What's been going on..?

So, I have been absent for a while - as I explained there was a (pc) death in the family...  It's such a hard thing to live with when you're so digitally dependant!!  I was keeping up to date with what's happening in the world (my world of Facebook friends!!) very quickly at work each day and trying to keep up with my personal emails there too...

Blogging though, that's a whole other ball game - the peace and headspace that I need to write anything down in this format just doesn't happen at work!!

So, what's been going on..?  Work, as usual - there's a lot of that to keep us going!!  One of our Aussie colleagues went home, there's a lot of family stuff going on for her at the moment and it's the right place for her to be...  It just feels like we lost a family member - over here our Aussie colleagues are like family, we all got put here together and no-one had a choice about who they came with, it's a bonus if we do nice things for each other - and best of all, we all get along pretty well...  So, it does rather feel like our little 'family' over here got one member smaller...

We went to Germany - we took a long weekend to head down to look at some of the Christmas markets in Cologne.  It was SO's (a bit late) birthday present - we stayed right in the centre of the city and walked around a bunch of these little markets and ate and drank our way generally through the weekend.  I'll have to put some pics up soon...

We moved 'house'...  After 4 months of living in an apartment in a hotel - we have now moved into an apartment in Stockholm that we have a 6 month lease on (whether or not that will get shortened or extended we're not really sure at this point)...  So, it's a small place - but now we have a separate kitchen (which includes an oven and a 'real' size fridge - which are real bonuses!).  We had a few annoyances when we moved in - the night we came to look at the place we ended up just talking to the guy who was renting here before in general about living around here, and what he was up to etc - and so after a quick look around the place we had to leave as the next people to inspect were knocking on the door.  We got a very quick glimpse into the bathroom, and never ended up getting to see the laundry...

So, when we got here we found that the shower head was mounted very low on the wall and pointed somewhere around our knees - now SO and I aren't exactly the tallest people in the world at around 5'4" or 5'5" so you can imagine just how low this thing was.  You take it out of it's holder, wet yourself, put it back in the holder to lather up and then pick it up again to wash off - showering was a joy especially in such a cold environment.  Luckily we have a fabulous landlord - and he has had his son install different shower head and bracket, so now we can have a proper shower...

The laundry, I found the night we moved in - is across the snowy courtyard and in the basement of another (almost adjoining) building...  Grrrr, it's definitely better than having to schlepp to the laundromat with all the clothes, but still a huge pain in the butt...  But, the real bonus of this place is that it's on top of one of the subway stations - so we walk out the front door and about 3 metres to the door of the station and down into it...  In the snow, and with how cold it's been here - that's a real bonus, and we figure that will be definitely be a huge benefit over the net few months...  And, it is very lovely to not have to walk through a hotel reception each night to get 'home'.

I got a new computer - obviously - I decided to try a mac this time around and check out life on the 'dark' side...  It's certainly very pretty over here - and I hope that one day soon I'll figure out all the things it does or is telling me with it's little beeps and noises!!  It's certainly a whole new world!

Yesterday there was apparently a suicide bomber in Stockholm - not a pleasant thing to ever have happen in the city you're living in - but we were helping our boss and his family move 'house' yesterday, and while their new place is not very far from where the incident happened - we were blissfully ignorant of the whole thing until we got home and saw something on the telly...

I had a really homesick day yesterday - another 2 of the Aussies have already left to head home for the Christmas break, and our boss and his family are heading out this week.  Just one of the others and SO and I have decided to stay in Europe for the break (and our colleague who's staying here has her parents coming to visit) so with all the talk about home, family and Christmas - I had a very teary night last night.  I watched a couple of sooky girly movies to help get it all out - and today am all a bit drained - but feeling a bit better for it...

We are gearing up to finish work this week - Wednesday is our last day - before a few weeks break from the project...  We decided that as we were so busy with everything going on (and we were staying in Europe to see more of the place while we can) that we'd book ourselves onto a tour of 'Imperial Europe' - so we are off to see some of Germany, Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary for 10 days starting on Friday...  It should be a good trip and we're looking forward to it, and the time that we'll have to recharge before getting back to work in the new year...

Well, it's a bit of an epic post - but I guess a lot's been going on in the absence of having the technology to catch everyone up - so there it all is...

