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Yes. I confess. It was I, mild-mannered and promising at one point in life, that did not read Karlsson-On-the-Roof in third grade at the primary. Fortunately for all concerned (a teacher whose stomach jutted into the air in the shape of a ball and a beard like Rasputin’s) I was dismissed from classes and carted off to my mom for observations. Me, a character with no pronounced reading convictions; whose childhood ambition was to play Mozart at the Большое Театр or perhaps do reports from all great capitals in the world, was violently embarrassed in front of the rest of the ten-year-olds. Cumulative side effects took their toll on my perception and I could no longer tell the difference between two softly boiled eggs and Karlsson. Some ten years later, I recall this vital act of my CV and decided to give this chap (meaning Karlsson) a go.
 | And here he was. Karlsson, asleep in the moonlight. Lying on his back in bed, with his mouth forming an inane smile, he appeared to be some kind of inanimate object, like a large ingot or two tickets for the cinema. A moment later, when he rolled over and the moonlight seemed to strike him from a different angle, he looked exactly like a twenty-seven piece set of cutlery, complete with salad bowl and soup spoons. Hmm…
He was dreaming. He hated reality but realized it was still the only place to get a good steak. Karlsson had never lived a human life before and he was really comfortable with the tiny button on the right side of his belly which, when pushed, started a sooper-dooper motor with a propeller on his back allowing him to fly out.
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That night I did fly out. Reading Karlsson-On-the-Roof is like series of moments wrapped in adventure, laugh and magic. Add to these some thick Swedish sarcastic aphorisms about ordinary everyday-life and immediately your mind transforms fundamental problems to the size of microbes. Immediately you are no longer forced to sit upright in hard-backed chairs with no relief for seven hours at school. You are more likely sight-seeing over the roofs of Stockholm figuring out where the hell the Tivoli Gröna Lund* is, smiling at the sun, the sea, the grass, the colours and dreaming about a ridiculous fattish self-centered middle-aged freak who lives on the roof. Thought: It is quite clear the future holds great opportunities. It also holds some hazards. The trick would be to seize the opportunities, avoid the hazards and do it with style. If none of this seems to work, dig up Karlsson-On-the-Roof and fly off. See you on the roof!*
- Tivoli Gröna Lund is an amusement park in Stockholm, Sweden.
- Loft Cube slogan.
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