My sister and her bf are coming to stay with us for the holiday and i have to get busy with cleaning and sorting out the guestroom. I think blogging will be scarce during their stay and we are going to fly to England on sunday so it will be a wee bit hectic. I'll catch up with you all once we are settled again after christmas. I'll leave you with a picture of our lovely tree and a wish for a lovely silly season ;)


Merry Christmas Everybody!

At last I might be making some progress to get better from this flu thing. I went back to work on thursday though, big mistake. I went to work yesterday as well but came home after a couple of hours and am now on sickleave until tuesday if I feel like I need it. I always go back too early! I think it must be my mum making an imprint in me when I was younger that you shouldn't be home sick, oh no, you should go back to school/work as soon as you can. But it doesn't work with me. I just get relapses and end up sick again :(

The coughing haven't stopped and my nose is still like a tap flowing with water. But at least I don't have a fever (knock on wood) anymore. The really silly thing is I feel awful for being at home. I got a guilty conscience about it! But that must be because I feel better when not doing so much and just relaxing, it helps my coughing as well. But when I'm at work I cough like an idiot because I'm doing stuff so it is a battle between feeling like your skipping work just because or getting your health back by doing light stuff at home. I'm dreading to tell my mum I'm home again, I can just hear her voice crackle in my head with all sorts of comments. Oh well, its the time to be jolly, so lets forget about that and be merry! Im sure a little glas of something strong will aid me in that ;)

Don't you just hate having a cold? Well I managed to get the flu on tuesday and am not best pleased! It is horrid enough to get an ordinary cold, but a flu? Yuck, I'd forgotten just how fuzzy headed you get from having a fever. And it doesn't make things any better that James got it a couple of days after me either. Now when I'm rid of the fever and perky enough to want to do stuff I feel too weak and sweaty just moving from the sofa to the kitchen to get something to drink. And everything in my mind is churning, its only 11 days left until Christmas and I've not finished my shopping yet! Or got a tree yet... Me, who every year solemnly swear not to get stressed at Christmas has wound myself up so tight I'm starting to panic a bit at the sight of the days just slipping by in a feverish haze! And it had to happen just this year as well when my sister and her bf can come to Christmas because they found someone willing to work for them over Christmas and they want to stay at our place! Me who wanted to get everything nice and settled for our first Christmas here and now I'm feeling more and more the urge to scream BAH HUMBUG to anyone cooing about Christmas and oh how wonderful it will be! I just have a big lump in my stomach and am not relaxed at all.

It's an amazing morning considering we have had the worst grey weather for over a month! It is blowing hard outside and the sun is rising to almost a blue sky. It has a white haze to it but i am sure the sun will shine today between the gusts of snow! There were storm winds yesterday night that made the windows rattle and the dry snow that fell to fly around making it look like a blizzard at times outside. Im sure it is colder as well, it looks like it.

We are heading into the center of town in a bit to purchase hall furniture from the Elephant shop (Indiska). We are walking it and im worried because i dont own a hat and my hood wont be any use outside in this wind! I will have to borrow one of James' hats. I hope we will make it back in time, im working this weekend as well so cant stay too long shopping!

Sorry for the lack of posts, but we've been busy with christmas preparations! We went christmas shopping on tuesday and yesterday i went hunting for spruce twigs to use when decorating our balcony rail. I ended up in the forrest by Källviksbacken cutting some with my mum. I also picked a bit of green moss to decorate our Noel candlestick. When i got home i happily got on with decorating the rail and finished off the whole big garland with some small fairylights. They dont twinkle but shine ever so nice in the green twigs.

By the time i was finished outside James had got home from work and we started to do a bit of cleaning up and decorating inside. I sewed some new christmas curtains since i didnt find any nice new ones, my old ones were sadly too short for our new windows. Just a note, what tacky christmas curtains there are for sale this year! And huge screaming patterns to them as well. I gave up looking for some already made up ones after seeing all that there is in ickle Falun and found a nice dark red material instead. They really are bedsheets but now converted into plain curtains with home made golden tiebacks and looking a lot more expensive then they really were. Im glad i can sew stuff myself at times like these. Or otherwise we would have silver goats on a red backround with giant purple hearts with black and golden lines mished into them hanging in the windows....

Today is baking day. Im blogging a bit while im waiting for my saffron bun dough to rise.

Saffron buns are traditional food for christmas here in Sweden. I like them a lot and they are fun to make as well. You can make them into many different shapes but i like the sunbread shape, lots of S's laid on top of each other to make a circle. Will take some pictures for you later.

We are visiting my sister in Gothenburg this weekend. We usually try to get there for her birthday once a year. We went into Gothenburg today for some christmas shopping. Well considering the amount of people milling around the streets i am surprised that James kept up for the entire day! He was very good even when i got a bit cranky at the end before we had a little lucnh at a full packed cafe. Their warm sandwiches were nicer then our home made ones and that says a lot, anyway to Pauline.. :)

I only managed to get one christmas present though. But of course we had time to go into a Lush shop as well. But considering how much soap i already have at home i was very very good and only bought a honey soap. Cant live without that soap!

The drive down here was miserable all the way. Rain and thick mist didnt do the trip any good. Neither did the fact that i was collected straight from work and we had already had a hectic morning there so i was very tired to start with. But we got here in the end even though it took at least one hour longer then any other trip we have made down to my sister. The forcast for tomorrow when we are going back doesnt look much better. Still grey and rain, possibly snow further up north. Ok for rain and mist, but please no snow untill we are home!

I wish i would have had our camera right now! It has been snowing all night and everything is coated with lovely sugary looking snow. Every branch of the trees are white, you cant see the lawn anymore and it is still snowing and the light outside is just amazing. I think i will go for a walk before heading off to work. It is sooo looking like christmas out there i've even put on my christmas cd. Oh bliss... And to make things even better. James is coming home tonight! I've missed him terribly, havent really been able to get my feet moving at all when he has been gone.

Im out of here, first going to feed the birds outside though before going wandering in the snow. I'll post pcitures tomorrow if the snow is still here.

We had a poweroutage at work this morning around 11. Apparently half of Falun was out and half of Borlänge as well. Dont know what happend yet. I will check the local news in a few minutes to find out if it was some clever chappy on a digger cutting the cable or if someone was half asleep throwing the wrong switch ;) It only went on for 15 minutes though so it wasnt so bad. Strange enough people kept on coming in and wanted to pay when we had no working tills! What do people think about when they demand to be able to shop even though we cant get into our tillboxes for change since they run automatic with the rest of the program. Sheeesh.

It is snowing.
Just a few flakes but still, it is snowing!

James has gone to England for a flying visit before christmas. He had not told his dad that he was coming but his mum was all in on the conspirecy to surprise James dad. I think it went down very well. Have to have a proper talk to James tomorrow, we were both too tired this afternoon to make any good sense. I was napping when he phoned and he was still tired from the plane trip and then the bus trip up north. Im still tired from driving him, we had to get up at 4 to get ready and head off at 5. But now i know how long it takes (2h) so i wont be too early on saturday when im going down to Västerĺs to collect him. Besides he is taking the late plane but still it is good to know when you can start off. Oh im rambling on, just too tired to make much sense so you will have to excuse me.

All is well again at work even though the drama spilled over to continue on Friday morning.

Lotta, Me, James and Roland went to an auction today, well two auctions if you are going to be picky. The first one being furthest away and the one that in the newspapers looked most promising was in fact the most disappointing one of the two. The first one was held by the same company that sold the cupboard we bought this summer. And it was supposed to be their quality autumn auction. Bah humbug is my opinion! Ok lots of old stuff. Old enough to have come from some museum and just as brittle as such items. Nothing really for us since we usually like the auction with goodie boxes and all sorts rather then the expensive collectors auctions. So after a brief discussion where everyone agreed to move on it was onward to Borlänge. And since it started later, at noon, we had plenty of time to view what was going.

I found 2 very cute and odd looking elephants that I bought for 25 kronor, unfortunately along with them came a little wooden indian which is cute also, a modern metal string sculpture as a candle holder (perfect for Rosie) and a little ceramic pot for melted butter. I put the two elephants in my coat pocket and handed the other stuff to James. Poor him and poor Roland but they are generally very good and don't grumble too much if we feed them a few sausages while the items are being sold off. There were some postcards but not really any nice ones or local to us. And as James said postcards of churches are just plain old boring since they don't change like a city card does.



We found another thing as well. A 1920's wall clock. At the bargain price of 275 kr! I thought it would be hopeless to bid on it and start of way up in the 500's. The clock does work, you wind it up with a key and it has a clear ringing double chime and right now it is keeping time. We set it around 7 and it is still hanging in there. I don't know if we will keep the chime going once its run out when the auction man winded it up for us to hear, it depends on how annoying we think it is at night. But I suppose you can get used to it though.

Major drama at work tonight. Mrs B took it badly that she and Mr B wasn't invited to a cruise on a Finland ferry, they found out tonight. She thought it was a work organized party but really it is Big Brother still haunting us and selecting a few friends and former work colleagues to take on trips like this. And it is always a big hush hush about them going so as to that Mr B and missus or anyone 'unsuitable' wont get whiff of it until it is too late. Obviously because they don't want them to tag along. It's the A team and the B team all over again. I hate when that happens.