I'm back...

I'm sorry, I have been absent and terribly slack in my updates...

Partly again it's the running around trying to see things and get things done in amongst the working every day thing, and partly it's because my laptop unfortunately came to a very untimely end :(

But now I have a beautiful, shiny new Macbook Pro (my first Mac) and so hopefully I'll be a bit more present...

In the last little while SO and I went for a lovely long weekend down to Cologne in Germany.  There are a number of Christmas markets there - it was all very lovely and dressed up pretty for Christmas!  I'll try to post some pics when I manage to see if my camera and the new computer are compatible!!

Anyway - I hope you're all well and happy...  I'll 'see' you all again soon! x

More scrapping...

I was worried it was too many photos to all go into one post, so here's the second one...

Some layouts for an 8 x 8 album I'm doing:

 

 

 

 

  

 

There are some pages to go in the middle that aren't yet done - I didn't have the photos printed, so they may happen tomorrow...

For my scrapping friends...

Hi all,

I've been promising for a while that I'll get up photos of some of the scrapping stuff that I've purchased - as well as the work I've been doing with it.  So, here goes...

This was the first layout I did, when I found some scrapping stuff - before I'd printed any photos:

Here are some of the goodies I've brought:

 

 

And some of the layouts I've done for an 12 x 12 album:

 

  

 

Swedish words...

Sorry, I've been awfully slack in my postings - combination of spending too much time on a computer at work (and not wanting to when I get home), finding scrapbooking supplies that I've been playing with at the weekends (and yes, to everyone I've promised - I will get around to putting up photos), and generally feeling a bit unwell and so so tired...

The last few days (since the clocks have been set back to non-daylight saving time) it's been dark, and I mean night time dark, dark at 4.30 in the afternoon - it's just not right, and it's messing with the body clocks on all the Aussies!

But anyway, here I am.  I thought I'd give a run down on some of the Swedish words that we've learned since we've been here...
 

Swedish	Pronounciation	English
Hej hej	Hey hey	Hi
Hej då	Hey doh	Bye
Ja	Ya	Yes
Nej	Neigh	No
Tack	As it’s written	Thanks (don't say it with an 's' on the end though - that means dog!!)
Tack sä mycket	As it’s written	Thanks so much
Ushekta	As it’s writen	Excuse me
Bra	Like the underwear	Good (most guys I know would say it’s what’s in the bra that’s good, but anyway...)
Slut	Sloot	Finish/end
Lax	As it’s written	Salmon
Fiska	As it’s written	Fish
Biff	As it’s written	Beef
Kyckling	Shickling	Chicken
Fars	Farsh	Mince
Kista	Sheesta	It’s a location – where we work

This is a bit about how my train trip looks on the way home from work:  We get on at Kista (Sheesta) where we work and catch the train to Fred (Fridhemsplan) where we change lines - Fred is the station straight after Start Shaggin' (Stadshagen - actually pronounced Stads-hagen), then catch toward 'home'.  We stay near a station called Odenplan (Oh-den-plaan) I practice saying with the train announcement quite often - it gets me some weird looks, but hey - I'm the chick who sings and dances in the supermarket aisles - I've had weird looks before!

Well, I guess that's about all I can go on about for tonight - thanks for reading along!

Observations of Sweden

Well, we've had quite a few weeks of lovely observations so far...

Including, that they call it summer if it's still over 10 degrees in a week...  Let me well reassure you, that even by their standards - summer is now over, I'm sure we haven't climbed to the dizzying heights of double figures in our temperature for over a week now!

Swedish puppies are all refined, and like - I don't talk to strangers, they travel with their people on trains and wander around in shopping centres without much excitement (so, I guess they've kinda gotta be well behaved!)...

And, Swedish ads are in quite a lot of cases quite frankly funny - sometimes it's because we can't decipher them and they just sound funny, sometimes you don't want to decipher them because the Swedish is more funny than the translation is ever likely to sound...

And then, there's ads like this - designed for a company called Locum, who were wanting to wish people a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year:

Advertisement gone wrong, or disgruntled Marketing employee...?

London for the weekend...

Well, we are just back from London for the weekend...  I have always wanted to be able to say that - I'm just off to London for the weekend!

