Hubby back

Hello again dear friends, 

Hubby is back from France, back where he should be and where he enjoys being, in the kitchen cooking. I think we are having osso bucco with gremolata, yum!

Today is Sunday, so it is a late lunch. Unfortunately the kids couldn't come. One was working and one was trying to deal with his tax declaration. When you have your own company it is really tedious, I believe. It was then that I realised I have hardly ever done my income tax declaration, ever. In both my marriages I was spared the anguish. To make it even more complicated in our situation we have to declare income in three countries.

Next weekend we are off to a place called Griffith for the weekend with hubby's friends from university. It is where a lot of Italians settled, so we are hoping for good food and wine.

I don't have a lot to tell you this time since it has been quite peaceful and uneventful, so I'll finish off with an elk story. The elk in this photo managed to get himself into the bus station in Partille, a small place near my hometown, Gothenburg. It must have scared the bejesus out of people sitting there waiting for the bus.

It looks quite empty so maybe people have fled outside.

Have to leave you now, I just heard "Á table" from the kitchen.

Ironic

When we first moved to Australia a lot of people warned us of all the dangerous snakes and other animals, like sharks and crocodiles and jelly fish and spiders, that we might run into. It is true that Australia is home to many dangerous animals but I haven't seen any yet and we have been here now over eight years. 

That is why I was quite surprised to see my next-door neighbour  in Sweden come running across the field and telling me that she had been bitten by a viper while picking cranberries. Her arm and hand were swelling up as we spoke so we hopped in the car and drove to the local medical centre. They gave her cortisone but didn't have any serum available, so they decided to call an ambulance and take her to the closest hospital which is in Kungälv (whose facilities I enjoyed in early June) where she was kept for two days. She seems fine now even though the swelling has still not gone down completely.

Hello again dear readers,

That first part was written before I left Sweden in September. I have now been back in Australia for a month and have had the pleasure of catching up with family and friends. My painting lessons are on hold for the school holidays but I had time to get one lesson in before that happened and it was great to see everybody there as well.

One of the first friends I met up with was A who had just arrived in Australia to visit her son and his family. We had lunch in a restaurant in Circular Quay and her son B also came later on. We got to know each other in Grenoble but we don't see each other very often especially since they don't live in Grenoble any more so even when we go back there we don't see them.

Yesterday I had lunch with another A, a friend who lives in the city quite near IKEA and Decathlon the French sport store, so every time we meet up there is also a bit of shopping involved on the way home. We got to know each other many years ago in Grenoble. She had also been overseas for a few months so we had lots of catching up to do. The Italian restaurant where we had lunch was in a place called Hunters Hill, where I had never been before. It was very nice with big old houses all with a view of the water. There are so many nice suburbs in Sydney but you have to have the cash, lots of it.

Last week end was labour-day week end so people who work were off work on Monday. The weather was gorgeous so on Sunday hubby and I took the train into town and the ferry to Manly to enjoy the yearly jazz festival. It was fun with a lot of great bands, but very crowded.

This was the first band that met us when we got off the ferry
and even though we listened to many other  groups that day
it was still the most endearing one with a real good stomp.

Time to go now dear friends and get another day started. It is a bit lonely right now with hubby having just left for France. We have finally sold our house there and he has to get papers signed plus he is also going for work. I don't want to dwell too long on the sadness of selling the house where the kids grew up and where we had such a happy life. It had to be done to enable us to buy something here in Australia.

View from our former house in France of the
Dent de Crolles

The big debate right now is yes or no to letting
companies advertise at night on the Sydney Opera
House. Just for the record, my vote is on NO.

Take care and watch out for snakes!!!

Compliments

I am sure you agree that it is nice to get compliments. So today at lunch when elder daughter said: "You look like you've lost weight ... your hands look slimmer"! I decided to take that as a compliment even though she probably just meant that my hands are looking a bit old and wrinkled.

Another compliment that I think I have mentioned before is the Aussie "You (or she) scrub up well". This is being said when someone has dressed up, say for a wedding or similar big party and put on their best frock and makeup and high-heeled shoes. It doesn't mean that you look nice and clean after a shower.

