Home is where the heart is

.....at least that's what they say, but that special "heart" is in bed with another bout of Lyme disease. He has just had his blood-test results back and they indicated borrelia.  We seem to have a lot of deer ticks in the fields near the cottage in Sweden, and if it it is not me it will be hubby catching this wretched disease, usually while mowing the lawn, without having his whole body covered up to protect against ticks. Friends, don't let this stop you from coming to visit though, we don't expect you to mow the lawn.

Here in Australia they haven't got a clue what borrelia is since it does not seem to exist here. It is not fun and you feel very achy and miserable generally, similar to a man cold but much, much worse.

Anyway, I am back in God's Own Country   (that is one of the nicknames for Australia, together with "down under", "the lucky country" and the "sunburnt country") !! However when I Googled this, I found that many other countries, New Zealand in particular, called their country God's own. So I'll say I am back in Oz then and everybody will understand what I am talking about.

These flights from overseas generally arrive very early, and mine did too.  We were back at the house before 7 am and had time to catch up on a few things before hubby went to work.

I think you realize you are getting old when you find the escalators too fast in Singapore airport (or are they particularly fast there?) I had to stand and will myself to get on, frequently creating a little queue behind me. At the end I realized that the best way was to just get on in your stride, without even stopping, and that worked better. I wish I had known about the emergency button. Singapore was fun, with +36 °C and 90% humidity. I didn't have a proper stop-over with a night in a hotel but I still had 12 hours to spend somehow. So I went shopping, and boy, can you shop in Singapore.

More is to come since I think hubby is planning something for Father's Day on Sunday, so I'll leave you for now with a big yawn.

Did I mention that we seem to be cat sitting again?

Summer is almost over

They say that when the heather blossoms, at least here in this region, it is the end of summer. However, the last week has been one of the best all summer and today is absolutely gorgeous, so it doesn't quite feel like it is the end yet. We might even go for a little swim later.

We have had lots of fun visitors but now the cottage is getting empty with only me and eldest daughter still here, and she is "in the zone" packing up for her departure tomorrow, so we are not speaking much. I have a few more days until I leave on Tuesday, well really my flight is on Wednesday but it is so darn early I will have to go and sleep in the airport since there is no way I can get to the airport from here for a 6 o'clock morning flight.

I found a website where they classified different airports from the point of view of having to spend a long time or even sleep there and I am hoping that Landvetter has a good rating.

Life here is pretty quiet so the only thing I can tell you is that I had a call from a friend who told me that another friend's husband had successfully saved his brother-in-law's life when he had a heart attack and there were only the two of them at home. The interesting thing is that my friend who called had recently "coached" me concerning this.  She says that the best rhythm is to do the heart massage to the rhythm of "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. 

To finish off, here is a photo to say farewell to my hometown Gothenburg. It has become so big and different from when I was young,  but it has still in many ways remained the same.

Next time, if all goes well, I will write from Sydney. Until then, "Hej då"!

Beautiful, beautiful Copenhagen

I do like Copenhagen and it was great to have a little visit there this summer. Eldest daughter and a friend of hers, and of course yours truly, drove down to Copenhagen in torrential rain. I have had an aquaplanning incident once outside the airport in Lyon and ended up facing the traffic, so I get a little tense when I drive through rain.

We were going to meet up with my UK girl friend which we did successfully at our hotel. In the two days we were there we managed to see most of the sights. The one that impressed the most was the Glyptotek which I will try to put in photos from.

Winter garden at the Glyptotek

Our visit would not have been complete if we had not seen the little mermaid. I can truly confirm that it is little.

The little and the big mermaid

Other things we did was strolling down Strøget, of course and having beer and indulging in people watching in Nyhavn, strongly recommended. Again, I promise to put in pictures later on. It is very picturesque with the houses in all different colours. We should have taken the harbour cruise but that will be for next time.

Other things we saw was the sandcastle sculptures on the river and the Opera House and Amalienborg, where the Royals live.  Of course being a 60+ girl from the hippy era, I had to see Christiania which was interesting but I am glad I don't have to live there.

On Monday we drove back to Gothenburg over the Øresundsbron which is quite impressive, and if you have followed the detective story Bron you know what I mean.

We stopped in Arild to see our good friends there and it was a nice reunion especially since "the kids" had not seen each other for ages. I use 'kids' very loosely of course, since they are all around 30 now. They grew up together and have many fond memories of holidays spent together.

Amy Gina Nils Nicco Romain Chloe in Arild

So after a nice catch up lunch we set off again so we would not be too late arriving in Gothenburg, since we had promised to drop in and see my mother since we have to drive through Gothenburg to get to our cottage.

My internet time is almost up now here at the library so I will leave you with this Malawi saying "You can't have two buttocks without friction"  Up to you how you interpret it!

Add caption

PS Oh, I almost forgot we also had a very quick visit from the north. Our friends arrived in a beautiful fire engine and we had a good time together. It was our first sighting of D the first child in the circle of 'kids' that our kids grew up with. D was turning 3 in a few days and they were down our way to dismantle and buy an slide for her. She was not supposed to know but it was clear that she did.

Which reminded me of when my sister and me used a secret language called the "pirate language" in Swedish, when our kids were younger, when we wanted to say for example ice cream. They cottoned on to that of course and used it against us, by asking for ice-cream in that language. So much for secrecy and thinking that you can outsmart kids. It just doesn't work.