Almost over

Greetings dear readers, 

It's that crazy time again just before Christmas. Traffic is appalling, shopping is a disaster, parking aggressive, people are stressed out, I am sure you get my drift.

We have had a few very hot days, up around +35°, but right now it looks like it is going to rain.

Even Santa (aka known as hubby) needs a beer.

Yesterday,  at hubby's end-of-year work party the weather didn't look very promising at first but then it turned out ok. It was held at the picnic grounds at Woronora Dam, a hidden little treasure.

Fun with balloons.

The couple near hubby had lived six years in Sweden so we had
 a little chat in Swedish

Let's think, what else have we been up to. Well, there was the end of the year lunch with my painting group which was held in a golf club and was very nice.

I have left my painting gear at my art teacher's studio so I won't be tempted to do any painting now when we so desperately need to look for another house. One of the girls at the bbq yesterday told me that they looked at 20 houses a week before they found the one they finally bought. Real-estate prices here in Sydney are ridiculous so we are looking outside the city, to the south mainly.

Another lovely outing was with my friend A. She introduced me to the the Boat house restaurant, across the water from the Sydney fish market. It was a lovely fish restaurant though quite pricey. I think we'll keep it for special occasions.

We were also invited to a dinner cruise in Sydney Harbour on the Sydney Showboats. It was sponsored in part by ANSTO where hubby works. The speeches were kept to a minimum, the food was good and drinks abundant. The show wasn't too bad either so, all in all, a nice evening out. 

No, this isn't a black and white photo, it was just
quite dark

Next time I'll be writing here will probably be in 2018. Time is just going so quickly. Do you remember the end of 1999 when we where fretting over what would happen when we turned the page to 2000?

Take care now and have fun with family and friends. That's what it is all about, isn't it!

Back from Perth

We got back this morning on the red-eye flight from Perth. It is excruciating trying to stay awake in order to get back to Sydney time. Sydney is three hours ahead of Perth in the summer. 

My shopping bag came in handy as usual when hubby
realised he had left his hat at home

It was my first visit to WA and it was really nice, even though you feel very removed from the rest of Australia. Hubby had a few days of work meetings and then on Saturday and Sunday we did some sightseeing. The days while I was on my own I spent riding the free buses around the city and discovering Perth. Here is one thing I found.

This hotel/restaurant is called Miss Maud and was founded by a
Swedish lady about forty years ago. It was past lunch time and
too early for dinner so I just had some tea and Princess cake.

On Saturday we went to the The Pinnacles Desert in Nambung National Park. It was amazing. We also had a delicious seafood lunch in a fishing village called Cervantes famous for its lobsters.

There are hundreds of these pinnacles in different sizes.

On the way to the Nambung National park we got a little side tracked to the town of Lancelin by a sign that said "The best beer garden in Australia". It was beer o'clock so we decided to stop and see for ourselves. It was truly magnificent, placed right on the Indian Ocean and as luck would have it we arrived right on the 11^th day of the 11^th month at 11 o'clock so we partook of the short ceremony for which the local football team was there to celebrate in honour of their war veterans.

The sea is beautifully turquoise.

Hubby was called on to take everybody's photo with each
person's camera so this took a little while.

Sunday we checked out of the hotel after having waited in vain to use the dryer for our laundry. It was a little bit my fault. I thought that it would be nice to arrive back home and not immediately have to do laundry. Instead we arrived here with a whole bunch of wet clothes that probably have to be washed again.

Hubby wanted to visit the Railway Museums in Bassendean and Midland which he did and after that we hit the Swan Valley wine district which is very close to Perth. We didn't really have time to drive all the way down to the Margaret River wine area. It was very nice and even though we were flying home hubby insisted on buying a few bottles.

The day was finished off with a quick trip to Fremantle to see the sun go down in the Indian ocean. It was magic and a beautiful end to a wonderful mini break.

Home is where the heart is

At least that's what they say, but I am not so sure. We have recently had to move house since our landlord wanted his house back, and we picked this house that we are in, in a bit of a panic moment. My heart is not at all in it, in fact I don't really like it at all. Luckily we have just signed the lease for six months and we intend to unpack only the bare minimum.  That means that we have two bedrooms for storage and the whole garage. I cook with one frying pan and one pot so no exquisite dishes at the moment. We are going to give ourselves that time to try to find a place to buy even if we don't sell the house in France simultaneously. So wish us luck.

