Busy bee or lazy snail?

I'd go for the lazy snail any time, any day after this hectic month! I'm not used to a fast pace with a calendar that is fully booked with things to do and places to be at. It was fun I admit to go visit Al and her family but shopping for 6 hours straight in a very big, very crowded shop is nothing I will be doing for quite some time thank you very much!

The weekend spent in Stockholm with colleagues from work I could have given a miss. Ok, the food was excellent and the show funny enough to give me a few laughs but the rest I could have missed out on without regrets.

But the weekend in Gothenburg with James and my mum was very fun and the show wonderful and funny. The hotel was very nice and just situated outside of Liseberg, big amusement park, so we ventured into the Christmas market already on Friday night. Saturday morning was spent looking for my mum who disappeared when going down for breakfast. We had to take turns to get into he elevators and how she got the notion of trying to find the breakfast room on her own even though I told her we would be getting downstairs to the lobby as soon as we could would she please wait there for us I'll never know. When we eventually got down she had vanished and me and James went looking for her if she had gone to the lobby to sit or already gone into breakfast. But oh no, she had asked the people in the lift if they knew where breakfast was being served and they had answered the 18th floor... So off she went even though we told her to wait for us downstairs. We finally caught up with her when she was on her way down and the elevator didn't stop at her floor for whatever reason and James had just gone to have another look around the lobby area. After that she stayed close by, mainly because I threatened her with being locked in her room for the rest of the day for scooting off like that! Mums!

The evening show and Christmas buffe was very nice and boy are we glad we came a bit early seeing the queues that lined up to the food later on but by then we were already into the desert table. The show was a combination of music in Christmas boogie woogie style from Robert Wells and some fantastic magic by Joe Labero.

In other news we have repainted the kitchen to a lovely soft yellow, we've just finished laying a new floor in the lounge and have decided on what new wallpaper we are going to have in there as well. And it all has to be done before Christmas whcih we are going to celebrate HERE this year!

Fanfare!!!

In celebration of my 501st post i present

Bunny Story

A precious little girl walks into a pet shop and asks, "Excuthe me, do you have any widdle wabbits?"
The shopkeeper's heart melts, he gets down on his knees so that he's on her level, and says,
"Do you want a widdle white wabbit or a thoft, fuffy bwack wabbit, or one like that widdle bwown wabbit over there?"

The little girl blushes, rocks on her heels, puts her hands on her
knees, leans forward and whispers ...

" I don't weally fink my pet pyfon gives a phuk."

Wannabee Busy Bee?

And the race is on! This will certainly be the busiest month I've had in quite a while and it isn't Christmas yet. We've just had a lovely weekend in Stockholm as it was my birthday present from James to stay in a hotel and go to see an opera at the Royal Opera House. So that is what we did. The opera in question was Figaros wedding and we had seats high up but could see all of the stage part from an icky little bit of the left corner. It was a very nice weekend away from the normal everyday routine with lovely meals out and great big breakfast buffe and we finished it in IKEA on Sunday morning before heading back home.

Now this weekend I am working as normal but next week we are going to visit my friend Al in Gothenburg for 3 days. She has been asking us for ages to come see them and now we finally got our dates to match so we are off. And on that trip we are going to the biggest outlet store there is in Sweden called Gekas in Ullared. I think Al said it was as big as 7 football pitches and had everything in it. I'm saving my money and not buying anything until we have been there...

The week after that we are going down to Stockholm again with work to have dinner and a comedy show at Hamburger Bors. We are staying over night so all of that weekend will be spent away from home. James have plans on inviting the guys from work over and take down the partition wall in the lounge before heading out with them for a night of bowling while I'm having fun in Stockholm. Hopefully they are sober enough to take down the right wall, I know we are planning to have an extension with a conservatory attached but not yet!

For the last weekend in November we are going back to Gothenburg, spending two nights at a five star hotel and go to a Christmas show with Magic that we gave my mum as her birthday present earlier this summer. There will also be time for some shopping and possibly an evening at Lisebergs Christmas Market depending on when they are open.

Never mind that December is breathing down our neck with lots to do at work and at home. But all in all I think it will be a lovely month, hectic but lovely.

Oh, did I mention that I finished wallpapering my hobby room. It is all nice and green in there with a floral feature wall. We also found some nice wallpaper when we went to Stockholm. I am severely tempted to have it in our bedroom. A very light turquoise blue with a gold print. It is called Wisteria and is made by Nina Campbell. We also took another sample of a darker turquoise blue with gold print, they both look nice but trouble is we have absolutely nothing in blue that would match up with it. What to do, what to do...

Yippiiii!

I'm almost up to date with the dreaded To Do List! At the moment I have the tumble dryer squealing like a stuck pig downstairs drying some t-shirts I just washed. Don't ask me why it squeals. Apparently it does so in the start, or so the former owners told us, but it seems to work since I tested to dry my jacket in it when I was in a hurry the other day. I would prefer it not to squeal of course but what do you do? If I get someone to have a look at it and they charge you for shaking their head saying I might as well by a new one I will stick to the squealing thank you very much! I've done two loads of washing, cleaned the fire stove out and tested it with a small twig of wood and plenty of paper. It works, part from that the stick didn't burn, still too wet! I've also changed knobs on my desk since the other ones had one broken when we moved and it already had two odd ones in replacing others that broke.

Oh bliss, pig has gone asleep! Or at least the squealing has stopped even though it is still drying. I can now understand why she said they didn't use it much...

It has been very heavy frost here in the last couple of days so everything is looking quite limp and almost all the leaves has dropped. We did tidy most of the dead summer flowers away on Monday and dug over the flower borders, all prepared now for next years planting season. We also had the car tires changed to studded winter ones on Wednesday. Good thing we did because it was quite slippery this morning when I drove to work in heavy fog even though it still was -6 so just about everything got a nice coating of ice. Including the road. But I took it easy and no one was really in a rush, quite sensible as well since you could just see about 8-10 meters ahead of you and sometimes it just fogged in completely so you crawled at around 30km/h. But as soon as the lake Runn freezes we will be rid of this cold wet fog and by the looks of things it shouldn't be long now.

James' mum should stop reading here and hop to the next paragraph.