Of course, living in Oz and being off to London for the weekend would mean you're insane - you'd barely get there and make it back in a weekend, let alone do anything!

From Stockholm, that's a different story - we flew out at stupid o'clock Friday morning (about 3am), got to the hotel, had a nap (we'd been travelling since midnight and it was about 6.30am by the time we got to our hotel), went down to the Leicester Square half price tix box, then did a little bit of shopping.  Then off to the first of 3 shows on the West End for the weekend!

We saw "The woman in black" - oh my goodness, freaky scary play - but so well done.  Then Saturday saw some more (disappointingly unsuccessful shopping), "Avenue Q" matinee show - so so politically incorrect, and yet funny as, and to top it off went last night to "We will rock you" it certainly seemed the right way to see out the weekend!

We were up again at 4am this morning to get ready for our early flight back 'home' to Stockholm...  A whirlwind, but so enjoyable anniversary weekend!

Anniversary

And so, tomorrow is mine and my SO's anniversary...  Which anniversary you ask - why it's our 2nd 1st anniversary!  Crazy and confusing I know, but we have had a bit of a hard slog at times to get where were are (as all couples do) and so we were together for a year or so, not really together for a year or so, and now we've been back together for a year...

This last 12 months has been a real adventure ride - he travelled solo for a month or so, and then we met up in South America.  After a bit of an uneasy re-meeting, our adventure began - our opening chapter had us travel through South America: Colombia - Bogota and Cartagena, Argentina - Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls and Perito Merino, onto Peru - Cusco, Machu Picchu and Lima, Ecuador - Quito and the Galapagos Islands, and finally Chile - Santiago and Valpariso...

Our next chapter had us set up house together in our home town Melbourne, moving into a city apartment and moving back into 'normal' day-to-day life and beginning to 'settle down' until the next opportunity arose...

Our current chapter has seen us travel through the UK - Nottingham (and surrounds) and London, France - Paris, and Sweden - Stockholm and now back to working together, which is how we started in the first place!  There are some interesting things about working together that has sometimes worked well for us and sometimes not, but I think at the moment the understanding and support that we can give each other is extremely good...

In this last year that I've spent with him, I've learned a lot about myself and done things that I never thought I would or could...  I trekked for 4 days, camping along the way to fulfill a long held dream to walk into Machu Picchu (almost concussing myself and meeting a friendly snake along the way!), I put my fear of heights aside and and went para-sailing over the Sacred Valley in Cusco, I went white water rafting in glacial waters, I've seen more countries and used more currencies, and learned to live in more different places and circumstances than I ever thought possible.  And I have done it all because I've had his support - and while I'm pretty confident that I really could achieve most things I put my mind to, I really don't think I'd have done some of them or coped so well with it all without him.

I am a different, more accepting, more adventurous, outwardly deeper thinking, more aware person because I have him in my life.  I am lucky enough to have had him as a work colleague, a lover, a boyfriend, a casual pal, a travel companion, a partner and most of all a very close friend.  We've not had the smoothest of roads to get to where we are, but I love that place and if getting here means going through all that, then I'm glad we did, and did it together.  I would not trade him or us for the world, and luckily I don't have to.

There are so many reasons I love him, some of which you'll gather from what I've already said - but who else would buy me a bunch of flowers because I was nice to a friend and he thought I deserved something nice in return, make the bed because he knows when I see it (even if he's not there to see me when I do) I'll smile, wake up in the morning and look at me with my bed hair and sleepy eyes - half the time with yesterday's make up smudged under them and smile like there's no place in the world he'd rather be, support and encourage me to be me - even when that means turning our dining table (even in the hotel where we currently live) into a scrapping desk, voluntarily come into the bathroom to wash my hair for me because I'm sick, tired or just because he feels like he hasn't done it for a while and he knows that I like it, those and a million other things that don't come to mind right now and would make this post longer than the war and peace that it already is...

So, this one's for you babe - thank you (seems such an inadequate phrase), I love you, happy 2nd 1st anniversary...  I look forward to many more and all the adventures that will get us to each of them!  *mwah*

Being very brave - Part II

Well, let's just say it was more traumatic than it needed to be - I've heard of people crying when they get home from the hairdressers because they hate their hair...  But really, tears while you're still in the shop??  Ridiculous!

