I would love to go back!!!

NYC, such a cool place for a gal like me. It is like paradise for a shopoholic - not saying that I am one, but sometimes I do show some symptoms of it... Standing on the top of Empire State Building gave me a great feeling. "So many things to do!!" was my thought... Here is a little glimpse of the visit to that legendary building... Check out the pigeon in the end! ;-)

Yesterday

So yesterday I got my exam results. For those of you who don't know what I'm studying - I'm studying to become a Chartered Financial Analyst with the CFA society. It's become a very prestigeous charter that very few people pass all 3 exams. It focuses on different parts that affect the financial industry in 6 different books - approximately 4000 pages... and it's a self study program. To pass you have to answer at least 70% of the 240 correctly in 6 hours. Exhausting, I can tell you! Only 35% passes and many of them are retaking the exam.

To get to my point: I didn't pass. It was my second attempt. I was a bit upset for a while, but then decided to focus on the positive side: I was soooooo close to passing!! The people who don't pass get put into 10 different groups depending on how close they were to the passing limit (group 1 is veeeery far away from passing and 10 is almost passing). I was in group 9...

Now I have to prepare again for the June exam. This time around I will definitely be more relaxed about it because I know all the complicated stuff already. Gaaah! (generating some more study energy)

UPDATE: I have been told there was a 20% (!) increase in the number of Level 1 candidates this year. No wonder the bar was raised!

I can't stop myself!

I'm mad about perfumes! This is a new thing for me. There are so few perfumes that I feel suit me, that I ALWAYS feel I HAVE to buy a perfume if I think it is "me. I recently bought the Thierry Mugler "Alien" perfume which I thought was "me".

This weekend I realised that I have another "me" - maybe more of a summer "me": it's an Elizabeth Arden perfume called "Mediterranean Breeze" - suuuuch a commerial name... But it was on sale!!! Like SJP would say (about her own perfume) "I had to have it!!". Yeah I know, us women have such difficult issues to deal with!! Hey, I blame the crappy weather!

B humour :-)

I found this deodorant in Spain. Is it tailor made for a special kind of person? Maybe someone like me?

Un mensaje para Micaela

Micaela is the best! We received a parcel from her today with wonderful Majorcan goodies from the beautiful village of Felanitx: Sobrassada, Salchichón and paté. Lovely! It's safe to say we are having a small Majorcan party tonight, me and David!!!! Just to clarify: We are not drunk in the video, even though it looks like we are in the still shot of it...

Feeling blue

Hmm... It was a good day today but now I feel a bit... :-( No worries, I know I'll feel better when I wake up tomorrow morning.

Battery Park, NYC

From Battery Park you can see the statue of liberty, but we don't have a megazoon on our camera so you won't see it in this video, unfortuantely. It was a pleasant but grey day in NYC (Me and D went there in November last year). I was interested in the helicopter in the background, but as you can see in the video, D didn't quite see the cool thing about it...

Patience is a virtue...

...and my hubby's got a lot of it! I wanted to try out my new hair straightener but it's kind of difficult to do it on yourself so I decided to play around with it on D. I must say it worked miracles on D's naturally wavy hair, although he wasn't very happy with what I had exposed him to... I'll make it up to him with a nice dinner!

Saturday in Chinatown

Chinatown in London is a curios place. It's so exotic with the marinated Beijing ducks in the shop windows and red paper lanterns decorating the street. We had lunch there - Some Dim Sums - and thereafter going for some pearl tea as a desert. Unfortunately we had to ditch the pearl tea idea, as the pearl tea place were out of pearls...

The second mission of the day was to find me a late Christmas present. We found it at Selfridge's: A hairstraightner. The people who know me more or less know my hair naturally is as straight as a... well I don't have any good examples of anything straight, but it's safe to say it's very very straight - back to my point: It also curls and waves and when the sales guy tried it on my hair it actually didn't go straight again after 2 seconds. That never happens!! I was very happy so I told my darling that THIS intelligent tool was my Christmas present!! The cool thing is that it's actually tiny! Have a look at the photo!