They are predicting the coldest winter for decades due to the Atlantic being warmer then usual and not sending the warmer westerly winds this way so we are to put up with the Siberian Express earlier and for longer and they are already scaring people that there wont be enough electricity around. If they do cut the power I want my tax money back! I am not paying tax for the pleasure of freezing my butt off!

I hope it snows soon. I just love winter and snow and now we'll have a whole yard to play in when it does start to snow. James has threatened to build us an igloo and an army of snowmen parading the backyard. Well I don't mind, I'm sure I will indulge in a few snow lanterns of my own and we are thinking of putting some lights up in the trees for Christmas. I have a little idea of having a mini Christmas tree on the porch dressed in my colorful mini lights and putting up nice white lights around the bushes where all the bird feeders are hanging. Also got to invest in a good snow shovel or two, one bigger and one smaller.

But before all that I have to start finishing my hobby room. The wallpaper has arrived and I don't know what it is keeping me from doing the plastering in there and sanding it down all ready for the paper to go on the wall. I just don't have the energy for it at the moment. Or something...

Tadaaa!

New luscious guest room completed this morning with the curtains going up and the sunscreen in place. It took all in all 4 days to do it, 2 days hanging wallpaper and 2 days for the preparations. But now it looks very nice and very...white!

This is the result for all the hard work though and I must say I am pretty pleased with myself for being able to do it mostly myself with hints and tips from Lotta and mum.

I've had a change of heart...

It is quite a radical one as well. From a nice rusty red to pale white and beige floral for a feature wall and striped one to match. But I think we'll like it for longer then the red one. I wasn't so sure when I saw the red one in the shop and I got lots of help from the staff at Flugger Färrg with different suggestions to whatIi could have instead. In the endIichickenedd out and took the sample book with me back home to see what James thought of the different options before deciding. He actually agreed with me straight away on my favorite one butIi showed him some of the other options.

This is what we are having. Went and bought it this afternoon plus everything else needed so we might start doing the room tomorrow. Depending on the weather. If it is nice we are going to help mum turn her allotment for winter and cut the grass since it is our turn in the rota. If it is pissy and rainy weather as predicted this morning in the news Lotta will be coming over to help us out with the wallpapering. Keep your fingers crossed about it being rainy! Want to get started now when we have decided.

Early bird and such..

It is still pitch black outside, James has gone off to work and I am still perky as anything! It is very weird getting up at 4 in the morning voluntarily! Don't ask me why but I just woke up when James did and thought, hmm cant be bothered to try to get to sleep again. I'm sure I will suffer later on today but at the moment I am ready to do anything. Cant really go out in the garden just yet though since I wont see a thing and I think the neighbor's will think me slightly mad if I wander around with a flashlight while weeding out summer plants and stuff.

We have plastered and prepared the guest room for wallpapering this week. Lotta came over to help me do it on Wednesday and I finished it off yesterday by sanding it down so it is all nice and smooth now. I am going to go and order the wallpaper today and I might have a change of heart in what wallpaper to use. We were thinking of having a rusty red with a medallion pattern in a deeper red but I am not sure at the moment. Will have to see if I still like the one we decided on before. Anyway, I got carte blanche by James to choose which ever one I liked instead. Dangerous that, you know, I might come home with a lovely deep lilac aubergine colour and then what would he do... ;)

At the moment it is hovering around 0 degrees outside and things are turning more and more like autumn. This is what the view out our bedroom window greets me with every morning

Lovely isn't it.
It will soon be time to plant our hedge as well. Hopefully we will get them in the next week or so depending on if it gets colder so the leaves drop. James is sawing the planks for our vegetable raised beds boxes. I think they will work very nicely with what we have planned for next year in the vegetable garden patch. Still have to decide if we are doing the big dig next year to improve the drainage around the house. I think I'll ask Rosies dad what he thinks seeing as he is in the construction business and if he knows someone who could have a look and see how serious it is. If we do the Big Dig we will probably re-do the front drive as well while we are messing about. At the moment the weeds and grass are creeping ever closer into the gravel and its just not looking nice. I thought about some sort of paving, possibly cobblestones if you can get them cheap off a reclaim yard. Lots to do and plan and think about. But first we will get the guest room done in time for James parents visit at Christmas time. We will probably take down the wall downstairs after that and lay new floor and wallpaper downstairs before they come as well. It is just a matter of cracking on when you get the time at weekends.

Season of plenty.

The only vegetable growing well in our garden are my yellow pear tomatoes. Hopefully (crossing fingers) they will still have some time to mature on the vine before the frost nights start if not they will make do with my window sill in the kitchen. It is looking very hopeful at the moment weather wise though. Something else isn't looking hopeful though, I've picked only 12 runner beans from my 6 (!) plants so as you might imagine I'm not a happy bunny. Thank the gods that mum has plenty at the allotment this year. Even though we fertilized and watered extra when it was warm and dry the beans haven't really liked it here. Possibly the soil is very poor and needs a major injection of manure/compost/extra peat next spring to be able to sustain any sort of vegetable. I've had a closer look at the soil and it seems lacking of something. It is nice and light but feels... starved, cant find any better way of explaining what I mean. The new soil we bought will boost it somewhat but I think we will be buying manure in bulk next year to get any sort of structure into it..

The flowers like it here though....

Planning the garden

It seems to be coming together bit by bit out in the garden. It's much slower inside. Still haven't decided on wallpaper for the guest room or what the new floor is going to look like downstairs but I'm sure as soon as it gets to cold to do much outside it will get into full swing inside as well.

We staked out our vegetable plot last night before it got too dark to see what you were doing. For the ones who have seen it, it is somewhere in the region of 2 allotment plots or 7x8 meters. I have a hunch James will be eager to start digging it since he was the one dragging me out late last evening to get it done. The plan is simple. A large rectangle set between our biggest apple trees divided into 6 smaller beds with walkways made out of mulch roughly 50 cm wide in between. We are going to build frames of planks so it will be a bit raised and offer an option of having a grid of plastic tubes attached on top to hold up some fleece for those early vegetables to be protected from frost in spring and late autumn. The new hedge will be delivered within the next 2 weeks so got everything ready for that. Also the Mount Everest of soil has disappeared onto some tarpoling underneath one of the big fir trees we have. Plans are taking shape as what to do after we have dug around the house for new draining and seen that done. We had thought about putting down paving around the house to minimize all the weeds that now are growing very well in the sandy gravel closest to the house. It would work out much better I think and also the rain would drain away from the house as you would tilt the paving a bit. We are almost sure of that the 3 big fir trees have to come down. Right now there is a huge amount of space in our garden that is just sitting there in shadow not doing anything really and it is a bit gloomy as well. The trees are magnificent I agree and most certainly around 80 years old or maybe more but still.. Besides, on days like this, rainy and very windy, they are a bit scary. What if they are rotten inside and give way? Not such a pleasant thought.