You have to understand - I'm as sick as a dog, along with the head cold, last night saw me literally trying to bark up a lung (I may also be pre-menstrual - possibly not the best time for a hair cut!) and I have had this long straggly hair for so long, because I frankly couldn't decide what to do with it, thinking I'd done so well researching magazines and internet sites until I found what I wanted...

I went in there with 3 different pictures of the hair - from different angles and stuff (it's one of Kelly Clarkson's old styles - so not too hard to find pics of the chick!) I thought I was odds on to get what I wanted - I'd actually decided what that was, and had photographic evidence!

So, we got to what should have been near to the end - 3 and a quarter hours in, when the 12 year old who was doing my hair cut a fringe into it...  Now, my hair was as long as it had ever been since I was in high school - all my adult life I've had short hair, but not for a lot of years have I had a fringe...  I had been sitting there biting my tongue because the colour, which the owner lady of the shop had said wouldn't look so nice so dark in my hair so she thought a lighter colour would be better - was NOTHING like what I had shown them.  Not only was it nothing like the photo, but I had specifically said to the 12 yo and the owner lady that I wanted the gold (blonde) colour out of my hair...  I have had issues with this since South America, where they quite frankly don't understand that once your hair gets to yellow - that is NOT blonde!!  Anyway, I digress...

12 yo sees the shock in my face, or reads the tension in my body, or something and asks how does that feel - I say SHORT, 12 yo: oh short?  Me - yes, I haven't had a fringe for a very long time and the hair style in the photo doesn't have one either...  Cue owner lady who has a chat with me about the things that I'm unhappy with, and reassures me that they will make sure that I'm comfortable with it before I leave - they'll put more darker bits in (so you can actually see them without a magnifying glass) and they'll try more to tone down the gold that appears to still all be there...  And yes, of course they can blend in the bits of hair 12 yo has cut short with the still straggly long piece at the back...  There were tears, they were frustration tears - from feeling so crappy and sick, from having such fine hair that nothing really ever works the way you think it might, from my head (which was already mighty sore) being pushed and pulled and yanked around for over 3 hours. I wasn't really happy to have to spend another 3 hours of my Saturday in the hairdressers...

Anyway owner lady explained (about 10 times) step by step what they were going to do, and what we'd expect each step to achieve toward my hair goal...  Which now she tells me is unrealistic because I don't have that much hair, and that it's not going to look like now because it's still wet and not styled etc like the chick in the picture, I'm not sure that she understood that even in the state I was in I wasn't buying you can't have that hair, well maybe once it's styled you can...

She did manage to calm me down though, I decided I would reserve judgement until they got through the second process before running screaming from the shop - well, I couldn't really leave at the time I had half a hair cut and a ghastly colour!!  After owner lady sorted out the colour and went back to the poor girl she was supposed to be working on 12 yo came to apologise and then went on to rinse, finish cutting and blow dry my hair - mostly successfully...  That is about from still pulling on my hair from the roots, clocking me in the head with the blow dryer 6 times and waaayyyyy overdoing the product (I think she was still feeling bad)...  Owner lady also gave me a bag of goodies to go with my new hair style...

All in all, it was certainly not the way I wanted to spend a Saturday I'm feeling particularly crappy (especially the one where scrapbooking goodies have arrived and I wanted to play with them) but the result is quite good...

I will get pics up, as soon as my head stops pounding so much - right now, time for some panadol and to see if I can sort out some photos so I'll have something to scrap with...

Being very brave

Well, today I'm about to be brave again and entrust my hair to someone I don't know and don't share a first language with...

I did it at New Year's - found a hairdresser in Cusco, Peru and entrusted my hair to her with my very basic Spanish...  Now, I have to do it again but in in Stockholm, Sweden - without a word (well, other than your basic hi, bye, thank you type words) of the language!  I think that's brave...

I have this horrible lanky blonde mop at the moment - courtesy of months of travelling in the last year, where it's always just easier to stick it up (and not being near my trusty hairdresser!) and the fact that my SO likes long hair.  I keep trying to get the message across that my hair is never going to be this beautiful long thick mane that he admires on other women - my hair is fine, and mostly straight and really needs work to get it to look decent (of course after all this time of neglect, even a lot of work has stopped making it look decent!).

