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!