Other garden news, the tomatoes are finally starting to ripen and I could pick 3 (!) for our salad yesterday. They are very sweet tasting yellow pear tomatoes. But they would have done better in a green house so I don't think many of them will be able to ripen on the vine since the weather has turned most significantly more autumn like the last couple of days. Nice and sunny, warmish yes but colder at night, much colder at night. I think there must have been a slight frost because my lovely Busy Lizzie on the porch had gone all limp one morning so it was off to the compost heap with that one. The others seem alright. The apples are getting tastier according to James. Got to see what we will do with them. I cant eat them raw and James usually gets tired of them after a few weeks of apple eating. And there is just so much you can do with them part from apple pie, apple sauce, apple cake, apple strudel and then you start all over again. Wish I'd now how to do cider or at least some apple juice, but it think it would involve a press and I don't have one. Things to wish for from Santa?

Little Mount Everest

That is what we now got on the lawn after we had a truck leave 10 cubic meters of lovely garden soil. We have tried to make a dent in it dispersing it into the hedge row to be and at least it shrunk a bit. We are going to add some to our existing hedge as well since there seems to be no top soil whatsoever left in it. Not even weeds grow in it!

At the moment James is dreaming sweet dreams happily snoring away in bed but I cant get to sleep. I think that big bold full moon might have something to do with it as well. Isn't it just lovely seeing how everything turns different in moonlight? It is light enough so I can see all of the garden without any help from the front porch lamp. You can tell it's a Saturday night. Slight screeching of car tires and an occasional acceleration roar beyond the railway track, but it is very calm on our street. At the moment..

We have decided to dig a little vegetable patch anyway this autumn. I really want somewhere to grow a little bit of vegetables next year. A few bushes of tomatoes really doesn't do the trick and I doubt there will be any runner beans this year. The soil was too poor for them to grow well. They are spindly little things not even a meter high even though I did fertilize the soil before planting them. Have to see what will grow well and what don't like it at all. At the moment the summer flowers are doing very well and the rose we bought earlier is now flowering with light pink semi filled flowers. The red sunflowers are all flowering looking quite stunning and my pink Silkesblomma is lovely when the sun is out but quite boring on a cloudy day since the flowers don't seem to open up then. We got some seeds from James grandma and we did manage to set one sort of them since we got started so late. I cant remember the English name for them but in Swedish it is Indian krasse, but they are out and have started to flower and shoot of long strands which are filling up by the wall of the old shop.

I think I might have a second go at this sleeping thingy or I'll be no good tomorrow when we are going to see my sister in Ludvika. God natt.

Long time no write and all that jazz..

We have been busy elsewhere, James too even though he is permanently declared a mini zombie by me after his 3 weeks long stretch of working early mornings and not going to bed when falling asleep on the sofa. Go to bed! I say and poke him quite violently and he says, in a minute, soon, and falls happily asleep anyway half laying over me making my watching the telly very uncomfortable indeed. We definitely need a bigger sofa and a lounge to house it. Good thing we are going to knock down a wall then isn't it you think. But by the time James has mustered the courage to knock it down with me we will be old and grey, or so it feels like at the moment. It's just a wall, not a load bearing one either but a thin pathetic partition one where they thieved a bit of the lounge to make a big walk-in-closet. But I think it is the cleaning up bit afterwards that have him scared. Not cleaning cleaning, but the getting a new flooring in and wallpaper the lounge since the wallpapers didn't match in the two rooms. He wants to wait until we know what the chimney chappy is billing us for fixing our trimmings and a rain cover that looks like a hedgehog and what the ventilation chappy is billing us for coming here taking a quick look saying he cant see anything wrong and we should call him again if it starts smelling of burnt rubber from the air outlet. So we are waiting and waiting and you all know how impatient I can be at this waiting malarky don't you... *grits teeth*

Oh, pictures are coming as soon as the batteries are charged enough and I can get my head around a picture view program with tantrum troubles. It wont let me see the thumbnails of the pictures in the camera or to download them to the computer! I'll be looking for a hammer in a minute..!

Our final corner section to the new wardrobes came on friday and we have just finished putting it togheter. The last door will go on in a bit. But what a bugger it was to get in place! I hate our leaning floor by now because it didnt fit to put it togheter as it suggesteed in the manual so we had to improvise as how to do it and in which order so all pieces would line up in the end. It was a lot of huffing and puffing, swearing 'till your ears went red and an exess of banging them togheter using your feet, hands or you name it!

And now when you think that it will all fit nicely the bloody middle door hinge is one hole too high up! And yes i did measure it!!!! Calm down, breeeeaaatthh.........!

Part from all the hiccups and exsessive swearing the new wardrobes looks fantastic. Now theres just a trip left to return 2 damaged doors and get some shelfs and pull out drawers.

Sauna anybody?

It is warm and sticky outside today since there is spurts of rain in between the sunny spots. Feels like walking in an outdoor sauna when in the garden. I did bake some bread though earlier this morning when it still was cool outside, but now I don't think I want to be in the kitchen at all but got to make some dinner for James when he gets back from work in a couple of hours time.

I've had a go at carpentering today and fixed the upstairs loo door that was very tight to close. Now it works like a charm and glides close with a smooth swoosh sound instead of the crackling screech it had before. It still hasn't got a door handle though so it is still a matter of getting your finger almost caught when hooking it in the hole where the handle should be when closing the door. But once we find some nice old-fashioned door handles I think we will be replacing all of them so no point in just buying one odd one is it. There are just too many odd ones already! I am also going to start stripping the doors before it gets too cold outside. I thought I might be using paint stripper and it doesn't work so well if it is too cold. For maximum effect it needs to be above +15 and you really have to be outside since it does smell very VERY foul when gucking it about.

