Charlie's Global Adventures

Florida Photos

2008-03-12T16:21:00.002Z

Happy 2008

2008-01-05T16:40:00.001Z

Christmas and New Years 2007 Washington and New York

Back in London and back to work... as I predicted the xmas holidays passed by way too fast to make a difference to my motivation at work. So far I can blame my sleepiness on the jetlag but what do I do on Monday?? Well, I could join a gym and lay off anything toxic until my birthday! But at work the only thing to keep me awake is coffee or time off. So there goes the "detox" haha!

Anyway, had a great time in Washington DC with Matt, Tim, Laura, Glenn and Kate + afghans and a cat. Did the usual stuff, opened presents, ate and drank a lot, played some pool, did some sightseeing and a lot of shopping at the mall.

In New York there was only time for a few minutes of sightseeing. Glenn and Matt went sightseeing by night so us girls went sightseeing by day, catching the Empire State building before the 2hr+ queue set in. I wasn't so lucky with the Ellis Island ferry as the queue stretched through the whole park by the time Matt and I made it down there. So instead I saw the Statue of Liberty from land rather than by boat! There's always next time!

We also spent New Year's on Times Square and met loads of people from Sheffield, England and Canada. Kate and I tried to see the rehearsal of the ball drop but nothing was happening at the promised noon drop so we went to Planet Hollywood for lunch and cocktails. Matt and I had dinner at Red Lobster... well I finished my whole mega seafood plate while Matt mostly watched his ;) mmm to think of all that lobster and crab and garlic prawns go to waste!

New Year's Eve we spent in a club, it took us a good hour to get 2 blocks across Times Square - we ended up taking a taxi 10 blocks up to Central Park, walked 5 long blocks down to the other side to catch a taxi back 10 blocks to get to the night club where we had a table and champagne reserved for us. The hip-hop dj "forgot" to do a countdown for us at midnight but we had our glasses ready and cheered away. Thank goodness there was no auld lang syne singing this year!

Matt's finally back in London with my new ipod touch, wohoo! It's time to fire it up now. Wish me luck in my "detox" for the next 3 weeks! Click here for photos

It's xmas time again!

2007-12-16T13:13:00.000Z

Ice-skating Kew December 2007

Not that it really feels all that xmassy yet! We've got a xmas tree in the lounge and some xmas lights up but so far I haven't managed to get into the xmassy spirit yet.

Last week us Swedo's, an Aussie and a couple of Frenchies went ice-skating in Kew Gardens and afterwards we had a lot of mulled wine, gingerbread biscuits and lussekatter as we do every year thanks to my organising everybody and Erika doing the baking ;) My organisational skills weren't on top this year though since I forgot to bring the e-ticket for the ice-skating! Oh well, 45mins later we were in and with our "skates" on that were the most uncomfortable things you could dream of putting on your feet! I would gladly wear high heels all day than those things. Which means I need to dig out my old skates from the basement somewhere in Sweden or buy a new pair... hmm very tempting but there's no-where to skate here for free or for less than £10 so I might have to dig my old ones out and get them sharpened :)

My next skating opportunity will be in New York. Matt and I are flying out to Washington DC to spend xmas with his Dad and Laura. Glenn and Kate are joining us on Boxing Day and then we're off to New York on the 29th to spend New Years on Time Square. So maybe this year we'll even get some real snow! I'm really excited and can't wait to see New York as I've never been there before. And I have to break my tradition of celebrating a Swedish xmas in London :)

My other news is that Matt and I have moved to a big house in Ealing, sharing with Lisa and Damon and Ben. We also have a nice big garden so I'm looking forward to spring-time when we can start having a proper Aussie "barbie" and some "bevvies" - that's BBQ and drinks for those of you who don't speak Australian :)

Anyway, time to go downstairs for an afternoon of football, Man U - Liverpool and then Arsenal - Chelsea, wohoo!

More rain in London

2007-07-25T12:21:00.000+01:00

And the rainy season continues.... No need for summer clothes this year, the autumn holidays to the sun are going to be seriously booked up soon by the sun-desperate flooded Brits! Will definitely have to plan at least 2 weeks in a place where the sun is guaranteed as have spent the last few months in more or less wintery conditions.

But on Sunday Nathalie and Christian and I had a perfect day out at the Lovebox London Weekender festival in London. A very daring thing to do but we had not even a drop of rain all day and I actually look a bit tanned now :) So we spent the day lounging around with drinks and food and enjoying Nouvelle Vague, Tinirawen, Hot Chip, The Rapture, B 52s and a fantastic set by Groove Armada.

Let's hope we have the same luck in August when Matt and I are going to the V festival with some friends! I better buy some rubber boots as insurance. Took a spare set of clothes, a rain jacket, and an umbrella to Lovebox and what happens, no rain ;)

Matt is finally back in London tomorrow after only getting his passport and visa back on Tuesday this week. I've been pestering anybody with some spare time to take me out and so far I've been to Jenny's Super Hero house party, a couple of nights at the Redback with Lisa and Kirst and a couple of scrummy dinners at Nathalie's.

Mum is also in London visiting since yesterday and last week Erika came back from her holiday with her parents in tow, along with a kitchen table, chairs and great-looking new shelves for the lounge built by her dad. So it's all full house everywhere now :) All we have to do is finish up the flat, order the last bits of furniture and move in properly!

Back in rainy old London again

2007-07-05T21:30:00.000+01:00

I'm slowly getting over my "jetlag" and I'm taking it easy this week to make sure the sore throat I picked up in Sydney goes away for good! My second week in Australia was spent with a whole lot of animals, we had pets running up and down the bed, the cat seemingly happy to keep me awake all night by purring in my face.

Since Hunter Valley was still more or less flooded and the wine tours only running on Sundays during most of winter, we drove up to Nelson Bay to catch one of the many whale-watching boats. The wind was quite brisk so we decided the best chance of avoiding sea sickness was to have a proper aussie burger meal first while admiring the view of the bay.

Our boat left the dock more or less empty so we had the place to ourselves and plenty of deck space to be blown about on. We finally spotted 3 whales and 2 dolphins that kept swimming parallel to the boat for quite a while so the captain decided to come back in a bit early as we were a bit frost-bitten towards the end!

On Thursday it was time to head back to Sydney to see some of Matt's friends for a few drinks. My Sydney mission was to eat sushi and thai so Matt took me to a fantastic thai restaurant in Newtown where you get to sit on cushions on the floor. We ordered more than we could really eat but couldn't finish until it was all gone!

As we hadn't had quite enough of fish Matt and I went to the aquarium in Darling Harbour and the new wildlife zoo thingy next door. We've now got a hundred or so photos of animals we'll never look at again haha.

The flight back was ok, after 5 gruelling hours at Sydney airport, BA let me on their flight to Bangkok so I was a bit "worried" I would get stuck there for days as it's the worst airport to travel stand-by from normally. But I rushed off the flight, collected my bag and managed to check-in on the next flight so my dream of spending the night at BKK airport was sadly just a dream.

Arriving to London on a rainy Sunday morning I texted Erika so that we could meet for breakfast at Heathrow before she flew off to Sweden on holiday. We basically drank coffee in the queue for security before her coffee cup was whisked away by the guard. Perhaps we shouldn't have annoyed them when everyone was on high alert...

Thanks to the coffee I couldn't manage a nap before I met Chris, Jen and Nath at the pub for a drink and a few games of pool to fight my jetlag and make sure I didn't fall asleep too early. What better way than to persuade Jen and Nath to take me dancing for a couple of hours at the Reddie ;)

To the other side of the world

2007-06-25T01:54:00.000+01:00

We're back in Raymond Terrace after a few days queueing at airports and filling in hundreds of landing/leaving/quarantine cards... I bet the ones who land without a passport and illegally try to smuggle an apple actually are dealt with faster than the 100m queues the people with correct documents and no food hidden away in their bags get to suffer.

We just managed to check in on time for the last flight to Auckland on the longest night of the year (who wants another summer solstice anyway) after a free king prawn lunch courtesy of the cashier at woolies.

Jodi met us at the airport and as we landed so late went straight to Jodi's house for a night cap and a long sleep. Well, a long sleep for me, Matt is still on 2 time zones and gets up really early, any time from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. while I don't mind sleeping 12 hours in one stretch. Hey, I'm on holiday :)

We started with a fantastic lunch at a Belgian restaurant, then went for a few spins on the pokeys at the casino where Matt won $40 to spend on more free prawns at the Japanese Daikoko restaurant where the chef thrilled us with his teppanyaki skills. Sadly we saw no Swedish wierdos celebrating anything in particular though.

Saturday it was time to queue our way back to Sydney and the Central coast where we stayed with Matt's friend Marko and his girlfriend in Woy Woy. We hit the pub where I got to try my first barramundi fish, yum. However, the entertainment factor was not at its best so we took a taxi to a waterside club in Gosford where we spent the night trying to convince the dj to play some real rock and not the 80s/90s stuff. As you might've guessed, he wasn't inclined to switch music just because I was Swedish... well you gotta try :)

Yesterday Marko and Jess took us to a fantastic cafe who serves the best breakfast in the world. Cheap and plentiful and most of all worthy of a couple of michelins! A few hours later it was time to drive ourselves back to Raymond Terrace to meet Matt's mum and youngest brother who are back from their week in Brisbane.

