I think I feel a bit older, yes definitely older and grayer since I had my birthday last Wednesday. That is why I went to the hairdressers yesterday and got everything done. And I mean everything, got me some nice curls then toned them in a nice dark brown/red color, a touch up of the hairstyle and I did my eyelashes darker as well. Saves you from putting on mascara every day and not needing to worry about it running in this awful autumn weather we've been having. Rain and rain and some more rain for the weekend. Where did the nice, cold, crisp frosty mornings go? They used to turn into lovely golden sunny days just begging you for long walks. I wouldn't walk more then absolutely necessary outside right now, anybody for some driving rain, just borderlining sleet?

I had a very nice birthday and didn't open all my pressies straight away since I had loads to do on that day. The phone kept on ringing all afternoon with people sending me Happy Birthday wishes and I had lots of nice pressies, thank you all! My mum came over for dinner and I had a cake with one, yes ONE candle in it. No need to point out that I'm 32 now is there..oops!
Oh well, I'm not any different from when I was 31, or so at least I'm trying to convince myself!

"To live with someone from a different country" requested by Belle.

Somehow it doesn't feel odd, it feels familiar and comforting to live with an Englishman. My mum, who is from Finland, did stay with her aunt in England for a while when she was in her twenties and worked there for a couple of years before meeting my dad who also was from Finland. She moved to Sweden shortly before they got married. We've always talked a kind of mixed Swenglish in the family with my mum but talked Swedish to our dad. But we never learnt Finnish so that is what my parents talked when they didn't want us to know what they were saying.

Mum used to cook all sorts of English dishes and we got used to having brown gravy to almost everything and that the vegetables were supposed to be all mushy and overcooked(yuck) but also that yorkies are very nice with gravy and roast. But she also did these fantastic pastries and cakes and every time we went over to visit her aunt she brought back loads of English necessities like Oxo cubes, malt loaf, water biscuits, short bread, self raising flower and dried mint that she used for the lamb roast plus a heck of a lot more that would fit in our car, we'd go by ferry on the north sea and all I got to say about that is, thank the gods for planes and short crossings of 2 hours! So all of this is familiar and not unusual to me. Maybe that's why I fell in love with a handsome Englishman with a Suffolk accent... ?

But as Belle has found out there is a difference in tolerance to cold weather. When James first came over to stay he was fascinated with snow and could just sit and stare at it while it was falling outside. He still loves the crunch sound you get when walking on it when it is very cold but now when the novelty has worn off he thinks winter goes on forever and spring can never come too quickly when it is around March. And he still has difficulty in judging when it is a proper time to put some gloves and hat on. He still some times thinks it is alright to go out in -10 without a hat on! BTW when the English news says there will be severe cold they are talking about -1 or maybe even -3. It took a bit of time before I realized they weren't joking about it when I was over in England to visit James' family in winter.

He has never understood the Swedish term "fika", which generally means a cup of coffee or tea WITH cake or sandwiches. And he don't really get that we like to fika so often. It is almost like a religion to some, and it has to be at a certain time and there has to be cake and cookies with the coffee or else it isn't a proper fika! If a friend calls and wonders if you can get together and have a talk it usually means can you come over and fika or could we go out to fika at a nice and cozy cafe. I kinda like it, it is very relaxed and you get something to munch on while talking about deep meaningful stuff, like the latest gossip...

Even though I'm sure there are loads more that you can go on and on about there really isn't anything that irritates me. He is very easy to cook for, he always amuses me with his quirky sense of humour and I enjoy being in his company and misses him awfully whenever he is working a different shift then I am. Life would be oh so boring without him, I do love him to bits, love you Jamie...

"Your first trip to Ireland and your first meeting with Jamie" requested by Mary who was responsible from the start that me and James ever met.

It was in the days of IRCmania. It was the 'in' thing to do, to go to an IRC channel and chat to total strangers and have cyber marriages, cybersex, cyber theater plays with various people playing different characters or just a one man show where he/she changed his nickname to make a point not to mention cyber wars and hostile takeovers of various chatrooms. It was when the geek could earn a name as a genius hacker if he could spoof, flood and kill.

Mary was one of the first people I got to know really well over the internet. She was one of the gang in a channel called #cheeky_fookahs. We were a crazy bunch of people sitting up all hours of the night and day to chat to each other. Sometimes you just wanted to fool around a bit and joke and other times you needed a friendly ear who would listen to your troubles and worries and tell you that everything was going to be alright. And Mary, she is a very warm and understanding woman, will sit and listen to all your worries and tell you that everything will be alright, and in the end it is alright, because she said it is. But sometimes she finds you someone who she thinks would be perfect for you and introduces him with an innocent excuse that she has to do something and would I please keep him company for a while. So I did. And I don't know when it clicked, but it clicked, big time.

After a few months we'd got to know each other so well that we started to talk about seeing each other in real. I think it was Mary who suggested a party at her place, in Ireland, and that we should get together with the others in the chat room as well. In the end only Brian (twant) and Richie (SaWnOff) part from James and me would make it over to Dublin. And indeed it was a nervous affair. I can still remember that Friday when Mary and me were waiting at the airport for Richie and James' flights to land. It was busy at the airport and flights were being delayed so in the end it was Richies flight that came in first and when James flight had landed there must have been loads of planes coming in because all you could see was this wall of people moving slowly from the arrivals hall to the exits. But no James, after a while we heard a msg that would please Mrs Mary and Mirjam! go to the information desk, James is waiting. And there he was a nervous, pale, shaggy dog looking James. But he saw us coming and I can swear to this day that if I would have poked him he would have fallen over but instead I gave him a long warm hug and asked if he was alright and his answer was "I am alright now"