stockholm Open 2018

Posted on October 27, 2018 by Diana

Tsitsipas vs Gulbis

This year’s Intrum Stockholm Open came with a totally different vibe, one linked to its 50th anniversary (celebrated with the presence of Swedish legends Björn Borg, Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander) but also one imposed by the presence of the young tennis players, NextGen, as they are called, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Denis Shapovalov. It also brought back some veterans of the game like John Isner, Jack Sock, Fernando Verdasco or the long forgotten (or not) Ernest Gulbis. I couldn’t hide my content of seeing the doubles players again, the likes of Marcus Daniell, home favourite Robert Lindstedt or last year’s finalist Aisam Qureshi. And as always I was more than happy to welcome Romanian tennis player Marius Copil.

Players Longe

The tournament has two sides for me: one is played out on court, the other one is well hidden behind the curtains of the Players Lounge. I regard both of them with passion and each brings a different type of satisfaction. While most expect intriguing stories from behind the curtains, many are disappointed when they hear that the exciting things happen on the courts. That is where all the passion unfolds, both from the players and the audience too. In the Players Lounge there should be tranquility for the players, and above all there is professionalism and a lot of hard work.

With some of the longest shifts, the people working in the lounge have to be client oriented, have to show diplomacy, initiative, creativity, have a smile on their face and work in between 8 and 16 hours every day. The job itself offers access to the behind-the-scenes lifestyle of a tennis tournament but that only translates into breakfast with a view of practices on centre court, the responsibility to evacuate players during a fire alarm, and the satisfaction of leaving things in order when the doors get locked well after midnight. It also involves lots of coffee, ginger shots, baking traditional Swedish cakes and pies and celebrating players’ birthdays, with baking the birthday cakes included. The cherry on top is the opportunity to work in a team for more than a week, and this year’s team brought together a group of very bright stars that I couldn’t be more than proud of, grateful and happy to have worked with, the perfect people to watch the sunset from the peacefulness of the tennis hall’s roof.

Daniell/Koolhof vs Ebden/Lindstedt

For this edition, like never before, the doors closed behind the last player to leave the Royal Tennis Hall many times well after midnight. With the last matches of the evening starting at 18:30 or later, some days saw matches in play well after tomorrow had already started. Denis Shapovalov and John Isner were the main characters of these long matches, alongside Peter Polanski, Bradley Klahn and Tennis Sandgren. While I couldn’t enjoy all matches in their entirety, some that I’ve seen were a delight. Can’t say that about John Isner’s matches.

Jonny O’Mara/Luke Bambridge

Actually, I was quite disappointed by them and by the American’s style this year. On the opposite end in singles I can place Jack Sock, Ernest Gulbis who impressed me to the fullest with his journey from qualities to the final, and of course, Stefanos Tsitsipas. The best atmosphere with clapping, yelling and cheering was during the matches of the Ymer Brothers, both Elias and Mikael being present on the main draw.

But all amazing things inevitably come to an end and what seemed to be the longest 10 days of the Autumn passed in the blink of an eye.

Stefanos Tsitsipas

The last weekend of the tournament brings relief but also sadness. During the last hours of the finals day one finds itself caught up in between the desire to go home and rest and the one to spend a few more minutes contemplating the week that’s been in the place where it all happened. Going back to the normal lifestyle is hard, especially since working for this tennis tournament is like working in a bubble of joy (for me at least) and when the normal lifestyle after the tournament is totally different from the one before, but that is another story to tell some other time. Game, set, match, championship: Stefanos Tsitsipas and Jonny O’Mara/Luke Bambridge.

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Annoying Pain and How to Treat It (Not)

Posted on October 27, 2018 by Diana

It started with a sneeze after which I had to focus really hard to regain my breath. It was painful but funny at first since all I could do for a whole day was walk around the city on a beautiful Autumn day. Yet again, this was 3 weeks ago. After carrying things on my own two feet with a bit of Ipren here, a bit of Ipren there, a lot of Ipren in the end, a chiropractor who happened to be in town worked with me for two consecutive days, one for each day, and I was pain free. 5 days later the pain was back, my saviour was miles away from Stockholm so here I was going to the doctor at the local medical clinic, Vårdcentral, to those familiar with Swedish terms. And this is where my anger started.