Hong Kong to Raymond Terrace

2007-06-19T10:06:00.000+01:00

Hey dudes,

after a long flight delay from Heathrow, well the usual 2hr delay anyway, Matt and I touched down in Hong Kong a bit too late to try the next flight to Sydney so we left our bags at the airport and went to Hong Kong for the day. After no sleep on our Qantas flight (we were trying to watch as many films as possible) we were pretty much too tired to do anything but to go for a short wander uphill to the free Hong Kong zoo and botanical gardens in the muggy 30-degree heat. After a couple of photos we made our way back to Soho for a drink and a bite to eat, reading the local news paper and waiting for our flight. We were given seats straight away on Virgin Atlantic but I didn't enjoy this flight much as I was too tired to really explore their excellent entertainment system and the seats were getting very uncomfortable after 3hrs.

Arriving in Sydney we took the train straight to Newcastle where we stopped at the local pub for some games of pool while waiting for the bus to take us to Raymond Terrace. We were starting to feel the strain of travelling for near enough 48hrs with little sleep so I went straight to bed for a nap, then we were off to the local social club to play pokeys and make sure we didn't fall asleep too early...

Today we've been to Newcastle to check out their latest tourist attraction, the beached tanker below, quite a site that was! And for more excitement Matt bought the latest Queens of the Stone Age cd, cool stuff :)

Holiday time

2007-06-15T17:06:00.000+01:00

We're finally off to Australia tomorrow all going well with our stand-by flights. We'll hopefully catch the connecting flight immediately out of Hong Kong and land in Sydney on Sunday night so that we can go straight to bed and wake up without a jetlag :)

To start off the holiday feeling I took half-day off work to pack and put all the stuff back in my room as it now has paint on all the walls... but pulled paint of the ceiling instead so I have another couple of large paintjobs left to do before I can say my room is approaching completion.

And last night a few of us went to a music festival in Hyde Park to watch the White Stripes and Queen's of the Stone Age, which were 2 top bands and performances. Sadly the evening was over all too quickly!

Another weekend in Brighton

2007-06-11T20:59:00.000+01:00

Just back from another weekend in Brighton, drove down with Matt, Armel and Sara to meet Helena, Marja and Mette. I got to test my newest toy, TomTom which did its best to let us avoid the traffic on the M23 and lead us on a country route past horse shows and Lewes, not bad ;)

We started by touring the Palace Pier, then had our drink at Fortune of War that started our evening off. Unfortunately we all decided to stuff ourselves silly at a small Japanese cafe so we were too full to do anything after that really. Helena had kindly got us 5 a 3 bed room where the beds were about 70cm wide... we went to bed, Matt and I decided that putting 2 duvets on the floor would save us falling off the bed all night and all slept quite comfortably... until the other hotel guests got home from their respective stag and hen nights out and proceeded to loudly party all night until it was breakfast time. Only when they left around 8.30 was it quiet again. So for £20 each we had the luxury of not sleeping for the night.

After a night like this we treated ourselves to an English breakfast by the sea, then Matt and I did our required game of crazy golf.... which I won by 10 points or so thanks to great 1hr night's sleep ;)

The rest of the day we spent on the beach or shopping in the lanes but disappointingly the girl who sells millions of silver rings was not there this weekend so I didn't get to spend any money on any bling. So there's nothing better than crashing with an ice cream on the beach!

Svenska Flaggans Dag 6 Juni

2007-06-06T17:13:00.000+01:00

It's Sweden's national day today so celebrate now with cake and general flag-waving, wohoo!

Morden Hall Park

2007-05-27T18:10:00.000+01:00

Enjoyed a cycle ride during the week through Morden Hall Park next door to where we live in Wimbledon, an absolutely gorgeous park! Looks just like Oxford. Too bad the weather this weekend turned so crap, it's 12C and raining and it's end of May and 3 days ago it was summer, sunny and 25C. It's so great living in Britain sometimes ;)

Stereophonics

2007-05-16T17:13:00.000+01:00

So...

it's been a month since my last posting, my time does fly ;) The latest news is that I've bought a pink car, a 1.2l Vauxhall/Opel Corsa from 2001! Picked it up a week ago and it runs very nicely, if only I could drive it properly haha. But thanks to London traffic I'll be an experienced driver in no time! Uh huh, you're still wondering about the color of the car... well it's not exactly pink pink, more of a metallic dark salmon or pinkish brick so it's a bit orangey rather than candy pink. Otherwise I don't think I would have bought it ;) Anyway, found a picture on the web of a similar one:

Matt and I had the most terrible time trying to find me a car, though. I trawled through autotrader and gumtree and phoned all the cars in the right price-range, size and such but by the time we'd arranged to see it, the car would have been sold, sometimes within minutes. The market here is mad! We had even put £50 deposit on a car that turned out a previous owner still owed money on it and it had been a write-off in Nov06 so it was a no-no.

Anyway, the reason I've decided to drive a car around London is that I thought I'd improve my journey to and from work and it looks like I'll cut down my commute by 1 hour a day which is a result. So far it's been taking almost 4hrs a day commuting so anything to reduce that is more than welcome!

On Saturday Matt, me and the gang are heading up to Blackpool for the weekend. It's Lisa's birthday on Friday and her favorite band, Stereophonics, is playing on Saturday so Kirst managed to get us all tickets. I've never been to Blackpool and can't wait to see the concert so it should be well cool :)

Otherwise the flat is improving slowly, bought Erika a heatgun so she can burn off the paint off our skirting boards while I try and sort my room out. Was supposed to be more or less finished in time for my mum's London visit tonight but thanks to a leak my efforts were put on hold and I've only just managed to paint the ceiling once last weekend... Anyway, will give it another go next weekend so should see a big improvement then ;) Have to do my skirting boards as well, all in good time.

Until next time, hope you're all well,

xx

2007-04-16T20:31:00.000+01:00

Saturday night at Nathalie's enjoying a fantastic BBQ before she moves down to Kew and we have to do it all again in her new garden.

Another leaving-do

2007-04-16T20:21:00.000+01:00

So today we had Mounira's leaving-lunch at an amazing spot not far from work but you could be fooled and think we were far far away from Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport!

Food was your standard pub grub but not too pricey considering the location ;)

2007-04-16T20:19:00.000+01:00

Just had to take this photo of Matt yesterday morning soaking up the sun ;)

Summer's here!

2007-04-16T20:13:00.000+01:00

Easter break in Bournemouth checking out their beach and pier but I'd say Brighton wins hands down on this point... why would anyone wanna take home tons of sand when they could lie on rock-hard pebbles ;) anyway, had a great couple of days out in the sunshine doing the typical English weekend away from London.

My "boring" accounting team at work

2007-03-24T09:47:00.000Z

Photos from skiing in Val d'Aosta Feb07

2007-03-24T09:14:00.000Z

Italy Feb 2007

Hi guys, have just posted my photos from our ski trip to Val d'Aosta. Please note I'm still waiting to get Maggan's photos as she always takes more photos than me ;) Click on the photo above to get to the web album!

V Festival 2007

2007-03-01T17:48:00.000Z

Wohoo!

I managed to get 2 tickets for the 2-day V Festival 2007 in August. Didn't think I would get through but thanks to being home sick from work I got through a couple of hours later when everybody else had either got their tickets or given up ;)

I'm most looking forward to seeing the Killers who are one of my favorite bands. And tomorrow night we're going to see the Kaiser Chiefs at Shepherds Bush. Can't wait! And on Sunday Matt and I went to Koko's to see an Australian band called the Howling Bells, a really cool band reminiscent of Cranberries.

I still have no photos to show you as I've lent out my camera but will hopefully update my photos with my last trip to Val D'Aosta in Italy where Maggan and I went to stay at my old colleague's B&B for a spot of skiing and lots of pasta, pizza, gorgonzola and red wine. We had an absolute magnificent time!

And if you've forgotten already, Erika and I moved to our new flat end of January so we are now living in a nice dusty bunker-like place without curtains, not quite the latest trend so we will be finishing the living room asap, a bit more sanding and filling and then some painting. It would help if we didn't work full time and I wasn't getting sick all the time but hopefully it should be done by the end of March, including Erika's room.

