A good way to start a Friday!

My mum invited Chris and me to join her for a lovely breakfast at the nicest hotel in Strömstad. Beautiful weather and a huge buffet; couldn't ask for a better start of the day!
Me and Chris are planing to go climbing now, not to bad either=)

More baking and bookreading

Chocolate chip cookies/Dubble chocolate muffins

I have alot of freetime now (can't you tell?!) as i only work during the weekends. If it's sunny me and Chris goes climbing and if it's raining i bake and read. This week i made Chocolate chip cookies with brown sugar, tasted better then white, and dubble chocolate muffins. Yes, i like chocolate and so does the rest of the family.
I just finished to swedish book "Let the right one in" which made it to the screens all over the world last autumn. I think i had pretty high expectations on it as it got very good reviews. The book was very well written and unique. But some how it didn't really captured me as a thriller should do. I red it without emotions. I couldn't make up my mind who i wanted dead or alive, who was bad and who was good... I have to see the movie now because i can imagen the scenes, which in the book wasn't to scary, being really creepy.
I've red the novel "Blood brothers", or at least 2/3 of it and i think i might stop there. It's not a bad book, not at all, it's very interesting. It's about a young boy and his familly living in, which was then, Palestina. When the jewish people after the holocaust "get their land back" Elias and his family is forst to leave their home, land and everything they own. They have done nothing wrong but have to pay for what the nazis did. To the end of the book it's getting a bit too deep in to christianity and i loose interest. But it's really worth reading until that point!

Lovely Lilacs...

When the lilacs are blooming the summer is just around the corner and as a kid this means weeks and weeks without school just playing and eating ice cream. So every year in the end of May when the purple, white and blue flowers starts to show i always get a feeling that something wonderful and exciting is waiting me. Right now Strömstad is an ocean of this lovely coulors and smells. May is by far my favorite month at eats when it comes to Sweden.

2 years anniversary!

From Fiji through Asia and USA to Scandinavia

Chris bought me pink Gerbera
(my favourite flower)

So it's been two years since me and Chris first met on the fiji islands (the bikini photo). We acctually met on a ferry going from the main island to one of the yasawa islands. I was on my way home to Sweden from New Zealand and Chris was on his way from New Zealand to Australia. We spend about 5 days together before we parted. We kept contact during the summer and decided to try to meet up in Beijing in September, if it would work it would work and if not i would just fly home again. Luckely it worked and we travelled through western China, Tibet, Nepal and India together then the UK, Scandinavia, the US.....

Basicly we went from not knowing eachother to spend every waking hour together. I think we
spend 3 hours apart at the most during the first 3 months. There is nothing you can really hide in a relationship like that. If you wake up in a bad mood there's nowhere to go or if you're sick to your stomach and there's only one toilet...
So how we will be doing living apart after all this time together, i don't know. Hopefully we get use to it aswell, even though i'm sure it will be hard in the beginning.

We celebrated the day by climbing and i was sooooo close to ascend my first 7-! My parents had made such a nice dinner for us and bought champagne, strawberries and gormet chocolate.

Busy weekend

at work

So it was the first busy day at work yesterday. I have so totally forgotten how my feet, legs and back feel after 11h of running , carrying and did i mention running...
It was a sunny Saturday and the town was crowded with people because of market day. We wore short of staff and had a long queue waiting at the entrance pretty much the entire day. The god thing is that you get paid off for your effort by the tips you make on a day like this.
It pretty much dubble the wages...ouups shouldn't talk loud about that...
Woke up this morning feeling totally beaten up but lucky for me the weather was not as good and it turned out to be a very quiet day at work.

Baking and bookreading

"kärleksmums" with cream cheese

Cinnamon buns

There's been some more baking going on... The weather has been bad the last week and instead of climbing i've been baking. It's my therapi. Have got 3 weeks left now before i'm going to start working "for real".
Finshed my book about the child prostitution in the Philippines; Rosario is dead. Horrible story based on reality...Rosario, a girl of 11 dies after months of carrying a broken-off vibrator inside her. It was playsed there by a rich Austrien medical student who just wanted some fun one night while on vacation on the Philippines.

Storuman..

Chris got the job! But will be moving to the middle of nowhere... Storuman is a 16h trainride from Strömstad, where i will be located during the summer, and just as far north from Norrköping, where i will be moving in august. Storuman is acctually as far north from here as Amsterdam is south.

Storuman is a city of 2000 inhabitants. Chris is gonna live 45km outside Storuman in a "village" of

50 people... Mon deux!
But I'm glad for him, this is good! It's a start and a way of getting in touch with geologist in Sweden.
And i will visit him.

I've never been as far north of Sweden ever, not even close to it. I can already here the mosquitos celebrating the taste of my flesh...;p

Congratulations Norway!