And so, with (for a change) a very firm idea (and multiple photos) of what I'd like my hair to resemble when I leave the place, and my big girl panties on - I'm off, to brave the hairdresser and hope like heck I get something decent - preferably resembling in some way the idea I have in mind!  Wish me luck!

Tourists

Ok, so the weekend before last my SO and I headed off to do some more tourist stuff...  We've done some since we've been in Stockholm - trying to get out while the weather's still (sort of) decent...

We went on a hop on hop off tourist boat ride (yep, just like the buses - but on a boat!) after we'd done a lap of the sights, we decided to hop off at the Vasa Museet (Vasa Museum) to go check out another boat...

This one is a 17th century man of war boat, it was commissioned by one of Sweden's kings and took years and years to complete the building.  Then it toppled over about 20 minutes into it's maiden voyage!  Yep, the incredibly clever design of this thing meant that it was too top heavy, with not enough space below for ballast...  And apparently if they had used all the ballast they could have (which may have helped) the gun holes would have been sitting in the water - cluey, cluey people...

So we wandered around this huge (dark) ship for a while - and looking at it, it really isn't all that surprising that the thing fell over it just doesn't look quite right!  My SO was reading some of the information there - and one of the shipbuilders had 30 men stand on the boat once it was complete, stood them all on one side of the boat and then had them run to the other side.  Once they'd got there he made them run back to the other side, then he made them get off - because they were going to sink the ship if they kept that up!  So, it's not like no one knew that this was going to happen - they just chose to ignore it...  Not so clever!

And so, twenty minutes into her maiden voyage the ship turned a little - and you guessed it, tipped right over! It was something like 333 years before the Vasa was pulled out of the sea, but now it's quite a cool (if very dark) museum...  With a ship looking like something out of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (or so I've been assured!

Here's what it looks like today:

Observations of Sweden

Last entry my SO and I were enjoying the Sting with the Royal Philharmonic concert...  We bopped, clapped, yelled, laughed, sung and danced our way through the concert - as we would have with any other concert we've attended...

The Swedes, well they were sort of a different story - they're a very staid people, not a lot of emotion tends to be expressed in public...  And yet, it was a concert - surely a different story, or not...

At one point my SO and I in synch both pointed at the rows and rows of stationery heads in front of us - amazed that no one was moving, not swaying in their seats, not bopping up and down and certainly not out of their seats...  And then suddenly in the midst of all the stillness, two heads bopping - we again observed this in the same moment and then went to pieces at the contrast of say a bunch of Aussies at a concert where you are more often in fear for your life from a stray limb flying in your direction from your dancing neighbour!

It was certainly an interesting look at the culture from an unexpected point...

And here finally for those who have been asking a photo from the concert (if I can make it work!)...

Sting and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

AH-MAZE-ZING, what can I say?!!  Amazing...

A brilliant night was had at the Ericsson Globe - a giant white ball of an arena here in Stockholm...  Carried away by the sounds of a full orchestra and soothed by Sting's smooth tones - at the same time!

Some of the songs sounded like they should always have been played that way like Roxanne, with the hear wrenching tones of the violins, cello and double bass...

And the most unbelievable version of Russians, and such a moving version of Fields of Gold...  Well, I could name them all one by one - the whole concert was a fabulous experience.  I spent half the night with goosebumps and the other half holding back tears at the beauty of it...

Thank goodness, because getting the tickets was a trial - you can't order them here with our Australian credit cards over the net or phone - but have to front up to an outlet for purchase, so after work on Tuesday after a few failed attempts over phone and net, I left work to run into the city to make it to the outlet and then back out near home before our fantastic yoga class... 

Let me assure you, it was well worth the effort!

My adventure has begun...

Well, here I am...  a real live blogger, welcome to my adventure!

I have always wondered about it, and whether anything that happens in my life, or how I express it would be interesting enough for people to read...

Well, life over the last 12 months has certainly been interesting enough, with 5 months spent in South America, 4 months at 'home' in Melbourne where my Significant Other (SO) and I moved in together, and now SO and I living and working in Stockholm, Sweden...

It has certainly been a year!  The adventure certainly has begun...

So, now to see whether I can manage not to bore people silly with my ramblings...  Thanks for popping by..