Will have to take it easy this weekend though as been struck down with a virus for the last few weeks and that won't go away. Now at home with a really sore throat so probably have tonsillitis or something similar. Now facing the usual dilemma whether I'm well enough to work or sick enough to stay at home tomorrow as well...

anyway, time to go for now

xx

Another Album Chart Show

2007-01-16T22:46:00.000Z

Last night I joined the gang for another session at Koko's in Camden for the Album Chart Show recording. This time we got to see the Magic Numbers, 1990's, The View and Bloc Party. It was good but Kaiser Chiefs are still my favorites :)

Now we are hoping to get tickets for my birthday too as there is nothing on next week. It's a great Monday night out as tickets are free and with the move I won't be planning anything special for my birthday anyway! Let's just hope the move is finished before then coz it's really started to drag on a bit too long now... we were hoping to finish everything today but we are still waiting for papers to back and forth between the solicitors. Now it looks like we're lucky to get it done by Friday next week!

We have started packing but it's difficult to book any moving company and self-drive vans are so expensive! Well the real problem is the weekend opening times of car companies, they close at 13.00 on Sats and are closed on Sundays... aaargh!

Another Great Concert

2007-01-10T14:09:00.000Z

On Monday night we had free audience tickets for the recording of the Album Chart Show. The best thing is that the Kaiser Chiefs were playing and they have been one of my favorite bands for the last couple of years. Their new album is out in March so this was a nice preview! They played 3 songs from their new album which sounded great and then they did a mini concert just for us which was fantastic!

There were 3 other bands playing we never heard of before. The first guy was really cool and very glittery but we don't really know what he's called so will have to record the show to find out and of course to see if we can spot us in the audience!

Now I'm hoping to get free audience tickets for the Brit Awards and other cool shows, cross your fingers! I can't wait for the next concert now!

It's 2007 guys!

2007-01-01T19:02:00.000Z

Happy New Year

2007

I hope you all celebrated the end of 2006 in style, I certainly did! After catching a couple of hours of sleep, it was time to drag myself out of bed and go back to London Heathrow to check in for our KLM flight. Christian and I got on without any problems as KLM decided to fly us on a huge Boeing 737 with as many seats per person as you could ever wish for! Jasper picked us up from Schipol and we arrived to a large 2 p.m. breakfast at the house. The others decided that it was time for an excursion to downtown Amsterdam while I decided to stay behind with Olivia and take a well-needed nap. Unfortuntaly for Olivia, little Julie was not as sleepy as me ;)

When I dragged myself out of bed for the second time that day I helped Olivia prepare the spread for the party and play with Julie while waiting for the others to get back. We had so much yummie food to eat we were completely stuffed by the time the guests arrived :)

At midnight we went out to experience a proper Dutch NYE which meant trying to kill your neighbours with rocket-propelled grenades... or whatever you use nowadays. There were so many fireworks everywhere we thought we were in the middle of a war zone but it was soo cool! One of our rockets fell over and because of all the wind there were fireworks going off everywhere, underneath the cars, at us etc. We had to run back indoors not to lose all our limbs haha. But then indoors we also had a chocolate fountain so we weren't too worried about missing the rest of the fireworks.

So I hope Olivia had an excellent party celebrating her 30th birthday as we really enjoyed ourselves. I also hope you will all have a great year and don't forget that life's a party!

xxx

Merry Xmas everybody!

2006-12-28T14:30:00.000Z

I've finally managed to get to Stockholm after another great Xmas at home in London. On Xmas Eve Victoria cooked us traditional Swedish smörgåsbord dinner at home consisting of herring, salmon, ham and meatballs, incl. "Dopp i Grytan" or dripping... yum! Even our 2 English guests Claire and Alex were impressed by our food I think, things always get a bit blurry after a few snapses ;)

On Xmas Day I was invited to a traditional Aussie Xmas at Lisa's and Damo's place in Acton. Lisa cooked us a fantastic roast dinner with a 6.2kg ham and a 3.something roastbeef so we were very well fed. We stayed around all night for drinks and then I managed to actually get to the airport on Boxing Day even though I did miss my intended flight as Matt wasn't awake enough to locate the car keys amongst all the Xmas presents ;)

Having a nice time in Stockholm catching up with mum, Kalle and Iris the cat. Also hitting the shops for the Xmas sales today and tomorrow! Then it's time to go back to London for a quick change of clothes before Christian and I are off to Amsterdam for Olivia's 30th birthday and NYE.

Xmas plans

2006-12-22T10:20:00.000Z

Hi,

We've had a great couple of pre-xmas weeks going to Xmas parties and xmas shopping with Erika and Christian even though I'm not buying or receiving any this year... well ok, a couple maybe ;) We have been to two xmas parties at work, (as usual only Christian wins airline tickets!) and we have also had time for a few of our own, the last one arranged at the Harcourt Arms, a Swedo-Anglo pub opposite the Swedish Church in Marylebone. The Swedish Church choir were doing a Lucia so we had some glögg and enjoyed the singing.

I took yesterday and today off work so that I could fly to Stockholm for the holidays ahead of the big 'rush hour' at Heathrow airport but the weather had other plans. We've had thick fog covering England since Tuesday so of course we get tons of flight cancellations and delays, which meant that my slim chances of travelling stand-by are kinda less than slim now.

So yesterday Christian (who is also stuck in London for xmas due to no passport) and I went to IKEA to stock up on some essentials and of course for lunch consisting of meat balls, potato, gravy and lingonberry jam. Christian and Victoria already have a xmas eve celebration planned for Sunday night so we'll see if I get to spend another xmas eve in the comfort of my own home or if I will be stuck at the airport and missing the xmas lunch on Sunday in Stockholm...

When we got back it seemed a shame that we haven't yet got around to buying a xmas tree so off we go to the market. They only had ugly ones left so no luck but maybe today they have better ones! So to celebrate having a day off work we went in search of a pub with a pool table and we found a great one with good music and I managed to beat Christian a few times even though he plays every week and I play once a year ;) But boy do I need practise... am not playing anywhere near my best!

After a cider or two we decided that the fire place at the Atlas was the place to be and as luck was having it, there was a free table right next to the fireplace! We had great pasta, another drink and then home to watch a great Swedish film Erika got for her birthday, called "Slim Susie." It's a bit scary to imagine that Swedish small-town people actually are like the people in the film... says Miss big city girl ;)

Until next time, have fun preparing the last bits for Xmas!

More Birthday Wishes

2006-12-22T10:10:00.000Z

Happy Birthday James

21 December 2006

Hope you have a great birthday, love from London

XFMs Winter Wonderland

2006-12-09T08:32:00.000Z

I'm so happy coz last night I managed to score a ticket for tonight's XFMs charity event in aid of Shelter where some of my favorite bands are playing at Brixton Academy: Kasabian, The Kooks, The Feeling, The Automatic, Boy Kill Boy, Captain. Doors open at 5.30 p.m. so we should get at least 1/2 hr from each band! How could I say no to such an evening!

Birthday Wishes

2006-12-02T21:30:00.000Z

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY CAROLINE

03 December 2006

Bestest birthday wishes from London ;)

Nearing the end and approaching new beginnings

2006-12-02T15:42:00.000Z

It's turned December 1 so Christmas has officially started here in the UK. We're looking forward to dusting off the xmas decorations and buying a huge xmas tree again. Tomorrow we are having our first glögg of the year and of course we've got Blossa vinglögg, the best and the yummiest one!

We also have 2 xmas parties to go to so I've bought 2 new outfits as they were an absolute bargain! Our first xmas party is on Thursday night in Soho so looking forward to dancing the night away with a lot of people I never see otherwise from my old office. Then next Friday the big party is held in Pinewood studios so I'm expecting to be whisked off by Daniel Craig in a Bond suit! Always lots of champagne, wine and good food to make the evening even better ;)

Lot's of things are changing here in time for 2007. Ludovic is moving from our house to his own studio flat, so a friend of a friend from Sweden is moving in today :)

Then for some bigger news: Last week Erika and I took the plunge and without much ado put an offer on a flat and it's now in the process of being purchased! We're crossing our fingers that we get to sign contracts before xmas, that would take a whole load off our minds and let us celebrate this season in style! It also means that we have a lot of work ahead of us next year when it comes to house-decorating etc but hopefully we'll get there in the end and can relax and watch our new investment grow! So any donations towards new paint and bathroom gratefully accepted!

It also means that I'm absolutely on rock-bottom financially so this xmas will be spent window-shopping and dreaming of nice birthday gifts instead... maybe that DULUX paint in #0012 colour would do me nicely, haha!

But I won't give away too many details of our new purchase before we know more and we've signed that contract and been approved for a mortgage so we can pay for it all! In the meantime I'm losing lots of sleep for no reason so was kept in bed all week by a nasty case of tonsillitis that almost killed me. Then my recovery was as quick as snapping my fingers! Virus puzzle me sometimes, how you can feel so sick one day and 2 days later like you've never been sick at all!

So now I'm party party party girl again but without any distraction to keep my mind off things which I desperately need now...