We are off for a quicky to IKEA tomorrow to buy a corner section and new doors for our wardrobe upstairs. We had a peek to see what make the wardrobe was because we wanted extra shelving and by luck it was from IKEA's range so we bought extra fittings and shelves the last time we went to IKEA and now we are thinking about expanding it along the wall and corner. We are aiming to empty the downstairs wardrobe so we can take down the wall and get the space back that they used from the lounge to make it in the first place. It is only 1.5 m but it will make all the difference since you will gain an extra doorway as well into the lounge.

Hopefully the man from the chimney shop will get in touch early next week so he can come measure what size our chimney is and fix the odd little jobs needed to it and also fit a slip stop for the roof ladder before we get our chimney swept this autumn. I also phoned a big garden center outside Ludvika about planting Syringa vulgaris (Bondsyren in Swedish) as a hedge and what it would cost and when the best time was to plant them. I also asked about our existing hedge towards the road that is looking very bleak and thin and it seems it is best to cut it in spring so that is what we are going to do. Planting the hedge is best to do in September though. So we have to decide what kind of Syren we are having and how many to get. You have to order in august to get them in September so got a little while yet to decide. They had 3 varieties that suited as hedges, one mixed coloured one where you get white,pink and lilac flowers, the old sort Bondsyren and a new Russian variety that had dark lilac flowers. The nice chappy recommended the Swedish Bondsyren for hedging since it grew very well and thickly so that I think is what we are going to get. The bushes cost from 200-400 kr for a bundle of 10 bushes and you would need 2-3 bushes per meter.

I also called the council to ask about putting up a fence towards the road and if there were any restrictions. Apparently you can put up a see-through-fence 110cm high without permission but if you wanted it higher and non-see-through you needed to apply for a building permission. I also asked about hedges and if we needed the neighbours consent to plant one. We only need them to agree if we want it smack on the border but we could have it well in on our yard and they would have nothing to say about it as long as it didn't grow into their yard. But considering the big stump of an old maple three that they have cut down just in the border I don't think they can argue that much. We'll just have to see. Mum has offered to come with us encase they start talking Finnish behind our backs just to listen in on what they are saying, no need in telling them she will understand is there...

I think, yes i think B,C & O is back in business.. But got to remain calm it could just be a trick of my eyes that the Blog Goddess is back and writing!

Now if only James would get his ass in gear and start writing again it would be perfect... :)

Wandering benches..

Woke up this morning at 4.30 by James saying that our two new garden benches were missing and that he found one of them all broken up a bit further up the road. I got up and went around the block to see if I could find the missing one. I asked a passing neighbour as well but he hadn't seen or heard anything even though the bench was found just outside his house. James went the other route and found the other one in one piece at the railroad crossing

I called the police later on and reported it, got to see if we get anything from our home insurance, doubt it will cover the risk though. When I was out putting the table and the rescued bench away I saw that our neighbour across the road was looking agitated and on the phone so I asked if he had something broken too last night. They'd smashed his car rear light in and he was on the phone to the police. We talked a bit while waiting for the police and while waiting our neighbour across from us came home, still drunk... He asked a bit what was going on and we said what had happened and he looked a bit blank. Bet you it was him and his friends going to a party who did the damage but was too drunk to remember, because he couldn't for the life of him remember how he ended up sleeping in a forrest 10 km from here...

Anyway, the police came round, they parked in our drive way and looked at our bench and Olle's car and walked around looking mighty important. Hopefully it made the drunken neighbour a bit nervous and that his dad had a look outside the kitchen window to see what was going on too. Whoever did it left behind an empty cart of Finnish strong beer so it is a bit touchy whether or not it was neighbour or not. We'll probably never know.

The adventures of living in a house has just started! I've calmed down now though..

Some things don't need an explanation..

This is what greets me every time I need to go and get a garden tool. And it smells absolutely divine... And on the right hand side of the door there is a small golden honeysuckle adding to the scent as well. It's not as big as the rosebush yet but give it a couple of years and it will cover the wall behind it and the doorway. I'll make sure of that!

Right now inside the old paintshop there is a very pungent smell of wood oil since we have given our patio furniture their first coat. It didn't help to have both doors open and all windows wide open, I still got a headache from the fumes.

We've celebrated midsummer here in Sweden and we had my mum and sister with bf over to stay. We had a bit of luck with the weather being very nice and warm so we did manage to have a bbq. Much laughter and a game of boule on the lawn after the bbq made the evening complete. We didn't have a midsummer pole to dance around and neither did we bother about going somewhere to have a look at one being raised. We might have one next year and I'll make sure that James does the frog dance as well! Everyone stayed the night and we had a very late night game of TP. The next day was very chilly after a early morning downpour which actually filled all the water butts! We were all very tired so we just relaxed and had a nice lunch before people started to set of back home.

And today it is back to the grindstone but somehow I don't mind anymore, because I can just leave it all back in Falun when I go home at night. It does make a difference with a bit of distance between work and home. Anyway for me and it also helps to know that I can just sit out in the garden and relax if I like when I get back home.

Some pictures from our new house and garden. These are the lovely pink roses in their new pots on the steps.

I just love these flowers. Gazanias they are called here and they only open when it is sunny.

Finaly done with the new hall downstairs and upstairs!

And this is what we are considering having on our kitchen wall, it's just a little bit of wall by the window that will have it if we decide on it.

A young brunette goes into the doctor's office and says that her body hurts wherever she touches it.
"Impossible," says the doctor.
"Show me."
She takes her finger and pushes her elbow and screams in agony. She pushes her knee and screams, pushes her ankle and screams. Everywhere she touches makes her scream.
The doctor says, "You're not really brunette are you?"
The girl says "No, I'm really a blonde".
"I thought so," the doctor says.
"You have a broken finger."

Time is a flying...

Where do the days go? I cant believe just how quickly the days have passed since we moved in with boxes, furniture and fishes. Thing is, it is only 3 weeks since we did move in and we already have some flower beds going and a bit of a vegetable patch started. Plus we have managed to almost agree on a wild kind of wallpaper for the kitchen and paint the hall a very nice shade of green. Today we went and bought some more good soil and 3 pale terracotta pots for my intense pink patio roses I bought earlier this week. They are now sitting nicely on the steps up to the front door.