Actually what made me think about compliments was something hubby said recently. After trying to think what to make for dinner (again) and what to get for tomorrow in the shops both our daughter and he said "How difficult it must have been for you, mum, to make meals for us five and do the shopping for over thirty years". YES, I thought, finally recognition! Plus, again, I took it as a compliment, and that is what brought on this subject.

Anyway, compliments are always nice, even if they are late and a bit backward, so keep spreading them around.

Hubby is in the kitchen cooking a last meal before going back to Australia on Friday. It is a good afternoon for it because it is just starting to rain and it is nice to be inside. We desperately need the rain after this dry summer, so no complaints here.

Elder daughter has been very busy painting in preparation for an exhibition. I don't know if it will include the portrait of my nephew (below) but she paints a portrait of him every summer. This pose is very relaxed and the subject can also have a nap as you can see.

We looked after my other nephew's 6-year-old son this week, and hubby took him on a seal safari. I think hubby was as excited as the 6-year old, if not more, and we now have hundreds of photos of seals. I didn't go. I think I have mentioned before that boat outings are not my thing. Seasickness is though, and I really didn't feel that I wanted to risk it.

You thought getting in and out of bed was difficult. Just watching
the seals wriggling up the rock was tiring in itself!

Must go now and listen to hubby giving us info about what to do when we close up the house before we leave.

Hello again,

Just a quick greeting before I send this off. Quite a few days have passed since I started writing this but I got interrupted. Hubby is now back in Australia even though he missed his connection in Stockholm and had to spend a night in a hotel, completely due to the incompetence of the travel agent who organised the flights. The weather has changed here and today is grey and chilly and we might finally be able to barbecue after the long fire ban.

Elder daughter and hubby have gone into Goteborg to see a Senegalese group so I am on my own. Let's see what kind of mischief I can get up to. Until next time, give each other lots of compliments, I am sure you can think of something positive!

Back from the UK

We have been over to the UK for a wedding. It was our friend's younger son who was getting married with his long-time girl friend. She is very active in the local church so it was held in "her" church called St Nicolas Church. There were quite a few of the church members present and the atmosphere was very friendly. 

Two of the ladies with head gear. 

Time to update your Facebook status!

The wedding party was held up on a hill called Wintershall Estate. It had a lovely view. The church usually has a Nativity play every year hence the presence of the donkey, who was a guest of honour. The Red Arrows Aerobatic Team flew over as part of the Farnborough International Airshow and even let out some smoke.

Chester made a guest appearance at the
wedding.

Grandpa and grandson at the small family dinner the
night before the wedding.

Hubby in the back barbecuing some sausages at the luncheon
following the wedding. They didn't have a total fire ban as
we have right now here in Sweden.

My friend R really has green thumbs, as
you can see. The rest of the garden is
equally gorgeous.

The wedding cake was made by A,  a
family friend and was delicious

The day after the wedding our friends held an all-day luncheon at their place with guests from afar and also the bride's family. The temperature was up in the +30° C so it was nice for the kids to have the use of a paddling pool.

We stayed on for a few more days and enjoyed our friends' company and the beautiful weather. Hubby also got to visit the Mid-Hants Heritage Railway while I went to visit Hinton Ampner House which was very beautiful but sadly under re-construction so I couldn't go in.

We had planned to visit Chartwell House in Kent before going back to the airport on our last day but in the end we didn't. We needed sustenance in a pub after having lost our way a few times and then arriving at a very full parking lot. Chartwell was the family home of Winston Churchill and he claimed "A day away from Chartwell is a day wasted" so we clearly missed out on something very special. It will have to be for next time.

Just thought I'd finish off with this nice
phone booth that has found a new use. Apparently one can just go in a grab
something to read. Maybe you also
have something to put in there in return.

Until next time, take care dear readers!

Snuff and stuff

A lot of Swedes use snuff which you buy in little round boxes and if you are a long-time user your trouser pockets take the form of the snuffbox and everybody can tell that you are a snuff user. Anyway our son tried it while he was here and we were all a little grossed out and kept telling him how off-putting it would be for a possible girlfriend. He retorted that a lot of girls use snuff here in Sweden, and sure enough in the afternoon while shopping I saw this blond angelic-looking girl put in a snuff portion (they come if the form of tea-bags) while parking her bike. Apparently it's safer than smoking and not only old men use it, which used to be the case in the old days.

