No more sleeps to go

The art of posting is within consistency. My posts are consistently very far apart so when I felt this strange feeling, a feeling of writing to you within one month, nej just over one week, I thought something had to be done about it. Get it out of my system and move on. Can much happen in one week that merits a whole post? Well yes! My birthday can happen!

Most of you know my approach to my birthdays. It starts with a count-down, usually from the last birthday but more fervently from the month before with sporadic updates throughout the year. My family usually ignores this and it's a strategy that has worked successfully over the years. My sister's approach is to put her hands over her ears, shut her eyes and yell "I can't hear you, I can't hear you, la la laaa la la", also very successful. This year was no different.

My birthday was fast approaching when I received a letter in the mail from my friends at Migrationsverket (Immigration). I hurriedly unlocked our big yellow door, dropped bags, coats, shoes on the floor and sat at my desk. I was so nervous my hands were a little shaky as I tore open the letter. Secretly I was hoping for good news but preparing for bad. I read the letter, a couple of times, then I google translated the crap out of it just to make sure it did indeed say what I thought it said. I have been granted permission to live and work in Sweden for another five years! Woooofuckinghoooo! Needless to say there was some excited jumpy-dancing going on. Imagine those typical movie moments where the national anthem starts playing, little yellow and blue Swedish flags start falling from the sky, the sun comes out from behind the clouds and a feeling of overwhelming relief was enjoyed by all. This was all happening in my head, although the Swedish national anthem sounded more like "Yippeee, Wooohoooo, Kowabunga!". I immediately rang Jochen to double check that google translate and I had been correct. Since then a proper Swede has read the whole 8 page (in Swedish) legal document to double check, and we are in the clear. I've spent the last week in disbelief, thinking that maybe they made a mistake and any day now I was going to receive another letter saying "whoops, actually we changed our mind". So far so good and thank you for an early birthday prezzie. What does this mean? You must all come and visit within the next year or two!

Birthday stress

As for my birthday celebrations, they all started with Happy Immigration Day which led to Happy Hobbit Holiday, which also led to Happy (early) Halloween Day, which led to Happy Happy Birthday Day which will last all week, if not longer. I can hear you all thinking it "Poor Jochen!", and it's true but he put on a brave face, ignored the little princess in me and gave me a fantastic birthday.

Friday afternoon saw us heading towards Höör (about half an hour from Lund, by car - thank you Marie). Our trusty guide Caroline navigated us to our little hobbit hole accommodation. The hostel is built into the ground with all these cute windows poking out in the mound, it was just missing a little round door. The evening was spent at the local bath house which on Fridays has a 'relax' evening where all the kids get sent home at 6.30pm. Jochen is so good at surprising me that he didn't quite explain what we were doing there. I know, bath house, duh, but it was a swimming pool, sauna, spa, waterslide extravaganza. My instructions were "Go in and get changed into your bathers and meet me on the other side". This is a testament of how I can screw up the simplest instructions by being scared of what was actually on the other side! I walk into the ladies change room and I'm confronted with nakedness and lots of signs in Swedish telling me to take off my clothes before going anywhere. So I embarrassingly took off my clothes and went to the communal shower. Tried to turn on the shower, great, it didn't work. Let me tell you that trying to make eye contact with naked women who have their eyes shut while washing their hair is a little complicated. I got my answer in the end and finished washing. Where to go next? The other side? Must be through this door. The door that says sauna, no clothes allowed, maybe it joins up with the mens one. Nope, just a hot room with naked women.

A side note to all the Europeans reading this, this is a big cultural difference (at least to me) and it feels weird the first time. I guess it's like Vegemite, if you didn't grow up eating it then it's probably going to take you a while to get used to the taste. The thing is that in Oz there are very few situations where you get naked with strangers. Doctors, nurses and partners see you naked, little kids and old people who just don't give a shit in various change rooms or swimming venues get naked but general nakedness is saved for streaking across cricket grounds. So there I am in the sauna, being slightly paranoid but trying to embrace the situation and then it dawns on me that perhaps Jochen meant we were swimming not sauna-ing. I try to maintain a casual look as I leave the sauna, get my swimmers on and walk out to the swimming pool area where Jochen is just leaving. He has spent half an hour waiting for me, not swimming and trying not to look like a shady-pool-side-character. Oops! In the end we had a lovely evening of swimming, spa-ing and eating yummy steak for dinner.