Anyways, Mrs B thought also that there were a lot of bullshitting going on at work and everyone talking behind her back and so on. Well no wonder since she is readily dishing it out as well. But seemingly she cant take the heat when it is reversed and fell into tears tonight when I asked if there was something wrong. She said she had been nice to others and couldn't understand why people where behaving like this, she also asked me if she had been nasty towards me and I said it had been borderline a couple of times. When I said that she looked very shocked and said if it was so she hadn't meant it in a bad way. I suppose it is how you come across when talking to someone. But seriously, she has been dishing it out. We have one girl on maternity leave who cried every day the last 2 weeks before she went on leave because of Mrs B nasty tongue so she isn't all innocent. But sadly it must come to this before we do anything about it. If anything will happen is yet to be seen though. Me, I have doubts it will and if anything will happen it is that Big Boss will tell us all to leave Mrs B alone and shut up about the bullshitting. But that wont solve the real reason for all of this. And the real reason why work is a horrible place to be in sometimes is Mr B and his attitudes and that Big Boss allowed Mrs B to start work there as well. You could handle one but pair them up and you got hell brewing and I wouldn't like to be there when it boils over. It will be most interesting to go to work in the morning. I've already phoned Lotta and warned her about the storm coming ....

I walked to work this morning and took the camera with me. There had been fog all night so everything was covered in white frost. I snapped a few pictures and the one in the menu list is one of them. It's a shame i didnt have more time or else i could have had a very nice picture of frosted leaves. But time was running out and i needed to get to work.

Work, well it was as it usuall is. Somehow it doesnt bother me that it is a complete nuthouse some days and other days it gets my skin crawling just thinking about going there. Today was a so so day. It wasnt horrible, but it wasnt fun either. Just ..blank. You do what your supposed to do and nothing else. How sad isnt that.

I've just had a shower and used almost the last drops of 'B' never to busy to be beautiful' shower gel, I only use it when I need to treat myself to something luscious when I'm tired to the bone from work. Ohhhh, the bathroom absolutely oozes of a lovely honey scent. Not to mention my skin, all soft and sweet smelling. It smells like I've dipped myself in a big honey pot (but nicer!) Its such a shame they don't to big bottles of it, only small gift ones. I've already checked on the Lush online shopping site since I'm running out if it! I'm a great fan of everything Lush and fresh. It was James' mum that introduced me to this wonderful world of great handmade soap and bath ballistics and wonderful bubbles and and and! There is a new shop in Sweden as well! In Västerĺs! That is not so far away from here. Hopefully they will open a new shop further north soon and end up in Kupolen (big shopping center in Borlänge) because I doubt it will come here to ickle Falun.

Don't you just hate needles?

I went to have a blood test done yesterday and knowing I'm a difficult patient with veins that don't want to be found I told the nurse she will only get 3 chances and then I'm out of there. I've started to set a limit to how many times they can stick that needle in me after a disastrous time when they couldn't draw blood. And still they had tried 7 places on both of my arms. In the end they took it from the top of my hand and burst the vein in the process as well so I had a HUGE black bruise for a week or so after it. So the pressure was on for the poor nurse, she joked and said I might stick around for the 4th time but I looked her straight in the eye and said no way am I going to be a living pin cushion again. She managed to find enough blood on her second attempt, at least enough for the tests they needed to do. I will find out next week what the results are when I have an appointment to see the doctor. Its nothing serious, I'm a diabetic you see and they do checkups once in a while. And I'm not worried since my blood sugar levels have been very good.

Long time ago there used to be someone posting on this blog. But where the heck she went I haven't got a clue.

How come your life can get so boring that its not worth posting anything about it? Well its not really boring, BORING. Just very , normal and quiet and everyday kind of stuff. There is just so much you can say about work, home, auctions. OHH yes we've been to quite many auctions me and Lotta. Getting really into this now, we even have our little 'black books' with us now where we put what the things went for and what they were. Ohh very smart and professional... Pfft. James is now so bored of auctions he actually falls asleep with his eyes open at them. I still persist in that he doesn't need to come with me every time but still he does. I think it is because he has figured out that he can keep a better eye on me when he's there. But I usually buy MORE when he is there then when he isn't.

I've finished the book and am started on another one by Tolkien. I'm eagerly awaiting the last film as well, but doubt if I can get any tickets for it the first week. Still I don't consider myself a total LOTR geek. I like the fantasy world of it. But I didn't think the book was the most amazing book I've ever read. I am ashamed to say I prefer the films even though they don't follow the book.... It will be interesting to see how they've rearranged the last film and what their ending will be. I quite like the ending of the book even though it means that the Shire gets it. I thought I heard somewhere that it wasn't included in the film. Oh well, not long now though.

It did snow a bit today. Nothing that stayed on the ground though. But it was amazing to see the sun shine and the snow falling outside at the same time. Weird but beautiful.

Did you notice I changed the book I'm currently reading? I must confess, I never read the whole book before...! But after seeing the films over and over and well you get the picture I decided it might be worth reading. So for my birthday James bought me this HUGE book which contains all three stories in one volume with illustrations by Alan Lee. It weighs a ton and looks like a tool you smash a window with! And I'm sure I will get totally lost in it and wont surface until it is read from cover to cover.

There might be some snow!

But please don't tell James that, he said the other day that I must stop cursing so much, meaning I had to stop saying it will start to snow soon! And this is from the guy who when he first came over here stared out the window for quite some time when it started to snow in late October and couldn't wait to go out in the snow and make crunchy sounds with his shoes when walking in it. But that was oh, 2 winters ago now. And I guess the novelty of it all has gone. I suppose it doesn't help either that he every winter falls over a certain amount of times..

Nothing much has happened over here. Everything seems to chug along nicely and nothing extraordinary has happened for ages. The same ickle rut every day. Wake up, go to work, get home, food, TV, bed. But once in a while it is a getuplaterushtoworkandruinthewholedaybecasueyoudidntsetthealarmclock type of day. Ask James, he had one yesterday. Have you ever seen someone actually jump into their trousers? I must say it is a sight to behold. Gives you that sort of grin on your face you cant shake whenever you see him for the rest of the day.

*News flash!*

Bear with me my singing isn't that great, ok?

~hAppY Biirthday tooo Mee, HaPPYY biirthhhday to meeee, hAppYY Birthhhday DeaRRR Maria, happy Birthhhday tO Meeeeee~! YaY!

Don't ask me to do THAT again, pew. If there ever was someone who couldn't hold a tone it would be me. Still I used to sing in the school choir at one point. But I think I must have sang quietly or else they would have thrown me out earlier!

I've had some lovely presents, thank you kindly for them all. But only one birthday card came in the post today. It was from James' grandparents. Thank You Dot and George, I will spend it on something lovely and most likely it will be clothes or SHOES. Sad aren't I, but I am a woman and as such 'we' are entitled of our shoes and handbag fests!

Just something for you to ponder about..

If you have a gifted mathematical brain maybe you can send me an explanation of why this works!


DON'T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST

It takes less than a minute.......

Work this out as you read.

Don't cheat and read the bottom until you've worked through it!

This is fun!


1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have dinner out. (try for more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (Just to be bold)

3. Add 5. (for Sunday)

4. Multiply it by 50 - I'll wait while you get the calculator.................

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1753....
If you haven't, add 1752..........

6.. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number .

The first digit of this was your original number (I.e., how many times you want to have eat out each week.)

The next two numbers are... YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it IS!!!!!)

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2003) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS. IMPRESSIVE, ISN'T IT?

Got that in a mail today and tried it out, and it worked for me. Now lets see if it works for you.

Vatican: condoms don't stop Aids

This is why I'm not a Christian. And that is why they will burn in their hell for telling people to stop protecting themselves. It sure makes me wonder what idiots can pass the eye of God and end up a cardinal or even a pope with a clear conscience. Where is the common sense? Oh sorry I forgot, there is no common sense where religion rules. We've seen it time and time again....

I just feel sorry for the babies being born with the aids virus and the mothers that will have to explain to them why they are sick. I bet you they don't say it was because their priest or cardinal told them it was worse using a condom and stopping the disease then not using one and having babies even if it meant having already doomed their life to sickness and early death...

Thank you Moi for putting my attention to it.

I just love Sweden in autumn...
And the fact that this scene was shot just around the corner from where we live makes it even better!

I HAVE to get to the hairdressers! Right now my fringe is so long I can pull it up and make a ponytail of it with the rest of my hair if I place it high enough. I look like a samurai!

It has been absolutely gorgeous weather here today (sorry Mary) Clear blue sky with wisps of white clouds stretched out in jagged edges. Quite warm in the sun and all those trees changing into autumn colors just gleaming in the sunlight.

Lotta and me went to 2 auctions today. We were not impressed with either of them. The first one was a local one where the most interesting thing I could find were some rolled up maps from around Dalarna and Lotta spotted a little coffee pan in copper. But we weren't prepared to stay until they came up so we left for another auction in Basna, a bit outside Borlange. They were highly suspicious looking with lots of orient carpets and artwork but not really anything else. And very highly priced as their starting bid so we took one or two laps around and looked at each other and I started laughing and off we went. They really looked a bit like the dealer and wheelers in Fools and Horses.... In the end we found ourselves at an antiques show in Borlange a bit before they closed. I bought some old postcards depicting Falun and had a good look around at the prices and bumped into some regulars to the local auctions. Some of them we like and some we wouldn't touch with a 3 foot pole but sadly you have to since they come to shop at the store!