I also managed to connect the water butts together with this brilliant set of tube and washers that James dad suggested we get. I still cant believe that we Swedes haven't come up with something similar so James ordered them online and had them sent to his parents and they sent them on to us. Might be a good import idea there...Hmm. I got a bit of assistance from Lotta when assembling them so if there is rain tomorrow as they predict with some thunder included we will be set with rain water in hopefully all 5 butts for another spell of nice warm summer weather as we have had for 3 days now.

I planted my beans today and put up the bean poles. All I need to do now is sow some marigolds and weed and water. Until this autumn that is. We have to see if we will get started on a bigger vegetable plot, lots of digging involved there though so we'll have to see, I would like to be able to grow potatoes at least!

I had a nice little chat to one of our neighbor's. We can call her Liz. She has lived here all her life and took over her parents house. She used to know the first people who owned this house and she could tell me quite a lot about how it used to look like before. They had big garden beds with summer flowers and vegetables in them, but they were all on the wrong side for us as we intend to dig up the lawn closer to the house rather then the old shop. They had pebble paths inbetween the beds and now I understand where all the pebbles are coming from when we have been digging up our new flower beds. She also said there used to be a one room and kitchen upstairs and that the 2 brothers lived in the house with their parents and one brothers family. It would be fun to get a hold of some pictures from how it looked like then. Maybe I'll ask our Liz nicely if she has any.

I cant believe how many shades of green there is!

We are trying to decide on a nice apple green for our hall that continues on up the steps and the landing upstairs. We contemplated lots of different colors before settling on some sort of lime green or apple green. Not knowing how many shades there were that looked nice on paper and horrible on the wall we are now into our fifth tester pot and still it doesn't feel right. Well one of the new ones we got today feels better then the darker olive green we decided on yesterday. The olive is nice in daylight but makes the hall look very dark at night time. What to do, what to do..

In other news we have finished digging two flower borders and have planted one up but got some left to do in the shady one. The tomatoes have gone in the short end where there is sun all day and they are really sprouting on now. We have also got rid of the big mound of dirt that they dug up earlier when fixing a leaking water main. We also shifted the big lilac bushes they uprooted at the same time.

We are doing a wee bit of planning for the future as well. We really do want a green house in the garden or a conservatory added onto the house and if we did the latter one we could have a patio area next to it with steps down to the garden we thought. Still have to decide where the vegetable garden is going to be dug this autumn though. I dread that because it was hard enough doing the little flower beds with all the turf that had to be removed and all the weeds that left all their roots if you weren't careful with the fork. Maybe we could have a digging party? Anyone interested?

I think I'm going to have a look if the paint has dried yet, they tend to dry darker these green ones..

So here we are then..

The new house.

And we all are a wee bit bushed really and in need of a few nights good sleep but who got the time for that when there are things to put in place and boxes to be taken out and the garden to tend to and lots and lots more stuff. We cleaned out the apartment today and took just about everything that was left there from yesterday when the big move was. We had some good weather yesterday but today just rained in really. The next adventure for us is the hunt for a new lawn mover and we will have to venture into the land of DIY at one pint or another and I'm sure it will be a fun trip but a bit scary since there is a house to tend to now a days. As soon as the weather eases off a bit I'm going to have a good poke around the garden and see what can be done in there. I'm tempted to get started but I really shouldn't until the house feels a bit more finished or at least until we have some curtains up and not a box in sight.. good thing there is some storage to tuck boxes into isn't it?

It's short and sweet today since i really am longing for bed, so tired..

4 days remaining...

The moving crew (James mum and dad) are arriving tomorrow. They will be staying until next Saturday and help us with bits and bobs and driving the van. We are getting to borrow my sisters huge Mercedes Estate as well so we'll have an extra car to take the boxes in. And boy do we need it. At the last count we did, including all the prepacked ones in the storage and the ones under our bed we are now up to 64 banana boxes filled to the rim with our home. And still we are functioning quite well without everything that is packed. It sure makes you wonder why you have so much stuff doesn't it. And perhaps if you really need everything you got as well...

12 days remaining....

Got this in my mail today and laughed at the last little paragraph, nice pun.. :o)


TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.


Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

14 days remaining...

Well now, it is getting closer to our moving date and i am feeling more and more drained by the day. I dont know if it just all down to stress and that my spring allergys are going in high gear but i just have NO energy at all. Dont know what to do about it either. I was home from work yesterday and slept practically all day but it only helped for a few hours this morning when i had some errands to do and visit my gran who is in hospital due to a fractured thigh bone after a nasty fall last thursday. Now i have no energy to do anything, just sit and my eyes are starting to itch and all i feel like is to go to bed! Help

21 days remaining....

Do you have a theme song or know anybody that has one? James, my sweet and funny husband has one. Its like a little fanfare and he uses it when entering a room, preparing food or any kind of action produces it now a days and all I can think about when I hear him go "Du de Dum" is .... Danger Mouse! But I'm sure its not from there but all I can think of is Danger Mouse and Penfold racing to the rescue of the world, again. LOL

22 days remaining....

New phone number and adress... check
Notice about moving sent to internet provider... check
Electricity company - chosen and informed... check
House insurance... check
Give notice to cable tv operator... check
Appartment sold.. check (big YAY)
House bought.. check (HUGE YaaaaaY)

I think that was all..? Oh i almost forgot..

Vacation planned and approved.. CHECK!

Got up early today and went to the allotment to get it prepared for sowing. We got some gravel added to our little path so it is all nice and straight. I tidied up the raspberry bushes and added onto the wicker fence I tried building last year it had sagged a bit during the winter. Some of the spring flower bulbs are coming up but nothing flowering yet but hopefully they will be soon if this nice warm weather persists. It was a lovely day with almost summer temperatures and a nice cool breeze coming from the lake Varpan. There is something very relaxing about gardening spite the hard work of turning soil and you get the extra bonus of watching all kind of little birds help themselves to whatever worms you expose while digging.

4 weeks left BTW, cant wait until we are in the new house!

I know, I know its been ages since I blogged. But there has been some developments. We did sign the contract and sent it of to the housing associating for approval earlier as I blogged about. Only thing is that it came back last week Friday saying they couldn't process it because James name was in it as well. So we did rewrite the contracts and the buyers did sign again even though I thought for a while they wouldn't, you know nerves are tense before the contract has been approved. But to our surprise James still had to sign a consent form allowing me to sell the apartment! Wouldn't it had been better if they would have agreed to the first contract?! Anyway it is all done and has been sent away again to the housing association for approval.

