Ett litet grönt paket...

Yes - parcel in mail from Sweden! Always makes for a great day.

Some things just have to be said in Swedish...
(This blog is normally in English)

Efter ett litet tag, låt säga sisådär tio år, så vet man inte riktigt längre vad man "önskar sig" hemifrån.
Man har ju lite kommit ifrån det här med Marabou Mjölkchoklad - insett värdet i mörk choklad och så vidare. I vissa fall har man även insett att det kanske inte är så fasansfullt läckert detta med filmjölk, skogaholms limpa och ost - tvärtom verkar det som att hela kroppen sparkar bakut varje gång man sätter sin fot i Svedala och sänker tänderna i den gamla hederliga husmanskosten.

Trots detta så finns det en sak... en sak som flyter till toppen av medvetandet när frågan gång efter annan ställs - "men vad saknar du?" Jamen, vad fan - skicka KEXCHOKLAD!
Idag har ett paket anlänt... lyckan äro total. Dessutom ett par böcker på svenska, mitt sätt att hålla kontakten med språket utan att för den sakens skull behöva tala det.

Slutligen... Det har kommit till min kännedom att det är mycket populärt med stickning, virkning och brodering i Sverige just nu. Sedan ett par år tillbaka är detta en aktivitet vem som helst kan börja med, till och med folk under 75.

Mamma och mormor tjatade. Kunde de inte få brodera nåt åt mig? Det är ju så roligt. Att handarbeta alltså.

Jo tack. En gång förökte jag sticka en halsduk. Tror bestämmt att stickorna ska finnas kvar i nån låda nånstans. Garnet med. Och två decimeter halsduk.

Tillbaka till saken. Broderiet. Satt och surfade lite i sommras (Juni), som man gör. Hittade en fantastiskt kul sida, ett företag i Stockholm som säljer bland annat broderier. Annorlunda broderier.

Kolla in www.fuldesign.se för ideer inför ert nästa projekt!

Vrålkul, tyckte jag. Men tjena, tyckte mormor.

Nu, ett par månader senare har den trots allt anlänt: tavlan!!! Se bild nedan.

Yes alltså. Undrar om grannen jag kallat för Swedish Neighbour skulle uppskatta en sådan på sin nästa födelsedag, eller kanske till jul?

Mamma sa att skulle avhålla mig från att skänka henne en. Innan jag visste om hon inte heller var "riktigt slug."
"Är hon också tokig?" ... "Ja, mamma, det är mycket möjligt att hon är det."

Resultatet av broderingen samt resten av innehållet i paketet kan beskådas nedan:

PS. I paketet fanns även en bild på Skogens Konung. Alltså en älg.

Story of the Mini Horses

Have been blogging for little while now - high time to mention The Mini Horses.

The Mini Horses are, unsurprisingly, a group of very small horses. Apart from size, they look in every way exactly like large horses.

Rather improbably, given rest of my life and history - am a little obsessed with horses.
They are fine animals, I say regularly. At the same time they manage to scare the living daylights out of me most of the time during actual interaction (as opposed to merely thinking about them) - yet am drawn back there to... conquer the fear, as it were - to connect with the horse on a spiritual level through appropriate breathing methods and inner calm; you know.

Most people are of the considered opinion that horses are moody and untrustworthy - at times am inclined to agree. However, have had just enough good moments with them to suspect otherwise. In light of all of those things; wanted to start my new opposite-of-corporate-hell-career working with these fine animals. Is what really wanted to do.
And in any case, it had to be better than dealing with people.

Said and done, basically manifested little job at equestrian centre nearby - and most of the workload turned out to be looking after the Minis! Was perfect in every way. Was truly a chance to hang out with horses and learn about their temper (and general care-instructions), whilst at the same time not being perpetually terrified - as Minis not much larger than golden retrievers.

Of course, could not ride them. Strictly for-companionship-only animals. And they require lots of care. Was eventually going to ride some of the bigger horses, unfortunately job fell through before had chance to approach massive beasts with a request to sit on top of them for a while.