Anyway after watching Lord of the Rings(extended version) again I have decided to get cracking on rearranging the bookcase now when all the videos and DVD's are nicely stacked in our new cupboard. It was with a bit of disappointment we realized we wouldn't be able to fit the stereo in there as well since there really isn't any natural holes for the leads to come out of it. And we don't want to drill a hole in it for just the stereos sake. But now when it is all arranged it looks alright anyway. If we just could get rid of the quite pungent smell of a sheep stable even after a good scrub it would be perfect. Hopefully a bit of Lush soap can take care of that since it smells quite strong in the bathroom cabinet where it has been living before. Only problem left is that we moved the stereo to the 2 small white IKEA tables we have in front of the big windows and I'm not sure it works having it there. We'll see if I'll move it around again. Constantly changing things around until it 'feels' alright. Weird isn't it?

Our cupboard is done. I went out to Lotta today and did the last polishing. All that's to be done is to attach the new feet, which still look very new compared to the actual cupboard. I have stained them with a slightly colored wax but they still look all new and shiny. Might have to bang on them and throw them around a bit to get them to look a bit rugged. The innards of the cupboard still smell like its fresh out of a stable. I will have to wash it out and scrub carefully inside it to make it smell of sĺpa, Swedish oldfashioned soap.

My leg is hurting and yes its annoying. My guess is it is a varicose vein inside because you cant see anything on the outside. But it is all warm and tender to touch from the top of my left foot to just half of my calf. And to wear my ecco shoes today was a real pain so I slipped into my softer sandal's even though it is chilly outside. And ecco shoes that are supposed to be good for your feet, HA! Oh well I shouldn't complain should I, a foot that is slightly bigger due to swelling wouldn't fit any shoe. If it still feels the same tomorrow I'm going to phone the medical center and ask for advice. Please, some sympathy?

Life throws you some odd balls sometimes and other times it just knocks you straight off your feet.
A friend who I thought was my friend no longer is. And if I've understood everything so far it is my fault altogether. Why don't I feel guilty? Why don't I feel anguished that I've said such a terrible thing that it would end a friendship? Maybe it is because I don't feel like I've said anything wrong when saying how I felt about the issue. And I have been ratting my head in about it trying to make it all clear so as to understand what was misunderstood or just not heard. But the fact remains I'm one friend short today and the really surprising bit is it feels alright. It is ok. I'm not sad that its over, I've changed quite a bit over the years and I used to be very compliant and bend to some extent to suit others. But I don't want to be a door matt anymore for someone to step all over and use. And ever since I've started to say No there's been friction. Sad really because you should be able to say No without getting branded a Bad Friend and told so ever so often.

What is a Good Friend btw? Is there a course you have to take and pass to be a Good Friend? If so I've missed out completely apparently. Or is being a Good Friend someone who have lots of other friends? What about those like me that only have a few friends that's been there for ages through thick and thin though? Are we outcasts to be despised because we don't know the joy of having a big circle of friends around?
No really, I'm not kidding here, it was told to me I have a weird sense of friendship and that was due to me not having many friends. Period. So you tell me, am I weird?

It's been a relaxing weekend. We went to a market yesterday in Borlange and then had a nice meal out at Coop before going home and having a very restful evening with a little visit to the allotment and picked all the beans, which was a lot! And picked the last few beatroot that were left to grow bigger. It has been quite cold at night recently so we covered up the would be broccoli that in fact is cauliflower with some fiberfleece to help them through possible frost. The cauliflower was bought as broccoli so was a bit surprised when I had a peak in the heart of the plant to find a budding head of cauliflower looking back at me. But I had suspected that it was not broccoli since the leafs has grown huge in comparison to a broccoli plant.

Today we went up for the autumn clean up day and meeting which really was just collecting all the benches that's been dotted around and moving some of the compost heap further up the hill next to the barn. After that we had a really short meeting which I didn't really get the point of because she just asked if we had anything we wanted to ask and that was the end of that. I was surprised because we were there for the first time and she didn't even bother to say anything about that or tell us something about the general rules for the allotment's. But it was interesting to sit and watch how people acted towards each other... I am a bit like that, I observe people and how they stand and what they say before I decide to approach or speak. And sometimes you get to know more by just sitting quietly watching the situation unfold. And the very first thing that struck me was that there's conflict a foot in the society.

There's a new chairman and changes to be expected in springtime when the new season starts. Not so much that the former chairman has been toppled for the new one, more that the board is fed up with people expecting them to do all the work that has to be done around the allotment area, like cutting the grass between the lots, emptying the trash and tidying up after other people who scatter piles of junk wood everywhere. As of now you will have to take care of your own junk may it be glass frames that's broken or planks or sticks that you've exchanged for new ones in your fence or anything else that is bulky. And their will be a rotation list on who will be cutting the grass and there wont be anyone in particular to do the spring rotovating. So it is more or less everyone for themselves or everybody together. Will see how it turns out and how turbulent the spring meeting will be. Because I'm sure there will be angry people wanting to know how they are going to get their little plot done now and demand that someone will see to it and I'm sure that the trash situation wont improve straight away. But still it sounds really simple that everybody takes their own trash with them doesn't it? Instead of paying for the garbage men to empty the bin in summer they could use that money for something else, like new tools. But apparently tools have gone missing as well so all isn't well in allotment world..

All in all a good weekend, dont you think?

It is strange how much more room we now have in our wardrobes since I did a clean out yesterday. Ever seen the program Life laundry where they drag everything you own out onto the lawn and your not allowed to put anything back that you either don't use or will display? It felt a bit like that. Because I emptied all of our wardrobes in the guest room and really had a hard time putting old clothes aside and chucking it either in the bin because they were so worn it wouldn't do for charity even. But now at least we have 3 bags of clothes going to charity shops and a lot more space. One thing that I was thrilled about though was that most of the clothes being put away were too big! I don't think I mention it much but I am trying to slim down a size or two or maybe even three.. And this just made my day really, especially since I mentioned to James that what would I do know when I don't have much clothes left and he said he would buy me some new ones! I'll make him stick to it I will.

I still have to go through all these boxes with 'various' affections like old letters and old music tapes which I don't listen to anymore. And threes a whole box with soaps, skin creams and shampoos that I cant use because they make me break out in rashes. Mind you they are so little used they could well go for brand new. I think I'll ask my mum if she'd like some or else I'm going to bin them anyway. It is a trouble when you cant test the product before you buy it and make sure it really does suit you and your skin. At least now I can give soap and shampoo over to James but I don't think he will use my very flowery smelling deodorant or 'beautycream'...! And my music tapes? Hmm, might give them to Rosie and she could sell them at her second hand shop and if there isn't any interest in them she could bin them there.

May I rant on a bit?
I mentioned the program Life Laundry, we like to watch it and go ohh and ahh over how much junk they have accumulated but one thing we don't like is the crusher at the end where they throw absolutely everything they couldn't sell or give away. We both couldn't believe our eyes when they threw in a computer and monitor and just crushed it instead of recycle all of the hazardous components!!! But I think that it is much more common in Sweden to pre sort your trash and have recycle centers for almost everything dotted around town. We sort our trash in things to burn and compost at home using two different bins. And if you like there are centers for your hard plastic containers, your metal cans, all your glass bottles, special centers for your old paint and oils and other chemicals you really don't know how to dispose of. Battery boxes are everywhere and you get paid for returning your bottles and coke cans in the shop. And this is so natural for us now we think it is such a shame when you don't have it everywhere. It has built up an everyday thinking about being environmentally friendly. It doesn't really take much longer or is more bother then if you just chuck it in one bin and throw the problem away. But doing that you only really move the problem to somewhere else, more water and air will get polluted and in the end it will come back to you. At least here we have a chance of cutting down on pollution which makes me feel better about doing it. Rant over.

And now I'm off to work! Wish they could recycle our place and come out with new versions of some of them, but happily they are off on vacation. Where you might wonder? Well they went to somewhere called Sunny Beach in Bulgaria but it haven't been sunny in Sunny Beach for as long as they have stayed there. Oh I feel so good in a naughty evil kind of way.. Oh better shut up or karma will come back to get me, but still.....*giggle*

It has been a very hectict weekend. James' parents came over on saturday, we met them in Stockholm since James was going to run the St Eriks race there. So we combined the two and stayed a night in Stockholm so they had a chance to see some of the Big City before heading back up to Falun. James did do very well in the race even though he had been out back with the plodders. He managed to finish with the second group runners well ahead of his own group. So now he has a nice time to show for when entering other competitions, like the London and Stockholm marathons next year.

The cupboard you see in the pictures below is now all cleared of paint. Now we just have to find a nice new finish to it. Lotta thought a wax would be nice since the wood underneath all that gucky red paint was fairly nice. And after all that scrubbing the surface is silky soft and touchy feely right now. We might have found a key for it in an antique shop since it was missing its original one. We'll have to see if it fits later on today when we go and have a look at it.

This is what i have been doing today...