Hubby has recently discovered the charm of shopping at Aldis. You always hear stories of people popping in for some groceries and coming out with a lawnmower and a TV bench or something else unexpected. Yesterday it happened to us as well. Hubby was just going in to get some drinks and I waited in the car. He came out looking just a bit sheepish with a big package. It was an outdoor shower that he intends to bring to the cottage in Sweden??!!?? As luggage!! Well, I am glad he didn't get the trampoline that was also for sale this week. I guess we are in for many more of these little surprises now that he has seen what they sell. He did mutter about some sliding mitre saw that seemed to be absolutely essential in a home-owners life.

So you can imagine that this move has taken up pretty much all our our time since I got back from Europe in September. We have however had a few nice meals out. One was a vegetarian lunch buffet in a Buddhist retreat down south somewhere. There was also a market and traditional music and dancing.

We were also invited to our dear friends that we got to know in Grenoble and who now lives here. We had a raclette of all things, first time since I came to Australia and it was a real treat. Apparently you can order raclette cheese from somewhere in Queensland.

I must go now and get dressed before the meter guy comes to read our electricity meter.

I gave hubby a little shopping list for things to get on his way home from work. I hope he doesn't succumb to the temptation to get the 3-D printer or the lawn mower that he was also ogling last time. We are supposed to down size for goodness sake not buy more stuff.

Have a nice rest of the week, dear readers!

PS The jacaranda trees are in full bloom and they are gorgeous.

Back Down Under

I have actually been back for four days now so I am slowly getting over jet-lag. It gets harder and harder though. This time it was also due to the fact that I had to go to the airport the day before the flight and spend the night there slouching in a chair. There is no way I can get myself to the airport from our cottage for a six o'clock in the morning flight. Luckily the airport stays open all night as does the coffee shop.

The flight was great, my seat was on the second floor of the plane in one of those seats where you can stretch out your legs. The service was also very good and I had an empty seat next to me, couldn't have been better really if you just disregard the 25 hours in the air.

So back here in Australia trying to find a place to stay from the end of October. We want to buy something but it will probably be too rushed to find anything so we have to find a place to rent again first.

I had a lovely week down in Grenoble doing stuff that you have to do when you still have a house there and also catching up with friends even though I didn't see everybody unfortunately.

Dent de Crolles

The church in Saint Nazaire les Eymes
with the Belledonne in the background

The girls with a lovely lunch and a glass of chilled
Sancerre, does it get any better!

Happy retirees!

I found about fifteen photos of us on my
camera when I got home, I think someone
went a bit crazy with the selfies.

Our neighbors also celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary plus the start of  retired life so I was invited to their lovely party which was held at the Town Hall in Montbonnot.

I think it is me in the armpit of the person in the
grey shirt on the right.

The happily married couple, with President
Macron in the photo in the back surveying
the event

 

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Moderate Success

This is when you need a better camera.
The whole field next door was full of spider
webs and when the sun hit them they were
all different colors. Unfortunately you can't
tell from this photo.

I had a list of important things to do while here in Sweden. One of them was trying to finally get our French car registered here in Sweden. That would mean we no longer have to take it down to France every two years for a "Contrôle Technique", i.e. a road-worthy check up. So I finally decided to have it registered here and it did mean a quite bit of fiddling and a lot of paperwork, but now it is done and it went through. Now all I have to do is receive the new registration plates, get them put on and the car is Swedish, tick! At least one thing accomplished of the long list that I am working from.

Yesterday I took mom out for lunch. She usually wants to go to a place close to where she grew up but this time we tried something different and not so far to drive. It's called Fiskebäck but it is really part of Gothenburg. It was nice to sit in the sun and eat but it was slightly marred by the huge seagulls that were very naughty and scary. I usually complain about the kookaburras stealing our food at picnics in Australia but at least they are smaller. These birds were like a flying six-month old baby and their beaks were the size of a mobile phone. And they were hungry!

Elder daughter has gone back to Senegal and her husband is visiting friends in France. We had drinks out before they left and also listened to a jazz concert sitting in a Japanese restaurant at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg.

Göteborgs Kalaset

Hubby has gone back to Australia as well, so I am all alone. Unfortunately he was met with the stressful news that we have to leave the house that we are renting and where we had hoped to stay on until hubby retires in a year. So now we have until the end of October to either buy or find another house to rent. Neither of these options are very tempting or easy at the moment.

View from the restaurant where hubby and I had
lunch before he went back to Australia.

I have to go now and return the Rent-a-Wreck rental car that we have had on stand by in case our own car didn't make it through and then take a taxi back here to the cottage again. Then on Wednesday I am flying down to Grenoble so more news from there.

