Kissing

Going for a fishy kiss

or as the French say "faire la bise", is an art that is not always so easy to master. I mean first you have the different regions where they either do two kisses, one on each cheek or you have areas where they do three and even some regions where they do four kisses. I mean one on one cheek and then one on the other and then back to the first cheek and finishing off back on the second. You really have to know and this is only in France; Heaven knows what they get up to in the other Mediterranean countries.

The other conundrum is whom do you kiss. Foreigners frequently make mistakes here and think you kiss everybody you know, but no no no. There is a protocol even here, but generally children always kiss adults as a greeting when they are friends of the family. You kiss your friends and family and sometimes your friend's friends.

In high school teenage girls kiss both their male and female classmates, every morning. Boys kiss the girls and shake hands with other mates, again, every morning. I used to be so intrigued by this, I would sit outside school for a while in my car after having dropped the kids off, just observing this little endearing ritual.

The same kissing procedure is also common in a workplace, where the female workers kiss each other and also the male workers, and the male workers shake hands. Of course you don't kiss your boss. I worked in a place with mostly foreigners and we sadly didn't kiss.

Here in Australia they also kiss but just once. However if you are family or close friends you can also kiss on the mouth. Obviously it is just a peck, not a long lingering kiss but still, I was quite taken aback at first. If you are of the older generation, like my dear departed father-in -aw, you tend to shake hands, I think. At least that is what he did with hubby when we were picked up at the airport for my first visit to Australia. I thought it was a bit cold at first, since they hadn't seen each other for years, but I guess it was a very hearty handshake and he had tears in his eyes.

In Sweden it is a little different. Of course you have the people who have traveled the world and who have adopted the cheek kissing or rather kissing in the air since most people don't even touch your cheek with their lips. But generally we Swedes, like the Russians, hug, mostly big bear hugs full frontal. Sometimes it's manly touching of the shoulder in a hug while also shaking hands, it depends. Hubby finds these hugs difficult and can't help himself going into Sheldon mode .

Here is another way of greeting each other, rubbing noses,
Maori style. It has not taken off in Europe yet though.

Let me see, what is there to tell otherwise. Oh yes, our Swedish friends, from the north of Sweden are here visiting their daughter and her family. They came to our house for a barbecue last week, on the hottest day for a long time. I think it reached +40°C. It was okay though, thanks to the pool, but I am not allowed to publish any pool photos.  I wonder why!

The parrot is King!

My tomatoes are coming on and the first one to savour one of them was this King parrot, who comes around now and then. I guess they have to eat too, but I wish they would finish their food. He just took one nibble and let it drop.

So, time to say goodbye. Thank you for reading. Wishing everyone a good week! Hope to see you back soon!

Two thirty

... or as hubby always says "Tooth hurtee. Time to go to the dentist.". This was very much the case with me the other day. I had had a toothache off and on for a while and the time had come to bite the bullet (silly expression in this case since I would probably injure another tooth) and go to the dentist. I just went to the closest one to where we live, and what a stroke of luck that was. It was a true gentleman of Asian descent and his surgery was topnotch. We had to decide on how to deal with this tooth, extraction, inplant, bridge, or a simple root-canal job with a crown. I opted for the last, wanting to hang on to my own stumps as long as possible, and then the fun started. He took some X-rays and showed me the inside of my mouth on a big TV screen - not a pretty sight.  Then he started giving me loads of injections which I love him for.  He also gave me a pair of chic sunglasses to put on (for the bright overhead light) and ear phones (so I wouldn't hear the drilling etc) and put a chick flick on the TV. All we needed was a palm tree and a pool, it was so comfy there in the lounge chair. Sadly, he finished before the end of the movie so now I have to go out and rent it.

Now over to King Valley where we went last week. It is becoming a bit of a tradition that we go away over a long week end once a year with hubby's old bikie friends and their wives. This time it was a seven-hour drive for us but of course less for them coming from Melbourne. The owner of King Valley Estate where we were staying was called Trevor Knaggs. He is a really pleasant and hospitable fellow. If you are a backpacker looking for farm work, give him a call.

Last night's pizza dinner made in Trevor's pizza oven.

Serious winetasting taking place.

When Trevor heard I was Swedish he gave me "the task"
of finding him a Swedish wife.

The time passed very quickly in King Valley with wine tasting and sightseeing. When we returned home we found that our French visitors had adapted very well to Australia. The day after our return we took them up to the Blue Mountains. There we met a lady who overheard us speaking French who was herself from Bordeaux but from Touareg origin.. She let me take her photo. She was dressed in a Touareg outfit since she was visiting Australia for some international project

It's time to say goodbye for now and hope you enjoyed your little read and that you will come back.

A good deed

....is sometimes quite difficult to accomplish. Take hubby's last effort for example. The following incident took place when I was in Sweden recently and hubby was on his own.

It was a very grey and miserable day, pouring with rain as he was driving to work.  A particularly determined fellow commuter passed him just before the two lanes narrowed into one, finishing by swooping into his lane a little too soon for comfort.  Hubby then noticed a bunch of keys dangling from the boot lock of the other person's car.  He flashed his lights a few times to try to attract the other driver's attention, but that was probably mistaken for a touch of road rage.  He hoped the person would turn into the road leading to his place of work, but no, the other person continued along the main road.

That's when the Good Samaritan gene kicked in, and despite risking being late for work, hubby continued along the main road to stop just behind the other person at the next traffic lights.  He hopped out of his car, ran up to the other driver's window, and tapped on it.  The other person, a woman of a similar age, overcame her fear of a road-rage attack and wound down the window.  Hubby said,"You have left your keys in the boot. I'll get them for you."  The last words must have been lost in the wind and rain, because just as he went back and took them out, the lights changed and the woman drove off.  So here he was, standing in the rain with a set of keys on a Hello Kitty key-ring, and a bunch of angry drivers queued up behind his car that now blocked the fast lane.  He got back in his car, and took off after the woman, after the next change of lights.

Five kilometres down the road he saw the woman parked at the end of a rest stop. She was walking back to the driver's seat, clearly puzzled by the lack of keys in the boot.  Hubby swooped into the rest stop, just as she took off again!  Back on the gas pedal, and a kilometre of light flashing later, she pulled over, and he could finally give her the keys.  She was very grateful though, and hubby was only half an hour late for work and soaking wet. And I guess he could look himself in the mirror the next day and feel proud.

I meant to tell you all about our weekend in the King Valley, Victoria that we spent with hubby's old bikie friends and their wives but I have to save that for next time. I just want to say that I highly recommend the Estate where we were staying.

This is the cottage where we were staying in the King Valley

King River Estate

Well, I am off now to take hubby to work so that I can have the car and take our French visitors to the fish market or somewhere else.

Take care! Come back soon!