It might not look much, but it is a pain in the butt getting the red paint off! There's still some left to do on one of the doors and on the sides and the small woodwork around the top and bottom. But it is getting there slowly. Trouble is, the stuff you use to strip the paint off dont work if it gets to be colder then +10 and it is getting to be COLDER then +10 and it is only the end of august still! It has snowed in the north of Dalarna for christs sake! And no you cant be indoors because the stuff STINKS, im guessing i'd have no braincells left if we would do it inside. It is sitting in Lottas garage right now and she is helping me.

Anyway, im home from work this week due to that i've strained my muscles under my left ribs sometime 2 weeks ago and it has only been getting worse. I booked a time with the company healthcarecenter for wednesday and the kind doctor told me what was wrong and that i should be off untill next monday. I didnt say much more then thank you and would you give me a sicknote so my boss believes me? Thing is, im fine as long as i remember not to lift anything heavy or do anything at all too heavy. So scraping some smelly gelly from a cupboard has suited me fine. Because i couldnt just sit inside and stare at these 4 walls or else i really would have gone mad.

We've been to yet another auction yesterday. And came home with a very nice cupboard.... James wasnt impressed though when i first said i wouldnt go higher then 1500 kr, but ended up at 2000 kr for it. But it is very nice and i would have got it cheaper if the other couple wasnt intrested as well because it was just us and them that were bidding. But somehow i dont think that they would have let it go for under 1000 kr... I'll try and publish a picture of it before we start anything with it

Its colour is a bit flaky but Lotta is going to help me get rid of it. But now i dont know how that will happen. I went home earlier today because my left side has been aching. Ok if it was my back, as usuall, but not this. Its sticking right in the side and pinches me with pain when i've been at the till too long. Or when i try to lift something heavy. I went to the local healthcenter on friday but the doc didnt know what it could be more then that i'd maybe knocked it or strained myself somehow. But i sure as heck cant remember doing that. So am going to the company healthcare center tomorrow if i can get a time to see if they can get to grips with what it is, since it has been sticking at it for at least 2 weeks now but got worse last wednesday. Also i need a paper from there saying yes Maria is in pain and cant go to work. My boss has become quite the stickler with those sort of things lately... But whenever wasnt he when it came to health isssues in his staff. Preferably we should work untill we drop then quit and move on so he can hire some new fresh staff and not be stuck with the over worked, stressed out, run down people he apparently thinks he got now... Oh yes, I like my boss...NOT

Yesterdays dinner with the girls went down very well. I was a bit tired and it was quite loud in the restuarant but it was fun. Hopefully we can all keep in touch via a new blog im putting up. It will be open to all who has ever worked in our shop and want to keep in touch. Some have moved abroad and some have quit to study. Hopefully it will be interesting to the others and that they will sign up. Right now it is only me in there, but that might be because i started it yesterday... ;o)

Lately i have been getting more and more interested in Feng Shui... I promise i wont become a nut about it but does anyone know of good places to look in the internet or any books?

I know i've been absent lately from bloggin about my life. But i really havent had any energy to write and when i've sat down to put at least a few lines in i give up after a couple of minutes thinking i have nothing to say. But now im going to try and write a bit each day.

Today has felt like one big run-around. In the last couple of days both my bike and James' have been poorly and not been able to keep the air in the tires. Somehow i felt it was a conspiricy when it was both in the rear tire which is most difficult to take off and put back due to all the gears and hooks and thingymagics that is attached to it. Of course James' went fine to change and fix the hole in. But when it came to mine that has fewer gears it all mucked up and the gearbit fell off! Its not supposed to do that i found out today when i had to bike( on first gear all the way since that was the only one working!!) to the bicycleshop to get it fixed by the nice man working there. It was, to say the least, funny to bike there, no matter how much i pedaled i could JUST get up to speed so i could pass people walking! Bit embarrasing as well i might add....

Anyway the nice chappy took my bike between the jobs he had since i pleaded with him i biked all the way from the other side of town to get there. I told him it was probably me that messed everything up when removing the wheel but he assured me he'd seen worse when people try to fix it themselves.... He showed me how to unhook the gearline so i knew how to do it the next time, it looked fiddly but a great deal better then the way i had done it. After the visit to the bike doctor i went up the hill to go have a peek at a new shop that has opend. It is a new low price chain that has opened up here in Falun. It was full of people doing their best to clog up the aisles just standing talking to people they knew instead of moving to one side so other shoppers could get around. I shopped a bit and stood in line for the tills for about 30 minutes to get out. Bit crazy i know but when you can do bargains why not.

After that it was off to my gran for the usuall shopping and going to the bank day. She is getting on a bit now and has taken more and more to lay in bed. But she seemed perky when i came and she was up and about for the while i was there.

And now im cooking lunch waiting for James to get back from work. Later on this evening im going out for a dinner with some girls from work since there is 3 who are going to leave this week. Wonder how late that will get.

I think a picture says more then words sometimes. This one just sums up very nicely how i think this summer has been.

I bow to the precens of genius...... Maybe not a Fucking Genius as some but still. He is well on his way of becoming one in my eyes because he fixed our computer! Thank Gods i married him... ;o)

I hate viruses!
The last couple of days we have been battling msblast and the patches doesnt stick or dont install! How frustrating isnt that? Plus the cleanup tool didnt work or else we got a new msblast once we thought everything was sorted. Anyway, the update page is down so cant get the patch from there, the automatic update says we have the patch installed already, but why did we get another worm today? When trying to clean up it still sits in windows\prefetch as a pf file and i dont have a clue how to get rid of it, james wants to delete it manually but im a bit hesitant, what if it creates havoc, im not doing the reformat! Anyway, i've cleaned it up as best i can with the help i've got online and have installed a firewall.

When sat reading my mails today i found out that an online friend is in hospital due to a bad car accident earlier this week. He is one from the #Cheeky fookahs gang that once rambled the land of IRC. Geeez that was ages ago but still you have close ties to people you met and talked to all those years ago. It seems he is on the mend slowly and surely. Hopefully i will have more news once my emails have been fired off to others.

I've been troubled by the bloggers-block-bug. Couldnt find anything even mildly interesting to write about. Talk about boring life or just a boring outlook on life. Even considered taking this one down and vanishing from the net. I might burn and rise again as the phoenix in a different form, who knows. All i know is that now im utterly bored and cant keep boring you all with this nonwriting malarky. Decisions decisions...

While surfing through a couple of blogs i got a whiff of this site. And for a moment i thought they were serious, but they cant be, or could they...? At least it made me laugh so loud im sure the neighbours thinks im a loony!

I must be in a white period. Everything in our apartment is turning white or lighter shade of grey. The new sofa, white. Our old coffetables, painted white. New curtains for the bedroom, white. Seating in the new pinnsoffa, offwhite with white garlands. And maybe some white glittery wallpaper for the hall. Havent decided yet on the hall though, have to know if we can get someone to do it or if me and my mum will try to do it ourselves. Maybe it is because i saw an article in a decorater magazine with lovely pictures from a home that i really really liked. And everything in there were shades of white with splashes of colour to accent but mainly it was, white..

Or else it might just be me wanting a calmer surrounding after all the stress we've had with planning the wedding and moving house. Its just a speculation though.

Sorry for not blogging, but we've been really busy bees. And somehow being on vacation makes you have a life away from the computer! I've finaly finished painting the wardrobe doors, still have the ones in our bedroom to do. But the guestroom is looking nice and sparkling white now with new doorknobs as well. It is strange how things just seem to multiply when you start to do some DIY... First it was a matter of getting the wardrobes painted, now its expanded to re-wallpaper the hall, paint our old coffe tables and put them somewhere else and buy a new NICE coffeetable to go with our new sparkling sofa and do something with the 'pinnsoffa' we bought on monday. We went to an auction on sunday, no luck with any furniture but lots of goodies in the nicknack shelves. I bought some boxes with linnen, christmas things, and a box containing all sorts of curtains, old lace and old lace tablecloths. That went quite high because there were some true gems folded in with the curtains. Pictures will be up later.

But he furniture was really tatty or very old and in dire need of careful resturation and sicne that isnt my strong side i didnt bother about them at all. But we got ourselves a pinnsoffa - wooden sofa for the kitchen. Rosie tipped us off when we went to her parents house for dinner on friday night (they are house sitting for a week) that there was a nice pinnsoffa just arrived in the secondhand shop she works in. So went to have a look on saturday and had it reserved in case of we found something nicer at the auction. We went and bought it yesterday and it is now sitting stripped of its old seatingcover waiting to be upholstered by me any day now. See i told you DIY multiplies!

Finaly!





Doesnt it just look gorgeous! It is like a huge white meringue all fluffy and soft to sit in. And it has finaly arrived, silly buggers at IKEA losing it... *mumbles*

Am off to do some weeding at our alotment. Havent been there for a couple of days since it has been raining nicely and no watering needed then. But have to go and see how much has come up. The other day all the spinach seemed to have taken and where popping up all over the place, and the peas started to come up as well. But i could only count to 4 potatoes growing. Will post pictures of it later. Time to get all muddy!

First day of my vacation...