2006-10-29T21:04:00.000Z

Thames Festival, 17 Sept 06

2006-10-29T20:58:00.000Z

Jodi and I at the Queen's Head

2006-10-29T20:55:00.000Z

Late autumn sunshine, Kensington Gardens, 29 Oct 06

2006-10-29T20:53:00.000Z

T-shirts from shop David and Goliath, Covent Garden, Oct 06

Notre Dame, Paris

2006-10-29T20:47:00.000Z

Notre Dame, Paris, Thursday 26 October
I thought I would post a photo or two from the last couple of weeks as I haven't posted any lately :) Had a great time in Paris last week even though I had the flu throughout... this time we stayed at the Citadines aparthotel near Moulin Rouge which meant I had a studio flat to myself with a small kitchen with a tiny dish washer. There was even a stereo in the room, fantastic! So I went to the cinema 2 nights in a row so I wouldn't start hating my hotel room, there's only so much you can take of French TV and a tiny dish washer!

While I was outside the cinema trying to decide what film I wanted to see and trying to make sure it was in English, an old French lady gives me a left-over ticket to the film The Perfume which made me love Paris even more. So after the free film I treated myself to a nutella and banana crèpe (has to be done). The night after I saw the film I was intending to see, The Children of Men with Clive Owen and Juliane Moore. Good but strange films, I'm still dying to see the Departed, though, since everyone says it's a very good movie!

Thursday night I decided to ignore my flu and go down town with 2 colleagues so we ended up window shopping in Les Halles, then walked past Notre Dame and ended up in Qartier Latin for som cheese fondue and wine. It's great when the company pays for dinner ;) I was so inspired by the French that I cooked duck breast for some friends last night with mashed potato and honey glazed carrots and mushrooms... and more red wine of course!

Happy Halloween

2006-10-29T20:20:00.000Z

Hi there,

I don't see me posting anything this week so thought I may as well wish you happy pumpkins a great All Hallows Eve. Us? Well we'll be hiding from the neighbourhood's kids and trick or treating as it isn't an English tradition and ASBOs here think that throwing eggs and flour constitutes proper Halloween behaviour. So Erika and I have decided to spend Tuesday night at the local pub. We don't really need an excuse but the last couple of weeks have been slow as we've been feeling under the weather so now's as good time as any to spend all night at the Atlas eating well! Then on Wednesday we're watching Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas! Well, if our visitors from Copenhagen want to :)

Otherwise the flat we viewed in Streatham isn't a realistic option as the outer wall seems to have a major problem. The estate agent keeps claiming there is nothing structurally wrong with the place, but why then is there a long crack running down the whole outer wall and the main bedroom window frame top bit is sagging and the plaster has come off the wall and ceiling! Hmm... then the agent says there might be dry rot! That's building cancer for those uninitiated, so would then mean costing more than a few hundred pounds to fix as you would have to replace half an outer wall and window! So we're back to checking new areas we could see ourselves living in or nearby but hopefully this week our mortgage broker will get us a good Mortgage in Principal so we know how much we can spend...

Wish us luck and watch out for those spider webs on Tuesday!

Happy Diwali!

2006-10-21T20:23:00.000+01:00

The morning started with a Happy Diwali message from Niina. As usual this brings nostalgia as I moved to England around Diwali and one of my first experiences of my new life was to share the Hindu festival of light with Niina and her hubbie Niel + family with all the indian stuff that goes with it, food, drink and fireworks a la Hounslow!

Since then Diwali has always held a special to my heart (what's there not to like?) and by chance Erika and I went to south London today to look at potential properties, stumbling into the first estate agent we see in Tooting Bec. There was no-one in the office but we didn't leave straight away and out comes a sweet Indian lady from the back to take our details. We wished her Happy Diwali and she goes back to get us some traditional Indian sweets, had a lovely one with chocolate, mmmm. She (and not forgetting Niina) gave us luck for the rest of the day and we met some really funny and nice estate agents and got some helpful advice from all around. We ended up in Tooting Broadway which is just like a "Little India" and much more vibrant and exciting than Wembley, Southall and Hounslow. We like the area so much we don't mind looking for a flat nearby as you get all the Indian shops and markets and yummy authentic food that would cost more than your shirt in other posher parts of London!

So when you can't afford posh, go multi-culti and opt for the mixed areas where you get strong influences from around the world, rather than your bog standard British cloned high street and Starbuckified suburbs of London/UK.

So Happy Diwali again and may your year be just as prosperous just it promises to be for Erika and I :) xxxx

End of October? Autumn?

2006-10-20T18:22:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

was still munching on fresh strawberries yesterday and you can still sit outside during the day and enjoy the warm sunshine! You wouldn't think it's soon Halloween! This is apparently ta record summer in Britain and no-one's complaining as no-one wants to pay for gas and turn on the central heating...

Latest news is that Erika and I are looking to buy a flat so if any of you want to donate £100.000 in cash I will gladly email you my account details :) The house market here is so fast we risk being priced out before we arrange a viewing with an estate agent! Or maybe you could play the lottery for us! Some good news is that my bank has finally considered me worthy of a credit card! Without one you can never get a good credit rating here in the UK and the only way is by having lots of credit that you've paid off. So I will have to go shopping and then refund everything again just to build my rating haha. If I up my rating I can then be offered a better mortgage with a lower interest rate. It's all terribly exciting business, really.

Unfortunately I have next week off as I'm going back to Paris for some more training but this time I'll be coming straight back home so we can continue looking at potential properties!

Otherwise I'm terribly busy as my social life has picked up tremendously this year, no point in planning a quiet weekend this side of xmas anyway... tonight Smari is coming back to London after moving to Iceland for 2 whole weeks (they're a bit mad those Icelandic people) so he's promised to cook us an authentic Icelandic lamb dish tomorrow night, yum yum. Next weekend we have a couple from Copenhagen visiting us and when they're gone my mum and MaryLou will drop by for a few days. And then it's the lead up to xmas so there'll be no saving money either, aaargh! We did say NO MORE VISITORS haha... A friend of a friend has moved here from Sweden so I'm also trying to fit her in out busy lives so last Friday we went out for an all-nighter at a local pub/club :)

Otherwise my new job is still going well, haven't picked up everything yet but it's easier than I thought even though I've never trained in accounts... but the requirements for this job is a brain rather than qualifications so I hope my blond hair will not be my downfall ;) But it feels godd to be able to say that I'm responsible over the UK banking for an international company! Though, let's not forget my very knowledgable colleagues who have accountancy diplomas that I have to fall back on when I'm having my blond moments.

Tonight I'm going to a comedy club so the weekend should start off with some laughs, even though I'm feeling a bit fluey and under the weather... But I've got lost of vitamin C at home, Cranberry juice, 3 pomegranates and red grapes. But I don't know how to tackle my pomegranates, the last one I ate took me 2 hrs to get through. What am I doing wrong!?

Happy Pumpkin week everybody

xx c

p.s. several English people have claimed in the last couple of weeks that I sound English... wahay, I have finally integrated! They don't believe me when I tell them I'm Swedish haha!

Strawberries

2006-10-05T13:01:00.000+01:00

Right now I'm sitting at my desk at work munching on fresh strawberries... who said it's autumn :)

Anyway,

A BIIIIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BIRTHDAY GIRLS:

My mum

Kristine

05-Oct-06

Sara

06-Oct-06

Jodi

10-Oct-06

Oh, What a Party!

2006-09-10T10:01:00.000+01:00

The Party has started! As the traditional Swedes we are, we wore hats and ate lots of seafood in various forms, drank lots of snaps and sang songs.

One of the most popular Swedish snaps songs has been translated below:

Hell and gore
Mel: Helan går
Hell and gore,
shung hop, Father Allan, lallen lay.

Hell and gore,
shung hop, Father Allan lay.

Oh, handsome in the Hell and tar,
han, Hell aren't a half and four.
Hell and gore - Shung hop, Father Allan lay!

So as usual the rest of the photos can be found on my msn spaces site.

Enjoying the last of the summer sun...

2006-09-09T19:11:00.000+01:00

...and waiting for the guests

Before we dig in...

2006-09-09T18:46:00.000+01:00

The table is laid!

Preparing the cake and the cray fish

2006-09-09T17:56:00.000+01:00

So as you can see we are in full swing preparing the party food and the "nørdique" sandwich cake and crayfish cooked in a dill marinade. We also have the other usual suspects, eggs with prawns, and herring marinated in dill or mustard sauce, and gravad lax with the mustard and dill sauce... sounds a bit repetitive but I am not trying for my third michelin star tonight, it's just a friendly Swedish get together :o)

After the clear-up

2006-09-09T14:29:00.000+01:00

et voila! See how much difference a magic wand can do!

Before the party

2006-09-09T11:07:00.000+01:00

Hi,

the room where we are holding a party in 6 hrs is not looking its best! As you can see we've got lots of things to do and remove before it looks livable again! Even the curtain has fallen down...

So I'm in desperate need of a couple of these V-drinks, the yummiest drink on the planet, and with guarana! hep hep hep! Let the show(veling) begin!

Notting Hill Carnival

2006-09-02T12:02:00.000+01:00

This year Jenny, Sara and I went to the Notting Hill Carnival on a Monday for some real action, compared to the Sunday which is kid's day. This year I even managed to see some of the floats and dance a bit to a couple of sound systems.