Pappa Elk

The next morning we headed to Skånes Djurpark (animal park) where I saw among many animals (check out the photos) my first elk. They are huge, I didn't realise how ridiculously big they are, no wonder they are kings of the forests and if you hit one, your car wouldn't survive. Although they are odd looking, they have their own charm and allowed us to get very close to them. Another character of note was the lynx that Jochen seemed to piss off. Maybe it was the way Jochen looked at it or the big camera he was pointing towards it or the way he growled at it that was displeasing. Either way, I was glad we were on the other side of the fence, very fluffy and cute but I would put my money on the lynx rather than Jochen.

Edward

Phantom

Where are we up to? Happy (early) Halloween Day. Kim put on a great party with a spooky tent, blood in the shower and foaming drinks. Jochen dressed as the Phantom of the Opera and I went as Edward Scissorhands. Thanks to everyone for the birthday songs and prezzies, I felt very spoilt and special. After lots of drinking and combing out my massive hair, little Edward went to sleep to wake up the next day on Happy Happy Birthday Day with a pretty big virus (hangover). We struggled through and a relaxing day was had and I even learned a thing or two from a lecture that Jochen had to give that day. An educational birthday.

This has been a very very long post but I hope you enjoy the pics and thank you for all the birthday wishes.

Don't forget to come visit!

Prince, Friends & Pictures

Blogs are a great way to avoid doing such things as Swedish homework, applying for jobs, cleaning the house etc. so here goes, lets see how long I can make it last for.

Firstly; the photos, again I have added a whole bunch from the last few months in their own categories. Just when you think nothing happens in your life, it turns out you have all these photos from stuff that happened, equaling a not so boring life.

Since the last post, summer has been and gone. It was a short rainy affair but a few bbq's were had and therefore it was not a complete washout. The days were long, as were the drinks. The men wore no shirts, a pleasant bonus for +20 degrees. The women also wore no shirts, but only in parks and while lying down on their stomachs. We enjoyed the midsommar celebrations and by the end of a long day of drinking we decided to create a new blog dedicated to boobs (which was actually achieved).

I managed to have some pleasant adventures on my newly acquired bicycle (thanks Sam). I also enjoyed the wonderful treatment of the Folktandvård (the national dental service). After enduring a week of non-stop anti-inflammatories that were surely decaying my insides, I ventured into a public dental clinic. This area is where Australia could learn a thing or two. The Folktandvård provide emergency same-day service where the appointments run on time and the dentist is good-natured and informative. Overall they charge you for the procedure rather than per hour, even if the procedure takes three appointments so your wallet remains relatively fat. If only I had not been in such remarkable pain from the onset of a root infection, I would surely have enjoyed myself more.

Our adventures away from Lund have been few but we have enjoyed the company of a family and friends within our humble abode. Jochen's brother Carsten and his partner Ulrike visited for a few days. Luckily for us they brought the sunshine with them. More recently, Brianne, a friend from my wild Dumaresque St days, visited with us as well. Brianne and I gallivanted around the countryside and caught up on some well missed Australianisms mumbled through our beards. We even made it to Copenhagen, the big city across the sea! It does have a dirty, busy, city feel, much different to our country lifestyle in Lund (Lund has about the same population as Albury-Wodonga combined, but much more densely populated). This city escape was the highlight for me in terms of sight seeing. It was new and exciting but it is somewhere I must go back to for proper exploration before I decide on it's amiability. One afternoon is definitely not enough to see this oddly disparate new against old, harsh yet quaint, sea side city.

All visitors, so far, are addicted to Nutella! Make sure, you too fit the profile of Smolka/Harrison guests, either Nutella or Vegemite (however, please bring you're own Vegemite, my supplies are dangerously low).