Im not allowed to gloat when James is at home that im off for 3 whole weeks! But i just did, didnt i... ;)
Oh well he will get a week off later on this summer so he can gloat at me then that i have to go to work. First day of vacation and what do you do if you'r Maria? You clean and put stuff away so you can enjoy the rest of the vacation without wading through loads of clothes and other bits and bobs that have accumulated over the last few weeks on the floor! I dont get it, how can so much just linger around even though i try to put stuff away. It just seems to reappear just as quickly! I think i have found my suspect to all this but im not allowed to moan at him because he did the washing and was generally very good at the auction when i spent some money.. ;)

Im off into town in a while, going to check out how much a river cruise to Gagnef will cost. Mum was interested in going and asked if we wanted to come along. We might if it isnt too expencive. You go by boat to Borlänge, get transported in a vintage car through town and then get shipped up the river in a different boat and have a meal as well as coffee and cake or 'fika' as we swedes say. Fika means you have coffee and cake, or drink and cake, it doesnt really matter what you have to drink as long as there is something small to nibble on with it.

Im also going to go get our weddingpicture in the newspaper. And other bits to sort out, we still have all the Thank You cards to send out but cant do that untill i get the pictures back from the shop. What else was i going to do...? Oh im sure it will come to me once im in town. Oh yes, change my bank card! Well i'd better be off now, blog more later.

I just had a msg on the answering machine about our sofa. It seems that it at least has left IKEA in Gävle and is now stuck in transit somewhere. The helpful chappy would get back to us on monday since the post and delivery is closed on weekends. Hopefully we will have it by tomorrow or tuesday.

Other news, we have been to an auction today, Lotta, me and James... And i saw very beautiful things there like a chandelier in baroque style with flat big prisms but that went for 2300 kr and it was a tad too much even though i liked it alot i couldnt persuade James to like it too. But when it came to my 'Emma fĺtölj' i was allowed to bid.

We had been into town to have a look around in the antique shops to have a bit of a reference in prices so i was prepared it might sell for at least 500 kr so to my surprise it just went for 300 kr, to me! I think it is a cute little chair and it fits snug in our bedroom where i had intended it to go and the covering is very well looked after and not at all faded, i suspect it has been reupholstered but that doesnt bother me since the colour is a very nice warm pink. Not my usuall color of choice but i couldnt resist it. Also i bought a big white bowl with blue decorations on the outside and an old swedish wooden box called 'svepask', it is made out of one thin plank wrapped around a bottom piece of wood and then stictched togheter with a string made out of roots. Very traditional here in sweden and almost everyone has one at home. It seems that anything made out of wood went for a high price, so it must be in demand right now. Lotta went after a nice chest of draws made out of big solid planks and no nails. It was painted in a dreadful white paint though that she said she would strip off. But otherwise it was a nice one and if James would have liked it i would have outbid Lotta with 25 kr since she had set her target at 1000kr. But there will be more auctions this summer since Lotta got very keen on it in the end and asked if we could go some more times and winked that it would be better if we left James at home then and i'll take care of his wallet.... ;o)

Our sofa has gone missing!

I phoned up IKEA customer services today and asked where our sofa has gone since it hasnt arrived within 5 working days as they promised. The girl said there wasnt any order with our number so she passed me on to this guy who tried to contact the shop to hear what they had done with our order. But he couldnt get hold of them so i still dont know where it is! He will try to phone them all this weekend and let me know whats happening but if he hasnt had any luck i will phone monday and raise some hell because i REFUSE to pay any shipping costs if they have buggered it up that much!

We want a sofa!

I think James got the better half of the deal yesterday, the part where he is sitting nice at home all cosy and snug and DRY! Did it rain you asked? Pah!! Thats not a word worthy of what we had! It POURED down! And there we are sitting all nicely waiting for the concert to start wishing we were somewhere else, part from the real nutters who have been parked on a bench since the park opend for the day. How the heck do they cope? Dont they feel wet, miserable and just want to go home?? Thats what i felt after 2 hours in pouring rain with windgusts as well! But it was free........ !

For all you non swedes, Allsĺng pĺ Skansen is THE main event for many people, its become kult. Its a mix of the audience singing and guests singing and a bit of fun trown in as well. And the king of Skansen is Lasse Berghagen, and since it is his last summer of doing this, hes been at it since 1993, naturaly the interest is huge to get so see a glimpse of him and sing a long with him. We call it allsĺng, dont know a word similare it in english. But you get a big crowd gathered and you sing togheter, period. Thats it really, but since it has been televised they have to have a few tv friendly guestartists as well. So yesterday we got treated to Per Gessle, one half of Roxette, Jerry Williams the swedish rocknroll star who is as tough as they come and a swedish version of Monthy Python - After Shave. It was fun in the end and we waved each time the tv camera came passing by, but no one saw us so they must have cut us out. I can now say i did it but i wont do it again unless they promise fantastic weather... and Lasse of course... :o)

Im off to Stockholm in a few minutes. I've been invited to go and see Lasse Berghagen do his thing on Skansen. Rosies bf Per couldnt come so instead she asked me if i wanted to tag along with her parents and i jumped on it. But that means James will be home all alone all day.... awwwwww... ;o)
Im sure he will spend it nicely relaxed infront of the computer!

The joys of the internet, right now im chatting to Mary on ICQ and surfing and generally dillydallying because im not tired at all!

In the olden days i would lay in bed counting sheep or watching some silly rerun on the telly, now i can surf to whatever nutty site there is or go online in IRC and chat to some complete stranger who is even nuttier then the site i've just visited

Finaly we are done with the little alotment, everything is weeded out where we are going to plant stuff, the plot is turned over to make it a wee bit softer after we walked all over it. And it has been raining for the last couple of days so no need to water it yet! Couldnt have asked for a better start to our seeds i suppose, but now it has to get a bit warmer since its dropped to only +9 today.

We are also getting around to send people our Thank You cards for our wedding gifts and all cards we got. Difficult part is, how do you phrase them??

Ouch!
It is back breaking to have an alottment, anyway an untidy one! We've been there first time today and had a little start at getting rid of all the weed. Since it is clay soil i think we will have to have it turned once again before setting anything, depends on how heavy we think it is tomorrow after we have done the other half of the raspberry row and marked out the small paths around it all. Today at least we got rid of some old windows thats been used for a coldframe or something similare. And also discovered that frogs and toads loved it underneath all that rubble! Im sure we scared a dozen away when we rattled their home underneath the pains of glass and chucked it all away.

It is somehow very satisfying to clear everything up and to get a start of an outline to how it will look like finished. We've discovered that we had some strawberry plants underneath the raspberries as well. I managed to rescue two plants and James set them on the good soil doubt they will yield any fruit this year though. Also we have two currant bushes instead of one as i thought. I think one is black and the other red currant. We have to see if we manage to get any berries or if the birds will get them first. We are doing more tomorrow and mum will come along and help us out. Hopefully i wont be all stiff and achy since i might have done a bit too much today, but i was eager to get in and do some gardening!

For now James have gone off to get some take away food, we are having kebabs with fries. Sounds just right for me and after that im going to indulge in a bath with some Lush bubbles Specificly some Flying Saucers bubble bar slices....yumminess...!

I just signed in to blogger and got a surprise, the layout is different! It looks pretty and simple. Uhm, something just happend...wonder what. Oh well im sure it was just a little hickup. If this doesnt post i know it was something else serious!

For today there is work ahead for me in the afternoon. I've gone from liking working afternoons to dreading it. Maybe i am more of a morning person as to getting things done, i do that better if i have worked first and then have the afternoon off. For example, today, i have done nothing, nada, nill! Well i dont count ordinery household work like making the bed, doing the dishes and vacuuming. But still i had no energy and a headache that felt like a concrete helmet being pushed over my brow. Yumminess for the afternoon ahead. Maybe it is the weather since they promised on tv last night some thunderstorms. But havent been out so cant say if it is stuffy or just a bit cloudy.

I am going to take my weddingblog down. Now that im married and the stress levels are down to normal i think i can cope with just one blog. Today i got another letter stating that as being the new Mrs James Last i have to change my driving license. So it is off to take an ugly picture, they NEVER turn out alright, and send it off togheter with the payment slip of 150 kr. Got to have my bankcard changed as well and get a new passport ordered. But part from that i dont think i need to do anything else. Oh yes, i might go and spend some of OUR money on new things but im sure James will hold tightly onto them and not let me get too carried away! I at least went and had a quick look at new sofas at MIO (furniture shop) But i wasnt impressed with the fabrics you could chose from or the prices even though it said it was on sale i thought them to be way to expencive for us. We might take a trip to IKEA at the weekend but dont know yet. Since we got ourselves a little alottment that has to be taken care of as well this weekend if it doesnt pour down with rain. Will take some pictures before we clean it up and after when it is growing some potatoes, spinach, peas, dill, basil, onions and stuff like that on it. At least we get 2 rows of raspberries that are soon going into bloom. Hopefully they will give sweet fruit and not the sour old type!

I'd better be off for work now since im walking it, got my bike in the shop getting the backwheel fixed. Blog later!

Finaly back and unpacked and almost sorted out!
It has been a lovely 2 weeks, with the wedding and the honeymoon to Prague. As James is telling you bits of it in his blog and have some pictures up already i will come back to my side of the story once i have my picture album up and running as well.

So this is it!
I am soon going to get picked up by my mum and off to the hairdressers where my bridesmaid will be waiting to hold my hand! I am so nervous but still all giddy and i cant stop smiling!!!
I think i havent forgotten anything! Relax...relax...relax...