Right now we are in England since my maniac for a husband is going to run the London Marathon on Sunday. We went into London yesterday to pick up his running number and some other freebies that came along. After that we had a very relaxing day and visited the British Museum and did a spot of shopping as well. Cant go to London without seeing what's new in Covent Garden now can you? But did we have tired feet after all that walking, no not much..

Today is set for a spot of light shopping in Ipswich and tomorrow it is visiting day to James grandparents and other relatives. Sunday we all know what James is going to do, hopefully around 4 hours worth of it as well. On Monday I suspect I will have the pleasure of pulling said James out of bed and giggle while he descends the stairs on his bum since he will be too stiff and achy from the run to walk down it. Hopefully by Tuesday he is well enough to make the plane trip home. We might have to get him a wheelchair at the airport since it is quite a long treck out to the gates in Stansted Airport... At least the ones Ryanair uses for its Swedish flights.

Finally at home it will only be a month before we are moving!

Still keeping everything crossed in terms of the apartment sale, we might be able to have good news tomorrow. Well it is good already but just to make sure it is even better news for tomorrow, you know.

It is terribly busy at work at the moment. Lots of shoppers since it is Easter this weekend. The worst day is yet to come, tomorrow, until we can have a little bit of a breather on Friday. Hopefully people will be out in the lasting warm spring weather we are having at the moment and the rest of the weekend will just breeze by. It has been up to +14 today which makes for a welcome change from last weeks cold and quite nippy -15. The snow have been melting visibly today and I went for a long walk around the little lakes just down from us. All in all after a hectic morning and afternoon I am finally home and can relax a bit. But not too much or I will fall asleep!

I've started some seeds, at the moment it is just the double flowering Petunias I bought from England and a new sort of flower I've not seen before. In Latin it is Cistanthe grandiflora but in Swedish it is Stor Sidenblomma. Petunias are happily sprouting away and are a cm high. Bit gangly but I think they will get better once I take the hood off the tray. No sign of the Sidenblomma yet but they are supposed to be late at sprouting. Other then those I don't think I will have time to do any vegetables. Possibly I will do the runnerbeans in pots again to give them a head start in our cold spring and summer start. It did work a treat last year and we had a very good, big harvest of beans. Also I'm going to try out some nice yellow pearshaped tomatos in buckets at our new place. My mum is doing those for me since she had such a good hand at getting her tomato plants so big last year. All in all, it is feeling much more like spring!

After a day of scrubbing and dubbing so everything was neatly shining and you could eat off the floor we had 8 couples come to the viewing, 3 left a note of interest straight away and the rest have until Monday to think about it. Keeping literally everything crossed we might be able to sign a contract before Easter.

Six couples are interested in our apartment, at least that is how many is coming to the viewing tomorrow. I've been busy all morning getting things done but it seems that nothing is getting done! I'm just running around like a chicken without a head, panicking! BREATH!

In other news I think the new ice age has begun. We woke up to a foot of fresh snow this morning, it is soon V?rdagjämning damn it! That is when spring should have been sprung but not this year it seems. We have a very late winter and a fickle one at that.

Oh well I should be getting back at running around aimlessly, panicking.

Everything seems to be put on hold. We are having a viewing of our apartment on Friday and cant really do anything until we got a buyer for this place. So we cant really do anything in terms of starting packing and cleaning and just making the whole moving business a bit more easy and less stressful until we know if it is sold.

And I should know about stressful moving. When I moved away from home for the very first time I moved 4 times within 6 months. It wasn't my fault, promise! I was supposed to move into a 1 room and kitchen that had been converted from a 3 room and kitchen. But when it was time to move in they noticed at the final survey that they had budged up when doing the new kitchen and managed to drill through a water pipe so it all had to be redone, meanwhile I got a temporary apartment next door. Then I moved into my 1 room apartment and had a great few months there in spring. I had a lovely party at Valborg with lots of people from work and friends as well. But then in summer I started to notice this smell. After a few calls to the housing estate they came to see what could be wrong and they found a leaking old pipe in the hallway next to the bathroom. So I had to be evacuated to a 2 room apartment across the yard while they fixed the pipe and dried the apartment out. While in the 2 room apartment I found I had cockroaches in the kitchen and that was just the last straw! I had to find somewhere else because I wasn't at all comfortable to stay in that area anymore. By chance, Al (best friend from old really called Ann-Louise but Al for short) phoned early one morning saying she's seen this add for a 1 room in town and I should really phone straight away. So I did as I was told and was lucky to be the first to phone. Went and had a look at it the same day after work and it was lovely, only 5 minutes walk from the city centre and just big enough, cheap as well as the electricity was included in the rent. That is where I moved for the fourth time and that is where I stayed until James and me moved here 2 years ago.
And talking about moving here, don't move the same year you get married, it is nerve racking, I should know because I did...

I've been busy all day and still got some things left on the To Do list. Right now the second load of washing is going round down at the laundrette, got to go down there in a minute to get it drying. The kitchen is literally SPARKLING since I've been scrubbing away at it since early this morning. The oven has a gleam to it not surpassed by a brand new one! And you better agree with me or I'll come with some brillo pads ready to scrub your mouth out with the lies you tell!

I've also had a chat to the estate lady and we agreed on the description of the apartment and she said she would lay it out on the internet today, it would probably not show up until tomorrow though. Hopefully there are people interested and willing to pay the upted price. I had a chat to our chairman in the förening and he thought we would easy get 250 000 kr so after a bit of thought and consideration we've changed it to that. Left to do today is the bathroom. It need a good scrub of the walls and everything else if I'm going to have a easy clean before the viewings start. Then you would only need to touch up on the essentials and stage it rather then scrub it all.

We now own one tenth of the house. Contracts were written yesterday and as is customary here in Sweden we also paid 10% of the house price in a downpayment. So now we can relax a bit until 25 May when we are signing the final contract, köpebrev, getting the mortgage in order, pay the sellers in full and getting the keys. Now we only need to stress over the moving part and the selling of our apartment. But I did realize that I wouldn't cope with selling it myself, James does help out but it is me keeping tabs on people and calling back so it was a bit too much taking care of everything else so we got an estate agent from Svensk Fastighet in to help us sell it. She came round yesterday and took pictures and wrote a bit about the apartment and was going to send us some more papers to sign and other questions of info she might need as well. So that ball is also in motion and hopefully the apartment will sell quickly and to our asking price of 225 000 kr. We are hoping for several people to be interested so there would be a bit of bidding, but we'll be happy with the asking price as well.

