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

Time flies

Cape Solander in the Botany Bay National Park

I know, I know, I have been very remiss at writing here. I just checked how many entries I had written so far this year and it came to only two. The year that I started this blog I think it came up to 90 or more, over the whole year. Does it mean that I have more things to do and less time to write because of that?

Well, not really, but my painting takes up a bit of time, and I have also discovered SBS On Demand which means a bit of binge watching of Scandinavian series. We are going to Sweden in a few weeks and that will hopefully put an end to that, because we don't have Wi-Fi  there, but just a dongle so you can't really use it in the same way. Also, we will be living Scandinavian Noir!

So, starting with last week-end which was Mother's Day, the "kids" invited us out for a late lunch at a place called The Butler in Pott's Point. It was really nice. They have lots of different cocktails and "sharing dishes" with interesting food on the menu. The terrace is lovely, with a great view over Sydney.

Younger daughter with a cocktail called Air France

The fact that it was a late lunch also gave us time to go to the Finders Keepers Market  in Barangaroo, which was nice, but oh so noisy. It had live music and there was too much echo.

A few weeks ago we went to a Lego exhibition in Town Hall in the City. You would think it would be only kids there, and there were hundreds of them, but there were also many serious adult Lego nerds, both having constructed the set-ups and as spectators. I so wanted to take a couple of photos of some of them (the nerds) but it seemed intrusive.

The only down side was that one of these little kids ran in front of me and made me stumble and fall, and it was quite a spectacular fall. Fortunately there were some burly security guards there who lifted me up. The little boy who had caused it disappeared probably terrified of the disaster he had caused.

This is the Hungarian State Opera consisting of 55.000 pieces.
It took Graham Draper eight months to source and build.

Easter has also come and gone. We had hoped to go to Vietnam just for a few days on one of these cheap flights, and when I first looked the prices were amazing, but we couldn't decide on the dates, and when we finally wanted to book it had tripled so we stayed home. It was nice too with great weather and a bbq with our son, younger daughter and boyfriend, and a French friend.

Next time I write will probably be from Europe, and I hope to catch up with many of you there.

Thanks for reading. Take care!

A day to remember

The guy on the left spoke a few words Swedish and was very keen on Hammarby, a Swedish soccer club.

I should really tell you about our recent trip to Berlin (which was great fun by the way) but something came up the other day that triggered a little memory of an incident that happened when we had just moved to Grenoble, so I'll tell you about that first.

We had quite a few visitors in those early years and this particular incident happened when our friend J came to visit from Sweden. He had come for work so he really only had one free day to do something fun and he said he was dying to go skiing. It was a beautiful day for it so we set off relatively early, or as early as you can with three adults and a three-year old and a three-month-old baby and all the skiing stuff. After having driven down from our mountain and half way through the city I asked hubby if we had brought the snow chains since there was quite a bit of snow. He stopped the car to have a look and sure enough we had forgotten them.

There was a nice playground nearby so me and the kids and the pram etc were dropped off there and hubby promised to try to make it quickly back to the house. At first we had a good time on the swings with another dad who was there with his little girl. They were from Iran and he told me his life story while we were sitting there. However after about an hour and a half it was getting cold and toilet visits were requested, so needless to say I was getting a little anxious. My new friend said he had to go home and that I was more than welcome to come with him. It was very tempting but since this was before the time of mobile phones I couldn't let hubby know where we were in that case so I decided to stay in the playground.

After another uncomfortable half hour hubby arrived. By this time I was furious and yelled at him. I asked him what had taken so long and he looked a little surprised. It turned out that they had picked up the chains very quickly but when they were driving down the mountain the muffler had come off and they had to quickly go via a Midas shop and see if they could get it fixed on the spot. They got it done in record time and they were actually quite pleased at how quickly everything had gone. When I vented my spleen they both looked surprised and hurt as if they wanted to say "But all you had to do was sit here in a playground and enjoy yourself"! As if, in -10 C and wondering what I would do if they didn't turn up. I hadn't even taken my purse so I had no money and I knew nobody in that area  (well, aside from my new friend but he was gone by then).

Anyway we packed ourselves in again and set off for Chamrousse and a good thing we had the snow chains. We arrived at the station about an hour later. We had been invited to my friends Nizou's apartment for lunch and for me to have a base with the baby since I was not going to ski. Unbeknownst to us she had asked her husband, who had a restaurant, to bring home French delicacies, like frog's legs, and snails, and other goodies, so our foreign friend could have a chance to taste all these.  You can see that it was impossible to rush through this meal and it really was very nice with the right wine with the right dish etc., but the result was that the boys didn't hit the slopes until just before three o'clock and they usually close at five.