After nicely explaining the type of pain, the fact that Ipren doesn’t help, though I took 3 or 4 per day, the maximum strength one can find in the pharmacy without a prescription, I got stuck with a handful of other painkillers and a promise that I will be referred to a physiotherapist. No X-ray, no MRI. Day by day and pill by pill my pain got worse and worse. And so did my liver. I turned to a mild shade of yellow and I was so pale, I felt sick just by looking at me in the mirror. I called Vårdcentral and asked for advice, left a message to my doctor and two days later I got a different type of medicine, a safer one. One that doesn’t ease the pain at all though. And I also finally got an appointment with a physiotherapist, that I managed to speed up a bit by crying on the phone that I am in horrible pain. Two more days and I will finally be able to talk to somebody who hopefully knows how to treat spine pain. Cause that is where all this started from. Practically now I cannot sit, stand, lay down, walk without crying every 30 minutes, not because I wouldn’t be capable of bearing the sharp pain but because its constant presence is driving me nuts. I want a hug! And a doctor who would actually listen to me and my needs before stuffing me with painkillers. The pain spreads from my back down to my toes and now I even feel it in my left arm, my head hurts because somewhere inside of me I suspect a nerve is really frustrated, I can only sleep because I am too tired. Another version would be to have a glass of wine before I go to bed but I am not that stupid nor do I want my liver to fail completely. And I also want to eat but I can’t. I’m in such a state that I lost my appetite and fell like throwing up. I’ve heard that Swedish doctors have the bad habit of treating everything with paracetamol or painkillers but this is the first time this happens to me. Guess it was about time. I will leave a picture of a sunset here to please the reader that kept up with my frustration to the very end. And I will indulge into Netflix because it’s pretty much the only thing I can do on this frustrating Saturday evening.

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Midnight Chatter

Posted on September 9, 2018 by Diana

It’s been a long and unusual Summer, yet it feels like it went away in the blink of an eye. I got my share of thunderstorms, some surprisingly in Sweden, suffered because of the heat, mostly in Sweden, went to a lot of concerts, yes, most of them in Sweden but missed the wonderful Swedish Summer days full of tennis and sunshine in Båstad. It was for the first time after three years of being there that I chose, or had to, be somewhere else.

The music of the Summer started before my holiday but carried on through it. While in Bucharest I went to see a Romanian band called The Mono Jacks. The singer of the band used to sing with another group, AB4 they were called, when I was in high school. For those times their music was quite a revelation with a special sound. The style of the new band has toned down a bit but they still speak to their audience. Lots of the songs make sense and I can relate to but since they are in Romanian I will post here one that is a bit older and in English.

Then I am going to proudly say that I got to see Billy Idol live again. It is a mystery how he is still alive after all these years and the lifestyle he had. Nevertheless he is just as charming and charismatic as he’s always been, and lucky he still has Steve Stevens by his side in the band. Yet a show is a show, will bow to that and say that Billy Idol was one very fun concert I’ve seen this Summer in Gröna Lund. Should I talk about other concerts that I’ve been to there? I would talk about Thirty Seconds to Mars but that was not really a concert, that was more like Jared Leto talking and talking and talking.

Thåström. Well, he needs no introduction for the Swedish audience and I am very happy I was initiated in his music, both his solo works and previous bands, because his show in Gröna Lund was one of the best concerts I’ve attended both this Summer and probably ever. Surprisingly simple in the most elegant way, entirely in Swedish which I didn’t find a problem, a constant hook both in the music and the voice. A bit strange from my side because beside listening and enjoying I also had to focus to understand the lyrics, but I guess this is what kept me so hooked to it all. Will leave a song below, one of his older works, for those who want to check him out.

There are no concerts on my list for the near future but cool and exciting things have already started to rise above the horizon. While still thinking about the sunshine and the sea back in Romania, living by the sea and dipping my feet in the cold waters around Stockholm is refreshing yet scary. Riding bikes on serpentine roads through the woods, chasing the sunshine away or running from the rain, watching tennis, counting stars, walks and laughs, all these show that Summer is still here and it is not yet time to spend long dark evenings in the office. Not yet. Still my mind fast-forwards to the crisp Autumn mornings and the snow. All in its time, of course, but it only shows that there is so much more to look forward to.

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James Bay @ Gröna Lund

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Diana

I have no words to say how I’ve been waiting for this concert ever since before it was announced. Pretty much the same way I’ve been waiting for James Bay’s new album, “Electric Light”. I’ve been probably waiting for it since the moment the previous concert, and the first one I’ve attended, ended. I can probably count my favourite artists on the fingers of my hands, and when I say favourite I mean those artists that I don’t want to miss live and I learn the lyrics of their songs by heart. Well, James Bay is one of those artists and he is high on top of the list. And it all started with “Hold Back the River” back in 2014.