Contracts to be written on Wednesday but feeling pushed over by the estate agents and sellers. They wanted to use our survey we paid for as part of an insurance they will buy to protect them from hidden faults we could process against them in the future. Bit miffed they had the nerve to ask and expected us to comply without hesitating! It's not like we are paying them peanuts for the house anyway but to be asked to pay THEIR survey, which it would become, and then they will use it in an insurance against us was a bit strong. I've asked around for advice and it seems that if they are buying this insurance the survey needed comes with it in the packet price. But I'm a bit concerned that one of the sellers also is an estate agents so she knows all the tricks and turns and that they might not sell to us if we don't agree on this, it is all hanging loose now before the contract is written. But I told estate chap on the phone that we could share our survey if they agreed to pay half of it or else they could have an own survey done. He sounded thoroughly surprised we didn't agree with them.... Are we to be worried?

The survey man has been and done his bit and the conclusion was that part from a few minor things there wasnt anything wrong with the house! So we are moving slowly along and going to set a date for when the contrac is to be signed and set a date for when we are going to move in. Sometime around 25 may sounded possible. Got to ask for vacation as well so we can move in peace and quiet without hustling and stressing about. Not that there will be moments of stress and whatnots, including the selling of this place. Am thinking possibly we should have an agent doing it for us, but we really need to sell it quickly so we dont want it stuck at some agents for god knows how long.

We got the house!
It is ours if we sign the contract, I cant believe it!
A house... oh let me get started on a To-Do-List, no the mother of all To-Do-Lists! I'm sure I'll scare James with the amount of things I'd like to be done to the house. Even though it is much finished I would like to change the colour scheme from the nice and neutral magnolia heaven it is now to something a bit more vibrant. But it is an old house and it has an old house charm to it so mustn't spoil that with shrill orange or green. I did notice though that one of the old doors had a coat of pale green to it underneath the magnolia. There is so much to think about now, moving to another town and all. But lets get through the survey on Wednesday first before jumping all over the place.

It is looking down on the house bidding front. We are up to 1 million Swedish kronas - £75 757 (our last bid today) and its still 5 parties bidding for it. The bloody house is too popular! We went to the bank and they said ok to 1 million, which is a huge sum for us two. We just have to see what the estate agent says tomorrow. I'm sure it will have gone past our limit bye then, we've said we'd go for somewhere around 1,050,000 kronor and if it has we'll just have to keep on looking for other houses, cheaper, more run down ones again, bleeh. It's been an experience anyway so far, much quicker then I've ever thought it would go from viewing a house to the bid on it.

We are bidding for a house today...
Can you feel the nervous tension spreading..?

Snitched from Marie.

Just now I got a phone call from a estate agent wondering if we still was interested in having a look at this house in Källviken. I thought it had been sold or at least under offer since we never got a return call when we enquired about it before we went to England. We agreed on viewing it on Thursday at 4.30 so that will leave us with 45 minutes to check the Järlinden house out before going to have a look at the other one in Källviken.

I've had a closer look again at the pictures of this new house and it seems quite poor and much more to do in it compared to the Järlinden house. The Källviken one is in a posher place so I'm sure that is why the price is so much higher, plus you get a view of the lake. Mind you, its only a view and not a lakeside property so if you have really bad luck they might develop the land between this house and the lake and then you wont even have a view. But considering how much more land you get in Källviken and the fact that houses there tend to keep their value and even increase more then in other places in Falun might be a thing to keep in mind. Oh well, we'll have to see what the other half says as well. James likes the idea of no close by neighbours and a big yard but considering that it would need more work to it then Järlinden house I think speaks against it.

Gran is coming home today. Nothing was broken she just had a bad fall where she landed on her hip. Haven't heard anything from mum so she might have her second operation today to fix the annoying bit that didn't work and which has kept her at the hospital since Thursday. It will be such a relief to have at least one of them home, possibly mum can go home today as well, we'll have to see.

I am home, feeling quite tired and exhausted even though I haven't done much. Maybe it is a mental tiredness of being worried. I phoned my boss yesterday saying I wasn't coming in today either, don't think I would have been of any use anyway as distracted as I feel right now. I want that phone to ring so I know what's happening! Relax, calm down...BREATH! So much for the cool and collected Maria. ;)

The weekend has been quite the rollercoster.
Well it all started last week Thursday when my mum went in for a seemingly simple and straightforward operation. She is still in hospital as the outcome wasn't what they wanted. So while keeping mum happy and preoccupied so she doesn't feel too home sick I've also gone to my gran as well since she is still recovering from her cold. On Friday she was in bed and said she was tired, come Saturday she said she was still tired but fine, leave me alone type of mood, but yesterday all of a sudden she said she couldn't walk. So I panic a bit thinking what now but she insists its nothing wrong, knowing how stubborn she is I didn't know what to do. I go home feeling quite guilty not forcing her to go to hospital and to try to get someone to come see her on a Sunday seems almost impossible but in the end after a lot of fretting and phoning I got to know that the home care was going to go by and have a look. That settled me down a bit and then this morning grans caretaker phoned to say gran couldn't get out of bed to open the door so could I surrender my key to them which I did. I just have had a phone call saying gran cant use her left leg and is going to be taken into hospital. I've just called work saying I'm not coming in and in a minute going to phone and see where gran is at the hospital. My guess? She has had a fall on Thursday evening/night and didn't want to worry anybody, just like she did the last time when she broke her wrist. Sigh

On a completely different note, we got 2 houses to view, one in Borlänge next Monday and the robot one in Falun on Thursday. Still haven't heard anything about the one in Enviken. Possibly they've already sold it.

There's a house...
To see more pictures click on the tab Fler Bilder. It looks like a robot from the outside front, but inside it looks just like something we would like. It is at the top end of our budget though and I'm sure there will be quite some bidding over it, but it is an exciting house. I have just fired away an email that we would like to go on the viewing next Thursday. But got to talk to our bank as well and see what they think of our chances moneywise to get this one. We had a woman here from Sparbanken (the other bank) to have a look at our apartment and value it for us so we know what we could expect to get when selling it. She thought around 250 000 Swedish kronor which is converted £18,900 - $35,450 - €27,540.