It will happen! One day will have own cuddly little horsie to look after. Until then...

Sydney

Back from Crazy-Town. Am absolutely exhausted.

Sydney makes me tired now that am country-girl. Can recall life being endless list of things to do in line with:
-get out of bed at ungodly hour such as 4am, hope flatmates not in shower for hours, pray clean clothes miraculously available, hope nobody drunk the last of the milk, hope kitchen gas not on over night (this happened) etc.
-run to train / bus only to find it around 45 minutes late
-arrive at work then run around madly for 8-10 hours (or in case of office role - sit still and go mad on the inside instead)
-go home (or stay out) and invariably consume too many drinks
-prepare nutritious meal of pasta and sauce from a jar (at best!) or some form of take-away
-set alarm for ungodly hour
-repeat

So my point was - after a weekend or a few days in Sydney, am back to feeling that way. Exhausted.

But am also very pleased to have caught up with the lovely girls; a married woman needs her sanity-breaks. Had very good time over drinks (and food - yes, we are getting older and more mature!) with the girls and naturally everyone getting pissed; falling over on balcony; losing ipods; hiding in bathroom so nobody will notice level of drunkenness - and so on.

Also attended engagement party in Manly over the weekend. Usually enjoy ferry-ride from Circular Quay to Manly - was one of the things used to do to remind me of why I loved Sydney - unfortunately weather gone from a steamy 30 degrees and sun on the Friday to a cold and rainy 13 degrees, so arrived at party resembling drenched cat. Fortunately they provided unlimited Oyster Bay and, hmm, Yellow. Paced ourselves very well and did not do anything outrageous all evening, even made last ferry back to town! Felt very smug.

A very bizarre thing has come to my attention.
Not sure if this has always been happening, and just have not noticed - or is this new twist in unsavoury meat-eating ways?
Pubs seem to advertise cheap, even free, bits of meat on posters featuring... COW!? Surely, when chomping down on piece of steak - you would secretly be pretending that it did not used to be living animal at all, but rather product (somehow) made by supermarkets? Why the picture of the cow? A new dimension of disgusting and strange.

Bit too tired to come up with truly interesting and witty blog-post today. Apologies.

Back Soon

Going on a mini-holiday to Sydney. Have got the usual guidelines in place: Don't drink too much, don't stay up all night, don't do anything crazy, etcetera.

Shall we see how that goes, shall we..?

Will be back early next week.

Turning into my Mother? The day has come.

Atleast twice in recent weeks have been undertaking routine activity around house and suddenly been hit by frightening realisation. Am turning into my mother.
Or, at the very least, am doing the things Mother assured teenage Anna she would eventually have to do - which teenage Anna laughed at, denied, ridiculed - you name it, she did it. A terrible child, and a worse teenager that she was.

"Hoovering the staircase??? Yeah right, I would rather DIE than perform such a utterly meaningless task!"
Or - "Cleaning the bathroom every day? You think I'm stupid? Get a life!" And so on.

Last week was balancing in staircase holding vacuum cleaner with one hand and handling nozzle with the other - trying to get every last bit of dust, twisting and bending self - when it dawned on me. Was sweeping leaves off driveway - when it dawned on me. Today was cleaning bathroom, could not quite get the sink to a satisfactory standard; so grabbed an old toothbrush and started scrubbing away at sink - when it dawned on me...

The day has come. Mother was right. An adult Anna has realised that she too has to vacuum stairs and clean bathrooms. We should all listen to our mothers. They know.

So then, is this a moment of joy - a moment to cherish this new found sense of responsibility and adulthood - or is this instead the moment one should pack ones backpack, buy one-way ticket to Thailand and say "nice-to-meet-you" to Hubby?

There must be a middle ground.
Will stick with it - but from now on will aim to be less of a perfectionist. Will never, never, ever use old toothbrush on sink again.

Yes! Can keep both house and sense of freedom and youth!

Besides, backpacking is a pain and hostels are dirty bedbug-infested Gen-Y traps.