You know what? It is an amazing wonderful day out there. Sun and blue sky, not a cloud in sight. What more could you ask for, your husband to be, family, friends and a cool summer breeze in the old oaktrees as we say I Do to each other. Life doesnt get much better does it...

Currently listening to Julio Iglesias - La Paloma
Im listening to Julio again, am i insane???

Well never mind that, we are soon going out to the market in town. Its a 4 day event ending on saturday. There was cruising last night with big beautiful american cars, today im not sure what there will be. But we are going in to have a look. Besides it is lovely weather for it.

Countdown to the Big Day on saturday has begun! We went out to Rankhyttan today to hand over the placecards we made and also the order of seating. And we got to see what rooms they had to offer us since the bridalsuit was taken and i was disappointed at the new Spa section room so we settled for a bigger room in the estate itself. With or without ghosts that is were we will be sleeping. Im sure it will be alright. Just have to make sure we get everything with us since it is a bit out of the way and you just cant nip back if you forgot something at the last minute. As usuall im sure i will be in charge of getting everything togheter, even though James does help, he can be a bit neurotic when it comes to tickets and passports. He keeps on checking them and so on. Whenever we travel togheter i let him check them once and then keep them with me instead of handing them over to him since i know he will be checking them every ten minutes or so just to make sure they stll say what they did ten minutes ago. I never forget the first time we travelled togheter and we were standing in the check in line and i jokely said i dont have the passports, dont you? The frantic look on his face combined with the staring eyes were amusing for a second before i felt sorry for him and fished the importent documents out of my pocket. He actually thought i had forgotten them! Am i evil? ;o)

The timetable for the day is in line, will check with the florists on friday though to make sure it is all ok. Everything else can go wrong as long as i have the dress and flowers. Dinner and bowling is booked for friday night for James family. It seems that some of the girls from work might come over on friday so i might just stay for dinner but ask if Lotta could come pick me up before the bowling. Weather wise they have promised a very nice and sunny day, so fingers crossed...!

Something weird has happend to our VCR. It wont start up after i pulled the plug earlier today since they promised thunder and i was going to work. Update: it will start up when i plug it in the bedroom socket but can i be bothered to put it in with the tv and dvd and decoder tonight? Naaah, i'll watch a dvd insted, wonder if it will be Lord of the Rings... ;o)

I can feel the sweet tingle of panic creeping up my back. Why is that you might wonder? Well in just one weeks time now im going to become Mrs James Last and i am sweating under the pressure that we (me) have got everything organized! Did we forget something, did we book everything, not to mention our trip to Prague the day after! Maybe thats why i have stomache flu. Was home sick yesterday and feel pretty sorry for myself today so im home now as well. Well maybe better i got it this weekend and not the next huh? And it doesnt help that James has slumped into a depression like state, nothings fun and he has no energy and EVERYTHING is boring!! HELP ME!

Play it again Tigs! Raul Malo - I said i love you

I cant help it, this song gets me in a great mood each time i listen to it! And now you have to excuse me, im going to go rumba with James! ;o)

So, Tom, Dick and Harry have arrived. Dont ask me why but James thought they were suitable names for our new pets. They are females though so they might get offended if i call them by their names in public. Never mind that, what are they you might ask, they are fish. Siamese fighting fish to be more accurate. I have a photo to show you how the species look like.

The fish on the left is a female and the more flamboyant one is a male. Our three ickle females are red, white and blue....
We got them from Marie at work, she is going to move to England in september so instead of trying to kill them off she asked if we were interested in taking them on, all she asked for the tank, fishfood and fishes were a bag of my home made buns. I thought i'd made a good deal! Once i cleaned the tank out and rearranged the stones and added a few bigger ones as caves and stuff i let the fishes back in, they were being held in a little shrimpsallad container while i was mucking about. I think they liked it. Its very hard to tell you know. At least they ate all the fishfood i dropped in afterwards. If you have any better suggestions of names for them we gladly take them in the comments section :o)

What can i say, its been a WONDERFUL day. After James had done half of his leaflet round i thought it would be nice to get away and just do nothing, think of nothing but what shapes the clouds could be while laying on a blanket with James' stomach as my pillow. I needed to unwind a LOT. So after i quickly got a chicken sallad togheter and we packed some lovely chocolate cake as dessert we went off on our bikes. Town was full of people laying around in droves on every available lawn. Or sitting in cafes drinking cold beer or eating a melting icecream in the shade. But we didnt want to stay in the too warm town so we biked out to the lake. And we were very surprised to see that no one was at the swimingplace in Källviken. We had it all to ourselves, it was just us, the ducks, bright sun and a warm breeze to keep us comfortable. Talk about perfect sunday...

If you ever feel bored go and try this one out, i guarentee that you will fell very artistic after a while!

Me, i just managed to get totaly sucked into doing ickle men and women...lol!

Currently listening to A*Teens - A perfect match
I got some new music in the post this morning which i am listening to right now. There are quite alot of new music i would like to listen more to. Thank gods for Kazaa i'll tell you. Free music and if you dont like it just delete it!

Its been a very productive day off. I vacumed a bit this morning, went to grans to do her shopping, managed to clean out her fridge a bit as well. Anyone know when porridge grows legs and walks by itself? I think i have a rough idea by now... Also went to Borlänge with mum to renew her visa and to see if we could find some shoes. Oh no shopping with mum i thought but it all turned out very good. Both me and her found some new shoes. Just have to wear them a bit now before the Big Day. I also found a nice top that my mum 'helped' me buy, as thanks i bought her a fika at Almas cafe. And when i got home the Rankhyttan people phoned up and gave me an estimate, more over here. And a bit later Marie phoned up and asked if it was alright for her and Malin to come over for a fika which it of course was. They came and had bought us a housewarming present, a lovely lantern from my favorite shop (Indiska). I was surprised to say the least. We had some cold juice and buns and chattered away happily in the kitchen untill Malin had to get going home before her bf reported her missing, he wanted his dinner i presume ;)

And the rest of the evening i've spent listening to music. Im surprised at how little i listen to now a days. At one time in my life i couldnt live without music on. But the last few years have been very quiet. Not that i've stopped completly but it became rare to put a cd on just to sit and listen to it. Btw i think Sugababes are my new favorites.

Currently listening to Celine Dion - I drove all night

Im surprised of how much this song reminds me of when i was younger. Swedish summernights can be magical and so bittersweet if you dont have anyone you can cuddle up with... Always in springtime i get this heartache about lost love, puppy love if you like. Do you remember your first crush? I do, it was the class sweetheart who everybody just forgave when he had done anything naughty. They just took one glance at his puppydog blue eyes and shiny white grin and everything was forgotten. I did ask if he wanted to be my boyfrind once in second grade and he agreed! For a week i was in heaven but then some other girl got the courage to ask him and he said yes to her!
Why do i think of this now? Because it was that same song i had on the stereo years ago, but with Cyndi Lauper singing it, when reading the morning paper and in an article read about some young guy being killed in a bike-car accident the night before. And then the next moment the phone rang and it was one of my old schoolfriends who rang to say he had died, that it was him they were writing about.... I never forget that moment or that song...

The weekend...

Its a working weekend for me though, maybe thats why the sun is shining and it is pretty darn HOT outside! It is just not fair is it. Because i can bet you anything that next weekend when i am off from work there will be rain and hail and other unpleasent things flying around outside!
At least i didnt need to get up at 5.30 on my weekend off to go to work and do a stocktake now did i James... ;o)
Sulk over.. am feeling much better now.

In other news? Not much really, my life at the moment is at a standstill. Wedding ahead, but not so close yet to make everything spring into action. It is a bit sad that the only interesting thing happening is when i have a small argument with James over what we are going to eat for dinner. Silly but i suppose you grasp after anything that could turn the temperature up a notch into INTERESTING when the rest of your life just seems plain and dull.
Is it a bad sign wen you look at a desk and just have this urge to sweep all the crap that is on it into a box and trow it away because nothing gets put away anyway? Or it might just be the hormones...

Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?"
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Guess who :)

Oh its been a boring week. And its not finished yet either! And as the days just seem to dwindle away our wedding is getting closer and closer and there will be lots of stuff to be managed starting next week i think. But right now its just standing still... could it be the calm before the storm i wonder....

James ran the Spring i Benen race yesterday. He finished in the middle somewhere of what i could make out which is very good i think. He also got a medal and i took some little videoclips of him running on our digicamera, go and have a look. See if you can spot the Running Blue... :)

After the race we went to Rusta, a discount shop, and bought a fold away table to hang on our balcony and two folding chairs in akacia wood. Bargain really considering it is solid wood.

In the afternoon Rosie and Per came by for some swedish 'fika'. Fika is when having coffe or tea with cakes, buns, sandwiches anything really that you can munch to while chatting, i think it is an excellent word and havent come across anything similare in english. We chatted away and watched a film while it was snowstorming outside! So no game of Kubb or boule yesterday either. Btw it did come 5 cm of snow and it stayed untill about now when the sun has come out and is melting it all away.