I have to fast forward now to our return trip. I don't know how the actual skiing went since I didn't go, but I can imagine that it was a bit cumbersome to ski with all that food and drink in your stomach. They had also met some of our friends up there who had invited them for drinks after the skiing. They lived on the road down to Grenoble so we would be passing their house.

We all got ourselves into the car and started driving down. It is always a bit congested since everybody wants to get down at the same time. Hubby then remembered a shortcut he had been on the previous summer when he was hiking so we took this little road that would get us down to the main road before everybody else. The only problem was that during the skiing season it was made into a blue ski slope so as we started driving we relatively quickly started sinking down deeper and deeper into the snow. Hubby tried to reverse back up the hill, but that action just shot the snow chains off the wheels.

Hubby stopped the car and somehow we got out, maybe through the windows and then we dragged/carried the kids back up the slope to a little house where we saw a light. Luckily it was the control room for the big snow machines that go over the ski slopes at night and prepare them for the next day. The lady could almost not make the call to her husband who was driving one of these machines she was laughing so hard when she tried to explain that these English (!) people had driven a car with babies in it down a ski slope..!! Anyway, her husband promised to come and pull us out when he was finished and he did. Meanwhile we were welcome to wait in a tiny room where the drivers kept their boots and jackets etc..So we did that, with nothing to play with or read and nothing to eat or drink,  we sat there for well over an hour. I think the adults were crankier than the kids. Our three-year-old son was very excited about the big monster machines though and the baby was sleeping, so they were happy.

After having been pulled back up to the main road we drove down in silence and completely forgot our after-ski drinks invitation and continued home. As soon as we got in the phone started ringing and it was our friends ringing to see if we were alive. They had been sitting there for hours waiting for us, worrying, and even calling the hospitals. Hubby told them briefly what had happened but I don't think he went into details about him deliberately choosing the short cut that turned out to be a ski slope.

Our friend J might not quite have gotten the day of skiing that he had hoped for but he got something that he could dine out on for years to come. Hubby saw him recently in Uppsala and he brought it up still giggling about it.  The funny thing is that Hubby keeps on forgetting about it, and has to be reminded.

2017

I can't believe that we are already two months into 2017.  It's been quite busy over here with New Year and Australia Day and visitors, etc.

Hubby's old friend from Melbourne, with whom he used to  share lodgings, and his wife were here last week and we had them over for a bbq Saturday after a bush walk in the Royal National Park. The park is not very far from us but Sundays are horrible for getting into the park and finding a parking spot. They got back hot and ready for a dip but that's when it happened, the thing I have been dreading when I am on my own. The back door slammed shut and the front was closed too since we were sitting on the back veranda, and we were all locked out. Everything was inside, drinks and food and telephones and car keys and yes, the extra keys too. Well, fortunately our son was able to climb up on the roof and remove the insect netting in front of the office window and prise it open (just goes to show you how easy it is to break in)  It was a bit nerve wracking while he was doing it and not something I would recommend.

On Australia Day, the 26^th of January,  we went to Cronulla to listen to some music and also because I wanted to see the ceremony that they have when people get their Australian citizenship. They had 150 people in Sutherland Shire who had become naturalized Aussies but on the stage with the mayor there were only 4 - 2 Brits and and 2 Americans. They were well chosen i think, so as to not create aggression and cause problems. Cronulla is after all where they had race riots a few years ago that turned very nasty. The national anthem was sung both in English and the native aboriginal language of this region.

A peaceful Australia Day in Cronulla.

Younger daughter has finally got a job. It is with the same company for whom she worked in Chile. I guess this means the end of our little outings in and around Sydney with lunch and movies. The last one was to Vaucluse House and tea rooms, which was very nice.

Oh, and yes, younger daughter has turned thirty, so we went out for a meal, not where we had planned to go but to another place, SO-CAL, which in fact turned out probably even nicer. It was very funky and the waiters were nice and accommodating.

My Swedish girl friend who now lives six months here in Australia and six months in Sweden came up from the state of Victoria where she now lives for a little visit. It was nice to catch up but very short. She had a lot of people to see  from the Swedish club. It's mainly single ladies 45+ and they love going out eating and drinking and dancing etc. I think I am a little bit over that now, well, maybe not the eating and drinking, but the dancing.

We have had some real hot days, here in our area it got up to +45 degrees and further out west it was a record 49.  There was alerts on TV for people to try to stay home and not go out in the heat unnecessarily. It seems to be over now but you can't be sure.We were so grateful for the pool, but  even that was too hot sometimes.

The in-laws have been here for just over a week and had their 30^th wedding anniversary here . It was on St Valentine's Day and we went to a Greek Cypriot restaurant called Tavernaki in Leichardt. The fixed menu was very good and the service was so friendly, but there was just so much food, we had to take doggy bags.