I much preferred this year's carnival but we were not as lucky with the food this time, too much of the same and not enough choice as previous years. But I did try something new, fried dumplins, similar to a donut, yummy! My mutton curry was nice but had too many bone splinters which put me off slightly. I have to go back to my favorite west indian curry place in Shepherds Bush soon!

Chesson's B&B Hostel

2006-08-25T19:33:00.000+01:00

Hi there,
more visitors arriving by the minute! Last weekend Erika's friend Daniel and Kristin that I met in Argentina were here for the weekend. Which meant a lot of visits to all our local pubs and Camden market. We had a fantastic but short night in our local pub Curtains Up where half the universe (well half of ours anyway) turned up: Kristin, Daniel, Harris, Dawn and her friend Elena, Ludovic, Smari and Ricky! Only Christian was missing :(

The day after Kristin left, mom arrived and will stay here until the weekend. Fortunately we've got a bank holiday on Monday so I will have plenty of sleep-ins and just doss around mostly this weekend! But my shopping addiction is tempting me though...

Next weekend our "dosser" Jenny will move out so us poor house mates will wonder why the house is so quiet and has so much space to move around in haha! Especially as we're finally throwing out Spike's things hogging our dining room space.

Having visitors is great though! But we've realised that if we want to stay sane in the long run we better balance it out a bit and let Christian run around naked in the house for a while until we accept another batch of people!

Time to wash the kitchen! Then take-away, dvd and sleep!

Week in Paris

2006-08-08T23:05:00.000+01:00

Back from a whole week in Paris doing 4 days training for work and then spending the weekend with Jodi and her sister. So I did the usual, went shopping, ate a lot of good stuff, went past Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur as usual ;) but this time I also had a look at the beach along the Seine!

Ben and Jerry's Sundae on the Common

2006-07-30T20:56:00.000+01:00

The Pipettes
Yesterday Sara and I went to a great festival on Clapham Common with some of her friends. They knew the guys in the band Roland Shanks who were playing so we were there to support the band.

For those of you wondering about the name of the festival it's a festival sponsored by the ice cream Ben and Jerry's which means amongst other things that there was free all-you-can-eat ice cream! So I tried Dublin Mudslide, Chunky Monkey and Very Berry, YUM!

Echo and the Bunnymen
As we were there early we had a great spot near the stage where we sat and picknicked all day drinking Pimm's, an English summer drink you mix with lemonade and chunks of fruit, also yum. The bands were great too, The Pipettes, Liam Frost, Larrikin Love and Echo & the Bunnymen were playing. Very cool!

Weekend in Brighton

2006-07-30T20:33:00.000+01:00

Another fantastic weekend down in Brighton staying with Mette and John. In the first photo you can see us going for a spin in their new car, a Mini!

On Friday night we had a Greek Salad, snacks and red wine which kept us up late. We were not terribly fortunate with the weather on Saturday so we spent most day inside and then down the lanes window shopping, and of course

Erika finished shopping early so we could enjoy a beer and a cidre on the beach by the Fortune of War which no Brighton trip is complete without!

The weather shaped up later on so that we could go out on the town. I have never seen so many hen nights in my life! In the first pub, The Black Lion there were even male strippers and screaming girls at the back of the pub. We were quite happy we couldn't see anything. We then took a taxi up to Kemp Town for some more drinks but then the club we wanted to go to next door had closed its doors early so all we could do was go back into town and try a club playing 60s music. It was quite empty but the music was good and there were no hen nights in there!

So Sunday meant going to the beach for a couple of hours to top up our tan and then have some fish and chips on the beach in fog! Well, well, I go to Brighton so often bad weather is never a big problem...

Too Busy to Blog - Hot Hot Summer

2006-07-27T21:03:00.000+01:00

As the heat wave continues we are enjoying ourselves to the full. Not many like this heat but I've been sleeping well and our office is air conditioned so it's been more than bearable, escpecially as we are close to the pubs in Hammersmith with their outdoor seating next to the river. It can't get any better!

And now the papers are saying that August will be warmer than July! So forgive me if it takes me another month to update this blog :D

Too Busy to Blog - World Cup Fever

2006-07-27T19:57:00.000+01:00

Hello again!

London is enjoying a great long heat wave with the weather offering some great thunder storms in between. I had the pleasure of getting caught in one today coming home from work! And with great weather comes great opportunities to meet new people.

This summer's fun started with the World Cup and plenty of small trips out of town. We made our local pub The Three Kings our favorite for watching the games in our blue and yellow shirts and Swedish flags.

Although Sweden were sadly beaten by Germany we of course we celebrated England's game against Portugal and a second midsummer in style with our traditional smörgåstårta,

in Union Jack fashion! Unfortunately it wasn't enough to keep our second team in the game... Not even our third team France made it but we did enjoy the semis and finals to the full!

Too Busy to Blog - The Office

2006-06-17T10:15:00.000+01:00

Hi, sorry guys for not updating you on my recently busy life :D

Lots has been going on in this past month so where to start?
First of all my work has moved to new offices so I no longer get a sleep-in every morning, as I used to, living practically next door. Now I have to take the tube out to Hatton Cross every day with signalling failures plagueing my tube line lately. But it takes more or less 1hr door to door so not too bad really. And I have the luxury of flexi-time so I can choose my own hours, it's just the best!

So with the closure of our offices came my boss's retirement party where everyone showed up in Indian dress, quite funny really. The party was held at our top UK boss's flat(s) in South Kensington. Nice to see how some people live ;) Half a week later we closed the ticket office down town and celebrated with another party. I can't begin to tell you how pleased I was to see the back of that place!

Then there were more celebrations for the last day of our head office, which basically meant drinking wine before lunch and then everyone left as early as possible to enjoy their day off. I had to go to the opticians of course a bit blurry-eyed haha but thankfully my prescription is more than perfect as it is!

Our new office is situated underneath the runway so I get to see planes land and take-off from Heathrow. On our breaks we go out to smell the kerosene and enjoy the jet noise with our coffee. Lovely! The new office is like a cocoon as we don't leave all day as we have a canteen that serves quite good food. As it's summer we get to eat outside on a bit of grass next to our parking lot. The area surrounding our offices is dodgy and colorless so there's nowhere to go anyway! We have the juvenile detention centre down the road and a gay cruising area in a park nearby and a large busy road we walk next along to and from work. Doesn't it just sound great!?

But with the great weather it's hard to get depressed about it ;)

Syttende Maj

2006-05-17T19:16:00.000+01:00

The flag is from:
Norway Information from the Translation Site

My dear friends are down in Covent Garden as usual celebrating Norways independence day but I'm stcuk at home as I didn't fancy going out in the rain... so now I'm going to watch the big Champions league final between Arsenal and Barcelona.
Ciao o hej!

BBQ time

2006-05-17T19:15:00.000+01:00

We had a great evening celebrating Morris birthday with an excellent BBQ

SORRY

2006-05-14T11:46:00.000+01:00

SORRY LUDO!
Us bad housemates have locked Ludo out of the house all Friday night.
WE'RE SSSOOO SSSOOOOOORRRRYYYYYY!!!

Weekend in Copenhagen

2006-05-10T19:21:00.000+01:00

A smørrebrød and a Tuborg classic in Nyhavn made our weekend! A pile of us went to visit Michael this weekend for his house-warming party in Copenhagen. We had an absolutely excellent time and as usual a chance to try the local specialities: pølser, smørrbrød, remouladesås, dill dip, flødebollar and Danish pilsner. Food that would please any Western palates: hot dog, roastbeef sandwich with horseradish and spicy mayo, marshmallow cream in chocolate and yummy beer! At least in a setting as above!

Unfortunately for the Danes, Carlsberg is the official partner of England and the FA. How unpatriotic can they be! Both of them!

Happy Valborg everybody!

2006-05-01T14:18:00.000+01:00

'Sista april' means a lot of things to us - first we had to celebrate Erika's graduation from university a long time ago, then it's valborgsmässoafton, then it's the King's 60th birthday, and ... it's to celebrate the arrival of spring! So it meant a champagne picnic on our roof terrace with our friends!

First Day on the Roof

2006-04-23T18:00:00.000+01:00

As you can see the weather yesterday was excellent enough to spend on our roof top! For our inauguration Smári and Constanze honoured us with their company. They also had to come around to check out Christian's new clothes we forced hom to buy. He looks really cool now, all fitted out in cool blue jeans ;)

Istanbul

2006-04-23T16:42:00.001+01:00

Click on the link above to see my photos from my Easter weekend in Istanbul with Marja and Maggan.

We had an excellent time visiting the sights and delights of the Turkish city of Istanbul. I was pleasantly surprised how easy-going the people were, too many prejudices on my side I think. But then even the Lonely Planet did warn of men's behaviour towards Western girls that we didn't get at all. The turks were all very friendly and even the sales attempts were quite feeble. If I had stayed a few more days I would be fully comfortable to bargain away but I am a bit shy in the beginning as always. However, there was a predominance of men on the streets and few women were to be seen. And the women we did see dressed in all fashions from conservative as on the photo of the Blue Mosque above, to fully Westernized. But I must say that I didn't get much attention at all, maybe they don't like short blond hair?