The start of August was particularly exciting with the amazing New Power Generation Prince Concert! I found a fellow Prince fan in Kim and thus we set off to Copenhagen to enjoy the day long festivities. In the line up from earliest to latest was Nikka Costa, Paloma Faith; a British blues singer trying to make a pop career with some cool songs and Wonder-Woman-slash-American-Indian-glitter costume. Cruising along with some soul/R&B from Raphael Saadiq followed by Chaka Khan, you may remember Chaka from the early 80's with "I'm every woman". Last but not least, Prince! Fantastic energy, great music, amazing musicians (my secret desire to be a back up singer was reignited - you know what I'm talking about Hef!),and an awesome vibe from the audience. We rocked out, sung along to classics like "Raspberry Beret", "Cream" and of course "Purple Rain". The lights were flashing, the music was blaring and then it started raining. Purple? Was it part of the show? No! We were soaked to the bone and that sage old saying "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing" had an ironic ring to it, luckily our picnic blanket doubled as poncho. Unfortunately the concert was rained out and we all trampled through the mud like a sad herd of cows to the metro stop. Special thanks to Kim, who navigated us there and back, provided excellent company, and also let me take first hot shower after freezing our arses off!

One Year Later

So here I am, still in Sweden, one year later. I'm sitting in our IKEA furnished apartment remembering my first day and trying to figure out when everything became so familiar. It's only natural, I suppose, that this time should be used for reflection.

Last year, I arrived on a warm summer morning, bleary-eyed and travel-stinky. Jochen came to the airport to relieve me of having to worry about public transport from Copenhagen to Lund (which is particularly easy, but you know me and public transport!). Once on the train we started to talk excitedly only to be hushed by other passengers who indicated that we were in the 'silent' section of the train. So after 7 months apart, 30 hours of trains, planes and airports, I wasn't allowed to speak to my boyfriend! This led me to the conclusion that I could sneak in a nap, which was not the same conclusion Jochen came to!

For the first time, I was in Europe, stepping down the cobbled streets of Lund, I looked around much like Alice did in Wonderland. From first glance, I liked what I saw, but then again I didn't want to see anything except the back of my eyelids, which didn't happen til many many hours later. The 'awake' strategy came down to stuffing in some vegemite toast (as if I would leave Australia without it!), unpacking and going to lunch and eating shrimp on bread drowned in mayonnaise and dill. This was not the best dish to try straight off the plane, but I was seizing the moment of trying new things (I'm not sure it lasted too long). We then met up with some of Jochen's friends, he chatted and I fell asleep to the soothing sounds of the World Cup (Soccer for Aussies, Football for the rest of you). Half time came, I stumbled, Jochen carried me back to the apartment and I slept soundly until 4am when the bloody sun came up and streamed through the non-light-resistant blinds. Two days later when my jet-lag really kicked in, we bought black curtains!

As I said, here I am, still in Sweden, one year later. When people tell you that going overseas will be a fantastic life-changing experience, and use my most-hated words "character fucking building", they are right. No matter where you are, you take yourself with you and you keep building. Fortunately, you make friends, then you realise that everyone is doing the same thing, building! We're all in this shit together and I reckon that without friends who become your family away from family, we'd all be stuffed.

If you can dedicate posts then this one is dedicated to Sam, a friend for life who made life in Lund an awesome adventure. For those of you who don't know Sam, don't worry she's not dead, she just moved back to the USA with her man Joaquin to start a new adventure. This brings me to the video you see below. As you know, one of the worst things about moving countries or even houses is the packing so the video below is our going-away present to Sam and Joaquin that doesn't take up any space in their luggage.

I should give you a little bit of background to this short short film. I was inspired to make a stop motion short short film, blissfully unaware of the amount of time and energy it would take. Jochen tried to warn me, but being the stubborn and sometimes optimist that I am, I thought four days would be heaps of time to make my first ever movie. Oh, how he laughed at me! However, nothing puts the pressure on like an immovable deadline. This video is based on true events. Jochen and Joaquin share an office and as Joaquin appropriately phrased it one day, Sam and I are Batman and Robin. As soon as the boys are at work, we are off having adventures. Sam is obviously Batman since she owns a Bat-mobile.