The announcement that he was going to play in Gröna Lund made me book June 14 months in advance: this evening was taken! The new album came out a few weeks ago but singles from it are available ever since February. The first one, “Wild Love”, was not what I expected. After “Chaos and the Calm”, which is a great rock album, the first single from the new album was too pop-r’n’b-ish for my taste. But James Bay didn’t disappoint and the next singles and the album as a whole are now a constant presence in my playlists or, better said, they are just a playlist that goes on and on and on in my Spotify app. And the acoustic version of “Wild Love” is not that bad, in the end.

But the concert tonight. WOW! He started with “Wasted on Each Other” and “Pink Lemonade”, both from the new album, to go into the previous one with “Craving” which is one of my favourite songs from him. One by one, old and new songs were performed, from ballads to rock’n’roll tracks that made the crowd go crazy. People danced, clapped and sang along and I have to say that this was probably one of the most active crowds that I’ve ever seen in Gröna Lund. Everybody sighed when it was time for “Let It Go” and we took care of singing the chorus instead of James. The same happened to “If You Ever Want to Be in Love”. The end of the concert was an explosion of sound, energy and joy as it culminated with “Just for Tonight” and, of course, “Hold Back the River”. The encore was a cover of “The Best” (Bonnie Tyler).

James took the time to talk to the audience, to present his very talented band members and to put a lot of soul into his performance. During “Slide” , which you can watch & listen to below, one could only hear his clear voice and the piano, and occasionally the screams of the people from the rollercoasters. Every now and then James would look in the direction of the fast speeding amusement park attractions a bit annoyed that it was ruining the atmosphere of his very beautiful and gentle song. And I have to say that yes, it was annoying! But business must go on as usual for Gröna Lund, otherwise we wouldn’t get the chance to see so many concerts with just a Summer pass.

Overall, the concert didn’t disappoint, on the contrary. James’s voice is a pleasure to listen to, the songs are catchy and live both him and his band sound amazing. I told all my friends to go see him live if they have the chance. I know I will be in the crowd next time I have the opportunity to see him live again.

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Bella Italia

Posted on June 8, 2018 by Diana

It was just like the pictures of the old Italian movies that I used to watch with my parents when I was little. You could expect Adriano Celentano to pop up from behind a building or just see him riding a scooter on a narrow street. You’d expect to see beautiful women with colourful scarves covering their hair and wearing wavy skirts rushing down with a shopping basket on their arm. I am of course talking about the very small bit of Italy that I’ve had the opportunity and pleasure to see during a four day trip. It was like walking in a dream. After 3 days spent in Riva di Solto, Lovere and Fonteno, by Lago d’Iseo, I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a more beautiful place in my life. This might have been influenced by the experience of it all, the waking up high above a lake with the mountains on the horizon, the cozy breakfast and amazing coffee, the people I got to see again and the ones I got to meet for the first time.

Growing up in a house where Italian music was a constant presence it was obvious that I had the perfect soundtrack to my trip. And pretty much every corner reminded me of a different sound and vibe but I had the song below permanently on the back of my mind.

And then there was the part of communicating. It is amazing how people can just understand each other without using many words. It was also incredible that I could understand a bit of Italian but  it was frustrating that I couldn’t answer using the same language.

As bewildered as I was by the beautiful Italian countryside, I had to leave it behind, say goodbye to dear people and head towards the city. This time it was Milano. And this is where I say that I wasn’t too impressed. Il Duomo is beautiful, I couldn’t understand why people were more fascinated by taking selfies in the shopping galleria rather than in front of the church, La Scala is impressive and the cat colony by Sforza Castle gave my visit a purpose. The gelato is delicious and so is the food, especially when friends tip you on where to go dining, the cozy narrow streets have their own charm but I wasn’t swept off my feet. That might have also been because I was very tired and missed a lot of activities because on my only night in Milano I fell asleep quite early. However, I was advised to visit Bergamo so on my way to the airport I stopped by and just walked its cosy streets for a few hours, rode the funicular and enjoyed the view from above. Still, my thoughts went back to the resort by the lake, the hot and humid weather, the thunderstorms and the mountains.

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