But we all came home with a carpet each thanks to the charming genuine Kurd in one of the carpet shops below the Blue Mosque. We spent many times drinking tea admiring the silk carpets that would change color every time they were whipped through the air by Mr Carpet. We also had a very charming waiter in Beyoglu who gave us plenty freebies, like Raki and his colleague's mom's homemade cheese, a fantastic feta with herbs. We also had plenty of tea everywhere, cay and apple tea and every other tea under the sun. We also tried some Turkish coffee while we checked out the Grand Bazaar.

Otherwise I tried all the kebabs I could in search of a better kebab or lahmacun than I can get at my local ocakbasi here in London. Unfortunately this was an impossible quest as the food at Best Mangal beats most Turkish food I've had by a mile! And was it expensive! I thought the prices of such food would be quite low but we had problems finding any food under a fiver anywhere, most of it was dearer than expected. And none of the food was piping hot, most of it barely lukewarm! But I did have a wonderful kebeb on yoghurt and bread for lunch for only YTL4 or £2, I suppose the price goes up slightly when you want to sit down, rather than grab a quick döner on the run. Not even the baklava was very nice! And I didn't get to eat any börek at all to my great disappointment. But I suppose the homemade ones I had once were unbeatable too!

Easter in Istanbul

2006-04-12T08:59:00.000+01:00

I can’t wait, another adventure coming right up, will be hopping on a plane early tomorrow morning to Istanbul where I will meet up with 2 friends flying in as well. Whilst I am still on a tight backpacker budget, I’m sure the kebabs and meatballs will be immensely satisfying and I’m sure they will be washed down with some Efes Pilsner, contemplating the latest in Byzantine fashion and architecture. I’m sure Istanbul will be just as fascinating a place as Jerusalem, with Muslim, Jewish and Christian history all melting into one great place to visit!

As for any Easter eggs, I will gladly hunt for them upon my return ;)

Yesterday's Romance, Today's Rubbish

2006-04-06T08:32:00.000+01:00

Or is it a present for the bin men?

Happy Birthday Christian!

2006-04-06T08:29:00.000+01:00

Depeche Mode - Wembley Arena

2006-04-03T23:32:00.000+01:00

Last night Erika and I went to a great Depeche Mode concert at Wembley Arena. The music, light and visuals were excellent and the supporting band was a great surprise, one of our favorite bands from New York, the Bravery!

Depeche have so many great songs, I didn't realize until they played all of them at the concert. I actually really like the new album now that I've seen them perform it live. And most of the audience were a bit older, also great as all the concerts I usually go to are full of tiny crowd-surfing 18 year olds!

Of course, as any pop artist, you can't perform a whole concert without taking any clothing off! I suppose he likes showing off his tatoos ;) I can't wait until the next concert, whatever band it might be!

Brighton 10 Years Later

2006-04-03T23:16:00.000+01:00

So this is it, Helena finally made it to Brighton after 10 years! Shocking! We had a magnificant time, cought the train down Saturday morning, did some shopping in North Laines, had a great pie lunch in the sun, then a beer on the beach, dinner with Mette and John, then clubbing all night and even an excursion to Newhaven!!! After a great fry-up and home-made carrot/apple/pear/ginger juice made by Mette in their excellent flat, it was time to go back to London ;o(

Karaoke in Lewisham

2006-03-29T18:02:00.000+01:00

It's finally Spring for real!

2006-03-29T17:51:00.000+01:00

Hi,

I've seen the first lady bug of the year, it was just sitting there on my shoulder on Saturday. And as soon as spring arrived there is no more need for a winter coat! Yeah :)

So to celebrate spring Helena and I will be going to Brighton on Saturday, even though it looks like it's going to rain all day. We will also meet up with Mette whom I haven't seen since she left AF!

Then on Sunday night Erika and I are going to the Depeche Mode concert by I'm sure they won't play me favorite "Ordinary World" however much I beg them... yes I know, it's Duran Duran's song. I was checking out the concert schedule for summer but as yet there is nothing big on that I want to see. But I am so busy until July I don't know if I have time for another concert!

On Wednesday it's Christian's Birthday so we have to give hime some sort of present I guess... For Easter I will go to Istanbul where Maggan and Marja have taken a weekend trip so I will try to join them, depending on how successful I am with stand-by flights. Then on 1st of May we have a bank holiday/long weekend so there's always something to do and Dawn is back in London. On 6th of May I'm invitied to Copenhagen for Michael's house-warming party so a bunch of us from here will try the same flights, argh. Then it's time to plan for Erika's birthday, the eurovision song contest, the closure and move of our office, all on the bank holiday weekend at the end of May. After that we will have a Brighton reunion on 9th of June and then I'm going to Smögen with Erika for midsummer. In July we also have Ludovic's joint birthday party planned... For once it all falls on different days!

I wonder what my bank account will look like this summer! It would be nice to take a week off as well... hmm we'll see!

Back in the freezing cold UK

2006-03-23T07:32:00.000Z

After a holiday in a warm country you always think that somehow you will bring that warm weather home with you. When I left the temperature in London had reached double figures so you don't really expect a cold spell to last until now!

On Sunday we had sunshine and less cold wind so I went for a bike ride in Hyde Park. The weather would have been gorgeous if it hadn't been for the wind but it just made the biking more effective, haha, I'm just soo unfit! It was warm enough in the sun to sit outside for some tea and cake so I did just that watching all the families buy ice cream for their children.

Last day in BA

2006-03-04T17:43:00.000Z

hola chicos,
it's my last day in South America and my last great steak and last nice ice cream. Well the ice cream is very Italian so I could always go to Rome for some or come back here soon.

The weather yesterday on my lst day was rain rain rain and cold. Today it's sunny and warm again, so no chance of working on my tan in a city. Today I'm just hanging around San Telmo again as I like it so much and there are so many antiques shops to get lost in. But I've been good and only bought a couple of cheap necklaces and some cards plus some biscuits for my work mates (tradition).

For those of you who haven't been here, San Telmo reminds me a lot of Paris minus 99% of the tourists and add 100% nicer friendlier locals. It's like you want Paris to be but in it's snottiness it'll never be.

I don't look forward to London at all as the weather is still arctic there and after 2 weeks in heat and sunshine it won't be a nice transition...

So soon time to step into that taxi and hope for that illusive upgrade I never get.
adios and see you soon xx carlota II

Colonia Uruguay

2006-03-01T19:47:00.000Z

Hi,
more stamps in the passport as we go to Colonia in Uruguay. It's just across the Rio Plata but even the weather is different from BA. It can be raining and cold there but hot and sunny here, very odd. Colonia is an old Portuguese/Spanish port/fort/stronghold and it's very picturesque.

I prefer being in a small town rather than a big city. Buenos Aires was not as nice as I had imagined but the area of San Telmo where we were staying was great. So I only visited the cemetery of Eva Peron's grave and then we spent the rest of our time socialising with the people we've met since and Iguazu.

The hostel here has free bikes, so tomorrow I'm definitely going for a bike ride. I will write more from later as the keyboard at the hostel is not working properly so difficult to write on. And there is a queue of people waiting to use the free internet haha. And it's time to watch the football, England plays Uruguay in a few minutes.

xx charlie

Argentinian Tango in Buenos Aires

2006-02-26T22:33:00.000Z

Hi, in Buenos Aires now!
We had another nice breakfast of excellent coffee con leche and media lunes, Argentine croissants, yummy yummy! Then we jumped on the bus to Buenos Aires as we couldn't clear the border to Uruguay at Gualeguaychú unfortunately. But it's Sunday and a good day to catch the antiques market in San Telmo in BA and for some tango in the square. Took some photos but will have to wait with uploading them as the computers are a bit old and slow here.

the weather is still fantastic, 26 and sunny and we have excellent sunsets every night. Last night we went to see the Carneval at Gualeguaychú, a nice organised affair where we could all watch the parade from stands and drink beer and cocktails out of 1l cups. Good thing there were lovely smelly outdoor toilets to use! The theme of the carneval was the zodiac signs we figured out half way through. All the girls were gorgeous but we found the men a bit on the camp side as they also were dressed in head to toe in glittery outfits. We also saw some guys in the audience who obviously were on their stag do as they were dressed in girl carneval outfits and hairy chests haha.

Tonight I'm hoping to get to a real asado or parilla for some nice grilled meat and salad, already had 2 empanadas from a pizzeria down the road. I keep having loads of conversations with friendly Argentinians although I don't really speak many words of Spanish. But it's easy to understand the gist of it a lot of the time so I can keep up with a sí or a no! I need to come back here for some Spanish lessons pronto! Maybe next winter? Anyway, better go wake up Dawn who needs more naps than me!

tango baby

Gualeguaychú

2006-02-25T13:55:00.000Z

Buenas Días!
We arrived safe and sound to Gualeguaychú at 3 in the morning, caught a taxi with a very nice old man who found us a hotel for GBP12 a night, very expensive for the backpacker budget but I think I can cope with such a price for a couple of days, haha. Normally a night in a hostel costs around 20 Arg pesos and this hotel 180 pesos a night for the room, so 3 x more than normal, oh well!