I would like to heartily thank Jochen for being the best techy ever. Thanks for knowing what stop motion is and explaining it to me........after I started when it was too late to start something new. Without him this movie would just be a boring soundless slow slideshow. I'd love to know what you think so please comment. (Don't forget to turn your sound on).

Now, I would like to raise a glass of homebrew in honour of surviving one year in Sweden, making great friends and feeling incredibly lucky......Skål!

Spring

It feels like an age since I last wrote about Sweden. I am definitely many beers older and many Easter eggs wider, but the sun is shining, the birds are singing and everyone seems very happy.

I have found that the "in-between-y" months, March and April have been the hardest to get through. The snow has melted, the sky seems eternally grey, but we look forward to the four minute increase of extra daylight per day. The last few months have had their ups and downs, but we have survived and have been rewarded with a warm spring.

For all of you who are wondering if I'll ever come back to Australia, the decision still lies in the hands of Sweden's immigration office. Jochen and I have been sitting with our fingers and toes crossed waiting for a decision for quite a few months and you will have your answer when I'm either standing in front of you in Oz or you are reading another blog post. We will see........

Now to news of my recent adventures. It seems so easy to say that nothing has really happened, but I have had some mini adventures to do touristy things with my partners in crime. Please check out the pictures. Most recently of all Jochen and I have been on a week long camping trip around the Great Lakes area in south west Sweden (but north of Lund). I will try to give a brief description of the sets of photos and where we were.

1. Dalby Söderskog -This was back at the end of February, as you can see by the thick layer of snow. Sam and I decided to go for a walk in one of the nature reserves nearby. This was a warmer day (for the time of year) and we did a short walk through the reserve checking out woodpeckers and the squiggly, twisty trees while freezing in our boots.

2. Lund & Ystad - The first few photos are of around Lund. Sam and I decided to get some kultcha (with a K) into us by visiting The Museum of Sketches which was interesting and overwhelming. The main gallery is floor to ceiling full of sketches, paintings and sculptures, it's only downfall was that it was hard to see the forest for all the trees.
Two and a half weeks after Söderskog, Jochen and I went on a day trip to Ystad, about an hour from Lund along the south coast. As you can see, it was a lot warmer as I had changed from snow jacket back into leather. An important milestone after living in my snow jacket for 6 months. Ystad is a really pretty town, definitely worth the visit and probably worth another now that spring has hit. The buildings are even more quaint that in Lund and it has a brewery....need I say more?

3. Malmö - At the start of April, while Jochen was still in South Africa, I took myself on a day trip to Malmö. Most of you know about my fear of public transport which probably stems from the lack of efficient transport in Canberra. I'd like to point out I'm not the only one with this irrational fear (I won't name names, you know who you are), but one never knows where one will end up? I can see you shake your collective heads and tell me it's easy and to check the timetable and map, this I do, more than once. I double check the timetable, the ticket, the bus stop or train platform, the number on the bus or name on the train, then I spend the first half of the trip worrying if I actually took the wrong one. It doesn't help when the train announcements are in a mumbled southern Swedish accent and then half the people on the train run off said train and catch one on the adjoining platform. What did they bloody say on the announcement? So I sit there wondering should I get off? What if this is one of those trains that stops somewhere random and leaves some carriages behind and gets coupled to another train going in a different direction. What if I got Helsingor (in Denmark) and Helsingborg (in Sweden) mixed up and I'm about to go in the opposite direction, end up in another country without a passport (and now they've just introduced border checks in Denmark), eeeek! The world of "what ifs" leads to an anxious little-legged person with the look of a worried potentially lost meerkat running off said train onto new train that she hasn't double checked where it's going. Process starts all over again. Hence why I love driving, it's probably a control issue but I like to think of it more as loving the open road. It's also why I like traveling with a sidekick, or rather I'm the sidekick to their super hero powers of understanding buses, trains, metro networks and airports. So the point of my Cara-Sidetrack-Story-Telling-Harrison-Story, is that I made it to Malmö (a whole 15 minutes by train away from Lund) and back all by my own self! The pictures are of a network of parks in the city, most of this album is dedicated to Mum and her love of geese.