Fear of Birds

Under siege today by a totally deranged bird. It was sitting on the verandah peering at us through the open doors and chirping in a most please-feed-me-am-a-baby-and-have-just-been-abandoned-by-mother sort of way. This insane bird actually went so far as to fly INTO house, in spite of hubby reassuring me in new authoritative WIRES-volunteer voice that birds would never do such a thing. Hubby chased bird out, as I ... well... ehm... ran away and hid in the bathroom.

Have a healthy respect for birds (that is to say, am terrified of them; they are evil and directly descended from velociraptors and so on - check out the eyes) so made the logical choice to close the doors and consume my lunch on the lounge.

Bird - 1, Anna - 0.

Last we checked it was still sitting on the verandah looking in - it even followed us around the house when we went to kitchen, and proceeded to sit outside kitchen window... (potential horror-movie script perhaps?)

Hubby would like to add, for the record and so all things are clear etcetera, that bird is definitely NOT deranged OR insane. Is the fault of silly people who feed native wild birds and render them incapable of looking after themsel... OH my God, it is outside the office window!!!
I may never go outside again.

Whilst we are on the subject of birds - hubby actually has a pet bird. In beginning of relationship my (then) uncontrollable fear of it was a source of great amusement to him. He would cruelly let it out of cage then watch and laugh as I screamed, cried and hid under the covers on the bed. After the first five years I started to get used to the bird, and now can handle it quite well. Admittedly is very small parrot.

Only a person with a true phobia of something might be able to understand my ill advised fear of this:

Hubby laments the fact that I am no longer plunged into full blown panic-mode when bird is extracted from cage - thus he has lost his primary tool with which to torment me. This is what happens when you are together long enough.
Not that you wish to torment each other, everybody does that - but that you will admit it.

Wonder if hubby has hidden agenda when saying that he is planning to build aviary in backyard for purposes of nursing birds back to life after they have met with an accident?

Surely not.

How not to save a Kangaroo and a Garden Update

Woke up at 6am this morning, swear it was already 25 degrees outside. Sun, still - no breeze. Rolled straight out of bed and into beach dress, totally forgot about being hungover (drinks yesterday afternoon by beach) - and rolled down to Tallow. Warm, warm, warm - feeling bones defrost and spirit awaken. Cannot help but being intensely happy when walking there - and now am sounding like a "Tourism Australia" ad. Did not bring camera, but found these lovely pics hubby took a couple of months ago (he is, in his own opinion, the far superior photographer out of the two of us, also his camera way better than mine, etcetera) :

Tallow Beach:

Hubby is doing Wildlife Rescue Course in Lismore this weekend. This means he will be called out whenever local wildlife finds itself in precarious situations - such as birds having smashed into windows, snakes having entered homes and wound themselves around plumbing, or various types of wildlife having been hit by cars.

I heard a story about the latter which I very helpfully told hubby about yesterday, in preparation of him becoming rescue-volunteer.
A friend encountered kangaroo, or could have been wallaby (memory not what should be, possibly due to too much beer throughout life) - which had been hit by car and seemed to have a broken leg, but otherwise was in pretty good condition. Friend called Wildlife Rescue Service. Volunteers arrive, in the form of two elderly ladies. Ladies explain that kangaroo / wallaby can not be successfully rehabilitated, is better to end things cleanly so it does not suffer. My friend starts to feel a little uncomfortable, thinking they should have just left the animal to its own devices. But, what to do other than accept the news - the animal is injured and will die. Fair enough. Then these ladies explain that they do not take all animals to vet for a lethal shot - for some reason or other bla bla bla. They thus proceed to grab a sledgehammer out of the back of car, and start whacking the thing over the head. It does not die. There is blood, there is tears - my friend is traumatised for life.

In the end, the animal must have died. What an awful, awful story. Hope hubby does not have to be that sort of volunteer.

Must end on a more positive note, so here is a little Garden Update!

Finally, this is what we like to see!

A Wildlife Post

Sitting down to put something together for my blog today, realise have not done anything interesting in the past couple of days. No matter - as have been meaning to say a few words about the local Wildlife! This is a subject very close to the hearts of Swedish people located in Sweden, particularly if they are considering a trip DownUnder.