Last night was elk-spotting time again. Just as we were fretting over the last minutes of the soccer game between Croatia and the UK our neighbour came in to tell us that there was a huge elk in her back garden. Our daughter and husband abandoned (very reluctantly) the game and ran off to see it but I just couldn't. As it was, they made it back to see Croatia score 2-1 against the UK, which none of us had expected.

Hubby has been over in Australia now for two weeks working, but is coming back on Sunday. He will be very pleased to see the garden in tiptop shape thanks to our son-in-law.

Before that he was over in Durham for a graduation ceremony among other things. He does look a little Harry Potter like, doesn't he? (This link is not too remote; parts of Durham Cathedral, including the room below, doubled as a film location for Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.)

Sweden is suffering from a very dry period and except for the rainstorm two days ago we haven't had a drop of rain since we arrived in May. In fact, it wasn't just rain it also hailed quite a bit and our son-in-law was quite amazed since he had never seen hail before.

Our son has gone back to Australia after a fun month here with pizza-oven building and swimming and generally doing holiday things.

Enjoy the rest of the summer if you are in Europe! If you are in Australia just try to cope with the cold weather, someone said it was just 10° in Sydney!

Almost a month

That's right, we have been here almost a month, and I have been in hospital for a few days. It was a case of blood poisoning and happened very quickly. Hubby had left with our son with a van to go down to France and clear out the house for sale. When they rang back here I was confused and feverish and didn't respond that well so they got my nephew to call an ambulance and the rest is history.

My dear neighbour had also gotten worried about me, bless her, and called another ambulance but I was already gone to hospital with the first one. When they found the house empty and the car still there, they said that they should call in a dog team and go looking for me in the woods in case I had gotten confused and wondered off into the forest. My neighbour, however, said 'No, no, she would never do that, absolutely not.' So in the end they traced my whereabouts and found where I had been taken. I feel a little bit hurt that I am so well known for someone who would not go walking in the forest.

Laying there in the emergency ward was very interesting. There was an elderly gentleman, brought in by his wife, who defecated 3 kilos (the gentleman, not the wife) and then walked out whistling. He had been constipated for two weeks. There was also a very big family of new Swedes who came as support for one of the children. It was almost like a family party.

After 24 hours I was moved to a private room in a ward. I got a private room since they were worried about the fact that I had just arrived from abroad. I heard the word multi-resistant bacteria mentioned a few times. After a few days the boys arrived from France and two days later I was allowed to come home with continual antibiotics.

Now we are trying to deal with our other problems, ie Viasat not functioning in the middle of the football cup. The hot water is also not working, but the plumber is here right now so I hope he can fix it.

On the positive side, mum is very happy to have us here and yesterday we had a nice outing, fixing up my sister's grave and then having lunch by the sea.

Cheers dear friends, and better news next time, I hope!

I made it

Remember, that I almost didn't think that I would be able to come, but here we are in our cozy little cottage in Sweden. The temperature is about +28°C today, while yesterday it was +31°C. It is the hottest it has been in a month of May since they started measuring temperatures.

We have already been here a week and most things are getting back to normal. There are always so many little things to see to. This time our Viasat Satellite TV box wouldn't work and when we called to complain, it turns out: a) it is too old, and b) we have paid too much????? So now every day is taken up by waiting for the TV guy to come and install a new box.

Our new registration plates to make our former French car Swedish have arrived, after they had been sent to Uppsala where we lived about 40 years ago! When I called to complain, it was only a small question of paying again and have them sent here. So at least one success.

On the way to Europe we had a two-night stop-over in Dubai which was fun and also made the trip doable with my leg. However, it was during the Ramadan so life was very quiet. You felt a bit guilty when you snuck in something to eat or drink during the day.

The hotel was called Sheraton Dubai Creek and our room had a wonderful view over the creek which was particularly beautiful at night with all the dhows going up and down the river all lit up.

