Gunillocentrism – web diary of a freelance journalist

By the way, the Swedish midsummer celebration in New York that I attended on Midsummer Eve (June 24) was fabulous. I had no idea there were so many people with Swedish affiliations in New York in June – Swedish-Americans of all ages, Swedish expats, Americans with Swedish girl-friends. bilingual children…and a few curious, Japanese tourists.

Cutest visitor: Elfie von Kantzow Alvin (who moved to New York in 1948 and never seems to want to leave!) in her mother’s traditional Vingåker costume.
Nice backdrop: Statue of Liberty.
Too long: the queues to the food and the elderberry squash. The event was extremely crowded.
Anyway: highly recommended.
Traditional Swedish Midsummer Celebration in Battery Park City

But I have this weird habit, a clear sign this profession has gotten on my mind completely. It seems I cannot attend an event just like that, without taking pictures. So I did (this was at the good old time when I still had my camera…).
Most commercial shot: Swedish USA ambassador Jan Eliasson with a garland of flowers in his hair. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can upload images on this blog.

/Gunilla

It doesn’t go too well for the Swedes… Annika Sörenstam has gotten closer to the top, but only a little. She has five shots to go to the leaders. There is still a chance she wins, but it has become very slim.

Obviously, I bring misfortune to all the Swedes I go to cover. A lot of antiklimaxes: Kenny Bräck had to quit the race in Indianapolis, Annika Östberg didn’t get a determination of her prison time by the Board of Prison Term in California, and Annika Sörenstam has bad luck here. Well, at least the latter started before I came.

Golf is a tough sport to cover for journalists, I discovered! It’s not enough to just sit and watch. If you want to the see the game you have to walk fairly quickly. I followed Annika Sörenstam during her last 10 holes, and there was not much time to sit around and rest.

And then I had to send lots of texts very quickly. Sports texts always have to be written in something like five minutes. But I think it worked out – you can see my first, draft-like version here: DN - Sport - Sörenstam har inte gett upp segern. I wrote two updated versions, but they are not on the net.

It sucks to always be six to nine hours behind deadline time in Sweden, in this case eight! And I guess I shouldn’t mention this, but I have dropped my new expensive, fabulous camera behind somewhere!
Now, time to go back downtown Denver and find about where to eat a deasent meal and to track that camera down.

/Gunilla

Hey,

I just arrived to the media centre at the Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver, where the US Open is being held.

I’m here to cover Annika, of course. Or Annika Sörenstam, as we think of her in Sweden. I think she is an even bigger name in the US than in Sweden.
2005 U.S. Women’s Open

If you have followed the game, you know that Annika – who is here to take her third Grand Slam-title – was only number 22 after two days. But there are two more days… She just started, and I will try to go out in the field and see if I can find her. And the other Swedes – there are so many of them here. You wouldn’t think Sweden is an arctic country with a very short golf season. Well, of course that’s the reason the players move to Arizona and Florida.

Since this is the first time I am covering a golf event, and the second time I am covering a sports event at all, I am pretty clueless. I’m here for The Annika Story and will have to avoid all golf terms carefully in my texts. Luckily, Aftonbladet’s golf reporter Thomas Tynander has promised to be my guide into this mysterious world, so stay tuned!

/Gunilla