Back when I was in college, I agreed to be a contact person for new students from Sweden. They could email me questions and so on and so forth; only ever got one email - and it simply asked "Are there many spiders and snakes in Sydney?" Do not remember what my answer was, but if asked today I would say that we see them about as often as you see moose crossing the road in Sweden. That is to say; yep they are around but mostly we feel pleased when we are so lucky as to spot them!

Wildlife Highlights...

Python Snake - harmless (unless you somehow end up with it around your neck)

Bluetongue Lizard

Green Frog, not sure of scientific name...

Magpie

Butcher Bird

Kookaburra - this is actually a one-eyed Kookaburra that came and hung out at our place for a whole afternoon, got about a million pictures of it

Kookaburra interacting with Craig

Good News, a Challenge, then Brunswick Heads

Firstly, some good news!
At long last, partly due to mistake on Super A-Mart's part (they sent a courier with third replacement chair, but forgot to inform said courier that he had to pick up the old one - we were actually running after him yelling "Did you want the other chair dude?" to which he answered that he had no time to hang around and would have to come back - well, lucky us because only with pieces from both boxes did the final chair come together). We are keeping this for rest of life, regardless.

Have been getting bogged down in negative thought patterns lately.
Such as endlessly playing out conversations inside my head where I tell so-and-so (and such-and-such items like chairs) off for various reasons.
For example the tarot-lady; even though realise have no solid base for feeling so down about it. Everything she said was wrong, so why feel bad about the nasty comments she maid - as if the mean bit would somehow be applicable and correct when nothing else was?
Unless woke up today suddenly being a bored but creative teacher from Ireland in her twenties who is unhappy in her work and misses home, then should have nothing to worry about...
But still. Having deeply ungracious thoughts about kicking her teeth in. Such negative thinking can lead to nothing good. And is only hurting myself.

Must. Stop. Obsessing.

For this reason, the sudden negativity that is, have decided to do mini-challenge in Yoga. See, everyone else in studio (nearly everyone, anyway) are doing something called "30-day-challenge." This means everyone has to practise EVERY day for 30 days. Would have signed up as well, really would have..!
Only in middle of month we are off to Sydney for a boozy weekend, so would not be able to fulfil requirements.
Told Teacher today about what am doing (the mini-challenge, which have just decided will be 10 days) - oddly, she did not look all that impressed..?

Of course, am not doing mini-challenge to impress Teacher. Am doing it for inner peace. So that I may stop wanting to kick people's teeth in and / or give them the finger all the time. That is tiring.
Also is major setback on road to becoming a hippie.

Today was good! Drove to Brunswick Heads (nope, no road-rage) and had lunch with Louise. Best day for a while. Maybe something to do with mega-early yoga session?

Sample Food Fest, Bangalow Showgrounds

Today was "Sample Food Festival" in Bangalow. We were both pleasantly surprised when arrived and found that festival had not been cancelled. Also, weather beautiful!

What we had to EAT (after starting day with a few wine-samples!)

Menu:

Beetroot, potato, peas, organic rocket leaves, radishes and more...

Ice-cream with honeycomb...

And a "raw food" chocolate and avocado tart that was delicious!!!

Seriously do not know why people find it necessary to eat flesh of animals. Though there was plenty of that at the food-fest as well. Each to their own.

Overall, really lovely day. Had an unfortunate run-in with tarot-reading FRAUD, and have decided it's all a load of --- , and does not in fact deserve much of a mention on my awesome blog. She can ruin someone else's day, I am planning to enjoy the rest of mine - watching Rugby League finals with hubby. Would be interested to know what other people think about fortune tellers..?

Finally: Occasionally get it into head that I might be fantastic at baking... nine times out of ten this leads to some form of disaster (and loads of swearing) which ends with us eating something very strange.

Friands anyone..?

