All the rivers run

Just thought I'd recommend a famous australian miniseries called 'All The Rivers Run', which I've started to watch with my mum. It's about the young woman Philadelphia Gordon who becomes an orphan after a ship wreck that only herself and the captain survived. Delie, as she is called, is sent to her aunt and uncle in Euchuca, in Victoria, Australia.

After a few years Delie reconnects with the old captain who now owns a river-steamship that carries cargo. In the crew is Brenton Edwards, who immediately falls for the young lady in question.

When the financial crisis hits the little town of Euchuca, the captain finds himself in need of money, and Delie decides to help him out. In turn, he gives her a part ownership in the ship , and Delie earns her independence.

The story is about the love of the Australian rivers, the life on a steamship, and of course, about love and partnership. All though the series is suppose to take place in the 1890's to the beginning of the twentieth century, woman and men have a fairly equal place in society, at least in certain aspects. It feels somewhat strange when you think about another movie about a ship (oh, I dunno, you might have heard about it... Titanic!) where the women seem so much more tied down. Of course, different countries have different customs. Anyhow, the series is GREAT and - having seen four parts all ready - I can't wait to see the rest!

*Sniff, sniff*

This morning I woke up hoarse. The cold keeps winning ground, and healthy Fia just looses. But it's okay, cause I'm home at mum and dad's, where I can get the best care in the whole wide world.

Yesterday I thought I was getting better (perhaps I was, but then I went and ruined it), so I went to a christmasday party with my oldest friends E and L, the twins. We had a blast! When they were going out to Polar Hotell I went to another party at an old friend to my brother. I met all the boys, including my old exboyfriend who is still a dear friend, and we had a really nice time together. We ate a late snack at Frasses, who has come to Älvsbyn, and had opened late night just to feed the hungry christmasday celebraters. I thought it was brilliant!

But when the hour passed twelve I was soo tired, and I went home, where I fell asleep in a heartbeat. Too much fun can be exhausting! (Also keep in mind, that morning I pulled myself up at 6 o'clock in the morning to go the early Christmas-morning service...)

Well, that was my christmas day, how was yours?

Merry Christmas

To all of you from all of us, a very merry christmas.

For auld lang syne, my dear

For auld lang syne,

We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet

For auld lang syne!

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind ?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And auld lang syne!

And surely ye 'll be your pint' stowp,

And surely I 'll be mine,

And we 'll tak a cup o' kindness yet

For auld lang syne!

We twa hae run about the braes,

And pou'd the gowans fine,

But we 've wander'd monie a weary fit

Sin' auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn

Frae morning sun till dine,

But seas between us braid hae roar'd

Sin' auld lang syne.

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere,

And gie 's a hand o' thine,

And we 'll tak a right guid-willie waught

For auld lang syne!

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne,

We'll tak a cup o' kindess yet

For auld lang syne!

Here are some more pictures from Älsbyn. First out is my fathers father and my mothers father, in a picture taken in the 1950's. They are not with us any longer, but we remember them dearly. Next up is the christmas tree, designed and decorated by dad. (How do you like the glitter? The style of the year is greatly debated at home, and I myself like it while mother does not..)

After the first two, there are moms hyacint and another that dad got from Länsförsäkringar...

 

Here's a window that looks truly christmas like. And down below you can see the newly done cellar-room. Yesterday mom made the curtains and dad nailed up the granddad-clock and all the paintings. It looks real cozy now!  We've also put up the wood plane on the wall...

Meanwhile, in Älvsbyn

Just thought I'd show you a little pictures I've taken today in the house. Mom is a big fan of old things (as am I), so here and there in the house you can see old tools from the beginning of the twentieth century or even late nineteenth century. In the first picture, you can see a glimpse of an old sewingmachine, at the second picture you see an nineteenth century kettle in brass, at the fireplace you can see my granddads old woodplane (hyvel)... in the last picture you see an old fourthrough (mjöltråg) that now functions as a fruitbasket. Aren't old things just great??! =)

Watching Eddie Izzard pretend to be a raptor

That's what I've done last night. And this night, I', sitting at home in Älvsbyn, drinking tea and resting my weary head. It's been two of the busiest days of my life!

Yesterday morning started at 6 o'clock with me walking to my colleague to ride with her to work, only to find out that the car port had been sabotaged during a break in, so it wouldn't open up wide enough for the car to drive through. We waited a while for someone to fix it, while I got some coffee in me and got cuddled and licked in the ear by my colleagues cute cat Stumpan.

We took the bus to work, but the bus had some huge problems getting forward because of the amount of snow and lack of snowtyres, and after a while the car port had been fixed, so my colleagues boyfriend drove to get us and then drove us 40 kilometres to work in the awful weather. We saw three cars and a lorrie who had skidded down in the ditch, and heard of more during the day.

Naturally, I got to work over an hour late and naturally I had more things to do in one day than I ever had had to do earlier in this job. So I had a minifreak-out, and started working and didn't stop working until I absolutely had to, or else I would miss the big thing for the evening - the Eddie Izzard show in Malmö Arena!