Go on, have a look and see what you think.

We went to have a look at this house on Saturday. It was a charming house, but, there is always a but isn't there. It just wasn't what we wanted. It was quirky and had loads of charm but in the end there was too much to do on it and I'm sure the price would have whopped up since there was a load of people interested. We saw some of them at the viewing, it was mighty crowded I'll tell you.

I've phoned about this house today. And yes I know it is a fair bit outside of Falun, but it looks just right for us in terms of things specified by James and me on the extra buildings and amount of land to it. There had been some viewings this weekend but she, the estate agent, would get back to me if there would be a second viewing. This house had also attracted loads of interest so we'll see how it goes.

It is so disappointing really to go and have a look at a house when the pictures doesnt match the reality. And it doesnt help that we are very vague on what we like either, is it James!? ;oP
No really, the house market in Falun is a bit over priced I think. If you compare Falun to Borlänge it is like Borlänge would be in the north of Sweden and Falun somewhere around Stockholm in the price range. Same type of house does sell for at least 4-600 000 kr more in Falun then it does in Borlänge and that does limit us quite a lot in choices. I'd rather live in Falun, but considering what sort of a house we can get in Borlänge for lesser money it makes us look more into the housemarket in Borlänge. It is a bit slow at the moment but it should be getting better now when the sun has returned and spring is in everybodys mind, at least in mine when the sun is shining outside with a mild +3 and windy. I think I'm going to bike to work today!

Currently playing Nobody's home - Avril Lavigne

Very suitable as well since I am sitting here all by my lonesome tonight. James is working his late shift this week. I am finally beginning to feel like my old self. Talking about old self, what irony, I went to the hairdressers to get my hair cut and to get some color back into it. And what did I spot in the mirror when Lena and me were discussing what color to try this time, a grey hair! No not just one either, several were gleaming and poking out very ominously in the harsh light in the saloon.. sigh. I've just not thought about getting grey hair just yet you know!Oh well, I wont be seeing them anyway since I do color my hair on a regular basis. My original hair color is a very mousy bland blond. You know, neither blonde or dark, just in the vague in between. But ever since I did my first coloring I've been hooked and am now considered as a redhead by people who don't know me from old. Weird that. But I've always heard that I have a temper as a red head, now what ever that does imply... ;)

Since I did my music questionnaire I've been looking through all my CD's and have started to listen to music again. In the olden (cough) days I wouldn't do anything without the stereo on blasting some sort of music out way too loud for any neighbor to like me for long. Well I did learn how to turn the volume down a notch or two but then all of a sudden I turned the stereo off completely, maybe I just got music overload. I'm quite out of synch with what or who is in and what's totally out so bare with me and my weird music taste.

It is back to work for me tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it but what the heck, if it will give us a house why not.. ;)
No seriously, it is work. And I have to start thinking like that and not get caught up in all the hysteric gossip and name calling and what not's in there if I'm going to stay at some kind of normal level of sanity. It's been too much bad mouthing lately, it gets tiresome, really it does. The really irritating thing is though, it will never change. Isn't that interesting?

Cause Eleanor thought I should..
1. What is the total size of mp3?s on your computer?
Ehm, wait a sec.. we got 780 of them.

2. What was the last CD that you bought?
That was a while back, I think it was Mauro Scocco - La Dolce Vita, he is a Swedish singer, very good I think.

3. What was the last song (literally!) you heard before you read this?
Yesterday on the radio, Bryan Adams - I can fly? I think its called.

4. Write down 4 songs you listen to a lot or songs that mean a lot to you.
Now that is hard, got to think for a moment.
Hmmm, number one must be Van Morrison - Into the mystic, just love that one and I never get tired of listening to it.
Number two Madonna - Nothing really matters, well to be honest, all of the CD Ray of light, because it reminds me of a wonderful time in my life.
Number three, it is getting harder now, but I think I'll stick to the one that got me listening to opera it is from La Boheme - Che gelida manina, which still is one of my favorite operas just ahead of Madame Butterfly.
Number four. Ronan Keating - When you say nothing at all, because it is 'our' song...

5. Who do you want to pass this one on to?
Well I think I would like to know from
Mary
James
and Lynn, if she can find time in her busy life at the moment

No pressure, but it would be fun :o)

So, what is it with nature and it taking revenge on me because I enjoyed my holiday hmmm? We went to England for a week to stay with James' parents and I was totally relaxed and unwound from work when I got back home and it only took 3 days and I had a humdinger of a cold! And I'd thought I just cleared the one that had been lingering from new years when we arrived in England... baaah humbug to vacation!

So here I am sitting with a red nose like anyone's reindeer and a cough that would scare wolves if they heard me bark. And I cant sleep either, nose is too stuffed and nose drops aren't helping, help?! At least I had the sense of calling in sick this morning and when my boss phoned me up to check on me he asked if I wanted tomorrow off as well, which I gladly agreed to. At least it might give me a few more days to clear the worst of it off. This winter has been dreadful, it started out alright, I thought for a while I was immune to the colds running amok at work but just before Christmas I got whacked and really haven't been myself since. What can you do? Vitamins, honey, garlic, Vick's vapo rub, anything or everything mentioned combined into a wicked stew and smear it all over so you smell so ghastly that no one would like to come near you, never mind close enough to pass on yet another cold.

I'll think of something...

Happy New Year everybody.

Its been a bit on the cold side over here but now it has turned into loony weather. It poured down with rain yesterday night so this morning everything was glazed with ice. And I mean everything, even the grit on the pavement was glazed and no use at all in preventing people (ie me) from slipping and sliding. Thankfully I hitched a ride with my mum this morning and James came to my rescue when I finished work this afternoon. Or else I would have been like Bambi on ice, especially on the slopes I would have to battle to get home. I can very vividly imagine myself trying to get up the last slope and just sliding right back down again on my arse..

It is very mild weather for being winter and soon mid January. I prefer it screeching cold with sun halos like the one we had just after Christmas. It did plummet, and yes in the right meaning of the word plummet, to a chilly -20 with mist. So everything was covered in a thin layer of white frost plus you got to see the phenomena of a sun halo. I even took a picture of it with my new digital camera.

Santa was very VERY VERY kind this year, I'm still not over the chock of it.
It reminds me, got to go give Santa a kissy, just because..