4. Great Lakes - Over the Easter weekend Jochen and I took a camping adventure up to Lake Vänern and Lake Vättern to check out a bit more of Sweden. Overall the trip was pretty fantastic. Jochen is probably the most patient man I know with the amazing skill of NOT being a back seat driver. I learned to drive on the wrong right side of the road with no crashes! We won't talk about the near misses, stalling, flustered windscreen wiper/indicator confusion or the Phenergan induced coma driving (apparently Phenergan is not only an antihistamine but a "sedative or sleep aid", who knew?). We took advantage of Allemansrätten (Right of public access), which allows one to camp anywhere in Sweden as long as you do not disturb or destroy the land. We went on a "Jochen hike" that means going off track, looking at a GPS and ending up at a restaurant that serves pork fillet with Bearnaise sauce, great views and fantastic forest. The Easter bunny came to visit so we had an Easter egg hunt. We saw some old castles, a viking boat, a wooden church, more Volvo's, VW's, windmills, tractors and horses than we've ever seen in our lives. Had a surprisingly challenging game of mini golf and enjoyed our stupidity of camping in Sweden before summer while everyone else enjoyed their caravans. At least we didn't have to fight for a tent spot. Unfortunately we missed out on seeing an Elk in the apparently most populated elk area but we did see a few cranes and my hyperactive imagination was a little scared of the lynx's, bears and wolves oh my!


5. Ales Stenar - Last of all are the photos of some rocks. Who doesn't like a good set of rocks? Sam and I went on a birthday adventure to Ales Stenar some ancient rocks placed in the shape of a viking ship overlooking the ocean further up the coast from Ystad. There are a couple of theories behind why the rocks are placed in this way. Firstly, many vikings made burial grounds in this particular shape, although not many remains have been found in this spot. Secondly, that where the stones are situated in relation to the sun makes a calender of the year, similar to a sun dial.

I hope you enjoy the photos of my adventures. I wanted to share more of what Sweden looks like especially as the seasons change. The next post will be imminent, with many flowers and animals to brighten your day.

Take care,
C.

Germany......Hooray!

The photos are sorted and the panoramas are now panoramic. The following is a blurb about the trip but check out the photos to see what I'm talking about.

We started our epic journey of train delays early on the 21st Dec in the freezing cold. Nearly all trains north of Lund were delayed or canceled and there was not a bus to be seen. Here starteth the joy of traveling in winter!

Eventually we made it to Copenhagen airport where we waited for our diverted plane to recover from a "problem on board"! However, they made it up to us with free tea and chocolate on board.

There are three parts to our trip Bonn/Köln (Cologne), Finnentrop & Würzburg.

Bonn/Köln
We arrived safely in Bonn with no further plane troubles to hang out with Eva and Wilma (Eva's cute Dalmatian dog). It was here that I learned the very important phrase of "Was sagt der Hund?" - What does the dog say? This is a key phrase in Wilma's life and also Jochen's. Unbeknownst to me Jochen turns into a dog when he sees one! So after Jochen and Wilma got reacquainted with lots of tail wagging and sniffing we hit the Weihnachtsmarkt - Christmas markets and indulged in some Gluehkirsch - cherry mulled wine, with extra rum! The Weihnachtsmarkt usually occurs from the end of November until just before Christmas. It's full of lights, food and shiny things you don't need but really want!

Next is the educational section of the trip as we wandered into the Beethoven Museum where Beethoven was born. This experience might have been boring for non-musos but Jochen was exceptional at pretending to be interested and translating for me. He earned many brownie points that day! We spent the afternoon walking from Schloss (The Kurfürstliches Schloss) to Schloss (Poppelsdorf Palace of the Archbishop of Köln) both of which are now part of the University of Bonn.

