Santa Claus in pink

My favourite candy! Pink Santa Claus. Yummy!

The day after the storm

After the storm - a lot of snow in city of Lulea

Pic of the day

Usually it starts snowing in November, but this year the snow came early. It started to snow a couple of days ago, but I don't complain. The snow makes it brighter outside.

Yesterday, it was very stormy. The weather forecast had warned of very strong winds coming from Scotland, but this wasn't that bad. Here in Lulea, we are used to strong winds, because we live near the ocean. So, the yesterday's storm was manageable.

T-blog

Everytime I see my pics of the sheeps, I always think of this video...

Crazy man!!

Pic of the day

It's autumn here in Lulea. Took the pic with my mobile phone.

Our excursion

Me and my work staff made an excursion to Hägnan, outside Luleå.
Today we didn't have to work, but enjoy the day.
It was a beautiful autumn day and no rain today.
We were there all day and had lunch there.

Some sheeps greeted us when we came there.

Our boss lighted a fire. Very cosy.


This is the place where we went to. A very nice place.

Hägnan is an open-air museum, where you can experience what a
small Swedish town was like during the 16th to 19th century.

The day after

M won the election! We have a new prime minister! Fredrik Reinfeldt is his name. It feels unusual to have a new prime minister, but it feels good.

The last one, Goran Persson has been our prime minister for 15 years. I think the Swedish people felt it was time for a change and choosed an another party than S.
I also think that the Swedish people will vote back to S at the next election about 4 years. That depends on how M will manage until then...

The Swedish election

Today is the Swedish Election. I have been voted today. As a Swede, I feel like it is every Swede's duty to vote, but that is a good duty as Sweden is a democracy! Not every one vote, some are "stay-at-home" and don't vote. We can't do anything about them, but it's their choice not to use their human rights to vote.

Anyway, here in Sweden we have about 6 big parties to choose from, some are rightish, other are leftish. They are: M, Fp, Kd, C, S and V (abbreviation of the parties, I'm too lazy to write their full names). There are many other small parties to choose from, but not many vote on them, yet.
Right now S is holding power. Let's see if the Swedish people vote on S tonight or on another party?

Tonight I will sit up waiting for the election results, they show it on TV and it is always exciting to see which party will win!

"I met Lassie"

The day before yesterday, I went to the supermarket to buy a chest of drawers and a toaster. Then I went to Max to eat some hamburger. Guess who I saw there! A famous guy from Swedish Big Brother - Olivier. I have forgotten his last name, but it's the French crazy fun guy who moved to Sweden. He is just as gorgeous in real life as in TV! Great to see him there!

An autumn tradition in Sweden

Last night, I have been to "Surstromming party" at our deaf club. "Surstromming" = fermented baltic herring. We eat raw herring with potatoes, tomatoes and onions, and also "tunnbrod" which is a kind of bread. You can see it on the pics here. And yes, you read it right, we eat raw herring!

Every year around August 19-30, we have Surstromming parties. It is big here in Sweden, especially in the northern parts of Sweden. I know that some, or most foreigners hate the taste of this Surstromming. But they are not used to it! It's not that bad, it just takes time to get used to this.

Dating advices

Some dating advices I got from my mum and sister:

- Children? It doesn't matter if he already has children. Children grow fast. You just blink and whooosh! suddenly they are grown up and leave the nest.

- Weekend-dad? That is good too. This shows he is a responsible person who take care of his children.

- Drinks? Honestly is good. If he says he never drink, you have to ask yourself why... does he lie about his real drinking habits?
But! Avoid those who take drugs.

- Age different? It doesn't matter, the most important is what you feel for each other.

- Never married? These guys are cute, but unexperienced. Maybe he try to wash red socks with white clothes or something like that. Maybe he even lives with his mother. But don't worry, that's no big problem. That can be taken care of.

Autumn now

Today the children are back at school again, and I am back at work after my summer holiday. According to my calendar, autumn is here now.

This summer has been hot, 30-35 C and that's too hot!! I couldn't even walk without sweating. Now the weather's starting to cool off a little. Today was 21 C, that's more normal for a Swedish summer.

Sure, it's great with a warm summer, but it should not last too long!
Two months of hot weather is enough for me! Now it's time for autumn.

Oh, and it's time for autumn fashion! The autumn clothes are already in the shops, and I can't wait for my salary on the 25th!!! I can't wait for shopping!