The Exciting Furniture-Assembly Drama, Part 2

Today was second delivery of furniture from - am just going to say it, for everyone to see: Super A-Mart. They picked up damaged shelves, faulty table and one faulty chair. They delivered new shelves, new table and one new chair.
Sum total of today's efforts? One table.

They delivered the wrong box of shelves. Because, obviously, is very difficult to tell "BOX 1" from "BOX 2" - 1 and 2 being right next to each other in the number sequence and all. Fail number one.

Different problem with chair - the holes all there, just not in alignment with each other. Fail number two.

If they had let us keep the old boxes until such time we had assembled all the bits and pieces - we probably would have been OK. Oh but no, such is not the way Super A-Mart does business. Better to chuck everything into a landfill and send us a completely new box. Don't even want to think about what odds are that they will get it right next time. Don't hold your breath!

Hearing Bikram Teacher in back of mind going "You can control your emotions through your breath, you can control your reactions, you can be unaffected by what goes on around you - simply breathe slower, follow your breath and rise above..."

Calm. Calm. Calm!

Is actually very interesting to observe effect of trivial matters on selves. When I take a step back from situation, I can ask: Why get angry? Nothing is going to change. Nobody is going to care. Am only going to make self unhappy. If we could all learn to disregard pointless anger this world would be a better place.

Still...

You know what else would make world a much much better place -
THE IMMEDIATE CLOSURE OF SUPER A-MART!!!

Furniture Assembly and a Free Coffee

People always make jokes about how putting furniture together is main reason for divorce in western world.

Am not surprised. Yet , one never learns. One forgets the pain, anguish and general war-zone like conditions within the furniture assembly hell. One thinks - oh well, how bad can it be... - look this is brilliant and cheap am sure they have quality control and come on how hard can it be and yes people always just exaggerate yes it's a great deal let's get it - ... and herein lies one's final mistake.

Have been pissed off in very un-hippie-like way most of yesterday and today. Realise should be able to rise above issues with inanimate items such as tables and chairs, as well as the regrettable incompetence of certain chain furniture-stores. This, however, is proving harder than expected.

So... End result of purchasing table, two chairs and set of shelves you ask? ONE measly chair. Rest of it either damaged or otherwise impossible to assemble due to wholes missing or being out of alignment. No, not because hubby and I are stupid. We are very intelligent and very patient when it comes to... er...
Anyway, the stuff was useless.

Speaking of being pissed off - was recounting tale of annoying tailgating* bastards on road and my ensuing road rage to my friend Louise the other week; she concluded that for someone who aspires to become enlightened, serene; a hippie if you will - I have a very long way to go. Her way of dealing with situations such as that (as opposed to holding up middle finger, throwing self on brake and risking own life) would be to, well, not notice it. And if she did she would say "Chill out man, take it easy," and perhaps tap the breaks lightly in a friendly reminder to keep the distance.

After we assembled the ONE chair, decided to reward selves with coffee - had found voucher for a free one at a cafe in town. This was very good news, as our motto is "A free coffee is a free coffee." This means we must never turn down an offer of a free cup, which usually works out great and has thus far only backfired once. In LA. Happened to be walking past a Subway doing some sort of ridiculous promotion for their new (revolting) bacon & egg breakfast rolls. As we generally disapprove of junkfood, would never have gotten the idea to enter (let alone consume anything from) a Subway. The promotion, however, was free cups of coffee... One glance at each other and it was decided - had to enter, had to grab free coffee and run - were in LA after all, was an adventure.
Unfortunately turned out to be worst cup of coffee ever tasted in entire life. Do not like to waste food or drink, but both cups ended up in bin within two minutes...

Finally today, decided to do something about my anger issues. Who can be angry when you can take an evening stroll at Belongil:

Belongil Creek...