Anyway, I just loooove it here so I know where to come next time I'm on holiday! It's just the easiest place to travel around and very safe so defo coming back for a longer backpacking session :)

Tonight we will experience the local carneval, hope it's good! Was hoping to do some shopping this morning but it looks like the shops are closed. Not having any luck with shops as they seem to be closed all the time. So don't know how I will get these presents for you guys! I've got a "borillo" to drink the mate with (i.e. he straw), my 1st souvenire, but think I'll use it for green tea instead, almost as bitter if you leave it for a while haha.

I also hope to have a nice steak tonight as yesterday we had to survive on white bread and empanadas all day. I need some meat!

Bye bye for now, charlie

San Ignacio-Posadas

2006-02-24T17:57:00.000Z

Hola Chicos!

in Posadas now waiting for the bus to take us to Gualeguaychú near Buenos Aires. I'm still with Scottish Dawn and Austrian Regina and we are hopefully meeting up with Londoners Rebecca and Joe that we met in Foz do Iguacu. There should be a carneval there tomorrow hopefully.

Yesterday we left Puerto Iguazú right when it started to rain and it rained right until we got off the bus in San Ignacio. There we stayed in a Hospedaje run by an old Austrian couple. San Ignacio is a tiny village where you can visit the ruins from a Jesuit mission. The whole area here is called missiones because of all the Jesuit missions around here and on the Paraguayan border. It was a nice stop and we didn't get anymore rain except for breakfast this morning. Breakfast consisted of white homebaked bread and home-made jam and really good coffee. Coffee hasn't been excellent as the Missiones is home to the Mate drink that resembles green tea, but much more bitter. Mate is drunk out of a special cup through a metal straw with a filter at the bottom. Have to get one!

Otherwise food here consists mostly of steak, fries, salad and pizza-pasta. In San Ignacio they made the fries themselves, yum. As you can imagine salad and fruit here is excellent and there are fruit trees everywhere. All the gardens have lime, avocado, grapefriut, guava trees etc. Had a fantastic mango here, tastes like it should taste!

After the carneval we're hoping to cross into Uruguay to get to the beach for a couple of days and then my holiday will have reached the end :( Already planning my next holiday/unpaid leave. It's a really great place to travel here and so easy! No hassle from anyone, not even with our blond hair!

So until next time, chao de las tres chicas!

2nd day Puerto Iguazu

2006-02-21T21:17:00.000Z

Hi,

enjoyed the Argentinian side of the water falls today and my camera behaved very well when I switched a few settings, so my newest album on spaces will have some nicer looking photos to look at than yesterday.

It´s still very hot here, 33 degrees or similar, but it´s ok, have been able to sleep better than I thought but my short-term memory went with the little sleep I had since I left England. Very annoying to have a conversation with someone you don´t know and you can´t remember a thing!

The Argentinian side of the falls are a lot bigger than the Argentinian side, we left at 8 in the morning and I spent 5 hours there. Absolutely amazing place! So much better than Niagara falls!

We also saw some different wild life than in Brazil, mozzies, a monkey, and lots of lizzards and a centipede being eaten be a lizzard.

Tonight we are going to try a nice restaurant that does a buffet for ARS25, divide by 5 and you have price in GBP! Not bad for an all you can eat in a posh place!
Better go and get ready, getting a bit hungry!

xx charlie

Argentina

2006-02-20T22:06:00.000Z

Hi there, after an action-packed weekend in Brazil I moved on to Argentina today to see the Iguaçu Falls from the Argentinian perspective, I´m sure the photos will all look the same to you though! I have put all the photos on msn spaces for your perusal!

Anyway, went down to the Brazilian side of the falls with aussie John and brit Dan for a walk around. Not pleased with my camera on this one, you´ll see why, had it on the fastest speed but still just came out as white foam instead of a water fall but nevermind. We had a nice day taking photos and then went back to the hostel to see if the caipirinhas still tasted good, John´s first actually. So I went to bed at 4.30 this morning, only to get up again at the crack of dawn (they changed the clocks back 1 hr the night before so been changing time zones like mad this weekend)

I left my nice comfortable enclave with the Austrian couple Rene and Regina with a taxi coz we couldn´t be bothered to clear the border by bus. We also had to disinfect our shoes going in to Argentina coz there might be some foot and mouth here happening. hmm hope my steaks were fine!

Tonight there is a big BBQ at our hostel, probably all you can eat meat, the usual thing here. Then to bed early and up early to see the Argentinian side of the Iguazu falls. So update more later!

xx carlota

Update Brazil

2006-02-19T01:59:00.000Z

Trying again, computers are always so complicated! Had almost published and bam, IE not responding dammit. Anyway, at the hostel and there is a big party on with the local caipirinha on offer so my promise of having one for everyone has now come true.
Met everyone staying at the hostel including Scottish Dawn and Japanese Maho whom I might be seeing some more of in the next few days

1st day in Brazil

2006-02-18T17:54:00.000Z

Hi everybody,

free internet in the hostel, good start! Anyway, its hot hot hot here and humid but should get used to it once Ive drunk some water, have not had much since I left work with 500ml like 24hr ago. Had a loong flight here, didnt even get upgraded by AF as usual but I still have hopes for the return.

Anyway, got to Sao Paolo on schedule and then got on the first flight 6 hrs later to Foz do Iguaçu, where I decided to stay in the youth hostel downtown, missed the stop for the hostel outside town as didnt know it was so close to the airport, like 3 bus stops or something on the local bus. Regretting it now slightly but nevermind.

So here I am, deadly tired but I might as well get some more things done today so that I sleep well tonight!

xx charlie

Årets Semla

2006-02-14T22:50:00.000Z

Happy Valentine's Day, I even got a rose! Haven't got flowers for Valentine's since I was 20! And us poor single housemates spent the evening together eating a luxurious dinner constisting of goose fois gras, gésiers with salad and Sauternes wine. And of course a lovely Semla for dessert thanks to Erika's baking and Christian's whipping. mmmm

What kind of chocolate are you?

2006-02-12T10:48:00.000Z

You are White Chocolate

You have a strong feminine side with a good bit of innocence thrown in.
Whether your girlish ways are an act or not, men like to take care of you.
You are an understated beauty, and your power is often underestimated!

What Kind of Chocolate Are You?

My first week of 32

2006-02-05T16:41:00.000Z

doesn't feel much different than my last week of 31. I saw my 31st year out in style:

Friday night went to pub for a colleague's leaving-do and he arranged a lovely chicken stew for us and bottles of red wine. Then Smari and I went out clubbing at G-A-Y until 3 a.m. in the morning. It was such fun!
Then I did some shopping on Saturday and on
Sunday all my lovely friends turned up for a meal and drinks at Tootsies restaurant in Richmond. The weather was great, if not a bit arctic, but I more my new silk skirt regardless!

thanks again for all the presents, calls, sms and cards! I got so many nice things and I still have a lot of shopping to do for the vouchers I was given at H&M and Amazon.co.uk. I also have to cook and indian meal for Niina and Neil as they gave me so many spices and utensils, I will have to impress them with a curry from the South Indian Ocean. But there are so many recipes I must try from the book they gave me as well!

Don't know if you really want to see any photos from my birthday as they didn't really turn out, but here are a couple:

Sunset by the Thames

2006-01-22T15:04:00.000Z

Drink at The Dove

2006-01-22T15:02:00.000Z

It was even nice enough to have a quick drink at the Dove! The Dove is a small riverside pub dating back to the 17th century. It has the smallest bar in England measuring 1.27m x 2.39m, and it's easy to miss it, we only spotted it by mistake while queueing in the 'larger' bar

Rowers on the Thames

2006-01-22T15:00:00.000Z

One of the rowing teams that are always out training on the Thames

Putney Bridge to Hammersmith Bridge

2006-01-22T14:57:00.000Z

Christian fortunately reminded me that I still own a bicycle so I decided to take him on the local cycle tour round Putney Bridge and Hammersmith bridge as the weather was quite pleasant.

Christian eating Ravioli

2006-01-10T17:16:00.000Z

This is what Christian looked like yesterday when eating his ravioli that he spiced up with Tabasco sauce :D

Other good news is that the pub around the corner from work emailed me today to say that I have won a bottle of wine :D Excellent as it's my birthday soon!

Just a thought

2006-01-04T22:59:00.000Z

Christian and I were in the pub the other day and were gazing through the window at passing-by football fans pouring out of our local football stadium after a game(they had won 2-0 fortunately). Anyway, we were struck by how ugly they all were and how tasteless and chav-looking everyone was! Scary. For those of you who have missed UK's new chavs, read about them here. Otherwise you might have heard about or seen Vicki Pollard in Little Britain?