The next adventure was in Köln where the weather was terrible. Freezing cold rain and snow at once. However, outside the train station is the biggest Gothic Cathedral you've ever seen in your life, gargoyles and flying buttresses galore! We escaped the weather and explored the inside which was just as cold as the outside but had some pretty amazing lead light windows, nice arches and cool patterns in the tiled floor. These are the main reasons I like going into all these churches, the architecture is amazing and I like to see how big their organ is :-) The Chocolate Museum was next, it was educational but we were hanging out for the tastings and shop. Yummm!

Finnentrop
After a couple of nights drinking with Eva in what felt like all of Bonn's bars, we needed some recovery time, so next stop Finnentrop! We arrived on Christmas Eve (despite more train delays) to a happy family, piles of prezzies and bucket loads of chocolate and food. Jochen was once more employed as my translator between Mum, Dad and myself and big brother Carsten filled in the gaps. Like any proper Christmas, this one was spent eating lots of yummy food and then filling up on sweets in between. We spent most of our time playing with our new toys and enjoying family time and yummy things.


Würzberg
One early morning four days later we rolled ourselves back to the train station a few kilos heavier in bag and tummies and headed to Würzburg! We stayed with Mario and Ilka who showed us around town and fed us lots more yummy food. If you haven't noticed already this trip was mainly about food.

While poor Ilka had to work, Mario took us up the mountain to find a pub while drinking brandy tea on the way. The next day we went to see the baroque Residenz of the Würzburg Prince Bishops which was built from 1720 - 1780. We took a tour of the interior but we only got a couple of photos of the fresco's of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. A few weeks before WWII ended, Würzburg was hit with an air raid which left not only the town devastated but most of the Residenz as well. Therefore much of the building has been restored impeccably and the craftsmanship is amazing.

We walked up to the Marienberg Fortress which overlooks Würzburg and is where the previously mentioned Prince Bishops of Würzburg lived. It's a steep climb surrounded by grape vines but definitely worth the amazing view of the city below. Unfortunately the museum section wasn't open but on the way back down I took my first attempt at tobogganing on half a plastic bag. Heaps of fun and I was rewarded for my effort with lots of snow down my pants!
We ended our evening with a wine tasting of the surrounding region while watching the entertainment of a slightly drunk waitress drop a few glasses, a bottle of wine and then eventually she ended up on the floor herself.

We spent New Years Eve drinking and eating with friends at Mario and Ilka's, then we headed down to the river to watch and set off fireworks. We brought in the new year with champas and a surprising lack of firework injuries.

After recovering from our hangovers we made it back to Sweden safe and sound.

Cara's German Food Firsts
1. Bonn - Wild Boar Goulash with Spätzle
2. Bonn - Bratkartoffeln (fried potato with onion)
3. Bonn - Räuberfleisch (fried meat)
4. Köln - Berliner (jam donut)
5. Köln - Currywurst (take away pork sausage in curry sauce)
6. Finnentrop - Meat Fondue
7. Würzberg - Franconian Breakfast (giant bakery pretzel, white sausage, mustard and wheat beer - has to be eaten before midday)
8. Everywhere - Jägermeister (thank you to the Bavarian restaurant fulfilling the stereotype of a buxom serving wench...it made my day!)

I'm sure there are more but either I can't remember them or I can't pronounce them, but overall it was fantastically yummy!

So a big thank you to all those who housed us, fed us and entertained us, we had a fantastic time.

Sunbathing and Turpentine

Jochen has left me once more for South Africa to enjoy warm stormy weather, poo, beetles, giraffes, a swimming pool and most importantly....gin!

Well I can also have mini adventures of my own!
Last weekend we (Sam, Cinzia and myself) went on a girly road trip to Helsingborg which is about 40 minutes north of Lund by the coast and only 4 km across the water to Denmark. One of the main attractions of the town is the Kärnen (tower) which overlooks Helsingborg and the Baltic Sea. It is part of the remains from a Danish fortress (from when Skåne-the southern region, was part of Denmark) and was built in the 1310's. The view from the top of the tower is apparently amazing (we'd spent too much time eating to make it there before closing) but the view from the second level of the town or the bottom of the tower is also quite stunning. We happened to be up there at sunset which was pretty spectacular.