Today is "syttende maj"; the 17th of may and Norway's nationalday. So thousands and thousands of red-blue-and-white flags will be waving all over our neighbour country.
It's normally a huge celebration day and today it's even bigger then normal. Norway won the eurovision song contest yesterday! I will explain this event for all of you who haven't had the chance to "enjoy" it. Basicly, all European countries are sending a singer/group to represent their country and compete with all the others. Well Europe in this case has expanned and nowadays countries as Israel, Russia, Azerbadjan etc are competeing aswell. This was actually the way ABBA got famous by winning with "Waterloo". I haven't been crazy about this competition for alot of years mainly because Sweden sends such a bad singers but also as all the countries close to eachother vote for eachother. But this time Norway won with the highest score ever! Do i have to say that Sweden sucked...

On the road again...

Stockholm

(pictures from last year, forgot the camera this time...)

Uppsala

As the company Chris had his interview with paid for the transportation to Stockholm and back he decided to go by car so i could join. And way not do some stops on the way as the gas was already paid for?!
The job, it turned out, would only be for the summer and for an australian goldmining company in Storuman. Storuman is located 12h north from here, the same distance as it is to Amsterdam.

Chris met up with a professor at the Uppsala university the next day to discuss the possibility to study for a Phd. Uppsala is a beautiful city 40min north of Stockholm. It is the oldest university city in Sweden with tons of students all over the world. We stayed with my friend Johanna (picture) and her boyfriend in their huge appartement right in the city. Johanna is going to work and stay with her parents in Grebbestad during the summer so we will hopefully be seing more of eachother.

We continued the next day to Västerås were Jojo lives. Jojo visited us in Texas last autumn, a trip which turned out to be awsome. It was the first
time i stayed with her in her cowboy inspired appartement. I think of all my friends, there is no one i laugh as much with as her.

We took the car from Västerås south to Norrköping, were i will be studying after the summer. Norrköping turned out to be a beautiful city with water running through, lots of parks and old buildings. The day were mainly ment for apartment viewing and so we did. I acctually decided on a small one room flat, very central and for a very good price.

On the way home we made a stop in Örebro to visit my mum's brother and sister (a good time for Chris to practise his Swedish) and in Karlstad to visit my friend Madde. Madde used to be one of my biggest highjumping rivals and together we have been competing all over Sweden. She now had a 2 months year old babygirl, a dog and a house together with an other highjumper. Wonder what kind of sport the daughter will be doing...

More goodies...

Snicker´s squares

Chocolate- and walnutmuffins

Days of rain means more cookies for my familly and according to them this two came out the nicest. So for anyone who would like to try making this delicous creations, i'll give you the recepie!

Snicker's squares: Mix 1 jar of peanutbutter, 2dl syrup, 1dl sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanillasugar in a pan and heat until it's smooth (before boiling). Take of the heat and add 1dl cocos and 10-12dl of rice crispies. Stir and poor the mixture on a baking sheet. Let it cool and poor 350g dark chocolate over it (you melt the chocolate in the microwave). Then put in the freezer and later on cut in squares. Try it, it's super easy and super good! Not for people on a diet!

Chocolate- and walnutmuffins: Beat 2 egg and 2,5dl sugar until fluffy. Add 1,5 teaspoons of vanillasugar, 2dl flour, 0,5 teaspoon of baking soda, 4 tablespoons cacao and a little bit of salt. Melt 100g butter and poor in. Mix well and poor into 20 muffin cups. Chop 125g dark chocolate into big pizes and put about 3 in each muffin. Do the same with some chopped walnuts but if you like. Put in in the oven at 200 celsius/400 fahrenheit for about 10 min.

A day with Marc in the park...

...or at least in the garden! It was the last day of nice weather, the rain is pooring down today. I hope it's only for a short time because if it cintinue during the weekend the restaurant i work at wont be open which means no work for me which means no money...

Oh, we got some good news today, Chris is going for a jobinterview in Stockholm on Sunday! It's only for the summer but it's a start which can lead to other jobs. Keep your finger crossed!

Time for the dentist...

Nope, not me this time...

So it was time to face a fear i've pushed on the future for a long time; to go and see the dentist...

I never had any cavities when i grow up as i was a very good little girl and only ate candy on saturdays. But as I grow older so did my craving for sweet things and nowadays my poor teeth have to face enemies every single day. Going to the dentist is free in Sweden until your 21st birthday so i knew every cavity would cost me alot...
But if God gave me skin with attractions to bugs and misshaped toes, he sure gave me strong teeth. My dentist praised my teeth and my overflow of saliva which apperently protects the teeth...
So 550kr poorer but much happier i celebrated my strong teeth by eating some more cookies, why not?!=)

A windy but sunny day at Saltö

Someone had piled some stones for me to take a photo of

Dried Seaweed

Seaweed with crazy colour

When boredom kicks in...

Salmon with feta cheese and quinoa salad

Al sorts of cookies

When i've got nothing to do, i bake. I've been baking al kinds of cookies the last couple of weeks. It's crazy how quick they're gone...
I've also started to practise my cooking skills. Made chili, greencabage soup with meatballs and cod with bacon last week. My own recepie on salmon is fantastic! Chop some olives, fresh basil and tomatoes and mix it with fetacheese, olive oil and pepper. Put everything on top of the salmon and bake it in the oven for 20 min at 400 fahrenheit/ 280 celsius. It is so good!