The next day we used the Hop on / Hop off busses all day. That took us all over the city using the different lines. We had not booked tickets to go up in the Burj Khalifa so we just saw it from afar, both from our hotel and from the bus.

The tallest building in the world at 828 m.

My mother is fine even though she is completely forgetful. She also seem quite tired and spends most of her time in bed. It would surprise me if she could even come out to the cottage with us this time. She will be very happy to see her oldest grandson arrive on Sunday though. He is actually coming to help out with the house in France so hubby and he are driving down there next week.

Fun at the old-peoples' home!

I have to leave you now and tell you more next time. Thanks for reading!

Chucking a sickie

Chucking a sickie means in Australian speak that you stay home from work because you are sick. You watch series and sleep and have cups of tea. However in hubby's world it means that you do everything work related that you would normally do at work but sitting surrounded by Kleenex and empty cups in your bed with your laptop. He actually is quite miserable but feels he has to go back tomorrow, one sickie is enough.

The weekend was both fun and not so much fun. I had to go to hospital twice to get an antibiotic drip because I have a staph infection in my right leg. Today I didn't have to go because a nurse came here and took care of it. Now we are nervous about me not being able to fly to Europe next Monday but I feel it will be ok. Fingers crossed.

The fun part was that the kids came around, flowers and all. They had a stop at IKEA on the way so we had lots of goodies plus the gigantic meatloaf that hubby had prepared. They stayed and watched part of the Eurovision finals with us. It's a big deal here. Yes, I think I have mentioned it before but Australia considerers itself part of Europe when it comes to Eurovision. Can you just imagine what will happen if they win one year and the whole circus has to travel all the way here Down Under.

There will be more shortly. Take care dear readers.

Anzac Day

G'day! 

Today is Anzac Day and people are generally off work. it is observed on 25^th April each year and it was originally to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. There is usually a dawn service but these days none of the soldiers from the first World War are alive to participate of course.

You can buy Anzac biscuits in the shops; it is an oatmeal and sometimes coconut biscuit that was originally baked and sent out to the troops during the war. I quite like them and they are very easy to make.

Hubby is in the kitchen cooking away. It gives me great pleasure to see. He has really taken to it, and sometimes he starts planning lunch already when we get up, asking me what I would like for lunch!! I'll have to put his name down for MKR if this continues. Don't get me wrong here, I am enjoying it and I hope it's not just a fad. I am thinking of buying him a proper chef's hat like Pascal's below. He is the chef at Chez Pascal where we had dinner a while ago.

My nephew has returned to Sweden and soon we will go there too, only a month left. I think he realised how big this country is after having spent a whole day on the train to get to Broken Hill (he likes trains). It is really worth flying if you are planning on doing big distances here in Australia. It is just so big. Here is a map showing just that.

We didn't buy the house that we so liked in the end. The time frame didn't work out since we are leaving and the owners couldn't move out immediately. Anyway, something else will turn up I hope.

This means that we can't really have people over, not to this warehouse (we still haven't unpacked). So we are opting for having a few people come for dinner at a restaurant. Last weekend we had a test lunch at one that we hadn't been to before, just for fun. It was great apart for the steep staircase that you had to get down (and then up). So I think we are back to our fave in Wollongong.

Father and daughter doing what most people are
doing these days when they see each other.

Time to go and do chores. Bye for now!

PS I know I mentioned that we went out for a meal last week with our niece and here is a photo from that.

Bush fire

Hello dear readers!   

Yes, we have had bushfires very close to where we used to live in Menai and also near where hubby works. In fact they have been told to work from home both yesterday and today. It's a good way to start getting into retirement mode, having cups of tea and working in your boxer shorts.

Fortunately nobody has been injured in the fires and no houses have burnt down as far as I know. The smoke has been horrible though.

This is our neighbour's place in Menai and our
previous rented house was right next to it.

My nephew from Sweden is visiting at the moment. Right now he is in Broken Hill and will be back on Thursday. Before he left we had a day outing to the Hunter Valley wine district which is always good fun. If you are more of a beer drinker they also have several breweries that you can visit, which we did. 