As you all know the Swedish winter is long, cold and in the south it is also windy. This leads to depression, alcoholism, hermitism, lack of fun-ism, and general complaining about how long and cold the winter is, followed by complaining of only one week of warm summer then back to winter. Therefore it is important to enjoy every ray of sunshine when it appears. The Swedes are professional sunbathers. There are usually benches in sunny spots along the bike paths and benches attached to the sides of buildings which when weather permits they are filled with Swedes basking in the sun and warming their backs upon the warm bricks. So when we saw sun bathing chairs in Helsingborg by the water we had to try them out. It's pretty funny to be sitting in the sun wrapped up in all the layers of woolies you can find and the temperature is definitely below zero. The rest of our adventure was spent wandering around the town, buying yummy chocolates, eating yummy food and being silly. Overall a lovely girly adventure was had.

Hopefully we will have more adventures like this as the weather gets warmer. Spring seems like it's just around the corner as it hasn't snowed for weeks and there are buds on the trees. One can only hope!

As for life in general I am still pondering the purpose of my life but I'm a happy little vegemite since I have found an art shop in Lund. Paint brushes and kanelbulle (cinnamon buns) what more could a girl want? Turpentine! That's right, good ol' turps. It appears that you cannot buy this harmful toxin in your normal supermarket but you can by acetone, what the? There is a double standards for your favourite poison. Acetone can be bought in supermarkets because you can remove your nail polish with it, but only real men buy turps! So after searching every supermarket I was given a tip (thanks Cinzia) that there was some kind of paint shop in Lund. This was a delightful surprise of it being an art supplies shop, now I really need a job to fund my habit. I mean my art habit not my turps habit, although this craving was also satiated.

So I leave you to reflect on how easy it is to obtain poisons in Australia. Please don't ingest!

(Click on photos in left side bar to see the album as usual)

January.....and it's still cold!

February already, and it seems my January news didn't even make it onto the blog. This was supposed to be the Germany post, however I am having some technical difficulties with the photos but hopefully I can post them soon.

January started off with recovering from New Year's and sleeping for a week after returning from Germany. Since then, we have been back to school/work and trying to think of new year's resolutions. For the last few years I have tried to pick resolutions that are actually achievable such as:

2008 - Learn to bake bread!
I achieved this, however I was stuck eating very dense bread for a year.

2009 - Eat more fish!
I achieved this also, but it meant I had to get over my fear of fish shops. So I found a fish shop where all the fish with pleading dead eyes were at one end and all the nice properly dead fillets of fish were at the other end. All I had to do was not turn left!

2010 - Get off your arse and move overseas!
Big tick for me. This was one of those resolutions that is like that yummy plate of left overs in the fridge. It tasted yummy the first time and you can't wait to go back and eat the rest but then it starts to go off. You think you'll eventually get around to eating it but you forget about it and slowly it grows legs and the giant furry greeny-browny-white fuzzy thing takes over your entire fridge and decides "Fuck this, if you're not going, I will!" So it packs you in it's sandwich bag and takes you to see the big wide world.

So after such a big change, traveling around with a fuzzy smelly green thing (although luckily not the original Green Thing), I decided to go back to something achievable........

2011 - Floss teeth more!
I'll let you know if I achieve this next year. Ummm, maybe I should have started with restocking my floss supplies.

We had a small science excursion to Borås which is about 60km east of Göteborg to test some fancy lights on bumblebees. The experiments were a success and we had some very happy biologists in the car. If you check out the photos you will see the frozen sea near Varberg (I think). It was another first for me, actually standing on the sea instead of in it and holding chunks of sea in my hands, weird and awesome!

My beloved Sambo (which is the Swedish way of saying "partner") has recently had a birthday. It is with lots of love I wish him a happy birthday and hope he has a wonderful year. We had a party with the coolest of cool friends, there was cake, there was dancing, there was beer, there was a Darth Vader Piñata, what more could a boy want? Lego! There was also lego.

We also spent part of January making and then waiting eagerly for home brew beer! All we need now is for the bubbles to appear inside the bottle.

Check out the photos, they are mostly silly party photos, comment if you feel like it and stay warm!