Another thing I found in Selfridge's leftover sales was a pair of Diesel jeans. 50% off! Good deal! C is very happy!

Finally home!!!

Who says some retail therapy doesn't cheer you up?

I know - I'm completely irresistable

Aaaah!!! It feels o good to be home!! Our clients made us get up really early in the morning to monitor a work process, so we missed the breakfast at the hotel!!! :-( I mean, the breakfast is the best part about staying at a hotel!!! Well, we worked hard until 1pm, when I almost felt like eating my own arm... Fortunately I didn't. I settled for a yummy burger instead.

The trip home took 5 hours from door to door, since we managed to finish in time to be at the airport 2 hours before the flight. The flight itself takes just a bit over an hour. If you're me and you have 2 hours at an airport - you buy stuff. I got something for me and a little something for my hubby... It was a great deal! 2 for 1!! I got myself a Thierry Mugler perfume, "Alien - Eau Luminescente" and the old classic Davidoff "Cool Water" for David.

Now I feel so relaxed, after having a hot bubble bath. I also look smashing with the mud mask I have put on my face! I'm princess Fiona from the Shrek movies!

My 1st visit to Edinburrrgh!!!

This is the cosy big bed I'm going to sleep in tonight!

My day started very early - at 5:10. Taxi to Stansted airport at 5:30. Had a nice brekkie in the airport and then on to the plane. As usual I was sleeping before takeoff and woke up just before we started to ascend towards Edinburgh airport.

The work day was pretty tough!! We arrived at the JP Morgan office at 10:00 and were super efficient through the day until 5pm. That's when we kind of ran out of energy.

Tomorrow we're going to have to get up early as well as we have to document an early work process, with JP Morgan again. Thank god it's Friday tomorrow!!!

Now I'll go out for dinner and have a look at Edinburgh city with my colleague! I'll take some more pictures then and upload them if I have the time.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh old town

Tomorrow I have to get up at 5am!!! That's almost cruel!!! The reason is that I have to take a taxi to the Airport to go to Edingburgh, Scotland. I'm staying till Friday afternoon. It's not for pleasure - just business. Well, I've never been to Edinburgh so I'll try to get a bit of tourist pleasure out of it anyways!

At least it's not Monday!

Me in the sun

Wow, that headline really sounded like a "pull-me-down"... No, there's nothing wrong, really. I just feel like having some fun in the sun! London in January is far from sunny and I feel like relaxing on a beach some place hot...

My brother went to Egypt recently and he said he got a lot of sun there... Hmmm... I might have a sneak peak onto some travel agent website very very soon!!

Just a little whish...

...for the shoe fairy! If I had a lot of money I would buy myself a pair of Christian Louboutin classic black heals on a rainy Monday like today just to cheer myself up!!

Camden Town

Latest fashion in Camden Town

"Doughnuts...Gaaahh!!.." (like Homer Simpson)
Me and Papa Englund
Mmmmm!!! Tempura!

The weather was milder today, so it was a great day for going to funky Camden town. It wasn't as crowded as usual. Don't know if it's because of the credit crunch, but it was kind of weird...

Later we had a home made tempura dinner. Chefs: David and my Mom. It was delicious!

A lovely (but cold) day on Oxford street

Brunch at Richoux
My brunch

Bon apetite!

Me and Micaela outside the Louis Vuitton shop in Selfridge's

Today, we started with a lovely and nourishing brunch at Richoux. After indulging in waffles with maple syrup, toasts, bacon and other yummy things, we went (so full we were almost rolling) to meet my friend Micaela at Oxford Street.

After diving into some shops searching for the leftovers of the sale we went to the mother of all department stores: Selfridges. I drooled for a while outside the Chanel handbag shop, then we went to gether to see if there was anything cheap on sale... No luck... I saw some shoes I would call almost "flip flops" from Christian Louboutain - with the charachteristic red sole - for a smashing sale price of 255 pounds! I do like Louboutain shoes, but I wouldn't buy flip flops for that price...

After the shopping we said goodbye to Micaela, who was going back to her hotel. Me, David and my parents went to have some dinner in Golders Green at a Korean restaurant. It was yummy!! Now we all smell like garlic!!