We got there in good time, grabbed a burger and sat and waited. The show started about ten past seven and we left about eleven-thirty. It was one experience I will never forget. Eddie Izzard is sooo funny! All though, at eleven I was so tired I almost couldn't laugh any longer. Needless to say, I slept in the car all the way home...

Today, I got up at 6 o'clock again (no rest for the busy!), drove to Sturup, took the flight to Arlanda, took the flight to Umeå, landed and ate lunch with my parents and brother Johan, drove 300 kilometres to Älvsbyn where I ate dinner, saw a movie, drank some wine and now - am finally going to sleep. For a long, long, LONG time.

Good night and PUH!

The perfect recipe for happiness:

Mud cake

How low can you go?

Things that makes me depressed

• When people don't treat others like they would like to be treated themselves
• When it hurts in my shoulder
• When I get pimples in my forehead (happens once a month)
• When the energy do to fun things run out
• When there's no more weekend

I'm all out of happy, need a refill!

These are the days of our lives..

This week has been one of the most hectic ones since I started working at my current job. And next week will probably be worse. New government decisions are made in the eleventh hour, and new rules and rutines are supposed to be implemented directly. Busy busy busy busy!

At the same time I love my job. Never boring, all though very often hard.

Enough about my job now - Now it's only a week until I'm home again. Oh, jolly! I've been thinking about christmas presents and christmas preparations. What do I want for christmas? A happy family, fun and games. Julmust, good food, hugs and of course - snow!!

I thought about making a list of things I want, but I think I'd rather like to be surprised. But to help my family a little, I would like a warm, cosy turtleneck sweater or a cardigan, or some other nice clothes, or maybe a gift certificate? Maybe some silver jewelry? Or a book. Among the authors I haven't read is Anna Gavalda, Margaret Atwood, Jeanette Winterson, Douglas Coupland, Haruki Murakami, Jasper Fforde. But books is a difficult gift, since I have so much books and have read so much. Just something small that'll fit in my bag.

Now I'm going to watch a movie and eat some Ben & Jerrys. Enjoy your weekend!

Copenhagen, or There and back again

Today we went to Copenhagen for the first time (in my life). The mission was to eat danish christmas brunch, cause this is a popular thing to do in Denmark. It just so happens, it's SO popular that people book restaurants months, maybe a year in advance, so that they can enjoy this tradition on a annual base. So, naturally, there where not a single restaurant that served christmas brunch that had vacancies. Bummer. But never the less, someone in the group (I'm not pointing any fingers, but there's two of us and I'm not the one being pointed at) wanted to check through all of Copenhagen - just in case there where any cancellations. A thorough empirical study gave us an accurate answer: there were NO cancellations.

After me, desperately trying to get us to at least buy a hot dog, we finally settled for ordinary brunch. And by that time, I was a complete mess. I hadn't eaten a thing all morning, and - having a sensitive blood sugar - I was more like a zombie than anything else. I was growling, snapping, complaining. But when I warmed up in the restaurant and got good food and a beer, I quickly became my old self again.

Mission number two was to go into Tivoli, a famous amusementpark that has wonderful christmas decoration. Having been warned by people NOT to go there late in the afternoon because it would be too crowded , the goal was to go directly after brunch. But since the brunch took soo long, we where at Tivoli around four in the afternoon, and the que to get inside was several blocks long. We threw that idea out of the window and went to a pub to buy some more beer.

Needless to say, I was somewhat disapointed, more with missing out on Tivoli than missing the christmas brunch, but it was all okay in the end since we actually got to see a LOT of Copenhagen. We went all the way to Nyhavn (which is a really long walk!) and we ate aebbleskider ('appleslices' that are put in pancake dough, turned into balls, and eaten with tasty jam). The danish people seem very happy (I've heard something about it having to do with the amount of alcohol they drink every day...) and I would LOVE to go over another day. After all, it's only 50 kilometres away. All we had to do was take the train, and we're there!

A bad day

Putting it mildly...


The day started with me riding the bus to work, and a little meeting, then bad things started to happen. Most of the time my work is very rewarding and fun, but today... not so much. Everything went wrong, was difficult, took too much time.. I had to work over time, and I still hadn't done all that I felt I wanted to do today. Then I ran to the post office to send a birthday gift to my brother (Hi David!) and I barely made it in time (sorry if the present got a little mashed up ;). I had planned to send some books to a fellow bookblogger, but I couldn't find her adress, so now she have to wait until next week. Then I went to get the bus home, and the bus was late. Then it came, and drove right by us. Then the wrong bus came. And a little while later, the right bus. Again. This time, I got on it. I met up my boyfriend in Malmö, we went to get something to eat (Burger King) and then we went home. I bought myself a ice cream package (Ben and Jerrys Chocolate Fudge Brownie). I know it's fattening but I just don't care. I need my comfort-Ice cream today...
 
Now I'm going to watch tv and eat it.