The Anguish of Living Abroad

Every year at the start of the hockey season, I find it difficult to come to terms with living abroad. As the season gets under way this only tends to get worse, and by the time of Kvalserien it has become outright painful. This season has been the worst of them all so far. The main reason I believe is that the TV rights have passed over to Viasat - none of the London pubs have access to Swedish viasat, so I have been forced to watch games on the internet. se24 is working for us foreigners, but viasatondemand is not, due to broadcasting rights. I have however found a way around this after spending hours searching for any way to get around the checks done - if you'd need to know how, please contact me.

Another reason for my anguish is that Leksand has been playing such bad ice hockey it has been painful to watch.

Obviously I head back to my old hunting grounds every once in a while, and when doing so I specifically pick dates in order to fit in as many hockey games as possible. This year I managed to get my dose away at Bofors and at home against Borås. Woooo-fucking-hooo! Honestly, we must get back up to Elitserien. I imagine the agony I feel by living here is matched by the agony people feel living at home and having to face these games every week. No disrespect meant for our opponents, but I don't feel we belong here.

Now, with Kvalserien just about coming up, I've had to dip into the funds and make an investment in order to dampen this agony a little bit. I have bought a device that will enable me to watch the games on a TV whereas it's actually on the computer. I know this is nothing new, but as my laptop is not having a s-video/video out and I only possess an old 'normal CRT TV, I've had to find this thingeemajhiggi. I bet it's rubbish, but at least I can feel a little bit more normal screaming at the TV rather than at a small laptop in the corner.

Save me!

Other than that, my jersey is washed, the beer is on the cooling and I have the dosh to splash out on a couple of bottles of bubbly should that be needed. What else have I forgotten?