We walked into town to see my gran and walked back as well this morning. Thought it might do my back some good since it is hurting like buggery right now. Dont know if i have pulled a muscle or something when lifting stuff at work last week, something is getting caught at times and it really hurts like....! Right now im sitting with a hot waterbottle wedged between the chair and my back when typing this. Any suggestions to what you can do? We might go for another slow walk later since that seems to help me to relax and stop tensing up so much. If it is as bad as today tomorrow morning im not going to work. Oh the joy of telling my boss that, anyway i'll do whatever he wants me to do if that means going to see the so called 'company doctors' he has a contract with and get a certificate that yes i have a poorly back and can stay home so he dont think im faking it. In any case im going to phone up my chiropractor and ask if he got a time for me to see him. He might be able to help.

In other news, i went shopping for weddingclothes with my mum on wednesday ...... And it is only a true miracle i came back without a MAJOR falling out between my mum and me! Sigh, this is a woman who says she cant find anything to wear in a shop FULL of beautiful and various clothes styles. One who takes one look, not even that, and says oh no she cant wear that. It would help to try them on you know, it might surprise her once in a while....
Anyway it got so bad she was saying something along the lines that she might as well not come to the wedding when i was getting a bit frustrated with her reluctance to even try some suggestions out! Thank the gods that i was in a good(ish) mood, any other day i would have told her that that was just fine and if it was so much trouble for her to find something to wear she might not as well make an effort and stay at home, ending with me stomping off in a mood and probably crying as well. Ok for not wanting to wear a dress since she is convinced she doesnt suit in one, and alright i suppose you have to be able to wear it afterwards as well. But please, no black trousers and white blouse as she thought of buying. Am i being unreasonable?
Anyway, after much grumping she tried out a lovely light blue skirt with a subtle floral print and a nice middle blue blouse as i told her i prefered to see her in a skirt since she refused blankly to try out some lovely summer dresses i showed her, and yes she would have looked fab in them dont care what she thinks. So that is now sorted and i remember why i never go clothes shopping with my mum, its just too emotional to try to convice a stubborn missus No that she could wear anything else then her usuall attire.
I still love my mum, she is just very trying sometimes....!

Currently listening to Raul Malo - I Said I Love You

Now there is a reason to watch Parky, you stumble over someone like Raul Malo playing a dancy happy song. Think Latino Lover in english... :o))
Weird i know but it works, it makes me want to jump to my feet and pull James up out of bed(he is napping) for a funky latino rumba!

I would offer it to you as part of the Divine Tigs Jukebox but how do you write the code so i works? We got enough space to place a mp3 but how do you link it right. Help?

What have i been doing all day today you wonder? Well even if you dont wonder i will tell you, so shut up and pay attention! ;o)

Because today i am so proud of myself. I sat down and sewed my curtains that i have been shuffling from one side of the apartment to the other for ages it feels like. Finaly today i felt like doing something about them. It helped that it was pouring down with rain outside and i didnt have anything else to do for the rest of the afternoon with all the re-potting of my seedling plants done and dinner out of the way as well. I had bought these second hand curtains for over a month agao thinking they might fit nicely in the bedroom, but since they were a bit on the short side i decided against it. But i couldnt just trow them away again so i pondered a bit about what to do with them. Then i saw these other curtains that were half white and half pattern in the Elephant shop (Indiska to all swedes, but i rather use James' renaming of it) and thought i could do that with mine! So off i went and bought some nice white material and laid it all out to see if i got any inspiration from it. But oh no i didnt so it all went into the guestroom, waiting for the inspiration to show itself. So today i did the lot of them. Even managed to remind James that he had a run to do today, not listening to his whine about it raining outside i managed to get him up and out doing his 10k run in the rain (i smirked as he went past the window but im sure he didnt see me.. ;o) )

Of course there is a picture!

I'll write more about Valborg tomorrow because i need my sleep, well at least the 5 hours i get since im working early tomorrow doing the bread....But im not sleepy! I know, i'll hyptonize myself into getting sleepy.

You are getting very sleepy.. Very sleepy... Your eyes cant stay open.... You have an urge to count sheeeeeep...Sleepyzzzzzzz...zzzleeepy...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Its been a hectic weekend at work and now i am completly beat, still I have to go to work in about 10 minutes. i hate early mornings! Besides it always makes me so sleepy when i get back home, tuesday is early day and of course nap day. Isch i feel old.....!

Part from work nothing much is happening. How is that possible with us getting married soon! But everything is just boring work at the moment. Must do something to change that, but what...?

Btw it snowed the other day, it was mixed with rain but anyway, it snowed! At least with the rain that fell yesterday it will be allowed to have these big bonfires on Valborgsmässoafton (wednesday) again since the ban on burning has been lifted. I wonder what we are going to do for Valborg, usually we go to some bonfire or the other and listen to the speech and the songs anf go ohh and aahh when the fireworks shoot off. Probably we will go to the mine and have a listen anda freeze if it s going to continue to be this cold!

It has been a busy week after easter. So sorry for the lack of posts. But i'll try to recap a bit whats been happening this week at least while James is doing my supper. Just got back home from work you see and am relaxing with some lovely cold Pepsi and just finished checking my mail.

So, this week, hmmmm... The picture from the post below(James took that one) is from sunday when we had been out so see our friend Rosie and her bf Pär in her parents summercottage. It was lovely weather and we had an indoor bbq since there was a ban on any outdoor burning because of the dry weather we have been having the last couple of weeks. Still havent rained. We stayed there for a full day and had lots of good food and loads of laughs and a few mosquito bites but never mind that. We walked around the stuga(cottage) area and snapped away some pictures. Both some on James digital one but i brought my Canon EOS with me as well and managed to use up 2 rolls of film. All in all a very relaxing day, even got a bit sunburnt so might not look so pale anymore.

On monday we both had a day off so i asked my mum if she wanted to go to IKEA with us, which we ended up doing. They were rebuilding the shop so it wasnt as big and tidy as usuall but i found some lovely, coulorfull material that i've made into a table cloth and also a big, white( i wanted the squeeky green one but James put his foot down) plastic container on wheels with a selfwatering system in that im going to plant some runnerbeans in later on in may when its warmer. We also bought a loooong curtainpole with attachments on the side, it seems the lenght of a window in Sweden isnt longer then 3 m because i havent been able to find any that are longer then that, we need 3.20, so i was very pleased to finaly find something other then the usuall drab one that comes with the apartment.

Tuesday was boring work and as usuall i was very tired from the early start so i wasnt much use afterwards. Though we did bike out to the surplus shop on the other side of town to have a look at outdoor chairs(they just had ugly white plastic ones) and i got my bike fixed in the bikeshop on the way, the chain has been hopping off so it needed tightening a bit.

Wednesday we had lots of things planned and i think we managed to do most of them. I phoned the county hall to see what they needed from me since they had phoned up earlier before easter. Just need to hand in name and adress of our witnesses for the wedding. Also i phoned Rankhyttan to ask about food and that we will get the table flowers from the same guy who is doing my bouque, but all this you can read in my other blog. Also i got to talk to the chef about some ideas we have about what we want to eat at the wedding. We went around town doing various small errands, getting James a nice white shirt and silver grey silk tie was one of them. He looks really really handsome in his new suit. I also had a look at shoes for me but couldnt really find anything in town, might go to Borlänge one day next week to see if i find anything there. The only good shoeshop in Falun closed earlier this year, well the only one i ever went to anyway. The two other ones are too trendy, well you know the kind. Ones that dont have any comfy shoes that you can wear next year as well, get my point?
I also had a first fitting of my dress later on in the afternoon so we were spending the day wandering around town untill it got to 5. More in here

Yesterday was a bore at work, Lotta was home sick so i had to settle for Mrs Boris as company at the tills.... I neednt say more. But we finaly got round to buying some window boxes we're going to hang outside on the balcony. Got them in a nice deep blue colour and quite long ones, also bought some pansys to set out in my little square metal pot. I'll take a picture later on tomorrow. And James got his bike back as well all fixed up since the back wheel hub had cracked and broken down and needed replacing.

And today was just the usuall Big Friday when people get paid and rush over to us to spend all their money at once, or at least it felt like it today. To say im pleased im home is an understatement! Enough babbling, time for dinner! I'll post more later, hopefully

I've changed my flower picture to one that this guy has taken. What can i say, im in awe of his lovely pictures and i will watch his next step very closely and wait for the next set of pictures to appear on his site. He even inspired me to take pictures again, which i havent been doing for quite some time.

I do wonder when you stop having enough TIME to do stuff you really liked to do. Does that come with age? I dread the years to come in that case and i really REALLY hope i wont become like all the senior citizens i see stressed out in the shop each day because they dont have the time to wait in line for their turn. They rudely remark they havent got the time to wait! They gots things to do, people to meet. Isnt retirement supposed to be just that, retirement. Not saying you have to sit in a chair and slowly fade out. But that you finaly have the time to do all that stuff you were planning but never got the chance for when you were younger when raising kids and working all hours of the day took all that precious time.

I've always thought there's more to life then your work but recently it has all been just that, work, work, work. And i dont even do very inspiring kind of work part from my 2 days in the fruit and vegetable section. People(yes you know who you are) are always hassling me to change what i do if i dont like it and i do know they are right. Maybe one day i will do just that, but not right now... I really dont know what would be needed to get me to change. But it would be something major or at least that i have a better job landed already.

How about you people coming here, yes i know you are a few, still, would you be doing what you are now if you had a choice and could do whatever you would like to?