My summer holiday

I am back home again.
This is what I have done during my summer holiday:

I have read books.
I have travelled to 2 countries.
I have been shopping.
I have eaten 3 birthday cakes.
I have spent times with my family.
I have been out on 2 dates.
I have eaten ice cream.
I haven't bathed in the sea, but have waded in the water on the beach.
And this summer I succeeded to get a nice suntan without getting burnt!

One of the books I have read, and a bag that I have shopped

I waded in the water on this beach: Sassnitz, Germany

My Norwegian date

Now I have met the Norwegian date. We met in Orebro, Sweden, had a cup of coffee and chatted for a while. He was a nice guy and I wouldn't mind get hitched with him. But I found out that he is already dating an another woman. He said they have dated for a while and he is thinking of moving in with her. Hmpfff, then why did he date me?? Strange...

Anyway, two weeks later he called me on the MSN chat. He told me he want to date me again. What? What happened to his other date? He wants me to visit his home in Norway, but that is not going to happen. Obviously he can't make up his mind.

I keep on searching...

Another birthday this summer

My niece had her birthday a couple of days ago. This is her birthday cake. As you can see, there are seven candles on her cake, as she turned 7 years old. She will begin 1st class in school in August. Exciting for her!

Leo also wants to eat some birthday cake.

Lilly have jumped on the table and eats some of the cake. We had already eaten the cake, so we let the cat eat the leftovers.

Misse is fine now

Misse is taking a walk

Misse hurted her paw a few days earlier but is doing fine now.
She doesn't seems to have problem with her paw anymore.

I hope she doesn't get into more cat fights, but stay calm this time.

But you never know what she's doing when she's out at night!

A shameless cat

Last night, we had some evening tea with sandwiches.
Curry, the cat tries to grab a sandwich.
My sister stopped him.
So, this time, Curry didn't get a chance to eat from our food.
But Curry is already secretly planning his next coup for a good sandwich.

Cat accident

Misse the cat

I am back to Sweden again, now staying at mum's house near Malmo.
Will stay here during the rest of the summer.

An accident happened to mum's cat, we don't know exactly what had happened. She has a big sore on her paw and is limping.

At first we thought the cat had jumped off a roof, but the veterinarian thinks it was in a fight with an another cat. The veterinarian told my mum to give the cat medicine every day for one week.

Misse's paw in bandage

My English date in Newcastle

The "Millenium bridge" in Newcastle

Last week, I have travelled to Newcastle, England for a couple of days. I met my English date and spent some days with him there. It was hot and sunny there, about 30 C degrees, little hotter than at home in Sweden. It rained one day, the other days was sunny.
How did Newcastle got its name? A long time ago, someone built a castle for himself there, and then he told people about his new castle upon Tyne. That's how Newcastle got its name.

The village Whitby and the old ruins

I visited some villages outside of Newcastle: Whitby, York, Stockton, Darlington.
Whitby is a special little village, the tv-series "Emmerdale" and "Heart beat" have been filmed on location there. Whitby Abbey, the ruins have inspired Bram Stoker to the movie Dracula.
There is some kind of a Dracula-festival going on there once every year, people dress as Dracula, witches, magician etc and do some partying there.
Whitby is also known for an another thing - Captain James Cook have lived there (you know the captain who sailed to New Zeeland and Australia).

The village York and the Roman Wall

York is an old town from the Roman Empire and you can go on a ghost trail there, as the tourist broschures says. According to the tourist broschures, ghost are walking around in York, especially on the Roman Wall. The Romans built a wall to prevent York from beeing attacked by the Scots.
It seems that some Roman soldiers have been left there and still patrol on the wall, but now as ghosts. Notice the picture, that there is no fence to avoid people to fall off, and it was a steep hill down there. It was little nervous to walk there, and I had to walk carefully not to fall down.

Dog statues in Stockton

There are some cute dog statues in Stockton. Other than that, there isn't much to see there.

The date went fine and he was an nice man. I must think about this for a while.

Gone fishing

Today I am almost alone at my work, except 2 colleagues, because everybody have gone fishing. They are on summer holiday. I will work this week, but next week I will start my summer holiday too.

In Sweden people have the right to take 5 weeks holiday from their work. Most people take 4 weeks holiday in July month, because July is the warmest month here in Sweden. The 5^th week, most people save it for Christmas-New Years holidays.

So, from next Monday, I will be off work for 4 weeks on my summer vacation, and I can go on the two dates I wrote about earlier. Most of the summer, I will stay at mum's house and spend time with my family. During a couple of days, I will travel to Newcastle, England and meet the English date. Then I will meet my second date, the Norwegian date in Sweden during one day.

Have a nice summer everybody!