Mommy and Daddy Englund in London

Today, Mom and Dad touched down in London. They will spend the weekend here with us. Tomorrow we'll hit the sales! If there is anything left... Fingers crossed! Tomorrow, we'll gather some energy with a British brunch by Green Park!

I'll also see my dear friend Micaela from Mallorca, because she also happens to be in town. I hope the weather's nice!!

New Years Eve in Spain

Carlos is a party boy
Besitos!!
5 handsome guys in suits
Churros

New Years Eve is a lot of fun in Spain. Usually you would have dinner with your family plus some relatives or really good friends. Just before the clock strikes midnight you are prepared to eat the 12 grapes the last 12 seconds of the year - one grape per second. It's not the easiest thing one could do and I'm sure there must be many people choking on grapes every new year in Spain. If you do swallow all 12 grapes in time you will have good luck for the new year. I don't know what happens if you don't make it in time...

After toasting with Cava or Champagne you head out to the party. Dancing for those who want to shake some of booty. If you endure the whole night of Spanish New Years Celebration it will be time for brekfast. Breakfast for champions! Churros dipped in a cup of hot chocolate! Yum!

I can say, this year I did not make it to the breakfast. Too tired! At 4 in the morning I called it a night. I think I'm getting too old!

I was going to upload some pictures, but the darn thing isn't working today!!! I'll try it tomorrow again...

Update: Now the picture loader is working again! Yay!

Happy 3 wise men day!!

Painting by Murillo. Taken from Wikipedia

Today is the day when all Spanish kids get their presents. It was the three wise men who brought them a long time ago..... Not a fat guy with a beard in a red suit. I think it makes sense, but the only thing is that you have to wait for so long before you get your presents! You want them when the holidays begin - not when they end!!!

By the way, the names of the 3 wise men were Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar (that's what they are called in the west, but they have different names in some other countries).

1st day at work in 2009

This is some of the Christmas food I ate in Sweden....

I had 156 emails waiting for me in my inbox this morning... But today wasn't too tough I must say. I've been through worse!!

I did get some much needed gym time to work on my holiday weight... Ehum...!! Nah, I'm not taking it too seriously, but it was very nice to break a sweat! I felt soooo relaxed afterwards.... Aaah.....

Home in London again

Christmas Eve in Haninge with my parents and brother
The view from my parents' house

New Years Eve in Palma

David and his two beautiful sisters Aina and Lara

With friends in the restaurant Ca'l dimoni - The Devil's house (in Majorcan Catalan)

We arrived in London safe and sound. Quite a pain free trip back. I'm so happy I was able to spend my Christmas holidays in two very special places - Stockholm and Mallorca. I got what I needed: some time to relax and spend quality time with family and friends. Check out some of the pictures!

A late christmas carrol

This is me and my friend Alex, my flat mate in Kyoto in 2003/04, singing and getting some acoustic help from a well known gas...

Hasta luego Mallorca

I have had a very good time in Mallorca with family and friends, but tomorrow me and David are going back to London. Back to reality... and to losing some holiday weight!! :-) I hope we can go back to Mallorca soon!

Prospero año nuevo!!!

Yesterday was a tough one!! After many hours of travelling and some waiting in the Airport of Berlin, I touched down in the beautiful island of Mallorca.

Prospero año nuevo!!!

The picture is of the Cathedral in Palma de Mallorca. Beautiful!

Yesterday was a tough one!! After many hours of travelling and some waiting in the Airport of Berlin, I touched down in the beautiful island of Mallorca.

After having had a wonderful dinner with David and his family we followed the spanish tradition of having 12 grapes during the last 12 seconds of the year - for good luck. We all made it even though most of us chewed and swallowed the seeds as well! After having toasted with champagne to welcome the new year, me, David, David's sister Aina and her boyfriend Alberto headed for the party.

We had a lot of fun and danced until 4 o'clock in the morning. It had been a very long day so I was knackered to say the least!!!

I hope you all had a great New Years Eve and that you will have a prosperous 2009!!