There are little witches and witchmen running around distributing Happy Easter cards in exchange for sweets and kronas. Its a swedish tradition that the ickle people dress up and in a sense go 'trick or treating' on the thursday before Easter, but if they dont get anything they dont trick you here. Now last was a very rowdy gang of boys with painted mustaches and awfull big hats. Dont think they were more then 11 - 12 years old. Will see if any one else comes round. Usually they should only do this on thursday but lately they come all the days before and during easter. They should stick to tradition me thinks! ;o)

Can i say i am SOOO glad to be home from work? I just sat and watches as a trail of people walked into the shop this morning when i unlocked the entrance door. The first 5 minutes was just people pouring in through the door. And 10 minutes later the queues started to build and was at a constant untill i went home. Im sure they are still long as we speak even though we are supposed to be closing now at 8. But i didnt mind the people because i got to go home after half a day of it and dont need to go back to work now for 4 lovely days. And they have promised excellent weather all through the holiday, so im not complaining, besides it made the day go so much quicker.

I read The Alchemist in one day, its not a thick book i agree, but it was a while ago a story got hold of me so i couldnt put it down. Its a simple but yet interesting story about a young boy finding out the meaning of his life. If you care for some food for your brain, and soul i might add, you should read it and tell me if it was crap or if it was good and why you thought so. Im interested in knowing what you thought.

Why do you celebrate Easter? Is it for the chocolate eggs? Is it for the time off work you get? Do you know why we have Easter at all?

Me, i do it to celebrate that we are one step closer to summer and the coming of spring. And today has truly been one of the first REAL days of spring. A pleasent +14 and a sparkling sun, birds going crazy singing to their hearts content. And people sitting around in the park, which is still not so green, but still, sitting there indulging the warmth and the sun. Catching a few rays on that pale winter skin. And trying to forget it actually snowed this time last week.

And in order to celebrate the coming of spring (and easter of course) we swedes take twigs of birch, bring them inside and put multicoloured feathers on them and hang decorated eggs on them and call it Pĺskris. A little known fact is that in the olden days they used said bunch of twigs to wack all your old sins out (so there would be room for new ones no doubt). Dont know where the feathers came from but eggs are an old fertility symbol so naturally you hang them on the twigs, but only after you've blown all the content out and painted them in bright colours. Have you ever tried to empty an egg without smashing the shell? It is damn close to impossible! But with a little bit of help from your old cellotape it can be done.

This is our bunch of twigs, quite muted in colour compared to what i've seen.
Notice the ickle yellow ducks with colorful hats hanging in there, my mums choice of course because what is an Easter without ducks... ;o)

Do you do something special when you get home from work just to make a point your not longer at work? My little ritual is to have a glass of pepsi, take my watch off and go online. Well i drink pepsi a lot and go online frequent enough but it seems like that when im not working i dont wear a watch, to James' irritation i might add because it always seems to end up that i am asking him every so often what the time is.... :)

Well sitting here and listening to the sorry whinging from James, who actually did volunteer to do the dinner, that he cant find anything to make and that we dont have anything he could do something with it amazes em that he wont look up a cookbook and find something he fancy to try out! Thats what i would do, that or do the sure thing, takeaway. Lets see what he says when he reads my post...... ;o)

Work today was utterly boring, busy but utterly boring. It is total crap to work weekends with Boris, becasue the only thing you want to do is strangle the poor sod and stuff him in his freezer! Thank the Gods that Big Boss is coming back from his golfingtour in Holland tomorrow. Maybe it will make things go back from being Boris' private playpen to a normal workplace! And maybe Big Boss can calm down the lynchmob that will otherwise assemble in the kitchen tomorrow morning.

Have you ever wondered what your fairy name would be? Well according to this Goblin mine is:
Morlenma SpringCheeks of the Warm Dale

Suits me fine to live in the Warm Dale, it is snowing here, AGAIN!
Thanks to Lynn for the giggle

I've been dabbing a bit at re-upholstery tonight. After i got home from my lesser eventful day i waited for James to get back from work before making any plans whatsoever. After dinner we decided to go for a bikeride to my friend Rosie and her secondhand shop. Only thing is that we met mum just as she was finishing work and instead of biking there we left the bikes by the garage and got a lift there thinking we would have a nice pleasent walk back home afterwards. Well once inside the shop i found some bare necesseties for someone who likes to sew, lots of marked down zippers, perfect for my future pillows im going to make, one day, soon, yeah you know... ;)

We also stumbled over some nice chairs...and a long bench....
In the end, we bought the bench and one chair for the desk plus the zippers. Thing was, we were walking, i couldnt phone my mum to ask if we could borrow her car since she was going to her friend, whom i dont know the phonenumber to! So either you reserve the stuff and come back for them later, or you do as we did, walked home carrying them... Now you might think we decided to do that since it might not have been so far from home. But oh no, this place is at the opposite side of town so it was quite a trek. But at least we had something to sit on when we got tired, one of the good things that James pointed out when we had to stop so i could change the hold on the lighter chair for i dont know which time! Well he at least got the fun bit of doing a bit of benchsailing when the wind caught him...lol!

It took us well 1˝ hour to walk back home but at least we got home before the sun set which i had doubts about beforehand. Since we got home i managed to make a cake, just in case Rosie and bf was coming over later, dived into my HUGE pile of various fabrics and come up with some suggestions for James to look at and i also managed to change the cover of the chair. It was not at all hard and quite fun as well. As we were walking home we went by an upholsterer and he was still open so i bought some padding from him. All in all i am very pleased with how the new chair looks like with the new cover. And the bench is neatly set on our balcony so we have somewhere to sit once it gets a bit warmer and doesnt blow as fierce northwind as it has been for the last couple of days. I will make some cushions for us to sit on as well since i now have the space to spread out on when sewing.

James took some nice pictures of the chair, one of those before/after thing. So behold, the bold and beautiful new chair! Notice that i got the white star in the center, just were i wanted it, arent i clever? ;o)

It's one of those days that doesnt really turn out like you had planned. Today was meant being spent in IKEA in Gävle, but since James work caught us before we got out the door, he had to go in. Well he really didnt need to but work has ben slow for him over the past week or so, so naturally you grab everything you can get. Well that is all and well but that leaves me in a bit of a dangle since i dont know what to do with the rest of the day. I was so set on going i contemplated to go alone, but how fun is that when you are supposed to look at furniture togheter. I might had found something nice that was considered buying and now i cant because the other half of the deciding party had to work.... :(

Its a wonderful day out as well, but my mood is in a dip so cant really be bothered about going out even! Suscpect my hormones have something to say as well but im trying not to listen to them today. So therefor i am going to force myself out the door and borrow mums car and go for a drive and have a look localy for new furniture.
See yas later when im home.

YAWN!!
I've worked extra today, so had to get up at 5.20 this morning, yes 5.20 this morning Maria went up and asked herself, is she stoopid! But im not, just have to work for Malin since she very kindly worked for me when we moved house earlier. It was alright once you got there and got started. And the day went very quickly for being a saturday. Anyway as a result of the early start im yawning my head off and so is James since he also got up a bit later to do some laundry at 7. After work we went to my mum for dinner, we decided to bike there. But since there is half storm outside it was alright going there but the trip back home just took the last bit of energy out of both of us i think.

There was a storm on yesterday, some roofs got lifted off a couple of apartment buildings in the next town, but nothing major here. Just a few powerlosses and lots of trees falling down. But that is expected when it is so windy that you can almost lean into the wind without falling flat on your face! And theres been some snow, both wet and soggy laying on the ground stuff and that hard prickly stuff that stings you when biking home from mums!

Oh well, what better way to relax then to have a look at The Two Towers laying in our sofa vegging away. Oh did i just say that, but how is that possible you say since it hasnt even come out on video yet. Well, i will just say that the nice toothfairys left it for me under my pillow since i have had a rotten toothache for a couple of days. Getting your wisdom teeth does that to you. Or i might just be delirious.... ;o)

Its been a very hectic tuesday. Theres a new deli opening next door to the shop so of course we have had lots of curious people walking in asking where is the fish and deli shop was and if it all was a big april fools joke. It looks very nice the new shop. Mainly they have a large selection of fish but also they have some other deliproducts, like snails with garlic butter, ready to put in the owen... Or as i spotted large steaks of tuna. Might try that since tuna is one of the few fishes i like. Naturally there was lots of people coming in to us as well to have a look and a shop around. So i've been a real little busy bee today. That might explain why i after coming home and having sausage stroganoff felt like having a nap. I went to bed and it took just as long as for James to go out and pick up my bike that the wind had blown down for me to be sound asleep! Im a bit amazed that i just nodded off that quickly. I only had an hour worth of sleep but it made me feel better. Just as well because im all achy in my hands and feet, it happens when you lift several 12kg crates of apples and a dozen of 18kg banana boxes!
I am very thankful i have tomorrow off!

Part from that, life is mellow and slow. Spring has seemed to come to stay, even though there was a fierce cold wind today and the odd snowflake flying around. I havent seen any tussilago yet though but im sure they will be springing up like little miniture suns just about everywhere soon. As will the white star of vitsippa nod its little pretty head in the wind. I like spring in Sweden. What i dont like is the yearly explosion of pollen that follows!

Oh, i've just realized i have been blogging for a whole year! Me, that rarely stay on the same thing long enough to get an archive...lol! So happy anniversary to me and my blog i thinks.. :o)