 

Notice the pearls, 30 years of being married merits a pearl necklace, that's for sure

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Time to leave you now, it is after all Sunday morning and we are going off somewhere. There are still so many places to discover around here. So, bye bye for now!

Road trips

Greetings Dear Readers,

I have been on two fun road trips lately. The first one was down to hubby's home state, Victoria. We spent a few days with his old friends from university, something we do every year now. The house was in Point Lonsdale which had a nice pier and lighthouse. We also did some touring around the area. It also involved good food and wine of course, even a train trip from Drysdale to Queenscliff on the Bellarine Peninsular Railway for hubby, was factored in.

After that we went to Melbourne for a family lunch and caught up with hubby's uncle as well. He's a natty gentleman whom it is always fun to meet up with. Just before having lunch with the family we went for a drive to the Dandenong Ranges and visited a Rhododendron park which was beautiful, but oh, so cold.

My sister in law also took me to see her yarn art in Bonbeach. It was great! It seems to become very popular now, covering stuff with knitting or crocheting. I saw a whole caravan totally covered somewhere on our second trip.

The second trip took me all the way to Queensland. Our daughter had a job-related meeting there, so we decided to make it an outing. It also meant that we could pick up our son on the Gold Coast with all his photographic equipment so he could join us for the last three days. He had had a "shoot" of a CEO and it was done in a couple of hours.  Hubby had to work and our daughter's boyfriend as well so it was only the three of us but we had good fun.

The two siblings

A nice door in Nimbin, the heart
of the marijuana growing.

One of many beautiful beaches on the Central Coast

And another

These "moms" both had little joeys in their
pouches but they were very camera shy.

This has been sitting here unpublished for a few days because I was going to add on to it and sort out the photos but it never happened so here we go. I'll get it out there and write more another time. Until then, take care and be kind!

Back to normal (almost)

G'day'!

Day two of the wedding in Senegal

Lion Island, where we went last Sunday with a friend from  Spain who is
visiting.

I have now been back in Australia for a few weeks. I flew from Senegal to France and had a pleasant visit with friends and I was also able  to run some necessary errands. Hubby had to go back to work so he flew straight back to Australia.
The first afternoon my host and his wife drove us up to Villard de Lans to visit old friends which was great. I usually catch up with them in Sweden in the summer but this time we missed out.

I know, the three bottles of wine in front of me doesn't look so good but I had help.

The next day my host family had organized a delicious meal with the neighbours.

In the picture we are missing hubby of course and also Dang and of course the G family who were away.

 Our last two nights in Dakar we spent at a very comfortable hotel and just enjoyed the pool and the drinks and the food. The breakfast was to die for. We needed a little bit of pampering.

At night there was a cool band that played nice, mellow jazz.

The security at the hotel was just as serious as at the airport. The luggage had to go through scanners and we were also searched. There were also snipers up on the roof. All this seemed a little exaggerated I thought, since Dakar generally is very safe but I guess it is so the precious businessmen and politicians and other important people can feel safe.
The only unpleasant thing that happened was that hubby got his phone stolen one of the first days, but these days  that could really have happened anywhere.

We did feel a little bit conspicious when we checked in with two of these trolleys. 

We had our own luggage, our daughter's luggage,  our daughter's friend's luggage (she was leaving later that day) and all the wedding gifts and left-over food and wine from the wedding.

After Dakar and Grenoble,  I went back up to Sweden again but this time I stayed in a hotel near the train station. I wanted to visit with my mother and tell her about the wedding.
Incidentally, I stayed at Hotel Eggers where I had worked many, many years ago. It hasn't changed much, it's still very La Belle Epoque with very friendly personnel. I recommend it, especially if you want to be right in the city centre.

Let's see, what else has happened since I got back here. Well, our youngest daughter and her boyfriend who have lived with us since they moved to Australia from Chile have moved out and into their own place in town. It is a bit empty all of a sudden.
We have also had some visitors which is always fun.
Next I am looking forward to my painting group starting up again next week. I have not done much painting since I was there last. I think I need the inspiration of being in a group.

So leaving you now with a saying from the man who was the first president of Senegal.
We went to visit the island, Fadiouth where he was born. It is built on sea shells. Another quirky fact is that the population is 90 percent Christian which is unusual in Senegal, a strictly Muslim country.

Just one last anecdote before I post this. I almost didn't get to go back to Australia. When I tried to check in they noticed that my visa had expired, last year. It is an electronic visa so there is really no way I could have known. Plus I have permanent residency so I didn't worry about another visa
 but apparently it is just good for 5 years if you travel. If you stay put in Australia I think it is permanent.
 Anyway, they had to call Canberra and check if it was ok to send me on without a visa and after a very long wait they ran me onto the plane. Once in Sydney I was taken to a Border Control office (the ones you see on TV) and I had to hand in a temporary application and then apply properly when I got home. But here I am so all good!