PS  Just one more little incident that happened when I was at the waste station with my rubbish the other day. All of a sudden I heard a  shrill shriek coming from behind one of the containers. I went around there to have a look and there was this lady pointing at one of her paper bags and as she was doing that a little mouse jumped out. It turned out she had brought at least four mice in her bags, in her car. She was absolutely horrified to think that they had been in the bags, in her car when she was driving to the waste station. They must have gotten in there in her garage. I must say I sympathised with her, even though I managed to keep from screaming.

It worked

If you read the blog entry before this one you might remember that I spoke nostalgically about the good old days when you might even receive a post card in your mailbox while staying in your summer cottage. Well, guess what! A reader took me up on it and I received this card a few days ago. Thank you so much!

Copyright Wildcard Company

The reference to IKEA is especially suitable since I have been there give or take 10 times since arriving here in Sweden this time. It is on my way to go and visit my mother so it is very easy just to slip in and get a kitchen utensil or a storage box or have lunch. 

On one of my latest visits I saw a big family of new Swedes having lunch together. There were children, teenager's, parents, grandparents, in-laws, they took up about three tables. So I thought that it would be a really nice gesture if IKEA changed some of the silly names in their catalogue and used some names that these new Swedes could identify with. So instead of having the book case Billy we could have the book case Rashid. And instead of the sofa Stockholm we could have the sofa Casablanca and so on. I am sure you get my drift. It would also make my task easier. I frequently have to explain/translate names of IKEA products to my friends in Australia. Let me give you some examples, we have the table JOKKMOKK, they don't know what or where this is in Australia. Or the bed TUFFING; where is that or what is it,? Or the parasol LÅNGHOLMEN, named after a prison where the last execution in Sweden took place.

Hubby is leaving in two days and I will be on my own here with my son-in-law until our daughter comes back from Oxford where she is working. Then we will do some sightseeing and hopefully the weather will stay nice. We don't have to do any painting, gardening or other chores since hubby and son-in-law have been working flat out the last two weeks.

Have to go now and plan dinner.  We are taking turns teaching our son-in-law to cook. but I think he would like us to follow recipes more. Both hubby and me cook with what's in the house. This way we discover novel flavors, while at the same time using up left-overs.  All you have to do is call it "nouvelle cuisine".

My mother always thinks that it is the serving
plate that is put in front of her, when in fact it
is just the new fashion of serving your portion
 in a very big individual plate.

Longing for simpler times

I just got off the phone with Viasat. We have no image and no sound on our TV for no special reason. It has worked fine since our arrival up to now, but all of a sudden it gave up. After being told that there would be a wait of 56 minutes and answering a whole bunch of inane questions with 'Yes' and 'No', I decided to still go through with it. I fell asleep twice. When it was finally my turn I got to speak to an over-friendly, totally incompetent young man who gave me absolutely no help whatsoever. All he could say was that he could send someone out and that it would cost 950 SKr. He could book him for the end of next week.

This came on top of all the other technical problems you have in today's modern society. I am thinking of buying chargers for your mobile  phones (we have four going at the moment from different countries) and charging them up and also charging your dongle (I know, it sounds yucky but it is a little gadget we need for internet here in the cottage).

Furthermore we have had an ongoing saga trying to get our daughter's husband over here for a visit from Senegal. He was refused his initial visa so they couldn't arrive together but he finally turned up three days ago. This had involved many visits to the tax office and phone calls to a certain Madame F in Dakar who was in charge of the Swedish visas even though she worked at the Spanish embassy. We thought it would be easier to have our own printer here so we bought one and that is the start of another fresh technical nightmare ... and  it goes on.

So, yes I long for the times when you arrived at a summer cottage and there was blissful silence and no mobile phones and Fb and Instagram and Messenger and all that stuff. You might receive a post card from someone during the summer and you would speak to your neighbour. If someone went shopping they might buy the newspaper and you could sit and read it in the sun. Good times!

On the bright side we have seen and done so much in a relatively short time. My sister-in-law and I went to Hjo for a big craft market that is held every year. It is more than a market; I would call it a craft fair. It rained a little bit for the first time in weeks but all the stands were covered and they seemed to do a roaring trade.

We met up with my nephews and great-nephew and accompanied them back to the older nephew's cottage on the lake Vattern.

The day before we got there we visited Lacko Slott which is very beautiful.

We also went to Warnhem Abbey and to Skara Cathedral. We had a night in a very nice hotel with a nice breakfast buffet the next day.

Yesterday was spent in Gothenburg visiting my sister's grave on the 12th anniversary of her death and having lunch in town and sightseeing etc. Today I am having a home day and hubby is taking the visitors to Nordens Ark which is a zoo with Nordic animals and some endangered species and they are hoping to see a wolverine.