Photos update

2006-01-04T22:33:00.000Z

Hi,

now that Erika has posted the Paris pics from our day trip there on Dec10, they are also available in copies on my photoblog at msn spaces. Or you could look at the same photos on Erika's page... do what you want, just know where to find them.

The nerdy sandwich now popular French food?

2006-01-04T12:25:00.001Z

Good news, our favorite Swedish food >smörgåstårta< is now available in France. They did go a bit overboard with the name though... the way they spelt it it would be pronounced >le nerdic< in Swedish with that fashionable but treacherous Norwegian letter ø used so often in foreign marketing. Of course, for a scrumpteous looking >sandwich-cake< check out my blog-entry in September 2005.

Happy 2006 everyone

2006-01-01T20:58:00.000Z

Hope you all saw in the new year with a bang like we did!

Erika has the flu and Christian has spent the first day of 2006 sleeping while Smári and I watched the whole of Gone with the Wind.

Btw, we never got round to doing anything to Erika's room before she got back, we thought it was enough that her flights were cancelled and AF lost her luggage on her return so we had frozen gravlax for New Year's dinner when it finally arrived!

xx Charlie

Pool at the Cock

2005-12-28T10:55:00.000Z

Well what can you do when you've spent all xmas indoors! Well of course you go to your local pub, The Cock, to play a few games of pool. Unfortunately Christian won 3-2 as I potted the black ball on my last winning run :(

Winter street in Kensington

2005-12-27T17:23:00.000Z

Took this picture on my way to the sales on High Street Kensington, thought you might want to see what London looks like after a big snowfall has just hit! haha The usual traun delays etc occurs as soon as 1 inch of snow falls, haha, it's the same every time, don't know how they manage really!

Xmas is floating by very nicely, we've barely needed to leave the house but of course the shops beckons and lure us at all times! What I miss most is the Atlas, our local pub that is always closed all xmas until Jan 1st. It would be sooo nice to go there tonight just for a drink by the fire place... It's just too far to go anywhere else. I'm not setting my foot in any of our other local dodgy pubs!

Lucky we've still got our left-over roast chicken from last night... mmm time to put in some more roast potatoes soon!

Snow outside our window

2005-12-27T17:21:00.000Z

Oh yes, snow at last! But it's too warm for it to stay on the ground! We're a bit too central for that! But we've got the photo evidence!

Julbordet

2005-12-27T17:16:00.000Z

Here we are munching away and chasing the chocolate balls flying out of this year's xmas crackers that Victoria kindly brought us, yummy chocolate! The food was also nice, well it would be, I cooked it, innit? I also adored the Danish pickled herring in mustard sauce that I found at Waitrise, sooo much better than abba's recipe, (no not the band!)

Otherwise we have watched quite a lot of television, dvds and I've read the 5th book of Harry Potter so my eyes have gone a bit funny. So I will resort to trying my computer game I got for xmas instead!

Skål, julen har börjat!

2005-12-27T17:03:00.000Z

So thaat's why Rudolph has a red nose! Too much of that vino terriblo!

My team's xmas card 2005

2005-12-22T22:25:00.000Z

Thanks to Berangere we had an excellent card to send out this year to the other teams. The background is taken from our 2006 calendar! Where we obviously show off our lovely uniform, my one is the Pierre Cardin of 1968.

Oj, ramla den

2005-12-22T21:48:00.000Z

Countdown to Xmas

2005-12-22T21:18:00.000Z

The count down to Xmas has started, the xmas tree is up and has fallen over again (see pic above). Most gifts are wrapped but there's still the shopping to go. This years soundtrack is Madonna's latest cd, a lot of dance music. We tried it on the neighbours last weekend and I dare say we did wake them up with a bang, oupps! They are lucky we don't jump on the floor all the time!

Last night we had a house dinner consisting of not home-made chicken Kievs with un-home-made roast potatoes and non-home-frozen peas and store-bought profiteroles, yum.

Erika has gone back to Sweden for the holidays so Christian and I have the house to ourselves and we can do what we want hahahaha. We've threatened to toilet-paper Erika's room but obviously we have to wait until after xmas in case someone needs to stay there! (Erika is having hot-flushes now) Calm down dear, it's only a commercial! We are going to watch all of Erika's favorite dvds and comedy shows as well!

Today at work we had secret santa and this time I had someone sensible who bought me something girly - I got blue eye shadow and sparkly lip gloss! ABBA here I come! Then suddenly one of our managers invite us to a caipirinha party at 17.00 so the whole office was hugging a massive drink that went straight to everyone's heads within seconds. We didn't even leave the office on time voluntarily!

And when I got home Christian had been to IKEA to pick up the all-important Xmas breaded-and-cured ham which is central to all Swedish Xmas dinners. We will also have julmust, sill (pickled herring), smoked salmon, fois gras, champagne, meat balls, Jansson's Temptation, snaps, beetroot salad, rice pudding, etc etc. Doesn't sound very appetizing in english, does it...

Mumma!

Xmas Party Girls

2005-12-17T15:40:00.000Z

Our Xmas tree

2005-12-11T18:45:00.000Z

Day Out in Paris

2005-12-11T10:53:00.000Z

Bonjour de Paris

Recovering at home after a day running around Paris with Erika and Christian. It was a nice change from England's high street shopping! We flew out in the morning and back at night, that gives just enough time to have lunch, fika and walk around a bit. None of us really fancied the idea of having to stay there overnight as there's nothing to do there on a Sunday anyway, well not if you need to do any shopping.

Of course the only thing on my shopping list was fois gras and sauternes wine to go with it. I also wanted a crepe but unfortunately got the timing wrong so no crepe for me. I also got the food wrong and ordered the one thing I don't eat, tripe sausages! Yuk! How can they serve this in restaurants to unsuspecting people, I must try to remember the name of it next time so I stay well clear! The only solution was to have a croque monsieur somewhere else. The English translation of Croque Monsieur at the cafe was, by the way, Crunch Man. As if that explains what it is! Erika took the wise decision to order a Charlotte au Chocolat, yum, and Christian ordered lovely Chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce, mmmm

Today we're hopefully getting a lovely xmas tree to put in the lounge! Will be back with a photo or two!

Until then, xx and auvoir

Xmas Shopping

2005-11-10T13:05:00.000Z

So who of you have started your xmas pressie shopping yet?
Haha, I must say that I am halfway-ish or not... but we have done our IKEA shopping and we've got the xmas lights, candles, tree decorations and it's only a couple of weeks until we can put them up! Can't wait to pick out the tree!

Erika and I officially start our xmas on 27th November as it's the 1st of advent and everyone always go home for xmas so we have to start early. (Hope our dear housemates don't mind) We will have our:

*** house-warming party on 26th November ***

(put it in your calender those of you who can make it!) and those who stay over will get a 1st-of-advent-breakfast with Blossa Vinglögg (they finally sell it at IKEA) and gingerbread.

Our disgusting house'mate' is hopefully moving out tonight and we will be popping the champagne corks, I'm telling you! It even looks like he will pay the £500 towards bills! (Update, he didn't move out, whaddya expect anyway, but he's packed and gone away to stay somewhere else and then he'll pick up his stuff next week, x yer fingers on this one. And we've got £470 out of the £500 we greedily demanded for bills. The over-payment is to pay for Charlie's and Erika's free food/cleaning service for the last few months)

So in our house it'll be me, Erika, Ludovic and Christian as of next weekend when our bestest lord Gnutt finally moves out of Wembley! More champagne corks! The house is beginning to look and feel GREAT! A nice comfort when I have a difficult winter to look forward to.

The only downer in the lead-up to xmas is that I have to transfer back to our ticket office downtown until it closes, maybe March-ish. So if anyone wants to meet up for drinks downtown I'm all for it.

That's it for now, better get back to work

Bird flu gone mad

2005-10-25T23:29:00.000+01:00

The Greek apparently lost their 1 case of bird flu they found so far, so they could never test it for the deadly strain... read Brian Church's comments in Athens News

In London people actually seem more panicky about the new certain death bird flu pandemic than they ever were about the London bombings. The media's endless speculation regarding this will-eventually-may-be-pandemic has been mad! People also frenzidly paid millions into the tsunami relief effort but pennies into the more overwhelming earthquake disaster in Kashmir.

And it finally looks like England will ban some public smoking in enclosed spaces, or officially ban it but let people do what they like as long as they don't eat and smoke in the same room, nothing new there. Best also give it until at least 2007 to please everyone and then make loads of exceptions. Wonder what this will do to our binge-drinking culture now? Another pint in the freezing cold and wet beer garden anyone?

(I've encouraged a similar non-smoking policy in our house - no smorking near the public spaces, smoking only allowed in miniature enclosed spaces or outside exposed to the natural elements, muahaha) Suddenly 3 of me friends have almost quit!

Well bad!