He was also able to add the Big Kookaburra in Kurri Kurri to his list of Big Things. The public toilets below were beautifully decorated with murals. In fact Kurri Kurri is well known for it's many murals and it's worth having a little walk around to see them.

The first weekend he was here he came with us down to Albion Park where we have been looking at a house. Both he and our daughter approved wholeheartedly of the house, but unfortunately we have run into complications due to my non-citizen status and we are still trying to work it out. We went up to Saddleback Mountain where you have a fantastic view of the whole valley and where you can also go for nice walks. Then we went to the Minnamurra rainforest and saw a very rare lyrebird. It was actually quite fearless and walked around without taking notice of us. They can imitate any sound. For instance if they hear a motor mower or chain saw they can imitate that perfectly. Check it out on YouTube.

Tonight we are meeting up with hubby's other niece in Sydney for dinner. She is here for work and it will be nice to catch up.

Time to say goodbye. Cheerio!!

Good Intentions

One of my intentions this year was to write a little blog entry every Monday, mainly to keep it regular, and also write while I remember what we have done. Well, as you can see that clearly has not happened, and now I am sitting here racking my brain trying to think what we have been up to. It doesn't get any better with age. Hubby and I can spend a happy but a little tortuous Saturday morning trying to think of the name of a certain actor. "You know the one who is married to such and such who played in such and such movie". Oh, how tedious it can get!

We were invited to the Chinese Yuan Xiao festival at our friends' house. It was very nice. We sat outside and had a lovely hot-pot which is like a Chinese version of fondue. You have a broth with lots of different fish balls and tofu swimming in it and then you get a little implement to put your meat, finely sliced and your different mushroom and fungi and other things in and cook it in the broth. It's a very enjoyable way to spend an evening. For dessert we had the famous glutinous rice balls called Yuan Xiao filled with a sort of sesame filling, very nice.

Last week-end they had a graffiti or rather street-art "Happening" in Caringbah which we went to. We should have had more tattoos and piercings to really fit in, but it was still fun. I am glad my painting takes place standing or sitting on the ground and that I don't have to climb up ladders.

Another fun thing was that a couple of weeks ago we met up with hubby's niece and her husband and their two adorable kids. We went into the city one evening and had a meal together in the hotel restaurant. We had never seen the younger of their two girls and come to think of it we had barely seen the older one either, so it was very nice to catch up. Sorry, but I can't put up pictures of the event since I have not spoken to the parents, but there were some good ones with hubby speaking baby speak.

So now we are looking forward to my nephew coming in a couple of weeks. I am sure we will have some fun outings with him. Maybe to our favourite Japanese restaurant in Sutherland?

Take care now, dear readers!

Central Coast

We are back from a house-hunting week-end on the Central Coast, alas without success.

Already on the way up there on Friday afternoon we had second thoughts due to the horrible traffic conditions. However once there we cheered up a bit. Our hotel was called The Clan and it was situated right on the beach in Terrigal. The receptionist saw that I had a wonky knee and proposed a change of room. We were allocated a comfortable family room on the ground floor with access to the beach with no additional cost. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and it was top notch, plus hubby could have some wine and not worry about driving afterwards which is normally the case.

The next day was a flurry of visiting different houses and in fact we saw one in particular that we both liked but realised that we couldn't even contemplate.  It would have meant spending three hours one way to go to work for hubby and that would just not be possible. Still we had fun up there and enjoyed seeing all the beautiful beaches - Umina beach, Pearl Beach, Ocean Beach, and a few others.

The weather was also very nice over the week-end, not like last week when it actually got up to +38 ° C. Many people spent the whole day in the shopping mall, even going to the beach was too hot.

Can you see the young boy jumping from the bridge? Well it happened when hubby was walking on the bridge to take some photos and approaching these three young boys, the youngest probably just eight and the oldest maybe twelve, one of the boys asked hubby if he had come to jump. When hubby laughed and said "No", the boy said, "Come on, there is still some life left in you. You are not at the end of your days yet". It was such a challenge and hubby might have done it but he had his camera and wallet so he couldn't do it or so he says!

Another challenge that we (hubby) would like to take up is SUP and they even say that you haven't been to Sydney if you haven't tried it.

Have a nice week dear friends!