---

*"Tailgating is the practice of driving on a road too close to the vehicle in front, at a distance which does not guarantee that stopping to avoid collision is possible."
- Wikipedia

Ventures into the Wilderness

On Saturday night we ventured into the Wilderness of Suffolk Park - suburb just south of Byron Bay. Wanted to go to pub to watch NRL (description of what this is would make an entire chapter on it's own, suffice to say that it is a type of Sport). Even though Byron Bay and Suffolk Park are only 10 minutes drive apart, was like entering different world. Firstly realised was only female in entire room. The men were all wearing slim fit jeans (not a great look in combination with beer-belly, or indeed, at any time at all), ordering beef-steak-burgers-with-extra bacon-and-a-New-thanks-mate, and saying things like "the Mrs" when referring to female partner /wife.

Today, Sunday, ventured out for drive to check out our water supply. This is of course the sort of thing everyone does on a Sunday. There was also going to be an Event out by Rocky Creek Dam (the water supply dam), aimed at rainforest restoration. Alas...

Not again!!! For people living in a subtropical rainforest, some of us seem a little overly concerned with the weather... also, did not rain all day.

Went for walk around area anyway. Looked clean enough! Plenty of "Lock the Gate" signs around these parts, we all had better hope mining companies do not gain access and turn dam into lethal fracking-fluid cocktail.

Observe the ducks (merrily swimming in our drinking water)!

Finished off morning with trip to Nimbim, apparently the pot-smoking-capital of Australia. Village itself is really cool, eccentric looking with loads of personality and plenty of access to free-range eggs and herbal teas - unfortunately not all that friendly in atmosphere. Got the feeling that, whether it wanted to or not, the town attracted aficionados of substances slightly heavier than pot - a group likely to be seriously against any form of tourism. Add backpackers trying to buy joints plus law of supply and demand and so on - resulted in married 30-something-couple from Byron (myself and Hubby) legging it back to their Commodore after finishing soy lattes, squealing "NO, I don't want any bloody weed!"

Here is the pretty town-centre:

Blogging away!

Have been searching the internet today to locate interesting blogs to follow - from an expat point of view. Have added loads of links. Looking forward to reading all of them! Also, thanks for the comments!

In Bikram Yoga class this morning, the teacher read out a quote from one of her yogi-books - of course cannot remember the whole thing, but gist of it was: "You can make a conscious decision to be happy, to embrace challenges; and what is the goal in life - if not to find happiness at any cost?"

Noticed that a couple of people mentioned feeling guilty about living overseas. That is a shame. We have all ended up where we have ended up - perhaps it was not even a choice; at some point it went beyond that. Realise it might just be me, but everytime I fly across the equator heading south, it's like a fog lifts. Feels like something shifts, like the flick of a switch - like I have arrived where I was supposed to be all along. It can be tricky indeed to shake that feeling that life ought to be hard, ought to be a struggle, ought to consist of lists and lists of have-to's - but if you suspect that you are living in Paradise, why keep wishing you were elsewhere? Just enjoy the ride.

On a more personal note, in my experience it gets easier. People worry that things will get more difficult, you will miss home more, you will feel even more guilt. You won't.

Anyway, do not mean to sound depressing on an otherwise lovely Friday evening. Let's collectively decide we are Happy with a capital H - here is a picture of a cute cat from Bangalow to help us achieve our goal:

Phew! Crises averted.

Besides Yoga and pondering the Blogosphere, today had plumber here to install new dishwasher. Was going to have a crack ourselves, but instruction leaflet proved to be practical joke put there by sadistic German engineers. Thus, was easier to ring plumber. Actually rang a few days ago, but all plumbers in Byron Shire have been extremely busy. They are still busy, in fact - ours had to run out the door before being able to look at a leaky cistern - to attend to "an emergency." All this is a mystery to me. Better be careful around the Byron Shire, seems we have a pipe-breakage-epidemic!

Popped down to the Beachy, pub by Main Beach, to catch up with lovely girl Louise - another Swedish import. Have discovered we come from very different backgrounds. Dancing on streets and sleeping on beaches (Louise) versus hysterically running around world looking for a career whilst never risking waking up without immediate access to hot shower and cup of coffee (me). Yet that is part of the magic of this corner of the world - we came from different places, but now we are in the same place. Geographically, and mentally.

(Am still somewhat mad, but getting there..!)

Beachy -