Have to go now and tidy and prepare meals for later. Oh, by the way, the TV works now. All you had to do was pull out the plug and card and put it back again. The old usual "have you tried turning it off and on again" applied here as usual.

There will be more soon. Have a nice day!

Cottage life

Dear readers,

We are enjoying nice sunny days over here right now and doing the most of it. For example today we are going to Fjällbacka which is the Swedish version of Midsomer Murders in the UK. There are a lot of murders and other crime taking place there, and we are hoping to spot something.

But first we are doing an extensive visit to the tip. As you might have read before, Sweden is famous for dealing with their garbage and sorting your rubbish is taken very seriously. Last year I was told off for putting something that looked like plastic in with paper. I am sure the lady in question would have reported me to the police if they had been near by.

Yesterday my sister in law and me went into Gothenburg for a spot of shopping. She loves this very flamboyant Swedish designer Gudrun Sjödén and they had great summer sales on. Then it was time for a little visit with my mother. She is still a bit sore from the fall she had when she visited us over midsummer. It will maybe not be possible to have her here at the cottage for extended periods any more but rather just bring her here over the day.

Today might be spent doing chores around here with just a quick trip to get supplies.

So far we have been seven people in the cottage and it does require a bit of planning and shopping but everybody has been on best behavior so it has gone great.

We have had fun evening with board games, charades and limerick competitions and a lot of singing. That's what you do when you don't have proper internet.

We have also had our 38-year wedding anniversary celebrated with a seafood meal in a French restaurant in Skärhamn on Tjörn.

Time to get this day started, I hear people stirring. Unfortunately, with mature age comes early waking so I have already been up for hours trying to do quiet things but now I think I can go and do kitchen noises. 

 

Cheerio!

Canadian cousin

Dear Readers,

We have already been in Sweden for a week with both rain and glorious sunshine.

The highlight so far has been meeting up with my cousin who lives in Canada. He left many years ago so we have had no contact but I think it was last year or the year before that we found each other and this year we also managed to meet up. We grew up in the same neighborhood and I have such fond memories of our childhood. He had two older brothers and my sister and I used to play together especially with the two younger ones. We have not seen each other since we were children and it was great to catch up. This time it was just a lunch in the sun and a visit with my mother but next time we hope it might be longer.

I wish I had thought to show you before and after pictures of our cottage when we arrived with the grass up to our knees and now with the beautifully cut lawn, but I didn't think to take photos. What a difference!

Soon our friends from England, my sister-in-law and our daughter from Africa and her husband will be arriving, as well as my nephew and mother, so we will have a very full house. I am sure I will have lots to tell soon.

Until then all my love.

Art Trail

Hello Dear Readers,

Bundeena backyard view.

I know I said last time that next time I write will probably be from overseas, but hey, what do you know, here I am again and we are still in Australia. We are leaving on Friday and I don't look forward to the trip because yet again we are not having a stop-over on the way.

It is getting very chilly here now. One morning I think it was only 12° C in the kitchen when we came down. It warms up nicely in the day though, and you just have to be outside to warm up.

Yesterday we went to Bundeena to see the Art Trail. Bundeena is a lovely small place where a lot of artists have settled and the first Sunday of the month you can visit their studios and talk to them. So this time we took our friends S and A there because they had never been. Sydney is so big and since they don't live in this area they had never heard of it. A is herself an artist of Chinese origin so she was particularly interested to speak to Jiawe Shen, a former farmer and soldier from Manchuria who came to Sydney after what happened in Tiananmen Square. I had seen him paint a couple of weeks before in the art society to which I belong. After only a few minutes you could detect the likeness of the person he was painting and after less than an hour we saw a finished portrait; he truly has a gift.

But the most interesting thing is that he loves to read, especially history and some of his wall panels depict whole moments in history, like, for instance, the Russian revolution.

We visited a few other artists and then had lunch in Bundeena too. They have opened a new place called Driftwood and it was very good, and very much needed. Last time we were in Bundeena for lunch we went to another place and every single thing we ordered, they were out of. In the end we just had to ask them "So what do you have then?" I think it turned out to be a sandwich or something. There is also a market in the park near the beach on the Sunday of the Art Trail but sadly the stall holders were packing up when we finished lunch so we missed that little pleasure.

Tonight we are going into Sydney to see Vivid Sydney. I have not been for a few years but it is always very impressive. If all goes well with my photographic skills I will put some photos on here before I post it.
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Until next tim