No New Year's resolutions

Yeah, that's right! I am not making any New Year's resolutions this year. It's just too much hassle and to much disappointment involved when you can't keep them. So just generally hoping for a pleasant year for everyone. However, if you are making resolutions, here are some general tips and not just for New Years resolutions:

1. Set achievable goals instead of ideal goals.
2. Expect setbacks.
3. Don't use excuses or setbacks to put it off for another year.

In fact I hardly noticed that we changed year. Here we are in the city that has one of the first and most amazing fireworks displays in the world and we slept through it all. I guess I was counting on hubby to wake me up  for the fireworks,  in case I nodded off in front of the TV and he counted on me doing the same.  We slept like like babies until early morning but looking on the bright side, we now have a bottle of champagne to drink at a suitable moment!

This is what we missed.

We have had some very hot days here in Australia, in some places near +50C but not here. We had maybe around +35C but even that that is way above my comfort temperature, so I am very grateful that the house we are renting has a pool. We virtually live in it. In fact I hear splashing right now which means that hubby is trying to get onto the giant inflatable ring. It usually takes a few tries and is quite amusing to watch. We usually have to fill up with more water too when he's had a few tries.

New Year's Day we went for a drive to the northern beaches and ended up having lunch in Mona Vale and then we drove on to West Head where you have a beautiful view over to Palm Beach.

It is called the Pacific Highway but of course it is  not the street that you drive on in Sydney but this is for the life in the ocean, for the whales and the penguins and the dolphins etc. I hope you can read it.

Other than that we have had a big yacht race  from Sydney to Hobart and again I missed out on seeing the boats start out because we forgot, but one of these days.

On a sad note, Michael Schumacher is in coma in  hospital in my second home town, Grenoble.

My thoughts are with his family.

   

Compliments, I think?

My first husband (RIP), who was American, used to say "Hey, you look like a million dollars!" when he wanted to pay me a compliment when we were going out. In retrospect I think that was a suitable compliment. The US being a capitalist society, what bigger praise can you give than saying that someone looks like a million greenbacks, right!

Hubby, an Aussie by birth, might say "You scrub up well.", or "She scrubs up well." about some sheila to whom he wants to pay a compliment. I am guessing that this expression dates back to pioneering times when the wives were out there working in the fields getting all hot and dirty in the strong Australian sun. Maybe once every now and again there was a reason to wash up and dress for some festive occasion and that's when this compliment was minted.

This is a lady we saw at the Steamfest in Maitland that we went to and doesn't she "scrub up well"?

The Brits, being known for their romantic streak (tongue in cheek here), would maybe refer to their sweetheart as "a rose by any other name" in a Shakesperian way. Or else they would just say that "she is fit", and everyone knows what that means.

I learnt it the hard way. We were in Tuscany with some old friends, and the older son and I got separated from the others for a while after we parked the car. This young man is a real charmer and every time we passed a girl he would check them out and sometimes he would say "She's fit".  I stupidly thought he meant it in its actual meaning i.e. sporty, athletic, slim, etc, and sometimes I couldn't really see how he could consider them fit and athletic as they were walking along smoking, tottering on very high-heeled shoes with a drink in their hand.  That's when I was told what it really meant. Now this was a few years ago and by now the Brits may have come up with other expressions for pretty girls.

So after the horrendous bush fires we are now experiencing torrential rainfalls. Hubby spent Saturday morning helping the neighbour, packing up her huge china cabinet since the rain was up 20 cm in her living room. Amazingly enough we have been spared but I am watching the pool flooding over at the moment so maybe we are next. Anyway, five houses in our street had to have emergency help this week end.

Maybe it doesn't show up so well here but the water level is very high and  I am very nervous.

These three Aussies worked together in Grenoble and here they are in Sydney.  I think the two visitors have to learn to adopt the Aussie dress code.

We had planned to "throw a shrimp on the barbie" i.e. have a barbecue, since some of our old Grenoble friends are visiting but instead we had a cosy indoor meal wishing we had had an open fire place.
Here is what we had for dessert!

Pavlova, the favorite australian dessert.

Off the beaten track

We survived the harrowing experience of driving on the German autobahn to Sweden. You think that you are keeping up with traffic driving at about 140km an hour but you are constantly being overtaken by Mercedeses and the like, driving at 190km an hour. Then if that is not bad enough you also have the thousands of trucks.  They have their own little competition going on. They keep overtaking each other and being generally dangerous and also very big.

Anyway, it's over now for this time and we survived and are now at our destination. On the way though, we had to sleep somewhere and we have noticed that in Germany, if you take a little bit of extra time, you can find great guesthouses in little villages off the beaten track. This time we found a place that dated back to 1847, and it was very popular with workers of different kind, so I was the only female there. Breakfast was fun and rowdy even though I think my presence put a damper on it. Everyone was also given plastic bags to do their lunch bag, which is usually frowned upon if you try to do that in hotels.

'Abseits ausgetretener Pfade'

Our few days in Grenoble were fun filled. We had dinner and lunches with friends and neighbors and we also caught up on a few errands we had to do. As I did last time I slept at my kind neighbour's house and hubby was left to his own device in our little studio. He still have loads of paper work to check through from his previous job so it is best to leave him to it.

Dinner the first night after our arrival from Australia. Jet-lag ! Never heard of it!

A nice Zen breakfast with our neighbors in Montbonnot.

Delicious dinner with old friends

Lunch in Villard de Lans, very yummy!

Happy reunion with neighbors

Now we are yet again off the beaten track in our little cottage in Sweden together with sister- and brother-in-law. First day it poured with rain, but yesterday and today look good.

We drove into Gothenburg yesterday to visit my mother whom we hadn't seen yet. She looks very well and we will have her out here in the cottage as soon as we have everything in order. It always takes a while to get the garden looking ok and the house set up so a 88-year old can be comfortable

Coffee time at the old people's home!

Leaving you with a big hug. Yes, Swedes hug as naturally as the French kiss, even though hubby still has a problem with man hugs!!